What a Man's Gotta Do by Karen Templeton

Author:Karen Templeton
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Silhouette
Published: 2003-11-29T23:00:00+00:00

“He owns a construction company in Albuquerque,” Eddie said, clearly too tired and too distracted to notice Mala wasn’t wearing a bra underneath her velour lounging pajamas. “Did I tell you that?”

“Mmm-hmm.” At least three times, Mala thought but did not say, as she moved to a plate the last batch of cookies which, she’d remembered right before Eddie’s arrival, she’d promised to send to Lucas’s class tomorrow. For the past half-hour, she’d measured and stirred and baked and listened to the stunned ramblings of a man who would have been her lover by now, had it not been for one P.I.’s lousy sense of timing. Although, to tell the truth, she wasn’t all that surprised that things hadn’t worked out. The whole time she was wrapping presents, taking a bubble bath, shaving her legs, she couldn’t shake the feeling that it would all be for naught. And that was before she remembered the cookies.

But it was okay, she told herself, far less disappointed than she’d thought she’d be. All thoughts—well, most of them, anyway—of hanky-panky flew out the window the instant she’d opened her door to Eddie’s nearly incoherent apology/explanation. She’d taken him by the hand to tug him inside, only he’d given her this bemused little smile and shaken his head.

“Not tonight,” he’d said, and she said, “I know. Come in anyway,” and after a brief inner struggle, he had. She’d quietly fussed over him, given him hot chocolate, like she might have one of the kids, made him sit, made him talk. The drink had gone pretty much untouched, but he’d sat, occasionally scratching the pup’s tummy with the toe of his boot, and he’d talked.

Well, as much as Eddie King was going to talk. There were a lot of “and then he saids” and virtually no “and you know what I feels?” to balance out the narrative with a little man-on-the-street reaction. Not that she was surprised. Irked, yes, but not surprised. Of course, it wasn’t as if she could say a whole lot, considering she was the same way. But she hoped it was at least doing him some good, having a sounding board, having someone to tell what he’d just learned about his father. That Rudy Ortiz had been looking for his son off and on for years, but limited funds and Eddie’s constant moving had made the search difficult, until an unexpected windfall apparently gave Eddie’s father the freedom to tell the P.I. not to stop looking until he found his son.

“What are you going to do now?” she asked gently, figuring it was time for him to move past shock phase into action.

Something stirred in those clear blue eyes, almost as if he were seeing her for the first time. Then he shrugged. “Dunno. Nothing, probably.” Then he frowned. “And how come you’re baking at this time of night?”

“Because I didn’t remember until about a half hour before you walked in the door that I’d promised to bring cookies for Lucas’s class tomorrow.

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