Page 49 of The Playboy and the Widow
By the time he’d finished, Cliff had loosened his tie, unfastened the top buttons of his starched shirt and paused more than once to wipe the sweat from his brow.
Grateful for his thoughtfulness, Diana started issuing instructions. Soon the neighborhood kids had gathered around him and stacked the fallen limbs into a neat pile. Diana was so busy watching Cliff and telling the kids to keep out of his way that he was nearly finished before she noticed that Joan was missing.
Diana wandered through the house, looking for her daughter. When she didn’t find her on the lower level, she wandered up the stairs.
“Joan?”
She heard a muffled sob and peeked inside the first bedroom, looking past all the Justin Timberlake posters to her daughter, who had flung herself across the top of her half-made bed.
“Joan?” she asked softly. “Don’t you want to come and see Katie?”
“No.”
“Why not? She wants you to sign her cast.”
“I’m not going to. Not ever.”
Diana moved to her daughter’s side and sat on the edge of the mattress. Puzzled by Joan’s odd behavior, she brushed the soft wisps of hair from the eleven-year-old’s furrowed brow.
Huge tears filled the preteen’s dark brown eyes. She muttered something about Cliff that Diana couldn’t understand.
“You phoned him at his office?”
Joan nodded. “I... I don’t know why. I just did.”
“Do you think I’m angry with you because of that?”
Joan shrugged in open defiance. “I don’t care if you are mad. I wanted to talk to Cliff and I did... Katie was hurt and I thought he had the right to know.”
The realization that both girls had turned to Cliff in the emergency was only a little short of shocking to Diana. Katie had asked about him even before Diana had had a chance to tell the youngster he was in the hospital waiting room, filling out the forms. And Joan had contacted him at his office, knowing she would probably be punished for doing so. No other man Diana had ever dated had had this profound effect on her daughters. Without trying, without even wanting to, Cliff Howard had woven himself into their tender hearts. Although it hurt, Diana understood now that she’d made the right decision to break off her relationship with him. Cliff possessed the awesome power to hurt her children, and it was her duty, as their mother, to protect them.
“Mom,” Joan sobbed, straightening up enough to hurl herself into her mother’s arms, “I was so afraid.”
“I know, sweetheart.” Fresh tears filled Diana’s eyes at the memory of those first minutes at the hospital. “I was, too.”
“I... thought Katie would never come home again.”
Diana’s own fears had been similar. In all the confusion, she hadn’t considered what had been going on in Joan’s mind. As the eldest, Joan could remember the day her father had died. She had only been eight at the time, and although she might not have understood everything, she could vividly remember the horror, just as Diana had earlier in the day.
“You can have my allowance if you need it... .”
“I don’t need your allowance, honey.”
Embarrassed now by the display of emotion, Joan wiped the moisture from her cheek and gave her mother a determined, angry look. “That Katie can be really stupid. You know that, don’t you?”
“Cliff cut off the lower limbs so Katie won’t be able to climb into the apple tree again.”
Joan nodded approvingly. “It’s a good thing, because that Katie can be so stupid. Knowing her, she wouldn’t learn a single lesson from this. If something hadn’t been done, she’d probably break her other arm next week.”
Diana hid her smile, and the two hugged each other. “Come downstairs now, and you can talk to your sister.”
Joan nodded. “All right, but don’t get mad at me if I tell Katie she’s got the brains of a rotting tomato.”
“Mom, is there room in your suitcase for my iPad?”
Diana groaned, glanced toward the ceiling and prayed for patience. “Unfortunately I need some space for my clothes,” she said, and attempted to shut the suitcase one last time. It wouldn’t latch. “Your iPad has low priority at the moment.”
“Mom!” Katie hurried into the bedroom. “Did you tell Cliff we were going to Wichita to visit Grandma and Grandpa?”
