Daddy By Surprise. Pat Warren

go. Stepping aside, she waited until they’d set down the heavy piece, Hank grunting with the effort. “That’s perfect. Thanks.”

      Wiping his broad forehead with a soggy handkerchief, Hank made his way back to the living room. “We’re going back for the living room stuff. You coming, Molly, or are you staying here?” His eyes shifted to Devin as if reluctant to leave her here with him.

      “If you don’t need me, I think I’ll stay and make up the bed and put things away.” She noticed Devin standing in the archway. “Devin, this is Hank Thompson, the owner of the Pan Handle, and this is his nephew, Jerry. They volunteered to move me. Hank, this is…”

      “Yeah, I know, your upstairs neighbor. We met.” Wondering why this guy was so curt with him, Devin decided to give it one more shot. “You sure I can’t help? I’d be glad to go along.” He tried a smile. “I’ve got a strong back.”

      “We’ve got things under control. Be back soon, Molly.” Stuffing his kerchief into his back pocket, Hank followed his nephew outside.

      Frowning, Molly watched them get into the truck. “That was a little rude,” she commented softly, wondering why her boss was being so unfriendly. “Hank’s usually not like that.”

      “Maybe we were enemies in another life.”

      “He’s a little protective of his girls, as he calls the three waitresses who work for him.” Molly checked several boxes on the floor, searching for the one filled with linens.

      Or maybe good old Hank had designs on Molly himself and wanted to issue a warning. “Is he married?”

      “Divorced. The Pan Handle seems to attract divorced people. Every one of us except Hector, the evening shift cook.” Hoisting the box, she headed for the bedroom.

      Curiosity had Devin following her. “Do you and Hank…you know…date?” The man surely was acting territorial. Of course, it was none of his business.

      Molly removed the mattress pad from the box and tossed it onto the bed before raising her eyes to Devin’s face. Studying him, she recognized that unmistakable male-female interest in his eyes that she’d become aware of last night on the back porch, and wondered what to do about it. She didn’t want to be as rude as Hank, but that sort of thing could become a problem, living so close as they would be. And it had absolutely nowhere to go. Perhaps it would be kinder to lay it all out for him once and for all.

      “No. I don’t date Hank. He’s a good friend and old enough to be my father. I don’t date anyone else, either, for that matter.” She waited for the disbelief, the inevitable questions. She’d been down this road before.

      Moving to the opposite side of the bed, Devin automatically grabbed one end of the mattress pad and began pulling it into place. “You don’t date anyone? I guess your ex really did a number on you.”

      Intent on making him see, Molly adjusted her side of the pad to fit. “Actually, my decision has little to do with him.” Which wasn’t exactly true, but close enough. “I simply don’t have time. My work at the café, including quite a bit of overtime some weeks, keeps me very busy. I take night classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Arizona State, except the summer session. During tax season, I work part-time for a CPA. With all that, I scarcely have time to get in six hours of sleep, much less a date.” She reached for the pale-peach fitted bottom sheet, wondering why she was bothering to explain herself to this stranger.

      Maybe because he was so damn persistent. Grabbing his side of the sheet, Devin bent to maneuver it into the upper corner. “C’mon, Molly. Everyone needs a little R-and-R now and again. Haven’t you heard about all work and no play making Jack—or Jill—very dull?”

      Why was it that men thought that their mere presence in a woman’s life would change dull to unbearably exciting? “I take time for myself. I have friends, two in particular, former college roommates, and Trisha. I go shopping with my mother, have an occasional dinner out with my sister, take my niece to the movies. Oh, and sometimes I baby-sit Trisha’s little boy when she goes out. I watch television, read, garden. I think my life’s pretty full.” She sent him a challenging look.

      He didn’t let her down. “Were you always so reclusive, content with work, family, friends and TV? Don’t you get lonely for a one-on-one with a man? You probably dated a lot before your marriage. You had to have. I mean, a woman like you…”

      Molly’s head jerked up from securing her corner. “What do you mean, a woman like me?”

      Devin straightened, wondering why she was so defensive. “I mean a woman who’s very attractive and obviously intelligent. Why would you choose to spend all your free time with your mother, old college friends and a couple of kids?”

      She had dated a lot in college and some after she’d first walked away from Lee. The problem was that by the second date, indeed if they’d waited that long, they’d been all hands and pressure and a wet, seeking mouth. So she’d stopped dating, stopped hoping there was someone out there who could care for her for all the right reasons, a mature man who was his own person. One who could love a flawed woman with a trampled heart.

      After three years, she’d about convinced herself that no such man existed, and she didn’t want the other kind.

      “It’s just easier, that’s all.” She picked up the top sheet and shook it out, then realized what she was doing. She was making up her bed with a near stranger, an intimate act if there ever was one.

      Molly drew in a deep breath. “Listen, I can do this myself. Don’t you have some work to do?” Maybe rude was all he understood.

      He’d watched the play of emotions revealed so clearly on her transparent face. “You really have a great deal of trouble accepting help, don’t you?”

      Their conversation was exasperating her. “When I need help, truly need it, I’ll ask. But I’ve been making beds alone for years. Don’t you have a book you need to write, or is this part of your research?”

      He smiled at that. “Are you worried you’ll wind up in one of my books?”

      “Not really.” She began spreading out the top sheet. “My life is too dull to interest anyone.”

      Despite her admonitions, he pitched in on his side of the bed. “I doubt that, not if someone were to dig deep enough. Readers like to read about people’s good points and bad. Genuine people, warts and all.”

      “I have as many warts as a pondful of frogs.”

      “Toads.”

      “What?” She reached for two pillows, then their cases.

      “Toads have warts, not frogs.”

      “I stand corrected, since you’re the writer. Did you major in English or journalism or American Literature? How does one become a writer?” All right, so he was interesting to talk with. And, Molly had to admit, she had few adult conversations that didn’t center around a menu.

      “I majored in Business Administration at my father’s insistence since he was paying the tab. But I minored in English and took all the lit courses I could squeeze in.” He stuffed the fluffy pillow into the case, struggling to get it to fit. “As to how someone becomes a writer, I think it’s something some people just have to do because they have these stories in their head they need to get out. And because they’re unable to fathom holding down a structured job, day after day, doing the same thing over and over. Like my parents did. Or rather still do.”

      “What do they do?”

      “They’re in hardware. Own and operate six stores in the L.A. area. They’ve worked twelve-hour days seven days a week as long as I can remember.”

      “So it’s the long hours you want to avoid and the monotony?”

      “Not even that.” He caught his half of the lightweight cotton blanket she spilled onto the bed. “Apparently they love what they do. Different strokes for different