Must Like Kids (16 page)

“Are you attracted to him?”

Irritated with both of them, Julia snapped, “Of course, I’m attracted to him. You just said yourself he’s gorgeous. I’m a single mother. I’m not a nun.”

“Ok
aaa
y.”

“Sorry.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“Actually, El, I don’t even want to
think
about it. But thanks.”

“Just be careful.”

“I’m always careful.”

Too much was at stake to be anything but. Still, a forgotten part of herself was rising up, threatening to rebel. The question keeping her awake at night was: Would she let it?

* * *

Alec caught himself glancing at the clock all afternoon. He needed to be on time. It had nothing to do with being eager. Still, anticipation was what he felt as he drove away from the Best For Baby offices just after five o’clock. He stopped at a corner market on the way to Julia’s. He selected a bottle of red wine first, put it back on the shelf and opted for white. He put that one back, too. Wine with a weeknight meal that Julia had assured him would be basic seemed too formal. Maybe even presumptuous. For all he knew, she didn’t drink. He stopped in the soda aisle and decided Julia wouldn’t appreciate him plying Danielle and Colin with sugar and empty calories, even if it probably would score him points with her kids. And, he could admit, he was nervous about spending an evening with them.

Since it seemed wrong to show up empty-handed, he selected a bouquet of daisies from the bin by the register.

“Will that be all?” the woman at the checkout asked.

The flowers were for Julia, but what about the kids? Shouldn’t he bring something for them?

“Well?” the woman prompted.

He glanced at the array of impulse purchases set out in front of him and grabbed two battery-powered miniature fans. “I’ll take these as well.”

This time, it was Danielle who opened the door when he arrived at the apartment. The little girl didn’t look happy to see him.

“Hi, Danielle.”

“Hello.” She didn’t step to one side to allow him to enter. The keeper of the gate, he thought.

“How’s soccer going?”

“Good.”

Colin joined them then.

“Hi...
Alec
.” The little boy fell into a fit of giggles. No doubt, he was thinking
Smart Aleck
.

“Hi.”

They were both staring at him now. Alec would rather be facing his board of directors.

“Your mom’s here, right?”

“Yep,” Colin said. “She’s changing her clothes.”

Alec glanced toward a hallway that he assumed led to the bedrooms. If the image that popped into his mind were a movie, it would have been rated R. Definitely not appropriate for children. He forced it away.

“Um, would it be all right if I came in?”

Were the decision left to Danielle, he had the feeling he would have remained out in the hall. But Colin grabbed his arm.

“Sure.”

Alec wiped his feet on the doormat and followed them into the living room, where he took a seat on the couch. The flowers and plastic bag were grasped in his hands, and even though he was resting one ankle on the opposite leg’s knee, he was far from relaxed. The television was on. Cartoons were playing. But both Colin and Danielle were watching him rather than the TV screen. Oh, yeah, he would definitely rather be facing his board of directors.

He attempted to swallow around a knot of nerves and asked, “How was school today?”

“We’re out of school,” Danielle replied with a roll of her eyes.

“It’s summer vacation,” Colin reminded him.

“Oh. Right. Summer vacation.”

“They had those even back when you were a kid, right?” the boy asked.

“Yes. Even
waaaay
back then,” Alec replied dryly. “So, what did the two of you do all day?”

“We went to St. Augustine,” Danielle said on a sigh.

“That’s our school. A lot of kids go there during the summer while their parents are at work. We don’t have to do any school work or anything,” Colin added. “Mostly, we just play with our friends, and sometimes we take field trips. Next week, we’re going to a museum.”

“Oh.”

His expression must have soured because Colin said, “Did you have to do that in the summer when you were a kid, too?”

“Sort of, except I was there around the clock.”

“You lived there?” Danielle’s appalled expression was a twin of her mother’s. Maybe that was why he found it so endearing.

“I attended a boarding school. So, yeah, I lived there.”

“Tough break,” Colin said with a shake of his head. “In the summer, we only have to go to St. Augustine on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and even then only for part of the day. We’re always home for dinner.”

“What do you do on Thursdays and Fridays?” Alec asked.

“Mom takes us to Grandma and Grandpa Bellamy’s house. It’s out in ’burbia.”

“
Su
burbia,” Danielle corrected with another roll of her eyes.

“That sounds like fun.”

“Grandpa lets us eat raw cookie dough,” Colin confided.

“Colin!” Danielle gasped.

“We’re not supposed to tell anyone,” the little boy said. “You’re not going to say anything to our mom, are you?”

“Who? Me? I can keep a secret.”

Julia emerged from the hallway right then. She was wearing a pair of khaki shorts that ended at midthigh and a white T-shirt with a scooped neckline. Even though the outfit covered everything, his imagination began filling in the blanks. He bit back a groan and willed his thoughts to stay in the PG range, given their audience. The woman had a first-rate pair of legs. Pale, since she didn’t have a lot of time to spend sunning herself outdoors and apparently didn’t bother with a faux tan. But they were slim and shapely. An image of those legs wrapped around Alec’s waist worked its way past his best intentions.

“What’s this about secrets?” she asked.

Alec had a few he wouldn’t have minded sharing if they were alone. He glanced at Colin and Danielle. Their eyes were wide, as if they expected him to rat them out about the raw cookie dough. He rose to his feet and handed Julia the flowers instead.

“I hope you like daisies.”

Julia’s face flushed with pleasure. “What’s not to like about daisies? Thank you.”

Colin came over and gave them a sniff. He wrinkled his nose afterward and declared, “They kinda stink.”

“They don’t stink.” Julia looked horrified.

Alec leaned over and inhaled. His gaze held hers. “They don’t really have much of a smell,” he said diplomatically.

A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. If they were alone, Alec would have given in to temptation and kissed her. He probably should be happy for their audience, he thought, since it was keeping him from doing something that neither of them was sure was wise.

“What’s in the bag?” Colin asked.

“These are for you and Danielle.” Now that he was handing them over, Alec felt embarrassed. “They’re not much. Just something that caught my eye while I was standing at the register.”

“Cool! Little fans!” Colin shouted. He had the plastic blades of his whirling around even before Danielle had hers out of the bag.

“I, um, don’t think they can cause injury,” Alec told Julia. At least he hoped.

Colin put his index finger to the blade to test out the theory. The fan slapped at it and then stopped until he pulled it away.

“Nope. No blood. And it hardly hurt at all, Mom.”

Alec smiled weakly. “It was these or candy,” he said to Julia.

“Then I appreciate your restraint.” To her children she said, “What do you say to Mr. McAvoy?”

“Thank you,” they replied in unison. Then Colin said, “He said I can call him Alec.”

Giggles ensued. Julia cut a questioning gaze to Alec, who shrugged.

“Come on,” Julia said, rolling her eyes. “Let’s go start dinner.”

They left the kids in the living room, playing with the fans and watching television. Her kitchen was small, but like the rest of the apartment, it was tidy. Four places were already set at the table. Julia arranged the flowers in a vase and put them in the center. The arrangement was simple, the perfect complement to the basic white dishes and folded paper napkins. Alec often ate off fine china and dabbed his mouth with Irish linen. Yet he doubted he’d ever seen anything more perfect.

Home
.

“Something wrong?” she asked.

“No.” He shook his head as the word echoed in his head. “No,” he said again. “So, what are we making?”

“First things first.”

She opened a drawer and held out a white chef’s apron. It had
Kiss the Cook
written across the bib. He cocked an eyebrow up at that and thought, why not? He intended the kiss to be light, friendly. More than the sort of kiss a man would give his mother, but short of the sort he would give a lover. It was brief and reasonably chaste. But nothing about it was friendly.

She stared at him afterward, her fingers touching her lips. “What was that for?”

“Just following instructions,” he managed to respond in a casual tone as he pointed to the slogan on the apron she still held.

She blinked, visibly off-kilter. “But I’m not the cook.”

“Then I guess you should be kissing me.”

“Alec—”

“It’s just a kiss. Chicken?” He wondered if she’d take the dare.

She glanced toward the doorway. Debating?

“Why don’t you take off your coat and tie.” The request had his full attention until she added, “And roll up your shirt sleeves.”

Ah. Right. Even wearing an apron, it wouldn’t be a good idea to prepare a meal in a tailored suit. He made a soft clucking sound as he began to peel off the jacket. Her eyes narrowed. His arms were tangled in gabardine when she grabbed his tie and hauled him close. This kiss was every bit as brief as the one he’d given her, but it packed a wallop.

“Satisfied?” she asked afterward.

He smiled slowly. “What do you think?”

Julia shook her head and expelled a sigh. “I think you’d better put on the apron.”

A moment later, clad in the apron and holding a large knife in his hand, Julia set him up in front of a cutting board with washed stalks of celery.

“We’ll start with something very basic. Sliced-up vegetables with dip as an appetizer.”

“You weren’t kidding about basic.”

“I want to gauge your skill with a knife before I turn you loose.” She pointed to the celery. “Trim each stalk at the bottom and at the top just down from the leaves. Then cut them into three equal pieces.”

He did as instructed. “That was easy enough and I still have all of my fingers.”

Alec wiggled the digits on his left hand for her benefit.

“Okay, wise guy, think you can manage the carrots without any tutoring? They need to be peeled, too.” She pursed her lips. “It’s best to do it over the sink.”

On that advice, she handed him a funky little tool and made a shaving motion. How hard could it be? he thought. Five minutes later, peels were everywhere, including still on parts of the carrots, and he had skinned up a knuckle. He glanced over at Julia, who was holding back a grin. His ego should have felt bruised. Instead, he was enjoying himself. Immensely. He could hear cartoons playing on the television in the other room. Every now and then, one of her kids would laugh.

Home
.

“I’m out of my element,” he told Julia truthfully.

“But you’re doing okay.” She regarded the gnarled stumps of carrots. “It just takes practice.”

“You make it seem so easy,” he said quietly. He glanced around the tiny kitchen. “And I’m not talking about peeling carrots, in case you’re wondering. I envy you, Julia.”

“You do?”

He nodded. “And what you’ve created here for you and your kids.”

“Mom.” Danielle stood in the doorway. “Colin put his fan in his hair and now it’s stuck.”

Julia speared him with a wry look. “And you said you envy me.”

When she returned a moment later, he had arranged the sorry-looking assortment of veggies on a plate.

“How’s Colin?”

She shrugged and slipped a pair of scissors back into a drawer. “He’s due for a haircut anyway. And it’s summer, so a buzz cut won’t look out of place.”

“Sorry.”

She shrugged again, unfazed. “It’s not the first thing to become stuck in his hair. Sadly, I doubt it will be the last.” She eyed the tray and teased, “That almost looks good enough to eat.”

“Yeah. Cooking is kind of fun.”

“Whoa! Whoa! Don’t get ahead of yourself,” she warned on a laugh. “We haven’t even begun to cook.”

“So, what do you consider what we’ve been doing?” His voice dropped as he spoke, and he ran a fingertip down the length of her bare arm. “Foreplay?”

“Prep work.” But she shivered.

“Same difference.”

“Really?” There was a ghost of a smile playing on Julia’s lips when she said, “It’s been a while, but I seem to remember foreplay differently.”

That brought him up short. Alec had the feeling he knew exactly how far back that memory stretched.

“Maybe we should compare notes,” he said.

Their gazes locked. Julia moistened her lips. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say that’s a tempting offer.”

“But?”

Children’s laughter drifted into the kitchen from the other room. She offered a lopsided smile. “There’s your answer.”

Alec wanted to resent the intrusion. In the past, he would have.
Children have a place and it’s anywhere I’m not.
That infamous gaffe had been rooted in truth. But with Julia, the intrusion of her children seemed...right. Nor did it do anything to curtail his interest. He wanted her all the more. Forbidden fruit? He had a feeling it was nothing quite as uncomplicated as that.

“We’d better get back to preparing dinner.”

“Have you been scared off?” She said it lightly.

His reply was blunt. “Not by a long shot.”

“Alec—”

“Dinner.” He nodded toward the stove. He knew enough to recognize that it was electric rather than gas. A large pot was on one of the front burners, steaming rising from its open top. A smaller pan was on the adjacent burner. “So, what now?”

She smoothed the hair away from her face, back to being cool and collected. Her voice was instructional when she said, “You can put the pasta in the water and give the tomato sauce a stir.”