by Jane Toombs
So much for having nothing more to do with Nathan, Jade told herself. Here she was sleeping in his bed and next she’d be meeting his sister. But there was no polite way to refuse. Anyway, she was curious about Laura.
“I’d enjoy that,” she said after she finished the last of her coffee. “I hope she’ll get to meet Tim, too.”
Nathan hardly took in her words. He’d had about as much as he could take of trying not to notice how the soft cotton of Jade’s sleep T-shirt molded to her breasts with every movement she made.
“Speaking of Tim,” he said, “much as I like him, I damn well wish he was sleeping at your brother’s ranch right now.”
He watched her nipples tighten as she understood his meaning and felt an answering tightness in his groin. Pushing back his chair, he got to his feet. “Jade—”
“No,” she said, rising. “No, we can’t.”
He ignored her words. Reaching her in two strides, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. She fit against him in the way he remembered, soft and receptive, but not passive. Far from it. An activist, his Jade, in every way possible, including passion. She drove him wild.
Though the kitchen was too cramped for lovemaking, he didn’t want to let her go long enough to move elsewhere. He deepened the kiss, needing to hold her closer and closer, until their bodies melded into one. Her fragrance was as stimulating as he recalled, and he couldn’t get enough of her taste.
All the reasons they shouldn’t be doing this fled Jade’s mind the moment his lips met hers. Being in his arms was so wonderful, so right. What did she care if their relationship wouldn’t last? At this moment her need for him was a driving force so strong she felt it in the very marrow of her bones.
She twined her arms around his neck, the softness of his hair under her fingers. Her lips parted, inviting him, and she tasted the tang of coffee, the sweetness of muffins and his own unforgettable flavor.
He’d brought the scent of desert sage in with him to mingle with his clean male smell. If only there were no clothes separating them so her skin could touch his. When she was with Nathan, nakedness held a well-nigh irresistible appeal.
She knew the two of them, bound tightly together, were swaying in the close confines of the kitchen. She half expected them to fall to the floor, but it didn’t matter; the place was immaterial when he held her like this.
He startled her by scooping her up and carrying her into the living room. Not the kitchen floor, after all, she thought dazedly. The couch, instead. It couldn’t be the bed because...
A sliver of rationality pierced her cocoon of desire. “We can’t,” she said, hearing the betraying hoarseness of passion in her voice. “Tim might wake up.”
He dropped her onto the couch with a thump. “Dammit, woman, what a time you picked to remember Tim.”
“Well, I’m right.” She sat up and rearranged her sleep T-shirt, then ran her fingers through her hair.
“Who’s arguing? We both know the kid’s had enough trauma in his life to risk confusing him about us.”
Jade nodded. “I think it’s best if I spend the rest of the night on the couch. I’m not on call—you are, so you need the bed more than I do.”
She watched him frown, then accept her decision with a wry smile. “Might even manage to get some sleep with you out of reach.”
“Tim and I will leave in the morning,” she said. “Thanks for everything.”
“Want to make a list of what ‘everything’ includes?”
Slanting a wicked glance at him, she murmured, “My grandmother taught me that a lady should never be too explicit. Good night, Nathan.”
Jade awoke to daylight and Tim standing beside the couch. “Where’s Doc?” he asked.
Sitting up,. she looked around. “If he’s not in the bedroom or the bathroom, he must have gone out on a call,” she said. “Sometimes doctors have to get up in the night to see sick people.”
“You weren’t in the bed when I woke up,” Tim accused.
“I decided to sleep out here.” Jade stood and stretched, yawning.
After she showered and dressed, she fixed them both a bowl of cereal, then saw to it that Tim got ready. “Collect Freddie and we’ll go,” she told him.
“Freddie likes it here.”
She knew that meant Tim didn’t want to leave. “We’ll be safe at home. The people in the brown van won’t be coming around.”
“They’re in the hospital like Alice?”
She nodded. “And their van is wrecked, besides. So we’re leaving. Nathan’s a busy doctor. We can’t keep bothering him, okay?”
With a big sigh, Tim picked up Freddie. “We left Hot Shot behind so maybe he needs us to come home.” His expression clearly told her that if it had been up to him, the cat would have ridden here with them.
“We’ll leave Nathan a note,” she said. “You can sign it, too.”
Having the chance to demonstrate his newfound ability to print his name cheered Tim up enough so that, once they were in the pickup and driving along, he began singing a song he’d learned in school.
Jade didn’t feel up to singing, aware that the threat represented by the Vietnamese couple had been laid to rest only temporarily. More immediate was her failure to break off the relationship with Nathan. She sighed, understanding she really didn’t want to.
Tim stopped singing. “Are you sad ’cause we can’t stay at Doc’s?” he asked.
“Something like that,” she admitted.
On Thursday evening Nathan called Jade. “I’ll be coming to Tahoe early tomorrow morning, if that’s all right.”
“Why...yes. No problem.” He could tell by her voice she was taken aback.
“Actually there is a problem,” he went on. “Alice’s docs at Washoe Med want me to bring Tim over to Reno in the hope seeing him might jog her memory.”
“You obviously refused!”
“Let me finish. I talked to Gert Severin, bringing her up to date on all we’ve learned about Tim’s background. Her take on it is this—the request isn’t unreasonable and their meeting might not only help Alice but might also resolve certain things for Tim, as well. Rather than deciding for Tim, she feels we should discuss the matter with him. Together.”
“I don’t think he should be burdened with even knowing about it.”
“Gert tells me Tim is made of tougher stuff than either of us realize to have survived as well as he has. He needs to have a say in his life, she believes, instead of others making all the decisions for him, no matter how well-intentioned.”
“She may be a psychiatrist, but in this case, I don’t agree.” He could hear her rising anger.
He wasn’t going to argue with Jade since he knew she wouldn’t listen, anyway. “I’ll be there before eight,” he said. “See you then.” He set the phone down before she had a chance to say anything more.
Why did she have to argue about every issue? The last woman he’d choose to be in a relationship with was a confrontational female like Jade. Yet he couldn’t deny they had a roaring tiger of a relationship, one he didn’t want to let go of. He shrugged off the possibility he might not be able to.
The next morning a patient rang his emergency buzzer at five. Nathan sewed up the jagged laceration on the man’s arm, not believing for a moment the story he was told about how “the knife slipped, Doc, honest.” Obviously, given the location of the wound, someone else had inflicted it. Luckily the injury, though nasty-looking, wasn’t serious, and since the man insisted he’d accidentally cut himself, there was no need to notify the sheriffs office.
When he finished cleaning up afterward, his watch said six-fifteen. He climbed the stairs to the apartment to shower and shave, then notified his answering service that Dr. Kaylin would be taking his calls until two. Once in the Jeep, he headed for Tahoe. Early? Nathan smiled. Granted But he’d told her he would be, after all.
Jade, barefoot, gorgeous and sexy in yellow shorts and a crop top, greeted him coolly, which Tim’s exuberant w
elcome more or less made up for. Hot Shot, Nathan noticed, remained neutral.
“I thought we were friends,” he said.
“Well, of course we are!” Jade snapped.
“I was speaking to the cat,” he said, aware he was provoking her.
“Hot Shot may be a tad more careful in choosing his friends than I am.”
“Are you mad at Doc?” Tim asked her.
“No.”
“You sound mad.”
Hot Shot chose that moment to pad over and rub against Nathan’s leg.
Jade threw up her hands and began to laugh. “You males sure stick together. I swear the next cat I get will be a female.”
As if understanding every word, Hot Shot gave her one of those inscrutable feline looks and stalked off, tail high.
“Come on into the kitchen for coffee,” Jade said. “Have you had breakfast?”
“Just orange juice,” Nathan confessed.
“We’re having oatmeal and cinnamon toast.”
“She puts sugar in the cinnamon,” Tim added. “It’s awesome.”
“Sounds like an offer I can’t refuse.”
As they ate, Jade said, “If you like you can drive with Tim and me when I take him to school. We can talk on the way back.”
Warning him off the subject? What the hell did she think he’d driven here for? He waited until breakfast was over, then said, “Hey, cowboy, Jade and I need to talk to you, okay?” Ignoring her glare, he added, “You remember Dr. Severin?”
“Yeah. She said I could call her Grandma Gert, only I was scared to.”
“She’s a real smart lady, as well as a doctor. She thinks you’re old enough to make up your own mind about certain things.”
Tim eyed him uncertainly, giving Nathan a pang. The boy was only five, after all. He took a deep breath and went on.
“The doctors at the hospital where Alice is called me to ask if I’d bring you to see her. She still doesn’t remember anything, so she might not even know you. What do you think? Do you want to go or not?”
“Do I have to?”
Nathan shook his head. “You can decide whether or not to visit Alice.”
After several moments of silence, Tim slid off his stool and picked up his frog. “Freddie doesn’t want to,” he said.
Rightly interpreting Tim’s words, Nathan said, “That’s okay. We won’t go to see her, then.”
“Will you still ride to school with Jade and me?” Tim asked.
Nathan glanced at Jade and she nodded—rather reluctantly, he thought.
“Sure thing, cowboy,” he said.
Tim reached to the counter and picked up an empty paper-towel center. “I’m bringing this for Munchie ’cause she tore up her old one. You can come in and see her—my teacher won’t care.”
“Munchie’s the school hamster,” Jade put in.
“Been a long time since I’ve seen a hamster,” Nathan told Tim. “I’ve almost forgotten how they look.”
“Sort of like a rat, only lots cuter. In Sacramento they got rat’s nests in the palm trees. Sometimes they walk on the wires.”
Tim was opening up more and more, sharing parts of his past. Because he trusted them, Nathan knew. Trusted them to keep him safe. As, dammit, they would.
“I don’t like rats,” Tim added. “He told Alice they were smarter’n her. She got mad. So then he hit her.”
The more Tim revealed about his grandfather, the more determined Nathan grew about never giving up the boy to such an abusive man.
“Maybe Alice don’t want to remember,” Tim said, a surprisingly perceptive remark for a five-year-old. “Maybe she don’t want to see me like I don’t want to see her.”
“You don’t have to go and visit her,” Jade assured him.
“Yeah, I know, ’cause Doc said so. Is it time to go to school yet?”
I hope he doesn’t think I always speak the unvarnished truth, Nathan thought. That’s some burden to lay on a man. “I’m ready when you are,” he said to Tim with a glance at Jade.
Tim chattered all the way down the mountain, telling Nathan about his teacher and the other kids in his class. “But my best friend is Danny,” he finished. “I like Yasmin, only she plays mostly with the girls.”
“Female bonding,” Jade said.
“Is that how they learn to gang up and giggle at the boys?” Nathan asked.
“Don’t be snide. Boys snicker behind girls’ backs and that’s worse.”
Nathan grinned. She was always ready with a one-upper.
He followed them into the school and dutifully admired Munchie, the hamster, and, more honestly, the curvaceous blonde who taught Tim. He noticed Jade’s raised eyebrows with secret amusement.
They left Tim and, on the way out she muttered, “Pat’s married to a biker.”
“Pat?”
“You know who I mean.”
He had all along but pretended otherwise. “Tim’s teacher? Why should I care who she’s married to?”
Jade shrugged. “No reason. Just thought I’d mention it.”
“Wouldn’t happen to have a dragon tattooed on his left biceps, would he?”
“I haven’t a clue. Why?”
“Sewed up a biker’s arm earlier this morning. Striking colors in the tattoo. Seemed like a nice enough guy, if a trifle careless.”
Jade stared at him. He’d veered off again, taking control of the conversation. Probably just as well. She should have ignored the way he’d ogled Pat rather than making that oblique remark. After all, why should it matter to her if he looked at other women?
Once again in her pickup, headed up Kingsbury Grade in silence, he said, “Well? You said we could talk on the way back to your place.”
She shot him an exasperated glance. “You know perfectly well I wanted to wait until Tim was at school before discussing whether he should go to see Alice. You paid absolutely no attention to my request.”
“I’d call it more of an order than a request. I told you on the phone that Gert advised us to lay it in front of Tim, not make a decision for him. I drove up to Tahoe to do just that. So I did. It turned out okay—Tim wasn’t unduly stressed.”
Jade bit her lip to keep angry words from tumbling out. She had nothing to be annoyed with him about, not really. Much as she hated to admit it,. Nathan had been right in taking Gert’s advice.
“Gert pointed out we’re in a partnership because of Tim,” Nathan went on. “He looks to us as he would parents, and like it or not, we have to act as a unit where he’s concerned to keep from confusing him.”
“That’s true,” she said slowly, “but it would be lots easier to do if you weren’t so infuriating.”
“Infuriating? Me?” He shook his head. “What we have here is a classic case of transference.”
“Are you implying I’m infuriating?”
“Not all the time. Want a doughnut? We’re coming up on a place that sells them.”
No one could throw her so completely off stride as Nathan. “Their coffee is undrinkable,” she told him, giving up on having a logical conversation. “Besides, I’ve got muffins at home we can have.”
“Ah, you said the magic words. I was beginning to think you were on the verge of telling me never to darken your door again.”
She grinned at him, unable to keep hold of her anger. “I was considering it, but then I figured Gert wouldn’t approve.”
“Do I get coffee with the muffins?”
“Why not? Even butter, if I dare use the word to a doctor.”
“Got any jam?”
That was Nathan, always pushing her a tad farther.
Of course, one of those pushes had taken her to a place she’d never gotten to before, a place she never could have reached otherwise.
She shook her head. Coffee and muffins, with maybe a touch of jam, was all she was inviting him in for. Nothing more.
Chapter Twelve
When they were seated in Jade’s kitchen attacking the muffins, Nathan said, “She woul
dn’t look nearly as good as you do in your white swimsuit.”
Jade put down her coffee mug. She? Who on earth was he referring to? How could she be expected to follow the quantum leaps in his thinking? Was it Pat he meant? She decided it probably was.
“I expect she’d be falling out of it.” Almost immediately she regretted her tart words. Not only did she like Pat, but she’d been decoyed into cattiness, something she tried hard to avoid. Still, it was no more than the truth.
Nathan laughed. “Too much of a good thing, you mean? You may be right. Besides, she doesn’t have red hair.” He took a final swallow of coffee and then wiped his mouth with the napkin. “Mine’s still in the Jeep, but I need an invitation.”
This time she locked on to what he meant. So that was why he’d mentioned her swimsuit. “You’re not supposed to swim after you eat,” she said.
“We can always rescue each other by throwing in those swim rings the kids use.” He stood up and stretched. “I could use the exercise. I haven’t had time to jog lately.”
“Do you ever take your suit out of your Jeep?”
“Haven’t lately. But I did get around to removing the snowplow attachment.”
“So I noticed. One change at a time, is that it?”
“Take sorry—I’ve been there. I’ll pick safe anyday.”
Jade made a face. “Safe can be boring.”
“So, okay, let’s go wild and swim.”
In her bedroom Jade eyed her mirror image quizzically after donning the white suit, touching her undeniably red hair as she recalled his words. She felt on edge, pleasurably so. Only Nathan could make her spin through one emotion after another in such rapid succession.
When she got to the pool, he was already doing laps. As she slid into the water to join him, it occurred to her this was the first time there’d been just the two of them in the pool.
For a time they swam side by side in silence, then, as if by unspoken agreement, both pulled themselves from the water to sit next to each other at the shallow end. Hot Shot, she saw, was watching from a safe distance with his usual incredulous expression reserved for those who got wet on purpose.