Hot and Bothered (Hot in the Kitchen) (4 page)

“Yeah, we will.” Shane’s expression was filled with loving concern. Cara was a whirling dervish when it came to work and pregnancy hadn’t slowed her down, much to Shane’s chagrin.

Jules adored how they complimented each other. Having a partner like that at her side, who loved her despite her many faults and adored her son as his own, was a dream Jules could barely fathom in her current situation.

Her son had no shortage of strong male role models, but she had to admit a small part of her longed for the dream of co-parenting. Discussing how your child was doing in school, whether he had an aptitude for footie or baseball, does he have a crush on that girl in eighth-grade English. The idea of having to do this alone had been the one thing that terrified her from the beginning. It was why she had sought out Jack after her ratfink ex, Simon, left her low and dry.

Her gaze slid to Tad and Evan, deep in serious conversation about the color differences between gouda and cheddar. They had a special bond, those two. Pity the man never once looked at her with a fraction of that adoration.

All this talent and go-getting and love… Tears pricked at the backs of her eyelids. The good-natured poking ebbed and flowed around her, threatening to pull her under if she stayed here one more second. Quietly, she slipped away to the restroom.

No one noticed.

The evidence in the mirror was as plain as the pimply skin on her face. She had stopped breastfeeding a couple of months ago, so her skin was starting to clear up, but there was no doubt why she would be kryptonite to any healthy man’s libido. No wonder Tad had recoiled in horror when she made a move on him. Hells bells, she looked like a teenage nightmare.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Muscling in on her reflection was her gorgeous, curvy sister-in-law Lili, who with her unblemished olive skin and mane of dark hair looked like a young Sophia Loren. Fortunately, she was as beautiful inside as she was out, so Jules couldn’t find a single reason to hate her.

“Yeah, just taking a break.”

“We can be a bit much,” Lili acknowledged with a sympathetic smile. “Must be great to have some peace and quiet at your own place. Though I’m not sure I’ve forgiven you for leaving me alone to absorb all your brother’s attention.”

“You love it,” Jules said, knowing that her sister-in-law was being nice but that she craved privacy with Jack while they tried for a baby. Ten months married, her brother was antsy about Lili not being pregnant yet and especially competitive because his brother and sister-in-law were expecting twins. If Jules could facilitate more spontaneous sexy times by not being around, then she was happy to help.

If she could find her place in the meantime, all the better.

The door flew open and in stomped Cara in a whirlwind of barely boxed energy. She stood with hands fanning her hips, drawing all eyes to her huge baby bump.

“So, what’s eating at you?” she asked Jules. Not known for her subtlety, Cara was fond of striking to the heart of the issue, and for once, Jules appreciated it.

It was time to make things happen.

Getting a place of her own was step one, and Jules had taken care of that a month ago when she’d moved into Shane’s old flat above DeLuca’s. The thought of what she needed to do next scared her silly, but she had to step up. And she was going to need the support of her friends and family, starting with the women before her.

She sucked in a bolstering breath and pushed it out quickly.

“I’m going to start dating.”

Cara’s sapphire blue eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. “That’s fantastic! Any help you need, I’m your woman. Seriously.”

“This is going to be so much fun, girl,” Lili added with a sly smile.

Jules sighed in relief. She had known that they would be supportive, but hearing it spoken aloud warmed her heart.

Cara was already tapping on her phone. “There are so many options. We’ll just set up a few online profiles and watch them come begging.”

“You’ll need a photo. A glamour shot.” Lili squared off her fingers, lining Jules up in her imaginary viewfinder. “We’re gonna make you look so fine.”

This was moving faster than she expected but it felt so good to be doing something. How long had it been since she felt anything remotely close to glamorous? Or proactive? It was time to stop being a coward and grab life by the balls, preferably ones that were attached to a hot guy who would treat her the way she deserved.

The girls chattered on about what needed to be done to get Jules ready for liftoff. Salon appointments, shopping excursions, her “requirements in a mate” list. Jules suppressed a manic giggle. Oh, God, she was doing this.

And her brother was going to hate it. Not idly, she wondered how someone else might feel but she quickly boxed that up and dumped it in her brain’s attic.

Imagining Jack’s reaction checked her glee a little, but she’d worry about that later. “Can we keep it on the down-low for the moment? Somehow I don’t think my brother’s going to be as cool with it as you are.” She placed her palm on the handle of the restroom door and pulled it ajar.

Cara snorted. “Like it’s any of his business.”

A familiar worry crinkle bisected Lili’s brow, but her concern soon morphed into a conspiratorial wink. “Don’t worry about Jack. I’ll break it to him gently later on.”

Smiling her thanks, Jules opened the door wider and—
bollocks
—found her brother standing scarily still with head cocked and brow as dark as an Atlantic storm.

Of course.

“Break what to me gently?”

Chapter Two

If you want to find out the worth of a man, put a woman in front of him.
—Italian proverb Starting out on the back foot was
so
not how she wanted this conversation to go down. No one said a word as the air, already shimmering with tension, was sucked into the vortex of Jack’s disapproval.

“Is someone going to explain what needs to be broken to me gently?” Her brother threaded his arms across his chest in one of those I’m-not-budging moves.

Jules tried to match him with her best unimpressed shrug. “I’m going to start dating.”

Jack’s green-gold eyes, the one physical feature they had both inherited from their late mother, narrowed to slits. “And you thought I wouldn’t handle it well?” He looked over her shoulder to add Lili and Cara to the cozy circle of glaring. “You all thought that?”

Jules imagined she could hear the heavy, creaking nods of the girls behind her and she nodded herself, feeling curiously hopeful.

“Well, you were right,” her brother barked. “Is this why you moved out? So you could bring dates back to your flat?”

So he was still pissed about that. Jack’s reaction when she’d told him she was moving out was the perfect example of why she had wanted to keep this dating idea to herself for a while. He worried about her constantly. He was crazy as a loon about Evan. But she needed to stand on her own two feet.

“I moved out so I could have some privacy but I won’t be bringing any dates back.” There was no way she would do anything like that with Evan around and that Jack thought so hacked her off royally. Irritation dogging her every step, she skirted him and marched back to the bar. In her wake, she heard Jack’s heavy tread followed by the lighter footfalls of the girls.

She scooped Evan from Tad’s arms and held him close.

“Jules, are you all right?” Tad’s brow furrowed like a corduroy swatch as he gauged her dark mood.

“Juliet Kilroy, wait just a second.” Jack. Still, Jack. Her brother scrubbed his fingers through his hair, a gesture he made when he was annoyed as hell. Considering some of the stunts she had pulled, it was a wonder he had any hair left. “Where are you going to meet people? Are you going to be hanging out in bars? Are you going to be picking up men in bars?” This was said like it rhymed with “dirty old prozzie.”

Fury stifled any effort to speak, not that Jack seemed to expect a response. He was too busy answering his own questions in his head.

He turned to Lili. “Help me out here, sweetheart.”

“Oh, you’re doing just fine by yourself,” she said with an eyebrow lift that would have made Jules laugh if her heart wasn’t thundering so hard against her rib cage. There was a time when she’d had no compunction about picking up a guy in a pub and letting him buy her a few drinks. She hadn’t thought so highly of herself then. Telling herself she was using them just as much as they were using her was the mantra of tough, broken girls everywhere.

Serenity, bloody well, now.
“I was thinking of doing it more systematically. Online dating.”

“You’re going to start dating?” Shane gave her a crooked smile of solidarity. “Good on ya, Jules.”

She thanked him with her eyes before letting them wander to Tad.

Who opened his mouth to say something, but like some kooky ventriloquist’s trick out came the voice of Jack instead.

“Don’t encourage her,” he sniped at Shane.

Okay, it was time to bring out the big guns. “Jack, you’re happy. Shane’s happy. You’re all so happy.” She whipped her gaze by Tad, who was happy as long as there were untapped sources of women in the Chicagoland metro area. “I want to meet a nice guy. Find that something that everyone I know already has.” She held her brother’s gaze and aimed for the jugular. “Is that so wrong?”

“No, of course not,” he said with a mix of exasperation and what sounded like guilt. It might be a low blow, but she could always rely on Jack’s nagging doubts about whether she was content to get the job done.

“I want you to be happy. We all do,” he went on. “I’m just not seeing how you can
decide
to date. Typically that’s not how these things work. Usually, love hits you when you least expect it.”

“Literally,” said Lili, as a nod to how she and Jack had met, when her frying pan connected with his big, arrogant head. She rubbed her husband’s arm soothingly. “It worked out for us, Jack, but it doesn’t have to be left to chance. Or the possibility of a concussion.”

Jules could feel Tad’s heated gaze on her cheeks, but when she met those sharp DeLuca blues, his face lifted in a grin.

“Practicing?” he mouthed, and she repressed her natural impulse to roll her eyes. So she had dug for her inner flirt with the repair guy and it had worked. Well, when that part came in, she would know it worked.

Jack was still muttering his discontent. “We need to talk about this some more. I only agreed to let you move out because you would be living in the flat I own across from Shane and he could watch out for you.”

Let
her move out? A growling sound came from deep in Jules’s throat. Deeper than that, even. From her gut where a bitter-tasting pool of frustration simmered.

“Jack, this isn’t your decision to make. I’d appreciate your support but with or without your blessing, I will be dating.”

Her brother looked like he’d sucked down an entire lemon tree. She didn’t care. Improving the forward momentum of her life demanded that she do something—anything—to get out of her rut. She had no talents, no skills, no special gifts. All she had was her family, her bonny baby boy, and a need to be loved burning a hole in her chest.

The determination in her voice seemed to catch everyone by surprise, but she couldn’t be sure about Tad who had yet to offer an opinion aloud. His arms were crossed—those sexy, tanned, hairy forearms—over his broad chest. The one she had laid her head against countless evenings as he talked her through another hormonal meltdown.

When she caught his eye again, he wore his patented amused, sardonic expression. That about confirmed it. They were good friends.

Just as it should be.

* * *

Tad unlocked the front door to his parents’ house and pushed inside.
His parents’ house.
Almost ten years gone and he still thought of his home that way. It would always be Vivi and Rafe DeLuca’s home—and he would always be the trespasser. On cue, his phone buzzed and this time he answered because he could no longer put off the dreaded conversation with his sister Gina.

“Hey, G, how’s Flo-Rida?”

“Still filled with hot young Cubans and wrinkly old geezers.”

She had moved to sunnier climes with her husband David last year when he got a job as a manager at the Ritz in Miami, and despite the fact she was annoying as hell, he missed her.

“We have to talk about the house. I know it’s tough but we need the money—and so do you.”

Now he remembered that he didn’t miss her so much after all. She had inherited half the house after Mom and Dad died, and he couldn’t afford to buy her out, so that was that. She wouldn’t force him to sell, but it didn’t stop her from nagging about it on every call.

There were days he agreed with her, usually around the time of the anniversary when his memories and his guilt threatened to drown him. But he was learning how to cope—a few days away and several hangovers later, he would come out the other side, determined that this next year would be better. Giving up the house, the last connection he had to them, smacked of failure.

A splash of paint, some modern furniture to replace the heavy, oak pieces his mother had inherited from her mother—he’d had those put in storage before Gina got her knickers in a knot—and a judicious pruning of the family photos, and it had become bearable. He wasn’t trying to excise his parents from his life, just make the place less of a ghost town. He could rent it out and live elsewhere, but honestly, it was convenient to live here. Vivi’s was a short walk, as was O’Casey’s Tap, his local. He was just a few blocks from Jack and Lili, close to Cara and Shane, and within touching distance of Jules.