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“Reckon I can’t refuse such a graciously extended invitation now, can I?”
“You could,” she muttered. “I wouldn’t mind.”
“Pardon?” A quizzical expression clouded his face. The picture of innocent confusion, he didn’t fool her. “What did you say?”
“Nothing important.” Jessie motioned him into the living room and stooped down to Gopher’s level. His body language shouted his fascination with the dusty cowboy. “Sugar, why don’t you take Skeezix out into the backyard?”
“Don’t want to.” He smiled beguilingly. “Want to visit.”
“Not now, Gopher. Keep Skeezix company while he has a nice run in the yard. He needs some exercise.” Reaching into her dress pocket, she pulled out a doggy treat and tucked it into her son’s grubby hand. “Give Skeez a snack. Take the grapes in the fridge for yourself.”
From the corner of her eye she saw Jonas’s boots move out of sight. The air stirred in back of her with his movement, and the hairs on the back of her neck rose in the sudden chill. She could hear him move toward the windows, around boxes. The brown paper on a roll of wallpaper crackled as he nudged it. He was a man who could enter a room and make it his own. Whether or not the effect was intentional, she couldn’t decide, but she’d seen him work his magic in a courtroom, and now, in her living room, all the energy and light centered on him. Standing up, she turned so that she could keep him and Gopher both in sight.
Watching Jonas peruse the stacks of boxes, run his thin, clever fingers over a pile of her books and settle in a dining chair he flipped around, Jessie sighed. The man claimed territory effortlessly. Give Jonas Riley a proverbial inch and he’d take the mile. Well, she’d let him past the front door, so she had no one to blame but herself. This was her space, not his. She got to set the ground rules.
And she definitely did not want to rehash old times.
“Making yourself comfortable, Jonas?” she asked politely.
His folded arms rested on the curved back of the chair. “Thank you, yes,” he replied, equally polite, nodding to her.
Holding the dog treat in one hand, Gopher hopped on one foot toward Jonas. “So, mister, you got horses and cows like old McDonald?”
“Yeah, a few.” Steady on Gopher, Jonas’s gaze was serious. “You like horses? Cows?”
“Yeah.” Gopher hopped another step.
Even the damned dog couldn’t leave Jonas alone, Jessie noted grouchily. Skeezix sniffed Jonas’s knee and then rested his head against his thigh, regarding him soulfully.
Jessie wanted to pull her hair. “Gopher, say goodbye to Mr. Riley. He’ll be leaving shortly.”
Two pairs of blue eyes met her own.
“Will I?” Jonas smiled, and her toes tingled, curled. His gaze dropped to those ten traitors.’
“Oh, yes,” she said, shooting him a level glance she regretted as soon as she had. “Maybe you have time for reunions, but I don’t. Come on, Gopher.” She took her son’s hand firmly in hers, and led him to the kitchen door. “Scoot, sugar. But stay inside the fence.” Shutting the door behind him, she went to the refrigerator and took out the pitcher of lemonade.
Backing up, one palm flat against the fridge door to shut it, she collided with Jonas. His hands cupped her elbows, steadying her. Face burning, Jessie slammed the door and stepped sideways, away from the heat flashing from his body, hers, she couldn’t tell and didn’t care. She brushed his support away. “Good grief, you make yourself at home, don’t you?”
“Sorry,” he said, backing away as fast as she did. “I thought you knew I was behind you.”
“How would I know that? You crept in here like a thief,” she said crossly. Her hip tingled where it had brushed against his thigh.
“Crept? In these? Not likely.” He held up a booted foot. The thick-heeled boot spanked loudly against the linoleum floor as he put his foot down. The floorboards creaking under his boots, he took four noncreeping steps and shot her a glance over his shoulder.
“All right. Maybe you didn’t sneak up on me. But I didn’t hear you. I thought you were still in the living room.” Cradling the cold pitcher closely to her, a barrier, she opened the cabinet and pulled out two glasses, banging them on the table. Even in the air-conditioned house, steam rose from the cloudy ice cubes she dropped into the glasses. Lemonade hissed over the cubes as she poured. She pulled out a chair. “Sit.”
“That work with Skeezix?” Jonas sat, stretching out his long legs to the side. Rattling ice in the glass, he saluted her with it. “So, Jessica Bell, why did you pretend you didn’t know me?”
“Why do you think I recognized you?” Taking her time, she sat down.
“Didn’t you?” Sharp, determined, his eyes fastened on hers.
“Wouldn’t I have said so if I did?”
“Don’t know. Would you have?”
“Of course. Anything else would be—weird.” She smiled brightly.
“And you’re the last person I’d ever call weird. However—” He touched her nose and she snapped her head back.
“What on earth are you doing?” She rubbed her nose fretfully.
“Checking to see if that elegant nose is growing.”
“For goodness’ sake, why on earth would I pretend not to know you?” She sipped delicately from the glass and hoped he’d buy the act. “And why would I lie about something like that?” She leaned forward, curious in her own right “At any rate, Jonas, why were you at the hospital? I hope it’s nothing serious?” That much was true. She placed her glass carefully on the table. “Is everything all right?”
“Don’t want to answer my questions, so you’ll ask your own? I remember you used to do that.” He rolled the chilled glass across his cheek. “We’ll play it your way, then, Jessica. As you said earlier, nice seeing you again. How are you?” His gaze held hers as he pressed the glass against his forehead, and once more she saw the hint of exhaustion in the lines around his mouth and eyes.
Compassion moved her to say, “Better than you, apparently, Jonas, to judge by the looks of you. What happened? Did all of your investments fall out the bottom of the market?”
Setting the glass down and not answering, he looked at the table and stood up. Striding to the window, he nudged aside the curtain and watched Gopher chasing Skeezix. “Nice kid. Full of beans.”
“He has his moments.” Remembering some of them, Jessie smiled.
Glancing over his shoulder, Buck caught that smile, the way her face softened, and his breath hitched in his chest. “I thought you were dead set on never getting married or having a family, Jessie. You said you didn’t have time for a family. All you wanted was to make partner in the firm, be the next lawyer to have her name in gold leaf on the door. But you got married after all, huh?”
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