She would just be more careful in the future, she re- solved firmly. Today had been exceptional, and they had both been caught up in the mood of the moment. Yet she knew sparks flew when she was around him, and it was clear that he felt them, too.
She stared at her image and pulled her dress back in place, taking one last look at herself in a wedding gown.
Reluctantly, she let the dress fall around her feet. With a whispery sigh, it billowed around her ankles, and she stepped out of it, feeling as if she were leaving a fantasy and returning to reality. At least this reality would no longer hold a mountain of bills.
In the backyard, Cal shifted his weight, watching Stod- dard lean down to give advice to Josh on how to hold the bat. Cal had known Stoddard as long as he had known the Sievers and he was amazed that the boys had cajoled Stod- dard into playing ball. Red was flopped down in the grass near Cal. After a few minutes of frolicking around Snook- urns, the cat viewing the dog with great disdain, Red had lost interest in Snookums and trailed after Cal.
Cal looked at Quin, who adamantly refused to play. Chris and Josh had accepted his refusal without argument. The little kid sat beneath a tree, Snooks sleeping in his lap. At least the cat was finally proving some worth. Cal shifted his feet, kicking dust away from the worn lawn-chair cushion that was now first base. Without enough players, they were all taking turns and at the moment, he covered the outfield and bases, Stoddard was catcher and umpire, Chris was pitcher and Josh was at bat. Cal’s thoughts drifted to Ju- liana and he looked at the house. It was her wedding night and she was changing clothes to play ball. She had been a beautiful bride. His thoughts jumped to the moment when he had unfastened the long row of buttons down the back of her dress. As his body heated, he tried to get his atten- tion back to the game.
Josh swung and missed. The back door opened and Ju- liana crossed the porch that ran behind the kitchen and halfway along the back of the house to the solarium. She came down the steps. She was dressed in cutoffs, sneakers and a yellow T-shirt. Her hair was in one long braid. Seeing her, Cal felt as if Josh had swung the bat and struck him solidly in the middle. His breath went out and his mouth went dry as he looked at his new bride.
Six
Cal’s gaze swept down the length of Juliana’s long, shapely legs and instantly he had an erotic image of those legs wrapped around him. He waved and she nodded, moving toward the boys in a seductive walk that made his body tighten. His new bride was a knockout. A paper marriage. “Be careful,” he muttered to himself. He didn’t want to get entangled with her and her boys. And the day she found out the truth about him, she would be enraged.
“Hey! Juliana, come play!” Chris yelled when she stopped to talk to Quin. She nodded and jogged toward the players and Cal felt his resolve to leave her and her neph- ews to themselves begin to evaporate. Gorgeous. Long legs, big eyes, hot kisses.
In minutes, she was holding the bat. She slammed it against the ball, sending it over Chris’s head as he made a jump to catch it. The ball grazed the top of his glove and fell, rolling across the ground. Cal ran, scooped up the ball and raced for first. Juliana was trying to beat him to it, running as if for her life, her long braid flying and bounc- ing behind her head.
When he neared the base, she made a dive for it and slid into him in a tangle of legs.
“Safe!” Stoddard called.
“Safe!” Josh screamed. “She’s safe!”
Grinning, Cal pulled her to her feet while she brushed the dust off her hip. “Good slide,” he said, his hand still hold- ing hers. “I’m impressed.”
“Sure,” she answered dryly, yet she gave him a big smile that made his pulse skitter. He was intrigued with her will- ingness to throw herself into the kids’ ball game on her wedding night. She seemed to take life as it came and make the most of it and he found that admirable.
“Throw the ball!” Chris yelled, and Cal turned to toss it to him. He glanced down at her. “All right?”
“Yes,” she said, brushing dust off her saucy, round bot- tom. He longed to help her finish the task. “Playing with the boys can be dangerous.”
“So I’m learning, but it isn’t the boys who are a threat.”
Her head came up and she studied him.
“I seem to recall,” he drawled, “telling you how I would keep to myself and we wouldn’t get involved with each other, yet here I am in the thick of a ball game with the most luscious hitter to ever step up to home plate.”
“Thank you,” she said with another big smile. “I warned you, Counselor, that you wouldn’t be able to keep to your- self.”
“So you did.” He glanced toward the unmanned second base. “According to the boys, you can’t steal bases in this game.”
“I know their rules. How did they get Stoddard here?”
“They’re persuasive.”
“Oh, great, now I live with four persuasive males,” she said dryly.
“You’ll hold your own.”
She wondered if she could possibly hold her own with this man who was a contradictory bundle of surprises and too sexy for words.
The crack of the ball interrupted them. She ran for sec- ond base as Stoddard ambled toward first. On the next play, Cal watched her race for third,
