She sighed and forced her attention to the flowers. It took three large vases to handle all of them. She scattered the arrangements around the living room, poured Harlan’s iced tea, then traipsed back to the bathroom where she’d left him.
“I brought your tea,” she said, keeping one ear attuned to any sounds from the kitchen that might indicate that Jenny had returned. “How’s it going?”
“The washer’s replaced,” he said, his voice muffled. He had his head poked into the vanity under the sink. “Thought I’d check to make sure all the joints were sealed under here while I was at it.”
He slid out and grinned at her. “No leaks under there.”
She took one look at the streaks of grime on his face and shirt and winced. “Harlan, you’re a mess. I’m sorry. I should never have asked you to do this for me, especially when you were all dressed up.”
“Stop fussing. A little dirt never hurt anybody. I’ll wash up.”
“But your shirt...” she protested.
“It’s not a problem,” he insisted. He shot her a wicked grin. “Unless, of course, you object to a man coming to the dinner table looking like this. I could strip down and let you wash the shirt here and now.”
He seemed a little too eager for her to grab at that solution. “Never mind,” she assured him. “I’m the one responsible. I can hardly complain, can I?”
Just then she heard the kitchen door slam. She plastered what she hoped was an innocent expression on her face. “Oh, good, that must be Jenny. She’s been out for a bit. Now that she’s back, I’ll get dinner on the table. Go on out to the porch after you’ve washed up, why don’t you? Relax for a minute. I’ll call you when everything’s on the table.”
“I could help,” he offered.
“No, indeed. You’ve done more than enough. Besides, you won the bet. I can’t have you helping.”
She took off, trying to ignore the fact that there was something a little too knowing about his expression. He couldn’t possibly have guessed what she’d done, could he? No, of course not. As long he remained far away from that kitchen, there was no way he could figure out that she hadn’t prepared every dish herself.
Jenny was pulling aluminum pans of food out of paper bags when Janet got back to the kitchen.
“Gina said to warm the lasagna again for a few minutes before you serve it. I’ve already turned the oven on low. The salad’s in that package. She put the dressing on the side, so you could toss it in your bowl.” She reached into another bag and pulled out a loaf of Italian bread wrapped in foil. “Garlic bread. It goes in the oven, too.”
Janet rolled her eyes at Jenny’s instructions. “I could have figured that much out for myself.”
“Who would guess?” Jenny quipped. “So how’d you keep Mr. Adams out of here?”
“I had him fixing the leak in the bathroom.”
Jenny grinned. “Good for you. It’s about time he sees what it’s like to work for free.”
“I don’t think he thought of it quite that way. He was doing me a favor.” She pointed to the bowl of frosting. “The cake should be cool enough by now. You ice it while I toss the salad.”
Twenty minutes later they were seated in the dining room. Janet’s heart was in her throat as Harlan took his first bite of salad. Would he be able to tell she hadn’t prepared it? It was only lettuce, tomatoes and a few radishes. Surely he wouldn’t suspect that even that much had been beyond her skill.
“Delicious,” he said. “Jenny, I think you sold your mother short when you said she couldn’t cook.”
Janet shot a warning look at her daughter. Jenny shrugged.
“It’s pretty hard to ruin a bunch of lettuce and some tomatoes,” she retorted, avoiding Janet’s gaze.
The lasagna was an equally big hit. “Can’t think when I’ve had any better,” Harlan enthused. “It’s every bit as good as Gina DiPasquali’s.”
Janet groaned and covered her face. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that the jig was up. “You know, don’t you?”
“Know what?” Harlan replied, trying to sound innocent and failing miserably.
“That Jenny picked up the salad, bread and lasagna from DiPasquali’s.”
He winked at Jenny. “Did she now?”
“How did you know?” Janet demanded.
“Saw her running in the front door of the restaurant as I drove through town,” he finally admitted as Jenny chuckled.
Janet glared at the pair of them. “And you let me wriggle on the hook like a big old fish. Did you enjoy watching me squirm trying to keep you away from the front of the house till she got back?”
He nodded. “Sure did.” He reached across the table and patted her hand consolingly. “That’s okay, darlin’. I appreciate you going to all that trouble to impress me.”
Janet moaned. “I did not do it to impress you,” she declared adamantly.
“She did it to keep you from getting food poisoning,” Jenny chimed in. “You should see—”
“That’s enough, Jenny,” Janet said sharply. She was determined to get through the rest of the evening with some dignity intact. If she wasn’t careful, Jenny would be offering Harlan a tour of the kitchen.
“That chocolate cake sure does smell good,” he said. “I know Gina didn’t stop by and bake that.”
“It’s got a great big crack right down the middle,” Jenny revealed. “I had to patch it together with icing.”
Janet scowled at her. “Thank you for sharing that,” she grumbled.
Harlan winked at her this time. “Don’t fret, darlin’. With chocolate cake, it’s taste, not looks, that count.”
“I wouldn’t hold your breath on that score, either,” Jenny warned. “She probably left out something important.”
If she could have, Janet would have sent Jenny to her room on the spot before she made any more embarrassing revelations. Unfortunately, she could see the injustice of such an act. She was just going to have to survive this debacle and hope that Harlan wasn’t one to gossip. Fortunately, she was in town to practice law, not to do catering.
As it turned out, the cake was not only edible, but actually pretty good. At least Harlan ate two slices of it, his amused gaze fixed on her the whole time. He seemed especially fond of the inch-thick icing in the middle.
The minute dinner was over he shooed Jenny off by declaring that he would help clean up. Jenny didn’t have to be asked twice. She was gone before Janet could protest.
“You cannot walk into that kitchen,” she said adamantly, though short of stretching out her arms and trying to bar the doorway, she didn’t know what she could do to stop him.
He ignored her, picked up an armload of dishes and headed across the dining room. “The sooner we get things squared away in there, the sooner you and I can sit on that front porch and enjoy the breeze.”
To his credit, he didn’t even blink as he walked into the midst of the mess she’d created trying to make dinner. Maybe he’d served time on KP in the military at some point, she decided as she watched the ease with which he set things right.
“Come here,” he commanded when he’d washed the last dish and wiped down the countertops.
“I don’t think so,” she said, holding up the last plate she was drying as if to ward him off.
He grinned, shrugged and came to her. Before she realized his intentions, he slid his arms around her waist and held her in a loose embrace. “Thank you,” he said softly, his breath fanning intimately across her cheek.
“For what?” she asked shakily. Her breath snagged in her throat as she met his gaze.
“For going to so much trouble.”
“I told you—”
He reached up and brushed a strand of hair away from her eyes. “I know what you told me, but the fact is you could have served me whatever that was you cooked in the first plac
e and tried to scare me off for good. Instead, you went to a lot of trouble that wasn’t necessary. I don’t scare that easily.”
She sighed. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
He studied her intently. The spark of mischief in his eyes raised goose bumps.
“You gonna fall apart if I kiss you?” he inquired.
An unwilling smile tugged at her lips. “I might.”
He nodded. “I think I’ll risk it anyway,” he said softly.
He lowered his head until his lips were a tantalizing hairbreadth above hers. She trembled as she waited for him to close that infinitesimal distance. When, at last, their mouths met, she could have sworn fireworks exploded. She’d been expecting a kiss that was gentle and tentative. Instead, he plundered, claiming her mouth as surely as his ancestors had claimed Comanche land.
After the first startled instant, when she couldn’t have moved if her life depended on it, Janet slid her hands from his shoulders into his thick hair, holding him, encouraging him to continue the assault that had her senses vibrantly, thrillingly alive for perhaps the first time ever. Nothing she had shared with her ex-husband compared to the consuming, white-hot fire raging through her just from Harlan Adams’s incomparable kiss.
She willed it to go on forever, imagining all of the wicked places it could take her. But just as she was indulging in sensations so sweet her heart ached for them to continue, she heard a startled gasp behind her.
“Mom, how could you?” Jenny protested with all of the hurt and confusion a thirteen-year-old could experience.
The kitchen door rattled on its hinges as Jenny left far more noisily than she had entered.
“I’ll go after her,” Harlan offered, but Janet stilled him.
“No, it’s up to me. You’d better leave, though. She won’t want to see you again tonight and this could take a while.”
He nodded, reluctance clearly written all over his face. “If you’re sure.”
“I am. I’ll handle it.”
“You’ll be at White Pines in the morning, then?”
“That might be difficult,” Janet said. “She might not want to be there after this.”
“A deal’s a deal,” he reminded her, his expression intractable.
She saw then, what she should have recognized before. Harlan Adams had a will of iron when it came to the things he wanted. What worried her was that she’d just had unmistakable evidence that what he wanted was her.
6
Harlan was up before dawn the morning following his dinner with Janet and Jenny. By six he was pacing the front porch from end to end, wondering if they would show up and if they did, what kind of reception he might get.
He’d cursed himself a dozen different ways on the drive home the night before. As much as he’d been aching to kiss Janet, he never should have taken a chance on doing it where Jenny could walk in on them. Even a fool would have been smarter than that.
Now, not only had he put his relationship with the intriguing Janet Runningbear at risk, but it seemed likely he’d spoiled the fragile rapport he’d been building with her daughter.
When he finally heard the sound of an engine in the distance, his spirits soared, then crashed just as quickly when he saw that it was Cody’s red pickup barreling down the lane.
Just what he needed. He doubted there was a chance in hell he could keep his perceptive son from guessing what was on his mind. And if Cody picked up on his mood, he’d be offering unsolicited advice to the lovelorn and enjoying every minute of it.
“Aren’t you supposed to be up north today, checking those fence lines?” Harlan grumbled as Cody approached. “You’re getting a mighty late start.”
Cody eyed him warily. “You roll out on the wrong side of the bed, Daddy?”
“No, it’s just that we could lose a lot of the herd if that fence doesn’t get taken care of. I shouldn’t have to be telling you a thing like that.”
“I’m aware of what’s at stake,” Cody retorted as carefully as if he’d unwittingly walked into a mine field. “Which is why I sent Mac and Luis up there first thing yesterday morning. I didn’t want to wait for today.”
“Oh,” Harlan said, and fell silent. It took everything in him, but he kept his gaze averted from the lane.
“How’s Melissa?” he asked eventually since his son didn’t seem inclined to venture any further conversation. He couldn’t say he blamed him, given the reception he’d gotten so far.
“Fine.”
“And Sharon Lynn and the baby?”
“Fine. Just about the same as when you saw them in church yesterday morning.”
Harlan shrugged. “Never can tell with kids, though.”
“True,” Cody said, then suddenly chuckled.
Harlan scowled at him. “What’s so blasted amusing?”
“You,” Cody said. “What’s the matter? Haven’t they shown up yet?”
“Who?”
“The tax collectors,” Cody retorted with heavy sarcasm. He shook his head. “You are so pitiful. I’m talking about Janet and Jenny, of course.”
“No, they’re not here yet.”
Eyes sparkling with pure mischief, Cody added, “Heard you had quite a poker game with them on Saturday.”
So the cat was out of the bag, Harlan thought, stifling a desire to groan. “I suppose Mule couldn’t wait to report every detail,” he said sourly, resigning himself to as much taunting as Cody cared to mete out.
“Actually, I heard about it from Maritza, who heard it from her cousin Rosa, who witnessed it all right there in her very own café.” He grinned. “And just so you know, Luke’s housekeeper also got the word from cousin Rosa, which means your oldest son knows every detail by now, too. He couldn’t wait to check out the story with me.”
“Damn, I knew it was a mistake helping that whole darn family to settle in Los Piños,” he muttered, regretting the day he’d first hired Consuela, who was now working for Luke, and subsequently her cousin Maritza, his present housekeeper. He’d even cosigned the loan for Rosa’s damned café. So much for loyalty. They apparently hadn’t been able to wait to blab his business all over hell and gone. “Don’t they have anything better to do than gossip?”
“Guess not,” Cody said. “Especially not when the news is so fascinating. So, how was dinner with the loser?”
With the grapevine already abuzz anyway, Harlan didn’t bother trying to contain a grin at the memory of the meal that Jenny had snuck in from DiPasquali’s.
“Fascinating,” he attested.
“So why the worried look when I drove up?”
He weighed telling his son the truth or at least part of it. Maybe if he swore him to secrecy with a promise of eternal damnation if he broke his vow, he could chance it. If he didn’t talk about what had happened, he’d go plumb stir-crazy.
“This doesn’t get repeated, okay? Luke already knows too much. I don’t want him and Jordan hovering around here, trying to decide if I’m losing my mind.”
“It may not be Luke and Jordan you need to worry about,” Cody drawled. “If Jessie and Kelly get wind of it, they’ll get matchmaking fever the likes of which west Texas has never seen.”
“All the more reason for you to keep your trap shut,” Harlan said, shuddering at the prospect of all that meddling. “Can you do it?”
Eyes dancing with renewed mischief, Cody solemnly crossed his heart. “Not a word. I swear it. What happened last night?”
“No guffawing, okay?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
Harlan was doubtful about that, but he decided to chance it. “Okay, let’s just say the evening ended on a more awkward note than I might have preferred.”
Cody’s mouth gaped. “You made a pass at her?”
He made it sound like Harlan was sixteen and had been trying to get into the drawe
rs of the preacher’s daughter. “It wasn’t a pass, dammit. It was a kiss.”
“Well, I’ll be damned. I bet Luke you wouldn’t have the guts to try that for at least another month.”
Harlan groaned. “I knew this was a mistake. I knew it.” He scowled fiercely. “You blab one word of this and I’ll hang your hide from the oak tree out back just to set an example for your brothers.”
Unfortunately, Cody didn’t exactly seem to be intimidated. He chuckled even as he said, “Not a word. I already promised. Besides, do you think I want Luke to know I lost the bet? So what was so awkward?”
“Jenny walked in.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Uh-oh is right. She wasn’t happy.”
“She’s a kid. She’ll get over it. Surely her mom has been on dates before.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. But it took me most of last week to get a civil tongue in that girl’s head. Now I’ve gone and lost whatever ground I gained.”
“What was Janet’s reaction to all this?”
“Naturally she was upset.”
“With you or Jenny?”
“I’m the supposedly responsible adult. I’m the one who caused the problem.”
“Not if she kissed you back,” Cody corrected. “Did she?”
Harlan couldn’t help smiling at the memory. “She did, indeed.”
“Then you’ll find a way to work it out,” Cody predicted, apparently satisfied that he’d completed his role as counselor. “I’m going inside for breakfast. All this advice has left me famished.”
“You’re always famished,” Harlan observed. “Doesn’t Melissa ever feed you?”
“Sure, but that was two hours ago,” he said as he opened the front door. Just as he was about to step inside, he looked back. “Hey, Daddy?”
Harlan’s gaze was already riveted on the lane again. “Hmm?”
“Remember what you used to tell us when we were dating?”
His head snapped around. “What?”
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