Читать книгу Their Baby Bond - Karen Smith Rose - Страница 10

E xcitement, anticipation and fear danced inside Victoria Phillips all at the same time. In less than a month, she’d be bringing home a baby.

Deep purple and muted orange streaked the early September Santa Fe sky as Tori hurried up the three steps to the porch of her adobe ranch-style house. She let herself inside, thinking again about bringing home her baby boy if all went as planned…if Barbara Simmons—the eighteen-year-old who wasn’t ready for motherhood—didn’t change her mind. Tori had agreed to an unusual request, and now it haunted her more each day.

As she set her leather purse on the counter, her doorbell rang.

Quickly she returned to her living room. Maybe it was Barbara. She stopped in every now and then to report on all that was happening in her pregnancy. From the moment Tori had seen the sonogram of that little baby boy…

Swinging the door wide open, her breath caught as she recognized the man standing there—Jake Galeno. She’d called the number in his ad just last night. When she’d left a message, she’d never expected him to get back to her this soon, and certainly not show up on her doorstep! It had been twelve years since she’d last seen him, twelve years since he’d taken her to her prom and at the end of the evening given her a heart-stopping kiss she’d never forgotten.

In spite of the fact that she was a very confident thirty now, she was flustered. “Jake! I didn’t know if you’d remember me. I never expected you to get back to me this quickly.”

The breeze tossed his blue-black hair. The mixture of Native American, Spanish and Anglo heritage evident in his high cheekbones, angular face and slightly crooked nose reminded her she’d once thought he was the most handsome, the most sexy, man in the world.

He still is, a little voice whispered.

“Of course I remember you. How could I ever forget a night in Camelot?” he teased.

She’d never forget her senior prom and the legendary world that had embraced them for one wonderful night. Jake Galeno’s rugged outward appeal had always been enhanced by a deep, calm, sensual voice that vibrated through her like the ancient notes of the Native American music she loved. Now her thoughts scattered like dust in the wind as his almost-black eyes held hers for interminably long seconds.

Finally he stepped into the silence. “You called me because you have work you need to have done on your house?”

He was going to think she was an absolute idiot! Brushing a few strands of her tawny, pageboy-cut hair behind her ear, she swallowed. “Yes, I did. Please come in.”

When Jake moved into her house, he seemed to take up all the space. He was six-foot-two, broad-shouldered and lean-hipped. Due to her friendship with his sister, Nina, he’d taken her to the prom out of kindness. Afterward they’d gone their separate ways. Back then, he’d just finished training at the police academy and had taken a job on the Albuquerque police force. She wondered why he’d returned to Santa Fe.

“You told me your work hours when you left your message,” he reminded her. “I looked up your address in the phone book. It will be easier to give you an estimate for your repairs if I see them.”

“The last two contractors I phoned never called me back,” she explained. “One didn’t get back to me for two weeks and then told me his schedule was full until after Christmas. So I guess I expected the same from you.”

Casually, Jake slipped a tanned hand into the pocket of his jeans. “I just got my business off the ground officially about six months ago. I’ve been consistently busy, one project turning into the next. I’m finishing up a house near Espanola. I can fit you in, probably start next week—Tuesday, since Monday’s Labor Day.”

“That would be terrific! In a few weeks I won’t want to deal with noise and dust—” She stopped. Jake certainly didn’t want to hear about her life. He’d come to give her an estimate.

It had been his kindness she’d remembered most about him, his ease with anyone he talked to. Now it wrapped itself around her as he asked, “Is something special happening in a few weeks?”

She only hesitated a heartbeat. “I’m going to become a mother.”

At that, his gaze appraised her flowing turquoise-and-rust pants outfit. It molded to her when she moved and clung flatteringly to her figure when she didn’t. She became hot under Jake’s perusal and was quick to say, “Oh, I’m not having the baby. I mean, not naturally. I’m adopting.”

“An infant?”

“Yes. It’s a private adoption. A young unwed mother.”

Obviously sensing her excitement, he smiled. “And you can’t wait?”

“No, I can’t wait. I want everything to be in order…everything to be perfect. I’ve waited for this for so long—” Her voice broke, and she was embarrassed by the depth of feeling in it. Her divorce from Dave and the reasons for it had almost destroyed her. But she’d made a new start.

“You never married?” Jake asked, as if it was an everyday question.

They weren’t strangers, after all. She’d worked with Nina at a pottery outlet her last two years in high school, and that’s how she’d known Jake. Well, not really known him. He’d been four years older and out of her universe.

Except for that one night—a night in Camelot. “I was married for a while. But it didn’t work out. I took back my maiden name after my divorce.”

“Raising a child on your own won’t be easy.”

She was tired of hearing that—from her mother, from the media, from her inner doubts. “Raising a child on my own will be a lot easier than doing it with a man I can’t expect to stay, can’t expect to trust, can’t expect to be an equal partner.”

Jake’s brows arched. “Sorry if I hit a nerve. But I’ve seen my sister struggle with her two boys since her husband died.”

His remark spiked through the tension. “I’m so sorry! Nina and I lost touch years ago. I didn’t even know she was married. And now she’s a widow. Did you say she has boys?”

He grinned. “Twins. Whirlwinds who don’t let me rest a minute when I’m with them. Once in a while I take them for the day. Working from dawn to dusk for a week is easier and requires less energy.”

Although his tone was wry, she could tell he was fond of his nephews. Curiosity urged her to ask, “You don’t have children of your own?”

His mouth straightened into a serious line. “No. I’ve never been married and I never expect to be.”

It was an uncompromising statement with feeling behind it that Tori understood. After Dave left, reinforcing childhood doubts and fears that had come into play when she’d decided to get married, she’d known that she’d never trust a man again. Whatever had fueled Jake’s remark came from a place deep inside him, a place that had been long established.

The silence between them crackled with awareness. Or was it only her old crush on Jake Galeno deluding her into thinking the attraction she’d always felt for him might now be more than one-sided?

She had no intention of finding out.

A car horn beeped at the curb next door, giving her an excuse to break eye contact as she glanced out the window. “I’d better show you the problems out back first. We can go through the kitchen.”

Leading the way, she didn’t risk another look into those sable eyes that still had the power to fascinate her.

The sky was almost violet, the clouds gray puffs tinged with pink, as Jake stood on Victoria Phillips’s patio, focusing on the weather-and-wear damage to the house’s exterior northern wall—trying to focus on it, rather than her. When he’d heard her message last night, he’d been transported into the past as if he’d stepped into a time machine. She’d always been a beauty with her honey-gold sleek hair, her blue-green eyes, curves that for a few moments had fit so well against his hard body. He’d met her when she’d just turned seventeen and he’d been twenty-one. When he’d taken her to the prom a year later because her date had landed in the hospital with appendicitis, he’d put a leash on his desire. He felt duty bound to protect her innocence.

She was still off-limits. His life was too undecided. He wasn’t sure he’d be staying in Santa Fe. He could end his unpaid leave of absence from the Albuquerque police force with one phone call. But he had no intention of returning to negotiations team work. And he had no intention of involving himself with a woman like Tori. Up until a year ago, he’d been an expert at reading people. If the skills he’d honed since he was a kid counted for anything, he was sure Tori Phillips would put the child she wanted to adopt before a torrid affair.

The breeze carried the scent of Tori’s perfume, a deep flowery scent, as he ran his hand over the patches on the wall that needed attention. Straightening, he caught her watching him, and the sharp stirring of desire made him take a deep breath.

Damn! He should turn this job down. But his fledgling business needed the income. He didn’t want to deplete the savings he’d worked so hard to accumulate. “You mentioned ceramic-tile work, a medicine cabinet you’d like to have installed and shelves in a bedroom closet?”

Under the glow of the day-end sun, her cheeks pinkened a bit. “I’ll show you.” Quickly, she moved back into the house toward the bathroom.

He could see that the ceramic tile-work surrounding the tub and sink would be extensive. “Are you sure you don’t want to use a laminate?” he asked, after he explained everything he’d need to do and the mess it would make.

“I like the permanence of tile—when it’s done right,” she added with a small laugh.

“Age has something to do with it,” he concluded as he ran his finger over the crumbling grouting. He eyed the medicine cabinet she’d purchased and the lighting fixture that would hang above it. She wanted quality, and that didn’t surprise him about Tori, either. He’d looked up her art gallery—Perceptions—in the phone book last night after she’d left her message. It was located on Old Santa Fe Trail. She must be doing well if she could afford this little gem of a house. Real estate in Santa Fe was over the top.

“The closet is in here.” After she led him to the second bedroom, she opened a closet door. Like the rest of the house—except for the kitchen and bathroom—the room had a hardwood floor, but it was expectantly empty. “I’d like shelves in the upper portion of this closet and a bar for hangers below.”

She pointed to patches of plaster near the floorboards that had crumbled. “Can you fix that, too?”

“Thanks to apprenticing with my uncle since I was about ten, I can do a little bit of everything. I have my general building license and one in ceramic tile, marble and teffazzo.”

She looked impressed. “You worked with your uncle before you entered the police academy.”

“You have a good memory.”

“I think I remember everything you told me on prom night.”

Then, as if she’d revealed a secret, she pinkened again and changed the subject. “How long do you think this will take? Barbara’s baby is due at the end of September.”

“If my estimate meets with your approval, I’ll work as fast as I can. The job will probably take four or five days.”

“That’s great. I’ll have about three weeks to get everything ready.”

She started across the room and then stopped. “I forgot to show you the breaks in the fence out back.”

“I saw them. I’ll put the numbers on paper tonight. I can drop it in the mail or give you a call.”

“You can just call me.”

“You might want to see everything itemized.”

“I trust your estimate will be honest.”

Her words took him by surprise. “Why is that?”

“Because I doubt if you’ve changed from the young man who took me to the prom. You could have taken advantage of me that night, and you didn’t.”

That night he’d seen the stars in her eyes and known she’d thought of him as one of those rescuing knights that had been painted on the paper taped to the walls of the banquet hall. Yes, he could have taken advantage of her.

“You think because I was a gentleman on prom night I won’t overcharge you?” His tone was amused.

She laughed. “I’ll be able to tell from your estimate. And, Jake…I’m not as naive anymore.”

He wondered if that was some kind of warning. “I’ll remember that.”

Leaving the bedroom, he crossed to her front door and opened it.

Tori came up behind him like an angel who moved with no effort at all. “If you talk to Nina or see her, please give her my regards. Maybe she and I can have lunch together sometime.”

“I’m sure she’d like that. I’ll tell her.”

With a last look at the woman Tori Phillips had become, he left her house, hoping taking this job wasn’t a mistake.

When the phone rang the following evening at about eight, Tori wondered if Jake had forgotten something. He’d called earlier with his estimate and she’d given him the go-ahead. Now, she recognized the voice on the other end of the line immediately.

“Tori? It’s Nina.”

“Nina! How are you? Jake told me about your husband. I’m so sorry.”

There was a momentary pause. “It was a shock. But we’re managing now. Shortly after it happened, Jake was…at loose ends. It’s one of the reasons he came back to Santa Fe, and I’m grateful. The boys need him around.”

“I’m glad he could be here for you. How long were you married?”

“Eight years. We…we didn’t have the best marriage.”

Silence fell over the line, and Tori didn’t know what to say to that. Nina had always been very open, and she could tell they’d fallen into the old camaraderie they’d shared as soon as she’d picked up the phone. “Jake tells me you have twins.”

“And you’re going to adopt a baby! I’d love to catch up with you.”

“We could go to lunch someday this week.”

“I have a better idea. Why don’t you come to dinner tomorrow night? You can meet my boys.”

“I don’t want to put you to any trouble.”

“It’s no trouble. Mama does some of the cooking. The guy I’m dating will be here, and so will Jake.”

“Jake?”

“Yeah, he likes a good meal a couple of times a week. Did you two talk about old times?”

“There weren’t that many. He only took me to my prom.”

“You two used to talk when he came into the store.”

“That was rare.”

“I guess he’d just finished at the academy then. He rose through the ranks fast. I just wish…”

Tori wondered why Nina stopped. “You wish what?”

“Did he tell you what happened? Why he came back to Santa Fe?”

“No. But then, he wasn’t here for a social visit, Nina. He came to look at the work I need to have done. Why did he come back to Santa Fe?”

“I’d better let him tell you about all that. He doesn’t like it when I talk about his life.”

“Are you sure he won’t mind me coming to dinner? I mean, he might not want to mix his professional life with his personal life.”

“You’re my guest. And as far as Jake’s concerned, it wouldn’t hurt if his personal life and his professional life got a little mixed up. He has no sense of purpose right now. That was one thing my brother always had.”

This baby was going to give Tori’s life the purpose and meaning she needed. She loved her work at the gallery—promoting artists, finding new ones and giving them a start. But she didn’t feel she was put on this earth to simply work and to make a comfortable life for herself. She wanted to be a mother so badly that tears came to her eyes whenever she thought about it. The car accident she and Dave had been involved in had destroyed her chances to conceive a child naturally. But she had no doubt that she could love the baby she’d seen on that sonogram with all her heart.

“Purpose is important,” she agreed now. “You can give me the real scoop about motherhood, and everything I’ll need to buy that I haven’t even thought about.”

“It will be so good to see you again, Tori.”

“I’m looking forward to it. Just give me the time and directions to your home.”

The sun streamed brightly over San Felipe Avenue the following evening as Tori found Nina’s house and turned into the driveway. A blue-and-tan truck was parked there already, and Tori recognized it as Jake’s.

Picking up the box on the seat beside her—she’d stopped at her favorite chocolatier this afternoon, hoping the assortment of candies would be something everyone would enjoy—she took a deep breath and readied herself to see Jake again.

However, as she rang the bell and waited on the pink concrete porch, she was unprepared for the astonishment on Jake’s face when he saw her.

Spying the box of candy in her hand, appraising her claret pants and top, he put two and two together. “Nina invited you to dinner?” His tone was neutral.

“Yes. I assumed she’d tell you. I—”

Shoving her brother aside none too gently, Nina appeared in jeans and a purple-checked blouse, spotted Tori and managed to tug her inside, hugging her at the same time. “It’s so good to see you.”

Nina was a petite version of her brother, feminine in every way he was masculine. Her black hair was still long and straight. Except for a facial line here and there, she didn’t look much different than she had at eighteen.

Pulling Tori into the small living room that seemed overcrowded with people, she reintroduced Tori to her mother, Rita Galeno, who had aged considerably. In her mid-fifties now, her hair had gone completely gray and she still wore it in an oblong bun pinned at the back of her head.

She smiled at Tori. “I remember you. You were the one who convinced Nina her eyes were too pretty to wear all that mascara and eyeshadow on them.”

A sandy-haired man with twinkling blue eyes who had moved closer to Nina after she’d hugged Tori, now circled Nina’s waist with his arm. “You used to wear all that goop?”

Nina laughed. “I was young, defiant and knew all I needed to know. Until Tori came along. Tori, this is my…friend, Charlie Nexley.”

“He’s not her friend,” a child of about five piped up. “He’s her boyfriend.”

“Ricky,” Nina warned the child, who was obviously the identical twin of the boy standing not far from his elbow.

“We saw them smooching,” his brother said with a solemn nod.

When Nina’s face flushed, Jake stepped in. Crouching down, he wrapped an arm around each boy’s shoulder. “Ricky, Ryan, this pretty lady is Ms. Phillips. Your mom and I knew her a long time ago.”

“When you were a kid?” Ryan asked innocently.

Jake chuckled. “Not quite that long ago. Now, why don’t we go out back and get out of everybody’s hair?” Without another look at Tori, Jake stood and ushered the boys to the back door.

Without Jake’s presence in the room, Tori felt a definite decrease in tension. She offered the box of candy to Nina. “Here’s something for everybody’s sweet tooth.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

Charlie accepted the box and said with a grin, “I’d better put this out of sight. At least until the boys have had their dinner.”

Nina gave him a grateful smile.

As Charlie moved into the kitchen, Rita pushed herself up from the recliner. “I’d better check on the soup.”

Nina winked at Tori. “Tomato and rice with lots of green chilies. She smothered the chicken in roasted hot peppers, too. I hope you’re up for it.”

“It sounds delicious.” Tori placed her purse on a small pine table just inside the door. “Nina, thanks for inviting me today. But…Jake acted as if he didn’t know I was coming.”

“He didn’t.”

An uncomfortable silence stretched between the two women until Tori broke it. “Do you think that’s fair to him? He might not have wanted a stranger—”

“You’re no stranger. He probably thinks of Charlie as more of a stranger than you. If I had told him you were coming, he might not have come himself. There’s something in his voice when he talks about you that makes me think…” She grinned. “Maybe there are a few sparks?”

Tori wasn’t going to admit to anything. “Maybe your imagination is working overtime.”

Nina studied Tori for a moment, then shook her head. “Nope. I know what I see. The truth is, Tori, I asked you here because Jake needs help.”

Tori couldn’t imagine Jake Galeno needing anything from anyone. He’d always seemed so confident and self-contained. “What kind of help?”

“I don’t know. That’s the problem. He doesn’t, either. Something happened in Albuquerque that he can’t get over. It had to do with his work. He needs to talk about it, but he won’t. He needs to get past it, but he can’t. He needs to get on with his life, and he says he’s doing that, but he’s not. I just thought inviting you tonight might get him to open up a bit. He’s only his old self when he’s with the boys. Maybe you can remind him who he used to be.”

“Maybe I’ll only make things worse.”

“That won’t happen. C’mon. You can watch while I make the salad.”

While Nina worked and talked, Tori couldn’t help but glance out the window often. Jake didn’t look like a man who needed help. He was roughhousing with the twins, laughing with them, playing catch. Even when he was young, she’d sensed a deep control about him, an integrity that told everybody he knew who he was and what he could do. That was still the essence of his appearance. But what was going on inside? What had happened in Albuquerque?

She shouldn’t care. She wouldn’t care.

She’d learned when she was very young that men didn’t stay. She’d been nine when her father had walked out on her mother because he’d fallen in love with someone else. She’d seen her mother’s tears, pain and depression. She’d seen her father’s second marriage break apart, until she’d lost track of him and his second, third and fourth wives. When Tori had married after college, she decided her marriage would be different. It might have been if fate hadn’t intervened and changed the course of her life. Dave had walked out on her because she could no longer bear his children.

So much for vows. So much for putting faith and trust in a man. She would never do it again.

As Tori, Nina and her mother discussed their favorite recipes, Charlie went to the carport to check the pressure of Nina’s tires. He told her he thought one of them looked low.

Soon after, Nina went to the door and called for the boys to come in and wash up. As they bounded toward the bathroom, Jake entered the kitchen, heading for the sink.

Tori was standing right beside it, boxed in by the counter. The working area of the kitchen was small, and there really wasn’t anywhere she could move without looking obvious.

When Jake turned on the spigot, he was close enough to her that she could see the gleam of sweat on his brow and inhale his scent, which seemed to be sunshine and sage and all man. For a moment her senses reeled and she told herself she was being silly. But she couldn’t seem to take her gaze from the black hair on his forearms, from the soapy suds slipping over his large hands.

“Catching up?” he asked as he flipped off the spigot.

It took her a moment to find her voice. “Sharing favorite recipes.”

“I should have known,” he said with a smile. “What else would three women do in a kitchen?”

With a slight shift of his body, he turned toward her. He was so close she could feel his body heat…feel a current of electricity between them immobilize her as she became fascinated by the whorl of hair nestled in the V of his green T-shirt.

He reached behind her, brushing her back. “I need the towel,” he explained, his voice husky.

Their gazes locked, and she vividly remembered the moment on her front porch twelve years ago when his arms had encircled her and his head had lowered to kiss her. The smoldering look in his eyes now convinced her he was remembering, too, maybe thinking about what it would be like to kiss her again.

As he lifted the towel from the counter and took a few steps back, she chided herself for being ridiculous.

Finished with the towel, he hung it over the oven door handle. “Where’s Charlie?” he asked Nina.

“Checking my tire pressure.”

He frowned. “I was going to do that. In fact—”

Jake never got to finish because the twins ran back into the kitchen. Nina directed them to set the table in the dining area, where she had stacked dishes, silverware and napkins.

Both boys grumbled and groaned.

Ryan protested the loudest. “I want to go outside and watch Charlie.”

Jake crooked his finger at them, and they scampered to him, looking up expectantly. “If you help your mom get ready for dinner without complaining, I’ll take you for ice cream afterward.”

“Carlo’s Place?” Ricky asked, wanting to put terms to the deal. “Two scoops?”

“You got it,” Jake said with a nod.

As the boys ran to the table, Nina scolded her brother. “That was a bribe.”

“Yes, it was. But I figured it was a small price to pay so they didn’t argue with you for the next ten minutes.”

“Sometimes you have to stand on principle,” Nina grumbled.

“Getting things done is better than principle,” Rita insisted. “After all, your brother’s the expert at negotiation.”

At Rita’s remark, a smothering hush fell over the kitchen.

Tori glanced from sister to brother to mother, not understanding the sudden tension and the somberness that seemed to have taken over Jake’s whole demeanor.

“Jake, I’m sorry,” his mother said, looking upset. “I didn’t mean—”

“I know you didn’t,” Jake said quietly. “Forget about it. I’m going to see if Charlie found the tire gauge.”

Then Jake Galeno exited the kitchen, leaving Tori with unsettling questions she didn’t think Nina or Rita were going to answer.