by Alison Kent
Chloe’s faced glowed, then mellowed, then darkened. She returned Eden’s level gaze. “Is this because you feel sorry for me?”
“Why would I feel sorry for you?”
“I am an orphan.”
“You’re not an orphan. You have Nick.” Eden squeezed Chloe’s arm. “Chloe, I want you to do this because you have such a gift. You can bring my babies’ room to life with color and magic and fun. I’ll give you free rein to do what you want.”
“Anything I want?”
Eden nodded, trusting Chloe with instincts that had never been stronger.
“Okay. This weekend I am free.”
“Great.” Eden stabbed her fork into her egg. “Now, tell me what has you in such a hurry this morning.”
“I need your carpenter.”
Chapter Six
“WHAT DO YOU NEED WITH Jace?”
“Jenna has arranged for the advanced art class to have a display at the festival.” Chloe spread peaches and bananas in a circle around the rim of her plate. She sliced her bran muffin into quarters and placed her egg in the center, making a four-point sun. She ate the peaches first.
“Back up a minute, Chloe. Who is Jenna?”
“My art instructor.”
“Okay, so, what does the art show have to do with needing Jace?”
“Our projects must depict what Arbor Glen means to us.”
“That’s tough.” Eden toyed with her muffin.
“No. It’s simple.” Chloe pressed her fists on either side of her plate. “Arbor Glen is the people I’ve been drawing for years. I have sketches of Obadiah making candles, my father sculpting a vase, Molly baking brownies. I want to show the people altogether. As a whole. I need a special frame, one that will unite the spirit of the town.”
“So that’s where Jace comes in.”
“I know exactly what I want. But I don’t know if he’ll do it. I cannot pay him with money.” Chloe pushed away from the table, then reached for her milk and drained the glass. The bells between her breasts tinkled as she moved, and Eden noticed then that her shirt was entirely unbuttoned. It was held in place by the vest and a lot of luck.
Such innocent sensuality made Chloe, and Eden wondered how much trouble Nick had already had from the boys. “What time can you be here after school?”
Chloe wiped the milk from her upper lip. “Four.”
“Okay. I close up at five. That’ll give you an hour to do your homework. Then we’ll drive out to Jace’s place and see what we can work out.” Eden took a sip of her tea. When Chloe didn’t respond, Eden frowned, and after a long moment spent watching the teen study her plate, Eden prompted, “Chloe?”
Chloe jumped to her feet and paced the length of the table, a strange energy humming in her path before she dropped back into her chair. “What’s it like to feel another life growing in your body?”
Eden slowly placed her teacup in its saucer. “What exactly is it you’re asking?”
“I want to know everything. Does it hurt? Are you scared? Do the babies move all the time? Can you feel them?”
“It doesn’t hurt and, no, I’m not scared. The babies sleep just like you and me, and when they’re awake, yes, I can feel them. But just barely. Like the flutter of wings. Or a bubble popping.”
Chloe scooted her chair closer and dropped her voice to a pitch just above a whisper. “Did it feel good when you got pregnant? Did you like it?”
Eden hoped none of her alarm showed on her face. She wasn’t ready for this aspect of motherhood. She hadn’t conquered diapers and breastfeeding yet. She certainly wasn’t ready for the birds and the bees. “Are you asking about sex, Chloe?”
Chloe shook her head in clear frustration. “I know all about menstruation and ejaculation and eggs and sperm.” She leaned closer, her hunger keen. “I want to know how it feels. I want to know about making love.”
Eden swallowed hard. “Since you want to know, I guess that means you—”
“Yes, I’m still a virgin.” A disgusted sigh fluttered her bangs.
“I’m glad to hear it.” Eden paused for emphasis. “You wouldn’t be planning on changing your status, would you?”
“With whom?”
“A boy at school, maybe?”
Chloe shuddered. “The boys at school are such boys. I want a man to teach me.”
This conversation was growing worse by the minute. Eden groaned and pressed a forefinger and thumb to her temple. Then Benjamin made his presence known. And Eden saw the light. She took Chloe’s hands and splayed them over her belly.
Chloe’s eyes widened. “It’s so hard. I thought it would be soft. Like a pillow. Oh! Did you feel that?” She rubbed her palm down Eden’s side. “There. I felt it again. Oh, Eden, this is wonderful. It’s so... so... spiritual, I want to cry.”
“Chloe, listen to me.” She covered the girl’s hands with her own. “I feel this constantly. And I’m only four months along. The babies don’t want to sleep when I do. My back aches. Pains shoot down my legs. I have to go to the bathroom every thirty minutes. And right now I have it good.
“Once the babies are born I’ll be lucky to sleep two or three hours a night. If I’m even luckier, they’ll nap at the same time during the day. Maybe I’ll catch up on my rest when they do. But more than likely I’ll be working; I still have a business to run. A business that I need to keep a roof over my babies’ heads.”
Eden took a deep breath and went on. “Yes, sex is great. Making love is absolutely wonderful. But it means nothing if emotion is not involved, if some sort of responsibility or commitment does not exist.”
She cupped Chloe’s face in her palms. “Don’t act on the heat of the moment. It’s a fire that dies out quickly. And there’s so much more to worry about than getting pregnant. Sex is a risk, Chloe. One you have to be old enough to take.”
That said, Eden sat back.
Chloe leaned forward and kissed Eden’s belly, then slung her carryall over her shoulder and headed for the back door. “I want to have a baby. But not now. Maybe one day, when I’m as grown up as you are.”
Eden followed her to the door. “Then it might be a good idea to button your blouse before David Hansen or Eric Parsons or Lee Philips get a closer look than you want them to have.”
She rolled her eyes in a decidedly teenage display of pique. “You’re sounding like a mother again.”
“Chloe...”
“I like to feel the wind on my skin.” Leaping off the back porch, she turned a circle in the dew covered grass. Eden caught a glimpse of one breast. “I like to feel free.”
“Chloe...”
“I think I’ll become a nudist.”
Eden grimaced at Chloe’s departing words but noted with satisfaction that she buttoned at least four of the six buttons on her way out of the yard. Deciding this mothering business was going to be a royal test of her worth, Eden closed the back door and wondered if she should have a private talk with Nick Angelino.
Thirty minutes later, after cleaning the kitchen and relegating her paperwork to the desk drawer she’d labeled “TOMORROW,” Eden gave up the battle with her hair and settled for a Chloe-style ponytail.
Morning light glowed golden in the east. Shrugging into her voluminous white terry robe, she stepped out to fetch her newspaper, only to have her breath catch tight in her chest.
He sat sprawled on her porch, leaning negligently against a support beam. One booted foot dragged the ground, a Styrofoam coffee cup balanced on his leg. The other boot rested flat on the porch, his wrist draped over his updrawn knee.
Steam curled in misty fingers from the creamy coffee. A matchstick dangled from the corner of his lower lip. He reached up to snatch it away, and his eyes met Eden’s as he blew across the rim of the cup and sipped.
Eden blamed the fluttering around her legs on the capricious wind teasing her robe, the ripple in her stomach on the twins. Neither was true.
“Hi.” Her voice was a breathless sigh.
I
n one supple motion, Jace gained his feet. “Hi, yourself.”
“You should’ve knocked.”
He rolled his shoulders in a loose shrug. “I figured you needed your rest. Besides”—he nodded his head toward the steaming coffee—”I haven’t been here long.”
“Mmm. That smells good,” she said on a wistful note, inhaling a breath of coffee-fragrant air. “I can’t remember the last time I drank the real stuff.”
“You want half of this?” Jace offered.
She shook her head. “Herbal tea for me. Other than that, I stick to juice and milk. As soon as I get rid of this, however”—she patted her stomach—”I plan on drinking a gallon or two.”
Jace’s heart-flopping smile, no less potent even at such an early hour, reached all the way to his dark-fringed eyes, the corners crinkling in deep lines of amusement. “Then I’d be privileged to buy you the first cup.”
“It’s a date,” Eden said, before weighing the implied familiarity of such a statement. Since she couldn’t take back words already spoken she shrugged it off, hoping Jace would do the same. No sense complicating matters further. “Have you eaten breakfast?”
“I grabbed a kolache down at Molly’s a while ago. I figured I’d get an early start before you opened up.” He yawned, an incredibly sexy early morning sound that lent rise to the question of how he’d spent his after dark hours. He thumped his matchstick into the street and swallowed a mouthful of coffee.
Eden walked out another step. “Let me grab the newspaper and we can go in.”
“I’ll get it,” Jace offered.
“Thank you,” she said softly and, taking the paper from him, turned toward the door. A second later she heard the tread of his heavy bootsteps. Something akin to delight rippled all the way to her bare toes. Ridiculous, she told herself, even as a smile played across her lips.
Dropping the paper on the kitchen table, she tightened her belt. Determined to ignore her elemental reaction to Jace—a response totally inappropriate for a woman in her condition—she headed for the stairs, only to find him taking up most of the narrow hallway.
He retreated a step and pressed his back against the wall. Eden tried to slide by, but the house was old, the hallway close, and her belly no match for the combination.
“A gallon of grease won’t help this tight squeeze, Morgan. You’re just gonna have to put it in reverse.”
The hallway was dark enough that she didn’t have to see his face. That meant he couldn’t see hers, either. Just as well. He’d smelled too much like early morning man and she knew her appreciation burned red on her face. It seemed like forever before he reached her doorway.
She ducked her head and scooted on by. “Make yourself at home. I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
By the time she’d found what she’d once thought to be unshakable composure, Jace was busy in the shop. Eden headed for her workroom. Above the whir of her machine, she could hear the whine of a power saw and spurts of hammering coming from his direction.
When ten o’clock rolled around, she’d completed all but the finishing touches of appliqué on two more jumpers like the one she’d designed for Molly. She shut off the serger, gathered up her handiwork, dropped it along with her sewing basket on the counter and crossed the room to turn the sign on the door to OPEN.
She met Jace coming back in, a small shop-vac in hand. “I’m impressed. The man vacuums, too.”
Jace dispensed a playful scowl in return. Eden watched him run the vacuum across the sawdusted corner of the floor.
The motor’s roar at last wound down and Jace snapped the vacuum cord. After lugging the equipment back to his truck, he gathered up the drop cloths. Next, he fetched his tools.
All the while Eden watched him come and go until she realized he had nothing to come back for. She spun around and headed out the door.
He was just climbing into the driver’s seat when she reached the truck. She pulled open the passenger side door and, not bothering to hide her consternation, asked, “Are you leaving?”
“Yeah. I need to run out to The Glen.” He turned the key and gunned the motor, flipping through his pocket-sized notebook. “I’ll be back this evening.”
She knew her relief was as plain as the proverbial nose on her face when he said, “Don’t worry. I’ll have the shelves done in time for the festival.” He slapped his notebook shut and clipped it to the visor overhead. The motion pulled his army green T-shirt tight across his shoulders.
Eden pulled her gaze away from his body. “Chili tonight?”
He stared straight ahead. A quirky grin crept across his mouth as he shook his head and chuckled. “Creole. And now chili. You a victim of those strange pregnant cravings?”
It wasn’t until he’d agreed to dinner and driven away, rooster tails of smoky white gravel spraying out from beneath his tires, that Eden realized Jace’s laughing comment was the first reference he’d made to her condition.
And that she’d forgotten to mention that she’d be seeing him as soon as Chloe got out of school.
Chapter Seven
JACE SHOVED THE PENCIL behind his ear, grabbed the T-shirt he’d discarded earlier and, with two quick swipes, dried his chest. Sweat dripped from the ends of his hair and ran down his back. The bandanna tied around his forehead was soaked.
He exchanged it for a dry one and slung the shirt over his shoulder. Reaching for a scrub plane, he braced one palm on a sheet of white pine and breathed deeply, inhaling the smell of green wood and sun.
He loved working outdoors. It still amazed him that after ten years cooped up in a Dallas high-rise, he’d managed to escape with his sanity intact. Busting his butt may have earned him professional recognition, acceptance from his colleagues, and a lot of bets paid off in beer, but it had never brought him the inner peace he found when working with wood.
After six years of school and five years of corporate employment, he’d made a conscious move to reclaim his life. For the last thirty-six months, he’d had no one to answer to but himself, no one breathing down his neck, no one to compete with.
The competition drought had given him the most trouble at first, but he’d gotten used to being his own measure of success. Now he wouldn’t live any other way.
He had his barn and his dog—not to mention freedom and five acres. A man could do a lot worse, but he couldn’t do much better. Unless he was to make peace and apologize to the three best friends he’d pretty much tossed from his life like yesterday’s front page.
Yeah, he had more than a little unfinished business he needed to get to soon.
Sawdust tickling his nose and a new rush of old guilt giving him an elbow jab in the side, Jace made one final pass with the plane. The sound of a car engine intruding on his silence brought his head up.
Squinting, he glanced up to see a black Volvo bouncing down his drive. He tossed the plane into his toolbox, dusted his hands on his jeans and waited.
The face that finally came into view behind the tinted windows of the boxy black machine belonged to the center of his unwanted thoughts of late. He tensed, relaxed, tensed again. Made a mental check of the source.
Yep. Eden. And to think that for the next couple of weeks he’d be stuck working inside. With her. In that old house that seemed smaller every time he measured its walls.
She pulled to a stop next to his work truck and killed the engine. Her door swung open, her feet hit the dirt and she stepped from the car.
More colors of red than he knew existed glinted in her hair. Sunlight only served to highlight individual strands. He saw cherry, sandalwood, cedar and more. He wondered if Nick Angelino had ever done a portrait of Eden. Wondered if the artist would do it as a favor.
Wondered why he was being so stupid.
Two car doors slammed in quick succession and he finally realized that Eden wasn’t alone. Chloe was with her. He started to put on his shirt, then decided against it and raised his chin. They’d invaded his manly domain. They’d have to deal with
the savage beast.
Eden picked her way over the uneven turf, glancing from the rocky ground to his half-clothed body. He resisted sucking in his gut when he realized where her gaze lingered.
Some savage. Some beast.
“Ladies.” He nodded, grinned. “If I’d known you were coming, I’d’ve dressed for the occasion.” He hooked his thumbs in his belt loops. “You two sightseeing?”
“What a fabulous place, Jace.” Eden shaded mischievous eyes with one hand. “Now that I can see what I missed last night, I’m glad I came back. The view today is”—she paused, then added—”definitely worth the trip.”
Great. Just what he needed. Flirtation from a woman who already had him tied in knots.
Chloe signaled Eden closer with a crook of one finger. “Eden, you know that lesson I wanted this morning?”
Eden clapped one hand over Chloe’s mouth and glared at the girl. “Don’t even think about it.”
“Are you sure?” Chloe cast an interested glance at Jace—a glance that had him wishing he’d put on his shirt.
“Yes. I’m sure,” Eden said. “Now, where are your papers?”
“Oh. I’ll get them.” With only one backward peek between the fingers hiding her eyes, Chloe jogged to the car and rummaged through the large straw bag she pulled from the backseat.
Returning his attention to Eden, Jace crossed his arms, balanced on his wide-spread feet and waited— though, knowing the two females he was dealing with here, he wasn’t sure waiting would bring satisfaction. “You gonna let me in on the joke?”
“No joke. A favor. Chloe needs a favor, Jace.” Eden shot a quick glance toward the car, then lowered her voice. “But I’ll be glad to pay you.”
He gave Eden his full attention. Not because of the money, but because even a savage could sense the import of Chloe’s request. “What kind of favor?”
“I wouldn’t bother you if it wasn’t so important to her.” She smoothed her blouse down over her growing belly. The swell was barely noticeable, and he wouldn’t have noticed it at all if she hadn’t drawn his attention with her hands.
