“Meeting her?”
“It’s Friday.” The creak in his voice sent a rush of pure feminine pleasure shooting straight to her hoo-hah. He put the car in gear, flung his arm over the seat, and began to creep from the parking spot. “She’s at work.”
Her forehead puckered. It took a few long seconds for his words to penetrate the lingering haze of lust that clouded her mind. “Work? You said she was retired.”
He snickered. “Retired? No, I didn’t.”
Ellie shook the last of the cobwebs from her head. “Yes, you did. You said she lived in a retirement community and was constantly trying to set you up with her neighbors’ granddaughters.” Her tone was a little sharper than necessary. Jack didn’t miss it, either. He slanted a look in her direction. She forced a smile and entrenched her position on offense. “Aren’t you afraid bringing me here will cramp your style? What if I horn in on your time with Bachelorettes One, Two, and Three? Don’t worry. I’ll spring for their Rice-a-Roni and Turtle Wax. I didn’t let you drag me all the way to Florida just to be the runner-up.”
His smile morphed into a grin as he merged onto a busy expressway. Changing lanes as smooth as silk, he gripped the wheel with one hand and reached for hers with the other. “You’re Bachelorette Number One.”
“Fine. I’ll just kick Two and Three’s butts then we can catch the early bird special at the nearest shrimp shack,” she grumbled, turning her attention to the scenery whizzing past her window.
“No shrimp shack. Allergic, remember?” He gave her hand a squeeze. “She’s going to love you, El.”
As usual, the man cut straight to the heart of the matter. Damn him. Damn his sexy dimple and blinks and accountant-cop face. Damn his warm hands and hot kisses. Damn, she loved this man. Turning to face him, she waited for him to glance over before squeezing back. “I hope so.”
“She will.”
The quiet reassurance did the trick. Releasing the air trapped in her lungs, Ellie sank back in her seat. “Where are we meeting her?”
A wry smile quirked his lips. “The bar down the road from her office.”
“A bar?”
“Excellent food.”
“Okay.” She exhaled the word and turned back to the window. Closing her eyes, an image of Fran Fine’s mother on The Nanny flashed in her mind. She did her best to banish the ridiculous picture. She didn’t know much about Jack’s mother, but she was pretty sure she wasn’t a leopard-print wearing pushy mama from Queens. At least, she hoped not. She brushed the thought aside only to replace Sylvia Fine with Kitty Montgomery from Dharma & Greg. Neither would be a particularly attractive option for a future mother-in-law, but still the visual image of the two women engaged in a catfight tickled her. She tried to fight back the smile that emerged as she silently cheered them on.
****
He wasn’t fooled by the Mona Lisa smile. Over ten months into their relationship, he was no closer to getting a handle on Ellie than he was the day they met. And he wouldn’t have her any other way.
One moment she was as cool as a cucumber, the next, a powder keg. Right now, she was wavering somewhere in the middle. The outside was calm, but if the bite of her fingernails into the tender skin between his thumb and forefinger was any indication, she could blow at any moment. It was all he could do to keep from flinching, but he held steady. Ellie could slice straight through to bone if that was what it took to keep her right next to him.
“Does your mom know I’m moving to Chicago?”
Jack stifled the grin that claimed his face each time they discussed The Merger. This trip to visit his mom was a big step for her, and a huge step for them. The Merger was even bigger. He tried not to talk about it too much. After all, nothing was set in stone. But there were negotiations in progress. Intense negotiations. The last thing he wanted to do was spook her. The key was to play it cool.
“I think I’ve mentioned it.”
“And she was okay with it?”
“She knows I’m happy about it, so yeah, she’s okay with it.”
Ellie sank into the seat with a sigh and Jack loosened the reins on his goofy grin just a bit. Happy didn’t begin to cover how he felt about the prospect of living within arm’s reach of this woman. After months of waiting, hundreds of miles between them, one huge setback brought on by her skittishness, and far too few kisses like the one they shared a few minutes before, things were finally on track.
Come November she’d be moving into his apartment, a development he didn’t dare mojo by counting it as a sure thing. But things were moving in that direction. Ellie had made it clear to her superior at the Chatham Hotel Group that she intended to move back to the Chicago area. Unfortunately, her boss was not exactly jumping through hoops to accommodate her. Still, she notified the management company at her apartment complex that she wouldn’t be renewing her lease, and she stopped shying away from talk of their future together. This weekend, she was going to meet his mother. Just a few days earlier, he finally made the trek out to the suburbs to ask permission from her dad as he’d planned back in July.
Better late than never, the conversation with Marcus Nichols was awkward, but at least he left a lasting impression. Ellie’s mother hugged him so hard she squeezed the breath from his lungs, and her sister, Laurie, burst through the back door wearing an enormous grin as he was trying to extricate himself. Grandma Bernadette didn’t say much, but she did pinch a chunk of flesh from his ass. He got the blessing he needed, so Jack decided to take the goosing as a welcome to the family and left with a smile.
If all went the way he planned, soon he would ask her to be his wife. Soon. Of course, Jack was all too aware that his plans often went flying out the window when Ellie was in the mix. He sneaked a glance at her and regret pooled in his belly. Gnawing his bottom lip, he kicked himself for agreeing to stay at his mother’s condo. How was he supposed to survive a night on a lumpy sofa bed when the woman he loved would be sleeping in the guest room mere feet away? It was ridiculous to think he’d be able to sleep a wink without her tucked against him.
“Maybe we should get a hotel room,” he mused. When he looked over at her, she wagged her head. “What? I just think you’d be more comfortable—”
Her unladylike snort coaxed a smile. “Don’t try to pin this on me.”
Letting off the gas pedal, he coasted onto an exit ramp. “I didn’t think this through. I can’t spend all weekend with you and not….” He waggled his eyebrows. “…Be with you.”
“So tactful,” she murmured, turning to gaze out the window again. “Suck it up, big guy. This was your bright idea.”
He looped them onto the surface street then rocked back in the seat, heaving a put-upon sigh. “I can’t win. Two women in my life, and I can’t make both of them happy.”
She chuckled softly. “I almost feel for you.”
“I’d give anything to be feeling you again.”
Ellie grinned. “Anything?”
His eyes cut in her direction. “Facing an entire weekend of being near you but not naked… Yeah, anything.”
“You’re so easy.”
He slowed to a stop at a red light. “I’m so crazy about you.”
She shifted in her seat, her eyes wide but wary. “I hope your mom is too.”
Unable to resist, he ran his hand over her close-cropped cap of dark hair. “Elfie, there’s no way she won’t love you.”
Her breath caught and held for a second. “Stop looking at me like that.”
He let his eyes grow round and wide, hoping for something in the neighborhood of innocence. She’d never buy it, but it might earn him one of those gorgeous smiles. “Like what?”
“You know what.” She nodded to the light suspended above the intersection. “Green light.”
No go on the smile. Jack had to step up the game. “God, I was hoping you’d say yes.”
“I wasn’t saying yes. I was telling you the light changed.”
“Potato, po-tah-to.”
; “Not gonna happen.” She enunciated, darting a pointed glare at his cheek. Jack smiled a little wider, working the dimple like he’d never worked it before, but she turned away. “Besides, if she catches me molesting her little Jack, she might not like me so much.”
“Little Jack?” His injured scoff earned him that elusive smile, making the implied insult totally worth the cost to his self-esteem. She beamed at him and all wariness was gone from her sparkling eyes. “She’s going to love you almost as much as I do, but I could really pull ahead if we got a hotel room.” Her smile erupted into a low, husky laugh that made his jeans feel infinitely tighter. “I’m not kidding,” he countered, using his eyebrows as a question mark.
“Not this weekend, Jack.”
The achy regret in her tone helped to blunt the edges of the rejection a bit. A very little bit. When he turned into the Pink Pelican’s parking lot, she stiffened and sat up straight in the seat. He nosed the rental car into the last open space, killed the engine, and unlatched his safety belt. Gathering her hands in his, he lifted them to his mouth, brushing soft kisses to her bone-white knuckles.
“Hey.” When her eyes met his, the faint lines bracketing her mouth eased a bit. “She’s my mom. She’s going to love you because I love you.” She rolled her eyes. He leaned in and pressed a hard, fast kiss to her lips before she could conjure a smart remark. “Don’t forget, she wants grandchildren. She should be shaking in her shoes, hoping she makes a good impression on you.” Yanking the handle, he pushed the car door open with his foot. Jack dusted her fingers with one last kiss then climbed out of the car. “Feel better now?”
****
Okay, Jack’s mother didn’t look like any Joan she could picture. She didn’t have heavy, arching eyebrows or wear big shoulder pads. She didn’t look like she’d been through multiple facelifts, been burned at the stake, or had a yen for rock ‘n roll. She didn’t even come close to the visions of Sylvia Fine or Kitty Montgomery that haunted her for weeks. Joan Rudolph was just a normal type of mom. A mom like her own mom, but with Jack’s mochachino eyes and buttery streaks camouflaging the strands of gray in her dark blonde hair.
“I’m so happy to finally meet you.” Jack’s mother beamed at her from across the table covered in red and white checked vinyl. “I wanted to have lunch someplace a little nicer, but Jack gets cranky if he doesn’t have a Pelican fix within hours of landing.”
Ellie cocked her head and studied the man studying the slate chalkboard above the kitchen door as if the daily specials held the key to world peace. “Oh?”
He nodded. “Awesome Cuban food.”
“I didn’t know you liked Cuban food.”
“Lived in Miami for a while, remember?” He shook his head as he set his dog-eared menu aside. “Besides, I don’t eat it outside of Florida.”
“Snob.”
“Unapologetic snob,” he concurred.
A waitress sporting an up-do dyed a virulent red and no-nonsense crepe-soled shoes appeared at their table holding a tray of perspiring water glasses and a basket of cellophane-wrapped saltines. “Great,” Jack murmured as she deposited the spoils. “I’d also like a bottle of Bud. Should we get a half-pitcher of mojitos?” he asked, glancing from his mother to Ellie for approval.
“Jack, it’s barely after noon,” his mother admonished.
He rolled his eyes and turned to face Ellie, his expression sober and earnest. “Ellie, my mother is not an alcoholic, but she has an affinity for the girly drinks with garnishes.” Flashing his mother a winning smile, he said, “Mom, Ellie likes to mix her booze, but she figures as long as her breath is fresh, it’s okay. What do you say, ladies?”
“Honestly.” Joan huffed, but a potent cocktail of love, exasperated affection, and unflagging amusement sparkled in the older woman’s dark eyes. “They do make delicious mojitos here,” she murmured, flashing Ellie a sly smile before shooting Jack a menacing glare.
Helpless to resist the two of them, Ellie shrugged. “Maybe it won’t hurt to try it.”
“Excellent.” Jack leaned back, lifting the front legs of his chair as he beamed that devastating dimply smile at their waitress. “If you can rush an emergency order of tostones to the table, I’ll dump the shrimpy girl for you.”
“Hey!” Ellie protested. “You can’t lure me to Florida then dump me.” She pursed her lips and peered at the menu. “What are tostones?”
“Fried plantain. You’ll like them.”
“It really is nice to meet you…Ellie, was it? It’s so hard to keep track. Jack always has been terribly fickle,” his mother commented as the waitress bustled toward the kitchen door. She slid a pair of reading glasses onto the end of her nose then cast a sidelong glance at her son. “I can’t remember, Jump, is Ellie the nineteenth girl you’ve brought home to meet me, or the twentieth?”
Jack’s chair thunked to the floor. His eyes widened. Embarrassment, shock, panic—the parade of emotion that marched across his normally impassive face tickled Ellie pink. Literally. Heat rose in her cheeks, a flush of delight prickling her ears as she caught a glimpse of a whole new Jack. A Jack who was at that very moment not only stammering but sputtering to boot.
Ellie’s head swiveled. Somehow, her brain skipped over the neutron bomb the older woman dropped and fixated on the hand grenade she still held. “Jump?”
“Mom,” he growled.
Apparently his best bad-cop stare had little effect on his angelic accountant of a mother. Joan simply smiled and gave his arm a patronizing pat. “When he was little, I used to sing Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ to him at bedtime. The first time he heard it on the radio, his head almost exploded with excitement. He was famous, you know,” she said, fixing the man in question with an adoring smile. “My Jump.”
“I have not brought any other—”
“Oh, Ellie knows I was just kidding.” Joan plucked the reading glasses from her nose and carefully folded them into her hand. “You’re the first girl Jack has deigned to introduce since I snapped half a roll of film on Betsy Parsons’ parents’ lawn on prom night.”
Ellie ducked her head in acknowledgment of pertinent information. “I had a feeling.”
Jack glanced over his shoulder, pointedly ignoring them. “I have a powerful thirst.” Like magic, their waitress appeared with their drinks. Once he procured her reassurance that the appetizer was soon to follow, he reached for his menu again. “Are we ready?”
She sampled her drink while Joan ordered. Meeting Jack’s inquisitive gaze over the rim of the glass, she was stunned when she recognized the subtle waves of anxiety wafting off him. Eager to put him at ease, she opted to relinquish a little control knowing he’d scoop it up and run with it. The waitress turned toward her, and Ellie smiled as she deferred to Jack. “You order for me.”
He blinked in surprise. She stifled a wince when his foot accidentally landed on top of hers. He sat up a little straighter in his chair and she managed a nod, amused by how little it took to make his day. “Really?”
“You’re the expert.” Sliding her foot out from under his, she smiled as she made a mental note to stroke his delicate male ego more often…among other things. “Nothing too spicy.”
The lunch unfolded in a booze-drenched haze. His mother apparently had a hollow leg. The woman guzzled her cocktails like a frat boy at his first kegger. The second half-pitcher was ordered when the appetizer appeared. Ellie gave up on keeping up by her second glass. Jack poured a third for her, but by that time she’d dumped him and was engrossed in making love to the tender morsels of fresh shrimp on her plate.
Ellie couldn’t help but grin as she licked the last of the cocktail sauce from her fingers. All in all, the trip to Florida was feeling pretty good. Not as good as looking up to find Jack staring at her, his own plate forgotten, lips damp and parted, and dark eyes glazed with lust, but pretty darn good nonetheless. Across the table Joan cradled her glass between her palms, oblivious to the sexual sparks her baby was shooting off. The older woman was too engr
ossed in solidifying plans to move them into the condo next to hers, naming their first three children, and promising her future daughter-in-law a poster-sized print of the photograph of baby Jack naked on a bearskin rug to give a damn if they set fire to the place.
Dabbing her lips with a napkin, Ellie smirked when Jack literally shook himself from his daze. “Okay there, Rudolph? Gonna be able to guide the sleigh?”
“I had one beer. You two are the drunks.”
“Your fault,” she accused.
His smile came easy, crinkling the corners of his eyes. “Always is, always will be.”
“See? Such a smart boy,” his proud mama murmured, ducking her nose into her glass to slurp the last of her drink. “Well, darlings, I need to get back to patching the holes in Mr. Atkinson’s tax shelters. I swear, no matter what I do, the man leaks money.”
Jack eyed his mother skeptically as he covered the ticket with a wad of bills. “Are you sure you should be going back to work?”
Joan snorted and shoved her chair from the table. “I was having three martini lunches long before you came around, Jump. I can still drink you over, under, or around the table.”
He grinned, shaking his head at her boast. “My mother. I’m so proud,” he murmured as he helped Ellie from her chair.
“Whoa. I’m so dizzy,” she muttered, grabbing his shirt in one hand and planting the other on the cluttered table.
Wrapping one strong arm around her waist, Jack anchored her to his side. “Great. Look what you did, Miss ThreeMartiniLunch.”
His mother smiled encouragingly as she tucked one finger under Ellie’s chin and tipped it up. “She can handle it, can’t you, sweetheart?” She beamed, apparently delighted with her work. “If you can handle this big, bossy baby of mine, you can handle your booze.”
“Sure,” Ellie answered. Even her smile felt a little bleary. She gave Jack’s chest a distracted pat and stood taller, if not steadier. “I can totally handle him. All I have to do is—”
Unforgettable Heroes Boxed Set Page 115