Whitney in Charge (20 page)

Regan moved closer to the tombstone, staring at the border of red and white impatiens. “The flowers Josie planted look pretty. Mom always planted red and white ones in her flower bed by the porch.” Regan raised her eyes and glanced at them. “I got up early and read my journal. I was surprised she mentioned for me to let go of my fears. It was like she was in the room with me and knew the struggles I’ve had with Casey’s job and wanting him to quit. But I guess she knew about Casey’s near brush with death. It happened before she died.”

“Did she write her favorite Bible verses in your journals?” Shannon asked. “She had several in mine about fear.”

Regan said, “Yes. I’ll going to memorize them.”

“I’m glad she shared her faith with us.” Whitney sighed. “She didn’t tell me to go skydiving, but wrote I should embrace life and to allow a second love in my life. She said I was too young to remain a widow.”

Shannon gave her a small smile. “I don’t know about the love part, but you’re allowing some kisses in your life again. And not one but two hot guys.”

“I think Mom would have liked Jack the best,” Regan said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“I don’t know. I think Ben’s a little bit like Dad,” Shannon said.

“If I get married again, Dad won’t be walking me down the aisle. But at least, he was alive for my first wedding.” Whitney blinked against the tears. She missed her parents, but remembering the beautiful times she had with them eased the pain.

Regan burst into tears and Shannon pulled a tissue out of her pocket to give her. Between sobs Shannon said, “We had the best parents.”

After a few moments, Whitney cleared her throat and said, “Mom wrote to do a happy dance each day, no matter what. She said that when she couldn’t physically dance at the end, she danced in her mind. Did she write that in your journals?”

“She did.” Regan grabbed their hands. “Come on. Let’s dance. I have the perfect song to dance to on my cell phone.”

Whitney noticed others visiting loved ones in the cemetery, but she decided—what the heck? “Okay. It’s Mother’s Day and we’ll do a dance for her.”

“We better start dancing now before I start bawling again,” Shannon said.

* * *

After lunch at an Italian restaurant in Cornett, Jack stood outside with his mother and sister, Jessica. The women wanted to go shopping for baby items. Since shopping wasn’t his thing, he kissed them good-bye and walked to his car. He glanced at his watch and saw it was two o’clock. Would Whitney be home yet from the cemetery? She’d invited him to go swimming and said to come anytime in the afternoon.

He decided not to call because he didn’t want to disturb her in case she was still at the cemetery paying her respects. Several minutes later, he pulled in the driveway behind two vehicles, neither being Whitney’s. He soon realized one belonged to Casey when he saw him by the door of the Ford Escape.

As Jack got out of his car, Casey said, “Hey, I heard you might be here today.”

Walking toward Casey, he asked, “Is Whitney here?”

“Nope. They didn’t get back yet from the cemetery
. I have to get Lily’s new ball out of here.” After Casey retrieved the pink beach ball off the seat, he straightened up, slamming the car door. “Did you bring your trunks?”

Jack nodded. “I just need to change. I came straight from the restaurant.”

“I bet you took your mother.” Casey rolled the ball in his hands. “Regan, Lily and I are going to see my mom this evening. You remember my brother, David?”

Jack grinned. “I know David. I heard you were trying to fix him up with Whitney.”

“Hey, that was before you came into the picture.”

“Whitney’s a fantastic woman. I’m crazy about her.” He grinned. “Thanks for introducing us, Casey.”

They walked together to the house, and Casey opened the front door for Jack to follow him inside. “Take it easy with her, though. She’s still recovering from Rob’s death. It’s not easy.”

“I knew Rob too. He was a great guy.”

“Yeah, I never realized you flew Rob until Regan mentioned it to me.” After a moment of silence, Casey grinned. “I imagine you’ll get tested today by Whitney.”

“What do you mean?”

Casey frowned. “She didn’t tell you about her test for visitors?”

He shook his head. “What kind of test?”

“She doesn’t allow anyone in the deep end until they pass her test.”

“I should be able to pass. I can swim.”

Once inside the house, Casey pointed to the stairs. “You can use Whitney’s bedroom to change. She has a bathroom too. It’s the first room on the left.”

“Thanks.” After he shut Whitney’s bedroom door, Jack removed his khaki pants and shirt. He folded them before placing them on a chair. As he pulled his royal blue trunks on, he glanced around her room. The femininity didn’t surprise him. It was a cozy room with white furniture and lots of blue throw pillows. He could imagine Whitney curled up in the light green upholstered chair, thinking up her creative television ideas while relaxing. From her windows he could see the pool. He watched Casey toss the ball to his daughter for a moment. She resembled her mom, he thought. Another man lounged in a chair, and Jack assumed he was probably Shannon’s husband, Tim.

As he turned away from the window, Jack saw a picture of Rob and Whitney on her nightstand. He’d been engaged once but never married. He couldn’t imagine losing a spouse. A heavy sadness sat in his chest since he realized Whitney was the woman Rob had raved about so many times when they flew together. It was obvious that they’d loved each other very much. Had Rob regretted in his final seconds that he’d been a reporter in a war zone? Rob probably hadn’t had a chance to have any doubts. The roadside bomb had destroyed lives in a matter of seconds.

He should know. He’d seen it happen. Witnessing the men blown to bits had been the reason he hadn’t enlisted again. He couldn’t bear to be in Iraq again or any war zone for that matter.

He hadn’t been able to tell Whitney that he’d saw Rob’s death. How could he tell her now?

Joy bubbled inside Whitney when she saw Jack in the pool. Here she’d expected to be crying a lot on Mother’s Day, but instead it was shaping into being a fantastic day. Mom would be happy at her progress in forming a romantic relationship. And Mom would be pleased they were swimming in her pool and hadn’t skipped it this year. Only one thing worried her.

She felt nervous about wearing her bikini. Wearing it around her family was one thing, but around a man who had kissed her and made her feel alive again—that was something entirely different.

“Hi.” She smiled at Jack and Casey, feeling her cheeks warm at the grin on Jack’s face as he looked her up and down. “Regan and Shannon will be out in a minute. They’re getting cold drinks and—”

“I was hoping you’d make your margaritas,” Casey cut her off, and turned to Jack. “Whitney’s margaritas are great.”

“Sorry I don’t have any lime and tequila to make margaritas. I’ll be prepared the next time.” She put bowls of chips and pretzels on one of the patio tables. “But I have snacks.”

“The water’s great,” Jack said.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tim and his kids leaving the shed. “Did you find what you wanted?” she called out to them.

“We were looking for goggles.” Tim held up a pair of green goggles in his hand. “We found several.”

Regan put a pitcher of lemonade and brightly colored plastic glasses next to the snacks. “Hi, Jack. I hope you’ve been keeping our husbands out of trouble.”

After Jack smiled at Regan, he
glanced at the men.

“Man, by not speaking, you’re making us look guilty of something,” Casey said.

“Remember buddy, you’re dating our sister-in-law. She likes to ask us our opinions about lots of stuff.” Tim threw back his shoulders.

Casey threw the ball to Lily and said, “Tim’s right. We might sway her to seeing just Ben.”

Lily clutched the ball and gave a worried glance at Jack. “Are you Aunt Whitney’s boyfriend too?”

“We haven’t talked about being girlfriend and boyfriend yet. But yes, I think we might be. Is that okay with you?” Jack asked Lily.

She shook her head. “I’m afraid not.”

Regan put her hands on her hips. “Lily Dunn, you aren’t being nice. Where are your manners?”

Casey laughed. “She speaks her mind, like someone else I know. I can’t wait until your cable show starts.”

“Aunt Whitney, Adam and I want you to marry his dad. Then you’ll live with them and we’ll live here. I don’t want you to marry Jack and move away.”

Whitney winked at her little niece before stepping in the pool. “How about I just live with you and your parents? This house is big enough for all of us.”

“Okay.” Lily swam to the ladder and climbed out. She walked around the pool to the water slide.

“I hope you’re kidding,” Caitlyn glanced up from her cell phone. “You’ll be a built-in babysitter. I’ll never get to watch Lily.”

From the top of the slide, Lily said, “Watch me. I don’t scream like Caitlyn.”

Caitlyn frowned. “I only screamed once and that was the first time.”

“Liar,” Brandon said. “You screamed all three times you went down it.”

“It’s hard not to scream when you fly down it.” Shannon removed her white cover-up. She wore a one piece yellow suit.

“Lily, please go down the slide so I can dive in.” Brandon got on the board. “And everyone else move out of the way. I don’t want to bump into anyone.”

Whitney swam to Jack and rested her arm on his shoulders. “If someone’s diving at the same time as another who’s using the slide, it’s possible there could be a collision so that’s one of our rules. Only one at a time dives or slides into the pool.”

Tim kissed Shannon when she got into the water. “Jack, did Whitney give you the test yet?”

Whitney saw Jack shake his head so she explained, “I give a test to determine if children are allowed to swim in the deep end. Actually Mom started doing it when she first put the pool in.”

“If Jack gets in trouble in the deep end, you can give him mouth to mouth,” Casey said to her.

Whitney raised her eyebrows, trying not to focus on Jack’s strong leg brushing against hers under the water. Shivers went through her and they were not from the water being cool. Just the brush of his skin against hers sent shocks of excitement through her. “Jack definitely can swim well enough to stay in the deep end.”

When Jack pulled her to his hard chest, she wanted to kiss him, but saw how everyone’s attention was on them. She’d have to wait a couple of hours until she was alone with him.

“I could use a little mouth to mouth now,” Jack whispered in her ear.

She kissed him on the cheek. “Later on the mouth when all my nosy relatives leave.”

Regan sat on a chair and nibbled on a potato chip. “Casey, I need to get new clothes for the TV program. And I can’t buy anything from Wal-Mart. Only the best, Whitney said. Wardrobes are important because everything shows up so much more on HDTV. The viewers will be able to tell the quality of the clothes, see coffee or chili stains. Nothing will be fuzzy like the old analog TV.”

“Babe, you have plenty of nice clothes from when you were a paralegal,” Casey said.

“I’m picking up the tab for new clothes, but we’ll get reimbursed. Jerry said we’d get money for a clothing allowance.” Whitney draped her arm over a green noodle to keep afloat next to Jack.

Shannon said, “I’m a bit concerned because I’m a klutz. If I get drops of coffee on my clothes or spill a bit of Coke on me, people will see it.”

“Dry cleaners will love us,” Regan chuckled.

Whitney wrapped her leg around Jack’s. Being close to him felt amazing. “Lint on a dark suit coat shows up too.”

Shannon grabbed a blue raft. As she got on it, she said, “I think it’s interesting we’ll wear less makeup because with high definition less is better. And it has to be applied evenly.”

“Is Josie doing your makeup?” Caitlyn poured a glass of lemonade.

“Maybe later,” Regan said.

Tim pulled Shannon’s raft around the shallow end, and then glanced at Whitney. “Madame Producer, I have a question for you. I have a surprise for my woman this summer and—”

Regan rolled her eyes. “I love it. A surprise for the hot college professor.”

Shannon grinned. “I need to stop telling you about my secret love life.”

“Little brother, don’t listen to any of this,” Caitlyn yelled.

Jack’s powerful well-muscled body distracted her, but Whitney managed to lift her eyes away from him to look at Tim. “No problem. Regan and I can do the show or we can tape some shows ahead while Shannon’s away.”

* * *

“I have a couple of steaks we can throw on the grill,” Whitney said to Jack, trying to keep her focus as he held her close, their bodies bobbing in the water.

He ran his lips up the side of her neck and nibbled on her ear. “I like your family but I’m glad they left.”

“Me too.”

“There’s something else I like.”

“What’s that?”