Playing for Keeps/A Tempting Stranger (19 page)

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Authors: Lori Copeland

Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #General, #Contemporary, #Westerns, #test

BOOK: Playing for Keeps/A Tempting Stranger
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Page 139
The guests sat quietly, the expressions on their faces ranging from mild surprise to deep puzzlement to outright astonishment. Jason's eyes, however, held only mild amusement, carefully concealed by his lowered lashes.
Jessica shoved the large bowl of potatoes under Eric's nose and asked in a curt tone if he would mind passing them, then, turning to Jason, said, ''I'm bringing in the meatloaf now, Jason. Would you mind serving?"
"Of course not, Angel. I cart hardly wait to taste it." Turning to his guests, he said, "Wait until you taste her meatloaf. You're in for the treat of your life."
Jessica fired him a disgusted look and returned to the kitchen, emerging a few minutes later with a meat platter, bearing the nearly charred remains of the meatloaf.
She looked at the blank expressions on the four faces as they surveyed their meat course, and said defensively, "Jason hates his meat rare."
"She's right," Jason said, backing her up, "I don't like any pink left in my meat!" He picked up a large carving knife and began slicing generous servings for each plate. "Ahhhhh . . . just the way I like it, Angel." He looked up and smiled adoringly at her.
Eric picked up the bowl of potatoes and spooned some onto his plate, leaning down to peer closer at them. "Are these mashed or fried, Jessie?" he said, puzzled.
"Mashed," she clarified curtly.
He passed the bowl on to Marcy, who, in turn, immediately passed it on to Willis.
"You know, Jessica taught home ec in high school while she was in Austin," Jason was saying conversationally.
"You must be kidding!" Jessica heard Marcy mutter under her breath.
As Jason picked up Marcy's plate to serve her meat she practically shouted, "Just a very
small
serving for me," then qualified her request with, "I try not to eat too heavily in the evening."
 
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''Oh, but you must let down just for tonight," Jessica urged.
The table was ladened with a dazzling array of starches, all for Marcy's benefit. There was a large bowl of corn, one each of hominy and pork and beans, and a bowl of creamed peas so thick you could easily have hung wallpaper with them. The tossed salad looked like someone's garbage, and the jello salad had large chunks of pineapple floating around in it, the gelatin not quite congealed yet.
Eric was surveying the table with awe now as he said, "Damn, Jessica, you got enough starch here to start a Chinese laundry!"
Jessica flushed a bright red.
"You haven't given Eric his meat, Jason," she said, turning to him.
"Oh, sorry, Angel. Pass your plate, Eric, and take it like a man." He grinned.
"Could I have some catsup, please," he pleaded. "I always eat my meatloaf with catsup," he finished meekly.
"I'll get you some, Eric." Jessica could hardly keep a straight face, Eric was being so pathetically obliging about eating his meal.
"Jessica," Willis was saying as she brought the catsup back to the table and set it before a grateful Eric, who was trying to work his way through the gooey peas, "this is really a nice meal. Marcy is a fine cook, but she rarely fixes so many fine things at one time." Willis looked up and gave her an angelic smile. She grabbed her napkin and covered her mouth before she let out a stifled giggle. Willis had little black pieces of the meatloaf stuck between all his teeth.
"Why, that's sweet of you, Willis, but I don't want to mislead you, I don't cook quite this heavy a meal for Jason
every
nightjust on special occasions, like tonight," she purred sweetly.
Eric, looking up from his plate, was starting to say something, but thought better of it. Instead he just gave
 
Page 141
Jessica a devilish little grin and turned regretfully back to his food.
The ghastly meal finally came to an end, with everyone eating very lightly except for Willis, who took seconds of everything.
Jason suggested they have their coffee and dessert in the living room. They all left the table with the zeal of refugees leaving a war zone.
Jessica brought the tray with coffee and cups in, placing it on the low coffee table in front of the sofa. She left briefly, returning with the chocolate cake that had fallen in the middle when she had iced it hot from the oven. Four sets of eyes immediately focused on everything in the room but the cake. Jessica had used so many toothpicks to hold the cake together it looked as if it had been shot with a pellet gun.
Jessica handed Marcy her coffee first. ''Oh, hot tea," Marcy remarked, looking at the almost clear liquid in the bottom of her cup. "How nice for a change."
"No," Jessica answered coolly, "it's coffee. Jason can't sleep nights if I make it too strong."
Eric sat up straighter, peering into his cup. "Well, hell, Jason, you ought to sleep like the dead tonight!" he stated firmly.
Willis was starting to squeak and suck on his teeth again. Jessica felt her nerves were at the breaking point. Would this night ever end?
Jason shot Willis a dirty look and reached over to the cake, withdrew a toothpick, and offered it to him silently.
Why doesn't he just leave him alone?
Jessica thought irritably.
It would be a vast improvement if he managed to get the black out!
They made small talk for another hour or so before Willis and Marcy said their good-byes, and Eric retired to his room early.
Jason saw the Mercys to the front door, closing and locking it behind them. He switched off the large yard
 
Page 142
light and turned back to Jessica, still sitting in the devastated living room.
He crossed the room to her, reached down, and drew her into his arms for one tender moment before tipping her face up to his and placing an affectionate kiss on her trembling lips.
''Angel," he said softly, "your meal was outstanding tonight. Everything was just as I knew it would be."
Giving her bottom a loving swat, he started toward his bedroom. She could hear him whistling "Auld Lang Sync" as he walked down the hall. Jessica sank back down on the sofa, her eyes falling on the hideous chocolate cake on the table before her. Tears welled up in her eyes like soft violet pools. Laying her head on her arm, letting the tears come freely now, she sobbed her heart out.
Finally her tears subsided, and she made her way wearily to her bedroom. This plan had gone down the drain along with the others.
The violent clap of thunder caused Jessica to jerk violently up out of a sound sleep. She could hear the wind rising and see the limbs of the old tree by her bedroom window making grotesque patterns on the wall in her room, against the security light left burning all night in the farmyard.
A jagged streak of lightning forked through the sky, followed by a deafening boom which shook the entire house.
Jessica lay very still, her heart pounding. The rain had not started yet. It seemed to be one of the violent electrical storms that came up occasionally.
Another lightning bolt shot across the sky. When she was small, she would always run into Uncle Fred and Aunt Rainey's room, crawling between them, burying her head under the covers. Aunt Rainey would pull her close, patting her back, telling her not to be afraid. "It's just the angels' potato wagons falling over," she'd say comforting-
 
Page 143
ly. Then another deafening clap would come, and Jessica would make the observation that they sure must have big potatoes. As she grew older she would lie in a petrified state until the storm passed.
The wind was whipping the branches of the old oaks violently now. She got up cautiously to peer out the window. The streaks of lightning were following almost on top of one another, with the thunder sounding like sonic booms.
Cringing, Jessica let the curtain drop back down across the window, ineffectually blocking out the raging storm. She was a big girl now with nowhere to run.
She climbed back into her bed and pulled the pillow up over her ears. A few minutes later she was startled when she felt the bed give under a heavy weight. She pulled the pillow off her head, her eyes barely making out Jason's form in the stormy bedroom. ''What are you doing in here?" she asked incredulously as she watched him very casually remove his pants, leaving on his underwear, then slide between the cool sheets beside her.
"I woke up and happened to remember a little violet-eyed pixie who has an unnatural fear of storms." He reached over to enfold her in his arms comfortingly. "And I just thought she might welcome some company along about now."
The deafening boom of another loud clap of thunder shook the house again as she eagerly accepted his arms, burying her face tightly in his neck.
"How did you know I was afraid of storms?" she asked wonderingly, pressing tight against his wonderfully warm body.
"I was there one day when you came running in the back door of Aunt Rainey's, your face as white as a sheet, during a spring thunderstorm." He chuckled tenderly.
"Oh, I know it's silly, Jason." She sighed. "And it's something I've tried to overcome, but I'm still deathly
 
Page 144
afraid of storms,'' she finished shakily, her words fanning softly on his smooth cheek.
"It's all right, Angel," he whispered back tenderly as the storm raged on in its full fury. "How many times do I get the opportunity to sleep in a beautiful woman's arms?" he teased, brushing her mouth ever so lightly with his.
A woman's arms! He finally thought of her as a womannot "little Jessie Cole."
Her eyes filled with tears at his kindness, her arms wrapping more tightly around his neck. "Jason, thank you for comingfor caring." She raised halfway over him, gazing intently into his eyes. "Would you care if I kissed you? I just want to have you here with me tonight . . . just for tonight." Her face was precariously close to his in the dark room with only occasional bright flashes of lightning illuminating the surroundings.
There was a moment of silence, then he whispered softly, "I don't mind, Angel."
Jessica lowered her mouth hesitantly at first, then let it settle gently over his. The rain pelted hard against the windows as their mouths merged together tenderly, the kiss one of the sweetest they had ever shared.
Jessica ended the kiss reluctantly and laid her head on his broad chest. "Thank you, Jason."
Jason patted her arm lovingly as he murmured tiredly, "I don't know what in the hell I'm going to do with you, Angel, but I'm too tired to figure it out tonight. Go to sleep."
And she didpeacefully, calmly, and most contentedly in his arms.
 
Page 145
Chapter Eight
The rain was still falling softly as she heard Jason leave the room long before daybreak the next morning. She snuggled down deeper into her bed to enjoy another few hours of sleep before she faced the new day. As she was drifting back to sleep she heard him and two of his farmhands slam the doors of their trucks, start their motors, and drive out of the farmyard.
The next sound she heard was that of Eric shaving in the hall bathroom. She lay there in lazy limbo for a few minutes, thinking of the night before, and poor Eric's face through the whole nightmarish part of the evening. She giggled softly as she thought of what must be going
 

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