Dani’s excited shouts cut into her reverie.
“Mommy, I did it!” Dani hollered, thundering onto the porch, a bowl in her hand. “Look! I made ice cream!”
It looked more like soup to Kelly, but she didn’t complain as she took the offered bowl and tried a taste. “Wonderful,” she declared. “The best peach ice cream I’ve ever had. Maybe you two will turn out to be the next ice cream magnates.”
“Peach is good, but chocolate is better. Jordan says next time we’ll make that. It’s his favorite, too.”
“Oh, really? You and Jordan seem to be making a lot of plans today.”
Jordan strolled up to the porch and leaned back against the railing right smack in front of her, a position that put his incredible thighs and other interesting parts of his anatomy practically at eye level. Kelly jerked her gaze up to rest more safely on his face. He shot her a knowing little grin that set her teeth on edge.
“Any objections to our plans?” he inquired, clearly daring her to challenge his determination to weave himself into the fabric of their lives.
Kelly waited until Dani had scampered off to check the ice-cream maker before responding. “Only if you intend to disappoint her,” she warned in a low voice. “Paul has done enough of that to last her a lifetime.”
“I will never disappoint her or you,” he vowed, regarding her solemnly. “You can take that promise to the bank.”
As soon as the businesslike words were out of his mouth, he looked chagrined. “Sorry.”
“I know, force of habit.”
Somehow, though, this time she couldn’t work herself into much of a snit over it. With the sun setting into a purple haze of twilight and the fragrance of flowers filling the hot, dry air, she felt too at ease, too comfortable with the camaraderie they’d shared all day long to risk spoiling it with another quarrel over semantics. Jordan would probably always use business terms for describing things. At least he’d formally asked her to marry him, not to enter into a merger.
Besides, it was getting late, too late to squabble and ruin an otherwise perfect day. It was time for Dani to be going to bed and soon it would be time for Jordan to be going back to Houston. She was surprised he’d hung around this long. By Sunday evenings he was usually chomping at the bit to get away from west Texas and back to the big city so he could dig into the piles of work he always brought home from the office.
“You leaving for Houston soon?” she asked.
“Trying to get rid of me?”
“No, just wondering.”
“I’m not going back.”
Startled, she stared at him. “You mean tonight?”
“I mean, not until you and I reach some sort of compromise.”
She knew what compromise meant in Jordan’s terms. He wanted her to capitulate completely. She shot him a wry look. “It’s a little early for you to think about retiring over here to wait me out.”
“Oh, I don’t anticipate it taking nearly that long.”
After glancing to make sure that Dani was occupied and out of hearing range, Kelly warned him emphatically, “You will not bully me into making a decision.”
He shrugged, looking supremely confident. “I didn’t plan to.”
She sighed. “You’re just going to try to wear me down, then, aren’t you?”
“I prefer to think of it as winning you over to my way of thinking.”
Before she could respond to that, Dani rejoined them, leaning against Kelly’s thigh and yawning widely. “Sleepy?” Kelly asked, looping an arm around the child’s waist and hugging her close.
“Uh-huh,” she admitted.
“Then run up and fill the tub. I’ll be up in a minute to give you your bath and tuck you in.”
“But I just took a bath before church.”
“And you got filthy again today.”
“Okay.” Dani gazed sleepily up at Jordan. “Will you stay and read me a story?” she asked, an unmistakable wistful note in her voice.
Kelly saw the hesitancy in Jordan’s eyes and silently cursed him. Before she could jump in, though, he grinned. “You have anything with horses in it?”
Dani beamed. “Black Beauty. It’s my favorite.”
“Ah, yes, I think I remember that one. It was your mom’s favorite, too.”
Kelly stared at him. “How on earth do you remember that?”
“There’s a lot I remember about you,” he taunted. “For a very long time you told me all your deepest, darkest secrets. For instance—”
The devilish twinkle in his eyes caused Kelly to cut him off. There was no telling what story he’d share with her daughter, if she didn’t watch her step. “Never mind,” she said in a rush. “If you don’t mind staying around to read, the bath shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes or so.”
“I’ll clean up the ice-cream maker.” He caught her gaze. “Maybe I’ll bunk out on your sofa tonight, so we can get an early start on those fences in the morning.”
“You’re thinking of staying here?” she repeated weakly.
“Do you have a problem with that?”
She had a problem with it, all right, but it wasn’t one she intended to share with him. She simply shook her head and fled inside with her daughter.
As she was bathing Dani, she couldn’t help hearing Jordan moving around downstairs. Just knowing he was in the house made her feel different somehow, protected, warmed. Heck, who was she kidding? She felt a shivery stirring of anticipation knowing that he intended to stay the night. He’d suggested the sofa, but there was a perfectly good guest room right next to her own and he well knew it. She would be able to imagine him in that bed, perhaps even hear the steady rhythm of his breathing. The very thought tantalized her.
Sure, they’d all camped out together
