Kitabı oku: «Her Kind of Man», sayfa 4

“It’s not really up to me. I’ve got to go soon, but I’ll visit as often as I can.”

“He’s busy, I’m sure,” Shana said before his words sank into her consciousness. He’d be back…often. In other words, she’d better get used to having him around, and judging by that smirk, he intended to smile at her some more. Oh, great.

“As often as you can?” Jazz repeated. “What does that mean?”

“I’ll make sure I’m here at least once a week to check up on my favorite girl.”

Instead of shouting with happiness, Jazmine hung her head. “Only once a week?”

Once a week? That often? Shana’s reaction was just the opposite. As far as she was concerned, weekly visits were far too frequent.

Ali’s little sister seemed oversensitive, Adam observed with some amusement as Shana returned to the ice-cream counter. That wasn’t the only thing he’d noticed, either. She was beautiful with classic features, dark hair and eyes and a face he found utterly appealing. Ali was a beautiful woman, too, but in a completely different way. Although both had dark brown hair and eyes, the resemblance stopped there. Shana was the taller of the two and model-thin, whereas Ali had more flesh on her. If he were ever to say that out loud, she’d no doubt be insulted, but it was the truth. Ali wasn’t overweight by any means, just rounded in all the right places. In his opinion, the little sister could stand to gain a few pounds. He wasn’t sure why he was concentrating on the physical, because his reaction to Shana was much more complex than that. He was attracted to her. Period. He liked what he saw and he liked what he didn’t see—what he sensed about her. Attraction was indefinable, more about the sum of a person than his or her parts. People called it chemistry, sparks, magic, all sorts of vague things. But whatever you called it, the attraction was obviously there.

Something else was obvious. She felt it, too. And she didn’t want to. In fact, she seemed determined to make sure he knew that. He didn’t go around ravishing young women, willing or unwilling, but he definitely got a kick out of her reaction to him. He couldn’t keep from grinning as he headed into the heavy freeway traffic on I-5 North.

On second thought, he might be overreacting. Perhaps it was all those musings about his lack of female companionship following his release from the hospital. Pain could do that to a man. Maybe he was wrong about Shana’s interest in him; maybe he’d simply been projecting his own attraction and—Damn, this was getting much too complicated.

That same evening, when Adam logged on to the Internet, he discovered two messages from Ali. In the first, she was eager to know if he’d made contact with Jazmine; in the other, she asked if he’d be able to give her sister a break now and then. He immediately e-mailed back that he’d seen Jazz and everything seemed to be fine with her and Shana. He also said he’d visit as often as he could. Several questions regarding Shana went through his mind, but he didn’t ask them, not wanting Ali to get the wrong impression. He also feared she’d relay his interest to her sister—and he just wasn’t ready for that.

An hour later, his phone rang. It was Jazmine, who spoke in a whisper.

“Where are you?” he asked.

“In the closet.” She was still whispering.

“What’s the problem?” So Jazmine wanted to talk to him without her aunt listening in. Interesting.

“I hate it here and—oh, Uncle Adam, it’s just so good to see someone I know.”

Adam wished he could be there to wrap his arm around the girl’s thin shoulders. “It’ll get better.” He didn’t mean to sound trite, but he couldn’t come up with anything else to say. “Didn’t you tell me you’d made friends with those two girls who took your backpack?”

“Yeah, I guess, but it isn’t like California. Seattle isn’t like anyplace I’ve been. I miss my mom and…I just don’t like it here.”

“I feel that way whenever I’ve got a new duty assignment,” he said, wanting to comfort her and not knowing how. “I’m in a new work environment myself and to be honest I’d much rather be in Hawaii. It’s the perfect duty station. But you do get used to wherever you are, Jazz…”

“I just want to be with my mom,” Jazmine said, sounding small and sad. “I wouldn’t care where it was.”

“Are you getting along with your aunt?”

Jazmine hesitated. “She tries, and I appreciate everything she does, I really do, but she doesn’t know that much about kids.” As if she felt bad about criticizing her aunt, the girl added, “It’s not as bad as it was on Monday, but…”

Adam wanted to continue asking questions about Shana, but he preferred not to be obvious about it. “She seems nice.”

“She is, but she’s got issues, you know.”

It was difficult for Adam not to laugh outright at Jazmine’s solemn tone. “What kind of issues?” he asked gravely.

Jazmine snickered. “Where would you like me to start? She has this old boyfriend that she dumped or he dumped her—I don’t know which—but she won’t even say his name. I heard her talking to Mom, and every time she got close to mentioning his name, she called him that-man-I-used-to-date. Is that ridiculous or what?”

Adam murmured a noncommittal reply.

“That’s not all. Shana used to have a regular job, a really good one for a drug company. Mom said she made fabulous money, but she quit after she broke up with this guy. Then she bought the ice-cream parlor. She doesn’t know a thing about ice cream or pizza or anything else.”

Still, Adam had to admire her entrepreneurial spirit. “She seems to be doing all right.”

“That’s only because she phones the former owners ten times a day, and I’m not exaggerating. She finally figured out she can’t do everything on her own and she hired a lady to come in during the afternoons to help her. I’m only nine-going-on-ten, and I figured that out before she did.” Jazmine stopped abruptly, as if something had just occurred to her. “You’re not attracted to her or anything, are you?”

Adam relaxed in his chair and crossed his ankles. “Well…I think she’s kinda cute.”

“No, no, no!” Jazmine said, more loudly this time. “I was afraid this would happen. This is terrible!”

Adam loved the theatrics. “What is?”

“Shana,” Jazmine cried as if it should all be perfectly logical. “What about Mom? If you’re going to fall in love with anyone, make it my mom. She needs you, and you’d be a great stepdad.”

“Jazmine,” he said, the amusement suddenly gone. “I think the world of your mother. She’s a wonderful woman, and I love her dearly, but—”

He had no idea how to put this without upsetting her. “Your mother and I, well…”

“You love her like a sister,” Jazmine finished for him. She sounded resigned and not particularly surprised.

Adam almost wished he could fall in love with Ali. Perhaps if he’d met her before Peter did, things would’ve been different. But he hadn’t, and now it was impossible to think of Ali in any other way.

“That’s pretty astute of you,” he said.

“What’s astute?”

“Smart.”

Jazmine sighed heavily. “Not really. I said something about you to Mom, and what she said is she loves you like a brother.”

So it was a mutual feeling, which was a relief. “Did your mother tell you she was ready for another relationship?” he asked.

“I think she is,” Jazmine replied after a thoughtful moment. “But I don’t know if she knows it.” She hesitated, and he could almost see her frown of concentration. “Mom’s been different the last few months.” She seemed to be analyzing the situation as she spoke. “She’s less sad,” Jazmine went on. “We talk about Dad a lot, and Mom laughs now and she’s willing to do things and go places again. I guess someone mentioned that to the Navy, because they decided to give her sea duty.”

“I’m grateful your mother’s feeling better about life. When the time’s right, she’ll meet someone special enough to be your stepdad.”

“But it won’t be you.”

Adam heard the sadness in her voice and regretted it. “It won’t be me,” he said quietly.

“You are attracted to Shana though, right?”

“Maybe.” That was all he’d admit. He found himself wondering about the man Shana had recently dumped or been dumped by.

“So this guy she used to go out with—”

“They were engaged, I think, but she won’t talk about it.” There was a pause. “She didn’t get a ring, though.”

Engaged? Even an unofficial engagement suggested this had been a serious and probably long-term relationship. Which could explain why Shana had seemed so skittish.

“Are you gonna ask her out, Uncle Adam?”

Adam wasn’t prepared to make that much of a commitment, not yet, anyway. “Uh, we’ll see.”

“I think she’d say yes,” Jazmine said brightly. “Don’t you?”

“I don’t know. Some women seem to need a man in their lives, but…” His voice trailed off; he wasn’t sure how to complete that thought.

Jazmine muttered a comment he couldn’t hear.

“Pardon?” he said.

“Just remember, she’s got issues—lots and lots of issues.”

Adam managed to stifle a chuckle. “I’ll do my best to keep that in mind. Listen, Jazz, do you feel okay now?”

“Yeah…I guess I should come out before Shana finds me in here. Oh!”

That small cry was followed by some muffled words, but he caught the drift of what was happening. Shana had just discovered where Jazmine had taken the phone.

Chapter Six

“You don’t like him, do you?” Jazmine asked the next day as they drove home from the restaurant. She sat next to Shana with her arms defiantly crossed.

Shana knew better than to pretend she didn’t understand that her niece was referring to Lieutenant Commander Adam Kennedy. “I think your uncle Adam is…nice.” The word was lame and the hesitation was long, which gave Jazmine cause to look at Shana intently. But really, what else could she say? Her unexpected attraction to this man had completely overwhelmed her. She could only hope it passed quickly. How could she be devastated by her breakup with Brad and at the same time, experience all the symptoms of extreme attraction toward another man? A man she’d met for about five minutes and been determined to dislike on sight.

“He’s really cute, too.” Jazmine seemed to feel obliged to remind her of this.

As if Shana needed a reminder.

“He is, isn’t he?” Jazmine challenged.

“All right, he’s cute.” The words nearly stuck in her throat, but with no small effort, Shana managed to get them out. She didn’t know why Jazmine was so insistent. The girl seemed to think she had a point to prove, and she wasn’t letting up until she got Shana to confess she was interested in Adam Kennedy. She wasn’t, of course. Okay, she was, but that was as far as it went. In other words, if he asked her out, which he wouldn’t, she’d refuse. Well, she might consider it briefly, but the answer would still be no.

Jazmine was suspiciously quiet for several minutes and then gave a soft laugh. “I bet you’re hot on him.”

“What?” Shana nearly swallowed her tongue. The last thing she needed was Jazmine telling Adam this. “No way,” she denied vehemently. She could only pray that wasn’t what Jazz had said to Adam in the closet.

One glance told her Jazmine didn’t buy her denial. She shouldn’t have bothered to lie.

“You’re saying that because of your old boyfriend, aren’t you?”

“Absolutely not,” Shana protested. She stepped hard on the brake at a stop sign she’d almost missed, jerking them both forward. Thank goodness for seat belts. Glaring at her niece, she asked, “Who told you that?”

Jazmine blinked wide eyes at Shana. “I overheard my mom talking to you. I wasn’t listening in on your conversation, either, if that’s what you’re thinking. I tried to find out from Mom, but all she’d tell me was that your heart was broken, and that’s why you moved to Seattle.”

Shana was too tired to argue and too emotionally drained to be upset with her sister. If Ali had told Jazmine about Brad, then it was because she felt Jazmine needed to know. “I’m completely over Brad. I’m so over him it’s hard to remember why I even got involved with him.” The words had begun to sound like a wornout litany.

“Brad,” Jazmine said, and seemed satisfied now that she knew his name.

Shana struggled to hide her reaction. Even the mention of Brad’s name irritated her. She might have worked the last twelve hours straight, and on her feet at that, but she had enough energy left to maintain her outrage toward Brad. Still, she would’ve preferred never to talk about him—or hear about him—ever again.

“You still have a heart, though,” Jazmine pressed. “Right?”

“Of course I have a heart.” Shana didn’t know where this was leading and she didn’t care, as long as it didn’t end up on the subject of Adam Kennedy.

“That’s why you’re so hot on my uncle Adam.” Darn.

“I am not hot on your uncle Adam.”

“Are too.”

“Am not.”

“Are too.”

“Jazmine!”

Her niece laughed and despite her irritation, Shana smiled. This was not a conversation she wanted to have, but she’d walked right into it and was determined to extricate herself as gracefully as possible. “Don’t get me wrong,” she said in conciliatory tones. “I think he’s a very nice man, but I don’t want to get involved with anyone at the moment. Understand?”

Jazmine bit her lower lip, as if she wanted to argue, but apparently changed her mind. “For how long?”

Shana decided to nip this question in the bud. “Forever.”

“That long?” Jazmine threw her a crushed look. “You don’t want children? That means I’ll never have cousins!”

“Okay, months and months, then.” At this point Shana was ready to agree to just about anything.

“Months,” Jazmine repeated. She seemed to accept that—or at any rate ventured no further argument.

Shana parked in front of her house, grateful to be home. “You know what? I don’t want to cook. Do you have any suggestions?”

“I can open a can of chili,” Jazmine said. “I’m not very hungry.”

Shana wasn’t all that hungry, either. “Sounds like a perfectly good dinner to me.”

“Let me do it, okay?”

“Thanks, Jazz.” Shana had no intention of turning down this generous offer. “Fabulous.” Then considering her role as guardian, she felt obliged to ask, “Do you have any homework?”

“A little.”

Now came the dilemma. A really good substitute mother would tell Jazmine to forget dinner; Shana would rustle up a decent meal while the kid did her schoolwork. A woman of character would insist on opening that can of chili herself. But not one with tired feet and the start of a throbbing headache, brought on by all this talk about Adam Kennedy.

Once inside the house, Shana left the front door open to create a cooling breeze. She lay back on the sofa and elevated her feet. It was little wonder the Olsens had been ready to sell their restaurant. This was hard work. For part of each day, Shana had her face buried in threegallon containers of ice cream. Her nose felt like she was suffering from permanent frostbite.

Jazmine immediately went into the kitchen and started shuffling pans, clanking one against the other. “Do you need any help?” Shana felt she had to ask, but the question was halfhearted, to say the least.

“No, thanks.”

“This is really very sweet of you.”

Jazmine grumbled a reply and Shana realized she’d failed again. A kid like Jazmine, who wore ankle-high tennis shoes to school, didn’t take kindly to the word sweet. Sooner or later, Shana would need to develop a more appropriate vocabulary. Later, she decided.

A good ten minutes passed and if not for the sounds coming from the kitchen, Shana would be napping by now. Her head rested against the cushion, her feet were propped up and all was well. For the first time since she’d arrived, Jazmine was talking freely with her. She wasn’t sure whether she should credit Adam Kennedy with this improvement or not. She’d rather think she was making strides in her relationship with her niece due to her own efforts.

“Uncle Adam says you need a man in your life.”

Her peace shattered, and Shana’s eyes sprang open. She sat up, swung around and dropped her feet to the floor. “What did you just say?”

Jazmine appeared in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room, wearing a chagrined expression. “I…Uncle Adam said you’re the kind of woman who needs a man in her life.”

That did it. She’d utterly humiliated herself in front of him, and he thought…he assumed she was making some kind of play for him. This was the worst possible scenario.

“Shana?” Jazmine whispered. “You look mad.”

She wondered if the smoke coming out of her ears was any indication. “That’s ludicrous!”

“I’m pretty sure he meant it as a compliment.” Shana doubted it, but gave her niece credit for some fast backtracking.

“He thinks you’re beautiful.”

He did? Although it shouldn’t have mattered, his comment gave Shana pause. “He said that?”

Jazmine hesitated. “Well, not exactly.”

Okay, then. “Listen, it’s not a good idea for us to talk about your uncle Adam right now.” When she saw him next, she’d have plenty to say, though.

“You don’t want to talk about him?”

“Nope.” The kid was catching on fast.

“You don’t want to talk about Brad, either.”

Right again. “You could say men aren’t my favorite topic at the moment.”

“I guess not,” Jazmine said pensively. “I won’t mention either of them if that’s what you want.”

“I want.” Her serenity gone, Shana gave up the idea of resting and joined Jazmine in the kitchen. Her niece’s backpack was propped against the kitchen chair; she seemed to keep it close at all times.

Despite her intentions to the contrary, Shana gave the sexy lieutenant commander plenty of thought. What she had to do was keep her distance. She would be polite and accommodating if he wanted to spend time with Jazmine, but other than that, she’d be cool and remote. Never again would she allow him the opportunity to suggest that she needed a man—least of all him.

Jazmine stirred the chili with her back to Shana. “I probably shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Shana was eager to drop the subject.

“You’re not mad, are you?”

“Not anymore,” Shana assured her.

“You look mad.”

“I’m not,” she said.

“Are too.”

“Am not.”

“Are too.”

“Am not.”

They both broke out laughing. Obviously Jazz remembered that this childish interchange had amused her earlier, and she wasn’t above repeating it.

Shana had to admit it felt good to laugh with her niece; it was almost like having her sister there. Jazmine was a petite version of Ali and after she’d lowered her guard, they got along well.

Shana wondered if she should clarify her position in case Adam asked Jazmine about her again or made some other ridiculous statement. No, she decided. She’d enlighten him herself.

“You know you’re not getting any younger,” Jazmine said out of the blue.

Once Shana got over her shock, she had to acknowledge that the kid was ruthless in achieving her goals. She went directly for the jugular. But Shana kept her response light. “After a day like this one, that’s certainly true.”

On Saturday morning, Jazmine agreed to come down to the ice-cream parlor with her. In fact, Shana had no choice but to bring her. Catherine, her employee, wouldn’t be in until that afternoon.

At this point Catherine was only part-time, but with the summer traffic, business was picking up and she’d need a second part-time employee. As the season progressed and the parlor was open later in the evening, she’d add more staff. The Olsens had told her that her biggest expense would be the staff payroll and warned her not to hire more people than she needed. Shana had taken their words to heart, doing as much as she could herself.

“Can I bring my Rollerblades?” Jazmine asked, standing in the doorway of her bedroom.

“Sure.” Shana hated the thought of Jazmine hanging around the restaurant all day with nothing to do. Since Lincoln Park was directly across the street, there’d be plenty of paved sidewalks for her to skate. It would be a good opportunity to meet other girls her age, too.

By noon the parlor was crowded. Shana worked the pizza side and Catherine, a grandmotherly woman in her early sixties, dealt with the ice-cream orders. Catherine had been recommended by the Olsens and was great with kids. Shana had already learned a lot from her.

A young red-haired man with two children about three and five came in and ordered a vegetarian pizza and sodas. While Shana assembled the pizza, she watched the man with his kids, admiring the way he entertained them with inventive games.

Jazmine rolled into the parlor, stopped to take off her skates and before long was deep in conversation with the father and his two kids. Shana couldn’t hear what was being said, but she saw the man glance in her direction and nod.

A couple of minutes later, Jazmine joined Shana in the kitchen, which was open to the main part of the restaurant.

“Hi,” Shana said, sliding the hot pizza from the oven onto the metal pan. As she sliced it, the scent of the tomato sauce and cheese and oregano wafted toward her.

“He’s single.”

“Who?” Shana asked distractedly as she set the pizza on the counter. “Do you want to take this out to the guy with the kids?” she asked.

“Can I?” Jazmine beamed at being asked to help out.

Her niece carefully carried the pizza to the table and brought extra napkins. She chatted with the man and his children for a few more minutes, then hurried back to Shana, who was busy preparing additional pizzas. “He asked me to introduce you.”

“What?”

Jazmine’s eyes widened with impatience. “I was telling you earlier. He’s divorced and he wants to meet you.”

“Who? The guy over there with the kids?”

“Do you see any other guy in here?”

The restaurant had any number of patrons at the moment, but the young father was the only man—and the only customer looking in her direction. He saluted her with a pizza slice.

Flustered, Shana whirled around and glared at Jazmine. “Exactly what did you say to him?”

“Me? I didn’t say anything—well, I did mention that you broke up with Brad, but that was only because he asked. He said he’s been in here before.”

Shana didn’t remember him.

“I told him that my uncle Adam said you’re the kind of woman who needs a man in your life.”

Shana’s heart stopped. “You didn’t!”

“No.” Jazmine hooted with laughter. “But I thought it would get a rise out of you.”

The kid seemed to think she was being funny, but Shana wasn’t laughing.

“Are you interested? Because if you are, let’s go say hello to him. If you’re not, it’s no big deal.”

Shana needed to think about this. “Promise me you didn’t tell him I’m single.”

“I did, and I said you were looking for a husband,” Jazmine said gleefully. “You don’t mind, do you?”

Shana felt the blood drain out of her face. Slowly turning her head, she saw the father still watching her. She jerked around again and noticed that Jazmine was grinning from ear to ear.

“Gotcha,” she said and doubled over laughing.

Shana was glad someone found her embarrassment amusing.