She forced back a shudder at the thought of her fingers spread across his shoulders, his head angling closer to hers. Every instinct told her that kissing Jared would blow her mind. If she took that chance right now, she’d gladly live with the ramifications.
Jared took a step forward at the exact same moment the bells on the shop door rang against the glass and footsteps sounded on the hardwood floor.
“Hi, Katie! You stitching your fingers off back there?”
“Fred Winston?” Jared whispered, amusement lighting his clear blue eyes. “And you thought I had great timing when I showed up.”
“Classic Fred,” she hissed back, half disappointed and half relieved. She called toward the front of the store, “I’ll be right out.”
Jared winked at her, which made her grin in response. Out loud, he added, “That you, Fred?”
Fred’s footsteps ceased. “Jared? Jared Porter?”
“Yep.” Then, in a whisper to Katie, Jared said, “As if he didn’t already see my toolbox.”
Katie looked down at her sandals so Jared couldn’t see how hard she was trying not to laugh. “Jared’s helping me move the mannequins,” she managed. “We’re almost set.”
“Celestino’s?” he asked, his voice barely audible. “Surely I can entice you with a large pizza, extra cheese?”
“How about Friday?”
He gave a slight nod, then spun away from her and strode to the main room, leaving her to follow behind.
“How’re you doing, Fred?” Jared made a show of brushing his hands against his jeans, as if he’d been carrying a load of lumber into the workroom instead of a mannequin in an alabaster wedding gown.
“Fine, fine.” The mail carrier made no attempt to hide his curiosity, but as he withdrew Katie’s mail from his shoulder bag, he noticed the crowbar on the counter. He blinked, then looked again to Jared, who’d already turned away to grab a mallet from his toolbox.
“Katie mentioned that she was fixin’ to get her cabinets and countertop replaced.” Instead of dropping the mail on the counter, as he usually did, he handed the bundle to Katie. “Glad she had the good sense to call Stewart and set it up. I told her that you two are the best around.”
“I appreciate the referral, Fred.”
Katie interrupted as she flicked through the mail. “Actually, I never did talk to Stewart. But I do agree with you, Fred. Jared’s the best around.”
A light furrow crossed Fred’s brow, so Katie reached over to her table, moving a design book so she could show the mailman Jared’s drawings. “This is what Jared’s building for me. He had three different ideas sketched out, with the shelves and drawers in different configurations, but I like this one best. What do you think?”
“Mighty nice,” Fred agreed, distracted from whatever he’d been about to say. “Well, I’d best get going. I’m behind on the route today. Can’t wait to see the finished product, though.” He nodded a goodbye to Jared, hitched the mailbag higher on his shoulder, then left.
Katie glanced at Jared, wondering if his mind was still on what happened before Fred interrupted. However, he already had one hand on the top of the counter while he used the other to push against the side so it tilted slightly, lifting off the floor.
“Good thing this is already loose,” he commented. “Should make it easier to remove. I’ll be careful not to scratch your hardwood floor.”
“Thanks.” As charged as their conversation was before, Jared seemed awfully businesslike now. She wondered at the change. This was more than a simple interruption.
And as she watched him test the edges of the counter, she thought she understood.
He angled his head toward the table. “Might want to put your design books in the back, just in case. I’ll move the table if it gets in the way.”
“Fred doesn’t mean to be a jerk,” she said.
“He wasn’t.”
“About Stewart. I mean, he didn’t need to make that comment. Let alone use that dismissive tone.” Just as she shouldn’t have asked Jared last week if he’d checked with Stewart to be certain the estimate he’d offered was okay.
At least she’d apologized. And she’d meant it.
Jared shrugged. “Hey, Stewart’s the boss. Nothing wrong with that.”
But despite Jared’s nonchalant air, she got the feeling there was something wrong with it, in Jared’s mind, at least. She tried to think of an appropriate response, but as Jared wedged his crowbar under one end of the old cabinet, he added, “You don’t have to defend me.”
“I wasn’t.”
He glanced toward the drawings she’d shown Fred, then looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, so I was. But that wasn’t my intention. I thought Fred was being rude and I didn’t like it. It’s not as if I ever look at him and say, ‘Hey, don’t you need the permission of the postmaster general before you rummage through my mail and comment on it?’”
That drew a smile out of Jared as he pushed down on the crowbar, separating a section of cabinet from the floor. “People think what people want to think, Katie. Folks around town thought it was wonderful when Stewart went through Bowen High a couple years after me, got all As and went on to Lincoln with a scholarship to cover half his costs. Whereas I’d been nothing more than the B-level screwup who got the homecoming queen pregnant and then didn’t even have the decency to marry her. Working for Stewart and crafting a quality product is a huge step up for me in the minds of most people. Doesn’t bother me. They’re entitled to their views. That’s just how small-town life works. There are upsides, too.”
She was well aware of the dynamic, though how Jared took it so easily was beyond her. She’d struggled with living up to small-town expectations all her life. He had an ability to blow off the opinions of others she didn’t have.
“So what’s the truth?” she asked.
He shrugged as he lifted the crowbar, moved it a few inches along the underside of the cabinets, then pushed on it again, his biceps bunching as he carefully separated another section of the old cabinet from the floor. “I’d rather be my own boss, but if I’m going to work for anyone, Stewart’s the best. He really is a good guy.”
“And so are you. You’re no—” what had Jared said? “—B-level screwup.”
“You know that for a fact, huh?”
“It’s a gut instinct. And I’m entitled to my opinion, too.” Though her instincts hadn’t been accurate when it came to guys in the past. That was part of the reason she’d come back to Bowen, where she felt surprisingly centered. But there was an honesty about Jared that even his flippant tone couldn’t hide. He might’ve been wild in high school, but he wouldn’t have treated anyone badly, especially not a girl pregnant with his child. He wouldn’t have abandoned her, just as he hadn’t abandoned Mandy. Something had happened there that the townspeople didn’t know about, and Jared was keeping it to himself.
She pulled the small table closer to the back of the shop to give Jared room to maneuver around the counter, then gathered up her design books.
Before ducking through the curtain, she asked, “So have you ever thought of opening up a shop for yourself? Or would that present a problem, competing with your own brother?”
“I’d never do anything that would directly compete.’’
So he had thought about it. She wondered how detailed his plans were. “Well, for what it’s worth, I think you’d do well running your own business. Everyone in town knows your work and your reputation. And if they don’t, Fred’s willing to tell them.”
A low chuckle escaped him as he repositioned the crowbar, then used the mallet to loosen a section. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“Jared—”
He paused in his work, and his blue eyes found and held hers. “Celestino’s.”
The look—and the single word—sent a wave of anticipation through her. “Friday.”
She ducked back through the curtain, unwilling to let him see how he rattled her. As she se
t her design books on a clear section of the worktable and grabbed her appointment calendar to see whose gown she needed to work on next, she tried to ignore the thumping in her chest.
What had she gotten herself into?
When Jared pushed through the door to Katie’s shop the next morning, he heard the sewing machine pause, then resume, the pat-a-pat going slightly faster than before.
He’d made her nervous.
“Morning, Katie,” he called, then added, “It’s Jared,” though she’d probably already made that assumption.
“Good morning. I’m midseam right now, so excuse me if I don’t come out. Help yourself to a soda if you want one.”
Polite, friendly, but keeping her distance for the moment. Probably the right move, he mused, as he lifted the now-disassembled sections of Katie’s old cabinets from where he’d stacked them the previous day and carried them one by one out to his truck. The woman was far too perceptive, and he’d already said more to her than he should have, both about what happened—or hadn’t happened—with Corey and about his plans for someday leaving Porter Construction.
For the rest of the morning, they each worked on their own side of the half-open curtain, keeping to themselves. He made a trip back to his home workshop, where he met up with Stewart, and together they loaded up the base sections of Katie’s new cabinets and took them to the bridal shop. Stewart made small talk with Katie whenever Jared ran out to the truck, but Katie retreated to the back while Stewart helped Jared line up the heaviest sections.
“I think I’m good to go,” Jared told his brother as he finished adjusting the largest section. “I can handle the rest on my own.”
“I’ll head over to the Jorgensen house, then. See if they’ll be ready for you to install the shelves in their new addition when you’re done with this project.” He called a goodbye to Katie, then headed out.
When the door jingled behind him, Katie stepped into the main room.
Jared tilted his head in the direction Stewart had gone. “Told you he was a good guy.”
“Never said he wasn’t.”
Jared turned to the new cabinets, his nerve endings instantly electrified. When he’d asked her for the date, he hadn’t considered how awkward it’d be to work in her shop in the days leading up to the event. Having her turn him down—then go on to accept the date—just made things more complicated.
Not to mention the fact he’d come darned close to kissing her yesterday, and she’d known it. She’d leaned in closer, held her breath. No guy with a pulse could miss the signs, and he was certain he’d been giving off signs of his own. Couldn’t help it, really. Not around Katie.
“Look, Jared?” Doubt edged her voice as she said his name, and Jared wondered if she’d flip-flop again on their date. She seemed more on edge than yesterday morning, before Fred interrupted them. “I told you I wouldn’t spy on Mandy for you, but—”
“I don’t want you to. Really.”
“Well, there’s something I think you should know.’’
Jared set his hammer on top of the toolbox. “Is she all right?”
“Oh, yeah. She’s fine.” Katie’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “But yesterday she came in after you left. I wasn’t expecting her, or I’d have let you know.”
Jared straightened from where he was kneeling, working on the new cabinets. “What happened?”
“She seemed out of it at first—well, let me rephrase. Not out of it. More like distracted. She asked to look at the design books again, but she kept looking at the pieces of the old cabinets you’d stacked against the wall.”
Jared frowned. “She knew I’d been here and that made her nervous?”
“Not exactly. She asked me how old the last cabinet was that you’d ripped out, and if I was excited to get a new one installed. Small talk. I mentioned that my grandfather had put in the original, and that I was sad to see it go, though I knew I needed a new one.”
Katie shoved her hands in her pockets, looked away for a second, then looked back at Jared. “She asked me if family was important to me, and I replied that of course it is. My mother passed away long ago, but my dad and I are still close. I have dinner with him at least once a week, and we sometimes go to the movies together in Blair on the weekends. Apparently, it was the wrong thing to say.”
“How so?”
Katie winced. “She said she’s been thinking of trying to locate her mother. That now might be a good time, so she can try to get to know her mom before she and Kevin get married. Then she mentioned that maybe she could invite her mother to the wedding.”
Jared couldn’t have been more stunned if Katie had balled her fist and delivered a sucker punch. He took a deep breath as he processed the information. Corey coming to Bowen? It'd be disastrous.
“I’m sorry, Jared. I didn’t realize that talking to Mandy about my family would send her down that path. I just thought if she knew what a great relationship I had with my father, she’d see what a great father she has in you.”
Katie took a step closer to him as she spoke. “I don’t want to intrude in your personal life, but I was under the impression you hadn’t spoken to Mandy’s mother in years. I thought you should be aware that Mandy might contact her.”
“Yeah. Thanks.” If Mandy really wanted to contact Corey, why not come to him first? He’d always made it clear she could ask him anything, and he’d answer honestly. What could Mandy be thinking?
She wasn’t thinking, he realized. She was dreaming. At an age where so many of Mandy’s friends bickered constantly with their mothers, Mandy simply dreamed of meeting hers. She’d apparently decided that now would be a good time to try to touch base with a mother who’d never been involved in her life.
Problem was, no time would be right for Corey. He’d gone down that road. Corey knew exactly how to contact them whenever she wanted. She’d flat out stated that the part of her life she’d lived in Bowen was over, and that she had no desire to tread that ground again, either by her physical presence or by an emotional connection. She hadn’t been mean about it. She was no ogre, just a woman determined not to open old wounds.
“I told Mandy it might not be a good idea, since it was plain to me that she hadn’t mentioned her thoughts to you,” Katie ventured. “She asked me why, and I think she wanted to talk about it, but I already felt I’d gone too far, so I said something about being cautious and then changed the subject. I’m just sorry it came up in the first place, or that I might have encouraged her. It wasn’t my intention.”
Jared smoothed a hand over his face, trying to wipe out his frustration. “I’m the one who should apologize, not you. I didn’t mean to put you in this position. You didn’t sign on to be a counselor as well as a wedding gown designer.”
Katie’s expression was sympathetic. “You’d be surprised how often my customers expect both. But if Mandy raises the subject again, what would you like me to say?”
He chuckled. “You could tell her she should talk to me about it, but apparently she’s already decided against that.”
Katie’s face split into a grin. “Are you always able to laugh at yourself this way?”
“I try. Beats the alternative.” He couldn’t help but smile at Katie. She hardly knew him, yet she chose to see the best in him. That alone made him feel less rattled by the entire situation.
“She’s going to bring it up again. It was obvious from the way she was acting with me she needs someone to talk to.”
“Anyone but her father,” he commented. He wasn’t bitter about it. It was a fact of life for anyone raising a teen. And Mandy’s opening up to Katie made sense, in a way. Katie was the only other person—well, besides Kevin—who knew she wanted to get married in the near future. “I’m not sure what to tell you. If you’re uncomfortable, tell her that. In fact, it might be good for her to hear that. Might make her realize that she should talk to me. Otherwise, I’d say to play it by ear.”
“Okay.”
Katie looked doubtful, s
o he explained, “Unfortunately, Cornelia—Mandy’s mother—probably won’t want to take a phone call from Mandy, let alone come to Bowen to visit.”
“I see.”
“Don’t get me wrong, Corey’s not a bad person. Really, she’s not. But even if Corey does decide to talk to Mandy, it’s not going to give Mandy whatever it is she’s hoping for. If Mandy can figure that out herself, rather than having to hear it from her mother, it’d be better all around. I’d hate to see Mandy hurt.”
Katie herself looked hurt, apparently imagining what it would feel like to receive a harsh phone call from one’s own mother. “I’ll gently dissuade her, then.”
“Thank you. I really appreciate it.” Heck, he appreciated that Katie had the fortitude to tell him about the incident in the first place.
She was about to duck back through the curtain, but he took a step forward and put a hand on her wrist. “Don’t judge Corey,” he said. “Having a baby at eighteen changed her. It made her fearful. After Mandy was born, she needed to get away and start over, and I can’t blame her. She lives a good life now. She knows I take good care of Mandy and that Mandy is a wonderful girl. She does care that her daughter’s safe and sound, even if she’s not the one taking care of her.”
He wondered for a split second why he was so gung-ho to defend Corey to Katie, but at the expression of understanding on Katie’s face, and the way the constriction in his throat instantly relaxed in response, he knew. He didn’t want Katie to judge him by Corey’s behavior. He didn’t want Katie to think less of him for being involved with Corey, no matter how long ago the relationship had been.
Katie lowered her eyes and slowly put her hand over his, where it rested on her wrist, then raised her chin just enough to meet his gaze. “That’s why you’re so worried about Mandy getting married now. She might get pregnant.”
“That’s one concern. Mostly I dread the thought of her getting as overwhelmed as Corey did. Experiencing a life-altering event at this age can be devastating, even if it’s something that you think you want, like marriage. It can easily morph into a situation you’re not ready to handle.”
The Bowen Bride Page 7