Judging from the asthmatic intake of their guest’s breath, she took her date’s breath away, too.
“Maggie,” Jake said and forced himself to smile as he put his irritation aside and began the required introductions. “I’d like you to meet Mac Malone. His family owns a ranch in the next county.”
“How do you do.” Smiling cordially, Maggie shook Mac’s hand.
If she was put off by Malone’s slightly sleazy appearance, she did not show it, Jake noted, not sure how he felt about that, either.
When Mac didn’t immediately let go of Maggie’s hand, but instead held on to her palm unnecessarily, it was all Jake could do not to deck him for conduct unbecoming.
Telling himself he had to calm down if this evening was going to serve the purpose he intended, and prove a point about love, Jake stepped in, cutting smoothly and deliberately between Maggie and Mac.
Forcing Mac to let go of Maggie’s hand, Jake took Maggie’s elbow gallantly, and smiled at Mac and the boys. “Let’s all go into the dining room. Shall we?”
MAGGIE KNEW the moment she saw Mac Malone that he was not the man for her. It wasn’t just the black suede Western-tailored suit, complete with starched white shirt, and string tie, the Vegas rodeo clasp on his big-buckled belt, or his handcrafted alligator boots; it was the slightly snobbish, movie cowboy air about him.
He was, quite frankly, a fake.
He was also a guest in Jake’s home.
Manners dictated she be as nice as could be.
She just wished she could say the same about Jake. He had been acting jealous as heck the whole evening—which was ridiculous when you thought about it, since he had no plans to marry her himself, or any woman for that matter. But there he was, acting as fiercely protective as an overbearing father overseeing his daughter’s first date. Not that this was their only problem. Mac Malone had turned out to be the most boring, self-involved conversationalist she’d ever come across. Worse, she had never seen the twins more out of control, Maggie thought, frowning as Wyatt shot a pea at Rusty when Jake’s head was turned.
Maggie reached out, caught the pea in midair before it tapped Rusty on the nose. Rusty giggled. She frowned at the twins and gave them a stern look that said, “Behave!” Meanwhile, Mac was completely oblivious as he rambled on to Jake, “And I just told the executor, that even if it was what my dad wanted, I can’t live on a ranch. No way. Not in this day and age. Dallas is the place for me…”
“Of course, you, Maggie, have been all over the world,” Mac continued, impressed.
“True,” Maggie said.
Jake unceremoniously cut in. “And, according to the press, dated everyone who was anyone, too.”
“Don’t believe everything you read about me,” Maggie said, speaking more to Jake now than Mac. “Not even half of it.”
“But I’ve seen the photos,” Mac said, capturing Maggie’s attention yet again. “Of you and countless guys.”
“Most of whom were friends. Or in some cases, complete strangers who just happened to get caught in the shot with me,” Maggie explained, working to quell her aggravation for the sake of politeness. She had returned to Texas to avoid conversations such as this.
“Still, if you give up modeling you’ll probably miss the attention, won’t you?” Mac said, beginning to look just a tad concerned about Maggie’s much-stated wish to lead a more low-profile, ordinary life.
Had Mac secretly been hoping to cash in on her celebrity, too? Maggie wondered uncomfortably, knowing there was no way in hell she was going through that again. “I won’t miss the attention at all,” Maggie answered Mac emphatically. She followed up her words with a determined look. “In fact, the only time I want my name to be in the newspaper from now on is if the news pertains to either my wedding or the birth of the children I intend to have.”
“Hmm,” Mac said, again looking less than pleased.
Another pea shot by. This time, Jake saw. But pretended not to.
Maggie drew a breath. She didn’t know what had gotten into the boys, only that the soup and salad courses had been hellish. But the main course was turning out to be really excruciating, in all respects!
“Hey, he hit me!” Rusty claimed loudly, peeling the slightly squished pea off the lapel of his blazer.
Jake, who looked quite dashing himself, in a navy blazer, striped blue-and-white shirt, and tie, didn’t reprimand them as Maggie expected. Instead, he put both his elbows on the table and grinned affectionately at his two trouble-making nephews. “Aren’t they cute,” he waxed affectionately to one and all. Turning back to a disapproving Mac Malone, Jake continued, “Maggie wants lots of kids, you know, and right away. But that’s probably okay with you, isn’t it, Mac, ‘cause it’s nothing new.”
Maggie froze. Nothing new? “What are you talking about?” she asked Jake, intuiting only that he was quite obviously up to something Miss Manners would not sanction. And she’d thought the boys were misbehaving!
“Mac already has a lot of kids, don’t you, Mac?”
Mac smiled uncomfortably. He tugged at the knot of his black string necktie. “No need to get into that now,” he said.
“Trust me,” Jake reassured with a merrily provoking smile. “Maggie’d want to know you have seven kids by six wives at only thirty-four.”
“I’ve been married only five times, and I’m thirty-two,” Mac corrected, looking slightly irritated—an emotion he tried to hide.
“Sorry. I get confused.” Jake waved it off as Harry brought in a tray of sumptuous-looking desserts and set them on the sideboard. The boys, seeing treats were at hand, immediately straightened up.
Maggie turned back to Mac, not sure if he and Jake were pulling her leg. Mac was a jerk, no doubt about it, but he was also almost too self-aggrandizing to be real. “You have seven children?” she asked, eyes widening.
Mac nodded. “But I wouldn’t mind a few more. They’re really not much trouble.”
A plant that required watering every other day wasn’t “much trouble,” Maggie thought. She gazed at Mac, able to see to her horror, that he was senous about the impact—or more correctly, lack of impact— his children had made on his life. “What an odd way to put it,” Maggie told Mac politely, accepting the homemade peach cobbler and ice cream Harry set in front of her with a quiet thanks.
“Sounds good, huh, Maggie?” Jake said with a provoking grin. “The guy’s young. Shooting—” Jake shot a glance at his nephews, who were so busy digging into their dessert they were oblivious to the conversation “—well, let’s just say not blanks.”
Maggie’s jaw dropped in outrage. To her horror, Mac Malone merely chuckled. Mac looked at Maggie speculatively. “I don’t know about another marriage. The alimony thus far is killing me. But as for the rest, if you’re in that much of a hurry to have kids of your own, well…Jake’s right, I have had a lot of success in that regard.”
Maggie kicked Jake, who was beginning to chuckle, under the table. “I’m not in a hurry at all,” she fibbed. At least not in that much of a hurry.
Maggie could have sworn Harry muttered the words Good thing while he coughed lightly behind her. Harry exited the dining room.
“This looks delicious, but I don’t know.” Mac patted his slightly paunchy middle. “I’ve got to watch my girlish figure,” he joked.
At that, it was all Maggie could do not to roll her eyes.
“Hey, did you hear that?” Rusty shouted abruptly, having finished his dessert. “Mr. Malone said he’s got a figure like a girl!” He and Wyatt hooted with laughter. The twins looked at Jake—who to Maggie’s amazement was looking almost pleased by his nephews’ rowdiness—and they hooted even louder. Mac reddened. His pompous jaw set.
“Boys—” Maggie began, knowing it was unpardonable to insult a guest you had invited into your home, and Jake had invited him, damn him. Meanwhile, Jake was strangely quiet as a peach slice flew by and landed on Rusty’s cheek with such a gross splat that Maggie gasped in dismay. Lookin
g quite unamused by the hit, Rusty pushed back his chair. Before she knew it, both boys were under the table, and brawling madly.
Jake just sat in his chair and shook his head with a boys-will-be-boys look.
“Jake, for heaven’s sake, do something!” Maggie said.
“Oh, right.” Jake snapped his fingers. “You want to be alone with Mac. Okay. Boys!” Jake whistled shrilly enough to stop traffic on 42nd Street. Their heads popped out from beneath the dining room table. “What, Unka Jake?”
“I think it’s time to go upstairs, get in your pj’s and watch TV in your room, don’t you?”
They shrugged. “’Kay.”
Wyatt and Rusty scrambled out from under the table, and dusted themselves off as best they could. Considering their ties were askew, their shirttails out, their hair a rumpled mess, the brushing off didn’t do much.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Malone,” they said in unison.
“Yeah, we’re sorry if we insulted you. We just…we got carried away or somethin’. Right, Uncle Jake?” Rusty looked at Jake for confirmation.
Jake nodded, looking awfully pleased with the boys, considering the scene they had just made. A scene that never would have been permitted under normal circumstances.
Maggie studied them silently, knowing something was definitely up, even if Mac Malone didn’t.
His expression all innocence, Jake put a hand on the boys’ shoulders and said, “I’ll see you two in a bit.”
Together, the trio leisurely exited the dining room.
“ALONE AT LAST,” Mac Malone told Maggie as he pushed to his feet energetically. He lifted his brows in a suggestive manner that made her want to belt him one. “Perhaps we could go somewhere a little cozier?” Mac suggested, leering.
And give him the opportunity to put his hands on her? Maggie thought not. “Actually, Mac, I have a headache coming on. I’m sorry.” She pressed a hand to her temple. Much more of Mac Malone’s company and she would not have to fake a migraine. “I’m going to have to insist we cut the evening short.”
Mac looked quite disappointed. “Some other time then?” he asked. “Perhaps tomorrow? We could drive into Dallas, have lunch.”
“I don’t think so. But thank you.” Maggie caught sight of Harry Wholesome in the hall. She had never been so glad to see him. “Harry, would you be a dear and show Mr. Malone out?” she asked. She pressed her hand against her temple, aware her head was indeed beginning to throb at just the thought of spending one more minute with Mac Malone. “I have to take some aspirin.”
Leaving Harry to deal with Mac, Maggie exited through the dining room to the kitchen.
BY THE TIME Maggie had located the aspirin, and taken two, Harry was in the kitchen.
“You will be relieved to know that Mr. Malone has left,” he told her kindly.
Maggie gulped another half glass of water and sighed. “Thanks, Harry. I’m sorry I acted like the lady of the manor just now. I only asked you to show him out—”
“So he wouldn’t try to kiss you good-night. I know. A perfectly understandable sentiment, in my opinion, if you don’t mind my saying so.”
“I don’t.” Maggie paused, then pitched in to help Harry with the dishes. “Is Mac a friend of Jake’s?” Somehow, she just couldn’t picture it.
“No. Not at all,” Harry said, loading the dishwasher with amazing speed. “In fact the two of them have never really liked each other, as far as I could tell. They were just thrown together in an investment group or two, years ago, when Jake was just getting started building up his own portfolio.”
“Then why did he invite him to have dinner with all of us tonight?” Maggie asked. “Instead of just fixing me up on a blind date with Mac that would take place elsewhere?” Why had Jake made the boys dress up and sit through the excruciatingly boring dinner?
“I think Jake was trying to be helpful, by personally overseeing your first meeting with Mr. Malone,” Harry explained carefully, after a moment.
Maggie knew a snow job when she heard one. Helpful, hah! “Trying to be helpful or teach me a lesson?” Maggie asked, as she washed out the coffeepot and put the cream and sugar away.
In response to her question, Harry only smiled. But then he didn’t need to say anything, as Maggie already knew the answer.
FEELING IMMEASURABLY better, now that Mac Malone was gone and her aspirin had started to work, Maggie headed up the stairs. Jake was in the room with his nephews. They had already changed into their pajamas and were happily sprawled beneath their covers, watching a baseball game on TV.
Their uncle Jake was lounging in an overstuffed arm chair in the corner, his feet propped up on a toy chest he had dragged over to act as ottoman. Though still in his dinner clothes, he had removed his jacket, loosened the knot of his tie and unbuttoned the first two buttons on his shirt. He looked sexy and approachable in an unutterably masculine way. His sable eyes sparkled as she paused in the doorway. “Finished already?” Jake drawled, clasping his hands together behind his head. “I figured the good-night kiss alone would take hours.”
Rusty and Wyatt giggled with unchecked hilarity.
Not about to be outmatched by Jake, Maggie breezed into the room. She bypassed the boys and headed straight for Jake, not stopping until she stood right in front of him. Her arms folded in front of her, she fastened her eyes on his and told him pointedly, “There was no good-night kiss. I didn’t even show him the door—Harry did. Not that this is any of your business,” Maggie concluded, so stiffly the boys giggled even more.
Jake stretched languorously and stood. Satisfaction gleamed in his dark eyes. “Sorry it didn’t work out,” he said smoothly.
Ha! “I just bet you are,” Maggie murmured under her breath, so only he could hear.
Jake smiled and clasped her hand in a gentle yet implacable grip. “Guys, we’re going down the hall to my room to talk,” he announced matter-of-factly. “You stay here and watch the game, okay?”
“Okay, Unka Jake,” the boys murmured sleepily, snuggling even farther into their covers.
Knowing Jake was right—they did need to talk— Maggie let Jake guide her into the master bedroom suite. A king-size bed, covered with a beige-black-and-gold paisley spread, dominated the spacious room. Matching drapes and coordinating miniblinds lined the windows. The walls and carpeted floor were also done in beige. It was purely a man’s domain, uncluttered and comfortable, and it suited him perfectly.
But she wasn’t here to admire his lair, she reminded herself bluntly. She was here to confront him about the purpose behind his actions this evening.
“Why did you do that?” she demanded, planting her hands on her hips.
Jake’s eyes swept the length of her figure-hugging velvet dress. Once again, to her mounting frustration, he was the picture of innocence. “Do what?” he asked with comically exaggerated naivete.
“Make the boys suffer through a long boring dinner, just because you disapprove of my plans to find a husband.”
“First, dinner wasn’t all that long—only an hour and a half. It just seemed longer, ‘cause you were so bored.”
“And anyway,” a youthful voice chimed in from Jake’s open doorway, “we weren’t sufferin’, Maggie. We were just trying to look like we was.”
“Were,” Maggie corrected.
“Whatever,” Rusty shrugged.
“We were really having a good time,” Wyatt added reassuringly.
“You were throwing peas and peaches!” Maggie reprimanded. The twins might be young and mischievous, but she was certain they knew better than that. Her hunch was confirmed by the sheepish looks on their faces.
“Yeah, well, Unka Jake paid us to do that,” Wyatt replied.
“He did what!” Maggie did a double take as Jake clamped a hand over his face and groaned and the two pajama-clad boys sauntered farther into the room. Both looked very glad to be the center of attention once again.
“He paid us to misbehave,” Rusty explained.
“Yeah,” Wyatt chimed in with a nod. “Two dollars each, all in quarters. He promised to take us to the video arcade tomorrow, so we can use them.”
Maggie glared at Jake. This was really low, using the boys to ruin her husband hunt.
“Oh he did, did he?”
The boys nodded earnestly and then said, “You told us to do it, too, Maggie.”
Maggie’s jaw dropped. She protested heatedly. “I most certainly did not!” In fact, she had no idea where they even got that idea.
The twins continued to nod enthusiastically.
“Don’t you remember?” Rusty prodded earnestly. “Before dinner, when you was helping us with our ties? You said to do exactly what Unka Jake said, so we did and we threw food, and at the end, after dessert, we roughhoused under the dining room table so he could get us and him outta there at a decent hour.”
“He said it was a joke,” Wyatt added helpfully, “to show you that Mac Malone was not the boyfriend for you.” Beaming, Wyatt stuck out his chest and boasted proudly, “Unka Jake said we did a good job, too.”
“A real good job,” Rusty echoed happily.
“You know, boys, I think you’ve helped me out enough here,” Jake drawled, not nearly as regretfully as Maggie would’ve liked to see him under the circumstances. “I think you better leave the rest of the explaining to me.”
“Okay, Unka Jake.” Wyatt smiled. “We’re bored talkin’ ‘bout that, anyway. What we really came in to tell you was that the Rangers got another home run. Now they’re ahead six to two.”
“That’s great.” Jake smiled, “Now, how about I tuck you in one more time?”
“All right.”
Before he could get them all the way out of the room, the twins paused in the portal. “Maggie, do we still get to do somethin’ special tomorrow, like you promised?” Rusty asked.
Maggie nodded. “You boys lived up to your end of the bargain.” Such as it was, anyway. She looked at Jake and announced with no small degree of satisfaction, “Now it’s my turn to live up to mine.”
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