About That Man Page 9

  “What should I call you?” Tommy asked eventually.

  “Uncle Walker or just plain Walker. It’s up to you.”

  “Okay. I guess I’ll call you Uncle Walker. I never had a real uncle before.”

  Walker refrained from pointing out that he’d had one all along. He had no idea why Beth had kept that fact from her son. Maybe, as Frances had suggested, she’d simply had too much pride to turn to her brother or even acknowledge his existence until she felt she had her life under control. Maybe she’d grown tired of having Walker judge the decisions she’d made. Whatever the reason, Walker couldn’t help feeling that he’d let her down badly even though he’d been little more than a teenager himself when she’d run off. That she’d come so close to having her life on track, maybe even to making that fateful call that would have reunited them, broke his heart.

  When he and Tommy reached the narrow stretch of sandy beach down a sloping hill from Daisy’s house, Tommy left Walker’s side and raced ahead.

  “It’s right over here,” he called excitedly. “Wait till you see. We should have brought fishing poles. We could have taken her out.”

  By the time Walker neared, Tommy was sitting on the pale golden sand, tugging off his shoes and rolling up his pant legs. He scrambled up and grabbed Walker’s hand to half drag him toward the most pitiful specimen of sea-worthiness Walker had ever seen. Whoever had abandoned the boat had obviously known what they were doing.

  “You haven’t taken this out on the river, have you?” he asked, trying to keep a note of panic from his voice.

  “Not yet. I’ve been scraping off the paint and stuff, getting it ready. My buddy Gary—he’s older than me, but really, really cool—anyway, he’s been helping me, when he’s got the time. See how smooth it is?” he demanded, pride shining in his eyes.

  The weathered wood was smooth, all right, and probably rotted straight through, Walker concluded after closer examination. He was fairly certain he could see daylight between some of the planks. He knew better than to criticize it, though, or to warn Tommy away from it. He had to figure out another approach that would retain the boy’s enthusiasm, while still keeping him from capsizing.

  “You’ve done a lot of work,” he said, choosing his words carefully.

  “Every day. Mom said it looked like a pile of junk, but I could see right off that it had potential. I mean, how else is a kid like me gonna get a boat? This one was free. It just needs a little attention.”

  Sort of like Tommy himself, Walker guessed. “What does Daisy think of it?” He imagined she would be even more horrified than he was.

  A little of Tommy’s excitement died. “She just told me never, never to take it out in the water unless she was right here on shore where she could watch me.” He stared at Walker, radiating disbelief. “Like I’m some kind of a baby or something.”

  “No, she’s just being smart. A good boater always tests his craft to make sure it’s seaworthy before taking it out to sea. After all, her brother probably knows a whole lot about boats. He’s bound to have taught her a few things.”

  “I guess,” Tommy said.

  “Listen to her,” Walker advised. “And maybe Bobby and I can help you with some of this work so it’ll get done faster.”

  Tommy’s eyes widened. “Really?”

  “I don’t see why not.” He reached in his pocket for his ever-present notebook and pen. Fortunately this one didn’t yet have notes on an ongoing investigation. “Let’s sit here and make a list of what we’ll need. Then you and I can go to the hardware store or the marina after lunch.”

  “Okay,” Tommy said eagerly, plopping onto the sand at Walker’s side. “Maybe Gary can come over, too.”

  “Sure,” Walker agreed. “Now what should I put on this list?”

  “First of all, I think we need blue paint. And maybe white for the trim.” He gazed at Walker. “What do you think?”

  “I think those would be terrific colors for a boat. Now how about some caulk to make sure those planks are sealed nice and tight?”

  Tommy nodded. “Oh, yeah, I forgot about that.” He snuck a hopeful glance at Walker. “And it doesn’t have any oars.”

  Walker made a note. “Then we’ll definitely buy some oars.”

  “And more sandpaper. I’ve about used up all I could find in Daisy’s garage.” He blushed a fiery red. “She gave it to me when we brought the boat over last week after she said I could stay. I didn’t steal it or nothing.”

  “Good. Daisy strikes me as the kind of person who’d let you have just about anything as long as you ask first.”

  Tommy nodded. “Daisy’s the best. Sometimes she can be pretty strict and stuff, but I think that’s just because she never had any kids of her own. She worries a lot that I’m gonna break something.”

  Walker frowned. He didn’t want Daisy turning his nephew into some sort of sissy who had to worry about the breakables in her house. “You mean like those little porcelain things in her living room?”

  “No, you know, bones and stuff.”

  Walker’s brief flare of indignation died at once. Laughter bubbled up inside him, which he repressed for the sake of Tommy’s dignity. “Yeah, I can see where she might worry about that.”

  “I guess it’s a girl thing, huh? Mom used to get crazy about stuff like that, too.”

  Walker nodded, wondering if he would ever share a moment like this with his own sons, regretting that he’d lost so much time with them. He tousled Tommy’s hair.

  “Definitely a girl thing,” he agreed. “Not that I think you should be testing your luck by climbing onto the roof or anything.”

  “Nah,” Tommy said. “There’s nothing up there, anyway.”

  A niggling sense of dismay crept through Walker. “How do you know that?”

  “I looked out the bedroom window,” Tommy said reasonably.

  Walker breathed a sigh of relief. For a minute he’d wondered how Daisy had kept her sanity with Tommy around even for the week or so he’d been here, but apparently under that adventurous streak, the kid had been imbued with a healthy dose of common sense. Since he’d only been with Daisy briefly, that had to be Beth’s doing. Obviously, for Tommy to turn out this well, Walker’s little sister had to have gotten her act together. If only…

  He sighed. Thinking about what could have—or should have—been was a waste of energy.

  He glanced up just then and spotted Daisy scrambling awkwardly across the deep sand, lugging a picnic hamper that must have weighed a ton, and with a blanket tucked under her arm. She was barefooted and wearing khaki shorts that displayed very attractive legs. Her T-shirt was neatly tucked in, a prim touch that at the same time managed to emphasize just how tiny her waist was.

  Walker started to rise to go and help her, but she waved him off.

  “I’ve got it. It’s not as heavy as it looks. Tommy, you could take this blanket, though.”

  As she neared, Walker didn’t miss the dismayed glance Daisy gave to the rowboat before she set the hamper down and began spreading out the blanket.

  “The sand’s still damp and cold,” she told him. “You shouldn’t be sitting on it.”

  Tommy groaned. “See, I told you she worries about everything.”

  Daisy looked embarrassed. “I do not. I just try to be sensible.”

  “Then, by all means, let me join you on the blanket,” Walker said, deliberately crowding her when he sat down. He stretched out his long legs until he was virtually thigh to thigh with her. “You’re right. This is definitely warmer.”

  She shot him a knowing look. “Very amusing.”

  “My goal is to entertain.”

  Tommy stood stock-still in front of them, a frown puckering his brow. “You two look kinda funny. You like each other, don’t you?”

  “We hardly know each other,” Daisy protested defensively.

  “I think he’s concerned about whether or not we are capable of getting along,” Walker said, his voice threaded with amusement
. Her quick denial had been way too telling. She was definitely still thinking about that kiss the night before.

  Of course, to his consternation, so was he. And despite his attempt to clear his head earlier, he was a very long way from knowing what he intended to do about it.

  Daisy wanted to shrivel up and die. How could she have imagined that Tommy was asking if the two of them were becoming a couple? Why would a ten-year-old even imagine such a thing about two people who’d just met?

  Of course, a case could be made that a thirty-year-old woman ought to know better, too. And hadn’t she been imagining that very thing herself more than once in the last twenty-four hours?

  Focus on the food, she instructed herself firmly. She couldn’t get into trouble if she was dutifully playing the proper hostess role she’d been taught to perform all her life. In a houseful of men, it had been up to her to see that social events ran smoothly, that their guests’ needs were met.

  “Is anyone hungry?” she asked, aware that her voice sounded a little too determinedly cheerful.

  “I am,” Tommy said at once.

  “Why do I suspect that you always are?” Walker teased. “Wasn’t that breakfast you were eating when I got here? And that was when, an hour ago?”

  “Yes, but I’m a growing boy,” Tommy retorted, accepting the chicken sandwich Daisy handed to him along with a bag of chips. “Anything to drink?”

  “Sodas and lemonade,” she said.

  “I’ll have a cola.”

  She found one in the small cooler she’d put in the picnic hamper, popped the top and handed it to him. She risked a glance at Walker. “How about you?”

  “Not just yet. I had a big breakfast not that long ago.”

  “Oh?”

  “I ran into some friends of yours earlier, Richard and Anna-Louise Walton.”

  Daisy froze. Anna-Louise was capable of great discretion…most of the time. When she wanted certain things to come about, she had a way of bending her own rules. “Oh? How did that happen?”

  “I went out for an early morning run. They caught up with me.”

  Daisy knew all about Anna-Louise’s determination to get healthy. She was surprised that she was still at it two weeks after announcing her intention to join her husband on his morning runs.

  “Anna-Louise actually caught up with you?” she asked skeptically.

  Walker grinned. “I was jogging in place at the time.”

  She chuckled. “That sounds more like it. If you ask me, she’s going to kill herself, especially with summer coming on and the temperatures climbing.”

  “It was barely sixty this morning, and Anna-Louise looks as if she’s pretty healthy, even if she is a little out of shape. Maybe you should join her.”

  Daisy regarded him intently, trying to determine if he’d deliberately meant to be insulting. His expression was totally innocent.

  “I was brought up to believe that proper Southern women didn’t do anything to work up a sweat,” she told him.

  He gave her a puzzled look. “What do they do?”

  “If they have to exert themselves at all, they glow.” She shrugged. “Same difference, if you really want to know, but it’s the one thing about which my father and I are in total agreement. I’m not going out and making a public spectacle of myself running around the streets of Trinity Harbor.”

  “Daisy, Daisy, Daisy, I thought you were more of an enlightened woman than that. Physical fitness is essential for men and women. Unless, of course, you want to die young.”

  The words were no sooner out of his mouth than a look of dismay passed over his face. He turned in Tommy’s direction, but fortunately the boy had grown tired of their company and was down by the river’s edge skipping stones.

  “Oh, God, what was I thinking?” he murmured. “What if he had heard me?”

  “He didn’t.”

  “But he could have. He would have thought I was criticizing his mother. I’m sure of it.”

  “Then you would have explained.”

  “How?”

  “By telling him that it was just an offhand remark, that it had nothing to do with what happened to his mother, though the sad truth is, she might not have died if she’d taken better care of herself. She worked too hard. She was physically exhausted. And when she caught the flu, she didn’t see a doctor right away.”

  “Why not?” Walker asked. “Didn’t she have insurance?”

  Daisy rested her hand on his forearm, felt the muscle tense. “Any doctor around here would have seen her whether she had insurance or not. She didn’t go because she didn’t realize how sick she was. How many people do you know who just assume they have to weather the flu, let it run its course? I’m sure that was what Beth thought, too. When one of her bosses came by to check on her, she realized how bad things were and insisted Beth go to the hospital, but it was already too late.”

  Walker looked tormented by the image she had painted. “It’s not your fault,” she told him gently. “You couldn’t do anything if she wouldn’t turn to you. None of us could.”

  “And you can live with that?” he asked bitterly.

  “I have to. So do you.” She touched his cheek until he turned to face her. “We have to for Tommy’s sake, because if we don’t, he could start to blame himself. He was the one with her day and night, the one struggling to nurse her. He did the best he could, because she didn’t tell him that she needed more help than he could give.”

  “He must have been terrified.”

  Daisy shook her head. “I don’t think he really understood, not even when the ambulance came to take her to the hospital. Anna-Louise stayed with him. She was the one who told him when it was over. She took him home and kept him with her until after the funeral. Then Frances stepped in.”

  “Why didn’t he stay on with Anna-Louise?”

  “Oh, I think she would have let him stay in a heartbeat. So would Richard. But Frances made them take a good long look at the precedent they’d be setting. Anna-Louise has a good heart. If there’s trouble, she’s the first one there. People will take advantage of that as it is. Frances warned her that unless she was prepared to be a foster parent to every child in trouble, she needed to take a step back.”

  Walker regarded her intently. “And what did Frances tell you?”

  Daisy shrugged. “Nothing I wanted to hear.”

  He grinned. “Yes, I imagine you march to your own drummer.”

  “I haven’t always,” she admitted. “When you grow up with King Spencer for a daddy, you march to his, at least until you decide to take charge of your own life.”

  “How old were you when you made that decision?”

  Daisy debated lying, then decided it couldn’t possibly make any difference. He might as well hear the truth now. “Thirty,” she admitted.

  She almost enjoyed Walker’s shocked expression. “Yes, that’s right. As I told you yesterday, my first significant rebellion was the day I moved out, and that was earlier this year. The second came the day I found Tommy in my garage and decided to let him stay. I wasn’t kidding about any of that. I knew my father would be scandalized and I did it anyway.”

  “I see,” he said, his expression thoughtful. “Then Tommy’s just part of some battle you’re having with your father?”

  “Absolutely not!” Daisy said indignantly. “Tommy is not a means to an end. He’s a little boy who needed someone to love him. No one else was available, so I decided to step in.”

  “How noble of you.”

  “There was nothing noble about it.” She scowled at Walker, resentful of his deliberate misunderstanding of her intentions. “This isn’t about duty or obligation or rebellion. It’s about Tommy needing a home and someone to love him. You might keep that in mind while you’re deciding what you intend to do, Detective. If you’re not prepared to be a real father figure to that boy, then leave him with someone who’s committed to providing him with love and stability.”

  “In other words, you.”
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br />   Her gaze clashed with his. “That’s exactly right.” She stood up and brushed the sand from her clothes. “You and Tommy can bring these things back to the house when you come,” she said stiffly before stalking away.

  She felt Walker’s puzzled gaze on her as she crossed the beach and went back up the hill. His suggestion that she’d only taken on Tommy to make some sort of a point with her father was outrageous. She resented the implication.

  And she could have proved him wrong if she’d just told him the real reason she had taken Tommy in, but what woman wanted to admit that she was so desperate for a child that she had eagerly latched on to the opportunity that had been presented to her? She did not intend to have Walker Ames thinking of her as some sort of pathetic spinster, even if that was the way she sometimes saw herself.

  Besides, with every day that passed, she was coming to love Tommy for himself and not just because he fulfilled a need in her. With every minute they spent together, she realized that she did have it in her to nurture a child, to provide a loving home.

  When no one had come along after Billy broke their engagement, she had begun doubting herself, wondering if maybe he hadn’t been right to leave her, if she wasn’t emotionally as well as physically barren. Rationally, she had known how absurd that was, but her aching heart had been filled with questions about God’s purpose in taking away her ability to have a child.

  She had asked Anna-Louise about that at one point, in a rare moment of vulnerability. It had been a difficult moment for both of them, because Anna-Louise, for all her wisdom, had had no answers for her. And the explanation that God’s reasons would become clear in His time had done nothing to ease her sorrow.

  Now, at last, she knew. God had intended for her to be there for Tommy, a little boy who was desperately in need of someone to fill in for the mother he’d lost.

  Still disgruntled by her conversation with Walker, she spent the rest of the afternoon working around the house, muttering about Walker’s assumption and her own failure to make her point more forcefully. She cleaned and dusted and did laundry. She had just yanked out the silver and started to polish it just to work out her frustrations, when Bobby showed up. He took one look at the silver spread out on the kitchen table and started to back right out the door.