Spark Of Desire (23 page)

Jessica’s heart throbbed. Twisting her head she peeked around the corner of the box even though she didn’t need to see to know. She knew who it was. No one else had that voice. He looked very nice in a tan sport coat, white shirt and navy blue slacks. “Actually, yes. Almost. Can you grab one of these?”

Kevin lifted the top box out of her arms.

Jessica punched in the code to unlock the door. “Bring that back here, could you?” She walked through the office feeling as though the box in her arms was balanced more precariously than it had been before. Her throat tightened thinking about him following behind her. At the moment she didn’t look great. She’d opted to wear tennis shoes to work in and had left her sandals at her desk, and the dress code forbade sleeveless tops so she had worn a baggy yellow sweater all morning. Her hair was pulled into its traditional ponytail. The coffee bar girls had dubbed it the
frumpy librarian
look and begged her not to go to the wedding dressed this way. If Mindi had managed to be on time this once, she’d have been waiting near the front door, dressed to go with her hair down and combed, although she should have known better than to expect Mindi to be on time. She dropped her box on the floor beside her desk. “Just dump it there.”

Kevin set the box he’d carried on top of the one she’d just dropped. He looked at the wall over her desk. “Quite a gallery.”

“Yes, well, Julie saves everything for me.” Jessica sloughed off her sweater and sat down at the desk to switch shoes. Kevin hadn’t stopped looking at her pictures. Most people had pictures of actors over their desks. Jessica had fires and firefighters. The few pictures she had had of actors had been taken down in favor of more fires over the last few weeks.

“Why do you have a picture of Jack and Kate on the wall?”

Jessica glanced up at him as she slid the strap of her sandal over her heel, then she followed his gaze to the wall. He was staring at the “Cop Hero’s Widow Finds New Love” picture. Julie had given it to her the day Kevin offered to train her. The same day Mindi started hating her. She wanted Mindi to understand, but she suspected she never would. It didn’t help that she’d also lost Bobbie to a lousy quirk of fate. At least Julie would be entertained by the fact that
this
wedding was
that
wedding. “Julie gave it to me.”

“Why is it on the wall?” Kevin asked.

Jessica bit her lip. Everybody here found it amusing, but Kevin didn’t seem to see the humor. “It sort of goes with the theme. Julie, the magazine clerk, cuts all this stuff out of the papers for me. I hang up the interesting ones.” Jessica hesitated. Something about that picture bothered him. Just about every female in the building had announced it was romantic, and she agreed. If it was his friend, why would it bother him? She pulled her hair out of its semi-permanent ponytail, hoping it would fall attractively. If Mindi had been on time she would have had time to brush it out in front of a mirror.

The office door banged open. “Sorry I’m late,” Mindi called.

Jessica stood up and picked the pale blue shawl Sonya had loaned her off the back of her chair. “Are you ready to go?”

Kevin turned, and his eyes went round. “You look great.”

“Thanks.” Jessica ducked her head. She felt kind of glamorous having him look at her that way.

Mindi stepped around the corner. “Isn’t that Sonya’s shawl?”

“Yes, it is. She loaned it to me.” Jessica folded the shawl over her arm, keeping the beaded fringe from tangling.

“That purse is Diana’s.”

Jessica picked up the purse Diana had loaned her. It matched Sonya’s shawl and Diana insisted she use it. The glamour had faded when Mindi started picking apart her wardrobe. Always a confidence builder, that Mindi. “Tony left for lunch ten minutes late, so he’s going to be ten minutes late getting back. I already warned Druanne she’s stuck at register for a few extra minutes.” She couldn’t meet Kevin’s eyes. So she didn’t have a fashion model’s wardrobe, why did it matter?

“Happy hunting.”

Jessica glared at her. “What?”

“Happy hunting. Isn’t that what we usually do at weddings?” Mindi smiled. It had all the warmth and camaraderie of the Donner Party. “It’s nice to see you again, Kevin. You should come around more often.”

Jessica heard Mindi’s tone drop seductively. All Mindi needed to do was start batting her eyelashes and complementing him on his muscles and it would be college all over again. Kevin looked a little stunned by her display already. “I’m ready to leave, Kevin. Mindi’s here to hold down the fort.”

“Let’s go then.” Kevin took her arm and walked her out of the office. “What was that about?”

Jessica had been keeping her head down, taking deep even breaths so Kevin wouldn’t get a look at her scarlet face which clashed with the blues in the rest of her outfit. How had she ever considered that woman a friend? “Mindi has always hated this idea. She didn’t want me to train from the start. She’s almost as bad as my mother, but she’s got geography on her side.”

Kevin pushed open the front door. “What about the happy hunting crack?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. I don’t think I ever really knew her.” Jessica waited while Kevin unlocked and opened her door. She should be enjoying his gallantry, not thinking about Mindi. But Mindi seemed intent on pushing her past the point of reason.

Kevin climbed in the driver’s side and turned to look at her. “It happens sometimes. Family and friends are either proud of you or they fight you. Sometimes both at the same time.” He put his hand over hers. “You look beautiful in that dress. I’m glad you agreed to come with me.”

Jessica looked down at his large hand covering hers on her thigh. If only she could be a little more sure about him. She felt like she was walking across ice, and she could hear it crackling under her weight. Nothing was as she thought it was, not Mindi, not Bobbie, nobody except her mother had reacted the way she’d thought they would.

Did that mean she had misread Kevin and he would still be interested when she no longer needed him?

Or did it mean that she wanted him to love her so much she had read him right and didn’t want to accept it?

* * * *

The exchange of vows took place on the lawn of one of the lodges that overlooked a ravine in the park. All of the guests gathered in a semicircle around the couple for the short ceremony. They couldn’t have ordered better weather. The heat of the past few weeks had toned down to warm instead of sweltering. Jack wore a dark suit. Kate wore a tea-length, ivory lace gown and didn’t seem at all bothered when Jack’s dog Archer put a large muddy smear on her knee while trying to catch her attention during the vows. Archer wore a bowtie which he had off within the first half hour and had torn to shreds before the reception started.

Jack had to endure the heckling of his coworkers during the photos following the vows while the caterers set up inside the lodge where the reception was to take place.

Jessica stood near the fieldstone fireplace watching the ebb and flow of the crowd as the caterers put out the food. She already knew many of the groom’s guests, and a couple of the bride’s guests were regulars at the store. Kevin had stayed by her side for the ceremony, but had been hauled away for a picture he didn’t look happy about. Archer and one of the other dogs in attendance were playing tug-of-war with the remains of his bowtie.

It wasn’t the wedding Jessica would choose for herself, but it suited the bride and groom. Jessica had always envisioned a big fairy tale wedding for herself. She supposed Kevin would prefer a nice quiet trip to a justice of the peace.

Not that she would be marrying Kevin anyway. She sighed and looked around the room. It was a well put together reception. The room was dotted with round tables covered with ivory table cloths. Each table had a vase in the middle with a single red rose in it. Ivory and red bunting garnished the door sills and draped across the front of the head table in front of the fieldstone fireplace on the other side of the room. Kevin was trapped between Jack and Dan with all the other guys from his shift against that fireplace for a photo. He caught her eye across the room and grimaced. She raised her glass to him.

“Did you come with Kevin?”

Jessica turned. A bubbly little blonde stood beside her.

“I’m Arianna.” Arianna stuck out her hand. “I’m here with Dan. Isn’t he adorable?”

Jessica shook Arianna’s hand. She had a light, helpless grip that felt more like shaking hands with a damp dish towel than a person. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“I met Dan at the grocery store, of all places. I was buying apples, but most of them were bruised, and I don’t like bruised apples.”

Jessica nodded, trying to decide if this story had a point.

“Well, I pulled one apple out and all the others just tumbled onto the floor.” Arianna’s voice rose to an annoying squeak.

“I’ll bet several of them got bruised then.” Jessica looked across the room. She needed Kevin to come rescue her from this. If he didn’t, she was going to have to fake an injury. No, that was no good, Dan was a paramedic, Arianna would hang over his shoulder chattering about apples while Dan diagnosed her as a faker.

“Oh, it was terrible. I felt so bad. But Dan helped me pick them up. He’s so sweet. We’re not
dating
dating, but…you know. I always eat an apple a day. My hairdresser says apple skins are good for your hair.”

“Really?” The group photo started breaking up.

“There are just so many things that damage your hair. The ozone and chemicals in the air.” Arianna’s hands fluttered around her head as if she could chase away the ozone like a moth.

“Think of what it does to your lungs.” Jessica smiled to cover her clenched teeth. The guys had fallen into a conversation on the other side of the room.

“It’s just terrible, isn’t it? And your skin. All those things in the air give you premature wrinkles. It’s just awful. It must have been much easier to keep your skin in good condition before all that awful stuff went into the air.” Arianna patted her cheeks like she might be able to feel them wrinkling under her hands.

“I don’t know if women worried about it as much before the industrial revolution,” Jessica murmured.

“They didn’t have to, did they? It just wouldn’t have been an issue.”

“They were probably more worried about death in childbirth, or the plague, or something like that.” Jessica cringed. A touch more sarcasm and she was going to offend Dan’s girlfriend, who he wasn’t
dating
dating.

Arianna blinked. Her face went blank for an instant, then lit up again. “I work at the mall in the card shop.”

“I work at the bookstore.”

“Really? That must be really boring. I like cards. They’re pretty.” She sighed. “God, I need a cigarette.”

Jessica had been trying to recover from the fact of Arianna thinking the bookstore would be boring and she blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “They give you wrinkles.”

“They do?” Arianna’s crystal blue eyes were shocked.

Jessica studied her, trying to decide if she was stupid or just a good actress. It was looking like stupid. Dan and Kevin strolled over.

“You two seem to be engrossed in conversation.” Dan grinned and draped his arm around Arianna’s shoulders.

Jessica forced a smile. She hoped he would take Arianna away before she started talking again. “Are all of the pictures finished?”

“I hope so,” Kevin grumbled. He hadn’t made any move to put his arm over her shoulders, but she couldn’t be sure if that meant anything.

“Ari, why don’t you go find our table?” Dan suggested.

“Okay.” Arianna smiled and wandered away.

“Ari, why don’t you go look at a shiny thing?” Kevin mocked. “Where do you find them? I’m surprised this one’s smart enough to remember to breathe.”

“I needed a date and she looks great.” Dan peered over his shoulder after Arianna, who was engrossed in the task of finding their place cards. He turned back to Jessica with an odd intensity in his eyes. “You live in the neighborhood. Do you know a woman with black hair and, I think, blue eyes? I know she lives somewhere near the station.”

“Oh man. Will you give this a rest?” Kevin folded his arms. “You lost her.”

“Black hair and blue eyes?” Jessica asked.

“Yes. She’s about this tall.” Dan held his hand at about his eye level. “Kind of thin and willowy.”

Jessica shook her head. “It sounds like the weird artist girl who hangs out at Meechan’s, but I could be wrong.”