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Wild Cat And The Marine. Jade Taylor
Читать онлайн.Название Wild Cat And The Marine
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781472026552
Автор произведения Jade Taylor
Жанр Современные любовные романы
Издательство HarperCollins
“Aw, Pop, I was just giving you a chance to kiss your girlfriend good-night.”
Pop’s voice rose. “Mind your manners, boy! I can still tan your hide.”
“So what’s wrong with a good-night kiss?”
Will looked sharply at him. “How long were you standing there?”
Jackson countered his look with a long, cool stare of his own. “Long enough.”
“You still planning on leaving?”
“After you’re better.”
“If that’s the case, then maybe you ought to stay away from the Darnell place.”
Jackson knew what Pop hinted at. He couldn’t admit it to his father. “Cat’s a friend, that’s all.”
His father snapped, “Then act like a friend and stay away from her. She’s already been hurt once.”
Jackson stiffened. “Don’t you think I’m a little old to be giving orders to?”
“It’s not orders, son. It’s advice. Do Cat a favor and take it.”
Will climbed the porch steps slowly. He paused on the third riser and looked down at Jackson, his angular features hard. “She’s been hurt before. I don’t want my blood to be a part of hurting her again.”
Jackson’s quick temper edged his voice with anger. “Maybe you should practice what you preach, old man!”
“Who’re you calling an old man? I’ve got half a mind to see if a little North Dakota dust on your backside would teach you some manners!”
For a long moment Jackson stared up at his father coldly. He didn’t look fragile, and the hard set to his jaw announced his feelings in no uncertain tones, but his hand clutched the walnut cane. Jackson shook his head as if to clear it, and shot a weak smile in Pop’s direction. “If you think it might, I’d be willing to roll around a bit and see how much dust I can gather.”
His father’s keen gaze relaxed and a thin smile tipped his lips. He nodded. “You probably would. Forget it. What did you mean by telling me to practice what I preach?”
“It doesn’t take a farmer to see you and Bertie are two peas in the same pod.”
“Nonsense! She’s being a good neighbor.” He turned, climbed the last step and limped across the porch to the door.
Jackson called out to the stiff back, “Well, you try kissing her good-night next time she’s over and see how neighborly she gets!”
His father looked back, indignation pulling down his rusty brows and making his face go all angles and planes. “You think because you’ve been away in the Marines you can come home and try to tell your old man the facts of life? I’ve known Bertie since the day she was born.”
“I suppose you’d remember?”
“Sweetest woman in the county, despite the village idiots who named her ‘Crabby,’ and one of the nicest, too.” He paused. “I was almost ten years old. Of course, I remember. Now you get yourself in bed, and leave me to tend my own chickens. You’ll need to be up by four-thirty to meet the Greyhound bus carrying the new fuel pump for that tractor you broke this morning.”
“I broke? You’re kidding, aren’t you?”
“Not more than a smidgen. Come on, now. Let’s go in.”
“Might as well. You’re as good at changing the subject as anyone I’ve ever met. If a guy is going to get a stepmother, then I think he ought to be told about it.”
His father’s anger faded as he stared over Jackson’s head into the shadowed farmyard. A vagrant breeze stirred the leaves of the trees, so they rustled softly. “It’s not been four years since your mother died. Even if I wanted to, and Bertie was willing, it wouldn’t seem right.”
Jackson quit his teasing. It wasn’t funny anymore. He offered a token of peace. “I wouldn’t mind. Cassidy would be okay with it, too.”
“Go to bed, boy, and quit trying to marry off your father.”
Jackson laughed and climbed the steps two at a time. Before he went inside, he looked toward Cat’s place. He couldn’t see any lights. She might have gone to bed. The instant image the thought provoked made him uneasy. He had no business picturing Cat in bed and himself beside her. Maybe the danger was real.
“OH, MOMMY! They’re beautiful!”
“Pick one to keep, Joey. You worked as hard as I did.”
Joey pondered the gleaming necklaces they had made after Jackson left. Outside, the wind rose and Cat heard it keening against the pine siding of the house. The weather always seemed just on the verge of breaking in.
Joey’s small hand hovered over the neatly laid rows of rhodinium, crystal, jade and jasper. She reached for a necklace of fire-cut crystal as boldly red as rubies, yet its value only a few dollars. Picking it up, she held it to her neck and bent forward to use the table mirror to check its effect, her shoulder-length hair swinging forward as she did so. Then she laid it back down.
“Pick one, Teddy Bear.”
Joey took the crystal necklace and slipped it over her head. It lay in a blaze of red against her yellow T-shirt.
“Not exactly a match,” Cat said.
“What’s a match?” Joey asked.
“When things go together. You know, like bees and flowers, like you and your best buddy, Tommy Karl.” Like me and a certain redhead.
“Like me and you. Right, Mom?”
“Yes, honey, like you and me.” Cat hugged Joey and kissed her cheek. Joey smelled like the strawberry ice cream she’d had for dessert and something else. Cat sniffed again. Horse. The faint odor of horse clung to her daughter despite her shower before dinner and the fresh jeans and T-shirt. Cat laughed. “Exactly like you and me.” She rubbed her cheek against Joey’s hair. In full sun, her daughter’s walnut hair would show a bit of auburn. A tiny bit, but enough to remind Cat of fire.
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