Their Baby Bond

“It sounds delicious.” Tori placed her purse on a small pine table just inside the door. “Nina, thanks for inviting me today. But…Jake acted as if he didn’t know I was coming.”

“He didn’t.”

An uncomfortable silence stretched between the two women until Tori broke it. “Do you think that’s fair to him? He might not have wanted a stranger—”

“You’re no stranger. He probably thinks of Charlie as more of a stranger than you. If I had told him you were coming, he might not have come himself. There’s something in his voice when he talks about you that makes me think…” She grinned. “Maybe there are a few sparks?”

Tori wasn’t going to admit to anything. “Maybe your imagination is working overtime.”

Nina studied Tori for a moment, then shook her head. “Nope. I know what I see. The truth is, Tori, I asked you here because Jake needs help.”

Tori couldn’t imagine Jake Galeno needing anything from anyone. He’d always seemed so confident and self-contained. “What kind of help?”

“I don’t know. That’s the problem. He doesn’t, either. Something happened in Albuquerque that he can’t get over. It had to do with his work. He needs to talk about it, but he won’t. He needs to get past it, but he can’t. He needs to get on with his life, and he says he’s doing that, but he’s not. I just thought inviting you tonight might get him to open up a bit. He’s only his old self when he’s with the boys. Maybe you can remind him who he used to be.”

“Maybe I’ll only make things worse.”

“That won’t happen. C’mon. You can watch while I make the salad.”

While Nina worked and talked, Tori couldn’t help but glance out the window often. Jake didn’t look like a man who needed help. He was roughhousing with the twins, laughing with them, playing catch. Even when he was young, she’d sensed a deep control about him, an integrity that told everybody he knew who he was and what he could do. That was still the essence of his appearance. But what was going on inside? What had happened in Albuquerque?

She shouldn’t care. She wouldn’t care.

She’d learned when she was very young that men didn’t stay. She’d been nine when her father had walked out on her mother because he’d fallen in love with someone else. She’d seen her mother’s tears, pain and depression. She’d seen her father’s second marriage break apart, until she’d lost track of him and his second, third and fourth wives. When Tori had married after college, she decided her marriage would be different. It might have been if fate hadn’t intervened and changed the course of her life. Dave had walked out on her because she could no longer bear his children.

So much for vows. So much for putting faith and trust in a man. She would never do it again.

As Tori, Nina and her mother discussed their favorite recipes, Charlie went to the carport to check the pressure of Nina’s tires. He told her he thought one of them looked low.

Soon after, Nina went to the door and called for the boys to come in and wash up. As they bounded toward the bathroom, Jake entered the kitchen, heading for the sink.

Tori was standing right beside it, boxed in by the counter. The working area of the kitchen was small, and there really wasn’t anywhere she could move without looking obvious.

When Jake turned on the spigot, he was close enough to her that she could see the gleam of sweat on his brow and inhale his scent, which seemed to be sunshine and sage and all man. For a moment her senses reeled and she told herself she was being silly. But she couldn’t seem to take her gaze from the black hair on his forearms, from the soapy suds slipping over his large hands.

“Catching up?” he asked as he flipped off the spigot.

It took her a moment to find her voice. “Sharing favorite recipes.”

“I should have known,” he said with a smile. “What else would three women do in a kitchen?”

With a slight shift of his body, he turned toward her. He was so close she could feel his body heat…feel a current of electricity between them immobilize her as she became fascinated by the whorl of hair nestled in the V of his green T-shirt.

He reached behind her, brushing her back. “I need the towel,” he explained, his voice husky.

Their gazes locked, and she vividly remembered the moment on her front porch twelve years ago when his arms had encircled her and his head had lowered to kiss her. The smoldering look in his eyes now convinced her he was remembering, too, maybe thinking about what it would be like to kiss her again.

As he lifted the towel from the counter and took a few steps back, she chided herself for being ridiculous.

Finished with the towel, he hung it over the oven door handle. “Where’s Charlie?” he asked Nina.

“Checking my tire pressure.”

He frowned. “I was going to do that. In fact—”

Jake never got to finish because the twins ran back into the kitchen. Nina directed them to set the table in the dining area, where she had stacked dishes, silverware and napkins.

Both boys grumbled and groaned.

Ryan protested the loudest. “I want to go outside and watch Charlie.”

Jake crooked his finger at them, and they scampered to him, looking up expectantly. “If you help your mom get ready for dinner without complaining, I’ll take you for ice cream afterward.”

“Carlo’s Place?” Ricky asked, wanting to put terms to the deal. “Two scoops?”

“You got it,” Jake said with a nod.

As the boys ran to the table, Nina scolded her brother. “That was a bribe.”

“Yes, it was. But I figured it was a small price to pay so they didn’t argue with you for the next ten minutes.”

“Sometimes you have to stand on principle,” Nina grumbled.

“Getting things done is better than principle,” Rita insisted. “After all, your brother’s the expert at negotiation.”

At Rita’s remark, a smothering hush fell over the kitchen.

Tori glanced from sister to brother to mother, not understanding the sudden tension and the somberness that seemed to have taken over Jake’s whole demeanor.

“Jake, I’m sorry,” his mother said, looking upset. “I didn’t mean—”

“I know you didn’t,” Jake said quietly. “Forget about it. I’m going to see if Charlie found the tire gauge.”

Then Jake Galeno exited the kitchen, leaving Tori with unsettling questions she didn’t think Nina or Rita were going to answer.

Chapter Two

D inner with the Galenos was an adventure, Tori decided, as she sat between Jake and Ricky. She made herself concentrate on the twins—that was easier than dealing with the attraction she still felt for Jake—and paid attention to everything they did. Maybe she’d learn something about parenting as she watched Nina interact with them.

When Ricky spilled his milk, it ran off the table and onto Tori’s thigh. Nina was much more upset than she was.

Ricky looked upset, too, as if he was ready to cry, until Tori smiled at him. “Milk will wash right out.” She gave him her napkin. “Come on, help me mop it up.”

While he scurried to wipe the drips on the chair, she helped Nina with the table. She caught Jake watching her and wished she knew what he was thinking. Then again, maybe she didn’t want to know. Every time his arm grazed hers, every time he reached for a platter or serving dish, she was much too aware of his scent, as well as his sheer physical presence. Surely she didn’t still have a crush on him after all these years! Maybe these vibrations were what dating experts called chemistry? If so, she’d never experienced it before…except when she was a teenager and Jake was anywhere within ten feet of her.

After dinner, in spite of Nina’s and Rita’s protests, Tori helped clean up. She wasn’t the type to sit while others worked. When they’d finished in the kitchen, they joined the men on the patio.

Ricky pulled on Jake’s arm. “When are we going for ice cream?”

“We just had dinner,” Jake replied with a grin.

“I saved room,” Ricky insisted, then looked at Tori. “Are you coming, too?”

“Oh, I don’t know…” she began.

Approaching her chair, Ricky wheedled, “Uncle Jake says it’s the best ice cream in Santa Fe. Mom and grandma won’t come because they say they’ll get fat if they eat it.”

When Ryan added, “Please come,” she looked into their dark-brown eyes and couldn’t refuse.

“Only if it’s all right with your uncle Jake.”

A glance at Jake told her nothing. “Of course you’re welcome to come.” His face was perfectly blank, and his eyes reflected none of his thoughts.

Carlo’s Place was a few blocks away—a small, brown stucco building with two parking spaces.

“Most of his customers are within walking distance,” Jake explained as if reading her thoughts.

The bench seat of Jake’s truck had seemed much too intimate during their drive here.

After the boys unfastened their seat belts in the back, Jake helped them out. His truck’s running board was high off the ground.

“If you wait, I’ll give you a hand,” he offered.

The last thing she wanted was Jake’s skin pressed against hers. “I’m fine.”

She proved it by sliding to the edge of her seat and then hopping down as gracefully as she could. She thought she saw a knowing smile play on Jake’s lips, but couldn’t be sure because it was gone too quickly.

Ten minutes later they were sitting at a round redwood table with a striped yellow-and-white umbrella. The boys’ cones were dripping all over their hands, but Jake was ignoring that, so Tori did, too.

Leaning close to her, Jake murmured, “I have those wet-wipe things in the truck. I wouldn’t go anywhere without them.”

She smiled. “I imagine most kids are messy with ice-cream cones.”

With a quick half shrug, he remarked, “Don’t know. I just know these two can make a mess of whatever they get into.” Looking her squarely in the eye, he asked, “Are you ready for that?”

She didn’t hesitate. “Yes. More than ready. I’ve wanted children for years.”

“Your husband didn’t?”

Confiding in Jake would create a bond between them that Tori didn’t want. It was better if she kept her distance, better if she let the attraction between them sizzle and burn out. “It’s a long story.”

With a penetrating look, Jake sat back and gave his attention to his ice-cream cone, stretching his legs out under the table. The swirl of his tongue on the dessert sent a shiver up Tori’s back.

After he lazily licked chocolate from his lips, he acknowledged, “I guess everybody has one of those stories.”

An awkward stretch of time settled between them as cars sped up and down the street. Ricky and his brother took licks from each other’s cones as dusk settled in and began to envelop the city.

Finally Jake asked, “What did you think of Charlie?”

She’d caught Jake watching Charlie carefully more than once. “I didn’t spend much time talking with him. Nina likes him a lot. He seems good with the boys.”

Jake frowned. “She’s only been dating him for two months. I just met him last weekend when she invited him to Sunday dinner.”

“And?”

“I don’t know. Today you can’t be too careful, that’s all. He’s a car salesman, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I just hope he’s not handing her a line. I can’t believe she’s ready to jump right in so soon after Frank.”

“Maybe she feels the boys need a father figure.”

“They have me.”

Jake’s arm was almost touching hers. Tori sat back and gave him a sideways glance. “Nina’s afraid you aren’t going to stay in Santa Fe. Are you?”

He finished his cone and wiped his fingers on a napkin. “I don’t know. But no matter where I am, I’ll be part of their lives.”

After she took the last bite of her own cone, she wiped her lips. Just then Jake turned toward her, and his gaze lingered where she’d wiped. Feeling hot, bothered and unsettled, she asked, “Why did you come back to Santa Fe?”

The question brought his gaze to hers. Two cars zoomed up the street before he answered her. “I had to get out of police work for a while. I like working with my hands. I’ve done that for years, mostly on weekend projects for friends. I find peace in it, and I need that now.”

Tori had always admired his honesty. She had the feeling Jake was living in the moment, not knowing what was going to happen next. She’d done that after her divorce.

“Speaking of working with ceramic tile,” he said, changing the subject easily, “have you picked out what you want to use yet?”

She shook her head. “I can do that this week. The thing is, I’d love to use hand-painted tiles. I know it would be expensive to use them everywhere, but I hoped I could find some to use as accents here and there. I haven’t had a chance to look into it, though.”

“I know someone who does hand-painted work. He lives in Taos. If you’d like to see what he has to offer, we could drive up there on Saturday afternoon. Can you get away?”

“I have one full-time assistant and someone who helps part-time. Let me check with them. If they can both work, I’ll take the day off.”

The twins had finished their cones now, too, and were jabbing each other with sticky fingers, squealing and jumping from their chairs to play tag around the table.

“Okay. It’s time to put a lid on it,” Jake announced. He motioned to the truck. “Let’s move on out. Don’t touch anything until I wipe your hands.”

Without the complaining Tori expected, Ricky and Ryan looked up at their uncle, then raced to his truck.

Jake’s expression was affectionately patient.

As Tori followed Jake and the boys, she noticed again how Ricky and Ryan adored him. Why had he never married and become a father?

When Tori’s telephone rang Saturday afternoon, she wondered if Jake was calling to tell her he’d be delayed or couldn’t go to Taos. After their trip to Carlo’s Place, he’d become quiet, more remote. A little voice full of common sense told her that was best. If they got to know each other better…

However, picking up the phone, she heard Barbara Simmons’s voice.

“Hi! Tori?”

“How are you?” Tori asked, always glad to hear from the teenager, yet always fearful, too.

Once Barbara signed the consent papers to give up her parental rights, her decision was irrevocable. She understood that and had asked the court to allow Tori to act as the baby’s legal guardian for sixty days before she signed the final papers. In essence, Tori would become the parent, but not officially. She’d agreed to those terms because Barbara was an intelligent, sensitive young woman, just trying to do what was best for her and her baby. And once Tori had seen that baby’s picture on the sonogram, she’d fallen in love with him. She had wanted to be a mother so badly, she was willing to take this risk.

“I gained another two pounds,” Barbara almost wailed. “Dr. Glessner said it’s okay, but I have to get it all off afterward. I’ll only have three months. I don’t want to be fat when I go to college.”

“You’ve been officially accepted for the winter term?”

“Yes. The letter came last week. Mom and I have been shopping for everything I’ll need.”

Just as Tori had been shopping for baby supplies. Her closet was full of them, and she couldn’t wait to get the baby’s room ready. As soon as Jake did the closet and patched the plaster, she could paint.

Her doorbell rang.

Carrying the cordless phone with her, she opened it. Her heart fluttered. Jake looked incredibly sexy in a beige polo shirt and jeans.

Still, she concentrated on Barbara as she motioned him inside.

“I just wanted to tell you,” Barbara went on, “that the doctor said everything’s A-okay. I can’t wait to get this over with. I can hardly see my feet.”

In a few weeks, she would be bringing Barbara’s baby home. “Keep me up to date on how you’re doing. You know I like your progress reports. And stop by if you want to talk.” It was better to know than to guess exactly what Barbara was thinking about everything.

Whenever she talked to Barbara, fear crept into Tori’s heart—fear that the young woman would change her mind, that she wouldn’t go through with the adoption. It was a worry Tori couldn’t put out of her head.

After she said goodbye to Barbara, she pushed the worry aside and smiled at Jake. She remembered again how good he was with his nephews, how much he enjoyed them.

Then she breathed in the scent of his spicy aftershave and forgot about his nephews. “I just have to grab my purse. Would you like something to drink before we go?”

He shook his head. “I told Luis we’d be there around two. We’d better get going.”

A few minutes later Tori was sitting beside Jake in the truck and awkwardness hung between them. Jake’s remote attitude gave her the feeling he didn’t want to make this trip with her, even though he’d suggested it. “You know, Jake, if you’d given me the directions, I could have driven up here myself.”

“Luis’s place isn’t easy to find.”

“I can follow directions and I can read a map.”

“Some women don’t like to go to strange places by themselves.”

“And some women don’t mind. I guess I’m one of them.”

At that he glanced at her. “You’re as independent as Nina.”

“Is that a compliment?”

A smile twitched the corner of his lip. “Yeah, I suppose. Independent women are just thorny to deal with sometimes.”

“As are remote men,” she returned before she could stop herself.

The hum of the truck’s engine filled the cab as the tires ate up the distance to Taos. Tori stared out the window. She never tired of the Southwest’s beauty, a beauty that seemed to change with each passing mile, with the angle of the sun, with the time of the day.

The mountains up ahead were cloaked in sunlight, and streams of it played over peaks and valleys, brush and earth. Sometimes Tori yearned to wrap herself in the scenery and just let the landscape of the yucca, sage and piñon beat through her in primitive rhythms. As old as the land, the vibrations were the same kind of primitive rhythms that thrummed through her with Jake only a couple of feet away.

Except for a glance at her every once in awhile, a flip of the switch to start the tape on the truck’s cassette player, Tori thought Jake was lost in his own world.

Finally he asked, “Was that the mother of the baby you’re going to adopt on the phone? I couldn’t help overhearing.”

It seemed funny discussing this with Jake. She hadn’t really discussed the adoption with anyone but her lawyer and her mother. “Yes, her name’s Barbara. She was accepted for the winter term of college and is looking forward to it.”

“When’s her due date?”

“September twenty-ninth.”

“And then you’ll be a mother.” The way Jake said it made her think he was reminding himself of that.

Because her worries were so very tied up with her joy, she murmured, “Not exactly.”

“What do you mean?”

“Once Barbara signs the papers, her decision is irrevocable. But she’s smart enough to understand that feelings aren’t something you turn on and off like a water spigot, so she asked for a sixty-day grace period. I’ll be legal guardian as soon as the baby’s born, but Barbara won’t have to make the final decision for sixty days.”

“You agreed to that?” There was concerned amazement in the question.

“I don’t know how to explain this, Jake, but I can’t imagine any woman giving up her baby and not having doubts. I don’t want to adopt a baby and then have some kind of war afterward because the mother changes her mind. I want Barbara to be absolutely sure about what she’s doing. If those sixty days will do it, then I’m prepared for life to be a little uncertain for that amount of time.”

“But what if you’ve cared for this baby and Barbara does change her mind?”

“I don’t believe that will happen. I wouldn’t have agreed to this if I thought it might. She wants to be a doctor. Her mother wants her to be a doctor. Her mom’s divorced and won’t accept care of Barbara’s baby. She won’t even help her with it, because she believes Barbara will be destroying her future if she keeps it. Barbara does, too. She chose me out of fifteen women. She cared about every aspect of the social worker’s report. The judge understood that she’s a conscientious teenager who wants the best for everybody involved.”

“I still think you’re taking quite a risk.”

“Maybe I am. But motherhood is a risk, no matter how it happens.” Now she had a question for him. “Do you want kids someday?”

He was silent for a few very long heartbeats, and then he answered firmly, “That isn’t going to happen.”

Why? was on the tip of her tongue. Yet she didn’t let it slip off. If she knew why, that meant they would be getting to know each other much better. If she knew why, she’d be delving into the part of Jake’s life he kept guarded. If she asked why, she had the feeling he wouldn’t tell her, anyway.

The sun’s brilliance made the landscape dance with golden light. It played over the cottonwoods along the Rio Grande. It flowed over the mountains, outlining a ramshackle house here, a small adobe there. And then there was nothing but land and scrub and piñon. Mountain crests seemed to envelope them, only to disclose higher crests, pink earth, more turquoise sky.

Their conversation was minimal after that, and Tori tried to ignore the movement of Jake’s strong, tanned, hair-roughened arms as he guided the steering wheel. His eyes didn’t leave the road now, and she wondered if he thought of her as a woman with more optimism than sense.

When they entered the boundaries of Taos, they passed a few fast-food restaurants. Jake took several side roads then, finally weaving between a few houses surrounded by coyote fence. He stopped at a tan adobe casita with an Open sign taped to a screen door that rattled in the wind.

“Luis told me he has plenty of tile in stock. Unless of course you want something terrifically unusual. I told him that wasn’t likely since you wanted to get the work done quickly.”

Forty-five minutes later, Jake loaded boxes of tiles into the back of his truck, thinking about the ones Tori had chosen. She’d seemed enthused about Luis’s painting. But then, that shouldn’t surprise him. One of the things Jake remembered about Tori was how she became excited over even very small pleasures—colors melting together in a rug, the turquoise-and-coral necklace her mother had given her to wear on her prom night, the Camelot-theme decorations in the hotel ballroom.

And today he’d caught her gazing at the mountains and known she was appreciating their color, their texture, their majesty.

Slamming the tailgate closed on the truck, he decided that being anywhere around her was a mistake. This trip today had been a mistake. After a year, he’d finally found a balance for his emotions, and he didn’t want that balance disrupted by desire that couldn’t be satisfied, beauty that was out of his reach, a woman who’d captivated him as a teenager and now even more so as an adult. He was in temporary mode. Tori was about to become a mother. He never intended to get married. She was the type of woman who deserved vows.

Climbing into the driver’s seat, his mood darkened as he caught another whiff of her perfume and noticed the creaminess of her skin where her sleek hair fell against her neck. He turned the key in the ignition.

He’d taken a side road toward the center of Taos when Tori asked, “Do you have to be back at any special time?”

He certainly wasn’t in the mood to prolong this outing, to corral his libido and fight his fantasies. “Why?”

“There’s a church near the Plaza—Our Lady of Guadalupe. There’s a painting inside that I just love. I thought maybe we could stop there for a few minutes. Would you mind?”

It had been a while since he’d been in a church, even before Marion had died. In his work he’d seen too much of the seedier side of life to think a few prayers could fix anything. When he’d attended Marion Montgomery’s funeral, the ritual and ceremony and words from the priest had only made him feel guiltier, as if he didn’t deserve to be remembering her with the other mourners.