Though Jenny expected another argument then, she’d finally given in. She was tempted to stick the card in her purse and leave it there, but Adam seemed so eager to buy things for Melissa. Knowing how much he’d grown to love the child, Jenny didn’t have the heart to completely deny him that pleasure.
Her arms loaded with packages, a smile on her glossed lips, Jenny entered the house through the back kitchen door from the garage. She dumped the packages on the kitchen table. She couldn’t wait to show the adorable garments to Adam, she thought with a smile. He got such a kick out of seeing Melissa dressed in ruffles and ribbons. Of course, she’d picked up a few rugged little playsuits, too.
She plucked a cute, lop-eared stuffed dog out of the pile and carried it with her as she went in search of Adam and Melissa. She expected to find them in the den. She did.
With her parents.
Jenny froze in the doorway, unable at first to believe her eyes. Her father and mother sat side by side on the couch, Adam in the recliner closest to them. Melissa sat in her grandmother’s lap, babbling and looking pleased with all the attention she was currently receiving.
Adam was the first to notice that Jenny had joined them. He rose immediately, moving toward her with an outstretched hand. His eyes held a mixed message—apology, anxiety and an unmistakable demand for her to behave herself.
Looking into those dark eyes that had become so dearly familiar to her in the past months, Jenny felt her heart break.
She’d trusted him. And he—like the men before him—had callously betrayed that trust.
She took a deep breath, made a mental vow that she would get through this without falling apart and squared her shoulders. Ignoring Adam’s extended hand, she stepped past him without a word to him.
“Mother. Dad. This is a surprise,” she said, and she was pleased that her voice sounded cool and composed.
Esther Newcomb, a thin, wispy-gray-haired, inexpensively dressed woman in her sixties, looked up quickly. Behind her plastic-framed bifocals, her once-dark eyes—now faded to a soft chocolate—were damp with unshed tears. “Jenny,” she said, her own voice tremulous.
Herb Newcomb, reverend and rental property owner, stood to greet his daughter. Slim except for a round paunch of a tummy, only a couple of inches taller than Jenny, almost entirely bald other than a half circle of steel gray curls, he wore a shiny brown suit, a white shirt and a tie that Jenny remembered giving him for Father’s Day at least a decade earlier. His lined face was set in an unreadable expression, but he spoke affably enough. “Hello, Jennifer. You’re looking well.”
She swallowed, making no move to touch him. “So are you.”
The moment was painfully awkward. Herb cleared his throat. “We know you weren’t expecting us. Dr. Stone called and explained your situation to us. He thought it was time we put the past behind us and made amends in our family. Your mother and I agreed.”
Jenny flicked an angry glance at Adam. “Dr. Stone thought that, did he?”
Adam didn’t wince at her tone, but she saw the flicker of his eyelashes before she turned away from him.
“I see you’ve met my daughter,” she commented.
“She’s so beautiful,” Esther said, clutching her granddaughter’s tiny hand. “I can’t get over how much she looks like you did at this age.”
“She has your mother’s eyes,” Herb said, looking toward the child.
“Yes, I know.” Jenny sighed. “Sit down, Dad.”
He waited until she was seated in a nearby chair before he settled on the edge of the couch. “Why didn’t you tell us about the baby?” he asked, getting straight to the point.
“I didn’t think you would want to know,” Jenny replied bluntly.
Her mother made a choked sound of protest.
Herb only nodded. “I can understand why you would have thought that. But you were wrong. We’re your parents, Jennifer. We love you. We would never have turned you away if you’d come to us for help.”
“I didn’t need your help,” Jenny replied immediately. She didn’t like the image his words evoked—her getting herself in trouble and crawling to them to take care of it. Maybe she hadn’t gotten by completely on her own these past months, but she’d done her best to earn her way.
She’d thought she’d finally found a place for herself. She’d been wrong again. But damned if she would admit it now, in front of her parents.
“I know there have been hard feelings between us in the past,” Herb conceded, obviously trying to meet her more than halfway. “I know I’ve been at fault in many ways. It was hard for me to accept that you’re a grown woman, with the right to make your own choices. I can’t honestly say I approve of all the choices you’ve made—”
He glanced at Adam, and Jenny wondered how much her father suspected about her present living arrangements.
But then Herb sighed almost imperceptibly and continued, “But I will concede that your decisions should be your own. As your mother has pointed out, I’ve been stubborn and inflexible and I almost lost my daughter and the chance to know my granddaughter because of it. I’m sorry, Jennifer. I’d like for you to give me—give us—another chance. I can love you for who you are—if you’re willing to do the same for me.”
Jenny’s throat tightened. There had been so many times she’d dreamed of hearing her father say those words. It was a bittersweet pleasure to hear them from him now. Her emotions were so battered by Adam’s betrayal that she could hardly deal with anything else at the moment.
“Please, Jenny,” Esther said quietly. “Forgive us. We love you.”
Jenny closed her eyes for a moment, then took a deep breath and looked at her parents again. The years were taking a toll on them. Her father had once seemed so big and intimidating, so all-powerful. Now he looked old and a bit frail. And—for the first time in her memory—unsure of himself.
She knew that Adam was watching her very closely, waiting to see how she would respond to her parents’ entreaties. She could almost feel his gaze on her.
She couldn’t look at him.
“I’ll forgive you,” she told her parents, “if you’ll forgive me. I know I’ve been difficult for you to understand. And I know I’ve disappointed you in many ways. But I’ve never stopped loving you. Either of you.”
Esther caught her breath in a sob.
Herb exhaled deeply, as though he’d been holding his breath.
Adam murmured something that might have been approval.
As though aware that she wasn’t the center of attention at the moment, Melissa crowed and pumped her arms.
Her ploy succeeded. Everyone immediately turned to admire her. Both Herb and Esther made it clear that they were claiming their granddaughter. Jenny wondered if she’d ever really doubted that they would.
She would have called them eventually, she realized now. When she was ready.
Adam had had no right to make that decision for her, no matter how well it had turned out.
“Jenny.” Herb glanced from her to Adam, as though aware of the tension between them. “I hope you know that you still have a home with us. We would love for you and Melissa to go back to Texas with us.”
Adam moved restlessly in his chair, and started to speak. Jenny sensed that he bit the words back with an effort.
Still looking at her father, she shook her head. “Thank you, but no. I need to be on my own now, Dad. I’ll come to visit, of course. I want Melissa to know her grandparents. But I have to make my own way.
“As a matter of fact,” she added deliberately, “I’ve been taking some classes and I’m looking for a new job. I’ll be moving into a place of my own soon.”
“What the—”
Jenny spoke over Adam’s exclamation. “I’m not even sure I’ll be staying in Arkansas,” she added. “But I’ll always let you know how to reach me from now on. We won’t lose touch again,” she promised her parents.
That seemed to satisfy them.
* * *
; “We have to catch a plane back home soon,” Herb said after another half hour of catching up.
“You aren’t staying over for a few days?” Jenny asked, a bit disappointed. Now that she had been reconciled with her parents, she didn’t want to tell them goodbye again so soon.
“I can’t stay,” Herb answered. “I have to preach in the morning. Are you sure you can’t return with us? At least for a few weeks?”
“I can’t,” Jenny answered gently. “But soon.”
“We’ll hold you to that.”
They left twenty minutes later. Melissa was getting sleepy, rubbing her eyes and clutching her new stuffed dog beneath her nodding head.
“I’ll put her down for a nap,” Adam told Jenny, taking the baby with a familiar ease that she knew her parents noticed. “You see your folks off. Melissa and I will be fine until you get back.”
She nodded, still not meeting his eyes. Her parents thanked Adam for calling them, kissed the baby, then reluctantly said goodbye to her.
The Newcombs had planned to take a cab back to the airport, the way they’d arrived. Jenny wouldn’t hear of it. She insisted on driving them.
They talked about Adam during the twenty-minute ride. They wanted to know how Jenny had met him. Apparently he’d told them little more than that he employed Jenny as his housekeeper and that he’d heard about her family estrangement and had wanted to help them make amends, for Jenny’s and Melissa’s sake.
Jenny briefly explained about the car accident that had brought her to Adam’s attention—only three months earlier. It seemed so much longer.
How could her life have changed so drastically in only three months?
“He’s obviously very fond of you and Melissa,” Esther said tentatively. “I had the impression that he has become more to you than an employer.”
Jenny shook her head. “He’s been a good friend to us,” she said, deliberately keeping all emotion out of her voice. “But that’s all there could ever be between us. I’ll be moving out soon, living on my own. As busy as Adam is, I doubt that I’ll see him much after that.”
It took all the strength she had just to say it. Heaven only knew how she’d survive actually leaving him. But somehow, she would find the strength.
She had no choice.
Her parents’ flight was called only minutes after Jenny delivered them to the gate. She embraced both of them, her eyes filling with tears. “I love you,” she said. “Thank you for coming.”
“We love you, too,” Herb said, his own eyes suspiciously bright. “You’ll call us if you need us?”
“I’ll call.”
“God be with you, darling,” Esther said, clinging to Jenny as long as she could before her husband gently pulled her away. “Give Melissa a kiss for me tonight.”
“I will.” Jenny dabbed at her eyes and waved her parents out of sight.
She cried as she made the lonely drive back to Adam’s house. She wasn’t crying over the goodbyes that had just been said—but the one that still lay ahead.
That one would be even harder, because it would be permanent.
* * *
Adam hardly gave her a chance to get back in the door before he confronted her. “Why the hell did you tell them that you were moving out?” he demanded.
She’d prepared herself for this before she’d gotten out of her car. She’d carefully dried her tears, squared her shoulders and made a firm vow that she would not yell, would not cry, would not let him see that she was dying inside.
“I told them the truth,” she said coolly. “Must I remind you yet again that this job was only temporary from the beginning?”
He stared at her as though she’d lost her mind. “Who’s talking about a job? I’m talking about us!”
“There is no ‘us,’ Adam. Whatever we might have had—it’s over.”
His eyes narrowed. At any other time, she might have been intimidated by the ominous look that hardened his dark face. As it was, she was too miserable and determined to feel anything more.
“What do you mean it’s over?” he asked, his voice quiet. Silky. Dangerous.
“Just what I said. Over. I’ll be moving out tonight.”
“The hell you will.”
She tossed her head. “You can’t stop me.”
Adam threw up his hands, visibly frustrated. “Damn it, Jenny, why are you doing this?”
He didn’t even know. That hurt her as badly as anything he’d done yet.
Sadly she shook her head. “I just think it’s for the best, Adam,” she said softly. “Please, don’t fight me on this. Just let me go.”
“I’ll be damned if I will.” He drew a quick, sharp breath. “Was it something your parents said during the drive to the airport? Does it bother them that we’ve been living together without being married? I mean, I understand why they’d feel that way—and they’re probably right. We should be married. Actually I’ve been meaning to suggest that soon, anyway. It would be much better for you and the baby if we—”
That did it. She forgot her lofty intentions to stay calm and cool and rational.
She hadn’t been this furious since—since—
She’d never been this furious.
She hit him. Doubled her fist and punched his arm as hard as she could. And then she planted one small hand against his broad, hard chest and shoved.
“How dare you?” she yelled, and there was nothing calm, cool, or rational about her voice. “You are the most arrogant, the most obtuse, the most infuriating, the most thickheaded male I’ve ever run across in my life. And let me tell you, I’ve encountered some real pigs, but you, Dr. Adam Stone, take the cake!”
Still stumbling from her not-insignificant shove, Adam quickly righted himself and planted his fists on his hips. Now he really was looking at her as though she were insane!
“Jenny—”
“Be quiet! I refuse to listen to any more of your pompous lectures about how you know what’s best for me. You think you’re so damn perfect, so damn right about everything, but this time you were wrong, Adam. You couldn’t have been more wrong,” she added bitterly.
“Because I called your parents without telling you? Is that what this tantrum is all about?”
She hadn’t thought she could get any angrier. His incredulous expression proved her wrong.
“You had no right to call them!” she shouted, her cheeks wet with wrathful tears. “How could you do that? How could you interfere in my family without even bothering to discuss it with me? How could you hurt me like that, when I trusted you?”
“Jenny—”
“As for your oh-so-gracious offer of marriage—”
She told him exactly what he could do with it.
“This is ridiculous,” Adam said, his own voice cold, aggrieved. “Your rift with your parents was hurting you. I couldn’t stand to see you hurting, so I did something about it. Are you going to try to tell me that you’re sorry you’ve made up with them?”
“I’m not going to tell you anything,” she muttered, not caring that she sounded childish. “It’s none of your business.”
“Of all the—” He shoved a hand through his hair. “Look, maybe we’d both better cool off before we say anything we’ll both regret.”
She only glared at him, still so upset she was trembling.
“I’m going out for a while,” he said abruptly. “If I stay, we’ll only yell at each other some more. While I’m gone, you can calm down and think about this. Everything I did was for you, Jenny. And I meant what I said about getting married. I certainly wasn’t trying to patronize or offend you.”
She remained stubbornly silent.
Adam hesitated, then moved as though to touch her.
“Jenny—”
She flinched.
He dropped his hands. “I’ll be back later,” he said, his face hard.
She watched him go through tear-filled eyes.
She knew she wouldn’t be there when he returned.
�
��Goodbye, Adam,” she whispered when the door slammed behind him.
* * *
Adam figured three hours was plenty long enough for Jenny to calm down.
Women, he thought, try to please them and look what happens. A guy just can’t win for losing.
He shook his head as he parked his car in front of the house. He’d put it into the garage later, after he and Jenny had settled this.
He climbed the front steps with his jaw set in determination. He’d thought a lot about what Jenny had said, and he conceded that she had the right to be angry that he’d taken her family matters into his own hands. He’d half expected her to be annoyed by what she’d always called his arrogance.
But surely by now she could see that he’d had her best interests at heart. And hadn’t it all worked out for the best? He’d seen the tentative joy in her eyes when her father had apologized so sincerely to her. He didn’t think Jenny and her parents would ever fully understand each other—they were so very different, not unlike him and his own mother—but it was obvious they loved each other. It was ridiculous for them to let foolish pride stand between them.
Surely Jenny would admit that now.
As for his marriage proposal—he grimaced. Okay, so he’d handled that badly. A woman wanted candles and flowers and all that folderol when a man proposed. He should have known better than to just blurt it out during a quarrel that way.
His only excuse was that he’d never proposed to anyone before.
There’d never been another woman he’d wanted as his wife.
“Jenny?” he called out as he stepped into his foyer. There was no answer.
“Jenny?” He headed for the kitchen, assuming she was in there, making dinner.
But the kitchen was empty, the stove cold. As far as he could tell, nothing had been prepared for dinner.
He began to frown.
She had to be upstairs with Melissa. Suddenly impatient, he sprinted for the staircase, taking the stairs two at a time. “Jenny?”
Melissa’s room was unoccupied. The crib sat silent and empty, the colorful mobile dangling above it. Melissa’s favorite stuffed toys, which usually lined the windowsill near the crib where she could see them, were gone.
A Home for Adam Page 19
