His words belied the intense look in his eyes as Josiah regarded Eve’s “helper.” “Well, then it was an excellent collaboration. I highly approve.” He patted what was still a very flat stomach. “I’m afraid that I am too full to move.”
“Then stay. Stay as long as you like,” she encouraged. She looked at Lucas. Her invitation was to both men. “I give you my word, no one’s going to chase you out.”
As she spoke, she rose to her feet and reached for Josiah’s plate, intent on clearing away the dishes. Lucas was on his feet immediately. For a large man, he moved with impressive agility. He took the dish away from her and began piling the other plates on top of it.
“The least I can do after that fantastic meal is to clear the table for you and do the dishes,” Lucas told her.
“Dishes don’t need doing, Lucas. That’s why God created dishwashers,” she answered.
“Well, I can at least get them from here to there,” he told her, piling the utensils on the top dish.
Beneath that polite exterior, she had a feeling that Lucas was as quietly determined to do the right thing as she was. She gave up trying to dissuade him.
Inclining her head, she politely accepted his offer. “Thank you.”
Josiah took advantage to the temporary break in the conversation. He leaned forward, his eyes on Adam’s. “So tell me, Adam, if you don’t mind my asking, how do you like doing business down here?”
The man wasn’t mildly curious, he was digging, Adam thought. Why?
“I like it,” he said casually, as if he wasn’t aware that the older man was placing him under a microscope. “The weather’s nicer down here, the people friendlier.”
“I see.”
Ordinarily, he would have attributed Josiah’s fishing to his needing to act as Eve’s surrogate father. But something about the way the other man looked at him made Adam rethink this simple conclusion. Maybe the job was really getting him paranoid.
“Is there much money in bookstores these days?” Josiah asked.
“There is in the kinds of books Adam deals in,” Eve told the older man. Something unnamed and protective had risen up inside of her.
As if Adam needed protectors, she quietly jeered.
“Still dealing in rare first editions, then?” Josiah asked, his eyebrows raised in query.
“Yes.”
“And how is that done, exactly? Where do you find these treasures?” Josiah wanted to know.
Definitely grilling him, Adam thought. “I go to estate sales. You’d be surprised what you can find if you look hard enough,” Adam replied.
“I’m sure I would be,” Josiah agreed thoughtfully. He glanced toward the kitchen where Lucas was rinsing off plates and stacking them into the dishwasher. “My driver has an affinity for murder-mystery books. Would you by any chance have a first edition of an Agatha Christie book?” he asked, then became more specific in his choice. “The Mousetrap.”
Adam chuckled. He had just had a mousetrap set for him. Lucky thing he had minored in English in college while working on his degree in criminology.
“The Mousetrap,” he informed Josiah needlessly, “was a play, not a book.”
The older man seemed properly embarrassed. “Ah, my error.” His expression slowly turned hopeful. “Perhaps one of her other efforts?”
As it turned out, he actually had something to sell to Josiah—if the man wanted to continue with the charade. “I have The Man in the Brown Suit.”
“Excellent,” Josiah declared with just the right amount of enthusiasm. “If you give me the address to your shop, I’ll make a point of stopping by next Wednesday. Christmas is coming, you know.”
“It usually does after Thanksgiving,” Adam commented drily. He reached into his pocket and took out his wallet. In the interest of maintaining his cover, he carried several business cards with him at all times and offered one to the other man.
Taking the card, Josiah studied it for a moment before tucking it into his own pocket. “Next Wednesday,” he repeated.
“I’ll be looking forward to it,” Adam told him.
The old man was up to something. He would bet his last dollar on it. But what? That was the part that didn’t make sense. Could it just be that the man was looking out for Eve? Or was there something else involved?
He’d been at this too long, Adam thought darkly. Being undercover for two years had a way of getting to a man. Now a rose was no longer a rose, but could very well be an elaborate listening device.
He missed the days of roses.
“Anyone for dessert?” Eve offered. But just as she rose to her feet, Brooklyn made a low announcement, letting it be known that she had woken up from her nap and now wanted someone—or everyone—to pay attention to her. Eve sighed, then flashed an apologetic smile at her guests. Dessert was going to have to wait. “Looks like I’m being paged.”
“Why don’t you do what you need to do?” Josiah suggested gently. “I can entertain your little bundle of joy for a few minutes. If I’m not mistaken, I haven’t had the pleasing experience of holding the young lady yet,” he added.
Bless Josiah, she thought. “All right, then, she’s all yours.” She turned to look at Adam. “Adam, could you please—”
She didn’t have to finish her request. He knew what she needed him to do. Pushing himself away from the table, Adam rose to his feet. “No problem. I’ll go get her for you.”
Brooklyn had napped in the family room where the baby could easily be seen by her parents during dinner. Walking into the family room now, Adam bent over the port-a-crib and picked his daughter up.
A quick check of her diaper told him she was still miraculously dry, although he had to admit that the thought of depositing a slightly soggy infant onto Josiah’s lap did have its appeal. Something about the older man didn’t sit quite right. It was only a matter of time before he figured out why.
Holding his daughter, aware of her every movement and how incredibly soft she felt against him, Adam crossed back to the dining room. He made his way over to Josiah.
“Ah, there’s the lovely lady. The spitting image of her mother,” Josiah declared, his thin lips curving in a faint smile. He put out his arms, looking forward to holding the little girl.
Adam hesitated for a beat. “You know how to hold a baby?” he heard himself asking.
Damn, when had that happened? When had he begun making noises like some overprotective, clucking mother hen?
Josiah raised his gray eyes to look at him. The steely eyes reminded him of laser beams. “I’ve held a few babies in my time, Mr. Smythe,” Josiah answered.
Banking down a reluctance that had no rhyme or reason to it, Adam handed his daughter over to the other man. Josiah accepted the small, wriggling bundle, a look akin to awe gracing the gaunt face.
It was Adam’s turn to study the old man. There was no hesitation, no awkwardness. Josiah held the little girl as if he’d had infinite practice doing so. And then he remembered.
“Eve told me that you have a daughter.”
“I do. And a granddaughter,” Josiah added, never taking his eyes away from the baby in his arms.
“So I guess that makes you an old hand at this.” Adam found that if he engaged someone in conversation enough times, eventually, he found what he was after.
Josiah spared him the most fleeting of glances, his attention completely focused on the tiny human being in his arms. “I wasn’t around very much when my daughter was this age and by the time her daughter was, they were in England, so no, I’m not an old hand at this. Some things just require the right instincts,” he pronounced.
The man became more and more of an enigma. “And what is it that you did for a living when you worked?” Adam asked, turning the tables on the older man.
“Whatever I had to,” Josiah replied quietly, his attention still exclusively focused on the bright, animated small face before him. The barest hint of a smile graced his lips as he added, “You might say I was a jack-of
-all-trades. Good at all,” he added, changing the old saying to suit him. “The fact that I survived attests to my ability to remain alive even in the most adverse conditions.”
He knew even less than he knew before, Adam thought. But now wasn’t the time to continue digging. He had a strong suspicion that Josiah enjoyed weaving answers that went around in circles.
Adam nodded toward the kitchen. “If you’re okay, I’ll go lend Eve a hand.”
“Of course I’m okay.” Josiah addressed his answer to Brooklyn. He looked—and felt—younger just by holding this radiant life form. Powerful medicine, he mused, these newborns. “Why shouldn’t I be?” he challenged mildly, finally looking up at Adam. “Go, help Eve. She isn’t as strong as she’d like to believe she is. It usually takes more than a month to recover from bringing a child into the world.”
Josiah said it with authority, as if familiar with the process. Just who was this old man who saw himself as Eve’s benefactor and secret guardian? He hadn’t a clue. Yet. But he would, he promised himself. He would.
Adam went to the kitchen, crossing paths with Lucas. The driver, finished loading the dishwasher, was on his way back to the dining room. The man nodded at him the way one tenant passing another in an apartment complex might, anonymous but friendly.
What was his story? Adam couldn’t help wondering. Lucas looked a little too robust, too buff under his uniform to be just a driver. Did he double as the old man’s bodyguard? And why would Josiah need a bodyguard?
“How much do you know about Josiah?” Adam asked Eve, lowering his voice so he wouldn’t be overheard by the men in the other room.
The question surprised her. She regarded Josiah with nothing but deep affection. Being around the older man made her feel as if a piece of her father was still alive. “I’ve known Josiah all my life.”
That didn’t answer his question. He was certain that there’d been people who’d known Ted Bundy all their lives—or thought they had.
“But what do you know about him?” Adam pressed.
She stopped decorating the pumpkin dessert and turned to face Adam. “That he’s a lonely old man who’s very sweet and occasionally takes in rescued dogs when his own pass on.” Her eyes narrowed as she looked at him, trying to guess what this was actually all about. “Why?”
Adam shrugged dismissively. “No reason. He’s just trying to stare me down.”
“He’s curious about you,” she corrected, going back to putting the finishing touches on one of the desserts. Shaking the can of whipped cream, she added a swirl right on the top, then drizzled the finished product with a handful of crushed pecans. “He thinks my judgment might be influenced by the fact that you are, after all, very good-looking and you’re Brooklyn’s father.”
His mouth curved in amusement. “You really think I’m handsome?”
She pretended to be engrossed in what she was doing. “I believe the exact description I used was ‘good-looking.’”
He was grinning now, not just smiling. “You want to quibble?”
What she wanted to do, Eve realized with a sudden jolt to her entire system, was make love with him. She found it unnerving that nothing had really changed. That incredible attraction that had drawn her to him in the first place was still there, alive and well. Perhaps even stronger than it had been originally.
The question was, what to do about it? Would she ignore what she was feeling, or give in to it?
Could she trust him, or was she just being an idiot? She really wished she knew, but the jury was still out on that.
Eve took a breath, trying to clear her head and focus. Finished with the whipped cream, she placed the last dessert onto the tray on the counter and then turned to Adam. “Would you carry that in for me, please?”
He paused to take in her handiwork, seeing it for the first time. He’d been too lost in thought to pay attention to what she was actually doing.
“This is like in a restaurant where they bring out a cart with a whole bunch of desserts for the customer to choose from,” he observed. Josiah had brought a traditional apple pie with him. Obviously Eve had forgotten that she’d asked him to and had put in a great deal of work on this array. “When did you get a chance to do all this?”
“Yesterday afternoon while Brooklyn was napping. Cooking and creating different desserts relaxes me,” she explained, though she figured he probably thought that was strange.
Making love relaxes me.
Adam stopped abruptly, slanting a look at Eve. Had he just said that out loud?
No, thank God. Judging by the expression on her face, he’d managed to keep his unexpected remark safe in the recesses of his mind. It was a lot better for both of them if it remained there.
Picking up the tray, Adam followed her back into the dining room.
Josiah’s face lit up. The older man had, she knew, a sweet tooth that was never satisfied. “I’ll have one of everything,” he told her before Adam had a chance to set the tray down.
“I’ve got a feeling he’s not kidding,” Adam commented to Eve in a stage whisper.
Sitting beside his employer, shaking his keys above Brooklyn to entertain her, Lucas glanced in Adam’s direction. “He’s not,” he confirmed.
“Why would I joke about something like that?” Josiah asked. “I have a weakness for pumpkin pie—pumpkin in any form,” he added. His eyes swept over the offerings. He was unable to make up his mind. “It’s times like this that I lament the fact that we have but one stomach instead of four, like cows.”
“You can take some of them with you,” Eve told him. She reached for her daughter, who was still in the crook of Josiah’s arm. “Here, let me take her so that you can eat.”
But Josiah shook his head, maintaining his arm around the baby. “She’s fine where she is, Eve. She won’t interfere,” he assured her.
To prove it, he drew over the pumpkin parfait she’d made and sank his spoon into the center of the whipped cream. Bringing the spoon to his mouth, he closed his eyes for a moment and made a deep, satisfied sound as he savored the taste.
“You know, Eve,” he said, his eyes still closed, “if you ever decide to stop being a veterinarian, you might consider becoming a pastry chef.” He opened his eyes to see her reaction. “I’d stake you to opening up your own restaurant.”
He noticed that Adam was studying him the exact same way he had studied the other man earlier. Josiah guessed at the reason. Adam was trying to figure out just where he had gotten all his money. The answer was a great deal simpler than the man would have dreamed. “The trick is to invest wisely and to know when to pull out.”
“I didn’t ask anything,” Adam pointed out, somewhat surprised at the unsolicited advice that had just come his way.
“Not verbally,” Josiah acknowledged, an enigmatic smile barely registering at the corners of his mouth. “But your eyes did.”
Brooklyn shifted, waving her tiny arms. The scent of the tantalizing spices that had gone into making the dessert seemed to register. She began to fuss.
This couldn’t be comfortable for Josiah, Eve thought. Again she reached to take her baby from him.
“Let me—” Eve started, but she never got the chance to complete the offer.
“You sit and take it easy,” Adam told her. “I can take her.”
He saw Josiah about to protest, but then decided to keep his peace. He didn’t bother wondering what was up. He just took his daughter into his arms.
Chapter 11
Sitting on the sofa, Eve stretched her legs out so that they went far beneath the coffee table. She allowed her eyes to close for a moment. A long sigh escaped her lips. Josiah and Lucas had departed more than half an hour ago, leaving a host of compliments in their wake. Adam had insisted on putting Brooklyn to bed. With the table cleared and the dishes done, there was nothing left for her to do except enjoy the stillness.
Which she did, finding it almost seductive. She stretched out her legs a little farther.
“Tired?”
Her eyes flew open and she shifted in her seat, turning to look at Adam. But he had already rounded the sofa, dropping down on the cushion next to hers.
She smiled at him, infinitely grateful that he was here, taking care of her. Who would have ever thought things would arrange themselves this way? Eight months ago, all she wanted to do was get away from him and the life she thought he represented.
“Yes,” she admitted, quickly adding, “but very satisfied.” She wanted this moment, this contented feeling to go on for a little longer. “It felt good doing that, hosting a dinner,” she told him. “I didn’t realize how much I missed cooking. Not that I don’t appreciate all the take-out meals that found their way into my kitchen,” she interjected quickly. Her eyes searched his face, afraid that Adam would take her initial words the wrong way.
He could almost read her mind. The idea made him laugh. “I wasn’t about to take offense,” he assured her. “And between you and me, your cooking tonight outstripped anything that I brought home this last month.”
He realized his slip a second after it had come out of his mouth. He’s referred to Eve’s house as home. Not her home, but just “home.”
Had she picked up on that? Looking at her, he couldn’t tell.
He supposed in the last few weeks, he had come to think of Eve’s place as home. Her house was where he spent most of his downtime.
Moreover, this was where his daughter was.
Careful, Serrano. You’re just here to look after her, to make sure the scum you’re associating with doesn’t harm her or the baby. Nothing more. Don’t let yourself get caught up in something you can’t handle.
The father of her child. Eve realized she was smiling at him. Maybe it was the afterglow of a successful dinner party, small though it was. Or maybe she was just too tired to keep her guard up, but she was having some very kind, not to mention sensual, thoughts about Adam right now.
Maybe she’d been too hard on him.
After all, he didn’t have to come around all these weeks and help her until she finally got her “mother” legs firmly planted beneath her. But Adam had come through for her with flying colors.
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