Forever Wishes (Montana Brides Book 4) (11 page)

She’d been pummeling potatoes so hard that she hadn’t noticed the rich smell of garlic, red wine and herbs wafting from the casserole. “I was just about to start eating. Take a seat and I’ll get an extra plate for you.”

Over steak casserole, mashed potatoes and green beans, she talked about anything and everything except what was really on her mind.

Erin looked down at her dessert plate. A gooey mess of ice cream and peaches stared back. It was time to tackle the dreaded baby topic. “Jake?”

His spoon paused midair.
 

Erin swallowed. How do you tell a man he’s the most incredible person you’ve met? That you want to jump his bones to create the most amazing child together? “I appreciate you telling me that you don’t want to be a father, even though I think you’d make a great dad.” She stumbled over her words.
 

Jake relaxed slightly in his chair.
 

“I, umm. Well, please don’t take offence. I sort of wondered if you’d, umm, ever considered being the biological father of a child, but not actually living with the mother?”

He coughed so hard that she thought he was choking. She rushed around to his side of the table and banged him hard on his back, trying to remember how to do the Heimlich maneuver from her first-aid course at the library.

Jake stared at her, trying to get his breathing under control. He waved away her next round of anti-choking maneuvers. “I’m fine,” he wheezed through gasping lungs.

Running across to the basin, she got him a glass of water.
 

He looked at her like she’d sprouted three heads.
 

This was
so
not going to plan. She wished she’d never brought up option two. She should have waited until she had the subtle twist sorted out, and not bowled head first into a mine field.

Gulping down some water, he looked across at her. “Let me get this straight. You want to know if I’d consider being your sperm donor?” His voice squeaked, like he’d just been dealt a deadly blow by a well placed knee.
 

The blood drained from her face. If she could have crawled out of the door on all fours, then returned to start their conversation over, she would have. But that wasn’t going to happen. “It was just a thought.” Shrugging her shoulders, she tried to look as though it wasn’t a big deal.

He sat back and a shudder passed through his body.

She cringed. So much for her acting ability. Jake looked as though he would have believed little green men had landed in her backyard more than her feigned disinterest in borrowing a few of his sperm.
 

“There’s no way in hell my sperm are going to be swimming anywhere, anytime soon, unless under strictly quarantined situations.”
 

Erin winced.
 

He took a deep breath. In a much calmer voice he said, “Just to make sure my answer is perfectly clear, let me repeat myself. No, I haven’t given sperm donation any thought. And no, it’s not going to happen.”
 

Erin tried to stop the blush streaking through her body. Jake might give the appearance of being a sensitive new age kind of guy, but if anyone tried to mess with his sperm they were in for the fight of their life.
 

“Forget I ever mentioned the donor option.” She didn’t know how to move their conversation onto safer ground. Pushing her dessert bowl across the table, she gazed at her man of steel.
 

He looked worried.
 

“I really like you, Jake. How about we try for an old fashioned friendship and see how things go from there?” After dropping the donor option on his head she decided it was time to make a hasty retreat.
 

Any form of conversation involving babies would now be banned. She crossed her fingers under the table, hoping like crazy he’d like her enough in a few months’ time to put up with her harebrained baby making schemes and tight timeframe.

He didn’t look entirely convinced that she’d dropped the sperm donor idea. But he also hadn’t run out the front door, so maybe they were making progress.
 

“Friendship I can do. But what’s your definition of an ‘old fashioned friendship’?”

Men
. After the mind boggling conversation they’d just had she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He didn’t want children, but that didn’t necessarily mean holding hands was about as up close and personal as he wanted to get.
 

This time around she’d stick to being cautious and rule out any additional benefits their friendship could develop into. She had to keep a few bargaining chips up her sleeve, especially if her opponent had the best poker face she’d ever seen.

Besides, a girl had to pick and choose when she lived dangerously. “Well, I’d say an old fashioned friendship meant things like holding hands and the odd kiss. Not the whole wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am scenario.”

 
“No wham-bam? Do you really think that’s possible?” The dimple in his cheek was a serious clue to the laughter building like a water spout inside him.

Her gaze zeroed in on that dimple, thanking every higher being she could imagine for his sense of humor. She knew she’d have to focus really hard to keep her misbehaving hands off his body. But she wouldn’t let Jake know that. Her heart had already been severely dented by an anti-diaper ex-fiancé and she wasn’t about to leave herself open to more heartache.
 

 
“Of course it’s possible to be friends,” she said. “We’re grown adults. Anything’s possible.”
 

Jake didn’t look convinced. He stood up, clearing away the plates. “Okay, friend. Do you still want to go out to dinner and the movies on Saturday night? I can pick you up at six.”

Erin sighed. It was so unfair. Didn’t he know what wonderful genes he could pass on? “Sounds great, but it’s my treat for your Superman save on Wednesday.”

“I’m all yours then.”

She hoped so.

CHAPTER FIVE

Erin sat on the front steps of her porch with an ice-cold lemonade clutched in her hands. After spending a couple of hours in the garden, it seemed like the perfect way to toast a good days work. Tilting her face, she closed her eyes, soaking in the sunshine. Her mind drifted, enjoying the sound of her neighbors going about their normal Saturday afternoon activities.
 

“What would happen if I kissed the sleeping Princess?”
 

Erin jumped. Lemonade flew everywhere and she clonked her head on the edge of the porch post.

“Ouch!” Rubbing the side of her head, she glared at her intruder.
 

Jake winced as he came across to inspect the damage to the post. “It could have been a lot worse. You only managed to bruise the edge of the wood.”
 

“Jake Williams, I swear if you come any closer you’ll wear what’s left of my lemonade.” She hoped the glare she sent him looked like she meant business.
 

He laughed. “You look like a cat that’s been fed the wrong grits. A stately display of righteous indignation and cuteness, all wrapped up in dirt and cotton.” He crossed his hand over his heart, “I humbly apologize for any bodily discomfort I may have caused.”
 

Erin kept rubbing her head.

With a wicked grin he added, “Do you want me to kiss it better?”

“Keep those lips to yourself, mister. That offer got me bruised and battered in the first place.” With a heartfelt sigh she took a moment to appreciate the man standing in front of her. He looked super sexy in either a dinner suit or blue Lycra, but what he was wearing today left them both for dust.
 

His blue eyes sparkled mischievously beneath the rim of his cowboy hat. Her gaze took in every contour of his body, deliciously outlined by white cotton and dark blue denim. “Aren’t you a tad early for dinner?”
 

He pushed his hat back, grinning at her attempt to divert his attention away from kissing her better. “And here I was thinking you’d be thrilled to see an old friend. I’ve got a hamper in the trunk. It’s a great night, so I thought we could have a picnic before we go to the movies.”

She couldn’t help the smile that lit her face. “As long as you give me a few minutes to get cleaned up. I’ve got enough dirt on me to last a lifetime.” She stood on the top step, dusting her hands on the seat of her pants.

Jake moved closer. “We could always skip the park and have dinner here.”

Snorting in the most unladylike way she could manage, Erin grinned at the invitation in his eyes. “Dream on, Superman. You can’t promise me a picnic and then not deliver. Give me twenty minutes and then you can take me anywhere.”

“I wish it was that simple,” he sighed.

Leaning forward, she kissed his cheek. “It could be. It just takes more than twenty minutes.”

“What’s it going to be? A chick flick or a horror?” Jake watched Erin chew her bottom lip as she studied the movie program in front of her.
 

She looked at the posters strung along the walls of the theater, wincing at the bloody body parts advertising the horror movie. With a troubled frown, she said, “If I went to see that movie I’d have nightmares for the next week.”

His gaze shot to the only other choice. A romantic comedy. With a groan of impending doom he grabbed her hand, pulling her across to the ticket counter. “In that case, the chick flick it is.”

In his humble opinion, the chocolate coated ice creams turned out to be the best part of the movie. He knew he was in trouble the moment he stepped inside the theater. Only a handful of people sitting down were men. If it hadn’t been for Erin pulling him along the aisle he would have turned tail, running toward the nearest exit.

By the end of the movie he’d almost fallen asleep. Two hours of ho-hum laughs and enough lip smacking to last a lifetime had left him yawning in his seat.
 

Next time he got to choose the movie.

As they walked out of the theatre, he looked at a couple of men and gave them sympathetic nods. He figured they’d either been brow beaten by their wives to come and see the movie, or their girlfriends had dragged them along by their collar. He felt slightly more empowered as the silent bonding moment passed undetected by the crowd of females, chatting away nonstop with their girlfriends.

Erin took one look at him and burst out laughing. “At least you didn’t start snoring.”

“You owe me big time.” He held her hand as they moved out of the theater. “I’m looking for at least half a dozen marshmallows on a hot chocolate after that movie.”
 

“Follow me. I know a place that sells the best mugs of hot chocolate in Bozeman.”

As Jake pulled out of the parking lot, Erin gave him directions to Maisy’s Chocolate Café. Even though he’d yawned his way through the movie she’d loved it. The theater had been full of women who had come to have a good laugh and enjoy Steven Adams, the latest male actor setting hearts a flutter in Hollywood.
 

She’d never been to a movie where everyone clapped, cheered and booed at the same time. By the end of the night, there weren’t many dry eyes in the room. The handful of men that had come to the movie seemed to take all the hormonal women in their stride. Even Jake had seemed happy to ignore the sniffles following them out the door.

As they walked into the Café, he put his arm around her waist. “Remember, six marshmallows. I need the energy after that marathon effort.”

“It wasn’t that bad. At least the man got his woman in the end.”

“Yeah, after he nearly died in the woods trying to find her. Would you take off into the wilderness just to prove you could walk home in conditions that would keep a polar bear at home?”

“If it got me a night under the stars with Steven Adams I might consider it.”

“Here I was thinking you were such a sensible person. How disappointed can one guy be?”

Erin laughed. “A bit of adventure in a girl’s life is a good thing.”
 

 
“Hold that thought for later,” he whispered.

After they’d ordered their drinks, they debated what constituted ‘a bit of adventure’.
 

“Maybe I can interest you in an adventurous weekend in two weeks time?”