Natural Born Daddy (13 page)

“I wish,” he said dully.

“She hasn't said yes yet?”

The shock in Ginger's voice gave him some encouragement. Obviously she thought he was a catch, even if Kelly did not. “Not even maybe,” he admitted.

“Well, for heaven's sake, boss, you can't just shut down business on a whim. How long do you expect it to take to persuade her?”

“You're a woman. You tell me.”

“Did you do like I said? Did you buy some of that French perfume? Did you tell her you loved her?”

Jordan supposed his silence was answer enough, because Ginger gave a little snort of disgust. “Jeez, boss, you're missing the most obvious things. Perfume is equated with sex, at least the right one is. And every woman wants the man she's marrying to be crazy in love with her. Stop being so stodgy and do something over the top for a change. Dazzle her.”

“But this is Kelly,” he protested. “We've known each other forever. She doesn't expect all that hearts and flowers sentiment. She'd probably laugh in my face.”

Ginger sighed heavily. “Boss, I hate to say it, but you deserve to remain single. You might as well come on back to Houston now, because if Kelly has a brain in her head, which she obviously does, she'll boot you out of there sooner or later anyway. You'll wind up with one of those dull, grasping socialites, who won't care how you woo them as long as you ultimately give them access to your bank account.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” he said, thoroughly demoralized. “Just cancel the meetings, okay? Or see if one of the others can take them. Mark could probably handle the one with the equipment manufacturer.” He listed others that could be turned over to key members of his staff. “You'll have to postpone the rest.”

“And what am I supposed to tell people?”

“Tell them I'm working on a major acquisition and it's taking more of my time than I'd planned.”

Ginger gave another derisive sniff. “Tell Kelly that, why don't you? That'll really win her over.”

Jordan wasn't about to admit to her that his lack of romanticism was already a major bone of contention between Kelly and him. “Just do what I asked, please. I'll see you next week.”

“Bet it'll be sooner,” Ginger muttered.

“Goodbye,” he said pointedly. “Call me at Kelly's if you need me.”

“I think maybe I'll try reaching you at White Pines first. Odds are that's where you'll be.”

She hung up before he could respond to her final, stinging taunt. Damn, what was with women, anyway? They all stuck together. He suspected Jessie would be no different.

Now that he thought about it, maybe that was the real reason he'd driven all the way to Luke's the night before. He'd wanted a chance to test his thinking on his brother's wife.

Jessie had always struck him as a sweet, practical, no-nonsense kind of woman. She was very fond of Kelly. Surely she would see the sense in the arrangement he was proposing to Kelly. Like him, Jessie would want what was best for her friend. Someone who would look after her and Dani.

He found Jessie downstairs in the kitchen. The baby was propped up in her high chair and Jessie was spooning something that looked like watered-down oatmeal into her mouth. Most of it appeared to be on Angela's face and the floor with a goodly portion streaked from Jessie's face all the way down the front
of her blouse. Oddly enough, she didn't seem to mind.

The minute Jessie spotted him, she stood and shoved the tiny spoon into his hand. “Feed her, would you? I need to check the laundry.”

“Can't she wait?” he inquired, staring helplessly from Jessie to the baby and back again. Before the words were out of his mouth, Angela balled her tiny hands into fists and began whimpering. Jessie didn't even glance back.

“Okay, okay,” he murmured, taking a seat opposite the baby. He dipped the spoon into the cereal, if that's what it was, and aimed at Angela's mouth. Unfortunately the target moved. The cereal dribbled down her cheek. She seemed pleased, though, that he'd tried. She smiled happily, displaying what might have been the beginnings of a tooth.

“Let's try this again,” he said, bolstered by that smile. The next spoonful actually made it into her mouth, then dribbled out. He had the strangest suspicion that this was a game she enjoyed playing. Another perverse woman in the making, he decided with a sigh of resignation.

He scooped up more of the disgusting cereal and aimed again. This time she hit the spoon and splattered it back on him. Globs of the white stuff stuck to his shirt. He was forced to admit to a certain admiration for her muscle tone. She'd whacked that spoon with real strength.

Babies were obviously more of a challenge than he'd originally thought. He made up his mind to get the hang of dealing with them. After all, he supposed that sooner or later he and Kelly would want children of their own, baby brothers and sisters for Dani. He
hadn't given a lot of consideration to kids in the past, but his experiences with Dani lately were changing his mind.

“Do you really want this stuff?” he inquired. “Frankly, it looks pretty disgusting to me.”

“You're not the one eating it,” Jessie retorted, coming back from the laundry room just in time to hear him trying to get out of feeding her child. She glanced at his shirt. “Maybe I'd better put that in with the next load of laundry.”

“Do you do one after every meal?” he inquired, glancing around at the diaper she'd used to mop up previous spills, at Angela's filthy romper and Jessie's own spotted clothes.

“Actually, I've threatened to wear a plastic garbage bag with a slit in the top for my head,” she admitted. “It's not always this bad, though.” She grinned. “And sometimes it's much worse. Spinach is the pits.”

“How reassuring. No wonder Luke has taken a powder and left you in charge.”

“He's been gone since sunrise. He swears it's because there's work to be done, but I have my doubts. I think you may be right. He took one look at his precious daughter after her first experiment with baby food and decided not to show up for mealtime until she reaches her teens. He has this illusion that she's perfect and perfect does not include this particular image.”

Jordan heard the tolerant amusement in her voice and saw the sparkle in her eyes. There was no mistaking the love radiating from her when she talked about her baby or his brother. He wondered if he and Kelly would ever have that kind of emotion between them. Probably not the way he was going about
things, he was forced to admit. Ginger might have a point about that, though he'd sure as hell never tell her that. She was impossible enough as it was.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure,” Jessie said as she carefully spooned the remaining cereal into Angela's mouth. “Does it have something to do with Kelly?”

He wasn't all that surprised that she'd guessed. Harlan had probably mentioned his suspicions to Luke. Or, more likely, Kelly had told Jessie herself. He knew they talked regularly.

“What did she tell you?” he asked.

“About?” she replied noncommittally.

“Us.”

Jessie spared him a glance. “Us? As in you and Kelly?”

“You don't have to act so innocent. I'm sure she told you I'd proposed.”

Her expression turned quizzical. “Is that what it was?”

Jordan moaned. “Not you, too?”

“Well, you have to admit your technique lacked finesse.”

“I sent flowers. I had a message flown over the ranch. I had thousands of rose petals dropped from the sky. I brought her sexy lingerie. The stuff damned near drove me wild imagining her in it. She didn't even take it out of the box.”

Jessie's eyes widened at the mention of the lingerie. “Oh, really? She didn't mention that.”

Jordan thought of how embarrassed Kelly had been by that particular gift. “I'm not surprised.” He stared at Jessie, feeling totally bemused and helpless for the
first time in his life. He didn't like the sensation at all. “I even offered to compromise on where we live.”

Jessie put aside the bowl of cereal and leveled a penetrating look straight at him. “Before I answer, may I ask you a question?”

“Of course.”

“Do you love her?”

Ginger had essentially asked the same thing and he'd been unwilling or unable to answer. He saw that he couldn't evade Jessie so easily. He had the feeling she could read between the lines of whatever answer he chose to give.

“I don't know what I feel,” he admitted candidly. “She's always been a part of my life. I never thought of her in any way other than the best friend I ever had until recently.”

“After your engagement to that awful Rexanne person fell apart?”

Another vote weighed in against his ex-fiancée. He must have been blind. “Exactly,” he said.

“So you decided to rebound straight to the woman who'd been the one safe, secure constant in your life.”

It didn't sound nearly so sensible or laudable when Jessie described it. “Something like that.”

“She ought to knock your teeth down your throat,” Jessie said succinctly.

His eyes widened. “Thanks.”

“I'm serious. Of all the selfish, pigheaded decisions, Jordan Adams, that takes the cake. I'd say you'd better think long and hard about what you really want out of this relationship before you push Kelly's back to the wall. She's my friend and I don't want to see her hurt again. If you can't admit you love her, I'll stand up and shout my objections right smack
in the middle of the service when the preacher asks if anyone knows just cause why you shouldn't be wed. I guarantee I'll make it the most humiliating moment of your life.”

He saw evidence of the fiery temper Luke had mentioned on occasion, but no one else had ever seen in calm, serene Jessie. “You would, wouldn't you?” he said in amazement.

“Damn straight.”

He grinned despite himself. “I'm glad she has you for a friend.” He stood and headed for the door. “Fair warning, though. If I ever do manage to convince her to marry me, I may put a muzzle on you before I let you near the church.”

Jessie didn't even flinch. “Tell her you love her and you won't have to.”

The words echoed in his head all the way back to Kelly's ranch. After stopping in town to buy a picnic lunch, he sped the rest of the way to her house. He parked beside her car, checked the house for her even though he knew it was unlikely she'd be there in the middle of the day, then saddled up a horse and rode off in search of her.

As he rode, with the sun beating down on his shoulders and fluffy white clouds scudding across the vivid blue sky, he tried to analyze why he was so determined to marry Kelly. Was it pure cussedness because she'd said no and no one ever turned down Jordan Adams? Or was it something more, some feeling deep inside he'd never before analyzed too closely? Had all those times he'd gravitated to her house, ostensibly just to check up on her, been indications that she fulfilled some need in him?

He looked to his own parents for some clue about what love was all about. Harlan and Mary Adams had been married nearly thirty-five years. His father's eyes still shone whenever his wife walked into a room. As for his mother, she wasn't an especially warm woman, except when it came to her husband. With him, she radiated charm and laughter and the heat of desire even after all these years. They shared common goals and an abiding affection. Their marriage had been an example to all of their sons, even if Mary Adams's parenting skills had left something to be desired.

Surely, he thought, he and Kelly felt some of those same things. Maybe he'd just never put a label to them before. Maybe he'd repeatedly come back to west Texas, back to her, because he knew that with her he felt whole as he did with no one else on earth. Was that love?

He'd called himself in love with Rexanne and with others before her. He'd tacked the label on his feelings, because it seemed to be expected. But whatever emotions he'd felt then now seemed pale in comparison to the depth of what he felt when he was with Kelly and with Dani. He felt passion with Kelly, but he also felt a rare contentment, the kind that would endure. It was that, he knew, that had drawn him back to her.

Maybe he could say he loved her and say it in all honesty. Damn, but it was complicated, though. He didn't want to lie to her about something this important. He didn't want her to marry him under false pretenses. He'd been fooled before by love. So had she. He didn't want to make a mistake like that again, especially not with Kelly. She deserved only
words he could back up with total conviction. One man like Paul Flint was more than any woman deserved.

It would be easy enough to say what she expected, to utter those three little words that would end this stalemate, but would it be fair? Would it be honest, when he was filled with so many doubts and questions?

He resolved to his regret that it would not be. If she accepted his proposal, it would have to be with the understanding that his feelings were still unclear, even to him. She would have to say
yes
knowing that while the commitment was as solid as granite, his emotions were more like quicksand, riddled with uncertainty.

He spotted her off in the distance just then, the sun glistening off her hair, the hat she wore only under duress dangling around her neck. Dani was seated on the saddle in front of her, a tiny cowboy hat perched on her head, her short legs clinging to the sides of the horse. Something inside him melted at the sight of them. If what he felt wasn't love, it was something darned close to it.

Dani saw him first and waved. “Hi, Jordan,” she shouted, the greeting carrying on the still, hot, dry air.

Kelly's head snapped up. She was obviously startled to see him riding toward them. “I thought you'd be long gone by now,” she said when he neared.

There was an uneasiness in her eyes that he deeply regretted. He knew he'd put it there with all of his pushing. Yet he knew this was too critical to their future for him to back off.