Chapter Four
Julie let the emerald green fabric glide down her body, then checked herself in the mirror. The Surplus neckline. Cross-back. Accordion pleating. Grosgrain ribbon trim at waist and on shoulderSurplus neckline. Cross-back. Accordion pleating. Grosgrain ribbon trim at waist and on shoulder deep V neckline was hot. The crisscross back made her feel sexy without being too overt. Heck, she wanted to get the message across that she could look good. That she owned something other than her waitress uniform. The plain black skirt she’d worn to Thanksgiving dinner didn’t exactly scream hottie either. More like schoolteacher of the year. Yippie. Still, she didn’t want to appear as if she were trying to impress Sam, even if that was exactly what she was doing.
As she pulled up the side zipper, she inspected the skirt of the dress once more. Normally she didn’t go for pleats; they made her feel poufy, and she already had a little too much around the hips as it was. She didn’t need to bring more attention to that particular area than necessary. But when she’d seen the dress on the rack, it’d been the accordion-style pleating that had tugged at her. The satin ribbon trim around the waist added just the right touch. Opting to go with black hose and heels seemed to pull the whole look together nicely.
Julie grabbed the metal comb off the counter and did a little upsweep with her hair before starting on her makeup. She never wore much, just a little lipstick and mascara. Tonight was a special night, or so she hoped it would be, so she applied a light dusting of blush and some smoky gray eye shadow to bring out the green in her eyes. Satisfied with the results, Julie left the bathroom, but as she stepped into her bedroom, she stopped abruptly and looked around the spacious room. As always, she half expected to see the old puke green carpeting that had once covered her grandmother’s floors. She’d hated that carpet, but now she missed it terribly. The house and her grandmom were gone, though. Julie’s stomach clenched; she wished she could see the smile. The one her grandmom gave her just before hugging the stuffing out of her.
“I’ll always live in your heart, Julie dear.”
It’d been something her grandmother had said several times during her final days. Remembering the words gave her comfort. As she looked at the small window on the far wall, she smiled. The curtains were one of the few things from the old house that she’d kept. Not because they were gorgeous. Definitely not. The huge yellow and pink flowers all over them had always seemed a bit psychotic to Julie. She’d kept them because her grandmom had made them by hand. The sunny yellow could nearly blind a person if they stared too long, but they still made Julie smile every time she saw them.
The rest of her bedroom had been paid for with the money she’d received from the sale of her grandmother’s house. There weren’t fond memories attached to the furniture, but she aimed to change that. Sooner rather than later. The bed had been an indulgence, and an expensive one at that. The king-size cherrywood four-poster could comfortably sleep three adults—or one large man. A man like Sam Jennings, maybe? Julie would bet a week’s worth of tips that Sam liked lots of room when he slept. Did he like plenty of space when he made love to a woman? Did he like to take his time or was he the rush-to-the-finish type? With any luck at all, she’d find out. Damn, it was way too easy to picture the delicious man lying against the white down-filled comforter, naked, of course.
Then again, what did she know about sex? Very damn little, that’s what. Her introduction had been a quickie in the back of Clint Radley’s Buick. She’d been a junior in high school at the time. It’d been over with before she could let out a single ahhh. After that, all her time had been spent taking care of her grandmother. Crap, maybe saying yes to dinner wasn’t such a great idea.
Julie plopped down on the edge of the bed and contemplated canceling. Then the doorbell rang. Sam. Her stomach suddenly filled with butterflies. As she stood, her legs shook a little. “Get ahold of yourself. You’re a grown woman, you can do this,” she muttered.
Julie took a deep breath, then let it out and left the bedroom, turning off the light as she went. As she walked down the hall, her heart seemed to beat faster with each step closer to the front door. She reached the living room, and the doorbell chimed again. She had the insane urge to run in the opposite direction, but the part of her that wanted to move on with her life, the part that didn’t act like a scared cat in a room full of Dobermans, kept her feet moving toward the door. Maybe if she’d had more than a handful of dates, let a guy show her the ropes, so to speak, she wouldn’t be so nervous now. Although Julie had a feeling a big part of her anxiety had to do with whom she was going out with. Sam Jennings simply made her insides turn all mushy and warm.
When she reached the door, she double-checked her appearance in the mirror that hung next to it. Not a hair out of place. If not for the petrified stare, she wouldn’t look half bad. Julie groaned, straightened her spine, and pasted a smile on her face. When she opened the door, she about swallowed her tongue.
He was wearing black trousers, a three-quarter-length black wool coat, and a black V-neck T-shirt peeked out from beneath the open collar. It appeared he’d even attempted to tame his dark, messy hair. Hot, yeah, that word fit Sam nicely. Hot as hell fit even better.
“Hi,” she said, realizing too late she’d been standing with her mouth open.
He smiled and looked at her from head to toe. “You look fantastic.”
Julie stepped back to let him enter. “Thanks. Let me grab my coat and we can go.”
He nodded and stepped over the threshold, shutting the door behind him. Julie now had Sam Jennings in her condo. All to herself. If only she were bold enough to do something about it. She sighed and headed to the couch where she’d left the new black knee-length coat she’d purchased to go with the dress. It draped open in the front and looked classy, but the wool material and long sleeves would still keep her from freezing her tush off, she hoped.
“I hope you like steak. I made reservations at Kane’s.”
Deciding to tweak him a bit, Julie let her eyes grow big as quarters. “Uh, I’m a vegetarian.”
His gaze narrowed. “You came to our Thanksgiving dinner.”
“But did you see me actually eat any meat?”
He rubbed his chin. “Well, now that you mention it—”
“I’m teasing you.” She laughed. “I love a good steak.”
He shook his head, and a small smile kicked up one corner of his mouth. The left corner, to be exact. Well, heck, wasn’t that just adorable in an ornery sort of way?
“Had me worried there for a minute. Not that I have a problem with vegetarians, but I had to do some serious sweet talking to get those reservations.”
She pulled her coat on and grabbed her purse. As they headed out the door, his words registered. “You know, now that you mention it, Kane’s is a bit upscale. How’d you get reservations on such short notice?”
He placed his hand at the small of her back, and Julie’s heart skipped a beat. “I know the owner’s daughter. We belong to the same church.”
The church thing wasn’t a surprise. Wanda was always trying to get Julie to go to church with her. So far Julie had managed to hold the woman off with one excuse or another. The truth of it was, she couldn’t get the sight of her grandmom lying in a casket out of her head. That’d been the last time Julie had been inside a church.
After she locked the door, Sam escorted her to his waiting SUV. Once they were both inside, Julie turned to him and asked, “So, what sort of sweet talking did you do with the owner’s daughter?”
His wink before turning away and starting the engine sent a surge of lust through her apparently sex-starved system. “In exchange for a table for two, I’ve agreed to take a look at her car for her. She’s having some trouble with it stalling out.”
An image of Sam wearing a pair of well-worn jeans and covered in grease came to mind. Suddenly her coat felt a little too warm. “You know your way around an engine?”
He turned on the heater and checked his rearview mirror before pulling out of the parking space. “Dad taught all of us how to work on cars. He used to say there was no sense in paying someone to do a job that you could do yourself. It’s how Vance learned construction and how I learned carpentry work. Dad was all hands-on.”
So, the indomitable Sam Jennings was good with his hands. No surprise there. Geez, he just gets more perfect with each passing minute. At this rate, Julie estimated that she’d be salivating over him by the time dessert arrived. “Is that what you do for a living? Carpentry?”
“I do a little bit of everything. Remodeling and roofing for the most part. Some building but not a lot. That’s Vance’s gig.”
“And you live in the area?”
He nodded. “About twenty minutes to the south, near Amanda.”
“I’m surprised I never ran into you at the restaurant, then.”
A muscle in his jaw twitched. “That’s because I’ve been too wrapped up in my own life. I should’ve been checking on things.”
“I don’t know, your mom seems pretty independent. I’m not sure she would’ve welcomed a lot of interference, even coming from her own son.”
“And yet she’s confided in you,” he stated in a quiet voice as he took his gaze off the road for a second. “Let you help her.”
“Ah, I’m sneaky, though.” She bobbed her eyebrows. “I have ways of getting around her.”
“I’ll bet you do.” His somber expression lightened a bit, and he went back to watching the road.
“So, how’s your mom doing?” She’d seen Wanda the night before. After Julie’s shift at the diner had ended, she’d headed up to the hospital. She’d been feeling better, but it’d been a chaotic visit with all the brothers there, so Julie hadn’t caught any details about Wanda’s condition beyond the obvious fact she’d been feeling better.
Sam let out a deep breath, and she noticed his hands clenching the steering wheel in a tight grip. “The doctor ran about a million different tests. Don’t ask me the names of them—that shit confuses me to no end—but they’ve determined that the blockage can be taken care of with a better diet and medication. No surgery. She should be released in the next couple of days.”
“That’s great news! She’ll be glad to get home, I bet. Hospitals have a way of making you feel worse than you are.”
He snorted. “You’re being kind. She’s driving everyone crazy up there, and we both know it.”
Julie attempted to stifle a laugh when she remembered Wanda all but lecturing one of the nurses the previous night about the merits of healthy food that didn’t taste like dust. “The nurse on duty last night did seem a bit harried. River looked ready to bang some heads together.”
“That’s because Mom keeps insisting she be released. We told her not to worry, that we’re all taking turns handling the diner, but the woman never was good at sitting around doing nothing. Even on our family vacations, Mom was always cleaning or cooking something.” He paused, then in a quieter tone, he said, “And River has a hard time seeing Mom upset or in any kind of distress. Always has.”
“I don’t mean to pry, but Wanda told me once that she and your dad adopted the five of you when you were very young. That must have been tough.”
He turned a corner, and Julie looked out the windshield. She could see the restaurant up the road on the right. Food was forgotten at the moment, though. All she really cared about was hearing more about the man who was quickly becoming an obsession to her.
“Yeah. We’d been split up, put into different foster homes until she and Dad came into the picture.”
“But I thought social services usually kept siblings together? And what about your biological parents? Where were they?”
“I never knew who my real father was, and I only have a few memories of my real mom. She was a druggy.” He paused, then added, “And normally, yes, they do try and keep siblings together, but there were five of us, and we weren’t the easiest bunch of boys to take care of either.”
Julie’s stomach ached for Sam, as well as his brothers. “Then Wanda came along…” she said in the hopes he’d fill in the blanks.
Sam nodded. “She seemed too good to be true at first. Took all of us a long time to realize she was the real deal.”
Julie frowned, uncertain what he meant. “The real deal? As opposed to what?”
“The do-gooders.” Sam shook his head. “The ones who set out to do something charitable, something that will make them feel good, but then when reality sets in and they realize that we’re people, that there’s some actual work involved in raising a kid, they cut and run.”
“That’s awful.” Julie wanted to reach out to Sam, to comfort him somehow, but they weren’t a couple, and she didn’t have that right.
“Some people can be damned awful, Julie. Especially to a defenseless kid.”
She tried to picture Sam as a scrawny boy, but it didn’t quite mesh with the man sitting across the seat from her. He was simply so big and unyielding, able to leap tall buildings and all that jazz. “I have a hard time seeing you as vulnerable.”
“Not me. River. He was a skinny bag of bones. He and Reilly were yanked apart and placed with different foster families for a time. It was hard on them, being twins and all.” He shook his head. “Let’s just say that River didn’t end up with June Cleaver as a foster parent.”
Julie thought of River and the fun teasing he’d done at Thanksgiving. His smiling eyes had revealed a hint of mischief. Pain shot through her chest when she realized what River must have gone through. All of them, for that matter.
“Anyone who could hurt a child is scum in my book.”
“Couldn’t agree more. Anyway, it all worked out. We ended up with two loving parents.”
“And River’s no longer a scrawny little boy unable to defend himself.”
“No, he’s not.” He pulled into a parking lot, then found a space close to the front and parked. “And we’re here.”
Julie forced down the urge to learn more about Sam. She had a feeling he was merely brushing the surface about his days in foster care, and she vowed that before long, she’d learn all there was to know about him. Until then she simply wanted to enjoy an evening out with a man who made her go all gooey inside.
“Good, because I’m starving,” she said with a smile. “Let’s eat.”
Sam grinned and opened his door. “I love a woman with an appetite.”
Julie snorted as she opened her own door. “And I have the thighs and rear to prove it.”
“Julie,” Sam said, his voice deeper than before, effectively halting her progress out of the vehicle. When Julie turned, Sam pinned her with a look hot enough to scorch. “There isn’t a damn thing wrong with your curves, sweetheart.”
It was several seconds before Julie could breathe again.