Normal stuff. The way life was supposed to go. The way he'd always pictured his going.
He'd been in for a hell of a surprise.
"Aren't you going to introduce us?"
He'd been hoping to avoid it, actually. "Uh, sure, this is Amanda Delmar, a friend of Boston Macnamara's from Chicago. Amanda this is Janice Kirkwood, and her little boy." Whose name he couldn't remember, but the kid was a baby, so it didn't count. Names only started to matter when kids could talk.
"It's a pleasure to meet you." Janice smiled at Amanda, but it was tight and fake. "I've heard you were spending the summer here, but I had no idea you were dating Danny. Seems to me you were seen running around with Howie and Stan. How many men does one woman need?"
Oh, Lord. Danny hated getting sucked into these female face-offs. He never understood what they were about, but he knew tension. And Janice was oozing it.
"Howie and Stan are nice guys," Amanda said, waving her hand in the air casually and hooking the pajamas on the side of the cart.
Danny could have kissed her for not responding to Janice's verbal drawn sword. Well, actually he could have kissed her for a lot of reasons, including wearing that short skirt, but that was beside the point.
"But I wasn't dating them. And I'm more like Danny's personal shopper."
"He can't dress himself?" Janice snickered.
"Oh, he can dress himself." Amanda glanced over at him, and he swore she zeroed in right on his crotch.
He wondered what she thought of it.
"And undress himself, just fine." Amanda leaned on the rack. "But I'm helping him shop for his daughter."
"Daughter?" Janice's eyebrows disappeared under her bangs. "What daughter?"
"The one he didn't know he had, who is eight years old and has come to live with him. But don't worry, conception occurred when he and Shelby were broken up the summer between junior and senior year and he met a girl at the fair."
Well, how nice of her to clear that up in case anyone was wondering. Like it was anyone's goddamn business but his. Danny was blushing. He could feel it, damn, right on each cheek, burning heat.
"But we have to go now. Nice meeting you." Amanda nudged his arm and started walking away. She ducked down once to call to Piper, who scrambled out from under the clothes rack. "Grab the cart, Danny."
In a minute, they had left slack-jawed Janice behind in girls and were heading toward personal hygiene.
He recovered enough to realize that he was trailing Amanda again. "You know, I'd prefer if you didn't just blurt out my business in the Cuttersville Wal-Mart." He was an easy-going kind of guy, but some things he just couldn't brush off.
Telling Janice Kirkwood about his teen sex life was one of them.
His boots squeaked on the white polished floor as he gripped the cart, moving it down aisle seven—toothbrushes and toothpaste.
Amanda started inspecting the brands, asking Piper if she preferred gel or paste. Piper shrugged.
He didn't give a crap either. He wanted to know who the hell she thought she was telling Janice his business.
"Gel." Amanda tossed a box toward the cart, not bothering to make sure it landed in its destination. "Don't worry about it, Danny. In one sentence I took care of any future gossip that might get started. Janice will tell everyone about Piper and the circumstances, and you won't find yourself answering the same nosy questions over and over again."
Danny wanted to blast her. Wanted to give her a good talking to about butting out, but the truth was, he didn't have the personality to blast anyone. And she was right on top of it all. The last thing he felt like doing was getting pestered with questions by every housewife in Cuttersville every time he left the farm for the next year.
"Well, I suppose you could be right."
Amanda held a toothbrush to her chest and staggered back dramatically. "You admit that I'm right? Wow, this is a beautiful moment."
He grinned. "I'm a big enough man to admit when someone else is right. You're a smart woman, Amanda, under all that hair."
Amanda figured there was a compliment somewhere in there. It was just hidden under the rudeness. "Thanks. But you'd better hold back with the gushing, or I'll get an ego."
"I do believe you're being sarcastic with me." Danny pushed the cart, then climbed onto the back and rode with it down the aisle, hunkered over the pile of clothes.
"I do believe I am, Farmer Tucker." Amanda got out of the way as he sailed past, looking a little precarious perched on the metal rungs. He was a little large to be hanging on the cart like that. "And be careful, you look like you're going to…"
Danny lost control and hit the wall of contact lens solution.
"Crash." She looked at Piper, who made a little sound of distress. "Boys," Amanda said in exaggerated disgust. "Always fooling around."
Though he looked like a wall of bricks could fall on him and he wouldn't break a nail, Amanda still asked, "Are you okay?"
"Fine." He pulled the cart back and picked up the one container that had fallen. He turned to Piper, his face a mask of faux contrition. "I guess I shouldn't have been doing that."
She shook her head, but she had a shy smile on her face.
Amanda went around the front of the cart and climbed onto the bottom rungs, facing out. She gripped the basket of the cart and leaned back for stability. "This way is probably safer. Someone to steer and someone to hold on."
It was murder on her spine, but it had the potential to be amusing. They all needed a laugh, she figured. "Get in the basket with the clothes, Piper."
The little girl's eyes went wide, but she didn't protest when Danny lifted her up and tossed her on the towering pile. Piper's legs were a little long and dangled over the side, but she lay on her back, pajamas rising on either side of her face, plastic hangars above her head. That worry, that fear that seemed to have permanently taken up residence in Piper's eyes, made Amanda feel reckless, determined to draw a laugh out of her.
No child should have that much heaviness on her heart, not when her whole future lay in front of her. Not when she had a father like Danny Tucker, and a cart full of new clothes. But as Amanda knew only too well, you couldn't just shake the past off that easily, and you couldn't fix the scars it left on you. And Piper must have a lot of scars.
"Where to, girls?" Danny pulled the cart back and made adjustments to the wheel position.
"To shampoo and bubble bath. Then on to toys." Amanda peeked back over her shoulder to make sure Baby was still tucked in her handbag in the front seat. Her dog was really good about staying put, but she didn't want her deciding to leap to freedom off a moving shopping cart. But Baby looked complacent, everything but her head in the handbag.