He was wearing a black silk sports coat—Cianni maybe?—she wasn’t sure. He wore a white ribbed T-shirt underneath the jacket, no tie. His charcoal-gray pleated dress pants looked tailor-made.
And his black leather loafers were Dolce & Gabbana. There was no doubt about that. She’d spent an entire day one Saturday helping Alfie search for a pair just like them.
A lock of his dark hair had fallen forward across his brow, only emphasizing his bad-boy image. He reached up and pushed it back without a thought, then continued whatever he was saying that had Rick, Joe, and Charlie hanging on to his every word.
Alicia kept staring at him on purpose.
And she was currently so bored, she was even willing him to notice her. No, she was daring him to notice her. Flirting with danger sure beat a consumer report on disposable diapers, whether Alfie approved or not.
Besides, if she kept avoiding Jake, how was she ever going to know if she really was over her silly teenage crush? Better to get that question out of the way as soon as possible, right? All Jake had to do was come on to her—just once—and prove he was every bit the jerk she suspected that he was!
Alicia smiled inwardly.
Let him look in her direction. She knew how to play the game. She’d lift her wineglass in a flirty little toast of acknowledgment when he looked up and caught her staring. Then, she’d follow the toast with a sexy come-on wink. He’d be sitting at her end of the table in two seconds flat.
She was sure of it!
Alicia swirled the wine around in her glass, waiting for Jake to look her way. For two full minutes she waited. And she waited two minutes more. Never once did Jake look in her direction.
I might as well be invisible, Alicia thought, pouting.
What was it going to take, anyway?
Climbing up onto the table?
Doing a slow bump and grind?
She bet The Rake would notice that!
That was more his style, anyway. He certainly hadn’t noticed her in her not-too-memorable little black dress. Other than a brief hello when she first arrived, he didn’t even appear to know she was alive.
And yes, she was miffed about it!
Jake didn’t know he was a charter member of her drop dead file. Nor did he have a clue he had once been her celebrity fantasy crush. And she hadn’t been in a coma the other morning at coffee. He’d looked at her then every chance he got.
So, why is he ignoring me now?
Just who did Jake Sims think he was, anyway? She looked every bit as good as any model or starlet he’d ever had on his arm. And she wasn’t being conceited—she was just stating a fact!
Ignoring her was an out-and-out insult!
An insult, dammit!
How! Dare! He!
Chapter 4
Jake was glad Zada’s husband, Rick, had picked up the conversation where he left off about the current power hitters in the National League. He knew Alicia was still staring at him. He’d been watching her out of the corner of his eye all evening. The fact that she’d been staring at him for the last ten minutes, however, made it extremely hard to concentrate on the conversation.
Why she was staring at him, Jake didn’t have a clue.
There was no way he could have done anything to offend her this evening. Other than breathing, he supposed.
He’d been polite enough when she first arrived. He’d said a friendly hello like everyone else. The rest of the evening had pretty much taken care of itself when the guys had sat together to discuss baseball, and the girls had migrated to the other end of the table rather than listen to their nonstop sports speak.
The same sports speak that was still going on nonstop.
Jake looked around his end of the table, aware that he couldn’t have found three nicer guys for neighbors than Rick Clark, Joe Jones, and Charlie Marshall. They were all three what most people would describe as All-American guys—sports-minded, family-oriented, and focused on living the American dream.
They were also good-natured and laid-back, except Rick, who was a bit more intense, probably due to his strict military background. Ex-Marine Rick was also the only blond in the group. Joe and Charlie had dark hair, and their features were so much alike, at first Jake had wondered if they were brothers. At any rate, they were the type of good-looking guys you would have expected their three lovely wives to have chosen for a mate.
And thinking of their three lovely wives, Jake chanced a look at the opposite end of the table. Alicia was still staring right at him.
Jake quickly looked away.
Thank God he hadn’t had to sit beside her. She’d blown him away the second she walked through the door. Her strapless black dress showed off her tanned shoulders as perfectly as her four-inch stilettos showed off her incredible legs. And then, there was the way she had her long blond hair piled on top of her head, revealing a slender neck that was just waiting to be . . .
“Jake? Are you with us, buddy?”
Rick’s question snapped Jake back to the conversation.
Rick said, “The earliest Joe could get a tee time is noon tomorrow. Is that okay with you?”
A loud “Rick!” kept Jake from answering.
“Now, angel,” Rick said, smiling at his wife who was frowning at him from the opposite end of the table. “I promise we’ll only play one round of golf tomorrow, and then I’ll . . .”
“No! Dammit. No!” Zada yelled.
Jake was getting a little nervous. And judging from the startled look on Rick’s face, so was Rick. Jake looked back at Zada. Her face was all screwed up in a grimace. She was even clutching both sides of the table in a death grip now.
He’d heard some pretty bizarre stories from Tish about how Zada and Rick used to fight like cats and dogs when they’d first moved to Woodberry Park. How they’d even separated for six months and filed for a divorce.
Tish explained how Rick had moved back home when the judge had given them ninety days to settle their squabble over the house and the heroic German shepherd dog that had saved Rick’s life. Rick owned a company that trained canines in bomb detection. Rick’s lead dog Simon had been blinded in an explosion at O’Hare that could have killed Rick and Simon had Simon not jumped up and pushed Rick backwards as the bomb exploded. Rick had only suffered a broken arm, but debris from the explosion had left Simon blind. When Rick had the house built in Woodberry Park, he’d had state-of-the-art sensors placed in the wall to aid Simon in maneuvering freely around the house.
The only problem, Tish explained, was that Zada had no intention of giving up Simon and the blind-dog-friendly house, either. Zada had been so inspired by a newspaper article about Simon, she’d written a series of children’s books about the dog that had become very successful.
Jake still couldn’t believe some of the things Tish told him Rick and Zada had done trying to outwit, outplay, and outlast each other in the real-life game of Survivor Rick had challenged Zada to play in order to determine who kept Simon and the house. But the game had eventually ended with them getting back together.
Rick and Zada back together and completely in love was the only side of the couple Jake had ever seen—until now.
“Looks like it’s going to be a threesome for golf tomorrow,” Joe grumbled under his breath, and Tish immediately sent her husband a stern stay-out-of-this glare.
“Golf?” Zada yelled. “I’m not talking about golf, you idiots! My water just broke!”
What happened next Jake could best describe as a chase scene straight out of an old Charlie Chaplin movie.
Everyone but him jumped up from the table in a panic and began running around in circles chasing everyone else. Even Simon appeared from nowhere and began barking an earsplitting bark over the mass confusion going on in the dining room.
Joe bumped into Tish, who bumped into Rick. Rick finally pushed both of them out of his way. He hurried to his wife’s side and helped Zada up from her chair. Rick began pulling Zada one way—but Tish had Zada’s other arm, trying
to pull Zada in the opposite direction.
Take-charge Tish finally pointed at Rick. “You go get the suitcase Zada packed for the hospital.” She pointed at Joe. “And you go get our minivan. Zada can get into the van much easier than she can get into Rick’s Hummer.”
Joe hurried off to get the van.
Rick started for the suitcase but Zada grabbed his arm and shrieked, “I’m not that organized, dammit, and you know it!” And then she burst into tears. “I don’t have a stupid bag packed, okay?” She was crying even harder now. “I was supposed to have three more weeks! Three more weeks of freedom!”
“I’ll pack a bag and meet you at the hospital,” Alicia volunteered and ran past Jake without even a single glance in his direction.
Simon started barking again. Jen kept wringing her hands. Charlie kept standing there, a dazed look on his face.
The loud horn blast from outside finally jolted everyone back into action. They all shuffled past Jake, shepherding Zada toward the front door.
Rick stopped long enough to say something soothing to the dog. Simon finally stopped barking and plopped down on the floor, his big head resting on his paws. His disgusted dog sigh, however, said Simon already knew he was in for a long wait.
Jake turned all the way around in his chair, watching them all go. When the front door finally slammed behind them, he turned back around, picked up his wineglass, and drained every drop.
“Jesus, what a fiasco,” Jake mumbled as the young waiter who had been serving dinner all evening walked into the dining room.
The kid was in his early twenties, had short spiked blond hair, and looked snazzy in his white coat and black bow tie. At the moment, he was holding a silver tray loaded down with individual glass bowls of what appeared to be chocolate mousse.
“Save the dessert for later?” the kid asked, looking around at the empty dining room.
“Good idea,” Jake told him, “and I hope I can persuade you to do something else.”
Jake had just pushed his chair back when he glimpsed a flash of black zooming down the hallway. He breathed a sigh of relief when the front door slammed again.
Talk about a close call, Jake thought. The last thing he’d needed was to be left alone with Alicia. Not with her wearing that black dress. Too tempting. Too convenient. Too friggin’ dangerous was what it was.
One crook of her finger, and Alicia would have been having him for dessert—any way she wanted him.
He didn’t know what it was about her, but he didn’t trust himself in Alicia’s presence. Oh, hell. Of course he knew what it was about her. It was everything about her. She was just . . . she was just . . . she was just damn irresistible, that’s what she was! And that was the reason Jake didn’t intend to be in Alicia’s presence. Not very often, and not if he could help it.
When the waiter turned and headed back to the kitchen, Jake followed after him. The kid’s coworker was Asian, not much older, and dressed in the same white coat and black bow tie. The way he snapped his fingers and motioned for the kid to put the tray down on the kitchen counter, however, told Jake he was the one in charge.
Jake looked at him and said, “Have you already been paid for your services tonight?” Jake knew many catering services paid their employees a flat fee, no tips allowed. But he wanted to make sure this service was one of them.
The Asian guy nodded. “The owner always collects the fee up front. We aren’t allowed to accept any money.”
Exactly what I wanted to hear, Jake thought and pulled his money clip out of his pocket. He held it up. Now, he had their full attention. “What would it take for the two of you to put the food away and clean up the mess?” Jake asked. “I mean all of it. Dining room. Kitchen. Everything.”
The two of them exchanged quick glances.
Jake slipped a hundred-dollar bill out of the clip and placed it on the kitchen island countertop. The kid stepped forward to take it. He stopped when the guy in charge gave him a dirty look.
Jake slapped another hundred down on the counter. This time, neither of them made any move to pick up the money. “My final offer, boys,” Jake said, and placed another hundred on top of the others. “That’s one-fifty apiece. Take it or leave it.”
“Take it,” the kid begged.
The Asian guy stepped forward and grabbed the money.
“And don’t cut any corners cleaning up,” Jake warned. “I want this place spotless. Our host and hostess just left for the hospital. I don’t want this mess waiting for them when they get back home with their new baby girl.”
They both nodded that they understood.
Simon trotted through the kitchen and jumped up onto the sofa in the den, reminding Jake there was one other loose end that needed tying up. “Just be sure you go through the front door when you leave, and make sure the dog stays inside,” Jake told them. “You can lock the front door behind you.”
And just to be on the safe side, Jake pointed around the kitchen. Their eyes followed his finger. He was pointing to the high-frequency sensors that helped Simon maneuver around the house. But these guys didn’t know that.
“Mr. Clark owns a security service,” Jake said, staring them both down. “There’s a surveillance camera in every room.”
Again, both nodded that they understood. Without accusing them, Jake had still let them know it wouldn’t be wise to leave with anything that wasn’t theirs.
“About this,” the Asian guy said, holding up the money.
Jake could read between the lines, too. They didn’t want to split the tip with the owner. “Do a good job,” Jake said, “and no one has to know about the money.”
“Thanks,” they both said.
Jake turned and headed for the Clarks’ front door. Zada had helped him get ready for fatherhood over the last few weeks. Taking care of the cleanup would hopefully help Zada get ready for motherhood.
As a good neighbor, it was the least he could do.
Finding anything in Zada’s bathroom had been impossible. Not only had Alicia been unable to decipher which toothbrush was Zada’s and which one was Rick’s, but she hadn’t had time to clean the toothpaste from around the tube that had been squeezed to death in the middle.
Toothpaste tubes squeezed in the middle had always been one of Alicia’s biggest pet peeves—ewwwwwww.
She’d finally decided to pack the toiletries Zada needed from her own supplies that she always kept on hand. She didn’t like to brag, but she was as much a neat-freak as Zada was a clutter bug.
She also always made it a point to keep extra everything. It was a habit she’d gotten into when she and Alfie had lived together both during and after college, and before she’d married Edward. Alfie never planned ahead for anything.
Come to think of it, Alicia decided, Zada and Alfie were a lot alike. Both were free spirits who only lived for the moment. Possibly the reason she envied them one minute and felt like strangling them the next.
After having no trouble finding the things she needed for Zada’s overnight hospital stay in her own bathroom, Alicia accomplished her mission in record time. A quick trip back downstairs to locate her purse and her car keys, and moments later she was backing down her driveway.
Tires squealed when she slammed on her brakes.
The shiny red Corvette from directly across the street was backing out at the same time. Alicia let out a disgusted harrumph! Evidently his babe-magnet Corvette was one thing Jake hadn’t been willing to give up for his daughter.
Jake’s arm shot out the driver’s side window, motioning for her to back out first. Alicia did back out first. And she would have driven away without looking back had she still not been more than a little pissed over his attitude at dinner.
She didn’t like being ignored, dammit!
It knocked her off balance, messed with her psyche, and basically threw her into a tailspin. In her world, she did the ignoring and the guy backed off. That’s the way it had always been. That’s the way it was supposed to be. And th
at’s the way it was going to stay if she had anything to say about it—even if the guy happened to be Mr. Celebrity Fantasy Crush himself!
Alicia hit her horn dead center.
Jake’s head popped out the window this time.
“It’s silly for both of us to drive to the hospital,” Alicia called out to him. “Why don’t you ride with me?”
Jake didn’t answer.
He just kept staring at her as if she had shocked him beyond the point of answering.
“Is there a problem?” Alicia called out innocently.
Jake looked at her a second longer.
Alicia smiled when he turned off the ignition and got out of the Corvette. A little one-on-one time was all it was going to take for Jake to show his true colors. Without his cheerleading squad there to praise him for his miraculous transformation from ladies’ man to concerned father, he would come on to her in five minutes flat.
She was sure of it!
Then, she would politely put Jake in his place.
She’d lock the drawer of her drop dead file.
And she’d ignore Jake Sims happily ever after.
Chapter 5
Jake walked around the back of the car, opened the passenger side door, and lowered himself onto the passenger seat thinking that the black Mercedes sedan made a fitting hearse. Sitting this close to Alicia was enough to kill any man who was trying to resist her.
He should have turned down her offer.
But something told Jake she was testing him. Just like at dinner. He’d felt her eyes on him all evening. Staring him down. Summing him up. Waiting for him to make one false move. False moves were something he couldn’t afford.
Not with Ranatta lurking in the shadows.
There was also the social worker assigned to his custody case who would be interviewing everyone from Danielle’s teachers at school to their new neighbors in Woodberry Park—Alicia included. That’s why he’d accepted her offer.
Alicia Greene had already formed her own opinion about him, but he’d be damned if he would prove her right. He’d handle sitting this close to her. He’d focus on the road ahead. And he wouldn’t provide Alicia with one bad thing she could say about him.
Dinner First, Me Later? Page 4