Jarod's Heart (King Brothers Stories #2) (12 page)

Damn it, the minx was grinning.

“Never mind.” He focused his attention on the file, then glanced up at her, still not speaking.

“What is it, Jarod?” she asked with concern.

“Don’t tell anyone here about Jessica yet.”

She raised her eyebrow. “May I ask why?”

He detected an angry edge in her voice. Based on his experiences with Lauren over the years, this could go either way. If he didn’t answer her correctly, he could be facing another month-long radio silence. Since that scenario didn’t work for him, he went with honesty.

“I don’t want to give Marguerite a reason to spread rumors.” He waited a moment for that to sink in, and before he could change his mind he admitted, “Something is telling me to keep it quiet here. I can’t tell you why because I can’t explain it myself. Will you help me?”

“Are you ashamed of Jessica?” she asked point blank. One of Lauren’s best qualities was her straightforward nature.

“Hell no, I’m not ashamed of
my daughter
,” he emphasized, making sure that she understood his feelings for his child. “I want to protect her and, judging by what little history I have,” he indicated the folder in front of him, “this will be the first time anyone has looked out for her best interests since her birth.”

The tension visibly leached from her body as her full lips eased into a gentle smile. Seeing it did things to his gut again, but this time in a completely different way. He cleared his throat and sat up straighter.

“Of course I’ll keep it to myself. Let me know how I can help, when you figure out why you want to protect her from your staff.” She winked at him.

He chuckled at her. “It’s not the staff…I don’t know how to explain it, but I don’t want to share it with anyone until I know exactly what it is. Do you think that’s crazy?”

She eyed him for a second, then shook her head. “No.” She stood up. “Clue me in when you know which direction we’re going to look, okay?” she replied, emphasizing the word
we.

He relaxed. She understood him, and the relief was surprising. “I will,” he said, liking the idea of teaming up with her.

She walked out of his office and back to her desk. She sent him another wink before she went back to her work. Again, his eyes lingered on her a little too long to be proper before he turned back to the file in front of him.

He searched every arrest record looking for anything that seemed out of place. It made him edgy and frustrated. When he finally looked up at the clock, it was almost lunchtime. He picked up the phone and called his mom.

“Hey, how’s she doing?”

“She is a perfect angel. We’re having a lunch break right now, then we are going to have a pedicure.” He heard the smile in her voice, making him laugh himself.

“A pedicure? Isn’t she a little too young for that?”

“Jarod, a woman is never too young for a pedicure,” she assured him. “Afterward, we are shopping for more clothes and other things she might need.”

“More clothes?” he asked, shaking his head even though she couldn’t see him. “How much does she need?”

“Well, obviously, she needs everything, so we stopped at Walmart to get some play clothes and her under things. But she needs clothes for church and school. She needs something for the wedding, although I suppose we’ll have time to have her fitted for a flower girl dress, but I really need to talk to Julie to make sure it’s okay with her. I think she’ll make the perfect flower girl. Do you think I’m overstepping? She also needs some more toys, coloring books, crayons, and I’d like to get her some prekindergarten learning books….”

“Mom! Okay, I get it,” he laughed again. She was on a roll, and it made him proud to have Camille King as his mother. “You two have fun and don’t break the bank on one little girl. A sheriff’s salary only goes so far,” he chuckled. “Give her a kiss for me, will you?”

“Done and done, Jarod. Love you.”

“Love you too, Mom.”

L
auren stopped by her place to pick up a few more things after work for another night’s stay with the Kings. The townhouse was dark when she arrived, and Lauren noted the staleness in the air from being closed up and unoccupied. She had been spending more and more time at the estate lately, working hard with Camille on various business, social, and charitable events, but the biggest upcoming event was The Wedding—Jason and Julie’s upcoming nuptials.

Tonight, though, they would be working on Halloween decorations for the two big events on Camille’s October calendar. Camille loved her church, and the Halloween dinner was a big deal for her.

Lauren wasn’t much of a churchgoer, but she wouldn’t let Camille down for anything. Camille King was her mentor, and Lauren really looked up to her. James and Camille were pillars in their small community, and Lauren had tried to emulate Camille’s behavior from the first moment they’d met. Camille seemed to understand Lauren, even though Lauren didn’t talk much about how she had been raised, too ashamed to scandalize these good people with her life’s story of parental drunkenness and divorce. Julie was the only person who knew the full extent of what Lauren’s childhood had been like.

The Kings also did an impressive event on Halloween night with a big haunted castle for the teenagers, a mini corn maze for the younger kids, and homemade treats for everyone. It was mostly a neighborly get together for the townsfolk, but Camille usually went all out. Even with The Wedding to plan, this year’s Halloween party would be a big event.

Lauren wondered how Jessica had faired today and realized that she could hardly wait to see the little girl again, so she quickly gathered clothes appropriate for the office the next morning. She did a quick check to make sure that all her doors and windows were locked, making a mental note that she needed to spend at least one day here this weekend to dust, vacuum, and air the place out. Shaking her head as she locked her front door, she headed for her car.

Once at the estate, she parked next to Julie’s food truck, Cafe Armstrong, and grabbed her bag from the back seat. She entered through the side door into the mud room that led to the family kitchen, where she heard loud voices. Someone was screeching about “moving on.”

Charlie was attempting to serenade Jessica with the latest Asking Alexandria hit while Camille laughed her head off. They’d put the little girl on a barstool at the counter, where Julie had set up an assembly line of plates that—Lauren could now see—were filled with beaten egg, flour, and bread crumbs. The girls were breading chicken fillets, while Charlie entertained them with his rocker’s voice, complete with air guitar.

Lauren laughed.

“Hi Lorn!” an excited Jessica waved, her fingers caked with flour.

“Hey, sweet pea. Are you cooking dinner tonight?” She put her stuff down to join them in the kitchen, giving Jessica a quick kiss on her forehead.

“Joojee let me dip,” she answered with a sweet smile.

“Joojee?” she asked her friend.

Julie smirked before explaining, “Jessica overheard Jason say goodbye to me this morning.”

Lauren laughed, “That explains it.”

As if conjured from a dream, Julie’s tattooed Prince Charming entered the kitchen, making a beeline for the chef. He kissed her soundly before softly saying, “Hey, Jujyfruit.”

Lauren turned and picked up her things, not wanting to watch the newly engaged couple’s intimate display. Everyone else had scattered as well, Camille taking a smiling, gooey-handed Jessica to the sink to wash her fingers, and Charlie, muttering something along the line of “get a room,” began setting the table.

Lauren ran upstairs to change out of her work clothes and put the rest of her things away. She found Jarod on the stairs as she was heading back down, hoping dinner was back in progress.

Jarod stopped midway up and smiled.

She smiled back.

There was an awkward silence, then finally, “Have you seen Jessica?” he asked a bit more loudly than necessary.

“Yes, she was just downstairs in the kitchen,” she said, puzzled.

“Oh. Well, I’m gonna get out of this uniform and hunt her down,” he stated before moving past her on his way to his room.

That was odd.

Sighing, she continued down the stairs and into the hallway toward the craft room. She wasn’t in the mood to watch Jason and Julie smooching in the kitchen, and if Jarod hadn’t spotted Jessica there, then odds were that they were still playing kissy-face. Sometimes their public displays of affection ruined her appetite, and she loved Julie’s chicken fingers.

She found that she wasn’t the only person who had escaped the love scene. Camille was talking softly to Jessica in the craft room.

“It will be fun. There will be lots of children your age, and at the end of the dinner, Father O’Keefe will have a piñata set up full of candy,” she explained.

“What’s a yah-da?” she heard Jessica ask, which nearly broke Lauren’s heart. She wondered, not for the first time, how Jessica’s life had been under Miranda’s care. Did she even know who Santa was? The thought was depressing.

“Hey, you two,” Lauren breezed in wearing her patented, no-worries-all-is-well-with-the-world smile.

“Lorn, what’s a yah-da?” Jessie asked, still wanting to know. The poor child was starving for information.

“A
piñata
,” Lauren emphasized the correct pronunciation, “is a cardboard container shaped like an animal or cartoon character that is filled with candy. It’s hung up on a rope, and kids take turns trying to break it open with a stick or a baseball bat,” she explained. At Jessica’s confused look, she shrugged her shoulders and said, “It’s fun.”

Jessica didn’t look convinced.

Jarod stuck his head in the room; Lauren noted that he was careful not to cross the threshold. “How’re my girls?”

“Jar’d!” Jessie squealed, running over to him, arms raised up. Like a pro, he scooped her into his arms and gave her a resounding kiss on the cheek. Lauren was momentarily jealous but immediately squelched that invidious feeling, too thrilled at being included as one of “his girls.”

“Hello, Darlin’! Did you have fun today? I see you have on a new blue shirt. It’s very pretty.”

“Yup, an’ Nana found shoes with lights!” she squirmed to get out of his arms. When he set her on her feet, she jumped up and down, then pointed at the red flashers on the soles of her new sneakers, a big radiant smile on her face.

Jarod laughed and picked her back up. “Those are great, honey.” He kissed her cheek again, and Lauren noted how she wrapped her little arms around his neck.

Jarod caught Lauren’s eye. She felt something pass between them that, to her disgrace, made her blush. Then the devil grinned wickedly before he turned his eyes to his mother.

“Did you have fun, too, Nana?” he asked with a smile.

“My granddaughter and I had a great deal of fun.”

Camille had been gathering supplies from the plethora of inventory that she kept, in what she humbly referred to as her “craft room.” It was a vast space made specifically for Camille’s passion for crafting and event planning. James had built it with plenty of space and storage to rival a Hobby Lobby. Camille had dragged her delinquent sons inside, kicking and screaming, to help her whenever they had gotten into trouble, which explained why Jarod still hadn’t set foot over the threshold. It was why the King boys referred to it as “the Room of Doom.”

“Dinner’s ready,” Charlie announced, walking right into the room. As he was not an actual King, he had never suffered one of Camille’s punishments.

Jarod gave him a cockeyed look that made Lauren chuckle.