“We’re having spaghetti?”
“I figured it would be quick and easy.”
He smiled. “But I see that you didn’t trust me to bring the water to a boil on my own.”
She shrugged. “I knew you could figure it out. You’re bright.”
“Thanks.”
He was getting ready to put the pasta in when she said, “You have to salt the water first.”
She was standing at his elbow, and he knew the heat he felt wasn’t coming only from the pot. He found himself hoping for laughter to float from the living room. This silence was too potent.
“Here.” She poured salt into the palm of his hand.
After he dropped it into the water, he added the noodles. Then, because it seemed right, he draped his arm around her shoulder. The gesture was casual, friendly. Perfect in the same way the daisies were, on a table set with everyday dishes for four. When Julia looked up at him, his heart began hammering at a ridiculous pace.
Her gaze slid to his hand. “You sure did a job on your knuckles. Let’s go bandage them up. There’s time before the noodles are ready.”
He followed her down the hallway off the kitchen to a full bath. Across from it, he could see into two small bedrooms. Her kids’ rooms, based on the furnishings, which meant hers was the one at the end of the hall. The door was ajar. He could just make out the bottom of the bed. A robe was tossed over the footboard. Nothing fancy. It wasn’t lacy or sheer. Rather, pink terry cloth. He sucked in a breath all the same.
At her questioning gaze he said, “You’re not going to put antiseptic on the scrape, are you?”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re as bad as Colin.”
Alec sat on the closed lid of the toilet seat while she rooted around in the medicine cabinet, pulling out antiseptic spray and a box of bandages. In short order, she had disinfected and bandaged his wound.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” she asked.
“No. Not bad,” he agreed.
The setting was less than romantic, as was the situation. Neither seemed to matter. At the moment, all that mattered to Alec was that they were alone, in tight quarters, and he wanted Julia in a way that defied both reason and restraint.
“But maybe you should kiss it,” he added.
He had a hold of her hand and tugged ever so slightly. She could have resisted. Instead, after a fleeting glance at the door, she stepped closer, between the V of his legs, and bent down. Their breath mingled, but she stopped before their mouths could meet. She closed her eyes and sighed.
He figured that would be the end of it. That somehow they would both summon up enough self-control to return to the kitchen and resume meal preparation. Julia apparently had other ideas. She cupped his face in both of her hands and brought her mouth down on his. Forget prim girl next door. Forget patient professional. She was greedy, desperate. A bona fide seductress. When he felt her teeth nip his lower lip, he was grateful to be sitting. He would have fallen over otherwise. The kisses they’d shared up till this point had been tame in comparison. Not that Alec had any complaints.
Right back at you,
he thought, feeling greedy and desperate and—oh, yeah—seduced.
He had the presence of mind to put his foot out and kick the door closed, lest her kids wander down the hall and get an eyeful. Then, his mouth still fused to Julia’s, he worked his way to standing. That changed the angle and gave him the advantage. He deepened the kiss. He might have been able to keep his hands on the relative safety of her waist had she not brought hers around to his chest. Her fingers fiddled with the placket of buttons on his shirt, but she didn’t undo them. For the most part, the apron’s bib was in the way. Still, she was testing her restraint. And his. To see who would buckle first?
She won.
On a groan, he pulled the soft cotton jersey from the waistband of her shorts and slipped his hands under her T-shirt. Her skin was warm and incredibly soft. He wanted access to more of it, all of it. He found the clasp of her bra and worked it free, then cupped her breasts in his hands. When his thumbs brushed over the nipples, Julia’s ragged breathing turned into a moan. His control frayed even more. It might have snapped completely had a shriek not sounded from down the hall.
“Mom!” Danielle screamed. “The water is boiling over.”
They sprung apart. Julia tugged down her blouse and tucked it back in, avoiding eye contact as she did so. Alec scrubbed a hand over his face, grateful to be wearing an apron. When she opened the door, her children were standing there, their eyes round with questions.
“What were you doing in there?” Colin asked.
“Your mom was just bandaging my knuckle. I scraped it up pretty good with the peeler.”
Colin seemed to accept the explanation. “Did she put the spray on it?” He scrunched up his face. “That stuff really stings.”
“She did.”
“I hope you asked her to kiss it afterward.”
“Uh, yeah. I did.” He felt heat creep into his cheeks.
“That makes everything feel better,” Colin said with an authoritative nod.
Not everything, Alec thought. His gaze turned to Danielle. She was older, wiser, shrewder. And, unless he missed his guess, she also was ticked off.
There was no time to contemplate that. The smoke alarm began to wail. All four of them rushed to the kitchen, where the pot containing the pasta was oozing a white froth over the edges and onto the burner. Julia grabbed a pair of potholders and pulled it away, waving frantically to clear the smoke. Colin ran out and returned a moment later with the miniature fans Alec had bought. He switched his on and handed the other one to Danielle. Then they pointed them in the direction of the smoking stovetop.
“I knew I bought those for a reason,” Alec said.
Julia’s laughter bubbled out, competing with the alarm. It was just this side of hysterical.
They wound up ordering a pizza, which they had delivered. Afterward, even though Julia told him he didn’t need to stick around, he sat cross-legged with the kids on the floor and played a couple games of Trouble, which was appropriate, Alec decided, because, he was definitely feeling as if he’d gotten more than he’d bargained for.
* * *
Amazingly, Julia was sorry to see the evening end, even if parts of it had been awkward, others erotic, and all of it had left her questioning her sanity. She walked Alec to the door just after nine, surprised that he’d stayed so long. She’d certainly given him reasons to leave at the earliest opportunity. In addition to Colin’s fan-in-the-hair high jinks and the near fire that had spoiled their bathroom interlude, Danielle had eyed him stonily all through their meal and then sulked the rest of the evening.
“Dinner didn’t go quite how I planned,” Julia admitted with a shake of her head. She forced her tone to remain light and focused on the meal. “But consider it a lesson for Saturday. Never leave a boiling pot unattended.”
“Good advice.” Alec jingled his car keys in his hand. His gaze was focused on her mouth. “I’d like to kiss you good-night, but I won’t.”
Something had to be said. She wouldn’t bother pretending that the old boundaries needed to be restored. They’d pushed too far beyond those now to go back, even if she wanted to. That meant new ones had to be determined, discussed. Above all, sanity—hers—had to be restored. She glanced behind her and lowered her voice. “Um, about what happened in the bathroom—”
He cut off her words by laying a finger against her lips.
“Let’s leave that for another time.” He smiled, turned. She thought she heard him whistling as he bounded down the steps. Then he was gone and she was left to face the firing squad.
Sure enough, in the living room, Danielle was sitting on the couch, arms crossed, eyes narrowed, lips twisted in a scowl.
Uh-oh.
“What’s wrong, honey?” Julia asked, even though she was sure she knew.
“Did you kiss him good-night?” her daughter demanded.
“No.”
“But you wanted to.”
From the time they could talk, Julia had drummed into her kids the importance of being forthright. So, as much as she would have liked to avoid the subject, she couldn’t without being a hypocrite.
She replied honestly, “Yes, I did.”
Her daughter’s face crumpled. Danielle wasn’t mad now. She looked lost, betrayed. Julia’s
uh-oh
became
oh, no!
“Well, I like him,” Colin said, unaware of his sister’s misery. “You can kiss him all you want, Mom.”
“No, she can’t!” Danielle cried before turning on her heel and fleeing to her room. A slamming door punctuated her departure.
Colin was immune to his sister’s drama, but he scrunched up his face and asked, “If you kiss him, does that mean you’re going to marry him?”
“No. It just means...” The problem was, Julia wasn’t sure what it meant. Or even what she wanted it to mean. “It’s getting late. Let’s put the game away and get ready for bed.”
TEN
To Julia’s relief, Alec’s cooking stint at the family expo that weekend went off without a hitch. No knuckles got scraped. No pots boiled over. No smoke alarms were set off. In fact, from a public relations point of view, the segment exceeded her expectations.
Herman Geller had volunteered his five-year-old grandson, Sawyer, to act as Alec’s co-chef. The two of them were charged with making reduced-sugar cinnamon bars, a good fit given Sawyer’s high energy level. The tyke was rambunctious with a capital R and into everything, keeping Alec on his toes. More than one parent watching grimaced in sympathy when Sawyer knocked over a measuring cup full of sifted flour and then, as Alec stooped to clean up the mess, started adding eggs, shell and all, to the bowl.
Alec kept his composure and his sense of humor. While he came off as inept in the kitchen, he was endearingly so.
“I wouldn’t mind having him come to my house,” Julia overheard a woman standing behind her say to a friend.
To which the other woman replied, “Yeah, I’d be happy to give him a lesson or two in culinary basics.”
Ribald laughter followed. Julia didn’t know what possessed her, but she turned and said on a wink, “He’s a quick study.”
“Yeah? Lucky you.” The first woman nudged her in the ribs with an elbow.
Lucky? Julia still wasn’t sure. What she did know was that wise or not, she and Alec had crossed a line, and, even though she’d tried not to cross it in the beginning, they couldn’t go back. Nor, now that she was being honest with herself, did she want to. That left her with one choice: Proceed with caution, with eyes wide open.
She wasn’t worried about herself. She was a big girl and could handle the ramifications of whatever relationship grew up between her and Alec. But her kids were another matter.
Colin liked Alec. Of course, Colin liked
everyone
. He would welcome Alec into his life for as long as he stayed, happy to have someone to double-team with in Trouble and to regale with stories of his favorite action figures’ adventures. But would he grow too attached?
And then there was Danielle. Based on her daughter’s reaction Monday evening, there was no need to worry about her becoming overly fond of Alec. Julia had let her daughter sulk the remainder of that night, waiting till the following morning to speak to her. Danielle had made it plain that she didn’t want her mother romantically involved with Alec. Period.
“We don’t need him, Mom. He’ll mess up
everything!
”
After that pronouncement, she’d stormed off again. She’d been giving Julia the silent treatment ever since. Even her usual begging to attend art camp had ceased.
One question remained to answer: What did Julia want?
Every time she recalled the chemistry between her and Alec, she told herself she knew. She wanted a little romance. Okay, sex, too. She was thirty-two years old, after all. And she hadn’t had sex with a man since before Scott’s death. Perhaps that was what this was all about. An itch that needed scratching.
But love and a long-term relationship? She wasn’t sure she was ready for that. And she wasn’t sure Alec was even capable of either. Companionship, adult conversation, a few sparks and a little fire? Oh, he could manage those. Especially the latter.
“You’re quiet,” he said to her now as his car idled at a stop light after they left the expo. “What’s on your mind?”
Sparks, fire...sex.
Oh, boy.
She flushed. “Nothing.”
His brows rose. “So, I see.”
Julia’s parents had taken her kids for the weekend. That left her with a block of free time to fill as she saw fit. She had errands to run, laundry to tote down to the machines in the building’s basement, an apartment in desperate need of cleaning. But whenever she looked at Alec, the only thing on her mind was picking up where they’d left off the other night before the smoke alarm sounded. Indeed, if there were a smoke alarm in his car, her thoughts would have set it off already.
She decided to change the subject. “I thought today went well. I heard a lot of positive comments while milling around in the crowd.”
“Yeah.” He grinned. He looked relaxed, one hundred and eighty degrees the opposite of the uptight, annoyed executive she’d first met in her office. “I actually had fun.”
“That came through.”
“Maybe the next time I cook for you, we won’t have to order pizza.”
The next time. He said those three little words with such ease that if Julia had been looking for strings and the possibility of commitment, she might have been tempted to believe they existed.
“Maybe,” she allowed.
“What are you doing tonight?”
“For dinner?”
“Yeah. For dinner.”
“I was just going to reheat some leftovers.” She had to clear her throat before she could add, “Colin and Danielle are spending the night at my folks’ house, so I’m on my own.”
Even then, the words came out sounding hoarse.
He glanced over. His relaxed grin was gone. In its place was the beginnings of a smile that caused her blood to heat. If he couldn’t read her mind, he was doing a good imitation of it.
“All by yourself, hmm?”
She nodded.
“Maybe we should do something about that.”