by Tami Hoag
“Oh, shut up,” she muttered to the annoying little voice in her head.
Suddenly something cold and wet was nudging her hand. Genna’s eyes went huge with fright and she jerked her head around. Two china blue eyes stared up at her from the face of a fat, furry black and white puppy. He sat perfectly still, waiting for her reaction. Genna laughed her relief, which the puppy took as a good sign. His tail wagged, wriggling his entire chubby body.
“You gave me a scare, little guy.” She ruffled his thick fur. “You new in town?”
A hesitant movement halfway behind her chair caught Genna’s eye as she leaned over to pet the puppy. She leaned over a little more, her brows lifting in surprise. At the edge of the patio stood a pretty little girl of about four or five, her tumble of thick black hair caught up in a ponytail with a crooked pink bow, her blue eyes filled with uncertainty.
Genna swung her legs over the side of the lounge and sat up. “Hi,” she said, smiling. “I’ll bet this puppy belongs to you.”
The little girl nodded. She came no closer, though she cast a nervous glance at her errant pet. She looked ready to turn and run at a second’s notice.
“He’s a very nice puppy. What’s his name?”
She seemed to be weighing the pros and cons of answering, as one hand tugged at the bottom of her pink and lavender top. She scuffed the toe of her pink and white sneaker on the patio brick. Finally she said, “Flurry.”
Genna turned her attention to the dog. “Nice to meet you, Flurry. I’m Genna.” She reached down and shook the puppy’s paw. “Can you tell me your mistress’s name?”
Silence. The puppy licked her hand enthusiastically.
“He can’t talk,” came the little voice. “Except dog talk.”
“Really? I don’t know much about puppies.”
The little girl chewed her bottom lip, looked from Genna to Flurry and then over her shoulder. She took a small step forward. “My name’s Alyssa.”
“What a lovely name,” Genna said. “Alyssa what?”
“Alyssa Hennessy.”
Genna was certain the lounge had collapsed beneath her. Hennessy! With difficulty she found her voice and pointed to the gray house. “You live over there with your daddy and mommy?”
“With only my daddy,” Alyssa said, her expression suddenly guarded.
A strange sort of relief flowed through Genna at the news that there was no Mrs. Hennessy in the house next door. Only because she hated to think of this darling little girl having a married father who played around on the side, she told herself. She still thought J.J. was short for Jumbo Jerk, but at least he wasn’t that kind.
Without warning, the object of her thoughts rounded the corner of her garage. He was wearing the same strange outfit he’d had on earlier, but the expression on his face was completely different. He looked serious, worried even, then relieved as his gaze landed on his daughter.
“Alyssa—”
“I didn’t wander, Daddy,” she explained. “Flurry got away and I had to come and get him.”
Jared kneeled down by his daughter and brushed back her black bangs. “Okay, muffin, but you should have come to get me first. What if Flurry had run to another block? You might have gotten lost.”
Sudden tears swam in her huge blue eyes. “But he’s my puppy.”
Jared kissed her cheek. “That’s right, sweetheart, and as soon as Uncle Cory gets here, we’ll start building him a pen in our yard so he can’t wander off.”
Genna sat watching, astounded. Who was this guy? He certainly didn’t resemble the overbearing Romeo she’d met. He looked up at her, catching her staring. She turned away, hoping he would think her blush was from the sun. She grabbed her yellow T-shirt and pulled it on to cover her bikini top. She guessed this action would earn her a smart remark from him. But he surprised her again.
“Sorry if we interrupted your sunning,” Jared said, standing. He was even sorrier she’d covered herself. Under that oversized T were two lovely, full, round breasts. She was obviously modest though, as she wore cutoffs instead of the brief bottoms that went with the bikini top. Jared smiled inwardly. He even found her modesty appealing. Not as appealing as her body, but certainly refreshing.
“No—a—” Genna stammered. Even his voice was different now, softer, more velvety. She dropped her gaze to the little girl and puppy. “Alyssa and Flurry and I were just getting acquainted.”
“Genna’s nice, Daddy,” Alyssa said with a shy smile, tucking her hand into her father’s much larger one.
Jared glanced at his daughter, then turned twinkling eyes on Genna. “I know.”
Genna was suddenly awash with goose bumps. Out of nervousness she rose, careful not to put too much weight on her sore ankle. “I was just about to bring out some fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies. Would you two care to join me?”
“Can we, Daddy?”
Jared looked long and hard at Genna. He’d thrown her a curve, and she wasn’t sure how to handle it. Good. He smiled. Keep her off balance. “Sure. I’ll help you.”
In the kitchen Genna fussed unnecessarily with plates and napkins, arranging the cookies on a tray. What should she say to him? She knew how to handle a smart aleck, but this was a whole different ball game. Should she apologize for her behavior earlier, or what? And she was dying to know the circumstances of Jared’s single parenthood, but she couldn’t bring herself to just come right out and ask him. He saved her the trouble.
“Lyssa’s mom and I split when she was one,” he said, pouring milk into yellow plastic tumblers. “Elaine was killed in a car accident about six weeks ago.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, feeling even more at a loss. Had he been close to his ex-wife? Divorce didn’t necessarily destroy a relationship entirely.
With Jared in this quiet mood, Genna felt a surprisingly strong desire to reach out to him and offer comfort, but uncertainty held her back.
“Yeah,” he went on, looking out the window above the sink, watching his daughter play with her puppy. “Lyssa was with her when it happened. She barely got a scratch, thank God.”
Genna recalled the sudden closed look on Alyssa’s face when she’d answered that she lived with her father. Poor little lamb. “That must have been terrible for her.”
“Yeah,” he said so softly she almost missed it.
“So Alyssa came to live with you.”
“Yep.” He turned back to her with a big false grin that didn’t hide the vulnerability in his eyes. “That’s me, Bachelor Father.”
He took the tray bearing their snack and carried it out, leaving Genna to stare after him. Bachelor Father. That must cramp his style with the ladies, she mused. She looked out the window and saw him swing his little girl up in his arms, cuddle and kiss her, and Genna got the distinct impression Jared didn’t mind at all.
They sat at Genna’s round picnic table after Jared got Alyssa washed up. Genna watched expectantly as he bit into a cookie. His eyes lit up and widened as he chewed.
“This is incredible!” he mumbled, still chewing.
Genna felt a rush of pride. Kitchen vanity. She loved to hear praise for her culinary skills. She knew darn well her chocolate chip specials were moist, rich, and chewy, with just the right consistency for dunking, but she could never hear enough of people telling her so.
“You actually made this? Jared questioned with reverent awe. “With your own two hands?”
“My own secret recipe.” Genna beamed.
“Outstanding!” He grinned. He looked to his daughter for confirmation. “Great, huh, Lyss?”
An exuberant nod came from the little girl, who had chocolate all over her face.
“Do you do this for a living?” He knew from quizzing Amy that Genna was a teacher. He also knew about her scuttled summer job. But asking questions seemed like a good way to make conversation and get some ideas on how to win her over.
“No,” Genna replied. “I teach kindergarten. Will you be in kindergarten this year, Alyssa?�
� She smiled beguilingly at the little girl.
Jared felt a twinge of envy. His daughter had effortlessly captured Genna’s heart. Of course, Alyssa was an adorable little doll, he added silently with a father’s pride.
Alyssa shrugged in answer. There had been so many upheavals in her life recently, Jared thought, the poor baby didn’t know what to be sure of anymore. He nodded when Genna turned questioning eyes on him.
“Genna will be your teacher, Lyss. Won’t that be neat?”
That shy, heart-stealing smile eased up the corners of Alyssa’s mouth as she looked at Genna. “I know my numbers and the alphabet too.”
“That’s wonderful,” Genna replied. “You’ll be at the head of the class.”
Alyssa nodded. “Uh-huh. I can print my name too. Daddy showed me.”
Jared blushed a little at Genna’s look of pleasant surprise. She felt a smile threaten as she pictured this football Adonis crouched over tiny Alyssa, patiently teaching her the abc’s.
“You could make a fortune on these,” he said, biting into another cookie.
Genna laughed, a sound he’d been waiting to hear. He wasn’t disappointed. Her laughter was free and spontaneous, no practiced little twitter. “I’ve been making them for fifteen years, and so far all I’ve gained is weight.”
He chuckled and leered comically. “In all the right places, I’d say.”
It was Genna’s turn to blush. She hurried to change the subject. “Actually, I usually do some cooking professionally during the summer, but my friend packed up her catering business and moved, so …”
“So you’re out of a job?” He had been racking his brain to come up with a job to offer her, but hadn’t had much luck. He was sure she’d turn down the housekeeper ploy, and just baby-sitting for Alyssa wouldn’t pay well enough.
“I’ll have to start looking for something Monday.” She wondered if Betsy Franke could use an extra cook now that she had inherited Mary’s summer bookings.
“Well, if you ever decide to go into the bakery business let me know,” Jared said. “I’m always looking for a good investment. These cookies are a sure thing.”
“Flurry likes them too, Genna,” Alyssa announced as the puppy snatched the offered treat and wagged his tail as he gulped it down.
A red Porsche pulled up in front of Jared’s house and the horn sounded, playing Charge!
“Uncle Cory!” Alyssa squealed, climbing off the bench. She dashed away with Flurry hot on her heels.
“That’s my weekend construction crew,” J.J. said, standing. He sent Genna one of his patented grins. “Thanks for the cookies, Teach. Catch you later.”
With that he was gone. Genna chewed thoughtfully on a cookie. It seemed she had more than one neighbor: a macho madman, and a bachelor father with a velvet voice and vulnerable blue eyes.
“Will the real Jared Hennessy please stand up?”
A doghouse that was a miniature White Castle hamburger stand? Genna shook her head in disbelief as she sat at a white wrought iron table on Jared’s patio staring at the ridiculous structure. Unbelievable. The whole scene was unbelievable.
The summer sun beat down on the crowd in the backyard. Rock music blared from a boom box hanging from the limb of a white oak tree. More people were dancing than working, though two men were planting fence posts around the perimeter of the yard and dancing. The chain-link fence they were putting up was going to be ordinary enough, not so the miniature pink flamingos stuck in the ground around the dog house. Further testimony to the abnormality of the man, Genna told herself.
She looked at Jared, who was dancing with two little neighborhood girls, his daughter on his broad shoulders. Half the town of Tory Hills was partying here. There were enough beer and soda cans in the trash to build a DeLorean.
Was it going to be this way every weekend? she wondered, frowning. She had never been much of a party girl and she didn’t want to start now. She loved quiet weekends at home. Was J. J. Hennessy to be the end of them?
She took a sip of the beer Jared had plunked down in front of her and gagged. How had she allowed Amy to drag her here? She couldn’t remember, but she certainly remembered her way home, and that’s where she was heading. She stood and reached for her crutches, only to have them deftly swept away by Jared. He leaned a denim-clad hip on the table.
“Leaving so soon, Teach?” he asked with a grin. “Where’s your party mania?”
“I don’t have any,” she answered flatly.
“Ah.” He frowned in mock seriousness. “A party mania deficiency. An adjustment to your biological party barometer is in order. Let’s see what we’ve got here.”
Genna watched him search through the many pockets and loops of his cutoff bib overalls and pull out five screwdrivers, three pliers, a hammer, a toothbrush, a lint brush, a can opener, a bottle opener, and seven ball-point pens.
“Have enough tools in there?” she asked wryly as he inspected one contraption after another.
Jared leered at her. “All the important ones.”
Genna grimaced at the lewd remark, trying not to notice the ripple of bare chest and arm muscles as he extracted what looked like a tire pressure gauge and came toward her with it.
“Now, just let Dr. J.J. take care of you—”
“You touch me with that thing and you won’t have a tool left in working order,” she snarled, face-to-face with his hard chest.
“J.J., where are the extra potato chips?” a buxom blonde with legs up to her armpits asked on her way to the house. She wore red silk shorts and a Hawks T-shirt that gave new meaning to the word “skintight.” She was one of the Lady Hawks, the team cheerleaders.
“In the cupboard, the third door to the left of the microwave.”
“Think she can count that far?” Genna asked sweetly.
Jared’s eyes glittered with dangerous amusement. “I hope so. She’s an associate professor at the University of Connecticut.”
Genna felt about three inches tall. Her mouth dropped open. She closed it, then ventured meekly, “Phys ed?”
“Differential calculus. Can’t judge a book by its cover, Teach. Isn’t that part of the kindergarten curriculum anymore?”
Genna scowled and looked out at the party. She’d been bitchy and small-minded, which wasn’t at all like her. And worse yet, for some reason she cared very much that Jared Hennessy not think badly of her.
“I learned that in kindergarten,” he went on, swilling her beer. “That and how to play doctor.”
She slanted him a disgusted look. “Anything else?”
He looked thoughtful a moment and nodded. “That l-m-n-o-p is not all one letter.”
She came dangerously close to giggling at that. Damn the man! Just when she was sure she despised him, he did something to make her laugh.
“So what do you think of the doghouse?” he asked, casting a proud smile at the canine castle.
“I only hope no one mistakes it for a drive-in. Couldn’t you have done something a little more … colonial?” she offered, trying not to hurt his feelings. “To go with the house.”
“Mmmm,” he said thoughtfully. “I tried scaling down Mount Vernon but the wings took up too much yard space. Besides, I don’t want Flurry getting the wrong idea and thinking he can invite overnight guests, at least not until he’s neutered.”
“Hey, Hennessy!” The booming voice came from a teammate called Brutus, who was roughly the size of Mount McKinley. Brutus wore his hair in a Mohawk and his body encased in black leather. He looked like someone from a Mad Max movie. From halfway across the yard he flung a foaming can of beer at Jared, who snagged it inches from Genna’s head—but not before it sprayed her face and soaked the front of her plaid blouse.
Laughing, Jared shook the can hard and fired it back at Brutus, who caught it and spiked it on the ground like a football, then went into a victory dance.
“Touchdown!” Jared yelled, dancing around the table, “All right, Brutus!”
Genna stood
, sputtering, trying to wipe the beer off her face with her hands. She wondered if anyone had ever done any serious studies on the placement of athletes on the evolutionary scale.
Brutus picked up the can, poured the last of the beer down his throat from an arm’s length away, then tore the can in two with his teeth.
“That guy is missing a chromosome,” she said as Jared danced around her doing things with his hips that threatened to give her palpitations.
“Brutus? He’s just having fun. Don’t you know anything about having fun?”
“I know all about having fun,” she said primly. “It has nothing to do with recycling aluminum orally.”
“It does to Brutus. I don’t know about you, but I’m not telling him any different.”
At the edge of the patio a game of Nerf football had turned ugly. Two players were wrestling on the ground rubbing barbecue briquettes into each other’s faces. The dog ran by with a flamingo clenched in his teeth. Two perfect examples of why I shouldn’t be here, Genna thought to herself, her temper wearing thin. She tried to blow beer-damp bangs off her forehead as she plucked the wet fabric of her blouse off her chest.
The Nerf ball squirted up out of the pile of humanity on the lawn, bounced off Genna’s forehead, and into Jared’s hands. He tossed it out to Kyle Dennison, who was promptly tackled by a dozen neighborhood kids.
“Know anything about football, Gen?” J.J. asked, still dancing. He draped a muscular arm across her shoulders, his gyrating hips bumping hers.
“Certainly,” she said stiffly, trying to ignore the tingles racing through her as he brushed against her. “It’s a game played by enormous, sweating men who spit and scratch—”
“That’s baseball,” he corrected.
“And wear Joan Crawford shoulder pads,” Genna continued, her fuse burning down to the short fibers. “It’s violent and stupid, and I’d rather have a pelvic exam than be forced to watch it on TV.”
She snatched her crutches up and started for home.
Piqued by Genna’s unflattering description of his chosen profession, Jared stood stiffly and watched her hobble across the lawn. It wasn’t going to further his cause any, but he couldn’t resist the urge to take her down a peg or two. He waited until she was halfway home before yelling, “Yeah, well, I still want you in my Jacuzzi, gorgeous!”