Playing For Keeps. Karen Templeton

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      Chapter 5

      Great, Joanna thought. The kids were here, but the play set wasn’t finished. Once again, a man had made a promise he hadn’t kept. Except then Joanna walked out onto the back patio as the boys let out gleeful shrieks at their first glimpse of the set, and she thought, So what? What was important here? That her kids were happy, or that everything went according to her schedule?

      And happy they were, bouncing around like a pair of fleas and bombarding Dale with a million questions. Neither twin had ever been the slightest bit shy about talking to strangers, which had been a constant source of worry to her when they were younger. That this particular stranger posed no threat to her sons was of little comfort, since she was the one in danger—from the way his expression lit up when the boys flew across the yard, his laughter as he hoisted them up into the fort.

      Her stomach flip-flopped at the still-warm memory of her and Karleen’s conversation.

      Talk about the power of suggestion. Left to her own devices, Joanna would never consider actually doing anything about her attraction to Dale. What would have been the point? But then Karleen’d had to go and mess with her head and make her think she needed something she didn’t, like the time she’d talked Joanna into buying a pair of boots she’d ended up wearing exactly once.

      What a perfectly good waste of lust that had been.

      Just as this would be.

      “You’re staring,” Karleen said behind her, making her jump.

      “Am not.”

      “Are, too.”

      “Go to hell.”

      That got what, from anyone else, would have been a cackle. From Karleen, who still had smoker’s voice even though she’d given it up five years ago, the sound was more like what an engine did when it didn’t want to turn over. “Looks like he’s good with kids.”

      “I should hope so. Considering he owns a toy store.”

      “Yeah, well, remember Mr. Salazar? Our Driver’s Ed teacher? The one who hated to drive?”

      “Karleen, you can’t make opposing points in the same observation.”

      “Speaking of points,” Karleen said, nodding toward the boys who were storming back toward Joanna at full tilt. Grinning, they wrapped all four arms around Joanna’s hips. Matt muttered a quick, “Thanks,” then took off again, leaving Ryder still clamped to her.

      “This is the best birthday ever! Thanks, Mom!”

      If it had been up to her, she would have told the kids outright the set came from her mother, but Glynnie had insisted they think it came from Bobby and her. Why it was okay for the kids to think their parents were spoiling them, but not their grandparents, was something Joanna had never understood. Especially considering the million and one Christmas gifts that appeared under the tree every year clearly labeled “From Geegee and Gramps.”

      She smoothed back Ryder’s wild hair, then looked up to catch Dale watching them and thought, Oh, God, no. Not the lost-soul look. A flush blossomed across her skin, from all sorts of things. Surprise and consternation and, yes, dammit, arousal.

      “You’re welcome, sugar pie,” she said, unhooking both her eyeballs and hormones from Dale and hugging close the small body that belonged to her. A slightly let-down feeling that this would probably be the last “little kids” birthday trickled through. By next year, who knew what the boys would be into?

      Ryder took off, leaving his warmth imprinted on her skin, underneath the cotton sweater she’d put on. Her arms folded, her gaze followed his path back to the play set.

      And Dale. Who was still watching her.

      Karleen sniggered beside her.

      “What’s so damn funny?”

      “The way you two are playing pass-the-eyeball, for one thing. And if you dare tell me you’re not enjoying having a hunk like that gawk at you, I’m calling the undertaker, ’cause you must be dead.”

      A good three or four seconds later Joanna said, “I’m not dead.”

      Karleen let out a sigh of what sounded like relief, only to then СКАЧАТЬ