The Boss, the Baby and Me

But she stopped herself quickly. He was smart, all right. He was giving her exactly the story that was most likely to touch her heart and make her believe. He was playing with her heartstrings in a very disturbing way. She had to get out of here before she fell for this stuff.

He’d turned back, and was pulling off his tie and loosening the neck of his shirt, pulling open buttons as though they were snaps. Darkly tanned skin with just a hint of chest hair appeared before her horrified gaze.

“Is it just me,” he said huskily, his eyelids drooping, “or is it getting hot in here?”

Her pulse was racing. One moment, he set out the emotional trap. Now, the physical one was laid out in front of her, just waiting for her to step into it. And darn it all if her own traitorous body wasn’t swooning like a lovesick puppy, even as she disdained the obvious way he was approaching her.

Turning away abruptly, she quickly changed the subject. “I’m not hot at all,” she said with an emphasis he surely couldn’t miss. “But I am hungry. For food,” she added quickly. Glancing back, she was chagrined to see that his eyes were gleaming wickedly.

“Are you?” he responded.

She turned back to face him, chin-high. “Desperately. I skipped lunch to get those preliminary sketches out to the art department.” She grimaced. “I wish I had my purse.”

“Why?” He pretended to look about the car. “Is there a food machine here I missed?”

“No, I’ve got a candy bar in it.”

“Hmm.” He plunged a hand down into the pocket of his crisply tailored slacks. “Look what I found. A roll of peppermints.”

“Oh.” She looked at them longingly. She really was hungry, and her mouth was so dry.

“Here.” He offered the roll to her after he’d popped one into his own mouth. She hesitated, but hunger overcame her inhibitions.

“Thanks,” she said shortly, taking a mint and sighing as the sparkling sugar did its work.

“You see?” he said softly, as he watched her. “I’m even willing to share my last meal with you.”

She started to say something. It was surely going to be a scathing retort, something that would knock him back on his heels for good. Unfortunately, the words themselves were lost to history, because the breath she took in to help facilitate her clever words shot what was left of the peppermint right down her throat. Now, instead of putting him in his place, she was choking.

“Here.” A man of action, he took matters in hand immediately, giving her a couple of sharp thumps on the back. When that didn’t seem to dislodge the little intruder, he turned her quickly and wrapped his arms around her from behind for the Heimlich maneuver.

“Hey,” she protested with a cough, before he got in a good thrust. “Stop! I’m okay.”

He relaxed, but for some reason his arms didn’t remove themselves from around her waist. “Are you sure?” he said, his voice just a bit husky, and his face so close to hers, she could feel his warm breath on her neck.

“Yes, I’m sure.” She pushed against him, but he didn’t release her. “Kurt, let go!”

Turning her head, she met his gaze. And then something magical happened. It wasn’t just that she suddenly noticed the golden flecks in his green eyes. It wasn’t even the electric sizzle that began to spread everywhere his body was touching hers. But suddenly she was filled with a longing so deep, so overwhelming, it took her breath away. She wanted to be kissed. She wanted to be kissed by Kurt McLaughlin.

“Oh,” she said softly, like a woman in a trance, her gaze fixed on his generous mouth. She tilted her head, her own lips parted, a yearning coursing through her. And for just a moment, she was sure it was going to happen.

And then he was pulling away, leaving her tottering off balance and feeling as though he’d thrown cold water on her. Feeling like a fool.

At least he didn’t laugh at her. Shooting back his cuff, he looked at his wristwatch, suddenly all business.

“Oh, dammit, it is getting late. I’m way overdue for picking Katy up. We’d better get some help so we can get out of here.”

Reaching behind her, she steadied herself with a hand on the railing. What was he saying? “Get some help?” she asked him, still breathless and embarrassed. “What are you talking about?”

Flipping back the tail of his suit coat, he pulled out something that had been attached to his belt. Staring openmouthed, Jodie saw a cell phone in his hand.

“I’ll just make a call,” he said innocently. “Hope the battery is still good. If so, we’ll get out of here in no time.”

She shook her head and blinked to clear her mind, then gave a sound of outrage. “You mean you’ve had that with you this whole time?” she cried. “Why didn’t you say so when I asked?”

“You never actually asked if I had one—you just assumed I didn’t,” he murmured. He opened the phone and began punching in a number. “Hi, Jasper? Sorry to bother you, but we’ve got a problem here at the office. I’m going to have to ask you to come back in and help me get out of the elevator.”

Murder. That was what was called for here. Something quick and painless, when he wasn’t looking. No jury in the world would convict her. Groaning, she closed her eyes and clenched her fists at her side. If she hadn’t despised him before, she now had plenty of reason to start.

But that was his plan, wasn’t it? Abruptly, she opened her eyes again and glared at his pleased smile. Something had to be done about this man!

Chapter Two

Jodie sat back and looked at her family, gathered around the big, antique kitchen table where they had come together for generations. Funny how it felt so familiar and yet so strange. The main thing missing was her mother, who had died of cancer when Jodie was sixteen. Her little brother Jed was also absent, the only family member Matt and Rita hadn’t managed to find and hog-tie to bring back home.

Rita had cooked an excellent meal—as she always did—of chicken and dumplings in the old style. Jodie glanced down the table at where her sister sat. She watched affectionately as the older woman blew a strand of hair back out of her eyes and looked expectantly from one person to another at the table, obviously trying to gauge how they liked what they were eating. When her gaze met her sister’s, she favored her with a warm smile. At least one good thing had come out of all this. Rita was happy to have most of the family together again.

Rita took care of the house and the family the way their mother would have if she hadn’t died twelve years before. She was a wonderful homemaker, and she deserved to have a loving man in her life and a family of her own. Unfortunately, you didn’t meet many great, un-attached men at the meat counter at the Chivaree supermarket these days. And Rita didn’t often veer much farther from home than that.

Matt had been her partner in reuniting the family. But Matt didn’t look happy, the way Rita did. Matt was the oldest male child in the family. He was the one who had shown up on Jodie’s doorstep, in Dallas, a month before and talked her into coming back home, giving her a long spiel about how they all needed to pull together now that their father was ill. These days, he seemed to care about that almost as much as Rita did.

In many ways, Matt had been Jodie’s original role model. After all, he’d been the first to defy their father and leave town, heading for medical school in Atlanta. He’d worked for years in a large urban hospital, and now he was back in his dumpy little hometown. She noted the brooding look on his handsome face and wondered what had put it there. Something was bothering him. She had no idea what it was.

But she didn’t have to worry about things like that with her sunny brother David, the one she looked the most like. They both had blond hair and brown eyes and a sprinkling of freckles over short noses.

Sitting next to Matt and eating everything he could get on his plate with youthful enthusiasm, David was the one who had never really left. Someone had asked her just the other day why such a handsome, happy-go-lucky young man who looked like he should be on a surfboard in Malibu would stay in Chivaree when there was a whole world out there for him. She’d laughed and said he was too lazy to leave. But that wasn’t true. She supposed she might be the only one who knew the real reason why he stayed. Love made people do strange things sometimes.

And then there was dark-eyed Rafe, the brother who was the same age as Kurt McLaughlin, the one now looking at her with a penetrating gaze that said, Hey, Jodie, don’t try to con me. I can see right through this polite little act you’re putting on. I can read your mind.

She stared right back at him with a half smile, hoping he got the message. Mind your own business!

“Hey, Pop,” David said, greeting their father as he entered the room. “You going to try to eat something?”

Leaning on his cane, the gray-haired man shook his head as Rita jumped up to pull out a chair for him. “No. I can’t eat anything. I just wanted to come out and sit with you all and look at your faces.” He sat down heavily, then made a scan of the table. “My pride and joy,” he muttered in a tone that could have been loving, but sounded a little sarcastic.

Glancing at him and then away, Jodie felt a stew of conflicting emotion—love, resentment, anger, pity. What could you do when you disliked your own parent almost as much as you loved him?

“So you all came back to save the farm for the old man, eh?” He laughed softly. “I guess I raised myself a bunch of good ones after all.”

“Hey, Pop,” Rafe said, leaning forward. “I was talking to our Dallas distributor today. Looks like we might have a shot at getting a contract with the whole Wintergreen Store chain. That could be huge for us.”

Jesse Allman nodded, but he wasn’t looking at Rafe. His gaze was trained on his oldest son. He’d been trying to get Matt to fulfill the role of heir apparent in the business for years, without a lot of success. Though Matt had often helped out in the old days when all they had was the tiny, struggling Allman Winery, he’d been away at college when Jesse had developed the plan to become the distributor for all the little wineries of this part of Texas hill country. That had launched all the success, and it was no secret Jesse thought Matt ought to be involved. “You got a dog in this fight, Matt?” he asked.

Matt looked surprised. “What about?”

“This Wintergreen thing.”

Matt shrugged. “It’s up to you, Pop. You know I’m not into the business side of things.”