The Perfect Match

  “You heard me,” he said with a mock severity that drew a glad cry from her. She flung herself at him, all but knocking him over as she hugged him with all her might. And she felt so good he couldn’t help but catch some of her delight and crush her against him. He buried his nose in her hair, drinking in the lemony scent of her shampoo, feeling the generosity of her spirit, the way she hugged with every vulnerability in her exposed. He stiffened, started to pull away, but she wouldn’t let go.

  “You won’t be sorry!” she vowed rashly. “You won’t!”

  “Easy, there,” he said, putting her back on her feet. “Everybody on Main Street is going to see.”

  Why did her cheeks suddenly turn even pinker, her eyes avoiding his?

  “You think I care?” she enthused. “Most of the people around here already think I’m crazy.”

  “Well, now they’ll think I’m even crazier than you,” he said with wry humor. “Everybody on the force knows I hate that damned dog. He’s too big. Too messy. Too prone to get into trouble. And if he knocks Mac over, I swear I’ll…”

  “He won’t.” Rowena promised in such a rush Cash couldn’t help but smile. “Look at how careful he is with her. He knows he has to be gentle.”

  “A trial run—that’s all this is,” Cash warned. “He’s out on probation. One screw-up and it’s back to juvie hall—or in this case, back to your pet shop. Got it?”

  Rowena nodded. “Yes, sir, Your Honor. And the court thanks the judge for his leniency.”

  The corner of Cash’s mouth curled up. “Where’d you pick that up? Not bad law jargon for a civilian.”

  “I’m hooked on Law and Order reruns. In fact, Brisco and McCoy kept me from getting arrested. That’s how I knew about that whole ‘tampering with the mailbox is illegal’ thing. Oh, Cash—”

  He held up his hand to stop her. “Listen, Rowena, I don’t want the kids to know I’m actually considering letting them keep that monster. I don’t want them hurt if things don’t work out.”

  “Oh, everything will be wonderful! I know it will.” Rowena beamed. “I felt it from the instant I saw Charlie and Clancy together. It’s never been stronger—that feeling I get when I find a perfect match.”

  Cash shifted, suddenly uncomfortable. “Hold on there a minute. None of that woo-woo psychic garbage. It’s not admissible in court and I don’t want my kids exposed to…”

  He stopped, not sure how to finish.

  “A crazy woman?”

  “I don’t want them believing in things that are just fantasy. It hurts too much when they find out it’s not real.”

  “But it is real. What I do. My gift. It is real, Cash.” She wanted him to believe in her. He could see it in her eyes.

  “My kids have to deal in plain hard facts, Rowena. It’s not what I’d have chosen for them, but…you know, for months after Lisa left, Mac insisted she’d been stolen by the Big Bad Wolf and that’s why she didn’t come back. But it kept the hard truth from cutting her. She’d insist that even in fairy tales wolves don’t have telephones.”

  “No opposable thumbs,” Rowena agreed, her eyes still shining. “It’d be too hard to hold the receiver. I never could figure out how the wolf managed to tie granny’s bonnet under its chin in the illustrations.”

  “I’m serious.” He felt like a killjoy, and yet he couldn’t leave his girls open to any more pain. Reality was hard enough to handle without the added grief of pretty fantasies tumbling down.

  “What about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy?” Rowena asked. “The girls believe in those, don’t they?”

  “There’s nothing I can do to protect them from those little myths crumbling. But the rest—well, if I let them start believing in impossible things, they’re sure to latch on to the hope that in spite of everything, someday Lisa’s coming back. I don’t want them to go through that. Losing her again. It was bad enough the first time.”

  “I’d never do anything to hurt your children, Cash. But hope isn’t the enemy. It’s what keeps people trying. Gets them through the dark times, the hard ones. Isn’t that what drives you every night when you coax Mac through her therapy?”

  “No. Not hope.” He looked at her then, knew the truth was stark in his eyes. “Desperation.”

  Mac’s laughter echoed from behind the glass door. He turned back to his daughters, went into the playroom.

  “Daddy!” Charlie skittered to one side of Clancy, as if trying to put a little distance between her and the fun. Because she didn’t want to displease her daddy. The truth burned Cash, saddened him.

  Completely the opposite of her sister, Mac glared at him, a crabby angel. “Listen, Daddy. Rowena’s the boss of us here. We get to play with the doggy. Got it, dude?”

  Cash tried to look stern, knowing he couldn’t encourage Mac’s defiance, and yet thanking God the girl had some of his stubbornness. He knew that was what would help her to walk.

  “How about we make a deal, girls?”

  “That depends,” Mac said, still glowering. “You don’t like Space Mountain and we do.”

  He turned to Charlie. “Rowena was telling me you’re doing a research project on dogs, cupcake. Is that true?”

  “Not just any dogs,” Mac elaborated, stretching her arms over Clancy’s bulk as if to demonstrate. “Giant-gantic bear dogs. An’ Charlie gets to take him to school for her zibbet.”

  “Exhibit,” Charlie corrected, still peering up at him uneasily.

  But Mac was already racing blissfully ahead. “An’ then Rowena’s bringing him to my room so all the kids can see him. ’Cause I’m doing a scientist reporter, too.”

  “She’s just being a copycat, Daddy,” Charlie said.

  “Am not a copycat!”

  “Are so! You’re too little to do reports. You can’t even write, so how’re you going to do a report?”

  “Pictures, dork face!”

  “Whoa! Where’d that come from?” Cash gave his daughters a stern look.

  “Kari calls her brother that all the time. She says her mommy doesn’t even care.”

  “Well, I do care. No calling your sister names, got it?”

  “Then tell her she gots to share.” Mac pouted. “Clancy gets to come to my class, too. It’s not fair. She gets all the fun stuff.”

  “You looked like you were having some fun yourself when I came in.”

  “Yep. Daddy, did you know doggies drool just like babies? An’ if you hold onto his fur really tight you get whole bunches of it on your hands?”

  “Really? I guess there are lots of things about dogs I’m going to have to learn if you two are going to get good grades on these reports of yours.”

  “You don’t have to help me this time, Daddy,” Charlie said earnestly. “Rowena’s got lots of books.”

  “Yeah, an’ we gots lots of dog to zibbet when our reporters are all done.”

  “I can see that,” Cash agreed. “But you’ll need to get to know what a dog is really like. Accuracy is really important in a report like this one.”

  “What’s accur-sassy, Daddy?” Mac asked.

  “It means you’ll want to spend as much time as possible around your subject, so you get your facts straight. How about we move Space Mountain to our house for a few weeks?”

  “Space Mountain? You mean…Clancy?” Charlie fairly trembled with delight. “Really, Daddy?”

  “Just for a few weeks. Until your report’s done. Fair enough?”

  Charlie nodded. She knelt down, cupped Clancy’s giant head between her small palms. “Oh, boy! Did you hear that, Clancy?”

  Cash could almost swear the damn dog nodded.

  “Hold on there,” he said, his grudge against the dog needling him. “I forgot to tell the three of you—I’ve got one condition.”

  Rowena, Charlie and Mac looked up at him expectantly. He knew at the moment they’d promise him anything, even putting a leash around the moon. Yes. It was a perfect time to strike.

  He folded his arms
across his chest, giving them his toughest cop stare. “It’s my house. It’s my dog. At least for the next few weeks. Right?” He looked from one anxious face to another.

  “Absolutely,” Rowena agreed.

  “Absolutely,” the girls chorused.

  “Good,” Cash said, feeling downright smug. “Then his name’s Destroyer.”

  He heard Rowena start to protest, heard Charlie pipe up.

  “But, Daddy, he’ll get all mixed up. And won’t know to come when we call.”

  “Destroyer!” Cash barked out the name.

  The dog sprang to his paws, loped over to Cash and sat down, looking up at him expectantly. Head dipped down in submission, the dog swiped Cash’s pants leg with his tongue, leaving a mark on his uniform pants.

  Cash stifled a groan. “I’d better stop on the way home and buy a lint roller.”

  “I sell them here,” Rowena offered. “How about if I donate a case of them to the cause?”

  He lifted his eyebrows. “A case?”

  “And what size bag does your vacuum cleaner take?” Her eyes danced. Cash couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen such pure joy in anyone, or felt that strange fizzy feeling in his chest. It made him edgy. Made him want to check the sky before a piece of it fell on his head, like the chicken in that storybook. Smart bird, that Chicken Little.

  “Hey, Daddy?” Mac scooted over to him. Pulled on his pantleg. He bent down to pick her up. “Know what?”

  “What?”

  “I love Charlie, even if she is a dork face.”

  “MacKenzie.” He drew out her name in warning.

  “Don’t bad girl me, Daddy, I’m saying a good thing. I sure am glad I’m not Tyler James’ little sister right now.”

  Cash laughed at the expression on her face. “Why’s that, kitten?”

  “If you got to live with your zibbet to get to know it, that’ll be a really bad thing for her.”

  “How come?”

  Mac gave a delicious shiver, hugging him tight. “Tyler’s zibbeting crocodiles.”

  Cash looked at Rowena and laughed until his side hurt, his eyes stung, laughed in a way he thought he’d never laugh again.

  Charlie rose to hug his legs. “You’re the best daddy in the whole wide world.”

  No he wasn’t, Cash thought, his eyes burning in a different way as he caught Rowena’s hope-filled gaze. He wasn’t the best daddy in the world.

  He only wanted to be.

  ROWENA LEANED AGAINST the playground fence, one more in the cluster of parents and grandparents, babysitters and such, all waiting for the kids to spill out of the newly adorned double doors. Giant pumpkin banners taped in all the school windows spelled out “Harvest Fair October 9 and 10, Jubilee Park. Family Fun For Everyone!”

  As if anyone could miss the dates, Rowena thought wryly. The town was peppered with the signs. Even her own shop displayed one—half-torn by a cat named Shakespeare who objected to sharing even the sunniest window with anything in such a gaudy color.

  Rowena smiled as she saw the first kids rush down the steps, glimpsed Mac’s teacher at a separate door, holding it open while Charlie pushed her sister’s wheelchair down the ramp.

  “Hey, what’s the deal with all the pumpkins?” Rowena called out as she went to meet the girls. She couldn’t wait to hear their versions of Whitewater Pumpkin Mania.

  “That’s ’cause it’s time for the Harvest Fair,” Mac enthused, bouncing a little in her seat. “There’s a ferris wheel and pony rides and you can eat all the candy you want.”

  “Wow.” Rowena moved behind the chair and took over, pushing it.

  “Everybody in the whole world comes to the fair. Daddies and mommies and kids.”

  “Not everyone in the world,” Charlie said.

  “Well, it’s family fun for everyone. Not family fun for just a few people,” Mac argued. “My teacher says so.”

  “Mac, that’s just what the sign says,” Charlie explained. “It’s like a commercial.” But her sister didn’t bother to argue.

  “Are you one of the everybodies going to have fun at the fair, Rowena?” Mac asked.

  “I don’t know. It’ll be all brand-new to me.”

  Mac gasped as if she could hardly fathom such a fun-deprived childhood. “Didn’t you ever go to a fair before?”

  “Can’t say I have. There aren’t a lot of country fairs where I come from.”

  “Where’s that?”

  “Forest Park.”

  “You came from a forest? Like the one Hansel and Gretel got lost in?”

  “Actually there weren’t any forests at all. Just lots of buildings up near Chicago.”

  “Oh.” MacKenzie scratched her nose and looked away. “That’s where my mommy lives. She won’t be coming to the fair.”

  “But Daddy will,” Charlie chimed in, her small features brightening. “I counted on the calendar on the refrigerator three whole times just to make sure it’s his weekend off.”

  Rowena grinned. “Three times, huh?”

  “Just to make sure.”

  Rowena couldn’t resist giving the little girl a quick hug, and was surprised when Charlie hugged her back—just a brief squeeze, and yet as telling as if the child had whooped with delight, Public Displays of Affection with grownups being high on the “definitely not cool” list for the fourth-grade crowd. Rowena laughed, steering the wheelchair toward the break in the fence. As she neared it, she was startled to see a brown County Sheriff vehicle pull up.

  Cash. She could see him through the window of the tan SUV, his chiseled face, his dark hair, his eyes obscured by a pair of gold-rimmed aviator sunglasses. Had she gotten the day wrong? She was sure she’d been scheduled to pick the girls up from school today. Did Mac have a doctor’s appointment scheduled or had something come up? She hoped she hadn’t zoned out and made a mistake. She’d tried to be so meticulous with her babysitting duties, not wanting the girls ever to be waiting on the playground, alone.

  Cash parked and climbed out of the vehicle, looking sexy as all get-out in his uniform. Khaki pants encased his long muscular legs, his shirt crisp, his badge gleaming. The deep brown tie made his throat look even stronger, his jaw squarer, his skin a richer tan. All that was missing was his smile. But Rowena bet he’d flash one of those blinding white knee-melters when he heard just how excited his girls were that he’d be taking them to the fair.

  “Good afternoon, Deputy,” Rowena greeted him. “Don’t tell me you’re here to bust that ring of hardened criminals who keep sticking gum underneath the school desks.”

  “Actually it’s the ones who spit gum in the water fountains that drive me crazy.”

  Was that a joke? The man had definite possibilities. Maybe his sense of humor was only hiding instead of missing altogether.

  “I just happened to be in the area,” Cash went on. “I like to make my presence known when school lets out. Slows traffic down.”

  “You might want to check and see if there’s an ‘excessive signage’ ordinance somewhere. This town’s beginning to look like a movie set for Attack of the Killer Pumpkins.”

  “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” Cash drawled, the corner of his mouth ticking up. “This will be pumpkin central for the next few weeks.”

  “So this Harvest Fair is a big deal in Whitewater, huh?”

  “The biggest, right Daddy?” Mac flung her arms wide in excitement. “Even puppies can come. Hey, Charlie! This year we’ve got a puppy we can bring!”

  “No,” Cash warned. “Not Destroyer. No way. No how.”

  Rowena made a face at him. “Why are you looking at me when you say that?”

  Cash pulled off his sunglasses, his brow stern. “I mean it.”

  “Spoilsport.” Rowena teased. “Oh, well. At least you and the munchkins are going to have a good time. Charlie’s over the moon.”

  “Yeah, Daddy!” Charlie’s eyes sparkled with rare excitement. “I even checked to make sure it’s your weekend off.”

  Cas
h’s jaw worked. He didn’t meet his daughter’s gaze. “About that weekend, Charlie. There’s a little snag.”

  “Wh—what?” Charlie stammered. Rowena could almost see the little girl shrinking into herself.

  “I have to work some, uh, overtime.”

  “Overtime?” Rowena protested. “But you can’t! This Harvest Fair thing is so important to the girls…and it’s supposed to be your weekend off! Charlie counted it out three times. Surely you can switch and work some other weekend.”