Dinner First, Me Later?

by Candy Halliday

  They reached the next hole and walked across the green. But as Jake waited for his turn at the tee, he thought back over what he’d just told Rick. There was no doubt in his mind that he wanted to marry Alicia.

  Not only did he love her more than he thought he could ever love anyone, but he also knew how much Alicia cared about Danielle. There wasn’t room in his life for anyone who couldn’t love and accept his daughter. Danielle would always come first in his life from now on. Knowing Alicia applauded that decision made him love her even more.

  But Jake couldn’t help recognizing the irony if the three of them did end up together as a family. They all three were misfits in their own way. Alicia might have been born with a silver spoon in her mouth, but her family life had been just as dysfunctional as his, or Danielle’s.

  It had to make Jake wonder if fate had brought them all together for a reason—giving three damaged souls another chance to get it right. A chance to make their own family together. This time, a family that worked.

  He had so much love to give both Danielle and Alicia. Having both of them in his life over the last few months had made him feel like the luckiest man alive. Nothing would make him happier than making a home for them. He would be the best father he could be to Danielle, and the best husband he could be to Alicia.

  A home with my two best girls, Jake thought. How he loved the thought of that possibility.

  “You’re up, Jake,” Rick called out.

  Still thinking about his two best girls, Jake held that thought safely in his heart, grabbed his driver, and walked up to the tee. When he smacked his driver against the ball, the ball sailed straight down the fairway, dropped onto the putting green, and came to a stop inches from the cup.

  Charlie laughed and said, “That’ll teach you not to cheat, Joe. Jake’s going to birdie this hole.”

  “I’ve got your birdie right here,” Joe told Charlie and held up his middle finger.

  Chapter 27

  Dani and Kiwi had ended up spending the night with Alicia on Monday night, since Jake was taking the early 6:15 A.M. shuttle from Chicago to New York on Tuesday morning. The launch of Jake’s publicity tour included making appearances on several major TV morning shows to promote the new antidrug campaign.

  Jake hadn’t been gone two hours when Alicia got her first taste of the challenges of substitute motherhood.

  A call from her office let her know that not only was there a glitch in a property closing, but if she didn’t want some angry buyers and sellers showing up in Woodberry Park she might want to show up at the office long enough to smooth some extremely ruffled feathers.

  Her first call had been to Jen, letting Jen know their shopping-for-school-clothes date wasn’t going to happen. When Jen offered to let Dani stay with her while Alicia went to her office, Alicia thought she’d found the solution to her problem. Dani, however, begged to go to the office with her.

  “I’ll stay out of the way,” Dani had promised. “Pleeeeeeze. I really want to see your office.”

  Surprised at how excited Dani seemed about going, Alicia relented. Dani had also surprised her after Alicia gave Dani a small task to do while she smoothed those ruffled feathers. Dani efficiently attached all of the printout labels on the envelopes Alicia had given her to address, and also stuffed the envelopes with the mail-out flyers promoting the open house showings for the upcoming month without being asked.

  As a reward for Dani’s hard work, Alicia told her to pick anywhere she wanted for lunch. They ended up at the Hard Rock Café, Dani talking about the raspberry-pink Hard Rock T-shirt she wanted to buy, and Alicia feeling her willpower slipping away as she looked over the menu.

  Alicia was narrowing her decision down to either the calorie-laden “stormy blue burger” (named for the yummy blue cheese) or a Cobb salad with diet dressing. She wasn’t prepared when someone slid onto the booth seat right beside her.

  “Fancy meeting you here,” Alfie said and grinned.

  Alicia couldn’t find her voice—a big lump of guilt was sitting on top of it.

  Alfie looked at her funny for a second, then looked across the table at Dani. “Well?” he said. “Introduce me to your beautiful luncheon companion, Alicia.”

  Alicia just kept staring at him. If Alfie really could read her mind, he had to be receiving the telepathic message she was sending him at the moment that said: DON’T FREAK OUT! And to back up that mental message, Alicia also sent him a final we’ll-talk-about-this-later! stare.

  She finally smiled over at Dani and said, “This is Dani Sims, Alfie. Dani, this is my twin brother, Alfie.”

  Alfie paled slightly, but he quickly recovered. “How lovely to meet you, mademoiselle,” he said, being completely charming as only Alfie could be. Dani giggled when he stood up, bowed politely, and kissed the top of her hand.

  “Have you already eaten?” Alicia forced herself to ask. She was praying Alfie would say he had already eaten and was just leaving. Evidently God was taking a nap.

  “No, I haven’t eaten,” he said, sending Alicia a menacing you-are-in-serious-trouble! smile. “Can I join you ladies?” he asked politely, but Alfie looked straight at Dani when he said it.

  “Sure,” Dani said with a grin.

  Alicia handed him her menu, but she kicked Alfie under the table—HARD. Alfie never even flinched. He looked back at Dani and said, “So? How do you know Alicia, Dani?”

  “We’re neighbors,” Dani said. “I live across the street.”

  “And what are you ladies up to today?”

  Alicia kicked him again—HARDER.

  “I’m staying with Alicia while Jake is out of town,” Dani said. “Jake’s my father,” she added.

  “Surely you don’t mean the Jake Sims of Chicago Cubs fame,” Alfie said, feigning surprise.

  Dani smiled and nodded. “Yeah, that’s him.”

  This time, Alicia jabbed Alfie’s leg with her salad fork. Alfie turned toward her. “Why, Alicia! You didn’t tell me you’d become such good friends with Jake Sims and his beautiful daughter? And you must be very good friends, Alicia, or I doubt Jake would leave his beautiful daughter in your care while he went out of town.”

  Alicia was saved from an answer when the waitress walked to the table for their orders. She ordered the stormy blue burger. It seemed appropriate for her situation.

  She was saved again when Dani asked if she could go check out the restaurant’s “Rock Shop” gift section while they were waiting for their food. But as soon as Dani was out of hearing range, Alfie exploded.

  “Are you kidding me? Are. You. Freaking. Kidding me?” Alfie’s face was turning redder by the second. “How long have you been seeing Jake behind my back?”

  “Would you please lower your voice!” Alicia snapped, but she quickly started begging. “Please, Alfie, don’t do this.” She glanced anxiously toward the Rock Shop again, then back at her twin. “Dani doesn’t know I’m seeing Jake, okay?” She added quickly, “It’s complicated, Alfie. But I promise. If you behave yourself in front of Dani, I’ll tell you everything later.”

  “You are unbelievable,” Alfie said, but at least his face was returning to normal. He looked at her and shook his head. “I knew from the minute you told me Jake Sims was moving across the street, you’d never be able to resist him.”

  Tired of his attitude, Alicia said, “Well, maybe I just decided to go with my gut feeling for once! How about that? That’s always your excuse for everything you do that I don’t like.”

  “I doubt it was your gut leading you in Jake Sims’s direction!” Alfie said right back. “And what have you done with my all-kids-hate-me sister?”

  “This kid happens to like me,” Alicia said, her nose in the air. “And so does their dog.”

  “Puppies and daughters and playboys, oh, my!” Alfie exclaimed, hands on both sides of his face.

  “Stop being such an ass!”

  “You stop being such a pushover,” Alfie said. “You have to know where this is going t
o end up, Alicia. You know what a reputation Jake has.”

  “Jake isn’t like that,” Alicia insisted. “He truly isn’t, Alfie.”

  “Then where is he now? What’s Jake off doing while you’re playing nursemaid to his daughter?”

  “He’s away on business,” Alicia said.

  “Monkey business maybe,” Alfie mumbled.

  “I love him, Alfie,” Alicia finally said. “Maybe Jake does have a past, but so does Gwen, and that doesn’t keep you from loving her. You love her, and I respect that. And because you love her, I’ll do my best to love her, too.”

  When Alfie refused to answer, Alicia said, “I love him, Alfie. I do.”

  Alfie finally let out a long sigh. “Oh, what the hell,” he said. “I give up.” But he did slip his arm around Alicia’s shoulder for a hug. “You’ve been in love with Jake Sims since we were eighteen years old,” he said. “I couldn’t talk you out of the fantasy him then. Why should I think I could change your mind about the real him now?”

  “Thank you,” Alicia said. “It’s really important to me that you’re okay about me seeing him.”

  “But if he hurts you,” Alfie added, frowning again, “Jake Sims will have to answer to me.”

  “Just as Gwen will have to answer to me,” Alicia said, “if she hurts you.”

  “And speaking of Gwen,” Alfie said, finally grinning over at her, “how would you feel about helping us plan a Christmas wedding?”

  Alicia was afraid to ask, but she did, “You and Gwen have already discussed this Christmas wedding, right?”

  Alfie laughed. “Yes, Alicia. And she didn’t run screaming in the opposite direction.” His look turned serious. “Gwen is the one, sis. I’m sure of it.”

  “I believe she is, Alfie.”

  And Alicia meant that statement sincerely.

  From the moment Jake arrived in New York City at nine-fifteen on Tuesday morning, his day had been a mad dash from one appointment to another. He’d given interviews, had photo shoots, and he’d met with campaign sponsors all day.

  By the time he arrived at the Hilton in Manhattan, it was nine o’clock at night. All Jake wanted to do was check into his hotel room, take a hot shower, and order room service.

  After his hot shower, Jake called room service and made his order. And while he waited for his dinner to arrive, he stretched out on the hotel bed and called his two best girls.

  “Hi, Jake,” Alicia said in a voice that told him Dani was close by. “How did your first day go?”

  “I’m exhausted,” Jake said, “but everything went smoothly. I’ll tell you all about it later when I call back after Danielle’s in bed. Has she driven you crazy today?”

  “Dani’s fine,” Alicia said. “We’ve rented movies and she and Kiwi are sleeping with me tonight so we can relax in bed and watch them.”

  “Oh,” Jake said, getting the message. “Then let me tell you one thing before you put Danielle on the phone. I found out today I’m going to be on Good Morning America tomorrow morning.”

  “That’s great, Jake,” Alicia said, “I’ll make sure Dani gets up in time to watch you.”

  “And,” Jake said, “I also found out today that I’m going to have a co-partner as a spokesperson. The sponsors have picked up Jennifer DiCarlo to help promote the campaign. It’s a smart move,” he added quickly. “Now young athletes will have both a male and a female spokesperson they can relate to in the commercial messages.”

  “Jennifer DiCarlo?” Alicia repeated. “The Olympic beach volleyball champion, you mean?” Jake didn’t miss a wee bit of sarcasm in her voice. She added, “You mean the same Jennifer DiCarlo who bears a striking resemblance to Angelina Jolie? The one who’s always in the news in her cute, skimpy little short-shorts?”

  “Yeah,” Jake said with a gulp. “You’re okay with that. Right?”

  “Of course,” Alicia said. “I’ll turn the phone over to Dani now.”

  “Hey,” Danielle said.

  “Have you had a good day?”

  “We had a great day,” she said. “I got to go to Alicia’s office with her, and I did a few things for her at the office, and she said I did a really good job. And then we went to lunch at the Hard Rock Café and ran into her brother, so I got to meet him. They’re twins. Coolest cool, huh? And then we went to the mall for a while and we rented movies on the way home, and now we just finished dinner and we’re getting ready to watch the movies.”

  “Sounds like you have had a good day,” Jake said, dying to know what happened with Alicia’s brother.

  Dani asked, “What were you telling Alicia about Jennifer DiCarlo?”

  Jake repeated what he’d told Alicia.

  “Fabnificent,” Dani said. “I can’t wait to tell Katie.”

  Jake said, “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay? You behave. And let me talk to Alicia again. I forgot to ask her if she needed anything.”

  “Alicia went upstairs,” Danielle said. “Want me to go get her?”

  “No, that’s okay,” Jake said, getting the message. If Alicia had gone upstairs that meant their conversation was over for the night. “I’ll talk to her tomorrow when I call to check on you.”

  But after Jake hung up, he kept thinking back over the conversation. He had made it a point to tell Alicia about Jennifer DiCarlo, mainly because Alicia had been right about Jennifer always being in the headlines and on the news. The media loved her. Which would be, in Danielle’s words, fabnificent for the campaign.

  But he’d also pointed out that he had a new copartner for a personal reason. This was the first time he’d been back in the spotlight since he and Alicia had started seeing each other. Until now, they’d more or less been oblivious to the world around them, tucked safely away in their imaginary kingdom of Woodberry Park.

  He’d feared Alicia might see Jennifer as a threat, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. As she had once paraphrased to him, he could do a million interviews, and he could pose for a million photo shoots with women like Jennifer DiCarlo, and Alicia would still be the only one he would ever want.

  A rap on the door signaled room service had arrived. Jake tipped the bellboy and took the tray, but as he sat at the table in his room eating his dinner, the thought crossed his mind that he hoped Jennifer wouldn’t be as friendly on Good Morning America as she had been when they’d done the interview together for People magazine earlier that morning.

  The media sharks were always sniffing for a little blood in the water, and Jake knew that from experience. What he wanted most was for the campaign to be focused strictly on its purpose, without the media putting any type of a romantic spin on the situation.

  But did America ever get enough of gossip?

  Jake sighed, already knowing the answer.

  If that did happen, and if the media did link him romantically with Jennifer DiCarlo while they were working together, he only hoped Alicia trusted him enough to know media hype was all that would ever be behind those types of false allegations.

  He was new Jake now.

  Madly in love with the woman of his dreams.

  On Wednesday morning, Alicia and Dani sat at the kitchen table, watching Alicia’s kitchen TV, and waiting for the Good Morning America segment on Jake’s campaign to begin. Holding Kiwi on her lap, Alicia sipped her coffee, Dani munched her bowl of cereal, and Kiwi kept sniffing toward Dani’s breakfast.

  When Jake’s interview started, she and Dani both let out an excited squeal. A few minutes into the interview, however, Dani frowned and said, “Why does Jennifer DiCarlo keep looking over at Jake like that?”

  Alicia didn’t like the way Jennifer DiCarlo kept looking over at Jake, either, but she said, “What do you mean?”

  “All flirtylike,” Dani said, frowning again.

  Alicia suspected Dani was thinking about Ranatta’s accusations regarding Jake’s girlfriends always coming first in his life. To ease Dani’s mind, Alicia said, “You don’t have to worry about Jake, Dani. You know how importa
nt this campaign is to him. He wouldn’t risk taking away from the importance of the campaign by getting romantically involved with Jennifer DiCarlo.”

  “It isn’t Jake I’m worried about,” Dani huffed.

  Alicia smiled to herself thinking how quickly a woman’s intuition kicked in. Dani had been right about Jennifer openly flirting with Jake. But it wasn’t Jennifer’s body language Alicia was focusing on at the moment.

  Poor Jake, Alicia thought and hid a smile.

  Jake’s and Jennifer’s chairs were positioned side by side, and every time Jennifer leaned unnecessarily close to him to make a comment, Jake looked like a deer caught in the headlights. And he damn well better keep it that way! Alicia thought, her heart smiling along with her.

  At that moment, Alicia had never loved Jake more.

  Chapter 28

  Jake surprised Alicia by calling early on Wednesday night, six-thirty Chicago time. She was outside in a lounge chair on the patio, relaxing and enjoying the peace and quiet after a long day at the pool with Dani and Katie.

  The first thing Jake asked when Alicia answered the portable phone she had taken outside with her was, “Can you talk?”

  “Yes,” Alicia told him. “I didn’t think you would mind, so I gave Dani permission to go out to dinner with Katie and her mother. Katie’s been here at the pool with Dani all day while Betty ran some errands. Betty insisted she wanted to return the favor.”

  The second thing Jake asked was, “What about Alfie?”

  Alicia smiled and said, “That’s one less hurdle we have to jump now.”

  “Seriously?” Jake sounded surprised. “Alfie’s really okay with us seeing each other?”

  “Unless you hurt me,” Alicia teased. “I think he mentioned something about making sure you suffered a long and torturous death.”

  “I’d never hurt you on purpose, Alicia,” Jake said, the way he said it letting her know he was talking as much about the Jennifer DiCarlo situation as he was about Alfie’s threat.