Maddie crept closer. Admiring the way the dark crescents of Jake’s lashes rested on his bronzed cheeks, she marveled that such a strong, confident man could look so sweetly vulnerable in sleep. Her fingers itched to smooth back the dark hair that swooped across his forehead. She wished she had the right to brush her thumb over the faint lines bracketing his mouth, perhaps provoking him to smile in his sleep.
Tripod raised his head and regarded her with impersonal curiosity, reminding her that she didn’t belong here.
Jake hadn’t wanted her to come. He couldn’t have made that plainer. He didn’t want to talk about Noah and he wasn’t remotely interested in getting to know Maddie again.
With a heavy heart she returned to the kitchen and removed the second place setting from the table. She finished tidying up and then took a notepad out of her purse and wrote a message for Jake, telling him there was a tossed salad in the refrigerator, ziti with sausage and a loaf of garlic bread keeping warm in the oven, and some black-cherry ice cream in the freezer.
She put the note beside his plate and laid the change from his grocery money next to it. Then she slipped quietly down the stairs, leaving Jake alone, just as he’d wanted.
Chapter Three
So much for last night’s resolution to leave him alone, Maddie thought wryly as she made a loose fist and rapped on the half-open door of Jake’s office.
He lifted his gaze from the screen of his laptop computer. “Madeline. Come in.” His chair squeaked as he pushed it back and stood.
She advanced a step into the office, furnished in the same elegantly threadbare style as the reception area, then glanced nervously over her shoulder. “Your secretary told me to—”
“It’s fine. Come in.” Jake nodded to indicate the large envelope she held like a shield in front of her. “What can I do for you?”
The envelope was a flimsy excuse for being here, Maddie realized belatedly. She should have left it with his secretary. Now there was nothing to do but plunge ahead. “I’ve been helping Anna review some medical files for Children of the Day. As I was leaving, she asked me to deliver this.”
“Thanks.” Jake accepted the envelope and dropped it unceremoniously on his desk, which held so many papers, folders, and books that Maddie couldn’t see an inch of bare wood anywhere. She found something oddly endearing about the fact that after all his years in the military, where order and efficiency had been relentlessly drilled into him, Jake could work at such a messy desk.
“I planned to call you today,” he said. “Can you spare a minute?” He gestured toward a leather wing chair and waited for Maddie to sit down before resuming his own seat.
He cleared his throat. “I would have called this morning, but I had to be in court early. I—” He broke off to scowl at Tripod, who had hopped onto the arm of Maddie’s chair and was looking at her expectantly. “Sorry. He thinks he owns that chair. Just give him a shove.”
“There’s room for both of us.” Maddie drew the cat onto her lap and felt oddly pleased when he settled against her.
Jake leaned forward and folded his arms on a stack of papers. “About last night, I—”
“Jake, Judge Newcastle has moved up the hearing for—” The stunning, dark-haired, blue-eyed man who had just barged into the office stopped speaking as Jake glanced pointedly in Maddie’s direction.
“Oh. Sorry.” The man flashed Maddie a bright smile accompanied by a killer set of dimples. “I thought he was alone.”
Jake leaned back in his chair. “Madeline Bright, allow me to introduce the second-best lawyer on Veterans Boulevard. My partner, Travis Wylie.”
“No, don’t get up,” Travis said when Maddie tried to shift Tripod so she could rise from the chair and shake hands. “Jake’s ugly cat looks comfortable.”
Maddie wanted to protest that Tripod wasn’t ugly, but that was an indefensible position. “He’s a very nice cat,” she temporized, cuddling him closer.
Travis smiled again, and Maddie marveled. With that chiseled jaw and those vibrant blue eyes, the man was even better-looking than Jake. But in his western shirt, Wranglers, and boots, he looked more like a cowboy than a lawyer.
“Madeline’s an army nurse,” Jake said. “Hails from Dallas.”
Travis’s eyes widened suddenly. He looked at Jake, raised his eyebrows as though in a question and mouthed a word that looked like “allergy.”
Jake glowered at him.
Travis barked out a laugh, then turned a look of frank admiration on Maddie.
“She’s come to Fort Bonnell for additional medical training,” Jake said calmly, as though the conversation hadn’t just taken that weird little detour. “She wants to switch from emergency nursing to maternity.”
Travis perched on the arm of a chair. “How do you like Prairie Springs?” he asked, swinging one long, denim-clad leg.
Maddie’s smile came easily. “It’s a wonderful town. And I’ve found a great bunch of Christians here. Do you know Prairie Springs Christian Church? The big stone building next to the town green?”
Travis shot a glance at Jake. “Gloria, our office manager, goes there.”
“Are you talking about Gloria Ridge?” Maddie asked eagerly. “She’s one of my new friends. I love her sense of humor.”
“Oh, she’s a character,” Travis agreed.
“Travis.” Lexi McNally, the pencil-thin, Hollywood-blond secretary stood in the doorway. “Sorry to interrupt, but the court reporter just arrived and they’re ready to start the Henley deposition.”
“On my way.” Travis hopped off the chair and turned another devastating smile on Maddie. “It’s been a pleasure.”
She murmured something equally polite and watched him go.
“Madeline.” Jake unbuttoned the collar of his white dress shirt and tugged on his tie until it hung limply from a mangled knot. “About last night, I’m sorry I—”
“Please don’t,” she said quickly. She couldn’t let him apologize for last night’s date-that-wasn’t-a-date. Not when she had forced her company on him. “I wasn’t offended, Jake. Your leg was hurting and I’m sure you needed the rest.”
His eyes softened. “I enjoyed the meal. But it wasn’t right that you didn’t get to eat any of it.”
“Oh, I ate. I can’t cook without tasting, so by the time I sit down at the table, I’m usually not hungry anymore.” She grinned. “Although I did have my heart set on that black-cherry ice cream. It’s my favorite.” She thought she’d struck just the right note with that response; she had also left an opening for Jake to invite her to share the rest of the ice cream.
He just smiled. “It was good. Thanks for all you did.”
Maddie concealed her disappointment by giving Tripod another cuddle. When she looked up, Jake was pulling documents out of Anna’s envelope, his long hands moving gracefully as he sifted the papers. When he paused to read something, Maddie studied his furrowed brow and pursed lips and felt a little thrill at the realization that she was actually watching him work. She was incredibly proud of all he had accomplished. In her eyes he was even more heroic now than he’d been as a daring young helicopter pilot.
“Anna tells me you were a huge help in getting Ali to Texas,” she said.
“That was simple enough,” he said without looking up. “We just petitioned for a managing conservatorship and requested an emergency ex parte order. The judge granted it the same day.”
Maddie stroked Tripod’s back