Rita answered her daughter by opening her arms. He felt his jaw drop when Bonnie walked into them. Where was the angry hellion? This mother-daughter thing was a more powerful connection than he’d realized.
JT watched as the woman rocked his wife for a minute before moving to put one arm around her shoulder. She led Bonnie into the house. With a quick look of censure over her shoulder at JT, she gruffly threw him an order.
“Shut the door. I’ve got the air on, you know.”
Okay, Bonnie was delivered. He could turn around and return to that no-tell motel. It wouldn’t take more than a few minutes to gather up his things. A bit more and he’d be in bed at Ma’s house. After all, his mother-in-law hadn’t invited him in.
Any man with an ounce of pride would do that. He thought those words as he shut the red-painted front door and followed the women inside.
JT plopped down into a recliner opposite the plaid couch where the mother and daughter sat. The crocheted afghan with its colorful granny squares slipped off the back and onto his shoulders as he all but fell into the chair.
With a cluck of her tongue, Rita grumbled at him. “Clumsy one, aren’t you! And couldn’t you figure out what to do in that motel room we arranged for you two?”
Feeling his face blaze, JT only stared at Rita with goggle eyes. Next to the woman, Bonnie gasped and pulled out of her mother’s hold.
“Mother! You don’t think we’d actually… Not after meeting for the first time tonight!”
Crossing her arms, Rita’s face was mutinous. “Why not? Mail-order brides slept with their husbands after meeting the same day. If it was good enough for the women who shaped the west, it’s good enough for you.”
Amazingly, a chuckle bubbled up in JT’s throat. He opened his mouth and let it roar. Both women jumped at the sound of the loud laugh.
“What’s so funny over there?”
Looking at the older woman, JT wiped a tear from his eye. “You and my mother. You’ve decided women are in such short supply that I needed an arranged marriage.”
A harrumph came his way. Then Rita stood with her thin hands on her scrawny hips. The woman had to weigh no more than one hundred pounds soaking wet.
“You’re both in your thirties.” The bite to Rita’s voice faded. The lines in her forehead disappeared as her face softened. “It was high time someone stepped in to keep you from growing old all alone.”
“But Mother, why did you do it?” Bonnie’s plaintive voice was low. Almost like she’d reached the end of her strength.
Her mother sat again beside her and picked up her daughter’s hand. “Gus, Mildred, and I started comparing our children one day. You both have so much in common. It was a perfect match, except…”
Rita’s voice trailed off. It didn’t matter that JT had known Bonnie for only a few hours. He’d figured enough about his wife to finish Rita’s sentence.
“Except, that I didn’t live in Oak Grove. Right?”
Bonnie’s gaze went between him and her mother as Rita nodded. Her question came out on a small sob. “Mother, why would you match me with him? You know I don’t want to leave town.”
Rita fixed JT with a cold stare as she answered her daughter. “Do you have to leave?”
“Did you get anything more out of your mother after I left last night?”
Bonnie lowered the warm chip she’d only just lifted to her mouth with a sigh. She really wanted that bite of chip. Hacienda was her favorite restaurant in Janesville, and the warm tortilla chips and fresh salsa were almost the best part of the visit.
Almost. Her mouth watered as she thought about the enchilada with spicy verde sauce. They’d already ordered so Bonnie knew she’d be eating that soon.
They’d spent the afternoon walking the trails of Palmer Park. She’d been pleased to learn that they could comfortably be together for long periods of silence. When they did talk, it had been about things from their past. Questions like, “Have you dated much?” or “What’s your favorite memory from school” occasionally passed between them.
As they walked, JT held her hand. Remembering that feeling of warmth and attraction from his touch sent a zing of awareness through her as she sat across from him. She knew the beginnings of a smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
His brow contorted upward. “What? She told you something ridiculous like my mother told me last night, right?”
Oh, yeah. He’d asked about her mother. Bonnie got ahold of her thoughts and answered.
“No, I was just remembering our walk today. I really enjoyed it.”
A boyish grin, sort of shy and enthusiastic, covered his face. JT reached for her hand across the table.
Bonnie had been glad when he didn’t push into the same side of the booth with her as the hostess seated them. She always thought it looked odd when couples did that. Since he’d chosen to sit across from her, they could see each other better as they talked. Or when he chose to touch her, like now.
“So, did you get anything out of your mother?”
Mush. Her mind was mush with the cloudy feeling he created in her head. She opened her mouth to answer, and Bonnie heard a different set of words come out. Not what she’d been about to say at all.
“You send the most fantastic tingles through me whenever you touch me.”
JT’s eyes widened, a wolfish look erasing the boyish grin. He lifted her hand to his lips. She expected him to kiss the back of it. Shock zinged through her followed by a warm knot in her stomach when he turned it over and placed
