by SUE FINEMAN
“Aunt Mattie? How are you doing today?”
“Where have you been?” She’d been in this awful place for two days.
“I was here twice yesterday, but you were sleeping. I’m moving back to the inn, so I can take care of you until your arm heals.” Jenna pulled Katie in front of her. “This is Katie. Katie, this is your great-great-aunt Mattie. All those kitties you’ve been playing with belong to her.”
Cute little girl, considering. “Do you like my kitties?”
“Yeah. Callie took a nap with me today. Her motor ran the whole time.”
“She kept me warm after I fell. She’s my favorite.”
“Me, too,” said Katie.
Jenna pulled a chair close to the bed. “How much longer do you have to stay?”
“The doctor said I could go home tomorrow or the next day. I feel so darn helpless. I can’t feed myself. Shoot, I can’t even take a bath by myself.”
“Everyone needs help sometimes. You and Uncle Charlie helped me through a bad time, and Katie and I will help you through this.”
A nurse came in, propped her hands on her hips and announced, “Children aren’t allowed on this floor.”
“Okay,” said Jenna. “We’re leaving now.” Whatever kind of happy pill they were giving Aunt Mattie, she hoped the doctor would keep her on it when she got home. It would make things easier for everyone.
If Aunt Mattie hadn’t been so nasty to her, Jenna would have come home years ago, and the inn wouldn’t have been sold to anyone. But after Uncle Charlie died, it wasn’t a pleasant place to be, so she’d kept her distance. He was the one who’d made her feel welcome there. Not Mattie.
Jenna wanted to ask her why she’d sold the inn. Maybe she’d only sold her and Uncle Charlie’s interest in the inn and not the whole thing, but that wasn’t likely if her name was the only one on the deed. Aunt Mattie had never liked her, and unless Jenna had a legal claim on the inn, which she apparently didn’t, the old woman wouldn’t give her anything. If she could find the purchase and sale agreement, maybe an attorney could find a loophole in the sale.
Was Aunt Mattie of sound mind when she signed those papers? Jenna sighed deeply. Aunt Mattie hadn’t been of sound mind in years, but the Donatelli family had enough money that they could fight any lawsuit she brought against them. And she was nearly broke. If she won a lawsuit, she’d be expected to pay attorney’s fees and reimburse Al for the money he’d put into the inn. Right now, she couldn’t even afford to pay the electric bill.
In spite of who owned the inn, she had to get at least part of the main floor cleaned so her aunt could come home. Al could pay the utility bills, and Aunt Mattie could buy the groceries. They’d get by as long as Katie’s grandparents kept paying child support. As angry as Brian was right now, she had her doubts about continued child support from the Baxter family. They’d probably expect something in exchange for it, like a dinner date with Nick and Cara Donatelli.
As if that was going to happen.
<>
Late that afternoon, the rain finally stopped. Al went into the attic to check for water damage and found nothing but old stains. The tarps had held. He climbed on the roof and went back to work. The work went quickly. In spite of Brian’s interference, the men in Al’s family had gotten a lot of work done before the rain began. Together, they’d accomplished what would have taken him a week to do by himself.
By the time the afternoon light has started to fade, he had the main section finished, and his stomach rumbled with hunger. What he wouldn’t give for some of his mother’s lasagna right about now. Jenna had come back from the hospital hours ago with two bags of groceries. Maybe she’d made something.
Funny how he’d never pictured her as a mother. A high-priced call girl maybe, but not a mother. She was one of the prettiest girls in high school. Now she was stunning, although she hardly seemed aware of it. If he hadn’t known her before, he might be interested, but her behavior in high school had destroyed any chance they had of ever being friends. She and Brian had brought Mary Lou Kohl to tears, embarrassed Anna Whatshername about her weight, and then they started in on him. Al was a shy kid, and if not for a strong family to go home to every day, he might have dropped out of school. Billy Vaughn did drop out. He was a fat kid, smart and hardworking, but he couldn’t take the cruel teasing.
Al’s last girlfriend was pretty and intelligent. And boring. She was okay in bed, but all she ever talked about was her medical practice. He’d ended it four months ago and never looked back. His brothers and their wives were always trying to fix him up, but he hated blind dates, and he wasn’t a singles bar kind of guy. Angelo hadn’t dated many women, yet he’d found the one who was right for him. Nick had been married and divorced when he found Cara under a collapsed house. They were as different as night and day, yet they were happy with each other. Tony was another story. He’d prowled the singles bars and dated a lot of women before he allowed himself to fall in love. When he did, he fell hard.
Al had never been in love, never found a woman who’d fit into his life as if she belonged there. He wasn’t sure he ever would. The professional types who attracted him weren’t interested in building a family, and he’d never considered marriage without children.
He climbed off the roof and stashed the ladder on the deep front porch. The porch roof had yet to be done, but he couldn’t nail shingles in the dark.
Under other circumstances, living in the same house as a beautiful woman could present some interesting opportunities. Tony would advise him to take advantage of the situation, but he wasn’t Tony. And he wasn’t Angelo, who’d only had two serious relationships with women in his entire life.
In high school, girls went for the jocks, but Al wasn’t a jock, and he didn’t date at all in those days. Who’d want to date him after the rumors Brian and his buddies had started?
After working construction for two years, Al’s skinny shoulders had filled out and girls started to look at him differently. In college, there were plenty of girls who’d expressed an interest. He’d dated some, but his school work had always come first, and he’d graduated at the top of his class. Now, working for Max and Company, he seldom met unattached women. Designing houses was solitary work.
He was attracted to Jenna, but he wasn’t about to date her. She was still with Brian anyway, although he couldn’t see why any woman would want to sleep with that pig.
If Jenna wanted the inn, why hadn’t she taken care of business years ago? She could have fixed up the inn and sold it herself for more than he’d paid. If he hadn’t negotiated a good deal, he wouldn’t have bought it. The only reservation he had about the deal was letting Mattie live here. He felt sorry for the old lady, especially now that she’d broken her arm, but he wasn’t sure how things would work out in the long run. How long could he expect a ninety-year-old woman to be around? And how long would he have to put up with Jenna?
He opened the door and heard the sound of the vacuum cleaner. Jenna was cleaning again. The whole place needed a good cleaning, and she could have at it. He’d cleaned the rooms he’d be using – his bedroom, his office, the kitchen, and the laundry room.
The vacuum made a funny noise and then died. Jenna yelled, “You worthless hunk of junk.”
Against his better judgment, Al asked, “What happened?”
“The belt broke again. That’s what I get for buying a vacuum cleaner at a garage sale.”
“Then buy a new one.”
“With what?” she snapped. “My job went away two months ago.”
“Then use Mattie’s.”
“It’s older than this one, and it smells like a dead cat.”
In spite of her anger, a smile snuck up on him. “There’s enough fur in this house to build a new cat.”
“Just what we need,” she muttered. “Another cat to clean up after.”
Al sat on the floor and worked on the vacuum. It smelled like burnt rubber. The belt had not only broken, it had melted all over the
rollers, the clamps were all bent, and when he flipped the on/off switch, nothing happened. “This thing is toast.”
Jenna retrieved Mattie’s vacuum, the one he’d used upstairs. Al changed the bag and cleaned the cat fur out of the filters. It wasn’t in great condition, but it would have to do. He didn’t own one himself. He didn’t own anything of value except his car, his computer, and a rundown old inn with a huge mortgage.
Looking at Jenna, with her messy blond ponytail and open resentment in her blue eyes, he wondered if he hadn’t bought himself a whole lot of trouble. They were being polite to each other right now, but she obviously didn’t want him there. Maybe she was told that she’d inherit the inn someday, but things had changed. The inn would have been sold to someone, either by Mattie or the tax collector. Jenna would have lost it one way or another.
If she thought she could chase him out of his home, she’d better think again, because he wasn’t leaving. He’d bought this place for the peace and quiet he needed to be creative, and he intended to make sure it stayed that way.
Chapter Three
Al was on the porch roof finishing the last section of the new roof when Jenna saw a vintage green Jaguar drive up. A long-legged brunette stepped out. She looked like she’d just stepped off the pages of Vogue. She propped her hands on her hips, looked up at Al, and cocked her head. “What are you doing up there?”
“Finishing the new roof. What are you doing here, Penny?”
“You haven’t called in weeks. Is it something I said?”
He held the nail gun over the shingle and shot another nail in. “I’ve been busy.” He shot two more nails in and climbed off the roof.
“I stopped by your office in town and Nick said you’d moved your office out here. What I can’t figure out is why.”
“There were too many interruptions there to get any work done, so I bought the inn and moved out here.”
“What a wonderful old building. Do you have time to show me around?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Jenna ducked back into the living room with her duster while Al brought his guest inside. “Dr. Penny Holden, Jenna Madison.” The doctor smiled and nodded slightly, and Al moved on with the lady doctor’s arm around his waist.
Dr. Penny Whatsit was acting as if they were a couple, but how could that be when he was gay? Or was he? Brian said he was in high school, and he should know, since they had the same PE classes for two years in a row. Everyone believed he was gay back then, and the guys razzed him about it. At Brian’s urging, she’d said and done some things she shouldn’t have, things she regretted now. Al was a shy kid, and she’d been unkind to him. No wonder gay kids stayed in the closet.
Picking on Al Donatelli was Jenna’s initiation into Brian’s inner circle. There were other kids who’d been targets of Brian’s group, but none got picked on more than Al. She’d wanted to belong so much that she became mean-spirited just like them. It was the wrong way go to about getting accepted, and somewhere down deep inside her she knew that, but every time she complained about what they were doing, they shunned her.
She should have shunned them.
<>
Al showed Penny his office. She peered out the window. “Awesome view, but that’s not why I came. Where’s your bedroom?”
He shook his head.
She stared at him for several seconds. “Is it Little Suzy Homemaker downstairs? Are you with her now?”
“Not hardly. She thinks I’m gay.”
Penny burst out laughing, infecting Al. There were times when he missed Penny, but not enough to start things up with her again. She was first and foremost a doctor, and her mind was always on her patients. When she needed sex, she called him and they spent an evening together. She was pretty, and she was good in bed, but an occasional night together wasn’t enough for him.
They walked downstairs and stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Penny glanced at Jenna and whispered in Al’s ear. “How about a parting gift?”
He wondered what she had in mind, until her arms came around his neck and she pulled his head down for a long, passionate kiss. Al felt Jenna’s eyes on them, and if he hadn’t been kissing Penny, he would have laughed. He grabbed Penny’s ass and hauled her up against him, giving it all he had for Jenna’s sake.
Finally, Penny broke the kiss. “Goodbye, Alessandro. If it doesn’t work out, you know where to find me.”
“Yes, I do. Goodbye, Penny. Thanks for stopping by.”
She glanced at Jenna. “My pleasure.”
Al walked Penny out to her car, then came inside whistling. That woman knew he wasn’t gay, and it was payback time for the other one.
“Family doctor?” Jenna asked.
Al laughed a little. “No.”
“Specialist?”
He could call her a sex therapist, but he’d be lying. “Dr. Holden is a pediatrician and a personal friend.” And former lover, but he wasn’t about to tell Jenna that, at least not yet. After that kiss, she’d probably guessed that part.
“I thought you were gay.”
He bit his tongue so he wouldn’t blurt it out. “What gave you that idea?”
“In high school, Brian said… He said you hit on him in the shower after PE class. Mel Something, the kid with the red hair, said he saw you do it.”
Al burned with anger. That’s where the rumors started. Mel Gillis was one of Brian’s toadies, and he’d say anything Brian wanted him to say. He wasn’t worth bothering with, but the next time Al hit Brian, the spineless wimp wouldn’t get up off the ground.
“Did you, Al?”
“Did I what?”
“Hit on Brian?”
He leaned down and put his face in hers, so close their breath mingled. “What do you think?”
“I-I don’t know what to think.”
His gaze dropped from her eyes to her pink lips. He could kiss her right now and settle it, but he wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. “Maybe one of these days you’ll figure it out for yourself.”
“Maybe,” she whispered, and he wanted to kiss her so much it was all he could do to hold back. His eyes scanned her pretty face and sexy body and came back to rest on her dark blue eyes. Her nipples were hard little buttons poking at her knit shirt, and her cheeks were bright pink. She was excited and embarrassed at the same time.
Brushing his lips lightly over hers, he tasted hunger, but a brush was all she’d get. He knew she was attracted to him as she never could have been in high school. Jenna and her friends had ruined what little social life he had back then. They’d told everyone in school that he was gay, when he was just a shy, awkward kid.
He backed up slightly and she reached for a kiss. It was all he could do to leave her wanting. He walked back outside to finish the roof, whistling.
Jenna was left standing alone, her lips tingling from Al’s almost kiss. He was teasing her, taunting her, and she felt like crying. She and her friends had made his life miserable in high school, because they’d believed Brian when he said Al had hit on him in the showers. She’d stopped believing anything Brian told her a long time ago, but in high school, she’d wanted to be included so much, she believed anything he told her.
She’d been such a fool, and she was still a fool for living here with a man who wanted to punish her for the sins of the past. It wasn’t too late to put Aunt Mattie in a nursing home and get out of here, but where would she go? The job was gone and her apartment would soon be gone too, because she couldn’t pay the rent. She was stuck here, and she’d get blasted from two sides now – from Aunt Mattie, who thought she was trash because she’d had a baby without getting married first, and from Alessandro Donatelli, who wanted to get even for what she’d done to him in high school.
It had been so long since a man had touched her and kissed her. Brian drifted in and out of her life as though he had a right to be there, and he did, for Katie, but not for her. She’d purged herself of him years ago.
She couldn’t help but compare the
two men. Al was better looking these days, he had a successful career, and there was an air of confidence about him that he didn’t have before. Brian didn’t finish college, he didn’t work much, and he thought the world owed him a living. But the biggest difference was that Brian had never grown up, and Alessandro Donatelli had. And he’d done a fine job of it, too. Boy, had he ever!
She’d been waiting her whole life to find a man like Alessandro Donatelli, and now that she had, she knew she didn’t stand a chance with him. He hated her.
And she didn’t blame him.
<>
Jenna brought Mattie home from the hospital that afternoon and Al walked out to meet them. He opened the car door and helped Mattie out. “Hey, Mattie, you’re looking good. Glad to have you home again.”
Jenna walked around the car. “Why did you sell the inn to him, Aunt Mattie? Uncle Charlie said it would belong to me someday.”
“What else was I supposed to do? I didn’t have the money for the taxes.”
“So you sold your share?”
“My share?”
“My parents owned half of the inn.”
“Nonsense. This place belonged to me and my family. It was never yours and it never belonged to your parents.”
“But what about—”
Aunt Mattie turned on her, her voice filled with rage. “Your parents put fifty thousand into this place, and we spent twice that much raising you and getting you through college, so don’t you go getting on your high horse, young lady. All that money we spent on you, and then you go out and get yourself pregnant. The least you could have done was marry Katie’s father. Or does he already have a wife?”
“I don’t date married men,” Jenna said through clenched teeth.
Al cleared his throat. “Have you ever met Katie’s father, Mattie?”
“No.”
“He’s not the kind of man I’d want my sister to marry.”
“If he was good enough to get her pregnant, he’s good enough for her to marry.” With that said, Mattie walked into the house. “What’s that smell?”