LITMIR.BIZ

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listening. Catching a few words, she wondered who the mayor was talking to. And why he seemed so interested in that new strip club being advertised on the highway billboard…Joyful Interludes.

      

      EMMA SHOULD have known better than to think Daneen would let her get away without one more shot at ruining her day.

      “Wait,” the other woman called before they could step off the curb onto the street.

      She gritted her teeth as Johnny paused.

      Daneen sauntered down the sidewalk, like a woman who knew she looked good in her silky blouse and tight skirt, and grabbed Johnny’s arm. Tilting her head back, she gave him a welcoming smile. “Are you coming over to dinner tonight?”

      Johnny appeared confused. “Was I supposed to?”

      “Well, it’s Friday.”

      Johnny raised a brow. “So?”

      “You know. Little Johnny’s pizza and movie night.”

      Little Johnny? Emma tensed. There was a little Johnny somewhere? Good grief, had she been so bloody distracted seeing her first lover in the flesh—and such fine flesh it was—that she’d never even cast a quick, surreptitious glance toward his left-hand ring finger? Emma Jean Frasier, usually a connoisseur of eligible bachelors, had slipped up big time.

      She looked now. No ring. The rush of relief surprised her. She shouldn’t have been glad. After all, she hated the bastard, she really did. But something that felt suspiciously like happiness did ooze through her before she could stop it.

      “Why do you call him that?” Johnny asked, shaking his head in obvious annoyance. “You know he hates it. The kid’s been called Jack for nine years. Why all of a sudden you’ve started calling him Johnny is beyond me.”

      Daneen cast a glance at Emma. “What boy wouldn’t want to be called the same thing as the man he considers his daddy?”

      Growing visibly tense, Johnny didn’t answer right away. He stared directly at Daneen. The woman finally stopped giving Emma sly looks, and focused on Johnny’s unsmiling face.

      “Jack is my nephew and I love him,” Johnny said, his tone tight. “But I’m not his father, I’m his uncle. He knows it. You know it. Everyone in town knows it. Changing his name isn’t going to do anything but make him resent you, Daneen.”

      Emma at last understood. Little Johnny…Jack…had to be the baby Daneen had been pregnant with back in high school. The baby she’d conceived with Emma’s boyfriend, Nick Walker. The baby the whole town had been whispering about on the day of the senior prom, when word got out that the king—Nick—had deserted his queen—Emma—because he’d knocked up the daughter of the sheriff.

      And that the sheriff was cleaning his gun.

      Daneen didn’t say another word as Johnny helped Emma to the SUV and held her arm while she got in. Once he joined her, taking his place in the driver’s seat, she couldn’t help rolling down her window to face Daneen. Somehow, her face didn’t even crack as she forced a pleasant expression. “Nice seeing you, Daneen. I never got a chance to say goodbye all those years ago.” She managed a completely unconcerned laugh, still having enough of that old dumped-high-school-girl pride to act as if she didn’t care what had happened. “You sure missed one wild prom night.”

      Daneen began to frown, then her mouth dropped open, as if she’d just remembered something. She looked ready to grab the door handle when Johnny revved the engine to life.

      “Now you did it,” Johnny muttered as he pulled away from the curb, leaving a slack-jawed Daneen behind them.

      “What’d I do?”

      He shot her a frankly disbelieving look out the corner of his eye. “Wild prom night? Did you really have to remind her about what happened between you and me?”

      It took her a second to process the accusation. He thought she’d intentionally set out to bait Daneen by making her jealous of her and Johnny? “Back up, big guy,” she said with a frown. “For your information, I was trying to blow off what happened between your jerk of a brother and that—person—back in high school. Why would she care…” Then she remembered the whole Daddy nonsense and groaned. “Oh, God, don’t tell me you’re following in Nick’s footsteps. You’re involved with Daneen?” She shuddered, not feigning her complete dismay. “Ewww. Two brothers. I didn’t think bad taste ran in families.”

      He glanced over and raised a brow. “As opposed to what…good taste?”

      She had to think for a moment before she caught his meaning. Then she got it. He and Nick had both gotten involved with her, hadn’t they? She almost punched his arm for putting her in the same category with Daneen, who’d been about as big a bitch as Emma had ever encountered during their high school days. But she didn’t want to cause an accident.

      “Anyway,” he continued, “no, we’re not involved. Never have been, never will be.”

      Emma blew out an impatient breath. Men. Such simple creatures. “Have you told her that?”

      He gave her a pointed look as they stopped at a red light. “Yeah, I have. Nine years ago, right after she came back to Joyful, she made a play. I shot her down.”

      The thought of Daneen trying anything with Johnny made Emma feel a sudden stab of annoyance she had no business feeling. She swallowed it away, asking, “Is she in love with you?”

      Johnny shook his head. “Hell, no. She knows me too well.”

      That was an interesting comment, considering how loveable he was. Correction. Had once been. “Oh?”

      “She knows it’d be a waste of time since I don’t want anything to do with love, marriage or any of that garbage. Walker men just aren’t cut out for it. At least not the ones from my branch of the family tree.” He shrugged, probably realizing how heavy that had sounded. “Daneen and I are friends, that’s all.”

      Emma remained silent for a moment, hearing a hint of resignation—though not bitterness—in Johnny’s voice. He obviously believed what he said about commitment. Little wonder, considering his background…his father. And apparently Nick. The only surprising thing was how his words had affected her—with a sudden flare of something almost painful in her belly.

      “If you say so. But Daneen sure looked territorial.”

      “There’s nothing else between us, and there never will be,” he added. “Daneen knows it as well as I do.”

      He apparently believed that. Gullible as well as simple. “So what’s with the Daddy stuff?”

      Turning the car onto Peach Grove Lane, he headed toward her grandmother’s neighborhood. “Jack doesn’t really have one. Nick bailed on her and joined the Marines before Jack was even born.” Johnny frowned, looking disgusted.

      “Why?”

      “I don’t know. I’ve only seen him once since.”

      That surprised her, knowing how close Johnny and Nick had been. But the tightness in his jaw warned her not to push.

      He continued. “Daneen moved back here when Jack was a month old. My mom and I do what we can to help.” Rolling his eyes, he added, “Daneen has realized I’m never going to get married and have kids, so she pictures Jack as my heir or something—as if I’ve got a ton of money. Which I don’t.”

      Never marry. Never have kids. Again that stab of something hit her in the stomach. Hunger. It’s just hunger from a long day of driving with no food. But deep in her heart, she knew she was lying to herself.

      “She seems to think her status as my ‘sister’ gives her the right to interfere in my personal life,” he said. “Look, can we talk about something else?”

      “Like?”

      “How about we discuss how

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