Page 60 of Naturally Naughty


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Obviously neither had the other two women. Because she felt sure she’d have noticed those matching holy-cannoli-take-me-big- looks on their faces.

“Hi, Jack,” she murmured. Her voice didn’t even shake. Amazing, since her heart had started racing like an out of control freight train speeding toward heartbreak junction.

The man was too handsome. His smile too adorably sexy to be real, the twinkle in his brilliant green eyes too charming. He made women want to hug him. Then do him. Including Kate. Especially Kate.

Diane and Josie spoke in unison. “Introduce us.”

After she’d made introductions all the way around, and listened to Josie and Diane pump Jack for information about why on earth he’d waited so long to come back for a visit to Pleasantville, she tried to slide away. Evening was approaching, though it was still light out. She wanted to get inside and lock up. Mainly she wanted to get away before Jack started asking any more questions about her store.

Just when she thought she might make a clean getaway, however, an old, beige Cadillac pulled up on the street and parked one building down, in front of the Tea Room.

“Great,” Jack muttered. “It’s my ex-brother-in-law.”

“Which one?” Josie said under her breath, her voice holding a definite note of sarcasm. Obviously she knew Angela.

As Kate watched the man emerge from the Cadillac, she answered softly, “Darren.”

9

DARREN HADN’T CHANGED a great deal, though his face was rounder and his hair thinner than it had been in high school. His belly was rounder, too. He wasn’t fat, just soft and mellow-looking. Like a salesman.

He nodded to Diane and Josie, barely glanced at Kate, then noticed Jack. His face paled and for a second Kate thought he was going to get back in his car and drive away. Then his shoulders straightened as he locked the car and walked around it to the sidewalk.

Okay, so the jerk wasn’t a complete wimp. He wasn’t going to try to avoid his ex’s brother.

“Hello, Jack, Josie. Diane.” Then he glanced toward Kate, as if waiting for an introduction. His eyes narrowed as he tilted his head. “You…my God, it’s Kate Jones.”

“Hello, Darren.”

“I had no idea you were back in town.”

“Well, you know what they say about bad pennies.”

“You look…wow, you look great,” he said, his eyes wide as he stared her up and down.

Next door, the door to the Tea Room opened. Darren glanced past Kate, his face growing red. She knew darn well who stood there. “It was so nice seeing you, Darren. Be sure to say hi to your mom for me, okay?”

She turned around. Mrs. McIntyre stood on the porch next door, all stiff-necked, righteous indignation. Another woman, one Kate didn’t recognize, stood with her. The two of them immediately started speaking in low voices. She couldn’t hear their words, but she got the message loud and clear.

Kate gave them a forced but saccharine-sweet smile as she strode inside her store, as if she hadn’t a care in the world.

Jack watched Kate leave, and made no attempt to stop her. He’d seen the silent exchange between Kate and Darren’s mother. The glassiness in her eyes and the quiver of her lush, beautiful bottom lip, said she was holding on by a thin thread.

He’d also read the tension between his ex brother-in-law and the woman he now considered his. He didn’t stop to evaluate that, knowing Kate would resent the hell out of him thinking that way. Particularly since he’d wondered if it was best to stay away from her, for his own sanity and reproductive health. He’d come to the conclusion that walking around with a hard-on eighteen hours a day could really be bad for his future children.

Josie and Diane seemed to notice the tension in the air, as well. Telling Jack how nice it was to meet him, they both walked down the street, their heads close together as they talked.

Once they were gone, Jack eyed his sister’s former husband. “How’s it going, Darren?”

Darren was still looking at the door to the building that had once belonged to his father. “I can’t believe Kate came back. I haven’t seen her since graduation.”

“You knew her in high school?”

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