by Jillian Hart
"Jada!" Aiden dashed over and grabbed hold of her right hand. "Let me escort you, fine lady."
"And me, too!" Austin leaped to her other side and seized her hand, both boys hanging on tight as if determined not to let go. "We can be gentleman."
"We just don't know how yet," Aiden added. "We're still learning."
"But one day we'll be as good as our pa."
Jada cut her gaze sideways to the handsome father shaking his head and looking down at his progeny as if he'd never seen them before. Then amusement twinkled like night stars in his eyes and he shook his head.
"Don't believe them for an instant." He kept pace alongside them on the boardwalk and leaned in to open the door. "I have never seen them behave like this before. This is going to be a sure disaster."
"What do you mean?" She slipped through the door he held for her, escorted on each side by the overeager young gentleman holding her too tight but escorting her like perfect little men.
Not so perfect, Frisco thought, following them into the hotel lobby. Lights, bright and bold, glistened down from the chandeliers above and a slow melody of Bach's rose from the upright piano tucked in the corner near the dining room's entrance.
Men dominated the room, ranging from polite, prosperous business men to outlaws with Colt revolvers strapped to their thighs, gun belts at their hips. He was glad he was wearing his. You could just never tell when a gunfight would break out. He set his jaw, protectively glancing around the room measuring the strangers he did not know. He caught sight of the sheriff who nodded and gave him an approving wink. Definitely the lawman was on the job tonight.
"Hello, waiter, sir." Aiden tipped his head back to get a good look from beneath his hat brim at the tall, imposing man in a dark suit and a tie counting out four menus at the waiter's stand. "Reservations for the Haydens, please."
"Yeah, we're real hungry," Austin chimed in, giving the top of his hat a careful pat. "And we're not all Haydens. This is Jada. Pa's got his eye on her like a hawk."
"What does that mean?" Aiden asked his brother, turning away from the waiter entirely.
"I don't know," Austin answered his twin, wide-eyed, his voice high-noted with honesty. "But Grandpop said that Pa ought to catch her and just eat her up."
"What?" Frisco nearly fell over, embarrassed, humiliated, his chance at romancing Jada and getting one of the only suitable beautiful single women in town, much less the county, into bed were shot all to smithereens! He needed that good impression, he needed her to like him. What was she thinking?
He opened his mouth to attempt to correct what his boys had said, but the waiter turned bright red. With his jaw muscles snapping along the bone as he pointed one finger at the door. "Out! That kind of language does not belong in his nice establishment!"
Apparently he had never recovered from the frog incident, Frisco thought, rolling his eyes ceiling-ward.
19
"I'm sure the boys meant it kindly, you know," Jada said, flushed and blushing daintily and oh, so prettily. She had long dark drown lashes over eyes that were shy and a bit embarrassed over the boy's innocent words. "The way you appreciate and enjoy the loveliness of a Montana Territory morning or savor the familiar and welcome steam rolling off your morning cup of coffee. It's appreciation, and what a kind thing to say, boys. Right, Mr. Waiter?"
Frisco did not blame the man for the gaping fish mouth or the stunned, unblinking way he stared at her, perhaps charmed by the unexpected delight of a woman who bloomed like a new rosebud, so enchanting Frisco could not look away either. Or think of the right thing (or anything) to say. Was he just staring like a confused, enthralled and sexually interested man? Yes! And what exactly was he going to do about that? He couldn't seem to make himself move, think, blink or speak.
"That's not what he meant at all." Aiden broke the stillness. "He meant she was just as pretty as the cake Grandmama had just finished frosting and let us have."
"It means pretty," Austin insisted. "Pa, are we in trouble? Are we gonna have to go outside and have gruel for supper?"
"I don't feed you gruel ever." Frisco rolled his eyes ceiling ward again, a man in charge of his emotions and frustration level, perhaps. "Apologize, please, boys."
"We're real sorry, Mr. Waiter." Aiden turned toward the black-suited man still glaring and frowning at him and turned on both the charm and the instant sincerity, which would make anyone question the depth of such sincerity, but he was a handsome boy, Jada thought, so very similar looking to their father. "We didn't mean to say anything wrong."
"Yeah," Austin spoke up. "Or bad."
"Or really wrong," Aiden finished, giving a pleading look. "Is that sorry enough?"
"I'm not sure it is at all." The waiter frowned. "You boys will have to wait outside."
"But we really are sorry." Aiden took another hop and a skip forward. "Honest. Swear on my life honest. I won't say anything bad for as long as I live and get to eat in this hotel."
"Me, too," Austin pleaded. "Please excuse us and forgive us. We're real little and we don't mean to get into trouble."
"But once we know what it is," Aiden added. "We don't do it again. On our honor."
"Well." The waiter adjusted his name tag, his frown fading. "That's a real good apology."
"Thanks." Aiden sighed with relief. "We're real good at apologies."
"We gets lots a practice," Aiden added.
"All right." The waiter let out a long-suffering sigh, shook his head as if he'd had better days and was already suspicious of the quality of the evening to come. "But I will hold your father accountable for any further behavior. This is your last warning, Mr. Hayden."
"Thank you, Bartholomew, and I appreciate you seating us. As you can see, we have a lovely lady in our company tonight."
Aiden hopped forward a step, holding onto Jada's slender hand one again. "Yeah! We're courting her."
"We truly are. We are real committed to charming her pants off!" Austin explained, pleased as punch. He gazed up at Jada adoringly. "We sure like her."
"That we do," Frisco's hand landed on Austin's shoulder. "Bartholomew, perhaps you can see how enthralled the boys are with our date for supper and maybe you can understand how thrilled we all are to be in the company of such a reputable and quality lady."
"Indeed." The man named Bartholomew arched a dark brow, appraising Jada with kind eyes. "Without doubt, a fine lady. Come this way, all of you."
Jada dipped her chin, bowing her head to hide the shine of sudden tears in her eyes, blurring her vision and made the carpet under her feet hard to see. Good thing she had the boys tugging her along in the right direction or she would have lost her way. After all that had happened to her back home in Indiana and the painful smear on her reputation, it felt good to be treated so nicely tonight. It meant everything to her to be considered quality and be accepted again.
"Here you go, beautiful lady." Frisco pulled out the chair for her, and, boy, did he look dashing and dapper and quality in his jet black suit, tie and white shirt.
"Thank you, sir." Her spirits soared, her chest filling up with affection she didn't dare give in to. All kinds of things could go wrong, she had to hold back her feelings because he didn't really know her. But being here, tonight, just like this, was a dream that she'd been sure would never really happen for her again. She had to keep her feelings from getting ahead of things. "Have you and the boys gotten in trouble in this dining room on more than one occasion? Tell me the frog incident wasn't the only disaster."
"Guilty as charged." Frisco's voice seemed to rumble through her, as delicious as fine music, touching her soul and making her body shiver at his nearness.
It was as if heat from him radiated through her, and she resisted the urge to reach for her napkin to fan her face, for surely she was blushing and far too warm. He cleared his throat and stepped away to fold his big manly frame into the chair next to her. It was a cozy feeling having him so close.
"Yes, we're guilty too! It was ter
rible." Aiden plopped into his chair across the width of the cloth-covered table and scooted forward, the wooden bottoms of the chair legs screeching loudly against the few inches between carpets, interrupting conversations and making the waiter clear his throat in a reprimand.
"Here are your menus," he said with great disapproval. "What can I get you to drink?"
"I'd say a whiskey, but I try not to drink in front of the children," Frisco quipped with a wink that drew character lines into the corners of his big, expressive and amused eyes and dug deeper into the dimples bracketing his smile. "I'd best stick with sarsaparilla. What do you think, Jada?"
"That's always been my favorite. I love the taste and the bubbles."
"Us too!" The twins chorused together, wide grins reminiscent of their father's and their round, button faces so charming it was hard to blame them for any trouble, or for the fact that Austin's hat seemed to bob a little on its own.
Or maybe that was just her imagination.
"Sarsaparilla, it is." Bartholomew made a scribble on his notepad and backed away from the table with enough speed to suggest he was happy to get away before anything untoward happened.
Oh, this was going to be just fine, Jada thought, looking at the faces gathered at the table around her. The boys were angels, no doubt, and Frisco, why, he made her heart skip far too many beats and give a whoop of wow.
"Grandpop said to keep polite conversation going," Aiden informed her, most seriously. "That is the secret to being a successful beau."
"That and good food," Austin added with lavish sincerity. "Keep the lady eating out of the palm of your hand, and you can wrap her around you later."
"Your finger," Frisco corrected, alarmed. "Wrapped around your finger. Never get that wrong again."
"Oh, I thought I said it right. When I said it in front of Grandmama, she laughed until she had tears in her eyes." Aiden's forehead scrunched up with concern. "Jada, did you think it was funny?"
"Delightfully so." Jada cut her gaze sideways to Frisco and could not stop the image from flashing into her mind having him stretched out bare naked and gloriously so on top of her while she was wrapped so intimately around him, holding on, just as naked, joined as one.
Oh, the intimacies she'd missed over the years living what was a spinster's life. She bit her bottom lip, unable to know if her desires showed, but, not that it would be proper and not that she would allow such a thing, of course, she was a nice lady, but even ladies had needs and even ladies loved to be loved by a man who knew what he was doing in bed.
"Here's your drink, Miss." An older woman, pleasant-faced and kind-eyed, slipped a glass of bubbling sweetness onto the table near her plate. "I'm happy to see you having such a fine evening. I know your father from the saloon. This is a new serving job for me."
"Oh, how nice of you, thank you. Congratulations on the new job. I hope it goes well."
"So far so good, but I heard about the frog incident." Her apron had "Martha" embroidered into the uppermost pocket, and her blond hair was pulled back into a soft chignon.
Jada liked her right away. "I'm assured there are no frogs here tonight. Right, boys?"
"No frogs. We had to promise everyone," Aiden emphasized. "Besides, frogs don't make good pets."
"Ponies do," Austin informed them.
"Lucky me that Chester can't get this far into the hotel dining room without one valet or desk clerk grabbing him first." Frisco raised his glass to Jada's. "Shall we toast?"
"Good idea." She smiled a thank you as Martha scampered away to check on the neighboring table. "Do you always toast with sarsaparilla?"
"How else do I teach my boys how to do it?" He leaned in closer. She took in the sight of him in the fall of light from the chandelier above. Tall. Strong. Likable. His warm presence made her blood pressure rise. Not to mention the sensual tingles of awareness throughout her entire body. Was this appropriate, as they were in public and with his sons?
Certainly not!
She cared for him too much. Far too much.
"Miss Jada." Aiden cleared his throat, chin firm and set, crossing his arms so they rested on the edge of the table, giving him a lawyerly air far beyond his years. "Tell me, what do you think of our current political situation in Washington D.C.? Are you happy with the state of affairs of our country?"
"Yeah," Austin leaned in, just as serious, determined to be a fine gentleman of note and worth. "It's one thing Grandpop said was a polite conversation starter."
"I'm not sure what to say." Charmed, impressed and touched by their obvious willingness to be part of Frisco's beauing her tonight, she glanced over at the light sparkling off the raised glass she held. "Perhaps we can do the toast first before we delve into the topic of politics."
Across the sparkling rims of the glasses and the champagne-like bubbling of the soda, Frisco's kind, full-of-life and affection-filled eyes met hers. His gaze seemed to sink in, melting into the depth of her, and she felt her entire system, heart, body and soul, kick. As if she'd finally come alive, to life, when she'd been as if asleep and wooden for so long. Such was the power of hope.
And a man's sexy, charming look to his eyes, that included attraction, like and desire.
What a nice compliment, she thought. What a nice man. But would he understand about her past? Only the most kind of men would. She wished she knew him well enough to know if he would break her heart, so she could protect it now, while there was still a chance. Or, by falling too far and hoping too much, would he devastate her? Only time would tell.
"To a pleasant evening," Frisco said, glass raised to hers. "To good company, your loveliness and my hope that I won't fall short of the man you think I am."
"So far, you've only gone up in my estimation," she assured him, touched by his words, and let his glass bump hers, the crystal giving a clink and a faint ring. Definitely quality.
"Whatever goes up, goes down," Aiden commented from across the table and bumped his glass into theirs. "Pa, you always said that it gets hard when you're around a good, nice woman."
"What gets hard?" Austin asked innocently.
"To know what to say." Aiden shrugged, just as innocent.
Frisco leaned in a little closer. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that as a double entendre." He blushed handsomely, his cheeks pink and sculpted like a master had crafted him out of granite and dream. "I can only apologize for what was clearly unintentional."
"No need, it hardly was noticeable at all." She bit her bottom lip, not daring to hope that he got her joke or that he would not see her as untoward and lower his respectful treatment of her.
Instead, he broke into a chuckle, a warm ripple of quiet, irresistible laughter that made her heart triple beat. It made her hope that when the time was right, he would understand. What a kind man he was. He had to be enough, right?
"Oops!" Aiden's gasp of surprise broke into her thoughts.
"Uh oh!" Austin grabbed his cloth napkin still folded up next to his plate, his silverware clanging and tumbling in three different directions as he attempted to sop up the big splash of wet his twin's slipped glass had made on the expensive tablecloth.
"Boys!" Frisco rolled his eyes ceiling-ward again. "Honestly. We're supposed to be making a good impression for Jada, not scare her off."
"But the glass slipped right out of my hand," Aiden explained. "I caught it real fast and everything."
"It was a good save," Austin congratulated, dabbing at the big wet spot. "It hardly got on his shirt at all."
"Or my pants."
Frisco gritted his teeth. He refused to laugh and give the boys any reinforcement or message that he adored them beyond all measure and gave thanks daily they were here brightening his life. All they did was make him laugh (most of the time). But could he let them know that? No!
So, he pulled up his stern face, the one that made them quiver in their shoes and their heads bow down with true sincerity. He pushed back his chair, straightening his shoulders. "Come on, kid. Le
t's get that washed off you or you'll be sticky and your grandmother will have my head on a platter for that."
"She does our wash," Austin explained as he pushed out of his chair too, plopped two-footed onto the floor and tromped off, tossing over his shoulder. "Please excuse us, fine lady."
"Excuse me!" Aiden called out as he took a step down the aisle between diners.
Frisco's hand went to his forehead. Whatever Jada thought was deftly and politely disguised as a wide, laughing, gorgeous grin, making her eyes sparkle like jewels in the sun. Yeah, he wanted her. More than words could say. So much his teeth hurt. He gave a shrug. "We'll be back. This will give you time to read the menu without being interrupted constantly by one of us."
"I didn't accept your offer expecting peace and quiet."
"Good, then you won't be disappointed. This is just the start. Seize the peaceful moment while you can."
A diner at the next table gave a clap of applause. "Amen to that. We raised five boys of our own. My poor wife has never recovered from all the chaos. That's why we dine here. For the peace and quiet."
"Sorry, Mayor." Frisco grabbed hold of both boys by their shoulders to steer them to the necessary room at the back of the lobby. "How do you boys think you're doing so far?"
"Excellent." Aiden's toe of one boot caught on the heel of the other and he nearly tumbled face first onto the floor of the dining room.
But Frisco's reflexes were fast, he held the boy up and kept him from losing his balance. "Are you all right?"
"Just a little nervous, Pa."
"Me, too," Austin confessed.
"You boys are sure trying hard, I have to give you that."
He glanced over his shoulder down the long row of tables, some with diners, some perfectly set and waiting, until his gaze caught sight of her, sitting quietly, straight-backed and slender shoulders squared, adorable in the candlelight. Liquid gold brushed her face, highlighting the soft, fine carved lines of cheekbone and chin. Her rosebud of a mouth was curved up into a kissable grin.