A Man to Believe In (4 page)

Son of a gun. She’d talked to Marsha that morning before she’d left for work, and her friend hadn’t mentioned a single word about this, probably because she was too busy telling Cori everything she’d learned about the pirate. Thanks to Marsha, she now knew his name—Jake Tanner; his age—thirty-seven; his occupation—owner of his own construction company and, most important, his marital status—single, much to Marsha’s delight.

“First prize, my a-ankle,” Cori muttered, glancing down at the tickets.

In the first place, she’d been with Marsha the day she’d purchased several not-too-expensive bottles of champagne to use as prizes for the party games.
Clearly, she’d switched prizes at the last minute, when she’d discovered Cori and Jake had won the game. How she’d come to have such expensive tickets was anyone’s guess.

In the second place, Marsha knew darned well that Cori would have the devil’s own time passing up an opportunity to see her favorite ballet, which was precisely why
this
prize was the perfect enticement—not matchmaking, Marsha would insist—to get Cori to go out with this man. And for a second she was tempted to say to heck with it and go.

Then she looked at Jake.

Last night, while she’d tossed and turned her way through countless sleepless hours, she’d decided the best thing for her to do was to stay away from him. The way her heart pounded out of control every time she looked at him told her she’d made a sensible decision. Something about this man made him hard for her to resist, and warned her he could easily become a giant distraction she couldn’t afford. Not now, not when she needed to concentrate all her time and energy on the grand opening of her bookstore the first of December.

Slowly, she tucked the tickets back into the envelope, then handed them to Jake. “You keep the tickets,” she said. “I’m sure you won’t have any trouble finding someone to go with you.”

“I want to go with you.”

“I’m sorry, but I really can’t make it.”

“Why not?”

Before she could come up with a logical reason for turning him down, he took her hand and started for
the door, pulling her along behind him. She decided he might not be dressed like a pirate today, but he was still acting like one. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m taking you to lunch. We can get something to eat and discuss our tickets at the same time.”

“I can’t go to lunch now.” She pulled her hand free and stopped.

He turned to face her. “Sure you can. The note on your desk said your lunch hour started”—he glanced at his watch—“two minutes ago.”

Cori cursed her conscientious habit of writing herself notes. “But … I don’t even know you.”

Jake took a step backward, swept an imaginary hat from his head, and bent at the waist in a gallant bow. “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is—”

“Jake Tanner. That much I know.”

“Ah-ha. You went to the trouble of finding out.” He crossed his arms in front of him and grinned, looking rather pleased with himself.

Cori shook her head and waved the idea away with a flick of her wrist. “I asked Marsha your name so I could see if you had any overdue library books.”

Still smiling, he nodded his head thoughtfully. “Then you know I have a clean record, so could we go to lunch now?”

Cori decided Jake Tanner was the most tenacious man she had ever met. That observation, coupled with the fact that she’d run out of excuses, told her she had no choice. Besides, she was starving, and if they didn’t get going right away, she’d miss her lunch hour entirely.

“Oh, all right,” she said. “Let’s get some lunch.”

“Great.” He took her hand again and made for the door before she had a chance to reconsider.

“But I pick the restaurant,” she informed him as they left the library. “And if you try anything funny, I’ll flatten you faster than Godzilla flattened Tokyo. You got that?”

“Yes, ma’am. I give you my word I’ll be on my best behavior.”

“I have an awful feeling I’ve already seen your best behavior,” she muttered as they headed for the parking lot. “We’d better take your car. Mine’s been temperamental lately.”

With military crispness Jake saluted. “You’re the boss. My truck’s right here.” He pointed to a black pickup truck.

At least she thought it was black. The dirt made it hard to know for sure. Dried mud had splashed up from the oversize tires, covering the hood, the doors, and most of the windows. Cori shuddered. Her convertible was old, the paint long past its prime, but she’d always kept it meticulously clean. How could anyone let a vehicle, even a truck, get so filthy?

Jake opened the door for her and she climbed in, careful to avoid the mud on the sill plate. When he started up the engine and pulled out of the parking space, she peered out of a clean spot on the windshield.

“Sorry about the truck,” he said when he caught her doubtful expression. “I use it for work.”

“What do you do for a living? Supply the dirt for mud wrestlers?”

Jake threw back his head and laughed, apparently not the least bit insulted by her remark.

Cori drummed her fingers on the table as she pretended to look over the menu printed on the place mat in front of her. The red and white checkered tablecloth muted the sound of her short nails as they connected with the hard surface, but her agitated mood rang through loud and clear.

“You’ve been here before, haven’t you?”

Jake’s eyes glinted mischievously. “Is it a hanging offense?”

His lighthearted response instantly disarmed her anger. She’d chosen Butch’s Barbecue Pit because she was a regular there—as if that fact would give her some sort of home-team advantage—but her strategy had been knocked out of the ball park the moment they walked in the door. Three of the five waitresses had greeted the opposing team by name.

“No, it’s not any kind of offense,” she conceded, feeling foolish for thinking she needed a game plan in the first place. It was only lunch, for heaven’s sake. “I just thought I’d introduce you to the best barbecue in town, but it looks as though you already know about the place.”

“I sure do,” he admitted as a petite woman with curly, white hair set two glasses and a pitcher of iced tea down on the table. “My family’s been coming here for years. Isn’t that right, Harriet?”

Cori watched in silence as her favorite waitress slipped one thin arm around Jake’s shoulders and gave him a familiar hug.

“Of course, darlin’.” With an agreeable smile Harriet released Jake and fished into her apron pocket for her order pad and pencil. “Your baby sister was in here just yesterday. She ordered a deluxe ham sandwich on a French roll—”

“With french fries and baked beans, just as she always does,” Jake chimed in, laughing along with Harriet.

A pang of jealousy sliced through Cori at Jake’s mention of his family. Quietly, she listened as Harriet quizzed Jake about his mother and sisters. As he spoke, something in his voice caught her attention. The soft, loving quality there told her he cared for them a great deal. That was nice. The man was aggressive, pushy even, but he appreciated his family.

“What’ll you have, Cori honey?”

Harriet’s question interrupted Cori’s thoughts just as her stomach growled, a sharp reminder that she’d skipped breakfast.

“I’ll have a deluxe barbecued beef sandwich,” she announced, her mouth watering at the prospect of all those crunchy french fries and a mound of creamy coleslaw. Jake dittoed her order.

Harriet turned away, then turned back abruptly. “I hope I’m not telling tales out of school,” she whispered, leaning so close to Jake that her springy curls brushed his cheek. “But that man Susie came in here with yesterday sure was a handsome devil.
Made me wish I were several years younger, I tell you.” She smiled and winked. “Might be Susie’s finally found someone special, huh?” Before Jake could comment, Harriet turned and sailed toward the kitchen.

Cori watched a scowl spread over Jake’s rugged features. So, Harriet’s teasing remark had hit a nerve. Was Susie the black sheep of the family? she wondered. Or did Jake simply hate the thought of a man dating his baby sister?

“Tell me about your family,” she prodded, her curiosity aroused.

Jake sucked in a deep breath and curved his mouth into a broad smile as he thought of his sisters. Other men might view family responsibilities as a burden, but he saw them as a blessing. Yes, even when he was called on to protect Susie from yet another good-looking man with a no doubt overactive libido.

“Susie’s the youngest, and the hardest to handle,” he began. “Rather spoiled, I have to admit. She was just a baby when Dad—” Jake looked away for a few seconds. When his eyes met Cori’s, she saw no trace of the humor she’d seen a minute ago. “When our father deserted the family almost twenty years ago. Since then, I’ve been like a father to her.” He smiled sheepishly. “Somehow I’ve managed to be overindulgent and overprotective at the same time.”

Cori sighed softly, remembering a time when she’d have given anything to have had an older brother to lean on. Now she knew how dangerous it was to
become so dependent on someone, but years ago she’d felt differently.

“Susie was lucky to have you.”

“Mention that to her when you meet her, will you?” Jake suggested with a chuckle. “She doesn’t always appreciate my brotherly concern, says I’m bossy and overbearing.”

“You?” Cori teased.

His eyes widened. “Can you imagine?”

She found herself laughing, but her sympathies were still with Susie. She had known Jake for only a matter of hours, but she’d learned he wasn’t the type to relinquish control easily. He’d taken charge of things from the moment they’d met, signaling the start of their charade without a word to her, trying to drag her to lunch without even asking her. She had no trouble picturing the battles Susie and Jake must have had as Susie had been growing up.

“Bossy and overbearing, huh?” she said, appearing to consider the appropriateness of those character traits. “Susie may have a point there.” She smiled, enjoying the uncomfortable look on his face. “Any more siblings?”

“Yep, two more. Mary’s five years younger than I am. She’s thirty-two, widowed, with three little kids.”

“Widowed? Already?”

Jake turned his head and glanced out the window at the traffic on Walnut Avenue. “It was pretty tough on her for a while, but she’s learned to adjust.”

Cori gave him a sympathetic smile. “And your third sister?”

“Elizabeth. She’s twenty-eight, married, with a
baby.” Jake took a long drink of his iced tea and refilled their glasses. “They don’t need me so much anymore, but for quite a few years there I had my hands full.”

When Martin Tanner disappeared a few days after Jake had graduated from high school, Jake immediately canceled his plans to go away to college, he explained. He enrolled in night classes at Glendale Community College, and spent his days working for his grandfather at Tanner Construction. “I wasn’t about to leave my mother alone to take care of two young girls and a three-month-old baby.”

Cori was momentarily stunned. “That’s a very mature attitude for someone so young.”

“I was old enough to know that a man is supposed to take care of his family, and that’s what I did.” He took several long swallows of tea, looking as if he needed to wash a bad taste from his mouth. “What about you? Do you have any family?”

Cori thought about her father, who’d died in a car accident when she was ten years old, and her mother, whom she hadn’t spoken with in months and who now lived in New York with her latest husband. And she thought about the endless series of stepfathers she’d known over the years. Family?

“Not really,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders, then glanced briefly at the couple sitting at the next table.

Jake noted the intentionally vague response. As far as he was concerned, either you had a family or you didn’t, but it was obvious that Cori didn’t feel the same way. He would have liked to question her
further, but decided not to push the subject. Obviously she wasn’t ready to discuss something so personal. He was willing to wait until she was.

A moment later Harriet arrived with two plates heaped with food.

Jake slowly chewed a bite of his own sandwich and watched in fascination as Cori licked the sauce off her fingers with enthusiasm. She looked so different today.

The luscious red-gold hair he’d run his hands through was swept back into a sensible-looking ponytail that made her appear as fresh and innocent as a teenager. The provocative tavern maid’s costume had been replaced by conservative street clothes, with a bulky sweater now hiding her soft curves from him. No matter. He remembered them well, and that memory was responsible for one hell of a restless night. His gaze flickered over her face, taking in the faint shadows under her eyes. He wondered if she’d had trouble sleeping last night as well. Maybe that was why she’d snapped at him when he’d shown up at the library. Jake took a forkful of coleslaw and chewed thoughtfully. More likely, she’d been shocked to find him there, and had tried to mask her surprise. He had to hand it to her. She’d recovered quickly.

And she’d almost gotten away again.

He watched her swirl a french fry in catsup before slipping it into her mouth. To look at her now, he’d never believe she’d been so ticked off a little while ago. One minute full of spit and fire, the next, relaxed and happy. A sure sign of a passionate
woman, he decided, thinking there’d never be a dull moment with her. Pleased with his conclusion, Jake smiled.

Cori chose that moment to look up at him.

“What’s so amusing?” she asked.

Still smiling, Jake shook his head. “Nothing.” He paused, noticing the way a strand of hair had fallen over one of her eyes. With effort he resisted the temptation to brush it out of the way for her. “But it’s a darn good thing I came by when I did. You might have starved to death.”

Cori glanced down at her plate, then over to his, comparing her three french fries and forkful of coleslaw to his still-crowded plate. She set her fork down, sat up straight, and crossed her hands in front of her on the table.

“I guess I was hungry. Even so, you didn’t have to try and drag me out of the library. You could have asked me to have lunch with you.”