“Lissa was sound asleep,” he told Karin as if she’d been waiting for the news. “Didn’t even wait for me to tuck her in.”
“She had a long day,” Karin said.
Her hand was right there near his, and he could almost feel her straining to take his hand. He slid his arm around her shoulder and gave her a slight hug.
“But one of her best in ages,” he said. “Your mom’s been wonderful.”
“She’s always wanted grandchildren,” Karin said, a painful stiffness in her voice.
Jed grinned widely as he patted her stomach. “Hey, we aim to please.”
The others laughed while Karin froze slightly, then tried to join in. Her eyes looked confused, almost angry, but he could feel her fighting her response. If she wanted others to believe they were in love, she was going to have to get used to his touch. Another thing they needed to discuss.
He bent over and brushed a kiss onto her cheek. “What do you say we take a walk?” he said. “Then I think you need to get to bed. You’ve had a long day, too.”
“Hey, I don’t need—” Karin stopped abruptly and then found a smile. “A walk would be nice.”
“Well, just tell us if we’re in the way,” Dorothy said with a laugh. “We don’t mind.”
Suddenly she stopped. A policeman had come over to their table.
Jed felt a moment’s uneasiness. What they were doing might be stretching the truth a bit, but it wasn’t against the law.
“Toto,” Alex said. “You finally get off duty?”
“Toto?” Jed repeated. First Aunty Em, then Dorothy and now Toto?
Alex laughed as he moved closer to Heather. Dorothy frowned at the space suddenly next to her but moved down, leaving room at the end of the seat.
“Tom Tollinger,” the policeman said, extending his hand to Jed.
“Ah, I see where the Toto comes from,” Jed said as he let go of Karin and got to his feet. He took Toto’s hand and shook it. “Jed McCarron.”
“It comes from his name and the fact that he dated Dorothy,” Heather pointed out.
“Ages ago,” Dorothy said.
“Long before she moved to Paris,” Toto agreed as he sat down, a careful distance from Dorothy.
“Speaking of Paris,” Heather said. “Toto was planning a trip there.”
“You were?” Dorothy asked. “Why?”
“Why not?” Toto asked with a shrug as he got back to his feet. “Hey, I’m hungry. I’m going to grab a bite to eat, then I want to hear all about this engagement.”
Jed had been watching the byplay with interest. Toto looked at Dorothy like a man eaten up with love, and Dorothy hardly looked at Toto at all—another sure sign of love. But mention of the engagement reminded him of the dangers present.
“Think you’re going to have to wait on that,” Jed said, getting to his feet. He reached out for Karin’s hand. “I’m taking the little mama for a walk and then putting her to bed.”
“Oh, really?” someone said with a laugh.
“Don’t read anything into it,” Karin said as she slid out of the booth. Her smile was wide but her eyes were glittering. “This cowboy’s not used to late hours. He’s pretty useless once the sun goes down.”
“There’s a challenge if I ever heard one,” Alex said.
Jed took Karin’s hand and with a wave at the others, led her through the crowd and out the back door.
“So I’m useless after sundown, am I?” he asked once they were alone in the darkness.
“Anybody is who calls me little mama,” she pointed out.
“Well, you aren’t very big and you are a mama.”
“Not yet I’m not.”
“Sure you are,” he said. “You may not have a baby in your arms yet, but you sure are a mama.”
She turned away and started to walk down the block. “I thought you wanted to take a walk. Or were you just in a mood to lecture?”
He frowned at her. It was dark and shadowy but he could see her figure in the patches of street light. He could also see that there were bunches of cornstalks lined up against the buildings along the block.
He caught up to Karin. “What’s with all the cornstalks?” he asked. “Somebody planning on an early Halloween?”
“It’s for the festival,” she said and stopped walking to look around them. “We do a traveling production of The Wizard of Oz and this block will be made into the Scarecrow’s cornfield.”
“So the whole town is the set for the play?”
“Well, downtown and its surrounding area is. Centennial Park is the forest,” she said, waving toward the park he could see in the next block. “Munchkinland is two blocks over, near the library, and Emerald City is by the train station.”
“The streets don’t look like they’re yellow brick.”
“They will by next weekend. We have a whole crew of volunteers that will paint the bricks on. My mother works on that committee.”
He glanced down the street toward the park, then back the other way toward the library. That was a lot of street to paint. “This town really takes this seriously. What’s the connection to the book? Did the author live here or something?”
“No real connection.” She started walking again. “It used to be the play that the junior high put on each year and the festival grew out of that.”
“So the junior-high kids star in the traveling production?”
“Oh, no. The junior high moved on to other plays ages ago. This one belongs to the festival now. We take turns acting in the play, and anybody who wants can be an extra. We have a narrator, so there really are no lines to learn.”
“And is Glinda in the play, too?”
“Afraid so.” Her steps got brisker as she turned a corner. “Look, you didn’t want to take a walk to learn the history of the Oz festival.”
“Actually I thought we needed to plan some things out,” he said. “I’ve managed to steer clear of answering questions today, but we aren’t always going to be that lucky.”
She sighed and slowed her steps a bit. “You’re right. And there’ll be no narrator to guide us over the tricky parts, will there?”
“We’ve sort of covered how we met,” he said. “What about your profession—you’re a surgeon?”
“Cardiac specialist,” she said. “At Rush Presbyterian in Chicago.”
“Sounds impressive.”
“I worked hard to get where I am.”
Her words sounded defensive but her voice wasn’t.
They walked for a few minutes in silence, passing a bakery and a hardware store. The sidewalks were wider here, with no cornstalks awaiting placement. Nothing really to remind anyone of the festival.
It seemed to chase the shadows from Karin’s mood. “So,” she said. “I need to know more about you. Just what does a cowboy do?”
“I’m not so much a cowboy these days,” he said. “I used to work the rodeo circuit.”
“Isn’t rodeo life dangerous?” she asked.
He shrugged. “You can make good money if you’re good.”
“Were you?”
“Pretty fair. Was the national champion bull rider three years ago. Put away a good store toward a ranch. Another couple of years even half as good and Wendy and I figured we could buy a little spread in the mountains.”
“And did you?”
“Buy a little spread?” He shook his head. “Had to quit the circuit when she died.”
“I guess it would be hard to drag Lissa around with you.”
“And all the psychologists said not to change her routine so I quit and found work near home. I work with an animal trainer in Hollywood. We train horses for work in movies and TV shows.”
“And still dream of your ranch?”
He shrugged. “No, ma’am. It was Wendy’s and my dream. I can’t seem to carry it on my own.”
Somehow his hand had found its way into hers and they walked along, pulling on each other’s strength. It was a pleasant night, he realized, and this was a pleasant litt
le town. Those were the same stars overhead that he saw in Los Angeles but they seemed brighter here, more available to wish on and less likely to fall.
“How did she die, if you don’t mind me asking?” Karin asked softly.
“Car accident,” he said. “Couple of teenagers had been drinking after school. They missed a curve and hit her head-on. Both cars totaled. Everybody was killed.”
He felt Karin wince. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“Me, too. She was a good woman. Deserved a long life.”
“Who doesn’t?” she said.
He looked at her. “I guess you see a lot of cases that you could say that about,” he said.
She nodded as they headed back to the bar. “Too many.”
“Must get you down,” he said. “Or do you get used to it?”
“You don’t think about it,” she said. “You do your best and work your hardest and give your patients everything you have to give, and then you turn them back to their primary-care physicians and pray for the best.”
Somehow he doubted it was that simple, but a car was pulling away from the curb up ahead and people were yelling and waving and honking their horn. It was a good diversion.
Karin leaned into him suddenly. “I think it would be a good idea for you to kiss me.”
Chapter Five
“Now?” Jed asked. The car pulled away. In a moment, it would be too far away for anyone in it to see them. “It’s too dark.”
“This is Chesterton,” she pointed out with an exasperated sigh as she stepped closer to him. “Everyone’s got infrared vision.”
They were in the shadows of the building and all he could see was a blurry silhouette, but the night did nothing to hide her sweet scent. The soft late-summer air seemed to magnify her allure.
He put his arms around her waist. She moved against him and he could feel the slight thickness where the baby lay inside her. Something stirred within him. He leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips.
It was just going to be a quick kiss, a kiss for show, a kiss to convince anyone watching that this was a real relationship. He’d maybe hold it for the count of three. But her lips were so soft and her body felt so good in his arms that he missed a count, or two, or three. By the time they broke apart, he desperately needed air.
“Well, that should do the trick,” Karin said, her voice as wobbly as his knees.
“Yeah.” He was gasping for air, fighting. a racing heart.
“Think we can skip the bar and just go upstairs?” she asked, gazing wistfully at the soft glow of lights emanating from the apartment.
But those same lights she was drawn to represented something torturous and painful for Jed—another night in the same bedroom as her. Still, she was probably exhausted.
“Why don’t you go on up?” he suggested. “I’m going to take another little walk, I’ll be in soon. Leave the door unlocked, okay?”
“Silly,” she said. “This is Chesterton. The doors are always unlocked.”
Toto reread the newspaper article for the fourth time and still had no idea what it said. He put the paper down with a sigh. Junior had been sleeping on the sofa but opened one eye and gave his tail a tentative wag.
Toto felt like the former police dog could read his mind, but he was not admitting where his thoughts really were. “I think you would like Jed,” he told Junior. “He seemed like a nice guy. Though he and Karin don’t quite feel like a couple. She seems almost ill-atease around him.”
The dog lifted his head so that he was looking at Toto with both eyes, as if to say he wasn’t fooled. Toto frowned.
“Yes, all right. Dorothy was there, too. She looked wonderful. Paris is obviously agreeing with her. People were fussing over her as much as they were over newlyweds Heather and Alex or Karin and Jed, and she was loving every minute of it. I could tell. Are you happy now?”
Junior got to his feet, gave himself a good hearty shake and then trotted into the foyer. Toto frowned after him. What was he doing?
Junior yipped twice, and as Toto was getting up out of his chair, the doorbell rang. By the time Toto got to the door, Junior was frantic with excitement.
Toto’s heart sped up a degree. There was only one person that Junior reacted to like this. Toto pulled open the door.
Sure enough, it was Dorothy.
“Hi,” she said. “It’s not too late to drop in, is it?”
Too late? It was never too late to have her around. “No, not at all.” He opened the screen door. “Come on in.”
Once she’d greeted Junior and endured the dog’s exuberance, she came into the living room and looked around. “You’re starting to settle in.”
Toto nodded. He’d bought the house about a month ago with the secret hope that he and Dorothy would make it their home, but things hadn’t worked out that way. “This is the only room I’ve painted so far,” he said. “It didn’t need much other work.”
“It’s nice,” she said and sat on the sofa.
Junior sat next to her, half lying across her lap in obvious adoration. Toto just sat back down in his easy chair.
“So how have you been?” he asked. “Is Paris what you hoped for?”
“It’s fine,” she said, petting Junior. “It’s a big city, of course. So it’s noisy. And it took a little longer to find a job than I had expected.”
Why had he asked that? She thought he was missing her and felt she had to downplay her happiness. He had to assure her it was all right to love Paris. That it was all right not to regret leaving here. And him.
“I think big cities have an energy about them that’s exciting,” he said.
She stopped petting the dog and gave Toto an odd look. “You do?”
“Sure.” Hopefully, she didn’t remember all the times he’d vowed he would never live in one. “They make you feel more alive.”
“I guess.” Junior whined and she went back to petting him.
The dog’s groveling was annoying. Or was he just feeling jealous? No, that was crazy. He wasn’t jealous of Junior. He was irritated that the dog wasn’t doing his part. They needed to convince Dorothy that she was allowed to be happy in Paris.
“I heard you talking at Marge’s this evening,” Toto said. “That café you said you have breakfast at each morning sounded great. Munchkin’s Doughnuts won’t ever taste the same for me.”
“Munchkin’s apple fritters are pretty good.”
“But not on the same level as freshly baked croissants.” He laughed, just to show her how great he thought her new life was. “Though maybe a bunch of us will petition Munchkin’s to add croissants to the menu. I wasn’t the only one wishing that café was around here.”
“Oh, no?”
“Hey, we’re all proud of you and a little envious. too. They tell you about the junior high adding two more sections of French I?”
“Yeah.” She didn’t sound overly excited.
“And that the South Bend paper did a story about it?”
She looked startled. “About adding sections of French I?”
“About the difference your leaving made to the town. Georgia put up a map of Paris in the library and marked the spot where you live. The Pancake House added quiche to their menu and called it Dorothy’s Dinner. Even the liquor store’s started stocking more French wine.”
“That’s crazy. Other people have left town and no one noticed.”
“They moved away,” he said. “You followed a dream. Most people don’t have the guts to do that.”
“I had no idea anyone was paying that close attention to what I did.” She looked away for a moment, gazing around the room as if drinking in the details. When she turned back to him, her eyes were shadowed. “Heather said you were thinking of coming to Paris.”
He stared at her a moment, his stomach twisting in sudden knots. He couldn’t tell her about the silly bet he’d made with Heather, based on the crazy notion that Dorothy would welcome his visit.
“Oh, that.” He laughed o
ff her question. “There’s an international law enforcement convention in Paris next month and I thought about going. But then I got tickets to the Notre Dame-Michigan game for that weekend. Can’t pass up a football game like that.”
“No, I guess not.” She got to her feet. “Well, I’d better be going. I just wanted to say hi.”
“Glad you dropped by,” he said. “Are you staying for the festival?”
She nodded. “Got a much better airfare if I stayed a week.”
“I see.”
He walked with her to the door. Junior was whining at her departure and Toto wished he could whine, too. She was only staying because of a deal on her airline tickets. This wasn’t home anymore.
“Well, take care,” he said as he opened the door for her. “I expect I’ll see you around.”
“Probably.” She brushed his cheek with her lips. “Good night.”
Toto closed the door after her, but didn’t—couldn’t—move for ages. He thought his heart had broken when she’d left for Paris—but now he was finding it was breaking all over again.
Jed woke to a luscious mixture of scents. Jasmine? Sweet autumn? Angel breath? Cocoa? And to the sight of Karin’s bare slender legs just an arm’s length away. She was standing, her back to him as she got some clothes out of the dresser.
Jed just lay there, unmoving, as his gaze slid from her trim ankles, over her tight calves, past those sensitive spots behind her knees and up the gentle swelling of her thighs. A fire exploded inside him and he took a deep breath, then turned over so his back was to her. She was wearing shorts under the long T-shirt she slept in, but still...
He needed to go someplace where he could breathe. “Oh, you’re awake,” she said. “Bet it was the smell of the chocolate-chip cookies that woke you up, right?”
Now that she mentioned it, he did recognize the heavy smell of chocolate in the air. But that hadn’t been what had woken him up. No, it had been something much deeper and more elemental. Her nearness.
“Yeah, that was it all right,” he said and pulled the sheet higher.
He had vowed last night in his solitary walk that he was not going to get involved. That he was not going to feel anything during this masquerade. He was doing it to help Lissa, that was all.
Pregnant & Practically Married (The Bridal Circle #3) Page 8