There was a moment of awkward silence between them. Once again his head filled with a vision of her in a s.e.xy, silky red camisole. He was grateful when she broke the silence.
"You know, it was a near-death experience that made me decide it was the right thing to do to find Justin in the first place," she said.
Jake looked at her in surprise. "What do you mean?"
Her cheeks flushed a delicate pink. "It probably doesn"t sound like much now, but two days before I left Wichita to come here, I was on my way home from the grocery store. It was after dark, and Natalie was watching the girls while they slept so I could make a fast run to get some milk and a few other items. Anyway, I was on the way home and a car forced me off the road. I went down an embankment and it was only by the grace of G.o.d that the car didn"t flip over and kill me."
"That"s terrible," he said, surprised that the thought of her getting hurt created a tight band of pressure across his chest. He glanced at the triplets playing on the blanket. "And thank G.o.d they weren"t with you."
She nodded. "Thank G.o.d is right."
"What did you do?"
"I was shaken up badly, but thankfully not hurt. The car had no real damage and the only result was groceries had spilled all over the backseat."
"Did you call the police?"
"No. There was really no point. I didn"t get a good look at the car that forced me off the road and it was long gone by the time I finally pulled myself together. I managed to get back on the road and drive home and that was that. But that night I decided life was too short and too unpredictable and it was time I make contact with Justin."
Jake leaned back in his chair. "It doesn"t make any sense-the shooting, I mean. First and foremost, I don"t believe my brother is capable of trying to shoot you or anyone else. But, aside from that, it wouldn"t make sense for him to do that. You being dead doesn"t change the fact that he"s their father. In fact, your death would only put more responsibility on him."
She raised a hand to the back of her neck and rubbed, as if trying to ease a tension headache. "That"s true. I just need to get home. I need to take the girls and get back to Wichita," she murmured, more to herself than to him.
"But we both know that"s not an option right now," he reminded her with a pointed glance at her shoulder. He stared out the window, unable to look at her and not remember how she"d felt in his arms.
Soft and yielding, she"d filled him with a heat that had him instantly responding to her. Her hair had smelled slightly fruity, mingling with the floral scent of her, and when she"d stopped crying he"d been almost reluctant to let her go.
He definitely didn"t want a woman in his life permanently, but that didn"t mean he wouldn"t mind one occasionally.
Just not Grace.
Definitely not Grace.
"Look, what I"m really hoping is that this is all some sort of weird mistake, that it was some delusional drifter on the property or a drunk cowboy just popping off his weapon," he said, forcefully pulling his thoughts away from their brief physical contact.
"Do those kinds of things happen a lot around here?" she asked, one of her perfectly arched pale eyebrows raised dubiously.
"No, they don"t," he admitted. "But that doesn"t mean it can"t happen." He got up from the chair, feeling the need to distance himself from her.
"I"m going to go out and talk to my men. Maybe one of them indiscriminately shot off a couple of rounds and now is too embarra.s.sed to admit to it."
What he really wanted to do was get hold of Justin and find out where he"d been when this whole thing had gone down, he thought as he walked to the porch. Although he couldn"t imagine his brother having anything to do with what had happened, there was a tiny part of him that knew when Justin had a few beers in him almost anything was possible. But surely not this, his heart rebelled.
Finally, what he needed was some distance from Grace and the little girls. The triplets filled the house with a joyous noise he wasn"t accustomed to, and Grace filled his head with thoughts-very dangerous thoughts.
Never in all his years had he been attracted to any woman Justin had brought around, and yet he was intensely attracted to Grace.
A couple of days, he told himself. A couple more days and they"d all be gone, back to where they"d come from, back to a life that had very little to do with his.
Things would be much easier when she went back to Wichita. He was far too conscious of her on a physical level, drawn to her in a way that was completely undesirable.
He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and punched in Justin"s phone number, unsurprised when the call went directly to Justin"s voice mail.
He turned at the sound of the door opening and gave a tight smile to Jeffrey, who stepped out on the porch next to him. "Did you get in touch with him?" Jeffrey gestured to the cell phone Jake still held in his hand.
"No, it went straight to voice mail." Jake pocketed the phone and stared at the barn in the distance. No matter how many times he worked the events of the last couple of hours through his brain he couldn"t make sense of it.
"He wouldn"t do something like this. It doesn"t make any sense," Jake said in frustration.
"When has anything Justin done made any sense?" Jeffrey countered drily.
"Yeah, but this is different than borrowing money or getting drunk or running up a bunch of traffic tickets. Grace could have been seriously hurt. She could have been killed." Jake"s stomach muscles tightened. "If I find out he was behind this, then I"ll wash my hands of him. I mean it," he said at Jeffrey"s dubious look.
"You"ve carried him for a long time, Jake. Sooner or later he"s got to stand on his own." Jeffrey clapped Jake on the shoulder. "And now to something else that"s not going to make your day. You do remember that Kerri and I are leaving tomorrow for Topeka for a couple of days?"
Jake stared at his brother in horror as the full impact of his words struck. He knew better than to ask his brother to postpone the trip. It had been planned for months, an anniversary celebration at a bed-and-breakfast that was almost impossible to get reservations at.
With Kerri and Jeffrey gone, that meant Jake would be alone in the house with Grace. He"d be alone with a woman with three little girls, an arm in a sling and, worst-case scenario, a murderer after her who had missed once, but might not be done trying.
Chapter 5.
Grace sat on the edge of the bed in the guest room and stared out the sliding gla.s.s door that led to a small balcony. They had finished a quiet, tense dinner and then she and Kerri had gotten the girls into bed. She"d excused herself for an early night, just wanting to go to sleep and put all the troubling thoughts away for a while. But sleep had proved elusive.
Her shoulder hurt more tonight than it had since she"d fallen, and she knew there was no way she could make the drive home the next day. But it was the ache in her heart that made her feel half-sick.
Was it possible that the man who had fathered her daughters had tried to kill her? Jake certainly didn"t believe so. He"d been adamant in his defense of Justin. There had been no word from the sheriff since he"d left the house and no sign or contact from Justin himself.
What she"d like to do was open the sliding door and step outside, get a breath of the fresh scent of night air in hopes it would settle her thoughts. But she was afraid. What if the shooter was still out there, just waiting for another opportunity to get to her? She"d make herself a perfect target out on the balcony.
Grace"s mother had been a strong woman who had no tolerance for weakness of any kind, and Grace had tried to live up to that, but at the moment she felt weak and vulnerable and utterly alone.
She decided to call Natalie, who rarely went to bed before dawn, even though she knew there would be little comfort there. Natalie was always in the midst of her own drama. It was Grace who was usually fixing Natalie"s life, not the other way around. In any case, the call went to Natalie"s voice mail.
Although she didn"t leave a message about the shooting, she did say that it had been a mistake to come here, that it was obvious being a father was the last thing in the world Justin wanted and that he"d probably never want to be part of the girls" lives. She explained that it would be another couple of days before she got home but that the trip had certainly been a waste of time where Justin was concerned.
Enough self-pity, she thought when she hung up. Maybe if she went downstairs and got a gla.s.s of milk or something it would help her sleep. She"d taken the sling off when she"d gotten into bed, finding it c.u.mbersome. With difficulty she pulled on the red-and-black silk robe that matched her nightgown.
The house was dark and quiet as she left the bedroom. She slid into the room next door where a night-light gave off enough illumination for her to check each crib and see that the girls were all sleeping peacefully.
She stood for a long moment by each crib, her heart swelling in her chest with love. All she"d really wanted was for the girls to know their father and him to know them. She"d hoped that Justin would be the kind of man who would embrace the girls, a man she could be confident would take her babies and care for them if anything ever happened to her. Now she certainly wasn"t going to leave here with that confidence. He didn"t seem to have any real interest in even getting to know the girls. She just had to make sure she stayed alive and well until the triplets were adults.
Leaving the room as quietly as she"d entered, she made her way down the darkened hall to the stairway. From the living room she saw the glow of a small lamp on.
She followed the glow and found Jake seated in a chair. "Oh, I didn"t know anyone else was still awake," she said as she self-consciously held the robe closer around her neck with her good hand.
"I couldn"t sleep. Looks as though you"re suffering from the same affliction." He gestured her toward the sofa. She noticed he had a gla.s.s of amber liquid in his hand. "Scotch," he said. "Would you like one?"
"No thanks. Contrary to what happened the night of Sally"s wedding with a bottle of champagne, I"m really not much of a drinker." She sat on the sofa.
"Neither am I," he admitted and set the gla.s.s on the end table next to him. "I just occasionally like the taste of a little good Scotch. Sheriff Hicks called earlier."
Grace sat up straighter, trying to staunch the pain the motion created in her shoulder. "And?"
"And apparently there has been a drifter in the area. He stole some clothing from Rebecca Castor"s clothesline and she chased him off with her broom. He was also apparently sleeping in Burt Kent"s barn off and on. Several people around the area have seen him and told the sheriff he appears to be mentally unstable."
"So, it could have been him who took those shots at me." She wanted to believe it. She desperately wanted to believe that it had been anyone but Justin.
"It"s possible. At least that"s what Sheriff Hicks believes happened, although n.o.body who has caught sight of him has seen him with a weapon. Hicks and his men are trying to hunt him down, and once he does maybe we"ll have more answers."
"And Justin? Have you heard from him?"
He shook his head, his rich, dark hair gleaming in the artificial light. "Not a word."
"Doesn"t that worry you?"
A small, humorless smile lifted the corners of his mouth. "Everything Justin has done since the age of about ten has made me worried."
"Sounds like me and my sister."
"She a handful?" he asked.
"Definitely." Grace frowned as she thought of her younger sister.
"How did your parents deal with her?" He picked up his drink and took a sip, then returned the gla.s.s to the end table.
"They didn"t. I mean, Natalie and I never knew our fathers. My mother was an unusual woman. She never wanted a man in her life on a permanent basis." Grace felt herself begin to relax, grateful to talk about anything except what had happened earlier that day.
"I"m not sure why she had Natalie. I"m not even sure why she had me. She certainly wasn"t mother material. She was wealthy and beautiful. She was also cold and distant and loved to travel. By the age of six I pretty well knew I was on my own. When Natalie came along I was the one who raised her, and I think sometimes I was way too indulgent with her."
"Welcome to my club," he replied drily. "Only in our case it wasn"t a problem of a cold and distant mother, it was an issue of a tough, tyrannical father who thought a beating a day made a better kid. It didn"t take long when we were kids to realize that most of his rage for some unknown reason seemed to be directed at Justin. Of course, Justin was good at stirring up trouble."
"What about Jeffrey?"
Jake flashed her a smile that warmed every cold spot her body might have held. "The middle child. He was good at being invisible, especially when Dad was in one of his rages."
"And what about you?" she asked. She told herself that her interest was only in learning more about the family where her children"s father came from and nothing personal as far as Jake was concerned.
"What about me? I got through it just like Jeffrey and Justin did. I was tougher than them, tried to protect them when I could. My mother died a year before my father. She got sick, and I think she just died to get away from him. But we all survived and here we are."
Grace had a feeling there were plenty of scars beneath the surface in all of the Johnson men. She couldn"t help remembering Kerri saying that Jake was the alpha dog. She wondered how many beatings he"d taken on behalf of his brothers.
She"d certainly had more than her share of sleepless nights where Natalie was concerned. There were times Grace wondered if Natalie was doing drugs and hanging out with the wrong kind of people. Grace tried to be a good sister, a good mentor, but there was no question that since their mother"s death the relationship between the two sisters had gotten worse instead of better.
"So, what do you do in your spare time, Grace?" He smiled ruefully. "I mean, before the babies came when you had spare time."
"Nothing very exciting," she replied, grateful for the change in subject. "I enjoy cooking and food. I used to really enjoy going out to dinner, trying new restaurants and food experiences. I like to read and go to the movies. My life was fairly quiet before the girls came along. What about you? What do you like to do?"
"Enjoying good food is right up there at the top." He seemed to be relaxing also. Some of the tension that had been in his body language disappeared and the stern lines along the sides of his handsome face relaxed. "But I"m definitely happiest on the back of a horse riding the pastures and dealing with the ranch. You ride?"
"I took riding lessons when I was younger. It was one of those wild hairs my mother got. She decided her daughter should know how to ride. The lessons lasted about four weeks and then she had me quit and take tennis cla.s.ses. But I enjoyed riding for the brief time I got to try it."
"I guess having the triplets changed your life considerably."
She laughed. "That"s the understatement of the year. I"ve definitely had to sacrifice some things, but any sacrifice has been worth it. I"ve never known the kind of joy and love they"ve each brought into my life."
She sobered and met his gaze seriously. The conversation had been going too light and easy. She almost hated to mention his brother"s name again, but she wanted Jake to understand exactly where she was coming from.
"I"ll be fine without Justin. We"ll all be fine without him. When my mother died she left both me and my sister a bit of an inheritance and then left the bulk of her estate to the triplets, so I"ll never have to worry about college funds or buying cars or any kind of financial burden where they"re concerned. I just didn"t want them to grow up without a father like I had to. Little girls need daddies."
The tension lines were back in Jake"s face as he reached for his drink once again. "I can"t make him be what you need him to be." There was genuine pain in his voice.
"I know. I just want you to know that whatever happens I appreciate the hospitality you and Kerri and Jeffrey have given us here."
"You"re welcome. And you should have your sling on," he said with a touch of censure in his voice.
But it wasn"t the tone of his voice that made her feel the absence of the c.u.mbersome sling, rather it was the quick slide of his dark gaze down the length of her body that suddenly made her feel half-naked.
Tension crackled in her head, in the very air between them, and Grace recognized it for what it was-a s.e.xual awareness, a heady whisper of desire she hadn"t felt for any man in a very long time.
Just that quickly it felt more than a bit dangerous to her, to sit here in the middle of the night with him, to be exchanging bits and pieces of their personal lives with each other. She was all too aware of her lack of clothing, and her body felt fevered despite the lightweight nightgown and robe that she wore.
She wondered what it would be like to kiss him. His mouth would taste of the Scotch he"d been drinking, and she knew the kiss would be heady and hot. She had a feeling he"d kiss with the same intensity he did everything else, that it would be an experience difficult for a woman to ever forget.
His cell phone rang, shattering the uncomfortable silence that had sprung up between them and the risky direction of her thoughts.
He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and answered. A deep frown slashed across his forehead as he listened to whoever was on the other end of the line. "Yeah, okay. I"ll be right there." He closed the phone and dropped it back in his pocket with a weary sigh.
"My brother has finally put in an appearance. He and a couple of his no-account friends showed up at Tony"s Tavern, a bar in town. They were all drunk and disorderly and Sheriff Hicks is holding them at the jail." He got up from his chair and she rose from the sofa. "You should probably get some sleep. I"m sure I"ll have some news about Justin first thing in the morning."
She walked with him to the bottom of the stairs. She felt the need to say something, anything to ease the worry lines on his face, to rid him of some of the tension that held his shoulders so rigid. But what could she say?
It was possible Justin and his friends were the ones who had gotten drunk and shot at her. It was also possible Justin had spent the afternoon getting drunk with his friends and had been nowhere around when the shooting had occurred.
In either case it was obvious Jake had his hands full with the brother he obviously loved, and Grace could relate to that because of her often difficult relationship and worries about Natalie.
"I"ll see you in the morning," he said. Once again his gaze slid down, lingering briefly on the exposed skin of her collarbone, the curve of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s beneath the silk material. "Good night, Grace."
"Good night, Jake."
As he went out the front door she began to climb the stairs, the heat of his gaze still warming her stomach.
How was this even possible? How could she be so attracted to Jake? The answer wasn"t so complex-because he was hot and stable, because he"d been kind to her and seemed to be everything opposite of the man who"d already let her down. More important, because when his gaze had slid over her she"d sensed with a woman"s instinct that he definitely felt something for her, too.