Russell's Return (7 page)

“Really fun, Daddy. Are you okay? Look
what I won for Miss Emily.” She held out a pink teddy bear to her counselor and
new found friend. Her concern for her father seemingly forgotten as quickly as
it appeared.

“Oh thank you, sweetie.  She’s
beautiful,” Emily said sitting up to hug Miranda.  “Are you sure you don’t
want to keep her for yourself?”

“Nope, she’s yours Miss Emily.  I
won her just for you.”

At that moment Russell knew he was in
trouble.  His daughter seemed to be as taken with Emily as he was. 
Yep, he… no
they
, were in big trouble. The town he hated so much was growing
on him and he suddenly couldn’t find any good reasons not to enjoy Emily Zane’s
Company.

CHAPTER 4

Harper’s Rock Labor Day
Picnic and Carnival turned out to be a lot of fun for Miranda, Emily, and
surprisingly even for Russell. Miranda dropped the stuffed pink bear off for
her counselor and went back to the carnival with Mrs.
Platski
.
Emily and Russell spent the next two hours chatting about everything and
anything except their growing physical attraction. By the time Miranda appeared
again, having spent all of her money and having had a really good time, it was
almost four o’clock and the daytime festivities were winding down.

“You look tired kiddo. I
think it’s time to pack up and head home,” Russell suggested. He already had
half of their picnic basket stowed away.

“But Daddy, we need to stay
for the concert, please, please, please?” Miranda whined, tugging on his shirt
sleeve.

“Not this time, sweetie.
Sorry.”

“Fine.” Miranda stomped her
foot and glared at her father. But she must have decided he wasn’t worth
staying mad at.

“Did woo
haf
fun, Daddy?” she asked.

Russell stopped what he was
doing and turned to get a good look at his daughter’s face. Her speech showed
how tired she actually was.  She’d required therapy for years and was finally
speaking normally for the most part.  But when she was tired, some of her
old habits slipped through.

“You know what, sweetie?”
Russell said wrapping his arm around her shoulder, “I really did have a great
time.”  He sure hadn’t expected to have any fun, but had to admit this was
one of the best days since coming home. Miranda wrapped her arms around his
waist and squeezed, which meant she was definitely getting tired. She rarely
showed such affection unless she was in the process of winding down. Russell
just enjoyed the moment and hugged her tightly.

“Hey you two. Sorry to
interrupt, but could I bug you for a ride home?” Emily asked shyly. “Mom isn’t
sure how much longer she’ll be at the hospital. I even told her yesterday that
I should bring my own car.”

“Oh I don’t know, it’s kind
of out of our way,” Russell joked.

“Yeah, that’s true huh?” she
laughed, smiling up at him. He was the first to look away.

“At least let me fix you
supper.  You know, for all the trouble you are going through to get me
home,” she joked back.

“Oh Daddy, can we? Can we
eat with Miss Emily? Please?” All signs of sleepiness were now gone from
Miranda’s speech and eyes. Amazing how that worked. Russell wished he could
snap out of exhaustion that quickly, but then again he was pretty sure Miss
Emily could make him react like that too.

“How about I take us all out
for pizza at
Movie and a Pizza Place
. Maybe Grandma can join us too.
Might as well let her take part in some of today’s fun.” Russell was sure he
wanted to spend more time with Emily, but he really needed that extra layer of
protection his mother offered since Miranda would be there too. Having dinner
in Emily Zane’s cozy cottage with his sleepy, infatuated child there to complicate
matters was just too dangerous for everyone involved. A nice, bright, public
place with his mother’s added company was just what the doctor ordered. Or so
he’d thought.

***********

“I’m waiting for an
important call Russell so Miranda can stay here and keep me company while I
wait,” Evelyn said. “We’ll have a pizza brought back.  You and Emily go
have dinner in the restaurant. You need to spend more time with people your own
age.”

Russell’s stomach dropped
into his shoes. He thought he was ready for spending more time with Emily,
becoming friends and maybe having a few more kisses. But he was suddenly
nervous about spending that time with her. Alone. Without any buffer.

“You want to eat with Miss
Emily and me, right Miranda?” His daughter was his only hope. She was the one
who’d begged to eat with her in the first place. He just hoped Emily hadn’t
heard the desperation in his voice.

“I don’t want Grandma to be
alone, Daddy.  I’ll eat here with her. And you should spend more time with
Miss Emily. Remember you said you thought she’s pretty!”

Russell’s face lit to a
bright red at his daughter’s outburst. “Umm…okay sweetie.”  He put his
hand on Emily’s back and ushered her from the back office. “I guess it’s just
you and me.  You don’t mind do you?” He didn’t even hear her answer, he
was too busy cursing his mother and daughter under his breath. If he didn’t
know better he’d say they had planned this. But then that wasn’t really
possible because this whole dinner thing had been spur of the moment.

Russell could see he was
going to have to get to that talk with his mother sooner rather than later.
Friendship and kisses? Yes. Full out relationship? No. But for now he was going
to try to enjoy a torturous dinner alone with the woman who made his senses
spin out of control. And damn it, he was going to order his favorite pizza and
he didn’t care if his dinner date didn’t like it.  Not that Emily was
technically a dinner
date
.

“Who would have thought we
had the same favorite pizza?” Emily looked at him questioningly.

“Yeah, I haven’t met many
people who actually enjoy mushrooms, olives and pineapple together. Vivienne
hated it. She refused to get pizza with me because she didn’t want to have to
even look at it.”  Russell smiled apologetically. “Sorry, didn’t mean to
bore you.” He didn’t usually talk about his ex-wife, especially to people he
didn’t know well. But then again, he wasn’t sure if Emily fit into that
category.  Yes, he hadn’t spoken to her in many years, but they did grow up
together so maybe that counted as knowing her well?

Emily finished chewing
before she said anything. “First, you aren’t boring me.” She wished he would
stop thinking like that. She actually found his life quite interesting. 
“And second, I take it Vivienne is your wife.”

Russell smirked. “Ex-wife.
And yeah that’s who I was talking about.”

Emily laughed at his
expression. “She doesn’t sound like a very agreeable person. She doesn’t like
Miranda’s difficulties, she doesn’t like your favorite pizza even to look
at.”  Emily shook her head. “Was there anything the woman did like?”

Russell paused staring at
Emily and then burst into laughter. He laughed so hard he almost choked on his
iced tea. It took him a moment to compose himself before he could speak again.
“You know, now that I think of it, there wasn’t much that Vivienne Deveraux
Harper liked. She hated Wyoming, she hated nature, she hated any pizza that
didn’t have some weird gourmet cheese on it, she didn’t like houses that were
under 3,000 square feet, she didn’t like getting wet in the rain, and she
didn’t like eating ice cream on a hot day…”  He shook his head and took a
bite of his pizza.

“I’m so sorry,” she
murmured.  “Your life with her sounds like it was, well I don’t know,
rough
I guess?  How on earth did you manage?” Emily
took a sip of her soda and continued. “I’m sorry, you don’t have to answer that
if you don’t want to.”  She often had to remind herself that she wasn’t in
counselor mode.

“It’s okay, I’ve never
really felt comfortable talking about her, but right now, it’s kind of…kind of
a relief.” Russell paused and toyed with his napkin. It took him a moment to
figure out where to begin. “You asked how I managed?” he questioned and Emily
quickly nodded. “Well at first it was great.  She was everything I wanted,
rich, powerful, only wanted the best of everything, but then after a while I
guess it wore thin. My country roots started to show through.” He laughed and
pointed at his hair as if he were talking about hair dye. “I don’t think she really
liked me that much. She kept trying to change me and erase all signs of the
Harper’s Rock Russell that I had left.” He paused and pushed his plate away.
“Then when Miranda was born, I guess she kind of blamed me for the way she was.
After all, I had grown up a country hick and therefore it was my fault that our
daughter wasn’t ‘normal’.” He made quote signs in the air.

Emily sat silent with her
hands in her lap. She really didn’t know what to say.  People like
Russell’s ex-wife made her so angry.  She had seen similar adults
completely mess up the lives of some really good kids. Thank goodness this
woman was no longer in Miranda’s life. It would have killed her to watch
Vivienne Deveraux Harper continue to wreck the lives of two such wonderful
people. But then again, if she was still in their lives, Emily probably
wouldn’t have become reacquainted with Russell and never would have met
Miranda. Wow, there
was
a reason to be grateful to the other woman, even
if she wasn’t ready to fully admit it yet. “You know Russell, about what might
be wrong with Miranda, I have some…”

“Daddy
Daddy
…
can we go home? I’m getting really tired.” Miranda came running up to the
table.

“Ah, yeah sweetie. 
That’s probably a good idea. Let me go take care of the check and then we’ll
go.”

“Come on Miranda, let’s you
and I go out to the car to wait.” Emily put a protective arm around the little
girl that she was becoming so fond of, as they walked to the car
together.  It was only mere moments after Miranda was hooked in that she
fell fast asleep.

“I might not have to pay for
the food, but I left the server a good tip.”

“
Shh
Miranda’s asleep,” Emily cautioned him. “She looks so peaceful, doesn’t she?”

“Sorry,” Russell looked into
the backseat. He had to agree, his daughter did look very peaceful - something
he didn’t see often enough.

They drove the five miles
from the restaurant to Emily’s cottage in complete silence. It was a
comfortable silence though. And not just because they didn’t want to disturb
Miranda.

Russell pulled to a stop
behind Emily’s little car.  “Here we are, safe and sound.” He turned and
smiled at her but it was so dark he wondered if she could even see him.

“Thank you Russell. I really
appreciate dinner and the ride home.”

“My pleasure,” he said as he
jumped from the SUV and walked around to the passenger side. He pulled the door
open for her. “I’m glad I could help, Em.”

Emily looked at Russell with
a raised eyebrow.

“Why did you call me that?”

Russell looked a little
embarrassed. “Sorry, it just seemed to fit. I take it you don’t like it?” He
opened her front gate and ushered her though. 

Emily’s smile lit up her
whole face. “Usually I hate it when people call me that, but when you said it,
I really liked it.”

Russell nodded. “Then Em it
is.”

“So, was Miranda
exaggerating when she said you thought I was pretty?” she asked, looking up at
him innocently.

“Shit,” he mumbled. “That
child has no control over what comes out of her mouth.”

“You’re not so bad looking
yourself, Russell. Hmm, now I think I’ll have to think of a nickname for you,
just to torture you,” she chuckled.

“Shit,” he mumbled again. He
hoped she never found out what his family called him. Boy was he was in for it
now. His visions of friendship and stolen kisses were morphing into something
more. Running for his life and sanity is what he should have been doing. But
the other things in his life actually seemed to be moving nicely right now, if
only he could get a handle on Miranda’s problems. That reminded Russell of what
Emily had said after dinner and the mood suddenly changed. “At the restaurant
you said something about what might be going on with Miranda, what did you
mean?”

Emily sighed. She needed to
choose her words carefully so she didn’t get into a long discussion about it
tonight. “I’ve taken what I know and done some research about it over the last
few days, and I have some ideas about what might be happening with
Miranda.  But it might take some time to go over it all so I think we
should talk about it at my office tomorrow.”

“Okay,” he paused a moment,
“It sounds serious. Should I be worried?”

Emily chuckled. “No, I
promise you will feel better when you hear everything I have to say.”

Russell smiled and relaxed
just a tiny bit. “Okay then, I guess I’ll talk to you about it tomorrow. By the
way, thanks for tonight.” Before either of them consciously knew what was
happening, they were kissing. Not the soft, gentle kiss from earlier that day,
but a searching, almost teasing kiss. Russell thought he heard the soft chiming
of bells in his head. It was a happy, somewhat familiar sound, but he was
positive that a kiss had never affected him quite like
that
before. And
then as quickly as they had come together, Emily pulled away. “Russell, do you
hear that? Is that Miranda?”  It took him a few moments to realize what
Emily had said, but when it registered he quickly pulled away from her. Miranda
was giggling from the back seat of the SUV. He couldn’t believe they had
actually been caught kissing.  How on earth was he going to explain this
to his daughter? He had to think of a way to keep her quiet. His mother
couldn’t know about what had happened or she would run with it and the true
matchmaking would begin. His mother would turn into his Aunt Charlotte who had
set up all five of her kids a couple of years back.