Noah And The Stork. Penny McCusker

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ into trouble—and if she was anything like her mother, she got into plenty of trouble. It was a sobering thought, considering the situation. “Well, first off, I didn’t know about you.”

      “Mom said.”

      “When I left town, it was just the two of us.”

      “Didn’t you like her anymore? If you sleep with someone, you should like them. Or use a condom.”

      If she’d wanted to shock him, she’d succeeded. His mouth was open, but nothing came out except a strangled sort of sigh.

      “I learned that in school. In health class. Condoms prevent…some sort of diseases and unwanted pregnancies. That’s me, right?” She raised her chin and met his gaze head-on.

      She was all but daring him to lie to her. Or maybe she was daring him to tell her the truth. “Um…Your mom—”

      “Mom tells me all the time that she wouldn’t trade me for anything in the world, and I believe her. She never lies—or hardly ever, and then she always has a good reason.” Jessie frowned. “Even if she doesn’t say what it is.”

      “I thought I heard voices.”

      They both looked over and saw Janey leaning in the doorway. Noah could’ve kissed her, and not simply because the sight of her did things to him he should have outgrown ten years ago—although that would be reason enough.

      Her hair was tousled, her eyes sleepy. She crossed her arms under her breasts, which just about killed him. He would’ve preferred something lacy and revealing to the loose midthigh-length T-shirt she was wearing, but apparently his hormones weren’t very discriminating. Janey in a gunny sack probably would’ve gotten him revved up.

      A glance at Jessie was all it took to cool him down again.

      “What are you doing in here?” Janey asked her daughter.

      “Talking to him.” Jessie crossed her arms in a miniature copy of her mother’s stance that gave Noah a pang he didn’t want to examine too closely.

      “She’s after an explanation,” he supplied helpfully.

      “You won’t be getting one,” Janey said to her. “Why doesn’t matter anymore. Where we go from here does.” She glanced at Noah, then quickly away. “First we all need to get dressed.”

      “I’m already dressed,” Jessie pointed out.

      “In yesterday’s clothes. Go wash your face, brush your teeth and put on something clean.” Janey shooed Jessie from the room, following her out into the hallway.

      Noah called her back.

      Janey took a minute to watch Jessie disappear into her room, feet dragging the whole way, before she turned back. She should’ve gone with Jessie—that was all she could think. Noah had swung his legs over the side of the bed, covers be damned, and now that Jessie was gone, it was just too easy to let her mind—and her eyes—stray. And really, it was his fault for sitting there all bare, except for a pair of blue boxers. Silk boxers. His legs were tanned and muscular, peppered with dark hair; so was his chest, but her gaze kept straying back to those boxers. Who’d ever have thought silk could be so clingy? Who’d ever have thought he’d be so—

      Dangerous.

      She’d walked behind his chair to put his dinner on the table last night and been caught by the scent of him, fresh from the shower. He’d used her shampoo and soap, but on him it had smelled different, the familiar fragrances tangled with some wild and unpredictable aroma that defied description. All she knew was what it did to her. And what it did to her was unacceptable.

      She had no business being attracted to Noah Bryant after all these years and all the pain he’d caused her. Not to mention Jessie.

      “You need to get dressed, too. If know my daughter, she’ll be ready in record time and I don’t think you want her to see you like that.”

      “Our daughter.”

      She held his eyes, despite the fact that her heart lurched over hearing him say that. “You’re right, biologically speaking. I wonder if you can make it true in any of the ways that really count?”

      “But you’re afraid I can, and that you’ll lose part of her to me.”

      “I’m surprised you care what I’m feeling, Noah.”

      “But you’re not denying it.”

      Because she was very much afraid he was right. It wasn’t that she didn’t want Jessie to have a father, but it had been just the two of them for so long. The idea of having to send her daughter off to live with Noah on summer vacations made Janey want to throw up. And what holidays could she stand to miss with Jessie? Even Arbor Day seemed to hold a special meaning suddenly, and as for Christmas or Thanksgiving, what would be the point if she was alone?

      “Jessie is all that matters,” he said.

      She hated him in that moment, hated him for coming back and turning her world upside down again, for leaving her ten years ago, for moving to town in the first place. Especially, she hated him for showing her what should’ve been her first concern. But the guilt was stronger. “She deserves to make up her own mind about you. And, believe me, she has a mind of her own.”

      Noah gave her a crooked smile. “Now why is that so easy to believe?”

      “Because it’s the truth.”

      He dropped his gaze, exhaled heavily. “You weren’t kidding, were you? You didn’t tell her anything about me—”

      “There was nothing to tell.”

      “—and you didn’t tell me anything about her,” he finished. “You’re going to make us get to know each other without bogging us down with your opinions.” He looked up at her, and what she saw in his eyes was more eloquent than whatever he might have said.

      “Get dressed,” she said gruffly, refusing to let his respect and admiration mean anything to her. “You’ve got fifteen minutes.”

      That made him smile, full and wide and just as irreverently as when he’d been a kid and the black sheep of the entire town. “And if it takes me sixteen?”

      She returned his smile, but there was no amusement in her eyes. “I’ve still got your keys.”

      “COME ON, Bryant,” Janey yelled up the stairs. “Get it in gear.”

      From her seat at the kitchen table, Jessie heard Noah shout down, “I thought you were kidding about the fifteen minutes.”

      “I have to be out of here, like, now.”

      Noah’s okay floated down the stairs, and her mom came back into the kitchen. She stopped in front of the sink and stood there a minute, staring off at nothing with a goofy expression on her face.

      Jessie rolled her eyes, thinking, jeez, adults are weird. “Uh, Mom, do you want me to finish making my lunch?”

      “No,” Janey said, stepping to the counter by the fridge. СКАЧАТЬ