Jared shrugged again and sipped from his can of root beer. “I didn’t want to make a big deal of it.”
“You do a lot of that kind of thing? Commercials, I mean.”
“Some.”
He was being shy and modest and she knew it. How sweet. Amy had told her he made megabucks doing commercials for several nationally known products. If he was the arrogant jerk she had first thought him to be, he’d have been bragging about it, trying to impress her.
“I thought Alyssa might get a kick out of watching,” he said.
“She did. She’s very proud of you, you know.” Genna smiled at the blush that spread across his cheekbones. She wriggled her foot as the puppy attacked her shoelaces.
“Come on, Flurry!” Alyssa coaxed, one hand holding firmly on top of her head the wreath of flowers Jared had bought her. With a bright red rubber ball in her other hand, she enticed the puppy away from Genna’s shoe.
“Do you get paid for a commercial like the one you did today?” Genna questioned.
He shook his head, his gaze on his daughter, who was squealing as the puppy jumped up on her. “Throw it for him, honey!” he called, then said to Genna, “No. That’s a public service. The league
pays for production costs, but not for my part. They encourage us to do the spots, but even if they didn’t, I’d do it. It’s a cause I believe in. A lot of kids look up to me. I consider it my responsibility to set a good example, especially since I have sort of a wild reputation. I mean, I like to see kids having a good time, but I don’t want them to get the wrong idea. I don’t want to see them get mixed up in that kind of trouble.”
Genna thought about what he’d said for a minute as the radio played something romantic in the background. At first glance Jared didn’t look like the sort of man parents would want their children to emulate. Jared, with his spiked hair and diamond earring and come-hither grin. But he was a sports hero and he was right—kids would look up to him whether their parents wanted them to or not. He could easily have shrugged off the responsibility, told them to live to party and break all the rules. Instead, he told them to be themselves, but to live right.
Impulsively, she leaned over and kissed his cheek. “You’re sweet.”
He grinned at her, pushing his sunglasses up so she could get the full impact of his startling blue eyes. “So you keep saying. Tsk, tsk, Genna. You’re
going to have me thinking I’m the teacher’s pet.” His grin melted down to a sensuous smile and he spoke in his whiskey-on-the-rocks voice that rasped across Genna’s skin like velvet. “But that’s okay, I don’t have anything against petting.”
She gave him a black look and shoved him, sending him rolling on the lawn to be attacked by the puppy. He scrambled to his feet, wiping puppy kisses off his cheek as Alyssa and Genna laughed.
“You’re in big trouble now,” he warned, shaking a finger at Genna as Alyssa raced into the house with the puppy at her heels.
“I’m terrified,” Genna scoffed, but got to her feet just the same, anticipation making her skin tingle.
“I think I bruised something.”
“Your pride?” she offered sarcastically.
He raised one dark brow as his lips twitched upward. “Maybe. Wanna go to my room and see?”
“You’re impossible!”
“Naw.” Quick as a cat, he grabbed her and started to dance to a funky tune on the radio. “Hard maybe, not impossible.”
“Disgusting, definitely.” She pretended offense just as she pretended not to notice the provocative sway of his hips so near her own.
He chuckled. “You love it and you know it.”
She rolled her eyes at the macho line.
Bernice came out the back door wiping her hands on a dishtowel. “Phone, boss.”
“Thanks, Bernice.” He winked at Genna and danced into the house, singing in his smoky voice about how right he was for her.
Genna strangled a frustrated scream in her throat and dropped onto a white wrought iron chair across from Bernice.
“He’s something, ain’t he?” the older woman said, crossing her chubby legs. She wore black stirrup pants with high-top sneakers and an oversize Hawks T-shirt that swallowed up her stocky body. The short sleeves hung past her elbows.
“Something
else,”
Genna amended, shaking her head in bewilderment. “I don’t know what it is about that man. He unleashes something wild in me. I never know whether I’m going to laugh at him or slug him. Do you know what I mean, Bernice?”
Bernice puffed up her red hair and laughed. “Honey, my ex-husband couldn’t unleash the dog, but I read a lot of romances and I’d say you’re in love.”
Horror-stricken, Genna gasped, “With Jared Hennessy?”
“I don’t see Tom Selleck hanging around here.”
“In … L … with Jared Hennessey,” she mumbled to herself, shuddering. It wasn’t possible. She couldn’t even verbalize the word, and she’d just finished telling herself it was only infatuation. She decided she should say it out loud. “No. It’s only infatuation.”
Bernice laughed until Genna thought she was going to choke. She slapped her knee as tears streamed down her flushed face. Finally her guffaws were reduced to gasps by lack of oxygen. “Oh—oh—that’s a—a—good one! Boy, have you got it bad, toots!”
Genna scowled, seeing no humor in the situation at all. “Great.”
SIX
T
HE
L
WORD
. How had she let it happen?
Had
she let it happen? Maybe Bernice was wrong. Genna had been trying to convince herself of that for two days. Once again she tried telling herself it was just infatuation. She waited. Nothing. No sense of calm came over her. She didn’t feel reassured in the least. In fact, she felt vaguely nauseated.
Oh, Lord, I am in … the L word
.
How? How had she let herself fall in …L … with a man like Jared Hennessy? Only a few days before she would have sworn on a stack of Bibles she couldn’t stand the sight of him. Now she was in … L … with him.
Disastrous, she thought as she went through a rack of little girls’ jumpers. They were shopping for clothes for Alyssa because Jared had “sort of ruined” a lot of her things in the wash a few days before he had hired Bernice.
Nothing good can come from this, she told herself. In a few weeks her job would be over, Jared would head for training camp, and she’d be back teaching school. She would have spent the whole summer in … L … with the wrong man. She was always off balance with Jared. He made her feel as if she were stuck in a pair of haywire inversion boots. And it was a cinch he wasn’t in … L … with her. Jared was just having fun.
She’d gone and done it again, gotten in over her head with a man who wasn’t interested in a future with her. Not only that, he wasn’t even her type. He was unconventional, impetuous, outrageous. She was looking for solid, dependable … boring.
Jared studied the determined frown on Genna’s face and smiled to himself.
She’s coming around, I can feel it
. Bernice had said so, and he was starting to believe it. That Genna wasn’t very happy about it didn’t faze Jared. He was finally winning her over. Her defenses were wearing down and momentum was on his side. Genna was a woman with
a good head on her shoulders; sooner or later she’d admit she’d been wrong about him and give in to his charm. He hoped.
She needed time to get used to the idea. If he pushed her, she’d probably tell him to take a hike. He’d promised her a no-strings romance. He wasn’t sure that was what he wanted anymore, but he would have to pretend it was true for a while.
Alyssa singled out a red corduroy jumper and insisted she’d wear it every day forever and ever. After she and Genna returned from the fitting room, and Jared paid for the dress, it was added to the bunch of packages in their shopping bag.
“Can I get a new nightie to wear to Courtney’s house tonight, Daddy?” she asked as they came to a row of nightgowns.
A worried frown tugged at Jared’s features. He stooped down by his daughter and brushed at her black bangs. “Are you sure you want to stay overnight at Courtney’s house, Lyss?”
Alyssa’s blue eyes begged as eloquently as her voice. “Yes, Daddy,
please
let me stay. I’m a big girl!”
“I know you are, sweetheart.” Jared sighed.
Genna watched the exchange, wondering what the problem was, but not wanting to interfere.
Amy had arranged to pick Alyssa up at the shopping mall and then treat the girls to pizza, ending the evening with a sleepover at the Dennisons. The girls had talked of little else for two days.
Finally Jared capitulated, against his better judgment. A white eyelet nightgown with blue satin ribbons was bought and went into the shopping bag.
They started down the wide hall of the shopping center, heading for the fountain where they were to meet Amy. As they strolled past the various shops, Jared casually snuck Genna’s hand into his. He smiled at her look of surprise, but held her hand firmly. It just seemed right. Genna held Alyssa’s hand on one side and his on the other. The word “family” kept strolling through his head. Good word. He liked it.
After her first nervous glance at Jared, Genna trained her gaze on the stores they passed. This wasn’t the first time he’d held her hand, but it was the first time since she’d discovered she was in … L … with him. A strange, intoxicating excitement began to build inside her. A part of her wanted to bolt while another part wanted to do something entirely different. Tingles raced up her arm.
Memories of the way his hand had felt on her
bare breast rushed back to Genna with a reality that almost made her gasp. Inside the lacy confines of her bra her nipples hardened and suddenly became hypersensitive to the fabric rubbing over them, rubbing over them as Jared’s calloused thumb had that night in her kitchen. A wave of heat spread through her body.
For heaven’s sake, Genna, you’re in a shopping mall. Knock it off
.
She pushed the erotic thoughts from her mind as they came to a store where she always loved to browse but could never afford to buy. A sultry brunette mannequin in the window wore a gorgeous purple taffeta halter-top dress with a double-tiered skirt and a big candy-box bow at her waist in back. It was the most elegant, extravagant thing Genna had ever seen. Her step faltered over so slightly.
“See something you like?” Jared questioned, bringing them all to a halt.
“Huh? Er—no,” she stammered, feeling silly for even looking at such a dress.
A smile played at Jared’s mouth and his eyes crinkled at the corners. “Come on, Gen, fess up. You’ve got your eye on that dress.”
“No.” She shook her head, blushing.
His smile widened. “Genna.”
“Okay,” she admitted, raising her hands in a gesture of defeat. “It’s pretty.”
“Try it on.”
“Don’t be silly.”
“Try it on.”
“No. What would I do with a dress like that?”
“Wear it to school!” he said with a grin.
She gave him a look. “If teachers dressed like that, there would be riots in the streets.”
“So buy it for fun.”
“There’s nothing fun in spending two hundred dollars on a dress I’ll never wear,” she pointed out.
Paying no attention to her logical argument, Jared dragged them all into the store. “Try it on.”
“Try it on, Genna,” Alyssa chimed in.
J.J. caught the eye of a clerk hovering nearby. He smiled using the full force of his magnetism, and Genna thought the woman was going to swoon. “Don’t you think she should try it on?”
“Yes. Definitely,” the clerk said breathlessly, her eyes glazing over.
“See?” Jared turned back to Genna.
Genna sent the clerk an anemic smile and whispered to J.J. under her breath, “I think she would
have said that no matter what you asked her. Ask her if she’d move to Guam with you.”
“Not a chance, honey. If she said yes, you’d hold me to it.”
All the women in the store were gravitating toward Jared like flowers to the sun. They all beamed and nodded when he gave them his intimate, teasing little smile and asked if they thought Genna should try on the purple dress. It was positively disgusting. Even a blue-haired old lady was bowled over by his charm. She touched Genna’s arm and beamed a smile up at her. “Try it on, honey. It’s you.”
“See?” Jared said innocently. “It’s you.”
“It’s
you.”
Genna scowled. He pretended not to understand.
Feeling outnumbered, Genna gave in. She took the dress into the fitting room. When she emerged, everyone in the store burst into applause.
Jared’s breath caught in his throat. His eyes darkened to pewter as he took in the sight of his adorable, curvy little Genna in the sexy dress. He’d known all along she was a doll, but holy cow! he thought. The taffeta cupped her full breasts lovingly and swirled around the feminine swell of her hips. The bow at the waist called attention to the
supple lines of her bare back. It’d be worth every penny if she never wore the dress for anyone but him.
Like a man in a trance, Jared handed his gold credit card to the clerk, never taking his eyes off Genna. His voice was a hoarse, gravely whisper as he said, “Wrap it up.”
Genna was still blushing, as they wandered around browsing at whatever took their fancy, after delivering Alyssa to Amy.
“I can’t believe you bought that dress.”
“Believe it.”
“You’re going to look pretty silly wearing it.”
“I bought it for you.”
She ignored that the same way she had tried to ignore the hot look in his eyes when she’d come out of the fitting room. “I suppose Candy the mannequin can wear it.”
“I bought it for you.”
“I won’t wear it.”
“You’ll wear it.” When he turned to grin at her, Genna stopped dead in her tracks and every ounce of color drained from her face until her face was somewhere between pasty and ashen. “Genna? What is it?”
She stared at the man standing not twenty feet
in front of them looking at neckties, feeling her insides freeze-dry and shatter into a million pieces. Allan.
“Genna?”
Jared’s anxious voice jolted her. “Nothing. It’s nothing,” she managed, trying to turn him down the underwear aisle. “Can we go this way?”