Spark Of Desire (24 page)

“Weird sounds about right.” Kevin snorted.

Dan didn’t even give Kevin a glance. “Meechan’s? Is that the restaurant up on Market? You think she hangs out there?”

“There’s an artist who I see up there pretty often who matches your description.” Jessica wondered if she should define
artist
for him. Probably not, better he should find out for himself. Kevin could harass him about his choice of girlfriends, but Jessica didn’t think she rated that comfort level yet.

“Meechan’s, thanks. I’ll give it a try.” Dan followed Arianna to the table she’d found.

“What was that about?” Jessica asked Kevin.

“This strange chick kissed him a couple of weeks ago, and now he’s obsessed with finding her. I guess she just walked out of the rain and demanded he kiss her.” Kevin shrugged.

Jessica looked around the room. There was a smallish blonde reaming out one of the caterers. Jessica looked closer. That caterer worked with her at the store. She started over to rescue him. In years of working with him, she’d never seen him do anything to deserve the public upbraiding he was receiving.

“Hello, Mike,” Jessica said.

Mike jerked, wild-eyed. He didn’t seem to be at all relieved to see her.

“I’m telling you, this table is a mess,” the blonde continued. She gestured at a table that didn’t yet have a tablecloth on it. The cloth lay on top of a cardboard box. Two other caterers were darting back and forth between their van and the food tables.

“We’re working on it. It’ll be completely fixed in a few minutes.” Mike kept sidling to one side as if he wanted to escape, but the woman kept following him.

“I want it fixed now.”

“It’ll be fixed soon,” Jessica said. She planted herself in the woman’s way so Mike could gain some ground.

“Who are you?” the woman demanded.

“Hello, Leia,” Kevin said. “Enjoying the festivities?” He slipped between Leia and Mike so Mike could complete his escape.

“Kevin.” Leia sneered. “It’s nice, for a little wedding. Just what I expected from my brother.” She sighed. Jessica’s impression of Jack and Kate’s simple wedding rose a notch.

“Yeah. It is nice, isn’t it? Very low key. Jack has good taste.” He nodded and looked around the room as if he were admiring it. “How have you been?”

Jessica heard a falseness to his voice she’d never heard before. This woman must be Jack’s sister, but she had a hard time imagining them coming from the same family. To think, a few minutes ago she’d been bored and watching Jack’s dog. In such a short span of time, she’d discovered Dan’s obsessive side and Jack’s evil sister. What other surprises did the day hold?

“I got a partnership. I’m sure you don’t know what that means.” Leia folded her arms and leaned back.

“It means your firm had to print new stationary, doesn’t it?” Kevin’s tone had a cruel edge to it. Jessica felt pretty sure she wouldn’t have liked Jack’s sister anyway, but Kevin’s disdain sealed it for her.

Leia snorted. “Something like that. Excuse me.”

Kevin watched her walk across the room. “Every bride’s worst nightmare.”

“A bad wedding guest?”

“A bad in-law. That woman is poison.” He gave a short laugh. ”Come to think of it, I guess my sisters wouldn’t be much better.”

Jessica giggled. “Should we stand guard and make sure she doesn’t attack the caterers again?”

Kevin frowned conspiratorially. “I think the caterers are safe for the moment, but I’d love to get Leia and Dan’s dingy date into a conversation.”

“Dan’s dingy date?” Jessica repeated. “Why Kevin, you’re alliterating.”

“Ah, love a good alliteration,” Kevin drawled.

Jessica laughed, but part of her already mourned losing him. She would miss these rare moments of comfortable conversation. All too soon her training would be over, and they wouldn’t see each other much. Never long enough to share a light joke like this.

Kevin seemed to notice the moment too. He looked at her soberly as if he wanted to capture the feeling before it escaped them, but by then it was already gone. “Come on, we should go sit down. Unfortunately, I think we’re near Dan and Arianna.”

Jessica followed him to the table. They had been seated next to Lew and his sister. Dan sat next to Lew’s sister. Jessica still felt too close to Arianna for safety.

“Your sister?” Dan scoffed at Lew.

“You had me convinced that I was doomed to spend the day with Leia if I didn’t have a date.” Lew draped his arm across the back of his sister’s chair. “Besides, I like my sister.”

Lew’s sister, who looked barely out of high school, blushed and said nothing.

“Jessica, how’s your training going?” Lew asked.

“She’s right on schedule,” Kevin answered. “She’ll be ready for the test in two weeks.”

“The written is in ten days,” Jessica corrected.

“You’ve been ready for the written for two weeks now.”

“But I don’t think I’m ready for the physical, which is twelve days away.”

“You’ll be ready.”

“My times aren’t good enough.”

“Your times are fine.”

“Fine isn’t good enough.”

Dan leaned forward to look around Lew’s sister. “Aren’t they cute when they bicker?”

Jessica looked at the table. Kevin’s discomfort radiated off him. They had argued about that aspect of her training off and on all summer, but always without an audience. Kevin seemed determined to ignore the dummy drag. She’d gone so far as to convince a couple of people at work to let her drag them around the store before it opened, but she was running out of candidates. Every time she cut a corner too close, her current dummy ended up with bruises and wouldn’t do it anymore. She couldn’t convince Kevin that dragging him around his padded living room was a much better solution. Unfortunately, a nice public argument destroyed any chance of a nice private moment between them for some time.

“Hey, did you see the new truck Harville got?” Lew asked.

“No, how’s it look?” Dan asked.

Jessica pulled inside herself when she heard them launch into a technical discussion of the new fire engine in the neighboring suburb. She looked down the table and spotted an empty chair. She’d be willing to bet the name card at that chair read Bobbie Kelly. What was she doing here? Why had she started this in the first place? Her mother was right. It was too hard, but not for the reasons she’d been leaving on Jessica’s answering machine for a month now.

She’d disrupted Kevin’s life immeasurably.

She’d forced Bobbie away from her friends.

She’d wrecked her own friendship with Mindi.

She’d freaked out her mother. Again.

And she had to wait ten more days before she could even start to find out if any of it had been worth it.

Chapter 12

Kevin had felt Jessica draw away. She was doing it again, making him feel like a heel on a moment’s notice, but she was more than prepared for the test. If she didn’t rank near the top he’d be shocked. If she didn’t make it in this time, there would be another test. She’d only been training for a few weeks now.

After dinner, a string quartet had started to play on the lawn outside. Jessica had physically kept near him, but seemed distant. Cool and rigid. He wasn’t sure if she’d been interested by the conversation going on around her or if she’d endured it, waiting for the day to end. When someone else came over to talk she acted more animated, but otherwise spent her time looking around and saying nothing.

Over the past couple of weeks, she hadn’t responded to his efforts to be nice. Instead, she’d acted suspicious. He’d imagined her reacting in a more accepting way. More like Arianna, who was at this moment fawning over Dan on the dance floor. Watching her display, he decided there were things more embarrassing than bickering with Jessica.

He stole a glance at his date. Jessica had picked out a point on the wall and was studying it as though it might be on the test. He’d been almost floored when he got a look at her in the bookstore. When he’d caught up with her at the office door, she’d been dressed about as he’d expected, except for the tennis shoes. Navy blue skirt, cardigan. Perfectly acceptable. While she didn’t look like a fashion plate, he wouldn’t be embarrassed to be seen with her.

Somehow she’d transformed while he looked at the pictures over her desk. He felt like he’d been punched in the gut when he saw her bare shoulders and the plunge of the neckline. Distracted, he hadn’t noticed he’d stopped breathing until lack of oxygen made him dizzy and by that time he’d missed a large section of the conversation she’d been having with Mindi. All he caught was
happy hunting
.

That still bothered him. Happy hunting? What was that supposed to mean? Jessica said she didn’t know, but was she telling the truth?

Kevin looked around the lawn. Dan was still dancing with his date, whose high heels sank into the grass with every step. Lew stood talking to a bunch of guys with his arm draped around his sister. Every other couple in the room was touching. Even Jack’s sister was dancing with his grandmother.

He hadn’t been able to bring himself to put his arm around her yet. Too dangerous, but it might be what she was waiting for.

“You want to dance?” Kevin asked.

Jessica blinked at him. “Dance?”

“Yes, dance. You and me.”

Her eyes narrowed and she fussed with her shawl. “All right.” She held out her hand so he could lead her into the swirling couples.

When he got her into the middle of the crowd he realized he had no idea what to do. Checking the nearest couple for hand position, he rested one hand on her waist as he clasped the other around her hand. She seemed to have some idea what they should be doing, so he let her set the pattern.

“Are you having a good time?” He guessed she wasn’t, but thought she’d be too polite to say so. It made for conversation anyway.

“It’s a very pretty wedding. I’d have never thought to hold it here.” She looked around at the trees lining the clearing.

She’d side-stepped lying, and she wasn’t having a good time.

“You know, maybe next week we can work on the dummy drag,” he said. No one had moved close enough to hear their conversation, but he knew they were watching. Kevin the celibate had not only shown up with a date, he was dancing with her. He tried to convince himself this was all part of the
looking a little silly
Jack had told him would be necessary. It felt closer to being the village idiot.

She looked at him suspiciously. “Why the sudden change of heart?”

“I just think it’s a good idea. I didn’t realize the test was coming up so soon.” That, he conceded, was a flat-out lie. When she joined the department there wouldn’t be any reason for her to hang around with him anymore. His hand tightened against her waist. Very likely, in ten days, he wouldn’t hear her voice on his answering machine, and he wouldn’t see her standing outside his front door.

She paused, licking her lips. “Do you want me to come to your house tomorrow morning?”

“That’d be good.” The thought of her having her arms wrapped around his chest made his heart pound and he now had less than eighteen hours to get it under control. The dress wasn’t helping. “I think you’re ready.”

“I hope so. I’m running out of time.” She looked away, and her hand tensed in his.

Running out of time? Time for what? Did she think it would take her until next June to rank high enough? Or did she realize they only had a little time left too? In a couple of weeks, she was going to be done with him. She’d be off at the academy for a while and then settling in at her new station. It could be months before she had a spare minute. Who knows what could happen before then. “You have plenty of time. You know you can always call me if you need anything,” he said. He should have kept his mouth shut.
Call me if you need anything
? Like what? How desperate did he need to sound?

She nodded, but didn’t say anything.

“We can head home anytime. If you’re tired.” Kevin could have spent the rest of the night swaying with her in his arms, but she seemed melancholy now. He wanted to be alone with her so he could draw her out. To convince her he wasn’t desperate. “We are going to start early tomorrow.”