Finding Love in Payton (13 page)

"My experience has always been to be prudent,
though I didn't do that with this job." She paused.
"And what else?"

He swallowed. "Dinah."

"Ah. So we're really telling the truth now? Well, in
that case, my thoughts have been turned to a certain
blue-eyed man."

"Is he who you'd thought you'd fall in love with?"

Priscilla looked shocked. "Um ... I don't think
we're in love ... and as for your question, no. No,
he's not. What about you?"

"I've always been attracted to happy people. And
she's as pretty as any girl I've ever met. But I feel like such an idiot when I'm around her, like I'm pretending to be someone I'm not."

"Who are you pretending to be?"

He felt his skin flush. "I don't know. I've always
been confident, and she makes me feel insecure, inadequate ... then that makes me feel worse."

"I don't know Dinah well, but I must say I'm surprised she makes you feel that way."

"Sometimes I think she feels that way, too."

"Who feels what way?" Payton asked as he poured
himself a cup of coffee and joined them.

Priscilla blushed. "No one."

"Must have been someone," he prodded.

Fire entered her eyes just as her shoulders pulled
back. "No one you know."

"I know more people than you," he pointed out.

"That's not necessarily true. You just know more
people here."

Payton narrowed his eyes. "That's what we were
talking about."

"No," she corrected. "You made a blanket statement. An incorrect one."

Jeremy glanced from one to the other. Like a ball
in the tennis match, they seemed perfectly content to
lob one-liners at the other with no signs of fatigue. "I
better get back to work. Bye, guys!"

And before they could say another word, he took
off.

"Hold still, Jeremy. I need to mark the places where
I need to fix the seams."

"This itches."

"It's going to itch something fierce when you wear
it for the reenactment."

He frowned. "Don't remind me. It's going to be as
hot as can be. I'm going to have to give up a whole
day's work at the club, too."

"I'll be there."

"You'll be the only reason the day won't be a complete washout."

The word made her think of possible good news.
"Maybe it will rain?"

Jeremy managed to look even more miserable.
"Haven't you heard? The real Civil War soldiers actually fought in the rain. Joanne says we'll do this
reenactment rain or shine."

Dinah couldn't help but imagine how uncomfortable
the real soldiers must have been, especially when hunger, weariness, and despair had set in. "We'll just have
to hope for cool, sunny skies, and a quick battle."

"You're such an optimist. I sound like a spoiled kid
next to you. Sorry."

As she smoothed the fabric across his broad shoulders and placed a pin in one or two of the seams, she
shook her head. "You don't sound like that at all. Just
like a guy who would rather be wearing shorts in
ninety degree weather instead of a navy blue uniform."

Slowly he lowered his head to meet her gaze, and
within moments Dinah felt transfixed, all over again.
What was it about Jeremy that made her feel so young
again? So carefree?

Probably his easy smile, beautiful eyes, and his lithe
build.

And his kindness. His gentle way with Bryan. The
sexy way he kissed, like he was savoring her.

She sighed. Whenever she thought of Jeremy, she
couldn't help but feel a jolt to her heart, the kind she
used to feel in seventh grade when Brad Franklin sat
down beside her in homeroom. From that instant,
nothing had existed but him. She'd forgotten the name
of her teacher, her two friends she'd known from choir
the year before. Brad had filled her world completely,
even though all he'd done was smile.

That was how she felt around Jeremy, and the overwhelming puppy-love feelings made her feel scared
and uncomfortable, like she was too old for such
things but her body didn't realize that.

He shifted and looked away, then cleared his throat,
making her sure that he was just as spellbound as she
was. "Who's the other uniform for, again?"

"Well, it was for your brother Kevin, but now it's
for Stratton Sawyer."

He grinned at that. "I knew Kevin was going to get
out of it."

"Actually, Stratton seemed pretty excited about the
idea."

Jeremy figured Stratton was just trying to please
Joanne. "So ... fitted him yet?"

"Only the basics. I took his measurements the other
day. He's going to stop by the store one night next
week to do this with me." She smoothed her hands
down the length of his left leg, tried not to think about
how muscular that leg felt, and began marking off the
hem.

Jeremy's eyes turned stormy just as his left leg stiffened. "It doesn't bother you, doing all this ... pinning?"

"Relax your leg. And not in the slightest," she said,
bravely trying to ignore how her body was reacting to
being so close to him. "I like to sew." She finished
the marks, then stood up, circling Jeremy one more
time.

"Maybe Joanne could help you with Stratton." His
eyes lit up as she faced him again. "Or she could come
with him!"

"Now why would she want to do that?" Dinah
asked, smoothing the fabric along the planes of his
back, then kneeling in front of him to check the line
of the jacket.

His cheeks flushed. "I don't know."

Dinah bit her lip. What was bothering him? The
idea of fitting Stratton's costume ... or this particular
fitting itself? Unable to help herself, she ran her fingers
along his leg, from his knee on down. "Does this feel all right? I made it a little longer than normal, but I
figured with your boots and all-"

Jeremy jerked his leg away. "Yes," he bit out. "Dinah, aren't we done yet?"

"I'm going as quickly as I can. What's wrong?"

"I don't know. I feel funny standing here with you
kneeling at my feet," he said, and Dinah was amazed
to see a faint line of red creep up his neck.

She couldn't resist teasing him. "And here I thought
that was every man's dreams."

"Not mine. Dinah-"

She stood up. "I'm done," she said, unable to keep
a few chuckles from escaping. "All you have to do
now is get out of those clothes without removing any
pins."

"Or sticking myself."

"Of course."

He padded away, grumbling, just as Bryan wandered over, his hands full of two plastic containers and
a stuffed brown dog. "Jy?"

Dinah knelt down as he approached. "Jy's changing,
but he'll be right back." She patted a spot next to her.
"Show me what you got."

Bryan had just let her give his dog a hug when
Jeremy appeared again. She watched him scan the
room quickly for her, then his eyes light up when he
spotted the two of them. Seeing such a reaction made
her so happy. It was nice to know he didn't resent Bryan's appearance. "We're over here," she called out.
"Bry's been showing me his dog."

"Jy!" the little boy cried, dropping the dog and toddling over to Jeremy.

"Hey," he said, kneeling down on the floor as well.
"You know my name."

Dinah laughed. He seemed to know just what to say.
"I'm glad you came over this morning, even though
we'll see each other tonight."

"Promise?"

"Promise. And not just because I wanted to get your
costume done, either."

"That wasn't the only reason I stopped by, if you
want to know the truth."

"I was thinking," she began, only to be interrupted
by the doorbell ringing.

"I'll get it for you," Jeremy offered.

"Thanks."

Within minutes, he was leading Valerie into the
family room, chatting with her about school and education courses. Bonnie followed them both, her tail
wagging with pleasure.

"Hi, Dinah," Valerie said. "I forgot whether you
wanted me this afternoon or not. Are you going to the
store?"

Dinah almost couldn't think of a thing to say, she
was so mesmerized by the sight of Jeremy and Valerie
together. They looked so ... right. Both about the same age. Both had bright-eyed, all-American good
looks. Like a slap in the face, she was brought to the
truth that once again, she had no business being with
Jeremy Reece.

Realizing Valerie was waiting for a reply, she said
quickly, "Oh, thanks, but it's okay. If I do go in, I'll
take Bryan. The weather's not supposed to be that
great, it will probably be really slow."

Valerie looked at her strangely. Then glanced at Jeremy as if she couldn't keep her eyes off of him. "Are
you sure?"

"Positive." She cleared her throat, trying to sound
peppy. "Urn, gosh, Jeremy, did you go to Ohio State,
too?"

"I did."

"I guess the two of you must have so much to catch
up on, especially since Val is an education major."

He looked completely puzzled. "We'll have to talk
all about that one day," he said to her politely.

Dinah grasped for another topic. "Oh, and I bet you
two might have even gone to the same parties and
didn't even realize it. Were you both in the Greek
system?"

For the first time since she'd known Valerie, the girl
treated her to a teen-aged look of disdain. "I was a
Delta Gamma."

"Phi Delt," Jeremy said obediently.

A long, uncomfortable silence hung in the air. Dinah searched to think of anything else the two might
have in common.

"I need to go," Valerie said, standing up abruptly.
"See you tomorrow, Dinah?"

"Yes. At nine A.M., if you don't mind."

"I don't mind at all," Valerie said, bending down to
give Bryan a hug. Bryan wrapped his chubby hands
around her neck, gave her a wet kiss, then plopped
back down to his set of bowls and containers.

With a sigh, Dinah watched her go.

Jeremy stood up. "I think I'll get going, as well."

"Are you sure? Would you like some coffee, or
something?"

He shook his head no. "See you at six tomorrow?"

She scanned his face quickly. It was if someone had
put a curtain over his eyes, they looked masked and
distant. "Is something bothering you?"

If anything, his posture became more rigid. "Yeah,
but it's nothing you need to worry about."

"I'm a good listener."

"Are you? I don't think you've heard one word I've
said to you yet."

She stiffened at his sarcastic tone. "I don't think I
understand."

After glancing at Bryan for a second, Jeremy
stepped forward, lowered his voice. "Dinah, at the risk
of sounding completely idiotic, I think I need to make
myself as clear as possible. I like you."

Taken aback, she said, "I like you, too."

"No, not as a friend," he corrected, his gray-blue
eyes stormy. "Not as Bryan's mom. I like you in every single kind of romantic way you can imagine. A lot.
A whole lot. I know we haven't spent hours together.
I know we need time to see if we can even have a
relationship that can last, but I thought after our dinner
the other night, after the times we've spent together
over the last few weeks ... that you felt the same
way.

She closed her eyes. "I do."

"Do you? Then why in the world would you be
pushing Valerie and me together?"

"I didn't do that," she protested, though her heart
was telling her she certainly had.

"It felt that way to me. And to Valerie, I think. She
kept looking at you like you were crazy."

"I just thought that maybe the two of you might
want to get to know each other."

He exhaled slowly. "Why?"

His question caught her off-guard. "What do you
mean, why?"

"Why do we want to get to know each other? Because I'm going to need to know Bryan's baby-sitter
in the future? Because I need just one more collegeaged girl as a friend?"

She looked away. "I don't know what I was thinking. She's just so cute, and sometimes I look at you
and feel so old." She whispered the last part, embarrassed by both her behavior and her feelings. "I'm
having a tough time admitting not only to myself but
to other people how I feel about you."

Triumph gleamed in his eyes. "So ... tell me. Say
it out loud. How do you feel?"

She shrugged. "Smitten," she said, though she felt
ridiculous even saying such a thing out loud. Lord, he
must be thinking she was so silly.

He burst out laughing. "I'll take that."

She really wasn't following him. "What?"

He closed the space between the two of them and
gripped her hand in his. "I'll take smitten. I'm smitten,
too." Briefly he raised her hand and brushed his lips
against her knuckles, the gallant gesture making her
knees go weak. "See you tomorrow night?"

"I'll be there."

"I'm warning you, it will be crazy."

"I like crazy."

He laughed again, his voice ringing carefree and
boyish. So charming. "Bye, Dinah. Bye, Bryan," he
said, brushing the boy's head with his hand.