The Trouble with J.J. Read online

  “I see,” she said with a low chuckle. A pleasantly languid sensation of anticipation ambled over her. “So are you going to ply me with liquor?”

  “Nope.”

  A mixture of disappointment and embarrassment flushed Genna’s cheeks as Jared helped her up from the floor. He probably thought she was desperate and wanted him to get her drunk and make love to her on the ceramic tile. Her aching body told her he wasn’t far from wrong.

  Jared brushed her hair out of her eyes and gave her a tender smile. “When we make love I want us both sober. Makes for a better memory and a lot less guilt.”

  “Well,” she said, pretending to be in a huff, her nose in the air. “You’re not my type anyway.”

  He chuckled and tweaked her cheek. “Sure, Gen, just like you’re not my type.”

  “I’m not,” she said reasonably.

  “We’ll see.”

  The sound of a car pulling up to the curb came through the screen door.

  “That’s probably Amy with Alyssa,” Jared said, checking the thin gold watch on his wrist. “I’d better go.”

  Genna wanted to say something to him about what had happened between them, but her brain was jumbled with words that wouldn’t sort into any kind of order. What was one supposed to say to a man after a romantic interlude on the kitchen floor?

  Jared smiled down at her knowing she was confused. She’d come right out and said she didn’t like him, didn’t want him, then turned to Play-Doh in his arms. He gave her a wink. “See ya at school tomorrow, Teach.”

  Genna leaned against the doorjamb as she watched him cross her yard and his and scoop his daughter up into his arms when he reached the front sidewalk. There was a hell of a lot more to that man than punk hair and a Jack Nicholson grin. She had to admit he was fun to be with. Unsettling, but fun. And he kissed like a thief. He’d stolen every ounce of strength and willpower from her so she had to prop herself up in the doorway, or melt into a puddle on the kitchen floor.

  What did it all mean?

  Life was meant for living, Genna.

  Have a summer fling.

  That seemed to be what he was thinking too. Modern adults did that sort of thing all the time, she reminded herself. He didn’t have to be Mr. Right for her to have fun with him. She could have a relationship with a man without thinking how his name would look engraved on a wedding invitation, couldn’t she?

  “He’s still not for you, Genna,” her mouth said, but her brain wasn’t convinced so easily anymore.

  FIVE

  “BEFORE I COME in I want to make one thing perfectly clear,” Amy announced through Genna’s screen door. “You are not sending any food home with me. I’ve gained five pounds since J.J. moved in. I don’t see why your anxieties should go to my hips.”

  “I don’t have any anxieties,” Genna insisted as she dribbled icing on a pound cake.

  “Oh, really?” Amy let herself in. She poured a cup of coffee and sat down at the dining room table. “What are you trying to do, then, put Torino’s Bakery out of business single-handedly?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “I mean,” Amy droned on, “no one in the neighborhood has had to turn on their oven since you came back from vacation. And let me ask you this, why haven’t you gained any weight? What are you, a space alien?”

  “I’m ignoring you, Amy.”

  “I’m calling the Enquirer. ‘My Neighbor Is a Space Alien.’” Her hand blocked out the imaginary headline in front of her.

  Genna calmly brought her coffee cup to the table and sat down with a saccharine smile. “And how are you today, Amy?”

  “Don’t think I didn’t see Jared Hennessy leave your house last night, because I did.” She pinned Genna with a look that had compelled more than one errant child to spill the beans. Her brown eyes narrowed and her little mouth puckered up. Color flushed her pudgy cheeks.

  “Did you?” Genna’s face was the picture of innocence. She sipped her coffee. “How was the movie?”

  “The same as it was the last five times I took kids to see it.” Against her will, Amy’s gaze wandered to a plate of nut bread to her left. She drummed her fingers on the table. “J.J.’s little girl is a doll.”

  Genna smiled as she felt a strange stirring in her heart. “She is, isn’t she? Something in those big blue eyes makes my heart flip over when I look at her.” She’d always wanted a little girl of her own. She might have had a daughter like Alyssa if things had worked out differently with Allan. But they hadn’t.

  “She’s so shy,” Amy said. “I try to draw her out, but only Jared seems to be able to do that. He’s so good with her.”

  “It’s been hard on her,” Genna said, frowning. “Losing her mother, moving to a new town.”

  “Yeah, it’s going to be even harder on her if that rotten aunt takes her away.”

  “How’d you hear about that?” Genna asked, concerned that the news had somehow hit the neighborhood grapevine.

  Amy snatched a piece of nut bread and put it on the table in front of her. “The all-knowing, all-seeing Aunt Bernice. Don’t worry. Jared told her, and she wouldn’t tell anyone but me, and I wouldn’t tell anyone but you, and you already know. Do you think his sister-in-law can pull it off?”

  A worried frown creased Genna’s brow. “Jared’s lawyer says she can try. Even though Jared and his ex-wife had joint custody, it seems Elaine named her sister as guardian of Alyssa if anything ever happened to her. That complicates things. Plus, Jared has a wild reputation. Whether it’s deserved or not may not matter. If Simone gets a judge who’s sympathetic to her argument and if she has some evidence that makes Jared look bad …”

  Amy shook her head. “You’d think it’d be all cut and dried. I mean, Jared is Alyssa’s father, there shouldn’t be any question about custody.”

  They drank their coffee and listened to the bird-song drifting in on the summer-scented air. Finally needing to break the silence and her train of thought, Genna said. “I suppose you know about my ‘job’ too.”

  “Of course. I see you got him to cut down on the flamingo population. Good girl.”

  “I didn’t have the heart to make him get rid of all of them.”

  Willpower crumbling, Amy popped the nut bread into her mouth and chewed. Smiling, she waved an accusatory finger at her friend and singsonged in her distinctly unmusical voice, “You’re softening up on him, Genna.”

  “I am not,” she denied, her eyes looking everywhere but at the kitchen floor.

  “You have to admit he’s charming.”

  Genna scowled in grudging admission. “I suppose he’s charming … in an obnoxious sort of way.”

  The back door banged.

  Singing to himself that he’d had his eye on a certain lady for days, Jared danced in and boogied his way across the kitchen to the counter. he started taking cookies out of the cookie jar and slipping them into the many pockets of his camouflage paratrooper pants. Spotting the ladies, he shoved his sunglasses back on his head and leaned his elbows on the counter. His smile moseyed across his face, setting Genna’s skin a-tingle. His gaze captured hers. “Good morning, Amy. Good morning, Genna.”

  How was it her name sounded so much longer when he said it? And so much sexier.

  “Morning, J.J.,” Amy said, her amused expression directed at Genna. “What’d you learn in school yesterday, J.J.?”

  Jared grinned, coming around the counter. Genna swallowed hard. He wore a black tank top as if it were a second skin. It made his shoulders look impossibly wide.

  “Oh, I learned all kinds of stuff. I learned how to mow the lawn and how to arrange furniture.” He slid down onto the chair at the head of the table, resting his tanned forearms on the smooth cherry wood. “Thursday is double coupon day at Fred’s, Never make a pass at the Avon lady. A shirt and tie is acceptable dress at a PTA meeting. I guess pants are optional.”

  Amy burst into a fit of giggles that sounded like machine-gun fire.

  Jared
’s gaze fell on Genna. “But my favorite lesson was ‘All About Kitchen Tile.’”

  The insinuation went right by Amy, as intended, but Genna flushed scarlet.

  “Genna’s an excellent teacher,” he went on, straight-faced.

  “Yeah,” Amy agreed. “All the kids really like her.”

  “I like her,” he said silkily, his eyes smoldering, “and I’m a big boy.”

  Genna turned three shades darker than scarlet. She was going to kill him—one handsome inch at a time.

  She stood up suddenly with murder in her eyes and shoved the plate of nut bread at Amy. “There’s your nut bread, Amy. Thanks for stopping by,” she said loudly.

  Amy’s brows puckered together in confusion. She’d obviously missed something. “But Genna,” she whined. “I don’t want nut bread. I have to go to Weight Watchers today.”

  “Take it with you.” Genna smiled unpleasantly. “You can share it.”

  “All right already!” Snatching the plate from her friend’s hands, she gave Jared a brief salute and backed toward the door.

  “PMS,” Jared said affably.

  Amy nodded, slipping outside.

  Genna treated Jared to her most baleful glare. “I do not have PMS.”

  She turned on her heel and limped to the kitchen, where she began noisily rummaging through drawers. Jared ambled in, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned back against the counter.

  “What ya lookin’ for, Teach?”

  “The meanest, wickedest-looking knife I own,” she said between clenched teeth.

  “What for?”

  “For to kill you with.”

  “Corporal punishment is against the law in Connecticut.”

  She turned on him, smacking him on his flat stomach with a spaghetti spoon. “You should be against the law in Connecticut!”

  “Me!” he blurted out incredulously. “What’d I do?”

  Staring disbelievingly at his wounded expression, she threw up her hands. “What did you do? What did you do! How could you? How could you say those things with Amy sitting right there?”

  He waved it off. “She didn’t know what I was talking about.”

  “That’s not the point,” Genna said, seething, genuinely upset. They had come dangerously close to making love and he had belittled the experience by joking about it. Now she thought of last night and felt cheap.

  “Oh, Genna,” Jared said softly, accurately reading her mind. He took the spoon out of her hand and pulled her into his arms, where she stood as stiff as Candy the mannequin. “I’m sorry, honey.” He kissed her hair and rubbed her back through her blue-striped blouse. “I wasn’t making fun of last night.”

  He tipped her head back and settled his lips against hers, feeling them go unwillingly from unyielding to pliant. She tasted deliciously of coffee and nut bread and Genna.

  “I just had to tease you a little.” He smiled mischievously and kissed the tip of her upturned nose.

  “Why?” she asked, hurt and anger evident in her tone.

  “’Cause I love it when you turn burgundy.”

  Her anger sputtered and died, and exasperated humor bubbled up inside her. She shook her head. “What am I going to do with you?”

  He quirked one eyebrow, a dangerous gleam in his eye. “You’re open to suggestions?”

  “I don’t need suggestions, I have plenty of ideas. And none of them are what you’re thinking,” she told him as she backed out of his embrace. She went to the counter to start returning to their drawer the utensils she’d thrown around.

  Jared fell back into place beside her, nibbling on the earpiece of his sunglasses he watched her thoughtfully. “Personally, I believe a relationship should receive input from both parties—or all parties if you’re into that.”

  “That’s a lovely thought. Of course, since we don’t have a relationship—except in the business sense—it’s irrelevant.” I’m giving myself a way out before it’s too late, Genna thought. But somehow she knew, had this fatalistic feeling, she wasn’t going to take it.

  Jared shut the drawer with a bump of his hip, turned Genna, and pinned her against the counter all in one move. His brows slashed down angrily, but there was that familiar twinkle of laughter in his eyes.

  “So you think you can just toy with me on your kitchen floor, and then cast me aside like—like—yesterday’s fish?”

  Genna made a disgusted face at his analogy and tried to squirm out of her tight spot, but Jared wouldn’t let her budge. Iron-muscled arms blocked escape on either side, and she was held firmly in the V of his legs, a thigh on either side of hers so thick and hard, they may as well have been tree trunks. He leaned forward, bending her back as she tried to avoid breast-to-chest contact. He was so magnificently, aggressively male, a shimmering shiver of excitement rippled over Genna from head to toe. Her scalp tingled, her nipples hardened. Another fraction of an inch and the aching points would rub against the solid wall of his chest.

  “I think we have a relationship,” Jared said, knowing he was taking a risk by pushing her. To soften the statement, he added, “Of sorts.”

  Clinging tenaciously to a ragged remnant of common sense, Genna said, “How can we? We don’t have anything in common.”

  “Sure we do,” he said, lowering his head to nibble at her earlobe. “We have each other. Mmmm. That’s the most important thing.”

  Genna’s head was starting to swim, swirling with thoughts of running her hands up his back and arching against him like a wanton feline. She had to get a grip on herself before she started groping Jared. But how could she get away from him? He was about as easy to move as a stalled bus.

  Abandoning the idea of sheer brute force, she opted for a sneak attack of tickles to the ribs. Well-placed, nimble fingers had him doubled over instantly, screaming, “Personal foul! Roughing the quarterback!”

  Ducking the arm he swung out to catch her, Genna grabbed a dishtowel for protection and twirled it in a menacing manner. “Don’t come any closer,” she cautioned, backing toward the refrigerator. “I warn you, I can snap this thing with deadly accuracy.”

  To prove her point, she flicked her wrist, cracking the towel a hairbreadth from Jared’s flat belly, effectively halting his advance. He took a step back and dropped his hands to his hips.

  “Now,” Genna said, returning to the subject with a clear head, “I’ll admit to a certain … physical … attraction—”

  Jared’s eyes lit up like blue neon signs.

  “But people need more than that to base a relationship on. Look at us. We couldn’t be more different.”

  “Variety,” he argued.

  “Common ground,” she parried.

  “We have lots of things in common!” Jared said.

  Genna arched a skeptical brow. “Such as?”

  “A—a—you like to cook, I like to eat. You like to sun, I like to watch you.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, we’re practically peas in a pod.”

  Jared shifted on his feet, inching closer to Genna, his mind automatically sifting through play options to decide how best to get her in his arms. He much preferred the way her mind worked when her body was pressed to his. “Haven’t you ever heard that opposites attract?”

  Genna caught his movement and twitched the dishtowel. “Freeze, turkey, or you’ll be sporting matching belly buttons.”

  Jared faked to the right then bolted left, grabbing the towel as she cracked it and reeling her in with a jerk of his arm so that she thudded into his chest. He wasted no time wrapping his arms around her.

  “See,” he said with a lazy grin. “Like magnets.”

  “Poles apart,” she insisted, trying not to breathe in his warm male scent, trying to block out the feel of the blatantly male anatomy molded against her.

  “Look, Gen,” he said, choosing his words carefully so he wouldn’t scare her off, “you’re free. I’m free. We’re both attracted. We’re adults. Where’s the harm in giving it a shot?”

 
; Where’s the harm? Hadn’t she been thinking the same thoughts last night? Now, as then, she couldn’t come up with any good answers. He was right, she didn’t have any hot prospects for romance. She’d be all right with Jared as long as they kept things light. It wouldn’t do for her to fall in love with him, because it wouldn’t work out on a long-term basis—certainly he wasn’t even interested on that level. But of course she wasn’t in any real danger of falling in love with him anyway. Heaven knew she wasn’t even sure she liked him.

  Jared watched Genna’s face as conflicting emotions seemed to war within her and he waited for her to comment. She seemed to be considering his offer of a light romance. Maybe if he reassured her of her freedom she’d be more inclined to accept.

  “I’m talking light romance here. We’ll have fun together. Nothing heavy. No pressure. We’ll date. No strings attached.”

  Fun. No strings. That was what she’d been thinking too. So why did it sting a little bit when he said it? Pride, she told herself. It just pricked her vanity a little to have him say he wasn’t even considering a serious involvement. Silly, she thought, since I’m definitely not considering it either.

  “Light romance?” she asked, leaning back in his arms so she had a good view of his face.

  She was definitely thinking about it. He smiled and crossed his fingers behind her back for good luck. “All the fun and a third less calories. What better way to spend the summer?” Once she saw what a good guy he was, he hoped, maybe she’d consider extending the contract.

  “Well … okay,” Genna gave in, as she’d known all along she would. She pried her left arm out from between them and checked her watch, then glanced at Jared’s wild black hair. “The only date you need to worry about now is the one I made for you with the barber. If we don’t get going, we’ll be late.”

  “You don’t like my haircut?” His eyes glittered as he ran a hand over the ebony spikes.

  “It looks as if rodents chewed it off as you slept,” Genna said dryly.

  “Well, don’t tell Brutus, you’ll hurt his feelings.”

  “You let Brutus style your hair?” The thought of that man loose with a scissors in his hand was enough to make her blood run cold.