A Patchwork Romance

by Jacobs, Ann

  “Shower?”

  Chapter Seven

  The word sounded incredibly intimate, spoken in his deep, mesmerizing voice. “With you?”

  “Not if we’re going to get over and see your brother and his wife any time soon. Besides, I just took mine a few minutes ago. May I have a rain check?”

  Jared stood, shook his head and shot Althea a wry smile. “Bathroom’s through that door. You’ll find towels, soap, shampoo—most everything you might need, I guess—in the linen closet. There ought to be something that will fit you in that bag.”

  He gestured toward a large sack that bore the name and logo of what Althea imagined must be a pricey Atlanta boutique. Then he stepped into a walk-in closet on the other side of the room. “I’ll grab myself some clean clothes and get out of your way.”

  She was confused. “Did you go shopping for me?”

  “I had my assistant make a phone call. The store sent over some things for you.” Jared stepped out of the closet, khaki pants and a short-sleeve shirt draped over one arm. “I thought you might want something clean to wear, and there’s nothing I have that would halfway fit you. I hope something in the bag will do.”

  His thoughtfulness apparently knew no bounds. “Jared, you shouldn’t have. Thank you, though? How did you know what size I am?” she asked as she opened the bag and dumped its contents on the bed.

  He grinned. “I described you to Laura. She took it from there and said she’d tell the store to pick out some things where the exact fit wasn’t all that important.”

  Althea liked the bright-blue Capri pants and top that had a stylized flower appliqué in blue and yellow. “Oh, my. I’d love to copy the appliqué and use it for a quilting project.” Then she checked the price tags and let the outfit fall from her fingers.

  Jared looked concerned. “What’s wrong?”

  “I can’t afford this.” Her budget didn’t allow for shopping sprees at designer boutiques. She worried her lower lip between her teeth, aware she was doing it but not able to quit. “I appreciate your thought, but…” The four hundred dollar price tag seemed obscene. She could have made the top and pants out of comparable fabrics for less than forty or fifty dollars. “I’ll just put my own things back on. They’re not that dirty.”

  “Consider them presents. I didn’t expect you to pay for things I ordered.” He pointed toward the bathroom. “Go on, now. Get showered and dressed so we can go see your new nephew.”

  Althea wanted to say okay. Whoever selected the clothes had chosen three outfits she probably would have picked for herself if money hadn’t been a concern.

  One, a loose-fitting, dark-purple dress with hand embroidery decorating the square neckline and hem, made her drool. The other, white cotton slacks and a T-shirt whose red and navy-blue design gave it a nautical look, reminded her of what well-dressed city women wore when they came to her store up in the mountains.

  If she kept them, though, she’d never be able to repay Jared. “I can’t accept this. It’s too much.”

  “For God’s sake, sweetheart, it’s only a few clothes.” His scowl broadcast his annoyance at her reticence.

  The ring Bill had given her when he’d proposed had cost less than these three outfits, but it had meant so much to her. In their world, a thousand dollars was a fortune. In Jared’s, it apparently amounted to pocket change. She’d take the clothes and try to accept them as casually as he seemed to think she should.

  “All right. Thank you again. I’ll feel better knowing my clothes aren’t tired, even though I am.”

  Jared’s grin lit up his face. “That’s my girl. I’ll wait for you in the living room.”

  His apartment boasted every imaginable luxury, yet it told her nothing about him. This thick, beige towel blotted away water with grim efficiency but lent not one whit of color to the spacious bathroom done in toast and beige granite and dark brown tile.

  After she put on the purple dress, she smoothed the woven beige coverlet over the bed. If there was any meaning to the framed painting of black circles and tan triangles that hung above a headboard made of plain oak slats, she couldn’t discern it. Even the floor, as lush as it felt under her feet, wore an impersonal cloak of thick, sand-colored carpeting.

  She gathered her things and headed down a narrow hallway toward the sound of music. There was Jared, hunched over a computer as he looked at some kind of report on a giant, flat-screen monitor.

  Maybe she was wrong. Maybe this place did reflect something about its owner. Emptiness. Lack of emotion. Or was it loneliness? Had Jared focused all of himself on his business because he’d lost his family? Friends? A lover?

  This place bore no evidence that Jared had ever had anyone to care about. No photos. There wasn’t even an incongruous piece of furniture scarred by people’s living. Not even one memento stood out to hint it might once have triggered an emotional response from him. Althea had thought his beautiful mountain home was sparsely furnished, but this condo made the place seem downright homelike.

  How could a man who had so much live in such a sterile place? She thought of her own small cabin, where she used every available surface to celebrate her memories. Photos in mismatched frames, her great-grandma’s blue willow teapot, crocheted doilies her aunt had made when Althea was a little girl. The portrait of Bill in his deputy’s uniform, on the table by her bed in the same spot she’d put it when he’d given it to her a week before he died.

  Jared would probably think her home impossibly cluttered, her memories trite. But maybe not. He’d been insistent about getting a quilt made exactly the way his mother had made that square he’d brought to her shop.

  Maybe his homes seemed sterile because he had no tangible evidence of the experiences that had made him the man he was. He seemed to be searching for something, though. Whether it was for himself or for a past to give meaning to his present, she didn’t know.

  “I’m ready.” She couldn’t help noticing how his expression turned from brooding to animated when he looked up at her. Affection? That, along with banked desire that mirrored her own.

  “Let’s go, then. I like your dress.” As if he didn’t want to wait another second, he shut down the computer and ushered her out the door.

  ▪ ▪ ▪

  When they walked into Mary’s hospital room, Jim twitched in the lounge chair, then opened his eyes. Jared thought he looked as though he’d been through a war against some fierce enemy, but he got up and hugged Althea before shaking Jared’s hand.

  “How is she, Jim?” Althea’s gaze shifted to the pale woman sleeping on the bed and the equipment humming along beside her.

  “She’ll be all right. The doc here says she has to take off a bunch of extra weight, though. Damn it, Althea, I don’t know what I do if I lost her.”

  Jared never wanted to feel the kind of anguish he sensed in Jim’s ragged voice. Maybe Marcie had been right when she’d told him he didn’t have the capacity for deep emotional commitment. And maybe that lack wasn’t so bad after all.

  Jim released Althea and turned to Jared. “Thanks for bringing her down here. Are y’all going home tonight?”

  “Althea?” It was up to her.

  “What?”

  “Do you want to drive back tonight or shall we stay here? It makes no difference to me.” It did, though. Jared wanted Althea so bad he ached, but he didn’t want their first time together to be in the bed he’d sometimes shared with Marcie. He wanted them to go back to Big Bear Mountain. To go home.

  She hesitated then turned to Jim. “What about Gracie?”

  “She’ll be fine. Mary’s sister told me she’d keep her until I bring Mary and the baby home.”

  Althea didn’t say anything right away, but then she looked at Jared. “I think we should stay here tonight. I hate for you to drive all that way without having a good night’s sleep. I’ll need to open the shop Thursday, though. I don’t have anybody scheduled to work with me then, and I can’t very well not open up. Summer’s no time to
be missing out on the tourist business.”

  That made sense. In these shaky economic times every businessperson needed to take advantage of every opportunity. “Okay. I could stand to get a little more work done while we’re in Atlanta, maybe even stop in my office and make sure the help’s not slacking off while I’m away. Jim, how long will Mary and the baby have to stay here?”

  “A week or so, I suppose. Until the doctors can get Mary’s blood pressure to stay down.”

  Althea turned to her brother. “Can we see the baby?”

  “Sure. The baby specialist says he should get out of Intensive Care in another day or so. He’d probably do okay on his own now, but they don’t want to take any chances.” A grin lit up Jim’s craggy face, so much it nearly wiped away the look of exhaustion from his features. “You know, that little guy weighed over seven pounds.”

  Jared couldn’t recall having heard Jim put so many words together in one sentence before. He felt the other man’s pride and love when they were walking down the hall to the neonatal ICU. As they stood in front of a glass window and looked down at the red, screaming infant encased in a clear plastic bubble, he wished briefly for his own shot at immortality.

  He glanced at Althea. Her features took on a special softness, almost a glow, as she looked carefully at her new nephew.

  How might a child of ours look?

  Taken aback at the unexpected direction his thoughts were taking, he turned to Jim. “If I’m going to get any work done today, we need to get going. You’re welcome to come over and stay at my place while you’re in Atlanta.”

  “Thanks anyway, but I’ll camp out right here, close to Mary and this little fellow. Althea can tell you, I don’t have much trouble sleeping anywhere.”

  “That’s right. Jim will sleep just fine in that chair by Mary’s bed. Jim, you take good care of Mary and this little boy. What’s his name?”

  “Jim, Junior.”

  “Figures.” Playfully, she shook her head then stood on tiptoe to brush her lips across her brother’s leathery cheek. “Jared, I’m ready if you are.”

  ▪ ▪ ▪

  Apparently Jared had meant it when he said he had work to do. Not sleepy after the long nap she’d taken earlier, Althea roamed around his condo while he talked on the phone. She noticed how he frowned occasionally as he looked at reports and charts on the giant computer screen.

  Maybe she’d fix them something to eat. His kitchen was a technological marvel, the likes of which she hadn’t seen since her home economics classes in college. When she opened the cabinets, though, she saw they might as well be empty. A couple of cans of chili, some microwave popcorn and half a box of saltine crackers kept the shelves from being completely bare. She guessed they could eat chili but imagined the crackers were stale since they had to have been around at least as long as Jared had been up at his place on Big Bear Mountain. Almost a month.

  The side-by-side refrigerator was empty except for an overflowed icemaker, a half-empty jar of yellow mustard and two Bud longnecks. “He might as well not have a kitchen,” she muttered.

  “Huh?”

  When she turned and saw Jared, she hoped her cheeks weren’t as flushed as they felt. “Do you always sneak up on folks this way?”

  “Sometimes it’s fun.” His grin practically took her breath away. “What were you grumbling about?”

  “You don’t eat here very often, do you?”

  He shrugged. “When I’m here, I usually have some cereal and milk.”

  “Like I said, you don’t eat here very much. I was going to fix us something to eat.”

  He rested his hands on her shoulders then bent and brushed his lips across hers. “I’ll take you out—or we can have something delivered. I didn’t bring you here to slave over a hot stove.”

  She looked up at him and smiled. “I didn’t mean to disturb your work.”

  “You didn’t. I’m waiting for a new game to download so I can check it out.”

  “Must be nice to make your living playing kids’ games on a computer.”

  “Yeah?” When he bent and blew on her neck, shivers went up and down her body.

  “Yeah.” She liked teasing Jared, watching the tiny lines at the corners of his mouth and eyes deepen as though he wanted to laugh.

  His expression turned serious. “Sometimes I wish that were all there was to running Cain Software. There’s less play, more hard work, every time we introduce a new software package. I should have gotten my degree in business, not computer science.”

  Althea doubted that. “You have to love even the business part. No one could get so engrossed in anything they didn’t care about.”

  Jared grinned, his expression confirming her suspicion that he didn’t really mind that he had to manage what he’d developed into a successful business.

  “You seem to have done right well for yourself.” That was an understatement, she knew.

  His hands tightened on his shoulders then let her go. “I guess I’m doing okay for a poor boy from Big Bear Mountain. Do you like Italian?” Turning away from her, he dug through a drawer and rifled through the stack of paper he retrieved.

  Althea mentally pictured a spicy pizza dripping with cheese. “Love it.”

  “Pizza or pasta?”

  “Pizza.” She hadn’t had one in ages, and already her mouth was watering.

  He handed her two dog-eared menus. “If you’re hungry now, we’d better order from Sal’s. Roman Palace makes the best pizzas in Atlanta, but they’ll take anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half to get one here.”

  “I can wait.”

  After Jared called in the order, she coaxed him into going back to the game he’d wanted to test. While he played, she stared at the four walls, wishing she’d brought along some quilting to keep her occupied. Once in a while she glanced at Jared and tried to make sense of what the jewel-toned action figures on the computer screen were doing.

  When he looked up, his face broke into that smile she couldn’t resist. “Come on over and watch. Laura—she’s my executive assistant—is sure this game’s a sure bet to make Cain Software another few million dollars. Tell me what you think.”

  She watched a few minutes, until her head began to spin. Playing action games on a computer wasn’t her idea of relaxation but she wouldn’t say so. “I think kids will love it,” she said, and she was certain they would.

  Jared switched to another screen. “Look here. Which one of these packages would you pick up first if you were looking for a present for your niece to play on her Play Station Three or X-Box?”

  Assuming, of course, that her niece actually had one of the pricey game systems, which she didn’t. Althea looked anyhow, at the two boxes, one of which featured a full-body shot of an actor wearing a red costume. The other had a head shot of his scowling face. “White Lightning”, the name of the game, stood out on both boxes, one white on a neon green lightning bolt while the other had black-bordered white letters on a red bolt. A trio of action figures like the ones in the game she’d played were pictured on the left corner of each box, above the distinctive Cain Software logo.

  “I like the one with the actor’s face.” Although she doubted she’d ever pick such a gift for Gracie even if she had the game system to play it on, that packaging drew her attention.

  “Why that one?”

  “I’ve got no idea.” During the next half-hour while they waited for their pizza, Jared picked her brain about her reaction to the proposed packaging. She felt more than a twinge of jealousy when she learned that Marcie, his former fiancée, had been the expert at the art of marketing his products. “You miss her, don’t you?”

  “Sometimes. Usually when I’m in a quandary about how to market a new product. Over the years I’d gotten to rely on her judgment. It’s not so easy to hand over complete control to the guy I hired to replace her.”

  Althea needn’t have asked. It was obvious Jared missed Marcie on a professional level at least.

  ▪
▪ ▪

  When bedtime came, Althea found herself in Jared’s big bed, all alone. For a long time she lay there not able to sleep, knowing Jared was in the living room doing work that ostensibly couldn’t wait another day.

  The next morning when he woke her, he let her know he’d fallen asleep on the sofa while studying some financial projections.

  “I need to go to my office to sign some papers. Want to see where I work?”

  Somehow going where he worked and meeting his employees sounded too serious. As if they had something going that was more than good times. “I’d better go by the hospital. Mary sounded as though she’d like some company when I called earlier.”

  Jared smiled. “I’ll drop you off there, then.”

  When he pulled up in front of the hospital, he reached across the center console and drew Althea into his arms for a long, arousing kiss. While she visited with Mary and Jim, the feel and taste of Jared stayed on her lips and on her mind.

  For a long time she stood on the curb at the hospital, following his car with her gaze until it disappeared from her sight. It had felt good these past two days, being able to lean on Jared. She’d taken comfort and affection from him, in a way she’d sworn she wouldn’t do again that wet, dark morning they’d lowered Bill’s casket into the ground. She’d shared her fears, let Jared calm them.

  Worse, she wanted to make him feel and see life in vivid hues, not the bland neutrals with which he’d obviously surrounded himself. And she wanted to look into his heart and see if the woman he’d nearly married still lived there.

  She had to forget the emotions, focus on the way he made her feel. Recall the rasp of his fingers against her intimate flesh. Picture his eyes flashing emerald fire when he looked at her. Think about the smell of the woods and his cologne and him, and how it mingled into an aphrodisiac potion like no other she’d ever known. She’d savor the way he felt, hard and lean and ready, weighing her down. Possessing her.