Daniel's Daddy

Jess shrugged. Why was he asking? Just because he’d had that one wild notion about her and Daniel didn’t mean she’d ever consider such an idea. Or would she?

“Just curious. I live in Douglas, Arizona, now.”

“I heard someone say a long time ago that you lived in El Paso,” she said.

“I did. But I was transferred a few years ago.”

She didn’t ask him anything, but Jess could see that she wanted to.

“I work for the U.S. Border Patrol,” he said, volunteering the information.

“My daddy wears a gun and badge,” Daniel told her proudly. “But he won’t let me touch the gun ‘cause guns are too dangerous.”

That jolted Hannah. The last thing she’d expected Jess Malone to be was a lawman. Although Hannah should have known he wasn’t the type to sit behind a desk. No doubt a gun and uniform looked perfect on him. And the adventure of it all surely suited him. He seemed like a man who would always need excitement in his life.

“I didn’t know,” Hannah said to Jess. “Do you like it?”

He nodded, then frowned. “I’d like it if I didn’t have to worry about—” He stopped, then glanced at Daniel. Since the boy seemed to have his attention on another table where a couple of young children were breakfasting with their parents, Jess went on. “Leaving Daniel alone.”

Something clutched Hannah’s heart. “You…mean…like if you had a bad accident?”

Jess grimaced. “I guess that’s a nice way of putting it.”

“Your job is that dangerous?” she asked, not liking to think that he could possibly get hurt or even killed in the line of duty.

Shrugging, Jess lifted the coffee cup to his lips. “Sometimes. But I’m trained to handle myself, and I doubt my job puts me in any more danger than your average truck driver. Still, there are no guarantees in life and if something should happen to me—well, Daniel would be alone.”

Hannah let out a long breath. He was implying that Daniel didn’t have a mother! Could that be true?

Jess sipped his coffee, then lowered the cup to its saucer before he continued. He didn’t know why he was getting into all of this with Hannah. She was little more than a stranger. Yet something about her gentle face and shy smile encouraged him to confide in her.

“But I’ve got a more immediate problem,” he went on when she didn’t say anything. “Daniel’s baby-sitter is leaving in a week and a half. She’s an older lady and she’s decided to spend her retirement with her sister in Tucson. I can’t blame her for that. But I don’t know what I’m going to do without her. She’s helped me with Daniel from the time I first brought him home from the hospital.”

Confused and more curious now than ever, Hannah couldn’t stop herself from blurting out, “But what about Daniel’s mother? Does she have a job, too?”

The question brought a cynical snort from Jess. “I wouldn’t know. I haven’t seen her in nearly four years.”

Hannah gasped before she could stop it. “You haven’t? But why?”

He’d often told himself he was over Michelle’s desertion. But he hated to admit to anyone, much less another woman, that he and Daniel hadn’t been worth a backward glance to Michelle.

“She moved on.”

Hannah couldn’t have been more shocked. Even if a woman couldn’t get along with her husband, did that justify her leaving her newborn son? Hannah couldn’t imagine such a thing.

“Oh. I—I’m sorry.” Embarrassed by the whole thing, she took a quick, nervous gulp of coffee.

Jess shrugged. “There’s no need for you to be sorry, Hannah. We were never married. Michelle didn’t want that. She didn’t want to be tied down in any way.”

Hannah wanted to ask him why he’d involved himself with that sort of self-centered woman, but she stopped herself. She didn’t want to sound preachy. Besides, in Hannah’s eyes, he’d more than made up for the mistake by being a caring father to Daniel.

“Some people just can’t handle responsibility,” she said softly. “They don’t set out to intentionally hurt others. But they do.”

Jess was surprised by her words and her open-mindedness about the whole thing. But then, a lot about Hannah had surprised him.

Before anything else could be said, the waitress arrived with their breakfast. As they ate, Daniel became very talkative and Hannah took pains to answer his many questions. He was a bright, inquisitive boy for his age, and from his conversation, she could tell that Jess had obviously spent a great deal of time with him. That and just the fact that Jess had taken on the job of a single father surprised Hannah greatly. Remembering the teenage Jess Malone, she would have never figured him to be so responsible; he’d grown up. Oh, had he ever.

After the meal was over and the three of them were walking across the parking lot to Jess’s pickup, he said, “I feel like I’ve just come out from under a microscope. I think everyone in that place was looking when we walked out of there. You’d think I was a creature from Mars, or something.”

Hannah felt herself blushing. “I don’t think they were—uh, looking at you, Jess.”

He opened the pickup door. As Daniel climbed in, he glanced at Hannah. “What makes you say that?”

“Because I know they were looking at me.”

“You? You’re not a stranger around here. Probably everyone in that café knew you.”

Hannah felt the familiar hurt and embarrassment rise in her. “They did know me. That’s…uh…why they were looking. They’ve never seen me out with a man. I guess they were wondering what I was doing with you.” Or more likely, what Jess was doing inviting a woman like her out to breakfast, she silently added.

How utterly cruel, Jess thought. “It’s none of their damn business,” he said with a grimace.

She smiled wanly. “No. But I’ve had years to get used to being labeled the weird old maid.”

Hannah Dunbar was far from old and there wasn’t anything weird about her that he could see. Certainly reserved and shy, but not weird.

Deciding the best thing to do was treat the situation lightly, Jess gave her an impish wink. “Maybe they’ll think we spent the night together. That’ll cut your reputation to shreds.”

Of course he was teasing. Still, just the thought of being that intimate with Jess was enough to shake her. “I really think it would be your reputation that would suffer,” she tried to joke.

Not wanting her to feel any more awkward than she already did, Jess merely smiled and took her elbow to help her up into the seat. Her arm was small and soft and made him feel oddly protective. This woman was too vulnerable, he thought. And far too kind for her own good.

“Thank you for breakfast,” Hannah said when he pulled into her driveway. “It was very nice of you and Daniel to invite me.”

“Can I go in with Hannah?” Daniel quickly asked his father. “Can I go see the bird again?”

“May I go in,” Jess corrected him, then shook his head. “No. You may not go in. You’ve already talked Hannah’s leg off this morning.”

“Nonsense,” Hannah said as Daniel looked beseechingly up at her. “I won’t be doing anything but a little housecleaning. Let Daniel stay with me while you take your father’s things to the church.”

“You didn’t show me where it was,” Jess reminded her. “And I forgot to ask.”

“Oh. It’s the Catholic church on the south end of town. You probably remember it.”

Not from attending services, he thought, but rather from circling the old building on his motorcycle. Maybe things would have turned out differently for him if he’d been inside with Hannah, rather than outside giving Judy Mae Johnson a fast ride. Maybe he wouldn’t be a single father now. Or maybe Hannah wouldn’t be so virginal. That thought brought a curve to his lips and a dimple in his cheek.

“Yeah, I remember. What do I do with the things, once I get there?”

Hannah frowned as she tried to figure out what was putting such a devilish look on his face. They’d been talking about church, for Pete’s sake! But this was Jess Malone, she quickly reminded herself. The same guy who’d been accused of seducing his high-school English teacher.