Laura Jo grinned. Something she seemed to have been doing more of lately. “Well, I appreciate it. I’ll get the kids loaded up and we’ll get out of your hair.”
“Mommy, I’m hungry.”
Laura Jo sighed and looked back at her daughter. “I thought you were asleep.”
“I bet they are hungry. They’ve had a busy day. I’ve got some hot dogs I could put on the grill,” Mark suggested, as he pulled the car to a stop.
“You’ve already done enough. I think we had better go.” Laura Jo didn’t want to like him any more than she already did, and she was afraid she might if she stayed around Mark much longer. The picture of him pulling the dog and Allie and Jeremy put a warm spot in her heart. He
wasn’t the self-centered man she’d believed he might be.
“Can’t I play with Gus a little while longer?” Allie pleaded.
“Face it, you’re not going to win this one.” Mark grinned.
“You’re sure about this?” Laura Jo realized she’d lost again.
“Yeah. It’ll be nice to have company for a meal.”
“Okay,” she said to Mark, then turned and looked at Allie. “We’ll stay for a little while longer but when I say it’s time to go, we go without any argument, understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Allie said, and Jeremy, who had awoken, nodded in agreement.
Laura Jo opened the door for Allie while Mark did the same for Jeremy and Gus.
“If you both give your mom and me just a few minutes, we’ll have the hot dogs ready. Why don’t you guys watch the parade on TV? Look for us.”
“Do you think they’ll have it running already?” Laura Jo asked.
“They should. When I told friends on the West Coast that we had Mardi Gras parades on TV they were amazed.” Mark turned to the kids again. “I’ll turn the TV on and we’ll give it a look.”
They all followed Mark through the front door of the house. Laura Jo studied the interior. The foyer had an easy, casual feel to it but every piece of furniture was placed so that it reminded her of a home decorating magazine. From the entrance, it opened into a large space with an exterior glass wall that gave the room a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree view of the deck area and the bay. Full ceiling-to-floor green-checked curtains were pushed back to either side of the windowed area. The late-afternoon sunlight streamed into the room, giving it an inviting glow.
Overstuffed cream-colored couches faced each other. A table with a chess set on it sat to one side of the room. Opposite it there was a large-screen TV built into the wall, with bookshelves surrounding it. Comfortable-looking armchairs were placed throughout the room. The house gave her the feeling that a family had lived and loved here.
“What a wonderful room,” Laura Jo whispered.
“Thanks. It’s my favorite space.”
She turned, startled, to find Mark standing close. She had been so caught up in the room she hadn’t noticed him approach.
“I’ll turn the TV on for the kids then get
started on those dogs. You don’t need to help. You’re welcome to stay with them.”
“No, I said I would help and I will. After all, I haven’t carried a dog around town all afternoon,” she said with a grin.
“You’re not going to let that go, are you?” He gave her a pained look.
She shook her head. “The visual is just too good to let go of.”
He picked up a remote and pushed a button. The TV came on. The kids had already found themselves a place on a sofa. After a few changes of channels he stopped. “I do believe this is ours.”
“You guys stay right here. Don’t go outside,” Laura Jo said.
Mark headed toward the open kitchen Laura Jo could see off to the left. She followed. It was a modern and up-to-date space that was almost as large as her entire apartment. She ran a hand across the granite of the large counter in the middle of the room with a sigh of pleasure. “I wish I had a place like this to cook. I bet you could make a perfect king cake on this top,” she murmured, more to herself than Mark.
“You’re welcome to come over anytime and use it. I get nowhere near the use out of it that I should.” Mark put his head in the refrigerator and came out with a package of hot dogs.
“Thanks for the offer. But I don’t really have time to do a lot of cooking.” She wished she did have. Even if she did, she wouldn’t be coming here to do it.
“That’s not what Allie led me to believe.” He picked through a drawer and found some tongs.
“I’d like to but I don’t think we’ll be getting that friendly.”
He came to stand across the counter from her. “Why not? You might find you like me if you’d give me a chance.”
“We’re from two different worlds now and I don’t see us going any further than we did today.”
“What do you mean by two different worlds? Our parents have been acquaintances for years. I don’t see that we are that different.”
Had she hurt his feelings? No, she couldn’t imagine that what she thought or felt mattered that much to him. But he had been nice to Allie and he deserved the truth. “I have nothing to do with that society stuff anymore.”
“I had no idea you were such a snob, or is it narrow-mindedness?”
“I’m not a snob and it has nothing to do with being narrow-minded and everything to do with knowing who the Clayborn family is and what they represent. I want no part of that world again.”
“Once again, I think I have been insulted. Do you know me or my family well enough to have that opinion? What have we done to you?” His tone had roughened with each sentence. “I think I deserve to hear you expound on that statement.”
“Well, you’re going to be disappointed.”
Mark’s brows came together over his nose.
“Instead, why don’t you tell me what has you living on this side of the bay when I know the other side is thought to be the correct one?”
He placed some hot dog buns on the counter. “I needed a place to stay when I moved back and no one was staying in the summer house. It’s no big mystery.”
“That’s right. I remember hearing talk that you were in a bad accident and left town afterwards.”
He winced. “Yeah, I left to do my fellowship in California.”
“Well, do tell. I am surprised. I would have never thought a Clayborn would live anywhere but Mobile.”
“And for your information, my brother and I both moved away. I came back because my father had a stroke and needs someone close.”
“I’m sorry to hear about your father.” And she was. It was tough to see someone suffer that way. She remembered Mr. Clayborn, Sr. being
a larger-than-life man whom everyone noticed when he came into the room. Much like Mark. She admired Mark for giving up his life in California to return home to care for his father. In comparison, she lived in the same town and didn’t even speak to her parents.
“He had a bad stroke but he is recovering. Working every day is over for him but at least he’s alive.”
“Mommy,” Allie called. “I’m hungry.”
Mark shrugged. “I guess we’d better save this conversation for later. If you really want to help, why don’t you get the plates and things together while I get these hot dogs on the grill? The plates are in that cabinet—” he pointed to one to the right of the stove “—and the silverware is in that drawer.” He indicated the one right in front of her. “Condiments in the refrigerator. What few there are.” He went out the side door of the kitchen without another word.
What Mark didn’t realize was that she was through having any type of conversation about her past. Why she’d told him so much she had no idea.
CHAPTER THREE
M
ARK STARTED THE
gas grill and adjusted the flame, before placing the hot dogs on the wire rack above it. He glanced back into the house through the window of the door. He could just see Laura Jo moving around.
She had a real chip on her shoulder about the world in which they had been raised. For a moment there he’d thought she might open up and tell him why but then she’d shut down. Why did it matter to him anyway?
Maybe it was because for some reason he liked the brash, independent and absolutely beautiful woman, especially when she laughed. He couldn’t get enough of that uninhibited embracing of life. Would she act that way in bed?
Whoa, that was not where he was headed. He didn’t really know her and what he did know about her was that she’d sooner sink her teeth into him than allow him to kiss her.
Just what was going on between her and her
family? He knew of the Herrons. They were good people but Laura Jo had certainly had a falling out with them. She hadn’t even told Allie she had grandparents living in town. Who did that? It just didn’t make sense.
He’d enjoyed his afternoon with the children. It had been tough to drive with them in the car but he’d done it. He’d had a taste of what it would be like to have a child in his life and he rather liked it. In fact, he liked it too much.
Laura Jo made another trip by the door. He jerked around when she called from the doorway, “Hey, do you need a platter for those?”
“Yeah.” Why did he feel like he’d just been caught in someone else’s business? What was going on between her and her family wasn’t his problem.
“Where do I find it? I’ll bring it to you.”
She looked so appealing, framed by the door with the afternoon sun highlighting one side of her face. The urge to kiss her almost overwhelmed him. He’d like to prove that they weren’t different in the areas that mattered. He had to say something to get rid of her until he regained his equilibrium. “Cabinet below the plates.”
Laura Jo disappeared into the house again. A few minutes later she came out and stood beside him. Her head reached his shoulders. She
was close enough that he smelled a hint of her floral shampoo but not near enough that they touched. He was aware of the fact that all he had to do was take a half step and her body would be next to his.
“You might want to turn those. They look like they’re burning.”
Great. He had been so focussed on her that he wasn’t thinking about what he was doing. “So now you’re going to come out here and start telling me how to cook my hot dogs. Do you like to be bossed?”
She took a step back. Her eyes turned serious. “No. I don’t. I’m sorry.” She moved to leave.
He caught her wrist. “Hey, I was just kidding. They’re just hot dogs.”
Laura Jo pulled her arm out of his grip. “I know. But I need to get us some drinks. I saw the glasses when I was looking for a bowl.” With that she was gone.
This was a woman better left alone. She had more hang-ups than he did and, heaven knew, he had plenty.
Twenty minutes later, Allie and Jeremy were picnicking, as they called it, in front of the TV so they could watch another parade. Mark had persuaded Laura Jo to join him on the deck. This was what he remembered it being like when he’d been a kid. He liked having people
around. Being part of a family. Could he ever have that again?
He and Laura Jo ate in silence for a while, but not a comfortable one. Mark worked to come up with a subject they could discuss. Finally, he asked, “So you remembered me from years ago, so why don’t I remember you?”
She grinned. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because the only person you saw was Ann Maria Clark.”
He had the good grace to turn red. “Yeah, we were a hot item back then.”
“That you were. There was no reason you’d see a simple lady-in-waiting.”
His gaze met hers. Something about her tone made him think she might have liked him to notice her. “You were in her court?”
She nodded. “I was.”
“I can’t believe it.”
“Well, it’s true.”
“We were that close all those years ago and it took a skinned knee at a parade for us to get to know each other.”
She fingered the hot dog. “Life can be strange like that.”
“That it can.”
“I thought you two would get married,” Laura Jo said, more as a statement of fact than someone fishing for information.
“That had been the plan but things changed.”
“That happens. Especially where people are concerned.” She sounded as if she was speaking about herself more than him.
It was time to change the subject. “Have you and Jeremy’s mom been friends for a long time?”
“No. We only met a few years ago.”
Well, at least he was getting more than a one-word answer.
“She works at the hospital?”
Laura Jo gave him a speculative look. “Are you interested in her?”
“I’m just trying to make conversation. Maybe learn a little more about you.”
Laura Jo placed her half-eaten hot dog on the plate in front of her. She looked at him from across the table for a second before saying, “We met at a group for mothers without partners. Her husband had died. We became friends, at first because we needed each other, then we found we liked each other.”
“So she was there when you needed someone.” He knew well what it was like to be alone and need someone to talk to. There had been no one when he’d arrived in LA. He had been lonely then and, come to think of it, he’d been lonely in Mobile at least up until the last week.
“Your parents weren’t around?”
“No. Hers had died. Mine…well, that’s another story. That’s why Marsha and I are trying to open a house for mothers who are on their own.”
“So how’s that going?”
“The city has agreed to sell us a house at a good price that would be perfect but we’re running out of time to raise the money.”
“Maybe I could be of some help. Atone for my car.”
“A check for three hundred thousand would be great.” She grinned at him as if she was making a joke but he could see hope in her eyes.
He winced. “That would be my car and at least one or two more.”
“I’ve seen you ride a bike.” She grinned.
He threw back his head and laughed. “You’d make me resort to that to get your house?’
“I’d do almost anything. This chance might not come again.”
She took a swallow of her drink as if her mouth had suddenly gone dry.
Why did that thought of her in bed, beneath him, pop into his head? He raised a brow.
Her eyes widened. A stricken look covered her face. “You know what I mean.”
“I have an idea. We could go to the Krewe of Orion dance together. See some of our old
friends. There should be plenty of people there willing to donate. All you’d have to do is get one to agree to support you and then the others would line up to help out.”