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PROMPTLY AT NINE o’clock, Jake bounded from his truck and took the exterior steps leading up to Jenna’s apartment above the shop two at a time. He rang the bell, wondering all the while if she was even going to be in. Part of him wouldn’t blame her if she did stand him up this time.
A second later the door swung open. He took her in and immediately had the exact same thought he’d had earlier in the day. Damned if she wasn’t the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. And damned if she wasn’t the only woman who could make his heart turn cartwheels in his chest. Especially in that body-hugging off-the-shoulder white sundress that made the most of her high perfect breasts, slender waist and trim but oh-so-curvaceous hips. High-heeled white sandals and a hem considerably shorter than the one she’d had on earlier made the most of her sexy showgirl legs.
And her wish to drive him mad with desire had not ended there.
She’d taken down her thick red-gold hair and let it fall around her shoulders in tousled sexy layers that teased her shoulders and framed her delicate, oval face. She’d scented her soft ivory skin with perfume, the same kind she had worn when they were young and in love. Her clear blue eyes were bright with challenge and an I-dare-you-to-try-anything-cowboy sass. Jake had always been the kind of guy who loved a challenge. And nothing more than the challenge Jenna Lockhart presented. He just regretted it had taken him so long to get back to her. But since he had, and since she was still so clearly ticked off, maybe it was best he slow down a tad, take it nice and easy. And to that end, he waggled his eyebrows at her and teased, “You going out with me or someone else?”
Jenna propped her hands on her slender hips. She still looked like she’d like nothing more than to take a swing at him. “What do you think?” She plucked her purse and keys off the entryway table and, her head held high, strode past him.
Jake held the door for her, followed her out and waited while she locked up. “I think if anyone else shows up, intending to squire you around, he’s going to have to do battle with me first.”
Jenna pinned him with a debilitating glare. “I figured we should just get this over with,” she said dryly.
Jake grinned at her fiesty tone, liking the warm flush of color that had come into her high, elegant cheeks. “Such enthusiasm,” he drawled.
“What did you expect?” Jenna watched her step as she headed down the stairs. “Me to jump up and do a cheer the moment you waltz back into my life?”
Jake grinned at the thought of Jenna in the short pleated skirt and sleeveless sailor top that had comprised the Laramie High School cheerleading uniform when Jenna was in school. “You used to be pretty great at that,” he said, recalling how good she had looked in burnt orange and white. “In fact, I loved seeing you cheer at the few games I was able to get to.” Jake opened the door, and gave Jenna an unasked-for hand up into his truck.
Her delicate brow arched as he climbed behind the wheel and started the engine. “What do your parents think of you asking me to create a wardrobe for their granddaughter?”
Jake frowned as he shifted into Drive, turned onto Main Street and headed out of town. He had known they would have to talk about all the things that had separated them before; he hadn’t expected to do so this soon. “I don’t have to ask my parents for permission anymore, Jenna,” he replied quietly, slanting her a glance.
Jenna’s clear blue eyes radiated both hurt and unhappiness. “Meaning they don’t know,” she guessed, just as quietly.
Jake’s shoulders tensed and he had the urge to rip off the tie he had put on just for her. “Meaning I don’t care if they do or don’t know. Meaning I am a man with my own life now. Just like you’re a woman with your own life.” He speared her with a look, wanting to be clear about that much.
Jenna cut him off, her voice unexpectedly devoid of joy. “Speaking of your life, where’s Alex?”
Jake relaxed as they passed the last of the traffic lights and headed out into the Texas countryside toward their destination. He smiled as he thought about his daughter, and Jenna’s interest in her. “Alex’s back at the ranch.” Jake turned down the air conditioner. “She’s supposed to be in bed. But I imagine she’s talked Clara into letting her stay up late and they’re playing potato-chip poker and chomping on cigars about now.”
Jenna quirked a brow. Jake grinned. “Alex’s, of course, will be made of bubble gum.”
“What about your wife?”
Jake could tell by the way Jenna looked at him, the fact she was even here with him, that she—along with everyone in Laramie and half the people in the state of Texas—had heard about his divorce from Melinda Carrington the year after Alex was born. Melinda had wanted—and won—a large chunk of Jake’s trust fund from his parents. He had considered it a small price to pay for his freedom and custody of his beloved only daughter. “Melinda is in Europe, getting over the end of yet another romance, this one was with an Italian count. She’s upset because she really wants to get married again, to someone who can give her the kind of ultraglamorous life I never did. Apparently, the allure of single life has worn thin.” Jake understood that. He was tired of being alone, too. Tired of regretting the way his romance with Jenna had ended. The way both of them had been hurt.
“I’ve seen her pictures on the society pages of the Dallas papers. She’s very beautiful.”
“On the outside,” Jake confirmed.
“And well-bred,” Jenna continued in a way that let him know she was determined to lay all their cards on the table. “Your parents must have approved of her.”
And still did, unfortunately despite everything. But he didn’t want to get into that now, and certainly not with Jenna on what was supposed to be their night. Jake slowed the truck as he approached the turnoff, some fifteen miles outside of Laramie. The native limestone country inn was set back from the highway in a grove of live oaks. It was softly lit from within. The grounds were landscaped and very private. Glad to see the owners had followed his instructions to a T and cleared everyone else out, including the staff, before they arrived, Jake parked in front and cut the motor. “I hope you don’t mind. I selected the place.”
“Obviously not in Laramie,” Jenna added, her accusatory look reminding him of all the times they had seen each other on the sly when they were teens. Too late, Jake realized how it seemed to Jenna. She was wrong if she thought he was ashamed to be seen with her. Quite the contrary. “I wanted something more private, so we could talk without interruption,” Jake explained. “So I rented the inn for the evening.”
“You mean the dining room?” Jenna ascertained.
Jake shook his head, “The entire inn.”
Shock widened Jenna’s eyes, then turned them an icy blue. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope.”
Once again, to Jake’s dismay, Jenna obviously suspected his intentions were not at all chivalrous or forthright. “You really are pulling out all the stops,” she said, clearly displeased.
Jake got out of the truck, his hopes of a lovely intimate dinner with the only woman he had ever loved fading fast. He knew he’d made mistakes in the past where Jenna was concerned. Whether she was ready to admit it or not, she had done the same by him. Nevertheless, he was getting tired of defending himself, and having her look at him as if all he were trying to do here was take her to bed. He circled around to open her door. “I have money. I’m not afraid to put it to good use. Getting you on my side—and Alex’s—is very good use.”
Reluctantly, Jenna allowed Jake to escort her up the front steps and across the porch. “Speaking of Alex, you really should be home with her this evening.”
“Funny.” Jake held the door and guided her through the wide front hall to the beautiful dining room to their left. The long table for sixteen had been pushed against the wall. It was covered with a linen tablecloth and a variety of silver chafing dishes. A smaller table had been placed in front of the huge stone hearth, and was beautifully set for two. In deference to the summer heat outside, and the air-conditioning inside, there was no fire. Instead, a dozen lit candles were artistically arranged in the grate. Vases of freesia and baby’s breath—Jenna’s favorite—abounded. Soft music from their youth filled the room.
“And yet,” Jenna continued, looking at Jake as if he were anything but a good guy to have around, “you’re here with me.”
Jake uncovered their salads and poured the wine. “In order to get you to help out Alex and me.”
Jenna accepted the wine with a nod. “Texas is full of designers.” She kept her eyes on his as Jake sat down opposite her.
“But only one of you,” Jake countered, trying to imagine what it would be like to have Jenna back in his life again, not as the grief-stricken teen she had been when they parted, but the strong, self-assured woman she had become.
“Why me?” Jenna whispered, suddenly looking as torturously unhappy as he had felt all these years without her. “Why now?”
Jake wasn’t about to apologize for doing what should have been done years ago. “Because I haven’t been able to stop thinking of you.” Because all this time I thought I had hurt you enough and I was doing you a favor by staying away. And then I saw you on TV and realized I would never love anyone the way I loved you.
For a moment, Jake thought Jenna felt the same way, but the feeling faded, and the sweetly nostalgic look in her clear blue eyes faded and turned to ice once again. “That’s a shame,” Jenna said crisply. “There’s nothing worse than wasting energy or time. Which is exactly what this is.” She started to rise.
Jake caught her wrist and pulled her back down into her seat. He wanted nothing more at that moment than to haul her into his lap and kiss her soundly. But—for Alex’s sake, for the sake of them—he kept his mind strictly on the business at hand. The business that would have Jenna and him spending time together and getting to know each other again. “You haven’t heard my proposition,” he pointed out calmly, releasing her only when he was sure she wouldn’t try to flee.
Not looking at him, Jenna speared a piece of lettuce with her fork, lifted it to her lips. “I don’t want to hear your proposition.”
“Sure now?” Jake taunted as he too dug into his crisp, delicious salad. “It could do wonders for your design business.”
Jenna paused. So it was true, Jake noted, with equal parts satisfaction and disapproval. Her design business did mean everything to her.
“I’m listening,” she said eventually.
Jake reached into the inside pocket of his blazer and pulled out a neatly drawn-up business agreement. “I’m offering to provide the financial backing via J&R Industries to make and distribute a clothing line bearing your name.”
Jenna put down her fork and studied the paperwork for an extraordinarily long time. “And the catch is…?” Jenna said eventually.
Jake polished off his salad and took a sip of wine. “Alexandra needs a wardrobe.”
Jenna narrowed her eyes at him and observed with a faint note of disapproval in her voice, “Why, when she seems to have one she is perfectly happy with?”
Jake shook his head, cutting Jenna off. “She needs to look like a little lady,” he said firmly. “The sooner, the better.”
Jenna arched a delicate brow and went back to eating her salad. “Says who and why?”
Famished, Jake broke open a roll and lavishly spread it with butter. Reluctantly, he imparted, “Melinda is concerned about Alex’s tomboyish phase. She thinks it proves I’m not capable of rearing Alex on my own.”
Jenna paused, her fork halfway to her lips. “But you have custody, don’t you?”
Jake took another sip of wine. “Sole custody since she was two, yes.”
Jenna’s brow furrowed. Finished with her salad, she also reached for the bread. “Isn’t that unusual?”
Jake shook his head. “Not when the mother doesn’t want custody. And Melinda didn’t. All she wanted in the settlement was money. Which, as you and everyone else in the Lone Star State knows, she got.”
“I’m sorry,” Jenna said. “For Alex. I know how tough it is to lose a mom when there’s no helping it. To have that happen when it doesn’t have to be that way, well, it’s got to be tough.”
Jake sighed and got up to retrieve the main course, blackened redfish, scalloped potatoes with jack cheese and French beans. “When Alex was younger, she didn’t seem to mind the fact that her mother lived in Europe and rarely jetted over to see her.” Jake filled the plates and brought them over, one at a time. He sat down opposite Jenna and dug in. “The truth is, even when we were still married, when Alex was a baby, Melinda never paid much attention to her. So when Melinda moved out—well, Alex couldn’t miss what she’d never had. I wasn’t about to leave her home alone. And though my parents would have taken her, that wasn’t an option, either. I didn’t want Alex adopting some of their snobbish attitudes. So she traveled with me on business. Everywhere I went, Alex went—with Clara usually coming along and doubling as driver and nanny, depending on what I needed at that moment.”
Jenna regarded Jake with the inherent kindness that was so much a part of her personality. “And Alex was happy with the arrangement?”
“Very.” Jake exhaled. “But when she went to school this past fall and all the other kids in her kindergarten class had moms fussing over them and picking out their clothes, it hit her hard. And suddenly, she just started refusing to wear dresses—not that she’d ever really liked them. But at least when I needed her to brush her hair and wear a dress so I could take her to some fancy restaurant, I could get her to do so.”
“But no more?” Jenna guessed, as the CD player switched from a Trisha Yearwood album to one of Garth Brooks’s.
“No more. I guess Alex figured if she couldn’t be like everyone else and have a mom and a dad living at home with her, she’d just be different. And that was when Alex went full-bore into this tomboy stage. I thought it was a phase and just didn’t push it. But now Melinda has heard about Alex’s increasingly disheveled appearance from mutual friends. She’s embarrassed, upset. Thinks it reflects poorly on her. Next thing I know she’s threatening to sue for custody and planning to leave Italy—where she’s been living the past couple of years—for good.”
Jenna looked at him quizzically. “You don’t want Melinda to come back to the States?”
Jake sighed, knowing it sounded lousy of him, but also knowing if he was going to drag Jenna into the middle of this mess, he owed her the plain, unvarnished truth. “If I thought it would do Alex some good,” Jake hedged. “If I thought Melinda would be any kind of loving mother, or positive influence in Alex’s life, I’d be lobbying for it in a red-hot minute.”
Jenna’s eyes softened compassionately. “But you don’t think that’d be the case.”
Jake sighed. “Bottom line, Melinda doesn’t have a maternal bone in her entire body. She cares about money and appearances and finding another husband whose only goal in life is to make her happy, and that’s it.”
“So in coming to me you’re trying to head Melinda off at the pass.”
Jake nodded, more sure than ever now—from Jenna’s sympathetic reaction to his dilemma—that he had been right to come to her. “Unfortunately, clothes aren’t all she needs.” Jake looked at Jenna seriously. “Alex needs a crash course in being a lady before her mom gets back.”
Jenna made a face, no longer quite as eager to help out or get involved. She went back to polishing off her redfish. “Can’t you get your mother to help with that?”
Jake shook his head, knowing that as much as he loved his mother, and he did, that she was long on lecturing and interfering and short on patience. “My mother is not the one for the job,” he said firmly. “You are.”
Jenna looked at him as though he had lost his mind. Finished with her entrée, she got up to see what else was on the side table. Jake stood up, too.
“Think of it this way,” he said as Jenna helped herself to very small slivers of chocolate cake, praline cheesecake and warm peach-and-blueberry cobbler. “You’d be doing something for me I desperately need.” Jake settled on just the chocolate cake. “I’d be doing something for you that you desperately need. We’d be helping each other.”
They returned to the table in silence. Jenna shook her head in silent censure, even as she enjoyed her dessert. “After the way you treated me—” she said, as if unable to believe his gall.
Tired of taking all the heat for what had happened between them, Jake angled a thumb at his chest. “Hey! I’m not the one who got cold feet and refused to elope at the last minute!” In fact, he still felt if Jenna had just gone off with him then, they would be married today.
Jenna rolled her eyes as she got herself a cup of coffee. “We were caught, suitcases in hand, by your parents!”
Jake discounted that with a shrug. “We still could have gotten away,” he said levelly, pouring his own cup of coffee. “What would they have done? Chased after us?” He mocked her with a lift of his brow. “I don’t think so. That’s way too undignified for my folks.”
As for the rest of the complications, they had thought about everything. Jenna was underage, but she was also just a couple of weeks away from her birthday. As long as she went willingly with Jake, and they didn’t cross any state lines, and waited until Jenna was legally of age to actually consummate the marriage, then they wouldn’t be breaking any laws. Of course, if they married without the permission of her guardian their marriage would have been technically invalid. But they had that covered, too, deciding if they just waited until after Jenna’s birthday to return to Laramie that no one would kick up a fuss about what was more or less a “done deal” for nearly three weeks. They recognized that his family’s lawyers could easily take care of any legalities, even if it meant another quickie ceremony.
Jenna sighed. “Okay, so maybe there wouldn’t have been a car chase or some big scene at the justice of the peace, even if your parents had managed to figure out exactly where we were going as well as physically head us off before we got there.” She waved a lecturing finger beneath his nose. “But your folks still would have tried to convince you to have our marriage annulled when we returned and my big sister probably would have done the same thing.”
“So what?” Jake argued right back. “If we had already been married, a baby potentially on the way, my parents and Meg both would have backed off, if only to avoid an even bigger scandal than just us running off and getting married.” He knew Meg. She cared about Jenna and wanted her to be happy. And he knew his folks. No way would they want any grandchild of theirs born out of wedlock, or Jake taking advantage of a young innocent girl. In fact, it was their training on that fact that had kept Jake from ever making love to Jenna in their younger days. Even at the very end, when she’d been willing, he had insisted on waiting until they were actually married. And, truth to tell, as much as he still wanted to make love to her, he still didn’t lament that fact. He was glad he had treated Jenna with respect, glad they had waited until they were old enough and or the time was right. The truth was, as much as they had wanted to be married then, they hadn’t been ready for it.
“Your parents didn’t approve of me, Jake. Not from day one. They didn’t even want us being friends.” She looked at him steadily, all the hurt she had felt, then and now, in her clear blue eyes. “Over the long haul, a marriage between us never would have worked and you know it.”
Jake reached across the table and covered Jenna’s hand with his own. “All I know is that we let our relationship go,” he confessed huskily, “and I’ve spent every day since regretting it.” He didn’t want to spend the rest of his life the same way, and if he were right in his assessment of her feelings, Jenna didn’t, either.
Jenna jerked her hand from his. She pushed away from the table angrily and vaulted to her feet. “If that were true, you would have come after me then. You would have called, tried to see me. Something. Anything—”
Remembering how miserable they both had been, Jake pushed to his feet, too. “I wanted to,” he said roughly, going after her.
“Then why didn’t you?” Jenna squared off with him, tears glistening in her eyes.
Jake clasped her shoulders. “Because I couldn’t,” he told her with a weariness that came straight from his soul. “Not without destroying your life. And that of your sisters.”
Chapter Two
Jenna stared at Jake in raging disbelief. What did he think he had done in abandoning her, if not ruin her life?
“My parents said if I pursued you in any way, they’d use our reckless elopement as proof that Meg was not a proper guardian for you and your younger sisters. They said that in even asking you to marry me, as young as you were, given what had just happened to your folks, that I was taking advantage of you in the worst way. You and I might view the situation romantically, but it was quite possible Meg and the police would view the situation as my parents did—as simply running away. They reminded me that if the authorities stepped in to help locate you that you could have been deemed a juvenile delinquent just for attempting to marry without your guardian’s permission. And that I could be put in jail for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, whether Meg agreed with the court’s decision or not. They said if I wasn’t strong enough or mature enough to walk away while you and your sisters put your lives back together that they would do ‘the right thing’ for me. They promised to do everything in their power to see the courts removed Meg as your guardian, split you and your sisters up and put the youngest two—Dani and Kelsey—in foster care.”
Jake shoved a hand through the tousled layers of his inky-black hair. “You would, of course, have been legally free after your eighteenth birthday to do what you wanted. But for Dani, who was sixteen-and-a-half at the time, and Kelsey, who was fifteen, it would have been devastating.” Jake paused, his eyes filled with a mixture of regret for all the time they’d lost and compassion for what they’d been through. “I couldn’t do that to you. There was no doubt in my mind my parents would follow through on their threat. They really thought they were doing the best thing for you and your sisters. And knowing how devastated you all were by the sudden loss of your parents, I began to think maybe my folks were right, that I was wrong to take your youth from you like that, that you deserved the same chance to go to college and be a normal teenager that I’d already had.” Jake shrugged, pain sharpening the handsome lines of his face. “So I walked away from you, and didn’t look back.”
Doing her best to absorb all he had told her, Jenna felt for a chair and sat down. Jake slid a chair over and sat down in front of her, so they were sitting knee to knee. “You should have told me what was going on,” Jenna said, trembling.
Jake leaned forward and took both her hands in his. “How would that have helped you?” he asked softly. “To be told you needed to choose between being with me and the continued welfare of your sisters? Do you think that would have made you feel better to be put in a situation like that, after all you’d already been through?”
Jenna sighed. Of course it wouldn’t have. If he’d told her, made her choose, it would have torn her apart, and caused even more stress and heartache for her and her sisters.
Jake shook his head, recalling. He searched her eyes as he continued filling her in. “I wanted to fight my parents—you don’t know how much—but at the same time I had to be realistic about the odds of success. I was only twenty-two. I had not yet inherited the trust fund from my grandparents. I didn’t have the means or influence at that point in my life to help keep you and your sisters together on my own. Plus, you know the age thing, the fact I was four years older, finished with college, and you were still in high school had always been an issue. It’s not much of an age difference now, of course, but back then…well there’s a big difference between being in high school and being in college.” Jake sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “As mature as you were, there were times when I did feel I was pushing you to grow up too fast, so the two of us could be together the way we felt we were meant to be. So I felt guilty for ever asking you to elope with me. I felt like I’d been really unfair to you.”