THE CRITIC (26 page)

“I hope not.  For some reason, Jared, I haven’t felt guilty about anything I’ve done with you.”

Her hand was out of his and covering her mouth.  He peeped at her and saw that her eyes were closed. His chest swelled with pride and his body tingled.  “Any reason why?”

“You’re important to me,” she answered and laid her head on his shoulder. “Now can we change this conversation?”

“Not just yet,” Jared said, nodding his head up and down. He’d just gotten an idea; something that he felt would help Toreas.  He didn’t think she’d ever be able to write love scenes as freely as most romances called for.

“What are you thinking, Jared?”

“Toreas, why don’t you write a romance like we’ve had?” She was eyeing him with amusement then she started laughing.

“I’m serious. We’ve had the heat, the fire, but we haven’t taken that final step yet.”

“Not because we haven’t tried.”

“So why can’t you write characters who go through much the same thing?”

“Well, Jared, I’m hoping this condition with us doesn’t remain like this. What about you?”

She’d actually gone there. He didn’t believe it. She was unpredictable. “Baby, you have no idea. When we leave
Georgia we’re coming home and the first thing I’m going to do even if I have to bind and gag you is make love to you.”

“I can’t put that in a book,” Toreas laughed, accepting the kiss Jared gave her, but thinking that his idea was a good one, at least for a story. “Okay, Jared, I’ll do it, at least I’ll try.”

“Good, now we have one more problem.  What are you going to do about the deal you made with your father?”

“That’s hard also.  Can’t we talk about the weather or something easier?”

Jared got a funny feeling in his gut.  “Is there something you’re not telling me?”  He waited.  She was trying to find a way to answer him.  That meant trouble.

“I’m planning on moving back home.”

“When did you decide that?”  He was afraid he knew the answer to that.

“The night we fought.  I called my mother and told her I was moving home.”

“When we get there tell them you changed your mind.”

“It’s not that easy, Jared.  I gave my word.”

“What about us?”  She was licking her lips and she looked so darn lonely that he had to hold her. He pulled the car off to the shoulder and gathered her in his arms.

He kissed her face, her eyelids, her cheeks and still he wanted more.  This was the taste he was addicted to. The taste of this strawberry flavored woman.  This Toreas Rose, the woman he loved.  Somehow they would work together to find an answer.

Chapter Twenty

With Toreas’s directions Jared pulled into the driveway of her parents’ home and killed the engine.  He looked at her.  She’d been extremely quiet the closer they came to her hometown.

“Are you ready?”  He brushed his hand along the side of her cheek.

“That’s the question I should be asking you.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ve been waiting for this moment my entire life,” Jared said softly as he looked intently in her eyes.

Before Toreas could contemplate the meaning of Jared’s words he kissed her quickly, stopping all musings. It was time to do it, face the family.
Help
!

Together they got out of the car with Jared gently pushing Toreas toward the door, telling her he would get the bags. She looked scared.  He wanted to take her in his arms but was wondering if that was what she was afraid of. He watched her tug on the heavy sweater, then button her coat as if she was getting ready for inspection.

The door was opened by a woman who looked remarkably like Toreas, only several inches taller and older.  The woman threw her arms around Toreas and stopped abruptly on spotting him.

He noticed the older woman’s long curly hair and knew instantly that was the reason Toreas wore her own in a rapidly expanding afro. She was trying her best to disassociate herself from her mother’s world.

Jared watched the silent communication pass between mother and daughter.

“Mom, this is Jared.  Jared, my mom, Julie Rose.”

Jared stuck out his hand and smiled.  “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Rose.”  He stood with the bags in his hand watching Toreas shifting.

“Jared’s staying with us for Thanksgiving,” he heard Toreas whisper, then look defiantly at her mother.  “Unless you’d rather we go into town and get a motel room.”

He waited for Toreas to blush and was surprised when she didn’t.  A remark like that from him would have turned her soft skin into several shades of crimson.

“Jared’s welcome to stay as your guest, Tesa, but what about Brian Johnson?  I told you we invited him.”

“Then you entertain him, Mom.  I want to spend my Thanksgiving with Jared.  Besides, Brian should spend the holiday with his family, not with us.”

The two women stood studying each other.  Jared was amused watching them and slightly confused about the reception. But he decided to give it a few minutes. Besides, he rather liked the idea of Toreas fighting for him even if there were no need. He’d already fought the battle and won.

He thought of offering to go alone to the motel, but something in Toreas’s stance told him she needed to do this.

“So Mom, do we come in, or do you want Jared to hold on to those bags forever?”

He noticed a spot of color dust the older woman’s cheeks.  “I’m sorry, Jared.  I forgot my manners.  Please come in.”  She opened the door wide and waved them inside.

He could hear her voice as she trailed after them.  “I was just a little surprised.  I spoke to Tesa twice this morning and she never mentioned bringing a friend. The woman gave Jared a quick wink and put her finger to her lips to shush him.
Ahh,
Jared thought,
this will be interesting.
He was ready and willing to have a co-conspirator and a friend.

Before he could answer Toreas piped in.  “That was my fault.  I didn’t ask him until the last minute.”  She smiled at Jared. “I’m glad he said yes.”

For the first time since meeting her mother, Jared knew the smile was truly for him.  The rest of it was a battle she evidently thought she needed to fight. Little did she know the battle had been already won. But if Toreas didn’t gear up for battle he wouldn’t know it was her, now would he?

“Jared, let me show you to the guest room.”  Before he could answer Toreas, her mother stepped in front of them both.

“I’m sorry, that room’s all torn up.  I think Jared will be more comfortable in the basement.  He can have his own private bathroom and no one will bother him.”  She averted her gaze, telling him she wanted him sleeping as far away from her daughter as it was possible to put him.

Sensing Toreas’s objection, Jared smiled.  “That would be wonderful.  Thank you.  It’s really thoughtful of you to give me a bathroom all to myself.”

Julie Rose turned, the look on her face saying she wasn’t sure if he was being sarcastic or was truly issuing thanks.  She frowned at him, then glared at Toreas before leading him down the basement stairs.

It was really better than he had expected.  The room was finished and quite comfortable.  The bathroom had a claw foot tub, large enough for two.  He glanced over Julie’s head at Toreas.

Their gazes met and he glanced once again at the tub, eliciting the blush he had known would come.

The older Rose started for the stairs, calling for her daughter to follow her.

“I’ll be up in a few minutes, Mom.  I want to show Jared where everything is.”

“I’m sure he won’t have any problem finding things.  Your dad will be home soon, so you might want to take your bags to your room.” 

Jared grinned at Toreas when he heard the door close.  “That wasn’t so bad.”  He reached his arms out for her, sighing as she entered them. “Are you really glad I came?”

“Yes, but by the end of this trip you might wish you hadn’t come.  Believe me, after a few days here you’ll know just why I couldn’t wait to get away. This entire town is stifling.  In a couple of hours everyone will not only know you’re here, they’ll likely have more information on you than the FBI.

They both laughed.  As if on cue, Toreas’s mother called her once again to come up.

Jared kissed her slowly, not wanting to stop. “Listen, Toreas, I need to tell you something. I never finished telling you about Gina.” Her head went down and he took the pad of his finger and lifted it back up. “My unhappiness was never about Gina. My mother had made me promise to give her grandchildren. Even though she was half-kidding I’d still given her the promise. I’d never broken a promise to her or to anyone,” he said meaningfully. “I had thought that maybe I was in love with Gina. That maybe I could keep the promise I’d made to my mother.”

“Jared?”

He leaned into Toreas and kissed her forehead, holding her in his arms for a long moment before pulling slightly away to look into her eyes. “My mother was killed in an auto accident shortly after that fiasco with Gina.”

“I’m so sorry, Jared.”

“I know, baby. I loved my mother dearly. We’d already lost my father so it was just the two of us. The pain and unwarranted guilt made me go after romance writers. I blamed them for taking Gina from me, for my not fulfilling the promise I’d made to my mother. I couldn’t get over wishing I’d given my mother the grandchildren she’d wanted.” He smiled. “But there was no way I could have kept that promise then.  I had not yet met the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.”

“Tesa, you’d better come on up here now and let Jared get settled in,” Julie yelled down. 

“You’d better go,” Jared said, raining soft kisses on Toreas’s face. “I’ll give you a few minutes alone before I come up.”  He brushed her lips lightly with his thumb, then turned her in the direction of the stairs.

Jared nosed around the basement, picking up odds and ends, trying to get a sense of the family that lived there. He saw pictures of smiling faces that radiated love.

Toreas’s face was the one that stuck out in the family photographs, her expression morose, unlike that of her parents and brothers.

He glanced at his watch.  Twenty minutes should be long enough for her mother to give her the third degree. He started for the stairs but stopped near the top when he heard Julie Rose’s voice.

“Why did you lie?” he heard the older woman ask her daughter.

He heard the defensiveness in Toreas’s voice.  “What are you talking about?”

“You said you didn’t have anyone special to invite here.  It’s obvious you’re in love with him.”

Jared’s hand was reaching for the knob.  He stopped.  This was eavesdropping, pure and simple, but he didn’t care.  He inched his head closer to the door to hear her answer.

Toreas’s voice was raised, panic punctuating her words.  “Please don’t embarrass me, Mom.  Jared doesn’t know.”

“He doesn’t know you love him?  How can that be possible?”

“We’re too busy fighting all the time.  Plus, he told me that he
cares
for me.  Can you believe that?  How was I supposed to tell him that I love him?”

“I see what you mean, honey.  Men tend to be rather dense concerning matters of the heart.

Jared heard both women laugh, then Toreas’s voice pleading again with her mother not to say anything to anyone.

“Tesa, honey, it’s obvious he loves you too.  I saw the way he was looking at you.”

“He has to tell me that, Mom.”

“Tesa, honey, how does he look at you and talk to you? Does he treat you like he loves you? He’s here with you. You know that says something.”

“But I don’t want to just go on clues or hints. I could be wrong. I want him to tell me.”
The way the hero does in romances,
she thought.

“Some men just have a hard time saying it.”

“Not Daddy.”

“Please!”

“Daddy always tells me he loves me.”

“You’re his daughter. But me, ha, I don’t think he ever said the words to me until I laid you in his arms. A two year courtship, marriage and two sons and it wasn’t until I gave him a daughter that he told me he loved me.”

“Mom, you never knew?”

“Of course I knew. Are you crazy? Do you think I would have married your father wondering if he loved me? His touch, his smile, his eyes, everything in the way he treated me told me he loved me. The way he held me shouted his love to the heavens and back. That was always more important to me.”

“Did you tell him that you loved him?”

“A million times.”

“Didn’t you get angry when he wouldn’t say the words back to you?”

Toreas watched as a smile came over her mother’s face.

“Tesa, honey, you have a lot to learn. The way your father has always made me feel, the way he looked at me then and looks at me now, that man could always make me melt. I knew he loved me in his arms or out of his arms. I always knew and I don’t believe you when you say you don’t know if Jared loves you. If you didn’t know that he loves you, you wouldn’t have brought him home.”

“But I want him to say the words, Mom. I need to hear them.”

“Did Fred ever tell you that he loved you?”

“Yes.”

“Did you believe him?”

Toreas
felt a shiver of dread. “No.”

“Did you tell him that you loved him?”

Again the shiver. “I don’t really remember. I might have.”

“Honey, it’s not always the words men say, it’s what in their eyes and in Jared’s eyes is his love for you.”

This time Toreas didn’t care if she was being stubborn. “Mom, I know I love him and I think he loves me. But I want to hear him tell me the words. I’m not you. I won’t marry him and wait until I’ve had three babies before he finally tells me. He will have to tell me he loves me way before then.”

“So you’re planning to marry him?”

Toreas shook her head and laughed. “One thing at a time.”

“But you want to?”

“Why are you being so insistent? He hasn’t asked.”

“But if he did, Tesa, what would you say? Do you love him enough to want to spend the rest of your life with him?”

“Mom, don’t push okay. I can’t answer that question until it’s asked. I can’t do anything until Jared tells me he loves me.” Toreas cut into the homemade chocolate cake sitting in front of her wondering why on earth her mother was so bent on marrying her off to Jared. She’d only met him twenty minutes ago. Did they really want to see her married so badly that it didn’t make a difference if the man didn’t profess his dying love? Maybe that approach had worked for her mother but it wouldn’t for Toreas. “The cake is very good, Mom,” Toreas said around a mouth full of fudge, intentionally changing the conversation.

***

Jared backed softly down the stairs.
He had to tell her that he loved her?
What the heck did she think he’d been doing for the past few months? And the nerve of them thinking men were dense. Well, he had a surprise for his lady love and when it was revealed she’d never think he was dense ever again. He shook his head in disbelief before running nosily back up, calling out for Toreas, alerting her that he was coming.

For over an hour he sat with Toreas and her mother eating chocolate cake and all the other goodies her mother put before him.  Now that they were con-conspirators Julie Rose had warmed considerably. She only mentioned Brian Johnson once and that was to say maybe she should call his mother and tell her the plans had changed.

The moment she went toward the phone Toreas looked at Jared.  “Now begins the small town telegraph.”  To which they both laughed.

He watched Toreas in her family home, testing the sound of Tesa, the name her family called her.  He liked it.  He also liked thinking of her as Toreas Rose, or maybe Toreas Stone, or Tesa Stone.