Leona Karr - Hero In Disguise

“Yes, they are very good boys,” Melissa echoed, smiling at the obvious combination of question and warning in Inga’s tone.

Just then, her husband came in with the small suitcases and Melissa’s computer. Hans Erickson was a broad-faced man with huge shoulders, thick arms and brown hair lightly highlighted with gray. He just nodded at Melissa when she thanked him for bringing up the luggage.

“I’m sorry about the fountain,” she told him. “It was just an accident. Richie didn’t mean to break it.”

“I know. He’s a good boy. I can tell that.” He smiled down at Richie. “Mr. David give you a bad time? You ask him about throwing a rock through the kitchen window, eh?” He winked at Melissa and then walked out of the room, chuckling.

“Boys,” Inga said with undisguised fondness in her smile. “They never grow up.”

Melissa laughed, suddenly feeling that Hans and Inga had given them a pardon for the fountain incident. Maybe David would have second thoughts about the whole thing, and they could start again on a harmonious footing.

It took all of ten minutes to “settle in.” The beds in the boys’ room were twins. Eric seemed satisfied, but Richie ignored the beds and immediately scrambled up in the middle of Melissa’s queen size bed.

“No jumping,” she warned him. From the sparkle in his eyes, she suspected the first time she turned her back, he’d get on his knees and bounce.

Her stomach tightened. How could she keep them corralled in this fashion-plate house? There wasn’t anything in the two bedrooms that would keep the boys occupied and happy, and the few things she’d brought like crayons and coloring books wouldn’t last for very long.

Somehow, in some way, she had to make the next few days a comforting and healing time for the boys.

“No doubt about it, you’re the governor’s fair-haired boy,” Stella Day told David with a pleased smile as they lunched at Denver’s fashionable Cherry Creek Country Club. “We all know he’s schooling you for big things. If you keep focused, you’ve got a wonderful future ahead of you, David.”

He was pleased with this optimistic projection from the governor’s executive assistant, but he knew he had a long way to go. “Right now, I’m just learning the ins and outs of government.”

“Well, your father and mother are going to be very proud of you one of these elections when you run for Colorado’s attorney general.”

David knew that his parents held high expectations of him. He was used to the pressure they’d put on him as he was growing up. As their only child, there was never any question about David following in their footsteps. His father had been a state senator until he retired, and his mother had been a political activist. It was clearly due to their influence that the governor was promoting David’s legal career, and they were expecting him to make his mark in politics.

“It’s a little premature to think anything like that,” he answered evenly, and turned the conversation back to the business that had brought them together. David was used to these working lunches. In fact, he couldn’t remember very many meals when he wasn’t conducting some kind of business for the governor.

Stella had an appointment waiting for her right after lunch, so she didn’t tarry. After she drove away in her car, David sat for a moment in his luxurious sedan, trying to make a decision about whether to drop by his house since he was so close, or head back to his office downtown.

He hated to admit it, but he hadn’t been able to put the morning’s fiasco out of his mind. A nagging sense of guilt plagued him when he remembered Richie’s frightened face and Melissa’s eyes sparking fire.

Better mend some fences, he decided as he drove out of the parking lot. Even though he’d probably be a little late for his afternoon appointments, he wanted to swing by the house for a few minutes and try to set things right. He didn’t want Melissa Chanley upset with him. Something about her steady, totally feminine, and yet uncompromising personality challenged him. Even dressed as she had been that morning in jeans and a simple white pullover, she could hold her own with any of the stylishly dressed women who had lunched at the club. She intrigued him, and he knew that if the boys didn’t accept him, it wasn’t likely that she would, either.

He parked his car at the house and was about to enter a side door, when squeals and laughter coming from the backyard stopped him. Curious, he walked down the narrow sidewalk, opened the gate and came around the back of the house.

Then he stopped short. “What in the world?”

Both boys and Melissa were on the ground, rolling over and over down a grassy incline that led away from a terraced patio. When they reached the bottom of the slope, they ran back to the top and, shouting and giggling, started rolling down again.

The boys always beat Melissa to the bottom and sat up, squealing, “You lose. You lose.”

Melissa laughed as she pulled dry grass from her tousled hair. “All right. I give up.” Then she glanced up and saw David standing a few feet away. The expression on his face was one of incredulity.

As she got to her feet, her first impulse was to give in to total embarrassment. Instead, she managed a smile and gave him an airy wave of her hand. “Hi, there. Would you like to enter our contest? The Best Roller Down the Hill?”

At first, he didn’t answer, then he surprised Melissa by returning her smile. “I might. What are the prizes?”

“There aren’t any,” Eric said flatly. Both boys had moved to Melissa’s side and were glaring at him as if he had no right to intrude upon their fun.

“Well, I guess I’ll pass, then,” David said. “Maybe I’ll join you in a different game sometime.”

“Nothing else to play.” Richie scowled at him.

“He doesn’t have kids’ stuff because he doesn’t like them,” Eric told his brother with his usual solemnity.

Melissa didn’t look at David’s face, and held back from saying anything. She hadn’t found anything in the house that would keep two lively boys happy and occupied. Now she sensed an instant tightening in David’s body as he stood beside her, but it wasn’t her place to correct the boys. Maybe Eric told the truth. Maybe David didn’t like kids. It was hard to tell about things like that, and his beautiful home and lifestyle didn’t give a clue. In fact, she hadn’t seen any evidence during her earlier tour of the house that the young boy he had once been had ever lived here.

“Maybe we can find some stuff for you, boys,” David said, ignoring the remark about his not liking kids. He’d been too busy in the world of lawyers and politicians to know whether the remark was closer to the truth than he was willing to admit.

“That would be nice, wouldn’t it, boys?” Melissa said, but their expressions didn’t change.

“Sorry, I have to run. I just dropped by to see if Inga and Hans were being helpful,” he lied. He knew the Swedish couple would rally to the cause, no matter how much extra work it created.

“Oh, yes, they’re wonderful. Inga fixed us a nice lunch, and the boys ate every bit of it.”

“Good. And you’ve found working space?”

“The small sitting room will be fine. It’s lovely with the windows overlooking the garden.” She knew the sitting room had been his mother’s, and Melissa was curious about the woman who had raised such a purposeful, solitary son.

“I have a late meeting tonight so I’ll have dinner in town. If you need to reach me, tell Inga and she’ll pass the message along.” He turned to say something to the boys, but his usually articulate tongue failed him. All he could come up with was a quick “So long. See you guys later.”