The Bride Said, 'Finally!'

Jake knelt down in front of his daughter. He shot Jenna a brief grateful glance then turned back to Alexandra. “Alex, we talked about this. You have to have a few dresses now, like it or not.”

“No.” Alex dug in even more stubbornly. She folded her arms in front of her. “I don’t. I want to go home now. And I know you got to go to work. Can you please have Clara take me back to the ranch?”

“Honey—” Jake looked both exasperated and desperate. The clock was ticking. Before they knew it, Melinda would be here, and Alex wasn’t anywhere near even picking out a dress, never mind putting one on.

Jake shot an anxious look at Jenna.

“I think we’ve done enough for now,” Jenna said, knowing there were just some things that couldn’t be rushed, like it or not. “Clearly, Alex has other things she’d rather be doing. And I for one think she ought to have that opportunity.” Jenna looked at Alex. “Are you busy this afternoon?”

“Why?” Alex glared at Jenna suspiciously, clearly not about to be tricked into wearing any dress.

Jenna shrugged in a way that let Alex know she at least wasn’t going to force her to do anything she didn’t want to. Aware Jake was watching her every move, she knelt down so she and Alex were at eye level with each other. “I thought I might come over to play, say around one o’clock, if it’s okay.”

Alex blinked in a combination of surprise and delight. “You want to play with me?”

Jenna nodded. This was one little girl in need of some tender loving care if she’d ever seen one. “If your daddy say it’s okay.”

Alex looked up at Jake.

Clearly at a loss as to what Jenna was up to now, Jake shrugged. “It’s okay with me if it’s okay with you, pumpkin.”

“Okay, I’ll see you then. Bye, Daddy.” Alex kissed Jake goodbye, then skipped out the door to the curb, where Clara was leaning against her vehicle and talking to Wade and Shane McCabe.

Jake waited until they’d driven off, before he turned back to Jenna. “You were supposed to back me up on this dress issue.”

Jenna gathered up her sketch pad and pencils and carried them back to the storeroom, Jake right on her heels. “Oh, relax, would you?” she said, wishing he weren’t so close, and that he didn’t smell so good, like soap and man and woodsy, masculine cologne.

Jake’s silver-gray eyes darkened sexily. “You do remember what kind of time schedule we’re on here, don’t you?”

Jenna rolled her eyes and tried not to notice how very close he had shaved that morning. “Rather hard to forget with you breathing down my neck like that.”

Hands braced on his waist, pushing the edges of his sport coat back, Jake said, “You were supposed to convince her to at least order one dress.”

Ignoring the way he was towering over her, Jenna held her ground. “I did. Didn’t you see her face? Alex loved the alphabet dress I designed just for her. Granted, it’s a little casual,” Jenna shrugged, “but we have to start somewhere.”

Jake’s frown deepened all the more. “So she loved it for a second, before she dug in her heels,” he countered, exasperated. “She is still not going to wear it.”

“Yes,” Jenna retorted patiently, “she will. But only when she wants to.”

“Which is where you were supposed to come in,” Jake added.

Jenna made a face at him, designed to show him how ridiculously panicky he was being. “Which is where I am still going to come in if you will just take a chill pill and let me do my thing.” She turned on her heel and headed back out into the showroom.

Jake followed. “You have a plan?” he asked, the hope in his low voice as annoying to Jenna as his scolding had been.

“Of course I have a plan. I always have a plan,” Jenna snapped back irritably, wondering when Jake would give her some credit. She paused, aware her emotions were starting to get out of control again—something that happened frequently when Jake was around. She drew in a bolstering breath. “I’ll work on it this afternoon, when I go over to play with her,” Jenna finished calmly as she walked over to the sales counter and checked her schedule—she had been rescheduling appointments with customers right and left to make room for Jake.

“Oh.” The wind temporarily knocked out of his sails, Jake paused and raked a hand through his hair. He blew out an uneasy breath, looked at her seriously. “Good. ’Cause you know what is riding on this.”

“Absolutely.” Jenna smiled tightly, reminding herself to keep this strictly unemotional and aboveboard. She wanted this discussion with Jake finished within the next ten minutes, which would leave her plenty of time to prepare for her next appointment. “The expansion of my business.”

Briefly, disappointment flickered in Jake’s eyes. “And Alex’s custody,” Jake added, as he sauntered around to join her behind the sales counter.

“And Alex’s custody,” Jenna agreed, then paused as her next thought hit. She tilted her face up to Jake’s, so she could see into his eyes. “Does Alex know what’s going on between you and her mother—that Melinda is threatening to sue you for custody because Alex is such a tomboy?” Jenna asked curiously.

“No.” Jake rested his shoulders against the wall. “And I don’t want her to know. Bad enough we’re divorced and Melinda has shown practically zero interest in her since day one.”

“Did you expect this to happen?”

“No, but I probably should have. My attorney warned me at the time of the divorce that custody arrangements are often challenged after several years have passed. Sometimes for money. Sometimes because one parent doesn’t approve of the way the other parent is rearing the child. She was particularly worried in my case because Melinda so easily gave up all rights to Alexandra. She thought Melinda might eventually realize she’d made a mistake and want to become more a part of Alex’s life.”

“Surely Melinda couldn’t win,” Jenna said, concerned.

“When it comes to fighting over a child, no one ever wins. The whole point is to avoid the battle,” Jake said. “And in this case, also to placate Melinda so she won’t be compelled to overreact to make up for lost time and opportunity. Right now, as far as I can figure, Alex is an accessory to Melinda’s life that doesn’t quite fit. Alex’s tomboy ways are embarrassing Melinda. Melinda doesn’t like being embarrassed. If I weren’t here, she’d probably send Alex off to boarding school to keep her out of sight of all our mutual friends in Texas. Since she can’t do that, more drastic action is called for. One way or another, Melinda is going to make sure that Alex doesn’t detract from her mother’s public image.”

“Or in other words,” Jenna guessed, “as long as Alex is a perfectly behaved little lady, the fact that Melinda’s not around never comes up. But let Alex be ‘clearly needing a mother in her life’ and Melinda’s absence is all people talk about.”

“Right. Which brings us back to square one,” Jake sighed wearily, looking for a moment as if the weight of the world were on his shoulders. “How to get Alexandra in a dress, so all this unwelcome attention will go away.”

“Simple.” Jenna smiled victoriously. “You just have to make her want to wear a dress.”

Jake gave Jenna a droll look. “That’s what I’ve been trying to do,” he explained.

“Yes, I know. But a master is on the scene now. So leave it to me, and stop worrying about it. And start worrying about how you’re going to pull the expansion of my business together by the time I get your daughter into a dress.”

Jake opened his briefcase. “Actually, I’ve already been working on this. I think we should come up with a complete line of designs—formal, casual and business wear—to be mass-marketed and then try and sign up a whole host of department stores to carry it. From there, we’ll contract with factories to make the clothes and—”

Jenna cut him off with a look. “No.”

Jake blinked as if he hadn’t heard right. “No?”

“I want a single, small but distinct, line of clothing bearing my name,” Jenna said firmly. “Marketed at one store. Made in one factory, right here in Laramie.”

Jake regarded her in consternation. “Jenna, I know you are used to being a one-woman operation, more or less, but you don’t have to limit yourself that way.”

Jenna folded her arms in front of her and regarded Jake sternly. “I want to keep things small so I can insure the quality.”

Jake put his papers back in his briefcase. “Obviously, you’ve thought about this.”

“A lot. I always knew I would expand and do it in a carefully controlled way. Do we have a deal?”

Jake nodded, his eyes never leaving her face. “I’ll start looking for a factory site this morning.”

“I already have one.” Jenna smiled. “The old carpet warehouse about twenty minutes outside of town. It’s standing empty and it’s for sale.” It would be the perfect place for them to set up shop.

Jake paused. He leaned against the sales counter and clamped his arms over the rock-solidness of his chest. “I’ll look into it, see what the asking price is.”

“Maybe we could go see it this afternoon, after I spend some time with Alex.”