Considering the way in which Wade had meddled to bring her and Ellis together, she didn’t want to give him an opportunity to meddle any more than he already had.
Mustering up his gumption, Wade took a deep breath and finished dialing the number. It was only for one evening, for crying out loud. And it was a public event, so it wasn’t like he’d have to wine and dine Cherise privately…and risk giving her the impression that he harbored a romantic interest in her. The line on the other end rang once.
“Excuse me.”
Startled, Wade wheeled around to find Geneva poised hesitantly on the threshold between his den and kitchen.
He sucked in his breath at the sight of her and dropped the phone back into its cradle. The trim white pants that ended in a slit just below her knees showed off a flat stomach, enticingly rounded hips and lightly tanned calves and ankles. As for the tailored blue shirt, it caressed her curves in a way his hands itched to mimic. And her hair, as usual, fought to escape the clip that held the riotous waves prisoner. A fragment of oak pollen clung near her temple, giving evidence that she’d been gardening or playing outside with Jacob. If she looked this good while just hanging around the house, he dared not imagine how easily she could outshine all the ladies who would be attending the hospital’s charity ball later this month.
“I’m sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if I might borrow a hammer?”
Jacob crawled between her ankles. “Bam-bambam!” he said, imitating a popular Saturday-morning cartoon character.
“Sure, it’s out in the utility room.” He started to step past her and lead the way. But, preferring instead to savor this unexpected visual treat, he motioned for her to go ahead of him. The view from the back was as good as the front. His body reacted as if he’d just returned from spending several years in a monk’s retreat. His overstimulated hormones had his nerve endings tingling with anticipation, and Wade knew if he didn’t send her away immediately he might do or say something he’d regret later.
Grabbing three different sizes of hammers from his workstation, he shoved them all in her hands and abruptly turned and went back inside. Standing once again in front of the telephone, he tried to wipe the picture of her—eyes wide and lips puckered in an unspoken question—from his mind and return to the task he’d been avoiding for weeks.
Waiting a moment for his heart to stop racing, he once again forced himself to pick up the phone. But this time he couldn’t bring himself to go through the motions of calling Cherise.
When Geneva returned a moment later, he felt rather than heard her enter the kitchen.
“I think I need a screwdriver after all.”
“They’re on the workbench where I got the hammers,” he said, inviting her to help herself and save him the torture of having to refuse her round bottom’s beckoning gesture as she exited the room.
Fortunately, she took his cue and left before a fit of conscience compelled him to change his mind.
Trying to pull his thoughts back to the matter at hand, Wade knew he couldn’t wait any longer to find a date for the charity ball. Although there’d never been a shortage of willing ladies to accompany him to similar fund-raisers in the past, courtesy dictated that he give his guest ample time to book a fitting for a new dress and otherwise prepare for the event. With only two weeks to go, he was already pushing it to the wire.
Despite the urgency, he couldn’t bring himself to focus on what he had to do. He was distracted, partly by the image of Geneva in those casual pants, and partly from wondering what she was up to with his tools. Remembering the shelves he’d promised to install over her sewing table, he wondered if she’d decided to put them up herself.
Happily abandoning his mission, he followed the path she’d taken through the garage to the back of the house.
Having anchored a screw in the wood siding beside her door, Geneva reached to lift the wreath from its current mooring.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
The deep male voice almost made her send the wreath—nest and all—crashing to the deck. “I wish you wouldn’t sneak up on me!”
Ignoring the scolding tone in her words, Wade stated simply, “I talked to Tim, the golf pro, and he says the parents might abandon the nest if you move it.”
Releasing her grip on the grapevine decoration, she also let go a breath of frustration. “Then what am I supposed to do? I have a date tomorrow night, and I want to make a good impression.”
“You will.” Wade stepped uncomfortably close. “How could he not be impressed?”
“You know what I mean. Imagine how odd it looks for me to be coming and going at all hours through your house.”
“What’s the matter?” he whispered. “Are you afraid the good people of Kinnon Falls will think we’re together?”
Of course she was! But, to spare his feelings, she shook her head. “It might make Ellis feel weird.”
“Here, take my key.” This time he pressed the metal into the palm of her hand. His gesture clearly said he would brook no further argument on the subject. “I’ll stay out of the way while you two get to know each other.”
It felt so personal, so intimate, to be holding the key to his house. She’d been putting off accepting it, hoping to come up with a more acceptable solution to her bird-imposed dilemma. But that had only put them in more frequent contact as he let her and Jacob in and out of his house. Closing her fingers around the key, Geneva couldn’t bring herself to meet his eyes, so she used the excuse of glancing toward the yard where Jacob played in a new sandbox Wade had built just for him.
“Your generosity in letting us cut through your home is very much appreciated.” Unfortunately the birds gave her no other choice. She paused, uncertain about the propriety of putting conditions on a favor. But it was either that or be confronted with improprieties herself. When he offered to stay out of the way tomorrow night, her imagination supplied the most likely scenario—that he’d be having company of his own. “However, considering your, uh, bachelor situation, perhaps we could devise a code for when you’re…” Geneva felt her cheeks flush with heat “…indisposed. Perhaps a candle in the window or a string tied around the doorknob?”
Wade ran a thumb over the shallow divot in his cheek. “Or we could wire the porch lamp to my bedsprings, and when the light flashes on and off, you’ll know—”
“I should have known you’d make fun of my concern. This may not be a big deal to you, but it is a big deal where my son is concerned.” Moving away from the nest and out of earshot of Jacob, she added, “The reason I moved to Kinnon Falls in the first place is because I wanted to protect him from being exposed to certain unsavory elements.” The major one being the boy’s father, but she wouldn’t go into that now.
Wade’s countenance suddenly turned serious. He leaned in as if to stress his point. Feeling dwarfed by his size, Geneva retreated a step. It didn’t help much. He still took her breath away.
“It’s foolish to make assumptions before you have all the facts,” he said. “When I want to, I can be quite…savory.”
The tone for her date with the deacon was set when Geneva failed to hear the doorbell from her apartment and Wade met Ellis at the door holding a horsewhip and wearing a devious smile. She had hoped he would be out on his own date tonight, but it looked as though he would be sticking around for the evening.
On first glance at the jeans Wade wore and the too-tight T-shirt that pulled across his chest, he looked like an eternal teenager. A well-built one. Ellis, on the other hand, was dressed for the occasion in tan slacks, a pale blue oxford shirt and a navy tie.
Jacob hid shyly behind her, pressing his face against her skirt. Except, perhaps, for the