What a Woman

by Judi Fennell

  “Where do you want them?”

  “The laundry room. I’m sure they need the litter box. Then I have to get their bottles ready.”

  “Bottles?” He followed her through the narrow shotgun hallway.

  “I found their mom by the side of the road. They’re not old enough for regular cat food, so Jared and I are bottle-feeding them.” It felt so natural to link their names. Hell, it should; she’d dreamed about it for years. But this was reality, and the reality was Jared still didn’t like her and she was still stupid enough to find him attractive, but was hopefully smart enough to know those childhood daydreams had been fairy tales and Jared was no Prince Charming.

  “I can give you a hand until Jared comes down if you want.”

  Dave, however, might be.

  “Thanks.” She took the kittens from the basket and set them in the litter box. “Can you watch them while I get the bottles ready?” she asked as she stood.

  “Sure. I guess I should add litter box training to Jared’s therapy repertoire.” He smiled and there was a dimple in his cheek.

  She’d always been a sucker for dimples. Just like Jared—

  She put the brakes on that. She was never going to find anyone if she kept comparing every guy to Jared. “I’m sure your patient will love that.”

  Dave winked. “I won’t tell him if you don’t.”

  “Oh, trust me. Where Jared’s concerned, my lips are sealed.”

  As they would be the next time he tried to kiss her.

  If he tried to kiss her.

  Stop hoping he’ll try to kiss you.

  “Be right back.”

  She hurried to the kitchen and prepped the bottles she’d kept in reserve, then grabbed a towel from the stack beside the sink.

  “Mac,” Dave said, “they seem to have finished up in here. Should I bring them out?”

  “Sure,” she called, spreading the towel over the kitchen table. Kittens were not the neatest of eaters. “Can you manage them?”

  “If I can handle Jared, four kittens ought to be a piece of cake.” He walked in from the laundry room, pieces of litter clinging to his shirt.

  Curly almost leapt from his arms.

  Luckily, Mac caught the little white fur ball. “Um, yeah, I can see that.”

  Dave winked at her again. “Hey, who wouldn’t want a pretty woman coming to his rescue? That little guy did it on purpose.”

  The compliment made her smile. Hmmm . . . he was a nice guy. Liked animals. Could put up with Jared. Dave had a lot going for him.

  “So, I see you and Jared are close. Are you guys . . . cousins?” Dave set the rest of the kittens down, then stuck the bottle in Larry’s mouth as if he’d done it before.

  She had to coax Curly to latch on, then tapped the black one on its nose while the gray tried to grab Larry’s tail and nurse on that. “Cousins?” She choked. That would be wrong on so many levels. “No. I—we—my brothers and he are friends and so are our grandmothers. I’m cleaning the place for Mildred. She wants to sell. See?” Mac twisted slightly to the left and nodded toward the logo on her shirt. “Manley Maids. I’m Mac Manley.”

  “Catchy name. I bet it’s good for business. You have a couple of hunky guys cleaning for you?”

  “Actually, I do.”

  “Planning to add Jared to the ranks?”

  “Oh yeah, sure. Big professional baseball player gives up his dream job to clean toilets. While I think the media might love the story, you don’t know Jared very well if you’d think he’d ever consider it.”

  “But you would?”

  Mac shrugged. “I’m trying to drum up publicity for the business. If he wanted to, sure, I’d strap an apron to him.” Oh, not an image she should be having. “I mean, you know, for promo only. Though my brothers don’t want the promo but they are doing the work.”

  “You could always ask him to be a spokesperson.”

  And give him the chance to shoot her down once more? “Jared has other things to focus on. Isn’t that why you’re here?”

  “True.” He wedged the two bottles he was using between the fingers of one hand and the kittens lined up as if he were their mother, even kneading his palm. “But the guy can multitask, you know. He’s a hell of a ball player and a hell of a guy. I bet he’d do it if you asked him.”

  “I’ll think about it.” Okay, Dave was firmly on Team Jared, so she wasn’t about to enlighten him as to Jared’s willingness to help her. “So how’d you get involved with professional sports?”

  He gave her a rundown of his resumé and the conversation segued to the teams he’d worked with. “I met Jared the day we both started with the team. Been friends ever since.”

  “Ah, sharing the newbie jitters.”

  “Something like that.”

  “He’s going to get better, right?”

  Dave changed the angle of the bottle to get the rest of the formula in place for the kittens. “Professionally, I can’t answer that. It falls under the heading of patient information. Plus, I’m not his doctor.”

  “But personally . . .”

  “Personally, I’ve known Jared for a long time. I’ve seen how he works. How determined he is. If anyone can come back from what happened, it’s Jared. He’s completely focused on what needs to be done. Always has been. That’s what was so surprising about the whole thing with Camille. He let his focus drift from the game.”

  “He must have loved her very much. “

  Dave shrugged. “I didn’t get it. She came out of nowhere, poured on the charm, and he was smitten. I didn’t trust her from day one. But you can’t talk a guy out of a girl if he wants her.”

  And you can’t talk a guy into one if he doesn’t want her.

  Mac had tried.

  So why did he kiss her?

  “But I’m sure you know all this if you’re friends. So tell me about you. How you started this business. I’ve heard a lot about your brothers from Jared, but I don’t remember him mentioning a beautiful sister.”

  That’s because he’d never considered her beautiful.

  But Dave apparently did and she was woman enough to enjoy it.

  She gave him a brief version of how she’d come to start Manley Maids.

  “So where does kitten-sitting come in? Side business?”

  Mac smiled. “By-product. I found them under a dresser. I think the mom crawled in through a broken window pane to have them, but now, with her dead, this was what Jared chose to do about them.”

  “Don’t let her fool you, Dave. I didn’t choose it. She made me take them on.” Jared crutched into the kitchen.

  Mac’s heart skipped a beat.

  Why? It was one thing to find him attractive; that was as plain as the gorgeous nose on his gorgeous face. But it was a whole other thing for her heart to be involved.

  Damn it. She didn’t want her heart to skip a beat. She didn’t want to think he was sexy in a plain black T-shirt that set off his golden hair and tan so much that if someone didn’t know about his accident—and he wasn’t on crutches—they’d never think he’d spent time in a hospital. No one should look that good after getting out of a rehab facility from such a horrendous accident.

  It was only one of about a thousand things that got to her about Jared, and no amount of arguing with herself could stop it.

  “I did not make you take them on. I gave you a choice.”

  He arched an eyebrow at her. “Really? Take them or leave them. Pretty harsh, Mac, even for you.”

  “Hey, Jare.” Dave hopped to his feet, popping the bottle out of Larry’s gnawing mouth. “We should get to work. Can you handle these two as well, Mac?” He gave her the bottles and the kittens followed them, mewling as they snuggled in next to their siblings in front of her.

  “Yes. Go ahead and rehab this guy so he gets”—out of my
hair was what she’d been going to say, but it was a little too revealing—“better quickly.” There. That was grown-up of her. Empathetic. Supportive. And totally not head-over-heels-for-Jared-Nolan she’d once been and wasn’t anymore.

  Methinks the lady doth protest blah blah blah.

  She herded the kittens toward the center of the towel and stood. “I’ll just take Larry and Curly and Mary-Sue—”

  “Moe.” Jared shrugged the crutches out from under his arms and gripped them together in his right hand.

  Mac looked at him. “What?”

  “Moe. The black one’s name is Moe.”

  “But she’s a girl.”

  “So?”

  Mac picked Moe up and stroked her cheek with hers. “Moe isn’t a very feminine name.”

  “Neither is Mac but that hasn’t stopped you from answering to it.”

  That stopped the cheek-stroking.

  Did he see her as unfeminine? Was that why he’d never been interested in her?

  But . . . he’d kissed her. He knew she was female. He’d been interested enough to do that.

  Or had it just been a “wonder what it’s like” kiss? A punishment kiss? A condescending, sarcastic, you-are-not-worthy kiss?

  Dear God, she had to stop dwelling on it. It was done. Over.

  She picked up the gray. “So this one is Joe?”

  Jared shook his head. “Shemp. Joe’s too close to Moe.”

  “You named the cats after the Three Stooges?” Dave snorted.

  “You got a problem with that?”

  “Me? Nope. Not my pets, so it’s copacetic.” He took the crutches from Jared. “So, you ready to do this or what?”

  “Yeah, let’s fix me up.”

  Mac would like to fix him up all right, starting with giving him a clue that he ought to have noticed her years ago.

  * * *

  SO what’s the deal with the maid?” Dave leaned the crutches against the doorframe once he’d motioned for Jared to sit on the doily-covered ottoman in the middle of the room.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Oh. Is that not the correct term? Housekeeper? Cleaning lady? Domestic goddess?” He hunkered down in front of Jared and started undoing the Velcro closures on the brace.

  Yeah, Mac was a goddess—got the word straight from the goddess herself—but it was none of Dave’s damn business.

  He brushed Dave’s hands away and undid the bindings himself. “She’s Liam’s sister. Owns the cleaning service. She’s doing my grandmother a favor.”

  She was doing no favors for him whatsoever.

  “She single?”

  “Really, Dave? You’re hitting on my maid during work?”

  Dave stood up and held up his hands. “Whoa, Jare. I’m asking you a question, not hitting on her. Didn’t know it was such a big deal to talk about a woman. If memory serves, you had a lot to say about Camille.”

  He had, but that’d been the pain talking, and the fact that he’d known Dave for years. Dave had interned with the team’s PTs and they’d become friends. So when Dave had gone into home care, it’d been a no-brainer that he was the one Jared would call when he’d been discharged from the rehab facility.

  Now he wished he hadn’t. The therapist who’d worked with him at the facility had been ugly as sin. Nice guy, but not on Dave’s level looks-wise. Jared would feel a lot better if that’s who’d helped Mac with the kittens.

  Oh for God’s sake. He wasn’t going to fire Dave because the guy was good-looking enough to catch Mac’s attention. Hell, he ought to be happy about it because it’d put this ridiculous growing attraction to her to rest and she’d end up with a nice guy.

  But it didn’t make him feel better.

  “I just don’t think you want to start anything, Dave. If it doesn’t work out, I’d have to fire one of you, and my grandmother would be upset if it was Mac.”

  So would he, but he wasn’t going there.

  Dave took out the angle measuring device with the weird name. Goony-ometer or something like that. He motioned for Jared to bend his knee. “You’re sure it’s not because you’re interested in her?”

  Jared dropped his foot to the floor, not even having to think about bending his knee, since he was about to stand up and get in the guy’s face. “Interested? Oh, God, please. You don’t know Mac. She’s the last woman I’d be interested in. Well, next to Camille.”

  “She doesn’t strike me as being anything like Camille.”

  “Yeah, well you’ve known her all of about five minutes. I’ve known her since she was five. Trust me when I say that she might not have caused the same amount of damage as Camille but that’s only because I didn’t let her. If I’d listened to the same instincts I had with Mac in regards to Camille, I wouldn’t be in this predicament. No, women like Mac and Camille, they’re best left alone if you want to keep your sanity.”

  * * *

  AND that put the lid on that.

  Mac leaned against the wall outside the parlor, hugging the kittens to her heart. Jared couldn’t have been any clearer.

  That was good.

  Right?

  Yes, it was. It was closure. Hell, it slammed the door in the face of her what-ifs so she could now go about her life without wondering. Sure, he might have kissed her, but the disdain in his voice spoke louder than the way his lips had molded over hers, the way his tongue had swept the seam, the way he’d slanted his head and kissed her—

  She exhaled. Nope. Over. That whole attraction thing she was feeling? Done.

  His loss.

  Though she ought to go in and confront him. What if she was interested in Dave who’d now want nothing to do with her because of Jared’s comment?

  Do you want something to do with Dave?

  Well . . . no. There was no spark. It wouldn’t be fair to him to lead him on.

  Okay, then. By all means, head back in there and have a discussion with Jared about happily ever after. Go on, prove yourself to him, Cinderella.

  Okay, so no, she wasn’t going to do that. She’d always been a little unsure about the whole Cinderella thing anyway. Chick marries the guy who’d only marry the woman who fit a shoe? Didn’t seem to have much substance. She wanted a guy who’d not only pick up the shoe and put it on her foot, but would also not complain that’s she’d bought the shoe in the first place.

  There had to be more to the guy of her dreams than a pretty outside, and if Jared was blind enough to lump her in the same category as his ex, chances are he wasn’t.

  Chapter Ten

  THE silence was the worst.

  Jared patted the kittens Dave had plopped onto his lap before leaving, and stared up at the ceiling. She was up there and he couldn’t stop thinking about it.

  It was Dave’s fault. “Unless you’re interested in her?” Damn him for that. And damn him for putting him on the defensive. But Dave just had to show interest in her, didn’t he?

  The guy was a sadist, putting him through round after round after round of motion, movement, and pain. His knee wasn’t healing as quickly as either of them would like—Dave because he was hoping it didn’t signal any worse damage, and Jared because every day that his body wasn’t working right was a day longer to get back to the game. And now a day longer he had to be in Mac’s presence.

  Both of which frustrated the hell out of him. Mac because, well, that was self-explanatory, but the game . . . He had to get back to baseball. There was nothing else for him if he didn’t. He didn’t want to have to go the open-a-restaurant route or go into commentating. He enjoyed his fans and the celebrity part of his career, but what he really loved was the game. The sense of teamwork. Of family. Of having each other’s backs. Striving for a common goal. Now? Now he was floating among the wreckage the accident had made of his life, while he struggled through it, trying to find land.

>   But it had to be the land he wanted, not just any land. He had to play again. Had to reclaim what Camille and Burke had taken from him.

  “Meow.” Larry shifted, rolling off Jared’s lap onto the sofa beside him. Poor little guy just blinked his blue eyes up at Jared as if to say, “What happened?”

  Jared knew exactly how the kitten felt.

  He picked him up, this small, fragile little thing Mac had thrust into his life.

  “I guess she didn’t do it, exactly.” He held Larry up so they were nose-to-nose. “It’s a good thing she found you when she did, though. You guys would have been SOL if you’d had to wait until I found you.”

  He tucked Larry under his neck, smiling when the kitten licked him. It did feel like sandpaper, just as he’d heard.

  For all his complaining, he was glad he hadn’t dumped these four at the vet’s office. There was something to be said for having to reach out beyond himself. If he could get over the fact that he didn’t know how to take care of them, he could actually appreciate that the five of them were their own team.

  “Jared? Can I borrow you for a second?” Mac’s voice reverberated through his grandmother’s foyer.

  She was asking for his help? Mac of the I-can-handle-it-by-myself attitude? This was the woman who’d outplayed—so she claimed—her three older brothers at a game they were all too familiar with. Jared had to see what it was that she couldn’t manage on her own because the bundle of energy that fit in her little body could fill a six-five frame. Twice.

  “Be right there.” He hitched himself forward on the sofa, then lifted the still-sleeping kittens into the play yard thing. “Now you behave and don’t wake the others,” he said to Larry, plopping a quick kiss on the calico’s nose.

  He looked up to see Mac in the doorway.

  “Looks like we better get those kittens their shots and soon.”

  “Smart-ass.” He pulled the crutches under his arms. “What do you need?”

  “If you can open the kitchen door so I can take this out to the trash, that’d be great.”

  “What is it?” He followed her through the kitchen toward the back porch.

  “A bunch of moth-eaten linens I found in the hall closet.”