Unexpected Father. Kelly Jamison
must have overslept. She sat up in consternation, searching with her feet for her slippers. Something was going on behind her, but the couch where she’d slept was nght up against the partition that separated it from the kitchen, so all she was getting through the wall were those giggles and muffled talking.
She glanced at her portable alarm clock and saw that it was seven. Apparently, she hadn’t heard Esther leave for work.
Hannah shuffled around the partition, stopping short when she saw that Jordan was there with Kevin. And Jordan was cooking?
Her disbelief must have registered on her face, because Jordan laughed when he saw her and motioned her to come closer. She didn’t miss the fact that his eyes traveled down her length appreciatively before he carefully looked at her face. “We’re working on masterpieces,” he informed her.
“Come here and see!” Kevin called, impatiently waving his arm to get her to come to the stove.
Still bemused by the sight of Jordan in a domestic setting, Hannah went to the stove and peered over Kevin’s head. They were cooking pancakes. Or doing something indefinable with pancakes, she decided. Four of them sat on the griddle, two with strange marks on them, which, on closer inspection, she realized were faces. Kevin was in the process of drawing on the third with a small paintbrush and...chocolate syrup?
Hannah looked at the open can of chocolate syrup on the counter and then back at the pancakes. “What are you doing?” she asked, totally at a loss.
“Making faces,” Kevin informed her as if she were the densest mother in the world. “See?”
“I see. I just don’t believe.” She glanced at Jordan, finding him watching her with an expression she could only describe as interested.
“Do you have any idea what Esther used those brushes for?” she demanded of Jordan.
He shrugged, his eyes full of mischief. “Oh, I’m sure she doesn’t need them. They were just lying under the sink in an old can with—” He broke off and laughed at her horrified expression. “Actually, they were brand new, still in their wrappers,” he told her.
“But...chocolate,” she said, knowing that she should be aghast at something, but just not quite sure what it was.
“You were extolling the virtues of chocolate on your shirt yesterday,” he reminded her. “Don’t you ever do something just because it’s fun?” he demanded suddenly.
“I can’t afford fun,” she told him with absolute honesty.
“Are you financially or emotionally bankrupt?” he asked quietly, turning back to the stove to lift the pancakes onto a plate.
She would have taken offense at his question, but she knew that he was nght. She was very close to being emotionally bankrupt. And he was partially to blame for that.
“Don’t you think you should let me clean this up a little?” she suggested, eyeing the kitchen counter awash in their used cooking utensils and spilled ingredients.
“Don’t you think you should put on a robe?” he countered, his eyes taking in her length again, this time lingering on her breasts.
Belatedly she realized she was standing near a window, her body all too visible through the thin cotton fabric of her nightgown. Flushing, she turned and left the room.
From the other side of the partition, she heard her son say, “Mom’s not a morning person.”
Just great, she thought. As if succumbing to Jordan McClennon’s charms wasn’t enough, now she had a family member making excuses for her behavior.
Hannah gathered up clean clothes from the small suitcase she’d left on the floor and carried them to the bathroom.
She definitely looked like a woman who’d had a near sleepless night because of the man in Esther’s kitchen. Hannah sighed. It wouldn’t do to look this tired when Ronnie and Jordan’s brothers arrived. They seemed all too adept at sizing up the situation. And far too interested in what was going on between her and Jordan.
She still couldn’t believe she’d actually seen him painting chocolate faces on pancakes. “No end to his talents,” she muttered to herself, but that made her blush again as she thought of his lusty lovemaking so long ago. And no doubt he’d had the opportunity to practice it many times since, on one besotted female after another.
She came into the kitchen dressed in her jeans and a clean T-shirt, this one a plain black.
“No message this time, I see,” Jordan said, looking up from the table where he was eating and grinning at her T-shirt’s simplicity.
“I don’t want to be the instigator of any more dietary disasters,” she said. But she nearly smiled back at him. It was almost impossible not to be taken in by him.
Until she realized what it was that her son was crunching.
“Potato chips?” she said in disbelief. “You’re eating potato chips for breakfast?”
“Esther doesn’t have any hash browns, Mom,” Kevin explained earnestly.
A strong lecture on fat and sodium was in order, but glancing at Jordan’s sheepish face sapped her determination. She had lost control long before she got out of bed, and she might as well acknowledge that fact.
“Here,” Jordan said, standing and holding a chair for her. “I’ll get you some breakfast.”
“No chocolate pancakes or potato chips, please,” she said, sighing.
“Bacon sandwich then,” he said, popping two slices of bread into the toaster and slipping the leftover bacon into the microwave. “And coffee.”
She really wasn’t a morning person, he thought, smiling to himself as he listened to her talk to Kevin about the importance of him staying out of the way today. “We brought your books, and the TV’s right here,” she told him.
“Can’t I hammer just one nail?” he begged.
Hannah shook her head. “I don’t want you to hit someone’s thumb instead,” she said, reaching out to tousle his hair. “Especially mine.” She made a face at him, and Kevin laughed.
Kevin reminded Jordan of Jake’s daughter, Molly. Molly was a little older. He didn’t remember anyone saying how old Kevin was, but the boy had told him something this morning about a picnic coming up soon to celebrate the end of first grade. That was a big milestone in a kid’s life.
He carried a cup of coffee to the table for Hannah, distracted from his thoughts when she smiled at him. How he liked her smile! He could imagine a man doing all sorts of things just to earn one. He glanced at Kevin again and wondered why the boy’s father hadn’t stayed around for those smiles.
But he had no time to dwell on that He heard the truck pulling up outside and started carrying dishes to the sink. He would have plenty of time to ponder the intricacies of Hannah Brewster’s life while he pounded nails today.
They had worked on the frame most of the morning, stopping only when Esther showed up again with hamburgers shortly before noon. Hannah had kept one eye on the grass while she worked, looking for her locket, but to no avail. Now they sat on the ground, resting their backs against the pile of lumber, and ate. Esther sat on the cement block that served as a step at her trailer door, her knees spread wide, her uniform skirt sagging between her legs. She was lecturing Ronnie on his lack of a love life despite her best efforts, and he was turning scarlet from his ears to the patch of pale chest that showed above his V-neck shirt. Kevin was listening with avid interest.
Jordan grinned, amused by the whole idea of Esther orchestrating a romance.
“It’s time you thought about settling down,” Esther told him. “And Lord knows I’ve broken my neck checking out possibilities for you. Don’t you grin at me, Jake McClennon,” she said ominously, catching him before