“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” he said, thoroughly demoralized. “Just cancel the meetings, okay? Or see if one of the others can take them. Mark could probably handle the one with the equipment manufacturer.” He listed others that could be turned over to key members of his staff. “You’ll have to postpone the rest.”
“And what am I supposed to tell people?”
“Tell them I’m working on a major acquisition and it’s taking more of my time than I’d planned.”
Ginger gave another derisive sniff. “Tell Kelly that, why don’t you? That’ll really win her over.”
Jordan wasn’t about to admit to her that his lack of romanticism was already a major bone of contention between Kelly and him. “Just do what I asked, please. I’ll see you next week.”
“Bet it’ll be sooner,” Ginger muttered.
“Goodbye,” he said pointedly. “Call me at Kelly’s if you need me.”
“I think maybe I’ll try reaching you at White Pines first. Odds are that’s where you’ll be.”
She hung up before he could respond to her final, stinging taunt. Damn, what was with women, anyway? They all stuck together. He suspected Jessie would be no different.
Now that he thought about it, maybe that was the real reason he’d driven all the way to Luke’s the night before. He’d wanted a chance to test his thinking on his brother’s wife.
Jessie had always struck him as a sweet, practical, no-nonsense kind of woman. She was very fond of Kelly. Surely she would see the sense in the arrangement he was proposing to Kelly. Like him, Jessie would want what was best for her friend. Someone who would look after her and Dani.
He found Jessie downstairs in the kitchen. The baby was propped up in her high chair and Jessie was spooning something that looked like watered-down oatmeal into her mouth. Most of it appeared to be on Angela’s face and the floor with a goodly portion streaked from Jessie’s face all the way down the front of her blouse. Oddly enough, she didn’t seem to mind.
The minute Jessie spotted him, she stood and shoved the tiny spoon into his hand. “Feed her, would you? I need to check the laundry.”
“Can’t she wait?” he inquired, staring helplessly from Jessie to the baby and back again. Before the words were out of his mouth, Angela balled her tiny hands into fists and began whimpering. Jessie didn’t even glance back.
“Okay, okay,” he murmured, taking a seat opposite the baby. He dipped the spoon into the cereal, if that’s what it was, and aimed at Angela’s mouth. Unfortunately the target moved. The cereal dribbled down her cheek. She seemed pleased, though, that he’d tried. She smiled happily, displaying what might have been the beginnings of a tooth.
“Let’s try this again,” he said, bolstered by that smile. The next spoonful actually made it into her mouth, then dribbled out. He had the strangest suspicion that this was a game she enjoyed playing. Another perverse woman in the making, he decided with a sigh of resignation.
He scooped up more of the disgusting cereal and aimed again. This time she hit the spoon and splattered it back on him. Globs of the white stuff stuck to his shirt. He was forced to admit to a certain admiration for her muscle tone. She’d whacked that spoon with real strength.
Babies were obviously more of a challenge than he’d originally thought. He made up his mind to get the hang of dealing with them. After all, he supposed that sooner or later he and Kelly would want children of their own, baby brothers and sisters for Dani. He hadn’t given a lot of consideration to kids in the past, but his experiences with Dani lately were changing his mind.
“Do you really want this stuff?” he inquired. “Frankly, it looks pretty disgusting to me.”
“You’re not the one eating it,” Jessie retorted, coming back from the laundry room just in time to hear him trying to get out of feeding her child. She glanced at his shirt. “Maybe I’d better put that in with the next load of laundry.”
“Do you do one after every meal?” he inquired, glancing around at the diaper she’d used to mop up previous spills, at Angela’s filthy romper and Jessie’s own spotted clothes.
“Actually, I’ve threatened to wear a plastic garbage bag with a slit in the top for my head,” she admitted. “It’s not always this bad, though.” She grinned. “And sometimes it’s much worse. Spinach is the pits.”
“How reassuring. No wonder Luke has taken a powder and left you in charge.”
“He’s been gone since sunrise. He swears it’s because there’s work to be done, but I have my doubts. I think you may be right. He took one look at his precious daughter after her first experiment with baby food and decided not to show up for mealtime until she reaches her teens. He has this illusion that she’s perfect and perfect does not include this particular image.”
Jordan heard the tolerant amusement in her voice and saw the sparkle in her eyes. There was no mistaking the love radiating from her when she talked about her baby or his brother. He wondered if he and Kelly would ever have that kind of emotion between them. Probably not the way he was going about things, he was forced to admit. Ginger might have a point about that, though he’d sure as hell never tell her that. She was impossible enough as it was.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure,” Jessie said as she carefully spooned the remaining cereal into Angela’s mouth. “Does it have something to do with Kelly?”
He wasn’t
