lower lip shot out even farther. She stamped her foot. “But how come I can’t go see her just for a visit?”
Why not? Caroline wondered, too.
Jack looked at his mother for help on that one. Patrice interjected with maternal sweetness. “You will, darling, one day. When you’re older and can travel that far away. In the meantime, you’re here with us, and we all love you very much.”
“I know.” Maddie sighed glumly, only partially mollified. “I love you, too.”
Appearing to think the crisis had been averted, Jack rose and went back to his chef duties.
Maddie climbed onto a stool at the counter. She rested her elbows on the counter and cradled her chin in her palms. “I know you and Mommy can’t get married again, Daddy—because Mommy is married to Cody now. But I still want a mommy now.”
“The only way I can give you an actual mommy is to get married.” Jack lifted a meat platter out of the warming oven and set it on the counter. The familiar, homey scent of mesquite-smoked brisket filled the room.
“Then get married!” Maddie advised, as though it were just that simple. Her opinion stated, she slid off the stool and took Bounder out in the sunlit backyard to play.
“MADDIE MIGHT HAVE a point,” Patrice said, a moment later.
Feeling as if she were in the middle of a family drama she should not be witnessing, Caroline started to rise. “Perhaps I should step outside, too,” she offered cordially.
“Nonsense!” Patrice patted Caroline’s forearm and wordlessly directed her to resume her seat. “You’re going to be around a lot the next few weeks. And this isn’t going to be a secret.”
Still feeling like this was far too intimate a situation for her to be witnessing, Caroline reluctantly sat down.
Jack began to carve the hearty slab of beef into long thin strips. “What isn’t going to be a secret?”
Patrice glanced through the bay window to make sure Maddie was out of earshot. “The fact that although Dutch and I will still make our home here with you and Maddie, the two of us will also be doing a fair amount of traveling. It’s possible we may even be gone weeks or months at a time.”
The plan sounded reasonable to Caroline, given the fact the couple was well-off, in their early sixties and Dutch was newly retired.
“Does Maddie know this?” Jack asked calmly.
Caroline began to see the problem.
For the first time, regret showed on Patrice’s elegant face. “I thought we would talk to her together.”
Worry clouded Jack’s eyes.
He wasn’t only protective of his mother, Caroline noted, but all the “women” in his family.
“I’d rather not talk to Maddie at all.” Jack piled shredded cheese, vegetables and mounds of tender sliced brisket onto serving platters. He paused to give his mother a long, guilt-inducing glance. “I’d rather you stay here and keep your traveling to a minimum, at least in the beginning.”
Caroline could see why Jack was concerned, given how much of a change this would be for his daughter.
“I know, dear.” Patrice rounded the counter. She poured big glasses of iced tea for the grown-ups and a glass of milk for her granddaughter. She turned to her son, and told Jack kindly but sternly, “I appreciate the way you let me become part of your household after your divorce, but it’s time we moved on from that. It’s time I went back to living a full life. Time you did, too.”
“Meaning?” Jack said, not bothering to disguise his derision.
“I agree with your daughter, Jack. Maddie needs a mother and you need a wife.” Patrice paused, making sure she had his full attention. “You need to start dating again—with a view toward marriage.”
“SORRY YOU HAD TO hear all that this evening,” Jack told Caroline several hours later, when Dutch had gone into the study to return a few business calls and Patrice had gone upstairs with Maddie to supervise the bath and bedtime routine.
Caroline wasn’t. It had given her a clear view into what was going on with Jack’s family. “It’s not a problem.” She packed up both her business bags, slung one over her shoulder and carried the other in her hands. “I understand weddings can be stressful. For everyone.”
Jack accompanied her to the foyer, held the door for her, then followed her out to her car.
“I’ll do what I can to limit the stress for all of you.” Caroline dropped both bags into the trunk of her BMW, then shut the lid.
“The only way to do that,” Jack muttered unhappily, “is by talking my mom out of this emotionally overwrought, ill-thought-out mistake.”
Caroline had just spent the evening with Dutch and Patrice. And while they didn’t seem to be wildly romantically in love, there was a deep bond between the two, forged by what exactly Caroline didn’t know and didn’t care. All she knew for certain was that these two sixty-somethings were determined to be together and build a life together as soon as possible. Caroline applauded that kind of determination. And she was in the business of making dreams come true.
There was only one thing standing in their way.
And that big lug of a Texas powerhouse was standing right beside her.
“You know what the problem with you is?” Caroline said before she could stop herself.
One corner of impossibly sensual lower lip curved upward. “No,” Jack responded drily, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He leaned closer, aligning their faces so they were nose to nose. “But I have the feeling you’re about to tell me.”
The comedic undertone in his low voice only furthered the flame of her temper. Caroline aimed a finger at the center of his chest, in the place where his heart was supposed to be. “You don’t have a romantic bone in your body.”
He scoffed, rolled his eyes and prodded teasingly, “And you have deduced that because …?”
“For starters?” Caroline stepped closer. This situation had gotten far too personal. And thanks to the unhappy memories Jack’s actions were bringing up, her emotions were out of control. So out of control, she found herself blurting out, “You are the kind of all-thought, no-heart guy who can no more appreciate a night like tonight than he can the validity of someone else’s dreams!”
He looked around, unimpressed. “What’s so special about tonight?”
“Aside from the fact that your mother was planning her ideal nuptials?”
“Aside from that.”
Deciding to help him see the romantic side of life, even if it annoyed the heck out of him, Caroline drawled, “Well, for starters, there’s a black-velvet sky overhead, sprinkled with stars and a gorgeous half-moon.” That alone was enough to bring to mind couples in clinches and hot, passionate kisses.
Ignoring his
