He told her the best way to teach her about the family business was to expose her to it. So while other girls her age were playing with Barbies, she'd been taught to play the
"who's sitting on the Supreme Court" game.
Not today, though. Today was a day for fun and games, both for the adults and the children.
So far, so good. The kids were having fun, the adults were milling and enjoying, and she hadn't had a moment to even speak to Jake in about two hours. Which pretty much left her surrounded by a bunch of strangers.
Not that it mattered. This was the friendliest group of people she'd ever had the pleasure to meet. The women didn't raise their eyebrows at her presence there with Jake, instead welcomed her as if they'd known her for years. She just hoped she didn't get anyone's name wrong.
"You've done a wonderful job today, Lucy."
She turned and smiled at Bob's wife, Shelly. "Thank you, Shelly. I hope everyone's having a good time."
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Shelly beamed, her rosy cheeks plumping up with her grin. "You can bet on it. The rest of us will have a hard time making our turns as spectacular as this one."
Lucy frowned. "Too much, you think?"
"No, not at all." Shelly laid a hand on her arm. "It's perfect. Just what this stodgy old group needed. And we're thrilled there's something for the kids to do."
"Speaking of kids, I need to go make a call. Can someone hold Bayley?"
One of the contractor's wives, Lucy thought her name was Maria, handed off the infant into Lucy's arms.
She couldn't recall ever holding a baby before. Not having any brothers or sisters or relatives with children meant her exposure to babies and small children was, well, nil.
But she cradled Bayley in her arms. The infant looked up at her, smiled a toothless grin, and promptly drooled all over Lucy's chest.
"She likes you," Shelly said.
"She's adorable," Lucy countered, feeling a maternal urge to protect this child unlike anything she'd ever experienced. Was that a natural feeling? Did all women feel this way?
"You look good with a baby. Thinking of having your own any time soon?"
Jake had warned her Shelly would be the worst at matchmaking. He'd told her that as soon as Shelly and the rest of the women found out they were dating, they'd have a wedding date set before Lucy could utter a word.
He was nearly right.
"Um, yes, I've thought about having children, of course." Lucy kept her eye on Bayley, who found her silver necklace fascinating, flicking the dangling beads on the chain with her chubby, wet finger. "I'll need to focus on finding a husband first."
Shelly laughed. "Honey, with your looks and that body, I can't imagine you'd have much trouble."
Lucy felt her cheeks warming. "Thank you. You'd be surprised how difficult it is to find a good man."
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"You might have already found one. Jake is a prize that many women have tried to claim for themselves."
"Really?" Lucy looked around, trying to find Jake. She didn't see him.
"Really."
Shifting Bayley in her arms, she and Shelly took a seat on the glider. The baby sat forward in her lap, and found Rascal to be quite entertaining. Every time he licked her hand she'd pull it back and giggle.
Trying not to think too hard about what happened the last time she'd been in the glider, she turned to Shelly. "Does Jake date a lot of women?"
She immediately felt guilty for asking the question, knowing she was prying into Jake's personal life, but curiosity got the better of her.
"Not really. Like I said, he's had plenty of offers, and he goes out now and then. But he spends way too much time on business if you ask me. Not like he's getting any younger, and I need grandchildren."
Lucy laughed at Shelly's comment. "Kind of see yourself as his pseudo-mother, do you?"
She nodded. "Poor boy had it rough the first part of his life. I'm just glad he ended up with Bob and me. We'd always wanted children, but it never happened for us."
"I'm sorry." Lucy looked at Shelly now, still a beautiful woman though she had to be well past sixty. She wore her hair in a stylish chin-length cut, and it was a thick, gorgeous silver. Lucy'd give her right arm for straight, sleek hair like that.
"It's okay. We long ago accepted it. And I think God had a plan for us. We were needed to take care of Jake. He's more my son than any other child I could have ever given birth to."
The woman's obvious love for Jake warmed Lucy. "Jake's a very lucky man."
Shelly's brown eyes glittered with happiness. "Thank you. But now, like a concerned mother, I want to see him as happy as Bob and I have been all these years."
"I'm sure it's just a matter of time before the right girl comes along." Why, as soon as she uttered the words, did she feel a stab of jealousy? It wasn't like she was going to www.samhainpublishing.com 87
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be the girl of Jake's dreams. And yet, the thought of him sitting on this glider with another woman brought about a fierce emotion. Anger? As if he were cheating on her. As if he were hers and no way was she going to let another woman get her claws in him.
"Maybe he's already found the right girl."
Lucy stared at Shelly's knowing smile, and shook her head. "I don't think so."
"Maybe you're not as smart as I thought you were, then," Shelly said with a pat on Lucy's shoulder.
A couple of the other kids stopped at the glider to talk to Lucy and play with Bayley, effectively cutting off further conversation with Shelly. Good thing, too, since she didn't have an appropriate comeback for Shelly's last statement.
Jake found Lucy sitting on the glider with Shelly, holding Maria's baby in her lap and surrounded by kids like a shepherd with her flock. Seeing her like that struck him immobile, his heart skipping a beat.
Her face was flushed, her head thrown back, exposing that neck that begged for his teeth, and she was laughing at something one of the children said to her.
One thing he'd discovered over the years was that kids could spot a phony or someone who didn't naturally love children. Kids avoided adults who didn't like them.
They'd been hanging on Lucy all day long, and not once had she frowned at them, told them she was too busy, or otherwise given them the brush off. Each time one of the kids pulled the hem of her shorts she'd stopped whatever she was doing, bent down to their eye level, and gave them her full attention.
His heart felt mushy, and that had never happened to him before.
He never got mushy. That was for women, or men who were too weak to hide their emotions. What the hell was happening here?
All he knew was that he hadn't had a moment alone with Lucy all afternoon, and he didn't like it one bit. Granted, he was the host and besides handling the barbecue, he also had to play bartender and handle some PR with his peers. But dammit, the one thing he wanted was in his line of sight but out of his reach.
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And the way things were going, it didn't look like he'd be able to grab a minute alone with her for some time to come.
Not that he was sure what he wanted to do if he had that minute with her, but he'd damn sure think of something.
"Your girl is spectacular."
Jake turned and smiled at Maria Sampson. He'd known her husband, Steve, since they'd apprenticed together on his first job site. Steve had been four years older but as green as Jake.
"Thanks."
"She's great with Bayley."
He followed Maria's gaze to see Bayley pulling herself to a standing position by grabbing on to Lucy's blue top, which appeared to be sliding further down her chest, nearly revealing her perfect breasts. Lucy just laughed, gently extricated Bayley's hand from inside the top, and held on to the baby's little fingers so she could stand.
"
Yeah. She's great."
"Good choice, Jake," Maria said. He watched as she went over and rescued Lucy from Bayley's chubby clutches. Lucy looked as if she was reluctant to let the baby go.
There it was again, that tugging on his heart. Oh, man, he needed a drink. And maybe a stiff dose of some angry testosterone before he ended up dropping to his knees in front of Lucy and begging her to marry him and bear his children.
Wouldn't she get a laugh out of that one?
Thankfully, he spent the next hour busily feeding everyone and cleaning up the mess.
By the time dusk rolled around, most of the group was ready to head home.
Jake was more than ready for them to be gone.
Thank God Lucy had planned this party. One by one everyone had congratulated him and told him it had been the best contractors' barbecue yet. But he wasn't about to take the credit. Left up to him, they'd have had hot dogs, beans and beer, and would have spent the entire day sitting around and staring at each other.
Lucy had saved his butt.
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"She sure saved your behind today," Bob said, coming up to stand next to him. They both watched Lucy play a round of some kind of Nerf ball game with the kids. She looked to be having as much fun as the children. Her eyes would go wide over some antic, then she'd giggle uncontrollably, finally ending up with two or three little ones tumbling on top of her.
Jake bit back a groan at watching her writhe all over the ground, her slender legs exposed in her little shorts. What he wouldn't give to join her and really give her a reason to roll around.
He popped open the can and took a couple quick gulps, thankful for the cooling liquid on his parched throat. Figured today would be the hottest day of the summer so far.
Fortunately, Lucy had anticipated it and suggested the tents to keep the sun away.
Face it. She'd thought of everything.
"Shelly really likes her. Hell, all the women like her. Nobody had an unkind word to say about her." Bob looked at Jake and shrugged, almost as if he was sorry to be the bearer of that news.
Didn't surprise Jake in the least. He'd been busy today, but not too busy that he didn't notice the way she fit in with his crowd. Not that he'd worried she wouldn't. Well, maybe a little. Funny how she could be so at ease with his kind of people, when he expected her to be bored or appalled at the behavior of the kids.
"I'm glad Shelly liked her." Her opinion meant a lot to Jake. Shelly had called him on some of the women he'd brought around over the years, and damn if she hadn't been right about every one of the women she'd told him were a complete waste of his time.
"I gotta warn you," Bob said, "she's already thinking of you two as a permanent couple."
Jake rolled his eyes. "Not gonna happen."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure."
Bob's snicker didn't go unnoticed. Nor did his mumbled "famous last words" as he walked away.
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No. It wasn't gonna happen. Not now, not ever. So he might as well get any heart tugging, thinking of Lucy as goddess of creation, out of his head, because their worlds were not going to collide.
Trouble was, they already had. Every day he spent with her she wriggled more and more into his head, his mind and his heart. He had to get her out of there, and fast. To her, this was just a charade. If he got attached to her he was going to lose.
Hell, he'd already lost. Everyone had left, finally, and he stood at the back door, mesmerized while watching that perfect backside of hers as she bent over to pick up trash. Little blue shorts stretched tight, along with that clingy top that showed just a hint of cleavage along with some blue, lacy-looking bra.
He adjusted his shorts, feeling the almost instantaneous twitching which always occurred whenever she was around.
Thankfully he had been too busy today. Wouldn't have looked too good to have his peers see him follow Lucy around the yard, drooling like a dog on a too hot summer day.
She finally turned and spotted him, then straightened and graced him with a brilliant smile that he could see despite the gathering darkness. He walked toward her.
"You don't have to clean up," he said, taking the trash bag from her hands.
She frowned. "I don't mind. Besides, there's not much left to do. Most everyone put all their trash in the bags."
They patrolled the yard together, Lucy clearing off the last of the cans and paper plates that had been left, while Jake held open the trash bag. He kind of liked this domestic stuff. Surprisingly, she hadn't complained once about doing any of the prep work or the clean up.
For a stuck-up socialite, she sure seemed to enjoy the down home simplicity of his life.
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Or maybe he was reading into this what he wanted to see, not the way things really were. She was simply being polite because he'd asked for her help. Nothing more than that.
"I think we got it all picked up," she said, sweeping her hair away from her face. She stood in the middle of the yard, hands on hips, and nodded.
They headed into the house and Jake fixed them both a drink, then motioned for Lucy to join him in the living room. They sat on the leather sofa, which felt cool to his legs after the itching heat from outside.
"Thank you for helping. Thanks for everything today. I couldn't have done this without you."
A blush stained her cheeks. "It was fun. I didn't mind at all. Do you think it turned out okay?"
"Hell yeah. From what I heard it was the hit of all the barbecues so far." He stretched his legs on the coffee table in front of him. "Everyone said they'd have a hard time competing with this one."
"Oh, it wasn't that big a deal. Just a few bites of food and some games for the kids."
She looked beautiful sitting there, her expression tentative, yet hopeful. For someone with so much going for her, she sure seemed a mass of insecurities. Didn't she realize how great she was?
Reaching out, he grabbed a loose curl and threaded it through his fingers.
"You did more than just a little. Take a bow, you deserve it. And I really appreciate your help."
"You're welcome. I actually had a great time today."
"I could tell. You seemed to really enjoy the kids," he said, trying to find some way to break the spell she wove over him.
She grinned. "I love being around kids. I wish I had more exposure to them, but unfortunately, not many of the people I know have children. The social events I attend don't allow kids."
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"You know, you looked completely different out there today. Nothing like a lawyer at all."
One corner of her mouth lifted in that saucy grin he liked so much. "Really? And what did I look like?"
He thought a moment, and then it struck him. The way the children gravitated to her, her natural ability to make them feel comfortable. "You looked more like a kindergarten teacher."
Her face paled and the smile died on her face. Tears pooled in her eyes, threatening to spill over.
"Hey. What's wrong?"
She shook her head. "Nothing. I'm sorry, it's just that I, what I mean is, what you said, oh, never mind. I'm sorry, please excuse me."
Her last words were said on a quivering gasp. She set her glass on the table and literally ran into his bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her.
Jake sat there, stunned and confused.
What the hell had he said to set her off like that?
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Chapter Eight
Lucy sniffled and blew her nose, dreading the moment she'd have to leave Jake's bathroom.
What an idiot she was, falling apart like that in front of him. Poor guy probably had no idea what had caused her flood of tears. He was most likely blam
ing himself right now for some imagined transgression. She really should get out there and let him know her meltdown had nothing to do with him.
As soon as her face looked less blotchy and her nose didn't light up as red as a certain Christmas reindeer's. Lord, she looked dreadful.
"Lucy?"
She whirled around at the knock at the door and the sound of Jake's voice. "Yes?"
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." She sniffed.
He was quiet for a moment and she thought he'd left, until he said, "Uh, are you gonna come out any time soon?"
Not if she could help it. How was she going to explain what just happened? Chalk it up to PMS? Discussion of anything female usually resulted in the man wanting to end the topic of conversation immediately. That could work.
She turned to the mirror, scrunched her face at her reflection, and proceeded to the door, opening it with a smile.
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The look of genuine concern on Jake's face was enough to make the tears well all over again.
"Are you sure you're all right?"
"I'm great." She opened the door and stepped out into the hall. "Just a bout with PMS, I think."
Yes, that definitely worked. The look of horror on his face was almost laughable.
She bit her lip to suppress a threatening giggle. "Shall we go back to the living room?"
she suggested.
"Nah, I've got a better idea. Come with me."
Jake grabbed her hand and led her through the kitchen to the backyard. Lucy gasped when she saw what he'd done.
Lit candles sat on the ground near the oversized trampoline, where Jake had thrown a pile of blankets. When she turned to him, he smiled.
"Might be some shooting stars tonight, according to the forecast. Thought we might relax out here and stare at the sky for awhile."
When she didn't say anything, he added, "You know, relax and unwind a bit? It was a pretty hectic day."
Just like that, with no mention of her tearful exit earlier. "It sounds great. I'd love to."
They headed over to the trampoline. Before she could climb on, Jake scooped her up in his arms and easily lifted her onto the wiggly apparatus. After a few seconds she managed to balance enough to make it to the center of the trampoline. He jumped on and joined her.