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“Really,” Caleb said. “I know Mel or Selene or Edie would be great with them, but Kara... Kara’s special. She loves kids. She’s a born nurturer and she’s great with the twins.”
If true, that would just about seal the deal as far as Jim was concerned. God, could she really be the one? The woman Tyler needed to make his life complete?
“But we didn’t come here to ease your mind about Kara. We came here to ease ours about you,” Caleb continued. “She’s sensitive, Jim. Easily hurt. And just starting to come into her own. A heartbreak right now could set her back a whole bunch. Maybe send her crawling right back into her cocoon, you know?”
He nodded slowly. “I don’t plan to hurt her. That’s not my intent.”
“Yeah, well, intentions don’t count for a hell of a lot, my friend,” Wade said. “Don’t hurt her. Just don’t.”
He nodded. “Okay. I won’t.”
The men nodded, and the kid brought their coffee and delivered Tyler’s hot apple pie with a scoop of ice cream melting over the top.
* * *
Kara was about to knock when Tyler yanked the door open, grabbed her hand, and tugged her inside, all the while holding one crutch under his arm. “Daddy’s making lasagna! It’s his best supper.”
She took off her coat, hung it on a peg near the door and couldn’t keep from smiling at Tyler’s enthusiastic welcome. Then she closed the door behind her and followed Ty into the kitchen, where the smells made her mouth water almost as much as the sight of Jimmy Corona standing at the counter, tossing a huge salad, did. She couldn’t take her eyes off him and suddenly she wished she hadn’t taken her kid sister’s advice to dress down. She wore jeans—nice jeans, but jeans all the same—and a little T-shirt with the Dixie Chicks across the front. She’d pulled on a milk chocolate-colored cable-knit sweater over it, in deference to the winter chill. Her hair was in a high ponytail, and she wore no makeup. She hadn’t gone so far as to pull out the old tortoiseshell eyeglasses, thinking that would be too obvious. But to make up for it, she’d dressed her feet in ankle socks and running shoes.
She thought she must look pretty lame. Especially in comparison to Jimmy. He wore jeans, too, but on him they were delicious. She was staring at the way he filled them out in back when his voice startled her out of her state.
“I saw that,” he said, looking over his shoulder at her.
She jerked her gaze up to eye level. “Saw what?” She was waiting for his face to change. For his shock at her appearance to show in his eyes. But it didn’t.
“You were going to knock. I can’t have you knocking at your own door, Kara.”
“That’s silly. Of course I’m going to knock.”
He shrugged but didn’t argue. “Lasagna will be ready in ten minutes. Table’s set and ready. Get comfy. I get to be the server tonight”
Nothing. Not a word about her lack of makeup or the pony-tail or the sneakers. As she followed Tyler into the dining room, she glimpsed her reflection in the tall windows and looked again. She hadn’t completely reclaimed her former persona. She wasn’t half running or tripping over her feet or slouching. She was standing up straight, looked almost poised. God, Edie was good. She should open a charm school for awkward girls.
Tyler was calling her. “Right here, Kara. That’s where you’ll sit,” he said. She looked up to see a winter dandelion lying beside the place setting he indicated, and her heart melted into a warm puddle.
“My goodness,” she said. “Somebody put a beautiful flower at my spot. Who could have done that?”
Tyler grinned wide. “Me!”
“You? Wow. That’s just the nicest thing.” She went to the wilting yellow blossom, picked it up and brought it to her face as if to smell it. “Thank you, Tyler.”
“You’re welcome.”
He made his way to his own chair and got into it then dropped the crutches on the floor beside it. Just in time, too. His father came in bearing a pan of lasagna large enough for to last them all a week. He set it on hot pad, eyed the dandelion and held up a finger. “Be right back.”
He vanished and returned with a glass of water. “A vase for your bouquet,” he said, holding it toward her.
She stood the flower in the water glass, and Jim placed it carefully in the center of the table. Tyler beamed, clearly proud of himself.
“I forgot the rolls. One sec,” Jim said.
Kara leaned back in her chair. “So what did you do today, Tyler?”
“We had fun! We went shoppin’ and we got some liberry books. And then we had pie and ice cream with... um... oh, you know. Them guys from your house.”
She lifted her brows. “Guys from my house?”
“Uh-huh. And I rode the pony. Two times!” He held up his fingers. ‘Course, it wasn’t a real pony. It’s the kind you have to put money in to make it go. But it was fun anyway.”
