A Match Made by Cupid (Harlequin Special Edition) (12 page)

Once inside, she popped a frozen meal into the microwave before changing out of her work clothes into a pair of pajamas. Settling at the kitchen table with her dinner and laptop, Melanie searched for “David Prentiss” to see if she got any hits. She did, but a quick perusal through some of the given links proved that none of them were
her
David Prentiss.

“Now what?” She picked at her dinner and considered her options. If money wasn’t an issue, she’d try using another people-finding service to see if she received different information. Or she could run a check on the other names associated with her father’s past households. But fifty bucks a shot was a little pricey when she had to deal with unknown car repairs and rental-car fees. So, no, she couldn’t go either of those routes at the moment.

She could look up her father’s past addresses online, gather information on neighboring houses and then do a reverse address lookup in the hopes of finding a few phone numbers. Maybe someone would know where he went. Or even give her some type of information she didn’t currently have. A man couldn’t completely disappear, could he?

With that mission in mind, Melanie cleaned up her dinner dishes and left the kitchen. She hadn’t turned on any of her living room lights when she came in, so the room held only the soft glow of the outside light pouring in through the windows. A noise on her front porch drew her attention. Probably just some of the partiers from next door, but her stomach jumped when she couldn’t remember if she’d locked the door.

The unmistakable sound of her screen door squeaking open sent her pulse into overdrive. She propelled herself forward to check the lock, to make sure she was safe. Then, her curiosity getting the better of her, she looked through the peephole and saw…the top of a head. What in the hell was someone doing bent over at her door? She heard rustling, a cough, more rustling.

Suddenly sure she knew what was happening, she flipped the lock and threw open the door, expecting to see her father dropping off another mystery gift.

Her visitor reared back in surprise as the door opened. His jaw dropped, and his eyes grew wide. His hand whipped behind his back, as if he were trying to hide something. Too late—she’d already seen the red-wrapped gift.

Unexpected disappointment hit first, because it wasn’t David Prentiss standing on her front porch. Stunned disbelief mixed with…pleasure?…wove in next, because the man bringing her anonymous gifts was none other than Jace Foster.

“Um…Melanie, hey,” Jace said, his voice a full pitch higher than normal. “I thought you were at your mom’s.”

She tried to speak, tried to find anything at all to say, but words evaded her. This was not a scenario she’d expected. Her throat closed tight, and her heart felt as if it were about to explode out of her chest. Her secret admirer was…Jace?

“Why?” she somehow managed to ask.

“Why did I think you were at your mom’s? Because you said you had dinner with her tonight.” His shoulders lifted in a slight shrug. “And… Well, your car isn’t here. I assumed you weren’t home.”

A million and one questions zipped through Melanie’s mind, but she quelled them. For now. Blinking, she tipped her head to the side and pretended she hadn’t seen the gift. “Why would you come over if you thought I wasn’t home?”

“Well.” He coughed and sort of half slid, half shuffled backward a step. “You know. I…um…just—” Another shrug. “Your car isn’t here,” he repeated. “I checked.”

Humor she probably shouldn’t have felt crawled in. She’d never seen Jace this way. He always seemed so in control, so at ease in any situation. Leaning against the doorjamb, she said, “Hmm. Yes. That would be because my car conked out and needed to be towed. That would also be why I’m not at my mom’s.”

Jace’s gaze landed squarely on hers, and concern lit his expression. “Are you okay?”

Nodding, she said, “I’m fine.”

A breath expelled from his lungs. “Good. How did you get home?”

“Rented a car.” She wagged her head toward the road. “It’s the Ford Focus parked down a ways.”

“Okay. Good. I mean not about your car, but that you’re safe.”

“You haven’t answered my question. How come you stopped by if you thought I wasn’t here?”

His face blanked out, and he dropped his vision to the ground. “I don’t know how to answer that,” he said in a carefully modulated voice.

She bit her bottom lip, threw caution to the wind and asked, “Was there something you wanted to drop off?”

His Adam’s apple moved when he swallowed, but he didn’t say anything. Just sort of stood there, body tensed, looking like a man about to run for cover.

“Why don’t you come in for a while?” Melanie stepped back but kept the door held open, knowing she was playing with fire but unable to stop herself. “I can make us some coffee. Or if you’d rather, I have a bottle of wine in the fridge.”

“I would like that, but—” Still holding his arm behind his back, Jace retreated to the edge of the steps. “I should probably get going. Sorry if I scared you, Mel.”

Oh, no. She wasn’t about to let him get away so easily. Deciding it was time to put all of her cards on the table, she said, “Aren’t you going to give me my gift first?” Jace’s shoulders straightened and firmed. The muscle in his jaw clenched tight and then twitched. “Or is that present you’re hiding behind your back not for me?”

“Well, hell,” he muttered. “You saw that, huh?”

“I did.”

“I can explain.” Sighing, he brought the present into view. “I… Yeah, wine sounds good.”

“Then come on in.” Her tongue burned with the need to ask all of the questions crowding her brain, but she figured she could hold off a few more minutes. Jace eased past her into the living room. She switched on a lamp and nodded toward the sofa. “Make yourself at home. I’ll get the wine.”

Escaping to the kitchen, she gripped the counter with both hands and willed her heart to settle into a normal rhythm. Even when she thought the presents might be from an actual secret admirer, she’d never once considered Jace. Why was that?

Because… Well, because he’d never hidden his attraction toward her. Just the opposite, in fact. The man didn’t have a shy bone in his body. Or she hadn’t thought so until now.

So, yeah, this revelation was startling. And, Melanie admitted as she poured them each a glass of wine, brought about a complex mix of emotions she couldn’t begin to identify. Flattery was in there, as was wonder and…maybe even a little excitement?

Her disappointment over her father not trying to reconnect lingered as well, but existed in a different compartment. She’d deal with that aspect of her emotions later, but now… Well, now there was a sexy man waiting in her living room. A man who, over the past week, had surprised her repeatedly by showing her sides of his personality she never would have guessed existed.

And now this.

Before leaving the kitchen, she fluffed her hair and moistened her lips. The fleeting wish that she was wearing something other than pajamas that covered every inch of her body brought a wave of heat to her cheeks. Then, out of nowhere, she heard her mother asking if she’d ever had great sex, and the heat spread through Melanie’s limbs like wildfire.

Dear God, she was in major trouble.

One deep breath in, another out, and she returned to the living room. Jace was where she’d left him…sitting on the sofa. His hands gripped the present so tightly that his knuckles were white, and his eyes held a soft vulnerability. As if…as if he was worried
she
would hurt
him
. Impossible. She didn’t—couldn’t—have the power to cause him pain.

“Here,” she said, setting his glass of wine on the coffee table. “You can take off your coat.”

“Right.” He leaned over to place the gift on the table, stopped, changed direction and set it on the floor between his feet. Melanie pretended she didn’t notice his hesitation. After he’d removed his jacket, he gulped down about half of his wine. “I’m guessing you have questions.”

“Well, yeah,” she said lightly. “This isn’t exactly a common occurrence for me.”

“It should be,” he said, his voice flat and holding no room for argument.

“Well, it isn’t.”

Jace rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Where to begin?” he said with a sigh. “I guess I’ll explain how this started. You will let me explain, right? I don’t want you to think I’m crazy or stalking you or anything like that.”

“Jace,” she said, her voice soft and hopefully reassuring. “I know that.”

His chin lowered in a jagged nod. “Okay. Good. So, yeah, here goes. I wanted to get you a Christmas gift, but I was pretty damn sure you wouldn’t accept anything I tried to give you. I figured you’d assume I had ulterior motives. That…that you’d think my goal was nothing more than a maneuver to get you to like me, to…ah…”

“Get me in the sack?” she filled in.

“Yes. And damn, you’re always so prickly around me. I…just wanted to give you something nice, something I thought you’d enjoy, without any wrong assumptions on your part.” He lifted his gaze to meet hers. “The whole idea was my brother’s. Grady used to surprise Olivia that way, though she knew the gifts were really from him, but I liked the idea.”

“Well, you’re not wrong,” Melanie said quietly. “I would’ve thought the worst.”

“Right. I figured that,” Jace repeated. “So I looked up your address and came by one day when I knew you were still at the office. I thought…hoped…you’d like the doll. And really, Mel, I just wanted to give you a Christmas present. That was it. Or it was supposed to be.”

“I love the doll, Jace. She’s upstairs in my bedroom, with the other three I own.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Only three? I thought you collected antique dolls.”

“Not really. I have a few from when I was a kid.” She inhaled a mouthful of air, still finding this entire situation mind-boggling. She could almost believe she was asleep, dreaming. “Why did you think I collected them?”

“The Christmas potluck at work. We were sitting at the same table, and…you mentioned the dolls.”

She thought back. “I remember the potluck, but I… Oh, wait. Kurt asked me about gift ideas for his daughter, wanted to know what my favorite—” Jace averted his gaze when she broke off to stare at him. “You asked Kurt to do that, didn’t you?”

“Well, you sure weren’t going to tell me.”

One question answered. “And the other gifts?”

A ruddy flush darkened Jace’s complexion. “I…ah…see, it’s like this, Mel. I haven’t gone out of my way to find gifts for you, but I’d be out somewhere and see something and I’d think of you. So, I guess you could say the other gifts happened more by accident than with any purposeful thought.” His eyes rounded. “Wait. I didn’t mean…I
would
go out of my way to shop for you. Absolutely. It just didn’t happen that way, that’s all.”

“But why
those
books?”

Jace finished off his wine. “I like bookstores, especially stores that carry rare copies. I tend to haunt the local shops, seeing what they just got in. Besides, who doesn’t like books?”

Was he purposely avoiding her question? She tried again. “But how did you know which books to buy?”

“It’s really not that big of a deal.”

She arched an eyebrow and waited.

“All
Gazette
employees fill out a bunch of forms when they’re hired. They’re supposed to help Kurt figure out who to give certain assignments to, or for any of us to find out if another staff member might have a connection to a story that’s unraveling.”

She narrowed her eyes and gestured for him to continue.

“It was a great idea that no one has really used, because who wants to pour through a bunch of forms looking for one tiny bit of information? Anyway, those documents are slowly being indexed and entered into our database.” Jace closed his eyes for a millisecond. “I sort of dug yours out and entered the information myself. I figured I might learn something I could use to get you to agree to a date.”

“Really, Jace?” This should have annoyed her. It would have, not so long ago. For whatever reason, though, his actions didn’t really bother her. Maybe because he normally didn’t have to put forth so much effort to get a date. It made her feel special. Like he really, really went out of his way to get her attention. She cleared her throat. “So, what did you learn about me?”

“Besides what some of your favorite books are? Um, favorite movies—though you didn’t write down how much you like horror flicks. That came as a nice surprise.” Jace fidgeted. “Some names of people you’ve worked with, the college you went to, and… Well, not a lot else.” A grin—the first one she’d seen from him all evening—lifted the corners of his mouth. “Contrary woman that you are, you wrote ‘not applicable’ on more than half the questions.”

“Because more than half of them weren’t applicable. I don’t have any political connections, I don’t play sports, I rarely visit clubs or go barhopping and I definitely don’t have any interesting hobbies.” Melanie wrinkled her nose. “I’m kind of boring.”

“You are anything but boring.”

“Well…eye of the beholder, I guess.”

“I have a discerning eye. I know of what I speak.”

Melanie forced a laugh. Her attempt at hiding how strongly his softly spoken words affected her. This—what she was feeling, the strength of those feelings—couldn’t be happening. She was just overwhelmed. Tired, maybe.