Free Teresa Hill by Luke’s Wish Page A

I know that. It’s just hard to explain to a kid who’s lost his mother.”
    “I’m sorry,” Samantha said.
    “Well, now you know. And I guess I owe you an apology, too. I see red at the thought of another woman hurting my son. He’s cried himself to sleep too many nights already, and I…I’m afraid I was a little rough on you today, Doc.”
    “It’s all right.”
    “It’s just that I’m all they’ve got left,” Joe said. “The only one left to protect them and take care of them.”
    “I understand. I’d growl at anybody who hurt them, too.”
    “Thank you,” he said, relaxing just a bit for the first time since he’d found Luke sobbing in her office. “So what did Luke tell you?”
    “He wants his mother back.”
    Joe turned his head to the side and uttered a cry of frustration and pain. Samantha flinched at the raw power and the anger behind the carefully controlled sound.
    “I can’t make her come back,” he admitted. “No matter how much Luke wants her.”
    “Of course. I didn’t mean that you could. Or that you should. I was just telling you what he told me. And, Joe?”
    “Hmm?”
    “Luke has this ridiculous idea that I’m the tooth fairy, because he saw me in that silly costume I wear when I talk to kids at schools, and now he’s decided I can bring his mother back to him. He’s trying to collect a hundred teeth in that jar of his so he can use them to make a grand gesture to the tooth fairy in exchange for getting his mother back.”
    “Oh, God,” Joe said, looking like he’d had the breath knocked out of him. “A hundred teeth?”
    Samantha nodded.
    “Well, that’s a problem.”
    “I know. I tried to tell him I wasn’t really magic, but he saw me do those silly little magic tricks, and now he thinks I can do anything. That’s why he’s so mad at me—he thinks I could bring his mother back if I wanted to, that I just won’t do it.”
    Joe sighed and shook his head. “Luke thinks the same thing about me—that I could bring her back, too.”
    “I’m sorry.” She gave his hand a little squeeze, and when she would have pulled away, he turned his over and captured hers. “And sorry for giving him all these ideas about magic. For going off to school in that silly costume, pulling magic coins from behind the kids’ ears and talking to them about magic and fairies. I can’t believe I still do that.”
    “I think it’s cute,” he said, that teasing smile of his returning, the charm coming on full force along with it. “I’d love to see you in your fairy suit. Why do you do it, Doc?”
    “It’s silly,” she argued.
    “So is all-out war waged with water guns and making mud pies and kissing Dani’s favorite doll good-night, but I do it, because it makes my kids happy. That’s why you do the tooth-fairy bit, isn’t it?”
    “Part of the reason.”
    “Tell me,” he said, easing back against the cushions, the leather creaking and settling as he did so.
    “It was my father’s idea. He always went to schools to talk to kids about taking care of their teeth, but they didn’t always listen that well. So he decided he needed to spice up his act. And he started doing little magic tricks, and that worked. Then, one year for Halloween, I wanted to be the tooth fairy. And my mother made me this wonderful dress with stars on it and found me a magic wand and a wig with long blond hair, because mine was short at the time. And I had a blast. My father thought I looked perfect, and he had this idea to take me along with him the next time he spoke to a group of kids.
    “So we did it. And he told them I was the tooth fairy and that they would make me happy if they would just take good care of their teeth.” She smiled, seeing her father now. “He said it was the best audience of first graders he’d ever had. And from then on he took me with him whenever he did his little talks.”
    Joe laughed, that wonderful laugh from today on the phone. It made her feel good when he