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“Look,” he said, “I realize that I probably seem a little psycho right about now.”
“A little,” Annie said with a smile.
He didn’t return her smile.
Instead, he dropped the baby bag and sat hard on the bottom step. He cupped his forehead. “There are some things about me. My past. Patti’s. There’s no time to rehash it all now. You just need to know that I have to get up there. See for myself that she’s all right.”
“Okay.” Her tone softer, Annie nudged him aside to sit next to him.
Big mistake.
The entire right half of her body hummed. All the way from her shoulder to her thigh to her bare ankle that almost touched Jed’s bare calf. The ankle felt a twitchy, electrical buzz of attraction that she—and her ankle—had never come close to feeling before.
This was wrong.
Here she was, trying to comfort her distraught neighbor and all she could think of was what it might feel like to graze her smooth-shaven legs against the coarse hairs on his.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
“Um—” She swallowed hard. “Where was I?”
“How should I know?”
“Right. That’s it.” Before plopping down beside him, she’d been about to explain how he could find out his sister was safe without driving hundreds of miles. “There’s a very simple way you can not only reassure yourself that Patti’s okay, but skip a lo-o-ong road trip with three babies. All you need to do is—”
“I know—call. But the cabin doesn’t have a phone, and I already tried her cell. Big surprise, it’s not working. Which leaves me calling my friend Ditch, who’s the local sheriff.”
“Ditch?” She raised her eyebrows.
“It’s a long story. Anyway, I tried calling Ditch both at home and at work, and got nothing but answering machines. I left messages for him to call me back ASAP. The town has a hardware store, gas station and a grocery, so I called those, too. Nobody’s seen her, but that doesn’t mean she’s not there. I have to talk to her and see for myself that she’s okay.”
“I’ll tell you who’s not gonna be okay after being cooped up with three screaming babies all the way to Colorado.”
Jed shook his head. “Babies supposedly like cars, don’t they? I mean, I took ’em to the zoo yesterday—or was that the day before?” He rubbed his forehead. “See how messed up Patti’s got me? I don’t even know what day it is.”
“All the more reason for you to go upstairs and take a nap. You’re in no condition to make that drive. You’ve been up for days. Now, if you could fly or take a train or if someone else could help you, then—”
“That’s it!” he said, turning around on the steps to face her.
Annie crinkled her nose. “What?”
“Someone to help. And I know just the person.”
Though Jed looked straight at her, Annie glanced over his shoulder at the pasta-colored wall. A nice sage-green would be a vast improvement.
She gasped when he put his fingers beneath her chin, dragging her gaze right back to him. “You know who I’m talking about, don’t you?”
“Um…” She licked her lips. Maybe that wall could be painted celadon. Or pumpkin. Any color that took her mind off Jed’s arresting eyes. “If that special someone is me,” she said, “I have a very full schedule. I start my new job a week from Monday. So, this week, I have tons of painting to do, ceiling scraping and—”
“I’ll pay you,” he interrupted. “Name your price. As long as I have that amount in savings, it’s yours.”
She stared down at her lap where she clutched her knees with a white-knuckled grip. “This isn’t about money, Jed.”
It was about this crazy yearning she had at the thought of sitting beside him in the intimate confines of a car for the next few days. It was about falling for him—from his laugh to his smile to the fact that he honestly believed four diapers and a few cans of formula were going to get him and three babies all the way to Colorado.
He hadn’t even packed a can opener!
He needed her, and what scared her even more was that she might very well need him. But she couldn’t need him, because just as soon as this crazy road trip was over, his need for a babysitter would vanish, and her need for companionship would be that much stronger.
Her head and heart that much more messed up.
“Annie?” he said softly. “Please?”
She used the wall for leverage to push herself up from the stairs. She had to get away from Jed, from his citrusy smell and his strength and, worse yet, his vulnerability.
Friends told her she worried way too much about other folks’ problems and not enough about her own.
Well, this was one time she needed to listen to their advice. Her friends were right. Jed and his adorable crew were trouble with a capital T.
She stood in front of the door staring at the doorknob. “I have to go.” I can’t allow myself to fall for you.
She was still too raw from Conner. And she hadn’t even begun to sort out the mess Troy had made of her soul. She was weary from missing Grams and from being all alone in this town—and practically the whole world.
Jed stood too, and then he was behind Annie, resting his strong hands on her shoulders.
“Ever since our folks died,” he said quietly, “Patti’s been my responsibility. She was a good kid—the best. She was also the worst teen. I’ve been through hell with her. The night she gave up her virginity to the first greasy-haired punk who asked, it was me she came home to. I was the one who held her while she cried. Just like when I found her underneath a highway overpass in a seedy part of downtown Tulsa. She’d run away because she’d gotten mad at me for making her wash the dishes. She was shivering, and I wrapped her in a quilt our mother had made for her fifth birthday. It matched the yellow-and-white daisies on Patti’s bedroom walls. When our house burned down, Mom had wrapped the quilt around Patti as we fled.”
His hands still on her shoulders, Jed turned Annie to face him, which only upped the stakes of the battle raging inside her. Standing behind her, he was dangerous enough. When he stood in front of her, staring at her, she found that just looking at him was emotional suicide.
She’d already been through so much.
She couldn’t open herself up to more pain.
Her move to Pecan was about healing. Making a fresh start. It was about—
Jed took her hands and gave them a gentle squeeze, flooding her with the kind of simple, wondrous, unconditional companionship she hadn’t felt in years. Except that it wasn’t unconditional; it came with strings. Strings that would vanish the instant they reunited Patti with her babies.
“I—I have to go,” Annie said, turning for the door, putting her hand on the cold brass knob.
“Howie’s her husband,” Jed said. “He should be with her right now. But I can’t find him, Annie. Until I do, I’m all she has. I have to help her. She’s all I’ve got.”
Annie swallowed hard.
How had he known?
Of all the words in the English language, those were the ones that spoke the loudest to her heart. It was exactly the way she felt about her grandmother.
“Annie, I’ll be the first to admit I’ve got a mile-long streak of pride running through me. I hate asking for help. Even worse, I hate needing help. But in this case—”
“I’ll do it.”
“You will?”
Lips pressed tight, fighting silly tears of trepidation, maybe even excitement, Annie nodded.
Jed pulled her into a hug, and the sensation was warm and comforting, like slipping into a hot bath. This sure wouldn’t make it any easier to fight her feelings for this man.
Releasing her, he clapped his hands, then rubbed them together. “Great! Let me tackle a few quick errands. I’ll beg, borrow or steal time off from work and we’ll get this show on the road. I’m assuming you’ll need to call your folks? Or your grandmother? Or—” he crossed his fingers for a negative on this one “—your boyfriend?”
Annie shook her head. “The only family I have is my grandmother, and there’s no need to worry her with a short trip like this.”
“You sure?”
She nodded. Why even broach the subject with Grams? The older, wiser woman would think she was nuts—which she probably was.
“All right then. If you wouldn’t mind hanging out here just a little while longer, we’ll be good to go. Oh—before I forget…” He took a cell phone from the coffee table and plugged it into a nearby charger. “Is your cell battery fully charged?”
“I don’t have a cell phone.”
“How come?”
“I’d rather spend the fifty dollars a month on decorating supplies.”
He smiled. “I knew I liked you. Finally, a woman who actually prefers an activity to talking.”
“I didn’t say I don’t like to talk.” She winked. “I just don’t want my conversations to cost more per year than a custom-upholstered sofa and love seat.”
Chapter Four
It was nine the next morning before they finally pulled onto Highway 75 leading out of Pecan and into Tulsa where they’d catch Highway 412. Annie had talked Jed into taking a nap that’d thankfully turned into a decent night’s rest. Meanwhile, she’d run to the store for a more realistic stock of formula, diapers and diaper wipes, and also managed to grab a little shut-eye for herself while the babies were sleeping.
During her brief time away from Jed’s formidable appeal—not to mention that of his niece and nephews—she’d given herself a nice, long pep talk.
Jed was just her neighbor.
And yeah, he was gorgeous, but that didn’t necessarily mean she was falling for him. She was a big girl. So why was she so confused? Why did she feel that by agreeing to what should be nothing more than a brief road trip, she was essentially giving away her heart?
Could it be because that heart of yours hums whenever the guy’s within three feet?
Annie cracked open the map. “Want me to find some shortcuts?”
Both hands on his sister’s minivan wheel, Jed shook his head. “I’m an interstate kind of guy. I see no reason to tempt fate.”
“Oh.” She slipped off her sandals and propped her bare feet on the dash. Admiring her fresh pedicure, she said, “Don’t you just love this shade of pink? The silver sparkles look like there’s a party on my toes.” She glanced his way and caught him rolling his eyes.
Eyebrows raised, he asked, “Do you have to do that?”
“Do what?”
“Get your dirty feet all over the clean dash. I just dusted it this morning.”
“My feet aren’t dirty—or dusty.” She twisted in the seat to display her soles for inspection. “See?”
Barely ten minutes into the trip and the woman nearly had him crashing the car! Jed cleared his throat, thankful for that keep your eyes on the road rule, otherwise, he’d be sorely tempted to take the bottoms of those squeaky-clean feet and—
Nope.
Not going there.
This was a family trip.
G-rated all the way.
For an instant, he squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. Did she have any idea that when she’d raised her feet for inspection, she’d also raised the frayed bottoms of her jean shorts? The sweet curve of her behind had him thinking anything but sweet thoughts!
He tightened his grip on the wheel.
“Tell me about Ditch,” the constant temptation sitting beside him said.
He was grateful for the change of topic. “What do you want to know?” he asked.
“For starters—” she hiked her feet back onto the dash “—please tell me that isn’t his real name.”
“Nah. We used to take walks down our dirt road, and every time we heard the tiniest little noise, he’d hit the ditch, sure it was a bear.”
She crinkled her nose.
Was it wrong of him that such a simple thing gave him such a peculiar thrill?
“If it had been a bear,” she said, “why did he think getting in the ditch was going to keep it away?”
Jed laughed. “Good question, which is why the other kids and I gave him such a hard time.”
“Poor guy. Did he ever—”
Waaaaahuh!
“What’s the matter?” Annie asked one of the boys. “Already needing a snack?” She took a pre-warmed bottle from an insulated bag, tested the formula’s temperature on her wrist, then offered it to Jed’s nephew, who promptly batted it away. “I’ll take that to mean he’s not hungry,” she said.
Waaaaaaahuh!
Waaaaaaa!
Great. Now Pia had joined in.
“Good Lord,” Jed said. “We haven’t even made it to Tulsa and already they’re crying? I thought babies liked car rides?”
“Most do,” she said above the racket, “but I guess these guys are the exception. Well, except for Richard. He’s sound asleep.”
“How do you know that’s Rich?”
“Technically, I don’t. But he has slightly thicker eyebrows than his brother, so that helps me tell them apart.”
Sure. Why hadn’t he thought of that? Jed sighed.
“What? You think I’m making that up?”
“When we make our first stop in Kansas, I’ll take a look.”
“Kansas? I hate to burst your bubble there, but judging by the howling, we’re going to have to stop way before we even reach the Kansas Turnpike.”
“The hell we will.” And to prove it, Jed stepped on the gas.
FIVE MILES DOWN the road at a run-down picnic stop where hot, dry wind rustled scattered litter on the ground, Jed scowled.
All three babies wailed.
“This place doesn’t look very clean,” he said.
“It’s not like we’re going to roll your niece and nephews across the pavement.”
“Yeah, well, all the same,” he said over Pia’s especially heartfelt cry. “Maybe we should just—”
Annie unfastened her seat belt and hopped out of the van.
Jed looked at the sun-bleached concrete parking area and the shabby picnic tables and shook his head.
An empty two-liter pop bottle rolled like tumble-weed until it stopped against the carved wooden sign urging folks to Put Litter In Its Place.
Annie slid open the van’s side door. “Listen to you all,” she crooned to the bawling trio. “My goodness. The way you’re carrying on you’d think some TV exec canceled Sesame Street.”
She unbuckled Pia and scooped her from her seat. After patting the rump of her pink shorts, Annie said, “What’s up, sweetie? Your diaper’s dry.” While talking to Pia, she rubbed Ronnie’s belly. “Seeing how they tossed their bottles, I’m guessing they’re not hungry, which leaves general crankiness as the cause of all this angst. Come on,” she said, awkwardly taking Richard from his seat, too. “You grab Ronnie and we’ll take them for a quick walk.”
“A walk?” Jed had stepped out of the van and was standing behind Annie. “We were supposed to be halfway to Colorado by now. This is going to completely blow the schedule.”
“What schedule?” Two babies and a fat diaper bag in her arms, she backed out of the van. “Think you could help me down from here? I don’t want to trip.”
Suddenly, Jed didn’t just have lost time to worry about, but Annie’s soft curves landing against his chest. He caught her around her waist, guiding her safely to the ground, getting himself in trouble with the trace of her floral perfume.
“No, no.” He shook off his momentary rush of awareness to remember his argument. “Why are you leaving the van? It’ll just take that much longer to load back up.”
Already halfway across the lot, aiming for the nearest picnic table, she called over her shoulder, “Could you please grab Ronnie? Now that we’re stopped, I’d like to do an official diaper check.”
Muttering under his breath, Jed did Annie’s bidding, cringing when he reached the table only to find her spreading the babies’ good changing pad across the graffiti-and-filth-covered concrete slab.
“What’s the matter?” she asked mid-change on Richard, her right hand efficiently holding the gurgling baby’s feet while she wiped him with her left.
Pia sprawled on a blanket Annie had spread beneath a frazzled red bud. The little faker was grinning up a storm while gumming the baby-friendly rubber salamander he’d bought for her at the zoo.
“What’s the matter?” he echoed, hands on his hips. “These kids are bamboozling us.”
Annie shot him an entirely too chipper smile. “Jed, they’re just over three months old. There’s no way they could systematically set out to mess with your schedule.”
“Yeah, well, what else explains this?” He held out Ronnie, who was also alternately giggling and cooing.
Annie looked up only to hastily look back down.
She returned her attention to sealing the tapes on Richard’s diaper, then resnapping the legs of his short-sleeved cotton jumper.
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