The evening went downhill after that.
When the waitress had asked Brad if he wanted his chopped steak cooked medium like his father’s, Bethany had loudly corrected her, saying their father was in heaven. Brad, on the other hand, had reveled in the mistake. Then Bethany had clung to her uncle’s hand and made it clear she wanted nothing to do with Boone.
As the evening wore on, it got so bad that when Nixie went backstage with her later to help with her costume, she gave her daughter a firm chewing-out. She doubted that the talk did any good.
Nixie couldn’t understand why Bethany, who was normally so pleasant and cheerful with everyone, would so openly reject Boone.
When Boone drove them home after the recital, Brad wouldn’t stop chattering and trying to monopolize his new mentor’s attention. Nixie worried that her son had an enormous case of hero worship. What would happen when he found out that Boone, like all men, had his own shortcomings?
Goodness, Nixie thought, it would be so much easier if both children would react the same. Then she’d only have to find one solution rather than two.
“I apologize for Bethany’s behavior,” Nixie told Boone after her daughter had unceremoniously dumped the beautiful long-stemmed red rose he’d given her onto the couch and run into the kitchen to put her other rose— the pink one Uncle Jay had given her—into water. “I don’t know what’s gotten into her. She’s never acted this way before.”
“Don’t apologize,” Boone said. He gave her a one-armed hug. “All these years it’s been a tradition to have her family watch her perform. It must have felt weird to have an outsider tagging along.”
Nixie shook her head. “I just don’t understand it. She was fine with you in the beginning. Then something happened, and she changed from Dr. Jekyll into Little Miss Hyde. If this is what she’s like at eleven, I’m not looking forward to sixteen.”
Boone smiled and took her hands in both of his. The simple gesture was comforting, and he seemed so full of understanding. This was one of those times when Nixie yearned for a partner to share the bad times with her, as well as the good. On days such as this, she envied the married women who had their husbands to share the burden of raising their children properly. As it was now, she could only hope she was doing the right thing.
“If she turns out only half as well as you did, she’ll be one lucky lady,” Boone said.
Brad came bounding down the steps wearing an oversize T-shirt that served as his sleepwear. “I’ll see you Wednesday for den meeting,” he said and gave his Scout leader a high five.
“Sure thing, pal.” Boone turned loose of Nixie’s hand and took a couple of playful punches at the boy. “Before I forget it again, why don’t you run and get my Scout pin?”
The look Brad gave him was one Nixie was well familiar with. He’d worn it the time he made a fake volcano and got baking soda all over the living room. He’d given her that look when she’d been looking for the gauze to bandage a scrape on Bethany’s arm and he told her he’d used it all to dress up as a mummy. And he’d used the same expression when his teacher had called to tell her Brad had completed his homework assignment of learning five new words and their definitions from the dictionary but that they’d all been slightly naughty words.
The look now was one of guilt. Nixie’s heart lurched. She hadn’t thought the evening could get any worse, and now she was being proven wrong.
“Did you break Boone’s pin?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I can’t find it,” he whispered.
Although the boy frequently got into mischief, he was always truthful about his misdeeds. Now, however, he seemed different, subdued even. Nixie couldn’t help wondering what else was going on that he wasn’t telling.
“I don’t know where it is,” he mumbled.
“Then I suggest you go upstairs and find it.” Nixie turned him around and gave him a little push.
“Don’t be too hard on him,” said Boone. “It’ll turn up.”
She wondered whether to voice her fears to Boone, then decided he might be able to help her deal with Brad if she was able to point out the problem. Then again, he might just laugh away her concern and suggest she was overreacting as she had the night she’d gone back to the camporee. She took the plunge on the off chance he might be able to help her deal with the situation.
“I think it’s wonderful how Brad looks up to you. It was cute how he kept copying you this evening,” she began. Boone’s answering smile was quick. “But I’m worried that he might be obsessed with the idea of being just like you. It seems like he’s carrying this mentor thing too far.”
Boone’s proud smile turned downward into a perplexed scowl. “What’s your point?”
Nixie swallowed. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt his feelings, especially after all he’d done for Brad’s confidence. And she didn’t want to heap another insult on top of those thrown by Bethany this evening.
“You’ve been a terrific influence on Brad. The teacher said he’d settled down at school and is less disruptive, and he doesn’t tease Bethany as much as he used to.”
“But?”
Nixie turned away from him as she thought about how to phrase what she had to say. “I’m worried that Brad is developing an unhealthy attachment to you.” She turned to face him and saw that his features were rigidly composed. “He’s so obsessed with emulating you that I suspect he may have taken the pin because he wants so much to be like you.”
“Has he ever stolen anything before?”
“No, but—”
“Then it seems you may be jumping to conclusions.”
He was angry, and Nixie had only meant to solicit his help. She’d really managed to stick her foot in it this time. “I’ve seen that look of his before. I know when he’s hiding something.”
“Then why didn’t you ask him instead of accusing him?”
“Because,” Nixie blurted, pushing her hair behind her shoulder, “I made the mistake of thinking you might be able to help me.”
A cat yowled upstairs. A moment later, Bethany came thumping down the steps with Stormy in her arms. She ran past them, went through the kitchen to the utility room, and locked the little creature in.
“It’s not going to work, Mom,” she declared as she stomped back into the room. She shot a guarded look at Boone before continuing. “Precious doesn’t want anyone else in our family. Everything was just fine before the new guy showed up.”
Tears threatened to spill from her eyes.
Nixie opened her arms and pulled Bethany to her. The child’s dark-blond hair fell against Nixie’s shoulders. She would be tall, like her father, Nixie thought inanely.
Strange how she’d been thinking of Paul more often lately. She wondered if it had anything to do with Boone’s presence in their lives. At the oddest times, she found herself comparing Boone to her late husband.
She looked up to see Boone backing away.
“I guess I’d better go now. Let me know if you want me to find Stormy another home.”
Nixie hated to see him go home on this sour note. She wanted to apologize for the rotten evening. She wanted to thank him for being a good sport. She wanted to walk outside with him and kiss him good night. Instead, all she said was, “Thanks, I’ll let you know.”
He gave Bethany’s hair a light tug, then hollered up the stairs to Brad. “Be ready for den meeting on Wednesday. And keep looking for that pin.”
It seemed as though the minute he was gone, Bethany’s tears dried.
“Don’t worry about Stormy,” Nixie told her daughter. “I’m sure he’ll find a welcome place in our family before long.”
Bethany scowled. “I wouldn’t count on it.”
When Boone arrived Wednesday evening, Tarzan was screeching at the top of his lungs. The sound effects were enough to rival any Amazon jungle movie.
“What’s the matter with him?” Boone yelled over the din. He approached the cage with a finger in each ear and stared curiously at the noisy beast.
“He’s mad because Brad won’t take him out of the cage,” Nixie said.
“Aw, Brad, let the little guy out,” Boone urged.
“But, Boone, he’ll plop on my Scout shirt.”
Nixie watched as Boone released the bird-proof latch and let the loudmouth out of his cage. Tarzan moved from Boone’s finger and sidestepped up his forearm. The bird lifted his scaly feet high as if the hair on Boone’s arm tickled them, then he bent over and teased one of the hairs with his beak.
“He’s not used to furry arms,” Brad said when Boone chuckled.
Boone leaned over and whispered something to Brad. When her son’s face clouded and he shook his head in the negative, Nixie knew Boone had asked about the pin. They had turned Brad’s room upside down looking for the memento but had been unsuccessful in the search.
Just as she’d suspected they would.
“I’ll go look one more time,” the boy said and dashed upstairs.
Bethany was in the kitchen loading the dishwasher. Nixie had been surprised when she’d volunteered to handle the job just as she heard Boone’s car pull up in the driveway. The girl’s animosity must be high if she preferred doing the dreaded dishes over spending time in his company.
“Excuse me a moment,” Nixie told Boone. “I have to get some money to cover Brad’s Scout dues.” She left him talking to the bird.
When she came back, he was still talking to the feathered mimic in a hushed tone.
“If you talk quietly when you’re teaching him a word, he’ll only repeat it in a whisper,” she mentioned.
“What makes you think we’re not having a conversation?” he asked. “Tarzan’s been telling me about his recent discoveries of how to achieve increased aerodynamics.”
“Don’t let him fool you,” Nixie warned with a teasing grin. “Tarzan’s just repeating what he and Brad discussed last night. That bird doesn’t have an original thought in his head.”
The smile he gave Nixie stirred her in a way she couldn’t remember ever feeling before. It was a smile of appreciation and humor that made Nixie feel as if she’d just made the wittiest remark in the world. It made her feel brilliant, unique, and … special.
She gazed back at the man who made her feel this way. What was it about him that turned her emotions upside down? In high school he’d caused her blood pressure to rise with his relentless heckling. And now he was giving her heart palpitations with a mere look. If she wasn’t careful around Boone Shelton, she might be one of the next rescue victims for her squad. She just hoped it wouldn’t be because of a broken heart.
Boone was the first to break the soft silence that had grown between them. “Your kids are going to think they’ve hit the jackpot today.” He patted the papers in his shirt pocket. “They received an all-time high of four applications to choose from.”
Nixie’s jaw went slack, and she firmly clamped it shut. She felt so off-balance she reached for the wall to steady herself. A minute ago, he’d been making eyes at her that said, in no uncertain language, he had tender feelings for her.
Could they have been the kind of tender feelings someone has for a friend? Her mind raced. No. That kiss they’d shared the night of the camporee assured her otherwise.
Brad returned from his room, giving Nixie a moment to gather her jumbled thoughts. He shrugged at Boone, his lips pressed into a thin line.
“Don’t worry,” Boone told him. “You’ll find it soon. Just keep looking.”
Nixie came back to reality with a snap. She supposed it was possible Brad had lost the treasured Scout pin. But he swore he hadn’t left his bedroom with it, and the three of them had hunted in, around, and under everything in his room. Maybe it would turn up soon. She hoped so, even if it meant proving Boone right. Knowing Boone as she did, she wouldn’t put him above an “I told you so.”
Boone handed the envelopes to Brad, who immediately called his sister into the room.
Once again, they settled themselves onto the sofa to peruse the letters, and Nixie felt an ache in the pit of her being. She had thought there might be something special between them, but here he was, excitedly screening daddy candidates with her children. She couldn’t bring herself to join them as she had done last time, but some morbid sense of curiosity forced her to stay.
She flopped down into the chair beside Tarzan’s cage and picked up a magazine. Flipping through it, she found a list of “Ten Sure Signs Your Man Is Right for You.” Maybe she should give it to the children to use as a checklist.
Boone sat with a child on either side of him. He was crazy about these kids and wished he could apply for the job they’d advertised. But he’d already caused enough problems for them. Although he didn’t like to think it was so, there was a slight possibility that Nixie was right about Brad going overboard trying to imitate him. And then there was Bethany who, for whatever reason, had decided she wanted nothing to do with him.
He glanced up at Nixie. It was obvious she was pretending to read that magazine. He couldn’t blame her for sitting on the other side of the room, away from him. Not after his high school reaction to the feelings that had passed between them. Why hadn’t he simply told her she was beautiful instead of bringing up the latest batch of applicants?
Boone ripped open the first envelope. He hadn’t told her she was beautiful, he reminded himself, because it was hard to say that kind of thing when the mere thought paralyzes your lips and squeezes your lungs until you can’t breathe.
He took a deep breath and read the first one out loud. It was a well-composed, thoughtful letter that portrayed the sender as an intelligent, caring person.
“Hey, you can’t beat this one,” he told the children. “This guy even put a couple of Bible verses at the bottom of the letter. Proverbs 13:24 and Ephesians 5:23.”
Nixie looked up. Boone just smiled at her as Brad raced Bethany to the bookshelf to get the Bible.
Bethany found the first verse and read it. “‘He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.”
“What does that mean?” Brad asked.
Boone smiled again. “It means this applicant is in favor of corporal punishment.”
The boy’s eyes grew large, and he put his hands behind himself as if to protect his rear. “Nobody’s going to punish my corporal!”
“Let’s see what the other verse is,” Boone urged.
Bethany read again, her voice strong and clear. “‘Ephesians 5:23. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as—’”
“I vote no on this one,” Nixie interjected.
“Then it’s unanimous.” Bethany ripped the letter into small pieces and placed them on the sofa beside her.
Like a tiny green hawk, Tarzan swooped down on the paper bits, nabbed one, and carried it back to his cage.
Boone sneaked a peek at the next letter and chuckled. “If you didn’t like the last one,” he told Nixie, “then you probably won’t like this one, either.”
She looked up from watching the bird play with the paper. “Let me guess. He’s a man of the nineties. The eighteen-nineties.”
“You’ve got it! This guy says he believes most women today are too uppity and don’t know their place. He wants someone whose only career would be keeping his house clean and cooking his meals.”
In answer, Nixie shook open the magazine and put it in front of her face.
“Since you didn’t like that one,” Boone persisted, “maybe you’d like this guy’s sense of adventure.” The magazine came down a few inches until Nixie’s eyes showed above it. “He’s moving to Alaska soon and doesn’t want to go alone.”
“No,” Brad insisted. “Tarzan’s a jungle bird. He wouldn’t like it there.”
The magazine went back up.
Boone chuckled again, and Nixie’s face burned. As she recalled, they had gone through three letters so far. That meant there was one more, and then Boone would leave for the den meeting. To take her mind off Boone and what he was doing, she tried to focus on the words in front of her. That was when she realized why Boone had laughed just now. She rotated the magazine until it was right side up.
“Nixie, darlin’.” The masculine voice was deep and smooth and full of innuendo.
She put the magazine down again and found him staring at her, his eyes full of unspoken promises … and maybe a little bit of mischief.
“What’s the maximum number of kids you want?” The way he said it made it seem as if he were offering to give them to her. Right now. Nixie licked her lips. “Uh, maybe three or four, I guess.”
As soon as she answered him, she wondered if she was setting herself up to be the target of another one of his jokes.
In an effort to cover her tracks, she added, “But two are plenty. We have lots of love to go around, don’t we?” she urged the children.
Boone handed the final envelope to Bethany. “Then you may as well toss this one, too.” He turned to Bethany and Brad and added, “He has five children of his own and wants to know if you two are old enough to help watch his young ones.”
“I’m almost old enough to babysit,” Bethany replied. “But I don’t want to do it for free.”
Nixie gave a small sigh of relief. Although the children had received many more replies from the advertisement than she’d ever expected, none had panned out. She was glad she hadn’t been put in the awkward position of refusing to go out with any strange men.
A movement near the cage caught her eye. Tarzan was busily tucking bits of paper under the cloth beneath his cage. Nixie looked closer. From the size of the lumps, she guessed he’d been stashing more than paper.
She reached over and lifted a corner of the cloth. Tarzan shrieked and snatched the sunflower seed that had been hidden in the folds.
Next she found a chunk of withered carrot. Cupping her hand, she started collecting the treasures. A peanut, a paper clip, Bethany’s hair barrette…
Tarzan cocked his head and watched while she stood and proceeded to the other side of the cage.
Precious walked through the room, diverting Tarzan’s attention for a moment. He gave a full-volume bark, then laughed maniacally when the yellow cat shot past into the next room.
…red building block, Nixie’s gold shoulder-duster earring, the plastic ball with the bell inside that Bethany had insisted she buy for Precious….
“What are you doing?” Brad asked.
“Going on a treasure hunt.” She handed Bethany the key to her diary, gave Brad the small toy car she found, and returned a miniature wooden apple to its rightful place in the decorative basket atop the television. “Your bird is a kleptomaniac.”
Feeling three pairs of eyes upon her, Nixie turned to face them. Their expressions told her they had the same idea. In another moment, they were all searching the folds of fabric beneath Tarzan’s cage.
“I found a quarter,” exclaimed Bethany. “Finders, keepers.”
Brad held something between his thumb and forefinger. “Eww, and I found a bobby pin.”
Suddenly, Boone’s searching hands stopped as he uncovered the object of their attention. Slowly, as if he were a prospector who had just discovered gold, he lifted it for all to see. Other than a slight curve in the metal post, the pin appeared to be undamaged.
Nixie’s eyes left the cherished Cub Scout pin and met his blue gaze. There was no “I told you so” in his expression, just relief. Nixie, on the other hand, was gripped with guilt. How could she have suspected her son of taking the pin? Ever since Boone had come back into her life, she hadn’t been thinking straight. Why else would she suspect Brad of behavior that was so out of character for him?
Why was her world so topsy-turvy lately? Even her sleep was often disrupted with images of clear blue eyes and shaggy blond hair. And in her waking hours those same blue eyes were turning her insides to mush.
After straightening the metal post that Tarzan had obviously bent with his strong hooked beak, Boone turned to Brad and secured the pin above the boy’s pocket.
“You were due to receive this at tonight’s den meeting, but considering the circumstances, I’m going to present it to you now.” He solemnly shook Brad’s hand. “Congratulations on making such progress with the projects in your Cub Scout manual.”
Nixie smiled with pride at her young man. Quickly she hugged Brad before he could resist the “icky” show of affection.
Turning her attention back to Boone, she said, “Thank you for your understanding.” She wanted to say more, but what else was there? Thanks for believing in my son when I didn’t?
Brad fingered the pin that had grown dull over time. “Awesome, man! Thanks.”
Boone squeezed the boy’s shoulder. “Looks like you have cause to celebrate, my man. When I earned that pin, my mother drove my sister and me over to Blowing Rock, and we spent the day at Tweetsie Railroad. We could make it a tradition and take you there on Saturday.”
The North Carolina amusement park was a four-hour drive away, which would require an overnight stay. At every turn, Boone was embedding himself deeper and deeper into their lives.
Brad turned to Nixie. “Yeah, and when my son earns his first Scout pin, I can take him. Right, Mom?”
At every turn, Boone was becoming more firmly wedged into her life. But there was no way she could deny her son, especially after her brief lack of faith in him. “Sure, honey.” To Boone, she added, “But first we’ll have to figure out the logistics.”
But how could she calculate the logistics of protecting a heart?