Jason looked guilty. “I believe I might have planted the possibility in his head.”
She scanned his face. “Why?”
“So I could be alone with you. Come on. Let’s sit over here.”
He drew her to the window seat which was wide enough for both of them to sit with their backs to the sides, their legs brushing as they faced each other. Outside, rain had started to fall with the promise of snow by night. Dana felt a rare warmth and coziness steal through her. Living in a place like this would make her soft. She would grow too complacent.
“Why did you want to sit here?” she asked, wondering at his perfect choice in a room filled with comfortable-looking chairs.
“Because you haven’t taken your eyes off it since you came in.”
Unwilling to admit to the fascination with the window seat, she asked, “How long have you had this house?”
“Forever, it seems. It’s the home my parents had when they first married. When we moved into a bigger place, they kept this one. For years it was rented, but I insisted on having it when I got out of college. I bought it from them. Some of my best memories come from the years we spent here. I used to sit in this window seat and read on rainy days. I’d read adventure stories and imagine that I was the hero. You have no idea the number of dragons I slayed in this very place.”
Dana smiled. “And you’re still slaying them, aren’t you?”
“I’m trying,” he admitted.
“Why?”
“I think you know the answer to that. Do you want me to say it out loud?”
“No,” she said hurriedly. Somehow she knew what he’d say. And hearing him say aloud that he loved her here in this wonderful house, in this perfect setting would distract her from her goals. It would make her dreams actually seem within her grasp.
And anyone from her neighborhood knew all too well that dreams didn’t come true, not unless you made them happen yourself. If Jason gave them to her, she would lose something, though exactly what was beginning to elude her.
Chapter Eleven
Dana had every intention of starting her new job as scheduled on Monday. Jason had other ideas. In fact, he had the perfect ruse. He convinced John Lansing to let her complete a project for him before filling out all the necessary paperwork at the Lansing Agency. That left her free to spend the entire day Monday making arrangements for Sammy to transfer to a new school. Last night she and Jason had devoted long hours to arguing about the transfer. She’d insisted that there was no point in pulling him out of his old school until she knew where they were going to be moving. Jason had countered that leaving her brother where he was would defeat the whole purpose of getting them out of the old neighborhood.
Even though they’d disagreed, Dana had felt an odd sense of relief at being able to share the burden of decision making. It frightened her how easily Jason was weaving himself into the fabric of her life, how readily she was willing to relinquish her responsibilities. It just proved what she’d known all along: she didn’t dare let a man like Jason into her life. It would make her weak.
As it turned out, Sammy’s suspension complicated matters. The new school didn’t want to take him until he’d completed the punishment. Overhearing Dana’s dilemma, Mrs. Willis offered to tutor Sammy until he could start classes again. Since she also offered to reward him with chocolate chip cookies, Sammy readily agreed to continue his lessons at home.
Dana watched in astonishment as Sammy and the housekeeper immediately disappeared into the kitchen. Sammy had his arm draped around the older woman’s shoulders as he tried to convince her that he needed food first if he was to study properly. Chuckling, Mrs. Willis agreed. She seemed destined to play the same grandmotherly role in his life that Mrs. Finch played in Dana’s.
With Sammy settled for the moment, Dana spent the remainder of the afternoon at loose ends, wandering through the house. It was the first time she could recall when she didn’t have a dozen things that had to be done. She found a leather-bound copy of Treasure Island in one of the living room shelves and settled into the window seat to read. Caught up in the adventure, and imagining Jason reading the story in the very same place as a boy, made her feel closer to him than ever. It was a dangerous allure.
Jason didn’t arrive home until after six. From her place on the window seat, Dana watched him, feeling unexpectedly shy as he came into the living room looking for her. As if they were an old married couple, he dropped a kiss on her brow, then handed Sammy a bag filled with the latest computer games.
Sammy emptied them onto the sofa, his eyes widening. “Hey, these are radical! Are they for me?”
Jason grinned. “They’re yours. Maybe you can teach me to play them after dinner.”
“Sure. Hey, sis, did you see?”
“I saw.” She shot him a pointed glance. Sammy responded with a puzzled expression, then jumped up.
“Oh, yeah.” He held out his hand to Jason. “Thanks, man.”
“You’re welcome. I thought maybe they’d keep you busy until it’s time to go back to school.”
Sammy groaned. “Who’s got spare time? Did you know Mrs. W. used to be a teacher? She gave me more assignments than I ever had in school. I’ll be up till midnight.”
Anxious to get to the computer games, neither man seemed inclined to waste much time lingering over the housekeeper’s beef stew. Amused that Jason seemed every bit as excited as Sammy, Dana went back to her place in the window seat to watch the two of them as they hunched over the computer. Sammy couldn’t believe that Jason had never played
