"One. We'll leave about twelve forty-five."
"Okay. I'll be here."
"So will we," he joked feebly.
"Thanks for dinner. It really was great pizza."
He nodded, but he was still staring at her, and the compliment didn't seem to matter as much now as it had when they were at the table.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow," she added.
Again he only nodded, as if he were lost in thought. Thought that centered on her.
"Good night," she said.
"'Night."
He took a step nearer and raised a hand to the door's edge above her, bringing him near enough that for a moment Clair thought he might be going to kiss her again.
Or maybe it was just wishful thinking. But he didn't. Instead he opened the door wider for her, and Clair took that as her cue to actually leave.
So she muttered a second good-night and did just that.
But as she walked across the lawns back to Rennie Jennings's house, she could still feel Jace's lips against hers, as if even that oh-so-quick kiss was enough to leave an imprint on her.
An imprint that allowed her to keep the memory of his mouth on hers clear and crisp.
So she could take it with her all the way to bed.
And relive it.
Whether it was wise or not....
Chapter Four
Clair's hostess, Rennie Jennings, managed the church her brother ministered to. But, by coincidence, she wasn't working the next morning, and since Clair wasn't scheduled to go over to Jace's house until twelve forty-five, Rennie suggested that she and Clair have a big country breakfast together and use the time to get to know each other.
Rennie wasn't kidding when she said a big country breakfast. Pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, hash-brown potatoes, a fresh fruit cocktail with yogurt, juice and coffee. There seemed to Clair to be enough food for ten people when the two of them sat down at Rennie's kitchen table to eat.
But it wasn't the food she was interested in.
Sharing the leisurely meal gave Clair the opportunity to do something she'd been wanting to do since arriving in Elk Creek – ask questions about Jace.
Which was exactly what she did as soon as she found a lull in the exchange of getting-to-know-each-other information about herself and Rennie.
"So, have you known Jace Brimley long?" was how she launched into it as she had her second cup of coffee and pushed her plate away.
If Rennie found anything suspicious in the change of subject, she didn't show it.
"Not long, no. Only since I moved to town six months ago. But you don't have anything to worry about when it comes to Jace – if you're wondering about him raising your nephew."
Rennie already knew the family connection by the time Clair had appeared at her door the first night.
"Jace is a great guy," her hostess assured her. "You won't find a better man."
"I'm not looking for a man," Clair said much too quickly, much too defensively.
"For raising Willy," Rennie clarified, but there was a sly note in her voice that prompted Clair into more self-defense.
"Well, yes, for raising Willy. But I'm not in the market for any kind of personal or romantic relationship with Jace or any other man right now." The only thing she was in the market for, she tried to convince herself, was finding out if he had a flaw she hadn't spotted yet. A flaw that she might be able to use to persuade a judge that it would be better for her to raise Willy, if it came down to a judge making that decision.
"I'm just curious about the type of person he is," Clair insisted.
Rennie, who was a girl-next-door type of pretty, smiled a gleaming smile that said she still didn't believe Clair was as objective about Jace as Clair insisted she was. But she played along, anyway.
"Let's see, the kind of person Jace Brimley is," she said, as if her answer required some thought. ' 'Well, for starters, I can tell you what Billy and Kim Miller said about him during the brief time I knew them before their accident – when they were trying to fix me up with him."
"They tried to fix you up with him?"
"Sure. A single woman moves into town, meets her neighbors who have a single male friend of about the same age – getting them together is the first thing they think about."
Clair worked at ignoring the unpleasant feelings that arose in her and instead tried to keep things on track. "Okay, tell me what kind of person they said he was."
"They said he was the kind of person who was always there for them – helping Billy move heavy furniture when he needed to, helping him work on his car. Kim told me it was Jace they put as a reference when they were applying for Willy's adoption. And then, of course, he stepped in when his friends were killed to raise their son – that says a lot about him. And he did it generously, selflessly and without a thought as to how it might inhibit his social life, to suddenly become a daddy by default."
There was certainly nothing there that wasn't admirable.
"What about what you know about him yourself, firsthand?" Clair persisted nonetheless.
"Well, when I first moved in I needed some plumbing repairs done, and Kim said Jace could do them for me. So I hired him. He did everything I needed him to do, and then, when he found out I needed more done than I could afford, he did the rest, too. Without charging me one extra cent."
"He worked here?" Clair repeated, stuck on that portion of what Rennie had said and barely hearing the rest. "So the two of you must have spent a lot of time together. Alone." And the image of that only made those unpleasant feelings she was trying to ignore grow. Unpleasant feelings that seemed suspiciously like jealousy.
"Yeah, between his working around here and moving in next door after the accident, I'd say that I've gotten to know Jace pretty well – well enough to know that he's also the kind of person who shovels my walks and the walks of Mrs. Branch, the elderly woman who lives on the other side of him, when it snows, without being asked. He calls Mrs. Branch every other day, too, to check on her and ask if she needs anything. He runs her errands if she can't find anyone else to help her out. And," Rennie added as the coup de grace, "he also has some of the best buns in town."
That last part caught Clair by surprise and made her laugh.
"Is that something the minister's sister is supposed to notice, let alone say?"
"How can I help but notice, and what's wrong with saying it?" the irreverent Rennie answered.
"Could it be you who's doing a little man shopping?" Clair said, turning the tables on her hostess and wanting her own curiosity satisfied once and for all about what might or might not be between Rennie and the handsome man next door.
"I suppose it sounds as if I'm the president of Jace's fan club, but I'm not," Rennie assured her so easily it had to be true. "Actually, I've kind of marveled at the fact that I'm not attracted to him. I mean, I like him, he's a stand-up guy and one of the most gorgeous accumulations of human flesh I've ever seen. I enjoy talking to him. I'm always glad for his help. But beyond that – zilch. Nada. No pitter-patter of my heart when I catch sight of him. No rushing of blood through my veins at the sound of his voice. No stars in my eyes when he crosses my mind. Nothing. No man-woman chemistry at all."
Relief washed through Clair so thoroughly that she almost deflated in her chair. It wasn't a good sign, and she knew it. It meant that it would have mattered if Rennie had said she was head-over-heels in love with Jace, and it shouldn't have.
And as if that fact wasn't alarming enough, Clair was also not happy to realize that everything Rennie had just said didn't happen to her with Jace, did happen to Clair.
But she tried not to think about it and instead, once more, yanked her focus back to her real purpose.
"So I guess he's just perfect?" she said dubiously.
"Were you looking for imperfections?" Rennie countered.
"No," Clair lied in a hurry. "It's just that he seems too good to be true."
"Oh, I wouldn't say that. I'm sure he lea
ves his dirty socks lying around or snores or picks his teeth at the table or something. But when it comes to character flaws, I haven't seen any evidence of them."
Which certainly wouldn't help in any kind of custody battle.
On the other hand, it was reassuring to know that she wasn't overlooking something. To know just what her competition's strengths were. To know what she was up against.
And, oh, boy, did she want to be up against him! Literally....
But that was an imperfection in her. An imperfection she needed to conquer.
She'd told Rennie that she wasn't interested in any kind of personal or romantic relationship with Jace, and she'd meant it. No matter who he was or how great or how incredible looking.
They had opposing goals, and she had better not forget it.
"Well, I'm glad to know that he's a decent man," Clair said.
But no matter how decent a man Jace was, her sights were set on only one male – Willy – and that was all there was to it.
So, thinking about Jace in terms of any personal or romantic relationship was out of bounds.
As out of bounds as kissing him had been....
But what was past was past and there was nothing she could do about that now. She could only work harder to curb her thoughts in the future and make sure that, under no circumstances whatsoever, did she kiss him again.
The problem was that, as she and Rennie started to clean their breakfast mess and returned to inconsequential chitchat, in the back of her mind Clair was reliving yet again that courtly little kiss Jace had bestowed the night before.
And to make matters worse, she was also counting how much longer it was till twelve forty-live when she got to see him again....
"No dot-or. Did it lasterday."
"Yes, doctor. And you didn't see him yesterday, you saw him ten days ago."
Clair, Jace and Willy were in Jace's truck again, on their way to Willy's doctor's appointment. Willy wasn't happy about it, and his chubby-cheeked little face was pinched into a scowl. Certainly he hadn't been thrilled to have Clair added to the mix when she'd arrived just as Jace was putting him in his car seat.
"No dot-or," the toddler repeated.
"I told you, we have to have your ears checked to make sure the infection went away," Jace explained calmly. "It won't lake long, it won't hurt, and if you're a good boy we'll go to the park afterward."
Clair was sitting in the center of the bench seat just as she had the day before on their way to and from Jace's family's ranch. Even though she'd been careful to keep as much distance between herself and Jace as she could, hearing the promise of a trip to the park spurred her to lean slightly toward him to say under her breath, "Isn't bribery bad form?"
He gave her a sideways glance and a crooked smile. "I like to think of it as a reward."
The doctor's office was on the ground floor of a three-story redbrick building that faced the town square. It looked like an old mansion, and when Clair mentioned that Jace confirmed it. It was the MolnerMansion, he informed her, donated to Elk Creek by one of the town's original founders and turned into a medical facility complete with doctor's office, dentist's office, a small out-patient surgical suite and a few hospital rooms that were only used in emergencies.
Jace parked in a lot adjacent to the building, and as Clair climbed down from the truck, he took Willy out of the car seat. But Willy was still not inclined to go willingly and had a mini sit-in right there on the tarmac. Jace merely bent over, picked him up and carried him in.
"No dot-or!" Willy was protesting once more as they went inside, and Clair was glad to see there weren't any other patients in the waiting room.
A nurse stood behind the reception desk, but she seemed to take no notice of the little boy's tantrum and merely showed them to an examining room, assuring them that the doctor would be in directly.
She was right. She'd barely closed the door behind herself before the doctor opened it to join them.
The doctor, Jace had explained on the way, was a man named Bax McDermot. Bax McDermot had only recently moved to town to be with the rest of the large McDermot clan – the family Jace's mother worked for.
But Clair didn't see any signs of social snobbery when the doctor entered the examining room, He and Jace were on a first-name basis as they shook hands like two old friends and exchanged some sports talk before Jace introduced her. The doctor greeted her warmly, too, and then tried to get down to business with Willy.
It was easier said than done.
Jace was beside the examining table where Willy stood leaning against him. But the moment the doctor's attention was focused on Willy he turned his back to him, clamped his arms around Jace's neck and climbed the big cowboy's body enough to hide his face behind Jace's neck.
"We have to take a look in those ears, Will," Bax McDermot said.
"No!" came the muffled reply from behind Jace's head.
To Clair, even just looking on, this was very embarrassing. Willy's negative reaction to her was one thing, but to act like that in a doctor's office was something else. And she didn't have the foggiest idea how it should be handled
Jace, on the other hand, seemed to take it in stride. He didn't lose his temper, didn't raise his voice, didn't even seem uncomfortable with the display of two-year-old defiance. He also didn't cajole or wheedle or beg the boy to behave – which Clair was inclined to do. Instead he was as relaxed as usual, kindly but firmly maneuvering Willy so that the doctor could look in his ears, coaching and assuring the child along the way until Bax McDermot pronounced Willy's infection completely gone.
And once again Clair was impressed by Jace.
But it also occurred to her that maybe the time she'd allotted to try to win Willy over could have a second use, too. Maybe she could also use it to learn from Jace. He was so adept with the boy that every minute with them could be an instruction in parenting if she paid close attention.
Well, she was paying close attention – just not to Jace's parenting technique. She was paying more attention to the way his jeans rode his hips and hugged that great rear end Rennie had remarked about earlier. More attention to the way his broad shoulders and muscular chest filled out the crisp beige Western shirt he wore.
But from that moment on, she vowed she was going to concentrate instead on how Jace dealt with Willy, so that if she did get to raise her nephew she would know what to do in difficult situations like the one in the doctor's office. She obviously had a lot to learn and she couldn't think of a better teacher than Jace.
If only she could keep her wandering thoughts in line.....
Even though Willy hadn't been particularly good, after the appointment Jace led the way to the play park. It was within walking distance of the medical building, and Clair refrained from pointing out that it hadn't worked as a bribe and that, instead, Jace was rewarding Willy's lack of cooperation.
But pointing that out might have caused Jace to cancel, and the end of the outing could well have ended her time with the two of them. And that wasn't what she wanted at all.
So she kept quiet and just went along.
The play park was actually the school playground, too, but since there were other preschool children there it clearly served the whole community.
With the ordeal of the doctor's visit behind him, Willy was his old self again and, as soon as they got near enough for him to safely be let loose, he ran on stubby legs to the swings, hollering for his "Unca Ace" to push him "reary, reary, high."
"Go ahead," Jace urged Clair. "Why don't you do it?"
Yet again she appreciated his generosity in stepping aside to allow her something that might cause her nephew to like her better.
But still Willy was not receptive. He complained that she didn't push him high enough and wanted his "Unca Ace" to do it, So after a few pushes she stepped aside and returned the honors to Jace.
That was pretty much how the afternoon went as Clair continued the struggle to make headway with Willy. The small bo
y still preferred Jace when it came to helping him climb the slide's ladder and the rungs on the monkey bars. He still preferred Jace when it came to the seesaw. And it was still only Jace he wanted with him in the sandbox.
At the end of the day they had a fast-food dinner at a drive-in hamburger joint, and Clair did manage to score a point or two by buying ice cream afterward. But back at home Willy once more banned her from his bath and climbed into Jace's lap for his bedtime story.
There was one thing different tonight, though. Once Willy was tucked in and Jace had kissed him goodnight, Clair summoned enough courage to bend over and give Willy a kiss of her own.
And Willy didn't protest.
Granted, he was nearly asleep, but it felt like a small victory to Clair just the same.
Then she and Jace stepped out of the little boy's room, and she was once again faced with the logical and natural conclusion to the evening.
And the desire for it not to end.
As they headed down the stairs, she silently ordered herself to say she was leaving, to say good-night. But somehow the words wouldn't take shape.
You're not here to be with Jace Brimley, she reminded herself. You're here for Willy. You're here to take Willy away from Jace Brimley. Spending time alone with him is the worst idea in the world.
"I'd better get going," she finally forced herself to say as they reached the entryway.
"You know you don't have to rush off. My bedtime isn't for a few hours yet."
It didn't help that his voice was like warm whisky seeping into her pores, lulling her, luring her and completely demolishing her already tenuous willpower.
"I wouldn't want to keep you from anything," she managed to say, but without much conviction.
"You wouldn't be keeping me from anything. And we could talk awhile. Get to know each other a little."
It was something they didn't do much of when Willy was awake because they were both paying attention to him. But the idea was very appealing now that Jace had presented it. Especially when Clair looked up at him, at the faint shadow of beard that had appeared as the day wore on, giving him a rough, rugged look that was so sexy....
Baby Be Mine Page 6
