Jace was sizing up the work to be done on the eastern wall. This was crazy, it really was. Why was he willing to put in so much work on a house that wasn’t his? It wasn’t as if things were really steamy between the two of them.
Take what happened last night, after they’d come home from Pa and Ma Handy’s: sandwiches and a glass of wine in the kitchen. What had she expected? Steamy kisses? More of that passion she knew was so near to the surface? But he’d made no move to touch her. He’d yawned, and said it was time to turn in. Well, she wasn’t going to beg him to stay up with her, was she? Of course not. She wasn’t going to put her arms around him and kiss him again, just the way she had done before. Certainly not. Not when he showed nothing but indifference.
They’d climbed the steps toward their bedrooms. Five sleepy dogs followed.
“Like a shepherd with his flock,” Jace had said lightly.
Alice’s heart had been beating wildly with the intimacy of the simple act of walking up the steps together in the dark of the night. But when they were finally on the landing, Jace had simply bent over her, kissed her gently on the forehead. A nice gesture. A friendly one. The gesture of one good chum to another.
“Good night, Alice.”
She had stared up at him, but he’d looked calm and mild. And impersonal.
“Good night, Jace,” she’d managed to say, also keeping her voice polite, cool, calm. Not betraying the craving raging through her, not giving away her confusion.
“Sleep well.”
“You too.”
He’d turned and, with a little half wave, gone into his room; and she’d walked down the long corridor leading to her room, her heart heavy.
So that was it, then. She’d ruined everything. It had been entirely her fault. She was the one who had invented the totally fictional romance with Brad the rancher. Just because she’d been jealous of an unknown woman named Tanya.
Or perhaps that wasn’t the reason Jace seemed so indifferent. Perhaps he’d decided he didn’t want her anymore; that a lightning-quick affair with her just wasn’t worth all the effort. So why did she feel so miserable? Isn’t this what she’d asked for? Demanded, even! She should be grateful. And relieved. Danger had been avoided.
Then why was Jace out there again this morning? Why was he still working on her house? What would he get out of this? She had to know.
She stepped out into the yard. “Look, Jace, how about if I help?”
Jace looked up from the wood he was contemplating. “I don’t need your help. Two people doing this would constitute a crowd.” He bent over one of the boards, measured it.
Alice continued to stand there, watching the way his body moved. There was a slight tear in his jeans. Why did she have the sudden impulse to move in closer, lean down and touch his leg, just there. Feel his skin between the slits of fabric? She couldn’t miss the way his muscles worked either. His arms in the rolled back sleeves were smooth, strong, looking wonderful.
Stop drooling.
“Jace, I can’t let you do this alone! It makes me feel so guilty.”
He looked up from what he was doing. Looked at her more closely. “That soft red sweater suits you,” he said mildly. “You look good.”
She waited, her heart thudding. Waited for more. Waited for him to step in her direction.
He didn’t. He simply looked down again, went on measuring. “Why should you feel guilty, Alice? Did it ever cross your mind that I like doing this? That I’m actually having fun? I haven’t done anything like this for years, not since my student days when I spent a whole summer helping a friend restore a rotten Victorian wreck of a house. Now I realize how much I’ve missed using my hands to construct something.”
She had to be satisfied with the answer. Either that, or just stand here gaping at him and wringing her hands, feeling perfectly foolish. And lusting after the man. Wishing that one of them would dare make the first move toward some intimacy.
• • •
“Attractive new habit you’ve picked up. Just what any elegant woman needs.” Rose Badger wrinkled her fine little nose and groaned. “Alice, sweetie, since when have you been a nail-biter? Refusing to wear nail polish is one thing, but destroying your look is another neurosis altogether.”
Alice jumped in her seat. She hadn’t even been aware that she had been chewing on her thumb. She contemplated the damage, and then shrugged. “I don’t suppose that one half-eaten nail is going to dramatically change my so-called ‘look’ very much.”
Rose sighed, raised the huge bowl full of mashed avocado she was mixing. “Perhaps an avocado face mask would work wonders?”
“Is that what you’re planning to do with that mess?”
“Mess? I’ll have you know this is a one hundred percent true beauty bomb. Lance is taking me dancing tonight.”
“Lance?” Alice raised her eyebrows, momentarily intrigued. “Lance Potter? Is he still in the picture? I thought you’d pretty well run him out of town with a double-barreled lipstick tube.”
“Alice, dear,” said Rose, infinite patience in her voice. “This is the civilized state of Nevada, not the Wild West. Actually,” she smiled cunningly, “it doesn’t do a man any harm to show him he’s not indispensable. As far as I can guess, no woman ever walked out on Lance before.” She snorted. “If they had, he’d have learned how to behave long ago.”
“So it’s working?” asked Alice with a smile.
“Let’s say I’m letting myself be spoiled rotten. Flowers, the works.” Rose looked very pleased with herself.
Alice’s eyes opened wide. “Flowers in Blake’s Folly? I am impressed.” Then she hunched back in her seat and sighed longingly.
Rose’s eyes narrowed. “How are things going with that sexy, passionate lodger of yours?”
“Passionate? Don’t let your imagination run away with you.”
“Am I? You’ve been sitting here, in my living room, not saying a word for over half an hour. Whenever I ask you a question, you look blank, as if you’re a thousand miles away. That’s not normal behavior, not even for you. What’s going on?”
“Nothing’s going on. Really. Why are you grilling me like this?” Alice stared off into the distance.
“Romance with Jace is giving you problems?” Rose rolled her eyes. “Of course it is. Why even ask?”
Alice met Rose’s eyes with defiance. “Oh honestly, Rose. Do you always have to dream up romances? Not everyone thinks the same way you do, you know!”
Rose shrugged, looked down and began stirring the avocado mash as if Alice had said nothing at all.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Alice reached out and touched her friend’s hand apologetically. “I don’t mean to be so touchy. It’s just … ” She sighed.
“Just what?”
Alice took a deep breath. “Look, I’ve been independent Alice Treemont for years now, okay?”
“Okay. So?”
“This is hard for me to admit, Rose.” She swallowed. “I don’t even know how to put it. Let’s just say it’s even difficult for me to confide in you.”
“Could have fooled me,” muttered Rose sarcastically.
“Not because I don’t trust you, but because I never tell
anyone
what I’m feeling. And now, here I am, confused as hell. I don’t know what’s happening to me. As far as Jace is concerned, I mean.” She raised her hands in a vague, meaningless gesture. “I guess you could say I’ve got a terrible crush on him. Like a teenager. Only I’m no teen.” Her cheeks colored and she looked at Rose beseechingly.
“I don’t believe you. It’s no crush.”
Alice sighed deeply. “No? All right. No crush. A crush sounds silly. I admit everything. I want him. I can’t stop thinking about him. I can’t think about anything else and that’s undignified and ridiculous. For an adult, anyway. I hate being like this.”
“Emotion is emotion. Caring about someone, wanting someone has nothing to do with age or being an adult.”
“That’s what one part of my brain keeps saying to the other, but the other side just doesn’t agree.”
Rose’s lips curled into a faintly mocking curve. “And what does the other side say?”
“That this is all one-sided. That nothing intimate is going on. How could there be? There’s Tanya.”
“Who’s Tanya?”
“His woman back in Chicago. With a name like Tanya, I’m getting all sorts of seductive images.”
“Tanya from Chicago doesn’t sound good, I’ll admit that.” Rose’s face had taken on a pensive expression and she looked down at her own fingernails hungrily.
“You see?”
“Almost. How does Jace feel about you?”
Alice looked at Rose as though she’d just started swinging from the overhead light. “How am I supposed to know that?”
“Take a wild guess.”
“I wouldn’t dare.”
“Ma Handy has been telling everyone that Jace couldn’t keep his eyes off you the whole time you sat in that tacky living room of hers!”
“The cow! She didn’t!” Alice stopped, and then stared. “He couldn’t?”
Rose nodded sagely. “So Ma says. And Alice, if you don’t want Ma gossiping about you, she’s the last person you should go calling on.”
“It was Jace’s fault. He wanted to buy some wood from Pa to fix my house up.”
“So I heard. Everyone in town has been talking about the way he’s propping up that ruin of yours.”
“Lord help me! Isn’t that just typical. Jace only started doing it a day ago!”
“News travels fast over two square miles, most of them uninhabited. And I must say, the news sounds good to me.”
“Fixing up a house? Even a good friend would do that.”
“Oh you think so, do you? Stop dreaming. And stop worrying.”
“Just advise me to stop breathing,” Alice said, her voice grim. She sank back in the large armchair and looked miserable. “Here’s how things look: I think it’s possible that I’ve fallen madly in love, but the person I’m in love with really only sees me as a screwy old dame who lives in the desert and spends her time spying on snakes.”
Rose’s lips twitched. “Not an unreasonable description,” she said dryly. “But I still don’t really know what the problem is.”
“Who’d want to stick around a screwy old dame? Especially when there’s a gorgeous Tanya somewhere in the background?”
Rose started slathering the avocado across her forehead. “Why don’t you just live for the moment? Enjoy life, enjoy Jace, and enjoy what you have together. Besides, you’re no fortune-teller. You don’t know what the future will bring.”
“It’s too late now for enjoyment. You don’t know what else I’ve done.”
Rose stopped slathering. “Now what?”
“The fact is, the situation I’ve just described about being in love is pure fantasy. The problem is far more complicated.” Alice sighed, staring into space.
“I’m waiting,” said Rose, rather tersely, after a long silent minute.
“Well, everything was going along just fine. I think Jace was interested. I mean, I know he was. Things were getting intense. He even went so far as to defend snakes the other night when a horrible creep threatened me.”
Rose rolled her eyes. “Poor, doomed man.”
“And then I went and ruined everything. I told him that there was someone else in my life.” Her shoulders sagged.
“You did what?” Rose gaped. She was so shocked she even forgot about her beauty treatment for a few seconds.
“Brad. I said that Brad and I … ” Alice was too miserable to finish the sentence.
“What did you go and do a stupid thing like that for?”
“I was scared. There was that Tanya in the picture. And then there was all the upheaval. I mean, look what Jace has done to my life. I was perfectly happy before. Then he just flashed into town and turned everything upside down. I had to defend myself. And now I don’t want to anymore,” she said in a little voice. “But if I admit the truth about Brad, Jace will think I’m racing after him and desperate. And a liar. Bad image. So now it’s too late.”
Rose observed Alice silently for a minute. “Maybe not.”
“Meaning?”
“Nothing is hopeless, Alice. Why don’t we just think up a plan? Let’s call it Plan B. You panicked; you chased him off. Now put Plan B into action.”
“Which means what?”
“Plan B means making a wild play for Jace. Show him he matters. That he fits into your life. See what happens.”
“He’ll still probably go back to Tanya when he’s through with me,” said Alice grimly.
“But, at the very least you’ll have had a wonderful affair. Besides, Chicago is still in the United States, last time I heard. How do you know he won’t ask you to come and visit? These days, you can even get on a plane and fly all the way there, nonstop.”
“You’re incorrigible.” Alice got to her feet.
“Hey, Alice? Before you go, let me give you a tip. Why don’t you act sort of normal — feminine — for a while? You know what I mean.”
“I am. I’m cooking something wonderful for lunch. A Sambal made with coconut milk, red peppers, onions. Something to show how grateful I am that he’s repairing the things I always meant to get around to fixing but never really managed to find the time to do them in.”
Rose looked pained. “That’s not quite what I had in mind. Stop being so domestic and do something more direct. Think Plan B, and that means big-time signaling. Go heavy on lipstick, eyeliner, low-cut sweaters, sultry looks, and touching. You know the stuff: your fingers resting on his arm for longer than they should, your hips brushing against his in the hallway.”
“Sure. That’s my scene, all right. Transparent negligees, toeless shoes with rhinestones, ostrich feather boas. Blake’s Folly at its best.” Alice rolled her eyes heavenward. She knew, deep inside, those things wouldn’t attract Jace. He’d probably seen it all back in Chicago. And she couldn’t pretend to be what she wasn’t either: he’d see through the game. Instinct was telling her Jace actually liked her for the person she was.
“One last thing, Alice. Don’t talk to Jace about snakes. Ever. Pretend you’ve never heard the word ‘reptile’. Act frail. Helpless. Like a Plan B female. It might excite him, bring out his protective male instinct.” Rose pondered for a second. “Do you think you could start squeaking when you see spiders?”
• • •
“Alice, that was an incredible meal!” Jace sighed with satisfaction as he put down his fork.
“I aim to please,” said Alice calmly. But she was pleased. Very much so. “I do want to show you how much I appreciate the work you’re doing on the house.”