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Jack gasped. “In love? Your father is in love with my—”
“Well, he hasn’t really said it,” she interrupted. “But he’s been so excited about this visit.” Mia paused. “What about your mother?”
“She says they’re just friends. My father was her one and only.”
“Well, then, maybe that’s the case. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. After all, at their age, romance seems a little too much to hope for.”
“Right. Those feelings go away once you turn…what? Fifty?”
“Sixty,” she said.
“And there’s the matter of the distance,” Jack said. “My mother lives in Chicago. Your father lives here. They could never carry on a relationship over that distance.”
“Absolutely right.”
Jack frowned. “Who knows, they might not even enjoy being together this weekend.”
“Yeah, maybe they won’t even like each other.” She met his gaze and saw the doubt there. Mia walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottled water. “Would you like something to drink? Or maybe something to eat?”
“Do you have a beer?”
She pulled one out and handed it to him, then opened a bottle of water for herself and took a long drink. She had to be very clever about this. After all, her father was in a very vulnerable state and Elyse was a beautiful woman. If she had no feelings for him, then everything was fine. But what if she developed feelings for Mia’s father, only to crush his heart later.
Mia pushed away from the counter. “Why don’t we get out of here and get some dinner? I’m sure our parents don’t need us hanging around, hovering.”
She watched as he took a long sip of his beer. Even the way he drank beer was sexy, so casual, so masculine. Her breath caught in her throat and for a long moment, she didn’t breathe. The thoughts running through her mind were just a little bit preposterous. And yet, she couldn’t deny that Jack Quinn’s presence here was like a gift.
It had been too long since she’d had a man in her bed. And now, she’d been given the perfect opportunity—he was handsome, sexy, available and he’d go home at the end of the weekend. Why not take advantage while she could?
She took another swallow of the water, but it went down wrong. Mia coughed, putting her hand on her chest. Her eyes began to water and Jack crossed the room and gently patted her back.
“Are you all right?”
His warm hand smoothed over her back and she nodded. But she wasn’t okay. Her thoughts focused on his touch. She wanted him to kiss her, but she wasn’t sure exactly how to make it seem as if it was his idea. “I—I’m fine,” she said, taking another sip of water. “I think we should go.”
“Lead on,” Jack said.
Mia walked toward the door, but she was sorely tempted to turn around and walk into the bedroom, just to see what he’d do. If she’d thought he’d follow her, Mia might have tried it.
“YOU HAVE TO TRY the fish tacos,” Mia said, jumping out of the Mini Cooper and slamming the door behind her. Jack crawled out of the car and followed her up to the window of the roadside taco stand.
He stared up at the menu, working his way through the extensive list of choices. After finding their parents engrossed in a study of an old picture album, Jack and Mia had hopped into her car and driven toward the coast. They’d pulled off the highway about fifteen minutes later at a small wooden shack with picnic tables gathered around it.
“I’ve never had a fish taco,” Jack said.
“Don’t they have them in Chicago?”
“We’re kind of hot dog and pizza people there,” Jack explained. “Although it’s a great city for food, so I’m sure there are plenty of places to go for fish tacos. I’ve just never had one.”
“Well, Manny’s is the best,” she said. “It’s been around forever. My girlfriends and I used to come here when we were in high school, looking to meet boys. Lots of surfers used to hang out here. Blond, tan, smelling like the ocean.”
She ordered a basket of four fish tacos and a couple of beers. When the server handed her a tray, she turned and headed toward one of the picnic tables.
The songs had always touted the superiority of California girls, but Jack had never really seen the attraction. But here, beneath the late-afternoon sun, with a warm breeze blowing off the ocean, he couldn’t recall ever meeting a woman more captivating than Mia McMahon.
She grabbed a taco from the basket and bit into it. Jack followed suit and when the mix of fish and fresh tomato and avocado and cheese all melded in his mouth, he groaned softly.
“Good, right?”
“Wow. Really not what I expected,” he said.
“I know.” She grinned. “So tell me why you decided to come to California with your mother. Don’t you have a job? Or are you a professional mama’s boy?”
Jack chuckled. “I wasn’t completely convinced that your father wasn’t some kind of letch just looking for a little action from a sweet and trusting woman, so I decided to come along and check him out personally. And yes, I do have a job. I’m a sports writer. What do you do? Let me guess. You’re either a professional houseguest insulter or a roadside restaurant critic?”
“I’m a graphic designer. I have my own studio. We do a lot of work for restaurants and hotels in the Bay area. Menus, signs, point of sale displays. I designed the sign right over there for Manny.”
Jack glanced over his shoulder. “The dancing tacos?”
“They’re not dancing, they’re hitchhiking,” she said. “This is a roadside taco stand. They want a ride.” Mia frowned. “I guess it does look like they’re dancing.”
God, she was adorable, Jack mused. Everything she said was endlessly fascinating, even when it didn’t make sense. He took another bite. “I’ve never seen tacos with legs and arms…and faces, but they look good. You’re good.”
That brought a laugh. “And you’re not a very good liar,” she countered. “Don’t you think this whole thing is kind of strange?”
“Hitchhiking tacos?”
“No, my dad and your mom. It’s kind of unexpected.”
He drew a deep breath and nodded. “My dad died twenty-two years ago. I was nine. And since then, Mom’s never shown the slightest bit of interest in dating. But she and your dad are old friends. Their families used to spend summers together. It’s just a chance to revisit the past.”
“My father told me, about a year ago, that he could never see himself with another woman. That my mom was his one true love. I believed him.”
“They’re looking for companionship,” Jack said. “Isn’t that what people their age want? I can’t imagine they’re in it for the sex.”
She clapped her hands over her ears. “Stop. I don’t want to listen to that.”
Jack reached out and pulled her hands away. “At one time they were our age,” he said. “I’m sure there were times when they felt that kind of gut-deep attraction for someone. You know, when you feel like you can’t breathe and your head gets all fuzzy?” He was very familiar with that feeling, since it had happened to him the moment he’d first seen Mia.
She forced a smile. “Yeah, I know.” Mia reached for her beer and took a long sip. “So do you really think that all stops at fifty?”
He shook his head. “No. But then, I’m a guy. I can’t believe it’s ever going to stop. I’d like to think I’ll be interested in sex until I’m at least eighty or ninety years old. What about you?”
“I can’t imagine my father having thoughts like that,” Mia murmured.
“I wouldn’t worry about it. My mother is very comfortable in Chicago and your father is comfortable here. When you get to be that age, you just don’t turn your life upside down and move away from the only home you’ve known for the past thirty years.”
She finished her taco and nodded. “We shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves. But we should be prepared to discourage a romance.” Mia sighed softly. “It would just be so awkward. The holidays would be the worst. Having a stranger there, in place of my mother. It wouldn’t feel right.”
“Who says she’d want to spend the holidays here? She’s always spent Christmas in Chicago with our family.”
“See, that’s what this leads to. It would be a nightmare. I’m glad we agree that there should be no romance. If it looks like it’s getting too hot and heavy, we’re going to have to step in.”
“Now I’m starting to feel like the parent,” Jack said.
“It’s what happens. My father only dated one woman in his entire life. He’s not ready for romance.”
They finished their tacos and beers, then carried their tray back to the window. Jack walked to the driver’s side of the car and reached for the door, but Mia suddenly turned around to face him. “But what if there is an attraction?” she murmured, her gaze fixed on his. “And what if they act on it?”
He stared down at her. They were standing so close he could smell the scent of her perfume, could feel the heat from her body. Jack clenched his hands into fists to keep himself from reaching out and touching her. The breeze toyed with a strand of her hair and he imagined how it might feel between his fingers.
“I suppose we’ll deal with that when it happens,” he said softly.
Jack leaned in slightly, testing, searching for an equal and opposite reaction. Her lips parted slightly and the need to taste her was almost overwhelming. His gaze drifted down to her mouth. But somewhere, in the back of his mind, a tiny voice told him to stop.
Indulging in his own attraction would be a huge risk. Though Mia was beautiful, she could also distract him from his purpose, which was getting his mother back to Chicago, safely and with her heart intact. And yet, even though his instincts told him to back off, Jack couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like to just let go.
He sucked in a sharp breath, then reached around her and opened the car door. “We should probably get going,” he murmured.
“Right,” she said, avoiding his gaze.
He smiled to himself as he circled the car. This was the last place on earth he would have ever expected to find a woman who tied him up in knots. Had he known he’d meet someone like Mia, he might have decided to stay at home. Though it would be difficult, he was going to have to keep their relationship strictly platonic.
Unless, of course, she convinced him otherwise.
2
“WHAT IS SHE LIKE? Is she pretty? Is she putting on the full court press or is she playing it coy?”
Mia sighed, leaning back against the edge of the kitchen counter as she spoke on her cell phone with her sister Danielle. “She seems really nice. And she is pretty in a very natural way. She has beautiful skin.”
“Probably had plastic surgery,” Dani said.
“I don’t think so. I think she’s just naturally beautiful. Like Mom.” Mia swallowed hard. “To be honest, I think Mom probably would have liked her.” She peeked out the back door to watch her father and Jack’s mother. They were enjoying cocktails on the rear terrace, caught up in another private conversation between the two of them.
Dani gasped. “What are you saying? Are you saying you like her?”
“No! I barely know her,” Mia protested. “I’m just saying that she isn’t some evil stepmonster, out to steal all our father’s money and make our holidays a living hell. I don’t even think she’s interested in romance.”
“Every single woman is interested in romance. Especially with a rich and somewhat sexy guy.”
“Seriously, I’m watching them right now,” Mia said. “All they do is talk.”
“What else have you found out?”
“Not much. I’ve been a little preoccupied with other matters.”
“What could be more important than this?” Dani cried.
Mia pulled the phone away from her ear and waited for her sister to calm down. Finally, after a few minutes, it seemed safe to proceed. “She brought her son with her. And he’s…he’s…” Maybe it would be best to just say it out loud. “He’s incredibly hot.”
“What?”
“Nothing,” Mia said. “I—I have to go now.”
“He’s hot? Who’s hot? Mia, what is going on?”
“I’ve got to run,” Mia said. “Call you later.” She quickly turned off the phone, then silenced the ringer, as well. No doubt Dani would call Steph, and then Steph would be on the line in a few minutes demanding answers of her own.
She walked through the kitchen and out into the late-afternoon sun shining on the wide terrace. Only her father and Elyse weren’t sitting at the table anymore. “Daddy?”
She walked back inside and called out again. But the house was silent.
They couldn’t have gone far. Her father was still hobbling around on crutches. She decided to pay a visit to the guesthouse and grabbed a pitcher of iced tea from the refrigerator to offer as an excuse.
She found Jack sitting on the small patio at the front of the house, his computer open on the teak table in front of him. When he heard her footsteps on the gravel path, he turned and smiled. “Hey, there.”
“Hi,” Mia said. “I brought you and your mom some iced tea.”
“She’s not here. I thought she was still with your dad.”
Mia set the pitcher down on the table. “No. They’re not in the house.”
Jack slowly stood. “Where do you think they’ve gone?”
“Well, they can’t be far. My dad can’t drive.”
“My mother can,” he countered.
“I wonder if the car is still here.”
They both hurried back down the path and then circled the house to the wide driveway. The black Mercedes was nowhere in sight.
“Great,” he muttered. “I thought you were going to keep an eye on them.”
“They’re not children,” Mia snapped. “What was I supposed to do, pull up a chair and watch them every second?”
“No, but you certainly should have known if they decided to go somewhere. Doesn’t your father let you know when he leaves the house?”
“No. Does your mother tell you her every move?” Mia replied.
“Yes, she usually does. It’s just something we do in our family. We take care of each other.” Jack turned to face her. “Where do you think they went?”
“Dinner? We didn’t have much in the fridge and I’m sure they were starting to get hungry. They probably went to Serafina’s, a restaurant in town. It’s one of my dad’s favorite places.”
“Let’s go, then,” Jack said, starting toward her car.
“You want to go get them?”
