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When she spied his offering, red crept up her cheeks. She muttered a quick “thanks,” snatched the items, and shoved everything back into her purse. After he stood, he offered his hand to help her up. But she grumbled something he couldn’t decipher, rose on her own, and hurried toward the front of the school.
He kicked up his step to keep up with her. “What was that?”
“Nothing.” Her eyes widened as her gaze dropped to his chest. He often got admiring looks when he wore his combat uniform around town. Shoot, his buddies lived by the rule that a woman loves a man in uniform. Not Alex. When he was off duty, he made a point to dress the part of a single father, but he hadn’t had a chance to change when he’d received Mariana’s call.
As they approached the door, he stepped up and pulled it open for her.
“Thank you.”
Two “thank yous” in as many minutes. That might be a record. He’d only been in St. Judith for about six weeks, but most of the time, when he held a door or allowed someone to go ahead of him on the Metro, he rarely received an acknowledgement. Certainly not a thank you. People living in the suburbs of the nation’s capital were always in a hurry, always focused on their phones, ignoring everything going on around them.
He definitely wasn’t in Kansas anymore. Or Georgia, as the case may be—his last duty station.
He followed the woman into the school and toward the front office. Guess they were headed to the same place. Mariana hadn’t said where to pick her up, so the office was as good a place as any to start. Other than the day he’d enrolled his daughter, he hadn’t had a chance to visit the school again.
When he opened the door to the office, laughter echoed throughout the room. He spied Mariana, on a couch against the window, her head pressed together with a blonde-haired girl. Neither of them had noticed the adults yet.
“Mariana—”
“Lizzie—”
He and the woman spoke at the same time, and the girls’ heads snapped up.
Hold on. Lizzie was the name of Mariana’s new friend. The girl who had made transferring to this school the most fantastic thing that had ever happened to her. At least according to Mariana. Rushing to school wouldn’t be all bad if he got to meet his daughter’s best friend. He hadn’t had time to reach out to the kid’s parents about setting up a play date, so today’s unexpected adventure could be a net positive.
Apparently, he got to meet the mom, too. The other girl’s face broke into a huge smile when she spotted the adults. “Mom!”
“Hi, Mrs. Baldwin,” his daughter exclaimed as she jumped up and threw her arms around his waist. “Oh, Daddy. I’m so sorry. I forgot something in my desk and I missed the bus when I went back to get it.”
When she hugged him like that, it made it hard for him to be mad at her. But it wouldn’t do for him to give in so easily.
“You know Mrs. Rodriguez can’t come if you miss the bus. You should have left whatever you’d forgotten and caught up tomorrow.”
“I’m sorry, Daddy.” Mariana poked out her bottom lip and looked up at him with her mother’s eyes.
“I know it wasn’t on purpose. It’s okay, sweetie.” He pulled her into a hug and then rested his hand on her shoulder as he turned to the other woman. She was having a similar discussion with her mini-me daughter. When there was a break in their conversation, he stepped forward and extended his hand. “I’m Alex Sanchez, and this is my daughter Mariana. From what Mariana says, she and your daughter are the best of best friends ever.”
The woman laughed at his mimicking of his ten-year-old daughter. Good, that was the response he’d hope to elicit. “It’s nice to meet you. My name is Cameron Baldwin.”
She took his hand and her daughter bumped shoulders with Mariana and the girls giggled.
“I have to apologize. Lizzie said it was her idea to run back for the project. It doesn’t have to be finished until this weekend, so I’m not sure why she insisted on collecting it now, but they both missed the bus.”
He turned to Lizzie, her cheerful, freckled face that was fighting a grin turned up at him. “Must be an important project, huh? One good thing, though, is that I get to meet Mariana’s best friend. Thanks for being so nice to her when we moved here.”
“Nice to meet you, too, Mr. Sanchez.”
He gazed down. He was still holding Cameron’s hand. He didn’t want to let it go. But he had to. In a minute. But he’d already passed into creeper territory, so he released he
r and slid his hands into his pockets. “It’s no big deal about the mix-up. It’s just hard because Mrs. Rodriguez can’t pick Mariana up if she doesn’t catch the bus. She runs an in-home daycare and has other kids to worry about.”
“Teresa Rodriguez?”
“Yeah. You know her?”
“I do. She lives right around the corner from me. Lizzie mentioned Mariana went to daycare after school but she hadn’t mentioned where. You know kids. Everything is partial information that you have to piece together to get the whole story.” Cameron shuffled from one foot to another. He waited patiently as she scanned his uniform again. “I’m sure it’s hard for you to get away if something happens with Mariana.”
Her inspection of him was making him nervous. This was another reason why he didn’t wear his fatigues around town. Why was she so fixated on his uniform? If she was one of those women who was attracted to men in the military, he’d have expected her to be more flirtatious, but she just seemed like another busy parent. And this woman could be married, for all he knew. “It’s definitely hard. When I was stationed at Ft. Gordon in Georgia, I had family around. I had a support system that I don’t have now that I’m posted at Ft. Dunwoody.”
