Wanted: One Mommy (6 page)

“Of course we’ll worry about it,” Jack said from behind her. He, too, was dressed in running shoes, shorts and a tight-fitting T-shirt that showed off his six-pack abs. “We’re responsible for the state of those clothes.”

“Why don’t you two let me worry about the laundry,” Patrice suggested, “and you two figure out what Bounder stepped on in the yard. Because whatever it is that cut her foot is still out there and I don’t want Maddie running into it.”

Jack plucked a big flashlight out of the built-in cabinet above the washing machine. He turned to Caroline, seemingly in no hurry to see her leave. His eyes warmed as they slowly moved over her face, before returning to her eyes. “You up for it?” he asked.

“Sure,” Caroline said, wanting to do everything she could to make sure the little girl and her pet were safe from here on out. Telling herself there was nothing at all romantic in the overture—Jack was just being friendly—she shrugged. “I’m curious, too.”

Jack grabbed another heavy-duty flashlight for himself, while Patrice loaned Caroline a pair of construction boots that also looked like they belonged to Jack. She paused to lace them up. Although large, they would offer excellent protection.

Jack switched on the outdoor lamps, but the circle of yellow light only went so far in the dark half-acre yard. “So how’d you get so good with dogs?” Jack asked, glancing at her appreciatively. “Have one as a kid?”

Caroline warmed at his praise. “No. I always wanted one, but my mom was allergic so I could never have one.”

Jack gave her the sympathetic once-over. “That’s too bad.”

Caroline tingled every place his gaze had touched and every place it hadn’t. “I figured I’d have one when I finished school and got married, but my fiancé didn’t want one. He thought they were too much trouble. So I put my dream of owning a dog on hold again.”

Still focused on the search for the mysterious sharp object, Jack edged nearer. “Why didn’t you get one when you broke up?”

Their beams of light intersected and joined. Caroline shrugged off her disappointment. “I wanted to get a puppy and raise her to adulthood, and I knew I was going to be putting every spare moment into building my business.” She paused, bit her lip. “It didn’t seem fair to bring a dog into my life only to leave her at home alone all the time, so I let that particular dream go again.”

Jack hunkered down and inspected the bushes along the back of the fence. “That’s too bad.” He studied her face, then said softly, “You’ve got a real affinity for animals.”

And you, Caroline thought, shocked at the realization.

Glad it was too dark for Jack to pick up the blush now heating her face, Caroline turned her attention beneath a bed of flowers. “I figure I’ll have a dog one day, when I get a house and yard and a family of my own.” She paused to examine the underside of the plants.

Jack slid his hand beneath her elbow, steadying her as she stood upright once again. “Don’t wait too long,” Jack quipped.

Shimmering with awareness, Caroline slipped from his grip and turned her attention to the dark corner of the yard along the side of the house they had yet to explore. “To do what?” she asked as he came up beside her. They
were standing so close she could feel the heat emanating from his powerful body.

“To do whatever you need to do to be happy,” Jack said.

Happiness, Caroline thought, meant only one thing—the fulfillment of all her dreams. Especially new romantic ones coming to mind right now.

She tilted her head up to his, asked softly, “Why do you care if I am or not?” They were only consultant and client…weren’t they?

Jack paused, then switched off his light. “I’m not sure why I care so much,” he said finally, switching off her flashlight, as well. “I just do. And believe me,” he finished ever so quietly, ever so purposefully, “that’s a surprise to me, too.”

The way he looked at her made her catch her breath. “Jack…”

Her whispered plea did nothing to stop him.

Jack cupped her trembling shoulders between his palms. Slowly tilted and lowered his head, until she was awash with sensation and his mouth was a fraction of an inch above hers.

“I’ve got to kiss you, Caroline,” Jack murmured.

And he did.

C
AROLINE THOUGHT
—or was it just hoped?—she had imagined how wonderful Jack’s kiss had been. She hadn’t. His kiss was pure heaven, and so was the feeling of being held in his arms. She couldn’t say why exactly, she just knew that as his lips molded themselves to hers, eliciting tingles of heat, she felt cherished and protected, admired and desired, in a way she never had before. She felt very much a woman to Jack’s man, and that was why, for both their sakes, it had to stop.

Jack felt Caroline’s hesitation in the sudden stillness of her slender body and the catch in her breath. If he were smart, he would heed the signal and pull away, because making out like this in the dark was not something either of them should be doing. But common sense had little to do with his feelings at the moment.

He wanted Caroline in a way he had never desired any woman. He wanted to taste the sweetness of her lips, and feel the soft curves of her body pressed up against his. He wanted to savor the feel of her arms wrapped around his neck, the intimacy of her fingers sliding through his hair, the feel of their bare legs pressing together. The fact she was wearing his clothes at the moment only made the clinch sexier.

Kissing her like this made him feel alive. Made him want the kind of closeness he thought had passed him over.

There was just something between them. Something indefinable but definitely there. Call it a spark of awareness, the engineer in Jack thought. Dub it chemistry or the flash of opposites attracting.

All he knew for certain was that he and Caroline were different in so many ways. And yet pulled toward each other, too.

To the point her reticence had once again faded and they were making out like a couple of teenagers, both of them loving every single second of it.

And that was, of course, when the sound of the sliding door to the patio could be heard opening and closing. “Jack! Caroline!” Patrice called out to them. “What on earth are you two doing?”

Jack and Caroline broke apart like a couple of guilty schoolkids. He had only to look at Caroline’s face to realize how mortified she was, and how deeply satisfied he felt.

He couldn’t blame her. They were behaving recklessly. And neither of them were reckless people. Which made this incident all the more profound, in his opinion.

Jack picked up the flashlights from where they had fallen on the grass and switched them on. He handed her one and slid his hand beneath Caroline’s elbow. Then escorted her around the side of the house, where they could now see his mother standing perplexed on the stone patio.

“Did you find what might have cut Bounder’s foot yet?” she asked.

Jack shook his head. He looked at Caroline, saw she appeared equally unsettled. The knowledge only deepened his pleasure. Maybe they were on to something here, although he doubted it was true love. True love, from what he had been able to tell and experience, did not really exist except in movies, books and the minds of those willing to substitute emotion for cold, hard fact.

Aware his mother was looking at them with a smile now, Jack felt a stab of self-consciousness.

“Mmm-hmm.” Patrice folded her arms in front of her,
the way all moms did when they suddenly caught on to something. “I can see how hard you’re working.”

Guilt flooded Jack. He hadn’t meant to clue anyone else in on his attraction to Caroline. At least not at this point. “We’ll find it,” Jack promised, forcing himself to get back on task. They had no choice. The yard would not be safe to play in until they did.

Patrice continued to study them, then sobered, forcing herself to get back to the matter at hand, too. “Maddie told me she thought that Bounder hurt her foot somewhere near the slide on the swing set, if that helps.”

It did. “Thanks, Mom,” Jack said.

He headed over in that direction, Caroline right beside him. Patrice went back inside the house.

Carefully, Jack focused his yellow beam on the thick layer of cedar chips beneath the elaborate wooden swing set and climbing fort. “Sorry about that,” he told Caroline. It was obvious that although his mother hadn’t actually seen them kissing, she had figured out the gist of what had been going on between him and Caroline. And more, looked happy for it.

Unfortunately, Jack couldn’t say the same about Caroline.

Head bent, Caroline studied the area around the swings. “Sorry for the kiss?” She enunciated clearly, letting him know she did not appreciate his timing. “Or the fact you embarrassed me in front of a client?”

Jack knew she was right—here and now had not been the time to make a move. He should have waited, he admitted ruefully, until there had been zero possibility of a private moment turning into a public display of affection. Next time, he’d use better judgment. He leaned closer and said, just as quietly, “Trust me. If Mom blames anyone for the fact we were making out just now, she blames me.”

Jack watched the sparks come into her pretty eyes.

She tilted her head, mocked him with a glance. “You hit on the hired help that often, hmm?”

It was all Jack could do not to haul her into his arms and kiss her again, just to show her he meant it. And she had, too. Jack clamped a hand on her shoulder and guided her all the way upright. “First of all, I don’t consider you part of the hired help. You’re a professional, just like me. We’re completely equal in that regard. And furthermore, you know it. Second, I agree my timing could be a lot better.”

“It still can’t happen again,” she stipulated, just as firmly.

Given the fact that he had acted impulsively twice around her, and she had surrendered to the free-flowing desire between them just as easily, Jack wasn’t going to make any guarantees about not putting the moves on her again. And he didn’t think she should, either.

He dropped his hand to his side. “I don’t make pledges I know I can’t keep.”

“O
H, MY WORD
! Is that what Bounder cut her foot on?” Patrice gasped, half an hour and a great deal of searching later.

Jack held up the three-inch chunk of cedar with the razor-sharp edge to show his mother and Dutch. “It was buried halfway down in the layer of mulch. It must have been there all along. Probably just didn’t get chopped up to begin with.”

“I’ll call the landscape company first thing, let them know what happened, and have it all removed.”

“We didn’t see anything else,” Jack said. And once they located the problem, he and Caroline had both used heavy-duty gardening gloves and small rakes to conduct
the search. “But it’s a good idea, just to be sure. Meantime, I’m going to talk to Grady. I know he recently had some sort of soft-surface material put beneath the swing set in his yard. Maybe that’s the way to go. Temporarily, we can have some sod put in around the play equipment.”

Patrice nodded in agreement, then looked at Caroline. “Good news. I was able to get the stains out of your clothes. But you’ll probably want to have it dry-cleaned. And I would be happy to do that for you…”

“No, that’s fine,” Caroline interrupted with a smile. “I’ll just change and be on my way.”

“Also, your cell phone went off several times.”

Caroline retrieved her purse and cell phone. All business, she scrolled through the messages. “It was Jericho. He wants to reschedule for seven-thirty tomorrow morning, here at the house.” She looked Jack square in the eye.

Clearly, she was still a little ticked off at him for refusing to promise not to kiss her again. Not that there would have been any point in that. They both knew, given the heat of the sparks between them, it was bound to happen again. And again…

“Can you handle eating cake that early?” she asked.

In truth? Jack could handle anything that involved spending time with Caroline. “Sure,” he vowed.

Caroline turned to Patrice and Dutch. “Jericho understands you can’t have a lot of rich food, but he’d really like you to taste the final selection before the order is made. So if you wouldn’t mind being here, too…?”

“No problem,” Dutch and Patrice said in unison.

And just that suddenly, Jack noted, the event turned into a family affair.

“D
ADDY
, I
CAN’T GO
to school when Bounder is wearing her E-collar,” Maddie told Jack at the conclusion of the cake tasting and ordering the next morning.

Caroline paused in the act of helping Jericho clean up the last of the doily-covered paper plates. Jack’s daughter was wearing a rainbow-colored, polka-dotted shorts-and-top set, suitable for the warm spring weather, athletic socks and high-top sneakers. Her cheeks were pink with agitation, her eyes shimmering with emotion. Her dark hair had been brushed into a smooth, shiny cap that swung forward to curve against her chin. She was a seven-year-old hell-bent on protecting her beloved pet, and she looked adorable.

Maddie fingered the dog’s E-collar. The cushioned black fabric had been decorated with colorful stickers that kept falling off.

Caroline could see Maddie’s frustration over that, too.

Maddie glanced at Jack and pouted. “Bounder looks so sad, Daddy! Like she needs me to be here with her!”

Jack barely looked up from the screen of his BlackBerry as he scrolled through the messages that had come in during the cake testing. Finally, he looked up, appearing the picture of the distracted, somewhat harried-working single dad. A look that Caroline also found adorable.

Jack put his phone aside and knelt down to talk to Maddie on her level. “Honey, I am sure Bounder will be fine. She’ll probably fall asleep the moment you walk out the door, the way she does every day after you leave for school.” The matter apparently closed, as far as he was concerned, Jack stood.

Unconvinced, Maddie got down on her tummy and lay so she was face-to-face with her beloved pet. The two of them went nose to nose, with Bounder staring with a mixture of mournfulness and love into Maddie’s big eyes. “See, Daddy, she is begging me to stay because she doesn’t want to be alone!” Maddie complained.

Jack looked at his mother for help.

“Honey, normally I would stick to Bounder like glue, but Dutch and I are going to Houston this morning.”

Jack did a double take.

Apparently, Caroline noted, this was the first time Jack was hearing about that. He wasn’t particularly pleased.

“For the weekend?” he asked.

Today was Friday.

Patrice shook her head—a definitive no. Dutch said nothing. “We’ll be back this evening,” she promised.

Maddie tugged on Patrice’s blouse. “Can’t you go another time, Gram?”

“Maybe over the weekend or early next week?” Jack suggested.

Patrice didn’t even look at Dutch, she simply shook her head. “No, darling, we can’t. I’m sorry. We have to go.”

Jack continued to look at his mother with that same inscrutable look.

“We’re meeting someone this afternoon,” Patrice said in a clipped voice that, although pleasant, indicated annoyance at Jack’s third degree. “So we really have to go if we’re going to catch our flight.”

Finally, Caroline noted, Jack spoke up. “Business?” he inquired almost too casually.

“It’s personal,” Patrice said, averting her glance as if suddenly unable to meet her son’s eyes.

“I have someone I have to see,” Dutch said vaguely. And left it at that.

Goodbyes were said. Patrice and Dutch rushed out the door, with only her handbag and his car keys and wallet in tow.

“Well, I better get a move on, too.” Jericho gathered up his order notebook and portfolio of designs, leaving a few of the cake samples he’d brought with him on the table. “Thanks for the business,” he told Jack.

Jack nodded. “Thanks for accommodating us after last night’s crisis.”

Jericho nodded. The door closed behind him.

Tears trembled on Maddie’s lashes and she began to cry in earnest.

Jack knelt down.

“Someone has to stay with Bounder!” Maddie wailed. “We can’t leave her all alone after she got hurt!”

Caroline looked at the golden retriever’s sad face. Her heart went out to the ailing pet, too. That piece of wood Bounder had stepped on had been terribly sharp, going right up between her toes, slicing between two of the pads of her feet. The vet had prescribed antibiotics and pain meds to be taken temporarily in addition to bandaging the paw, but it still had to hurt. Worse, there was no way to really explain to the dog that it would get better in a day or so, although the vet had said complete healing would take a good fourteen days. Until then, the golden needed a lot of tender loving care, which would be in short supply, at least for the next seven or eight hours.

Caroline knew what she had to do. “I can stay with Bounder,” she volunteered.

It was hard to tell at that moment who looked more relieved. Jack or Maddie. “You sure?” Jack asked, gratitude in his voice.

Caroline nodded. “Most of what I have to get done today for your mother can be done either by phone or on my laptop. It’s no problem for me to keep an eye on Bounder while I work.” Caroline bent down to simultaneously comfort Maddie and gently pet her dog’s fluffy golden mane. “I promise you, I’ll take very good care of your puppy dog while you are at school.”

Maddie thrust herself into Caroline’s arms and hugged
her fiercely. “Thank you so much!” she whispered, trembling.

“You’re welcome,” Caroline said, hugging Maddie back.

Finally the little girl let go. Caroline stood. Found herself looking into Jack’s eyes. Something unexpectedly warm and intimate passed between them. An answering thrill swept through her.

“Maddie’s not the only one who is grateful,” he said.

Caroline waved off his thanks self-consciously. “It’s no big deal.”

“Yes, it is,” Jack differed softly. He reached over to briefly squeeze her hand. “And I promise, I’ll find a way to make this up to you.”

A
NXIOUS TO SEE
how things were going on the home front, Jack let himself in at lunchtime. He found Caroline seated cross-legged on the living room floor, heels off. A throw pillow served as a desk on her lap. She had a yellow pad full of notes balanced on one thigh, her laptop computer centered on the pillow. Cuddled up next to her, spine pressed against Caroline’s thigh, was Bounder. Caroline was staring at the computer screen while absentmindedly petting the golden retriever.

Bounder looked at Jack. Thought about getting up and coming over, but then decided to stay where she was.

Jack couldn’t blame the dog. It looked like a warm and cozy place to be.

Looking as gorgeous as ever in a crystal-blue pantsuit that matched her eyes, Caroline made a teasing face and narrowed her glance at him. “Come to relieve me? Because you didn’t have to.” She bragged, content, “Bounder and I have already gotten a lot done this morning.”

Trying not to think how perfectly Caroline fit into his
personal life, Jack set his BlackBerry and keys on the foyer table next to the stairs. Coming home to her like this was nice. He quirked his brow. And gave her his full attention. “Such as?”

She tucked a strand of copper hair behind her ear. “We ordered the wedding invitations your mom wanted and sent the guest list and the product to the calligrapher who will be addressing them. Your mom and Dutch have yet to decide on whether they want a DJ or a band, and have asked me to get sample performances of both to look at, which I think is wise.”

Figuring he couldn’t go wrong where Caroline was concerned by talking business, Jack edged close enough to see the faint imprint of freckles on her cheeks. “Which do you prefer?” he asked.

A smile spread across her face. “Both have advantages. A live band is always exciting and makes the event feel special. With a DJ, we can control the sound quality a little better, and provide a good mix of tunes—oldies but goodies for your mom’s set, alternative for the younger, and country for just about everyone, since it’s illegal to live in Texas and not like country music.” Caroline paused, meeting Jack’s eyes. “It’s really up to the individuals involved.”

Jack grinned. “You like your job,” he observed.

“Some days, yeah. It can be fun making people’s dreams come true.”