Wanted A Real Family(40)

He thought about everything Dana had said as he watched Sara showing Amy precisely where to put the napkin. Exactly what did he want from Sara? What did she want from him?

As she and Amy sat at the table to wait for the burgers, she dished out broccoli salad she already had prepared, and baked beans that she’d doctored with bacon and brown sugar, onion and celery. She’d told him she liked to cook and putter in the kitchen. He liked the idea of a woman who enjoyed doing that.

“Almost ready,” he said over his shoulder.

“I read the new brochure you laid on the table. It really captures everything about the vineyard. Did you write the copy, too?”

“I did,” he said, flipping the burgers onto a plate and bringing them to the table. “Photos of something unique to Raintree weren’t in the brochure—hot springs. We don’t tell the general public about them.”

“But you’re telling me.”

“If you’re up to a four-wheeler ride and a hike, we could go see them. Anytime you want to go, just say the word.”

He knew the hot springs setting. He knew it could be a place for romance. But whether Sara wanted that or not was still in question.

When he settled across the table from her, his knee brushed hers. She didn’t move away, and she did meet his direct eye contact when she said, “I will.”

Jase knew if they ever went to those hot springs, they’d return to Raintree as much more than friends.





Chapter Eight



Around one, Sara took her lunch out back at the PT center and sat at one of the picnic tables. Doing so brought back memories of last night and having burgers on the grill with Jase...Jase playing hopscotch with Amy...Jase in a wet T-shirt.

To distract herself from going there, she pulled out her cell phone. There was a text message from Marissa. She simply said, Call me.

So Sara did. When Marissa answered, she asked, “Did you see it or hear about it?”

“About what?”

“Today, the article about The Mommy Club was in the paper. It’s on the newspaper’s website, too, and there are comments already.”

Sara didn’t have mobile web access on her phone. “Good comments?”

“Mostly good. They’re about other drop-off points for food and clothes, contributors wanting a list of items The Mommy Club really needs and requesting more info about Thrifty Solutions. But most of all, there are comments from readers who want women’s stories.”

“Uh-oh.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

“Jase asked me if I’d let him interview me.”

“Me, too, but I said no. I just can’t, not with wanting to keep Jordan’s father from knowing about him.”

“That would be a terrible way for him to find out.”

“It’s not going to happen,” Marissa said with vehement determination.

“My fire story is already public. Not the insurance investigation. I’m sure the insurance company doesn’t want that public, any more than I do. So if Jase just wrote about the fire and moving into the cottage, and all the help The Mommy Club gave me, we could keep the focus on that. If he can find others who were helped and will talk about it, the point of the article wouldn’t be just on me but the organization.”

When Marissa didn’t respond right away, Sara admitted, “I know there’s a chance everything can come out, but I haven’t done anything wrong. Maybe my story can help someone else.”

“You’re braver than I am.”

“Not brave. Maybe I just have less to lose.”

* * *

Those same words echoed in Sara’s head that night when Jase came over to the cottage. She suspected he might. After she’d put Amy to bed, she’d stayed dressed herself. To give her courage? Backbone? Resistance where he was concerned?

She was beginning to realize that Jase Cramer was a temptation like no other she’d ever had. She’d never skipped from relationship to relationship. In fact, Conrad had been her first real serious involvement. With Conrad, passion hadn’t been a driving force. She’d wanted to love and have him love her back. Conrad had been older and more experienced. Since she’d lost her parents, she’d felt adrift and Conrad had anchored her. But had her values and Conrad’s ever meshed? Maybe she’d married him for all the wrong reasons.

Insight that had come too late. She’d never be sorry she’d married Conrad. She’d had Amy. But she did have regrets that she and Conrad had never had the intimate kind of relationship they should have both craved.

Now she was beginning to crave it. She was beginning to crave Jase.

He didn’t talk about the article at first, rather he handed her a manila envelope. “See what you think,” he said with a crooked smile that urged her to forget all about good sense and dive into his arms.