Reunion for the First Time (14 page)

He didn’t stop his petting. “Marty likes da Bears.”

Marty cocked her head at Jack.

“You see? She smiled at me.”

“You’re awful.” Lizzie put the sweater on the counter. “You can’t put it off any longer, Jack. Time to pay up. I’m starving.”

The dinner rush hadn’t yet started at the restaurant. A hostess greeted them. Jack pointed to a high table with bar chairs situated in the window. “Can we have that table, please?”

The hostess hesitated. “Well…actually. Somebody just called and asked me to hold that table. But…we really don’t take reservations here, so if you want it, I guess I can give it to you. You were here first.”

The hostess walked toward the window table.

“No. That’s okay.” Jack looked toward the rear of the restaurant. “How about a booth in the back?”

“Sure.” She reversed and walked to the rear of the restaurant.

Minutes later, they were sitting in a booth when a beaming, buxom woman in her forties sashayed over. “You handsome devil, where have you been hiding?”

She patted Jack’s shoulder, scooted Lizzie over on the wooden bench with gentle nudges of her ample hips and sat next to her, smiling at Jack on the other side of the booth. “Who’s your lady?”

“Rae, you gorgeous woman,” Jack declared. “Beth Moran, meet Rachael Johnson.”

Rachael put her arm around Lizzie and hugged her against her warm pillowy body. “Hi, Beth.”

She wasn’t used to strangers calling her Beth or hugging her, either. But instantly she was comfortable with the friendly waitress. “Hi, Rachael.”

“Call me Rae.” She popped back up on her feet, pulled a pencil from behind her ear and took a small pad from the back pocket of her black jeans. “This one’s a keeper, Jacky. Too skinny, though. Let’s feed her fast.”

“She’s a keeper all right. Likes football, has a mean backswing and a pink-bellied dog who adores me.” Jack handed over the menus. “But we’re from separate worlds. She likes Green Bay.”

Rae looked scandalized. “Bite your tongue! Don’t you be bringing this woman here to watch any games. I’d fear for her life.”

The waitress laughed. “So. What can I get you?”

“We’d like a carafe of Merlot and some cheddar cubes to start. Does that sound all right to you, Beth?”

“What are cheddar cubes?” Lizzie loved trying new food.

Jack mimicked Rae who looked at her with an open mouth. “The woman has never had cheddar cubes, Rae.”

Rae patted Lizzie’s hand. “Probably the girl doesn’t want to have a heart attack before she’s forty. Stuff goes straight to the arteries.”

“I’d rather eat them than live another couple of years,” Jack confessed. “You game, Beth?”

“Sure, bring ’em on.” She folded her hands on top of the table.

“Okay. And we’ll have a medium Malnati’s salad and a large pan sausage. You like sausage pizza, Beth, or would you like something else?”

“I love sausage pizza. Especially at Lou’s. But large?” She shook her head.

“A starving man orders large and takes home leftovers. Hey, if we have room we can have a cookie pizza for dessert.”

“Atta boy. Fatten the girl up. I’ll be right back with your drinks.”

Lizzie went to freshen up. When she came back, Rae and Jack were bantering as Rae set the drinks and the appetizer on the table. On impulse, Liz slid her slim digital camera out of a side pocket of her purse, composed the shot and took a picture. Jack smiled and Rae blinked several times in her direction.

“You taking my picture? Give me that camera and get over here, girl. I’ll take a picture of you two.” Rae accepted the camera from Lizzie. “Is this thing hard to work?”

“Point and shoot.” Taking the camera back Lizzie identified a button on top with her index finger. “Just push this when you’re ready.”

Lizzie handed the camera over and stood next to where Jack sat. He put his arm around her waist. Before Rae snapped the picture, Jack pulled Lizzie onto his lap. She laughed and circled her arms around his neck, an uninhibited hug.

Rae set the camera on the table. “You’ll show that picture to your kids someday.” She left them alone.

Holy cow, kids. She pushed her hair behind her ear. Kids? Lizzie got off Jack’s lap and sat in the booth. “Do you ever want kids, Jack?”

She picked up a cheddar cube and popped it in her mouth. “Mmmmm. This is delicious.”

“Fried cheese. Nothing like it.” Jack ate one, too. “I already have a passel of kids.” He took another and washed it down with wine.

“You have kids? Mari never mentioned anything about kids when she spoke of you.”

“I’m supporting roughly half of the elementary school population of Guatemala. Mari was always after me to support her orphanage kids. I could never say no to her. Or to them, either, every time she showed me another picture. I even learned some Spanish so I could write letters to them.”

Fascinated, she helped herself to more cheese. “That’s great. Ever want kids of your own?” She wasn’t about to let him change the subject.

“Never really thought about it.” He didn’t look her in the eye.

“I’ve always wanted children. At least two. I was an only child who always longed for a brother or a sister.”

“I have a brother you can have,” he deadpanned.

“I always wanted a little sibling rivalry, too.” She laughed. “How is Charlie? He was so distraught Saturday night when he called me. I had to rush over there and cut my date with Wallace short. Charlie seemed to be better by the time I got to his house. I still worry about him. Did you see him last weekend at all?”

Jack looked baffled. “Yeah, we watched football together on Sunday. He never mentioned that he had a problem or that you were there. He seemed fine to me.”

“I’m glad.” Glad that it cut everything short.

“So how is old Wally? Is he the candidate to give you those minimum two kids?”

The truth hit her the instant she contemplated her answer. It made her wistful. “I suspect that Wally isn’t good father material. I mean Wallace.” Lizzie laughed. “You don’t like Wallace, do you, Jack. Why is that?”

“I know his type.” He played with this wine glass.

Rae brought the salad and Jack heaped some on a glass plate and handed it to Lizzie before he helped himself.

“Really? What type is that?” How thoughtful to serve her first.

“Can’t trust him.”

“You may be right.” She propped her chin in her hand and watched Jack eat. “Mind if I ask a personal question?”

He looked up with an amused look. “No harm in asking.” He resumed his food absorption.

“Have you ever been serious with a woman, Jack?”

“Not really. I lean toward good friends with benefits.” His dark eyes were teasing. “I’ve never had too much faith in that kind of thing.”

“What kind of thing?” She put another cheese cube in her mouth.

****

He chuckled. “Your kind of thing.”
Marriage, kids, empty promises.

“I don’t get it.”

“Pretty lady, let’s change the subject. How’s the salad?”

“Maybe I do get it. You’re not into commitment. So stereotypically male.” She rolled her eyes.

Male? You never met my mother.
He arched an eyebrow, but didn’t respond.

“You called me ‘pretty lady.’ You think I’m pretty?”

He smiled at her fishing for compliments. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” He skimmed the back of her elbow with his thumb. “Yes, I think you’re pretty in a scrawny way.”

“You’re really handsome.”

The compliment pleased him inordinately stoking an inner fire. But he didn’t need to fish for compliments. “You say that because I called you pretty. Now eat.”

She sampled the salad. “My God, Jack, this is delicious. It has little pieces of fried salami in it. And cheese. I’m not sure it’s a good thing that I’ve discovered these dishes.”

“You could use some meat on those bones.”

“I am not skinny.”

Actually he’d like to get her out of that sweater and settle the debate.

She stuffed a big forkful in her mouth that bulged her cheeks. Her jaw worked drawing his eyes to her lips. Lush, inviting, nothing skinny about them.

****

Slowly sipping wine, Lizzie relished the way he looked at her. Her insides warmed from more than the wine. The man obviously didn’t want forever with a woman, but there was no mistaking that he wanted her now.

Why didn’t that make her furious? Wasn’t Wallace just like that? Probably. And it had nearly destroyed her. Commitment issues or not, there was no harm in learning more about gorgeous Jack. “So what takes the place of relationships? Work?”

“Maybe. Sometimes. If you love what you do.” He polished off the last of the salad on his plate.

“I understand. I love what I do with a passion. Do you love what you do?” The wine caused a pleasant light-headedness.

“Oh, yeah.” He wiped his mouth with a napkin. “There are so many dimensions to my work. I’m never bored. Last week I was involved in a bid for the GC Building. That is a very exciting project.”

“And if you win the bid, you’ll build it?”

“Yes. First the architectural design has to be approved and then blueprints drawn up. A whole lot of bureaucracy in the middle follows. Then I’ll build it.”

“Right. Do you happen to know if the architect for a building gets involved in its actual construction?”

“The good ones do. Why?”

“I was thinking about Wallace.”

Jack’s eyes darkened. “I’m sure the only way he’s involved in construction is to skim off the top of construction bids.”

“Jack! What a thing to say. Let’s not talk about Wallace anymore. I’m sorry I brought him up.”

The pizza came and she dug in. Somewhere, Lizzie found the room to stuff in a gigantic, thick-crusted slice blanketed with sausage and dripping with cheese. Jack ate a slice and picked up the pie server to dish out another for each of them, but Lizzie covered her plate with her hands.

“
No más
. I’m about to burst.” She leaned her back against the wood booth, wine glass in hand, and sighed in satisfaction.

Lizzie observed him as he ate. With total focus, he neatly vacuumed in the food obviously uninhibited in his enjoyment. Open and free, she didn’t care about
commitments
in the least. Pure fun. Why couldn’t she have fun with a man? Full, not just with food, but also with joyous possibility. When had she ever been daring? Certainly in her work. But in her social life?

“Jack, why are you here with me tonight?”

He furrowed his brow. “Because the Bears suck.”

“There’s that. But why would you want to take me out just because of a bet? You could have shelled out money instead.”

His brow furrowed tighter. He put down his knife and fork, settled back on his side of the booth and contemplated her. His keen expression and wide blue eyes convinced her that his response would be honest. “I like you. You help people you know and people you don’t know. I respect that.”

He reached across the table and held both her hands.

Lizzie focused on their hands linked together, a powerful, sensual connection that sped up her heart and made her squirm in her seat. She wondered if he could sense the current running through her when he touched her.

Magnetism pulsed in his dark, dark eyes. “Besides. I had to reciprocate for your football party.”

Another rush now of tenderness mixed with sexual zingers. “That’s sweet, Jack. Thank you. But I’m the one who’s grateful. I had a wonderful time at the reunion because of you.”

Bending his head, he stroked her arm lightly with his hand.

“Because Wally was jealous?” His eyes fixed on hers. The pointed question swirled in their charcoal blue depths.

“No, Jack. Because of you. It was wonderful getting to know you. I would like to get to know you better.”

He half stood and leaned toward her planting a kiss on her lips that pressed her back in the booth, arms relaxed at her sides.

****

Jack regretted the impulse. Even though he had instigated the kiss, he was powerless in its hold. She kissed him back, her floral scent and lips that tasted of sweet wine, overtook him. He forgot his surroundings and explored her lips and mouth with his tongue. Beth’s mouth was the only part of her body he touched, but just this small exquisite touch could plunge him over the edge.

He had to break the hold, rein in this powerful desire. Reluctantly, he sat back.

He composed his face, even though it seemed he was reconfiguring every cell in his body to do it. The innocent gleam in her eyes was still there, even more so now. She looked at him unblinking. Dark green smoke swirled in those emerald eyes.

Jack had seen it before and understood the unspoken invitation to kiss her again. He wanted to, this time all over her body, wanted to taste her and immerse in the garden scent that clung to her. Tempting.

We’re both consenting adults, why not? We could go back to her place. And this time we won’t watch sporting events on her flat screen TV.

He gazed into her sweet and so seductive face.

She’s practically a virgin. Would I be there in the morning for her? No. That would put me in the same league as Wally. Can’t do it.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t have done that,” he placed both his hands flat on either side of his plate. “We should give them the table.”

Scarlet welts colored her cheekbones. Beth looked at him blankly and didn’t speak as she gathered her things.

Jack signaled to Rae. She brought their bill and Jack left cash on top of it. Beth stood and Jack helped her with her coat before he donned his and steered her outside.

He kept her close, his arm around her to insulate her against the frigid wind. By the time they walked the four short blocks from the restaurant to Beth’s building, the inside of his nose stung and his eyes watered from the cold. But his gut burned wanting more of her.

Outside the building, he wrapped her in his arms fanning the inner flames higher. He put his hand under her chin and turned her face gently upward so she could see his eyes—hoping that they projected that he cared about her feelings. Because he did, he wouldn’t risk hurting her with a casual affair. In the soft glow of the lobby lights reflected on the pavement, he kissed her softly on the forehead. “Goodnight, Beth.”