Marta Perry - Hero Dad

“Enough, Ryan.” He brushed his brother off easily when he was ready. “This is business, not romance central. Go polish a truck.”

The man behind them snickered. Ryan shot a look toward him and then shrugged. “Later, Julie.” He gave her that charming smile once more and moved off.

“The chief says it’ll take a couple of weeks for you to do this article of yours.” Seth’s reluctance came through in the words. “That seems like a long time to be tagging around after us.”

“You make me sound like a little sister who wants to play with the big boys.”

His grin appeared again, relaxing his face. “I already have one of those, thanks. She’s a paramedic with the department. Believe me, she outplays the big boys.”

That would be Terry, she knew from the private investigator’s report. “I’d like to meet her.”

“You will if you’re really doing this story on us.”

Again she sensed his unwillingness. She’d better try to establish some sort of rapport with him if she wanted to get close enough for this to work.

“I know it sounds as if my presence is going to be an imposition, but I promise, eventually you’ll forget I’m even there. That’s when I’ll get the pictures that will tell the story.”

“A family of firefighters. I know.” He said the words with a certain air of resignation, as if he were used to being categorized that way.

“It’ll be a good story.” Assuming she actually published it. For an instant she felt confused. This was the first time in her professional life that the story was just an excuse for another objective.

“Well, the family has agreed, so I guess we’re in, but maybe you’d better meet us before you decide whether we’re right for your project. My mother asked me to invite you to the house for supper tonight. Everyone won’t be there, but enough of us.”

He’s from a big family, Lisa’s letter had said. All noisy and in each other’s faces all the time. At first it drove me crazy, but now I love it.

Lisa hadn’t needed to point out how different it was from the Alexander family. She’d known Julie would understand.

“That sounds great.” Seth couldn’t know that she was cringing inwardly at the idea of meeting the Flanagans en masse.

“Around six, okay? We eat early so my little boy can have supper with us.”

Davy would be there. Her heart began to thump. She would see her sister’s child.

“Six is fine.”

Seth patted the pockets of his uniform pants. “Do you have something I can write the address on?”

She pulled a notebook and pen from her bag. He bent closer, his head near hers as he scribbled an address in the book. She got a faint whiff of soap, saw the sprinkling of freckles on his skin, felt the sheer masculine magnetism of the man.

Okay. She tried to settle her jangling nerves. This first encounter was almost over and nothing bad had happened. The next one would be easier.

She closed the notebook on the address and took a step back. “I’ll see you at six, then.”

She turned toward the door. Relief settled over her. She could escape.

“Julie?” Seth’s voice held a question, and she glanced back at him. “Have we met before?”

A sudden panic rippled along her nerves. “No.” It took an effort not to let the fear show in her voice. “I’m sure we haven’t.”

He shrugged. “You looked a little familiar to me when you smiled.”

“Maybe I remind you of someone you know.” Not Lisa. She and Lisa had had different mothers, and no one had ever thought they looked at all alike. Until Seth looked at her and saw something.

“That must be it.” A phone rang somewhere behind Seth, and he turned toward the sound.

“I’ll see you later,” she said quickly, and fled to the door.

She didn’t breathe again until she was safely out on the sidewalk. Of all the missteps she’d envisioned, she hadn’t thought of this one.

What else hadn’t she thought of? She slid into the car she’d rented for the trip, mind whirling. Had she missed anything else that could give her identity away to Seth? Or, worse, anything that could betray Lisa’s secret to her father?

She gripped the wheel with both hands. Help me, Lord. I’m walking a tightrope, and if I fall, an innocent child could pay the price.

“All I’m saying is that she’s not what I expected.” Seth lowered the evening newspaper to frown at his brother. He’d put the paper up as a defense against Ryan’s insistence on talking about Julie White, but it wasn’t working.

Ryan picked up a couple of scattered magazines and stuffed them into the basket beside Mom’s rocking chair. She’d whirled in from the kitchen a moment ago, taken one look at the two of them, and issued cleanup orders.

“How different?” Ryan grinned. “Prettier?”

“Maybe. I pictured a nosy battle-ax out to make us look stupid. Or a bleeding heart who’d write a tear-jerker that we could never live down.”

Julie White hadn’t fit either stereotype. With her cool, detached manner and her delicate blond looks, she had upset his calculations on how to deal with her. He stifled an exasperated sigh. He had enough to do without babysitting the woman through this story she wanted to do.

“She’s no battle-ax, that’s for sure.” Ryan dropped into the chair opposite him.

Seth lifted an eyebrow at his younger brother. “Are you planning on asking her out?” Ryan had turned into the playboy of the family in recent years, never sticking with one woman for more than a few dates.

“I thought about it.” Ryan shrugged. “But she’s not really my type.”

“You have a type? I thought you flirted with every female you met.”

Ryan grinned and tossed one of the magazines at him. “I like a little warmth. J. White’s a tad too cool and unfeeling for me. Ice maidens aren’t worth the effort.”

Seth considered that. He wouldn’t have said unfeeling exactly. His sense of the woman had been that she was keeping a strong clamp on her emotions.

Ryan tossed another magazine, always ready to irritate one of his brothers. “So, why don’t you ask her out? You’re the one who’s ready to get married, not me.”

For the hundredth time Seth regretted confiding that in Ryan, of all people. “I didn’t say I was ready to get married. Just that maybe I should think about it, for Davy’s sake.”

An almost-three-year-old needed a mother, and it wasn’t fair to expect Mom to play that role indefinitely. So he had started looking around for someone who’d make a good mother, someone who wanted a marriage based on companionship and building a family together.

Not one based on romance. His mind veered away from thinking about Lisa. About how he’d failed her.

He was almost grateful for the knock on the door. “Behave yourself tonight.” He frowned at Ryan, who grinned back, unrepentant. “And put those magazines away before Mom comes back in.”

Ryan scooped the magazines from the floor and headed toward the kitchen. “I’ll tell Mom she’s here.”

Some things hadn’t changed since they were kids. Ryan still baited him, and he still let it happen. Maybe he didn’t bother trying to change things because teasing aside, he knew Ry would go to the wall for him.

He opened the door. Julie White clutched her camera bag tightly and gave him a polite smile.

“I hope I’m not too early.”

“Just right.” He gestured toward the living room. “Please, come in.”

Why had she brought the camera bag with her tonight? Did she expect to start photographing them already? The thought still made him vaguely uneasy. They’d be baring their private lives to the woman, with no idea of her agenda or that she even knew what she was doing.