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At the end of the dusty, quarter-mile drive, stood an old square ranch house with a hip roof and a porch bordering three sides. The house and two acres had come up for rent five years ago when a local farmer had sold off the surrounding crop land and moved into town. Jared had taken it on a long-term lease, mainly to have a place to hang his hat when work brought him back to the Black Arrow vicinity.
There were times the old house stood empty for months running. But Jared had never had a problem with stealing or vandalism. There were benefits to having the county sheriff as your brother, he thought with great affection. Also to having a sister who was kind enough to keep the dust from piling up inside. And from the looks of the pickup truck parked to one side of the driveway, Willow must have taken pity on him and stopped by today to do a little cleaning.
After parking the truck in front of a faded wooden fence that separated the yard from weedy pasture, Jared climbed out and carefully carried the caged cat into the house. The moment he closed the door behind him, he was hit by the smell of fresh-baked cookies and the sound of his sister’s voice. He followed the sound into the kitchen to see her sitting on the tall barstool he kept beneath the wall phone.
“Here he is now,” she said to the caller. “So I’ll let you ask him.”
Jared cocked a questioning brow at her. She mouthed the word “newspaper” as she handed him the phone.
Two minutes later, Jared hung up.
“That was quick,” Willow remarked.
“I’m sure he’d already told you that he wanted to do an interview with me, Kerry and Peggy. I told him we’d meet him here tomorrow night.” He made a general wave in the direction of the sink full of dirty dishes. “Do you think you could clean the place up a bit?”
Willow shook her head in amazement. “Listen, little brother, you might not even need this place cleaned up when Kerry hears that you didn’t bother to consult her about this meeting. Sounds to me like you’re asking for big trouble.”
He probably was asking for trouble, Jared thought, but not the sort his sister had in mind. “I’ll get her to agree,” he told her with a confident grin, then motioned for her to follow him out to the living room. “Come here and look what I’ve got.”
“What is this?” Willow exclaimed as soon as she spotted the animal cage sitting in the middle of the floor. “You found a snake at the work site?”
He chuckled. “I’m not into reptiles. I like soft, cuddly things.”
“Hmm, don’t I know it,” she said dryly.
Jared bent down and unlatched the cage. The tabby pranced out as if he was ready to take possession of the place.
Willow squealed with pleasure, then quickly knelt down and stroked the cat’s arched back. “Oh, how adorable! Where did he come from?”
“I stopped by the animal shelter on my way home.”
His black-haired, gray-eyed sister looked up at him with disbelief. “Am I hearing this right? My playboy brother actually adopted a kitten? What are you going to do with him when your job here is finished? Take him with you?”
Jared laughed at her flurry of questions. “He’s not for me. He’s a gift to Peggy WindWalker. Her mother thought it would be a good idea to get her a kitten, so that she wouldn’t be tempted to follow her dog away from the house.”
Willow smiled at the kitten as he batted at a piece of fuzz he’d discovered under the edge of an armchair. “So you took it upon yourself to get the kitten for her,” she said with sudden understanding.
Grinning, Jared bent down and picked up the kitten. “The last time I looked it wasn’t against the law to give someone a gift.”
Willow laughed again. “Little Peggy must have made quite an impression on you. I can’t ever remember you taking such an interest in a child.” She slanted him a knowing look. “Or is it her mother that’s the real appeal here?”
Jared chuckled as he rubbed the yellow tom between the ears. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
Willow clucked her tongue in disapproval. “Jared, I can tell you right now that you’re headed in the wrong direction. Kerry WindWalker is not your style.”
Nestling the cat against his chest, Jared headed out of the room. “And how would you know my style?” he tossed over his shoulder.
Willow followed her brother into the kitchen. “Probably because I’ve watched you go from one pretty face to another these past ten years. You like easy, fun-loving women who have reputations for being just as reckless as yourself. Kerry seems like she’s the complete opposite. As far as I know she’s a nice girl. You’d be bored to death.”
He poured a small amount of milk onto a saucer then placed it and the cat on the floor. “Maybe I’m getting tired of reckless, fun-loving girls.”
Willow rolled her eyes. “That’ll be the day.”
Jared feigned an offended look. “I do have my serious moments, sis. Besides, I’m only asking her to do an interview, not spend the rest of her life with me.”
An hour later, Jared parked in front of the WindWalker house and carried the cat, cage and all to the front porch. A tight-lipped Enola met him at the door and Jared decided a door-to-door salesman would have probably been greeted with more enthusiasm.
“Hello Mrs. WindWalker. Is Kerry home?”
“She’s eating supper right now. Maybe you’d better come back some other time.”
Clearly the woman didn’t want him around. But Kerry was a grown woman with a child of her own. If Jared was going to be kicked off the place, he wanted Kerry to do it herself. Not her smothering mother.
“I’ll just wait out here until she finishes,” Jared told her.
Not bothering to wait for the woman’s reply, he took a seat on the end of the porch and placed the cat cage beside him. After a few moments he heard the low murmur of voices, then the sound of the front screen opening and closing.
Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Kerry bearing down on him and she wasn’t exactly smiling.
“What are you doing here?” she asked without preamble.
Jared stood and gave her a wide grin. “I brought Peggy a gift. Is she here?”
Kerry’s eyes darted to the animal cage. Before she could ask, Jared said, “It’s a kitty. Come look.”
Kerry couldn’t believe he was here. Again. And she certainly couldn’t believe he’d brought a kitten with him. The whole picture was sending up warning flags right and left.
“Jared, when I tossed the idea to you about Peggy having a cat, it wasn’t my intention for you to bring her one.”
“Yeah, I know. But I wanted to do this for Peggy.” He opened the cage and allowed the little yellow tomcat to venture onto the porch.
Rather than squeal with delight like his sister had done, Kerry stared stonily down at the cat as he rubbed himself against her bare legs.
“Don’t you think he’s cute?” Jared prompted.
“All kittens are cute,” she said, trying her best not to be sucked into his playful attitude. Perhaps he had truly wanted to give Peggy a gift, she thought. But something was warning her that this man would use any and every means available to get what he wanted. If his wants included her, then Kerry was going to have to set him straight. She wasn’t available to him.
Jared picked up the kitten and scratched him behind the ears. “Kerry, loosen up. There’s no strings attached to this little animal.”
The idea that he’d read her thoughts flooded Kerry’s face with embarrassed heat. Jared Colton could have most any woman he set his steel-gray eyes on. She was putting herself on a pedestal to think he was interested in her.
“I wasn’t thinking that,” she quickly denied. “It’s just that I wanted to choose the pet I thought would fit my daughter.”
Pleased that she was softening, he said, “Well, just look at this little guy. He’s perfect.”
Kerry pretended to study the cat’s autocratic face, but in actuality her eyes were begging to slip up to Jared’s strong, sensual features. Like yesterday, she’d spent most of her time today trying not to think about this man. So far she’d failed and his showing up on the doorstep once again had literally been like a cherry topping off a sinful ice cream sundae.
“I think Peggy—”
Her words were suddenly interrupted by the slam of the screen door. Both Kerry and Jared turned to see Peggy standing on the porch, studying the two of them with quiet interest. She was dressed in sturdy striped overalls and a red T-shirt. Her shiny black hair was fastened in ponytails behind each ear and Jared couldn’t help thinking that next to her mother, she was the most adorable little thing he’d ever seen.
Just looking at the child made Jared wonder, as he had many times these past few days, how any man could have given up his own child. Or maybe he was jumping to conclusions about things he didn’t know about, Jared thought. It could be that Peggy’s father was still somewhere in the background. Perhaps seeing her on an odd weekend or taking her for a couple of weeks in the summer, sending her birthday cards and telephone calls. Yet Jared seriously doubted that was the case. If a man cared enough about his child to do that much, then he surely would have shown up when she was trapped beneath the ground.
Peggy doesn’t have a daddy. Kerry’s words had pretty much said it all.
“Hi Peggy,” he said, then, not waiting for her to come to him, he went over and knelt down to her height. “Did you finish eating your supper?”
She nodded as her fascinated gaze vacillated between his face and the kitten he was holding. “You have a kitty,” she finally spoke.
Jared smiled at her. “That’s right. I have a kitty for you.”
He placed the animal at Peggy’s feet and her eyes slowly lit up like a candle on Christmas Eve.
“Do you like him?”
The answer was a squeal of excitement as she made a dive for the animal. Before she could put a choke hold on the cat’s neck, Jared quickly took control and showed her how to hold him gently and carefully. The child listened intently to his instructions and after a few minutes, she was carrying the kitten with the same care as her baby dolls.
“That’s my girl,” Jared praised her, “now go show your mother.”
Peggy raced across the porch to where Kerry had been watching the scene taking place between her daughter and Jared. For years now, she’d longed to give Peggy some sort of male contact to make up for the absence of a father. Yet she’d never found a man she trusted enough to allow him into Peggy’s sheltered life. And though she might not trust Jared Colton, it appeared her daughter had already decided to make him her trusty friend.
“Look Mama, Jared brought me a cat,” she said proudly. “I’m gonna name him Claws. See, he has claws on his toes. But they don’t scratch.”
Kerry bent over her daughter and made a show of inspecting the kitten. “He can scratch, Peggy. Just like the neighbor’s cat,” she warned her. “That’s why you must handle him like Jared taught you.”
At that moment Fred came bounding around the side of the house. Sensing that something interesting was going on, the dog leaped onto the porch and for the next few minutes, the scene was comical as the dog and cat greeted each other, then decided to be buddies.
When Peggy and the animals finally quieted down and left the porch to play out on the clipped grass, Jared sidled up to Kerry.
“I think she likes him,” he said, unable to keep a bit of smugness from his voice. He’d never realized that pleasing a child could make him feel so good.
“Oh, she likes him all right,” Kerry said with a sigh of resignation.
Jared darted her a look. “Why do you say it like that? Are you still mad at me?”
The wounded, incredulous tone in his voice made it impossible for Kerry to prevent a grin from spreading across her lips. “Yes, I am. I should make you take that kitten back home with you.”
The smile on his face practically oozed confidence. “You couldn’t do that to Peggy or to Claws. They’ve already become fast friends.”
He was right and he knew it. Kerry had no choice but to let her daughter keep the kitten.
“It is nice to hear her laugh again,” Kerry admitted. “I think that’s the first I’ve heard her laugh since she was lost in the pipe.”
“I’m glad,” he said, then taking her by the shoulder he urged her to take a seat on the edge of the porch. “Sit down here beside me. I have something to ask you.”
Kerry was instantly on guard as she kept her bare thigh a respectable distance from his. “Couldn’t this question have been asked standing up?” she replied.
He grinned. “Sure. But this is much nicer like this.”
For him maybe. For her it was more than a little disconcerting. Her heart was a quick drum beat in her chest. Her breathing seemed to be going in and out too quickly to satisfy her lungs.
“Okay,” she said, hoping she sounded normal. “What is this question?”
Her hands were folded together atop her lap. As Jared angled his body around to hers, his first instinct was to reach for one of them. But he quickly decided not to push his luck. Two nights ago while Peggy had been trapped in the drainpipe, he’d had a good excuse to touch her in a comforting way. But this evening they were simply a man and a woman.
“Well, I—when I got home this evening from work, the local newspaper was on the phone with my sister. Seems like they want to do a story about Peggy’s rescue.”
Kerry shrugged. “That’s all right with me. There’s been so many townspeople who’ve expressed their interest and concern in my daughter. It would give me a chance to let them know how grateful I am.” She settled her gaze on his face. “To them and to you.”
Being grateful to him wasn’t exactly what Jared wanted from Kerry, but if it would help to give him a chance to get to know her better, he’d have to play upon it. At least, for the time being.
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