Page 15 of The Playboy and the Widow
On the way home from the marina, they’d barely talked. By then Cliff was confident he wouldn’t be seeing her again. That decided, a calmness had come over him. A widow with children was no woman to get involved with, and Diana was the take-home-to-mother type he generally avoided.
Picturing himself as a husband was difficult enough, but as a father... well, that was stretching things. He’d always enjoyed children and looked forward to having his own someday; he just hadn’t planned on starting with a houseful. He did like Joan and Katie—they were cute kids. But they were kids. He hardly knew how to act around them.
Then why had he gone back to Diana’s? Cliff had asked himself that same question twenty times in as many minutes. He’d been out a couple of times that week, but neither woman had stimulated him the way those few hours with Diana had. He heard her laugh at the most ridiculous times. A newscast had left him wondering what her opinion was on an important local issue. He’d waited a couple of days for her to contact him. Women usually did. But not Diana.
Interrupting his thoughts, Joan returned to the living room, dragging a blanket with her. The eleven-year-old was quickly followed by a grinning, happy Katie.
“You ready?” Cliff asked.
“We won’t all fit in your sports car,” Diana said, fighting the natural desire to be with Cliff and angry with herself for wanting it so much. She’d changed clothes and washed her face, but she still felt like Cinderella two nights after the ball.
“We can take two cars,” Joan suggested, obviously not wanting anything to ruin this outing.
Palm up, Cliff gestured toward her elder daughter. “Excellent idea.”
Joan positively glowed. “Can I ride with Cliff?”
Diana’s brows involuntarily furrowed in concern.
“I... ah.”
“It’s fine with me,” Cliff told her, and noticed that Katie looked disappointed. “Then Katie can ride with me on the way home.”
“Okay,” Diana agreed reluctantly.
Diana followed Cliff toSaltwater State Park, which was less than ten minutes from the house. She’d taken Joan and Katie there often and enjoyed the lush Puget Sound beachfront. On their last visit, the girls had watched several sea lions laze in the sun not more than twenty feet off the shore on a platform buoy.
When Cliff turned off the road and into the park entrance, Diana saw him throw back his head and laugh at something Joan had said. A chill went up Diana’s back at the thought of what her daughter could be telling him. That girl had few scruples when it came to attractive men. But Diana was concerned for another reason. Both her girls liked Cliff, which was unusual, and although she’d dated a number of men during the past few years, rarely had she included the children in an outing. As much as possible, she tried to keep her social life separate from her family.
Cliff pulled into a space in the parking lot, and Diana eased the SUV into the spot beside him. Even though it was a school night, there seemed to be several families out enjoying the warm spring evening. Both Joan and Katie climbed out of the respective cars and rushed across the thick grass. Within seconds they returned to inform Cliff that there was an unused picnic table close to the beach.
Diana waited while Cliff took the bag of food from the trunk of his car. She felt awkward in her sweatshirt and wished she’d taken the time to change into a new pair of shorts. Had she known she was going on a picnic with Cliff, she would have washed her hair that afternoon and tried to do something different with it. That would have pleased Joan. Suddenly her thoughts came to an abrupt halt. She was traipsing on dangerously thin ice with this playboy.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you what kind of car this is?” she asked as he closed the trunk.
“A Lamborghini.”
“Oh.” She didn’t know a lot about sports cars, but this one had a name that sounded expensive.
The girls were waiting at the table for them when Diana and Cliff arrived. Joan had unfolded the blanket and spread it out beneath a tall fir tree.
“Can we go looking for seashells?” Joan asked.
“I want to eat first,” Katie complained. “I’m hungry.”
“I bought plenty of food.” Cliff said, opening the sack and setting out four individual boxes. Each one contained a complete meal.
“What’s for dessert?” Already Katie had ripped open the top of her box, and a chicken leg was poised in front of her mouth.
“Ice cream cones, but only if you’re good,” Cliff answered.
“What he means by ‘good,’” Joan explained in a hushed voice, “is giving him plenty of time alone with Mom. They need to talk.”
Diana’s eyes flared with indignation. “Did you tell her that?” she demanded in a low whisper.
Cliff looked astonished enough for her to believe in his innocence. “Not me.”
From the corner of her eye, Diana saw him give Joan a conspiratorial wink, and was all the more upset. Rather than argue with him in front of the children, Diana decided to wait. However, maintaining her anger with Cliff was impossible. He shared the picnic table bench with Katie and sat across from Diana. He was so charming that he had all three females under his spell within minutes. Diana found it only a little short of amazing the way he talked to the girls. He didn’t talk down to Joan and Katie, but treated them as miniature adults, and they adored him for it. From Diana’s point of view, this man could do with fewer worshiping females.
