Unexpected Admirer (9 page)

A moment was nearly an hour when she sat up as soon as she’d heard a car door shut out front.

She jumped to her feet, set the mug on the coffee table, and hurried to the door.

She peered through the window at the door. He’d come. He’d really made the trip in the middle of the night, down the mountain, just to see her. It was then she noticed he was completely alone.

Trust. He trusted her. He hadn’t brought a bodyguard or his manager or his assistant. This was just going to be her and Jesse.

The thought of this man wanting to be with her took over, and she flung open the door.

The bright, perfect smile on Jesse’s mouth flashed even in the darkness.

He looked different. His hair wasn’t spiked up, his jeans were casual, and he had on a heavy coat.

There were no words between them as she stepped out in the cold night air and met him on the porch. His hands went to her face, hers to his chest, and their lips met in a heated kiss that said each of them had been waiting for that moment.

She shivered against him, and he pulled her in tighter.

“I didn’t expect you to be standing at the door,” he said as he gazed down at her.

“I couldn’t help it. I’d meant to tell you not to come, but…”

“I’m glad you didn’t.” He bent down and kissed her softly again. “Let’s go inside. You’re freezing.”

She let her hand fall until she found his and interlaced their fingers. Then she opened the front door and led him inside.

She shut the front door quietly behind them as Jesse shrugged out of his coat.

She reached for the coat. “I’ll take that.”

He handed it to her, and she looked it over.

“Allstate Arena staff?” She looked back up at him, and he grinned.

“It’s really cold in Chicago, and I didn’t have a good coat. Then a guy heard that I was coming here and said I was crazy to fly into Grand Junction because you guys were going to get a storm coming your way. So a nice man named Ted let me have the coat.”

“Is it Ted’s coat?”

“No, it’s officially stolen property now.”

She laughed aloud and then covered her mouth, realizing that everyone else was still asleep. “You are trouble for me, aren’t you?”

Jesse moved in closer to her and gathered her in his arms. “I don’t mean to be. I don’t want to be.”

Her breath grew thick. “We come from two different worlds.”

“We sure do. I like yours.”

Melissa narrowed her eyes. “I have nothing.”

“Oh, you have more than you think.” He brushed a strand of hair from her face. “You have a family, a community, friends, and a very important job. I admire you for all of that.”

“Why me? Why…”

“Shhh.” He moved in closer and laid a kiss on her lips.

The coat between them kept them at a short distance, but it wasn’t enough to keep the heat of his body from making her temperature rise.

Jesse pulled back and gazed at her. “You’re old fashioned, aren’t you?”

She didn’t like how that sounded since they were so many years apart in age. “What does that mean?”

“It means you’re the kind of girl who plays by rules. You meet. You date. You become boyfriend and girlfriend. A man should get down on a knee and propose with a ring, but only after getting permission to do so from her family. No babies until there is a marriage—not a wedding—but a marriage.” He stood back and looked her over. “Yeah, and you go to church and Jonah told me you’re a stickler for having homework done before dinner.”

Melissa pursed her lips. “I sound like a fuddy duddy.”

“Not in the least.” He lifted his head and inhaled. “Do I smell coffee?”

“Yes. It was the only way I could keep awake. Would you like some?”

“I’d love it. And then I can tell you why I think your way of mothering is so amazing.”

She nodded and headed toward the kitchen with Jesse in tow. She draped the large “borrowed” jacket over the back of a chair and then pulled a mug out of the cabinet.

Melissa poured the coffee into the mug. “So you’re looking for a mother figure?”

“I knew that sounded wrong. No. But looking at it in a backward way…a good mother is a good listener and caregiver…which means she’d be an attentive wife. In turn, she must be one hell of a lover.”

Melissa swallowed hard as she replaced the coffeepot back on the burner. “You’ve given this a lot of thought.”

“Maybe not as much as you think.” She handed him the mug, and he took a long, deep smell. “This smells great. Thanks.”

“Sure.” She refilled her empty mug that sat on the counter and then sat down across from him at the kitchen table. “I’m not some jet set beauty.”

“You’re more.”

“I’m not a one night stand.”

“I’d never think that of you.”

Melissa dropped her shoulders. “So tell me, why me?”

Jesse pushed his coffee aside and reached for her hands. “Do you believe in love at first sight?”

“No,” she answered quickly. She didn’t want him to think that he could just move this little rendezvous along at his usual pace. And there was no way in hell she was going to let him know she’d given him more thought than she should have in the past few weeks. Hadn’t she even considered that she’d fallen in love with him? How absurd.

“I do.”

“You’re in love with me?”

He smiled softly. “My heart aches when I can’t hear your voice. My nerves get shaky when I think you assume I’m stalking you.”

She laughed and he continued, “When I look at that picture of us and Jonah, I feel like I’m at home. I won’t say I’m in love with you because that would make you very uncomfortable.”

There he was again with his perfect words, but she listened.

“Let’s just say, Melissa, I can’t stop thinking about you, and I want to spend all my time with you.”

She bit down on her lip. “I’ve been thinking about you a lot, too.”

“Oh, I hoped you’d say that.”

“I don’t want to be thinking of you. You don’t live in this world that I do.”

Jesse moved his chair around to be next to her. “I want to.” He picked up his mug and sipped from it again. “Let me tell you why this is all so appealing.”

He touched her cheek again and simply gazed into her eyes. This was too comfortable, but she didn’t want to move. There was a reason he’d been voted the sexiest man, and it was captivating to stare back into his grey eyes.

“Just because my face is on a poster in your son’s room doesn’t mean I chose that. I mean, I’m good at what I do. I’ve been built to be good at it. But I’ve always wanted normal.”

“You mean a day-to-day job, weekly pay check, laundry, dishes, carpools…”

“Yes.”

She watched him, and his mannerism didn’t change as though he were feeding her a line. This was what the man wanted, and she exuded it. Was that a good thing?

“Laundry is overrated.”

Jesse laughed and sat back in his chair. “Tell me about your husband.”

“You sure have strange topics for a date.”

“Are we on a date?” He leaned back in. “Let’s go make out on the couch then.”

She slapped his shoulder, and he eased back with a grin.

“Martin was a police officer. In a town like this, the force is small, but there were five of them and they got their share of action with Aspen Hills and the wayward party-goer. There have been a few petty thefts, speeders, drunks…” She let out a long breath. “He loved his job.”

“You were together a long time?”

“High school.”

“Wow,” he said on a breath. “Hard shoes to fill.”

“No one ever will.” She needed to make that clear. Martin was the love of her life. Not even Jesse Charles could take that away.

“How did he die?”

She couldn’t just sit and discuss it. Melissa stood and walked to the sink with her mug. She rinsed it out and stared out into the blackness beyond her kitchen window.

“Routine traffic stop. Car was coming down the mountain too fast. Martin stopped them. He had to run a plate, so he did. The car was stolen.”

She took a deep breath, and her fingers curled around the edge of the counter as she continued to stare out the window.

“When he got out of the car to approach the driver, the driver pulled a gun on him and shot him in the chest.”

“Oh, Melissa.” Jesse stood and crossed to her. “I’m so sorry.”

She shook her head. “He died on the side of the road.” Tears filled her eyes, and she hurried to brush them away. “Jonah and I were in Aspen Hills for a Boy Scout function. We came over the hill only twenty minutes after they had cleared the scene.”

Jesse pulled her into his arms and held her close. “Melissa, I had no idea.”

“William was waiting for me when I got home. He told me what had happened. I was a mess.”

“Who is William?” There was tension in his voice.

“William is Martin’s best friend and my boss. He’s taken very good care of us for the past three years.”

The hug began to strain, and she understood why. Jesse was feeling out of place, but now she desperately wanted him there. It felt good to cry out her pain and be held by arms that offered compassion.

Melissa pulled back and looked up at him. “Some date, huh?”

He chuckled. “I didn’t mean to…”

She shook her head again. “It’s part of my life and Jonah’s. It comes with us.”

“As it should.”

She stepped back and dropped her shoulders. “Should we just go out to the couch and make out?”

“Sounds like a lot more fun.”

Melissa moved in against him again. “I can’t figure out how to act around you.”

He smoothed his hand over her hair. “Natural.”

“You bring something out in me that I didn’t know existed.”

“Are you happy?”

She thought for a moment and then rested her head against his chest. “I’ve been very happy this week. Enough so that I realized I wasn’t happy before.”

“Then that makes me happy.” He kissed the top of her head. “Now, can we go do that making out thing?”

Jesse laughed and wrapped his arm around her shoulders as she led him to the living room, all the while wondering how she was going to make him go away forever—because that was what needed to happen, even if her heart wasn’t in it.

Chapter Eight

Though there were plenty more kisses as they curled themselves around each other on the couch, there wasn’t any more than that. Both of them were exhausted. Jesse hadn’t wanted to watch regular TV. He said there was just too much junk on TV. Melissa thought a musical was in order.

She flipped through her DVDs. “
The Sound of Music?
”

Jesse shrugged. “I’ve never seen it.”

Melissa nearly dropped the book of DVDs. “Are you kidding me? Who hasn’t seen this?” She held the disk out in front of her.

“Me.”

“Julie Andrews? Christopher Plumber?”

He laughed. “I know the people in it, and I know all the songs. I’ve just never sat down and watched it.”

“Well, if you want to be with me, you’d better see it.”

“Then hurry and put it in.”

His eyes were playful, but soft. She took the cue and inserted the disk into the player, retrieved the remote, and sat back down next to him. He pulled her in closer to him, and she started the movie.

Melissa remembered the family beginning to flee after the concert, but the next thing she heard was her own mother’s voice.

It was then she realized that she’d fallen asleep on the couch, wrapped under a blanket with Jesse’s arm wrapped around her.

The DVD repeated the menu items, and the music played over and over as she tried to comprehend the moment.

“Missy, get up. Pastor is expecting you early for sermon,” her mother said, standing over her.

“Oh, no.” The realization finally hit her, and she jarred upright.

Jesse sprang upright as well.

“Hurry, I have to go.” Melissa kicked away the blanket and ran down the hall.

Jesse pried his eyes open and then looked at Patsy and Jonah, who both stood there smiling at him.

He tried to gather his wits and stand up. “I’m sorry about this.” He motioned to the couch.

“I didn’t even know you’d come.” Patsy gathered the blanket from the couch and proceeded to fold it.

“I got in very early this morning. She said it was okay to come over.” He noticed Jonah standing behind Patsy, smiling. “How are you this morning, Jonah?”

“Good. Are you going to church with us?”

He’d nearly forgotten. “Oh, yeah. I packed some nicer clothes. They’re in the truck.”

“I’ll go get ‘em.” Jonah moved past his grandmother.

Jesse laughed as he pulled the keys from his pocket. “Blue bag in the passenger seat.”

Jonah nodded and headed out the door.

Patsy set the quilt on the chair behind her. “You look exhausted.”

“It’s been a long night.”

“You guys could have gotten a better night’s sleep in a bed.”

He swallowed hard. “I don’t think that was an option.”

Patsy smiled and gave him a nod. “She’s old fashioned, that one.”

He chuckled. “I told her that, too.”

“She’s not going to go for any funny business. She’s got Jonah, you know.”

This was more like it, he thought. Some motherly concern. The world was in short supply of such things.

“I understand. I have some very strong feelings for your daughter.”

Patsy winked. “I know. And she’ll come around.”

Jonah walked back through the door with the bag and handed it to him.

Patsy looked at her watch. “We have to drive away in a half hour.”

“I’ll hurry.”

“You can use the bathroom down the hall.”

“Thanks.” He started down the hallway.

“Oh, and Jesse…” He turned around to see Patsy walk toward the kitchen. “I’m glad to have you here.”

The morning was rushed in the little household, and he enjoyed it. Melissa had run past him as she came out of the bedroom and raced to the kitchen. She poured a cup of coffee and quickly threw two pieces of bread into the toaster.

She took down a second mug and poured him coffee, too.

“I’m sorry for the rush. Do you like jelly on your toast?”

He couldn’t help but smile at her. This side of her was maybe even more endearing than seeing her in the frog vest.