Fathers and Other Strangers. Karen Templeton

no idea what he thought he was going to do with a guest lodge. Still didn’t. But damned if the shrink hadn’t been right—if it was mind-numbing you were after, nothing beat day after eighteen-hour day of grueling manual labor. Still, it was like learning to live without a limb; you adjusted, and you got by, but you never knew when the phantom pain would strike. And that alone was enough to make him vow to never set himself up for that kind of pain again.

      Hank stared at the cigarette in his hand, frowning for a second or two, then lifted his gaze toward the lake, sparkling in the distance. Maybe he’d take a dip later, after he finished redoing those gutters on Number 6….

      He stood when he heard Jenna Stanton’s Toyota chugging up the road. Kinda on the old side, the car was. But then Toyota owners tended to hang on to the things until they rusted out from under them.

      She pulled up alongside the cottage; both doors swung open, both females emerged, sucking like mad on straws poking up out of Ruby’s bright-red take-out cups. A plastic bag swung from Jenna’s left hand, the white foam carry-out box clearly visible through it. Hank’s mouth started to water.

      From underneath the brim of her cap, questions flickered in those chilly blue eyes. She handed him the bag, the kid making a great show of swatting at the air in front of her. The girl’s eyes were blue, too, he saw. Darker, though.

      “Smoking is so gross!”

      The straw popped out of Jenna’s mouth. “Blair!”

      “No, she’s right, it is,” Hank said, grinding the cigarette into the dirt with the toe of his workboot. “I just happen to like gross things.”

      The young gal shuddered, then stormed up the steps and on inside, making loud slurpy noises with her straw. The screen door slammed shut behind her; Hank looked at Jenna. “She out to save the world?”

      “One deluded soul at a time.” She sucked on her own straw for a moment, then said, “So. We have water again?”

      “Yep. Much as you want. And only when you want. I changed out the kitchen sink washer, too, since it was about to go.” Which is what he should do—go, instead of standing here and chit-chatting like some yahoo. “The cat will back me up, seeing as he watched my every move.”

      “Wow.” More sucking. “You’re talented. And Meringue’s a she.”

      “I should’ve known.” Then, for some oddball reason, he sat back down on the steps and dug his breakfast out of the bag, adding, “Anyway, my daddy’s motto was if you can’t fix it, you shouldn’t own it.”

      After apparently giving the matter some thought, Jenna sat, too, leaning up against the opposite railing. “Too bad that philosophy doesn’t work with kids,” she said, shoving a strand of hair back up under the hat.

      “Eh, your daughter’s not so bad. A bit anal, maybe, but then, I suppose she just takes after her mother.”

      When several moments passed, Hank figured he’d probably ticked Jenna off. But before he could make up his mind whether to apologize or not, she said, “Blair’s not my daughter. She’s my niece.”

      He’d nearly had his chompers around that sandwich, boy, the doughy white bread all soaked with bacon grease just the way he liked it. Now he looked up. Jenna was still sucking on that straw. He thought for a moment, then took a bite anyway. “Where’s her mama?”

      She lowered the cup, toyed with the plastic lid for a moment. “She died a few months ago.”

      Hank swore softly, then took another bite of the sandwich before its innards slid out of the bread and landed in his lap. “That’s rough on a kid. I was a senior in high school when my mama passed, and it was still hard.” He wiped his hands on one of about fifty napkins Ruby’d sent along. “I guess she’s entitled to be a little…you know.”

      Jenna didn’t smile so much as her face seemed to relax. “Yeah. She is.”

      “So she lives with you now?”

      She fiddled with the straw for a bit, screaking it in and out of the plastic lid. “Actually, she’s been living with me since she was a baby. My husband and I raised her. My sister…wasn’t exactly a constant in her daughter’s life.”

      Hank swallowed, trying to figure out what was bothering him so much about this conversation. Cop instincts again, he decided, keeping an eye out for body language that would alert him that she was lying or something. But all he saw was a pretty lady with her hair crammed up in a stupid hat, her mouth creased some from sucking so hard on that straw.

      She nodded toward his sandwich. “How’s your breakfast?”

      “What? Oh…good.” He took another bite, then unwrapped his own straw, poking it into the little hole on the plastic lid. Some of the chocolate oozed out around the base. For some reason, Hank’s throat got dry. He looked up at Jenna, her cheeks sunk in as she sucked on her own straw, and his throat got dryer. Then his lips curved up in a smile.

      “That wouldn’t be a chocolate shake by any chance, would it?”

      She let go of the straw and smiled as well. Not full out, maybe, but it was something. “As a matter of fact, it is.” Her eyes glittered like aquamarines underneath the hat brim. “This is absolutely the best chocolate milk shake I have ever had.”

      “See? What did I tell ya?”

      She took another short pull, then lowered the cup again, her eyes narrowed. But that almost-smile still flirted with her lips. “It’s not worth getting a swelled head over.”

      A drop of chocolate glistened at the corner of her mouth: her tongue darted out, snatched it inside like a mother taking her child out of the rain.

      Swelled head, no. Other things, however…

      “Oh!” She shifted to one hip to dig in her pants pocket. “I almost forgot…here’s your change.” She leaned over to drop the bills and coins into his hand, her fingers brushing his palm. An innocent touch, brief and meaningless. Except Jenna’s cheeks flushed. And no, he wasn’t imagining it. And let’s just say Hank could see where things could get interesting between them. If he’d let it. If she’d let it, which was even less likely, considering that wedding ring of hers. Hank did not mess around with married women. Hell, Hank hadn’t messed around with anybody since Michelle’s death. Which probably accounted for why he was seeing erotic overtones in milk shakes, for cripe’s sake.

      “What’s your husband do, if you don’t mind my asking?”

      Her laugh startled him, not only because that was the last thing he expected her to do and because he liked the sound. A lot.

      “What’s so funny?”

      One side of her mouth pulled up. “The way people around here seem to think if you add ‘if you don’t mind my asking’ on the end of a prying question, that somehow makes it okay.”

      She didn’t seem particularly offended, though. So Hank shrugged. “I guess that way we can ask whatever’s on our mind, but it still leaves folks the option of not answering if they don’t want to without being afraid they might hurt somebody’s feelings.” He finished off his sandwich, picked up the plastic fork to attack the hash browns. “So. You gonna answer, or you gonna take your out?”

      The last thing Jenna had expected was for Hank Logan to sit himself down and get chatty. So it had thrown her for a loop when he had. But then, she suspected Hank was good at keeping people off balance. Like the way he could still look so disreputable—did the man even own a comb and razor?—but smell so incredibly good, even over the cigarette smoke. In any case, after her initial No! Go away! I don’t want to talk to you! reaction, logic took over. After all, she couldn’t very well get to know the man if she never talked to him, could she? And since it might look a wee bit suspicious if she made the overtures, she should be grateful for the opportunity that fate had presented her, right?

      The thing was, though, she was supposed to be finding