Daddy Patrol Read online

  But no lesson had been more important than the knowledge that she would never risk her heart or her children’s security for love or a man again.

  “It’s him, it’s him,” Connor whispered, bouncing up and down and elbowing Cody, who forgot his zipper long enough to tilt his head back to stare in openmouthed awe. “It’s Officer Friendly,” Connor whispered.

  “Ohmygosh,” Cody whispered back, his own mouth dropping open. “He really came,” he said. “He really, really came.”

  Aware that the boys were whispering something behind her, Mattie glanced back at them for a moment, her mother’s antennae going almost haywire now. But at the moment, she had a more pressing problem.

  “Sheriff, it’s very nice to meet you,” she said coolly, still stunned and embarrassed by her reaction to him. “I’m Mattie Maguire. Is there something I can do for you?”

  “Actually, I’m here to see your boys,” he said, wondering what he’d done to warrant her icy greeting.

  “My…boys?” Puzzled and just a bit frightened, Mattie turned. The twins were gazing up at the sheriff with a look that could be called nothing less than adoration. “Boys?” she said with a lift of her eyebrow. “What on earth is going on?” They merely continued to stare at the sheriff, openmouthed. “Boys!” she said again in a voice guaranteed to get their attention. “Why is the sheriff here to see you?” Her gaze shifted from one of her sons to the other, vividly aware of the man standing just a few steps behind her.

  Her pulse was scrambling and her heart thrumming so loudly she feared he might hear it. She wasn’t certain if the reaction was the result of fear from learning the sheriff was here to see her sons or from the man’s intense masculinity.

  And it irritated her to no end. She wasn’t interested in responding to a man purely as a female. Knowing she still could annoyed and frightened her.

  “He’s our friend, Ma,” Connor said by way of explanation, taking a step forward and grinning from ear to ear.

  “Yeah, Ma. It’s Officer Friendly and he’s our friend, right?” Cody took a step closer to his brother, gazing up at the sheriff, waiting for confirmation.

  “That’s right, son,” Joe confirmed when Mattie turned back to face him, total confusion etched in her features. Joe met her gaze, then shifted his weight a bit, trying to get his bearings. He couldn’t figure out if this woman was suspicious of him because he was a cop or just suspicious of men in general.

  He had to admit, though, his deputy, Clarence—also known as the town’s resident gossip—had been right on the money this time. Mattie Maguire would be considered a looker in any guy’s book. A real looker.

  What else had Clarence told him? Joe tried to remember, wishing he’d paid more attention. Clarence had said she was a single mom, widowed, he’d thought, and had moved to town a few months ago. He believed Clarence had also told him that Mattie Maguire was attending the local university part-time in the mornings, and running her aunt Maureen’s art gallery part-time in the afternoons.

  Now that he was face-to-face with the gorgeous Mattie Maguire, Joe wished he’d paid more attention to Clarence’s ramblings.

  He hadn’t, simply because, quite frankly, he really wasn’t interested. He wasn’t about to ever put his heart at risk again. He’d been down that road once before, and in fact, had almost made it to the altar, but when his fiancée had objected to his dedication to his twin brother, Johnny, whose guardianship he’d assumed when their father died, telling him his responsibility was to her not to Johnny, Joe knew he’d made a mistake and called off the wedding.

  As the eldest of eight in a large, close-knit Italian family, he’d made a deathbed promise to his dad to always look out for his twin brother, Johnny, and Joe was a man who never went back on a promise. Ever.

  But that escapade with his fiancée had taught him a lot about women, and although he felt honored that his father had asked him to be Johnny’s caretaker, women wouldn’t always see it as an honor but simply a responsibility, one that would last a lifetime. And asking a woman to accept his responsibility wasn’t something he’d ever ask again.

  Looking at Mattie, he realized that it had been a long, long time since he’d had such a gut-level physical reaction to a woman. But, he concluded, the last thing he needed was another woman from the big city with fancy dreams and ideas, not to mention a family and responsibilities of her own.

  So, it was a good thing he only allowed himself to look, Joe thought, because a woman like Mattie Maguire was exactly the kind of woman who could tie a man like him into tiny little knots.

  Deliberately, Joe shifted his gaze to the boys and felt his resistance melt. They were absolutely adorable. Miniature male versions of their mother right down to the freckles on their noses. They reminded him of him and Johnny at that age.

  “The sheriff is your friend?” Mattie repeated in surprise, still staring at her sons. She pressed her fingers to her temple, trying to forestall a headache she was almost certain was forthcoming. Most of the boys’ friends were about three feet tall, generally missing a few front teeth, and couldn’t stand still for longer than ten seconds. Clearly this man didn’t fit the usual bill.

  “Ma.” Cody, always the braver one, stepped forward. “This is Officer Friendly. He came to school and said he was our friend and that if we was ever in trouble to tell a policeman.”

  “Or if we had a problem, to tell him, and he would help us,” Connor added.

  “I see,” Mattie said carefully, trying to follow the maze of her five-year-old sons’ minds. “So if you’re not in trouble, then I’m assuming you have a problem, one you thought the sheriff could help you with?” she asked, totally confused and just a bit hurt that her sons would go to a stranger for help instead of coming to her.

  Identical strawberry-blond heads bobbed in perfect unison.

  “Okay,” Mattie said with a heavy sigh. “Time for a family conference.” She glanced up at Joe again, surprised to find him watching her intently. She wished he’d make himself scarce so she could talk to the boys privately, but apparently she was stuck with him—for the moment anyway. “Sheriff—”

  “Joe, please,” he insisted with another smile that made Mattie frown.

  “Joe,” she said stiffly, wishing he’d quit smiling at her like that. It made her nerves skitter. “Apparently whatever this problem is involves you, so why don’t you come in.” She stepped back to allow him to enter, not certain she was entirely comfortable having this large, gorgeous man in her home. The once-spacious living room suddenly seemed short of air with him in it. “Can I get you anything? Something to drink perhaps?”

  “We got milk and juice,” Cody offered helpfully.

  Joe shook his head. “No, thanks, I’m fine.”

  Mattie nodded, out of small talk. “Okay, well then, boys, what’s this about?”

  Connor glanced at Cody, who turned to his mother. “Well, Ma, last weekend when we was at Grandma and Grandpa’s we heard Grandma and Grandpa talking—”

  “Yeah, they thought we was asleep,” Connor injected, blinking owlishly behind his glasses. “They always talk about us when they think we’re sleeping.”

  Mattie wanted to groan. Feeling her headache come on full force, Mattie cautioned herself to hear the boys out and stay calm. But the amount of grief Gary’s family had given her from the moment she’d married him had been never-ending and was difficult to face calmly.

  As an only child born to his well-to-do parents late in life, Gary had been spoiled and indulged his whole life, his parents bailing him out of one scrape after another, never forcing him to face up to any responsibility.

  When she’d unexpectedly gotten pregnant right after their wedding, Gary had panicked at the prospect and gone to his parents and told them he couldn’t handle parenthood. His parents had stepped in, and as they’d done for Gary’s whole life, decided to handle the situation for him.

  Pleading their son’s case, the Maguires had basically asked, then demanded she term
inate her pregnancy, explaining that forcing Gary to become a father at such a young age when he didn’t really want a child was nothing short of cruel.

  Cruel was what they’d put her through when she refused to do what they asked. Gary, with his parents’ support and blessing, basically abandoned her, moving in with them and resuming his old life as a carefree bachelor while she struggled to support herself and take care of her unborn children.

  His parents had been certain that faced with the prospect of giving birth alone she’d come to her senses and do what they’d asked.

  As far as Mattie was concerned, it wasn’t her senses that had ever been in question. From the moment she’d become pregnant she had loved her unborn child—or rather children as it turned out—with everything inside her, and Mattie knew she would never do anything to harm them. They were the miracles of her life.

  When Gary was killed two months before the twins’ birth and before their divorce could become final, his parents had had a sudden change of heart and had done everything in their power to try to convince her to let them raise her precious babies, claiming the twins were the only part of their son they had left.

  They’d even offered her money to make her life easier, to finish her education, to establish herself in business. All she had to do was relinquish her beloved children to Gary’s parents.

  Their offer had simply horrified her, for she felt as if they’d been trying to buy her children from her.

  She’d adamantly refused to take a penny from Gary’s parents. Not once during all the lean years when she’d struggled to support herself and her sons, living on Gary’s life insurance proceeds, monthly Social Security payments for the boys, and then filling in the financial gaps with part-time work she could do at home so she could be with her babies.

  It had been hard at times, definitely, but she wasn’t about to ask or accept any help from the Maguires, fearing it would give them reason to think that they had some claim to her boys.

  She’d have willingly died before giving up her precious sons—to anyone, but especially Gary’s parents. The thought of her in-laws raising her children, especially after the way they’d raised their own son, was so ludicrous, she never even considered it. The last thing she wanted was her boys growing up spoiled, selfish and totally self-involved like their irresponsible father.

  But the older the twins got, the more her in-laws’ pressure and criticism of her increased.

  The Maguires claimed they weren’t getting any younger and wanted a chance to have the twins in their life full-time. Which, for the boys’ own protection, was exactly what Mattie wanted to avoid at all costs, and in fact was one of the main reasons for leaving Chicago and moving here before the twins began school. She was hoping they’d all have a fresh start in this wonderful little town without constant pressure.

  She bore Gary’s parents no bitterness, and in fact felt sorry for them. She couldn’t even imagine losing one of her children, and so she’d allowed her former in-laws to have a relationship with the boys—as long as they did nothing to hurt her children.

  But judging from the fear shadowing her sons’ faces, the pressure hadn’t stopped, it had merely shifted to her poor innocent sons.

  Her stomach muscles clenched along with her fists and Mattie found she had to take a slow, deep breath to rein in her temper. Not wanting to prejudice her sons against Gary’s parents, she’d carefully and deliberately kept her feelings and opinions about them to herself.

  “Sweetheart,” she said gently, laying shaking hands on Cody’s slender shoulders and forcing herself to speak calmly. “Did Grandma or Grandpa say something to upset you?”

  “Grandma said…Grandma said…” Cody hesitated, looking down, before bringing his gaze back to hers. “Well, we was telling Grandma about how neat our new school was and about the big end-of-school parade—”

  “And how we wanted to play in the kindergarten father-son baseball game at the end of the year,” Connor added, shoving his glasses up his nose, then frowning again. “But Bobby Dawson said we couldn’t ’cuz we don’t got a dad—”

  “And ’cuz we don’t know how to play baseball,” Cody added with a scowl of his own.

  “We heard Grandma tell Grandpa that we should come to live with them, so Grandpa could be our dad and teach us how to play baseball.”

  “But Grandpa’s too old to play baseball,” Cody complained. “He’s got ’rthritis or something and he can’t catch or run. And we don’t want to move from here—”

  “’Cuz we like it here, Ma.” Connor shoved his glasses up to rub his fists against his eyes.

  “Lots,” Cody added for emphasis, crossing his arms stubbornly across his skinny chest.

  “And we don’t want to leave you.” Connor’s voice trembled at the thought. “So we wrote to Officer Friendly. To see if he could find us our own dad—”

  “One who doesn’t have ’rthritis, and knows how to play baseball—”

  “So then he could teach us, and we could play in the father-son baseball game—”

  “And then Bobby Dawson will stop teasing us,” Cody finished glumly.

  “Yeah, then we won’t have to leave you to go live with Grandma and Grandpa.” Connor slowly blinked up at her, eyes wide, watching her carefully, and Mattie felt her thundering heart constrict into a tight little ache. “Are you mad at us, Ma?” he asked abruptly, tears suddenly glistening.

  “Oh, sweetheart.” Emotions swamped her, and Mattie bit her lower lip, trying to contain her own tears. Her poor babies! Her protective instincts went into overdrive and the thought that her boys had been scared and hurting both hurt and infuriated her.

  The need to soothe, to protect, was so strong she would have gladly throttled her former in-laws for scaring her children and making them feel less than secure, to say nothing of what she’d like to do to Bobby Dawson for teasing her sons.

  “Come here, you two.” She reached out and encircled her boys in an enormous hug, holding them tight. As a single parent, she’d tried hard to make certain her boys always felt totally secure and loved, never wanting them to fear anything. But now because of a few careless words, her in-laws had shaken the safe, secure world she’d spent years trying to build for her children.

  There were so many issues she had to deal with at the moment, she didn’t even know where to start. She had to calm the boys’ fears about the overheard conversation from their grandparents, and assure them they weren’t moving anywhere. Or leaving her.

  She had to address the twins’ feelings about getting teased at school by the other kids. And she had to talk to them—again—about the “daddy” issue as she referred to it. Then there was the matter of dealing with the baseball issue, her sons’ latest, greatest passion.

  But Mattie knew at the moment, the only issue that was important was letting her sons know how much she loved them, that she wasn’t mad at them, and more important, that they weren’t going anywhere, at least not without her.

  “Of course I’m not mad at you,” she said gently, forcing a smile she didn’t feel and drawing back so she could see their faces. “First of all, you don’t have to go live with Grandma or Grandpa or anyone else. Ever,” she added firmly. “I’m your mom—”

  “And we’re a family, right?” Cody said, repeating her often-recited refrain to them.

  She smiled at him. “That’s right, sweetheart. We are a family, and family sticks together.” Mattie hesitated, aware that Joe was watching her intently. But she couldn’t worry about him right at the moment. “Now, I know how hard it is to be the new kids at school and how hard it is not to have a daddy like the other kids.” Mattie hesitated again. “Do you remember when we talked about this?” she asked, and they both nodded solemnly.

  She’d been as honest as possible about their father, and they’d seemingly accepted the fact that their daddy was in heaven. But at times like this, her anger at Gary for his immaturity rankled more than she could ever say.

  “I’m sor
ry that you’ve been worried that you won’t be able to play in the baseball game, but I seem to recall telling you I’d be happy to teach you how to play baseball.”

  The boys looked at each other, then back up at Joe. Some kind of male look passed between them, the kind of look that spoke only in a language males understood.

  “What?” she asked, her gaze going from her sons’ faces to Joe’s. In spite of the difference in sizes and ages, all three wore those identical male looks. “What? What!” she finally demanded.

  “Uh, Mattie,” Joe began, trying to smother a smile. “Can I uh…see your hands?”

  “My hands?” Mattie frowned. “Why do you want to see my hands?” she asked, confused and annoyed. She was in the middle of a family crisis with the boys, and the man wanted to inspect her hands? Irritated, she laid her hand in his much larger one, merely to appease him, hoping he had a point to this.

  “Nice,” he said with a smile, lifting her hand in the air. His touch sent her pulse scrambling even further. His hand was warm, tanned and unbelievably masculine. The kind of hand that looked capable of both soothing and arousing a woman. Mattie swallowed hard, shifting her gaze from their joined hands, to somewhere over his head, wondering where on earth that thought had come from.

  “Very nice,” Joe continued, letting his gaze go over her hand with the slender fingers and the perfectly manicured long nails painted a delicate shade of beige. “You have beautiful hands and nails—”

  “Thank you,” she snapped. Having him compliment her made her pulse jump like a frightened frog.

  “But hardly equipped to catch grounders or fly balls,” he said pointedly. “Right, boys?” When the boys nodded in agreement, Mattie felt her spirits droop.

  “Oh.” Now she understood. Mattie stood up, staring at her hand, remembering the last time she’d played ball with the boys. She’d heard Cody muttering to his brother that she ran like a…girl. Hard to be insulted when it was true.