Just One Look (17 page)

Jennifer was as silent as Matt during lunch. She seemed absorbed in the bowl of chili in front of her. When no one was looking though, she studied Matt. He was so dense. Couldn't he see that she was in love with him? At that thought, she nearly dropped her glass of iced tea.

"Would you like more?" Jennifer touched her top lip with the tip of her tongue and looked at Matt. "More chili?"

Matt watched the pink tip of her tongue and speculated on the possibility of finding some private place where he and Jennifer could be alone. Then he'd show her what she could do with that teasing tongue of hers.

"Ed and I are going for a walk," Ronnie said after lunch. She waved her hand at the kitchen. "I cooked it. All of you can clean it up. I'll be sure and absent myself long enough for you to do a good job."

After they left, Matt helped clear the table. "I'll wash. You want to rinse, Jennifer?" If he could get her alone, maybe they could begin to sort out this farce they found themselves in. The time had arrived to settle their differences.

"Why don't we let Alva rinse. I'll dry and put away since I know where everything goes."

"Is the kitchen big enough for this many people around the sink?" Alva asked.

Jennifer jabbed her elbow into Alva's side and accompanied it with a pleading look.

"Not that I'm trying to get out of work," Alva said, grabbing a dish towel too. "Come on, Bill," she said. "You get to keep us company."

"Okay, I just love work," Bill said. "I could sit and watch someone work for hours on end."

Alva popped him with the dish towel. He yelped and grabbed her around the waist. He lifted her off the floor then sat down at one of the kitchen chairs with her in his lap. Alva squealed and struggled, but not too much, Jennifer noticed. When Bill began to nuzzle the nape of her neck, Alva relaxed against him and sighed.

Jennifer felt the pressure of unwanted tears. She blinked rapidly, hoping she wouldn't embarrass herself. Drat the man, she thought, glaring at Matt. Look what he'd done to her. Made her as weepy and sappy as some lovesick teenager.

Matt scowled at the playful couple and squirted dish soap into the sink. "Let's get this show on the road," he said, grabbing the stack of greasy bowls. Looks like Bill and Alva had reached an accord, he thought. Apparently, Alva had decided her dull fisherman wasn't so dull after all. Now, if he could get Jennifer alone perhaps they could come to a similar agreement.

"I thought I might drive into town later, Jennifer," he said, without looking at her. "Why don't you come along and keep me company?"

Jennifer glanced at him, startled by the soft question. "I guess I could do that," she said slowly. She took the dripping bowl from him, rinsed and dried it before setting it on the counter.

Alva bounded off Bill's lap. "Make way, make way. That's my job," she said, inserting herself between Matt and Jennifer and taking the next bowl from Matt. She rinsed it and handed it to Jennifer.

Jennifer sighed. I guess it serves me right. I'm always arranging for Alva to be a buffer between us. Unfortunately, every time she arrives to do that duty, I no longer want her interference. And she never gets the hint that I just want her to go away.

"Bill, turn on that oldies radio station. I left my iPod, and we need some tunes," Alva called. He did as she requested. When the string of commercials ended,
The Honeydrippers
version of
Sea of Love
came on. Bill turned the volume up a little. "My parents always dance to this song," he said.

Alva dried her hands quickly on a dish towel. "Come on, Bill." She launched herself into his arms, and the two danced around the kitchen table and out onto the porch.

Matt turned off the water and reached for a paper towel. After he'd dried his hands, he turned to Jennifer. "Come here," he whispered and pulled her into his arms but instead of assuming a dance position, he wrapped his arms around her waist, forcing her arms up to his shoulders.

Slowly, her hands slid to encircle his neck. "I love that song too," Jennifer said. And I love you, she wanted to say, no longer shocked by the thought. Maybe she'd always loved him. She sighed. Love, as she'd often heard, resembled insanity to a great degree. That would certainly explain her actions since she'd met him again.

She looked into his eyes and slowly began to sway to the music. When Matt pulled her closer so that her breasts crushed against his chest, he moaned.

They moved side to side in a sensuous shuffle as they pressed together, chest to breast, hip to hip, thigh to thigh. His breath fanned her face as he stared into her eyes. Deliberately, he rubbed his body against hers and felt gratified at her gasp.

"How much longer are you going to tease me like this?" His hands slid down her back to cup her bottom. He lifted her so that they fit tightly to each other. "How much longer are you going to make me wait before we do something about this fire burning between us?"

The song ended. He stopped moving. "I know you want me now like you wanted me when you were fourteen. Just like I wanted you then, and I want you now. Don't be a tease."

Jennifer's head snapped up. "I am not a tease."

"Then stop acting like one."

"Is that what you think I'm doing?"

"Come on, Jenny, grow up. Quit playing these childish games. I can't take much more."

She pushed away from him and put about a foot of distance between them. "Let me get this straight. I'm a tease, and I'm childish?"

Matt's frustration exploded. "Yes. Yes. That's what I think. When I can think!" He shoved his hands through his hair and turned away. Then he whirled back. "You've got me tied in so many knots that I can hardly remember my own name. I've never been so frustrated in my life. If I had any sense, I'd get in my truck and go back to Dallas."

"Then go," Jennifer shouted. "What's keeping you here?"

"I don't know. I guess trying to find out if you're as good in the sack as I've wondered all these years," Matt lashed out.

His statement cut her to the heart. Was that the only thing he was interested in? She retaliated in kind, "That's something you'll never know. So you'll just have to enjoy your fantasies because your bed is the last place I'll be."

He folded his arms and looked at her. "Oh, I don't know. If I remember correctly, you're the one who all but attacked me a few nights ago."

Jennifer blushed, furious with him. He reached out and ran his index finger down the front of her shirt, over a taut nipple.

"You're excited just thinking about it," he whispered, his eyes burning with desire.

Jennifer knocked his hand away. "You're good at childish games too, Matt. You've known who I was for days but have you mentioned it? No. You've been too busy trying to seduce me under the guise of helping me."

"Well, isn't that the game we've been playing? Seduction? Right from the beginning when you ran out of my office."

She gritted her teeth in exasperation. "Like I told you before, I didn't run out of your office. I was called away on an emergency."

He snorted. "Yeah. Right. Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Well, I don't know. Let me think about it," Jennifer retorted.

"That sounds exactly like the childish response I've come to expect from you."

"Childish? Me? I'm not the one removing my clothes and flaunting my body, all the time pretending I'm some altruistic, benevolent friend."

"Hey, you two, hold it down," Alva scolded from the doorway. "You're spoiling the make-out mood."

Jennifer glared at Matt. The thickheaded, jerk. "Go on back to Dallas, Dr. Penrose. You're not going to get what you came for. Not now. Not ever."

Matt watched her stomp from the room. That hadn't worked out precisely how he'd wanted it to. He rubbed his eyes. What was wrong with him? He couldn't seem to make anything come out of his mouth right. He heard the front door slam.

"Wow. I've never seen Jennifer like that before," Alva said. "I think I'll see if she's all right."

Matt looked at Bill who grinned cheerfully. "Did you know Jennifer's parents are sitting outside on the porch steps?"

"Oh, no," Matt groaned, closing his eyes. "I'd better get my bag and leave before Ed comes in here with a shotgun."

The porch door squeaked. Ed and Ronnie walked in. Matt straightened and looked Jennifer's father right in the eye.

"Go on, Ronnie, I'll be there in a moment," Ed said.

Matt braced himself. Ronnie walked past him without saying a word, but she looked as if she were smothering a laugh. He opened his mouth to apologize and to reassure them both that he meant no hurt to Jennifer, but Ed interrupted him.

With a wide grin, Ed said, "Foreplay is hell, ain't it, son?"

At the unexpected question, Matt burst into laughter. He laughed so hard that tears came to his eyes. "Is that what you call this?"

"Yep, when it's as screwed up as what I just heard." He shook his head and sighed. "I guess it's true. Youth is wasted on the young." He walked through the kitchen and followed his wife out the back door.

* * *

"Jennifer, let's go back to the house and sit and talk about this calmly," Alva pleaded, side-stepping a thorn bush.

"Is that man still there?"

"Which man?" Alva asked. When Jennifer stopped and glared at her, Alva sighed. "Okay, okay. Yes, Matt was still there when I left."

"Then I'm not going back."

"Don't you think you're being a little silly?"

Jennifer stopped and sat on a fallen log. "Maybe so, but I'm so mad that I'll punch his blue eyes out if he so much as smirks at me one more time."

"Well, I'd say you both have behaved like a couple of five-year-olds," Alva said.

When Jennifer scowled, Alva laughed. "Forget it. I know it's useless to try to tell you anything about relationships and human nature. After all, you're a psychologist so surely you'd recognize it if your actions were the tiniest bit irrational, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Jennifer mumbled, embarrassed by her loss of control and her irrationality.

Finally, after several minutes of silence, Alva said. "I'm going back to the house. Your mom and dad are probably wondering what's going on."

Before Alva had walked three steps, Jennifer rose and called out, "Wait. I'll go with you. Surely, as a trained psychologist," she said sarcastically, "I can behave like a mature adult for the rest of the weekend."

"That's the spirit," Alva said.

When they walked in, Ed was there. "I think I need a coat. It's getting nippy out there." He smiled. "Come on, Jenny, let's go fish. Your mom wants a big mess of fish for dinner tonight. Bill and Matt are waiting in the boat."

She hesitated. "I think I'll sit this one out, Dad."

"Now, Jenny, you're not going to knuckle under to Matt, are you?"

Jennifer blushed. "What do you mean?"

"Well, your friend the doctor said that he thought you'd exaggerated your fishing prowess. He thinks you're all talk and no action. I think he said something about that was the way you usually were."

"Why that miserable," Jennifer sputtered, forgetting all about being rational and calm.

"I told him that you'd show him," Ed said.

"Go on, Dad. Hold the boat for me. I only need to grab my coat," she said, hurrying to her bedroom.

When she arrived at the dock, her dad was adjusting something on the motor.

Bill climbed out of the boat. "I think I'll stay here and keep Alva company," he said, a lazy grin creasing his face. "Ed's got a lock on the trophy so no use in my trying to best him." He carried his rod and tackle box and hurried up the pier.

Ed wiped his hands on a rag and held up a hand to help Jennifer into the boat. Matt sat in the back of the boat and fiddled with a lure he was attaching to his line.

Jennifer settled into the bucket seat next to her dad. He started the motor and eased away from the dock. Within minutes he was skimming over the water. A big grin from ear to ear covered his face.

The sun had warmed the day considerably so she removed her coat and draped it over the seat back. She tried to think of nothing but fishing. At least her dad seemed to be in a good mood.

The engine misfired, and Ed increased the throttle a little until it evened out again. When it missed a second time, he eased the throttle back until the sound was low enough to make conversation possible.

"I'm going to pull into the dock by Johansen's place and get him to listen to this motor," he said.

Minutes later, he cut the engine and drifted in. Before either Jennifer or Matt could move, he hopped out and tied the boat up. "Stay here. I'll be right back."

Jennifer stared after him, horrified to realize she was alone with Matt. She sat so stiffly that her back began to hurt after several minutes. She rolled her shoulders and stretched her arms over her head to get the kinks out.

"Up to your old tricks, I see," Matt said, his voice tense with strain.

Jennifer whipped around. "You have an inflated opinion of your appeal if you think I'm flaunting my body at you," she said coolly, deliberately stretching her arms to the side, thrusting her breasts out, before leisurely dropping her arms.

His lips tightened. "Next thing I know, you'll whip out a bowl of strawberries and start sucking the seeds, out one by one." He snorted. "Really, Jennifer, couldn't you have thought of anything more original? That's about the oldest cliché around."

She blushed and showed him her back. Let him stare at that part of her anatomy, she thought.

Ed returned a few minutes later. "Honey, Johansen is out on the lake, over by Murphy's place. Would you do me a favor and take the boat over there so he can listen to this darn engine as it's acting up?"

"Sure, climb in."

"No, you and Matt go. I need to talk to the contest judges about the bass I caught. They've got all these affidavits I have to sign. You know, swearing I didn't buy the fish frozen somewhere and dump it in the lake. The usual stuff. So run over there and when you come back, I'll be finished."

Jennifer would rather have dived in naked and swam to the Murphys' place rather than be alone in the boat with Matt, but she couldn't tell her Dad that. "Okay, Dad," she said, resigned.