The Mistletoe Affair

me up with. Maybe that's why I fell for him. After she met him, she tried to talk me out of marrying so quickly. Mother warned me that he seemed self-centered.'

“What's keeping you from telling Grace the truth now? Is part of it the fact you'd have to eat crow and admit Grace had been right about Paul?” he asked.

Guilt nagged her conscious. She hesitated, hating to admit it to herself. “Maybe,” she twisted a strand of hair around her finger. Butterflies swam upstream in her stomach. “I don't like your implications. I plan on telling her the truth.'

“Uh huh,” he said, fixing her with a stare.

“Don't give me that I-don't-believe-you look, Counselor. I do plan on telling her-eventually.” She grew silent. “But now's a bad time. She's recovering from surgery and missing my father. Everything's happening too fast with Paul popping up out of nowhere like he did.'

“Planning to do something and doing it isn't the same thing. You need to tell Grace everything right away. She has a right to know the truth. Despite the fact she's manipulative at times, she's really on your side.'

Katherine nodded. Hell, she knew that.

“Paul doesn't act like a man who dropped by casually to see his son for Christmas. Otherwise, he'd have phoned you and arranged for a day and time he could pick Matt up. He's here to see you.'

Inhaling and exhaling an exasperated breath, she answered, “I know. He says he's changed.'

“Do you think he has?'

She shrugged. “Maybe, but it takes time to trust a person again-at least for me it does. I keep feeling guilty about Matt. He's been hurt so badly by this divorce. His father has cancelled so many visits and ignored him for so long.'

“What if Paul has changed?” He took her hand in his again.

She sighed. “I need to bury the hatchet and be semi-friends with Paul, but I don't want him back in my bed, if that's what you are asking me. I'm going to do what's best for Matt in the long run. That's the only thing I know for sure.'

He ran the pad of his thumb over her hand and leaned closer. “I want you to know I'm your friend.” He pointed to the hammer and a flash of humor flickered in his eyes. “I'm even willing to make a first class fool of myself.'

Her breath caught at the innocent, boyish expression on his face. No wonder women find him irresistible. He's like a big, cuddly bear. “I think you'd better define what you mean by ‘friends', before I agree to anything concerning you and me.” She pulled her hand from his. Or, maybe he's really the sly, cunning, Big Bad Wolf.

He smiled a slow, blatantly sexual smile, but his head shook from side to side in all innocence. “There you go again-distrusting me and the degree of closeness and intimacy I mean for us to share. You think I go around ravishing and pillaging every beautiful woman I see? Scout's honor, I don't.'

Crossing her arms, she stared at him. Not this one, you don't. “You were never a Scout in your life, were you?'

He chuckled. “No, but I dated a Girl Scout Den Leader. Does that count?” He laughed. “Lighten up. What are you so afraid of, Katherine?'

“Mr. Randall.” They spun around in their chairs to find a pajama-clad Matt ambling into the kitchen, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

“What are you doing out of bed?” Katherine asked, relieved at the interruption.

“I got thirsty.” He stared at his bare feet.

Katherine stood, gathered Matt into her arms and poured him some water. She kissed him on the cheek. “Did you have another bad dream?'

“Uh huh,” he whispered. “Can I sit with Mr. Randall?'

What should she do about this growing attachment Matt continued to develop for Jared? If he thought he could get to the mother through the son, he'd better think again. She passed Matt to Jared, and he held Matt on his lap. She guessed it wouldn't hurt for them to hang around some until she and Matt returned to Sugar Land after Christmas.

“How about a bowl of chocolate mint ice cream, pal? I bet your mother has buckets of it stashed away.'

“You know, I do have a tiny bit in the freezer.” Katherine prepared a double-decker serving for everyone, sat down at the table and watched. They remained silent except for an occasional spoon clanging against a bowl. Although they had just returned from a huge dinner a few hours ago, Matt and Jared inhaled their helpings. Men! And boys. Matt finished and looked sticky with ice cream puddles on his mouth, hands and arms. She took a wet rag and cleaned him up, smiling down at his sleepy face. “Time for you to go back to bed, young man.'

“Can Mr. Randall tuck me in?'

Before Katherine could answer, Jared lifted her son into his arms and headed toward the stairs. She could hear Matt whispering as they went, “Will you check under my bed? There's a boogey man hiding there.'

Jared turned and winked at Katherine. “I'll be back. Matt and me gotta seek and destroy a boogey man, so he can't ever come back and scare us.'

Ten minutes later, and Katherine wondering at the banging she had heard, Jared sauntered back into the kitchen. “We had to exorcise the closets, too.'

She looked into his penetrating blue eyes. That familiar pull drew her like a warm, familiar fire on a cold night. “Thanks for doing that for Matt, and please, tell me how you did it-he thinks I don't know how to find them all. It must be a guy thing.'

“Glad to.” He explained using the hammer to bang on the bed and doorframes of his room. “See the bangs hurt the boogeyman's ears and he won't want to come back to an unwelcome place. Now for another problem, at the birthday party, Matt said he still wants to go horseback riding. I didn't want to disappoint him, so I told him spending time with his dad wouldn't stop him from going. I hope you don't mind. Paul's welcome to come, too.'

She pictured Paul sneezing and galloping his way across open fields one day, parked in the doctor's office the next. She fought back a grin. “Paul's allergic to most animals. That's why Matt couldn't have the puppy he saw in a pet store.'

“Did he ever get a puppy?'

She shook her head, feeling ashamed she hadn't remembered he'd wanted one until now. “Matt was two-years old. At that age, they seem to want everything they see, and he wanted this beautiful collie pup. He cried when Paul said no, and Matt forgot about it ten minutes after we left the store.'

A devilish grin slowly grew on his mouth.

The same mischievous smile spread across her face. She laughed at the thought that leaped into her mind. “We can't give a puppy to Matt for Christmas. It wouldn't be fair to Paul.'

“Why not? You're divorced, so Paul doesn't have to even get around the animal.'

“But what if Matt wants to take the puppy with him when he visits his dad?” So many ‘What ifs’ hopped around her mind like hatching fleas. What if the puppy hairs on Matt bothered his dad?

Jared lifted his hands in surrender. “I didn't say I had all the answers. I'm giving you some reasons for doing it. Matt's almost six, I'm sure he'd appreciate the puppy even more now. It would teach him responsibility.” He winked. “Sure is tempting.'

“Yes, but I better think about it some more.'

He snapped his fingers. “I got it. When we go horseback riding, we could find out if Matt wants a puppy.'

“Okay, I'll go that far, but I still need to think about it.” Conspiring with him like this would only increase her sense of girlishness whenever Jared was around. But she wasn't a girl anymore. The woman in her knew that. Despite her attempts to stifle it, she yawned.

Tugging her hand, he stood and headed for the door. She followed close behind him. He turned and looked down at her. “Your eyelids are drooping at half-mast, friend.'

Without warning, he lowered his head and kissed her cheek. A butterfly kiss intended from one friend to another, but her breath caught. It had been too long since she'd felt anything for a man and she was in trouble, monumental trouble, or would that be ‘manument’ trouble, particularly around this ‘friend'. She almost sighed out loud. Standing half a foot away from him, her body swayed slightly toward him, and he pulled her up against his chest. His body heat pulsed into hers, and he folded his arms around her, firmly holding her in his warm embrace. Erotic visions of them lying between sheets danced through her mind.