The Bride Said, 'Finally!'

“That might be possible, if you cooperate and start wearing dresses again, when I ask you to wear a dress,” Jake said.

Alex slid off the sofa and fired her cap gun at the ceiling. Loud pops and acrid smoke permeated the air. “Maybe you should get me a kitty and a puppy first and then I’ll see if I feel like wearing a dress,” Alex countered.

Jake confiscated the cap gun and shook his head. “Behave first.”

Alex shook her head. The stare down between parent and child continued. “I don’t hafta wear dresses at school,” Alex said finally, when she realized her daddy wasn’t any more likely to give in than she was.

“No, you don’t,” Jake said calmly. “But you could wear a dress if you wanted to wear one. And what’s more you’d look very pretty if you did.” He gave her a gentle, coaxing smile.

Alex made a face and with a loud sigh flounced back over to sit beside Jenna. “I don’t want to look pretty.” She leaned over to see how Jenna’s sketch was progressing.

“How do you want to look?” Jenna asked as her pencil flew across the page.

“So right now.”

“You can look ‘so right now’ in a dress,” Jake said enthusiastically.

Alex glared at Jake.

“Can’t you, Jenna?” Jake said, looking to Jenna for moral support.

Jenna shrugged and refused to take sides. “Depends on the dress,” she said. Pausing, she looked at Alex, who had gone back to playing with her yo-yo. “What’s your favorite color crayon?” Jenna asked.

That, Alex had to think about. “Red,” she said.

“What else?” Jenna prodded, making a few notes to herself on the side of her page.

“Blue.”

“Dark blue or light blue?”

“Both.”

“What about green?”

“It’s okay,” Alex replied seriously, “but I like blue and red better.”

“Okay. What grade are you going to be in next year?”

“First. I went to kindergarten last year.”

“Did you learn about letters and numbers?”

Alex nodded vigorously. “I can sing the alphabet song.” She paused to demonstrate. “And I can count to twenty!” She demonstrated again.

“All right! Way to go!” Jenna enthused, and won a shy smile from Alex that made her smile in turn. “Did you draw pictures?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

Jenna finished the sketch and then filled it in with Alex’s favorite colors. “What was your favorite thing to draw?” she asked.

Alex furrowed her brow. “Kitties and puppies. And one time I drawed a kite and a big tree with lotsa leaves.”

Jenna nodded. Clearly, she and Alex were on the same page now. “I want to show you something in the storeroom.” Indicating Alex and Jake should follow, Jenna rose and went to the back of the store, where there were bolts of fabric. She pulled down three different shades of blue. “Which of these do you like best?” she asked Alex. “The dark blue, the medium blue or the light blue?”

Alex touched each of the three bolts of fabric. “I like the one that looks like blue jeans.”

“Ah yes, indigo. Okay. Now…what about these reds? Scarlet, fire-engine or rose?”

“Fire-engine.”

“Good choice.” Jenna went back out to the showroom. She sat down, picked up her sketch pad and colored pencils and added the hues Alex had just selected. “Well, what do you think?”

Alex looked down at the short blue-denim jumper and fire-engine-red blouse. The jumper was adorned with kittens and puppies and letters of the alphabet, and paired with red cowgirl boots and a saucy blue cowgirl hat. “Now, granted, this is a dress, but it’s not your average dress,” Jenna said. “’Cause the jumper—the blue part here—is going to be made out of blue denim and looks more like overalls, except of course it’s not. And I’ve got you wearing boots instead of black patentleather shoes. Do you think you could wear something like this?”

For a second, Jenna thought Alex was going to shout a resounding yes or a Texas-sized Yee-ha! But her delight faded as soon as it appeared, replaced by a pout as big as the Lone Star State. “No. No dresses. Not even ones with kitties and puppies on ’em. Daddy, I want to go now.”

Jake knelt down in front of his daughter. He shot Jenna a brief grateful glance then turned back to Alexandra. “Alex, we talked about this. You have to have a few dresses now, like it or not.”

“No.” Alex dug in even more stubbornly. She folded her arms in front of her. “I don’t. I want to go home now. And I know you got to go to work. Can you please have Clara take me back to the ranch?”

“Honey—” Jake looked both exasperated and desperate. The clock was ticking. Before they knew it, Melinda would be here, and Alex wasn’t anywhere near even picking out a dress, never mind putting one on.

Jake shot an anxious look at Jenna.

“I think we’ve done enough for now,” Jenna said, knowing there were just some things that couldn’t be rushed, like it or not. “Clearly, Alex has other things she’d rather be doing. And I for one think she ought to have that opportunity.” Jenna looked at Alex. “Are you busy this afternoon?”

“Why?” Alex glared at Jenna suspiciously, clearly not about to be tricked into wearing any dress.

Jenna shrugged in a way that let Alex know she at least wasn’t going to force her to do anything she didn’t want to. Aware Jake was watching her every move, she knelt down so she and Alex were at eye level with each other. “I thought I might come over to play, say around one o’clock, if it’s okay.”

Alex blinked in a combination of surprise and delight. “You want to play with me?”

Jenna nodded. This was one little girl in need of some tender loving care if she’d ever seen one. “If your daddy say it’s okay.”

Alex looked up at Jake.

Clearly at a loss as to what Jenna was up to now, Jake shrugged. “It’s okay with me if it’s okay with you, pumpkin.”

“Okay, I’ll see you then. Bye, Daddy.” Alex kissed Jake goodbye, then skipped out the door to the curb, where Clara was leaning against her vehicle and talking to Wade and Shane McCabe.

Jake waited until they’d driven off, before he turned back to Jenna. “You were supposed to back me up on this dress issue.”

Jenna gathered up her sketch pad and pencils and carried them back to the storeroom, Jake right on her heels. “Oh, relax, would you?” she said, wishing he weren’t so close, and that he didn’t smell so good, like soap and man and woodsy, masculine cologne.

Jake’s silver-gray eyes darkened sexily. “You do remember what kind of time schedule we’re on here, don’t you?”

Jenna rolled her eyes and tried not to notice how very close he had shaved that morning. “Rather hard to forget with you breathing down my neck like that.”

Hands braced on his waist, pushing the edges of his sport coat back, Jake said, “You were supposed to convince her to at least order one dress.”

Ignoring the way he was towering over her, Jenna held her ground. “I did. Didn’t you see her face? Alex loved the alphabet dress I designed just for her. Granted, it’s a little casual,” Jenna shrugged, “but we have to start somewhere.”

Jake’s frown deepened all the more. “So she loved it for a second, before she dug in her heels,” he countered, exasperated. “She is still not going to wear it.”

“Yes,” Jenna retorted patiently, “she will. But only when she wants to.”

“Which is where you were supposed to come in,” Jake added.

Jenna made a face at him, designed to show him how ridiculously panicky he was being. “Which is where I am still going to come in if you will just take a chill pill and let me do my thing.” She turned on her heel and headed back out into the showroom.

Jake followed. “You have a plan?” he asked, the hope in his low voice as annoying to Jenna as his scolding had been.

“Of course I have a plan. I always have a plan,” Jenna snapped back irritably, wondering when Jake would give her some credit. She paused, aware her emotions were starting to get out of control again—something that happened frequently when Jake was around. She drew in a bolstering breath. “I’ll work on it this afternoon, when I go over to play with her,” Jenna finished calmly as she walked over to the sales counter and checked her schedule—she had been rescheduling appointments with customers right and left to make room for Jake.

“Oh.” The wind temporarily knocked out of his sails, Jake paused and raked a hand through his hair. He blew out an uneasy breath, looked at her seriously. “Good. ’Cause you know what is riding on this.”

“Absolutely.” Jenna smiled tightly, reminding herself to keep this strictly unemotional and aboveboard. She wanted this discussion with Jake finished within the next ten minutes, which would leave her plenty of time to prepare for her next appointment. “The expansion of my business.”

Briefly, disappointment flickered in Jake’s eyes. “And Alex’s custody,” Jake added, as he sauntered around to join her behind the sales counter.

“And Alex’s custody,” Jenna agreed, then paused as her next thought hit. She tilted her face up to Jake’s, so she could see into his eyes. “Does Alex know what’s going on between you and her mother—that Melinda is threatening to sue you for custody because Alex is such a tomboy?” Jenna asked curiously.

“No.” Jake rested his shoulders against the wall. “And I don’t want her to know. Bad enough we’re divorced and Melinda has shown practically zero interest in her since day one.”

“Did you expect this to happen?”

“No, but I probably should have. My attorney warned me at the time of the divorce that custody arrangements are often challenged after several years have passed. Sometimes for money. Sometimes because one parent doesn’t approve of the way the other parent is rearing the child. She was particularly worried in my case because Melinda so easily gave up all rights to Alexandra. She thought Melinda might eventually realize she’d made a mistake and want to become more a part of Alex’s life.”

“Surely Melinda couldn’t win,” Jenna said, concerned.

“When it comes to fighting over a child, no one ever wins. The whole point is to avoid the battle,” Jake said. “And in this case, also to placate Melinda so she won’t be compelled to overreact to make up for lost time and opportunity. Right now, as far as I can figure, Alex is an accessory to Melinda’s life that doesn’t quite fit. Alex’s tomboy ways are embarrassing Melinda. Melinda doesn’t like being embarrassed. If I weren’t here, she’d probably send Alex off to boarding school to keep her out of sight of all our mutual friends in Texas. Since she can’t do that, more drastic action is called for. One way or another, Melinda is going to make sure that Alex doesn’t detract from her mother’s public image.”

“Or in other words,” Jenna guessed, “as long as Alex is a perfectly behaved little lady, the fact that Melinda’s not around never comes up. But let Alex be ‘clearly needing a mother in her life’ and Melinda’s absence is all people talk about.”

“Right. Which brings us back to square one,” Jake sighed wearily, looking for a moment as if the weight of the world were on his shoulders. “How to get Alexandra in a dress, so all this unwelcome attention will go away.”

“Simple.” Jenna smiled victoriously. “You just have to make her want to wear a dress.”

Jake gave Jenna a droll look. “That’s what I’ve been trying to do,” he explained.

“Yes, I know. But a master is on the scene now. So leave it to me, and stop worrying about it. And start worrying about how you’re going to pull the expansion of my business together by the time I get your daughter into a dress.”

Jake opened his briefcase. “Actually, I’ve already been working on this. I think we should come up with a complete line of designs—formal, casual and business wear—to be mass-marketed and then try and sign up a whole host of department stores to carry it. From there, we’ll contract with factories to make the clothes and—”

Jenna cut him off with a look. “No.”

Jake blinked as if he hadn’t heard right. “No?”

“I want a single, small but distinct, line of clothing bearing my name,” Jenna said firmly. “Marketed at one store. Made in one factory, right here in Laramie.”

Jake regarded her in consternation. “Jenna, I know you are used to being a one-woman operation, more or less, but you don’t have to limit yourself that way.”

Jenna folded her arms in front of her and regarded Jake sternly. “I want to keep things small so I can insure the quality.”

Jake put his papers back in his briefcase. “Obviously, you’ve thought about this.”

“A lot. I always knew I would expand and do it in a carefully controlled way. Do we have a deal?”

Jake nodded, his eyes never leaving her face. “I’ll start looking for a factory site this morning.”

“I already have one.” Jenna smiled. “The old carpet warehouse about twenty minutes outside of town. It’s standing empty and it’s for sale.” It would be the perfect place for them to set up shop.

Jake paused. He leaned against the sales counter and clamped his arms over the rock-solidness of his chest. “I’ll look into it, see what the asking price is.”

“Maybe we could go see it this afternoon, after I spend some time with Alex.”

Jake looked through his calendar. “Four o’clock?” Jenna nodded and handed him his hat. “I’ll see you then.”

“LOOK, DADDY, we’re having a tea party!” Alex said, several hours later.

Giddily she spun around showing off her wool beret, long chifon scarf and white elbow-length gloves. “And I even got high heels and pearls!” All of which she had added to her usual T-shirt and jeans. Beginning to see where Jenna was going with all this, Jake grinned and joined the group where they were gathered around the table in the second-floor playroom at the ranch, sipping from child-sized cups, and eating tiny little tea sandwiches and petits fours. “And what a nice tea party it is,” Jake answered, admiring the cozy camaraderie that had cropped up between the women in his life. Jenna in particular looked very happy and content. He wondered what it would be like to have the full wattage of Jenna’s smile aimed at him once again.

“And tomorrow we’re going to have another one and really play dress-up, too,” Alex enthused.

Jenna met Jake’s eye and grinned as she adjusted the silk stole around her shoulders and the genuine bridal-shop tiara perched on her head. “I didn’t have time to dig through the treasure trove in my storeroom,” she explained, “but tomorrow I’ll bring some sample garments and the clothes my sisters and I used to wear as kids.”

Aware the J&R ranch house hadn’t been filled with this much love and laughter since he, Clara and Alex had moved in, Jake took off his hat, and pulled up a chair. “You still have them?”

Jenna nodded. “Mom never could bring herself to get rid of them. She thought her grandkids might use them someday, and as it turned out, Meg’s son Jeremy has, as well as his friends.”

Jake was glad Jenna and her sisters had done what they could to preserve the Lockhart family heirlooms, with their sentimental value. No doubt they’d mean a lot to them all someday. “How old is Jeremy?” Jake asked, as a bonnet-and-shawl-clad Clara handed him a plate.

Jenna’s lips curved fondly. “Same age as Alex, almost six.”

Alex tugged on Jenna’s sleeve. “Can Jeremy come to our tea party, too?”

“If his mom says okay,” Jenna allowed kindly, before shooting a look at Jake. “But you’re going to have to ask your dad.”

Alex looked at Jake for permission.

“Sure, honey.” Jake smiled, happy Jenna had become buddies with Alex and Clara so quickly. “Go ahead and invite him.”

Alex studied Jake as Clara handed him the plate of peanut-butter-and-jelly and cucumber-and-cream-cheese sandwiches. “Daddy needs a funny hat, too.”

Jenna gave him a flowered-brim garden hat. Alex giggled riotously. “Not that one, silly. Let him have…this one.” She ran to her toy chest and returned with a child-sized magician’s hat.

Jake put the small black top hat on his head. “Much better.”

Alex beamed. “Would you like some apple juice?” Being careful to be very prim and proper, instead of rowdy and out-of-control, Alex reached for the tea set.

“Don’t mind if I do, thank you,” Jake told Alex. While Alex poured Jake some apple juice, Jake traded glances with Jenna, silently telegraphing his appreciation.

“The petits fours are delicious,” Clara said.

“They’re from Isabel Buchanon’s bakery, over on Main Street,” Jenna explained. “If you haven’t been there yet, you ought to give it a try. She’s got the best baked goods in town, no question.’

Clara smiled. “We’ll have to run by there.”

The pager clipped to Clara’s belt began to beep. Clara looked down at the number flashing across the screen. “That’s my daughter, Lisa.” Jake reached into the pocket of his blazer and handed over his cell phone. Clara made the call, said hello, and listened. “Honey, you can’t be in labor yet. You’re not due for another two weeks—oh, dear. Yes, that’s a definite sign. Have you called your obstetrician? Is Randall on the way? Of course I’ll meet you at the hospital, honey. I wouldn’t dream of missing this.”

“Problem?” Jake said.

Briskly, Clara untied her bonnet and removed the shawl from her shoulders. She looked calm and in control. “Lisa’s water broke and she’s started having contractions.”

“Do you want me to drive you to the hospital?” Jake said.

Clara shook her head. “This being a first baby and all, there’s no telling how long it will take.”

Jake stood and helped Clara with her chair. He wrapped his arm around the older woman’s shoulders and gave her a hug. “Give Lisa and Randall our love. Let me know if there’s anything they need.”

Clara hugged Jake back. “I will. Bye, precious.” Clara knelt down to give Alexandra a hug and a kiss.

“Can I see your new grandbaby after it’s borned?” Alex asked.

Clara smiled. “You sure can.” She said goodbye to Jenna then was off.

Silence fell over the playroom. Suddenly, no one was much in the mood for a tea party. But that was okay with Jake. He looked over at Alex. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”

Alex perked up immediately. “You do?”

“It’s on the back porch.” Jake smiled at his daughter, but did nothing to give away the nature of the surprise. “Want to see?”

Alex vaulted out of her chair and wobbled over to him on her high heels. “Can I wear my dress-up clothes?”

Jake frowned. Now that Alex was actually wearing something feminine, even if only for dress-up purposes, he hated to have her take it off. But given what he had on the porch, there was no helping it. “I think you better take them off for this,” he said.

“Okay.” Alex sighed, clearly disappointed, but not about to give up her surprise for the sake of arguing. She ripped off hat, gloves, scarf and high heels, but hesitated at the long double strand of pearls—which looked a little ludicrous with her jeans, T-shirt, and buckskin vest. She looked over at Jenna hopefully. “Can I keep these?”

“Sure,” Jenna said, smiling, as she too took off her tiara and stole and excess jewelry.

“Thank you,” Alex promised sincerely, giving Jenna an admiring look. “I’ll take good care of them. I won’t lose them or anything.”

Jenna reached over to squeeze Alex’s shoulders. “I know you won’t, sweetheart.”

Jake waited for Alex to put on her boots. “Ready?”

Alex nodded. She took his hand, glanced over at Jenna. “You come, too, Jenna.”

Jake nodded, seconding the invitation with a frank, sexy look.

Obviously curious, Jenna followed as Jake took his daughter’s hand in one of his, Jenna’s in the other, and led the way downstairs, past the dining room, through the kitchen and onto the large and homey screened-in back porch.

To Jake’s amusement, at first Jenna—like Alex—saw nothing amiss. Both scanned the rough-hewn furniture with red plaid cushions, the abundance of green, leafy plants and blooming geraniums, the Navajo rugs strewn across the cool cement floor and the ceiling fan whirring overhead. Then they heard it. The quick, frantic scampering of little feet. A yelp. A howl. A hiss. Alex and Jenna barely had time to draw surprised breaths before they caught sight of a fast-moving bundle of butterscotch fur and a pair of lively dark brown eyes. And an even faster bundle of gray fur. Both dashing past in a blur.

“Daddy, you did it!” Alex exclaimed, clapping her hands together with all the delight Jake had expected.

Jenna turned to Jake. “Did you ever!” she agreed dryly.

Chapter Three

“You look…surprised,” Jake said, a little irked Jenna didn’t look more impressed by what he had done. To his relief, his daughter, however, had no such reservations. Alexandra was already down on the floor, tumbling around with the cutest golden retriever puppy Jake had ever seen while her fluffy gray-and-white-striped kitten watched from a distance.

Jenna paused and bit her lip. “I am.”

Jake edged closer, until their arms were almost touching. “Because…?”

Jenna shifted slightly, her shoulder brushing the curve of his biceps. “You got her a kitten and a puppy.”

Jake shrugged, unable to see what the big deal was, and for whatever reason Jenna did seem to think this was a big deal. “I didn’t want her out hunting down snakes and I thought this would keep her busy.”

Jenna knit her brows together. “It’ll do that, all right,” she drawled, the hint of bemusement in her clear blue eyes.

Jake refused to feel inferior just because he had never been allowed to have any pets as a kid. Whereas Jenna, who’d grown up on a ranch, had nurtured an abundance of them.

“Just out of curiosity, Jake…” Jenna clasped a soft, slender hand around his upper arm and tugged him out of earshot. She backed him up against the exterior limestone wall that separated the porch from the interior of the house. “Have you ever house-trained a puppy?”

“No,” Jake said uneasily, unable to help thinking how pretty Jenna looked in her two piece turquoise cotton dress, with its loose, cropped blouse and long flowing skirt. “But how hard can it be?”

In response, Jenna just shook her head. And sighed—loudly. Her high, perfect breasts rising and falling against the demure button front of her blouse. “Did you at least get their shots?”

Jake’s eyes traced the glimpse of creamy skin visible in the open collar of her blouse. He liked the way the armholes were cut on it, dipping in slightly to reveal Jenna’s slender shoulders and pretty upper arms. “Uh, actually we have an appointment to do that at five, at the Laramie Animal Clinic. I thought we could run by the warehouse, take a quick look, then go straight to the vet’s office and the pet-supply store from there.”

“We,” Jenna repeated, lifting a skeptical brow and planting both hands on her hips.

Jake gestured off-handedly. “Well, I would have asked Clara to help with the pets.” And hoped like heck Jenna, a real animal lover if there ever was one, would volunteer to help out some, too. “But since Clara had to go off to Laramie Community Hospital to see her new grandbaby born…” Jake shrugged, to show there was no way he could have foreseen Lisa going into labor a good two weeks early.

Jenna blinked in surprise. “Clara’s married daughter lives here in Laramie, too?”

Jake realized they hadn’t covered that earlier. He nodded. “It’s one of the reasons we moved here. So Clara could be close to her daughter and son-in-law. She’s been with us since Alex was an infant and has rearranged her life on more than one occasion on our account. I thought it was time we did the same for her.”

Jenna studied him with a mixture of blatant approval and suspicion. “What were the other reasons?” she asked warily.

That was easy, Jake thought, relaxing all the more. He smiled down at Jenna, said softly, “My happiest memories of growing up were all here. I thought it’d be a good place to bring up Alex, too.”

Before Jenna could respond, Alex ran up to him. “Daddy, my new kitty is hiding behind the sofa and she won’t come out.”