by Gina Wilkins
He appreciated the effort, but he wasn’t sure that was the best change of subject. His mother was already fretting about whether he would be safe on that trek with his buddies, even though he’d assured her it was not a dangerous trip. Certainly not on the level of climbing Mt. Everest or some of the other risky adventure vacations he could have taken. Downplaying even a hint of peril, he gave his aunts a quick description of the trip his friends had mapped out for a five-day trek to Machu Picchu.
“I’m leaving in about six weeks with some friends. I’m really looking forward to it,” he added candidly. “I need the break.”
He answered several questions about his plans, promising everyone again that he would be perfectly safe. Seeing that his mom was looking a little tense again, he was relieved when Alice launched into a chatty description of her visit to Europe with her mother the previous summer. Mitch figured Alice had been quiet for a while to let the others talk, probably in an attempt to not monopolize the conversation, but now the pent-up words tumbled out of her. He was selfishly pleased when the aunts began to question her instead of grilling him about his plans. Ostensibly, they were prompting Alice for more information about her vacation, but he knew they really wanted to hear more details about the woman who’d previously been married to their niece’s new husband.
Even if Alice suspected their motives, which he doubted, she didn’t mind. She enjoyed talking about her mother, making it clear she had few resentments toward the attorney who had chosen a career path that had taken her so very far from her only daughter. Seth really had done a good job of keeping the lines of communication open between his daughter and his ex-wife, Mitch mused. And Meagan supported that agenda completely.
Which only proved, he thought, that families didn’t have to live right next door to each other to remain close and connected. Not that he was planning to leave any time soon—but if that was what it took to fill that growing emptiness inside him, then he liked to think he could do so without sacrificing what he had here.
Looking around the table at the smiling faces surrounding him—his family—he paused on Jacqui. She was smiling, too, as she paid attention to Alice’s stories, which she’d probably heard many times before. But there was an expression in her eyes that looked all too familiar to him. As if she, too, was still looking for something she couldn’t quite define.
Or was he letting himself be overly influenced by Aunt Kathleen’s “feelings”? To be perfectly honest, he had no idea what Jacqui was thinking. Which only made her all the more intriguing to him.
“That was very nice of you to cook for my aunts this evening,” Mitch said to Jacqui much later that night. Alice was already in bed, and Jacqui had been checking to make sure the back kitchen door was locked before turning in herself when Mitch wandered into the room.
She hadn’t seen him for the past couple hours since his family had left and he’d excused himself to do some work at the desk in his room. She’d spent those hours cleaning up from the impromptu party, watching Alice swim and play with Waldo for a little while, then completing her latest knitting project for a short while after Alice had gone upstairs. Maybe she’d still been wired from the somewhat hectic day; only now, at just after eleven, did she feel relaxed enough to attempt sleep.
Because she’d already turned off all the lights except the night-light over the stove, the room lay in deep, hushed shadows. Even Waldo had gone to bed, judging from the silence in the backyard. A more fanciful person might imagine that she and Mitch were the only two people on the street still awake at this hour.
“You did an amazing job putting together a dinner party on such short notice. The food was excellent, as always.”
She had a weakness for compliments about her cooking. She did try very hard to prepare good food that other people enjoyed eating. “I’m glad you liked it. And it wasn’t much trouble. I didn’t mind at all helping your mom out.”
“I could tell she was grateful. She already liked you, but now you’re her new best friend,” he said with a chuckle.
She smiled. “I like her, too.”
Her smile faded when she tried to think of a tactful way to phrase her next question. “Does your mother look—well, healthy to you, lately? I mean, it’s probably a silly question with all three of her children being doctors, but she’s just so thin.”
Although he looked a little surprised, he shook his head. “It’s not a silly question. I appreciate your concern for her. She’s been a little stressed with the aunts here visiting, but I think she’s fine. She’s always been slim, and she tends to forget to eat when she has a lot going on. Remember how thin she got that last month of my grandmother’s life? We were all fussing at her then.”
Jacqui did remember. She hadn’t seen as much of LaDonna then because that had been before Seth and Meagan married, but she had seen enough to be concerned. Not even quite sixty yet, LaDonna looked young for her age normally, but that sad and stressful time had taken a toll on her. Since Seth and Meagan’s wedding, she’d looked happier and healthier—but the past couple of times Jacqui had seen LaDonna, she’d thought she noticed a change again. And not for the better.
Maybe she was just overreacting to a couple of pounds’ weight loss. As much as Jacqui liked all of this family, she supposed she was a little too concerned about their well-being. Her job was simply to take care of this house and watch out for Alice occasionally. And if none of LaDonna’s three physician offspring were concerned about their mother’s health, then who was she to question their judgment?
“I’ll remind her to take care of herself,” Mitch said. “That’s her problem, you know. She’s always so busy caring for everyone else, she forgets to see to her own needs.”
Jacqui smiled wryly. “And she raised three caregivers. What a surprise.”
He chuckled. “Maybe she influenced us a bit.”
“You think?”
He nodded, his smile fading. “Actually, Meagan is the one who’s most like her, and she almost paid dearly for that last year. She discounted some pain she was experiencing as intense but ordinary monthly cramps. She was too busy with work to pay close attention to her own symptoms, and by the time she did, she needed emergency surgery. I can’t remember if that was before you met her.”
“I met her while she was on medical leave to recover from that operation,” she reminded him. “She’s the one who originally interviewed me as a favor to Seth. He was going through a busy time at the law office and she had some time off, so it worked out for both of them for her to screen some applicants for the housekeeping position.”
“And she highly recommended you, as I understand it. With a strong endorsement from Alice, who’d also met you that first day and decided you were the perfect candidate.”
“I was grateful to both of them,” she answered candidly. “Without their support, I’m not sure Seth would have even looked at my application twice. He had in mind someone older and more experienced, like his previous housekeeper. She’d been with him for several years and still would be if she hadn’t fallen and broken her leg. I know they stay in touch, although he said she seems happy living in Mississippi near her daughter now.”
“We’re all glad Meagan urged Seth to hire you,” Mitch murmured.
Suddenly the kitchen seemed shadowy and intimate again, their lightly casual conversation morphing into something a little different. She swallowed and backed a half step away from him. He wasn’t really standing all that close, but she needed that extra bit of distance.
Maybe he sensed that she was more than ready to end this line of conversation. “I guess I’ll turn in. Good night, Jacqui.”
“Good night.”
He paused in the doorway with a frown. “Mitch.”
Her eyebrows rose. “I beg your pardon?”
“Good night, Mitch. You seem to go out of your way to avoid calling me by name.”
So he’d noticed that, had he? It would have been so much easier to keep a firm distance between
them if he would just allow her to call him Dr. Baker. “Good night, Mitch,” she said.
His smile made it clear that the invisible barrier she’d so carefully erected had just shrunk considerably, despite her efforts. “Good night, Jacqui,” he said again. “Sweet dreams.”
She swallowed a groan when he turned and sauntered away. She didn’t even want to think about the dreams that might plague her that night.
Chapter Six
Mitch wasn’t quite sure how to ask Jacqui a big favor Saturday morning during breakfast. Because he’d been busy at work and had a full schedule for the past few evenings, he’d seen little of her since their conversation in the kitchen late Tuesday evening. He hadn’t come in until after ten last night, only to find a note from her saying she’d turned in early and he could help himself to the leftover pie in the fridge if he was hungry for a late-night snack.
Forgoing the pie, he’d gone to bed. Even as tired as he’d been after a hectic week, it had taken him a while to go to sleep. He’d lay there wondering if she’d deliberately avoided seeing him that evening because they didn’t have Alice as a buffer between them. Alice had left Friday morning for her extended weekend with her maternal grandparents. Jacqui had assured him there would be no differences in household routines while Alice was away, but it hadn’t escaped his notice that she’d gone up to her room earlier than was her usual habit last night.
She had greeted him this morning the way she always did, with a polite smile and a hot, healthy breakfast. At least she didn’t try to avoid eating with him this time. She sat at the opposite side of the table with her bowl of steel-cut oats and fresh fruit.
He glanced past her to the glass patio doors, through which he could see Waldo wolfing down the food in his big stainless steel bowl. “Looks like Waldo’s having his breakfast, too.”
She chuckled. “He didn’t get the kisses Alice gives him before breakfast, but I did rub his ears and throw the ball for him a few times.”
Kisses before breakfast sounded pretty good to Mitch. Pushing an all-too-appealing image out of his mind, he cleared his throat. “That dog’s got a pretty good life.”
“He does, doesn’t he? He’s lucky Seth insisted Alice choose a dog from the local animal shelter when she decided she wanted a pet for her thirteenth birthday. She’s been hinting strongly lately that she wants a cat, but Seth has been holding firm that the family is too busy to pay enough attention to more than one pet at a time.”
He could understand that. As much as he liked animals, he hadn’t had time to devote to a pet since he’d left high school. “You seem to enjoy Waldo. Ever thought of having a pet of your own?”
She shrugged. “I never had one growing up, but I might like to have a small dog, or maybe a cat, when I buy my own house.”
He was always interested in those passing mentions of her past, but he’d learned not to follow up with questions that only made her shut down. Instead, he focused on her future plans. “You’re buying a house?”
“Oh, not yet,” she answered quickly. “I’m saving for a down payment. I’d like to have my own house someday, but it won’t be for a couple of years yet.”
That seemed as good a segue as any for the favor he wanted to request of her. “Do you have plans for today?”
She paused momentarily in reaching for her coffee cup, as if trying to figure out why he’d asked. “Not specifically,” she answered after that almost imperceptible hesitation. “I had tentative plans to have lunch with a friend, but that fell through when something came up she had to attend to. So, I thought I might tackle some window washing this afternoon.”
“It’s Saturday. You don’t normally work on Saturdays, do you?”
“Not every Saturday. Sometimes I come over for a couple of hours when the family needs help with something.”
“You probably wouldn’t be staying here this weekend with Alice gone if you didn’t feel you have to cook for me.”
“Not just that,” she corrected him. “The new carpet is being installed in my apartment Monday. I could stay there if I had nowhere else to go, I suppose, but it’s easier for all involved for me to stay out of the way.”
“You don’t really want to wash windows today, do you?”
She eyed him suspiciously. “You have something else in mind for me to do?”
Resisting all the inappropriate responses that popped into his head, he gave her what he hoped was a winning and totally innocuous smile. “Actually, I do. How would you like to help me look for a place to live?”
Her brows rose. Maybe he hadn’t phrased that very well. “I need to spend today looking at apartments and houses,” he explained. “I have a list of several possibilities and I’ve made arrangements to see them, but it’s really not something I want to do alone.”
Jacqui frowned a little. “Why would you want me to go with you?”
“If I go alone, I’m going to get bored and overwhelmed and I’ll either just pick one to get it over with—which could be a big mistake—or I’ll get distracted by something else and I’ll end the day no closer to having a new place than I am now. It’s pretty much what I did last time I had to find a place. I just grabbed the first available rental. Fortunately, that worked out pretty well—until the ditz burned it down,” he added in a grumble.
“Why would you get bored looking for a place to live?” she asked in apparent bewilderment.
He shrugged. “Lack of interest to start with, I guess. I mean, it’s not like I’m home all that much, wherever I stash my stuff. I’m either at the hospital or some professional function or at my mom’s or hanging out with friends when I get the chance. I know I need to find someplace quick. Seth and Meagan don’t want a permanent houseguest. My aunts are leaving today, so I could stay with Mom for a while, but that doesn’t seem right, either. Work’s going to be hectic for the next few weeks while I try to clear my calendar for my trip to Peru, so I should take advantage of this free weekend to make living arrangements.”
“But why would you want me to go along?”
“As I said, I’d like the company. Objective opinions. Madison was going with me, but she called very early this morning and had to cancel because something came up. You always seem so practical and logical about things. I would value your input. I’m sure looking at apartments and houses is hardly your idea of a good time, but I’d buy you a very nice lunch to make it worth your while,” he added hopefully.
If it bothered her that she hadn’t been the first person he’d asked to accompany him, she gave no sign. He wondered if that actually made it easier for her to accept—making the whole suggestion less personal. More impulsive. It was hard to guess the thoughts that flashed through her mind before she finally replied. “It does sound more interesting than washing windows.”
He chuckled. “Thank you for that, anyway.”
“If I go, I should warn you that I tend to say what I think. I tell my friends not to ask my opinion about anything unless they really want the truth about what I’m thinking.”
“That’s exactly what I want you to do,” he assured her, taking encouragement from the warning rather than the opposite. “You wouldn’t let me sign anything just to get the whole process over with more quickly, would you?”
She shook her head in what might have been exasperation. “Honestly, you’d think a competent surgeon would take important decisions like this more seriously.”
He grinned sheepishly. “I do take work decisions seriously. It’s other stuff I have trouble concentrating on. Especially something I don’t really want to do. It wasn’t my choice, you know? I feel like I’m having to do something because of the ditz’s stupidity, not because it was something I decided on my own to do right now.”
She studied his face for a few moments in silence and he wondered what she saw there that seemed to intrigue her. “Do you feel like a lot of your decisions are made for you?” she asked after that pause.
Caught off guard by the question, he answered without
stopping to think. “For almost all of my life.”
Then, because that sounded whiney and ungrateful—neither of which suited him—he chuckled lightly and said, “But isn’t that the way it is for just about everyone?”
She merely shrugged, then asked, “What time do you want to leave?”
He glanced at his watch. “Whenever you’re ready.”
She stood to carry her empty bowl to the sink. “I assume this is a casual-dress outing, so all I have to do is grab my bag.”
Her yellow-and-white knit top and jeans looked fine to him. Very fine, he added mentally, surreptitiously admiring the way the jeans hugged her slender bottom. He lifted his gaze quickly before she turned back toward him, not wanting her to catch him checking out her backside.
“I’m ready, too,” he said, rising with his own empty breakfast dishes. “I’ll get the list and meet you at the door.”
“Fine.”
If she was looking forward to the outing—or dreading it—there was no way to tell from her placid expression. He couldn’t help wondering if there was anyone who knew Jacqui well enough to read her emotions when she made an effort to hide them.
Mitch had predicted Jacqui would take the house hunt seriously—she seemed to take most things seriously—but he was rather amused by how intently she went about the search. During the drive to the first apartment, she helped him make out a quick checklist of the things that were important to him. Location, price, privacy, parking. Because he wasn’t committed to either renting or buying, they were looking at a selection of apartments, condos and houses.
“There’s always Seth’s house,” he said as he parked in the lot of the first apartment complex. “I’m sure he’d offer me a good deal. I know there have been a few nibbles on it the past week, one fairly serious offer, so if I take that one, I’ll have to grab it soon.”
She tilted her head his way to study his face as she reached for her door handle. “I don’t think you should buy Seth’s house.”