Читать книгу The Bride Said, 'Finally!' - Cathy Thacker Gillen - Страница 9

“I need a favor. And I need it from you,” the low, distinctively male voice drawled.

As the velvety sound surrounded her, tingles of awareness slid down Jenna Lockhart’s spine. She knew that rich, familiar murmur. Unless she was hallucinating…The blood rushed hot through her veins. She turned slowly toward the door, telling herself all the while she had to be imagining it. That the romantic notion was prompted by the equally shocking elopement of her sister, Dani, and Beau Chamberlain several weeks before. Just because Dani had found the man of her dreams and married him, just because wedding fever was sweeping the town of Laramie, Texas, did not mean that the man of Jenna’s dreams would waltz back into her life on a moment’s notice. Did it?

Drawing a deep breath, Jenna lifted her eyes, curious to see who had entered her exclusive boutique just seconds before she closed for the day. And promptly felt her knees turn to jelly. Well over six years had passed since she had seen the man who had broken her heart all to pieces, but Jake Remington hadn’t changed a bit. Except, perhaps, to become even more handsome and self-assured. He was a good six inches taller than her five-foot-nine-inch frame, with a penchant for casual clothes, and an even more casual manner that belied his enormous wealth and good fortune.

“What are you doing here?” Jenna demanded.

Looking completely at ease with himself in the ultrafeminine surroundings, he circled around the one-of-a-kind wedding and evening dresses on display. Once at her side, he tipped back his black Stetson, revealing layers of thick jet-black hair. As he scanned her from head to toe, reluctant pleasure tugged at the corners of his lips. “I wanted to congratulate you on your success.” Jake lifted his glance back to her eyes. “Your clothing designs have been in the news all month. Dani created quite a stir when she wore one of your dresses to the premiere of Beau Chamberlain’s new movie. Reportedly, every starlet in Hollywood now wants one of your originals.”

That was true. Due to her growing success, Jenna was booked solid with appointments. She was taking the time between now and then to prepare for the onslaught. And perhaps look at hiring someone besides Raelynn to help her in the shop. But not wanting to disclose all that to Jake, Jenna merely shrugged and returned his steady glance, albeit with a lot less admiration. “You’ve done very well for yourself. I hear J&R Industries is a multimillion-dollar conglomerate.”

Jake pushed back the edges of his black sport coat, and placed his hands on his waist. His sexy grin widened. “You’ve kept up.”

Jenna turned away, trying hard not to notice how taut and trim his midriff was beneath his olive-green shirt and snug black jeans. “Hard not to, if you read the business pages of all the major Texas newspapers—and I do.”

Following her around the shop, Jake said, “I would have called for an appointment, but I didn’t think you’d see me.”

Struggling not to recall how good it had felt to be held against that warm, strong chest, Jenna refused to look at him as she shut down her computer for the night. “You were right.” She remembered without wanting to how much he had hurt her, abandoning her the way he had. “I wouldn’t have.”

Jake looked at her steadily, serious now. “What happened between us was a long time ago.”

Funny, Jenna thought. It seemed like just yesterday to her. Though in reality it had been six years, eight months, ten days and…nineteen hours. But who was counting?

She smiled thinly. “What’s your point?”

Jake’s expression was suddenly as vulnerable as it was grave. “I want us to be friends again.”

Jenna didn’t want to think of Jake as vulnerable, because if she did it meant he had a heart, and that was definitely not true. Jenna locked her cash register. “Not possible.”

He leaned across the sales counter. “How will you know unless you try?” he asked.

Every muscle in her body went stiff with tension. “I’m not interested in trying, Jake,” she told him flatly, ignoring the unsettling way her senses stirred at his close proximity.

Jake regarded her with so much smug male assurance it took her breath away. “Same old stubbornness and fiery temperament.”

“Same old arrogance and conceit,” she shot back, refusing to be distracted by the enticing, woodsy scent of his skin.

Instead of being insulted, Jake merely grinned, and looked all the more entranced. “Jenna, I have a proposition for you.”

As Jenna recalled, what he’d said was that he needed a favor from her. In her opinion, those were two very different things. “I’ll just bet you do,” she replied. Grabbing a clear plastic garment bag, she slipped it over a wedding dress on the overhead rack.

“I need you to make a complete wardrobe.”

Jenna knelt and gently folded the edges of the beaded satin gown into the bag. “I don’t design men’s clothing.” And even if she did, she wouldn’t design anything for him!

Jake also knelt to help, holding the bottom of the bag straight. “It’s for the lady in my life.”

Resisting the urge to deck him, Jenna zipped the garment bag closed. “Now I’m really not interested.”

Jake stood, and hand beneath her elbow, gallantly helped Jenna to her feet. “I’ll do anything you want.”

Still tingling from his brief, but sure touch, Jenna carried the gown back to the storeroom. Wishing her heart would stop pounding and resume its normal beat, she carefully hung the gown on the rack. “I’m still not interested, Jake.” To her dismay, Jake showed no signs of leaving despite her less-than-gracious hints.

He moved back to let her pass and continued speaking as if she had already agreed to accommodate him. “The thing is, it’s a rush job.”

Her exasperation mounting by leaps and bounds, Jenna strode back out into the carpeted showroom. She went to the desk behind the sales counter and reached for her Rolodex. “I’ll give you some names and send you on your way.”

“I don’t want anyone else. I want you.”

“Too bad,” Jenna replied, forcing herself to remember how much he had hurt her instead of how very well he kissed, “because you’re never going to have me.” Ever again.

Jake quirked a brow. Desire, pure and simple, was in his eyes. “Don’t make promises you may not be able to keep.”

Her temper flaring, Jenna poked a finger at his chest. “And don’t you presume to know what is in my heart or on my mind.”

Outside, a red sport utility vehicle with tinted windows pulled up to the curb and parked just ahead of Jake’s charcoal gray truck and Jenna’s sporty white convertible.

Obviously perturbed by the interruption, Jake glanced at his watch and frowned. “She’s early.”

Like that matters! Jenna thought, incensed.

Unable to believe his audacity, never mind his lack of consideration for her feelings, Jenna turned to Jake furiously. “You are so out of here,” she said just as the driver alighted from the truck. To Jenna’s amazement, it wasn’t some glamorous young babe Jake was dating, but a plump, pleasant-looking woman in her mid to late fifties, wearing jeans, boots and blue denim work shirt. She had a straw cowgirl hat pulled over wild salt-and-pepper curls and a red bandana tied around her neck. She walked to the rear door on the passenger side. Realizing this woman was only the chauffeur, Jenna began to frown again.

Jake moved between Jenna and the window, adeptly blocking her view. He tugged her behind a three-mannequin display of evening wear in the boutique window. Meanwhile, though the chauffeur had opened the passenger door and was holding it wide, no one was getting out.

“Look, I’m begging you,” Jake said urgently. He clamped both his hands on Jenna’s shoulders and held her there in front of him when she would have bolted. “Alex’s been through a really rough time. When she saw your designs on TV she fell in love with them. I promised her I’d get you to design her some dresses, just for her. Exactly what she wants. Down to the very last detail.”

Finding his request more unbelievable than ever, Jenna snapped at him, “So break the promise. That’s certainly not anything you’ve hesitated to do before.”

Reminded of the heartless way he had betrayed her in the past, he showed a moment’s regret. Then, recovering, he went on matter-of-factly. “It’s not that simple, Jenna.”

Jenna scoffed again. “It is to me. Besides, I have confidence in you,” she continued sweetly, favoring him with a long, withering look. “You’ll think of something, Jake. You always have.”

The driver turned to Jake and lifted her hands in exasperation. Jake nodded his understanding signaling the driver to wait.

“I’ll double your usual fee,” Jake said urgently, fastening his attention on Jenna once again.

Jenna shook her head, thinking, This man really needs to have his head examined. “No!”

“Triple.”

Jenna rolled her eyes. “You must really be desperate.”

Jake muttered, lifting one hand from her shoulder and, rubbing the back of his neck. “You have no idea how much.”

Jenna wasn’t sure whether to tell Jake what she really thought of him, or just pity him. “Find some other ex-girlfriend to torture,” she said in a low, bored tone.

Jake dropped his other hand, stepped back. Where he had gripped her shoulders, Jenna continued to tingle warmly. Too warmly.

“There is no one else,” he said, dispirited.

Looking into his mesmerizing silver-gray eyes, still feeling the awareness that shimmered through her at his touch, Jenna could almost—almost—believe that. Which only proved that once a fool, always a fool, she reprimanded herself. “No one else who knows how to operate a sewing machine, you mean,” she replied archly.

Without warning, the limo driver snapped to attention once again. Sensing something was about to happen, Jake and Jenna both looked in the direction of the car. Seconds later, Jake’s “lady” vaulted out, clutching what looked to be a squirming bullfrog in both hands. She was muddy, unkempt, with a baseball hat planted backwards on her head, covering a mop of long and tangled strawberry blond hair that obviously hadn’t seen a brush all day. Olive-green overalls and a dingy T-shirt, several sizes too big, hung from her slender figure. She wore pink-rimmed sunglasses, high-topped basketball sneakers. A backpack in the form of a monkey was slung over one shoulder. Relief and amusement—and irritation at Jake for not having explained further—flowed through Jenna in equal quantities, making her want to deck him all over again.

“This is the lady in your life?” Jenna asked, guessing the little girl’s age to be about five or six.

“The one and only,” Jake smiled as the little scamp marched toward him. Jake turned to Jenna, sexy mischief in his eyes. “What did you think I meant?”

Too late, Jenna realized it had been a test, to see if she still had feelings for him, and she had failed. Hardening her heart against any further involvement with him, she said, “I don’t design children’s clothing, either.”

Outside, the chauffeur waved cheerfully at Jenna, gestured to Jake she’d be back in a minute, then took off down the street after she ushered the child toward the shop.

“I was hoping you’d make an exception for Alexandra, here,” Jake continued as the child sidled up to him for a one-armed hug.

“That’s okay, Daddy.” Alexandra leaned against Jake’s side, her head resting against his waist. “I didn’t want any dresses anyway. And stop calling me Alexandra. You know I only wanta be called Alex.” Carefully transferring the frog to one hand, she grabbed onto the sleeve of Jake’s casual black blazer with the other and tugged fiercely. “Let’s go, Daddy.”

His eyes still on Jenna, Jake shook his head. “Not yet, honey. I’ve got business to do.”

The pout that formed on Alexandra’s pretty face was immediate—and potent. “You’ve been doing business all day,” she grumbled as the frog leapt from her hand and hopped across the floor of the shop. “I want to go to the ranch house now,” she repeated stubbornly. Racing after her frog, she called over her shoulder, “It’s brand-new. Daddy built it just for us, so I’d have somewhere I could play outside, and have horsies and dogs and cats and stuff. Only I don’t have none yet.”

Jenna looked at Jake, too surprised by his revelations to be concerned with the amphibian escapee. “I didn’t think your family was summering here anymore.” They had stopped at the time of Jake and Jenna’s failed elopement.

“My folks don’t, although they keep the ranch for an investment and loan out the house to friends from time to time.”

“Then why would you build a place here, if you no longer have family vacationing in the area?”

Jake shrugged. “I loved coming to Laramie when I was a kid.” He shot a glance at Alex, who had throw off her monkey backpack and pink sunglasses and was hopping around after her frog, well out of earshot. “I figured Alex would love it, too.”

Jenna smiled, unable to resist a dig after the way his family’s snobbish attitudes had hurt her. “Are you sure that’s wise? Laramie is a great place. Friendly. Warm. Caring. Intimate. But on the social register—well, we really can’t compare with your native Dallas now, can we?” She looked at him steadily, daring him to claim otherwise.

Jake stared back, regarding her with the same steady intensity. “I never thought you’d be a snob.”

“Me?”

“Okay, reverse snob,” Jake amended.

Before they could continue their discussion, Alex’s chauffeur stepped into the shop. Jake turned to the older woman, affection etched on his face. It was, Jenna noted curiously, a feeling that was returned. “Jenna,” Jake said warmly, “this is Clara, our housekeeper, the lady who keeps us all sane. Clara, I’d like you to meet Jenna Lockhart, the lady I’ve been telling you and Alex about.”

“I heard you two knew each other as kids,” Clara said.

Jenna nodded. “We used to see each other every summer. But that ended a long time ago. We haven’t seen each other since.”

Jake gave Jenna a look that said: “And it’s a loss to us both.”

Jenna gave Jake a look that said: “Speak for yourself.”

Alex popped up from behind the sales counter. She waved the bullfrog in the air. “Hey, everybody, I got him!”

“Well, nice meeting you all, but as you can see I’m closing my shop for the day.”

“Goody! Did you hear that, Mr. Froggie? We get to go to the ranch!” With a wave at Jenna, Alex darted back out the door.

“Nice meetin’ you!” Clara said, waving as she headed out the door after Alex.

Jake frowned at his daughter, who was already climbing back in the truck. “This probably isn’t a good time for us to talk,” he conceded with a frown.

Jenna breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m glad you finally realize that.”

“We need to go to dinner together,” Jake said firmly.

Jenna’s eyes widened. Determined not to put herself in an emotionally vulnerable position with him again, she scoffed derisively. “In your dreams!”

Jake’s eyes darkened with legendary confidence. “I’ll be by to get you around eight o’clock,” he promised as she stalked away from him.

Jenna concentrated on putting the Closed sign on the front door. Then opened it and held it wide for him. “Don’t hold your breath,” she muttered sweetly as she waved him toward the exit.

But clearly, Jake was counting on getting his way. As always. “Wear something casual,” Jake advised as he sauntered toward the door. “I want you to be comfortable.” He gave her a smile that reached his eyes. “We have a lot to talk about.”

“THE NERVE of that man!” Meg Lockhart fumed short minutes later at the emergency meeting of all four Lockhart sisters. Having come straight from work, she was still in her nurse’s uniform.

“I’ll say!” Kelsey agreed with a snort of disgust as they all gathered around the dining table in Jenna’s apartment above her Main Street boutique. Kelsey put down the stack of catalogs of ranch gear she’d brought in with her, pushed back her cowgirl hat and pulled up a chair.

“To come around after all these years, acting as if nothing much at all had happened!” The happily married Dani shook her head in a reproach too deep for words. A movie critic by profession, she liked drama and excitement as much as anyone, but this was too much—even for her!

Dani leaned toward Jenna urgently. “I mean, I know how much you loved him once, Jenna. But for him to think—after all this time, no less!—that you would still be carrying a torch for him…How foolish is that?”

Pretty foolish, Jenna thought, aware it was uncomfortably close to the truth. As much as she hated to admit it, no man had ever come close, before or since, to engendering the passionate emotions in her that Jake Remington, captain of J&R Industries, did.

All four sisters sipped iced tea with lemon, their heads bent together thoughtfully.

“Actually, I think the smartest thing would be for you to go on that date,” Meg decided after a moment as she took the pins out of her long auburn hair and shook it out.

Everyone turned to Meg—the oldest and most responsible of them all—in shock. Meg regarded them determinedly but saved her advice, which came straight from the heart, for Jenna. “You need to prove to him once and for all that you are so over him it isn’t funny,” Meg told Jenna sternly. “Let him wine and dine you and even pull out all the stops if that’s what he wants to do. Just play along with nary a word of protest and let him go for it. And then—” Meg paused and raised a cautioning hand “—when he’s expended his full bag of rich-boy tricks, let him know straight out there’s no going back to the way things were when you were teenagers. Let him know it’s over, once and for all.”

More discussion followed. By the time her sisters left to take care of their own dinnertime commitments, consensus had been reached. Meg’s plan was the one Jenna was going to follow. So Jenna dressed in the prettiest, sexiest sundress she owned, for the express purpose of making Jake Remington eat his heart out and realize what he gave up when he dropped her like a stone after their failed elopement.

PROMPTLY AT NINE o’clock, Jake bounded from his truck and took the exterior steps leading up to Jenna’s apartment above the shop two at a time. He rang the bell, wondering all the while if she was even going to be in. Part of him wouldn’t blame her if she did stand him up this time.

A second later the door swung open. He took her in and immediately had the exact same thought he’d had earlier in the day. Damned if she wasn’t the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. And damned if she wasn’t the only woman who could make his heart turn cartwheels in his chest. Especially in that body-hugging off-the-shoulder white sundress that made the most of her high perfect breasts, slender waist and trim but oh-so-curvaceous hips. High-heeled white sandals and a hem considerably shorter than the one she’d had on earlier made the most of her sexy showgirl legs.

And her wish to drive him mad with desire had not ended there.

She’d taken down her thick red-gold hair and let it fall around her shoulders in tousled sexy layers that teased her shoulders and framed her delicate, oval face. She’d scented her soft ivory skin with perfume, the same kind she had worn when they were young and in love. Her clear blue eyes were bright with challenge and an I-dare-you-to-try-anything-cowboy sass. Jake had always been the kind of guy who loved a challenge. And nothing more than the challenge Jenna Lockhart presented. He just regretted it had taken him so long to get back to her. But since he had, and since she was still so clearly ticked off, maybe it was best he slow down a tad, take it nice and easy. And to that end, he waggled his eyebrows at her and teased, “You going out with me or someone else?”

Jenna propped her hands on her slender hips. She still looked like she’d like nothing more than to take a swing at him. “What do you think?” She plucked her purse and keys off the entryway table and, her head held high, strode past him.

Jake held the door for her, followed her out and waited while she locked up. “I think if anyone else shows up, intending to squire you around, he’s going to have to do battle with me first.”

Jenna pinned him with a debilitating glare. “I figured we should just get this over with,” she said dryly.

Jake grinned at her fiesty tone, liking the warm flush of color that had come into her high, elegant cheeks. “Such enthusiasm,” he drawled.

“What did you expect?” Jenna watched her step as she headed down the stairs. “Me to jump up and do a cheer the moment you waltz back into my life?”

Jake grinned at the thought of Jenna in the short pleated skirt and sleeveless sailor top that had comprised the Laramie High School cheerleading uniform when Jenna was in school. “You used to be pretty great at that,” he said, recalling how good she had looked in burnt orange and white. “In fact, I loved seeing you cheer at the few games I was able to get to.” Jake opened the door, and gave Jenna an unasked-for hand up into his truck.

Her delicate brow arched as he climbed behind the wheel and started the engine. “What do your parents think of you asking me to create a wardrobe for their granddaughter?”

Jake frowned as he shifted into Drive, turned onto Main Street and headed out of town. He had known they would have to talk about all the things that had separated them before; he hadn’t expected to do so this soon. “I don’t have to ask my parents for permission anymore, Jenna,” he replied quietly, slanting her a glance.

Jenna’s clear blue eyes radiated both hurt and unhappiness. “Meaning they don’t know,” she guessed, just as quietly.

Jake’s shoulders tensed and he had the urge to rip off the tie he had put on just for her. “Meaning I don’t care if they do or don’t know. Meaning I am a man with my own life now. Just like you’re a woman with your own life.” He speared her with a look, wanting to be clear about that much.

Jenna cut him off, her voice unexpectedly devoid of joy. “Speaking of your life, where’s Alex?”

Jake relaxed as they passed the last of the traffic lights and headed out into the Texas countryside toward their destination. He smiled as he thought about his daughter, and Jenna’s interest in her. “Alex’s back at the ranch.” Jake turned down the air conditioner. “She’s supposed to be in bed. But I imagine she’s talked Clara into letting her stay up late and they’re playing potato-chip poker and chomping on cigars about now.”

Jenna quirked a brow. Jake grinned. “Alex’s, of course, will be made of bubble gum.”

“What about your wife?”

Jake could tell by the way Jenna looked at him, the fact she was even here with him, that she—along with everyone in Laramie and half the people in the state of Texas—had heard about his divorce from Melinda Carrington the year after Alex was born. Melinda had wanted—and won—a large chunk of Jake’s trust fund from his parents. He had considered it a small price to pay for his freedom and custody of his beloved only daughter. “Melinda is in Europe, getting over the end of yet another romance, this one was with an Italian count. She’s upset because she really wants to get married again, to someone who can give her the kind of ultraglamorous life I never did. Apparently, the allure of single life has worn thin.” Jake understood that. He was tired of being alone, too. Tired of regretting the way his romance with Jenna had ended. The way both of them had been hurt.

“I’ve seen her pictures on the society pages of the Dallas papers. She’s very beautiful.”

“On the outside,” Jake confirmed.

“And well-bred,” Jenna continued in a way that let him know she was determined to lay all their cards on the table. “Your parents must have approved of her.”

And still did, unfortunately despite everything. But he didn’t want to get into that now, and certainly not with Jenna on what was supposed to be their night. Jake slowed the truck as he approached the turnoff, some fifteen miles outside of Laramie. The native limestone country inn was set back from the highway in a grove of live oaks. It was softly lit from within. The grounds were landscaped and very private. Glad to see the owners had followed his instructions to a T and cleared everyone else out, including the staff, before they arrived, Jake parked in front and cut the motor. “I hope you don’t mind. I selected the place.”

“Obviously not in Laramie,” Jenna added, her accusatory look reminding him of all the times they had seen each other on the sly when they were teens. Too late, Jake realized how it seemed to Jenna. She was wrong if she thought he was ashamed to be seen with her. Quite the contrary. “I wanted something more private, so we could talk without interruption,” Jake explained. “So I rented the inn for the evening.”

“You mean the dining room?” Jenna ascertained.

Jake shook his head, “The entire inn.”

Shock widened Jenna’s eyes, then turned them an icy blue. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope.”

Once again, to Jake’s dismay, Jenna obviously suspected his intentions were not at all chivalrous or forthright. “You really are pulling out all the stops,” she said, clearly displeased.

Jake got out of the truck, his hopes of a lovely intimate dinner with the only woman he had ever loved fading fast. He knew he’d made mistakes in the past where Jenna was concerned. Whether she was ready to admit it or not, she had done the same by him. Nevertheless, he was getting tired of defending himself, and having her look at him as if all he were trying to do here was take her to bed. He circled around to open her door. “I have money. I’m not afraid to put it to good use. Getting you on my side—and Alex’s—is very good use.”

Reluctantly, Jenna allowed Jake to escort her up the front steps and across the porch. “Speaking of Alex, you really should be home with her this evening.”

“Funny.” Jake held the door and guided her through the wide front hall to the beautiful dining room to their left. The long table for sixteen had been pushed against the wall. It was covered with a linen tablecloth and a variety of silver chafing dishes. A smaller table had been placed in front of the huge stone hearth, and was beautifully set for two. In deference to the summer heat outside, and the air-conditioning inside, there was no fire. Instead, a dozen lit candles were artistically arranged in the grate. Vases of freesia and baby’s breath—Jenna’s favorite—abounded. Soft music from their youth filled the room.

“And yet,” Jenna continued, looking at Jake as if he were anything but a good guy to have around, “you’re here with me.”

Jake uncovered their salads and poured the wine. “In order to get you to help out Alex and me.”

Jenna accepted the wine with a nod. “Texas is full of designers.” She kept her eyes on his as Jake sat down opposite her.

“But only one of you,” Jake countered, trying to imagine what it would be like to have Jenna back in his life again, not as the grief-stricken teen she had been when they parted, but the strong, self-assured woman she had become.

“Why me?” Jenna whispered, suddenly looking as torturously unhappy as he had felt all these years without her. “Why now?”

Jake wasn’t about to apologize for doing what should have been done years ago. “Because I haven’t been able to stop thinking of you.” Because all this time I thought I had hurt you enough and I was doing you a favor by staying away. And then I saw you on TV and realized I would never love anyone the way I loved you.

For a moment, Jake thought Jenna felt the same way, but the feeling faded, and the sweetly nostalgic look in her clear blue eyes faded and turned to ice once again. “That’s a shame,” Jenna said crisply. “There’s nothing worse than wasting energy or time. Which is exactly what this is.” She started to rise.

Jake caught her wrist and pulled her back down into her seat. He wanted nothing more at that moment than to haul her into his lap and kiss her soundly. But—for Alex’s sake, for the sake of them—he kept his mind strictly on the business at hand. The business that would have Jenna and him spending time together and getting to know each other again. “You haven’t heard my proposition,” he pointed out calmly, releasing her only when he was sure she wouldn’t try to flee.

Not looking at him, Jenna speared a piece of lettuce with her fork, lifted it to her lips. “I don’t want to hear your proposition.”

“Sure now?” Jake taunted as he too dug into his crisp, delicious salad. “It could do wonders for your design business.”

Jenna paused. So it was true, Jake noted, with equal parts satisfaction and disapproval. Her design business did mean everything to her.

“I’m listening,” she said eventually.

Jake reached into the inside pocket of his blazer and pulled out a neatly drawn-up business agreement. “I’m offering to provide the financial backing via J&R Industries to make and distribute a clothing line bearing your name.”

Jenna put down her fork and studied the paperwork for an extraordinarily long time. “And the catch is…?” Jenna said eventually.

Jake polished off his salad and took a sip of wine. “Alexandra needs a wardrobe.”

Jenna narrowed her eyes at him and observed with a faint note of disapproval in her voice, “Why, when she seems to have one she is perfectly happy with?”

Jake shook his head, cutting Jenna off. “She needs to look like a little lady,” he said firmly. “The sooner, the better.”

Jenna arched a delicate brow and went back to eating her salad. “Says who and why?”

Famished, Jake broke open a roll and lavishly spread it with butter. Reluctantly, he imparted, “Melinda is concerned about Alex’s tomboyish phase. She thinks it proves I’m not capable of rearing Alex on my own.”

Jenna paused, her fork halfway to her lips. “But you have custody, don’t you?”

Jake took another sip of wine. “Sole custody since she was two, yes.”

Jenna’s brow furrowed. Finished with her salad, she also reached for the bread. “Isn’t that unusual?”

Jake shook his head. “Not when the mother doesn’t want custody. And Melinda didn’t. All she wanted in the settlement was money. Which, as you and everyone else in the Lone Star State knows, she got.”

“I’m sorry,” Jenna said. “For Alex. I know how tough it is to lose a mom when there’s no helping it. To have that happen when it doesn’t have to be that way, well, it’s got to be tough.”

Jake sighed and got up to retrieve the main course, blackened redfish, scalloped potatoes with jack cheese and French beans. “When Alex was younger, she didn’t seem to mind the fact that her mother lived in Europe and rarely jetted over to see her.” Jake filled the plates and brought them over, one at a time. He sat down opposite Jenna and dug in. “The truth is, even when we were still married, when Alex was a baby, Melinda never paid much attention to her. So when Melinda moved out—well, Alex couldn’t miss what she’d never had. I wasn’t about to leave her home alone. And though my parents would have taken her, that wasn’t an option, either. I didn’t want Alex adopting some of their snobbish attitudes. So she traveled with me on business. Everywhere I went, Alex went—with Clara usually coming along and doubling as driver and nanny, depending on what I needed at that moment.”

Jenna regarded Jake with the inherent kindness that was so much a part of her personality. “And Alex was happy with the arrangement?”

“Very.” Jake exhaled. “But when she went to school this past fall and all the other kids in her kindergarten class had moms fussing over them and picking out their clothes, it hit her hard. And suddenly, she just started refusing to wear dresses—not that she’d ever really liked them. But at least when I needed her to brush her hair and wear a dress so I could take her to some fancy restaurant, I could get her to do so.”

“But no more?” Jenna guessed, as the CD player switched from a Trisha Yearwood album to one of Garth Brooks’s.

“No more. I guess Alex figured if she couldn’t be like everyone else and have a mom and a dad living at home with her, she’d just be different. And that was when Alex went full-bore into this tomboy stage. I thought it was a phase and just didn’t push it. But now Melinda has heard about Alex’s increasingly disheveled appearance from mutual friends. She’s embarrassed, upset. Thinks it reflects poorly on her. Next thing I know she’s threatening to sue for custody and planning to leave Italy—where she’s been living the past couple of years—for good.”

Jenna looked at him quizzically. “You don’t want Melinda to come back to the States?”

Jake sighed, knowing it sounded lousy of him, but also knowing if he was going to drag Jenna into the middle of this mess, he owed her the plain, unvarnished truth. “If I thought it would do Alex some good,” Jake hedged. “If I thought Melinda would be any kind of loving mother, or positive influence in Alex’s life, I’d be lobbying for it in a red-hot minute.”

Jenna’s eyes softened compassionately. “But you don’t think that’d be the case.”

Jake sighed. “Bottom line, Melinda doesn’t have a maternal bone in her entire body. She cares about money and appearances and finding another husband whose only goal in life is to make her happy, and that’s it.”

“So in coming to me you’re trying to head Melinda off at the pass.”

Jake nodded, more sure than ever now—from Jenna’s sympathetic reaction to his dilemma—that he had been right to come to her. “Unfortunately, clothes aren’t all she needs.” Jake looked at Jenna seriously. “Alex needs a crash course in being a lady before her mom gets back.”

Jenna made a face, no longer quite as eager to help out or get involved. She went back to polishing off her redfish. “Can’t you get your mother to help with that?”

Jake shook his head, knowing that as much as he loved his mother, and he did, that she was long on lecturing and interfering and short on patience. “My mother is not the one for the job,” he said firmly. “You are.”

Jenna looked at him as though he had lost his mind. Finished with her entrée, she got up to see what else was on the side table. Jake stood up, too.

“Think of it this way,” he said as Jenna helped herself to very small slivers of chocolate cake, praline cheesecake and warm peach-and-blueberry cobbler. “You’d be doing something for me I desperately need.” Jake settled on just the chocolate cake. “I’d be doing something for you that you desperately need. We’d be helping each other.”

They returned to the table in silence. Jenna shook her head in silent censure, even as she enjoyed her dessert. “After the way you treated me—” she said, as if unable to believe his gall.

Tired of taking all the heat for what had happened between them, Jake angled a thumb at his chest. “Hey! I’m not the one who got cold feet and refused to elope at the last minute!” In fact, he still felt if Jenna had just gone off with him then, they would be married today.

Jenna rolled her eyes as she got herself a cup of coffee. “We were caught, suitcases in hand, by your parents!”

Jake discounted that with a shrug. “We still could have gotten away,” he said levelly, pouring his own cup of coffee. “What would they have done? Chased after us?” He mocked her with a lift of his brow. “I don’t think so. That’s way too undignified for my folks.”

As for the rest of the complications, they had thought about everything. Jenna was underage, but she was also just a couple of weeks away from her birthday. As long as she went willingly with Jake, and they didn’t cross any state lines, and waited until Jenna was legally of age to actually consummate the marriage, then they wouldn’t be breaking any laws. Of course, if they married without the permission of her guardian their marriage would have been technically invalid. But they had that covered, too, deciding if they just waited until after Jenna’s birthday to return to Laramie that no one would kick up a fuss about what was more or less a “done deal” for nearly three weeks. They recognized that his family’s lawyers could easily take care of any legalities, even if it meant another quickie ceremony.

Jenna sighed. “Okay, so maybe there wouldn’t have been a car chase or some big scene at the justice of the peace, even if your parents had managed to figure out exactly where we were going as well as physically head us off before we got there.” She waved a lecturing finger beneath his nose. “But your folks still would have tried to convince you to have our marriage annulled when we returned and my big sister probably would have done the same thing.”

“So what?” Jake argued right back. “If we had already been married, a baby potentially on the way, my parents and Meg both would have backed off, if only to avoid an even bigger scandal than just us running off and getting married.” He knew Meg. She cared about Jenna and wanted her to be happy. And he knew his folks. No way would they want any grandchild of theirs born out of wedlock, or Jake taking advantage of a young innocent girl. In fact, it was their training on that fact that had kept Jake from ever making love to Jenna in their younger days. Even at the very end, when she’d been willing, he had insisted on waiting until they were actually married. And, truth to tell, as much as he still wanted to make love to her, he still didn’t lament that fact. He was glad he had treated Jenna with respect, glad they had waited until they were old enough and or the time was right. The truth was, as much as they had wanted to be married then, they hadn’t been ready for it.

“Your parents didn’t approve of me, Jake. Not from day one. They didn’t even want us being friends.” She looked at him steadily, all the hurt she had felt, then and now, in her clear blue eyes. “Over the long haul, a marriage between us never would have worked and you know it.”

Jake reached across the table and covered Jenna’s hand with his own. “All I know is that we let our relationship go,” he confessed huskily, “and I’ve spent every day since regretting it.” He didn’t want to spend the rest of his life the same way, and if he were right in his assessment of her feelings, Jenna didn’t, either.

Jenna jerked her hand from his. She pushed away from the table angrily and vaulted to her feet. “If that were true, you would have come after me then. You would have called, tried to see me. Something. Anything—”

Remembering how miserable they both had been, Jake pushed to his feet, too. “I wanted to,” he said roughly, going after her.

“Then why didn’t you?” Jenna squared off with him, tears glistening in her eyes.

Jake clasped her shoulders. “Because I couldn’t,” he told her with a weariness that came straight from his soul. “Not without destroying your life. And that of your sisters.”