“She’d deny she was sleepy to the bitter end,” Tyler said, chuckling as he engaged the gears of the car and steered it out onto the street.
“That’s a universal trait of all children.”
“Do you know much about children, Hailey?”
“No. I have only my childhood to base my theories on.”
“I’ll admit that I’ve never found a job harder than that of parenting. It baffles me.”
“In what respect?” she asked slowly. She’d never come right out and tell him that his own daughter was unsure of his love. A man of Tyler Scott’s pride couldn’t handle criticism like that. It would be better to let him talk and perhaps learn from him the areas where he was lacking in understanding.
He laughed mirthlessly at her question. “In just about every respect. I don’t think I appreciated the complexities of the female mind until I was forced to cope with an eleven-year-old girl.”
“Faith is trying just as hard to cope with herself. A girl her age doesn’t like herself very much. She wants to be a woman, but the idea frightens her. Her body is maturing at a rate that her psyche can’t keep up with.”
“Like getting stung on the breast by a bee and being too embarrassed to tell her father about it.”
Hailey smiled tenderly. “Yes. She’s extremely sensitive and reveals only a fraction of what she feels. More than anything, she wants you to be proud of her.”
He swung his head to her. “I am proud of her.”
Hailey was tempted to ask him if he had told Faith that but didn’t think it was her place to interfere. Instead, she said, “She’s a wonderful girl and promises to be a lovely young woman.”
He laughed. “And she finds you equally wonderful. Ever since you helped her yesterday, all I’ve heard is Hailey this and Hailey that.”
She laughed back. “All I hear about is you.”
“Oh no,” he groaned. “Has she told you about any of my bad habits?”
“Like what?”
“Like the blasphemous language I’m apt to use on the golf course.”
“How many times have you and Faith played golf together?”
He pulled the car to a stop in her driveway and grinned at her. “I see your point. She doesn’t know about that nasty habit. Maybe I’ll be able to hide the others from her.”
“What others?”
“No, no. I only divulge my bad habits one at a time.”
Their soft laughter filled the confines of the car, but it was shatteringly interrupted by a brilliant streak of lightning and a resultant clap of thunder. Almost instantly the windshield was peppered with raindrops.
“Whew,” Tyler said. “I guess this is what the heat and humidity have been building to.”
“I guess so,” Hailey murmured. Suddenly the atmosphere in the car was as electric as the storm outside. The air was too thick to breathe. The sudden flashes of lightning only punctuated the intervals of darkness. The small sounds inside the car were magnified in the silence following each crack of thunder.
Hailey’s heart was pounding with awareness of the man an arm’s-reach away. Intuitively, she knew he was just as aware of her. The awareness became suffocating, like a blanket that had been wrapped around them.
“Thank you for the evening,” Hailey said hastily and reached for the door handle.
His hand shot across the velour-covered seat with uncanny speed and startling accuracy to clamp her wrist. “I’ve never failed to escort a lady to her door, Miss Ashton. Particularly during a thunderstorm. Stay put.”
He was out of his door and opening hers before she could come to grips with the situation and formulate a plan of resistance in her mind. With the sure guidance of his hand on the small of her back, she ducked her head against the rain and ran for the protective covering over the redwood deck.
“My key …” She fumbled through the contents of her handbag, trying vainly to find the key. When at last her clumsy fingers closed around it she turned to Tyler and said, “Good night.”
A hasty retreat was too much to hope for. Before she could get the key in the lock, Tyler had managed to back her against the wall, cutting off any means of escape by planting his palms on either side of her head.