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“This is my mother,” Dean said. “April Robillard.”
April’s fingers twitched. She shook hands with both men, but beneath the brim of her cowboy hat, her eyes began filling with tears.
“Sorry.” She waved her fingers in front of her face. “Seasonal allergies.”
Dean’s hand settled on her shoulder. He hadn’t planned to do this—hadn’t thought this far ahead—but he felt like he’d just won the biggest game of the season. “My mother’s been doing undercover work for me, using the name Susan O’Hara.”
That required a few explanations, all of which Dean made up on the spot while April blinked her eyes and faked an allergy cough. When the men finally left, April rounded on him. “Don’t say a single sappy thing to me or I’ll completely lose it.”
“Fine,” he shot back. “Let’s get some cake.”
Getting cake, he decided, beat the heck out of having to fake his own allergy cough.
April finally managed to separate herself from the crowd. She found a sheltered spot behind a row of shrubbery in the far corner of the park, sat in the grass against the fence, and let herself have a good cry. She had her son back. They’d need to test the waters for a while, but they were both stubborn, and she had faith they’d work it out.
In the distance, the garage band’s lead singer began a painful, white boy’s rap. Jack came around the corner of the shrubbery into her shady sanctuary. “Stop that kid before he harms innocent children.” He pretended not to notice her red eyes as he sat next to her.
“Promise me you won’t ever rap,” she said.
“Only in the shower. Although…”
“Promise me!”
“All right.” He picked up her hand, and she didn’t try to draw it away. “I saw you with Dean.”
Her eyes started tearing all over again. “He introduced me as his mother. It was…pretty wonderful.”
Jack smiled. “Did he now? I’m glad.”
“I hope someday maybe the two of you…”
“We’re working on it.” He stroked the center of her palm with his thumb. “I’ve been thinking about your aversion to one-night stands. Bottom line, we’re going to have to date like normal adults.”
“You want to date?”
“I told you last night that I’ve gotten used to real relationships. I need a permanent home base now that I have Riley, and it might as well be L.A.” He played with her fingers, filling her with a sweet, aching tension. “By the way, I’m counting this as our first date. That gives me a better chance to score the next time we go out.”
“Subtle.” She shouldn’t have smiled.
“I couldn’t be subtle with you if I tried.” The amusement faded from his eyes. “I want you, April. Every inch of you. I want to see you and touch you. I want to taste you. I want to be inside you. I want it all.”
She finally pulled her hand away. “And then what?”
“We do it all over again.”
“That’s why God made groupies, Jack. Personally, I like a little more structure.”
“April…”
She rose to her feet and headed off to find Riley.
Dean finally managed to cut Blue from the crowd and pull her around the corner into an old cemetery next to the Baptist Church. He drew her toward the shade of the cemetery’s most impressive monument, a sleek black granite plinth belonging to Marshall Garrison. He could see she was nervous but trying to hide it. “How did everybody find out April’s your mother?” she said. “The whole town’s buzzing.”
“We’re not talking about April. We’re talking about what happened yesterday.”
She looked away. “Yeah, what a relief, right? Can you imagine me with a baby?”
Oddly enough, he could. Blue would be a great mother, as fierce a protector as she would be a champion playmate. He pushed the image aside. “I’m talking about your asinine plan to leave town on Monday.”
