by Gina Wilkins
“Do you know how long I’ve wanted to do that?” he asked when he finally gave them both a chance to breathe.
She rested her hand lightly against his face, feeling the slight roughness of his late-evening beard, the firm line of his jaw. “Since you fell over my suitcase and I tried to attack you with a candlestick?”
He chuckled. “No—though I won’t deny I wanted to kiss you then. The first time I met you I had stopped by Seth’s house to give something to Meagan, back when she and Seth were dating and Seth and Alice still lived across the street. You walked into the room carrying a big vase of fresh flowers to set on the table in the foyer, and I remember thinking you were even prettier than the roses in your hands.”
She blinked in surprise, clearly recalling the moment he referred to. Meagan had introduced them. “Jacqui, this is my brother, Mitch,” Meagan had said casually.
Jacqui’s first jolt of attraction toward the nice-looking man smiling at her had been firmly shoved aside when she’d remembered that Meagan’s brother was also a surgeon. She had nodded pleasantly, then asked him in her housekeeper voice if she could take his coat and get him anything to drink. When he’d politely declined the drink, she’d made an excuse about work to do and disappeared for the remainder of his visit with his sister. The awareness she had felt for him that first time had never completely gone away, try as she might to convince herself otherwise when she had seen him since.
She was startled that he, too, still remembered so clearly the first time they met.
“I’ve been wanting to get to know you better ever since,” he added, studying her face for her reaction.
“That was almost a year ago. You never gave any indication that you were…well, interested in me.”
He shrugged, settling her more comfortably against him. “It was awkward.”
She bit her lip for a moment before murmuring, “It’s still awkward.”
“It doesn’t have to be. We’re both single, unattached adults. There’s no reason at all we can’t spend time together when we want.”
She could already feel some of her earlier misgivings building inside her again. “And when it ends? I’ll still work for your sister, and because of that, our paths will continue to cross occasionally. Can we just go on the way we have been, pretending nothing changed?”
He gave a little laugh and brushed a strand of her tousled, short hair from her temple. “We’re just starting to talk about this and already you’re worrying about a theoretical ending at some possible point in the future?”
She grimaced. “I can’t help it. I like to know what to expect from my future. Where I’ll be, what I’ll be doing. As much as possible, I try to anticipate all the possible outcomes of any major decisions I make.”
His left arm propped on the couch behind her, he continued to toy with the ends of her hair with his right hand when he asked lightly, “Does that need to control the future come from your childhood?”
She still wasn’t really ready to discuss her past with him, but she answered candidly. “Probably. I never knew from one week to the next where I’d be living or going to school. All I ever wanted was to settle down in one place and make a home for myself there.”
His fleeting frown made her wonder if her admission worried him a little. He’d made no secret of his own restlessness—a result of a childhood that was too settled and predictable, in his view.
Maybe opposites attracted, but there had to be more than attraction to form a lasting bond. But then, Mitch wasn’t worried about forming lasting bonds, she reminded herself, studying his face through her lashes. Maybe he was concerned that she was looking for more from him than he had been prepared to offer. Her talk about permanence and settling down could have made him nervous.
She smiled slightly and shook her head. “Like you said, all we’ve done is share a few kisses. Satisfying our curiosity, I suppose. I’m not worrying about the future tonight.”
“That’s what you think we’re doing? Satisfying curiosity?”
“I suppose so. I have to confess I’ve wondered what it would be like to kiss you,” she said with a smile, trying to downplay her action in initiating that first kiss.
His mouth twitched. “Yeah? So how was it?”
Relieved that he seemed to be following her lead in keeping this light, she said after a moment of feigned deliberation, “It was nice.”
His eyebrows rose. “Nice? That’s the best you can say?”
She couldn’t help but laugh at his tone. “Okay, very nice.”
Wrapping his left arm around her, he nestled her closer. “I’d like to try for a more enthusiastic endorsement.”
She barely hesitated before lifting her mouth to his. Okay, so this wasn’t going anywhere. There was no need to try to control the future because there was no future for her and Mitch beyond tonight. Alice would be home tomorrow, so this was the last night she and Mitch would be alone in the house. Whatever happened between them tonight, it ended at daylight.
It certainly wouldn’t be the first time she’d metaphorically folded her tents and moved on. She knew how to put the past behind her, how to lock memories away to be savored or suffered in private. She might as well enjoy what she had started.
“Well?” His voice was husky when he finally drew back a few inches, a warm flush of color on his cheeks, a glint of heat in his eyes. As close as she was to him, she knew exactly how aroused he was by the long kisses they had shared. Just as he could probably read similar signs from her.
“Much better than nice,” she assured him, her own voice breathy.
He rested his forehead against hers, releasing a long, slow sigh. He stroked his right hand slowly up and down her left arm, his touch both soothing and further arousing. “I’d better go on up to bed. Thanks for the neck rub. And…everything else.”
She blinked rapidly, trying to process what he’d just said. “You’re, um, going to bed?”
Alone? Not that she necessarily would have agreed to go with him if he’d asked, but—wasn’t he going to ask?
Drawing away from her, he gave her a crooked smile. “Yes. I told you, Jacqui, I won’t take advantage of our situation. Our sharing this house because of outside circumstances, I mean. It would be different if we were at your place, and you’d invited me in and one thing led to another…” He let the words drift off into a rueful shrug.
So that was why he had focused so fiercely on the TV the night before, sending her off to bed after their movie date with hardly a second look. Why he was drawing back tonight after kissing her until her willpower was decidedly weakened. He was being chivalrous. The jerk.
“I’m quite capable of making decisions for myself without being influenced by ‘outside circumstances,’” she said coolly. “If I choose not to be taken advantage of, trust me, there would be no advantage taken.”
He looked as though he might have laughed at her wording but was making an effort not to. Wise choice.
Catching his shirt in both hands, she pulled him into another hard kiss. She had started this tonight. She would call an end to it. Eventually.
The buzz of a cell phone broke them apart, winded and dazed and startled by the interruption. Mitch reached automatically for the phone on his belt, then stopped himself when they realized it was Jacqui’s rarely used, but always at hand, phone demanding attention.
Glancing at the screen, she frowned. She wouldn’t have been overly surprised had she seen Alice’s number displayed there, but it made her nervous to realize that it was Alice’s grandmother calling. “Hello?”
“Jacqui, it’s Paulette Burns,” the older woman said, confirming the caller ID. “Have you, um, heard from Alice?”
Jacqui felt herself go cold. “No. Why? What’s wrong?”
Mitch stirred beside her, probably picking up on her misgivings.
“She went to the lake with her friends for a picnic and a swim, followed by ice cream in town. They said they’d be back by nine but it’s ten now and we
haven’t heard from her. We’ve tried calling her cell, but she’s not answering. Of course, there are several places up here where it’s hard to get service, so she could be in one of those spots.”
Jacqui drew a very deep breath and counseled herself to speak calmly despite her rising distress. “What friends is she with, Mrs. Burns? She didn’t mention this plan to me.”
After a pause, Alice’s grandmother said, “She implied that you knew about it. It’s a few of her friends from there in Little Rock. Swim team friends, she said, so we didn’t worry about them swimming at the dam site. I believe there were four of them going, counting Alice. We told her to be careful and to be home by nine so she wouldn’t be out after dark. Harold’s thinking maybe he should drive around to see if he can find them.”
Jacqui moistened her suddenly dry lips. “Who’s driving Alice, Mrs. Burns? One of the mothers?”
“No, it’s that young man. Her uncle’s friend. He seemed quite nice and responsible. Michael?”
Jacqui looked at Mitch, who was watching her intently. “Do you mean Milo?”
“Yes, that’s it. Milo.”
“I’ll kill him,” Mitch muttered with a scowl.
“I’ll try to call her, and then I’ll call you right back,” Jacqui said into her phone. She needed a moment to collect herself, to think about what the next step should be. Call the police? Jump in her car and make the forty-five-minute drive to Heber Springs to look for Alice herself? “Give me five minutes.”
“All right. I’m sorry to worry you, but we weren’t exactly sure what to do. Alice has never done anything like this with us before.”
“What’s going on?” Mitch asked when Jacqui lowered her phone. Both of them were on their feet now, and he didn’t take his eyes off her face, which she knew must be drained of color.
Hearing the slight unsteadiness in her own voice, she gave him a quick summary of Alice’s escapade. “She led her grandparents to believe I knew about the plan,” she added grimly. “When I find her…”
He rested a hand on her shoulder when her words faded into a taut silence. “I’m sure she’s fine.” He sounded as though he was trying to reassure himself as much as her. “Someone would have called if anything had happened. She’s probably having fun and lost track of time.”
“I told her I didn’t want her riding in a car with teenagers. She knew I wouldn’t have approved this plan. How could her grandparents have let her go with them? They’re supposed to be watching her!”
“Maybe they’ve forgotten how to control a teenager. And Alice has never pulled a stunt like this before that I know of, so she must have caught them off guard.”
Jacqui nodded tightly. “That’s what Mrs. Burns said.”
“Okay, first thing we need to do is find Alice. We can call…”
Jacqui jumped when the phone buzzed and vibrated in her hand. A glance at the screen made her close her eyes momentarily in relief before she spoke. “Alice?”
“I’m sorry, Jacqui.”
The miserable tone in the girl’s voice didn’t soften Jacqui’s own one bit. “Where are you?”
“I just got back to my grandparents’ house. I didn’t know it was so late.”
“You’ve forgotten how to tell time?”
Jacqui could almost hear the girl wince in response to the sharp tone of the question. “I guess I didn’t look at the clock,” Alice muttered. “I’m sorry.”
“First, you should be apologizing to your grandparents for worrying them. And for misleading them that this harebrained idea had been approved ahead of time. You and I will be having a long talk tomorrow. And I have a feeling your father will be discussing this with you when he gets home later this week. I wouldn’t be surprised if your mother hears about it when she talks to her parents. She’ll probably have a few things to say to you, also.”
“You’re going to tell Dad?” Alice wailed. That was the warning out of Jacqui’s litany that seemed to concern her most—and rightly so. Jacqui had only seen Seth mad once or twice in the time she had known him, and she would hate to be on the wrong end of that cool, lawyer-sharp temper.
Alice wouldn’t be pulling a stunt like this again any time in the near future, Jacqui predicted.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said. “In the meantime, you be extremely polite and considerate to your grandparents so your visit with them doesn’t end entirely badly.”
“I will. I guess you’re pretty mad, huh?”
“You could say that. Are your friends on their way home? Have they called their parents to let them know they’re safe?”
“It was just Maggie and Kelly and Milo. Kelly’s parents are out of town. She’s spending a couple of nights with Maggie. Maggie told her mom they were coming up to visit me at my grandparents’ house at the lake and that a friend of my uncle’s was driving—and that’s true,” she added with a just a hint of renewed defiance. “They just called Maggie’s mom and said they were on their way home. Maggie doesn’t have to be supervised all the time like I do.”
Maggie, who Jacqui knew through Alice’s swim team, was a year older than Alice and the daughter of a single mother who had never seemed focused enough on parenting in Jacqui’s opinion. Alice had been invited to several unchaperoned parties at Maggie’s house, which Seth and Meagan had refused to allow her to attend. Jacqui would have done the same, had it been up to her to make the decision. From now on, Jacqui would be keeping a closer eye on Alice’s association with Maggie—as she suspected Seth and Meagan would be.
After a few more terse words with Alice, Jacqui disconnected the call with a low groan. “I will be so glad when Seth and Meagan get back in town,” she said on a hearty exhale. “They’re the ones who should be dealing with Alice’s sudden teenage insanity, not me.”
“She’s okay?”
“Yes.”
Mitch visibly relaxed a little when Jacqui repeated what Alice had told her. “I’ll have a chat with Milo tomorrow,” he promised. “I’ll get his number from Scott, who is also going to hear how I feel about his worthless brother hanging around with a group of fourteen-and fifteen-year-old girls. Trust me, after tomorrow, Milo will turn and walk in the other direction whenever he sees Alice.”
“She’ll be angry with you,” Jacqui warned, believing absolutely that Milo would avoid Alice from now on. She’d never seen Mitch look quite this intimidating. And it irked her that she responded quite physically to that look.
Mitch shrugged. “She’ll get over it. Or she won’t. Either way, she won’t be in a car with Milo Lemon again.”
“Good.”
Wearily, she pushed a hand through her hair, not caring that the gesture left it in spikes around her face. The mood was broken tonight. She might as well go on up to bed. Alone. Not that she expected to sleep well.
She would be glad when Seth and Meagan returned from their trip and life could get back to normal. Everything had been just fine before they’d left her in charge of their house and their daughter and a stormy summer night had left her sharing this house with Dr. Mitch Baker. Despite what he’d said about being attracted to her from the start, despite his surprisingly clear memory of the first time they had met, despite his insistence that their very different careers had no significance at all to him, she still had no intention of letting herself get carried away by improbable fantasies.
“I’m going up to bed,” she said. “Good night, Mitch.”
If he was surprised by her abrupt departure, he didn’t let it show. “I’ll stay down here for a while. Maybe watch the news before I turn in. Good night, Jacqui.”
She turned without another word and headed for the stairs. It felt as though more than a long day had just come to an end.
Too restless to sleep, Mitch drank another glass of tea while he watched the ten o’clock local news. When the newscast ended, he carried his glass into the kitchen and placed it in the dishwasher. He supposed he really should turn in; he had another long day scheduled tomorrow. But he was
still wired. Both Jacqui and Alice had left him tied up in knots that evening.
Women, he thought with a rueful shake of his head. There was no way any man could fully understand them—and that gender chasm developed young, judging by his niece’s behavior. He chuckled when the thought crossed his mind that Jacqui could be upstairs right now thinking that men were impossible to understand at any age. His amusement faded when it occurred to him that he understood Milo all too well—which was why he’d be having a long talk with that young man very soon.
Glancing toward the back patio door, he saw a nose pressed against the glass, a pair of eyes watching him as he moved around the kitchen. “Hey, Waldo.”
He wasn’t sure if the dog had heard him, but Waldo knew he had Mitch’s attention now. The dog yelped and wagged his tail eagerly.
“Now don’t start barking. You’ll wake everyone up,” Mitch chided, moving quickly to the door.
He stepped outside into the still-stifling August night. It was fully dark now, but sundown had provided little relief from the heat and humidity. The weather forecaster Mitch had just watched had predicted temperatures reaching close to a hundred degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the week. The hospitals would be busy treating heat-related injuries. Having lived here all his life, Mitch was accustomed to hot, dry summers, but he had to admit he preferred the cooler days of spring and fall.
He sat for a while on the patio, patting Waldo, who had recovered nicely from his fence encounter. Surrounding them were the sounds of a Southern summer night as the mostly young professionals in the neighborhood settled in to sleep in preparation for the next workday. The soothing chirps of frogs and crickets in the narrow band of woods at the back of the subdivision blended with the occasional rumble of passing cars on the quiet streets. A siren wailed in the distance, the fading sound coming from the direction of downtown. A dog barked from a neighboring yard, answered by another farther down the block. Waldo cocked his head in response to that brief, canine conversation but didn’t join in. He seemed completely happy to sit at Mitch’s feet having his head and ears rubbed.