Blackjack and Moonlight: A Contemporary Romance

by Braden, Magdalen

  She pouted but pulled her hand back. Boy Scout.

  He was a meticulous driver. Kept his hands at “ten and two” the whole time. She was tempted to tease him. Maybe not on the Schuylkill, though, which had more than its share of lunatic drivers.

  Three hours flew by—sped on by good company, pleasant conversation, and a little nap that Elise denied taking.

  “I was just resting my eyes.” She sat up straight.

  Jack laughed. “You snore when you ‘rest your eyes.’”

  “It’s your fault for having such a quiet car.”

  “Such a weak argument, Elise, blaming the equipment.”

  Her response was a low-throated growl.

  “I heard that,” he said.

  “Where are we?” When she’d dozed off—okay, so she had been asleep—they’d still been on the highway.

  “Route Forty-Two. We’re about twenty minutes out.”

  She looked around with interest. It was beautiful in a very, very rural way. Miles of open road flashed between the few homes they saw. No towns, no shopping centers. Just an undulating landscape, with heavily wooded hills sloping down to meadows and farmland.

  Gradually, though, the driveways and houses increased in frequency. Then there was a bend in the road and, just like that, they were in a town, or at least a collection of houses and shops on either side of the highway. Before she could ask where they were, Jack had pulled into a driveway behind a large white house.

  Elise got out and looked up at the diamond-paned windows and curving porch. “Oh, Jack—it’s perfect. What a gorgeous place. How did you find it?”

  “Google Maps,” he teased.

  She looked at him across the roof of the car. “I’m serious. I’m always looking for a good website for country inns.”

  He didn’t say anything. She could tell he was amused. Not laughing out loud perhaps, but there was that look about his mouth, like he’d scrunched it to keep from chuckling.

  He turned to grab their bags. “C’mon, let’s go in.” She followed him up the stairs that led from the driveway to the back door. Nothing too odd with that, but when he took out a key and opened the door, she shot him a sharp look.

  “Not an inn, clearly,” she said.

  “Sorry, no. We’ll have more privacy here, but we’ll have to do our own dishes.”

  “Who owns this place?”

  They entered via a hallway with a huge kitchen on one side and pantries on the other. She wandered further into the house, aware of Jack bringing more luggage in, which was odd because she only had the one case. Then she heard him in the kitchen and understood. He’d brought food. Of course he had. Sneaky devil.

  At the front of the house were generous public rooms—on the right a dining room opened into some sort of parlor overlooking the huge wraparound porch. On the left, a living room with a massive fireplace and built-in bookcases. Through the living room, heading toward the back of the house, was a music room with an entire wall of windows overlooking the lake.

  “Jack, what is this place? Who lives here?” she called out. She was staring at the lake when he walked up to her.

  “Family vacation house, I guess you could say. A handful of cousins share it. C’mon, I’ll show you upstairs.”

  Bedrooms. “Definitely let’s see the upstairs.”

  At the top of the curving staircase, the landing and hallway ran the length of the house. Another staircase branched off, leading to a third floor.

  The house fascinated her. “I assume you’re one of the co-owners. Do you have a bedroom that’s always been yours?”

  “Unfortunately, yes.” He led her past the second floor bedrooms. “I’m the youngest of the cousins and the only one who’s unmarried, so I got the last pick. It’s on the third floor, but we could use one of these down here if you would prefer.”

  “Oh, no.” She smirked. “I definitely want to see where the teenaged Jack McIntyre jerked off after everyone else had gone to bed.”

  He rolled his eyes, but she just laughed. “Oh? Was that too crude? ‘Where the teenage Jack McIntyre pleasured himself,’ would be more polite, I suppose.”

  “I should be thankful you didn’t make the obvious pun on my name,” he muttered as they climbed to the third floor.

  No sign of the stuffy federal judge now.

  His room was smaller, true, and the ceiling seemed low after the spacious proportions on the lower floors, but it had the best view of the lake. It even had a tiny balcony. Jack set about opening windows to air it out.

  “We hire a local woman to open the house in early May. Someone almost always wants Memorial Day weekend, and after that we split it up. I donated my time to my sister so that she’d have an extra couple of weeks for the wedding.”

  “Who’s getting married?”

  “My niece and her fiancé. My sister is fifteen years older. I was almost twelve when she had twin girls. The twins are now in their mid-twenties.”

  Jack found some sheets and towels. They made the bed, luckily a modern queen size. Visiting his childhood bedroom was all very well, but sleeping in bunk beds would have been pushing the nostalgia thing.

  Her gaze kept returning to the lake. Colorful boats skimmed along the deep blue water. A postcard view.

  “If you gave your share to your sister, how did you get this weekend?” she asked.

  “No one else wanted it. My sister needs the last two weeks of July and some of August, and my cousins both have young kids. School’s not out yet.”

  She smoothed the folded-down top sheet and blanket, already thinking of when they’d be getting back in this bed. “I’m hopelessly confused by your family tree. The only thing I’m sure of is that our good fortune arises because you don’t have school-age children.”

  “Elise. Stop caressing the bed. We’ll be back soon enough.”

  She stuck her tongue out at him as he showed her the bathroom next door.

  On their way downstairs, she peeked into the other bedrooms. “Who’s responsible for how the house is decorated? Because they’ve done a nice job.”

  “Mostly it was Stacy, although I think Annette helped.”

  “Who’s Annette?”

  “One of my cousins.” At her look, he explained. “When my grandmother died ten years ago, her half of the house came to Stacy and me. Uncle Hugh, who’s really a cousin, took that opportunity to deed his share to his kids, Hugh and Annette, who are between Stacy and me in age. So, technically, the house is co-owned by two sets of siblings who are second cousins to each other.”

  Elise groaned. “There’s going to be a quiz, isn’t there?”

  “Of course.” He winked at her, which was the only reason she didn’t wallop him with a handy pillow. When he winked her impulse was always to get him naked and prone in the shortest time possible.

  Later. For sure.

  They went into the music room and Jack unlocked the doors to the terrace. It was a cool but sunny June day. She stood on the terrace, deciding whether she needed to run up to get her cardigan. “You just know people are sweltering in Philly.”

  “Remember, it’s frigid here in the winter. Tons of snow and ice. Not many people live here year-round although there’s still some tourism. The local fire company makes money with a toboggan run straight onto the lake.”

  She turned to stare at him, but he wasn’t kidding. Hard to believe the lake froze that hard. “Can we get to the lake from here?”

  “Of course.” Jack led the way down steps to a gentle lawn, which in turn had steps to another lawn bordered by banks of rhododendrons, spectacularly in bloom. In fact, the entire walk seemed to be lined with brilliant flowers. The lake was on their left, but at various points the foliage was thick enough to block the view.

  They came to a rocky bit of the path and Jack instinctively took her hand to help her up. He didn’t let go, and she didn’t pull away. She became achingly aware of their palms snug against each other, his fingers warm and secure around hers. She wanted to
scoff at the whole “boyfriend-girlfriend” aspect of holding hands, but she couldn’t deny how good it felt.

  “Tell me what it was like coming here as a child,” she prompted.

  “Loads of fun. I’m ten years younger than Hugh Junior, but he was often here when I was, and would take me out in his boat. When I was older, Annette and I played games or did jigsaws. Then she was gone as well. By that time, Stacy—that’s my sister—had the twins and I got to babysit.”

  Despite Jack’s description of it as loads of fun, it sounded lonely. She pictured Jack as a toddler with a teenaged sister too busy for him, then as a young boy desperate for his older cousin to take him out sailing, and finally as a school-age kid wanting someone to play Scrabble with him. As none of his cousins were the same age, they all ended up leaving him. It made her heart ache. Lonely childhoods sucked.

  They didn’t talk after that. The path ended at the swimming beach on the far side of the lake. Families were spread out on the sand or sitting on the docks. Only very young children were braving the water.

  “Cold, huh?” Elise gestured toward the squealing kids.

  “Brisk this early in the season. You’ll get patches of very hot weather early on when it’s refreshing to swim but on cool days like this, I prefer to sit out and read.”

  Jack in a bathing suit. She was already a fan of the idea. “Let’s do it. Let’s go back and get into our suits and soak up some rays.”

  He grinned at her. “I hope you brought a cherry-red bikini.”

  How did he know that?

  “You are no fun at all, Blackjack McIntyre,” she protested. “I was going to surprise you. Now it’s ruined.” How the hell had he guessed that she’d gone to four stores before she found a suit in what she now thought of as “Jack’s color”?

  They’d gone more than halfway around the lake, and the rest of the route was flat and quick. When they got back to the house, she raced up to their room to fish out her suit. She changed in the bathroom, not out of modesty but because if she saw him naked, they wouldn’t leave the house until dark. She was jonesing for sex with him, but it was exquisite torture to wait. And anyway, they’d have all night, given they weren’t likely to sleep well. Or at least, she wouldn’t.

  “I just realized something,” she said when she joined him outside.

  “What’s that?” Jack was eying her suit with an arched eyebrow. She rather thought he liked it.

  “I’m up here,” she teased, pointing at her eyes. He swept his gaze once more over her body, then looked up at her face. “I just realized you cheated. The whole idea was for us to go someplace neither of us has been so we’d both have insomnia. But that’s your bed up there. You’ll sleep like a baby and I’ll be stumbling around a strange house.”

  “If that happens, wake me up. I’ll pretend to have insomnia with you. However I think I have the solution.”

  She settled into an Adirondack chair near his and smeared on sunblock. The sun felt good, especially this close to the house, which sheltered them from the worst of the breeze.

  “Okay, let’s hear it,” she said.

  “Lots and lots of sex. We’ll both be so exhausted we’ll have no trouble sleeping.”

  She shaded her eyes to gaze over the water. The lake looked like an ad for summer recreation. Hard to believe they’d been in Center City that morning. She turned to smile at Jack. Hard to believe he’d been presiding over a trial the day before, or that they’d had sex in his chambers on Tuesday. It was as if they’d always been sitting on the terrace overlooking this picture-postcard lake.

  “Sex. I can go for that plan.” She leaned back and closed her eyes. “Good thinking, Judge.”

  Jack angled his body so that he could see Elise’s face, soaking up the sun. Had it been a good idea to bring her here? If this didn’t work—if he couldn’t convince her they belonged together—there would be damned few places left where he wouldn’t remember Elise and how it had been.

  He chastised himself for even contemplating failure. His plan wasn’t going as he’d hoped, but possibly it was working out even better. It made sense for Elise to see various aspects of his life. She didn’t seem to be freaked out by his money. Not a massive fortune, true, but it came with a history and family ties.

  Family.

  Right, that reminded him. Elizabeth’s graduation was the next weekend. Bill and Stacy would be staying at a hotel. Almost certainly the other twin, Alice, would fly in from Alaska.

  He either had to put off his next date with Elise, or invite her.

  Jack contemplated the love of his life, her face shiny with sunblock. She’d either fallen asleep again or had no vanity about being seen with her mouth open. Would she come to the commencement ceremony with him? It was a lot to ask when their relationship was so tenuous. Yes, she’d mentioned having years to use up those condoms, but that seemed hardly reassuring in light of all the evidence.

  He suspected she’d balk at meeting his family. Too personal, for one thing, and it had a “this relationship is serious” vibe to it. Still, it couldn’t hurt to ask.

  She’d closed her mouth but was snoring very gently. He smiled. Who the hell knew what she’d do or say. Only one way to find out. He stood up and walked over to her chair.

  “Sweetheart,” he murmured in a mockingly amorous voice. “Precious.” Pause. “Dearest one,” he crooned close to her ear.

  “You didn’t say anything about there being mosquitoes here.” She didn’t open her eyes.

  Mosquitoes? “It’s still too early in the season.”

  “Oh, my mistake. It’s just that something was making a very annoying noise in my ear—I naturally assumed…” She smiled, her eyes still closed.

  Ah, his Elise—she insulted him with such panache.

  “Oh, that’s too bad…” He stepped back. “Because I think that ‘mosquito’ was going to suggest we move this siesta up to the bedroom. But if you find the noise annoying…” He let his voice trail off as though he were walking away.

  Her eyes snapped open and he grinned.

  “Sneaky, Jack.”

  He leaned down to kiss her scowling mouth. “Perhaps.” The kiss deepened. He forgot his niece’s graduation as he lost himself in the joy of seducing his moonlight girl in broad daylight.

  Chapter Twelve

  “My niece is graduating from Franklin Law next Saturday,” Jack said as Elise drove them back to Philadelphia.

  Elise overtook a tractor-trailer, then got back into the right-hand lane. She loved his car, which handled like it was hovering on the wings of very burly archangels.

  “Unh-huh?” she said absently.

  “I was wondering if you’d like to come with me. As my date.”

  The car in front of them was driving erratically, which took up the bulk of her attention. “What the hell—” she muttered as she dropped back to give the Swerving Silver Sedan a lot of room in which to meander.

  “It would give you a chance to meet my family.”

  “God, this is ridiculous,” she burst out.

  “Excuse me?” Jack asked in a strangled voice.

  She glanced at him, but he didn’t seem to be in distress so she quickly looked back at the road. “Buddy, make up your tiny mind.”

  “Elise—?”

  “This lane or that lane, I don’t care which you pick, just pick one,” she told the other driver. “Yes. Thank you.” She sped up and passed the silver car neatly.

  When she’d pulled back into the right-hand lane and resumed a sensible cruising speed—a number carefully calculated to take into consideration the power of the car, the fact that it belonged to a sitting federal judge, and her reluctance to incur said judge’s wrath by getting a speeding ticket—she responded to Jack’s question.

  “I’d love to.”

  “Are you talking to me, or that RV in front of us?”

  “You, Jack. I would love to attend your niece’s law school graduation, meet your family, and generally play the role of yo
ur girlfriend. Which I guess I am, sort of,” she added.

  “I know I shouldn’t argue past the sale, but are you sure? Because you don’t have to do this for me.”

  There was a clear stretch of highway ahead of her, so Elise considered this carefully. “Let me see if I’ve got this straight. You’ll be attending your niece’s graduation. Her mother, your sister, will be there. I’ll be there. Your family’ll think something like, ‘Wow, Jack’s never brought any of his high-end arm candy to a family event before. So what do we think of this one? Could she be The One?’”

  He chuckled. “Pretty much.”

  “And that’s okay with me.”

  “Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled you’ve said yes, but I somehow thought this would be a tougher battle to win.”

  She smiled. “Look. You think you know how this thing between us is going to turn out. I think I know how it’s going to turn out. You believe what you believe. I believe what I believe. No point in arguing about that. For now we’re dating, though. I have no problem acknowledging that fact. Just don’t use the L-word or introduce me as the woman you plan to marry, and we’re good.”

  She slowed way down for the construction north of the Lehigh Tunnel. “And anyway, I’m fascinated to meet them. Especially your sister.”

  “Why my sister?”

  “Are you kidding? The only woman on the planet who can tell you what to do? And likely get away with it? And who might actually be able to cut you down to size? I totally want to meet her. I’ve got questions—lots of questions. I think I’ll bring a digital recorder so I don’t miss anything.”

  “You are an evil woman, Elise Carroll.”

  “Strange, that’s not what you were saying last night in bed,” she teased. “Oh, wait, there was that one time when I had my—”

  “Elise,” he warned.

  “—on your—”

  “Ms. Carroll, I would remind you that you’re under an ethical duty to treat me with the respect properly accorded the tribunal.” That was his most judicial voice.