by Jane Toombs
“It could?”
Turning to face her, he spoke softly. “Don’t you think so?”
“I don’t know. At the moment I’m not quite sure of anything. Must be the wine.”
Danny moved an inch or so backward and crowed with triumph.
“Way to go, Tiger,” Zed told him. “You’ll be on your feet in no time.” As he spoke, it occurred to him he wouldn’t be around to see the boy take his first step. Why that should matter he hadn’t a clue, but oddly enough, it did.
What was going to happen to Danny? Would Karen ever find his real father? And, if she did, would the man acknowledge his son? Would he treat him with love and tenderness?
“Yeah,” he said, referring to his own thoughts, “it must be the wine.”
“If I trust you,” Karen said hesitantly, “I’ll have to believe you never met my cousin. And if that’s true, then who is the man with Erin on that sailboat? And why does he look exactly like you?”
“Beats me. I heard somewhere that we all have a double somewhere on this earth, but I didn’t believe it. I’ll admit he’s a dead ringer for me—can’t blame you for having doubts.”
“You’re really not Danny’s father?” she asked.
“Not a chance.”
“Then you weren’t Erin’s lover, either.”
“You got it,” he agreed. “No lover, no baby.”
“You really aren’t her type.”
Zed raised his eyebrows.
Karen looked away from him. “I mean, she preferred flashy types. You know, fast sports cars and things like that.”
“I drive a pickup—I suppose that labels me as stodgy. Thanks a lot.”
“I didn’t mean you weren’t attractive.” Embarrassment tinged her words. “Actually, you are. Good Lord, what am I saying?” Her hands rose to her cheeks as though trying to hide her flush.
Zed leaned to her and gently removed her hands from her face, taking them in his own. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me since we met,” he murmured. “Now it’s my turn. We stodgy but attractive types happen to prefer blue-eyed strawberry blondes, not fiery redheads. Especially when we meet one as pretty as you.”
He knew better than to kiss her, but gazing into her blue eyes seemed to throw his brain out of gear. Her lips, slightly parted, were close to his and her scent, floral and woman, doubly enticing, surrounded him, obliterating any reservations he had left. Releasing her hands, he pulled her into his arms and slanted his mouth over hers.
The feel of her lips, soft and warm and responsive under his, was unexpectedly potent, making him realize one kiss wasn’t going to be enough, not by a long shot. If this was a mistake, it was going to be a double jackpot one—and he didn’t give a damn.
Karen didn’t resist being drawn into his embrace—how could she when he’d already mesmerized her with his dark gaze? One kiss, she thought bemusedly. What harm is there in one kiss? Then his mouth covered hers and the blaze his lips kindled inside her rivaled the flames in the fireplace. Her arms tightened around him, holding him to her as she savored his taste, more potent than the wine she’d already had.
If this was a mistake, as some small part of her insisted, then it was a mistake she enjoyed making, one she wanted to make. If there were any regrets, she would deal with them later.
She was vaguely conscious of Danny’s contented babbling. The sounds seemed an appropriate accompaniment to what was happening, though contentment didn’t begin to describe what Zed’s caresses evoked in her.
Dangerous. What she was feeling, what she was doing, what she was letting him do was dangerous. But, oh, so delicious. How could she stop?
She slid her hands under his T-shirt, caressing his back, feeling the erotic smoothness of his skin and the flex of the powerful muscles underneath as he shifted position so that they were lying on the couch, his arousal hard against her.
Whoa, I can’t do this! she thought, even though she was as aroused as he was. We can’t. What are we thinking of?
They weren’t thinking; that was the trouble.
“Zed,” she gasped, trying to struggle free. “Stop!”
For a moment his arms tightened around her and then he let her go. She slid away from him and stumbled to her feet, trying to pull down her shirt and run a hand through her disordered hair at the same time.
Zed sat up slowly. She didn’t want to meet his gaze, but couldn’t help doing so. He smiled at her ruefully. No man had ever looked so sexy to her.
“Got a tad carried away, didn’t we?” His voice, roughened by passion, sent a shiver along her spine.
Caught again by his dark gaze, she couldn’t seem to catch her breath. She still wanted to touch him, to have him touch her, to be in his arms….
“Da!” Danny exclaimed loudly. “Da, da!”
The tension between them evaporated, changing to laughter.
“He always has the last word,” Zed observed. “And it’s always the same one.”
After that, the evening was anticlimactic. The fire gradually died down and Danny grew sleepy, so Zed moved the cradle back into the bedroom.
“I’ll go to bed with him,” she said.
Zed’s look clearly told her that he wished she’d chosen him instead.
“What I mean,” she added hastily, “is that he might be frightened in a strange place if I’m not in the same room with him.”
When they said good-night he made no attempt to kiss her—a wise move, although disappointment mingled with her relief. Danny fell asleep in the cradle even before she undressed. She put on a sleep-T she found among Jade’s things and slid into bed, where she tossed and turned, her mind roiling with unanswered questions.
After what had happened between them tonight, she couldn’t revert to believing Zed was lying to her. And yet, if the man in the photo wasn’t him, who could it be? The P.I. she’d hired had tried to identify him by showing the photo to the people who handled the slip permits at the San Diego Bay marina.
He’d had no luck until he ran into a woman who’d worked there up until last year but was now employed elsewhere. She’d been visiting a friend at the marina, had seen the photo and had identified “the dreamboat with fantastic buns” as Zed Adams. He was memorable, no doubt about that. God knows she’d never forget him.
Anyway, from what he called his sources—she didn’t know what those were—the P.I. had eventually discovered where Zed lived, checked him out and told her he had a match. After she’d seen the pictures he’d surreptitiously taken of Zed Adams, she, like the P.I., had been sure they’d hit on the right man.
Now she wasn’t sure at all. Not that she ruled him out completely. And, until she did, there would be no more fooling around. A smile curved her lips as she remembered him calling himself stodgy. If tonight was any example, he was as far from stodgy as wrong was from right.
Karen sighed and turned over in bed one more time. If only she knew what was wrong and what was right What was the truth?
Zed couldn’t sleep. Not with Karen in bed just down the hall from him. He hadn’t yet seen her naked, so he pictured her wearing that long T-shirt Jade used for night-wear. Come to think of it, she and his sister were about the same size, which made her around five-three and about 110 pounds. He’d never in his life thought of Jade as sexy, but Karen certainly was.
And here she was within his reach, wearing nothing but the T-shirt. If she’d had that on when they were in the living room…He shook his head. He was never going to get to sleep this way.
He had no intention of going down the hall. Unless she invited him, he’d stay out of her bed. Even if she did invite him, he’d be smart not to get any more involved with Karen than he already was. Because of Erin and Danny and that damn blood match, she represented nothing but trouble. But never had trouble looked so enticing.
Despite falling asleep late, he woke early to an unfamiliar sound. Confused for a moment, he sat up and listened. A baby was crying. Danny. Zed rolled out of bed and started do
wn the hall just as Karen, fully dressed, opened her bedroom door with Danny in her arms. She stared at Zed, her eyes widening.
“Oh!” she exclaimed.
At that point he remembered he was naked, and made a mad dash to grab a pair of sweatpants.
“Sorry,” he muttered when he came into the kitchen. “I forgot. Need help with Tiger?”
Moments later he found himself warming little jars of baby food again, a task that seemed almost pleasantly familiar.
As he carried the jars to the table, Karen said, “They’re going to fall off.”
“What—the jars?”
“Your pants. They’re barely hanging on your hips.”
“They’ve never fallen off yet,” he grumbled as he yanked them up around his waist, only to feel them slide down again.
“You might try tying them tighter,” she said.
Let a woman into your life even a tad and she tries to change you, he thought. Padding over to get a cup of coffee, he discovered he’d forgotten to put new grounds in and turn on the programmer. “Damn,” he muttered as he corrected his oversight.
“Grouchy without your caffeine?” she asked.
“Don’t tell me you drink decaf?”
She nodded smugly.
“May the good Lord protect me from caffeine-free women,” he said. “You’re as bad as my sister.”
“It’s stopped snowing,” she said.
“I noticed, but the plow hasn’t been by yet. The ranch feed-in road isn’t a main one and I’m not a buddy of the current politicos, so it takes them a while to get around to me. You’re stuck here until the plow does show.”
“I guess I can live with that.”
“My turn to cook,” he said. “French toast okay?”
“As my mother always said, ‘The cook calls the shots.’”
“Is she still alive?” he asked. “Your mother, I mean.”
Karen thought it an odd question but harmless enough. “Yes. She and my dad live in upstate New York. I’ve tried for years to get them to move to San Diego, but they like it where they are, cold weather and all.” As she finished, she remembered him saying that he and his sister were the only two left in his family. Was that the reason he’d asked the question?
“What do they think of you being left with Danny?” he said.
The boy turned to look at Zed and grinned at him, cereal drooling down his chin. Karen caught the runover with the spoon and tried to interest him in taking another mouthful, but Danny turned away from the spoon, reaching his arms out to Zed.
“Hey, Tiger,” Zed said, and plucked him from her lap, ignoring the cereal-smeared bib as well as Danny’s messy face. “Want to help me make French toast?”
If he didn’t mind cereal splotches on his bare chest, she wasn’t about to protest. What he’d asked her was another matter. “I don’t think I can answer your question without giving you some family background,” she said.
“Fire away.”
“Dad’s brother lived in the same small New York town as we did, so Erin and I were more or less raised together until they moved away when she was thirteen. We always kept in touch. After I finished college I took a teaching job in San Diego and liked it there, so I stayed. Erin, who’d been living in Manhattan, followed me out to California and bought a condo. By this time her mother was dead and her father had remarried. His new wife and Erin didn’t get along. Actually, her father had sort of given up on Erin before that. My parents hadn’t, though. They were pleased when she moved to San Diego because they believed I could keep an eye on her and curtail what they called her ‘wildness.’”
Karen shook her head. “Erin did her thing no matter what anyone thought or said. Even when she asked for advice, she didn’t take it. She was fun and I loved her, but she was a first-class, gold-medal risk taker. She thrived on danger.”
Zed, Danny in the crook of one arm, turned from the refrigerator, two eggs in his other hand. “I take it you’re the look-before-you-leap type.”
She half smiled. “Just call me Ms. Stodgy.”
He chuckled. “No way, not unless you own a pickup. So you were elected to run herd on your maverick cousin, and you found it a hopeless task.”
Caught up in her memories of Erin, Karen got up and skirted the counter to be closer to Zed, as if that would make it easier to explain how she’d felt. “We might not have seen eye-to-eye but we were friends. She was always the one who got into impossible situations and needed my help to extricate herself, but I knew if I ever was in trouble she’d do the same for me.”
“Now I understand why you wound up with Danny.”
Karen sighed. “My parents don’t actually disapprove, but I get the feeling they think Erin stuck me with what should have been her problem.” She wasn’t going to tell him that her mother had told her in no uncertain terms that her chances of marriage were’much poorer now that she was burdened with Danny.
“Even if he isn’t yours by birth,” her mother had added, “a prospective husband doesn’t like to raise another man’s child. It’s human nature.”
A low rumble coming from outside caught her attention and sent her to the window, but she couldn’t see the road. “The plow?” she asked Zed.
“Sounds like it.”
She had no more excuse to stay. Fighting her reluctance to leave, she said, “I’d better get Danny’s stuff together. Do you want me to take him?”
Zed shook his head. “Tiger’s doing fine where he is.”
He watched Karen leave the kitchen, admiring the way her jeans clung to her rounded butt, and remembered how good she’d felt next to him last night on the couch. “Whoa, Tiger,” he muttered, “old Zed better keep his mind on what he’s doing instead of what he’d like to do.”
The roar of dual pipes alerted him to the fact that Jade was arriving, her four-wheel negotiating his unplowed drive. His impatient sister must have trailed the county plow to get here. She parked in front rather than risking the pile of snow at the kitchen door.
Carrying Danny, he padded to the front door, opening it as Jade was stomping the snow from her boots on the stoop.
“Good grief!” she exclaimed as she entered. “I didn’t expect you to take to fatherhood so quickly. What a pair of messy males! At least he’s got more clothes on than you have.”
She smiled at Danny, saying, “Hi, honey.”
Zed watched him examine her solemnly, exactly as the boy had done to him at the first meeting.
“You didn’t tell me his eyes were green, like mine and our mother’s,” Jade accused. “He’s kind of light haired to be yours, though.”
“You know perfectly well I’m not his father.”
Jade tipped her head to the side, strands of her long chestnut hair falling across her face. She pushed it back and assessed Danny. “He’s got an incipient cleft in his chin,” she noted. “It’ll probably deepen as he gets older. Like yours did.”
“Don’t forget the guy in the photo also has a cleft chin,” he reminded her, aware she was teasing him and trying not to get uptight, even though he didn’t consider this a joking matter.
“Oh, that guy,” she said, sliding off her jacket. “I smell coffee—hope it’s decaf.”
“Nope. I’ve got that instant stuff you left here so you can heat water for your lily-livered brew in the micro-wave. Make it two cups—Karen drinks decaf, too.”
“Da!” Danny exclaimed, patting Zed’s face as they walked into the kitchen.
Jade looked startled. “Is he talking to you?”
“Not really. He only speaks Russian.”
“I hope you realize you’re both covered with gluey-looking crud.”
Zed shrugged. “It’s baby cereal. Nothing a shower won’t cure.”
“You shower with that baby?” Jade asked.
“You must be Jade,” Karen said. Neither of them had heard her come into the kitchen, and they both turned to look at her. Danny leaned toward her, holding out his arms, and Zed relinquished him.
“You’re obviously Karen.” Jade’s voice, while not markedly cool, lacked warmth.
“I hope you don’t mind that I used your sleep-T last night,” Karen said. “I wasn’t expecting to get snowed in.”
Jade glanced from Karen to Zed and back to Karen. After a marked silence, she said, “So what’s for break-fast? I’m starved.”
“Zed was making French toast. But now that the plow’s been through I really ought to get going.”
“Please don’t leave,” Jade said. “I’ve brought some photos and two videocassettes I think you’ll be interested in seeing. I’ll take over the French toast while my brother showers and puts on a few more clothes. Then we’ll eat and take a look at the pictures.”
Zed went off without protest and Karen decided she should stay, since she really did need to see Jade’s so-called proof. Jade was certainly an organizer, she thought as she removed Danny’s bib and wiped his smeared face and hands with a wet cloth.
“Do you have a ranch, too?” she asked, curious to know what Jade did for a living.
Jade shook her head without turning from the stove. “I run the drilling company” she said.
“Drilling company?” Karen echoed. “Oh, that’s right, Zed said that you videotaped drilling in Alaska. I had no idea you ran a drilling company, though.”
“I’m a groundwater geologist. We inherited the company when our grandparents died. Zed always wanted to live on the land, so he took the ranch and I took the company. Grandpa never could get it through his head that women are as capable as men in any field, so Zed, being male, had to work with him while our grandfather was alive. Grandpa often said I should have been a boy, because I had a natural talent for well drilling. Water, that is. We don’t do oil.”
Since Jade was approximately the same size she was—small—Karen couldn’t picture her as a well driller. “I always thought drilling must take a lot of brute strength,” she said.
Jade-turned to look at her. “I know the ropes, so I tell the brutes how to do it. Usually, anyway. I’ve found that anything’s possible in my field and I have been known to get down and dirty with the best of them. I understand you’re a teacher. A nice, clean job that, as I see it, can drive you right up the wall on a daily basis.”