“It’s all right. I was going to go early just to watch a few matches. But while I was waiting for the car and tow truck—” he added, pausing to kiss the baby’s forehead “—I had an idea.”
He gave her ideas, too. From the moment she’d spotted him in his white knit shirt and shorts, and the headband that would keep his sun-gold hair out of his eyes as he charged around the tennis court, her heart had been beating like crazy. But since their enlightening talk a few days ago, work and getting used to having a baby in their lives had kept them both preoccupied. There hadn’t been much opportunity to explore their long-suppressed and evolving feelings. When added to the pressure of being under the watchful eye of her grandmother, Jenny concluded that it was a miracle either one of them could pretend to feel normal.
“An idea about what?” Jenny asked. He had sounded upbeat, but if he was going to tell her that he’d changed his mind about her having so much time with the baby, she would simply cry.
“Would you like to come along?”
“To the tournament?” she asked, sure she’d misunderstood.
“I have a couple of company tickets to the airline’s private box. You’ll be out of the sun, and there’ll be all sorts of food and refreshments.”
“But...the baby?”
“I can watch the baby,” her grandmother announced.
“Thanks for the offer, but I thought we’d take her with us,” Mitch replied. “As well behaved as she is, she’ll probably sleep through the whole thing, and it would give me an opportunity to show her off.” He focused on Jenny with an intentness that willed her to see only him. “I know you won’t know anyone there, but I’ll be with you for a while before I play.”
Jenny’s irrepressible humor wouldn’t leave her alone. “Is this a date, McCord?”
He swallowed. His gaze swung to her grandmother before meeting hers again. “Well...yeah. It’s time, don’t you think?”
Sure, but she still couldn’t believe it. “This is awfully nice, but have you considered how your friends and co-workers will react? People are going to think...the obvious.”
“No, I don’t think so. Enough of them know that Mary’s mother isn’t around. Once I introduce you as my neighbor, the rest will know better than to jump to conclusions.”
“Heaven save me from male logic,” her grandmother muttered from behind her.
Mitch looked truly confused. “What do you mean?”
Jenny smiled and touched his cheek to reassure him. “Ignore her. She’s hasn’t had her lunch yet and she’s getting light-headed.” Then she glanced over her shoulder and shot her grandmother a speaking look.
“Excuse me for having an opinion,” Fiona replied. “I’ll just stand here and get heatstroke.”
Despite her grandmother’s sarcasm, Jenny couldn’t be more excited. Imagine spending an entire afternoon with Mitch! Then she glanced down at her old-fashioned ivory lace gown with the full skirt. It was nice, but hardly appropriate attire for a sporty tennis match. If only she had something crisp and sexy and white like people wore at the matches she’d glimpsed on TV.
“You look wonderful,” he told her, apparently reading her expression. “But I could change the baby’s diaper while you got into something you may feel is more comfortable.”
She did have a coral sundress with a swirly skirt that she had yet to wear. She had bought it on impulse during a brief shopping trip to Dallas with Valerie earlier in the year. Valerie had said that with her hair brushed to full glossiness around her shoulders and some strappy sandals, she could hold her own in it anywhere.
Then she shot her grandmother a look of appeal. “Sure you don’t mind?”
“I offered to take care of the baby, didn’t I? But if he wants her to go along, go. It’s just as well since I was thinking about going over to see Agnes and finish giving her a piece of my mind anyway.”
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.” Facing Mitch again, Jenny said, “Give me five minutes. Ten at the most!”
“Having second thoughts?”
“No!” As her question broke into his thoughts, Mitch reached over to touch Jenny’s cheek. “I’m fine, and you look beautiful.”
She knew the outfit was flattering to her autumn coloring, and that the dress’s cinched waist did accent her slimness, but compliments always helped, especially when they came from Mitch. “Thanks. I still can’t believe you invited me.”
“I should have asked you Friday, but I didn’t think you’d be interested. You’ve never said anything about liking tennis.”
“To be honest, I’ve never wanted to play it myself, but I admire anyone who’s good at the game. Those trophies I saw in your house tell me that you’re better than good.”
He didn’t exactly shrug, but he was aware one needed more than talent to achieve a career in the sport. “At one time I guess I could have tried to make it professionally, but then I caught my mother with my tennis instructor.”
“Oh, no! While she was still married to your father?”
Mitch managed an indifferent nod, but gripped the plush sedan’s steering wheel tightly as he remembered his anger, and later his bitterness. “After that I refused to practice. By the time I realized I wasn’t hurting anyone but myself, I’d lost too much valuable time.”
“I wish I’d known,” Jenny told him, her voice soft. “Now that I think back, I seem to remember how much more remote and quiet you became.”
“Sullen,” Mitch said with a crooked smile.
“But you discovered flying instead. And hasn’t that proved to be your great love?”
“In a way.” Until recently, he’d believed he’d lost the ability to feel too deeply. “Actually, it’s more like a philosophy with me, the way t’ai chi ch’uan is to other people.”
“Now there’s a perspective that never crossed my mind.”
“You thought maybe it was a speed thing because of the kind of car I like to drive?”
“It certainly would fit the image.”
Man, he had done a good job at fooling her. And maybe there had been an ounce or two of truth to the idea. Once. Mitch exited from Central Expressway to the LBJ Freeway, which would take them toward Las Colinas where the event was being held.
“I love flying because it clears my head of... nonsense,” he said, struggling to explain. “Makes me feel free.”
“Is freedom so important to you?”
“At times it’s been all but imperative.” Especially when his parents were tearing each other apart like rabid dogs. Back then freedom had meant silence, an escape from emotional pain and disappointment. An independence he thought would guarantee him emotional safety. How wrong he’d been about that, as well. “But I’ve never used the sky for an adrenaline fix, not when I have a couple hundred people in my care.”
“That theory doesn’t extend to your car, does it?”
He chuckled to himself, liking her gentle teasing. “Ah...well, I am human.” Then he adjusted the rearview mirror to check on the sleeping bundle of pink in the car seat he’d removed from Jenny’s van while he waited for her. “However, I can safely say that just as with flying, there are things I won’t risk.”
With a contented sigh, Jenny settled back against the leather seat. “I didn’t think so.”
They drove for a moment or two in contented silence. Traffic was light compared to a weekday, but Mitch still had to watch for those who drove as if they had to make El Paso by nightfall. In the distance, the downtown Dallas skyline shimmered like a futuristic movie set.
“At the risk of blowing this date before it begins, I was wondering if you’d had any success with the private detective you hired?”
He might have felt a bit sensitive about such an inquiry from her before; however, he believed she had a right to ask now. “No, I haven’t. I’ve been thinking that if I don’t hear from him by Monday, I’ll call him. Waiting is the pits.”
“You have to be feeling as if you’re dangling from some high wire.
”
“Something like that. Mary and I are beginning to bond. She’s beginning to recognize me. I want things explained and resolved. For all of our sakes.” He glanced her way. “You see, I’m not unaware of what an uncomfortable situation this is for you, too.”
Jenny sighed. “In a way it is, sure. But, Mitch, would we be talking like this, would we be together, if there was no Mary?”
He couldn’t lie to her. “I don’t know. On the other hand, you have to admit you are one unignorable lady, Jen.”
“I’ve been telling the man this for ages,” she whispered to the roof of the car as she clasped her hands under her chin. “Thank you for letting it sink in before I started going gray and losing my teeth.”
“Nut.” Mitch laughed, but he was charmed, too, and more and more glad that he’d followed the impulse to break down and invite Jenny.
He broke another promise to himself when he finally parked outside the country club. Before they had to wake the baby, he released his seat belt, murmured, “Wait a second,” to Jenny, and took her lips with his.
He relished her surprise, as much as he did the subtle tremor that ran through her. Most of all he enjoyed the way she recovered and leaned into him. Everything was so much more real with her compared to the performance he’d often settled for from other women. Although tempted to tell her that, he resisted, not wanting to remind her of the man he’d been.
“What was that for?” Jenny murmured when he finally eased back, just enough so he could lightly rub his nose against hers.
“I was hoping you’d bring me even more luck than you already have.”
“Oh, dear... I hope you’re not confusing me with that curvy blonde that comes out of a bottle.”
He smiled as her words tickled his mustache. “What you have is far more potent. Sweet.”
“Ugh.” She made a face. “Why can’t I be seen as sexy and beguiling for once?”
“You’re sexy enough.” He took hold of her fingers and pressed a kiss into her palm. “If you get any sexier I’m not going to be able to get out of this car without embarrassing myself.”
“Oh.”
The emotions that flickered across her face were adorable, and yes, damned sexy. Mitch wished like heck that they were back at his place, where he could stretch her out on his couch, or better yet, his bed, slip the feminine straps of her dress off her creamy shoulders and taste every inch of skin he exposed. What a sanity saver when the baby roused!
“We’re spoiling her,” Jenny said with a sigh. “We’re . all so eager to hold her that she’s getting to where she’ll only sleep when she feels motion.” With one last, longing glance at his mouth, she eased her hand out of his and reached for her door handle.
Once Mitch had decided on bringing Jenny and Mary, he didn’t spend a good deal of thought about what kind of reception they would get. In typical fashion, he assumed he would “handle things.” What he forgot to consider was that he’d never seen Jenny in a social environment. Up to her elbows in berries, wilting from too many hours in a steamy kitchen, feverish and feisty from wrestling with a dying lawn mower... yes, he’d witnessed that side of her. But he’d let himself forget that he’d never experienced her dressed like a princess and emanating a more sophisticated, slightly reserved sexuality. He discovered he was ill prepared for having her pull the emotional rug out from under him.
Chapter Six
“Mitch! You found her?”
He managed to cover his wince, but Mitch could have shoved Neil Dennison into one of the arrangements of tropical plants for his big mouth. However, before he could straighten out Neil and the several other people who’d heard his co-worker’s cheerful declarations and were heading their way, Jenny stepped forward and offered her hand.
“Hello, I’m Jennifer Stevens, Mitch’s neighbor. I care for Mary when Mitch is flying.”
His friend recovered well. Mitch decided it was because Jenny’s warm smile could make anyone forget they’d been an insensitive jerk.
“Jennifer, one of my favorite names.” Neil took her hand in both of his, and held on to it as he beamed down at the baby. “That little one looks as if she’s in good hands. Does Mitch know how lucky he is to have found you?”
“Well, since I was never lost, I’m not sure.”
“Good for you, Jennifer,” a petite brunette said with a laugh as she joined them. “I’m Bonnie. This drooling, but harmless man is my husband, and I’ve been dying for a peek at this little sweetheart ever since I heard about her, so could I hold her while you take a break and enjoy a glass of champagne?”
“Neil and I fly together,” Mitch said, smiling encouragingly at Jenny when she looked over her shoulder at him for approval. “And Bonnie is a veteran at child care. She has two of her own, a son and a daughter.”
“You don’t look old enough to have children,” Jenny told Bonnie, easing her precious bundle into her arms.
“Oh, you doll! We’re going to be wonderful friends.”
In ones, twos, and threes they approached—administrative executives, crew members, a few VIPs. Mitch would have liked to think all the attention was because of his reputation as a damned good pilot with a superior flight record, as well as for being one of the airline’s better known representatives in the tournament today. People did wish him luck, but he could tell it was always an afterthought, despite his having won this event two years in a row.
He then told himself that people were paying them an unusual amount of attention as a result of their natural curiosity about the baby. Someone quickly corrected him again.
“Your daughter is darling, Mitch. So well behaved. But I can’t tell you how thrilled my husband is with meeting Jenny,” said one VIP’s wife. “I buy her products all the time. I’ll drive clear across Dallas for them if my regular shop has sold out of a particular item, especially when we’re expecting out-of-town guests. And Stu’s simply captivated with the lady. Says she has more business sense than his accountant and financial planner combined. Thank goodness she looks at you the way she does or I would forget I’ve been married too long to be jealous.”
“Do you suppose she would be interested in doing some advertising work?” a guest Mitch didn’t recognize asked shortly afterward, handing over a business card. “She has some elusive Mona Lisa quality about her that’s classy and alluring, but at the same time unthreatening to women.”
By the time he had to leave to get ready for his game, Mitch noted that Jenny was now charming the president of the airline himself! Mitch signaled to her twice to no avail and wondered if either of them would notice if he went on court and played the entire game standing on his head.
Torn between being proud and speechless, he finally succeeded in catching her eye. She excused herself and, protecting Mary’s head from the draft caused by the overhead fans, made her way to him.
Not about to risk being interrupted, he took hold of her elbow and led her out behind a potted palm for some privacy.
“Is it time?” she asked him.
“Mmm. I was just wondering, though, if you’ll be here when I get back, Miss Popularity.” He loved the way her coffee-dark eyes glowed like cabochon, and there was a deeper peach tint to her cheeks that made her absolutely radiant.
“Didn’t you want me to mingle and introduce your daughter to everyone?”
He had used that reason to convince her to come along, true, but it was only one part of the truth. There were other reasons, less defined and more provocative. He hadn’t been able to tell her that he also wanted her company for selfish reasons: the reassurance of having someone around who knew his flaws better than anyone here, and had the innate generosity to overlook them. He wanted her around because of the aura of peacefulness he felt whenever he watched her with Mary. And yes, he asked her to come because it was getting damned difficult to ignore his growing attraction to her. But since their arrival, he’d seen a wholly different side of Jenny emerge, and that left him feeling more than a little bemused,
not to mention amazed.
“Of course,” he replied, beginning to think he’d do well not to draw too many conclusions about her. “But I had no idea you would be so good at it.”
She lifted both finely arched eyebrows. “Why, McCord, I’m sure there’s a compliment in there somewhere, only I’m not sure what it is.”
“Ignore me.” Unable to keep his hands to himself, he brushed a tendril of hair back from her face. “I think I’m just dealing with a unique case of jealousy.”
“You?”
He didn’t like the idea that she wasn’t taking him seriously. “Yes, me. You have people all but eating out of your hand—not just because you’re kind and gracious, but sharper than a hypodermic, too. I suppose I’m beginning to realize I don’t know the first thing about you, Jen, and I don’t feel good about being the last to figure that out.”
“Poor baby.” Another hint of laughter and mischief lit her thickly lashed eyes. “But guess what? Now’s not the best time for you to worry about it. Didn’t you say you had a match to play?”
He almost wished he didn’t have to. Leaving her alone at this point didn’t seem the wisest of ideas. He sighed. “To be continued. Agreed?”
“I’m not going anywhere. Well, except to change this sweetie’s diaper before your match starts.”
Mitch lifted her chin and met her twinkling gaze. “You enjoy seeing all this egg on my face, don’t you?”
“Maybe a teensy bit.”
“I guess I deserve that. Wish me luck?”
“You know I do.”
“I’m feeling needy. Can you do a bit more?”
She rose on tiptoe and touched her lips to his. “Good luck.”
“Maybe a little more?”
This time she took hold of his shirt and, careful to keep him from crushing the baby, tugged him down to her. The combination of tenderness and solemnity in her eyes added a poignancy to her next kiss that had him aching to reach for her. He had to satisfy himself by clinging hungrily to her lips.
Baby In A Basket Page 8
