Daddy Lessons. Stella Bagwell

the telephone finally quieted. Joe dropped his hold on her arm and took a step back. He didn’t know why he’d grabbed hold of her in the first place. Normally he wouldn’t lay a hand on any employee. Particularly a woman. But something about Savanna Starr was making him act totally out of character.

      Tingling from his touch, Savanna stared at him, her mind spinning as she watched him rake a hand through his wavy blond hair.

      “Are you suggesting you still want me?” she asked incredulously.

      Joe’s blue gaze swept over her petite but very shapely form. Savanna Starr. What kind of name was that? he wondered. It sounded like something a damn Hollywood producer would make up.

      Walking over to his desk, he glanced back at her to see she was still standing in the middle of the room, staring at him with eyes the color of a fawn’s coat in summer. He’d never seen such rich brown eyes on a blonde before, but then Joe rarely looked at women that closely. Since he and Deirdre had divorced, he hadn’t had the time or the urge to involve himself with a woman. McCann Drilling took all his attention, and he figured that was the way it always would be. “If you think—”

      Before he could go on, the telephone began to ring again. Grimacing, he motioned with his hand for Savanna to answer it. “Get that. And if it’s my daughter, Megan, tell her I’m out in the work yard and that I can’t talk to her now!”

      Savanna quickly walked over to the desk and picked up the telephone.

      “McCann Drilling,” she said cheerfully. “May I help you?”

      “Who are you?” A young female voice blurted the question.

      Savanna glanced uncertainly at Joe McCann. Right now she didn’t know if she was a secretary or an unemployed mediator.

      “I’m Savanna.”

      “Oh, you’re the one who’s taking Edie’s place?”

      “That’s right. And who are you?”

      “I’m Megan. Joe is my daddy. I need to talk to him.”

      Obviously the girl had been forewarned there would be a change in secretaries at her father’s office, Savanna concluded. “Well, Megan, right now your father is unable to come to the telephone. Perhaps I can help?”

      The young girl let out a huge sigh of frustration. “I doubt it. But I guess I could tell you, anyway. I want to go to the library, but Ophelia, the housekeeper, isn’t here this morning. She won’t be here until two this afternoon! And I’m only thirteen. I’m not old enough to drive.”

      “Oh, I see. Well, you are in a fix, aren’t you? I don’t suppose you’d settle for watching some videos until the housekeeper is there to take you?”

      Megan groaned loudly. “What videos? Joe—I mean, Daddy doesn’t even have a VCR. He’s old-fashioned and says time spent in front of the TV isn’t productive.”

      Savanna couldn’t help but smile at the girl’s imitation of her father’s voice. “Perhaps you could walk, Megan. Is it very far from your house?”

      “Eight blocks,” she said glumly. “But Daddy would never let me walk. He says it’s too dangerous for kids to walk on the streets nowadays. Especially for a girl.”

      Savanna dared another glance at Joe McCann and was surprised to see he’d skirted around the desk to stand beside her. At the moment he was shaking his head and mouthing the word no. Savanna couldn’t believe he was being so overprotective. It wasn’t as if the girl was a kindergartner!

      “That’s true in many cases,” Savanna said, careful not to go against anything her father might have already instructed her. “But if you had a friend to walk with you, then he might consider it.”

      She looked up to see Joe still shaking his head. A burst of anger suddenly spurted through Savanna. Didn’t the man remember what it was like to be thirteen years old, out of school on summer vacation and stuck in the house alone with nothing to do?

      “Well, I just came here to live with Daddy last week. So I don’t really know many people,” she said, then suddenly her small, dispirited voice brightened. “But there is someone I’ve made friends with. Cindy. She’s my age and lives across the street. She’d want to go with me!”

      If Megan had just now come to live with her father, Savanna mused, that could only mean Joe McCann was widowed or divorced. She didn’t know why that bit of news should strike a nerve in her, but it did. So did the lost, lonely sound in Megan’s voice. Savanna knew what it was like to be in a strange place surrounded by unfamiliar things and people she didn’t know. Joe McCann probably didn’t understand that. But Savanna did. She’d spent her whole life living in places where she felt as if she didn’t belong and that no one cared whether she was around or not. In fact, she was still searching for that place she could call her real home.

      “Tell you what, Megan. As soon as your father comes back in the office, I’ll talk to him about it. In the meantime, why don’t you call Cindy and see if she can go.”

      “Gee, thanks, Savanna. And please beg him if you have to. I can’t stay in this dreary old house all day!”

      Begging Joe McCann was the last thing Savanna intended to do. Aloud, she told Megan, “I’ll do my best. ’Bye, now.”

      “So where is Megan wanting to trot off to now?” Joe demanded the moment Savanna hung up the phone. “You should have told her an emphatic no.”

      Then why didn’t you answer the phone and give her a no yourself? Savanna wanted to ask him. Instead, she bit her tongue and tried to be pleasant. “Do you want her to keep calling back and asking?”

      Joe rubbed a weary hand across the back of his neck. He had to admit the woman had a point. “From the time Megan moved in with me last week, she’s called me constantly here at work. I can’t get anything done and when I point this out to her, she bursts into tears and accuses me of not loving her.”

      Poor little girl, Savanna thought sadly. She must be miserable. “Do you love her?” Savanna couldn’t help asking.

      Joe stared at her as if she belonged in a mental institution instead of his office. “What the hell kind of question is that? Of course I love her. She’s my daughter!”

      Her question had offended him, but it was obvious to Savanna that this man needed some daddy lessons in the worst kind of way. “And just because she’s your daughter, she’s supposed to know that?”

      He shot her a look that said she was inching onto dangerous ground. Savanna decided she’d better let well enough alone for the time being. She’d already put herself in a bad light with this man. If she intended to help Megan with her daddy she had to hold on to this job for a few more minutes, at least.

      After moistening her lips with the tip of her tongue, she started again. “Your daughter wants to walk to the library with a friend. The friend’s name is Cindy and she lives across the street from you. Shall I tell Megan she has your permission to go?”

      Joe opened his mouth to utter a curse word, then just as quickly snapped it shut. A whole string of expletives wouldn’t relieve the pressure boiling in his head. “Why does she constantly need to be going somewhere? Why can’t she find something to do at home, like any normal person?”

      “Because your daughter isn’t any normal person. She’s a teenager.”

      His mouth twisted. “That’s supposed to explain everything?”

      Savanna was struggling not to lose her patience with him. “Surely you can remember being one, can’t you?”

      One eyebrow arched upward as he looked at Savanna. Did he look that old to this woman?

      “I’m sure the next thing you’re going to tell me is that I should let her go,” he said, more as a statement than a question.

      What was he doing, Savanna wondered. Testing