She clapped her hands over her ears. “Stop. I don’t want to listen to that.”
Jack reached out and pulled her hands away. “At one time they were our age,” he said. “I’m sure there were times when they felt that kind of gut-deep attraction for someone. You know, when you feel like you can’t breathe and your head gets all fuzzy?” He was very familiar with that feeling, since it had happened to him the moment he’d first seen Mia.
She forced a smile. “Yeah, I know.” Mia reached for her beer and took a long sip. “So do you really think that all stops at fifty?”
He shook his head. “No. But then, I’m a guy. I can’t believe it’s ever going to stop. I’d like to think I’ll be interested in sex until I’m at least eighty or ninety years old. What about you?”
“I can’t imagine my father having thoughts like that,” Mia murmured.
“I wouldn’t worry about it. My mother is very comfortable in Chicago and your father is comfortable here. When you get to be that age, you just don’t turn your life upside down and move away from the only home you’ve known for the past thirty years.”
She finished her taco and nodded. “We shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves. But we should be prepared to discourage a romance.” Mia sighed softly. “It would just be so awkward. The holidays would be the worst. Having a stranger there, in place of my mother. It wouldn’t feel right.”
“Who says she’d want to spend the holidays here? She’s always spent Christmas in Chicago with our family.”
“See, that’s what this leads to. It would be a nightmare. I’m glad we agree that there should be no romance. If it looks like it’s getting too hot and heavy, we’re going to have to step in.”
“Now I’m starting to feel like the parent,” Jack said.
“It’s what happens. My father only dated one woman in his entire life. He’s not ready for romance.”
They finished their tacos and beers, then carried their tray back to the window. Jack walked to the driver’s side of the car and reached for the door, but Mia suddenly turned around to face him. “But what if there is an attraction?” she murmured, her gaze fixed on his. “And what if they act on it?”
He stared down at her. They were standing so close he could smell the scent of her perfume, could feel the heat from her body. Jack clenched his hands into fists to keep himself from reaching out and touching her. The breeze toyed with a strand of her hair and he imagined how it might feel between his fingers.
“I suppose we’ll deal with that when it happens,” he said softly.
Jack leaned in slightly, testing, searching for an equal and opposite reaction. Her lips parted slightly and the need to taste her was almost overwhelming. His gaze drifted down to her mouth. But somewhere, in the back of his mind, a tiny voice told him to stop.
Indulging in his own attraction would be a huge risk. Though Mia was beautiful, she could also distract him from his purpose, which was getting his mother back to Chicago, safely and with her heart intact. And yet, even though his instincts told him to back off, Jack couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like to just let go.
He sucked in a sharp breath, then reached around her and opened the car door. “We should probably get going,” he murmured.
“Right,” she said, avoiding his gaze.
He smiled to himself as he circled the car. This was the last place on earth he would have ever expected to find a woman who tied him up in knots. Had he known he’d meet someone like Mia, he might have decided to stay at home. Though it would be difficult, he was going to have to keep their relationship strictly platonic.
Unless, of course, she convinced him otherwise.
2
“WHAT IS SHE LIKE? Is she pretty? Is she putting on the full court press or is she playing it coy?”
Mia sighed, leaning back against the edge of the kitchen counter as she spoke on her cell phone with her sister Danielle. “She seems really nice. And she is pretty in a very natural way. She has beautiful skin.”
“Probably had plastic surgery,” Dani said.
“I don’t think so. I think she’s just naturally beautiful. Like Mom.” Mia swallowed hard. “To be honest, I think Mom probably would have liked her.” She peeked out the back door to watch her father and Jack’s mother. They were enjoying cocktails on the rear terrace, caught up in another private conversation between the two of them.
Dani gasped. “What are you saying? Are you saying you like her?”
“No! I barely know her,” Mia protested. “I’m just saying that she isn’t some evil stepmonster, out to steal all our father’s money and make our holidays a living hell. I don’t even think she’s interested in romance.”
“Every single woman is interested in romance. Especially with a rich and somewhat sexy guy.”
“Seriously, I’m watching them right now,” Mia said. “All they do is talk.”
“What else have you found out?”
“Not much. I’ve been a little preoccupied with other matters.”
“What could be more important than this?” Dani cried.
Mia pulled the phone away from her ear and waited for her sister to calm down. Finally, after a few minutes, it seemed safe to proceed. “She brought her son with her. And he’s…he’s…” Maybe it would be best to just say it out loud. “He’s incredibly hot.”
“What?”
“Nothing,” Mia said. “I—I have to go now.”
“He’s hot? Who’s hot? Mia, what is going on?”
“I’ve got to run,” Mia said. “Call you later.” She quickly turned off the phone, then silenced the ringer, as well. No doubt Dani would call Steph, and then Steph would be on the line in a few minutes demanding answers of her own.
She walked through the kitchen and out into the late-afternoon sun shining on the wide terrace. Only her father and Elyse weren’t sitting at the table anymore. “Daddy?”
She walked back inside and called out again. But the house was silent.
They couldn’t have gone far. Her father was still hobbling around on crutches. She decided to pay a visit to the guesthouse and grabbed a pitcher of iced tea from the refrigerator to offer as an excuse.
She found Jack sitting on the small patio at the front of the house, his computer open on the teak table in front of him. When he heard her footsteps on the gravel path, he turned and smiled. “Hey, there.”
“Hi,” Mia said. “I brought you and your mom some iced tea.”
“She’s not here. I thought she was still with your dad.”
Mia set the pitcher down on the table. “No. They’re not in the house.”
Jack slowly stood. “Where do you think they’ve gone?”
“Well, they can’t be far. My dad can’t drive.”
“My mother can,” he countered.
“I wonder if the car is still here.”
They both hurried back down the path and then circled the house to the wide driveway. The black Mercedes was nowhere in sight.
“Great,” he muttered. “I thought you were going to keep an eye on them.”
“They’re