Free Teresa Hill by Luke’s Wish Page B

laughed—too good.
    “We worked up an act,” she continued, “like a magician and his assistant. It was one of those special father/daughter things for us. I was still going to schools with him when I was in college.”
    “He sounds like a wonderful father.”
    “He was.” She couldn’t keep the tears from pooling in her eyes, but was determined not to cry this time. If she did, Joe might well take her in his arms again, and she couldn’t let that happen.
    “You still miss him very much, don’t you.”
    She nodded.
    “I wonder if it ever stops. I wonder if Luke will ever stop missing his mother and asking me to bring her back.”
    “She doesn’t have anything to do with the children?”
    He shook his head. “Packed her things and left. She doesn’t even call and ask about them.”
    “And what have you told the kids about why she left?”
    “As little as possible,” Joe said. “At first I was sure she didn’t mean anything she said when she left. I was sure she’d come to her senses and come back. And even when she said she wouldn’t, I had to keep hoping for the kids’ sake that she’d change her mind. But it’s been more than a year now. The only time I heard from her was when she wanted a divorce, which I gave her. I can’t lie to myself anymore. She’s not coming back.”
    “I’m sorry,” Samantha said again as Joe slid across the sofa until he was sitting next to her, his right arm lying along the back of the cushion. It would be so easy for him to wrap his arms around her, she thought.
    No one had held her in the longest time. Surely that was why it felt so good to be close to him this evening in her office.
    His hand came up to her jaw, taking it gently with his fingers and turning her toward him so he could look into her eyes. “I don’t know why, when I picked a woman to marry and have children with, I couldn’t have found someone more like you.”
    Samantha froze for a second, then muttered, “You don’t even know me.”
    “I’m a little smarter than I used to be. I know that you’re kind and generous and that you go to incredible lengths to make little children smile. And somehow I know you’d never hurt my children the way Elena did.”
    “Joe?” she said, in a panic now, because he was coming closer, his gaze intent on her mouth. He was going to kiss her, and she simply couldn’t let him.
    “It’s scary, isn’t it?” he asked.
    “Scary?”
    He nodded, so close she could almost taste him. “Because I’m very attracted to you.”
    Samantha backed away as far as she could, until the cushions were flat against her back, but still he was coming closer, coming to kiss her. Samantha took both her hands and shoved Joe, who’d twisted around to face her, until he fell to the floor.
     

    From his spot on the floor Joe looked up at her and tried to figure out how he could have so totally misread the situation. Baffled, he stayed where he was and watched her squirm.
    “I’m sorry,” she said. “Are you hurt?”
    “Doc, I’ve been thrown from a bull before. You’re not going to hurt me by shoving me off my own sofa.”
    Color flooded her cheeks, and he wished he didn’t find her so pretty.
    Women, he thought. He’d never understand them.
    He should have quit trying, should have left them alone, should definitely have left her alone.
    “I’m sorry,” she said again, and he simply couldn’t leave things this way.
    “All you had to do was say no. I’m not the kind of man who forces himself on a woman.”
    “I know.”
    “You do?”
    She nodded, swallowed hard and looked everywhere but at him. Joe just didn’t get it. She liked him. He knew it. And he liked her. She was pretty, in this soft feminine sort of way. And kind and sweet. She loved kids and was heaven to kiss. What more could he want in a woman, even if he wasn’t supposed to want any woman?
    “I think I should go,” she said, standing up.
    Joe held out a hand to her, and she helped him to his feet,