Somebody's Baby

by Annie Jones

  Chapter Nine

  Josie stood back from the blackboard wall. She pulled the scrunchie from her ponytail and sighed in relief as the curls fell around her shoulders and the tightness eased from her scalp. She replayed her earlier phone conversation with Burke Burdett.

  She had to whip up every last ounce of courage to make the call, partly because she knew Adam hadn’t wanted her to do it. But mostly because, of all the Burdett brothers, whose reputations were considerable in this town, Burke was the most…the biggest…the…well, he didn’t just like the nickname Top Dawg, the man lived it. He had to take the lead in every situation, every conversation and he had to come out on top of every transaction, deal or exchange. What chance did a girl like Josie stand with a man like that?

  Pretty good, it turned out, once he’d learned that Adam had offered her money to not take the job. She hadn’t meant to tell him that. It had just slipped out. But after it had, the man had gone to great lengths to accommodate her.

  She would have liked to tell him she had never known that kind of rivalry for a sibling who, while you worked and followed the narrow path, chased after their own interests and still ended up your parent’s darling while you went unnoticed. But she understood the feeling exactly and he knew it.

  That fact had gone far to forming an unspoken bond between them. Burke wanted to get every last detail of this party right, and when she thought of Adam with that polished and poised businesswoman, she wanted that, too. It might be a party to commemorate Adam’s return, but it was going to give Josie and Burke each a chance to shine. Whatever good it would do them.

  So Burke had been particularly open to her suggestions when she explained her plan to use her suppliers for the food and sundries and enlist the help of the locals to get the “fixin’s” to the tables.

  Burke had told her he didn’t care how she did it. As their official caterer she just needed to get it done right. Still, she felt bad about not cooking everything herself. However, given the short notice and the number of pies they would need to feed the crowd, it was the only realistic solution. Besides, Josie loved the idea of the community showing the Burdetts just what they could do when they all pulled together.

  “This just might work.” She studied the complex maze of columns, lines and arrows charting out how to supply enough food for the celebration.

  “Oh, good. You’re not closed yet.” Adam came striding in with such confidence that she knew he couldn’t have imagined for one second that he’d find that door locked.

  “Just sorting out some details before…” Somehow admitting where she was headed after closing felt like a bit of a betrayal. Only, Josie couldn’t say exactly who it was she thought she’d be letting down—Adam or Burke. Or herself. “Give me your honest opinion.”

  “Always.”

  “Do you think potato salad is a salad or a side?”

  “What?”

  Josie rolled her eyes at her own feeble attempt at diversion. She’d never been any good at anything that required her to be socially adept or coy. That was Ophelia’s area of expertise. Josie had admired that about her sister, except for how her sister sometimes used it to take advantage of others.

  She looked at the square-shouldered man who had obviously found much to appreciate about Ophelia, as well.

  Still, she’d started this, so she had to stumble through it.

  “Um, you know, potato salad?” She pantomimed eating as if she thought the man spoke another language, or perhaps had once been seen using globs of potatoes and mayonnaise as a hat and needed to know she meant the other kind of potato salad. “Would you classify it as a salad or a side dish?”

  “Why would I want to do either?”

  “Well, you wouldn’t but I have to.” She stepped back and showed him the convoluted columns on the wall. “See, I’ve just about worked this all out.” She waved her hand like a game-show model. “But there is sort of a…hiccup in the division of salads-versus-side-dishes. We’re heavily weighted toward side dishes.”

  He squinted at the board and made a noncommittal, “Hmmm.”

  “It’s probably fine. I think we’ll have enough food if everyone brings what they are assigned.”

  “Looks like you’ve got it all figured out.” He turned toward the wall.

  She stared at the squiggles and notations, waiting for him to say something about it all. To point out that if she had been ethical enough not to take money from him for something she didn’t deserve, she shouldn’t take it from his family for the same reason. She wasn’t doing the majority of the cooking, after all.

  Maybe he’d find some other fault with her decision.

  Or maybe he didn’t care at all, especially since he had a real lady friend in town.

  The longer they went without speaking, the more the situation, or the nonsituation, built up in her mind. If she let it go on much longer who knew what wild story she would concoct? A potato-salad conspiracy? Bank loans being called in before the barbecue check arrived? Adam choosing the woman in a silver sedan to step in as Nathan’s stepmother?

  “I had to do it, Adam.” The words rushed out. “It was just good business. The way things are in Mt. Knott, turning down this amount of business just wouldn’t be smart.”

  He looked at her at last, a twinkle in his eyes. “Well, no one ever accused me of being smart,”

  “Don’t feel bad. Some folks have to be content to be just another pretty face,” she teased him right back. As soon as the words left her mouth she felt the heat rise in her face like some silly schoolgirl. Socially adept as Ophelia, she was not. “Uh, you’d better go. I have to lock up and see if I can get someone to watch Nathan before I go out to discuss all this with your brother.”

  “All this?” He held his hand out. “Salads and hiccups and all?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “As has been pointed out not that long ago, I am not the smart one ’round these parts, but wouldn’t it have been smoother to have him come here and see this for himself?”

  She gave a shrug. “He’s the boss.”

  Adam’s mouth tightened. “Fair enough,” he relented. “But right now your boss is busy with my boss.”

  “Your…does she happen to be a very well-put-together lady?”

  “Well, I’ve never checked her for patches or busted seams—”

  “I’m glad to hear that!” Josie slapped her hand over her mouth before her ineptitude got her into further trouble.

  Adam grinned. “But, yes, Ms. Hoag comes off as very well pulled together.”

  “Comes off as? Meaning looks can be deceiving?”

  “Lots of things can be deceiving,” he said enigmatically. “But this ‘look’ is on the up and up.”

  Josie nodded. “So, what does that mean for me?”

  She forced herself not to put her hand over her mouth again. She was asking what Adam’s boss being with her boss meant for her, not what Ms. Hoag’s “look” and association with Adam meant to her. If he didn’t gather that then…then maybe she’d have some of her most burning questions answered.

  “It means I get to bring you this.” He held out a piece of folded paper. “It’s the budget for the party that Burke worked up on your preliminary information.”

  “Oh?” She took the paper and unfolded it slowly.

  “If it’s not right, if you need more money or autonomy, leave it to me. I’ll fix it. I’ll make sure my family does right by you, Josie.”

  But who will make sure you do right by me? Never a slow learner, Josie had managed to keep that remark entirely to herself. Still, she did wonder…

  “What do you think?”

  “Think?” She had kept the remark silent, right?

  “About Burke’s figures.”

  “Oh.” She took a minute to read over the paper. Burke had been quite generous with her, but not so much that she would have felt compelled to argue the money. “I think I can work with this.”

  “Really? And get it all done by Saturday
at noon?”

  “I’m closing down after the coffee rush tomorrow, and I’m going to make pies into the wee hours of the night.”

  “You poor kid.”

  “No! I can’t wait. I’m looking forward to it. The chance to do what I love and the one thing I know I am good at.”

  “One thing? No way.” He moved closer to her. So close he could brush the freshly undone curls off one shoulder as he said with quiet intensity, “Josie you’re great at so many things…”

  “How would you know?”

  “I just do. You’re a good mom, I know that and…”

  “And that’s enough for now.” She held up her hand and retreated from him. “It really means a lot to hear you say that, though.”

  He only nodded, his hand still in the air at shoulder level for a moment before he let it fall to his side.

  “That’s one reason I’m so excited about tomorrow.” She took a chatty tone, hoping to take control of things again. She walked briskly toward the front door, hoping Adam would follow and be on his way. “I get to do the work I love, knowing it will be enjoyed by the people I love, plus I get to have Nathan nearby all day.”

  He did follow, a bit too closely.

  When she turned around, she found herself just inches away from the man. “What…could be…better?”

  “What indeed?”

  “What indeed?” she murmured. Then, coming to her senses before she gave in to the deep, soothing masculinity of his voice, she gave the door a push and cool air rushed in around them. “I know. It sounds completely corny to a man like you.”

  “A man like me?”

  “A man of the world.”

  “Harsh words.”

  “Harsh? That you’re educated, well-spoken, well traveled, experienced and sophisticated?”

  “That I am ‘of the world’ when you so clearly need a man willing to come out of the world and separate himself from its ways.”

  She smiled slightly to hear him paraphrase the Biblical admonition that Christians should be apart from the world. “I was thinking more that you’re worldly and I’m…Mt. Knotty.”

  “You’re the last person I’d consider naughty,” he teased. “In fact, I’d vote you Most Likely to be Nice.”

  “Knottish, then.” She gave him a good-humored scowl.

  “Knottish or not at all, I’m in the very same boat as you there.” He put his hand on the door and raised his face to the summer breeze. “I grew up right here in Carolina countryside. Except for this last year and a half in Atlanta I haven’t lived anywhere else. I spent my holidays here, my summer vacations and made this my home after college.”

  “I guess I never thought of that.” Josie stared out into the fading light of evening. “I always pictured the Burdetts as having a different kind of lifestyle than the rest of us.”

  “We did. Still do, I suspect.” His arm still braced to prop the door open, he narrowed his eyes at the blackboard wall. “Where the rest of you got to clock out and leave the factory behind you, we all carried the responsibilities with us all the time. As a kid I used to ride my bike straight to the Crumble, did my homework in my dad’s office, then went home with my mom for dinner then back to help my dad lock up.”

  “Oh, Adam, that is so sad.”

  “Sad? How so?”

  “Sort of missed out on your childhood, didn’t you?”

  “And your childhood, Josie?”

  She shook her head. “I sort of missed out on my childhood, too. Though I don’t know that Ophelia would say she missed out on hers.”

  “Personally, I think she may still be living hers.”

  “Adam!” Josie had thought the exact same thing, but it was the age-old conundrum about brothers and sisters. You can say whatever you feel about them, but just let someone else try it and suddenly you’ll defend your loved one. “Ophelia must have matured some. Otherwise why would she have signed the papers allowing me to adopt Nathan and finally shared the information about his father?”

  “About me,” he corrected.

  She pressed her lips together.

  He bowed his head for a moment, then looked again out into the serene small-town setting.

  Josie put her back against the other side of the door frame and crossed her ankles. “At least when you were doing all those things, you were doing them here, in a safe home, a nice town and with your family. I was dropped off in Mt. Knott and only saw my mother now and then, and Ophelia almost never.”

  “I guess I do have that to be thankful for.”

  Ophelia wasn’t the only one showing more maturity, Josie thought. Two days ago Adam would have used that opportunity to lambaste his family or make a joke about their rocky relationships.

  “It’s not that bad, now that I have—” her gaze met his “—now that I have Nathan. And I hope that Ophelia will come around in time. I wrote her a nice long thank-you letter when she signed those papers and told her she was welcome to visit us anytime.”

  “And you think she will take you up on that?” His eyes grew dark. His back went straight.

  Josie wasn’t sure if it was hope or horror in his voice.

  “She’s my sister, Adam. I can’t forget that.”

  “Neither can I,” he said softly. “You may think of me as a man of the world, but I’m just as humbled and confused by all of this as you are, Josie.”

  “So if we’re not worldly what does that make us?” she asked.

  “A couple of Mt. Knott-heads?” Laughter mingled with the more somber emotions in his expression.

  “A couple of workaholics.” She checked her watch. They’d both put in more than a full day’s duty and it wasn’t even dark yet. Realizing he wasn’t going to take the hint and walk out, Josie headed inside. Full day’s work or not, she still had to close down.

  “So what do we do about that?” he asked.

  “Do?” She flipped the lock shut and turned the Open sign to the Sorry, We’re Closed side. “About what?”

  “About all work and no play making us dull folks.”

  She headed for the cash register, wondering if she could just pull the drawer, lock it in the vault and count the money in the morning. “I don’t think anyone has ever described you as dull, Adam Burdett.”

  “Would it shock you to say that sometimes I wish they would?”

  Ching.

  She stood with her hand hovering above the register key that had just opened the drawer. “Yes. I can think of a lot of other words I’d use for you, but dull? I just can’t see it.”

  “What words?”

  “Hmm?” She wrestled the money compartment free and clunked it on the counter.

  He stood at her side now. “What words would you use for me?”

  She gave the stacks of bills, all ones and fives, a quick reckoning. “Strong. Decent. Maybe a little bit—” she lifted the top half of the compartment to check underneath for checks and twenties and found one of each “—dangerous.”

  He did not contest that.

  She started to turn to take the drawer to the back, then her curiosity got the better of her. She had to know. “What words would you use to describe me?”

  “You? Hmmm. That’s tough.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Ex-peshully for a pretty-faced country dawg like me, ma’am, who ain’t got a very big vol-cab-ulurry.”

  “Maybe if I held up a treat and commanded you to speak?” She sank her teeth into her lower lip.

  “Do I get to choose what you use for a treat?”

  “Okay. I get it. I’m too…me for words.” She spun around and headed into the kitchen, intent on putting the money in the back room, gathering up her sleeping child, getting home and putting this day—and this man—behind her.

  “Capable.”

  “What?” She looked up as her shoulder touched the office door and found him right beside her.

  “One of the words I’d use is capable.”

  “Well, isn’t that…utilitarian?” She steppe
d into the small room and set the money on the desk.

  “And smart,” he added, following her inside.

  “Better,” she plucked the key to the vault off the hook, then turned and found she couldn’t take another step.

  “And—” he leaned in “—kissable.”

  Moments before he could put his lips to hers she had to whisper. “But I’m not Ophelia.”

  “What?”

  “I may be the things you described me as, but the one thing I am not…is Ophelia.”

  “I know that.”

  “Then you will understand why I can’t let you kiss me now.”

  “I will?”

  “If you’ll excuse me I have got to finish up in here and take Nathan home.”

  “Now?”

  “Yes, now. He’s already asleep, and I’d like to get him to his crib.”

  “No. You said you can’t let me kiss you now. Does that mean you can let me kiss you eventually?”

  Josie hesitated.

  “Ah, c’mon, give a guy some hope.”

  “Adam,” she whispered. “It’s too fast. It’s too…much. We have to think about Nathan and his custody.” Then there is the whole Ophelia issue. “We can’t just give in to our feelings for each other without taking things like that into account. It’s too soon.”

  She marched to the door. “If you don’t mind. I have to lock up before I leave.”

  “Let me see you home.”

  “I can manage the short walk.” She shoved him out the office door. “But if you want to spend some time with your son, come by here tomorrow afternoon. There might even be something sweet in it for you.”

  “Ahh, hope springs eternal.” He put his hand to his heart.

  “I’m talking baked goods,” she called after him.

  But he didn’t seem to hear a word of it.

  Chapter Ten

  Adam belted out his own version of “That’s Amore” with a tribute to “Josie’s apple pie” as he swung open the front door of the Home Cookin’ Kitchen.