“Kelsey, honey,” Josie admonished gently. “I don’t think Mr. McKenna has time for jokes.”
“Do you have time?” Kelsey asked.
“How long is your joke?” he asked.
“Not long.”
“Okay. What’s Irish and stays out all summer?”
“Patti O’Furniture.”
Kelsey raised her eyebrows in silent expectation. Jake felt a strange compulsion to laugh. He would have, too, if a deep, sultry chuckle hadn’t drawn his attention. Josie was bent at the waist, her face angled down toward her daughter, a shock of unruly red hair skimming her cheek. He’d thought she was shy and plain. Her laughter was neither of those things. It was uninhibited, and it filled the quiet store like a song, undiluted, marvelous, catching. A woman who could laugh like that could probably curl a man’s toes in bed.
He felt a tightening in his throat and a chugging in his chest Neither were particularly pleasurable sensations, but the strumming, thickening surge taking place slightly lower felt pretty damn good, so good in fact that he took a second look at Josephine Callahan. He still thought she was on the plain side, but now he wondered if it was the result of a lack of adornment. She wore no makeup, no jewelry, nothing that might call attention to the features of the woman inside the loose-fitting, faded dress. Her eyes were green and pretty enough, he decided, her hair a shade of red he’d never seen before. It was unusual, yes, but he’d be willing to stake his ranch that it was natural.
The ranch. That was why he was here. That, and the harebrained idea Sky had come up with to keep all of it in one piece. Suddenly it didn’t seem like such a harebrained idea after all.
Josie wasn’t sure why she was laughing. The joke had been silly, and yet it had struck her funny bone. Kelsey thought so, too, and was giggling for all she was worth. Her brown eyes were crinkled, her shoulders hunched forward, her head tipped back. Why, it was as if she believed the change in the atmosphere was all her doing.
The change in atmosphere? Josie straightened. The atmosphere in the tiny store had changed. She raised her eyes to Jaloe’s and caught him looking. She averted her gaze hurriedly, but it seemed her traitorous eyes had minds of their own. She found herself staring up at him. She swallowed and had to force herself not to take a backward step. He was looking at her as only a man could look at a woman. And she was responding to that look.
She wasn’t well.
In an attempt to tear her gaze away, she gestured to the baked goods on display beneath the glass-topped counter. “Can I interest you in a homemade pie, Mr. McKenna?”
He shifted closer. “Actually, I came in to talk to you about something.” His gaze settled to her mouth, to her neck, to her shoulders. “Something important.”
Josie’s breath hitched. She definitely wasn’t well.
“Well,” she said, clearing her throat of the bothersome little frog that seemed to have gotten stuck there. “I mean, what did you want to talk about?”
“It’s a private matter.”
She gestured to her empty store. “It doesn’t get much more private than this, Mr. McKenna.”
His gaze swung to Kelsey, and Josie understood. Trying on a smile that felt a little stiff, she said, “I’m afraid I don’t get complete privacy until after Kelsey goes to bed at eight.”
He gave her that assessing, calculated look again. And then he said, “I’ll come back later. After she’s in bed. You live in the apartment above the store, right?”
“Er, I mean, yes. Yes, I do, but I don’t think—” For heaven’s sake, she was staring into his eyes again, wondering if he ever smiled. Her cheeks grew warm. If she wasn’t careful, a blush was going to rise to her face. It might help if he would look someplace else.
As if in answer to her prayers, he reached into his back pocket and drew out his wallet. “I’ll take all four loaves.”
“Pardon me?”
“That homemade bread. It is for sale, isn’t it?”
Jasie came to her senses with a start. “Yes. Yes, of course.” She scrried around the counter and took the bread from the window display. Pleased to have something constructive to do, she placed the loaves in a bag and pressed the appropriate keys on her old cash register.
“That’ll be...”
He handed her a twenty before she could name the total. With a tug on the brim of his hat, he headed for the door.
“Don’t forget your change, Mr. McKenna.”
He tnrned around slowly, moving with an easy grace, a kind of loose-jointedness one automatically associated with a cowboy of old. Her breath hitched all over again.
“Keep it.”
He stood half in, half out of the store, his gaze holding hers. Josie had a feeling that somewhere in the dark recesses of his mind, he knew exactly what he was doing. It was disconcerting, because she didn’t have a clue.
His Stetson was well-worn and faded, and his boots looked as if they’d walked a thousand miles. Whether the man preferred to wear broken-in boots or not, they’d been expensive, and so was his hat. The McKennas could afford nice things. She couldn’t even afford to buy Kelsey a new pair of shoes. That didn’t mean she would accept charity.
“I can’t do that. It just wouldn’t be right.” Luckily she was good at math and was able to draw the correct change from the drawer. She hurried around the counter and handed him his money with nimble fingers, more careful than usual, to keep contact at a minimum. “Enjoy your bread. Good day, Mr. McKenna.”
“Bye, mister,” Kelsey called.
He glanced at the little girl as if he’d forgotten she was in the room. And then he did what Josie had wanted him to do. He smiled. It did crazy things to her heart rate, not to mention her breathing, but it did nothing to relieve the tension filling the store.
“I’ll see you later,” he said. “And call me Jake.”
Josie’s heart thudded once, twice, three times. As one second followed another, it seemed to stop beating altogether.
She didn’t know how long she stared at the door after he’d gone. She might have studied it forever if Kelsey hadn’t said, “Do you think that’s the man Daddy’s sending to be my new father?”
Josie swung around. Goodness gracious. She placed her hands on her cheeks and told herself to stop being silly. Wondering if it might have been wiser if she’d kept that particular tidbit of information from Kelsey until Josie had had more time to think about it, she glanced over her shoulder where she could see Jake McKenna pulling out of his parking space in front of her store.
His truck was black and shiny and expensive looking. She thought it suited him. He rested one arm along his open window and steered with the other hand, maneuvering out of the tight spot with ease. Josie turned her back on the view. He might have had the looks, the style, and oh, yes, the moves to unsettle a feminine heart, but that didn’t mean he had unsettled hers.
“Do you, Mama?” Kelsey prodded.
“I’m afraid not, sweet pea. Surely the man Daddy would like us to find will be more like Daddy.”
Kelsey stared into Josie’s eyes for a long time. Sighing, she lowered her chin forlornly and murmured, “I hope Daddy hurries.”
The nerves that had been clamoring the past few hours stilled. Tenderness filled her heart and thickened her throat. She and Kelsey might have been down on their luck. They might have even been a little desperate. But she thanked her lucky stars for her blessings, especially for this sweet, inquisitive, adorable child.
Josie