by Jane Toombs
“Even if he did, Tim might not be able to tell us all we need to know. He’s only five.”
Jade sighed. “So young to have had such bad things happen to him.”
“No more. Never again.”
She held out her hand and he clasped it, feeling the calluses. Small, a working woman’s hand. Holding it warmed him. More than warmed him. Don’t lose it, Walker, he warned himself.
“There, we’ve made a vow,” she said, her gaze searching his. Her eyes were pure green, no brown in the irises. Rare. And beautiful.
A Kholi princess? She’d denied the title, claiming she hadn’t been raised in a royal family like Talal, but looking at her, he realized she bore herself like a princess.
Next you’ll be quoting Omar Khayyam like Talal, he told himself wryly.
She hadn’t pulled her hand away as he’d half expected. His gaze shifted to her parted lips. He knew what he wanted, and since she hadn’t moved away from him, chances were she felt the same. Whether she did or not, he couldn’t resist. He wanted, he needed...
Jade saw something in Nathan’s blue eyes—sapphire?—that made her breath catch. The vow they’d made had to do with Tim, but the way he looked at her made her imagine another vow, this one including only the two of them. She could sense the desire pulsing between Nathan and her, definitely not one way, but coming from both, intermixing, mingling, intensifying.
“I think we’d better...” she began, her words trailing away when he shifted closer. She forgot what she’d meant to say when his hand left hers to draw her closer.
She lost track of time and space when his mouth found hers in the kiss she’d been waiting for ever since that first kiss by Zed’s gazebo.
Chapter Eight
Nathan couldn’t let Jade go, wouldn’t let her go. Her response told him she’d needed the kiss as much as he had. To hell with worrying about where this might lead. She was in his arms, and that was all he cared about at the moment.
Her lips, soft and sweet, lured him on, canceling all his doubts, firing him with anticipation of what lay beyond the kiss. She felt so good in his arms. He couldn’t remember any other woman feeling quite so right.
No other lips had ever been so enticing, so responsive. He’d waited a long time for this second kiss and was damned if he recalled why he’d delayed. He wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
“He’s kissing Tee. Come look, Tim. Doc’s kissing Tee.” Danny’s voice was like being drenched with a pail of cold water.
By the time they disentangled themselves, both boys and Hot Shot were standing in the archway, staring.
Recovering his wits, Nathan said, “You’re right, I was kissing Jade good-night. An old Illinois custom.” Which wouldn’t make any sense to the boys, but he was having a difficult time making sense, anyway.
“So now that I’ve kissed her,” he went on, “it’s time for Danny and me to hit the road.”
“The movie’s not over,” Danny complained.
“You’ve seen that one at least three times before,” Jade put in, “so you know how it ends. Tomorrow’s Monday. School.”
“For me, too,” Tim said.
“Sure thing, cowboy. Buenos noches. That’s Spanish for ‘Good night.’”
“I could sleep here,” Danny offered.
I wish I could, Nathan thought.
“Not tonight.”
Danny sighed, apparently knowing from experience Jade’s no meant just that. Nathan couldn’t help wondering if she’d have said no to him, too.
“Let’s get on it stat,” he told Danny.
“What’s that mean?”
“Stat’s doctor talk for ‘Hurry up.’”
Once in the Jeep, Danny fell asleep before they’d driven a mile. He roused as Nathan carried him into the ranch house. When Zed took him, Danny gazed drowsily up at his father.
“You know what?” he murmured. “Doc kissed Tee good-night. For a long time.”
Kids and their big mouths. “See you,” Nathan said hastily and exited.
By Tuesday Jade knew Japanese was not the right language. Korean was ruled out by Thursday. On Friday she was jolted when the TV morning news flashed a picture of Alice sitting up in bed, the newscaster asking if anyone knew this woman. He went on to describe the accident again, saying a boy had been in the wrecked van. Jade caught her breath when she heard her name mentioned as the boy’s temporary guardian. How on earth had the media dug that up?
Tim, who’d heard and seen it, too, stopped eating. She did her best to reassure him, but he remained silent, hugging Freddie to him as they left the house to drive to school. She hadn’t put the truck in the garage last night, as she sometimes didn’t. When they reached the drive, a man sprang from nowhere and snapped a picture of Tim before she knew what was happening.
“Get the hell off my property!” she cried, but he was already scooting away, having got what he came for.
Muttering, she boosted Tim into the truck and climbed in herself.
“I don’t wanna be on TV like Alice,” Tim said, fear threading through his words.
She couldn’t lie to him. “I don’t want it, either, but I’m afraid you will be.”
“What if he comes?”
“You’re in my charge. I won’t let you go back to anyone you’re afraid of. Do you want to tell me about him?”
He cast her an apprehensive glance and shook his head.
At the school, she made certain those in charge knew Tim was not to be picked up by anyone except her, her brothers or their wives.
Later that morning she left a message for Nathan to call her. She’d tried to put off thinking about him and how his kisses made her feel, and she wouldn’t have called him if the media attention hadn’t upset her. Or at least she liked to think she wouldn’t have.
He called back after twelve. “Why don’t you and Tim go stay with your brothers for a while?” he asked after she explained the problem.
“I would, except for Talal. He’s supposed to be keeping a low profile at the moment. Some kind of trouble in Kholi—that’s why he’s living in Nevada for the time being. I can’t risk drawing media attention to him.”
“You two could stay with me. No one’s likely to track you down here.”
“No,” she said hastily, even as her breath caught at the notion. “Thanks, but I couldn’t possibly.”
“If you’re not here with me, I can’t protect you.”
“I’m not asking for protection,” she said a tad testily. “I thought you might have some suggestions.”
“If more media people show up, you could ready a short written statement to offer them and refuse to answer anything else they might ask. Or hire a security service to chase them off if they bother you.”
“If? Are you saying you think this might be a onetime thing now that they have a picture of Tim?”
“Depends on how newsworthy they figure Alice and Tim are. No one, including you and me, really knows anything about her and not much more about Tim. There’s not much meat to the story.”
“It’s really scared Tim. He’s afraid that unspecified he is going to find him once his picture’s on TV. The abuser must be who he means.”
“Too bad Hot Shot isn’t a guard dog. I can’t get away this weekend. I promised to take call for the guy who’s been covering for me. Why don’t you and Tim join me tomorrow afternoon? I’ll unearth my badminton net and we’ll teach him the finer points of the game.”
“That sounds like fun. Any objection if I bring Danny and Yasmin along?”
“None. I’ll stock up on hot dogs.”
Even though the problem hadn’t been solved, Jade set the phone down feeling cheered. She didn’t need protection. She’d always been able to take care of herself. Not that Zed hadn’t always been on hand if major trouble threatened. Now he and Talal together made a really formidable team. But Talal had his own problems at the moment—best not to get him involved in hers. And since he was staying at the ranch until his house
near Genoa was built, that meant Zed couldn’t be involved, either.
No, she didn’t really need protection; she could handle the media if need be. She had herself to depend on; she didn’t need a man to take care of her. Somehow, though, she felt safe with Nathan, lowkey as he was. Feeling safe wasn’t the same thing as being dependent on a man, not the same thing at all.
Linnea had offered to pick Tim up since she had to drive to Tahoe, anyway, on an errand. When she arrived with the three kids, Jade, back from the office, was listening to a Vietnamese-language tape as she gave Hot Shot his weekly brushing.
The kids burst in ahead of Linnea, Tim in the lead. He stopped short, his eyes widening as if he expected to see someone besides her and the cat. When his gaze finally landed on the stereo unit, he blinked.
Jade switched the unit off, realizing she’d nailed it. Choosing her words carefully, she said, “I was trying to learn a few words in your other language so I could talk to Freddie, too.”
Tim stared at her, speechless. She was conscious of Linnea leading the other two out of the room but kept focused on Tim. “It. is Freddie’s language, right?” she asked.
Tim’s nod was reluctant.
She reached out and hugged him. “I’m glad you’re living with me, Tim, you and Freddie. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
After a moment he hugged her back, then wriggled free. “I wanna stay here forever and ever,” he told her before darting off in search of Danny and Yasmin.
Aware Linnea would keep them busy, Jade picked up the phone and punched in the code for the number Steve had given her. Instead of a recording, a real live person answered, a pleasant surprise.
“Robinson and Riggs,” the woman said. Fortunately Steve had warned her this would be who she’d reach.
“I have a message for Steven Henderson,” she said, as per instructions. “Please have him call Jade Adams.”
“Thank you.” A click and the line went dead.
By the time he called her back, Linnea, Yasmin and Danny had left. Tim was busy completing the project they’d started with Tinkertoys.
“Steve,” she said, “I just discovered Tim speaks Vietnamese. Will that help?”
“Any information helps.”
She went on to tell him about the TV newscast.
“I saw the woman’s picture,” he said.
“Some insensitive sneak took Tim’s picture when we were leaving for school this morning. You’ll probably see that next.”
“Be careful,” he warned. “We don’t know who might have heard about the boy living with you. With his picture on TV, you can’t be sure what might crawl out from under the rocks. I’ll let you know if anything turns up at this end.”
Jade didn’t always turn on her alarm system, but as dusk slipped over the edge into darkness, she remembered Steve’s warning and activated it, explaining once again to Tim how it worked.
“It’s so he can’t get in,” Tim said, nodding.
“Actually, so no one can,” she corrected him.
Apparently reassured by the activated alarm system, he fell asleep quickly. Jade, though, lay awake for a long time, wondering what Steve meant by things crawling out from under rocks. Nothing good, that was clear, but just how bad could it be?
When she did sleep, she jerked awake often, listening. For what, she wasn’t sure.
Saturday morning she saw no one lurking about the house when she ventured out to pick up the Reno paper. She breathed a sigh of relief when she found no picture of Tim. Nor was he displayed on the TV morning news. Maybe she was anticipating trouble that would never materialize.
She drove away from the house before noon, a talkative Tim beside her, telling her about how the hamster at school escaped the cage the day before and how they looked and looked. “I didn’t look too good,” he admitted, “’cause I wouldn’t like to be locked in a cage all the time like Munchie.”
“Did anyone find him?”
“It’s a girl hamster. Yeah, Munchie’s back in the cage. Safe and sound, teacher says. It’s okay to be safe, I guess.”
She smiled at hearing him echo her thought from yesterday. Feeling safe was a positive emotion. Not that she didn’t enjoy teetering on the edge sometimes. But not where Tim was concerned.
When she reached the ranch she discovered a minor problem had surfaced. Zed had arranged with another rancher who raised camels as a sideline to take the kids over there for an actual ride on a camel. Naturally a novelty like that overrode any other activity.
“Tell you what,” Zed said. “You go ahead and take the three of them to Nate’s place. I’ll come by around two-thirty and pick them up for the camel ride, then we’ll keep Tim overnight.”
“You’re always keeping him overnight,” she protested.
“I plan to get even. How about all of us descending on you for a pool party on Sunday?”
“Potluck,” Karen put in. “You provide the drinks. Nathan’s invited, of course.”
Of course? Weren’t her relatives taking too much for granted? “He’s on call for another doctor all weekend.”
“Too bad. We’ll catch up with him another time.”
Since the kids had left with the men to look at the ponies, Jade told Karen and Linnea about calling Steve and why.
“Vietnam? No wonder Danny couldn’t remember the word Tim let slip,” Karen said. “I suppose my big brother didn’t bother to ask you to say hello for him.”
“He seemed in a hurry.”
“I think Steve’s always in a hurry,” Linnea put in. “He’s restless even when he’s at the ranch on vacation. Maybe he should take a few lessons from laid-back Nathan.”
Were her sisters-in-law never going to let her forget her faux pas?
By the time Jade pulled into the clinic parking lot, it was just after twelve and all three kids were wired, anticipating the camel rides to come plus the promise of badminton with Nathan. Not that any of them knew how to play it.
Seeing several cars still in the lot, Jade led them through the gate into the backyard rather than going inside and trying to cope with their energy in the apartment. The net wasn’t up yet, but Tim spotted the ball he’d found on his last visit here and she soon had a four-way guess-who-gets-the-ball-next game going. Yasmin, she was pleased to note, not only held her own with the two boys but looked to be ambidextrous.
Tim spotted Nathan first. “Here comes Doc!” he yelled, pointing toward the screened porch.
“Who’s hungry?” Nathan called.
The chorus of me’s was deafening.
He’d gotten the grill heated between patients, Jade discovered, so in no time at all the hot dogs were charred and shoved into buns.
“You realize we’re corrupting these kids with fast food,” Jade said between bites. “Hot dogs and pizzas are practically all we ever feed them.”
“That’s what aunts and friends are for—fun and fast food. But all’s not lost—I bought chocolate milk, not sodas. Calcium and all that.” He grinned at her.
After they ate, Nathan put up the badminton net, settling it low. He and Jade had barely begun teaching the children the game before his beeper sounded and he disappeared into the clinic to use the phone. By the time he returned, all three kids were waving their rackets like pros, even though they missed the bird most of the time.
“Solved the problem on the phone,” he said. “Hope my luck holds.”
It did until after Zed and Talal arrived to pick up the kids. Nathan and Jade had no sooner eased into porch chairs when the beeper sounded again. This time he made arrangements for the patient to come to the clinic to be seen.
“I’ll be a while, so you might want to wait upstairs where it’s cooler,” he told her. “I have the air conditioner on in the apartment.”
Since all the activity in the heat of the day had her perspiring, that sounded good to Jade. Of course, her pickup also had air-conditioning and she could simply get in it and drive home. On the other hand, that meant adm
itting she was afraid to stay.
Jade Adams afraid? Of what? Nathan? No way.
Herself then? Certainly not!
Once upstairs, she decided to take a quick shower, then grimaced as she started to put her sticky T-shirt back on—it was positively wet Looking in the closet, she found a clean T-shirt of Nathan’s, green with a wickedly grinning Garfield on the front, and slid it on.
Checking herself in the full-length mirror on the door, she smiled ruefully at the fit—more than a tad too big. She might be clean and dry, but she was decidedly not sexy. Which was just as well.
Nathan had bought a spread since she’d last looked in his bedroom, a soft blue one. An attractive color, though lighter than his eyes and lacking their brilliance. She sat on the edge of the bed to pull on her shoes and socks, changing her mind when she felt the dampness of her socks. Since she didn’t care to borrow a pair of Nathan’s, she’d go barefoot for now.
Driven by an impulse she didn’t try to control, she shifted around to put her feet up, then stretched out on the king-size bed. She wondered which side he favored, left or right? Or was he a roll-all-over-the-bed sleeper? Since he kept the phone and a clock on the dresser, not on a nightstand, there was no way to tell.
The bed was at least as comfortable as hers, maybe even more so. Cool and comfortable, she imagined she was lying in his favorite spot, her head on the pillow where his had been, her body covering the place where his had rested. The idea made her tingle with what she recognized with dismay as desire.
Enough of that, she warned herself and fixed her gaze on the ceiling, noticing for the first time it wasn’t really white but a very pale blue. Involuntarily she yawned, then sighed. How easy it would be to drift off. Not that she intended to....
Nathan hurried up the stairs, aware he’d spent a good deal of time with the “emergency” in the clinic, which hadn’t really been one.
He didn’t hear music as he reached the top, so Jade didn’t have the stereo on. Was she reading? He opened the door, looked around and didn’t see her. After passing through the living room, he glanced into the bedroom and paused, smiling.