Nobody's Baby but Mine(66)

“She’d start baking as soon as she’d given him his two o’clock feeding, work until four, then go back to sleep for an hour or so until he woke again. After she’d fed him, she’d wake me up for class. Then she’d wrap everything up, load Cal into an old buggy she’d found in a junk shop, pack the cookies around him, and walk to campus where she’d sell them to the students, two cookies for twenty-five cents. She didn’t have a license, so whenever the campus cops came around, she’d cover up everything but Cal’s head with this big blanket.”

She smiled at Cal. “Poor thing. I knew nothing about babies, and I nearly suffocated you in the summer.”

Cal regarded her fondly. “I still don’t like a lot of covers on me.”

“The cops never caught on,” Jim said. “All they saw was a sixteen-year-old mountain girl in a pair of worn-out jeans pushing a dilapidated buggy with a baby everybody figured was her little brother.”

Ethan’s expression grew thoughtful. “We always knew you had it tough, but you’d never tell us any of the details. How come?”

And why now? Jane wondered.

Lynn rose. “It’s an old and boring story. Poverty’s only charming in retrospect. Help me clear the table for dessert, will you, Ethan?”

To Jane’s disappointment, the conversation shifted to the much less interesting topic of football, and if Jim Bonner’s troubled gaze kept straying back to his wife, no one else seemed to notice.

As boorish as his behavior had been that afternoon, Jane was no longer quite so eager to pass judgment. There was something sad lurking in the depths of his eyes that touched her. When it came to Cal’s parents, she had the feeling that nothing was quite what it seemed.

For her, the most interesting moment came when Ethan asked Cal how his meetings were going, and she learned what her husband was doing with his time. Cal had been enlisted by the local high-school principal, an old classmate of his, to visit county businessmen and persuade them to get involved with a new vocational program for high-risk students. He also seemed to be giving Ethan a considerable amount of money to expand a drug program for county teens, but when she pressed for more details, he changed the subject.

The evening dragged on. When Jim asked her a question about her work, she patronized him with her explanation. Lynn issued an invitation to join her book group, but Jane said she had no time for ladies’ social gatherings. When Ethan said he hoped he’d see her at Sunday services, she told him she wasn’t a believer.

I’m sorry, God, but I’m doing the best I can here. These are nice people, and they don’t need any more heartache.

It was finally time to go. Everyone was rigidly courteous, but she didn’t miss Jim’s frown as he said good-bye or the deep concern in Lynn’s eyes as she hugged her son.

Cal waited until he’d pulled out of the driveway before he looked over at her. “Thanks, Jane.”

She stared straight ahead. “I can’t go through that again. Keep them away from me.”

“I will.”

“I mean it.”

“I know that wasn’t easy for you,” he said softly.

“They’re wonderful people. It was horrible.”

He didn’t speak again until they reached the edge of town. “I’ve been thinking. What say the two of us go out on a date sometime soon?”

Was this to be her reward for humiliating herself tonight? The fact that he’d chosen this particular time to extend his invitation made her waspish. “Do I have to wear a paper bag over my head in case somebody might see me?”

“Now why d’you have to go and get all sarcastic on me? I asked you out, and all you have to say is yes or no.”

“When?”

“I don’t know. How about next Wednesday night?”

“Where are we going?”

“Don’t you worry about that. Just wear the tightest pair of jeans you’ve got and maybe one of those slinky halter tops.”

“I can barely button my tight jeans, and I don’t have a slinky halter top. Even if I did, it’s too cold.”

“I imagine I can keep you pretty warm, and don’t worry about buttons.” The deep timbre of sexual promise she heard in his voice made her shiver. He glanced over, and she felt as if he were stroking her with his eyes. He couldn’t have made his intentions any clearer. He wanted her, and he intended to have her.

But the question remained, was she ready for him? Life had always been serious business for her, and nothing could ever make her a casual sort of person. Could she deal with the pain that would await her in the future if she let down her guard with him?