Love Under Two Jessops (10 page)

Grant felt himself become a little fidgety, though it had nothing at all to do with his woman hugging the hippy. He looked over at his brother, who wore a somewhat pinched look. “I think I’ve just discovered a major difference between men and women,” Andrew said.

“Really?” Chloe gave his brother her full attention.

“Absolutely, and I’ll explain it later.” He nodded. “For right now, tell me, love, where’s your bathroom?”

* * * *

“I heard that Eli was making something special for you.” Kate Benedict stood, wide-eyed, and took in the newly installed waterfall. “I have to say, it is spectacular!”

Chloe stood next to Kate and couldn’t hold back her grin. “It is, isn’t it? I’ve got some music picked out—some nature tapes, and some Celtic music performed on pan flute. I think they’ll blend perfectly.”

“You’ll have all of us dozing off as you give us our pedicures, us stretched out in those plush-looking divans.”

Chloe nodded. “Nothing wrong with that. The modern-day spa experience isn’t just about procedure. It’s about trying to capture a sense of retreat and respite and inject it into a woman’s busy day.”

Kate slipped an arm around Chloe. “You’ve done a magnificent job. We’re all so excited, we can hardly wait!”

“You’ll have to tell me what I can put you down for on opening day,” Chloe said. “I want you to be my first customer.”

“Oh, I’m going to want a mani and a pedi,” Kate said. She held up one hand. “I try my best, but do you know, my nails aren’t the strongest.”

“There’s something called the ‘two week manicure.’ We’ll talk about it when you come.”

“Perfect.” She looked over to where Jordan was working on the baseboards. “How is he with that waterfall running?”

Chloe snickered. “I’ve kept it off, well, except for now so you could see it, and earlier when he and Eli installed it.”

“Probably wise,” Kate said. “Men are different.”

“Grant and Andrew were here for the occasion, and I had that very fact demonstrated for me.”

Kate giggled, and Chloe joined her.

Men were very interesting creatures—and very adorable ones, too. At least the right ones were.

“What’s got you two chuckling?” Jordan asked. “Although I think maybe I can guess.”

Chloe looked from Kate to Jordan and shrugged. “It was kind of cute, the way Andrew took off running back to the fire hall because he lost the race with Grant for the bathroom here.”

Jordan grinned. “Men
are
different than women. I’d have had the same reaction if I hadn’t taken care of things a few minutes beforehand.”

“Well, women will find the sound of trickling water completely soothing,” Chloe said.

“They will indeed,” Kate agreed.

“I bow to your expertise,” Jordan said.

“Now, I must go. I’m meeting Bernice over at the pharmacy and we’re going into Waco. Do you need anything from the city, sweetheart?

“Not a thing, Grandma Kate. Thank you for asking.”

Chloe watched the elderly woman walk down the sidewalk as if time was a commodity not to be wasted.
I hope I’m that spry when I’m her age
.

Jordan made an exaggerated “ahem” kind of sound. Chloe took the hint, laughed, walked over, and turned off the waterfall.

A few moments later the door opened, and Jake Kendall came in. He took a moment to look around at the interior of what, she knew, used to be a dry cleaning store.

“You’ve accomplished a lot, pretty quickly.”

“It’s mostly thanks to Jordan and Peter,” she said. Jordan and Tracy’s husband, Peter, had been lending a hand on weekends and during his days off. Between the two men and herself—she could wield a hammer or a paintbrush as well as anyone—they’d managed to create a spa that was nearly ready to open.

“Don’t be so modest,” Jordan said. “If you weren’t set on opening your own business, here, I’d hire you to head up one of my crews. You certainly know the meaning of hard work—and you’re damn good at it.”

Chloe flushed with pleasure. Despite how her first weeks in Lusty had gone, she gave thanks nearly every day that her sister had had the good sense to move here—and that she’d had the good sense to follow.

Thinking about her sister, she knew one thing for certain, and that was that Carrie had found her place, no question about it.

“Is your office useable?” Jake asked her.

Jordan waved them off, returning to the installing the trim along the floor.

“It’s just down here. There was a really nice desk and chair set at the warehouse.” She led the way down a short hall. There were treatment rooms left and right. These would be used for facials and for massage, so that her clients could enjoy a modicum of privacy during the more intimate procedures. The manicures and pedicures would all be done in the main room, the one with the waterfall. She was set up to deliver four of each at a time. She also planned to make house calls, but she’d reserve that for special occasions, and for special clients.

“Good. You know you’re to feel free to take anything from there for your house, too, right? Mother said when she visited you last week that your place was sparsely furnished. She wanted me to remind you that the warehouse was
your
warehouse, too.”

“Maybe I’m a minimalist,” Chloe said. She didn’t know if she could explain fully why she hesitated to make use of all the opportunities being offered her.

“Maybe you’re just not ready to accept that you belong here, yet. That you’re
home
.”

The man hit just a little too close for comfort. Chloe shook her head. She’d found herself lately with a whole slew of big brothers. It wasn’t that she minded—not really. It was just kind of hard to get used to.

Wanting to end this particular line of discussion, she said, “I’m working on it.” Chloe knew that Jake, especially, felt protective of her. She could understand that, because Adam was his closest brother
and
his best friend. They shared a wife, and three children.

“How’s Ginny? And the twins, and Benny?” Chloe hadn’t seen them in more than a week. Ginny was still at home, and wasn’t planning to return to work anytime soon.

Jake’s expression softened, and Chloe saw on his face the same kind of love she remembered seeing on her daddy all those years ago, whenever her mom entered the room.

“They’re great. The babies are growing so fast! I almost can’t believe they’re nearly four weeks old. Oh, here, I have a couple of new pictures we just took last night. Of course, I know you want to see them.” Jake’s grin looked just a tad sheepish.

“I most certainly do!”

Jake laughed, and set his briefcase down. He reached into his inside jacket pocket and pulled out a small photo album, opened it up, and handed it to her.

There were two new pictures in the album. One showed Ginny settled into a large rocking chair, a baby in each arm. Marty and Nicky were identical twins, but the Kendalls said Benny could tell his brothers apart.

The second picture showed young Benjamin holding both of his brothers and looking proud—and protective—as all get out.

“They’re all so beautiful—you’re a very lucky man, Jake Kendall.” She handed the album back to him.

“I know it.” He met her gaze and she fought the urge to look down. She had always believed herself a woman with a fair bit of self-esteem, but coming to Lusty had shown her that wasn’t really the case. She’d been struggling to learn how to handle the compliments and the respect and the, well—the
love
that so many people here clearly felt for her. As she’d told Jake just a few minutes before, she was working on it.

She shrugged her shoulders and he grinned. She’d already discovered that this man used his smile to convey a thousand different things. Right now he was letting her know that he knew she was uncomfortable with the affection, but that he expected her to just deal with it.

She nodded to his briefcase. “Did any of my prospective employees pass inspection?”

He chuckled, and then waited for her to sit behind her desk before he took one of the guest chairs. “They all did.”

She tilted her head to the side. “Do you have a file on me, too?”

“Yes. It’s standard procedure, now. I have one on both you
and
Carrie. But no one except me and the PI who helped compile them will ever see what’s in them. That’s a promise.”

Chloe had no deep dark secrets, so she was fine with it. Jake had explained why the Town Trust had decided to run a background check on the people moving to town—or applying for jobs here earlier.

Really, just about every employer these days, and every landlord, too, looked into prospective employees’ or renters’ backgrounds. It was just another sign of the times in which they lived.

“I believe you,” she said.

Jake handed her back the file folder she’d given him last week. “Quite an eclectic group of people you have here,” he said.

“Isn’t it?” Chloe had poured over the applications she’d received. “These are my top four picks. I’m hoping I hit it off with each one of them—and that they, in turn, hit it off with each other. Only time will tell.”

“You’d know that as soon as you met with them, wouldn’t you? I bet you’d have their measure before they even realized you have a very good brain in your head.”

Chloe had no idea Jake knew her quite so well. It pleased her that he did, that he’d bothered to look below the surface of this plus-sized woman. “Thank you. I
do
have a good brain and yeah, I can usually sum folks up on first meet. I trust my instincts. Well, most of the time, anyway.”

“Good for you. When are you going to begin interviewing?”

“Now that you’ve given them your stamp of approval, I’ll begin to make calls. I’d like to meet with prospective employees as soon as possible. We’ll see how it goes.”

Jake nodded, and closed his briefcase. He paused, and looked at her, his head cocked to the side. Then he set the black portfolio down and sat back and crossed his legs.

“Your sister’s all set to marry those cowboys of hers in just a few weeks.”

Chloe sat back in her own chair and folded her hands over her stomach. She had no problem sitting and chatting with Jake Kendall for a while, especially when the topic was her sister and the upcoming wedding. “February eighth, the Friday before I open.” She exhaled and then laughed. “My timing could have been better, I guess, but everything has come together so seamlessly, that there shouldn’t be any problem.” Chloe shrugged. “I’m more nervous getting ready my business than Carrie is getting ready to get married. Her calm in the face of the giant life change is just short of amazing. She is crazy in love with those men, and they with her.”

“We all already considered you family. But this will make you family in
fact
—at least according to how we do things here in Lusty.”

“I happen to like the way y’all do things here in Lusty. I know I’m awkward sometimes with this whole ‘family’ thing. I think you understand the reasons for that.”

“Because when you were little more than a kid your world got turned upside down—not only did you lose your parents, but you lost your sister, too.”

Chloe didn’t mistake the reason for the thunderous look on Jake’s face. The outrage he clearly felt was on behalf of her and Carrie, and what they’d been through.

“That’s right. I kind of got out of the habit of thinking in terms of people caring about me a long time ago. Even when I finally found Carrie, when I—” She had to pause for a moment, because even now, with that bastard George Lockwood good and dead, the emotion of what she’d discovered all those years ago still affected her. “Even when I figured out what had happened to her, it was still only
me
taking care of her, or at least trying to.”

“And now Carrie’s got the entire town of Lusty to look out for her. You both do.”

“Don’t think we’re not grateful for that, Jake.”

“Christ, Chloe, no one wants your gratitude.” He said it with a smile, and Chloe thought she wasn’t the only one in the room a bit awkward in emotional situations at times.

Jake cleared his throat. “The thing is, because you and Carrie do belong to us, we’ve decided to do something—something that someone
should
have done years ago. We’ve launched an investigation into the whereabouts of Ralph Baxter.”

Uncle Ralph
. It’s what she and Carrie had called the man when he’d come over to dinner, something that had happened with great frequency. It’s what she’d called the man when she’d finally gotten a hold of him that one time, after the funeral, hoping he’d help her find her sister. She remembered as if it had just happened, the way he’d fobbed her off and told her never to call him again.

At the time she’d been devastated. She hadn’t known anyone else to call. It wasn’t until several years later, when she’d figured out there
should
have been some sort of inheritance waiting in trust for them, awaiting her and her sister, and there wasn’t, that she’d figured out what must have happened.