“What are you doing here, peanut?”
“Peanut?”Billie wrinkled her nose.“I’mnota peanut.”
“That’s right.”He tugged on the bill of her baseball cap.“You’re a soon-to-be famous pitcher of our champion Little League.”
Jane swallowed against the lump in her throat.It had happened so quickly, she thought.In just five days, they’d become friends.Was it Billie’s outgoing nature, Adam’s charm or was it genetic?Did they, on some subconscious level, recognize themselves as family?Shehadto tell him, tell them both.Soon.But not yet.There was more at stake than friendship.More than Adam’s right to know he was a father.Billie, and how all this would affect her, was Jane’s most important consideration.
“You haven’t answered my question,” Adam said, shifting Billie until she leaned against his chest.Her arms wrapped around his neck and he supported her weight with his left arm.Jane wasn’t sure if it was in deference to summer or the fact that it was Friday, but he’d abandoned his suit jacket.His white shirt fit perfectly, the long sleeves showing the ripple of his muscles as he shifted Billie’s weight.“What are you doing here?”
“Banking.We’re opening an account.”
Miss Yarns had watched the greeting and subsequent conversation.Obviously Billie and Adam knew each other well.Her mouth had opened slightly, as her jaw had dropped farther and farther down.
“Billie is a very outgoing child,” Jane said, hoping the other woman wouldn’t notice the similarities between the man and the little girl.
“I see that.”Her face sharpened as lines of disapproval pulled her mouth straight.“Perhaps we could get on with this form.Your place of employment?”
“I’ll handle this, Miss Yarns.”
The older woman glanced up at her employer.“Mr.Barrington, I assure you I am entirely capable—”
“I know,” he said, with an easy grin.“As a favor.Please.”
“Well.If you put it like that, I am sure I cannot say no.”She rose slowly from her chair and brushed her hands against her skirt.“I will take my lunch now.If it is convenient?”
“Of course.”
She walked away as if her back were made of steel.Jane bitthe inside of her lip to keep from smiling.No doubt the old biddy was convinced something sinful was going to happen in front of God and everybody, not to mention onherdesk.
Jane raised her eyes to Adam’s face.Their gazes locked for a second, and he winked.The playful moment, stolen between the reality of their mutual past and present, caught her unaware.She smiled back.In that blink of time—before he remembered who she was and what she had done—they connected.
The heat that filled her chest and radiated out along her arms and legs wasn’t about sex.It was about the comfortable, the comforting and the familiar.This is the Adam she had adored while growing up.The man with the quick wit and the ability to laugh at everyone, including himself.These were the flashes of fun, between his days of responsibility, that had made her fall in love and want to be everything for him.He took care of those around him, so she never worried about him not being a good husband or father.It was that he rarely took time to be anything else.That had frightened her the most.What if he had turned out to be like her father?She too would have lost her dreams.She’d been too young to even have many dreams, let alone believe in them.
But he hadn’t turned into her father, she realized as he looked away and whispered something to Billie.The need to control was still there, as strong as ever, but so was the joy and the humor.Had she been wrong to not trust him?Was she wrong now to want to try?
“All right.”Adam set Billie on the corner of the desk, and sat in Miss Yarns’s chair.“Let’s see if I remember how to do this.You’re opening a checking account?”He looked up at Jane.
She nodded.
“I can do that.I think.Address.I know that.Occupation.Teacher.Employer.”He filled in most of the card, asking for her social security number and the new phone number at her house.His thick dark hair showed signs of a recent cut.One stubborn lock slipped down on his forehead.Billie leaned toward him, her hand casually resting on his shoulder.They looked right together.
As he wrote the information in his neat script, joked with her daughter and tossed her the occasional casual smile, Jane wanted to scream.This was the first time she’d seen him since the kiss.He was acting as if nothing had happened between them.As if that passionate moment had been meaningless.Could he just put it behind him?Did he kiss so many women that he could easily forget one or two?Or was it Jane he was so quick to forget?
“That seems to be everything.Do you want to look at the check design book?”he asked.
“I’ll just take the standard ones.”
“Do they have baseball checks?”Billie asked.
“Not yet.”Adam smiled at her.“Maybe I’ll call the printing company and make that suggestion.”He gave the form a once-over, then frowned.“You want the account in your maiden name?”
As unexpectedly as the good humor and friendliness had arrived, they faded.His mouth thinned and the lines of his body stiffened.
“Yes.”She looked around the bank, at the tellers watching their exchange, at the interested faces of the people standing in line, to Billie staring intently.This wasn’t the time to tell him she’d never been married.
“What’s a maiden name?”her daughter asked.
“It’s the name a woman has before she gets married,” Jane answered, hoping she wasn’t about to dig herself a hole.“Southwick is your maiden name.”
