“I’ll have Molly and Johnny come over to your shop tomorrow, as soon as they arrive,” Thad promised, thinking he might stop by, too. After all, he was on his own schedule, this time of year. It wouldn’t be that way two months from now. Which meant whatever courting had to be done to make her his, would have to be done now. And he did want to make her his. “So what are you doing here?” He nodded at the garden.
“Weeding. Or trying to—I don’t seem to be getting very far.” She dropped to her knees beside the row of bush beans, and picked up her hand tool. “Want to help?”
Thad made a face as he hunkered down beside her. He knew it wasn’t going to win him any points with her, but he decided to be honest with her anyway. “It’s not really my thing.”
She shot him a glance from beneath a fringe of thick, chestnut-colored lashes. “That’s surprising, given the fact your dad owns a gardening and landscape business.”
Deciding if he was going to hang around, he might as well get comfortable, Thad shrugged and dropped to the grass beside her. He reclined next to her, long legs stretched out, the weight of his torso resting on his bent elbow. “I never was much for rooting around in the dirt.”
She rooted out a sticker bush and a clump of dandelion with a practiced motion of the spade and set them aside. “Nicely put.”
“Not that you don’t look good doing it.” She did. She really did. Watching the play of worn denim across her slender thighs and delectably sweet butt, and the taut stretch of cotton across her breasts, it was all he could do not to tumble her here and now and see how far he’d get in his pursuit of her. The responsible adult part of her might protest, but the reckless impetuous woman and wild heart inside would probably be all for it.
Unfortunately, the fact was they were in broad daylight, and there wasn’t so much as a privacy fence or decent hedge to shield them from the prying eyes of the neighbors, so any real move on his part would have to wait.
She grinned over at him. “Flattery will get you precisely…nowhere.”
“Then how about a date?” Thad asked, beginning to realize he wanted a lot more than a few stolen kisses or casual conversations with her. He let his glance rove her hair, her face, her lips, before returning ever so slowly and deliberately to her molten amber eyes. “Where will that get me?”
Chapter Four
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Janey said, wishing she had on something aside from her threadbare shorts and T-shirt.
Thad continued reclining beside her, looking like there was no place on earth he would rather be. “Do I look like I’m kidding?” he asked with a sexy half smile.
No, Janey thought. He looked like he wanted to kiss her again. And she couldn’t allow that. Not when she had inadvertently given so much of her feelings away, so quickly already. Hadn’t she learned her lesson when she had gotten involved so quickly with Ty? Hadn’t the years of marital misery taught her anything about the dangers of investing her heart in what was, at best, a short-lived passion?
Yes, Thad was by far the best kisser she had ever met. And was probably the best lover, as well, although she promised herself she would never find that out. But she couldn’t—wouldn’t—let herself sink back into the cycle of recklessness and regret that had so characterized her early life. She was an adult now, a mother of a twelve-year-old boy. She had a duty to herself and to Chris to behave responsibly. And responsible mothers did not indulge in exciting, passionate love affairs that burned white-hot, for an exhilarating time, and then faded, leaving the ex-lovers feeling drained and disillusioned, emptier than before.
But not about to get into all that with Thad, she only said, “I thought we agreed that my son is going to be working for you, picking up towels in the locker room or something.” She just hadn’t told Chris yet.
“Not me, per se,” Thad corrected. “The team. And this date isn’t for you and Chris and me. It’s for you and me.”
Precisely what she was afraid of. Because thus far she hadn’t been able to be alone with Thad for fifteen minutes without kissing him. There was no telling what would happen on a five- or six-hour date, where they were likely to be quite alone, at least for part of the evening. “I can’t.” She didn’t want to risk him putting the moves on her, and her saying yes, yes, yes.
Thad frowned and sat up, cross-legged, in the grass. “Because of what your brother said? Because I have to tell you—me seeing you socially won’t affect how I treat your brother Joe in the slightest.”
Janey had only to look at Thad’s face to confirm work was work for Thad, his feelings for her something else indeed. She blushed self-consciously despite herself. “I know that.”
He plucked a few blades of grass, rubbed them sensually between his fingertips, watching her all the while. “Then—?”
Janey turned her glance back to his face. Needing something to concentrate on other than the steadily building emotional and physical attraction between them, she noticed that although he had showered and washed his hair that morning, he hadn’t shaved. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“To date me or to date anyone?” Thad asked.
Trying hard not to notice how alluring and faintly dangerous the day’s worth of stubble made him look, Janey took in a steadying breath and plastered her most devil-may-care expression on her face. “To date anyone.”
His eyes darkened sympathetically. “Why not?”
Janey shrugged. She really didn’t want to get into this with him. Didn’t want him tearing down her arguments one by one. Insinuating himself in her mind and her heart, until all she could think about, wish for, was even more time with him than she had already had. “I’ve got a pretty full life as it is, with my business and my son. I don’t want to complicate things,” she stated simply.
Thad shrugged his powerful shoulders and rose gracefully to his feet. He dusted the grass off his jeans. “Fair enough.”
Janey tried—and then failed—not to be disappointed he backed off so readily as she remained in the grass, kneeling next to her vegetable garden.
“All right. I’ll see you tomorrow at the shop, then,” Thad promised.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, Janey thought. “For what?” she asked, aware her heart was pounding and she was tingling all over.
Thad smiled down at her as he hooked his thumbs through the loops on either side of his fly and rocked back on his heels. “I’ll be coming by with my sister, Molly, and her new husband.”
Deciding suddenly it wasn’t a good idea for her to be doing something that put her at eye level with the most masculine part of his anatomy, Janey stood and dusted off her knees. Pretending to be impervious to his sexy presence, she asked curiously, “Molly needs you to help pick out the cake?”
He grinned mischievously, and sidestepping the question, said with a teasing wink, “I hear free samples are involved.”
Who would have thought a man as physically fit as Thad would have a weakness for something made of sugar and butter and eggs? “And you like cake,” she guessed.
“Oh yeah. And then some,” he said, making it sound somehow sexual. Whistling, he thrust his hands in his pockets and sauntered off, as cheerfully as if she had accepted his invitation to go out with him, after all.
BUT AS IT TURNED OUT, Thad did not walk in with Johnny Byrne and Molly the next afternoon. Nor did they make any mention of Molly’s older half brother as they quickly got down to business with Janey.
“Look, I know my parents are trying to go all out with this party at The Wedding Inn, but it doesn’t have to be an actual wedding cake. It could just be a sheet cake,” Molly said, looking impossibly young in a college T-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops. Like her brother Thad, the pretty young bride had dark curly hair and electric blue eyes, and a lithe, naturally athletic form.
Johnny, who was also clad in a T-shirt, shorts and sneakers, nodded, too. “A regular cake is fine with me,” he said. Though his manner was polite, he looked as if h
e would rather be anywhere else doing anything else. Not the attitude Janey would have expected. Even though her own marriage had been all wrong, the days following her own elopement had been heady with passion and excitement. She had been so certain, initially, everything was going to work out great. These two kids looked almost depressed. As well as so very young, Janey thought. She continued to study the couple before her, trying to figure out what might make them happy, cakewise, while pleasing the parents involved, too. “I don’t think that’s what your mother had in mind, Molly,” Janey said gently. She had spoken to Veronica on the phone that morning. Veronica wanted to go all out.
Molly rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Johnny and I are already married. There’s no reason for us to be having a reception at all,” Molly said. Beside her, Johnny seemed to agree.
The bell over the door rang as Thad walked into the shop. Janey did her best to ignore the leap her heart took at the sight of him. And her joy had little to do with the difficult situation he could help her smooth over. She just liked seeing him, being with him.
“I think our mother would beg to differ with you,” Thad told Molly. “So would Lionel, for that matter.”
Molly turned rebellious eyes to Thad. She looked more surly teen now than blushing bride. “What are you doing here?”
“Mom asked me to stop by. Make sure it all went smoothly. She would have been here herself, but she was booked solid over at the physical therapy department today.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” Molly said, sighing.
Johnny turned to Molly. “Mind if I get going now?” he asked.
Molly shook her head. She looked as if she wanted to get rid of him. “Go ahead,” she said.
Johnny mumbled a goodbye and rushed out the door, head down. Molly looked relieved to see her new husband go. Thad studied Molly, with lifted brow. Janey had an idea what Thad was feeling. Something was wrong here. Molly’s behavior didn’t make sense. And neither did Johnny’s. They should be deliriously happy, in full newlywed mode, whether they had eloped in private or walked down a church aisle, in front of all their family and friends. Molly and Johnny shouldn’t want to be separated for even a moment, and when they were together, they shouldn’t be able to keep their hands off each other. Instead, they had looked anything but madly, passionately in love.
“I can talk to your mother,” Janey offered. “Tell her you would prefer something much simpler than the traditional seven-layer wedding cake she had in mind.”
Molly waved off Janey’s offer desultorily. “Mom’s not going to agree,” Molly predicted glumly. “She said Johnny and I deprived her and Daddy of the wedding. She’s not going to let us rob them of the reception, too. So you two pick it out. Just whatever you think she wants is fine with the two of us. Now, I’ve gotta go.”
“Where can I reach you?” Thad asked, following her to the door. “Your campus apartment or Johnny’s?”
Molly’s cheeks turned bright pink as she stared down at the car keys in her hand. “Actually, we’re not going to live together just yet,” Molly said. “Our apartment leases aren’t up for another six weeks. So we’ve got till then to convince our roommates to move out and give us the apartment or find another place.” She rushed out the door before Thad could ask anything else.
An awkward silence fell. Thad turned back to Janey, looking frustrated and concerned as well as mystified. “What do you want to do about the cake?” Janey asked him.
Thad shrugged, his previously mentioned interest in tasting samples all but gone. “Just go with whatever is most traditional.”
“That would be a three-tiered white cake with vanilla butter-cream frosting, and probably some flowers on it, maybe a bride and groom on top of it.”
“Sounds great.”
Janey wrote up the order, and handed him the customer copy.
Thad lingered, in no more hurry to leave than she was to see him go. “You eloped, too, didn’t you? I was in my senior year at Clarkson University then—but I remember hearing something about it at the time. It was pretty big news around here.”
Janey nodded wryly, recalling the brouhaha. “I shocked everyone. Went out to Colorado on spring break to ski with a bunch of my friends, and met Ty. And five days later, we eloped. I called my mom from Colorado. Needless to say, she was not happy.”
“Did you have ‘eloper’s remorse’—like Molly and Johnny?”
Janey cut them both a slice of one of her sample cakes—white genoise sponge cake soaked in black-currant liqueur and frosted with marzipan icing. “Not for a while. But it was all so new to me. I was only nineteen at the time, and I’d never been seriously involved with anyone. It was all very passionate and exciting until I got pregnant with Christopher.” She gestured Thad to come to the rear of the bakery, where she baked the sugary confections.
“And then?” Thad asked, as Janey lifted two wooden stools over to the butcher-block worktable in the center of the kitchen.
“Then reality hit,” Janey confessed as she sat down, kitty-corner from him, and they both forked up some cake. “It was no longer fun to be living in a dive, or struggling to make ends meet while Ty worked odd jobs at ski resorts and trained for the U.S.A. tryouts for the Olympics.”
Thad searched her eyes. “But you loved him.”
I loved who I thought he was.
Janey was silent, not sure what to say, without feeling disloyal, or betraying the vows she had once taken. Marriage was a sacred trust. Or it should have been. “In retrospect, I think I was confused by the physical side of things in our relationship. I mistook passion for love. By the time I realized Ty and I weren’t really suited, we had Christopher. We both loved him, and wanted what was best for him, regardless of the flaws in our relationship, Ty was a good father to Chris. He really loved him, and Chris loved his dad. I couldn’t separate the two, especially when I knew what it was like to grow up without a dad.”
Thad’s gaze gentled compassionately as she got up to pour them both some coffee. “How old were you when your dad died?” he asked.
“Almost thirteen.” Their hands brushed as she handed him a steaming mug. “How old were you when your parents got divorced?”
“Two. So I didn’t remember it at all. I was lucky though. Mom and Dad were able to be amicable with each other. When Mom married Lionel, it was like I had two dads. So I didn’t suffer in that regard.”
“I’m glad,” Janey said.
It was important to have your parents’ love, even if they didn’t always quite “get” you.
“But back to Molly,” Thad continued easily enough. Finished with his cake, he pushed the plate away. “Do you have any idea what might be causing her to react this way?”
One, Janey thought. But she didn’t want to mention it.
Thad looked her in the eye. Once again, he seemed able to read her mind. “You’re thinking what I’m thinking, aren’t you?” he guessed softly, after a moment.
Janey paused, her mug halfway to her lips. “Which is?”
“That she might be pregnant?”
FOR A SECOND, Janey didn’t say anything. She just continued to look at him, and Thad gazed back, enjoying the experience of sitting there with her, talking with the familiar intimacy of two people who had known each other for years instead of just a few days. It was funny. He felt he knew everything about her, and at the same time, there was so much more he wanted to learn about her. And vowed he would.
“It would certainly explain Molly’s ambivalence and the rush to tie the knot,” Janey remarked finally.
Molly and Johnny had been dating now for three years, Thad thought, and getting pretty close in the process. At least from what he could see.
“Can you ask her about it?” Janey asked, her eyes softening compassionately.
Thad wished it were that easy. He shook his head. “There’s a fifteen-year age difference between us. By the time she was three, I was off to college, then working my first job as assistant coach in the minors. We l
ove each other, but we’re not able to talk…not like that.” Much to his regret.
Janey seemed to understand. She ran her fingers absently across the smooth stoneware surface of her mug. “Actually, she might not be able to come to you with something like that even if you were closer in age, you being a guy and all. She might feel more comfortable talking to one of her female friends.”
Aware her idle actions were reminding him of other, more intimate things, Thad moved his eyes away from the gentle, stroking ministrations of her soft, feminine hands. “You think she has?”
Janey hesitated. “I think if she hasn’t done so yet she will soon. Maybe she’ll even go to your mom. Right now, she seems to have a lot on her plate, with the reception your mother and stepfather want to give her on Friday.”
“That’s true,” Thad said, as the bell above the door rang out in the silence of the shop. Chris came bursting through the door on his skateboard, backpack slung over one shoulder. He slid straight through the round tables of display cakes, past the counter, into the kitchen where the two of them sat. If he had any objection about the way they were sitting there chatting, not to mention the mutual interest and chemistry he and Janey were finding it more and more difficult to hide, Christopher did not show it.
Janey lifted a censuring brow.
Before she could get a word in, Chris had tipped the skateboard up on one end and tucked it beneath his arm, out of harm’s way of the cakes in progress. “Hey, Mom. Coach Lantz,” he greeted them both cheerfully.
“Hello, Christopher.” Thad put out his hand, and the two of them slapped palms.
“Did you talk to your teacher about camp?” Janey asked.
Chris nodded. He set his backpack and skateboard down in the corner, then went straight to the refrigerator and emerged with an individual carton of milk and a handful of the chocolate chip cookies she kept just for him. “She said I can go. She’ll get me an excused absence from the summer school principal. All I gotta do is get next week’s work done in advance,” Chris continued between mouthfuls of cookie and long thirsty gulps of milk. “She gave me all the assignments this afternoon. I can turn them in on Friday.”
The Secret Wedding Wish Page 5