“Yeah, I don’t know what was going on, but I heard your sister yelling. She said, and I quote, ‘Get your hands off me. How dare you touch me that way? I’m telling James.’ Then I heard him say, ‘Come on, Baby, I know you want me,’” Joe said, sounding disgusted again. “There was some more, but you get the idea.”
Zane turned back to James. From the look on his face, he’d guess he hadn’t heard all of that. He looked like he could happily commit murder. Zane decided to address Greg instead. “I’m not on duty right now, so this is your one chance. Leave.” The guy turned and almost ran form the building. Apparently, he had enough sense not to take Zane and James on at the same time.
“Well, that was fun. Now if you all don’t mind, I’m headed to a barbecue. I was still on my way when you called. That’s how I made it so fast.”
“Is your dad grilling?”
“Yeah. Phil and I will probably help. Want to come? I’m sure there will be enough to add one more.”
“I’d love to. I was in here looking for something for supper when I heard Lisa. Are you sure your parents won’t mind?” Tyler asked as he turned to follow Zane from the store.
“Of course not. I’m sure they’ll be glad to see you. How long have you been back in town?”
“Just a little over a week. I pulled into my parent’s driveway at five thirty in the morning on August 31. I don’t think my dad could decide whether to be happy to see me, or aggravated I’d shown up so early.”
“He’s a rancher. I’m sure the early morning wasn’t that big of a deal.”
“You’re right,” Tyler agreed in a dry tone. “He ended up putting me to work.”
*******
When James and Lisa got back to the house and told Carl and Jamie what had happened, Carl looked over at James with a concerned look. “You’re not going to relapse, are you? Do we need to have that conversation again?”
James just laughed. “No, I’m fine. Besides, Lisa said I’m beautiful,” he said with a big cheesy grin on his handsome face.
Zane groaned. “Sounds like someone needs to get their eyes checked.”
Lisa punched him in the gut. He just looked at her and grinned while she stood there rubbing her knuckles.
“Hey, Mom, is Amanda here yet?”
“Yes, Zane, she’s here.” She had tried to say something else, but he had taken off too quickly. She looked up at Carl, and without a word, he followed his son.
Two seconds later her concern for her son was replaced with another issue. Three of her younger sons were chasing their sister, Tonya, with what looked like a dead snake. It was probably the snake Carl and Zane had killed a few hours ago.
The problem was, they had started making laps through the kitchen, then running out the front door. On their second trip through, Jamie managed to grab Tony by the arm and Gabe by an ear. James just stepped over in front of Nathan. When the little boy glared up at him, James thought his glare was because he’d stopped him from going back outside. Tonya managed to make it back out the door, so Lisa stepped outside and hollered at her.
When the two came back in the door, Jamie just looked at Tonya and pointed at the couch where the other three were already sitting.
She looked at Tonya. “Why were you running through the house?”
“They were chasing me with a snake.”
“One, the snake is dead, and two, that doesn’t answer my question. You could have run from them outside.”
“I was looking for you and Dad.”
“You ran right past me, and probably your dad, because he was headed to the back yard, on your first trip. So, try again.”
After that, Tonya didn’t seem to have anything else to say, so Jamie turned to Gabe, who was still holding the dead snake. “Take that thing outside and throw it out in the trees somewhere. Then get back in here.”
By the time Gabe got to the door, James already had it open for him. The little boy made a mad dash for the trees, flung the snake through the air, and turned and ran back toward the house. In less than a minute he was back on the couch.
“Okay you three, why was you chasing your sister with a dead snake?”
“Because it was funny.”
Nathan looked so serious, Jamie almost lost the tight hold she had on the laugh she had been holding back for the last few minutes. The fact that James sounded like he was strangling didn’t help. Without looking she pointed her finger at him, “Don’t laugh.”
“Okay you four, if I catch you running through the house again, I’m going to make you do all the dishes by hand tonight. No dishwasher. With the number of people here tonight, that ought to take a while. Think about that. Now out.”
They all jumped up and scattered in different directions. James was still working hard not to lose control of his laughter and missed the second glare Lisa’s younger brother, Nathan, threw him on the way out the door. Once they all four had cleared the doors, unable to hold it in any longer, he started laughing so hard he was doubled over.
“You’re not much help you know. How am I supposed to keep a straight face when your snorting? In a few years, you’re going to be trying to get on to yours and I’m going to make sure and make it hard on you.”
“I’m sorry, he said, trying to laugh and talk at the same time. “Do you remember when Zane chased Jenny through the house with an opossum he had caught. You’ve been through this before.”
She just looked at him with a puzzled expression. “How do you remember that? Maybe I’ve just blocked it out.”
James just laughed harder. “You don’t remember Zane startling it in the backyard? When it started playing dead, he decided to pick it up and chase Jenny with it. They ended up running through the house. It freaked you out. You told him to take it back outside and let it go before it bit him.”
“Oh, yeah. I’m starting to remember now. I’ve blocked out most of Zane’s shenanigans over the years. Thanks for reminding me.” Jamie’s sarcasm only made him laugh harder.
“Okay, that’s enough humor at my expense. I have to go check on Zane,” Jamie said, turning toward the swinging doors that lead through to the kitchen.
“Why, Mom? What’s going on?” Lisa asked, the concern showing in her voice. “Is Amanda okay?”
“She has a black eye. She wouldn’t talk to your dad and I about it. Maybe she’ll talk to him. He can usually get stuff out of her when the rest of us can’t. You know how he is about her. I wonder how much longer it’s going to take before he realizes he’s in love with her.”
*******
When Zane had gotten outside and found Amanda, the top of his head almost blew off. His dad tried to restrain him, but it was a useless effort. Zane just yanked his arm free of his dad’s grasp.
“What happened? Did Austin hit you?” he asked, his voice rising in anger. “Is this why I haven’t heard from you the last three weeks?”
“He was drunk, Zane. Drop it, please,” she said, trying not to plead. She didn’t understand why she always got one side of Zane, and everybody else always got another. He was about the funniest person she knew, but she always got the cop, not the comic.
“I don’t care if he was drunk. I’m going to kill him.” Zane turned, and started toward the side gate. When she tried to lay her hand on his arm to stop him, he just kept going.
She started after him, praying no one had noticed his outburst. Once she had made it through the gate, she hollered at him. “Zane, stop.”
“How long have you been dating this guy?” Now that they were standing and facing each other, she could see how furious he was.
“Three months,” she answered, confusion in her voice.
Zane stood and stared at her a few minutes. If she stuck to her usual patterns, she would only be with him for another three of four months. Maybe he could deal with this without killing the guy.
“Is this the first time he has hit you?” He was practically snarling at her, but he couldn’t stop himself. He never could help the over prote
ctive feeling he felt with her. He knew if things didn’t change soon, he was in danger of committing murder.
“Yes.” She stood there, still wearing a blank look.
“Fine. I won’t go after him. But you had better keep in contact with me. Do you still have my number in your phone?”
“No. I think Austin must have deleted it,” she said, feeling a little nervous. She was afraid she was going to set him off again. “I know I didn’t delete it.”
He just held his hand out. “Give me your phone,” he said, trying not to snarl. It wasn’t her he wanted to bust in the head. “Make sure he doesn’t get it again. Keep it on you at all times.”
Once she had dug it out of her pocket and handed it to him, he punched his cell number in and saved it. “If you go more than a week without calling me, I’m coming after you. Seven days. No more.”
He leaned down, almost touching his nose to hers. “And I’m not making any promises not to hurt him if I have to come and get you. Keep that in mind,” he said, starting to snarl again. He stepped back and turned toward his jeep.
“Zane, don’t run off. Please.”
He didn’t know what it was, but once she uttered that word, he had to give her what she asked for. It wouldn’t bother him so much if she was in love with him too. Being in love with her was turning out to be more pain than pleasure. When he turned around, he just glared at her, and stormed back through the gate.
Chapter 11 – Thursday, September 27
“So, Sis, how are you and James doing? Is he getting any closer?” Jenny asked with a smirk.
“I don’t know about him getting any closer, but he kisses me a lot.”
“Is that a bad thing,” Jenny asked, trying not to laugh.
Lisa just rolled her eyes at her sister. “No. It’s not a bad thing. It does make me crazy though. When he kisses me, I don’t think he uses any restraint.”
“The concept of restraint is probably too new to him. It’s something Luke and I are still working on,” Mindi said with a grin.
“If he wasn’t restraining himself, my guess is, you’d have already been in bed together, again.”
Lisa blushed scarlet and turned a glare on Jenny. “I think he’s trying to kiss me into submission. I’m afraid if he keeps it up, he’s going to succeed.”
Jenny just chuckled and grinned. “Would that be so bad?”
“If he doesn’t get it soon, I may start pulling my hair out.”
“Okay? Why do you feel the need to do yourself a violence?” Now Jenny was turning red in the face from the effort not to laugh.
“Well, you’ve kissed Mark before. It’s been a while, but you should remember how it feels.”
“Please. Let’s not talk about Mark. Can’t deal with it right now.”
“You’re going to have to, if you’re going to understand what I’m trying to tell you.”
“Fine, I’ll try.” This time Lisa gave Jenny a curious look, because now she sounded frustrated too.
“Now, think how you would feel if every time he got the chance, he kissed you silly.”
Jenny got this far off look in her eyes, and when she started to talk, she sounded like she was in a daze. “We were in the office this morning going over some stuff for next week’s sale items. He told me, if we hadn’t been at work, he would have kissed me. Do you want to know what I said?”
“Yeah,” Lisa and Mindi answered at the same time. “What did you say?”
“I told him I wished we weren’t at work. It was like my brain and my mouth had become disconnected from each other.” Jenny had this far off look in her eyes that made Lisa wonder if she was remembering that first kiss almost four years ago.
“How did he react to that?”
“I think if Jane hadn’t walked into the office at that point, he would have kissed me anyway. He sure looked like he was thinking about it.”
“Wow. What do you want to bet he shows up for dinner tonight?”
“I don’t want to think about that right now,” Jenny said, shaking her head. “Just because I admitted I wanted him to kiss me, doesn’t mean I’m not still terrified.”
“Okay, I’ll drop it. Anyway, no matter how bad you can imagine it, it’s worse for me.”
“How do you figure?”
“I love the man. That’s obvious, and that’s the reason I want to marry him. I want to spend the rest of my life with him. I want to have more babies with him.”
“This is building to something, isn’t it?”
“I want to resume the physical part of our relationship. Badly.”
“Oh, you want to have sex again.” Now Jenny was really having trouble not laughing. “Wow! Who knew? My sister was a...”
Lisa cut her off mid-sentence. “Shut up, Jenny. Just wait. If you ever get the guts to say yes to Mark, and you two get married, you’ll understand.”
“It must have really been good. You were baring your teeth there for a second,” Jenny said, waving a finger in front of her sister’s mouth.
“Jenny, it’s more complicated than that. Wait until Luke and Mindi get back from their honeymoon. Then she can try to explain it to you. That’s the closest you can get to another person.”
Lisa lifted her hand to stop Jenny’s next comment. “I’m not talking about physically. I’m talking about... emotional. There’s a soul deep connection. That’s the connection I’m missing. Not that I’m saying the physical part wasn’t great, too. Boy was it great.”
Just then Jamie came through the swinging doors with a puzzled but delighted look on her face. “Guess what girls.” She was talking to all of them, but she was looking at Jenny. “We’re going to have an unexpected guest for dinner tonight. Someone who hasn’t been to one of our Thursday night dinners in a while.”
“I told you, Jenny.”
“She hasn’t said it’s him,” Jenny said, all the sudden, sounding nervous.
Lisa looked over at her mom. “It’s Mark, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. How did you know?” Jamie asked, giving Lisa a quizzical look.
“Well, Jenny, do you want to tell her, or should I?”
“This morning he... I told... we were...” Jenny blew out a puff of air, and tried again. “He said if we weren’t at work, he would kiss me. I told him I wished we weren’t at work.” Jenny turned bright red, and left the kitchen through the back door.
“Wow. I guess we know why he’s coming to dinner. Of course, I figured it had something to do with her. Do you think they’ll ever manage to get it worked out?”
“I know she wants to. She’s told us she wants to tell him yes one of these times when he asks her out. I don’t think she’s got her courage up, just yet. But it sounds like the part that wants to be with him is taking over. Don’t you think?”
*******
Jamie and her sisters decided it would be best to leave Jenny to herself for a while. They figured she could use the time to mentally prepare herself for Mark’s arrival. They were all still working on getting dinner on the table when James and Luke walked in. It wasn’t a full five minutes later when Mark walked in behind them, filling the doorway.
He was the tallest of them all, and almost as wide across the shoulders as James. He had been friends with the older Townsends and Luke and James since early childhood. His father, Joe Harris, owned the local grocery store. He, himself now owned the only hardware store in town where Jenny worked as his personal assistant.
“Hey, they hadn’t told us you were coming to dinner tonight. Of course, we’ve only been here a few minutes ourselves,” Luke said, looking up at Mark with a grin. “It’s been a while.”
“Yeah.” he answered, sounding a little absent minded. “Where’s Jenny? I saw her car.”
Jamie just pointed at the back door. “She ran out there after I told her you were coming tonight. Just a word of advice. Move slowly. You know how fragile she can be. Don’t scare her off.”
“I know.” That was all he said before he headed out the back d
oor.
Luke and James, both at the same time asked, “What’s going on?”
Jamie started to shake her head, but Mindi stepped in. “Come on, Mom. It’s Luke and James. They’ll understand. Luke probably has some idea of what’s going on anyway.”
Jamie took a deep breath, but decided Mindi was right. “She’s been in love with him for a while now. She just keeps turning him down out of fear of being hurt.”
“He’s crazy in love with her. She has nothing to fear,” Luke said, for once truly not understanding what was going on with another human being. “I really didn’t know why she kept turning him down. All I knew was, it’s been making him crazy.”
“She’s trying, Luke. She told Lisa and I she wants to stop turning him down, but it’s going to take some time.”
Lisa had walked over to James and now stood with her arms wrapped around his waist. “She told us this morning they were working on some sale stuff, and he told her if they weren’t at work he would kiss her. Do you want to know what her response was?”
“I guess,” Luke said, wondering if Jenny would really want him to know this.
“Before she could stop herself, she told him she wished they weren’t at work. Well now, they’re not at work,” Lisa said, pointing at the back door.
Luke walked over to the window and peeked out the curtain. He quickly dropped it back in place and walked back across the kitchen not wanting to invade their privacy more than he already had.
“Yeah, they’re not at work. He’s the only one that would need to pick her up like that to kiss her.”
*******
Dinner was over, and everyone had left the kitchen except for Lisa, Jenny, Mindi and their mom. They were still working on cleaning up. Jamie was trying to stay busy, so the other two could talk to Jenny. She had been jumpy all through dinner, and hadn’t said a word since she had walked in the back door. They were all wondering what had happened, aside from the obvious.
Oh, Baby! (The Townsends Book 2) Page 9