Silence fell over the playroom. Suddenly, no one was much in the mood for a tea party. But that was okay with Jake. He looked over at Alex. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”
Alex perked up immediately. “You do?”
“It’s on the back porch.” Jake smiled at his daughter, but did nothing to give away the nature of the surprise. “Want to see?”
Alex vaulted out of her chair and wobbled over to him on her high heels. “Can I wear my dress-up clothes?”
Jake frowned. Now that Alex was actually wearing something feminine, even if only for dress-up purposes, he hated to have her take it off. But given what he had on the porch, there was no helping it. “I think you better take them off for this,” he said.
“Okay.” Alex sighed, clearly disappointed, but not about to give up her surprise for the sake of arguing. She ripped off hat, gloves, scarf and high heels, but hesitated at the long double strand of pearls—which looked a little ludicrous with her jeans, T-shirt, and buckskin vest. She looked over at Jenna hopefully. “Can I keep these?”
“Sure,” Jenna said, smiling, as she too took off her tiara and stole and excess jewelry.
“Thank you,” Alex promised sincerely, giving Jenna an admiring look. “I’ll take good care of them. I won’t lose them or anything.”
Jenna reached over to squeeze Alex’s shoulders. “I know you won’t, sweetheart.”
Jake waited for Alex to put on her boots. “Ready?”
Alex nodded. She took his hand, glanced over at Jenna. “You come, too, Jenna.”
Jake nodded, seconding the invitation with a frank, sexy look.
Obviously curious, Jenna followed as Jake took his daughter’s hand in one of his, Jenna’s in the other, and led the way downstairs, past the dining room, through the kitchen and onto the large and homey screened-in back porch.
To Jake’s amusement, at first Jenna—like Alex—saw nothing amiss. Both scanned the rough-hewn furniture with red plaid cushions, the abundance of green, leafy plants and blooming geraniums, the Navajo rugs strewn across the cool cement floor and the ceiling fan whirring overhead. Then they heard it. The quick, frantic scampering of little feet. A yelp. A howl. A hiss. Alex and Jenna barely had time to draw surprised breaths before they caught sight of a fast-moving bundle of butterscotch fur and a pair of lively dark brown eyes. And an even faster bundle of gray fur. Both dashing past in a blur.
“Daddy, you did it!” Alex exclaimed, clapping her hands together with all the delight Jake had expected.
Jenna turned to Jake. “Did you ever!” she agreed dryly.
Chapter Three
“You look…surprised,” Jake said, a little irked Jenna didn’t look more impressed by what he had done. To his relief, his daughter, however, had no such reservations. Alexandra was already down on the floor, tumbling around with the cutest golden retriever puppy Jake had ever seen while her fluffy gray-and-white-striped kitten watched from a distance.
Jenna paused and bit her lip. “I am.”
Jake edged closer, until their arms were almost touching. “Because…?”
Jenna shifted slightly, her shoulder brushing the curve of his biceps. “You got her a kitten and a puppy.”
Jake shrugged, unable to see what the big deal was, and for whatever reason Jenna did seem to think this was a big deal. “I didn’t want her out hunting down snakes and I thought this would keep her busy.”
Jenna knit her brows together. “It’ll do that, all right,” she drawled, the hint of bemusement in her clear blue eyes.
Jake refused to feel inferior just because he had never been allowed to have any pets as a kid. Whereas Jenna, who’d grown up on a ranch, had nurtured an abundance of them.
“Just out of curiosity, Jake…” Jenna clasped a soft, slender hand around his upper arm and tugged him out of earshot. She backed him up against the exterior limestone wall that separated the porch from the interior of the house. “Have you ever house-trained a puppy?”
“No,” Jake said uneasily, unable to help thinking how pretty Jenna looked in her two piece turquoise cotton dress, with its loose, cropped blouse and long flowing skirt. “But how hard can it be?”
In response, Jenna just shook her head. And sighed—loudly. Her high, perfect breasts rising and falling against the demure button front of her blouse. “Did you at least get their shots?”
Jake’s eyes traced the glimpse of creamy skin visible in the open collar of her blouse. He liked the way the armholes were cut on it, dipping in slightly to reveal Jenna’s slender shoulders and pretty upper arms. “Uh, actually we have an appointment to do that at five, at the Laramie Animal Clinic. I thought we could run by the warehouse, take a quick look, then go straight to the vet’s office and the pet-supply store from there.”
“We,” Jenna repeated, lifting a skeptical brow and planting both hands on her hips.
Jake gestured off-handedly. “Well, I would have asked Clara to help with the pets.” And hoped like heck Jenna, a real animal lover if there ever was one, would volunteer to help out some, too. “But since Clara had to go off to Laramie Community Hospital to see her new grandbaby born…” Jake shrugged, to show there was no way he could have foreseen Lisa going into labor a good two weeks early.
Jenna blinked in surprise. “Clara’s married daughter lives here in Laramie, too?”
Jake realized they hadn’t covered that earlier. He nodded. “It’s one of the reasons we moved here. So Clara could be close to her daughter and son-in-law. She’s been with us since Alex was an infant and has rearranged her life on more than one occasion on our account. I thought it was time we did the same for her.”
Jenna studied him with a mixture of blatant approval and suspicion. “What were the other reasons?” she asked warily.
That was easy, Jake thought, relaxing all the more. He smiled down at Jenna, said softly, “My happiest memories of growing up were all here. I thought it’d be a good place to bring up Alex, too.”
Before Jenna could respond, Alex ran up to him. “Daddy, my new kitty is hiding behind the sofa and she won’t come out.”
“She’s probably just shy,” Jake said as the puppy began to bark. He glanced at his watch. “I think we better get these animals rounded up in their carriers.”
“Why?” Alex asked, clapping her hands over her ears to shut out the high-pitched noise. Smiling, Jenna knelt and scooped up the puppy, cradling him close to her chest. To everyone’s relief, the frantic barking stopped immediately.
Briefly, Jake explained what they had to do next, which was take both kitten and puppy to the vet for their vaccinations and exams, and then go by the grocery store to pick up pet food and other essentials.
“In that case, maybe we should reschedule looking at the warehouse and do that tomorrow morning,” Jenna said as she continued to pet Alex’s new puppy with gentle, loving strokes. She buried her face in the puppy’s fur, looking as ecstatic as Alex to have access to such a cute and cuddly animal. Jenna pressed a kiss to the puppy’s head and was promptly rewarded with a slurpy lick on the chin. “Given everything else we have to do this afternoon and evening,” she continued.
Jake studied Jenna, realizing all over again how much he had missed having her in his life. “You wouldn’t mind?” He didn’t want Jenna to think she was playing second-fiddle to anything that was going on here, because she wasn’t.
“Not at all.” Jenna looked down at Alex, who was now cradling her kitten in much the same way Jenna was holding the puppy. “Meanwhile, these two critters need some names, Alex. Any ideas?”
Alex grinned. “I want to call my puppy Buster.”
“Good choice,” Jake beamed his approval. As did Jenna.
Alex kissed her kitten and cuddled her close. “And I want to call her Miss Kitty.”
“I HAD NO IDEA one puppy and one kitten could be so exhausting,” Jake told Jenna three hours later as they brought the carriers into the house and set them down on the floor. Alex followed, carrying a plast
ic sack filled to the brim with kitten and puppy toys.
While Alex stayed with her new pets, Jenna and Jake headed back to his Jeep for the rest of the stuff they had purchased. Jenna slanted him a glance, noting that he did look exhausted and out of his element. “You’ve only owned them for a couple of hours,” Jenna said cheerfully as she lifted out the sack of kitty litter and the litter box. It was sort of fun to see the oh-so-confident Jake unsure of himself. “Just wait until tonight.”
Jake got a panicked look in his eyes as he hefted the bags of puppy chow and kitten food into his arms. “What happens tonight?”
Alex came running to get them as they headed back inside. “Daddy,” she said, “we had a disaster.”
Unfortunately, Jenna and Jake soon discovered, Alex wasn’t kidding.
“You can’t leave Alex and me alone with this puppy,” Jake said, after he and Jenna had finished cleaning up the puddle on the kitchen floor.
Hoping to avert a similar disaster, Jenna set up the litter box for the kitten in the laundry room. While Jake watched, she made sure there was nothing either animal could get into, and that all electric cords and so on were out of reach of even the most curious agile kitten or puppy. “Because?” Jenna asked as she washed her hands in the laundry-room sink.
Jake dropped the dirty paper towels into the trash, put away the floor cleaner, then went to wash his hands. “We’ll never survive.”
That, Jenna thought, with equal parts amusement and pity, was no doubt true.
Jake had taken on much more than he knew.
But there was no going back now. He had given Alex the two pets simultaneously. They would just have to muddle through. Jenna smiled at Jake, and because he seemed badly in need of some encouragement, touched his cheek. “Your heart was in the right place.”
Jake chuckled wearily. “Even if my head wasn’t.”
Before Jenna could reply, Alexandra barreled in. She went straight to Jake and plucked on his sleeve. “Daddy, I’m hungry.”
Which in turn, Jenna noted, caused Jake to look all the more desperate.
Jenna relented, figuring it would be cruel to make him ask. “Okay, I’ll stay through dinner.”
Alex cheered and Jake’s sexy grin widened. “How about the whole evening?” he asked as Alex, satisfied food would soon be on the way, raced back out again to check on Buster and Miss Kitty.
“Well?” Jake said, when Jenna didn’t answer right away.
Jenna shook her head and started for the door. “Typical Jake,” she drawled. “Always wanting it all—now.”
Jake caught her arm before she could exit the room and turned her to face him. “You’re telling me you’re not the same?”
That was just it, Jenna realized uncomfortably, as she looked up into his handsome, suntanned face, taking in the rugged line of his jaw, the stubborn set of his chin, his blade-straight nose and those sensually chiseled lips that really knew how to kiss. She was the same as him in that regard. But there was no sense in admitting it to him when she knew he would just use her weaknesses to his own advantage.
Jenna extricated herself graciously from his grip. “I’ll show Alex how to feed Buster and Miss Kitty.”
Jake’s eyes twinkled knowingly. Looking delighted to have her there with them, for whatever reason, he murmured happily, “And I’ll see what I can do about rustling us up some grub ASAP.”
While Jenna and Alex tended to the pets, Jake made the thirty-minute round-trip drive back into town. Jenna had her excuses all ready—she was going to use the opportunity to bow out—but when he returned with a mouthwatering bucket of crispy fried chicken, containers of mashed potatoes, gravy, creamy coleslaw and half a dozen fluffy, golden-brown biscuits, she found herself weakening. She was hungry, after all. He had enough food to feed an army. It would be a shame to see it go to waste. And even more cruel to disappoint Alexandra, who by now was as desperate as Jake to have her stay and eat with them. So she did.
And the three of them had a very good time, talking and laughing about Buster and Miss Kitty’s antics as they ate. Not surprisingly, by the time they had finished the delicious meal, Alex was visibly drooping. It was all Jake could do to get her upstairs, into her pajamas and into bed.
“She was asleep almost before her head hit the pillow,” Jake reported minutes later as he joined Jenna in the kitchen.
Jake frowned, seeing she had just about finished cleaning up after dinner. “I was going to do that.”
Jenna refused to let him win her confidence this easily. He might think he was a changed man. But she still knew the way he had deserted her once because of family and social pressure and she knew he could probably do it again. All too readily, if and when his own interests were at stake or he felt the situation called for it.
Jenna gave him a deadpan look meant to provoke. “You know how?” Jenna scoffed in a disbelieving tone as she put a twist tie around the garbage sack and set it by the back door.
The hot-tempered denial she expected never came. Jake merely picked up a dishrag and began mopping the tabletop. While his palm moved across the table with long powerful strokes, he said. “I’ve learned a lot since we last saw each other.”
Jenna’s eyebrows rose in cool disbelief as he went back to the sink and submerged the cloth into the soapy water. She watched him wring it out again and tackle the counters. “So it seems,” she said, refusing to be impressed. After all, any moron could competently clean a tabletop. Or run into town for her all-time favorite take-out meal. All it meant was that he was trying to get into her good graces so she would make a designer-quality wardrobe for Alex, quick as could be, and help get Melinda off his back.
The phone rang. Clearly resenting the interruption as much as she welcomed it—she didn’t want to be alone with Jake, and certainly not like this, in such an intimate setting!—Jake strode across the kitchen and plucked the receiver off the wall after the first ring. He barked a hello, then frowned intently, his mood softening visibly as he listened to whoever was on the other end of the line. “Stay as long as you need to,” he said. “No. Don’t worry about a thing here. Jenna and I’ve got everything under control. Just give Lisa and Randall my best.”
Jenna quirked her brow as he hung up. “How is Clara’s daughter doing?” she asked curiously.
Jake frowned. “She’s still in labor. It looks like it’s going to be a long night, for all of them.”
And for Jake, too, Jenna thought, given the new pets in the household.
Jake looked around. “Where are Buster and Miss Kitty?”
“Sleeping in their crates on the back porch. They’re as exhausted as Alex.”
“Speaking of Alex…” Jake took Jenna’s hand and led her into the living room, further delaying her departure. “It looked like you had a really good time together today.”
Realizing she did want to sit a moment, after the way they had been running around all afternoon, Jenna let Jake settle her on the sofa and drop down beside her. Jenna kicked off her sandals and curled her legs up beneath her. “We did.”
Jake watched as Jenna smoothed her long cotton skirt over her legs and feet. “You do realize, however,” he pointed out, “that a whole day has gone by and you still haven’t gotten her into a dress.”
Jenna grinned as she thought about their tea party, and how much fun she’d had. “But I did get her into hat, scarf, pearls, gloves and heels,” she bragged. Given Alex’s attitude toward all things feminine, that had been no small accomplishment.
Unfortunately, it did little to appease Jake, who frowned worriedly and raked a hand through his hair. “Somehow I don’t think that’s going to satisfy Melinda. And we can’t just go out and buy a dress at the store. Melinda’ll throw a fit if she sees her daughter in off-the-rack anything.”
Melinda sounded like a real piece of work. If she was really as snotty as Jake described her, he had reason to want to steer clear of her. And shield Alex from any snobbish maternal explosions, too. Jenna just hoped she
did not have to meet or deal with Jake’s ex. “Never fear, cowboy. I also got this.” Tranquilly, Jenna reached into the pocket of her skirt and handed him a folded piece of paper.
Jake stared at the letters and numbers scribbled on the page. “What is it?” he demanded, completely clueless.
Jenna grinned. Shaking her head, she explained, “Alex’s measurements. I’ll start her denim jumper when I get home tonight.”
Jake took Jenna’s hand and absently rubbed his fingers over the back of it. “She agreed to wear it?”
“Not yet.” Jenna sighed, refusing to think about how relaxing it was to sit here with Jake like this, or how good, how right, how gentle and loving his casual touch felt. “But she will.”
Jake’s stroking hand stilled abruptly and he looked over at her. “How do you know?” he demanded.
Jenna’s lips curved ruefully. “Because I know little girls, Jake. I was one once, too, you know.”
JAKE REMEMBERED. Oh, how he remembered. The first time he had laid eyes on Jenna, she’d been coming down Bowie Lane with her three sisters. He’d been all of fourteen. Sent to the ranch for the entire summer—to get away from some boys Patricia and Danforth had considered a bad influence and learn to manage a ranch—while his parents were off in Europe. Lonely as could be without anyone his age to hang out with, he’d talked Esther and Buck, the couple caring for him, into letting him go into town and hang out at the Armadillo Miniature Golf Course while they hit the hardware store and grocery-shopped. Seeing the four laughing, talking Lockhart girls headed for the same activity had made his impromptu plan seem all the better.
“What are you thinking?” Jenna asked.
“About the first time I saw you,” Jake told Jenna honestly. Though nearly fifteen years had passed, he could still recall it as clearly as if it had happened yesterday. Jenna had been dressed in a pair of blue-jean shorts and a snowy-white T-shirt, a bandana tied jauntily around her neck. Although all the Lockhart sisters were pretty as could be, and Meg closer in age to him, it was Jenna, with her thick mane of red-gold hair and sparkling clear blue eyes who’d caught his attention. Jenna alone, who had seemed to sense how lonely and out-of-place he felt, how much he needed and wanted to feel as at home in Laramie as they did. It had taken Jenna all of two minutes to invite him to join them in their putt-putt game—and in many more fun-filled group activities at the Lockhart ranch before the summer was out.
The Bride Said, Finally! (The Lockharts of Texas) Page 6