means he’s not too young.”
“I just don’t want him getting into anything serious. Not at his age.”
“And especially not with a janitor’s daughter.” She didn’t even try to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.
He sat very still, watching her face. Finally he said, “You’re angry.”
“Yes. I just saw a side of you I don’t like. The elitist side.”
“A person’s background does matter.” His voice was coaxing and kind. She wished she could agree with him, because she really did like him, was seriously attracted to him.
Talk about sparks …
But she couldn’t pretend to agree when she didn’t. “Background matters up to a point, yes. I wish it didn’t, but I’m at least something of a realist. However, what matters most is who that person is. And Jerilyn Doolin is everything I just said she was and more. She’s a special girl. It says a lot about your son that he would show the good taste and judgment to have his first big crush on someone like her.”
He sat back in his chair and put up both hands. “Okay. I give up. You’ve convinced me. Jerilyn Doolin is a wonderful girl. CJ is lucky she’s interested in him.”
Most of her defensive tension drained away. She hid a triumphant smile. “About time you realized that.”
“Maybe so.” He still looked doubtful.
“But?”
“I’m just not happy about it. CJ can’t afford the distraction.”
“Distraction? Boys have been falling for girls since the beginning of time. That’s not going to change just because you’re not happy about it.”
“The last thing CJ needs right now is to get too involved with a girl—any girl.”
“Connor, he likes her. She likes him. You can’t make that go away. In fact, in my experience, which is reasonably extensive given that I work with teenagers for a living, the more the parents try to come between a young couple, the more the attraction grows.” Tori spoke with intensity. With passion, even.
He was staring at her, frowning.
Was she becoming a little too emotional over this? Maybe. But she really believed what she was saying and she wanted to get through to the hardheaded man across from her, to get him to understand. She feared if he didn’t, he would only be making things worse for CJ.
“Romeo and Juliet,” she declared vehemently. “Wuthering Heights, Titanic. Think of all the books and plays and movies about passionate, thwarted young love. It only leads to heartbreak when the grown-ups decide to interfere.”
He leaned toward her again. “So, Tori.”
“What?” she demanded hotly.
“Tell me what you really think.”
She blinked. And then she laughed. He laughed, too. “Okay,” she admitted. “I try to be open-minded, but when I really believe something, I advocate for it, you know?”
“Nothing wrong with that.”
She qualified wryly, “Up to a point, you mean.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. He was watching her mouth again. “Up to a point.” The words trailed off. A few seconds of silence elapsed—a silence filled with sparks. Finally, he confessed, “Sometimes I’m at a loss, you know? I have no idea how to get through to my own son.”
“Are you asking for my advice?”
“Yeah. I guess I am.”
“Okay, then. Here’s what I think you should do. Take Russ up on his offer to put CJ to work at the Hopping H. And then tell CJ to invite Jerilyn over to your house.”
“Over to the house for what?”
“To visit, to hang out. You know, play video games or watch a movie. Make your son feel that his new friends are welcome at home. Let him know that you’re on his side. Start changing the equation from you versus him to you supporting him and really taking into account what he wants and needs.”
“Seems to me I already support him.”
She let her exasperation show. “You mean by buying him every electronic gadget under the sun and then being frustrated because all he does is play video games?”
“What?” Rueful humor shone in his eyes. “I should take away his Xbox?”
“I can’t answer that question. You might just widen the rift at this point by denying him something you gave him in the first place.”
“Actually, I think that was Jennifer—my ex-wife—who gave him the Xbox.”
“Ah. Blaming the ex, huh?”
He shook his head. “Does nothing get by you?”
“Hey, I teach high-school English. Without a sharply honed sense of what’s bull and what’s not, I wouldn’t make it through the first week of a new semester.”
He gave in. “Okay, okay. I’ll ask CJ to have Jerilyn over and I’ll take Russ up on his offer, get CJ working at Melanie’s guest ranch. Anything else?”
Tori laughed. “I’ll be in touch with further suggestions.”
Entranced. Captivated. Enchanted.
They were words straight out of some women’s novel.
But as Connor sat across that table from Tori Jones, he couldn’t help thinking that those words exactly described what the small-town schoolteacher did to him. He might as well stop trying to tell himself he wasn’t interested. He was powerfully drawn to her.
Clearly, he should have dated more when he was younger.
He’d married Jennifer while they were both in college. Because she was from the right family and she was gorgeous and ready to get married to the right kind of man. A man with money and good breeding equal to her own. It had seemed a very suitable match. The perfect match.
Plus, with the marrying and the settling down out of the way early, he’d been free to concentrate on his career in the family company. He’d never looked at another woman during his marriage. He had a wife and a son, a beautiful home—and his ambitions for McFarlane House, which were considerable. What else was there?
Just possibly, a whole lot more, he was discovering.
There had been a couple of other women, since Jennifer walked out on him. The sex had been good with them, which it never really had been with Jennifer. But he had never been entranced. Or captivated. Or enchanted.
Until now.
He wanted her—her, Tori Jones, in particular. Not just someone suitably attractive and well-bred, as Jennifer had been. Not just someone sophisticated,
