Baby Be Mine

by Victoria Pade

  "It must not be easy, though," she said, "trying to recover from years of failures."

  "No, it isn't easy. By the time my father died we were on the brink of losin' everything. But we've brought the ranch back from that point, and now we're lookin' toward the day when we can expand. We do all the work among the five of us rather than hirin' any help and that lets us save."

  "And the neighbors? Are they willing to sell when you get the money together?"

  "For the most part. There are a few acres that didn't go to the Hellers or the McDermots or the Culhanes, and the folks who own those aren't too willing to give ‘em up. But those three have told us that they looked at their purchases as collateral for loans to the family and they'll let us have back whatever we can afford along the way."

  “That's really nice of them."

  “My father wouldn't have seen it like that. He'd have said they were lookin' down their noses at us, that they were treatin' us like charity cases, takin' pity on us. He probably wouldn't have accepted the land back at all.”

  “How do you and your brothers feel about it?"

  That creased his brow and darkened his expression to such a degree that Clair was afraid she'd ventured too far.

  But after a moment he admitted, "It's tough on the pride. We all grew up and went to school with the Culhanes and the Hellers. Some of us found better fiends among them than others of us did. But it isn’t easy when one minute you're in class with them, horsin' around on an even field, and then school gets out and they're hittin' the Dairy King to flirt with the girls while you're goin' to work for their father alongside yours."

  “That would be hard for teenage kids," Clair commiserated.

  “Plus there's the small-town element. Everybody knows everybody else's business. So even if it didn't come from the Hellers or the Culhanes or a lot of folks around here, there was still that contingent that would talk and ridicule. More than once I've overheard some nasty remark about my father's latest 'fool-headed scheme.' That's not easy to handle anytime, but definitely not when you're a kid. My brother Devon – "

  "He's the one who's a veterinarian?" Clair interrupted to make sure she was remembering right.

  "Yeah, the vet," Jace confirmed. "Devon always thought we should sell out completely and start over somewhere else."

  "Is that why he isn't here now?"

  "Partially. There's more to it than that – Devon and Scott had a pretty bad falling out over a woman, and that's why he left for good about a year ago. But, yeah, feeling like Elk Creek's poor relatives didn't help."

  "And what about you? Did you have to swallow your pride a lot or did you find friends among the Hellers and the Culhanes?"

  "Both. I consider Jackson Heller and Clint Culhane good friends, but I've swallowed my fair share of pride, too," he said. Then, after a moment he added gravely, "I'll tell you one thing, though, I'll like it when my mother quits workin' as a housekeeper."

  "She's unhappy working for the McDermots?" It seemed odd to refer to people she hadn't even met as if she knew them, but she wanted Jace to know she'd listened to the things he'd said along the way and remembered them – one of them being that his mother worked for the McDermot family.

  "No, she's not unhappy working for them," Jace answered. “Far from it. They treat her like one of the family, and she feels comfortable enough with them to give 'em what-for just the same as she does me and my brothers. But she's not young anymore, and it's tiring to take care of two households. I want to see her only taking care of her own. But we can't even mention her quittin' without gettin' our heads bit off. She won't believe we don't need the money she brings in anymore."

  "Maybe she likes feeling useful and having the independence that earning her own money gives her," Clair suggested.

  "That's what she says."

  "But you don't believe it?"

  They were nearly in town again, since they'd gone directly from the last hay drop to the main road back to Elk Creek. As Jace slowed to the lower speed limit he said, "I think she just says it so we won't feel bad about her workin' and so we don't have to pick up any more of the slack money wise."

  “Or she could mean it. Working could make her feel productive and needed. Or are you a Neanderthal who doesn't think a woman should work outside the in home?'1

  That made him smile. "A Neanderthal?" Clair raised a challenging eyebrow at him but merely waited for him to answer her question.

  “No, I'm not a Neanderthal who thinks women shouldn't work outside their home. I do think, though, that when a woman gets to the point of needin' to soak her feet and sit with a heating pad on her back every night she's doin' too much."

  “But before that it's okay if she works?"

  “Sure. But I also think that if it can be done, financially, it's good for mothers to stay home with their kids. If that makes me a Neanderthal then pass the club and point me to the woolly mammoth."

  Jace in loincloth?

  Clair fought the instant mental image and the increase in her pulse rate that went with it.

  "What if the mother has a career she loves and she wants to work?"

  "Then, if it's financially possible, I think the dad should stay home with the kids."

  "So we're back to that anti-institutional thing again."

  Jace merely smiled at her as he pulled into the driveway and came to a stop. "Guess so," he said as if he'd enjoyed the debate but hadn't changed any of his views because of it.

  "You're hopeless," she said on a frustrated sigh.

  That stretched his smile into a grin and made Clair wonder how much of his taking the line of opposition was just to get her goat.

  He turned off the engine and, rather than open the door the way Clair expected him to, he pivoted in her direction, reached one arm along the back of the seat and the other across the dashboard, effectively enclosing her in the U of his big body. "Want to argue politics and religion now?" he asked with that devilish glint in his denim-blue eyes.

  "Why? There's no changing your mind about anything."

  He leaned forward enough to brush her ear again with his breath. "But it's so much fun tryin'."

  "Says who?"

  "I'm enjoyin' myself."

  Okay, so she was enjoying herself, too. But she wasn't going to concede that point, either.

  Instead she nodded in the direction of the house next door. "I should get over there and help Rennie with dinner."

  Jace didn't budge. He just went on watching her, smiling a Cheshire Cat smile now. "I almost forgot we were all havin' dinner there tonight."

  "So Willy can play with Rennie's niece while Rennie is baby-sitting her."

  “And here I was wastin' time tryin' to think of what you and I could do tonight."

  He made that sound very lascivious, and Clair wasn't sure if he was teasing her or not. "Well now you don't have to. We're spending the evening with Rennie and her niece."

  She hadn't intended for that to sound so couple-ish but that's the way it had come out.

  Jace didn't seem to mind. He didn't even comment on it. "And afterward maybe you can read the bedtime story tonight," he added, but again with a note in his voice that hinted at something more intimate.

  Clair tried to ignore the tingle of delight his tone created in her. She tried just to concentrate on the fact that she was being automatically included in the bed-time ritual and wouldn't have to come up with a way to get herself invited from Rennie's house back to Jace’s at the end of the evening as she'd thought she might,

  “I’d like that," she told him, referring to his offer to let her read the story. "But I really should get over there and help now," she added since he still hadn't moved and, in tact, seemed to be keeping her captive between the wall of his muscular male body and Willy asleep in the car seat.

  Clair wasn't exactly sure why, though, and what flashed through her mind was that maybe he was going to kiss her again.

  But would he do that right out in the open? In broad – if wan
ing – daylight? On the driveway where anyone could see them?

  She doubted it. But she was also surprised to find that she wouldn't mind if he did. That she wouldn't mind where he kissed her just so long as he kissed her....

  But instead, after a slight chuckle, Jace turned around, opened the door and got out of the truck, dashing her hopes just that quickly.

  "Okay, fine, desert us," he joked, holding out a hand to her as if she might need help getting out behind him.

  And even though they both knew she didn't, Clair slipped her hand into his, anyway, just so she could finally feel his skin against hers.

  Warm, leathery-soft, strong – just the way she'd imagined it would be when she was lying in her bed the last few nights, thinking about how his hand might feel on the rest of her body.

  He kept hold of her even after she was out of the truck. And, in fact, he caught and held her eyes, too, delving into them, setting off sparks that seemed out of proportion to such a simple thing.

  Then he let go of her. Of her hand. Of her gaze. Releasing her like a tractor beam turned off.

  “Guess I'll see you at Rennie's in an hour or so," he said, and the only indication that they might have shared a moment of quiet intimacy was in the deeper, huskier timbre of his voice.

  “Yeah, I think she's planning to eat around six," Clair responded mindlessly, trying to regain her bearings.

  But even as she forced her feet to move to take her across the yards to the house next door, Clair marveled at the pure power the man could so easily wield over her and her own lack of ability to resist it. To resist him.

  She'd never had that problem before. Not even with Lyle. Not with any man.

  But then, something was different about Jace all the way around. Different about the things he brought to life in her.

  The plain and honest truth of the matter was that it would have been so much easier to resist his power over her, to resist the man himself, if only she didn't like him so much....

  Chapter Six

  “Do you baby-sit every Friday night?” Clair asked as she and Rennie were putting the finishing touches on dinner and waiting for Jace and Willy to arrive.

  "I wouldn't if I had a hot date or something. But that hasn't happened since I've moved to Elk Creek so, yes, I've been baby-sitting every Friday night. I don't mind, though. I enjoy our sleep-overs as much as Lissa does, so it gives me something to look forward to ail week. And then my brother and his wife get a date night, which is good for them, too."

  Rennie was filling glasses with ice and water, and when she was finished and putting them on a tray, she said, "Speaking of Lissa, I'd better check on her and see if she's still keeping busy with her new play kitchen – my brother will shoot me when he finds out I bought her such an elaborate present for no reason at all. He thinks I spoil her. But what else are aunts for?"

  They're for raising their nieces or nephews if the parents can't, Clair thought.

  But as Rennie picked up the tray of water glasses and left the room, Clair's mind wandered beyond her hostess's parting comment and her own secret motive for being in Elk Creek to Rennie's earlier reference to a date night.

  A date night – what an appealing idea.

  A date night with Jace....

  She was crazy about Willy. Even if he wasn't so crazy about her and had only advanced to the point of tolerating her. She loved watching him when he was busy absorbed with something. She loved seeing how his mind worked. She loved the way he talked and the funny things he said and did. Her commitment to winning him over and taking him with her back to Chicago was only strengthening with every minute she spent with him and saw more and more of Kristin in him.

  But the thought of leaving him with a sitter for just a few hours and going out alone with Jace, maybe for a candlelit dinner and dancing afterward? Oh, what she wouldn’t give for that guilty pleasure!

  And she did feel guilty about it. The last thing she should be thinking, about was a man. She'd just come out of a relationship that hadn't been good for her, a relationship in which she'd had to make all the compromises. She certainly didn't need the complications of another relationship – one that would be even more complicated than the last. Especially not when her real focus was on Willy.

  Which meant that she shouldn't be pining for Jace or fantasizing about a date with him.

  But it seemed as if the harder she tried not to pine for him, the more she pined for him, anyway. And the fantasies? Fantasizing about a date was by far the least of her fantasies about Jace!

  She knew the best thing that could happen was that Willy would suddenly fall in love with her and she could use his attachment to her as the reason why she should be the one to raise him. Then she could be upfront with Jace and get back to Chicago. Out of harm's way.

  But since that didn't seem about to happen, she really needed to exercise some restraint, she told herself.

  For instance, she had to stop thinking about him kissing her, longing for him to kiss her, every time he barely looked at her – as he had today in the truck when they'd returned from the ranch.

  But when a faint sound from the living room made her perk up and listen intently to hear if Jace and Willy were arriving, and as her pulse raced and every ounce of her went on the alert at the possibility, she knew that she was at odds with herself. Because no matter what she thought intellectually, no matter what lessons she'd just learned from Lyle, emotionally she was so vulnerable to Jace that a part of her seemed to have a whole different agenda, an agenda that made her feel like a helpless victim to her attraction to him.

  And nothing she did or thought or decided or vowed seemed to help.

  "Lissa's fine," Rennie said, interrupting Clair's musings as she came back into the small, pale-blue kitchen.

  Apparently the sound Clair had thought she heard wasn't Jace and Willy arriving, which left her with two reactions – relief that she didn't have to deal with the unwanted attraction to Jace yet, and disappointment that he wasn't there.

  She really was at odds with herself. Then Rennie seemed to take a second look at Clair and said, "I just noticed how nice you look. You're all dressed up."

  “Well, this is a dinner party," Clair demurred, hoping that seemed like enough of an excuse.

  “A dinner party for two-year-olds," Rennie qualified with a laugh.

  Clair just hoped her hostess didn't guess that it hadn’t been the two year olds she'd been thinking about when she'd taken a second shower after leaving Jace in the driveway. When she'd washed her hair and applied her makeup. Or that it had been with Jace in mind that she’d pulled her hair back in tiny, glittery clips she’d positioned around her head like a headband and opted to wear her tightest black, stretchy capri pants and split V-necked yellow lycra T-shirt and the strappy three inch heels that went with them.

  The doorbell rang just then and, when Rennie left the kitchen again to answer it, Clair followed behind with the now full bread basket. This time she wasn't just hearing things, she knew Jace and Willy were there, so she hurried to set the basket on the dining room table and went the rest of the way into the living room to be there when Rennie let them in.

  "Wow! Looks like I'm underdressed tonight," Rennie said almost the moment she opened the door.

  Clair came up beside her as Jace and Willy stepped across the threshold, and it was apparent that she wasn't the only one who had seized the opportunity to spruce up for tonight.

  Jace had changed into a pair of black jeans and a matching black Western shirt with a bright splash of red, yellow and orange Aztec design in a stripe across his broad chest. Even Willy was in dressier-than-usual corduroy jeans and a knit shirt that buttoned up the front.

  Rennie was right, in her everyday jeans and simple crew-neck sweater, she did seem underdressed. Or maybe the rest of them were overdressed.

  "Hi, guys," Clair greeted. She wasn't sure where the possessiveness in her tone had come from, but there it was, anyway.

  Jace returned her
hello, his blue eyes giving her a quick once-over before an appreciative, secret sort of smile lifted one corner of his mouth.

  He was freshly shaven, too. And he smelled of just enough aftershave to make Clair's head go light when she caught a whiff of it.

  "Lissa? Come say hi to our guests," Rennie called to where her little towheaded niece was busy with a plastic rendition of a kitchen, complete with pots, pans and play food to cook, serve and clean up after.

  Only when Rennie drew her attention specifically did thie toddler glance up. But when she did, her big brown eyes lit up with joy and she made a beeline for the rest of the group.

  “Jace!" she nearly shrieked like an obsessed fan who had spotted a rock star.

  "Hi, Miss Lissa," Jace responded warmly while Rennie whispered to Clair, "Lissa has a little crush on Jace."

  A little crush? Clair thought the crush was bigger than the child as Lissa clamped her arms around his leg and pressed her cheek to the outside of his thigh m utter bliss.

  So, okay, maybe flinging her arms around Jace with uninhibited abandon was something Clair might have liked to do herself if she'd had the chance. But witnessing Lissa's response to him still made her feel awkward.

  Apparently, it did the same thing to Rennie because she laughed with some embarrassment and tried to urge her niece away. "Come on, Lissa, let go of Jace. He can’t walk with you hanging on to his leg."

  "It's okay. Everybody should have such a warm welcome," Jace said graciously, taking it in his stride.

  He bent over to pick up. the tiny girl and held her on his hip the way he usually held Willy. "It's good to see you, too, Lissa," he said, making light of the child’s show of affection.

  Lissa said something Clair didn't understand at all but Jace seemed to because when the child pointed to her new play set he said, "Excuse me, ladies, I'm being given the grand tour." Then he took Lissa and Willy to the toy kitchen.

  "We'll get dinner on the table," Rennie suggested.

  Jace was still the guest of honor at Lissa's private party when the spaghetti, meatballs and salad were on the table, and he had to coax both kids to come eat since Willy was as enamored of the play set as Lissa was.