Ask Anyone

by Sherryl Woods

  If two women who knew Bobby as well as these two did believed that, then Jenna could hardly doubt them. She couldn’t help wondering, though, when he was going to get around to doing something about it—or even if she wanted him to. The whole relationship was confusing, a murky mix of desire and ethical considerations that had left her completely out of her depth.

  Because she didn’t want to think about all of that just now, she marched determinedly across the threshold. “I’m not making any promises,” she warned. “But let’s at least take a look around.”

  Every room was filled with sunlight that spilled across polished wood floors. What had apparently once been two separate rooms had been turned into one huge kitchen with room for an old-fashioned oak table big enough for a large family. Jenna could practically hear the laughter around that table or the bickering over a card game. The image was like a dream come true for a woman whose childhood had been filled with lonely meals.

  The living room had more of those large windows, which could be opened to the lilac-scented spring breezes. Though the house appeared deceptively small from the street, it was deep. In the back, there were three bedrooms and two baths. The largest of the bedrooms opened onto a wide deck that faced the river. The other access to the deck was from wide French doors at the end of a hall. From the deck there was a magnificent view of the river with a weeping willow along its banks.

  Jenna walked through the spacious rooms and sighed. If she’d been able to sketch her dream house, it would have been like this—unpretentious and filled with light.

  “You love it, don’t you?” Daisy asked, though there was a worried edge to her voice.

  “I love it,” Jenna confirmed. “But you’ve put so much work into it. And in this location, it must be worth a fortune.”

  “It’s been sitting here empty all these years. It needs people. And I’m telling you that my brother will make you a deal you can’t refuse,” Daisy insisted. “All you have to decide is whether you want to buy or rent.”

  Jenna ran through a mental checklist of pros and cons on buying. Despite Daisy’s conviction that Bobby would offer her a good deal, she had no idea if she could afford the place, for one thing. For another, she didn’t know how long she would even stay in Trinity Harbor, especially if the boardwalk deal fell through. Was staying here indefinitely even an option? Was she ready to leave Pennington and Sons for the insecurity of trying to make a life for herself and Darcy completely on her own? Too many questions and too few answers.

  “I’d better think about renting,” she said, not even trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice. “I’ll speak to Bobby tonight.”

  “Maybe you should let me do the negotiating,” Daisy said. “I know his weak points.”

  “But I’m the one who has to learn them, if I ever expect to make a good deal on that waterfront project,” Jenna protested. “Besides, I need all the practice in tough negotiating that I can get.”

  Anna-Louise nodded. “She has a point, Daisy. Let her do it. Something tells me Jenna is one of Bobby’s biggest weaknesses, anyway. Let her exploit that.”

  If only that were true, Jenna thought wistfully. Then that development would be all but in her pocket and her future would be secure.

  15

  Bobby was in the kitchen at the restaurant making crab cakes for dinner when Jenna marched in, a determined glint in her eyes. He’d been expecting her hours ago. She must have been working up her courage, which made him want to kiss her until she realized he was already close to being putty in her hands.

  Instead, he matched her determined look with a tough negotiator look of his own. “You here about renting the house?”

  She regarded him with surprise. “Daisy called? I thought she was going to let me handle this.”

  “Daisy didn’t call.”

  “Anna-Louise?”

  “Nope,” he said, amused by her confusion.

  “What is it with this town?” she asked in obvious frustration. “Is there a radio station that reports all the latest gossip on the half hour?”

  “No need,” Bobby said. “We have Earlene’s. Nothing gets past the crowd in there.”

  “How discouraging,” she said.

  “Actually, we find that it serves a useful purpose. We don’t have to wait for the weekly paper to come out to know what’s going on around town.”

  “And the complete lack of privacy doesn’t bother you?”

  “Not me,” he insisted. “I’m not a man with a lot of secrets.”

  “What if you decided you wanted to keep one or two things to yourself—say, a torrid love affair?” Jenna inquired.

  Heat immediately shot straight through Bobby. “A torrid love affair, huh?” Interesting that her mind had wandered down that particular path. “Well, in all likelihood, I wouldn’t be having it in plain sight, not being much of an exhibitionist.”

  “But people would know,” she said. “You’ve said it yourself. Nothing gets past the people around here.”

  He deliberately caught her gaze and held it. “Want to test your theory and see how it goes?”

  She blinked as color flamed in her cheeks. “What?”

  “I asked if you wanted to experiment with having a torrid affair.”

  “With you?” Her voice squeaked out the first word, then turned breathless.

  “Unless you have someone else in mind,” he said, trying to contain his amusement.

  “Of course not,” she said at once. Her gaze narrowed. “Are you teasing?”

  “Not entirely.” In fact, in the last ten seconds the idea had grabbed hold of him in a most uncomfortable way. He was rock-hard and aching. It was probably a darned good thing that kitchen island was between them.

  She studied him intently, then looked away, muttering something unintelligible.

  “What was that?” he asked.

  “I was just saying that this whole rental thing is probably a bad idea,” she said. “Our dealings are complicated enough without putting a landlord-tenant relationship into the mix.”

  “Up to you,” he said, oddly disgruntled. He’d just been getting used to the idea of having Jenna living in the house he’d bought years ago to please another woman. He’d been looking forward to having Jenna chase away all lingering memories of Ann-Marie standing in the backyard, his arms around her waist, gazing at the river under a moonlit sky. He hadn’t set foot in that yard or on that stretch of beach in years.

  Jenna scowled at him, or maybe at herself. He couldn’t entirely tell, since her gaze seemed to be directed at a collection of stainless-steel skillets hanging above the multiburner gas stove across the room. She finally dragged her gaze away from the pots and pans and looked directly at him.

  “I really want that house,” she said at last.

  Bobby hid a grin. He wondered if she knew she was breaking every rule of how to negotiate to win by admitting such a thing.

  “Darcy would love it there,” she continued, almost to herself. She drew in a deep breath, and then, as if she’d reached a decision, she asked, “How much a month?”

  Bobby named a figure that was half what he could get if he put an ad for the place in the paper.

  She stared at him, clearly shocked. “That’s ridiculous.”

  “Too high?”

  “Too low, and you know it. Don’t do me any favors, Bobby. Charge me the going rate for summer real estate.”

  He shrugged and doubled the figure. Jenna winced.

  “Want to compromise?” he asked, more determined than ever to get her into that house.

  “No. I’ll pay the going rate, if you’ll agree to a month-to-month lease until I know how things are going to go.”

  “I’m sensing a flaw here,” he said. “If I don’t hire you to do the work, you won’t stay—or you’ll stay, but you won’t be able to pay me.”

  “Being a landlord is a risky business,” she agreed, grinning for the first time since the negotiations had begun. “Especially when your
tenant’s employment future is uncertain.”

  “Yep,” Bobby agreed cheerfully. “But I can always deduct the rent from the exorbitant amount you want for that carousel once it’s complete again. I’ll come out okay in the end.”

  “I should have known you’d find an angle to work,” she retorted.

  “Of course. I didn’t get to be a small-town real estate mogul without learning a thing or two.”

  “I thought you considered yourself primarily a chef,” she said.

  “I do, but all this land just sort of crept up on me. In the greater scheme of things, I own more property than anyone else around here. That puts me in mogul territory.”

  “Did you buy it so you could prove something to your ex-fiancée?”

  Bobby’s good humor faded. “That’s Daisy’s theory. Me, I thought I was in it for the money.”

  Jenna shook her head. “I’m with Daisy on this one.” She regarded him thoughtfully. “You know something, Bobby Spencer? You and I are a lot more alike than I thought.”

  “Oh?”

  “We’re both in this waterfront venture for respect.”

  She had a point, he supposed, though he didn’t care to admit it. “Is that so?”

  She nodded. “I have to wonder, though, if we’re not missing something.”

  “Such as?”

  “Maybe what we both really need is a little self- respect. Then everybody else’s opinion wouldn’t matter quite so much.”

  Bobby considered the idea. “You might be onto something.” His gaze locked with hers. “So, do we have a deal on the house or not?”

  She crossed the room and held out her hand. “We have a deal.”

  When Bobby took her slender, smooth hand in his, a jolt shot straight through him. It felt so good, he lifted his hand and cupped her cheek, then rubbed his thumb across her all-too-tempting pouty bottom lip. He felt her tremble at the touch, but she didn’t blink and she didn’t look away.

  “What do you suppose would happen if I kissed you?” he murmured, as much to himself as to her.

  “The same thing that usually happens when a virile man and a healthy woman lock lips,” she said.

  “Which is?”

  “An explosion of chemistry that can’t be trusted,” she replied at once.

  He tilted his head and studied her. “You think so?”

  “I know so,” she said emphatically.

  “Prove it,” he challenged.

  She finally blinked at that. “You want me to kiss you?”

  “Sure. I’m a liberated guy. Go for it.”

  “In your dreams.”

  He shrugged and backed away. “Another time, then.”

  There was no mistaking the smoldering disappointment in her eyes or the frustration in the set of her lips. Bobby contented himself with that for the moment. She was going to be around Trinity Harbor indefinitely. They could set up the chemistry experiment another time. It might be better not to blow the lid off all this restraint they’d been testing right before the marina’s dinner hours anyway. When he finally hauled this woman off to bed, he wanted the leisure to enjoy it.

  King glanced around the crowded dinner table at Cedar Hill with satisfaction. There was nothing he liked better than being surrounded by family on a Sunday afternoon.

  Then his gaze fell on the chair to his right. Jenna’s daughter with her two-toned brown-and-green hair was sitting there. The kid had a lot of spunk and he’d enjoyed talking to her, but there was a sour taste of disappointment in his throat that Frances wasn’t the one sitting there.

  It was his own blasted fault. Everyone from Daisy to Anna-Louise had made that clear. The only one on his side was Bobby, but given the state of his son’s love life, King wasn’t especially reassured by that.

  Of course, things were looking more optimistic where Bobby was concerned. Jenna was in the process of moving into that house Bobby had bought years ago when he’d wanted to marry Ann-Marie straight out of high school. The money had been his to spend as of his eighteenth birthday, so there hadn’t been a thing King could do about it. Besides, owning real estate was always a good investment, though King had thought it a terrible waste that that house had sat there unoccupied, all but tumbling down till Daisy had persuaded Bobby to let her fix it up.

  King glanced at Jenna. “Daisy tells me you’ll be settled in Bobby’s house by the end of this week.”

  She seemed startled by the comment, or maybe it was his turn-of-phrase that shook her. King took it as a hopeful sign that the mere mention of Bobby’s name could put that much color in her cheeks.

  “We should be,” she said finally. “It’s a beautiful house. Daisy did a great job with the renovations.”

  So, King thought, Jenna was avoiding any mention of Bobby’s name. Hadn’t looked at him once all during dinner, either. Very promising.

  Unless they’d had a fight, he thought, an image of Frances intruding on his concern for Bobby and Jenna’s future. Why couldn’t he keep the blasted stubborn woman out of his head? It was her choice not to be here. It wasn’t like he hadn’t called her and asked. He’d swallowed his pride and left a message on that infernal answering machine of hers. She hadn’t even had the decency to call him back.

  “I hear Frances has gone to Maine,” Daisy said, her expression innocent. “How long will she be gone, Daddy?”

  “Maine?” King echoed, unable to keep the shock out of his voice. “What the devil’s in Maine?”

  Daisy regarded him with more of that wide-eyed innocence. “You didn’t know?”

  “How would I know? She hasn’t spoken to me in weeks.”

  “Whose fault is that?” Daisy asked.

  “Not mine, I can tell you that,” King insisted, unable to keep the disgruntled note out of his voice. “I’ve called. I’ve left messages. I guess she’s got better things to do, like gallivanting off to Maine without a word to anyone.”

  Daisy shrugged. “Apparently so.”

  King studied his daughter with a narrowed gaze. “Watch yourself, young lady.”

  “What did I do?”

  “You reminded Daddy that he’s fallible,” Tucker said. “You know how he hates that.”

  “Amen,” Bobby chimed in.

  King scowled at the whole lot of them and deliberately turned his attention back to Jenna. He wanted to make sure she was the right woman for Bobby. She had spunk, no question about that, but there were other traits a man liked in a woman.

  “Do you cook?” King asked her.

  Bobby’s smug expression faded at once as he apparently guessed where King was heading. “She doesn’t need to, Daddy. I cook, remember?”

  “How could I forget a thing like that?” King grumbled. He deliberately turned back to Jenna. “You interested in having a big family?”

  Again, Bobby jumped in before Jenna could reply. “After being around ours, I imagine she’s pretty content with having just Darcy to deal with. Leave her alone.”

  “I don’t know,” Jenna said, her eyes twinkling. “This has been fascinating. Is it like this every Sunday?”

  “Pretty much,” Bobby told her. “The only way to make it better would be to gag Daddy.”

  “Bobby Spencer, that is no way to speak about your father,” she chided him.

  Bobby shot a sour look in King’s direction, then turned it on Jenna. “I’ll remind you of that the next time we discuss your family.”

  “My family is an entirely different story,” she said. “Which you would understand if you’d paid the least bit of attention to anything I’ve said the last few weeks.”

  “Oh, I’ve heard you loud and clear,” Bobby retorted. “But don’t go elevating my father to the top of some pedestal just because yours is a jerk.”

  She frowned at that. “I can say that. You can’t. You’ve never even met him.”

  “Consider that a blessing,” Bobby shot back.

  King leaned back in his chair and listened to the barbs being tossed back and forth, then chuckle
d. He reached over and patted Jenna’s hand. “You’ll do, young lady.”

  “Do?” she echoed, barely containing a grin. “In what way?”

  King hadn’t expected her to call him on it. “Never mind,” he muttered. It was getting harder and harder for a man to control what went on under his own roof, much less get his family settled down the way they were supposed to be.

  He glanced at Daisy and Walker, who were looking at each other as if they were still totally smitten after all these months of marriage. Now there was a success story. If he could get those two together, then Bobby and Jenna ought to be a piece of cake. The groundwork had been laid, and he’d nudged things along a bit, planted a few seeds today. He’d wait a week or two and see if they took.

  If not, he had a few more tricks up his sleeve.

  Jenna repeatedly told herself that she was still in Trinity Harbor because she had a job to do, but it was more than that. She didn’t want to go home, not with her father in an uproar and her brothers likely to pounce and list every one of her misdeeds and the impact they were having on the company’s precious reputation.

  Still, if Bobby was serious about Pennington and Sons being in the running for the contract based on her sketches, she needed to go to Baltimore and brief the rest of the family. She’d already delayed the trip by several days so that she and Darcy could get settled in the new house, but she couldn’t put it off much longer. She’d been trying to brace herself for the fight that was bound to ensue.

  She was ready now, though. In fact, after spending an evening on the back deck listening to the gentle splash of the river, she was about as serene as she’d ever been in her life. She was prepared to deal with anything her family cared to dish out.

  If they so much as hinted at taking the deal away from her, she would quit her job and go back to Trinity Harbor and proceed as an independent developer. She knew a whole lot about hiring and firing contractors and subcontractors, thanks to her work during the past few years. She’d learned from the best. For all of his flaws, her father was an excellent businessman, and she’d been watching every move he made for years now. She could pull this off on her own, if she had to. All she needed was to remind herself constantly that she was her father’s daughter. The irony of that wasn’t lost on her.