Me And Mrs Jones (20 page)

He could stay here all night long because his stupid wife wasn’t going to miss him as long as she had those two bottles of red wine at the house waiting for her. He was able to do anything he wanted and still have her on his side.

Since Renee had stopped paying his alimony and he’d lost his job two months ago for insubordination he was flat broke and Sheila wasn’t letting him anywhere near her money. So, what in the hell was he supposed to do for cash but find it any way that he could?

It wasn’t like he didn’t use to be a part of Renee’s family. These rings were just as much his as they were hers and unlike her, he was going to put them to good use.

Picking up the drink, Robert tossed it back in one swallow then slammed the shot glass back down onto the bar and got up from his seat. He had to get to the pawn shop he noticed a couple of blocks over before it closed. Robert was hoping the store owner would give him some good gambling money for these babies. One thing was for sure, Renee’s dead parents sure had some good taste when it came to jewelry.

Hell, if he won enough money at the tables he might be nice enough to go and get them back out of pawn.

Chapter Thirty

“Good morning Dana. Have you seen Renee?” Sheriff Arness asked as he took off his hat and joined her at the café. Pushing the calculator to the side along with the stack of sales receipts Dana Clair gave the sheriff her attention. “I went by her place, but no one answered the door.”

“No, I haven’t. I really haven’t talked to her much since the fire. She’s probably with Travis. He’s trying to convince her to have her gallery showing here at the café.”

“I found her yesterday walking around inside of the gallery and the devastated look on her face tore at my heart strings. I know how much she loved that business and it was one of the hot spots for the residents and especially for tourists when they came into town. I’m hoping she’ll be able to rebuild after everything is over.”

“I do too,” Dana agreed watching as Sheriff Arness tossed his cream colored Stetson on the seat next to him then ran his fingers through his thick brown hair. “I think she needs the gallery as her lifeline. She’s dating Travis, but she’ll need more than a relationship in her life to keep her going.”

“What about you?’ Sheriff Arness asked.

“What about me?” Dana asked taken back by the sudden change in conversation.

“If Renee needs more than a relationship in her life to keep her going, don’t you think you’re the opposite? When are you going to see that you need more than working long hours at this café? Aren’t you interested in dating?”

“I haven’t really thought about it,” she said, clearly surprised that Sheriff Arness had asked her such a personal question.

“Dana, you know that I’m interested in going out on a date with you. You drew my attention the first moment I laid eyes on you,” Sheriff Arness admitted as he slid his chair closer to hers.

She stared wordlessly as Sheriff Arness placed his hand on her arm. “Why do you keep turning down all of my dinner invitations? Do you have something against dating a white man?”

As their eyes met, she felt a shock run through her. Dana had never felt this kind of attraction towards the sheriff before. Could it be because he was being more aggressive than usual? She usually thought of him as soft spoken and pretty laid back, but maybe she should be looking at him in a different way.

“No, I don’t have a problem dating a white man,” Dana answered.

“So, why do you find ways to laugh off my dinner invitations? Am I not attractive enough for you?”

Renee was too startled by Sheriff Arness’ question to respond at first. No. Sheriff Arness wasn’t unattractive in any way, shape or form. Being a former football player had kept his body in top shape; she always noticed how his uniform stretched across his powerful well-muscled body.

His shirt, the top two buttons undone, revealed a muscular chest covered with crisp brown hair and the rich outlines of his shoulders strained against the tan colored fabric.

There was an inherent strength about his face with his compelling gray eyes, the set of his square chin suggesting a stubborn streak and full sensual lips secretly making her wonder what it would be like to kiss him.

“No, you’re a very attractive man,” Dana finally answered.

“Well, that’s a weight off my shoulders.” Sheriff Arness smiled as his hand slid behind her neck pulling her closer to him. “I would hate to think the woman I’m about to kiss thought I was ugly.”

“Wait you can’t—” Her words were cut off as the Sheriff caught her mouth in a kiss.

Her calm was shattered with the hunger of his kiss. His tongue slipped between her lips sending shivers of desire racing through her entire body. Sliding closer to him, Dana gave herself over to the passion of the kiss blocking everything else out of her mind.

Raising his mouth from hers, Sheriff Arness gazed into her eyes. “Do you think I changed your mind about going out on a date with me?”

Dana still felt the heady sensation of his mouth on hers despite the kiss only lasting a few minutes. She was shocked by her own eager response to the touch of his lips on hers. What was she supposed to do now?

“Sheriff—”

“Matt,” he quickly cut in stopping the rest of her sentence. “I want you to call me by my first name. Enough with the Sheriff Arness.”

“Matt, I would love to go out on a date with you,” Dana said shocking herself and clearly Sheriff Arness from the way he leaned away from her.

“You aren’t telling me this and will cancel at the last minute on me, are you?”

A newly awakened sense of adventure filled her at the thought of going out on a date with Matt. She was certain now that she hadn’t been giving Matt enough credit. He was an outstanding Sheriff and good guy. Why wouldn’t he make a good date for dinner?”

“How about we catch a movie and then get some dinner tonight?” Matt suggested. “I get off early tonight. There’s a new movie I’ve wanted to see and then we can go to dinner afterwards.”

“Dinner and a movie sounds wonderful to me,” Dana agreed with a soft smile. “I’ll leave work early and leave my manager in charge of closing up.”

“I’ll be at your house around six o’clock to pick you up.” Grabbing his hat off the seat, Matt placed it on his head then got up from his seat.

“I’ll be ready,” Dana answered before Matt shocked her by bending down and giving her another kiss.

“I can’t wait.” He breathed against her lips before standing back up to his full height. He gave her one final look before turning away. Matt eased away from her and went towards the front door letting it close behind him.

After Sheriff Arness was gone, Dana sat there still feeling the affect his kisses had on her body wondering why in the hell she had waited until now to accept a date with him. She must have been out of her mind!

Chapter Thirty-One

Walking around Travis’ huge loft apartment, Renee admired all of his work displayed proudly on the walls. She sipped on coffee while he was in the kitchen working on cleaning up the dishes from their late breakfast.

“Are you sure that you don’t want me to help you?” she yelled back towards the kitchen.

Travis dark head peeked around the corner and he grinned at her. “No, I just want you to keep looking sexy in my shirt while I finish the last of these dishes up. I told you earlier I got this.”

“Travis, you know that I can’t stay like this all day. I need to shower and head back to my gallery. Sheriff Arness has probably been looking for me. Besides, I need to go over the details for the show at Dana’s Café.

“I still don’t know how I let you talk me into having that in two weeks. God, there isn’t enough time to get everything together. My clients won’t be able to get here that fast. I usually give them at least a month’s notice.”

“Sweetheart, Sheriff Arness isn’t going to lose his mind if he talks to you later on this afternoon. Also, Dana and Cruz will help you get everything together within the two week period. Have more faith in them. Anyways, this is the first time you’ve stayed all night at my place and I want to get a little more pleasure from the sight of you here,” Travis told her before he went back inside the kitchen.

Renee wanted to disagree with Travis, but she couldn’t. It had felt wonderful waking up wrapped up in his strong arms this morning without a worry in the world for a few seconds.

Going back over to the black couch in the corner of the room, she took a seat tucking her legs underneath her body. For the past week or two Renee hadn’t been feeling that well; however, right now she felt a lot better. Actually, just yesterday she’d made a trip to the drug store and stopped in front of the pregnancy tests. She stared at the box a few minutes before walking away. There was no way she could be pregnant,
not
at her age. She was so glad she hadn’t brought up her crazy idea to Travis.

Renee smiled as Travis sang along to some song coming from the radio. He’d worked so hard yesterday keeping different things going on throughout the day to keep her mind off her problems. After they left the museum he’d taken her to play mini golf and she had never acted so silly in her life.

Travis let her talk about anything she wanted whenever they were together. She appreciated she had a companion who listened to her and was such a good sounding board for all she had to express. The more time she spent in his company their age difference was starting to fade away.

Another thing she was beginning to appreciate about Travis was he never tried to tame her personality. She loved roaming around to find out about new sights and adventures, something that could be used as future ideas at her gallery once it was back to its glory. It might help that Travis shared similar interests as her. For her, variety was the spice of life. Honestly, she didn’t know what to expect from Travis next and she loved how he constantly kept her on her toes.

“Renee, can I talk to you about something?” Glancing to the side, she noticed Travis coming towards her with a very serious expression on his handsome face. “I was going to bring it up over breakfast, but decided then wasn’t the time. So, I waited until after I finished clearing up the kitchen. I hope you’ll be willing to do it with me.”

“Sure, what is it?” she scooted over on the couch so he could sit down next to her.

“I was wondering if you would like to have dinner with me at my parents’ house tomorrow night.”

Renee barely sat the coffee cup down on the table before it almost fell out of her hands.
Travis wanted her to have dinner with his parents
. Were they even at that stage in their relationship yet? She was extremely nervous at what Travis parents might have to say about their twenty-nine year old son dating a forty-two year old woman.

“You want me to have dinner with your parents?”

“Yes. I can’t wait for them to meet you. They’ve been so worried about me not getting back out and finding someone to date. I know they’ll be thrilled you’re in my life now.”

She wasn’t so sure about that. She wished that she had the confidence about this meeting that Travis did. “Have you told your parents about me?” she asked.

“Not yet. I didn’t want to tell them you were coming until I got your answer first,” Travis admitted. “So, will you come? I know they’ll love you. How could they not? You’re so perfect.”

Yeah, she was perfect in the eyes of a twenty-nine year old man, but his parents might see her in a totally different light and Travis was too caught up in the newness of everything to see the forest for the trees when it might come to his family’s reaction.

“Are you sure this is a good idea to spring me on your parents like this?” Renee asked, trying to think of a nice way to turn down his offer.

“I’m not springing anything on them at all,” he replied as if the answer was obvious. “I want to bring the woman I’m dating over for a family dinner. Why are you trying to back out of going?”

“Travis, you have to understand that your mother and father might not be too happy with us being together,” Renee pointed out. “A lot of people here aren’t even pleased with us dating, so how do you think your parents will react?”

His brow pulled together in an affronted frown as he moved away from her. “Are you trying to tell me my parents won’t like the fact you’re black?” he demanded.

Shaking her head, Renee reached out to touch Travis on his leg but he jumped off the couch putting some distance between them. “No...that isn’t what I meant at all. I think they’ll have a problem with our age difference. What mother wants her twenty-nine year old son dating a woman her age?”

“How can you judge them before you even meet them? My parents are open minded people and raised me to be the same way. Do you really think I would have pursued being with you the way I have if I thought my mother or father wouldn’t like you?

“Besides what if you are right and they don’t like that I’m dating you then that is their problem and not ours. I love my parents dearly but they don’t run my love life. I take their advice on some things but not everything. I’m almost a thirty year old man and I can date who I want. I thought I had picked the right woman, but now I see I might have been wrong about you.”

Hurt slammed into the middle of her chest at Travis’ harsh words. He sounded like he was thinking about ending things between them. Had she just made a huge mistake by not trusting him?

“Travis, listen to me.”

“No, Renee you listen to me this time. I knew what I wanted from our time together each and every second I was around you. Don’t you think if I ever thought I wouldn’t be able to cherish you and give you all the support you craved that I would have stayed? I have never been the type to rush head-on into anything in my life.

“I never thought you would be judgmental when it came to knowing more about my family. Didn’t I accept Dana and Cruz as your friends without any problems at all? I hope if either one of them ever told you to stop dating me for our age difference that you would have told them no, but now I’m seeing you might not have done it.”