Everything would go just fine.
A couple of hours later, Ally parked her old BMW in a mini-mall lot. The lunch had gone well, without any more paranoid moments for Ally.
Able to breathe easier now, she headed toward the hardware store, the coastal air making for a mild day, a hint of sea breeze on the wind.
But then, strangely, she felt a tickle, a sensation she usually felt whenever…
She turned around to find a familiar green pickup truck with an equally familiar person resting one arm on the steering wheel as he leaned out the window and tipped his cowboy hat to her.
“Afternoon,” Jeremiah said, grinning, as if he was thinking about kissing her again.
Her skin sparked with a million popping nerve endings, and Ally stopped walking. Was this a coincidence or…
No, he couldn’t be following her around. Even Jeremiah Barron, who had more tenacity than she’d seen in anyone, wouldn’t go there.
As if reading her thoughts, he said, “I’m not stalking you, Ally. I was on my way to the market here.”
“Then you’ll be on your way to the airport, right?” she asked hopefully.
But from somewhere else inside her—the part that wondered what it would be like to be a not-so-good-girl—there was a yearning for him not to be going anywhere.
“I’m sticking around the area for a bit, checking things out,” he said. A reminder that he was and always would be the business shark with an eye for new properties. “I’m still at the Sea View Hotel. You should hear the waves at night. They’re almost enough to lull me to sleep.”
Almost enough. Was he telling her that their kiss had kept him awake, too?
He nodded toward the hardware store. “You on a fix-it mission?”
“My garbage disposal decided to give me trouble, so I thought I would see if they have any handyman services.” She’d been so addled that she hadn’t thought to go online to check it out herself before this afternoon. Besides, she needed to pick up some nails for the pictures she would be hanging in the nursery.
“It just so happens,” Jeremiah said, “that I’m pretty handy.”
I’m sure you are, Ally thought, especially in relation to last night, even though he hadn’t taken the opportunity to get handy with her during that kiss.
In fact, he’d been pretty restrained. He was the one who’d ended things, and she couldn’t figure out why.
Just thinking about his lips against hers flipped her tummy and made her want to sigh.
But, none of that. No sighing.
Before she could tell Jeremiah that she had the repairs under control, he’d pulled into a parking space and was out of the truck, cowboy boots, jeans and all.
As he walked toward the hardware store entrance, Ally said, “Really, I don’t need—”
“It’s no problem,” he said. “And I’ll be in and out of your place before you know it. I’m going to head back to the hotel, eat a bite, then go home. I promise.”
She watched him go into the store. She did need the disposal fixed. And if he had plans to leave soon anyway….
She followed him into the store, which smelled faintly of rubber. After asking her some details about the disposal, Jeremiah seemed to know just what he needed. She didn’t trail him though, preferring to fetch those nails instead.
He was ready within ten minutes, and she met him at the checkout, her credit card in hand.
Jeremiah had his out, too.
“Thanks, but that’s not necessary,” Ally said, unwilling to be more in debt to him than she already was, with this favor as well as the roses. “I’ve got this.”
He backed off without a protest, but his grin told her that he was enjoying her spunk.
It was only when they walked out of the store with their purchases that Ally realized just how stressed out something small like a garbage disposal could make a person. Just knowing that it was going to be taken care of made her feel a bit lighter.
So much going on right now—more than she would admit.
As they walked side by side, her arm brushed his and she inhaled, then made sure they had a few inches between them.
If Jeremiah noticed, he didn’t remark on it, and that wasn’t like him.
Then again, hadn’t there been a change in him last night, when he’d ended the kiss before she could?
Good heavens, just how far would she have let it go if he hadn’t stopped?
As they came to her car, she used her remote to unlock it. It whimpered, just as she’d done at some point during that kiss. She didn’t recall when—just that it had happened.
What was wrong with her?
He opened her door and she slid inside, but before he shut it, he braced his arms on the top of the car, his body blocking the door, making her feel cornered.
Weirdly, it was in a place she kind of liked.
“See you there, then,” he said.
She held her breath, running her gaze over his wide chest, his flat stomach….
It took all the strength she had to stop, look ahead and start the engine.
He retreated, shutting the door at the same time, then watched her back out of her space and drive away.
This was a mistake, she thought. She shouldn’t let him come back yet again, even to fix a garbage disposal. Why hadn’t she just told him she could handle it herself?
Heart thumping all the way home, she finally made it up her driveway, Jeremiah’s truck not far behind.
There was a car she didn’t recognize in the driveway. As she got out, Jeremiah didn’t ask about it—not until Mrs. McCarter came out of the house, accompanied by the last person Ally expected to see here so soon.
“Ally cat!” Aunt Jess said, her arms open as she ran over for a hug, her long sun-kissed brunette hair flying behind her.
Laughing, Ally couldn’t have been happier…until Jess ended the embrace and glanced at Jeremiah, who stood nearby greeting a delighted Mrs. McCarter.
From the expression on Jess’s face, Ally knew she had a lot of explaining to do, both to Jess…
And to herself.
Chapter Seven
Jess led Ally into the house, down the long hall and into the first guest bedroom they came to.
She closed the door behind them. “You could have knocked me over with a feather. What is he doing here?”
Ally was pretty sure that saying she’d been asking herself the same thing wouldn’t go over too well.
“He’s fixing the garbage disposal,” she said honestly, wishing she could just leave it at that.
Jeremiah was probably even now following Mrs. McCarter into the garage, where Ally kept her supply of tools.
“The garbage disposal,” Jess repeated, planting her hands on her skirted hips. “Is that all you’ve got to say when you have the biggest scoundrel in all of Texas here at your house?”
Ally lifted her hands, shrugging.
Naturally, that wasn’t enough for Jess. “Ally, I saw all those roses he planted. And Mrs. McCarter told me about how Jeremiah Barron has been buzzing around you like a bee with a stinger ready to—”
“Jess, it’s not that way.”
“Then tell me, what way is it?”
What could she say?
He kissed me, and I can’t stop thinking about it. Or, You should see him when he’s not at parties or around the regular crowds. He’s different. He’s…
Well, she didn’t know for certain what he was. But, more and more, she wanted to find out, in spite of every logical bone in her body.
Ally sat on the king-size bed, holding on to the brass bedpost. “All right, here’s the truth. I’m not sure what’s going on, Jess. But I’ve started to like having him around.”
“I hate to say this, but the man makes his way through life manipulating people, and you know that as well as I do because you’ve spent half your life sticking to your guns and seeing right through people like him. Yet here you are, entertaining him, telling me that he’s so very different than
what you expected. Don’t you think other women have thought the same darn thing about him, Al?”
Ally wanted to argue, wanted to tell Jess that she’d gotten a more thorough view into Jeremiah. That he was misunderstood by the world at large. But had she just been spellbound by a master and was that the gist of it?
Yet, that notion didn’t make sense. She had been so very good at ferreting out the liars from the rest during her time in high society—why hadn’t some other smooth-talking cad blinded her?
Jess leaned back against the door. “I want to smack myself for telling Jeremiah where you went after the Howards’ charity auction. I thought by letting him know that you’d taken off without saying goodbye to him, he would get the hint and leave you alone. You made it a point to shine him off, but that only seemed to spur him on, not dissuade him.”
“And nobody leaves Jeremiah Barron in the dust,” Ally whispered.
What was the truth and what was a lie when it came to him? Why did she even care?
She rested her head against the bedpost. “He really has been helpful, Jess, seeing to things around the house that don’t seem so important in light of all that’s going on with the adoption.”
“Oh, so you just need a handyman. That’s easy enough to take care of. Where are your yellow pages?”
“Stop kidding.”
“No joke, Al.”
Jess, of all people, was making it sound as if Ally just needed a man who could take care of her. And she hated the sound of that. For a while, she’d done just fine on her own, surrounding herself with the people she loved, like Mrs. McCarter and Jess—not people she’d hand chosen because they were “useful.”
It was just that whenever Jeremiah was with her, he brought something to her life that Mrs. McCarter or Jess didn’t bring.
But whatever that was, she would need to do without it. She would have to as a single mother, because Jeremiah had told her once before that, in spite of whatever soft spots she thought he might be hiding within him, he wasn’t the kind to settle down.
She didn’t need fantasies of a husband figure to carry her through, even though it occasionally felt lonely thinking about how she really was on her own.
A single mom. She was going to have a baby, and even with her well-meaning company, she would be only one parent, not two.
Jess was measuring her with a frown, but Ally didn’t want her to worry.
“He’ll be gone soon, anyway,” she said. “Back to Texas. Back to everything he was doing before he decided to come out here.”
Her aunt lifted an eyebrow. “I’m not sure you can dismiss Jeremiah that easily. The man’s been riding on his ego for years. His pride might be at stake.”
Her aunt’s words rang through the room. No one but Ally had seen that exposed moment at the charity auction when she’d caught Jeremiah cavorting with those kids, just before he’d tried to cover up his gentler side by brushing off her questions about having a family someday.
No one had seen him walk away after that kiss last night, turning back to her as if he’d wanted to make sure the moment had actually happened.
Ally got up from the bed. “You won’t have to deal with him while you stay here since he’s in a hotel by the beach, far enough away from us.”
“That’s good to hear.” Jess moved out of the way as Ally went for the door. “Based on his reputation, I wouldn’t have put it past him to pitch a tent on your lawn and inch his way closer to staying inside the house with every passing hour.”
Ally laughed and shook her head, opening the door.
“Just…” her aunt began to say.
Ally paused, waiting for the rest.
Jess wrinkled her brow, then finished. “Never mind. You’re smart and aware of what’s what. I shouldn’t fret about this.”
“Then don’t.”
Ally moved into the hallway and walked toward the main part of the house, where Jeremiah would’ve come in from the garage by now.
Jess was right about one thing—he’d already found a way into her home.
And maybe even more.
“Someday, the baby’s going to love this,” Mrs. McCarter said, leaning on her cane in the Southwest-themed living room as Jeremiah finished setting up the high-powered telescope he’d purchased just this morning. Nearby, a large fish tank hummed, filled with broken wagon wheels and a crumbling adobelike home for the freshwater fish to swim through.
Even though he had work in the kitchen to get done, he’d started on this telescope first. Truthfully, he had quite a few gifts he’d bought this morning for Ally’s child that he’d wanted to take out of the pickup and into the house before hunkering down with the garbage disposal. He’d actually planned on hiring someone to deliver the presents, but when he’d seen Ally at that mini-mall, it’d been as if fate had decided to wink at him, and he’d changed his mind about staying away from her.
Hell, frankly, he would’ve seized any chance to see Ally again. He craved it, especially since all he could think about was kissing her, holding her.
But he’d gotten all he was going to get, most likely. A kiss in a garden. And after today, he’d tip his hat to her and go.
Unless…
Jeremiah brushed off the thought. She wasn’t going to ask him to stay, even if he wanted to hear it from a woman like her.
He aimed the telescope toward the window, peering through it, then stepped out of the way for Mrs. McCarter to do the same.
“I know the baby won’t be able to use this for years,” he said, “but I saw it and thought, what the hell.”
Bull. He’d caught a glimpse of it in a store window and thought of Ally, impulsively snatching it right up, wondering if the gift would always serve to remind her of him and the night they’d talked about the stars.
The kind of night no other woman could have ever claimed to share with Jeremiah Barron.
He wasn’t sure why it was important to have her remember him that way, but he liked the possibility of it. Liked it a lot.
Mrs. McCarter squinted through the eyepiece. “You bought enough for that baby to guarantee a gift per year, Jeremiah. Toys, outfits, even a supply of diapers to be delivered each week.”
He didn’t say anything about how practical Ally would want those kinds of things before any fancier gifts. In spite of her financial fall, she wasn’t nearly destitute.
“They say a mother can never have enough of those. But what do I know?”
Mrs. McCarter looked up from the telescope. “I’d say you know quite a bit. You just don’t care for anyone to realize it.”
As the astute old woman grinned at him, Jeremiah nearly flushed. He’d been called out.
“I’ll tell you something else, too,” Mrs. McCarter said. “Ally doesn’t make a show of it, but she can use all the support she can get right now, even if it’s from a business associate who dabbles in home appliances and gardening.”
The way Mrs. McCarter said “business associate” made him think that she hadn’t bought into the supposed reason for his traveling out here. She’d probably known he was full of it before he’d even admitted it.
“Ally’s got a tough road ahead of her,” Jeremiah said. “She’s taken on a lot, adopting as a single mom.”
“And right now, I can tell you that her aunt Jess isn’t exactly helping matters. Jess means well, but she strongly believes in a two-parent family. Ally doesn’t need any more doubts about what she’s doing.” Mrs. McCarter went back to the telescope. “Don’t get me wrong—when all’s said and done, Jess will be behind Ally one hundred percent. She just needs to come to terms with Ally’s decision and trust that Ally is going to be a fabulous mother, with or without a husband.”
Husband.
A possessive surge overwhelmed Jeremiah, making him bristle. He didn’t want to think of Ally being with another man, even though she would no doubt find one someday.
While he tried to make sense of the chaos whirling in him, Mrs. McCarter continued.
&nbs
p; “Jess was raised by a single mom, and she wishes she’d had a father in the house, too. She missed a sense of stability, but I don’t think that can be pinned on merely the lack of a dad. Not entirely. Her mother wasn’t there much, either. Jess felt very alone when she was growing up, and she believes that if she’d had a father everything would’ve been wonderful. That’s why Jess thinks Ally should have a husband—because she doesn’t want the baby to ever feel as if he or she has been slighted.”
Mrs. McCarter must’ve heard someone coming, because she stopped talking and began playing around with the telescope again.
Ally entered from the long hallway, and the sight of her—the straight, light hair, the heart-stopping shape of her delicate face, the vividness of her gaze—rocked Jeremiah.
He could look at her forever.
But he wasn’t meant for forever. Hell, he wasn’t even meant to go beyond a night or two.
“What’s this?” Ally asked, gesturing toward the telescope, smiling with curiosity.
He barely even paid attention as Mrs. McCarter explained his shopping spree.
As Ally listened to her, Jeremiah wanted to damn everyone and everything and go to her, scoop her into his arms, bend her into another kiss…then more….
When Jessica entered the room, coming to sit on a desert-patterned couch, he dropped the fantasies. That strange protective streak lit him up again. “Afternoon, Jessica,” he said.
“Hi, Jeremiah.”
“You here to change some diapers?”
“Sure,” she said. “Bring them on.”
She laughed, but he noticed that Ally’s smile was only halfhearted as she ran her hand over the toys that Mrs. McCarter had pulled out of their bags earlier and strewn over the hardwood floor, fussing over Jeremiah’s kindness.
He spoke to Jessica again. “This is going to be a hard row to hoe, keeping up with a newborn.”
“We’ll be ready.”
Time to get to the point. “Ally’s got the heart of a lion, taking on the responsibility.”
“Yes, she’s very brave.” Jessica smiled at him, but it was noncommittal, as cool as Ally’s could sometimes be.
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