The Paternity Proposition(13)

"Hey, I read about that test!" Julie leaned in closer to squint at the display. "Didn't the ARS verify that some of the tested nozzles can reduce drift by seventy to eighty percent?"

"They did." Lisa beamed her approval. "And we think we can adapt one of those nozzles to the system you're currently using with only minor modifications."

"No kidding?"

"No kidding! Here, take a look at our initial drawings."

She dragged up another desk chair. When Julie dropped into it eagerly, Alex and Hector Alvarez exchanged wry glances. The project's second engineer merely grinned.





Julie was bubbling with enthusiasm when she and Alex exited the facility three hours later.

"That was amazing!" She raked her fingers through hair pancaked by heat and the hard hat. "And this is just one of your production facilities."

"It's the largest, although our operation in Mexico runs a close second."

Yet he'd known the names, family situations and skill sets of a good portion of the several hundred employees working here. Julie was impressed. More than impressed. Alex Dalton was as technologically savvy as he was gorgeous. A fatal combination, she admitted as she settled gingerly on the hot leather of the Jag's passenger seat. She wouldn't be the first woman to succumb to his mix of sex and smarts. She'd seen the evidence of that in all those photos of elegantly gowned females gazing adoringly up at him.

Suppressing a grimace, she glanced down at her trusty black slacks and now wrinkled blouse. Elegant she wasn't. But for the rest of this week, at least, she had Alex's full attention. Along with Molly. And his mother.

She hid another grimace. Delilah had insisted they come for dinner tomorrow night. A family cookout, she'd promised. Very informal. Julie looked forward to it with as much enthusiasm as a spinal tap.

At least she had a whole twenty-four hours to psych herself up for the next clash with the redoubtable DD. And she had this evening. With just Alex. The thrill that raced through her at the thought should have warned her. Should have set off those internal alarms again. It didn't, however, and later she could only blame what happened on the high she was riding from her visit to DI's production facility … and the call Alex took on the way home.                       
       
           



       

His cell phone pinged just as they passed the I-40 exit for Garth Brook's hometown of Yukon. He palmed the phone, glanced at the caller ID and sent her an apologetic smile.

"Sorry. I need to take this."

It was probably one of his plant managers with some critical production issue, she guessed, or DI's contracts division in the final, crisis throes of a multi-million dollar bid. Judging by Alex's end of the conversation, however, the call concerned a new construction project.

"No, we want to keep it to a single level." He listened a moment, frowning, then shook his head. "Sorry, Dave, I'm having a hard time visualizing it. Hang on."

He aimed another smile Julie's way. "Do you mind if we take a short detour? My architect's on site and wants to show me a possible modification to the building plans."

"No problem."

He went back on the phone with a promise to be there in twenty. When he'd disconnected, curiosity got the better of her.

"What are you building?"

"A house. Or more hopefully, a home. I don't want to raise Molly in a downtown high-rise. Providing, of course, she's actually my daughter. If not, Blake will take it from here."

Julie blinked, wondering why the heck his future plans came as such a surprise. Maybe because she'd been so focused on the here and now. So caught up in the question of Molly's birth that she never thought beyond it. She'd just sort of assumed Delilah would continue her role as Molly's guardian and/or nurturer. The realization that Alex fully intended to take over child-rearing responsibilities shifted her mental composite of this busy executive. She was still trying to adjust to the altered Alex when they pulled up to a gated community on the north side of town. The brass sign beside the gate welcomed them to Cottonwood Creek.

Alex clicked the gates open and drove into an obviously well-planned development. The homes were mostly native stone and brick … and nowhere near as huge as Delilah's Nichols Hills mansion. Scattered skateboards and basketball goals suggested this was a family-oriented enclave, with wide sidewalks for kids to skate or bike on safely. That impression was confirmed when they passed a clubhouse with tennis courts, a full basketball court and a sparkling swimming pool filled with laughing, splashing kids.

Julie had loved growing up on a farm. Her parents had worked hard. Had worked her hard from the time she was old enough to pull part of the load. She'd never minded being an only child because she kept so busy and had so many friends at school. But this …  Her gaze roamed the houses set on either side of wide, tree-shaded streets. This would be an ideal place to raise children. It was protected, but not isolated. Close to schools, churches, malls. Populated by families with young, growing broods.

Julie's glance slid to the man beside her. Damned if he hadn't messed up her mental composite of him yet again. Alex Dalton could have afforded any home in any part of town. Bought an estate to rival his mother's. Built on an exclusive, members-only golf course. Instead, he'd chosen to make a home for his daughter here, where she'd have plenty of friends to play with. If she was his daughter. It wasn't looking likely at this point. Alex had indicated Julie was the last possible on his list. The uncertainty had to be eating at both him and Blake.

She shifted her gaze back to the wide, tree-lined street. She could make a home for a child here, she thought on an unexpected stab of envy. The little jab surprised her as much as the thought. Her biological clock hadn't started to annoy her yet. She'd been too busy, too caught up in her flying. But seeing this …  Thinking of Alex living here with Molly …

"Here we are."

He pulled into a cul-de-sac containing one of the few empty lots left in the development. A pickup was parked at the curb with two men conferring over a set of plans rolled out across the hood. They looked up and greeted Alex with obvious relief.

"Thanks for swinging by."

"Not a problem," he responded. "Julie, meet Bob Dyer, my builder, and Dave Hanscom, the architect who's trying to design and site a one-level house on a lot that drops some fifteen degrees."

"That's the problem in a nutshell," the architect concurred with a wry grin. "We planned to sink steel beams to reinforce the slope we'll have to build up. Now I'm thinking we might want to use that space for a safe room instead of positioning it here, in the center of the house where I'd originally put it."

"Safe" meaning a reinforced concrete storm shelter, Julie knew. Born and bred here in the heart of Tornado Alley, she wouldn't build a house for herself without a safe room or storm cellar.

While the men conferred, she wandered down toward the creek lined with the trees that gave the development its name. Silvery green and pretty with their dark, twisted trunks, cottonwoods could be pesky as hell when they produced their fluffy white seeds that floated through the air like snowballs and clogged air-conditioning filters. They liked water, though, which is why they grew so thick along creek banks. And why so many of the pioneers crossing the Great Plains on the Santa Fe or Oregon Trails had desperately scanned the horizon for these signposts to water and firewood and shade. This particular creek was hardly more than a trickle now, but Alex would have to watch Molly to make sure she didn't tumble in once she started walking.                       
       
           



       

"I thought about that," he acknowledged when she mentioned it to him. "I started to build on a dry lot, but I figure that if Molly's anything like me, she'll find ways to get in trouble no matter where we live."

"You did that a lot, huh?"

"Like you wouldn't believe."

"Blake, too?"

"He was the good twin," Alex replied cheerfully. "Still is, for that matter. Although Saint Blake can surprise even me occasionally. Next time he downs a few drinks and loosens up a little, ask him about Singapore."

The pure devil in his blue eyes made her laugh. "I will."

It wasn't until they were on the way back to his car that reality hit. She wouldn't be around long enough to wait for Blake to loosen up. Singapore would most likely remain an untold tale. That fact took some of the shine from what had otherwise been a terrific afternoon.





It also, Julie realized later, contributed to the idiocy that followed.

She knew as soon as Alex asked where she'd like to go for dinner that she was treading dangerous ground. Her impressions of this man had undergone so many rapid-fire changes she hadn't had time to sort through them. The hunger was still there, though, compounding exponentially with every smile, every casual touch.

She'd wanted him before.

She ached for him now.

"It's been a busy day," she said, taking the coward's way out. "All I'm up for tonight is a long, cool shower and a chance to review the notes Lisa Wu gave me."