The Bride Said, 'Finally!'. Cathy Thacker Gillen

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СКАЧАТЬ were two very different things. “I’ll just bet you do,” she replied. Grabbing a clear plastic garment bag, she slipped it over a wedding dress on the overhead rack.

      “I need you to make a complete wardrobe.”

      Jenna knelt and gently folded the edges of the beaded satin gown into the bag. “I don’t design men’s clothing.” And even if she did, she wouldn’t design anything for him!

      Jake also knelt to help, holding the bottom of the bag straight. “It’s for the lady in my life.”

      Resisting the urge to deck him, Jenna zipped the garment bag closed. “Now I’m really not interested.”

      Jake stood, and hand beneath her elbow, gallantly helped Jenna to her feet. “I’ll do anything you want.”

      Still tingling from his brief, but sure touch, Jenna carried the gown back to the storeroom. Wishing her heart would stop pounding and resume its normal beat, she carefully hung the gown on the rack. “I’m still not interested, Jake.” To her dismay, Jake showed no signs of leaving despite her less-than-gracious hints.

      He moved back to let her pass and continued speaking as if she had already agreed to accommodate him. “The thing is, it’s a rush job.”

      Her exasperation mounting by leaps and bounds, Jenna strode back out into the carpeted showroom. She went to the desk behind the sales counter and reached for her Rolodex. “I’ll give you some names and send you on your way.”

      “I don’t want anyone else. I want you.”

      “Too bad,” Jenna replied, forcing herself to remember how much he had hurt her instead of how very well he kissed, “because you’re never going to have me.” Ever again.

      Jake quirked a brow. Desire, pure and simple, was in his eyes. “Don’t make promises you may not be able to keep.”

      Her temper flaring, Jenna poked a finger at his chest. “And don’t you presume to know what is in my heart or on my mind.”

      Outside, a red sport utility vehicle with tinted windows pulled up to the curb and parked just ahead of Jake’s charcoal gray truck and Jenna’s sporty white convertible.

      Obviously perturbed by the interruption, Jake glanced at his watch and frowned. “She’s early.”

      Like that matters! Jenna thought, incensed.

      Unable to believe his audacity, never mind his lack of consideration for her feelings, Jenna turned to Jake furiously. “You are so out of here,” she said just as the driver alighted from the truck. To Jenna’s amazement, it wasn’t some glamorous young babe Jake was dating, but a plump, pleasant-looking woman in her mid to late fifties, wearing jeans, boots and blue denim work shirt. She had a straw cowgirl hat pulled over wild salt-and-pepper curls and a red bandana tied around her neck. She walked to the rear door on the passenger side. Realizing this woman was only the chauffeur, Jenna began to frown again.

      Jake moved between Jenna and the window, adeptly blocking her view. He tugged her behind a three-mannequin display of evening wear in the boutique window. Meanwhile, though the chauffeur had opened the passenger door and was holding it wide, no one was getting out.

      “Look, I’m begging you,” Jake said urgently. He clamped both his hands on Jenna’s shoulders and held her there in front of him when she would have bolted. “Alex’s been through a really rough time. When she saw your designs on TV she fell in love with them. I promised her I’d get you to design her some dresses, just for her. Exactly what she wants. Down to the very last detail.”

      Finding his request more unbelievable than ever, Jenna snapped at him, “So break the promise. That’s certainly not anything you’ve hesitated to do before.”

      Reminded of the heartless way he had betrayed her in the past, he showed a moment’s regret. Then, recovering, he went on matter-of-factly. “It’s not that simple, Jenna.”

      Jenna scoffed again. “It is to me. Besides, I have confidence in you,” she continued sweetly, favoring him with a long, withering look. “You’ll think of something, Jake. You always have.”

      The driver turned to Jake and lifted her hands in exasperation. Jake nodded his understanding signaling the driver to wait.

      “I’ll double your usual fee,” Jake said urgently, fastening his attention on Jenna once again.

      Jenna shook her head, thinking, This man really needs to have his head examined. “No!”

      “Triple.”

      Jenna rolled her eyes. “You must really be desperate.”

      Jake muttered, lifting one hand from her shoulder and, rubbing the back of his neck. “You have no idea how much.”

      Jenna wasn’t sure whether to tell Jake what she really thought of him, or just pity him. “Find some other ex-girlfriend to torture,” she said in a low, bored tone.

      Jake dropped his other hand, stepped back. Where he had gripped her shoulders, Jenna continued to tingle warmly. Too warmly.

      “There is no one else,” he said, dispirited.

      Looking into his mesmerizing silver-gray eyes, still feeling the awareness that shimmered through her at his touch, Jenna could almost—almost—believe that. Which only proved that once a fool, always a fool, she reprimanded herself. “No one else who knows how to operate a sewing machine, you mean,” she replied archly.

      Without warning, the limo driver snapped to attention once again. Sensing something was about to happen, Jake and Jenna both looked in the direction of the car. Seconds later, Jake’s “lady” vaulted out, clutching what looked to be a squirming bullfrog in both hands. She was muddy, unkempt, with a baseball hat planted backwards on her head, covering a mop of long and tangled strawberry blond hair that obviously hadn’t seen a brush all day. Olive-green overalls and a dingy T-shirt, several sizes too big, hung from her slender figure. She wore pink-rimmed sunglasses, high-topped basketball sneakers. A backpack in the form of a monkey was slung over one shoulder. Relief and amusement—and irritation at Jake for not having explained further—flowed through Jenna in equal quantities, making her want to deck him all over again.

      “This is the lady in your life?” Jenna asked, guessing the little girl’s age to be about five or six.

      “The one and only,” Jake smiled as the little scamp marched toward him. Jake turned to Jenna, sexy mischief in his eyes. “What did you think I meant?”

      Too late, Jenna realized it had been a test, to see if she still had feelings for him, and she had failed. Hardening her heart against any further involvement with him, she said, “I don’t design children’s clothing, either.”

      Outside, the chauffeur waved cheerfully at Jenna, gestured to Jake she’d be back in a minute, then took off down the street after she ushered the child toward the shop.

      “I was hoping you’d make an exception for Alexandra, here,” Jake continued as the child sidled up to him for a one-armed hug.

      “That’s okay, Daddy.” Alexandra leaned against Jake’s side, her head resting against his waist. “I didn’t want any dresses anyway. And stop calling me Alexandra. You know I only wanta be СКАЧАТЬ