Haley gritted her teeth. “I appreciate all the hard work, Mom, but please stop all this. It’s humiliating. Do you think I’m so unattractive I can’t find a man myself?”
“Oh, no, honey. I’m just trying to save time. At twenty-eight, your childbearing years are slipping away before my eyes. I want grandchildren before I’m old and drooling in the home.”
“Mom!”
“Honestly, Haley. Your father’s gone, and you’re all I have left. It would break my heart if you didn’t start a family of your own. I don’t want you to be lonely, and frankly, I don’t want to die alone while you work yourself to death.”
“If you’re so lonely, maybe you ought to be the one dating, not me.” As soon as the words left her mouth, Haley wished she could call them back. She stared into her mother’s wide eyes. “Oh, Mom. I’m sorry. Really. I know you and Daddy—I didn’t mean—”
Clara stared, her perfectly powdered chin quivering slightly. “No, it’s okay. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’ve been putting too much of a burden on your shoulders. I’m sorry.” She made a visible effort to smile. “I guess I won’t call the other men on the list, then.”
“List?”
Clara waved it off. “Never mind.”
A cha-ching of the cash register distracted them both, and soon Jen and Adam joined them. After a few moments of polite conversation, during which Haley felt lower and lower, Clara and Adam left together.
After the door closed behind them, Haley slumped into a miniature chair. “I’m pond scum. Absolute slime. Lower than slime. Bacteria reject me as substandard host material.” Haltingly, Haley related events to Jen. “And Dad’s only been gone three years. Mom was devastated. I’m such a creep.”
Jen shook her head, a sympathetic smile on her face. “That was a little rough, Haley.”
“No kidding. I’m really tired of her parading men in front of me, but I could have just said so without being mean.”
Jen cocked her head. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe she needed to hear the ‘mean’ part, too. Your mom’s an attractive woman still.”
Haley’s eyebrows raised high. “You think she should start dating again? But she’s my mother.”
“Oh, don’t be juvenile, Haley.” Jen spoke with the blunt familiarity of lifelong friendship. When you shared jump rope, puberty and boys, then remained friends into adulthood, there wasn’t much you couldn’t say to one another.
Haley sighed. “I suppose. I’m still going to call her and apologize, though.”
“Mmm. Not a bad idea. Sure you don’t want to date Adam?”
“I’m sure.”
Jen smiled. “Something tells me you prefer tall blond men who like dogs, bikes and pizza. Right?”
“Wrong.”
“Oh, come on. He sounds fantastic. I think you should go out with him.”
Haley eyed her incredulously. “Hello? Where were you when we talked about all this earlier? I’m through with the Adams and the Ricks of this world. Not only is Rick a hunk, just like all the other jerks I’ve dated, but he also annoys me to no end. Do you want to see me arrested for murder? Some friend you are.”
“I’m sure you’re right.” But Jen still looked highly amused.
Haley scowled and finished reorganizing the boxed games before helping Jen lock up for the rest of the weekend. No way would she admit that she still couldn’t rid her memory of a pair of wicked blue eyes taunting and tempting her. She headed home with not a few misgivings about the evening’s plans.
3
WHEN THE DOORBELL RANG promptly at six, Haley wiped nervous palms on her jeans. The pants were part of the third outfit she’d tried on this evening. She’d wanted to strike just the right note of casual friendliness. This was not a date.
Still, she couldn’t set her vanity aside so completely as to dress in her scrubbiest clothes. She’d finally settled on worn but figure-hugging jeans, and a pretty V-neck T-shirt in a shade of coral that did nice things for her hair and complexion. Attractive without being provocative. Okay. She was ready.
Plastering a friendly smile on her face, Haley swung the door open. And forgot to breathe.
There Rick stood, sinfully masculine in faded jeans and a white T-shirt. Granted, the outfit was simple, but when those clothes, simple as they were, were wrapped around a body like Rick’s, they took on a life and sexuality of their own.
“Hi.” Rick stood grinning in the doorway, a pizza box in his hands. His grin faltered at her lack of response. “All right if I come in?”
Haley jumped. Inhaled. “Oh, sure.” She stepped back—way back—to admit him. One touch, and dear lord, she’d—
“Great. I brought a six-pack, too. Do you drink beer?” He sent a curious glance over his shoulder.
“Oh, sure.” Do you drink arsenic, Haley? Oh, sure, Rick, anything you offer me with that sexy wave of hair falling over your eye…getting all tangled up with long, silky eyelashes. Oh, heaven help me.
“So where’s our chaperon?” Rick set the pizza down on the table and looked around the apartment, his gaze traveling up the stairs. At the top was a tall, well-chewed baby gate Haley had fashioned in front of the entrance to her loft bedroom. A dark-eyed puppy with floppy ears and massive paws stared down at him. The dog, a chocolate Labrador, whined pathetically from behind the barrier. Rick grinned and turned back to Haley.
“Sherlock?”
“The dog I kidnapped, you mean?” Her senses returning, Haley raised a sarcastic eyebrow.
He grinned sheepishly.
She relaxed, her gaze sweeping upward to study her pet with affectionate resignation. “Yeah, that’s him. He’s a little rowdy with guests, so I usually confine him when I have company.”
“Aw, let the poor guy out.”
She eyed him doubtfully.
“So maybe he’ll jump on me a little or slobber all over the place.” He shrugged. “I can take it. Want me to let him out?”
“Go for it, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She watched in expectant glee as Rick loped up the stairs and fumbled with the gate before finally removing the barrier.
With a joyful bark and a romp, the dog planted both paws on Rick’s stomach. With a surprised woof of his own, Rick doubled over and stumbled down a step or two. His chest heaved as he worked to regain the breath the dog had forced from his lungs.
Giggling, Haley watched as Sherlock leaped down the stairs, then ran right back up them. He paused to jump and slobber and whine for the sheer joy of a newfound companion. Then he bounded back down the steps. Before the dog could leap up them again, Rick grabbed the dog’s collar with a practiced hand. “Sherlock. Down.”
Her giggles dwindled to a disbelieving chuckle as she watched her incorrigible puppy sit and stare, unmoving even after Rick released the leather collar. When Sherlock’s rump started to bounce right back off the floor, Rick employed the same, firm tone. “No. Down.” The rump hit the floor again. Sherlock cocked his head in curiosity.
Feeling her own head cock with similar emotions, Haley just stared.
After a long moment, Rick patted the puppy on his silky head and fell to his knees in front of him. “Good dog. Way to go, boy.” He scrubbed and tugged at the dog’s ears until the animal slid to the floor, a boneless mass of ecstasy.
Rick