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That startled her. She’d sworn off men a long time ago. The aggravation wasn’t worth the reward. She had other things in her life, things she valued. Besides, he might be a short-term renter in the house next to hers, but that didn’t mean they were destined to be bosom buddies. Not at all. She took his offer as a cue to begin to back away.
“Oh, I don’t know, I’ve got to …”
“Come on.” He touched her. It was just a gesture, just a quick, passing touch. He probably didn’t even notice when his fingertips softly slipped along her arm. But she did. It gave her a start and her breath was suddenly catching in her throat.
“Come on. I owe you one. You just did me a very big favor.”
“Well …” She was weakening. A part of her stood aside and watched this with exasperation. What on earth was she doing? But she snuck a look at her watch and realized she actually had plenty of time. She knew her baby would still be napping at her sister’s house for another half hour, at least. So … why not?
She glanced at him sideways. “Just for a few minutes,” she conceded.
“Good,” he said, sticking his hand out. “I’m Jake Martin. And I would guess that your name is Jill.”
“Oh, no.” She shook her head, wondering how he’d come up with her sister’s name, then she realized she was wearing Jill’s uniform shirt for doing the Sunshine Fund collecting. “Jill” was embroidered in big red letters right over the pocket. She laughed. “No, actually …”
“Come on, Jill,” he said, taking her hand. “Let’s go.”
Her heart seemed to roll over inside her. She glanced at his muscular chest and knew she was turning bright red.
“You’re going to need a shirt, aren’t you?” she noted breathlessly.
“Oh.” He stopped short and looked down at his lack of attire. “Hey, sorry. I hadn’t realized I was being so informal. I’ll grab something out of my car.”
He turned to do just that and she gasped softly as she noticed the purple scarring on his back, a picture of past pain and agony she hadn’t noticed before in all the commotion. She turned away and pretended not to watch as he pulled a dark blue T-shirt over that beautiful body.
“Listen, I left my papers and my purse in your house. I’m going to have to go in to get them.”
He groaned. “Okay. But I don’t want to see it. I’ll meet you out front.”
She made her way quickly through the mess, glad it wasn’t going to be her job to clean it up, grabbed her things and came out the front door to meet him. He smiled and took hold of her hand again and they were marching toward the coffee shop.
“I really like it here,” he told her, looking out at the gray-blue ocean that surrounded the Washington State island just across from Seattle where they lived—for the moment at least.
She liked it, too. In fact she planned to spend a long, long time here. That was why she was renovating her house to make room for raising Savannah, her nine-month-old baby.
A group of seagulls flew overhead, screaming in their usual argument. She looked down toward the other end of town. The ferry was coming in, bringing commuters home from their jobs in Seattle. Yes, this was where she wanted to be.
“Too bad I can’t stay,” Jake said, looking like he really did regret it.
“Where are you going instead?” she asked, just to make conversation.
He hesitated. “I’m not sure,” he told her, staring right down into her eyes. “I haven’t had time to think it through. But it will be somewhere different.” His smile was crooked. “It always is.”
She could see that he was telling her the truth. But he was outside his comfort zone at the moment. She wondered why.
They went into the little café and took a booth, sitting across from each other. Coffee, he’d said, and she wasn’t hungry, but she picked up the menu and began to peruse it, just to give herself something to do besides stare at him.
“You said you’d been living in a tent lately,” she reminded him, peeking around the menu. “What was that all about?”
“I’ve been in the military,” he said shortly, looking away as though it was something he didn’t want to talk about.
“As if that wasn’t obvious,” she muttered, glancing back at the menu.
“Why?” he said.
She shrugged. “There’s a military look about you,” she said.
He frowned and she looked away again. So he didn’t like the fact that she could see his military influence. Too bad. It was only obvious and she could have said more.
She could have mentioned that he had a noticeable restlessness in him, a sort of masculine urge to gaze at the horizon and wonder what might be out there. It was the sort of thing that made most women sigh with regret. He wasn’t the sort to be tied down by anyone. It was written all over him. You fell for a man like this and you were playing with fire.
“Iced tea, please,” she asked as the waitress stood poised, pad of paper in hand.
“Coffee for me,” he said. “Black. And two pieces of cherry pie. Á la mode.”
She looked at him and held back her smile. “You must be really hungry,” she said.
“No. But I can see that you are,” he shot back. Then he grinned and that took all the sting out of it. “You’ll love the pie here,” he said. “Trust me.”
Trust him. That was just what she was having a bit of problem doing. And where did he get off telling her what the pie was like in her own little café? That did it. She’d known she should have rejected his offer from the first. The man was obviously insufferable.
But he was also right. The pie was great. She looked around the restaurant, surprised she didn’t see anyone she knew. Only the girl behind the counter seemed familiar at all. But she usually stopped by for a large cup of coffee in the morning, and the crew in the afternoon were mostly different. It was odd to be in a place that was so familiar, and yet feel like a stranger.
Odd, but not unusual for her. She hadn’t made many friends since she’d moved to the island, and the ones she did know didn’t really know much about her. She kept things to herself.
And there was a secret about her that not even most of the people closest to her knew. She’d never been in love.
She’d been in pretty heavy-duty “like” a time or two. She’d known some very nice men and she’d had relationships. She’d even been engaged once. But somehow she’d always felt a little bit apart, as though she were an observer of her own talent at romance—and marking herself down critically every time.
Her engagement had been a high point. She’d really liked Freddy. He was fun and good-natured and liked to do many of the things she liked. His family was so nice. She could just see the trajectory of the life they would have together and it followed exactly what she would have expected for herself. It all fit. Why not? Why not go ahead and marry him and hope that it would all work out?
She became obsessed with pretending that she was in love. She tried so hard. But when he hugged her, she found herself craning to see what time it was. When he told her of his life plans, she found herself daydreaming instead of throwing herself into his ambitions the way she should have. And when he kissed her, there was no sparkle.
She told herself not to be so childish. Who the heck needed sparkle? And then she realized—she did. Just a little. Was that asking too much?
When they split up, she felt nothing but relief, and since then, she’d hardly given their relationship another thought. Looking back, she knew now that there had been very little love involved on either of their parts. There had been a longing for a regular, ordinary life, but it had very little to do with any strong emotional tie between them.
She just didn’t seem to have what it took to create a loving relationship, and she’d resigned herself to concentrating on her career. Now there was something she was good at.
She had finished half her piece of pie and was trying to decide if she was going to eat the rest. It was awfully good, but the calories! She’d always been on the slender side, but that fit figure wasn’t easy to keep that way. Pushing the plate away, she looked up at Jake instead.
“So you were telling me about living in a tent,” she reminded him.
“Was I?”
“Yes. And then you got annoyed when I said I could tell you were military.” She smiled. She was nothing if not helpful.
He gave her a disbelieving glance, but he willingly picked up the thread and went on. “I’ve been deployed mostly to Southeast Asia for the last couple of years,” he filled in. “We did a lot of living off the land. Subsisting on roadkill and taro root.”
She made a face. She didn’t know whether to take him seriously or not, but the humorous glint in his eyes was a pretty big hint. “Don’t they give you guys C rations anymore?” she asked tartly.
He leaned back and looked at her through heavy lidded eyes. “Now that would be giving away the military connection from the get-go, don’t you think?” he drawled.
She narrowed her eyes, refusing to let him intimidate her. “So you were working undercover, were you?” she said, pleased with herself for making the connection.
But his eyes turned a stormy-gray. “Not lately,” he said shortly. “I was doing some time in a terrorist prison camp—as a detainee. And believe me, we were happy to get taro root. It was the fat, squishy insects that made you gag.”
She gazed at him, not sure if he was still pulling the wool over her eyes or not. He seemed awfully serious. She decided to play along, regardless. “So that was why you said you had forgotten how to live like a civilized person?”
He nodded. “I felt I needed to get back in the groove. So I decided to try out all the modern conveniences I hadn’t ever used before, all at once.” His quick grin was self-deprecating and it left as suddenly as it had appeared. “Like I thought I could get the learning curve over with faster that way. As you can see, it didn’t work very well.”
“Okay,” she told him sensibly. “So start over, only this time do one thing a day until you’ve mastered it.”
He was shaking his head. “No time,” he said. “I’ve got to learn fast. I’m going to need it all very soon.”
She smiled. “Because you rented a nice little house with appliances?”
He didn’t smile back. “No. Something more important than that.”
She waited for a moment, but he didn’t elaborate. She couldn’t imagine what it might be, but she was curious. In fact, she was becoming more and more interested in this gorgeous, compelling man. There was no use trying to pretend. For the first time in years, she’d met a man who not only made her pulse dance, but made her think warm thoughts of all kinds.
Ordinarily that would make her back away and find an excuse to be somewhere else. But she couldn’t do that with Jake Martin. She was starting to wish she could think of a reason to ask him over for dinner.
Wait. She had the perfect reason.
His house had practically exploded that afternoon. He couldn’t go back there until something was done about the mess. So she wouldn’t feel hesitant about asking him over—even if it was to her sister’s house. She smiled again and waited for a chance to get an invitation in.
But meanwhile, there was the question of that important thing that made him want to learn how to run a house.
“Am I supposed to guess what it is?” she asked.
She was almost flirting now. Maybe she ought to hold that back for the time being. She’d forgotten how much fun it could be—that little surge of electricity as your eyes met his—that little bobble of excitement in your chest. Flirting. She was going to have to work on it a bit, but it could be an asset. She bit her lower lip and waited for an answer.
“No, of course not,” he said, his blue eyes sparkling. “Sorry to be so secretive, but there are reasons.”
“Go ahead,” she said recklessly. “You can tell me anything.”
He hesitated, looking at her as though trying to decide if he could trust her.
She smiled, trying to look trustworthy.
He shrugged. “Okay, I’ll tell you why.” He leaned forward so that he could speak more confidentially. “I’m about to become a father. And I’ve got to learn how to take care of my little girl as quickly as I can.”
CHAPTER TWO
SARA GAZED AT Jake, amazed. A little girl—just like Savannah. Funny how similar their stories seemed to be. Maybe he was adopting his little girl, the same way she was adopting hers. Or maybe—she glanced at his hand, looking for a ring and he noted her interest with a crooked grin.
“No, I’m not married,” he said. “But I do have a little girl and in a few days, she’ll be with me. I’ve got to be ready to take care of her. I’ve got to learn all this stuff.”
“Of course you do.”
She smiled at him. Finally there was a flicker of warmth in his eyes and it had to be because he was talking about his baby. She knew the feeling. She’d considered herself a career woman for years until Savannah had come into her life. And now her entire reality was totally focused on that child.
She leaned forward, wanting to know all about it but not wanting to seem too nosy. She thought of her own nine-month-old baby, and her smile widened. He was in for such joy if his experience was even half as rewarding as hers had been.
Savannah had been the child of her younger half sister. After Kelly died in a car accident, Sara had volunteered to take her. She’d been reluctant at first. She and her sister Jill hadn’t had any contact with Kelly for a long time and knew nothing about her baby. Besides, Sara was about to make a major step forward in her career, a job that would take all her time.
But in the end, the baby came first.
Now she couldn’t even remember that struggle to decide very clearly. Her very existence revolved around this baby she’d only had for less than six months. She couldn’t imagine life without her. In just a few minutes she would get a chance to tell Jake all about her. The anticipation made her smile.
“I’ve always been a quick study in my line of work,” Jake said. “And since I didn’t know anything, I decided the best thing to do would be to just start teaching myself how to cook and to clean and all the rest. Just go ahead and jump in with both feet. So today was the day.” He threw his head back and groaned. “Disaster.”
She had to admit that was pretty accurate. “Think of it as a learning experience,” she told him. “I think you need more planning ahead of time. And maybe lessons would help.”
“Lessons.” He nodded, thinking that over. “Maybe you could teach me a few more tricks?” He looked at her, his face endearingly pathetic.
“Why not?”
That was her first, exuberant reaction, but it only took seconds to make her wonder what the heck she thought she was getting into. Her interior watchdog was yelling, “No, no, no, no!” That was exactly what she’d programmed it to do if she was ever in danger of falling for a man again. But she was very tempted to ignore it. Maybe her luck had changed. How would she ever know if she didn’t try?
“So tell me about your little girl,” she said, wondering if it would be a good time to ask him what his dinner plans were. Maybe not. Better wait another ten minutes or so. “How old is she? When did you see her last?”
He frowned. “I think she’s about nine months old,” he said. “I think that’s what they told me.”
Nine months. That was the same as Savannah. “You’re adopting her?” Sara asked.
But he shook his head. “No. She’s mine. I just didn’t know about her until I got released from the camp and sent home to the States.”
Somewhere deep inside, very near her heart, a new warning was beginning to send a small, nervous signal to her brain. She touched her breastbone with her fingers, gently pushing as though she could push the feeling back. But it just got stronger. Something wasn’t quite right here.
But that was silly. She had no real reason to think that at all. He was telling her the facts as he knew them—why would that be threatening? She was being ridiculous. Probably because she wasn’t used to talking to men like this.
“What’s your baby’s name?”
He shook his head. “Funny thing is, they never told me that. I guess I’ll be able to name her whatever I want.”
“So you’ve never seen her?”
“No.” His smile was brilliant. “But I’ve seen pictures, and she’s a beauty—a little blonde with dark eyes and the biggest smile I’ve ever seen.”
Sara was feeling sick. She wasn’t sure why. But something was beginning to feel very wrong. Why did everything he said seem to have such a close resemblance to her Savannah?
Stop it, she told herself. That’s crazy. What he is describing is the picture of almost any little nine-month-old girl. Don’t let your imagination carry you away. Just stop it!
“What happened to her mother?” she asked, surprised to hear how raspy her voice sounded.
He shook his head. “She’s out of the picture,” was all he said.
