getting a response to hankerings he was sure he’d lost long ago.
Could this be the end of his wanderings?
He cleared his throat, and started up the stairs. “Yeah,” he said with more enthusiasm, thinking he might have just landed himself in heaven—or hell, depending on how the situation turned out. “I’m right behind you.”
Alayna waited until he’d caught up with her, then opened a door on her left. “I don’t plan to do anything too major in here,” she explained. “Just freshen things up a bit. Paint. Drapes. Maybe add shelving for toys and such.”
Jack’s head snapped around at the mention of toys. “You have kids?”
At the question, the smile that seemed her constant companion melted right off her face. She glanced away from him and to the far window with its view of the pond. “No,” she replied with what almost sounded like embarrassment. Then she forced her chin up and a confident smile to her lips as she turned her gaze back to his. “At least, none of my own.”
Jack felt the blood drain right out of him at the hope he saw in her eyes. And just when he was beginning to feel a little interest, a little heat in the old furnace, she had to go and mention kids. A damn shame, too, he thought sadly, admiring the sway of her hips as she walked away from him and across the room. She was a beautiful woman. Sexy. Friendly.
And convenient.
He shook his head and folded his arms across his chest. But he wasn’t getting involved with a woman who wanted kids. Not Jack Cordell. No how, no way.
Two
While Jack was bemoaning his bad luck with women, a horn blasted outside and Alayna hurried to the window and peered down below. One look and she cried, “Oh, no!” then whirled and ran past him.
Wondering what she’d seen that had put that horrified look on her face, Jack crossed to the window and looked down. A yellow school bus was parked out front, its caution lights blinking.
Jack’s stomach clenched at the sight of the small faces pressed against the windows.
As he watched, unable to move, the bus’s doors folded back and a book bag came sailing through the door. A small boy appeared next, one shoulder hunched up defensively against the bus driver who was shoving him down the steps in front of him.
Every muscle in Jack’s body tensed, poised for flight.
He had to get out of there.
But before he could make good his escape, Alayna appeared on the front lawn below him, the skirt of her baggy dress whipping around her legs as she raced toward the bus. Jack shifted his gaze back to the little boy. He couldn’t hear what the bus driver was saying to the kid, and didn’t want to hear. He wanted out in the worst sort of way. Out of this house. Out of this town.
He just plain wanted out.
You have my word I’ll see the job done.
Jack groaned, leaning to plant his hands against the window’s sill and his forehead against its glass as his words came back to haunt him. He squeezed his eyes shut. He’d given his word. And Jack Cordell never backed down once he’d given his word.
He opened his eyes with a frustrated sigh and saw that a little girl had joined the trio on the drive. She was standing off to the side, her chin dipped to her chest, a threadbare-one-eyed teddy bear hugged tight to her chest, her thumb sunk deeply into her mouth. The boy was kicking and swinging at the driver, and Alayna was trying her best to wedge herself between the two.
When the bus driver gave Alayna a shove, roughly knocking her out of his way, Jack straightened, curling his hands into tight fists. Whether he wanted to be in this house, or not, was no longer important. He couldn’t stand by and watch a man rough up a woman.
He stormed from the room, down the stairs and out onto the lawn. Alayna was already back on her feet and was preparing to jump back in the fray.
“Let the kid go.”
The order was delivered with just enough volume and with enough punch behind it to make the boy quit his thrashing, the bus driver to quit his shouting and the little girl to drop her thumb from her mouth. All four—Alayna included—turned to stare at Jack, slack-jawed.
Jack moved closer. “I said, let the kid go.”
The bus driver squared his shoulders. “And who do you think you are, telling me what to do?”
“Who I am isn’t important. What I’m telling you is. Let the kid go.”
“He cussed me.”
“I said, let the boy go.”
The bus driver eyed Jack a moment as if measuring his chances if it came to a fight, then scowled. He gave the boy a shove, knocking him up against Jack’s leg. The boy fell to his knees but immediately scrambled back to his feet, curling his hands into fists. Jack put a hand on the boy’s shoulder, firmly holding him in place.
With a sneer at the kid, the driver turned on Alayna. “I’m telling you for the last time,” he said, shaking a threatening finger in her face. “That smart-mouthed kid ain’t ridin’ my bus no more. I don’t have to put up with that kind of sass, ’specially not from a snot-nosed, motherless brat.” With that, he wheeled around and stomped back up the steps of his bus. The door snapped back into place, then, with a grinding of gears, the bus pulled away.
Jack tightened his hand on the boy’s shoulder and spun him around to face him. “Did you cuss him?”
The kid glared up at Jack, meeting his gaze belligerently. “Yeah. I called him an old fart, ’cause he is one.”
“Go to your room.” Jack wasn’t sure where the order came from, or even why he was involving himself in a situation that was definitely none of his business. But he had, and though he’d come to the kid’s defense, he knew the boy was in the wrong and needed a good reprimanding.
The boy swelled up as if he wanted to argue Jack’s right to tell him what to do, but Alayna quickly intervened. “Go on upstairs, Billy, and put your school things away. And take Molly with you. I’ll be up in a minute.”
Though Jack could tell the boy didn’t want to obey the order, to his credit, he followed Alayna’s instructions. “Come on, Molly,” he muttered, stooping to scrape his book bag from the ground. “Something stinks out here,” he added, shooting a dark look Jack’s way.
Molly sidestepped her way past Jack, her eyes wide and watchful as she stared up at him. When she’d made it safely past him, she tucked her teddy bear tighter against her chest and ran to catch up with Billy. On the porch, she bent and scooped up the cat, then, with a last nervous glance at Jack, she slipped inside the door.
Alayna watched her charges disappear into the house. “I’m sorry,” she said, then turned to look at Jack. She sighed when she saw his disapproving scowl. “I’m afraid my children didn’t make a very good first impression, did they?”
One thick eyebrow shot up in surprise. “Those two are your kids?”
“Technically, no. They are my foster children.”
