A Bid for Love (16 page)

“My mom always did all the cooking at home. She never asked me to help,” Cassi said. “Hey, I bet that with six kids your mom never had to make dinner, right?”

Jared smiled at her crookedly. “That’s right. My mom’s no dummy. She never did any dishes or vacuuming after we got older, either. Smart woman.” Jared’s voice was full of admiration.

“I guess I’ll have to have at least seven children. Then I’ll never have to cook dinner.”

“Ah, but who will teach them? And what do you do until they’re old enough to cook by themselves?” Jared added several dashes of garlic to the pork chops.

“Eat canned,” Cassi replied. “And teach them to read. Maybe put them in a cooking class. Or make their father do it.”

Jared shook his head. “You’re serious. You really hate cooking, don’t you?”

“When they were passing out the cooking genes in heaven, I accidentally got the cookie-eating genes instead. I burn pretty much everything.” Once it was out in the open, Cassi felt better, even though she knew the fact that she didn’t cook wouldn’t likely work in her favor. But it wasn’t as if Jared was actually interested in her as a woman, so what did she care what he thought? He was just an arrogant pig who knew how to cook pork chops. Which was cannibalism, if you thought about it.

“And I hate vacuuming, too,” she added for good measure. “I let it go for months, until you can actually see the dirt on the carpet.”

“With kids you wouldn’t be able to do that.”

Cassi took his comment as an insult. “Well, I don’t have any kids, do I?” She turned around and stalked from the kitchen, muttering under her breath, “I think I hear the baby crying.”

She went back to the front room to find that she hadn’t imagined hearing baby Jared’s cry. His eyes were clamped shut, his tiny mouth opening and closing in little sobs. Renae was nowhere to be seen.

“Shhh,” Cassi said as she approached the swing. She sat down in front of the infant. “It’s okay, sweetie. Mommy’s coming right back.”

Little Jared didn’t stop crying, even when Cassi turned on the swing and set him rocking. She looked around for Renae, her heart going out to the helpless baby. Finally, she could stand it no longer and carefully scooped him out of the swing and held him close to her chest. Immediately the baby stopped crying and opened his eyes. They were a deep blue, and seemed much wiser than any Cassi had ever seen.

“See? I told you everything was okay. You gotta trust me.” She bent her head and kissed the soft cheek cuddling him even closer.

Cassi was still sitting on the floor next to the swing, cuddling the tiny miracle, when Renae came back into the room with two duffel bags. “Scotty couldn’t find these, so I took the opportunity to visit the bathroom,” she said, resuming her prone position on the couch.

“He was crying,” Cassi said. “He wouldn’t stop until I picked him up.”

“He’s used to being snuggled inside my stomach. Babies always like lots of cuddling.”

“He’s so precious.” Cassi touched the little hand, and the baby instinctively grabbed her finger.

“You’ll have your own someday.”

Cassi looked up with tears in her eyes. “But I can’t teach him how to cook,” she said, knowing that to Renae, her comment sounded irrational.

Renae snorted. “So what? I can’t teach my children to appreciate art or make their beds. They don’t speak proper English, and I can’t help Scotty with his math. Does that make me a bad mother? We can’t all be talented at everything.”

“I guess you’re right,” Cassi said with a laugh that chased away her melancholy. “I never thought of it that way. I guess I could always hire someone to do the cooking.”

“Now you’ve got it.” Renae pointed to the duffel bags on the floor by Cassi, and then motioned for the baby.

Cassi settled him in his mother’s arm and retrieved the bags. “Thanks. This will work great.” She went to the cooler in the middle of the room, and laid the statues in the separate bags, padding them with clothing. She made sure that Jared’s gun was near the top of his bag, just in case. “Maybe I should change back into my clothes,” she murmured.

Renae laughed. “Don’t. You look so cute, like a teenager or a tourist. Oh, that reminds me, did you see the makeup and lotion I put in the smaller bag?”

Cassi shook her head and felt in the bag where she had already put her Mother and Baby statue. “Thanks. It would be kind of awkward to buy something like this with Jared.”

“I also put in some extra underclothes, too. For both of you. And some cash for you, just in case. It’s from my secret stash, the one every woman should have. I don’t like the thought of you not having your own funds right now.”

 “Thank you so much.”

The sound of a car in front of the house made them both start. “It couldn’t be Trent yet,” Renae said. “Maybe the Burtons are early with dinner.”

Going to the edge of the window to peek out, Cassi gasped. “Two men are getting out of a car. They’re wearing suits. They’re talking and looking at the house. They’re coming up the walk!”

Renae’s eyes grew wide. “What are you going to do?”

Cassi’s heart pounded. “Linden. He must have said something about you, and they found out who you are. But they can’t know for sure that we’re here. Then again, what if they search?”

“Quick, out the back way,” Renae ordered. “Cut through our neighbor’s yard—there’s a break in the fence—and go to the grade school. Trent’ll meet you there later with the money.”

“What about you?”

“They don’t want me,” Renae said. “I’ll just call the kids and warn them not to say anything. Now go!”

Cassi grabbed the duffel bags, straining slightly against the double weight. Jared looked up from the stove as they rushed into the kitchen.

“Men outside.” Cassi handed him the Buddha and motioned to the back door.

“What about Renae?” he asked, flipping off the stove.

Cassi shook her head. Already she could hear the children coming down the hall in response to their mother’s voice. “She won’t say anything. She’ll be okay.”

They dived for the back door. As it shut behind them, Cassi heard the doorbell echo through the house.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

During the time they had been in Renae’s house, the weather had changed. Dark, ominous clouds now filled the sky, and a warm wind was blowing. Jared glanced at Cassi and saw perspiration streaking her face. They had been running nonstop since leaving Renae’s house and were now at least a mile away. They were probably safe, and by continuing to run, they were only drawing attention to themselves.

“Stop,” Jared puffed, wiping the sweat from his own brow. “We should stop.”

Cassi nodded and slowed to a walk. “Do you think they’re okay?”

Jared knew what she was thinking. He was also worried. He would never forgive himself for running if something happened to Renae and the children. “I think they will be. From what you said about their actions, they didn’t seem to be in a hurry. It’s probably a routine check.”

“Yeah. That’s got to be it.” Cassi sighed. “They were probably sent by Linden. He’s the only one who knew she was there with me, except the room service people and those who called the ambulance, but they wouldn’t have any idea who she was. He must have found out where she lived.”

Jared could hear the hurt in her voice, and he thought it best to change the subject. “Where did you learn to run like that anyway?”

Cassi smiled. “I did track in high school, and I’ve kept up the habit of running six days a week. It’s something I enjoy.”

“It sure took me by surprise at the beach. I was worried about having to pull you along, but you ran faster than I did.”

“I may not cook, but I can run.”

At her words, Jared recalled how helpless Cassi had been in the kitchen. The revelation that she couldn’t cook, and even hated doing so, had shocked him. It had hit him abruptly that this woman, to whom he was quickly becoming attached, was far from the stereotype he had envisioned as wifely material. Far different from his mother and his sisters.

Before he could decide how he felt about the matter, she had stomped from the kitchen, and Jared had followed unobtrusively, amazed that she had heard baby Jared crying. How did she know? Could it be that even though she didn’t have any cooking instincts, she still had a strong second sense about when a baby needed her? And what did it matter if she hated to cook, anyway, as long as she was there for her children? What was more important?

Seeing Cassi with her long, perfectly curled hair, cuddling the infant against that ridiculously oversized T-shirt had made him want to kiss her again. Probably a stupid reaction, but there it was.

“You hating to cook is not really your fault,” he said to her now. She looked at him curiously. “I mean, it’s hard to do something that you weren’t raised doing”

“So it’s my mother’s fault that I can’t cook?”

Jared smiled. She did have an innate ability to get down to the crux of the matter. “Not exactly. You’re an adult and you make your own decisions now. I just think it would’ve been easier if you’d been taught.”

Cassi looked at him, and her eyes seemed soft like warm chocolate. “Thanks. I appreciate that. But you know, I still hate cooking.”

“Well, I’m not too hip on running.”

She grinned. “I could teach you. You’d probably enjoy it.”

“And I could teach you to cook. You’d probably enjoy it.” They both laughed.

A large drop of rain fell suddenly and splattered on Jared’s nose. Cassi laughed even harder until she was also pelted with the warm drops. She breathed in the pungent scent of the wet pavement. “I love that smell,” she said. “It’s so earthy.”

“Is the school nearby?” asked Jared. Cassi nodded and pointed ahead. Jared could see a large building in the distance. “I think we’d better run again.”

“Don’t you like the rain?” Her voice was almost challenging.

“Not particularly.”

She lifted her face to the sky. “I love the rain.” Then she sprinted ahead, and Jared followed.

Together they ran toward the building. The rain came down harder, and soon Jared’s hair and T-shirt were soaked. He looked at Cassi to see that she was equally drenched. Parts of her hair were plastered against her head, yet she had not lost any of the endless ringlets. A sneaking suspicion that her hair was natural crept over Jared. Impossible. He would wait until it dried to judge. At least he knew for sure that no gel from her suitcase could save her now.

They reached the school and set the duffel bags against the building where the rain wouldn’t reach them. Then Jared settled down to wait.

“Come on,” Cassi beckoned to him, going back out into the rain.

“Are you crazy? You’ll get sick.”

“That’s only if the rain is cold. You said as much yourself when Sandy was all wet, remember? I’ve always played in the rain during the summer, and I’ve never once gotten sick. We have to wait for Trent, so we might as well enjoy ourselves.”

She looked inviting standing on the wet blacktop with her T-shirt outlining her slender curves. Jared stood up, allowing Cassi to grab his hand and pull him to the set of swings in the school yard. In moments both were sailing back and forth in the air above the blacktop. As their laughter echoed out over the deserted playground, Jared could almost imagine the laughter of little children accompanying them.

The burdens of the last two days slipped from Jared’s shoulders, and he looked at Cassi gratefully. Her mascara was coming off in black smudges and little rivulets, but she had never looked so beautiful to him. She was impulsive, free, and full of life. It almost seemed as if he had known her forever.

When they tired of swinging, they tried the teeter-totter, but she weighed so much less than he did that they had to give it up. They went to the merry-go-round, where Jared pushed Cassi on the large wheel. She had wiped the black mascara from her face, and now Jared noticed the tiny black beauty mark near her right eye. There was another just above her lip, and he found himself wanting to kiss it. He hesitated. She seemed almost like a wraith in the darkening day, a mythical creature that he couldn’t, or perhaps shouldn’t touch.

“What’s wrong?” Cassi leapt off the merry-go-round to stand next to him.

Jared was all too aware of her and struggled with the emotions boiling inside him. “Nothing. I . . . we should check on the statues.” Jared couldn’t bring himself to tell her of his growing feelings. What if she scorned him? He remembered Léon’s accusations against her and felt his confidence plunge even further.

 
I’ll wait until this business with the Buddha is over,
he thought.
Then I’ll find out how she feels.

As they reached the place where they had left the bags, Cassi looked up at him with a guarded expression. A voice seemed to say in Jared’s head,
Kiss her.
But he hesitated, and the moment was lost.

“Cassi!” A shout from behind made them turn to see Trent running across the blacktop that separated them. It was still raining, though more lightly now, and Trent’s hair dripped water into his eyes. He shoved the brown locks back from his forehead.

“Here,” he said, handing Jared an envelope. “I got some of it in smaller bills to make your transactions less noticeable.” He grinned. “I think I’m getting into this. I’ve half a mind to go with you myself, but I can’t leave Renae.”

“Is everything okay at home?” Cassi asked anxiously.

“Yes. Those men wanted to know if we’d seen you, and asked us to call them if you contacted us. They didn’t even come into the house when they learned about the baby. They just talked to Renae through the door. They seemed worried about you, Cassi. Are you sure they’re the bad guys?”

“No, I’m not. We don’t know who to trust. That’s why we’re going to take the Buddha to Jared’s employer and be done with it. Then we can forget it ever happened.”

Jared wanted to disagree. Despite the danger, he was glad he’d met Cassi, and he wasn’t sure he wanted their adventure to be over.

Trent nodded. “I guess you guys know what you’re doing. Oh, I almost forgot. Here’s some food Renae told me to put together for you. It’s just sandwiches and stuff, but it should tide you over.”