A Patchwork Romance

by Jacobs, Ann

  It wasn’t hard to dwell on the incredible sensation, but then emotion would intrude. She’d see his face, taut with desire, intense with something more than passion. He cared for her. Was it love he was experiencing?

  No. He couldn’t love her, any more than she could love him. She wouldn’t let him. They’d had the past two nights, and they’d have as many more as fate allowed. Great sex. Fun sex. Sex that blew her mind. But only sex, never anything more.

  Tonight she had to go to Jim’s place. She’d promised to take Gracie so he wouldn’t have to watch the toddler on top of taking care of Mary and the baby for the first few days they were home from the hospital, Maybe, if she was lucky, she’d find out that when it came to Jared, out of sight was out of mind.

  “Althea?”

  She looked up, embarrassing to have let Trina see her crinkling a patchwork block between nervous fingers. “What brings you here today?” she asked, forcing her fingers to stop torturing the innocent fabrics.

  “When I talked to you at Uncle Ed’s last night, you said you needed me to work this afternoon.”

  Althea forced a smile. “Oh. That’s right, I did.” Trina must think she was losing her mind.

  The older woman dug into the quilted shopping bag she always carried. “I brought you a jar from the first batch of blackberry jelly this year.” She held the small, diamond-cut jelly glass up to the light and let out a sigh of apparent satisfaction at its dark purple, almost translucent color. “I’m about out of these pretty labels you made for me over at the school. Could you get into the building and run off a few more for me?”

  Althea nodded, but then she shook her head. “Not until August. The school board has the building locked up, now that the repairs are finished.” She should really get her own computer and not rely on using the one at the last kindergarten-through-high-school country school left in Georgia. If she did, though, she’d be another step further away from having the down payment to get her co-op started.

  Trina glanced at the neat, white label, looking disappointed for a moment. Then she smiled. “No mind. I can always write them out myself, the way I did before.”

  Trina’s handwritten labels looked sloppy. Althea was certain they hurt her sales, because she’d heard customers comment and then pass on buying the jelly with handwritten labels. She considered going to Dahlonega and having the print shop there make a few labels—or she could ask Jared. He had a computer at his house, and a fancy printer, too. Maybe he’d…

  “I’ll get some labels for you.”

  Trina looked up from the cup of coffee she’d just poured. “You think you can get into the school? I’ll go buy those blank labels you feed through the printer.”

  “I can’t do it at school, but Jared has a computer at his house. I’ll ask him if I can use it.”

  A flurry of customers saved Althea from having to explain all the electronic marvels she’d seen in Jared’s summer house on Big Bear Mountain. They didn’t save her from thinking, though, how unfair it was that some folks had so much, others so little.

  That thought stayed with her. It muted but didn’t overwhelm the memories of sensual delights that thrummed through her body and filled her mind. After all, she told herself, Jared Cain had started out life with no more than Tina—maybe less. He’d earned his luxuries, and he deserved them as much as anybody else who’d worked so hard to get ahead.

  She had no doubt Jared would make Trina’s labels. He was that kind of man—generous and caring. Besides, it was a small enough task, one that wouldn’t require a lot of time or effort.

  She hated to ask, though. Asking for help would start her on a track of relying on him helping her do what she needed to accomplish on her own. Labels were a minor thing, but to her they were symbolic of all she wanted to do for her small community. If she let Jared into her dream, even in a small way, she’d be opening the door toward counting on his help in big things, too. She’d end up depending on him as much as she’d ever depended on Bill.

  “What’s wrong, Althea?”

  She blinked, then glanced across the counter at Trina. The woman had to be wondering about her sanity by now. “I’m sorry.”

  “I’d say that man’s got you tied up in knots, girl.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” Trina had to make mountains out of molehills, and she’d always been one to smell romance where none existed. “I was just thinking about the co-op, and how I might get enough money to start it up this year.”

  “If that’s what’s bothering you, ask your boyfriend for help. I was pretty worried about you ‘til I saw you together last night, but that man’s a mighty good-looking devil, city slicker or not. From the way he was looking at you, I’d say you have him darn near hooked.”

  Althea shook her hear. “Hooked? I don’t think so. We’re just friends.”

  “You spend four straight nights with your friends, girl? I thought better of you.” Standing, Trina set her coffee cup down so hard that liquid spilled over onto the saucer.

  Althea’s cheeks burned, but she held her ground. “Who on earth told you that?”

  “Nobody needed to tell me anything. You haven’t been home at night since the two of you went to Atlanta together the night Mary had the baby. I wasn’t born yesterday.” Trina planted her hands on her hips and stared Althea down.

  Althea wondered if everyone between Dahlonega and Blairsville had been poking their noses in her personal, private business. She tried to fight back her righteous anger, reminding herself this was a close-knit, churchgoing community that frowned on people flaunting their affairs for all to see. “Trina, leave it alone.”

  “No, I won’t. If anybody around here deserves some happiness, it’s you. I’d be the last one to cast stones at you for going after Jared Cain. I know how bad you hurt when Cousin Billy got killed, and I also know you two hadn’t fooled around the way most young lovers do.”

  Althea felt her cheeks growing warm. “How do you know that?”

  “Billy told me, when we were talking about where y’all were going to go for your honeymoon.”

  “Trina, please.” Althea felt tears spill down her cheeks, and she wished she were anywhere but here. She might as well have kept her mouth shut, for all the effect her plea had on her friend.

  “I don’t blame you a bit for taking your pleasure now. It wasn’t normal, the way you and Billy went on for years and years, waiting to get married ’til you could save up enough money to start that co-op.”

  The good manners her mom had taught her kept Althea from tossing Trina out the shop’s front door—or trying, she amended when he considered the fact that the woman outweighed her by at least twenty pounds.

  Since bodily harm was out, Althea chose her words carefully. The last thing she wanted was to make an enemy of Trina. Still, the woman had already said more than Althea wanted to hear.

  “I’m not out to ‘hook’ Jared, as you put it. I’m not going to ask for his help to get the co-op up and running. Whether or not I’m involved with him is my business and his. No one else’s. I don’t want to hear any more about it from you.”

  Trina’s mouth gaped, and she sputtered like a kid who’d just been caught telling a big, fat lie. “Well, I’ll be… Damn it, Althea, I just don’t want you gettin’ hurt.”

  “I won’t get hurt.” The older woman looked so crushed, Althea couldn’t stay mad at her. Giving Trina a quick hug, she tried to concentrate on other things beside Jared and the local gossip.

  By the time she closed the store for the day, Althea had pretty much talked herself out of asking Jared for even the tiniest smidgeon of help. She might pick his brain a little for ideas about how she could get her co-op started, but she wouldn’t risk taking that a step further and asking him to share her dream or help her make it come true.

  ▪ ▪ ▪

  When she got to Jim’s house, Althea spotted Jim waiting out on the porch. “Hey Jim, how are Mary and the baby?”

  He scowled. “Sit down. We need t
o talk.”

  “Mary’s all right, isn’t she?” His tone of voice had Althea worried.

  “She’s in bed, resting. The trip home tired her out, but she’s doing okay. It’s you I’m worried about right now.”

  Althea shot Jim a questioning look. He’d stopped rocking and was staring out toward the highway in front of his house, a grim look on his weathered face. “How serious are you and Cain?”

  “We’re dating. Why?”

  “Folks are talking about the way you two are carryin’ on. From what I hear you’ve been spending nights at his fancy place on Big Bear Mountain. If that’s true, you’d best be plannin’ a wedding.”

  Althea squelched a sudden urge to scream. She loved her brother, but the man was more straight-laced than their preacher father had ever been. “There’s not going to be a wedding. Jared and I don’t have that kind of relationship.”

  “Are you or aren’t you sleeping with the man?” That sounded more like an accusation than a simple question.

  It made her furious. “I won’t dignify that question with an answer.” One lecture a day was more than Althea could handle. “Where is Gracie? I need to take her and get on home.”

  Jim stood and glared down at her as though he couldn’t believe his ears. “I won’t have you letting my little girl see you actin’ like white trash. Don’t you go carrying on with Cain while you’re takin’ care of her.”

  “I’d hardly carry on, as you put it, in front of a child, and you know that. I’m sure Jared wouldn’t, either.” If it weren’t that she knew Mary needed rest and Jim considered child care women’s work, she’d tell her sanctimonious brother to take care of his daughter, himself.

  “Look. You’re my sister and I love you. I don’t want you gettin’ hurt. Cain may have been born around here, but he’s spent too long away not to have had city ways rub off on him. You’re no match for him. There are plenty of good men around here who’d be proud to make you their wife. Wife, Althea. Not fancy woman.”

  It took a lot of effort, but she resisted the urge to tell her brother off. She stood and picked up her purse. “I don’t have to stand here and listen to you insulting me. Do you want me to take Gracie or not?”

  A shrill cry sent Jim running inside, only to come back a few seconds later with a harried look on his face and a screaming newborn in his arms. “Take Gracie, please. She’s got cabin fever. It’s gonna be all I can do to take care of this one and Mary. Don’t be mad at me. I’m just lookin’ out for you the way Ma and Pa would have wanted.”

  Althea nodded. She tried to keep in mind that Jim had gone through hell this past week. “I’ll go in and see Mary. Then I’ll get Gracie ready to go.”

  As she drove home, listening to her niece chatter about her new baby brother, she tried hard not to hope Jared would call.

  ▪ ▪ ▪

  “No, Gracie.” It had been less than twenty-four hours since she’d brought her niece home, and Althea was already exhausted. She sprinted from her kitchen to the living room, getting there just in time to rescue a photo of Jim and Mary at their wedding, before their daughter could manage to rip it out of its frame.

  “Want Mommy. Daddy.” Tears welled up in Gracie’s eyes.

  Althea felt like a monster, but she wished Jim would take some more time off work and take care of his family—the toddler included. Gracie needed him and Mary as much as Mary needed peace and quiet to recover from little Jim’s birth. “Don’t you like staying with me?” she asked when the little girl kept staring at her parents’ picture.

  “Mommy don’t want me.”

  “Of course she does. She just needs to rest. Having a baby is hard work.”

  Gracie’s lower lip trembled. “I hate my brother.”

  “Now sweetie, you know you don’t hate him. Before you know it, he’ll be big enough to play with you.” Althea had no idea what else she could say. Gracie had obviously been bitten by the jealousy bug.

  “Don’t wanna play with him. Want him to go away.” Her expression defiant, Gracie picked up a shiny rock she’d picked up off the driveway and sent it crashing to the floor.

  “Gracie, don’t!”

  “I will.”

  How could such a sweet child turn into a monster in less than a week? Althea’s palm itched as she tried to make up her mind whether to pick up the phone and call for help, or stick it out a while longer and see if Gracie would revert to her pre-baby self.

  Compassion for Jim and Mary won out. She scooped Gracie into her arm and carried her to the spare room. “It’s your bedtime,” she muttered between clenched teeth.

  “No.”

  Althea figured she could hold out longer than Gracie could stay awake, so she wrestled the child out of her clothes and into a pink cotton nightshirt. “Look here. See Donald Duck. Your mommy sent your favorite nightie,” she said, her tone a lot brighter than her mood.

  Gracie glared. She poked her lower lip out but said nothing. When Althea tucked her in the narrow bed and pulled a quilt up to her chin, the little girl rolled over and stared at the wall. She’d effectively shut Althea out.

  She couldn’t leave Gracie alone in the dark, so she sat and watched her, feeling guiltier every minute that passed for having let the child’s antics get to her. When the slowing of her breathing let Althea know Gracie was finally asleep, she left her to her dreams and stumbled to her own bed.

  If she weren’t so tired, she’d call Jared just to hear his low, sexy drawl.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Where the hell was Althea? This was the third time he’d tried to call her since yesterday, when she’d told him she had to spend the next few days taking care of her niece. Jared set the phone down and stared at the empty chair next to the quilting stand.

  Lonely and bored, he went out on the porch. A warm breeze mussed his hair and tempted him to go find a fishing pole so he could toss a line in the stream.

  He missed Althea. The place seemed damn empty without her. If he could get hold of her, he’d have her bring Jim’s daughter up here and let him help entertain her. For the first time in years, he thought about the times he and his dad had trekked through the woods. He’d had endless patience, answering a child’s endless questions about the rocks and trees and berries, and the birds and squirrels and insects that had caught his eye.

  Jared didn’t think he’d mind playing a dad’s role—at least temporarily.

  A good-size trout leaped out of the fast-moving water of the stream then flopped back in. Jared watched it make its way downstream until temptation got the best of him. He was going to catch a fish if it took all day to do it.

  Five minutes later he’d jogged to the garage for his tackle box, rod and reel, and he was dunking a line into the water when the phone rang. He considered letting the answering machine take the call but ran inside because he hoped it was Althea. It was, and he wasted no time agreeing to join her and her niece for a picnic at Lake Winfield Scott.

  As Jared hosed off his fishing gear, he wondered why Althea had sounded so rattled. Jim’s little girl must be a handful, he guessed as he wondered for a minute or two why she’d asked him to join them—and why he’d accepted the invitation. He’d never been around little children and had no clue as to how to entertain three-year-olds.

  Inside, he started to load a couple of kids’ games on to his laptop before realizing the games weren’t exactly age appropriate for a toddler. Shaking his head at his lack of ideas, he headed for his car, grabbing his fishing gear in a feeble effort to find something the little girl would like.

  If his mom had stayed on the mountain after Dad’s death, Jared wouldn’t have grown up clueless about children and families. He might even understand the strange emotions he was feeling toward Althea. But she hadn’t stuck it out here. Instead she’d taken him into his uncle’s cold, unfeeling household. And he was the product of that unfeeling environment.

  As he drove the fifteen miles or so of winding roads to Lake Winfield Scott, he hoped he’d me
et with at least one female’s approval there.

  ▪ ▪ ▪

  “Aunt Althea, is that your friend? Why don’t his car have any top?”

  Althea glanced in the direction Gracie’s stubby finger pointed. “That’s him. The car’s called a convertible. Its top goes up and down.”

  “Oh. He’s getting’ out now.”

  In khakis and a half-buttoned white dress shirt, his dark hair blowing in the breeze, Jared looked impossibly handsome to Althea. Apparently Gracie liked what she was seeing, too, because she raced around the picnic area, her blue eyes bright. Ordinarily the child would have run out of steam by this time of day, but Althea tried to be patient. After all, Gracie had spent the past week and a half with Mary’s older sister, Jane, an austere woman who wasn’t known for putting up with childish shenanigans. She’d probably kept Gracie cooped up in her cabin instead of letting her out to run and play.

  Althea sighed. Briefly she’d considered calling Jane to learn her secret for keeping Gracie quiet. Then Jared joined them and gave her a quick, hard kiss.

  “Thanks for joining us.” Her lips tingled from his kiss, and she felt revitalized. “Gracie, come here and say hello to Mr. Cain.”

  “Hi,” the little girl shouted without missing a beat as she chased a butterfly around the picnic grounds.

  Jared surprised her by kneeling and holding out his arms. “Hello, Gracie.”

  When Gracie ignored him, he stood and came back to Althea, hugging her and dropping another kiss that landed on the tip of her nose. “I’ve missed you.”

  “I’ve thought about you, too.”

  Oh, no, there went Gracie. The kid was like greased lightning. “Gracie, you get back here. I told you to stay away from the road.” Jared would think she had no business trying to watch her rambunctious niece. Not to mention that once he spent an hour around the child, he’d probably swear off the idea of ever becoming a parent.