by Nora Roberts
“This is not good.” He hissed out a breath, turned on his heel and yanked a glass out of a cupboard. He filled it with cold water from the tap, considered splashing it in his face, then gulped it down instead. It didn’t do much in the way of cooling him off, but it was a start. “This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t ticked me off.”
“Ticked you off?” She wanted to smooth down all that streaky hair she’d mussed. Then she wanted to muss it all again. “About what?”
“Then you get me to touch you and you start making sex noises.”
The hell with coffee, she decided, she wanted a drink. “Those weren’t sex noises.” She wrenched open the fridge, took out a bottle of white wine. “Those were muscle relief noises, which, I suppose, could amount to roughly the same thing. Get me down a damn wineglass, because now I’m ticked off.”
“You?” He slammed open another cupboard, plucked out a simple stemmed glass, shoved it at her. “You go traipsing off to New York for a damn week. Don’t tell anybody where you are.”
“I beg your pardon.” Her voice cut like ice. “Both my parents knew exactly where I was.” She poured the wine, slammed the bottle down on the counter. “I was unaware I was required to check my schedule with you.”
“You hired me to do a job, didn’t you? A big, complicated job which you stated—clearly—you intended to be involved in, step by step. It so happens several steps have been taken during this week while you pulled your vanishing act.”
“It couldn’t be helped.” She took a long sip of wine and tried to find the control button on her temper. “If you’d had any problems, any questions, either my mother or father could have put you in touch with me. Why didn’t you ask them?”
“Because…” There had to be a reason. “My clients are usually old enough to leave me a contact number and not expect me to hunt them down through their parents.”
“That’s lame, O’Connell,” she said, though the statement stung a bit. “However, in the future, you are directed to consult with either of my parents should you not be able to contact me. All right?”
“Fine.” He jammed his hands into his pockets. “Dandy.”
“And keen,” she finished. It was a ridiculous argument, she decided. And though she didn’t mind a good fight, she did object to being ridiculous. “Listen, I had to go to New York. When I left the company, I gave the director my word that should I be needed, and it was possible, I would fill in. I keep my word. Several of the dancers, including principals, were wiped out with the flu. We dance hurt, we dance sick, but sometimes you just can’t pull it off. I gave him a week. Eight performances, while sick dancers recovered—and a couple more dropped.”
She leaned back against the counter to take the weight off her legs. “My partner and I were unfamiliar with each other, which meant long, intense rehearsals. I haven’t danced professionally in nearly three months. I was out of shape, so I took some extra morning classes. This didn’t leave me a lot of time or energy to worry about a project I assumed was in capable hands. It didn’t occur to me you’d need to reach me this early in the project, after we’d just spoken. I hope that clears things up for you.”
“Yeah, that clears it up. Can I borrow a knife?”
“What?”
“You don’t have a gun handy, but I can use a knife to slit my throat.”
“Why don’t you wait until you get home?” She sipped her wine again, watching him over the rim. “My mother hates blood on the kitchen floor.”
“Your father probably doesn’t like his daughter having sex on the kitchen table, either.”
“I don’t know. The subject’s never come up before.”
“I didn’t mean to grab you that way.”
“Really.” She held out her glass. “Which way did you mean to grab me?”
“Not.” With a shrug he took the wine from her hand, sampled it. “You can see this is already getting complicated and jumbled up. The job, you, me. Sex.”
“I’m very good at organizing and compartmentalizing. Some consider it one of my best—and most annoying—skills.”
“Yeah, I bet.” He handed her back the glass. “Kate.”
She smiled. “Brody.”
He laughed a little, and with his hands back in his pockets, roamed the room. “I’ve done a lot of screwing up in my life. With Connie—my wife—and Jack. I worked really hard to change that. Jack’s only six. I’m all he’s got. I can’t put anything ahead of that.”
“If you could, I’d think a great deal less of you. If you could, I wouldn’t be attracted to you.”
He turned back, studying her face. “I can’t figure you.”
“Maybe you should see if you can organize your schedule, so you can spend a little time on that problem?”
“Maybe we should just rent a motel room on Route 81 some afternoon and pretend there isn’t a problem.”
To his surprise, she laughed. “Well, that’s another alternative. Personally, I’d like to do both. Why don’t I leave it up to you, for the moment, as to which part of the solution we approach first?”
“Why don’t we…” He glanced at the clock on the stove, swore. “I’ve got to go pick up Jack. Maybe you could come down to the job tomorrow lunchtime. I’ll buy you a sandwich and show you what we’re doing.”
“I’ll do that.” She tilted her head. “Want to kiss me goodbye?”
He glanced at the kitchen table, back at her. “Better not. Your father might have a weapon in the house you don’t know about.”
Spencer Kimball wasn’t loading a shotgun. Kate found him in his studio going over his lesson plans for the current semester. He’d been going over the same page for the last ten minutes.
She crossed to where he sat at his desk looking out the window. She set a cup of coffee at his elbow, then wrapped her arms around him and propped her chin on his shoulder. “Hi.”
“Hi. Thanks.”
She rubbed her cheek against his and studied his view of their pretty backyard. She would ask her mother to help her plan the gardens for the school.
“Brody seems to be concerned you may shoot him.”
“I don’t have a gun.”
“That’s what I said. I also told him that my father knows I’ve kissed men. You do know that, don’t you, Daddy?”
She only called him Daddy when she was trying to charm him. They both knew it. “What I know intellectually is a far cry from walking in on… He had his hands on your…” Spencer set his teeth. “He had his hands on my little girl.”
“Your little girl had her hands on him, too.” She scooted around, wiggled into her father’s lap.
“I hardly think the kitchen is the proper place for you to…” What? Exactly what?
“You’re right, of course.” She made her voice very prim, very proper. “The kitchen is for cooking. I’ve certainly never seen you and Mama kissing in the kitchen. I’d have been horrified.”
His lips wanted to twitch, but he overcame the urge. “Shut up.”
“I always knew, if I happened to walk into the room and you and Mama appeared to be kissing, you were really practicing lifesaving techniques. Can’t be too careful.”
“You’re going to need lifesaving techniques in a minute.”
“Until then, let me ask you this. Do you like Brody, as a man?”
“Yes, of course, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to do handsprings of joy when I walk into my kitchen and see…what I saw.”
“Well, there’s a possibility of a motel room on Route 81 in my future.”
“Ah.” Spencer dropped his forehead to hers. “Kate.”
“You and Mom taught me I never had to hide anything from you. My feelings, my actions. I have feelings for Brody. I’m not completely sure what those feelings entail, but my actions are going to reflect them.”
“Your actions have always reflected your feelings, with a stiff dose of logic tossed in.”
“This won’t be any different.”
“What
about his feelings?”
“He doesn’t know. We’ll figure it out.”
“Doesn’t know?” His eyes, so like hers, went to smoky slits. “Well, the boy better make up his mind in a hurry, or—”
“Oooh, Daddy.” Kate blinked rapidly, shivered. “Are you going to go beat him up for me? Can I watch?”
“Really going to need those lifesaving techniques,” Spencer muttered.
“I love you.” She pressed a kiss to his cheek. “You raised a child, on your own, for a number of years. You know what it means when you do that, when you love the child, when you’re committed to the child.”
His Freddie. His first baby, now with babies of her own. “Yes, I do.”
“How could I not be attracted to that part of him, Daddy, that I love so much in you?”
“And how am I supposed to argue with that?” He cuddled her closer, sighed. “You can tell Brody I don’t plan to buy a gun. Yet.”
She went down for lunch the next day. Then made a habit of dropping by, taking pastries and coffee, subs or sandwiches, to Brody and his crew.
Some might have called it a bribe. In fact Brody called it exactly that, as the offerings tended to make his men more cooperative when Kate skewered them with questions, or asked for changes to the original plan.
It didn’t stop him from anticipating her visits, or gauging his time so he could spare twenty minutes or a half hour to walk with her around town, or share a cup of coffee with her in the little café up the street.
He knew his men were wiggling their eyebrows or giving each other elbow nudges whenever he walked off with Kate. But since he’d gone to high school with most of them, he took it in the spirit it was meant.
And if he caught one of them, occasionally, checking out her butt or her legs, it only took one hard stare to have that individual getting busy elsewhere.
He still couldn’t figure her. She sauntered down to the job looking, always, like something clipped from the glossy pages of a magazine. Perfect and female. But she poked around the dust and grime of the site as if she were one of the crew, asking pointed questions about things like the wiring.
He’d come across her having a heated debate with one of his men over baseball. And an hour later, he overheard her on her cell phone, chatting away in precise and fluent French.
No, after two weeks of this easy routine, he still couldn’t figure her. But neither could he stop thinking about her.
Now, as she wandered the main studio, he couldn’t stop looking at her.
She wore some soft sweater in deep blue over gray leggings. Her hair was bundled up in some fascinating way that left her nape bare and sexy.
The room was warm thanks to the new heating system. The plaster work was well underway, and he’d brought in the first samples of the woodwork he had molded himself to match the original.
His father had left only a short time before, after putting in six hours on plumbing. A difficult and tense six hours, Brody thought now. It was a pleasure to put that aside and look at Kate.
“The plasterer’s doing a great job,” she said after touring the walls. “I almost feel guilty that we’re going to cover so much up with mirrors.”
“Your glass is on order. It’ll be in middle of February.”
She picked up the sample of woodwork. “This is beautiful, Brody. You’ll never be able to tell it from the original.”
“That’s the idea.”
“Yes, it is.” She set the wood down again. “You’re moving along, right on schedule. Jobwise. But…” She started toward him. “In the personal department, you’re lagging.”
“Takes a while to lay the groundwork.”
“Depends what you’re planning on building, Brody.” She laid her hands on his shoulder. “I want a date.”
“We had lunch.”
“A grown-up date. The sort reasonable, unattached adults indulge in from time to time. Dinner, O’Connell. Maybe a movie. You may not be aware, but many restaurants stay open after the lunch shift.”
“I’ve heard that. Look, Kate.” He backed up, but she moved forward with him. “There’s Jack, and school nights, and complications.”
“Yes, there’s Jack. I enjoy spending time with him, but I’d like a little one-on-one with Jack’s father. I don’t think your son will be scarred for life if you go out one evening. In fact, here’s what we’re going to do. You, me, Friday night. Dinner. I’ll make the arrangements. Pick me up at seven. You, me, Jack, Saturday afternoon. Movies. My treat. I’ll pick you both up at one. Settled.”
“It’s not that simple. There’s the whole baby-sitter deal. I don’t know who I’d—”
He turned, desperately relieved when the door jangled open.
“Dad!” And the man of the hour shot in like a bullet. “We saw your truck, so Mrs. Skully said we could stop. Hi, Kate.” He dumped his Star Wars backpack on the floor, grinned. “Listen, it echoes. Hi, Kate!”
She had to laugh, and even before Brody could, scooped Jack off his feet. “Hi, Handsome Jack. Ready to kiss me?”
“Nah.” But it was obvious he was half hoping she’d kiss him again.
“That’s a real problem with the men in your family.” She put him on his feet as a woman, a boy and a girl came through the door. The woman blew spiky bangs out of her eyes.
“Brody, saw your truck. I thought I’d drop Jack off, save you a trip. Unless you want me to take him home awhile yet.”
“No, this is great, thanks. Ah, Beth Skully, Kate Kimball.”
“Kate and I sort of know each other. Rod, no running in here. You probably don’t remember me,” she continued without missing a beat. “My sister JoBeth was friends with your sister Freddie.”
“JoBeth, of course. How is she?”
“She’s great. She and her family live in Michigan. She’s a nurse-practitioner. I hope you don’t mind me dropping in with the troops this way. I’ve been wondering what you’re doing in this old place.”
“Mom.” The little girl, blond and big-eyed tugged on sleeve.
“All right, Carrie, just a minute.”
“I’ll give you a tour,” Kate offered. “If you can stand it.”
“Actually, I’d love it, but we’re still on the run. Having kids turns you into a bus driver. I guess you don’t know, right yet, when you’ll be opening your dance school?”
“I hope to start taking afternoon and evening students in April.” She glanced down at Carrie, recognized the hope in those big eyes. “Are you interested in ballet, Carrie?”
“I want to be a ballerina.”
“Ballerinas are sissies.” Her brother sneered.
“Mom!” Carrie wailed.
“Rod, you just hush. I’m sorry about my little moron here, Kate.”
“No, don’t apologize. Sissies?” she said, turning to Rod, who looked pleased with himself.
“Yeah, uh-huh, ’cause they wear dopey clothes and go around like this.” Rod boosted himself on tiptoe and took several small, rather mincing steps.
The result had his sister wailing for her mother yet again.
Before Beth could speak, Kate smiled and shook her head. “That’s interesting. How many sissies do you know who can do this?”
Kate brought her leg up, braced a hand on her thigh and bringing her leg tight against the side of her body, pointed her toe at the ceiling.
Oh, my God, was the single thought that tumbled around in Brody’s mind.
“Bet I can.” Challenged, Rod grabbed his ankle, tried to pull his leg up, lost his balance and tumbled onto his butt.
“Rod, you’ll snap yourself like a turkey wishbone,” his mother warned, and with an arm around Carrie’s shoulder smiled at Kate. “Doesn’t that hurt?”
“Only if you think about it.” She lowered her foot to the floor. “How old are you, Carrie?”
“I’m five. I can touch my toes.”
Five, Kate thought. The bones were still soft. The body still able to learn to do the unnatural. “If you
and your mama decide you should come to my school next spring, I’ll teach you to dance. And you’ll show your brother that ballet isn’t for sissies.”
She winked at Carrie, then let her body flow back into a smooth back-bend. She kicked her legs gracefully to the ceiling, held there a moment, then simply flowed upright again.
“Wow,” Rod whispered to Jack. “She’s cool.”
Brody said nothing. Saliva had pooled in his mouth.
“Ballet is for athletes.” Tossing back her hair, she angled her head at Rod. “A number of professional football players take rudimentary ballet, to help them move fast and smooth on the field.”
“No way,” Rod said.
“Way. Come with your sister a few times, Rod. I’ll show you.”
“Now, that’s asking for a headache.” With a laugh, Beth signaled her son. “Come on, trouble.”
Brody slapped himself out of a particularly detailed fantasy that involved that stupendously flexible body. “Thanks for seeing to Jack, Beth.”
“Oh, you know it’s no bother. Happy to have old Jack anytime.”
“Really?” Kate murmured, sending Brody a long look.
“Sure, he’s…” Beth shifted her eyes between Brody and Kate, then bit down on a grin. Well, well, well. It was about damn time the man started looking past his nose. “He’s a pure pleasure,” Beth went on. “In fact, I was thinking about cooking up a big pot of spaghetti one night this week and seeing if Jack wanted to have dinner with Rod.”
“Friday’s a great night for spaghetti,” Kate said sweetly. “Don’t you think, Brody?”
“I don’t know. I—”
“You know, Friday’s just perfect.” Thrilled to help Kate execute the squeeze play, Beth nudged her kids to the door. “We’ll count on that then. Jack’ll just come over after school, and stay for dinner. He and the kids can watch a video after. Maybe you should plan on him spending the night. That’ll work out. Just send him to school Friday with a change of clothes. Nice to see you again, Kate.”
“Very nice seeing you.”
“I get to have a sleep-over at Rod’s.” Thrilled, Jack plopped down to do some somersaults. “Thanks, Dad.”