Until that point, he had never seen a family as happy and content and lively as the Lockharts. He had envied Jenna her family’s closeness, their infectious sense of fun and spontaneity, and wished he could have shared the same with his own folks. Which was maybe why he was back here now. To see if he couldn’t get for Alex what the Lockharts and the McCabes, and all the other close-knit families in Laramie seemed to take for granted. The overwhelming sense of love and belonging. The knowledge that things were the way they were supposed to be. The people here had dreams and goals. The difference was the dreams didn’t consume them, or force families into second place. Here, kids counted as much as—maybe more than—any business deals or acquisitions. It hadn’t been that way in the high-class neighborhood of Dallas where he had grown up.
Jenna’s eyes softened in recollection as Jake studied her.
“You remember that afternoon, too,” Jake guessed finally, liking the curve of her lips.
“Of course.” Jenna looked suddenly self-conscious. “It wasn’t every day a great-looking teenage boy came to Laramie in a long black limousine.”
Jake winced, recalling the stares his folks’ limo had always gotten. It wasn’t the kind of attention Jake had welcomed, then or now. Although he knew why his parents had insisted upon it. It had been to set him apart, keep the locals at arm’s length.
“My parents never did know when to scale it back,” Jake remarked dryly, remembering how much fun it had been to socialize here, hanging out at the Armadillo and the Dairy Queen, and going riding at the McCabe Ranch. Even the twice-weekly summer dances at the Laramie Community Center had been a lot of fun.
“Which is why you have Clara driving Alex around in a truck instead of a limo,” Jenna guessed.
“I want her to have as normal a life as possible,” Jake said. One of these days his daughter would realize she stood to inherit a good deal of wealth. The kind that could rob you of your ambition and humanity, if you weren’t careful. Jake didn’t want Alex thinking she was better than anyone else because of it, because it simply wasn’t true. If anything, wealth the size of theirs was a handicap. Jake turned to Jenna and confided seriously, “I want Alex to have a happy childhood, full of family and friends and pets and normal everyday things. I don’t want her growing up in a high-rise, or living behind the walls of a gated community, either. That’s why I built the ranch and brought her back to Laramie. So she can have the kind of happy-go-lucky childhood every kid deserves.” The kind he hadn’t had, much as his parents had loved him—and still did.
Jenna nodded her approval. “That’s good,” she replied, her eyes serious. “It’s important Alex be allowed to enjoy her childhood as much as possible and not be forced to grow up too fast.”
“Like you did?” Jake asked compassionately. The death of Jenna’s parents had nearly destroyed all four sisters. Had they not had each other, he wasn’t sure how they would have gotten through it.
Pain flickered in Jenna’s blue eyes, making him want to hold her in his arms and never let her go. Only the knowledge of how such a move would likely be received kept him from doing it. Jenna didn’t want his pity, or anyone else’s. Never had, never would.
“I don’t deny my parents’ death changed everything for me—for all of us—but we survived,” Jenna said stiffly, turning away. “Just like you will survive this battle with Alex over wearing a dress.”
“Is that what you think it is—a contest of wills?” Jake asked as he watched Jenna uncurl from the sofa and bend to slip her sandals back on. Her bare feet were pretty and feminine, her toenails polished a soft and sexy pale pink.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Jenna stood and, slipping her hands into the pockets of her long, swirling turquoise skirt, began to pace.
Feeling restless, Jake stood too and stretched. “It would be except she’s never been a particularly difficult child. Until now. Over this.” Jake sauntered to Jenna’s side, achingly aware how pretty she looked in the fading evening light. He studied Jenna’s upturned face. “Do you have any thoughts on why she might have taken this stand—having been a little girl once yourself?”
Jenna shrugged her slender shoulders, the action lifting her breasts against the soft cotton of her blouse. “Maybe she realizes how vitally important it is for you to suddenly get her into a dress, and she’s worried about it,” Jenna supposed quietly. “Maybe you should just level with her, tell her how much this will mean to Melinda.”
“No,” Jake said stonily, not about to have Alex molding her personality in an endless effort to please people. “I told you before I don’t want her under that kind of pressure.”
Jenna looked at him as if he just didn’t get it. “So instead you’re just behaving mysteriously.”
Jake grinned. He liked sparring with Jenna. Maybe because she was the one woman who refused to let him get away with anything. “That’s a man’s perogative. All women know we men don’t make any sense, and vice versa, right?”
Jenna rolled her eyes at his teasing tone.
“Besides,” Jake continued earnestly, moving close enough to inhale Jenna’s perfume, “maybe Alex will get so into this tea-party stuff she’ll end up just wanting to wear a dress. And not just denim, but something really frilly.” At least that’s what he was hoping.
Jenna grinned. “That’s what I’m bargaining on, cowboy. Meantime,” she shaped her thumb and index finger in a sassy L and angled both at his chest, “you’ve got to figure out what you’re going to do with the pets for the night.” As if on cue, in the distance, Buster began to whimper, signaling his need to go out back.
Jake and Jenna rushed to the back porch, lest Buster increase his carrying-on and wake Alex. Jake slanted a glance at Jenna as he followed her. “I can’t just leave them on the back porch in their crates?”
Jenna shook her head as she knelt down to let Buster out of his crate and led him to the back door, into the yard. As soon as he hit the grass, he began running and sniffing. But instead of getting right down to business, he snatched a twig off the ground and ran off with it clenched between his teeth. Grinning, Jenna watched as Buster trotted back and forth, tossing his little blond head and showing off his prize. “Miss Kitty can spend the night in the laundry room, with her water dish and litter pan. All you have to do is leave a night-light on for her and shut the door so she can’t get out and roam the house. She’ll be fine until breakfast. Depending on how you want to house-train Buster, it gets a little more complicated. He is going to need at least two, maybe three more ‘backyard’ breaks before morning. That is, if you want to train him to relieve himself only outside. If you want to try and paper-train him inside, you could confine him to a bathroom with newspaper on the floor. And then clean up in the morning.”
Jake made a face as he considered that. “I’d rather not have to mess with newspapers at all.”
Jenna accepted his decision enthusiastically. “Crate-training it is, then. All you have to do is confine Buster in his crate most of the time. Then every three or four hours, you take him out to the backyard, let him do his stuff, play with him for thirty minutes indoors, or as long as you want outdoors, then put him back in his crate. Buster will quickly get the idea that his crate is a safe good place to be—which will help you and Alex immensely when you travel with him—and that the outdoors is where he should be doing his business.”
That sounded simple enough, Jake thought, as dusk descended around them like a soft warm blanket. “He won’t soil his crate?”
Crossing her legs at the ankles, Jenna leaned against a nearby tree. “Not if he can help it. Dogs are den animals who keep their quarters clean by nature.”
Jake tucked an errant strand of red-gold hair behind Jenna’s ear, wishing that the idea of staying so close to Jenna, of perhaps even kissing her again, carrying her to his bed and making wild passionate love to her was a little less appealing. He was supposed to be getting her to trust him again. She would never trust him if all he ever did was put the moves on her.
“How will I know when Buster needs to go out tonight?” Jake asked.
Jenna leaned back against the trunk of the shade tree, getting all the more comfortable. She didn’t seem to mind it was beginning to get dark around them.
“He’ll whine, the way he just did.”
Jake gave her a level look, trying not to notice how thick and velvety her lashes were, or how well they framed her clear blue eyes. “What if he whines and I take him out to the backyard and he doesn’t go?”
Jenna shrugged and cast a supervisory glance at Buster, who was now busy moving in circles and sniffing the grass. Jenna moved restlessly away from the base of the tree, straightening her spine, and inundating Jake with the clean floral scent of her hair and skin. “Then put him back in his crate for a while—half an hour, an hour—take him back out and give him another chance to go.”
Jake swallowed and ignored the feelings of desire generated by her closeness. “It sounds complicated,” he said. Maybe too complicated.
Jenna gave him a droll look and stepped away from the tree altogether. “I’m sure you can handle it.”
Jake followed her out onto the unshaded part of the lawn. “You’re really going to just leave me here with Alexandra, Buster and Miss Kitty?” Jake did his best to get her to take pity on him once again. To stay and help out. And spend time with and get to know him all over again.
To his disappointment, Jenna refused to apologize for jumping ship. “It was your idea to purchase the pets,” she reminded him with a knowing smile.
“True,” Jake acknowledged. “But then,” he drawled, deciding maybe he was being too conservative here, maybe just one kiss wouldn’t hurt. Giving in to the desire that had been plaguing him all day, he drew Jenna into his arms, ignoring her soft gasp of dismay, and lowered his lips to hers. “So was this,” he continued, kissing her soundly, the softness of her body giving new heat to his. “And this.” Jake lifted his lips, then took her mouth all over again, kissing her as if they’d never been apart. He kissed her because he had missed her. Because they’d let so many things drive them apart. He kissed her to remind her what they had shared, and what they could share again, given half a chance. “And this.” Delighting in her helpless response, Jake swept his hands down her spine, fitting her to him, softness to hardness, woman to man. Satisfaction rushed through him, along with the raw aching need, as he tormented her with lazy sweeps of his tongue, over and over again, until she moaned.
Jenna knew she should have left before Jake kissed her again. She’d meant to, really she had. But it had felt so good just to be with him, spending time and talking with him, she’d stayed. And now here she was, in his arms, her hands splayed across his chest, her lips fused to his. Here she was wanting and needing him the way she had never wanted anyone else. Here she was, wearing her heart on her sleeve, practically begging to be hurt.
Achingly aware of the warmth and solidness of the muscles beneath her fingertips, as well as the fact she had promised herself she was not going to let this happen to her—again!—Jenna forced herself to ignore the yearning that welled within her. She broke off the kiss and pushed him away.
Trembling from head to foot, doing her best to quell her breathlessness, she looked into his eyes and reminded him, “This is not on our agenda, Jake. We’re supposed to be helping each other in business only.”
Jake’s grin widened all the more as he swept his thumb across the curve of her lower lip. “Sure about that?” he teased, his silver-gray eyes glimmering playfully as he slowly, surely, inevitably lowered his mouth toward hers. His eyes closing lazily, he whispered, “’Cause I could have sworn I felt you kissing me back.” Wrapping his arms around her, he bent her backwards from the waist, leaning the weight of her on one braced leg. His tongue teased her lips apart, and then plunged into her mouth, stroking and arousing in a highly erotic way he’d never employed in their youth. He grinned as she made a muffled protest and then they were lost in the swirling, tempestuous meeting of their hearts and minds. When at last he released her, he said, “Yep, I’m sure I felt you kissing me back.”
Damn it all, Jenna thought, as he slowly, deliberately set her back on her feet. Her arms still wreathed his neck and her body curved helplessly into the strong, warm shelter of his. Jake always had been impossible to resist. Especially when he kissed her like this. Like he meant it. “I’m serious, Jake,” she whispered, giving in to impulse and standing up on tiptoe to press her lips to his for what she promised herself was the very last time. “You really have to stop this.” So I’ll stop it, too.
“I know you are,” Jake said solemnly, beginning to kiss her again, even more thoroughly and completely this time. And that was when they heard it—the soft purr of a car motor in the drive. Even before they broke apart, they were illuminated in the twin beams of headlights. The whole scene was reminiscent of another time, another night, another clandestine kiss. Except then it had been his parents catching them in a torrid embrace on the very night they had planned to run off and get married.
Jenna had only to look up to realize Jake remembered that incident, too. Releasing her reluctantly, Jake swore heatedly beneath his breath. “What now?” he demanded unhappily.
As the uninvited guest stepped out of the vehicle, they saw and knew that the evening not only could, but would, get worse.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING here?” Jake asked as Melinda emerged from of the sleek black limousine and snapped her fingers at the uniformed driver, who immediately hopped to and began emptying the trunk of a dizzying array of designer bags.
Jenna gaped at Melinda’s baggage. She didn’t travel with that much luggage when she did a trunk show of her designs!
Illuminated by the interior lights of the car, Melinda gave Jake a condescending look. “I wired you I was coming,” she stated in a low, surprisingly cordial tone.
Jenna could see Jake straining to keep his temper. “But not until the day after tomorrow.”
Melinda took the credit-card slip the driver presented, added a tip, signed her name and handed it back. “I changed my travel arrangements and took the Concorde instead. I thought it might behoove me to get here sooner instead of later.” Melinda paused to look Jenna over from head to toe. “I see I was right.” She paused, looking more annoyed by than jealous of Jenna’s presence. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your…guest?”
Jake tucked his arm beneath Jenna’s elbow and guided her forward. “Jenna Lockhart, Melinda Carrington, my ex-wife. Melinda, Jenna.”
Melinda shook hands with Jenna, then turned back to Jake. She regarded him steadily, once again looking more annoyed than jealous. “I thought that was over a long time ago.”
So did we, Jenna thought. Although given the way things were going, she was beginning to wish her romance with Jake had stayed over. She had no desire for these kinds of unpleasant complications in her life.
Jake signalled for the limo driver to stay for a moment. “I’ve got a room arranged for you at a country inn near here.”
Melinda shook her immaculately coiffed blond bob. “Please. You can’t expect me to stay anywhere that dull. Although I must say,” Melinda went on as she looked askance at Jake’s brand-new two-story limestone ranch house, “this place is a lot more pedestrian than I expected.” Melinda turned to Jake in amazement. “What’s gotten into you? Selling the condominium in Dallas, moving out here to the boonies. I mean, I understand you wanting a summer place. Everyone in our circle has two, three, four homes, at a minimum. But the least you could have done, for Alex’s sake, is build a suitable residence. Like your parents’—”
“Mansion,” Jake supplied.
Melinda smoothed a hand down her slim marine-blue skirt. “Yes. Something along those lines.”
Aware he was still holding on to her, almost like a shield, Jenna edged away from Jake. “Maybe I’d better go,” she said.
Melinda tapped the toe of her expensive Italian pump. “Perhaps you should,” she agreed, giving Jenna a sweet, cordial
smile that did not reach her eyes.
“No,” Jake interrupted, tightening his hold on Jenna’s arm even more. He gave her a significant look she couldn’t begin to decipher, then said firmly, “We have plans.”
What was he talking about? Jenna wondered, confused. What plans could he have that seemed—unless she was mistaken—to include her, too?
Jake turned back to Melinda officiously. “You’re welcome here, of course, as long as you like.”
Melinda shook her head as if she were about at the limit of her patience. Clearly, she expected a lot more than Jake was currently willing or ready to give. “At last you’ve come to your senses.”
“Just understand,” Jake continued, regarding Melinda with a level look, “you’re not going to be our only house guest. Jenna is staying here, too.”
Chapter Four
Jenna had to hand it to him. The man had moxie.
On the other hand, so did she.
And she didn’t like anyone telling her she didn’t belong somewhere. She hadn’t, since Jake’s parents had told her she wasn’t good enough for their son.
“You’re joking, right?” Melinda Carrington said.
“Nope,” Jake retorted in an edgy tone that just dared Melinda to disagree. “Jenna is a friend.”
Melinda’s thick-lashed eyelids narrowed disapprovingly. “One you almost eloped with years ago!”
Jake stepped closer, squaring off with the woman he had once called his wife. Maybe it was just ego combined with a broken heart, but Jenna had never been able to imagine him with anyone else. And certainly not this woman in her short peplum jacket and matching skirt and three-inch heels. A dazzling mix of diamonds and sapphires glinted at her throat, wrist and ears. Despite the fact Melinda Carrington had just been on at least two different jets, and a long limousine ride from Dallas Fort Worth, not to mention crossed half a dozen time zones, there wasn’t a single strand of her platinum-blond hair out of place. Her makeup was equally perfect. And yet, there was a brittleness and a calculating bitterness beneath Melinda’s beauty that was off-putting, to say the least. Whatever she was here for, Jenna was pretty certain, had nothing to do with Alexandra. And a lot to do with Jake.
The Bride Said, Finally! (The Lockharts of Texas) Page 7
