Authors: Theresa Ragan
They both laughed.
“I never would have guessed him to be the football player out of the bunch.” Mrs. Baylor shook her head in wonderment. “You just never really know how they’re going to turn out. Mostly, you just pray they’ll be good people.”
“Hey, you two,” Derrick called from the doorway. He held Ryan on one broad shoulder and patted him gently with his free hand. “The ladies are finished with their appetizers and they’re waiting none too patiently for the judges to make a decision. If you don’t get up here, spatulas are going to start flying.”
“Who’s going to be the third judge?” Mrs. Baylor asked.
“Not me,” Derrick said. “There’s not one appetizer in there that has chocolate in it.”
“You don’t like chocolate,” his mother reminded him.
“I do now.”
Jill looked at Derrick and for the first time all day, their gazes met and held. Seconds felt like minutes until screams broke out from inside the house, followed by the sound of pans and utensils clattering to the floor.
Lexi greeted them at the entryway, appearing out of nowhere. She was out of breath and her eyes were big and round. Speaking in her usual high-pitched voice, she said something about a pig running loose in the house.
By the time Jill reached the kitchen, she noticed both of Derrick’s sisters outside the French-style patio doors looking in. Two of the ladies had climbed up onto the granite counter for safety. The silver-haired woman was armed and dangerous, holding a colander and a spatula out in front of her, ready to strike.
Bruschetta and gyoza and pieces of sausage and scallions were everywhere. Trays had fallen, and red and yellow sauces dotted the wood cabinets.
Derrick’s brothers and his father were playing basketball in the indoor court, oblivious to everything going on in the main house. Sandy and Mrs. Murnane had disappeared. Chelsey’s new photographer-in-training snapped away as if he were paparazzi instead of a photographer for a cooking magazine.
The cook off was turning into a disaster.
“Where’s your mother?” Jill asked Lexi.
“She’s chasing the pig.”
“A pig? Really? Are you sure?”
Lexi nodded, making her curls bob. “It says oink oink.”
Derrick opened the French doors and frowned at his sisters. “What are you two doing?”
“Hiding,” Zoey said.
“From the pig?”
Rachel nodded. “It was the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. It had patches of white hair and a limp.”
Derrick burst out laughing. Then he turned about and looked at the mess. “Did Hank do this?”
“Who’s Hank?” Mrs. Baylor asked as she picked up pieces of bruschetta and melon balls and tossed it all into the garbage under the sink.
“It’s a dog,” Jill told her, relieved to know there wasn’t a pig running around loose. “The dog was in the middle of the road and sure to be run over until Derrick saved him.”
Zoey snorted. “Was that thing here in this house all night?”
“I left him food and water in the pool room,” Derrick said, “but he must have found a way out.”
The pitter-patter of feet could be heard just before Hank made another appearance. Derrick handed Ryan off to his mother again while his sisters screamed and ran back outside. Hank had a clump of hair in his mouth. Derrick ran toward the front entry and grabbed the dog as he ran by, stopping Hank from wreaking more havoc. “Looks like Hank got a hold of somebody’s wig.”
Sandy and Mrs. Murnane came around the corner just as Derrick’s older brother, Connor, came through the front door and joined the party.
Mrs. Murnane looked as if she’d just returned from running a twenty mile marathon. Not only was she huffing and puffing, she was as bald as an eagle—maybe balder.
Derrick finally managed to dislodge the wig from Hank’s mouth and quickly handed it to the poor woman.
Globs of white lumpy sauce dripped from the collar of Sandy’s blouse.
Connor angled his head as he took a good look at Sandy’s blouse and even took a whiff. “Is that Brie cheese?”
“As a matter of fact, it is,” Sandy said. “What are you doing here?”
“I heard that you might be here and I was hoping we could talk.”
“I’m busy.”
“I’ll wait.”
They all moved into kitchen area to let everyone know they were now safe from the wild beast. The silver-haired woman sitting atop the granite counter saw that the animal had been detained and quickly dropped the colander and spatula so that she could grab hold of her plate of appetizers, the only appetizers that hadn’t been ruined. “It looks like I’m the only one with an appetizer left. Does that mean I win?”
“Over my dead body,” Mrs. Murnane said, shaking her wig at her.
“Everybody wins,” Chelsey said in defeat. “I was the only one who had the opportunity to taste the appetizers before they were destroyed. They were all delicious.”
“Who’s going to be on the cover?” one of the women asked.
“All three of you.” Chelsey turned toward Mrs. Murnane. “The bathroom is down the hall to the right. Why don’t all three of you get yourselves fixed up and we’ll take pictures of all of you together by the pool.”
Sandy looked at Jill. “What do you think?”
“I think Chelsey is a genius.”
~~~
As Chelsey and her intern took pictures of the women posing by the pool, Sandy watched the photo shoot from a few feet away. It wasn’t easy staying focused, though, with Connor following her every move. She looked over her shoulder at him. “Are you still here?”
“I’m not leaving until you talk to me.”
“Okay, fine. What is it?”
Before he could get a word out, Lexi came running toward them and wedged her small body between them. “Where’s the pig?”
“It was a dog, Lexi. He’s in the pool house for now.”
“He’s ugwy.”
“Looks aren’t everything,” Sandy told her. “He’s a nice dog with a good heart and that’s all that matters, right?”
Lexi nodded and then shoved a finger up her nose before she ran off.
“What did I tell you about putting fingers up your nose?”
“Cute kid,” he said.
“Thanks,” she said without looking his way. She wanted to ignore him, mostly because she was embarrassed about the other day, but it wasn’t easy ignoring a man who looked like Connor Baylor. He wore a suit and tie and she was beginning to think he just liked making everyone around him feel underdressed. His hair was neatly cut. He wore a Rolex around his wrist and Ferragamos on his feet. His cologne smelled provocative and woodsy.
“Do you mind telling me why you left without saying goodbye the other day?” he asked.
She turned on him then. “Why did you leave me sitting on that exam table looking like a fool? The least you could have done is shove one of those little rubber lights in my ear and look inside.”
“I’m an ob-gyn. I don’t stick anything in anyone’s ears.”
She crossed her arms. “That figures.”
“Besides,” he said, “you didn’t need an exam.”
“How would you know?”
“I could see it in your eyes.”
“Ridiculous.”
“Did you need an exam?” he asked.
“No, but that’s not the point.”
“The point is,” he told her, “I figured if I was going to give you an exam it wasn’t going to be in my office.”
She lifted her chin. “Where would it be?”
“Your bed, my bed, outside under the stars, anywhere but there.”
Her cheeks heated, mostly because he’d caught her completely off guard. He was clean cut, a little on the stiff side, a man of few words. He didn’t curse and there was no way this man made love outside under the stars, let alone in the backseat of his car.
Or did he
?
He stepped so close she could feel the heat of his body. “Cat got your tongue?”
“You could say that.”
“So, what do you think?”
“About which part?”
“If you had known I was going to ask you out when you came into my office, would you have come to my office or would you have snuck out the back door?”
“I’d have to think about it.”
His fingers jangled the change in his pockets. “Playing hard to get now?”
“You could say that.”
“How hard?”
She smiled. “Very hard.”
“I have a conference next week, but the Friday after next.”
“That’s a long way off. I might be busy.”
“I’ll make it worth the wait. Seven o’clock sharp. Be ready.”
“You don’t know where I live.”
“I know where you live.”
“What about Lexi?”
He grabbed hold of Derrick’s arm as he passed by. “Derrick, could you watch Lexi Friday after next, seven o’clock?”
“Sure.” Derrick looked at Sandy and said, “Drop her off at my apartment any time after six. I’ll be there.”
“Thanks.”
“Not a problem,” Derrick said before heading onward.
Sandy tried to ignore the hot blood pulsing through her veins as she looked up into Connor’s eyes. “I wouldn’t know what to wear.”
“Something short, something black, and a pair of three-inch heels.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“You do that.”
And then he walked off, confident and carefree.
Sandy rubbed her arms and wondered if she should forget everything he just said—teach him a lesson—make him see that he couldn’t just march up to her any old time and snap his fingers and make her jump. But even as that particular thought swished through her mind, she shivered in anticipation of what he might have planned.
Chapter Twenty-One
After everyone had left, including Sandy and Lexi, since Connor had offered to take them home, Derrick invited Jill to sit for a while. More than anything he wanted to take her into his arms and hold her tight, but he also knew she might have questions, and he wasn’t sure if he was ready to tell her everything.
He had set up the portable crib in the living area and Ryan was asleep after a long day of being worshipped by his aunts and grandmother. Derrick and Jill sat poolside overlooking the private beach. Together they watched the changing colors of the sunset on the horizon. Hank wandered over and Derrick scratched the top of his head. In the distance, he heard the waves crashing against the shore. The air smelled salty and refreshing.
“A lot has happened in the past three and a half weeks,” he said, hoping to get a dialogue going. He could tell by Jill’s actions all day that she was either embarrassed about last night or disappointed in him, or both.
Jill nodded, her gaze focused on the view. “Ryan’s growing fast,” she agreed.
Ryan was a good baby, he thought. And Jill was right, he was growing fast. When he looked at his son these days, he saw recognition in Ryan’s eyes. Ryan was a smart boy, an amazing boy. Having a child did something to a person. Changed them in ways they never imagined. Being a father made him want to be a better man.
He wondered if he and Jill would have met under different circumstances, and yet he already knew the answer. No. They were from different worlds. They hung out with different crowds and they had different interests. He’d had a string of women in his lifetime, only a few whose names he could remember. He also had many women friends. He thought Jill would fit neatly into the friend category when he first met her, but now he knew otherwise. Jill was different. She was intelligent and complicated, stubborn and caring to a fault. And cold.
“You’re shivering,” he said, stating the obvious.
Jill kept her gaze on the horizon and dismissed his statement with a wave of her hand. “You’re supposed to be watching the sunset.”
The French doors leading into the house had been left open so they would be able to hear Ryan if he woke up. Derrick disappeared inside and returned with a blanket. They were sitting on a double recliner, but this time when he took a seat, he wrapped the blanket along with his arm around her shoulders and said, “Better?”
“Much,” she said, resting in the crook of his arm, her gaze on the lavender hues painted across the sky, a sight he enjoyed night after night when he was home. Together they watched the end of a long day fade away. After the sky turned a dark crimson, he said, “I’m sorry you didn’t get to visit with your parents. You put a lot of work and preparation into the dinner you had planned for them.”
“It’s no big deal. I’m the one that didn’t even want them to visit, remember? Karma gets the best of you every time.” She released a long sigh and then turned her head so she could look up at him. “Thanks for everything today. I couldn’t have pulled it off without you. At this point, I don’t know what I’m going to do when you’re off to training camp.”
“I’ll always find time for you and Ryan.”
Derrick found himself wishing life could always feel so simple and nice. “I should be thanking you for putting up with my family today,” he told her. “I never invited them, story of my life, but they always seem to show up anyhow.”
She smiled. “I love your family.”
He breathed in the sweet scent of her hair.
“I probably smell like bruschetta and Brie,” she said with a chuckle.
“I like bruschetta and Brie.” He was tempted to nibble on her neck.
Hank was lying on a blanket nearby and he made a yipping noise. Apparently Hank was dreaming. Tomorrow Derrick would put an ad in the paper and see if anyone claimed the dog as their own.
“I don’t think any of those ladies will cause a problem or think of suing the magazine now that they’ll all be on the cover together,” Jill said.
“I think you’re right.” All day, Derrick realized, the two of them had made nothing but small talk. It was his fault. He needed to apologize for leaving her in the middle of the night without saying goodbye. He needed to tell her exactly how he was feeling, no matter how complicated.
“I hope Mrs. Murnane can find a wig she likes as much as Hank liked that one.”
To hell with it
. He couldn’t take it anymore. He adjusted himself so that he was on his side and they were face to face and then he brushed his lips over hers. Her eyes glistened in the moonlight. She was beautiful and she tasted like heaven.
“I should check on Ryan,” she said, her actions contradicting her words as she angled her head so he had no choice but to kiss her neck.