Natural Born Trouble (9 page)

“Yes, I did.”

Sharon Lynn continued to smirk. “Guess he doesn't hear too well.”

“He's a man, isn't he? Have you ever known one to listen to a blasted thing we say?”

“Actually, Kyle Mason hangs on every word I say.”

“Oh, for heaven's sakes, stop gloating. We all know you caught the last decent man in the universe or so you keep reminding us.”

“He is extraordinary, there's no doubt about that. Not that Duke is any slouch. He's charming and sexy and smart.”

“How would you know all that? You've barely met the man.”

“Not true. He comes in here with his sons all the time.” She glanced up. “In fact, they're on their way in right now.”

Dani flatly refused to turn around to look. “Please, please, tell me you are making that up.”

“Why would I do that?”

“To drive me crazy.”

“Not me,” Sharon Lynn retorted. “But I'd say someone else is doing a pretty good job of it.” Her smile widened. “Hey, Duke. How're you doing? Hi, Joshua, Zack. What's it going to be today?”

“Ice cream cones,” Zack replied. “Dad said we could have dessert before dinner tonight. Isn't that cool?”

“Way cool,” Sharon Lynn agreed.

Dani felt Duke's hands settle on her shoulders. A shiver skimmed straight down her spine even before he leaned down and whispered, “Told you so.”

There was nothing to do but accept the inevitable. Slowly, she swiveled her stool around until she was face-to-face with him. Pure devilment was sparkling in his eyes. His gaze locked with hers and his expression sobered until an exquisite kind of tension shimmered in the air between them. Dani swallowed hard and forced herself to turn away. She smiled at Zachary and Joshua.

“So what's this about dessert before supper?” she asked.

Already licking his double scoop of chocolate ice cream, Joshua paused long enough to say, “Dad says as long as we cross our hearts and promise to eat every bite on our plates, we can do it this way just this once. It's `cause Dolan's will be closed by the time he finishes fixing dinner.”

“Yeah,” Zachary chimed in. “It takes him a really, really long time to cook, ‘cept when he zaps stuff in the microwave.”

“I see.”

“Can you cook?” Joshua asked. regarding her speculatively.

“Dani is the very best cook in the entire family,” Sharon Lynn said before Dani could respond. “Her spaghetti sauce would bring tears to your eyes. As for her pot roast, well, let's just say that Maritza taught
her and Maritza has been Grandpa's housekeeper for practically forever and he has gourmet taste.”

Both boys' eyes widened hopefully. “Really? Maybe you could invite us to dinner sometime,” Zachary suggested.

“Yeah, we really, really love spaghetti, especially if it doesn't come out of a can,” Joshua added.

“Hey, guys, it's not polite to invite yourselves over to someone's house,” Duke said.

“Oh, we don't stand on formality around here,” Sharon Lynn said. “Do we, Dani?”

Dani gave her a sour look, then forced a smile. “Of course not. The next time I'm doing more than grabbing a sandwich for dinner, I'll give you guys a call.”

Duke's eyebrows rose. “A sandwich? That's your idea of a healthy dinner?”

“Sometimes it's all I feel like fixing after a long day.”

“Tsk, tsk,” Duke chided. “You should know better. I propose that we all go out tonight. My treat. Since everybody's so keen on spaghetti, how's that Italian place? We haven't tried that yet.”

“It's the best,” Sharon Lynn enthused. “Dani loves their lasagna, don't you, Dani?”

“It's very good,” she conceded. “Really, though, I can't. Not tonight.”

Duke's gaze clashed with hers. “Busy?”

“Yes.”

“Doing?”

She seized on the first thing that came to mind. “I have to keep an eye on Honeybunch.”

“Who's Honeybunch?” Zachary asked as chocolate dripped down his shirt. He was oblivious to the
melting ice cream. Dani instinctively reached for a napkin and blotted it up, then wiped a streak off his cheek.

“Honeybunch is an injured dog I'm treating,” she explained.

“Is he hurt bad?” Joshua asked.

“He's getting better,” she conceded.

Duke shot her a triumphant look. “Then we can stop in and check on him on the way to the restaurant. That should put your mind at ease, right?”

She sighed heavily. She might as well give it up. There wasn't an excuse on the face of the earth that would work now, not unless she said flatly that she didn't want to go with them. There were two problems with that one: first, it was rude, second, it was a lie. A huge lie, in fact. She did want to go. Obviously, some part of her didn't care that a situation all too similar to this one had practically destroyed her.

“Why don't I go on ahead while you boys finish your ice cream,” she suggested eventually. “You can meet me at the clinic when you're ready.”

“Perfect,” Duke said. “Fifteen minutes?”

“Yes,” she said without enthusiasm.

Sharon Lynn grinned at her. “Have a good evening.”

Dani nodded. “I'll speak to you tomorrow,” she said, a deliberately dire note in her voice.

“Can't wait,” her cousin said, clearly not the least bit repentant over her part in the night's turn of events.

Outside the drugstore, Dani briefly considered bolting, but dismissed it. It would be a cowardly thing to do, and no Adams had ever been a coward. Not
that it was Adams blood flowing through her veins, but too many years of the family's influence had had an effect.

Ah, well, she only had to get through the next fifteen minutes of dread and what? Maybe another hour for dinner. An hour and a half, tops. That was hardly an eternity. Nor was it really long enough to feed this ridiculous attraction she was starting to feel toward Duke Jenkins. They would be chaperoned, too.

By ten o'clock she would be home, tucked in bed with a good book, just the way she had been on every single night of the past two years, except for those occasions when she'd been coerced into spending the evening with one family member or another.

The prospect reassured her. She was actually feeling reasonably upbeat when she heard the doorbell ring in the main part of her combination home and clinic. That optimism lasted until the moment she opened the door and saw, not Duke, but Rob, standing on the front stoop.

D
ani stared incredulously at the disheveled man standing on her doorstep. It wasn't so much his identity that shocked her, as his appearance. Rob had always dressed impeccably. Tonight he looked as if he'd grabbed clothes from a laundry basket.

“What are you doing here?” she asked with an icy calm she was far from feeling.

“Can I come in? We need to talk.”

“We do not need to talk,” she retorted. “And no, you may not come in.”

He blinked at her in obvious surprise. “What's the matter with you?”

His total lack of understanding of what he had done to her infuriated her as nothing else could have. Either he was blind or she had been so submissive that he'd anticipated being able to steamroll over her as if nothing had ever happened. Dani didn't like either explanation much. Both said things about her she would rather not have believed true. Well, then, it was about time she stood up for herself and made her feelings perfectly clear.

She stared at him coldly. “That's the problem, Rob. You never did have a clue about anything that mattered. It was always about what you wanted, what you needed.”

When she would have slammed the door, he blocked it and for the first time she felt a niggling sense of unease. “Rob, please. Don't make a scene.”

“Afraid that shining Adams image will get tarnished?” he asked sourly.

Dani was stunned by his bitterness. What the heck did he have to be bitter about? “Just go away, please. I'm expecting company.” She spotted Duke and his sons strolling along the sidewalk less than a block away. “In fact, they're on their way right now.”

Rob turned and followed the direction of her gaze. “Still looking for a built-in family, I see. You always were predictable.”

Dani winced at the mean-spirited accusation. Any second now rage was going to overcome common sense and she was going to throw a tantrum that would set Los Pinos on its collective backside.

Fortunately, Duke had apparently picked up on the scene even from a distance. He spoke quietly to the boys, who stopped where they were without argument. Then Duke quickened his pace. Before Dani could say anything more, he was casually, but effectively sliding between her and Rob. He dropped a deliberate kiss on her forehead, then fixed an interested stare on her visitor.

“Hey, darlin', who's this?” Duke asked.

“Rob Hilliard. He's an old acquaintance from Dallas.”

Duke's gaze narrowed, which suggested he'd heard the name mentioned. Since she'd never told
him the identity of the man who'd hurt her, she could only assume that someone else in the family had filled in the blanks she'd left in the story.

“Glad to meet you,” Duke said. His tone was polite, but any reasonably bright man would not have found it welcoming.

“Rob was just leaving,” Dani prompted, since he appeared not to have taken Duke's hint.

Neither man paid a lick of attention to her. They were squaring off like contestants in a championship boxing match.

Rob was no hero, though. Duke was at least four inches taller and twenty pounds of pure muscle heavier. Eventually her ex-fiancé backed down.

“I'll catch up with you later,” he said pointedly to Dani. “Sometime when you're not so busy.”

Duke shook his head. “I don't think that's such a good idea,” he said. He studied Dani. “Is it?”

“No,” she agreed. “It's not a good idea at all.”

“Fine. Have it your way.” Rob smiled at Dani, but there was little warmth in his expression as he added, “The girls send their love. They miss you.”

Dani felt as if she'd been sucker-punched. She could deal with Rob. She could dismiss him as if he were no more than an inconvenience, but the girls… She couldn't pretend to be disinterested.

“Are they okay?” she asked.

Rob shot a triumphant smirk at Duke to indicate his belief that he'd bested the other man, after all. “They're unhappy.”

“Why?”

“As I said, they miss you. They'd like to see you.”

The offer was nearly two years too late. Dani didn't want to ask, but he'd left her no choice. “What about Tiffany? Won't she object?”

“We split up.” Ignoring Duke's presence, he added, “They want you to come home. We all do.”

The thought of holding Robin and Amy in her arms again, the prospect of reading them bedtime stories and drying their tears, all of it was almost enough to make her weaken. Duke's steady hand on her waist gave her the strength to shake her head. It reminded her that what she felt for those two darling girls was not nearly enough to compensate for the fact that their father was a weak, insensitive fool.

Steeling herself against his likely reaction she said coolly, “I would love to see the girls again, anytime you'd like to bring them for a visit. But we will never be a family, Rob.” She met his gaze evenly. “Never. I'm surprised even you would be foolish enough to think it possible.”

“But…”

“I think you heard her,” Duke said quietly. “Now it's time you were on your way.” He glanced at Dani. “Right?”

“Absolutely,” she said.

Only after Rob had turned and walked away, did Dani feel her knees sag. Duke's arm circled her waist protectively. “You okay?” he murmured.

She nodded, unable to speak. There was too much emotion clogging her throat. This time she was the one who'd cut the ties to Robin and Amy, severed them beyond repair. Rob would never bring them for a visit, not now that he knew there was no place for him in her life. He'd been using those poor, sweet babies of his as pawns, just as he always had.

“Josh, Zack,” Duke called to the two wide-eyed boys who were still standing where he'd left them. “Why don't you go into the clinic and spend a little time with Honeybunch.” He looked at Dani. “Is that okay?”

“Yes,” she said. “Just remember he's still hurt. Don't try to touch him.”

When they were gone, Duke prodded her into the house. “Sit. Do you want something? Some tea? A stiff drink?”

“Nothing, thanks.”

He studied her worriedly. “Are you sure you're okay?”

She managed a faltering smile for him. “Believe it or not, I'm relieved.”

He stared at her incredulously. “Relieved? I'm afraid you're going to have to explain that one to me.”

“All this time I've worried what would happen if I ever saw him again. At first I prayed that he would come after me, beg my forgiveness and take me back to be a part of his family again, just the way he did tonight.”

“I didn't hear a whole lot of begging,” Duke pointed out.

“For Rob, what you heard was close enough. Anyway, I imagined myself falling into his arms and going back. It's taken me a long time to realize that I was never half as much in love with him as I was with the girls. I adored his daughters. From the beginning I loved them as much as if they'd been my own.”

She sighed. “And I worked so hard to win them over. I had Jordan's example to go by. Did you know he once thought he would be a terrible father? He was scared to death of me when he and mom were first
seeing each other, but he made me a part of his life just the same. I wanted to make Rob's girls feel just as safe. Tonight when Rob asked me to come back, though, it was like a giant light bulb switching on. I realized I couldn't go just for them. Sooner or later their father and I would have split up and they would be hurt all over again.”