SOMEBODY'S HERO Read online

  Lucy and Jayne were watching him, curiosity on Lucy's face, concern on her mother's. Sweat had collected on his brow, and his fingers were knotted so tightly around the steering wheel that the tips had gone numb. He'd gotten lost in a past that he wished he could forget. But how could he? He was the one most like his father. He had Del's hair, his eyes, his looks, his voice, his temper. He couldn't afford to forget.

  Jayne's hand was still in midair, where she'd jerked back after touching his arm. He'd zoned out, and she'd tried to get his attention—that was all. And he'd overreacted.

  His face grew hotter. He turned the nearest air-conditioning vent so it blew directly on him, then forced his muscles to relax enough to allow an awkward shrug. "Sorry. I—I was…"

  "Are you okay?" Jayne asked conversationally, as if he hadn't practically run them off the road. That was for Lucy's sake, of course. She didn't want to scare the kid. Neither did he.

  "I'm—yeah." He waited, half expecting her to ask to return home. She could drive herself to the Ryans' or she could decide that anyone who would invite him to dinner wasn't someone she wanted to spend time with.

  But she didn't say anything. She simply lowered her hand to her lap, clasped both hands and gazed straight ahead.

  After a moment, Lucy closed the book she'd brought with her and came to the rescue. "Jordan has a tree house with a ladder and two rooms and a porch. She's gonna show it to me, and I'm gonna climb up in it."

  "Maybe you shouldn't—" Jayne began.

  "It's a great tree house," Tyler said at the same time. He felt her look his way but kept his gaze on the road. "Daniel and I built it when Kate wasn't much bigger than you. Sometimes in the summer the kids sleep in it."

  "Wow." Lucy's tone was a reverent whisper. "That beats sleeping in a real bed anytime."

  "Sleeping in a tree?" Jayne scoffed. "Remember when you fell out of the bunk bed at Grandma's? That's nothing compared to falling out of a tree."

  Lucy looked at her, then turned to Tyler. "Has Jordan ever fallen out?"

  "No. No one has. There are railings all around the deck, and when they sleep up there, they sleep inside."

  Jayne shot him another look, this one sharper than before. "And just think of all the bugs and the mice and the snakes. All sorts of creepy-crawlies come out at night."

  "I bet your idea of roughing it is sleeping in a fancy RV," Tyler murmured.

  "You'd be wrong," she answered haughtily. "My idea of roughing it is—" she ruined the snobbish effect with a smothered giggle "—staying in a cheap motel."

  "Didn't your father ever take you camping?"

  "No. His idea of roughing it is staying in a hotel without room service. Did your father take you?"

  He should have expected her to turn it back on him. "No," he said shortly. He lied. They'd gone camping a few times. On the last trip, Del had threatened to leave Tyler alone in the mountains if he didn't stop whining. It hadn't mattered that he'd fallen ten feet—with a little help from his father—and broken an arm, split his lip and blacked one eye. Del had just wanted him to suffer in silence, the way his mother did.

  Grateful to have returned home from that trip with the same number of kids they'd left with, Carrie had managed to dissuade Del from any more campouts.

  And to this day Tyler didn't wander far from home.

  "My parents are supposed to be here Thursday morning with our furniture," she remarked.

  How was he supposed to respond to that? Was she merely stating facts or did she expect an offer of help from him? He wasn't obligated to her. Her folks would manage to get the truck loaded; the three of them would get it unloaded. They wouldn't need his help.

  "They're going to stay a few days, then they're going on a cruise to celebrate their thirty-fifth anniversary."

  "And they wouldn't let me go," Lucy piped up, her tone incredulous.

  "Can you imagine not wanting your granddaughter along on your anniversary cruise?" Jayne laughed softly as she rumpled Lucy's hair. Rebecca was right. It was a nice laugh.

  "I'm telling you, they'll get bored on that big old boat without me," Lucy insisted. "Don't'cha think, Tyler?"

  Him, Jayne, a tropical cruise, no Lucy. He couldn't think.

  He followed the highway for less than a mile before turning west onto another winding road. The pavement disappeared after a mile or so, and the gravel petered out not long after that. The dirt was hard-packed and rutted as it curved back and forth, up and down, to the top of the mountain. The woods grew right up to the edge of the road in places, far enough back in others to pasture a few head of cattle. Houses were few and far between, trailers mostly, with an occasional wood-framed house dropped in.

  "That looks like a great place for a Halloween spook house," Jayne said as they passed the last house before the Ryans'.

  Lucy stretched up as far as her seat belt allowed for a look. "Oh, Mom, it's just an old house. There's nothing spooky about that."

  "Use your imagination, Lucy. Candles in the windows, spider-webs in the corners, creaking doors, dead bodies in the bedroom…"

  The house was where Sarah had lived before she and Daniel got married. Tyler didn't know much about their lives before he'd come along, but he did know they'd been married fourteen years and Kate was fifteen. They had apparently dealt with whatever had kept them apart, though, because he'd never seen two people happier together … unless it was Zachary and Beth.

  That was how a marriage should be, Carrie repeatedly reminded him and Rebecca. Not like hers. Things could be different.

  Different for other people. Maybe even for Rebecca. But for him?

  Before he had to answer that question, the road ended in a clearing in front of the Ryan house. He parked next to Zachary's SUV and cut the engine. Jayne was out of the truck and lifting Lucy to the ground before he managed to unbuckle his seat belt. The people inside were like family to him, but he'd still rather be home alone than walking into the house with Jayne and Lucy.

  Kate answered the door, politely greeting Jayne and Lucy and giving him one of her shy smiles. Before they'd gone more than five feet in, Sarah joined them, wrapping her arm around Tyler's waist. He was prepared for the contact this time.

  "I half expected you to weasel out," she murmured before turning a welcoming smile on her guests. "Jayne, Lucy, I'm Sarah Ryan. We're glad you came and glad you gave us an excuse to get him over here."

  "I work over here," Tyler reminded her. "I'm here five days a week."

  "But that's work. This is play. You do remember play, don't you?" She gazed at him a moment, clearly not expecting an answer, then let go to take Jayne's arm and Lucy's hand. "Let me introduce you to everyone."

  Relieved, Tyler headed across the room to where Daniel and Zachary were standing near the fireplace.

  "I talked to Masterson today," Daniel said after exchanging greetings. "I told him about that armoire you're building."

  Jeff Masterson owned a chain of shops across the northeast that sold handcrafted furniture for amazing prices. The first time Tyler had heard how much the dining table he was working on would sell for, he had practically cut one leg a foot shorter than the others. He'd had no trouble believing that Daniel's work was worth that kind of money, but his? No way. Not even with Daniel's label on it.

  "He said he'd like to see it when it's done. Said it sounds like something one of his regular customers is looking for."

  He was talking about selling it. For a whole lot more than Tyler had put into it. Of course, there was more than the materials. He'd spent a lot of hours on the piece … but that was just time. He had plenty of it.

  "I don't know," he said at last. "I'll think about it."

  "What's to think about?" Zachary asked. "You make furniture for a living. He sells furniture for a living. Why not let him sell yours?"

  "He sells stuff like Daniel's."

  "You make half the stuff with my name on it," Daniel pointed out.

  It wasn't the same, but Tyler didn't know how t
o explain it. Instead of trying, he shrugged and repeated, "I'll think about it." To signal the end of the discussion, he turned to look around the room. Lucy had disappeared with Jordan. The boys were playing video games in one corner. Kate was sitting in a chair, reading with a cat on her lap, and Jayne was seated on the sofa, talking and laughing with Sarah and Beth. She looked comfortable, as if she'd known them forever.

  "You're being watched," Zachary warned.

  Tyler looked at the other two women, taking turns watching him watch Jayne. His face warming, he turned his back to them.

  "Aw, there's no crime in looking at a pretty woman," Daniel said. "What's it like having a neighbor again?"

  "I liked it better before they moved in." It was hard to achieve isolation when people lived just fifty feet down the road. He was always aware of them. Even when they stayed inside, out of sight, there was her SUV, the lights behind curtained windows, the toys scattered on her porch to remind him.

  It was even harder when he saw them.

  "Every man needs a distraction from time to time," Zachary said with a grin. "And, son, there are worse distractions than a pretty woman. Who knows? Maybe you'll settle down with this one, and everyone can fuss over someone else for a while."

  Suddenly chilled, Tyler moved a few steps closer to the fireplace, though no fire burned there. He was as settled as he was ever going to get. Del and Angela had made sure of that. He'd accepted that fact and lived with it for five long years.

  Why was it so damned hard to accept now?

  * * *

  Chapter 5

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  All in all, Monday night's dinner was about equal parts success and failure, Jayne reflected a few days later. Tyler couldn't have been more uncomfortable if he'd had the sentiment tattooed on his forehead, but she'd really liked Sarah Ryan and Beth Adams. The food had been great, the company enjoyable. Jordan was Lucy's newest best friend, and Kate was an aspiring author. Lucy had an invitation to ride Jordan's pony the following weekend, and Jayne had an invitation for lunch with Sarah and Beth the next week.

  But Tyler hadn't spoken one word on the way home.

  They hadn't seen him since beyond glimpses as he drove past on his way to work and again when he came home in the evening. But he'd taken to parking his truck around back and, apparently, using the back door. Not that she was spying on him. She just happened to be able to see his front door when she sat at her computer. The fact that she'd had to move the dining table from the kitchen to the living room to accomplish that was inconsequential. The fact that she'd wanted to accomplish that was a little disconcerting.

  He was on her mind way too often. A person would think she'd never seen a handsome man before or been baffled by his behavior. Not true. Greg was very handsome, boyishly so, and she'd been at a loss to understand him throughout their entire marriage and divorce.

  How could he take everything? How could he have zero concern for the quality of his young daughter's future? How could he cut Lucy out of his life without the slightest of regrets? If he'd never wanted to see Jayne again, that would have been fine—though his feelings for her had never been strong enough to include a never or always. But to not care if he ever saw his daughter again … his sweet, funny, adorable daughter who'd loved him better than he deserved…

  No matter how often she considered it, the idea still stunned her.

  "Are they here yet?" Lucy asked impatiently, tugging on Jayne's arm.

  With a sigh, Jayne refocused on the present. It was Thursday afternoon and they'd been waiting forever for her parents to arrive—or so it seemed. Bill and Clarice had gotten a late start out of Chicago the day before, then had stopped along the way to visit with old friends. Instead of the midmorning arrival he had predicted, it would be closer to five when they pulled up.

  "There they are—right in front of us. Can't you see them?" Jayne lifted Lucy to sit on the porch rail but kept her arms securely around her middle. Her mother had called a few minutes earlier to say they were close by. Neither she nor Lucy could sit still long enough to wait inside.

  "Oh, Mom, you're silly."

  "I'm silly? I didn't ask if they were here when I could see they weren't."

  Lucy sagged back against her, a warm, solid weight. "I've missed Grandma and Grandpa."

  "I have, too, babe." Not once in the months Greg had been gone had Lucy said the same about him. How sad—more for him than her.

  "I miss Tyler, too."

  Jayne swallowed hard. She didn't want Lucy to get too attached to anyone who wouldn't be a regular part of her life. She was way too young to have her heart broken. "There's no reason to miss him. He's still over there every night. You've seen his lights."

  "Yeah, but I haven't seen him."

  "Just because he's our neighbor doesn't mean we have to see him all the time. He came over when we needed help, and if he ever needs our help—" fat chance "—we'll go over there. That's what neighbors do."

  Lucy's bottom lip was pouty. "I haven't even seen Cameron Diaz in forever. I miss them, too."

  Jayne hid her smile in baby-fine hair. If Lucy merely missed Tyler the way she missed the dogs, there was nothing to worry about. Now that they had a place without traffic, close neighbors or city ordinances, maybe they could have a dog of their own—something cute and cuddly that could sleep on the floor beside Lucy's bed and keep Jayne company once Lucy started school. A shih tzu or a dachsund.

  The rumble started so low that Jayne paid it no mind until Lucy started bouncing on the rail. "Here they come, here they come!"

  Sure enough, an orange-and-white moving van slowly lumbered into sight down the road. Lucy leaped to the ground and raced to the edge of the yard, and Jayne followed. She would have jumped up and down, too, if it hadn't seemed undignified.

  The van shuddered to a stop and her father swung to the ground, scooping Lucy into an exuberant embrace. Jayne went to the passenger side to help her mother climb down and was immediately pulled into her hug.

  After a moment, Clarice pushed her back to study her intently. "Oh, we've missed you so much! How are you?"

  "I'm fine, Mom."

  Arm in arm, they walked around the truck, then Clarice stopped short. "Oh, mercy … this is a joke, right? The real house is around back or—or—" She looked around for an explanation. Finding none, she looked back at Jayne. "Greg strikes again."

  They traded off so Jayne could greet her father and Clarice could hold Lucy. When that was done, Jayne said, "It's not so bad, Mom. The side steps are very sturdy."

  "They look brand-new," her father said.

  "Of course they're brand-new," Clarice said, her mouth pinched. "The old ones probably collapsed."

  "Actually," Jayne confessed, "there was a railing there. I leaned against it and it broke. So we replaced it with steps."

  "It broke … and you fell."

  Jayne waved her hand negligibly. "Just a few bruises, that's all, and they're gone." Liar, the fading mark across her back taunted with a twinge. "It's really not bad. Just wait until I paint it. I've already done most of the inside. Come and see." She pulled her mother across the yard to the steps, and Lucy and Bill followed. Inside she stopped in the center of the cranberry-hued living room with its fresh white trim and opened her arms wide. "See?"

  Her father took one quick look. "I didn't know you could paint."

  She grinned. "I didn't know I could either. But the man at the feed store told me everything I needed to know."

  It took Clarice a moment longer to give in. "It's pretty. It'll be nice once we get your furniture in here, though it's a shame we can't do something about these floors first. Once they've been stripped, sanded and refinished, they'll be beautiful." Still talking to herself, she turned the corner into the newly yellow kitchen with Lucy on her heels, reappeared a moment later, then disappeared down the hall.

  Bill slid his arm around Jayne's shoulders and held her near. "Are you disappointed?"

  She leaned against him, taking
comfort in his embrace. "At first I was, more in myself than Greg. I knew better than to believe anything he said. But…" She broke off and looked around. With their things scattered around, the place was feeling more like home every day. She'd put a lot of work into it. She was proud of what she'd accomplished and was looking forward to what she would accomplish in the future. "It's not fancy, but I don't need fancy."

  "You met anybody yet?"

  "Our neighbor, his sister, a couple of families. Lucy's got an invitation to go horseback riding this weekend. The town is small and it's nothing like Greg described, but…" She shrugged.

  "What is?" Bill asked drily. Jayne knew he'd been disappointed that she'd gotten pregnant first, had never been convinced Greg was worthy of his only daughter, had adored the very air Lucy breathed from the moment of her birth and had tried, always tried, to accept Greg fully and without reservation into their family. He'd never quite succeeded. "Tell me about your neighbor."

  Jayne's gaze automatically went to the front window. Tyler should be home soon—and, she suspected, he would come over for the first time since Monday. That caretaker gene he resented probably wouldn't let him stay inside his house or workshop while she and her father unloaded the moving van. Maybe she would tell him they didn't need his help. They could manage.

  "Is he old, stooped, deaf and so boring you can't think of anything to say?"

  She blinked, then focused on her father's grin. "No. He's young, handsome and unsociable. He wants to be a hermit, but he just can't stop himself from helping out when someone needs it."

  "You might want to keep that first part from your mother. She'll worry less about an unsociable neighbor than she will a young and handsome one."

  Jayne laughed. "She's got no reason to worry, believe me. Besides, she'll probably see for herself while you're here." She rolled the sleeves of her T-shirt up a few turns, dusted her hands together and asked, "Shall we get started unloading?"

  "First we need to get this furniture out of here or we're going to run out of room real fast. Do you want to save any of it?"