Darling obstacles (16 page)

"Paula, will you please—" Greg began, but Maggie quickly interrupted him.

"I—I feel the same way, Paula," she said, striving to keep her voice from quavering. She felt as if she were on fire, that she was burning for Greg's touch, but she had to appear composed and dignified in front of his adolescent daughter.

Paula Wilder looked like the stereotypical fairy-princess. A peaches and cream complexion, long white-blond hair swept up by two barrettes, light blue eyes fringed with the long dark lashes shed inherited from her father.

There was a momentary silence as Maggie tried to

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group her scattered wits. Greg continued to watch her with undisguised hunger blazing in his eyes.

"May I call you Maggie?" Paula asked pleasantly with a poise that the two adults were sorely lacking. "That's how I already think of you from hearing the kids talk about you all the time. And Daddy, too, of course/' she added with a grin.

"Please do," Maggie managed with what she hoped was a warm smile.

"Paula, will you go check on Max?" Greg interrupted impatiently.

"Max is swinging on a tire swing in the back yard, Daddy. Kristin is with him."

"Then check on Wendy and Joshua," he ordered.

"They're both inside with Kari and Kevin," Pauia reported.

"Then why don't you join them?" he said tightly. "Either out back or in the house. I'd like to talk to Maggie alone."

Maggie flushed, embarrassed by Greg's lack of subtlety and Paula's adultlike, knowing smile. "Paula, you're perfectly welcome to stay here," she said quickly, avoiding Greg's glittering eyes.

"Oh, no, I understand these things, Maggie," Paula assured her. "I have a boyfriend too." She walked off, tossing her long blond curls, her hips swaying provocatively in the tight blue jeans.

"What does she mean, she understands these things?" Greg was suddenly a befuddled parent. "She damn well better not!" He ran his hand through his hair. "You don't know what you have in store for you, Maggie. Kristin is still a little girl. Just wait until she hits adolescence." He shook his head, his expression glum. "My sweet little daughter has turned into a teenage version of Jekyll and Hyde. I never know what to expect from Paula these days."

The mother in Maggie felt strong empathy with the father in Greg. As a parent, he wasn't at all arrogant, challenging, or mocking. "It must be hard for

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you and for Paula without her mother," she ventured. "It 's such a difficult time for a young girl."

"And this boyfriend business really has me worried. All of a sudden the boys in her class are too young for her. This kid she's seeing has his driver's license and his own car. I remember what I was like at his age and I sure as hell don't want my fourteen-year-old daughter to date a guy like that."

"It sounds like a situation that warrants close supervision, Greg."

"I know, I know, but it's damned difficult to practice medicine, look after three little kids, and keep an eagle eye on a headstrong teenager."

"I can imagine." Maggie laid her hand on his arm in an impulsive gesture of compassion.

Greg quickly covered her hand with his. "Come with us today, Maggie," he said huskily. "If you do, I might even apologize for sabotaging your date with Cassidy."

Somewhere along the line, her anger had been diffused. "You needn't have gone to all the time and expense," she admitted wryly. "The evening was rapidly sinking of its own accord before you and the kids ever appeared."

Greg grimaced. "Isn't dating ridiculous?"

"It's about as much fun as being mugged," she said. "Of course I'm not speaking from vast experience."

"I don't want you to have vast experience." He lifted her hand to his mouth and pressed her fingertips against his lips. "Maggie, I—"

"We're ready, Uncle Greg!"

"Let's go!"

"Mommy, you haven't even changed yet!"

"I'm hungry!"

All seven kids converged on them, everyone talking at once. Maggie quickly snatched her hand back. Greg groaned.

"Aren't you going to change clothes, Mom?" asked Kristin.

"You aren't still mad at Daddy, are you, Maggie?" Paula asked.

"She's not mad at him!" Kevin exclaimed, shocked by the very idea. "Why would she be mad at him?"

"For last night," Paula explained patiently.

"But we had a great time last night!" Kevin protested.

Paulas eyes met Maggies and she smiled in amusement. She understood these things. Maggie looked at Greg. "We had a great time last night," he echoed, grinning.

All seven children were staring expectantly at her and Greg was smiling at her, a bold sexual challenge gleaming in his eyes. Maggie could feel her body responding to it, feel the tightening and the tension within. She wanted to tell him not to look at her that way, not to make her feel this way. Not in front of the children!

"Why don't you go inside and change your clothes while I load the kids into the car, Maggie?" Greg suggested. Before she could reply, he moved to stand closely behind her and gripped her arms. "Do you need any help getting undressed, sweetheart?" His voice was low in her ear, so low, only she could hear it. "Do you want me to help you with the zipper on your dress or the fastening on your bra or your panty—"

"No!" She jerked away, protesting the evocative images. Her pulses were throbbing. "It will only take me a few minutes to change," she said to the children in briskly bright tones. "Ill be right out."

She fled inside and only after she'd hurriedly changed into navy cords and a kelly green sweater did she realize how easily she had been manipulated. Because she had wanted to go all along? nagged a mocking little voice in her head. Maggie refused to answer on the grounds of self-incrimination.

"No," she admitted. "But we Ye not going to press our luck. Deep-six the candy."

She means it. Uncle Greg," Kevin warned Greg seriously. "If we push her, shell really get mad."

"Our sweet Mother Machree lose her temper? Never!" Greg said, but he steered the group past the candy shop and none of the children protested.

"Lets go into the toy store!" cried Josh, tugging at his fathers arm and pointing to the tempting window display.

The latest shipment of a hard to obtain baby doll had just been unpacked and Kari dashed over to the shelf to grab a box containing a bald baby boy in a terry stretch suit. "Please, Mommy!" she gasped, breathless. "Please!"

"Don't you have one?" Paula asked curiously. "Wendy has three."

"Santa Claus couldn't bring me one." Kari clutched the box tightly. "Oh, please, can I have it, Mommy?"

Maggie wanted her to have it. She hadn't been able to lay her hands on the elusive doll last Christmas and had been depressed by her child's disappointment. But the cost of this doll was outrageous, no doubt jacked up for the free-spending tourist crowd. Maggie was shocked at the exorbitant price tag.

"Maybe there's a layaway plan, Mom," Kristin whispered. She wanted Kari to have the doll too.

"I'll buy you the doll, princess," Greg announced with a smile.

Kari's face was radiant and Maggie found it painful to intervene, though she knew she must. "No, Greg, I can't allow you to buy that doll for her. It's far too expensive for you to—"

"We can afford it," Paula broke in magnanimously.

"No," Maggie said firmly. She decided to inquire about a layaway plan. If she made a number of small payments over the next two months, she would have

the doll by Christmas without putting an unmanageable dent in their budget.

"If you aren't going to buy that doll, 111 take it," a woman standing nearby said, reaching for the box. Kari hung on to it and stared mutely at the ground.

"Cry, Kari," advised Max in a loud whisper. "Scream."

"She'd better not," Maggie said. "Kari, honey, I know how much you want—"

She never got to finish. Kari was lifted right off her feet and swung into Greg's arms—doll, box, and all. He headed toward the cash register and Max and Wendy cheered their approval.

"Don't be upset, Maggie," Paula said. She stepped neatly in front of Maggie, blocking her path as she attempted to pursue Greg. "My father wants her to have the doll."

"I want her to have it, too, but I can't allow your father to spend that much money on her, Paula."

"Why not?" Paula moved at the same time Maggie did and short of shoving the girl aside, there was no way for Maggie to get around her. "If Daddy spent a lot of money on something for you—something like red roses—you wouldn't object, would you?"

Maggie's eyes flew to Paula's face and were met with an enigmatic smile. Exactly how much did Paula Wilder know about her father's romantic escapades, anyway? Maggie wondered, somewhat unnerved. "The question is moot, as he is not going to send me roses, Paula."

"I heard him order them this morning," Paula confided in a conspiratorial whisper. "They 11 be waiting for you when you get home."

Greg had sent her roses? Maggie's heart did a queer little somersault. Paula winked at her and walked slowly away.

"Mom, look what Uncle Greg bought us!" Kevin's excited voice jarred Maggie from her state of bemuse-ment. He was holding two small metal motorized cars, the kind he'd been wanting for ages and that

Maggie considered too pricey at eight dollars a car. "Maybe one for Christmas," she'd been saying for months. "Max and Josh and me each got two!" Kevin went on.

Maggie's jaw dropped. Greg was on a veritable spree! He was paying for a purple toy pony for Wendy when Maggie finally caught up with him. "I sent Paula and Kristin to that shop on the corner to buy earrings," he told her as he put his credit card back in his wallet. "They said they were too old for anything in here, although Kristin was eyeing that stuffed cat rather longingly. Shall I buy it for her?"

"No!" Maggie gasped. She linked her arm through his and half-dragged him from the shop. The kids trailed along, admiring each other's new toys.

"Mommy, this is the funnest day we ever had," Kari said. She'd already discarded the bulky box and was cuddling her doll in her arms. "Thank you, Uncle Greg," she added blissfully.

"You're welcome, honey." Greg looked pleased.

"Thanks a million, billion, trillion, Uncle Greg!" cried Kevin.

"Come on, gang, let's round up Paula and Kristin and get to the boat," Greg said eagerly.

"Wait a minute," Maggie said, troubled. "Josh, Wendy, Max, I didn't hear you say thank you to your daddy."

"You don't thank daddies," Max scoffed. "They're supposed to buy stuff for their kids."

"You always thank the person who gives you a present or does something nice for you," Maggie said. "Even if it is your daddy. Especially if it's your daddy," she added. "Will you try to remember that?"

"If we forget, you can remind us, Maggie, "Wendy said. "Thank you for my pony, Daddy." Josh and Max chorused their thanks as well and all five dashed ahead to the corner store.

Greg turned to Maggie. "Thank you," he said, his eyes glowing with a warmth that made her breath catch in her throat.

"You're a wonderfully generous man, Greg," she said huskily. Tour own children should certainly learn to appreciate you."

He draped his arm around her waist. "I haven't bought anything for you today, Maggie. Let's—"

She took a deep breath. "Greg, please stop buying things for us!" she said. It was time to inject a note of reality into what was threatening to become a wonderful dream. "I'm keeping a running tab of what you've spent on my kids today and it will be the size of the national debt if you keep it up. I intend to reimburse you to the penny," she added firmly.

"Don't be ridiculous, Maggie. Ice cream, a few little toys ... Do you really think I'd take money from you for that? I'm not going to let your prickly pride and outdated notions of propriety spoil the day. I enjoy treating the kids, both yours and mine. It gives me great pleasure to be able to do it."

"But—"

"You should always wear kelly green," he interrupted her. They had reached the corner and he drew her into the circle of his arms, seemingly oblivious to the throngs of people threading their way around them. "It makes your eyes shine like emeralds. Two bright sparkling emeralds."

Maggie felt her heart begin to race. She was mesmerized by the sensual line of his mouth, by the light in his own jewellike eyes. All time and place seemed to recede, leaving only Greg and her alone in this very private moment. His windbreaker was unzipped and her hands rested on his chest against the thick material of his blue cotton shirt. She longed to slip her fingers between the buttons and feel the wiry soft hair and warm skin and muscle within.

"I wish we were alone," Greg murmured, voicing her thoughts aloud. And then he took them one step further. "I wish we were naked in bed and I was inside you. I would—"

"Don't, Greg!" she pleaded as sensual heat surged through her. Her legs felt weak and it took

considerable willpower not to melt against him. But she didn't dare, for their children were emerging from the shop and would soon be at their side.

"The frustration is killing me," Greg breathed against her ear. "It s natural for lovers to be completely engrossed and absorbed in each other. I want to shut out the rest of the world and lose myself in you, in us. But we have seven interested observers trying to be part of the act."

"They are a part of the act," Maggie said quietly, moving away from him. Her heart was hammering against her rib cage. Greg had called her his lover.

"I got sea gull earrings, Mom," Kristin said, eagerly showing her mother her purchase. "And so did Paula."

"You got the chartreuse lightning bolts too," said Paula, handing a small bag to Kristin. "I bought them for you. You were admiring them and Daddy gave me plenty of money."

"Thanks, Paula," exclaimed Kristin, stunned by her benevolence. "Thanks Dr.—uh—Uncle Greg."

"Our pleasure, right, Paula?" Greg said, beaming.

"Don't forget to say thank you to Daddy, Paula," Wendy piped up with a shy smile at Maggie. Maggie smiled back at her.

"Thanks, Daddy," said Paula.