“You’ll have to overlook the mismatched dishes,” she apologized. “They’re some of the restaurant’s throwaways. When I moved into this old house, Mom wanted to buy me a new set of dishes, but I discouraged her from that. The odds and ends match me better.”
“Who cares about matching dishes,” Alex said just before he bit into a forkful of tender smoked brisket. “Mmm. No wonder Red is so popular. Your parents are the best cooks in the world.”
“They are,” Sierra agreed with a proud smile. “But it’s been years since they’ve actually done any of the cooking in the restaurant. Thankfully it was successful enough for them to hire cooks and all the help they needed to make it run smoothly. Now they’re coasting on easy street.”
She watched him eat for a moment, then asked, “Why were you in court late today? Trouble?”
He shook his head as he chewed. “Not really. Just arguing a motion to suppress evidence.”
Propping her chin on her fist, she studied him with interest. “How did the judge rule? In your favor?”
“I wish,” he answered, then frowned. “She won’t make a ruling until next week. The trial will resume after that.”
“Oh.” Lifting her chin, she leaned her shoulders against the back of the chair. For some reason she was finding it hard to relax. Her gaze kept wandering over the navy blue pin-striped shirt Alex was wearing. The fabric accentuated his broad shoulders and the rolled-back cuffs exposed strong forearms sprinkled with dark hair. Sometimes she’d heard him talking about working out at the gym and it definitely showed in the hard, muscular shape of his body.
His body is off-limits to you, Sierra. Don’t even think about it.
“So what did Pauline think about Bowie?” she asked as she struggled to get her mind on safer topics.
“What does any woman think about a baby when she sees one?” he asked flippantly. “She oohed and aahed and then she wondered what in heck I was doing getting tangled up in such a mess.”
“I beg your pardon! Bowie is not a mess,” she said with a huff that told him she was clearly insulted.
Alex waved his fork at her. “She didn’t say he was. At least she didn’t use the word “mess.” But she implied that she thinks Bowie’s parentage could come into question and there won’t be anything either of us will be able to do about it.”
Uneasy now, Sierra leaned anxiously toward him. “I don’t know why there should be a problem. If called upon, I’m sure Ginger would sign her rights to the baby over to me. She hasn’t shown up here these past few days and I’d bet my last dollar that she isn’t going to.”
Alex’s fork paused in midair, as he looked over at her. “Pauline doesn’t understand why I’ve gotten involved. And, frankly, I don’t, either.”
Suddenly, keeping Bowie meant nothing without Alex along.
Reaching over, she gripped his hand with hers. “Are you regretting signing those papers with me?” she asked bluntly.
Was he? Over the past week Alex had asked himself that same question several times and all it had taken for an answer was to think about the joy on Sierra’s face when she held Bowie to know that he’d done the right thing.
“Are you?” he countered.
“Never,” she uttered passionately.
A brief smile crossed his face. “Then I don’t regret it, either.”
A long sigh of relief eased from her lungs. “I saw Gloria this evening at my parents’. She and Jack had supper with us. Being pregnant herself, she was enamored with Bowie.”
Alex glanced over at the baby. “Hmm. You’re enamored with Bowie and you’re not pregnant. Or are you?” he said teasingly.
Sierra’s mouth popped open. “Alex! Do you always have to be—such a lawyer!”
Actually it wasn’t the lawyer in him that had prompted the question. As a man and as a friend, he wanted to know.
With a nonchalant shrug, he said, “Well, you appeared to be crazy about Chad ‘the loser.’ And you were so torn up when he left that I was thinking—something more than just breaking up was bothering you.”
Rising to her feet, she went over to the sink and, turning her back to him, began to rinse a few glasses she’d used earlier in the day. “Not that torn up,” she muttered. “And there’s not a chance I’m pregnant.”
Alex’s brows lifted slightly as he studied her rigid posture. “You sound awfully positive. Weren’t you and Chad that close?”
Incredulous that he was probing into her love life, Sierra turned and folded her arms against her breasts as she faced him. “Do you really think what I did or didn’t do with Chad is any of your business?”
A crafty grin teased his lips. “Probably not. But I am the foster father of your child. That ought to garner me some privileges,” he argued.
Slapping her hand against her forehead, she shook her head in dismay. How could she be irked at the man when he was sitting there looking so adorable with his collar open, his sleeves rolled up, his brown hair rumpled and the dimples in his cheeks aimed straight at her?
“Oh, I suppose it does,” she conceded, trying her best to sound cross with him but failing terribly. “So for your information, Chad and I weren’t lovers.”
He didn’t appear to be all that surprised by her confession. In fact, he almost seemed pleased about the news. Or maybe that was just amusement on his face, Sierra thought.
“Why not?” he asked.
Wiping her hands against the front of her jeans, Sierra walked back over to the table and sank onto the seat she’d occupied before he’d begun cross-examining her.
“I just wasn’t quite sure I wanted to take that big of a step with him,” she admitted. “Now I’m glad I didn’t.”
Alex’s gaze suddenly took on a new light as he probed her pretty face. “Don’t tell me you’re still a virgin.”
Hot color poured into her cheeks. “Believe me, I won’t tell you that,” she snapped back at him. “My innocence, or lack of it, is none of your business. Besides, being a virgin is nothing to be ashamed of.”
Surprised to see her punching back at him, he countered smoothly, “I didn’t say it was.” Then, pushing his empty plate back, he glanced over at the counter. “Got any coffee made?”
At least his blatant hint got them off the subject of her love life and she gladly rose to her feet and started gathering the makings for a pot of coffee. “It doesn’t take you long to make yourself at home, does it?”
“No. Sorry. But you have a way of doing that to me, Sierra,” Alex said as he watched her graceful movements.
He didn’t go on to tell her that she was the only woman he’d ever felt completely comfortable with, the only one who made him want to kick off his shoes and lay down on her couch.
If he allowed himself to really think about things, he’d have to admit that he was here tonight because being with Sierra made him feel good. She had always made him feel good. And his lonely apartment did nothing to nurture a cynical soul.
With a fatalistic sigh, he rose to his feet and walked over to her. As he placed his hand against her back, her head twisted around and up. Her brown eyes were wide, her soft, pink lips slightly parted and the sudden realization that he desperately wanted to kiss her hit him like the wham of a baseball bat.
“Is something wrong?” she asked as she spotted the tiny frown marring his forehead.
“I—er, no. Not a thing,” he said. Then, taking her by the upper arms, he moved her aside and reached for the glass carafe. “Let me finish making the coffee, honey. You’ve already done enough for me tonight.”
Chapter Five
By the time the coffee had dripped, Bowie had fallen asleep. Alex pushed the bassinet onto the back porch. Sierra followed with the coffee and two bowls of dewberry cobbler.
A soft south wind was blowing in from the gulf, warming the already humid air. Frogs and insects were singing a nighttime lullaby and far across the yard a whip-poor-will’s cry pierced the steady chorus.
“He must be lost,” Alex
commented about the night bird. “I haven’t heard one of those around here in ages.”
“I hope he stays,” Sierra said as she took a seat next to Alex on the porch swing. “He’ll eat the mosquitoes.”
She hadn’t been all that keen on coming outside with him tonight. Not that she disapproved of being outdoors. Truth was she loved being out here. Many of her sleepless nights were spent here on this back porch. But where Alex was concerned, these past few days she’d been having strange vibrations around him. The closer she got to him, the more awkward she felt. And sitting next to him like this in the dark wasn’t helping the matter one whit.
“You think Bowie will be all right? We don’t want a mosquito to get on him,” Alex said between bites of cobbler.
“The netting I draped over him will keep him in fine shape. And I’ve already discovered that he loves it outside. Isn’t it amazing how such a tiny baby could know when he’s out of doors?”
“You’re learning a lot about babies since you got Bowie, aren’t you?”
He’d pushed the swing into a lazy sway and Sierra found the movement made her think of slow, hot hands and hard, warm lips.
“Yes.”
He put down his spoon for a moment. “You talked about seeing Gloria tonight. Are you jealous that she’s marrying into the rich Fortune family? And that Christina is engaged to a highly successful businessman?”
If anyone else had asked her such questions she would have been offended, but Alex was a lawyer, he couldn’t help himself. And he didn’t really poke and prod as a way to hurt her.
“No. I’m very happy for both of them. You know me, Alex. Money never was my main agenda or I certainly wouldn’t have gone into social work.” She waved her hand around her. “You can see how modestly I live. And that’s the way I like it. Gloria and Christina are different. Not that either of them are money hungry, but they do live lifestyles that are nothing like mine.”
“But Gloria is pregnant. She’s going to give your parents their first grandchild. They’re fawning over her when you’re the one who stuck by Marie and Jose while their two older daughters were off, refusing to come home for even a brief visit.”
Sierra thoughtfully pushed the cobbler around her bowl. “There are times I can’t help resenting the way both of them behaved—the seemingly careless way they hurt my parents by leaving the family.”
“You were hurt, too,” Alex said softly. “You don’t think I’ve forgotten all the pain and heartache you went through when you tried to patch the broken relationship between your two sisters, do you?”
To be honest, she was surprised he remembered anything about her personal life. He’d always seemed bored or annoyed with her family sob stories. This past year, whenever her group of friends had met at the Longhorn, she’d tried her best to keep her contribution to the conversation away from her personal life just because she couldn’t take Alex’s disdain. And she’d done a pretty good job of it, until a couple months ago when she’d announced to her friends that Chad had flown the coop.
“I wasn’t sure you remembered any of that time,” she admitted.
“Sierra,” he scolded gently. “You must think I’m a real monster. Of course I remember it. I hated all those damn tears you cried.”
“Well, I’m not crying them anymore. And I’m very happy that Gloria is going to have a baby. I might be a little envious, but I’ll have my turn someday. And besides, I have Bowie and he already feels like my very own,” she said softly.
He didn’t say anything to that and Sierra finished the last few bites of her dessert before she looked over at him.
“What’s the matter?” she asked. “You’re silently laughing because you think I’ll never find a man who’d put up with me on a permanent basis?”
Alex shook his head. “No. I wasn’t thinking anything of the sort. I was wondering—how long do you plan on keeping Bowie as your foster child?”
Her gaze flew to the bassinet sitting a few steps away from them. It was impossible to imagine not having Bowie with her. It was unbearable to envision a life where she couldn’t see him take his first step or say his first word. She needed to be there when he started school, when he began to play sports and date girls. She realized she was getting beyond herself, but her heart was moving far faster than the realistic hopes in her head.
“I don’t know, Alex. I’ve been thinking a lot about some of the things you said. And you’re right.”
He placed his empty bowl on the porch floor and stretched his long legs out in front of him. “Hmm. Something is wrong for you to be agreeing with me.”
She ignored his flip remark. “Bowie needs more than just what I can give him. He needs a father, too. And I want him to have the very best. I don’t want him to miss out on anything in life. But—” she halted as her throat tightened painfully “—I don’t want to give him up. I’ve got to keep him, Alex, at least for a little while longer.”
Turning on the seat, he took hold of both her hands. As he squeezed her fingers, Sierra sniffed to ward off the tears threatening to spill onto her cheeks. The last thing she wanted Alex to think was that she was a sniveling little girl who still had a lot of growing up to do.
“You’re getting attached to him,” he stated.
Nameless emotions squeezed her heart. “I believe you’re getting attached to him, too, Alex.”
He shifted closer as his green eyes wandered over her face. “Yeah, I guess I am,” he admitted after a moment. “But that’s not what’s worrying me.”
Sierra’s heart began to thump harder and faster. His face was getting so close to hers that she could see the pores in his skin, smell the masculine cologne clinging to his clothes. Heat radiated from his body and seemed to arc into her like a hot beam of light. Her breath lodged in her throat and though she kept telling herself to pull back from him she felt her head tilting forward.
“What’s worrying you?” she asked in a raspy whisper.
“What to do about this,” he murmured.
Sierra was given no time to ask about “this.” In fact, she didn’t even have time to suck in a shocked breath before she saw Alex’s face drawing closer and felt his lips touching hers.
A tiny moan of disbelief sounded in her throat and fearing she was going to pull away from him, Alex framed her face with both hands and held her head gently but firmly as he explored the soft, full curves of her lips.
The taste of her was sweet, delicious and, oh, so precious. Alex had never expected kissing her to feel so warm and wonderful and he realized with a shocked start that he wanted the kiss to go on and on. He wanted to deepen the union of their lips and crush her body up against his.
A need for air was finally the thing that caused Alex to lift his head and stare at her in stunned silence.
Sierra pressed her fingertips to her swollen lips and stared back.
“What was that?” she finally managed to ask.
He swallowed as a strange sort of exhilaration rushed to his head and whirled his senses about like a sudden tornado.
“If I have to explain, then you’re way more innocent than I ever thought.”
Jumping to her feet, she scurried over to the bassinet, then turned and tossed her hair out of her face before she locked gazes with him. “I know what it was! I mean—why? Why did you kiss me?”
Feeling stupid, but happy, Alex held his palms up in a helpless gesture. “Because I’d been wanting to kiss you all evening.”
His honesty floored her and she realized her knees had turned to two pieces of sponge. But whether that malady was from his words or his kiss, she wasn’t quite sure.
“Alex! We’re—we’re friends,” she sputtered.
Pushing himself up from the swing, he closed the short distance between them and placed his hands on her shoulders. Beneath his fingers, he could feel her trembling and he wondered if she’d been as besotted with their kiss as he’d been.
“Friends are allowed to kiss,” he softly reasoned.
Her voice was strained and as she turned her face to one side, her expression looked like someone who’d just committed a horrible sin. Alex would have laughed if he hadn’t been so scared himself. He didn’t know what was happening to him or to Sierra, but each minute he spent with her, he’d felt a tension growing between them. He could no longer simply think of her as his sweet buddy with a heart too big for her own good. Something had opened his eyes to the fact that she was a woman and that she wasn’t quite the pushover he’d always thought her to be.
If someone tried to take Bowie from her, Alex knew she’d fight him or her to the bitter end. And if she loved a man, would she fight just as hard for him? She’d allowed Chad to walk away and that could only mean one thing. She hadn’t really loved the guy. The notion curled the corners of Alex’s lips with a satisfied smile.
“Why not? You have to be friends before you can be lovers.”
Her face jerked back to his and their gazes clashed like swords clanging in the darkness.
Lifting her chin to a challenging angle, she protested in a husky whisper, “We—uh—we aren’t going to become lovers!”
The smile on Alex’s face deepened to a cocky grin. “You think not, do you?”
She swallowed as the rapid beat of her heart fluttered in her throat like a trapped bird. “I know not!”
The words floated out on a gasp, but her shocked reaction didn’t deter Alex at all. His hands slid up and down the slope of her shoulders in a slow, sensuous fashion until they finally curled around her throat and his thumbs rested beneath the angle of her jaw.
“You sound awfully sure of that.”
And he sounded so all-fired cocksure of himself that needles of fear jabbed her from every direction. She’d not known Alex for years without learning that he usually got what he went after. She just couldn’t understand why he suddenly wanted her.
“I am!” she shot back at him. “You’re a great friend, Alex. But I, well, having you in my bed is another matter.”
Fortune's Heirs: Reunion Page 40