Natural Born Daddy (15 page)

“Set the date,” she said.

He didn't bat an eye. “Next weekend,” he said, his serious gaze never wavering from hers. “We'll fly to Vegas.”

What an appalling idea! Kelly regarded him indignantly. “Not on your life. This may not be a traditional marriage, but we are going to have a traditional ceremony. We'll have the service and the reception right here.”

Jordan turned and cast a dubious look around the house, which for all of her hard work was undeniably shabby in spots. “Here?” he protested mildly. “I can't see the governor…”

“The governor can come here or he's not invited,” she said flatly. “This is our wedding, not a business dinner. We don't have to impress anybody.” She shot him a challenging look. “Do we?”

A grin spread across his face. “Not a soul, sweet pea.”

Filled with the first faint stirrings of hope at the quick capitulation, Kelly crossed the kitchen and patted his cheek. “This could work out yet,
sweet pea.
”

Jordan glanced at Dani. “Munchkin, wouldn't you like to go out and check on the kittens?”

“But I haven't even finished my French toast,” Dani protested. “‘Sides, I want to talk about the wedding, too. Can I be a flower girl? My friend Megan was one. She told me all about it.”

Kelly didn't think talking was what Jordan had on his mind. Frankly, at this precise moment, it was the last thing on hers, as well. She needed to feel his arms around her, needed to fit her body against his. She wanted desperately to feel all the passion that marriage was supposed to promise, to be reassured that she wasn't making a terrible mistake.

“Sweetie, of course you can be a flower girl,” she promised her daughter. “Remember, though, that today's the day we promised to take a kitten over to Jordan's daddy. You have to decide which one.”

“And Cody? Don't forget he wanted two.”

Jordan winced. “We'll have to talk about that. Cody's gone away for a while. We'll have to find another home for the two he'd picked out.”

Dani's face fell. Her lower lip quivered. “But what if we can't?”

“We will,” Jordan promised. “If we don't, they can live with us.”

Kelly stared at him. “But you said…”

He shrugged. “I can't let you go drowning them in the creek, can I?”

“I would never drown them in the creek,” she said, shocked by the very idea of such a thing. “Where on earth would you get such a notion?”

He glanced at Dani, who had hung her head. Kelly had never seen a clearer portrait of guilt.

“Danielle Flint, is that what you've been telling everyone?” Kelly demanded. “No wonder everyone's been so eager to claim these kittens.”

Dani's expression of guilt quickly fled. Her chin tilted defiantly. “I had to do something. Besides, they're really, really cute. I knew everyone would like them once they got to know them.”

Kelly looked up from her daughter's belligerent face to find Jordan's lips twitching with amusement. “Are you sure you're up to a lifetime of this?” she asked him.

“Oh, I think I'll manage,” he said confidently. “You've never scared me.”

“More's the pity,” she said with feeling. “But I was thinking of Dani.”

“She's just the icing on the cake,” he assured her.

Dani looked from one to the other, clearly puzzled. “What cake?”

“Never mind, munchkin. Go check on those kittens,” Jordan said. “Your mom and I have wedding plans to make.”

Dani finally climbed out of her chair and ran from the house. The minute she was out of sight, Jordan cupped Kelly's face in his hands. He studied her intently.

“Are you sure?”

“I have been since I was eight,” she admitted, suddenly breathless. “You're the one who took a very long time to come around.”

He didn't even begin to deny the accusation. “I guess I had to mine through a lot of fool's gold before I could tell I had the real thing right here.”

She held the words to her heart. It was as close to an
I love you
as he'd come. “How are your parents going to react?”

“Oh, I suspect Daddy's been figuring on this for weeks now, maybe even years. If he's content with the decision, Mother will be, too.”

Kelly sighed with regret. “I wish my parents had lived long enough for this. They always adored you. As hard as they tried, they never warmed up to Paul.”

Jordan tilted her head up. “And you? How did you feel about me?”

“Jordan, I said I'd marry you. Don't get greedy.”

“Suddenly I want it all,” he whispered softly, just before he slanted his mouth across hers.

Kelly was swept away by the kiss, swept away to a time and place where dreams became real and magic filled every hour of the day. It was a place she'd never thought to reach, because she'd always known only one man could take her there.

And now, out of the blue, it was real and every bit as incredible as she'd always imagined.

* * *

The wedding plans were completely out of control. Kelly latched onto Jordan's arm when he walked through the door the following Wednesday and dragged him into the kitchen.

“This has to stop,” she insisted.

He regarded her warily. “What?”

“Your mother has taken over. A decorator steamrolled through here this morning as if she were preparing for the Normandy invasion.” She glared at her fiancé of less than a week. “I will not have it, Jordan. I won't!”

“What exactly was she here to do?”

“She is designing the wedding,” she said, a note of disgust in her voice. “Between now and Saturday, she intends to transform this house into a summer garden. She wants to put trellises with roses in the middle of my living room.”

He seemed almost as bemused by the concept as she was. “And you don't want them there?”

“I want my living room to look like a living room, not a damned fake garden!”

The expletive apparently convinced him she was at the end of her patience. Jordan reached out and snagged her hand. Somehow she wound up in his lap, with his arms reassuringly settled around her waist and his lips on hers.

“Kissing won't make it better, Jordan!” she warned at one point.

“Are you sure about that?” he inquired, brushing his lips back and forth against hers until her blood sizzled. It did pretty much wipe thoughts of anything else out of her mind.

“It could be helping just a little,” she admitted as his lips found a sensitive spot on her neck. A shudder washed through her. “Okay, more than a little.”

“Are you distracted yet?”

“From what?” she murmured, giving herself up to the sensations spinning through her.

A knock on the screen door interrupted. Kelly's sigh only deepened when she spotted Mary Adams, her soon-to-be mother-in-law, on her doorstep. She was wearing her going-into-battle shopping outfit of linen pants, a silk blouse and sufficient gold jewelry to impress the most difficult salesclerk. As stifling hot as it was, she looked cool and unrumpled.

“Enough of that, you two,” Mary said briskly as she entered without waiting for permission. “It's ridiculous enough that you've only given a week's notice for this wedding, we can't go wasting time on nonsense.”

Kelly gazed helplessly into Jordan's eyes and mouthed, Do something!

Jordan stood. He towered over his petite mother, but his size clearly didn't intimidate her.

“Out of my way,” she commanded. “I need to see the kitchen.”

“Why?” Kelly inquired suspiciously.

“To let the caterer know what's possible and what isn't.”

“I was thinking we'd have those little cocktail wieners and maybe some potato chips,” Jordan said. “Maybe a big old platter of barbecued ribs.”

His mother simply scowled at his teasing as she breezed past. Kelly trailed along in her wake, tugging Jordan with her. Why hadn't they eloped to Vegas as Jordan originally suggested? It would have been better than this armed invasion of strangers that Jordan's mother had planned.

Mary Adams glanced at Kelly. “What about your dress? Perhaps we should have Harlan's pilot fly us over to Dallas this afternoon. I'm sure we could find something on short notice at Neiman-Marcus.”

The suggestion explained Mary's attire. Kelly balked at going anywhere to buy anything. “I have a dress,” she said adamantly.

Mary looked aghast. “You're planning to pluck something out of your closet? This is your wedding, for heaven's sake, and Jordan does have a certain status to maintain. What you wear will reflect on him.”

The comment grated. “Jordan,” Kelly said sweetly, “could I see you in the living room?”

She noticed when she finally had him alone that his eyes were sparkling with pure mischief.

“A problem, sweet pea?”

“If your mother does not back off, I swear to you that I'm going to wear jeans for this wedding and serve lemonade and store-bought cookies.”

Jordan pulled her against him. “Sounds perfect to me.”

She studied him intently, not sure whether she could trust the dead-serious note in his voice. “You wouldn't mind?”

“Actually, I'd rather like to see the governor's face as he sips lemonade and munches a handful of Oreo cookies. He'd probably prefer it over the rubber chicken and hard little peas he usually gets.”

Kelly sighed. “He might be perfectly content, but your mother's likely to flip out.”

“Sweetheart, it's our wedding. The details are entirely up to you. Just tell me what time you want me here and I'll show up. I could care less about the rest.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

“Any idea how many people your mother has invited?”

“Nope,” he admitted.

“Maybe I'd better ask that before I get too independent here,” she said, calmer now that she knew Jordan was in her corner no matter what she decided.

She went back to the kitchen where she found her future mother-in-law tsk-tsking at the size of the stove and refrigerator.

“Kelly, I think it's time for new appliances, don't you?”

“Absolutely,” she agreed without hesitation. Her parents had bought the current ones years ago and
they were clearly on their last legs. “But I thought fixing the roof and painting were more important.”

The concept of budgetary constraint was clearly beyond Mary's comprehension. “Yes, but this is something you can't put off. I can't possibly have the caterer do anything the least bit elaborate without a decent stove or refrigerator.” She jotted a note to herself. “I'll take care of it this afternoon. Do you want white again?”

Kelly moved in front of her. “No new stove and no new refrigerator,” she said quietly, even though her stomach was churning and her blood was heating to a boil. “This is a wedding, not a home show.”

“But what about hot hors d'oeuvres? And your freezer won't even hold a spare pint of ice cream, much less the ice sculpture I've ordered.”

“It's ninety degrees outside. Why would you order an ice sculpture in the first place?”

Mary Adams stopped in her tracks and stared. “You intend for everyone to eat outside? My dear, people will be perspiring,” she declared as if that were the worse tragedy that could possibly befall anyone. “You simply cannot ask them to deal with all the dust, to say nothing of this sweltering hot weather. Their clothes will be ruined.”

“How many people have you invited?” Kelly countered.

Mary avoided looking her in the eye. “Just a few. You did say you wanted it kept small.”

“How many?”

“A hundred, more or less.”

Kelly gulped. It was even worse than she'd suspected. “That's what you consider small?”

Mary seemed oblivious to Kelly's distress. “Of course, given Jordan's status, there are business considerations, as well as old friends and family,” she informed her future daughter-in-law. “I cut it as best I could.”

Kelly had guessed the number would be half that high, which was precisely why she'd considered the possibility of an outdoor celebration. This clinched it.

“I see,” she said, rather proud of how calm she managed to sound. “And where do you expect these hundred people to fit inside the house? If you think it would be stifling outside, imagine them all crammed in here without air-conditioning.”

“Without air-conditioning?” Mary sank down onto a kitchen chair. “Oh, my, I suppose that is a problem, isn't it?” She fanned herself with her little leather notebook. “Darling! Jordan, come in here at once!”

Jordan, who'd apparently taken refuge in the living room rather than get caught between his mother and his bride, came into the kitchen. He glanced warily from his mother to Kelly and back again. “What now?”

“I really think there is only one thing to be done,” his mother said briskly, clearly recovered from her momentary shock. “We will have to move the wedding to White Pines.”

“Absolutely not!” Kelly insisted, just as Jordan hurriedly said after one glance at her face, “Now, Mother, let's not be hasty.”

Mary scowled at the pair of them. “Well, I simply don't know what else to do,” she said in that haughty tone Kelly knew she could come to hate. She gestured around her. “This house is simply not big enough or equipped for a wedding. White Pines has all of the
latest, industrial-size appliances and the staff is used to dealing with caterers and a large number of guests. This is the most important day of your life, after all. It should be something to remember.”

“It's the most important day of
our
lives,” Kelly said, her voice tight.

Jordan clearly heard the stress in her tone, because he hurried his mother out of the kitchen. “Mother, let me discuss this with Kelly and we'll get back to you.”

Kelly could hear his mother protesting even as she was hustled away.