The Courtship of Dani (12 page)

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Her apprehension eased somewhat the next morning when they arrived at the Edwards' home, a modest brick house in a neat but unpretentious neighborhood on the southwest side of Houston.

Dani had called her parents the first thing that morning to tell them that she was bringing a friend with her, and Sophie and Joe Edwards had been delighted. They both greeted Jason warmly and did their best to make him feel welcome, though Dani caught the raised-brow look that passed between them when they saw the Jaguar parked in the drive.

Chad made no secret of his admiration, either for the man or his car. With his usual insouciance he eyed Jason from head to toe, grinned, and pumped his hand. Then, catching sight of the wicked-looking machine, he whistled between his teeth and crowed, "Man! Will you get a load of those wheels!" and took off at a lope to inspect it.

Her sister's greeting was much less enthusiastic. Charlene and her husband arrived a few moments after Dani and Jason. Bill Fairchild was a painfully shy young man, and typically, he shook Jason's hand, mumbled a few words then promptly retreated. Holding her month-old baby daughter, Becky, cradled in her arms, Charlene looked at Jason coolly, and after acknowledging the introduction with a crisply polite "hello," excused herself and disappeared into one of the bedrooms, using the excuse that she had to put the baby down for her nap.

It seemed strange to Dani to see Jason sitting in her parents' tiny living room. He appeared perfectly relaxed in the shabby but comfortable overstuffed chair, and he was talking amiably with the others, doing his best to put everyone at ease. Yet he seemed out of place. He was so big. So vital. And though he had dressed casually, there was simply no mistaking the quality of his tailored dark brown slacks and coffee-colored silk sport shirt, or the hand-sewn cordovan loafers he wore. Even more obvious was that indefinable aura of power about him.

Sophie served coffee and for a while they all sat and talked. When Charlene reappeared she and Sophie went into the kitchen to finish the preparations for dinner. After a few minutes, when the men's conversation turned to baseball and the Astros' chances for the pennant, Dani followed them.

"May I help?" she asked as she stepped through the swinging door.

Charlene looked up from slicing tomatoes and her eyes slid over Dani. "Mother and I have everything under control. Besides, you know you're useless in the kitchen."

Dani pretended not to notice the cool derision in her younger sister's voice. "Oh, but surely there is something I could do to help."

"Of course there is dear," Sophie assured her kindly. "Why don't you set the table." Jabbing the air with the wooden spoon, she pointed to a maple hutch on the far side of the kitchen. "Since we have company, why don't you use that lovely lace tablecloth you gave me."

"Too bad we don't have any fancy silver and china to go with it," Charlene said snidely. "But then they would look a little silly on the kitchen table, wouldn't they. I hope you told your rich friend that we don't have a dining room, that he'll have to eat in the kitchen with we peons."

"Now, Charlene, behave yourself," Sophie admonished mildly. "Mr. St. Clair seems like a very nice man. I'm sure he won't mind."

Dani flicked the tablecloth over the round table and smoothed it out, not bothering to acknowledge her sister's sniping. Nothing she ever said or did pleased Charlene, and Dani had learned long ago to simply let all the little digs and biting remarks slide off her. For some unknown reason, almost from the time she was able to talk, Charlene had resented her.

Soon dinner was ready. When they were all seated Sophie served it family style, heaping the huge table with steaming platters and bowls filled with fried chicken, mashed potatoes, fresh corn and green beans, salad, gravy and biscuits. Large tumblers of ice tea sat before each plate and two apple pies were cooling on the counter. It was a simple, homey meal, the kind Dani had grown up with, but as she glanced at Jason out of the corner of her eye she wondered what he thought. It was certainly a far cry from the type of thing he'd grown used to.

But Jason sniffed appreciatively of the delicious aromas wafting from the array of dishes and sent his hostess a beaming smile. "I think I've died and gone to heaven," he declared, heaping his plate high with food from the bowls that were being passed around. "I haven't had a good home-cooked meal like this since the last time I visited my folks in Arizona." He took a bite of fried chicken and closed his eyes in ecstasy while he chewed. When he opened them he looked at Sophie again and winked. "Mrs. Edwards, if you weren't already married, I swear I think I'd run off with you," he growled teasingly in that rough-textured voice.

To Dani's surprise a blush tinted her mother's plump cheeks and she fluttered like a young girl, patting her gray curls and looking at him with sparkling eyes. "Oh, please, call me Sophie. And really, you're being too kind," she demurred coyly. "The biscuits are a little heavy and the chicken is a mite too brown. Perhaps the next time you come I can do better."

Steam rose as Jason broke open a biscuit and slathered it with butter. "Why, Sophie, if these were any lighter they'd float away."

Watching her mother preen under Jason's lavish praise, Dani bit back a smile. So... he has that effect on older women, too, she thought with amusement. Jason was a tough, formidable man, but when he chose to turn on the charm it was nothing short of devastating.

During the meal conversation flowed freely around the table. Though Dani's father was a quiet, reserved man, he seemed to take a liking to Jason and talked to him at length about his business interests and the state of the economy. Chad asked dozens of questions about the Jaguar, while Sophie plied Jason with more food and wangled information about his family. Even Bill overcame his shyness enough to put in a comment occasionally. The only person at the table who didn't join in was Charlene.

Dani stole a look at her sister and sighed. Her face was pinched and tight. Her head was bent and her brown hair had swung forward, the tips of the short bob resting on her cheeks as she stared fixedly at her plate. Dani knew that Charlene's coldness wasn't directed at Jason but at her, and for the thousandth time she wondered why.

It wasn't until the meal was almost over and conversation had become general that Charlene unbent enough to speak. And then only because Chad asked her a direct question.

"Are you and Ben going to drive up to the lake with us on Friday, or are you coming Saturday morning?"

"We'll probably come up Saturday. The worst of the holiday traffic will be over by then, and besides, I don't want to disrupt Becky's schedule too much," she replied stiffly.

Dani looked from one to the other. "You're going to a lake?"

"Yeah. To this little private lake up by Grapeland for the Memorial weekend," Chad answered. "Man, are we gonna have a good time. The owners have the place set up especially for family picnics and reunions. All around the lake there are cabins to rent, some that sleep as many as twenty people. And a hall where we can all get together for meals. Practically the whole

Edwards clan is going to be there. Didn't Mom tell you?"

"No, she didn't," Dani said quietly. Though she tried not to let it show, there was a look of sad reproach in her eyes when they sought her mother.

"Didn't I?" Sophie placed a hand against her cheek. "Oh dear, I meant to, but I guess—what with all the planning and all—I just forgot. Do forgive me, darling. I suppose in the back of my mind I assumed you would be too busy with your job to get away, but I really did intend to call and invite you. I guess I'm just getting to be a forgetful old woman." She chewed her bottom lip and looked at Dani pleadingly, her brown eyes wide with contrition, then hastened to add, "But of course you're welcome to join us. You know that."

No, she didn't know that. How could she? But Dani didn't voice the thought. Instead she smiled back weakly at the woman she had called mother since she was seven years old. Sophie was basically a kind person. Dani knew that she didn't mean to hurt her, but somehow that was the way things always turned out. She had lived in this house for thirteen years. Joe and Sophie had taken her in and given her their name, had fed and clothed her, given her a home, but Dani had never quite managed to become a part of the family. Not really.

"Why on earth would Dani even be interested," Charlene inserted dismissively. "After all, it's a family gathering."

There was a pulse beat of awkward silence during which throats were cleared and eyes were averted. Jason looked up sharply, a puzzled frown forming between his brows as his gaze slid from Charlene to

Dani. The cool withdrawn look on her beautiful face was the only clue that the barb had struck its target.

With blank blue eyes she looked directly at Charlene and said quietly, "Actually, Mother is right. I can't spare the time away from my job at the moment. I'll probably be working over the Memorial Day weekend."

"Don't be absurd," Jason snapped. "The factory will be closed over the holiday. There's no reason why you can't go."

A tight smile curved Dani's mouth when she turned her head to look at him. "You forget—I do almost as much work at home after hours as I do on site. I've got plenty to keep me busy, believe me."

Jason started to argue but something in her face made him pause, and after a moment he shrugged and grimaced wryly. "Okay, have it your way. But if you're not careful your family is going to think that I'm a slave driver."

"Naw. We know Dani," Chad put in. "When she was in school she used to hole up in her room all the time, studying. We never saw her except at mealtime, and then Mom had to drag her out. It's the same with her work." In typical brotherly fashion, he shot Dani a disgusted look and shook his head pityingly. "I tell ya, man, the woman's got a one-track mind."

"Thanks," Dani said dryly. But everyone laughingly agreed with him, and the strained moment passed.

After the meal the men went outside and relaxed in the shade of the huge old ash tree in the backyard while the women dealt with the kitchen. When they were done, Sophie and Charlene joined them, but Dani excused herself and started down the hall as though headed for the bathroom. Instead she slipped quietly into the room that had once been hers, and closed the door.

Dani stood in the middle of the floor and looked around. It was exactly the same. A single bed, a chest of drawers, a bookcase and a scarred old desk all but filled the tiny room.

Chad had been right, she thought sadly. She had holed up in this room as a teenager. But not only because she had wanted to study. This had been her refuge. It had been easier, somehow, to withdraw into her own little world than to yearn for a place in theirs.

After giving the room one last long wistful look, Dani turned to leave. But as she stepped out the door she heard a cry from her parents' bedroom at the end of the hall, a tiny mewling that began to grow rapidly into squawks of sheer outrage.

The sounds drew Dani like a magnet. Within moments she was standing beside the portable crib at the foot of Joe and Sophie's bed, peering down at her tiny red-faced niece who was diligently working herself into a tantrum. The baby's clenched little fists were flailing the air jerkily and her heels made swishing sounds as they kicked against the sheet. Her eyes were tightly closed and her features were screwed up in a furious scowl.

Dani smiled. The display of temper from such a tiny creature was absurd. Unable to resist, she gently scooped the baby up and held her close, cuddling the little face into the curve of her neck. "There, there, sweetheart. You're okay," Dani crooned, as her fingers stroked the soft fuzz on the round little head. "You're okay."

Becky's cries tapered off into little grunting noises and she snuggled closer. She was warm and sweet smelling, and as Dani inhaled the heavenly scent of talc and baby she closed her eyes and laid her cheek on the downy head, her lips curving into a tender, bittersweet smile. Her heart squeezed with aching tenderness, a yearning that reached deep down into her soul. Humming softly, Dani swayed back and forth and marveled silently at the incredible softness of the infant's skin, how truly wonderful it felt to hold her.

Standing quietly in the doorway, Jason watched her. He was gripped with an emotion so strong it was almost suffocating. He didn't move. Or even breathe. Lord, she's beautiful. Like a madonna.

Dani's soft expression held him entranced and he stared at her, marveling at the delicacy of her closed eyelids, the tenderness that radiated from her, the inner glow that lit her lovely face. She was the essence of womanhood. Feminine. Maternal. Loving. Jason knew that for as long as he lived he would remember this moment.

As he watched her, an even more powerful emotion hit him, and he was suddenly seized with a fierce longing to see her holding her own child. His child.

An aching tightness squeezed at Jason's throat and he swallowed hard. Never taking his eyes from her, he walked into the room. "Do you have any idea how lovely you look?" he asked quietly and smiled as he watched Dani's eyes fly open.

"She was fretting," she whispered as though she hadn't heard his question. "I'm trying to get her back to sleep."

Dani pressed a kiss to the top of the baby's head and looked up at him, and Jason's breath caught at the dreamy softness in her blue eyes. He touched her cheek almost reverently with the tips of his fingers. "Oh, Dani," he said in a shaken whisper.