by Lisa Dyson
“What does Jack want?” Rachael asked.
“He’s very open about wanting a physical relationship with me.”
“And you don’t?”
Allie shook her head. “It’s not that I don’t, but I can’t take the chance of getting hurt again.” She lowered herself onto the edge of the bed and looked at her sister. “I don’t trust my instincts anymore when it comes to men.”
“Are you saying you’ll never have more than a friendship with a man? That’s not you, Allie, and I didn’t mean to imply that you should never get into a relationship again. Just take your time. Besides, you’re always happiest when you’re in a committed relationship.” She paused. “Until it ends.”
“Usually disastrously.” Being single did feel unnatural to her, now that Rachael brought it up. Maybe that was why she was so conflicted. “I don’t know. Maybe I should sleep with him and not expect anything more. That’s what he wants, so why not?”
“Because that won’t make you happy, either. I think you should take your time, get to know Jack as a friend, but don’t rule out the idea of a relationship in the future.”
“You’re right. I’ll only get hurt again if he turns out to be less than what he seems.” She was a champ when it came to attracting losers and users.
There was a knock on the door.
“Who is it?” Allie called.
“It’s Jack.”
Allie’s stomach did a flip, and she looked at Rachael.
“No quick decisions,” Rachael said before opening the door to let Jack in. Then her sister slipped into the hall and shut the bedroom door, leaving Jack and Allie alone once again.
And this time they were alone in a room with a bed.
* * *
ALLIE AND JACK stared at each other. He was right inside her bedroom door, and she hadn’t moved from where she sat on the edge of the bed.
He took a step toward her. There was a whimper from the corner of the room.
“Harvey needs to go for a walk,” Allie said, hoping Jack would get the hint and not talk about what had happened between them in the living room.
“Would you like me to take him?” he asked.
Did he have to be so nice? It was difficult to remember she was off men when he stood right in front of her being his sexy self and acting all sweet to her on top of it.
“I can do it.” She reached for Harvey’s leash, and the dog began pacing in his crate in anticipation. She opened the crate door and attached the leash to Harvey.
Without looking at Jack, she left her bedroom—and he followed. Not just into the hall, but down the stairs and out the front door.
“I said I can do it.” She quickened her pace, and Harvey quickened his even more.
“I heard you.” Jack walked on her right side, while Harvey was on her left.
After another two blocks, they reached a park with athletic fields and a playground. Harvey stopped to do his business, which made it difficult for Allie to walk away when Jack started questioning her.
“This was your plan, Allie. We were supposed to act like a couple. Why are you so mad at me?”
She looked at the ground, unable to come up with an answer. Telling him the truth was out of the question. He didn’t need to know that she couldn’t control herself around him. That she wanted him so badly she didn’t care if he broke her heart or not.
“I’m stressed about my mother. I really want to talk to her about my adoption, and I don’t know how to get her to open up.” That was a partial truth. Her mother was more interested in matchmaking than answering Allie’s questions. “I’m sorry I’m taking it out on you.”
“We could talk to her together.”
Allie glanced up to see if he was serious. “You’d do that?”
“Of course.” He winked. “Your new boyfriend is as interested in your history as you are.”
She slapped at his arm. “Don’t be wise.” She pulled out the plastic bag she’d stuffed into her pants pocket and cleaned up after Harvey. “Good boy,” she told him and then tossed the bag into the public garbage can. “I think it would be better if I talk to my mom alone. I don’t want her to think we’re ganging up on her.”
“Good reasoning. If you change your mind, I’m here.”
“Thanks. I really appreciate it. Ready to head back?” She started walking before he answered.
“Wait.”
She stopped and turned to him. He walked the few steps to her. “What is it?” she asked.
“I think we need a code word.”
What the heck was he talking about? “A code word? For what?”
He tilted his head. “I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who feels this intensity between us.”
She didn’t respond verbally, but her internal temperature rose significantly at the memory of their last physical interaction.
“I’m having a hard time distinguishing between real and pretend with you,” he admitted. “You’re good at stretching the truth in business, but I don’t understand you well enough yet to know if the sexual signals you’re giving off are the real thing.” He paused. “They certainly feel genuine.”
She swallowed, still unable to respond. He was right. She wasn’t faking her attraction to him, and apparently he knew it, too. “What can I say? I’m a good actress.”
“If you say so.” He scratched his head. “Anyway, I’m thinking if we had a code word that we could use when we thought things were getting out of control between us, maybe it would cool us down.”
That made sense. A code word could work like a bucket of cold water.
She cleared her throat and said thickly, “Okay, so what word should we use? Since you seem to need one to stay in control.”
He answered almost immediately. “How about ‘monkey lips’?”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE EVENING WAS ENJOYABLE, and although Allie considered her mother kind of a pain, Jack thought she was very pleasant, as well as an excellent hostess.
Dinner was ribs that fell off the bone and sides of potato salad, coleslaw and cornbread. All homemade by Allie’s mom, except for the ribs her dad had slaved over all afternoon.
He wondered if Allie could cook that well. Not that it mattered. She had other attributes that kept him interested.
“You play pool?” Allie’s dad asked him when it was nearly dusk. They’d just finished eating cake that Allie’s mom had baked and decorated with wedding bells for his cousin and her new husband.
“Sure.” His granddad had had a game room outfitted when Jack was a teenager so he would bring his friends over. Besides a pool table, there were arcade games and a game table, where he and his friends would play Texas Hold’em whenever they were home from college on breaks.
“Grab a beer and follow me.”
Jack did as he was told. The basement held both a pool table and an old-school pinball machine. “Wow! I haven’t seen one of these in years. Does it work?”
Allie’s dad grinned. “You bet! Go ahead and play it if you want.”
“That’s okay. I’ll check it out later, after I cream you at pool.” They both laughed and chose pool cues from the rack on the wall.
Allie’s dad set up the balls. “House rules say visitor breaks.” He removed the rack from around the balls and hung it on the wall while Jack chalked the tip of his cue.
They had each taken a turn or two, and things were going well, when Allie’s dad asked, “You’re in advertising like Allie?”
“That’s right, Mr. Miller. We’re competitors.”
“Bart. That ‘Mr.’ stuff won’t fly around here.”
Jack nodded, feeling pretty good about Bart’s show of friendship toward him.
They talked a little while about advertising, the economy and the state of the world, followed by Bart’s rant about the latest exploits of a professional basketball player off the court.
Bart changed subjects so abruptly that Jack wasn’t prepared when he asked, “What are your intentions when it comes to my li
ttle girl?”
Jack’s hand bumped his pool cue where it was leaning against his side. He caught it before it fell.
“I’m not sure what you mean. Allie and I met only a week ago.” He chalked the tip of his cue and realized he had gone from relaxed to nervous, all with one question. It had been a long time since he’d met a woman’s father. Even longer since a father had warned him against hurting his daughter—which was obviously Bart’s intention.
“I want you to understand that she means a lot to her mother and me.” Allie’s dad pocketed three solid balls in a row. “She thinks we don’t have a clue about what’s going on, but we know things aren’t as good as she’d like us to believe. She didn’t start this new company of hers on a whim.” He took another shot, and it went wide. “We’re also aware that she didn’t choose to leave her last job. She got fired. All because of that jackass she was involved with who’s now sitting in federal prison.”
This was all news to Jack. That guy must have been one of those bad choices in men she’d told him about.
He lined up his shot and tried to sound nonchalant. “How did you find all that out?” Jack didn’t want to let on that Allie hadn’t confided in him.
“We have our sources.”
Jack dropped the subject and took his turn. He’d decide later whether he would tell Allie her parents weren’t as clueless as she thought. He wouldn’t be surprised if they also knew he and Allie weren’t actually a couple. “I really like your daughter. I don’t know what the future holds, but I promise I’ll do my best not to hurt her.” Better not to mention that he wasn’t a settling-down kind of guy.
He tamped down his guilt over deceiving both of Allie’s parents about their relationship, or lack thereof. Maybe he’d talk to Allie about coming clean on a multitude of subjects.
Their discussion ended when Allie’s brothers Nick and Greg joined them. Bart changed the topic to a more neutral one, baseball. He and his sons were long-time Yankees fans and Jack was a die-hard Red Sox fan, but that was still a less contentious topic than the previous one.
“I wondered where you boys got to,” Allie’s mother said when she reached the bottom of the stairs a little while later. “Emily’s parents are leaving.”
“We’ll be right up, Ellie,” Bart told her, and then proceeded to clear the table.
When they went upstairs, Jack didn’t see Allie anywhere.
“She took Harvey out,” Rachael said as if reading his mind. “You seemed to be searching for her.”
He smiled. “Thanks. You heading out, too?”
She nodded and patted her expanding abdomen. “We get tired pretty early these days.” She tipped her head in her husband’s direction. “And it’s way past her bedtime.” Dan was carrying a sleeping Sophie, already comfy in her PJs, her head nestled on her daddy’s shoulder.
“I’ll walk out with you. See if I can find Allie.”
Rachael tugged on his arm. “Jack?”
He faced her.
“Please be careful with my sister. She’s a good person, and she’s been through some tough times. Don’t lead her on if you don’t mean it.”
Jack spoke from his heart. “I swear I have been completely honest with Allie about everything. I don’t foresee changing that approach.” In that moment he also promised himself to stop pushing her for a physical relationship. After hearing about her last boyfriend, he’d feel like he was taking advantage of her.
Rachael nodded. “That’s good.” She walked past him to the front door and added over her shoulder, “Because you never want to piss off a pregnant lady.”
* * *
ALLIE HAD ALREADY said her goodbyes to those who were leaving before taking Harvey for a walk down the street a few blocks. She was on her way back when she saw Jack striding toward her. She immediately recognized his body shape and powerful gait.
“Rachael told me you were headed in this direction.” He caught up to her and turned a hundred eighty degrees to walk with her back to the house. “She and her family are leaving.”
“I know. I already said my goodbyes. How was pool with my dad?”
“Fun. He’s good.”
“You let him win?” She peered at him as they walked at a slow pace. As if neither of them was anxious to return.
Jack shrugged. “Figured I’d make a better impression that way.”
Allie smiled. She needed to find this guy’s faults. Immediately.
“We talked about you.” Jack spoke matter-of-factly. “He gently warned me about hurting his little girl.”
Allie stopped walking, mortified. “He what?”
“Don’t get bent out of shape. He’s concerned. Both of your parents are. You know, after what you’ve been through.”
She cocked her head, eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”
“Maybe you should talk to him yourself.”
She grabbed Jack’s forearm and spoke through gritted teeth. “Tell me what he said.” Allie had to know what her parents thought they knew.
“He didn’t give specifics.” Jack removed her hand from his arm, and she realized her nails had been digging into him. “He mentioned how you lost your last job because of your ex-boyfriend.”
“Did he say anything else about him?”
“Like how he’s in federal prison?”
“Damn.” Her legs turned to rubber, and she lowered herself onto the curb. Harvey sat quietly next to her, as if recognizing she was upset. “How did they find out?”
“Your dad wouldn’t say.” Jack joined her on the curb and put a comforting hand on the center of her back, rubbing it gently. “They’re concerned about you.”
Allie straightened her spine and pulled herself together. “Well, they don’t need to be. I’m fine. I survived and I’ve moved forward. They taught me well.”
Jack didn’t say anything. She wondered how much her dad actually knew and how much he’d shared with Jack.
“Did my dad say why my ex went to prison?”
“No. He seemed to think I already knew about it, so there was no need to talk details. I went along with it. I figured you’d tell me if you wanted me to know.”
She debated whether to tell him what had happened and in the end figured he might as well know the whole truth. It couldn’t be any worse than what he was probably imagining.
“I met Jimmy when he came to work for DP Advertising. I’d been there only a few months myself, but he sought me out to help him get familiar with how things were done there.”
Jack moved his hand up and down her back as she spoke, a comforting touch rather than sexual.
She inhaled and continued. “A few months later, we were put on the same team for a family-owned grocery store–chain account. Jimmy and I had been dating for about six weeks or so by then, and I figured the more time we spent with each other, the better.” The wind kicked up, and she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “Somehow, even all that time together wasn’t enough for me to realize what Jimmy was up to.” She turned to Jack, looking him in the eye. “He was threatening the chain’s owner, saying he was watching his wife. If the owner didn’t use DP for their advertising, he couldn’t guarantee his wife’s safety.”
Jack’s eyes grew round. “You’re kidding!”
Allie shook her head. “I wish I was.”
“The owner believed your ex?”
“He had pictures of her at different places around town.” Allie had been horrified when she’d learned the details.
“And you lost your job because of what he did?”
“I almost ended up in jail right next to him.”
“But you didn’t know what he was doing.” He didn’t ask a question, merely stated it as fact.
“Try making the police believe that. I couldn’t even believe I didn’t know anything about it. We were spending almost all our time together.” She covered her face with her hands. “I was so stupid. I didn’t suspect a thing. You can see now why I’m so afraid to get involved with any
one. I don’t trust my own judgment anymore.”
“You’re certainly not stupid,” Jack told her. “He was obviously very good at deceit.”
“That’s true. Looking back, I should have suspected something. He’d always go for coffee around the corner at the same time every day. He’d bring back my favorite and usually complain about how long the line had been. In reality, he’d been driving around town, taking pictures of the guy’s wife.”
“What a scumbag.”
“I should have noticed when the grocery chain owner was way too agreeable about whatever we suggested for marketing. I thought he was a nervous type, but it turned out he was only nervous around Jimmy.”
“It’s easy to look back and second-guess yourself, but you couldn’t have known what he was up to just from these things.”
“But we were practically living together. I never once questioned anything he did.”
“You shouldn’t have had to. He’s the criminal, not you.” Jack turned his body slightly toward her, and their knees touched. “How did you convince the police you weren’t involved?”
“I didn’t. They wouldn’t believe me, no matter what I said.” The memory of those hours and hours of questioning made her stomach rebel. “It wasn’t until they offered Jimmy a deal, and he swore I had no knowledge of what he was doing, that they finally stopped harassing me. By then, I’d been fired from DP and subsequently blacklisted by every agency in town. That’s when I started my own firm.”
“You’re pretty gutsy.”
She grunted. “I had no choice.”
“Of course you did. You could have come back here to your parents and hidden out until your ego was soothed and everyone had forgotten what happened. Instead, you took your life into your own hands and moved forward.”
He was only being kind, but his words were comforting. As was the heat coming off his body.
They locked gazes, and before she could consider her actions, her eyelids fluttered shut and she leaned into him.
The moment his lips touched hers, she was suddenly hyperaware of every cell in her body. Each one reacted to him, and she couldn’t think beyond the physical pleasure he invoked.
The voice in her head finally screamed that this was crazy, but her body wanted him so badly.