The Cowboy Lassos a Bride(17)

The thought made her feel powerful after feeling so controlled by Holt  and Jake, and she sang along to her tunes as she cooked. While the  brownies baked, she whipped back upstairs and unpacked her things in the  spare room. She estimated she had fifteen minutes of cleaning time left  when she was done. After that she'd need to put all her attention on  preparing the evening meal for her guests.

Guest.

She only cared about Lisa. Holt could go to hell.

Approaching Jake's room with trepidation, she wondered how Holt would  even know if she'd cleaned it. She decided she'd straighten up the big  things first, and get to the bathroom if there was time. Holt might  stick his nose into the room, but she doubted he'd inspect his son's  private bathroom.                       
       
           



       

Of course, this was Holt she was talking about.

Hannah sighed and decided to tackle this last room as if she was running  sprints. She made the bed, threw dirty clothes into the laundry basket,  picked up papers and miscellaneous items from the floor, lining them up  on his desk and dresser in ways she hoped made sense. She ran the  vacuum around as quickly as she could and shut the closet door, before  racing into the bathroom and scrubbing and tidying as fast as she could  in the few minutes she had left.

Good enough, she decided when the buzzer went off downstairs. Racing  back down again, she saved the brownies from overcooking, scuttled  around to put all the cleaning supplies away, and popped the biscuits in  the oven. She set the brand new tablecloth she'd purchased over Jake's  dining room table and carefully set four places. She placed a bottle of  wine on the counter top, removed the cover over the roasting chicken to  brown the top, and spooned out the broth to start the gravy. A look  around told her everything was in place.

A look down at herself told her she looked like hell.

Hannah panicked, then rolled her eyes at herself for caring as she raced  for her room and tore off her clothes, reaching for the first thing  that came to hand in her closet-a clingy dress of cobalt blue that made  her eyes pop and her hair glow. It was far too dressy for the occasion,  but there wasn't time to try again. She shimmied into it, did up the  zipper, yanked her pony-tail holder out of her hair and fluffed it up,  checking her reflection in the mirror.

She was flushed with the heat of the kitchen and all her exertions and  her hair was wild, but the effect wasn't awful. In fact …  she pursed her  lips. She didn't look half bad. Maybe a day out of the clinic now and  then wasn't the worst thing in the world, although she'd prefer to do  something a little more exciting than clean house.

What would Jake think when he saw her?

She didn't care what he thought, she reminded herself. Jake was out of  bounds from here on in. She was in control. She would determine her own  future.

A knock sounded at the door and she hurried to the stairs, realizing it  must be Holt and Lisa. Where was Jake? He should have been home by now,  especially since it was his father who had forced this little dinner on  her.

When she reached the door, however, Ned pushed through it. "Jake said  dinner's here tonight. Smells good. Got any beer?" He walked straight to  the kitchen, pulled open the refrigerator door and grabbed one of the  bottles she'd bought just in case Holt disliked wine.

"Um …  help yourself." Hannah's mind raced. Jake had invited Ned to dinner, too? Why hadn't he told her?

Maybe Holt never told Jake he and Lisa were coming to dinner, after all.  Which meant Jake's cryptic text referred to Ned …  and someone else. Who  could that be?

"I told Luke I was eating here. He said he'd come, too."

Hannah bit her lip. She'd better set three more places then-for Ned,  Luke and the mystery guest. She hoped she'd made enough food for seven.  Should she throw some more potatoes in? Setting out three more plates,  she jumped when the door banged open again and Jake rushed in.

"Sorry, I'm late," he said as he rushed past. "I got held up with  chores. You got my message about Ned and Mia, didn't you? I'll throw a  couple of pizzas in the oven in a minute."

"Mia?" She set the last plate down on the table with a thump. Why would Jake invite Mia?

"Yeah. I told you there'd be two more for dinner. Hey, Ned. Got yourself something to drink?"

"Yep." Ned raised his beer to Jake and flopped down on the couch.

Hannah followed Jake into the kitchen. "But your parents are coming, and  so is Luke," she said. "And I only cooked for four people." Her voice  rose as she calculated how little she had to serve. If she had a  microwave she could cook some more potatoes fast, but Jake had no  microwave.

"Maybe you better cook that pizza," Ned called out, chuckling at their discomfort.

"No," Hannah said. "Your dad said your mother wanted a formal dinner."

"Wait, what?" Jake stopped midway across the room and looked around him.  He took in the tablecloth and candles on the table, seemed to realize  how clean everything was. "Wow! It looks fantastic." He sniffed the air.  "Smells great, too." A smile broke across his face as he closed the gap  between them, pulled her close and gave her a kiss. "You're amazing.  When I left the message I didn't think you'd do anything like this. I  thought we'd toss something frozen in the oven and have a few beers."                       
       
           



       

"I …  it wasn't … "

Jake pulled away and checked the oven. He laughed, a low, masculine  sound that stirred Hannah's senses even in the midst of chaos. "You're  right; that bird's a little light for this clan. We Mathesons like our  grub." He straightened up. "We'll need more chairs, too. Ned-go get the  ones from your place." He opened the freezer and pulled out a couple of  pizzas. "Tell you what-Ned's right; we'll pop these in the oven now and  when they're ready we'll cut them up in little squares and call them  appetizers. What do you think?"

Despite her annoyance, she was impressed with his creativity and take  charge attitude. She doubted she would have thought of that. "It might  work."

"I'm on it." Jake whistled as he opened the boxes and placed the pizzas  on cookie sheets, then disappeared upstairs to change. Hannah worked on  her gravy and got her biscuits out of the oven, replacing them with the  trays of pizza. She placed the salad on the table and brought out the  salad dressings as well, and by the time Holt and Lisa arrived, she felt  like she had the meal under control again.

"You cleaned my bedroom," Jake whispered in her ear when they met again  in the kitchen ten minutes later. He'd poured his mother a glass of wine  and handed Holt a beer. All three of their guests were seated in the  living room. Jake's breath tickled her neck.

"It's no big deal," she said shortly.

"It is to me. No one's ever done something like that before. Except Mom."

That's because you're a grown man, she wanted to say, but she didn't  want to start a fight right now. Not with an audience. She pulled away  and went to stir the gravy.

Jake followed her. "I think it's the sexiest thing any woman's ever done  for me." He slid an arm around her waist and hugged her from behind.

Hannah's body welcomed his touch, but her mind rebelled against his  words. "That's got to be the most sexist thing any man's ever said to  me," she retorted, and slipped away from him again.

"Hey." He put a hand on her arm to stop her. "Are you mad? I'm just  trying to say thank you. It would be sexist if I expected it. It's sexy  because I didn't. Not from you."

She squinted at him. "I don't know whether that makes it better or worse."

Jake sighed. "All I'm trying to say is that I appreciate what you did.  All of this." He waved a hand to encompass the meal and the table  setting. "My work is never done. It's hard to go, go, go all day, then  come home and do some more, you know?"

She did know. She knew exactly what he meant, because she went to work  at the clinic, skipped her lunch half the time because of the overload  of patients, and then had to come home and deal with her own mess.  Didn't he know that? She opened her mouth to spell it out for him,  caught sight of Mia through the glass panel of the front door and sighed  instead.

"Thank you, for everything," Jake said and dropped a kiss on her  forehead. Hannah forced a smile to her mouth and went to open the door.

Jake couldn't believe how much effort Hannah had put into dinner, when  all he'd intended was to heat up a couple of pizzas and chat over the  meal with Ned and Mia. He wasn't exactly sure what made her extend the  invitation to his parents or why Ned decided to bring Luke, but none of  that mattered. In fact, it made his plan easier to execute. Ned didn't  know that Mia planned to move into his place, and as hard as he'd  thought about it Jake hadn't come up with a way to force his hand. Now  it would be easy. How could Ned refuse her in front of this crowd?