SWEET ANTICIPATION (11 page)

“See, my theory holds true.”

That got them started on the subjects of grandmothers and favorite foods. They talked and laughed until Jordan glanced at the daisy-shaped clock on the wall.

“Did you realize that it’s after midnight? I can’t believe it’s gotten so late so quickly,” he exclaimed.

“Well, there goes your curfew. You’ll probably be grounded for a month,” Lauren joked.

“Lord, I hope not. I was hoping you would go to the play at the Miller Outdoor Theater with me tomorrow night. I think they’re going to be doing
South Pacific. “

Lauren hesitated for a split second. Another date so soon? But when it came down to deciding whether or not she would rather spend another evening with Jordan or stay home and watch television, there was no contest. “That sounds like it would be fun. The theater group usually does an excellent job with their productions. Do you want me to pack us a picnic dinner?”

“That would be great. I’ll bring the blanket and mosquito spray.”

They made arrangements about the time as she walked him to the door.

“I really had a good time this evening,” she commented almost shyly as he stopped just inside the doorway. “Thanks for the dinner—and the company.”

“It was my pleasure—honestly,” he answered. Reaching out, he hooked his finger under her chin and lifted her face until their eyes met. “I’ve had more fun tonight than I’ve had in ages.”

His voice was soft and they were so close to each other that she could feel the heat of his body, although the only place he was touching her was beneath her chin. She wasn’t aware that the mixture of emotions she was feeling was reflected in her wide, bright-blue eyes.

But Jordan saw them and understood. Tonight they had become friends. It was too soon for anything else. The very fact that he wanted to kiss her so much startled him. His lips almost ached to touch hers, but instead he forced them to form the words “Goodnight, Lauren. Get plenty of sleep because I’ll be keeping you up late again tomorrow night.”

Mutely she nodded, greatly relieved when he removed his hand and stepped away without kissing her, and yet strangely disappointed. Was she so unappealing that he couldn’t even bring himself to give her a friendly goodnight kiss? As he opened the door and they stepped out onto the porch, Lauren wasn’t sure why it mattered so much that he hadn’t been attracted to her enough to at least try to kiss her. Of course, she wouldn’t have let him, but he could at least have made the attempt.

When he was walking down the steps, giving her one last wave, she noticed that he was still wearing her apron. “Maybe you had better take the apron off before people see you and get the wrong idea,” she called after him and tried not to smile when a light blush colored his cheeks as he untied the apron strings and came back to hand it to her. “A man should never wear lace on the streets of Houston after dark,” she teased mercilessly.

“And a lady shouldn’t look so darn beautiful in the moonlight,” he added, leaning forward to drop a quick, unexpected kiss on her smiling mouth. “Goodnight, pretty mama.”

Lauren stood on the porch until he had disappeared around the side of the shop. The tips of her fingers rested lightly on her lips where she could still feel the gentle pressure of his mouth against hers. Such audacity to have sneaked a kiss when she least expected it! The man never ceased to surprise her. Lauren realized she was still smiling. Perhaps surprises weren’t so bad after all.

Chapter Eight

Jordan spread a blanket on the soft grass beneath a huge oak tree. From this spot near the top of a man-made hill, they would have a good view of the stage. This outdoor theater had been built in a bowl-shaped design so that the audience was able to see and hear the production whether they were sitting in the reserved rows near the front or scattered anywhere on the gently sloping sides. Only the view from the rear was obstructed by a rounded backdrop that improved the acoustics and helped protect the stage from some of the unpredictable Gulf Coast weather.

“I brought some lawn chairs if you think it would be easier on you than sitting on the ground,” he said, casting a worried glance at her rounded figure.

“Absolutely not. Only senior citizens sit on lawn chairs here. I may be getting close to thirty and a few pounds overweight, but I don’t need to be babied, if you’ll pardon the pun.”

To prove her point, she sat down on the blanket with as much grace as she could manage. Opening the picnic basket, she began unpacking its contents.

“Umm, are those chocolate-chip cookies I smell?” Jordan asked, dropping down beside her and peeking into a couple of the foil-wrapped packages she had brought.

“I promised you last night that I’d make you some. But they’re for later,” she said, brushing his hands away from the basket. “Would you get us some soft drinks out of the ice chest while I set the ‘table’? I hope you like croissant sandwiches with ham and cheese. I was out of peanut butter and jelly.”

“I’ll try to hide my disappointment,” he answered dryly.

As they ate their dinner, the sun slowly settled below the trees in the park. Occasionally the roar of a lion or the screech of a peacock from the Houston Zoo could be heard above the noisy chatter of the crowd.

“My great-grandmother told me her father was responsible for starting the zoo.” Lauren wiped her fingers on a napkin and tossed her trash back into the basket. “She said that he worked for the city to maintain this park when nothing was here but the trees and the squirrels. He wasn’t a veterinarian or anything, but he was supposed to have been very good with animals, and people would bring injured wild animals to him to fix up. While they were getting well, he kept them in cages and pens and children would come to see the animals he had. When the city saw what sort of crowds he was generating and how much interest there was in an animal collection, they decided to add some more exotic creatures and start a zoo.”

Lauren stretched her legs out in front of her and leaned back on her braced arms. “I don’t know if all that is true, but it makes a good story,” she added.

“It sounds reasonable enough. I’d never thought about it before, but I guess a zoo wouldn’t just spring up full grown overnight. I remember how much I used to love to go to the zoo when I was a kid. I don’t know which I liked better, seeing the animals or riding that little train around the lake. I haven’t been there in years, but I’ve heard they’ve added a lot of new natural-type cages and a petting area since then. I can’t wait until we can take our kid to see the elephants and the monkeys.”

“You get to take him through the snake house.” Lauren grimaced and wrinkled her nose in distaste. “I’ve always hated that place. There’s so many of them, slithering around, sticking out their wicked little tongues, and only a piece of glass between me and them. Yuck!”

Jordan gave her a smug smile and said, “See, I told you there were some things that he’ll need a father for. A boy can’t go through life without ever going into the snake house.”

“Or he can just wait until he’s older and go in by himself while I wait by the seal pool,” she responded in quick retaliation.

“Still determined to see this through by yourself, huh?”

“I think I can handle it.”

“I think you can too, but I wish—” Before he could finish, the orchestra started playing a medley of
South
Pacific
tunes, the colored spotlights focused on the stage and the theater group rushed out to introduce themselves and welcome everyone to the show. By then the whole area facing the stage was quite crowded. All the benches were full and the grass was almost covered by blankets and lawn chairs.

The play was lively and the cast was talented, so Lauren and Jordan’s attention remained focused on the stage until the intermission. Floodlights illuminated the area as people stood up and stretched.

“If my legs still work, I’d better take a walk over there,” Lauren said, nodding toward the rest rooms.

“I’ll go with you—well, not
with
you, but we can walk over there together,” he offered. “Here, let me help you get up.”

This time she didn’t make any protest, but held her hands out to him. He easily pulled her to her feet and walked with her around the maze of blankets and chairs until they reached their destination. When they returned to the blanket, Lauren eyed the rough bark of the tree critically.

“I guess I shouldn’t be so hardheaded and should let you get me a chair, but it’s the principle of the thing. I’m still too young for Geritol, but I have to admit that my back’s beginning to hurt a little. Maybe I could sit up against that tree trunk and use it for support.”

“I’ve got a better idea.” Jordan picked up the ice chest and set it down in front of the tree, then sat down and leaned against it. “We can use this for a backrest.”

She looked at him a little dubiously. It wasn’t a very large ice chest and they would have to sit much too close together. After last night’s unexpected ending, she wasn’t sure what he might do next. At that moment, the lights dimmed and the stage lights came back on, so she shrugged and sat down beside him.

Neither Lauren nor Jordan were able to keep their minds on the last act of the play, although the acting and songs were no less entertaining. The sharp odor of mosquito spray hung in the air, but all Lauren could smell was the spicy fragrance of Jordan’s after-shave. In spite of her attempts to keep a little distance between them, their shoulders and arms kept touching every time one of them moved. She was very aware of the attractive masculine man next to her.

Jordan was doing his best to keep his eyes focused on the actors. Instead, his attention insisted on wandering over to the woman who was sharing his blanket in the most innocent way. There were hundreds of people in this park tonight, at least half of whom were women. But in Jordan’s opinion none of those other females even came close to Lauren’s delicate beauty.

As usual in Houston during the spring, there was almost no temperature change after the sun went down. When there was no wind, it could be almost unbearably muggy, but tonight there was a light breeze stirring the hot, ever-humid air. It filtered through Lauren’s honey-gold hair, tossing its silken strands and tickling them sensuously against Jordan’s cheek and neck.

A jolt of desire shot through him that couldn’t have been more powerful if it had been her lips caressing his skin. Her hair was as soft as he had imagined, but his reaction to this unintentional titillation was much stronger than he ever would have expected. Every time he caught a whiff of her fresh, floral fragrance or felt the touch of her skin against his, it was as if his blood suddenly swelled in his veins before rushing hotly through his pounding heart. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been this physically attracted to a woman, especially considering his only contact with Lauren had been a very brief kiss last night.

Giving up all pretense of watching the play, Jordan let his gaze drift over his companion. Royal blue slacks covered her long, slender legs, and a smock top of matching red, white and blue stripes looked fashionably loose instead of like a maternity blouse. Somehow she managed to look cool and comfortable even in this eighty-degree heat. And even more mysterious, she managed to make him feel frustrated and much too warm.

Jordan couldn’t help but notice the couple sitting on a blanket nearby, their arms wrapped affectionately around each other and the girl’s head resting on the man’s shoulder. They appeared to be gloriously in love and unable to bear even a moment’s separation from each other. Another couple several yards away was making no pretense of watching the show, but were lying on their blanket, their arms and legs entwined as they kissed each other with oblivious abandon.

Although he disapproved of such public displays of affection, Jordan nevertheless felt a little envious of these young couples. It must be wonderful to be that involved with a person to the exclusion of everything else. Even when he was a teenager, he had never fallen so head over heels in love with a girl that he would put himself in a possibly embarrassing situation.

Lauren shifted beside him, her thigh accidentally brushing against his as she crossed her legs, Indian-style. Again Jordan felt a swell of emotion for this woman, along with an almost overpowering desire to hold her in his arms. He told himself that he was merely reacting to his romantic surroundings, but he knew that these feelings were not spontaneous. They had been building since the first moment he had laid eyes on her at the cafeteria. Sure, that day he had been furious, but that had, in an odd way, pushed him quickly past the neutral stage. His feelings for her had always been intense, first in anger, and now in something very close to desire. But it was a different sort of desire than he had felt for any other woman.

There was no denying that she was an attractive woman, even with her temporarily disproportionate figure. But his attraction for her was more than physical. She was intelligent, creative, witty, ambitious and, he thought with a smile, she looked terrific in an apron. If he had tried to pick someone from all the women in the world to bear his child, Jordan knew that it was very likely that he would have chosen Lauren.

In a move that would have made any teenage boy proud, Jordan lifted his arms in an exaggerated stretch, then let them drop back down, the right one draping casually across the ice chest behind her.

As soon as she felt the gentle pressure of his arm against her back, Lauren didn’t know whether to giggle hysterically or move away. She hadn’t seen that move since she was sixteen years old. It had unnerved her then and it was having the same effect now.

“Not very original,” she whispered to him after deciding to treat the whole matter lightly.

He started to play dumb and pretend he didn’t have a clue as to what she was referring, but he caught her sly sideways glance and knew she was on to him. “I’m a little out of practice,” he answered, the corners of his mouth lifting into an almost sheepish grin. “I used to be able to pull that one off without my date even noticing.”

“Oh, I’ll bet she noticed. She just didn’t mind.”

“I’ll admit that it’s been years since I’ve had to resort to something so sneaky just to put my arm around a pretty girl. Not to sound immodest, but I’ve actually had to fight off some dates’ advances.”

“Poor thing,” Lauren murmured with sugary sarcasm. “That must have been awful for you.”

“What’s awful is that the women I don’t want are ready to forfeit the game while I can’t seem to get to first base with the woman I want.”

Lauren didn’t know how to respond to that remark. Was he talking about her or some other woman? If it was her, then he was wasting his time because she didn’t want to play the game. And yet, there was something very complimentary about his interest. She, too, had noted couples around them embracing and generally creating a romantically charged atmosphere. It had been many months since she had gone out for an evening with a man, and even before Johnny’s death, they hadn’t been able to afford to go out much. He had been so busy going to night school and trying to keep up with all of his after-hours sales appointments that she had spent most of her evenings at home alone.

Lately, every place she had gone, she had either been alone, or occasionally with Rita. Because she had felt so uncomfortable being a single, always having to sit at a table for one or not having anyone to share a tub of popcorn with at the movies, Lauren had almost stopped going anywhere if it didn’t pertain directly to her business. She knew it wasn’t so, but she was very self-conscious about being stared at and pitied by those people lucky enough to be with someone. After her pregnancy had started to show, she hadn’t felt quite so obviously single since most people naturally assumed that she must have a husband around somewhere who, for some reason or another, hadn’t been able to accompany her.

Now that she had finally given in and gone out on her first date since Johnny’s death, she was almost sorry she hadn’t accepted Jordan’s earlier invitation to dinner two weeks ago. She hadn’t realized how much she had needed to get away from that tiny house and her business. As she had cleaned her house today, she had been very excited at the prospect of going out this evening and watching a stage performance under the stars. And, if she were to be perfectly honest with herself, she had also been looking forward to being with Jordan again.