Her Irresistible Troublemaker (A Town Named Eden Book 3) (14 page)

“Clowns make me nervous. If I see one, I’ll tense up and start looking over my shoulder because where there’s one, there’s always bound to be more. I find them creepy. As far as I know, I’ve never been anywhere near a circus. Maybe it’s a previous life experience.”

“If one appears, I’ll protect you. Next.”

“Can I trust you to tell me if I have spinach stuck in my teeth, or would you snigger and watch me make a fool of myself?”

“You actually spent time thinking about that?” What sort of men had she been involved with?

“I need an answer.”

“Of course I’d tell you.”

“How would you communicate it?”

“Um…”

“By the time you decide, a dozen people have already noticed.”

She sounded matter of fact, making Jack wonder if she used her confidence as a camouflage for deeply rooted uncertainties. “It’s one of those decisions you make on the spot. Reaction time will be swift. You have my word.”

“Yes, but how are you likely to tell me? Will you shout it across a crowded room? Hey, Lexie… not that Lexie, the other Lexie. The one in the red dress. You’ve got spinach stuck between your teeth. Or would you signal with your finger and risk someone thinking you’re about to pick your nose?”

“I’ll make eye contact and look down at your teeth. How’s that?”

“That could mean anything.”

He agreed. Looking at her mouth could be interpreted as pining for a moment alone to kiss her, or pondering the taste of her lips on his…

“Okay, I guess that’ll have to do.”

“What else is troubling you?”

“I don’t want to be the kind of couple who spoon feed each other.” She huffed out a breath. “There’s just so much to learn. Essential bits and pieces. You haven’t met my parents because it’s still early days. But you should know no one is good enough for their little girl and you’re not inclined to challenge that until you learn to shoot a rifle and can spend a day sitting on a saddle without complaining.”

“Is that a saddle on a real horse?”

“What other type is there?”

“So you’re a country girl. I’m going to assume you cook and bake and I haven’t had a chance to taste any of it because you’ve been busy… actually, what do you do?”

“I write.”

“You’ll have to be more specific.” He couldn’t see her, but he could imagine her rolling her eyes from one corner to the other as she tried to define what she did.

“I write short stories for a magazine.” Her tone switched from pensive to chirpy.

“The sort my grandmother would approve of?”

“It depends on your grandmother. Mine is quite hip. She does life-drawing classes once a week but only if the model is male. She also enjoys playing pool at the local pub and she puffs on the occasional cigar.”

Jack tried to think if his grandmother had ever been inside a pub or even smoked a cigarette. “My grandmother likes driving out to country towns looking for antiques and she belongs to several historical societies.”

“Is she going to be there on Saturday?”

“I don’t know. Probably. She’s my paternal grandmother and my family needs little encouragement to get together.”

“But you’re the exception, always looking for ways to get out of family get-togethers?”

“Only under certain circumstances.”

“Are you against marriage? No, don’t answer that.”

“Why not? I don’t have a readymade response but I’m willing to give it a try.”

“Maybe some other time. We have to set up some ground rules.”

“I thought we already had. No spoon feeding.”

“There’s more. No public displays of affection, that means no handholding, and no kissing. Will that be a problem for you?”

Jack recognized the sound of a trick question when he heard one. “Yes. I don’t care for restrictions being placed on me.”

She yawned. “We can argue about this tomorrow.”             

The call disconnected leaving Jack to ponder his life as it had been and wonder if it would ever be the same again…

Chapter Fourteen

Sitting back, Lexie took a moment to survey her day’s work. She’d selected several ink drawings of Lulu as possible designs for mugs and had drawn a few new ones she thought might look good on T-shirts.

“All these new projects have rebooted my life. I can’t tear myself away,” she told Melville who zipped off to the other end of the fishbowl and stared at her from the corner of its eye. “Ordinarily, I’d be plagued by peripheral distractions,” she added as a text message beeped at her. “But suddenly my focus has turned into tunnel vision.” Or at least that’s what she kept telling herself. In truth, there was one distraction she couldn’t ignore...

You can take down your window covers, or what’s left of them.

That meant the balcony had finally gone up, and soon Jack would be gone. No more bumping into him at the local café, or trying to catch sight of him through the gaps in her window. But there would be the occasional hot chocolate. He’d promised. And at least one fake date.

Lexie pulled at a corner of tape and tore off part of the makeshift cover Jack had put up. Biting off a groan, she sunk down on her chair and forced herself to look at the sketches she’d been working on, the sight of even more concrete making her stomach scrunch up with frustration. She’d never get used to it, and with nothing to look at in the distance she wouldn’t be able to give her eyes a rest and that would ruin her eyesight and force her to get prescription glasses before her time, and...

“Get over it, Lexie.” She had a bunch of tiny good things happening in her life and turning into the building blocks of a great day. Why spoil it?

A few minutes later her cell phone beeped another message. Seeing Jack’s name on the screen she mentally patted herself on the back. Once again, she’d managed to control the urge to contact him straight away. On the plus side, she had a super clean and tidy desk. But did she really want to keep him at arm’s length? She should be honest, at least with herself because Jack ticked way too many boxes for her to continue ignoring the beat of attraction…

Her eyes dropped to her cell phone screen.

Need help pulling down the covers?

Sucking in a breath, she called for patience. This time she’d wait fifteen minutes to respond, but Jack had other ideas. When her cell phone rang she wondered if he’d been tapping his foot waiting to hear back from her.

“You know that hollow feeling you get when you anticipate something wonderful and it doesn’t eventuate?” she asked him as if she’d spoken to him only a moment before.

“You sound grumpy.”

“It’s my new middle name. Your balcony has failed to impress me. Now I can’t peek at your hunky workmen and I think I want to live in Tokyo.” She didn’t know where that had come from but it made sense. Her apartment felt smaller, so she wouldn’t have to do much adjusting since living spaces in Tokyo were compact. And Lulu McGee had made a splash there. In fact, Ava had leaked out news about the upcoming graphic novel and that had resulted in an invitation to go there and do a book signing tour.

The low grumble she heard made her smile.

“I guess we have plenty to talk about tonight. Will you be ready by six o’clock?”

“Remind me again why I’m posing as your fake girlfriend.”

“If that’s what you’re doing, we’ll need to revise the ground rules.” His voice, smooth and calm with an edge of humor to it, made her toes curl. “The conditions you imposed will make your job that much harder to pull off.”

Why had she made up those silly rules? Oh yes. Safety barriers and peace of mind. “Okay, we’ll compromise. You can hold my elbow.”

“You call that a compromise?”

“You are so pushy. Fine, since you insist, if the occasion calls for it you can hold my hand.”

“I think it’ll be easier to go from elbow to waist.”

That made sense. “I’m okay with the waist, but you should steer clear of my lower back. Remember, we’re at the early stages of a getting to know each other but still not sure where it’s going relationship. Oh, and no bumping of hips as we walk.”

“I’m sensing a contradiction. Did you by any chance grow up in a strict environment, following rules while dreaming up ways of breaking them?”

She took her time swallowing. “Tagging that last bit on makes me sound interesting.”

“So did you?”

She bobbed her head from side to side. “I might have done a bit of imaginary hell raising in my time. When my parents had me they thought I’d turn out like my sister. Quiet. Studious. Amenable. You know, your run of the mill towing the proverbial line daughter. Instead, I became the predictable second child. We’re born to run free and do what the first child dreams of doing. Having strict parents meant I had to circumnavigate some very murky waters, mostly pretending to be good while answering to the call of the inner wild child. It made me an expert in the art of pretending to conform. You might say I’m a woman of many talents.”

“You say that with so much pride.”

“That goes to show how good I am at pretending.” In reality, she’d often wished she could have turned out like her sister. Life would have been so much easier for her, like getting a one-way ticket to success. “So you see, you don’t need to worry about tonight. I’ll pull it off without breaking a sweat.” But only if he kept his hands to himself…

“I’m glad we sorted that out. We wouldn’t want to get our wires crossed. Okay, I’ll see you later.”

Lexie set the cell phone down and sat back, her mouth gaping open. “Well. What was that all about?” she asked Melville. Which wires had he been referring to? Had Jack wanted last minute assurances she wouldn’t get ideas about him and her? “I hate it when the penny drops too late to say something.”

* * *

By six o’clock reality had began to sink in and she’d worn out a catwalk groove on the carpet trying to feel comfortable in her new dress and shoes. She didn’t want to think what she’d be like if she ever became a bride. Not that she envisioned that happening in the near future. Thanks to her declaration to Jack, she had to place a moratorium on everything to do with relationships.

“Pull yourself together, Lexie.” She had a role to play.

In fact, she had two roles to play. Fake girlfriend, and disinterested platonic friend.

That was a lot of pretending…

Surely seven days couldn’t be long enough to change her entire outlook. Then again, her outlook had merely been on hiatus until she pulled herself together. She had trekked through twelve months without worrying about her status—not making a decision either way. There was nothing wrong with being single. Now, she’d had her arm twisted into making an admission she couldn’t really stand by…

Or could she?

Was she really over the idea of dating?

How did she really feel about becoming involved again? She’d told Jack she couldn’t be bothered. Could she be enticed to change her mind?

Now that she had targets and a concrete plan of action for a long-term career, a relationship should be sinking low in her list of priorities. This was a make or break moment for her.

Although…

“One should never close doors. So, next time please engage your brain before speaking.” She tried to remember why she’d claimed to be bored by the whole dating process. What had she been thinking? She could understand being cautious, and making sure she didn’t attract the same type of callous, self-centered...

“I’ve learned from my mistakes.” Lexie gave a firm nod. “Next time, I’ll keep my thoughts to myself and not feel the need to justify my choices.” Or she could try honesty. Someone had even gone to the trouble of coming up with an adage. “Honesty is the best policy.”

She knew she wouldn’t swap the last few days for anything. She’d even go so far as to say it had been liberating to spend time with a man who thought he wouldn’t get anywhere with her.

No. She really couldn’t have any regrets, she decided as Jack knocked on her door right on the dot of six o’clock.

“I’m coming,” she croaked, her throat tight with anxiety. Had she remembered to put on lipstick? Had it bled? She’d probably bitten most of it off.

Lexie stopped in midstride and took a moment to give her confidence a nudge. Apart from being slightly misleading about her thoughts on relationships, she’d been herself and Jack had asked her to be his date for tonight with no strings attached. She didn’t care if he was motivated by the safety she offered. She was a big girl. If her hormones got too carried away, she’d suck it up.

Lexie lifted her chin, gave her arms a shake to loosen them up and opened the front door.

“Ready to face the firing squad?” Jack asked.

“I thought you said—” She watched him hold a serious expression for a moment longer and then it collapsed and he laughed. “Oh, you were kidding. Please don’t do that.”

He chuckled and slipped his hands inside his pockets. “Are you okay?”

“I’ve been rushing around… last minute things… wrapping up…” Lexie stopped and gave him a brisk smile. “I said that out of sequence.”

“It sounded a bit jumbled but I got the gist of it. Is there anything I can help with?”

Could he do a complete overhaul of her flagging confidence? She took a few seconds and pretended she was considering his offer. To her surprise, he took a step inside. He’d arrived on the dot of six, so she assumed he wanted to stick to a schedule and get going straight away.

“You shouldn’t come any closer. I might be contagious. We can’t both short-circuit. One of us—” She pointed at him, “Needs to stay in control.”

“If you like, we could stop by the café and grab a drink before heading out.” He lifted his broad shoulder into an easy shrug. “You know, something to chase away the nerves.”

“Whose? Yours or mine?” it occurred to ask. “I’m not nervous.” She was merely concerned with everything backfiring.

“You said you’d been rushing around…” He sighed. “There’s no hurry. Take your time.”

“Are you by any chance using delay tactics? Surely the prospect of meeting a new stepsister can’t be that bad?”

“You’ve no idea, but the offer was real. One of my sisters used to rush around in a state of panic, leaving the house only to then return to check she hadn’t left the oven on or the refrigerator door open. Now she has a check list taped to her front door.”

* * *

Jack forgot to breathe so he had to remind himself. He’d seen Lexie wearing the dress before when she’d tried it on in the store but now he realized he’d looked but hadn’t really seen it on her.

Despite the wringing of her hands, she looked elegant and poised. He searched for a more apt description and came up with svelte.

“You’ve done something—” Her skin glowed. In fact, she looked radiant. “Make-up?”

“What about it? Was I heavy handed with it? Are people going to think I look like Raggedy Anne? The blush powder is called Just Peachy but store lights cast everything in a different light and I think the salesgirl was trying to bump up her sales for the day and I was taking too long to select the color and I was trying to decide if it was an impulse purchase or if I really needed—”

“Lexie.”

She made one of her stop and wave gestures with her hand. “I’m cool, calm and glued together collected. Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”

He hoped so. Someone had to be.

“Don’t twist this around and think there’s something pathologically wrong with me, but the fact is, I haven’t been out on a date in a while.”

“I know that. You’ve told me already. Sort of…” She’d said she was over the whole dating game but she hadn’t explained why. Bad experience or unrelenting disappointments?

“It shouldn’t be such an ordeal but for some reason I feel I’m going to have the spotlight on me and fall under everyone’s close scrutiny.”

“We’ll be doing lots of scrutinizing ourselves. I’ll point out all the members of my family and provide inside intel about them.”

“Something along the lines of, this is Aunt Millie, she collects African tribal masks and was a chorus girl in a can-can show in Las Vegas?”

“Yes, something along those lines and try to act surprised when I do introduce you to my aunt Chrystal who really was a Las Vegas showgirl, at least for a month until she met my uncle.” Lexie’s laughter diffused the tension that had been wrecking havoc inside him. He could deny it until the moon turned into cheese but he had been concerned about tonight. At some point he’d have to thank Mason for suggesting they organize the reception for their dad. It would go a long way toward mending fences with his dad and getting their otherwise steady relationship back on track. “Thank you for doing this. As trite as it sounds, it takes the pressure off meeting my new stepsister.”

“Wouldn’t it be ironic if she turns out to be the love of your life?” She held her hand up and took a deep swallow. “I need a drink of water. Would you like one too?”

“No thanks. I’m fine.” Or he would be as soon as his heart stopped jumping like an over eager puppy at the sight of Lexie in motion.