Her Minnesota Man (A Christian Romance Novel) (20 page)

Jeb chewed his bottom lip.

"She won't take our money," Caroline said quietly.

"Or mine." Jeb blew out a frustrated breath and carefully lowered himself onto a little bamboo chair.

Caroline gestured to the two teapots on the table, both of which were wrapped in the quilted fabric jackets Laney called tea cozies. "It's still nice and hot, but we can't go in the kitchen, so you'll have to use Laney's cup."

Jeb shook his head. "I don't want anything."

He'd never told a bigger lie in his life. He wanted
everything
. As he absently rubbed a smear of pink lipstick from the rim of the almost-empty teacup in front of him, Ollie's question rolled through his mind.

What about Laney?

It would certainly solve her money problems, and Jeb would be more than happy to give her all the babies she wanted. But she didn't love him in that way, and that was for the best. He wasn't good enough for her, and he'd promised to help her find a man who was.

Restless, he shifted on his chair. As he extended one leg beneath the table, he kicked something that sounded and felt like a cardboard box. Hearing an affronted
meow
, he jerked his foot back.

He frowned at Millie. She was clearly the perpetrator of this infraction because she was the one giving him a pleading look while the other two stared fixedly at the ceiling.

"You know Laney can't allow pets in here," he said.

"A cat in a box isn't going to hurt anything," Aggie insisted. "Besides, Frankie Five isn't used to being home alone on Mondays."

Frankie Five. It figured. Decades ago, the Graces had hit on what they believed was the perfect cat name, and they'd had nothing but
Frankies
ever since. Jeb just hoped this new Frankie wasn't as bad-tempered as the last one.

"Did you cut air holes in the box?" he asked.

"Well of course." Aggie
humphed
. "We're not animal abusers, Jeb."

No, they weren't. To his knowledge, the only living thing the Graces had ever abused was himself. They sure hadn't worried about him being able to breathe inside that hot, scratchy rabbit suit, had they?

"Frankie loves to crawl into a nice cozy box and take a nap," Millie explained. "So we—"

"Looks like the meeting's over," Caroline interrupted.

They all turned and watched Laney escort a portly, excessively cheerful man to the front door. The guy wore a "just trust me" suit and carried an "I'm serious" attaché case and was talking nonstop. Laney smiled and nodded, but Jeb sensed an awful tension in her.

Mr. Real Estate was plucking on her very last nerve, and that nerve was perilously close to snapping like a worn-out guitar string.

She shook the guy's hand and let him out. She locked the door behind him, and then squared her shoulders before turning and marching over to the Graces' table.

Jeb stood, offering his chair. She gave him a wan smile and sank onto it. He snagged a chair from another table and seated himself between her and Aggie.

"Thank you," Laney murmured as Millie refilled her teacup. She lifted the cup between trembling hands and sipped.

Millie drew an audible breath and started to speak, but Jeb caught her eye and shook his head urgently. She closed her mouth and slumped back in her chair.

Laney slowly returned her cup to its saucer, her eyes downcast. Tears sparkled on her lower lashes.

"I listed the building," she said in a defeated little voice that knotted Jeb's insides. "I'll tell you about it later. Right now, I just
 
.
 
.
 
." She shook her head.

The Graces responded to her announcement with a wholly uncharacteristic silence.

Laney turned her head toward Jeb but didn't raise her eyes to his. "I'll go get you a cup."

"No, I don't want—" He aborted his protest as she sprang out of her chair and bounded away like a startled deer.

Jeb shot out of his own chair and caught up with her just inside the kitchen, where she spun around and raised her hands, palms-out, warning him to stay back.

 
Tears welled in her beautiful blue eyes.

Jeb was debating whether to disregard her silent order and pull her into his arms for the hug she so obviously needed when his cell phone rang.

Laney flinched at the sound. But then she pulled herself together, straightening her slim shoulders and jerking her chin up like she'd done beside the front door just a minute ago.

"I'm fine," she insisted, turning away from him to collect a cup and saucer, a napkin, and a spoon.

Jeb's phone continued to ring, but his attention remained locked on Laney.

"Maybe you should answer that," she said as she walked past him carrying the place setting he didn't need.

As his eyes and his heart followed her retreating form, Jeb thumbed a button and raised the phone to his ear.

"S
he'll tame him," Caroline was saying as Laney returned to the dining room. "And she'll do it without breaking his spirit."

Obviously, the Graces were matchmaking again. Laney forgot her own troubles long enough to pity the man who was being discussed as though he were a circus lion.

"And now that he's going to church," Aggie said, "there's every reason to hope the faith issue will be resolved soon."

"We'd better pray that he doesn't leave town for a while," Millie said. "He'll just get all confused again."

Oh, no. They
wouldn't
. Laney stopped walking so suddenly that the teacup she carried fell sideways on its saucer. The high-pitched clatter caused three identical heads to swivel in her direction.

"Are you talking about Jeb?" she demanded.

"We didn't know you were there," Millie said weakly.

Laney stared hard at Caroline. "You are
not
going to marry Jeb."

"Oh, he's too young for Caroline," the irrepressible Aggie quipped.

Laney shot her a quelling look.

"We won't hurt him," Millie said sweetly. "We have a plan."

No
. The Graces didn't realize how vulnerable Jeb was. How easily his tender heart could be bruised by a woman who didn't understand him.

"Forget the plan." Laney had never been more annoyed with her beloved great-aunts. "Leave Jeb alone, do you hear me?"

She immediately regretted her sharp, disrespectful tone, but before she could form an apology, Caroline spoke.

"You could use some quiet right now." There was no censure in Caroline's penetrating gaze, only understanding and sympathy. "We three have to get to a committee meeting, anyway." She smiled reassuringly. "Have some more tea. It's still fairly hot."

The Graces rose, collected their dishes, and bustled to the kitchen.

"I guess it wasn't enough being sorry for myself," Laney muttered at the fabric-covered teapot. "Now I'm ashamed of myself, too."

She refilled her cup and was raising it to her lips when Jeb reentered the dining room.

He said nothing as he resumed his seat beside her. Folding his arms, he stared out the window and sighed.

"Troubling phone call?" Laney ventured.

"Skeptical Heart's manager," he grunted. "Pressing me for a decision I'm not ready to make."

"Want to talk about it?"

"No." He turned his head to look at her. "Want to talk about the contract you just signed?"

"No."

For several minutes they sat without speaking. Laney finished her tea, and then she sighed and nudged his arm.

"We should probably stop sulking now."

He turned to her with raised eyebrows, his expression one of exaggerated innocence. "I'm not sulking. I'm just keeping you company while
you
sulk."

The wretch. He was trying to make her smile. Laney snatched up her napkin and threw it at his face.

He ducked it and swung up to his feet, laughing. Then he grabbed her hand and yanked her up, too.

She threw a playful punch at his flat stomach and he laughed again, the white flash of his teeth an attractive contrast to the dark whiskers shadowing his jaw.

And just that quickly, Laney's black mood vanished.

"Help me clean up," she said.

While Jeb carried the last tray of dishes to the kitchen, Laney gathered the soiled tablecloth and napkins into a neat bundle. She was taking a fresh cloth from the old oak chest of drawers used for linen storage when the Graces clattered back into the dining room, coats on and purses in hand.

"Millie," Jeb said as he came in behind them, "don't forget your box."

"What box?" Laney asked.

Aggie and Millie exchanged furtive glances. Then
Aggie's
arm shot out and she pointed to a far corner of the ceiling.

"Goodness gracious!" she cried like a stage actress projecting to the back row. "Look at that enormous spider!"

"Where?" Laney wasn't repulsed by spiders, but she didn't want them dropping into her customers' teacups, so she looked anxiously in the direction Aggie indicated. "I don't see—"

"No, wait. It's something in my eye. Yes, that's it." Aggie thrust her small round body in front of Laney. "You'd better look." She pulled her glasses down to the tip of her nose and blinked rapidly.

Realizing that she was being conned, Laney barely glanced at
Aggie's
left eye. "Nope. No spiders in there."

"Check the other eye," Aggie suggested, leaning closer.

Jeb started to laugh and covered it up with a cough. As Laney turned a reproachful look on him, she saw Millie shove a cardboard box at Caroline, who hustled outside with it.

"Shotgun!" Millie yelled in another ludicrously transparent attempt to divert Laney's attention.

Aggie gave her younger sister a withering look. "You can't call shotgun when we're still indoors."

Millie flashed an unrepentant grin and hurried outside. Aggie took off after her.

Seventy-nine years old, and the Graces were still squabbling over whose turn it was to ride in the Buick's front passenger seat. Shaking her head over their silliness, Laney lifted her hand in an unnoticed farewell.

Jeb closed the door.

Having a pretty good idea what the triplets were hiding, Laney murmured, "I just hope they thought to poke air holes in that box."

"They did," Jeb said.

Through the window, Laney saw Caroline stow the box in the Buick's back seat and then slide serenely behind the steering wheel. Aggie and Millie, still playfully bickering over whose turn it was to ride shotgun, tussled next to the front passenger door.

"Somebody's going to fall and break a hip," Jeb predicted as Aggie batted Millie one last time with her handbag and then got in the back seat.

Returning to her cleanup tasks, Laney shook out the crisp white cloth and watched it flutter over the Graces' table like a collapsing parachute.

She was upset about signing that contract, but where was the sense in risking foreclosure? Even with its prehistoric heater, this building was worth a nice chunk of change, and selling it should net her enough to get completely out of debt.

"They're up to something." Jeb turned away from the window and walked toward her.

"Besides concealing cats in my dining room?" Laney set a glass vase holding a pink carnation and some ivy in the center of the table and smoothed a wrinkle from the cloth. "Yes, Jeb, they're up to something. They're matchmaking."

"Ah." He hesitated, then cringed a little and said, "But, princess, you
do
want to get married."

Holding his gaze, Laney folded her arms. "The question is, Jeb, do
you
want to get married?"

"What kind of question is that?"

She merely raised her eyebrows and waited for him to catch on. It took a couple of seconds, but then his eyes widened and he clutched at his heart and pressed his lips together as though to form that horrible word,
married
.