Toys and Baby Wishes (6 page)

But if Clare had a problem....

"What time would you like me to be there?"

"We'll have a pot luck supper.  Come around six.  Or is
that too early?"

"No.  My last appointment is four-thirty.  I'll come
after that."

Lexa said good-bye to Clare and closed her phone.  There was
no earthly reason why she and Josh couldn't be friendly.

***

Lexa mounted the steps to Clare's new house.  It was sixty
years old and nestled between tall spruce trees set far back from the street. 
There was already a fresh coat of paint on the door trim.  The brass knocker
was engraved with Friendship House.  Clare had said something about getting
black shutters for the windows to dress up the white siding, but that wasn't in
the budget until spring.

Lexa lifted the knocker and let it fall twice.  When no one
answered, she tried the knob, found it unlocked, and stepped into the long
living room.

Josh was arguing with his aunt.  "I told you I'd hang
the drapes."

Clare glowered at him from the three-foot step ladder. 
"You were busy replacing the light fixture upstairs."

"Can't stay out of trouble, can you?"

Lexa felt awkward, overhearing.

Clare looked up and saw her.  "Lexa!  Good.  Now you
can help me keep Josh in line.  What am I going to do with him?  He keeps
treating me as if I were ninety-nine, frail and an invalid."

"I do not.  I just want you to use your common
sense."

"My common sense and yours must be different."

Josh let out a frustrated sigh.  "Will you please get
down from the ladder?"

"I'm not finished."

Lexa crossed to them and said softly, "She has two more
pins to clip.  You could hold the ladder steady until she does."

Josh didn't look as if he appreciated her interference.  But
he did as she suggested.  He asked his aunt, "Are there any more drapes to
hang?"

Clare gave the curtains a critical look and climbed down. 
"No.  Everything's done except to bring a few boxes from my bedroom to the
living room.  I can do that tomorrow.  Jim and Trudy will help me unpack."

Josh shook his head with affectionate exasperation. 
"What am I going to do with you?"

"Put up with me because I'm not going to change."

Lexa laughed.  "Score one for Clare."

Josh suppressed a smile and held her eyes with his. 
"Whose side are you on?"

"Does anybody ever win these go-arounds?" Lexa
asked, taking off her jacket and laying it over a stack of boxes.

"I do," they chorused in unison.

Clare closed the stepladder and leaned it against the wall. 
"I made barbecued hamburger and pasta salad.  I hope you're in the mood
for a picnic because in this atmosphere, that's all you'll get.  Everyone else
is out for the moment."

"What can we do?" Lexa asked.

"Follow me to the kitchen."

Josh motioned in front of him.  "Ladies first."

Lexa had tried to forget the quicksilver sparkle that danced
in his eyes.

The kitchen was a bright room with birch cabinets and
blue-checked café curtains at the windows.  Clare took a few placemats from a
drawer and spread them over the maple table.  "Josh, get the food out of
the refrigerator.  Lexa, silverware is in the drawer beside the sink."

As Josh went to the refrigerator, Lexa passed in front of
him.  Her hip brushed his.  Their gazes met.  Lord, he seemed to see right
through her.  Flustered, she turned away and pulled out the drawer.  She'd find
out what Clare wanted, eat, and run.  She did have to make a few calls.

"So, Clare.  Why did you need to see me and
Josh?"  She looked at Josh.  "Or do you already know?"

He set a tray of fresh vegetables and a casserole of pasta
salad on the table.  "No, we've been too busy to talk."

Clare smoothed out creases in the tablecloth.  "Lexa,
do you know anything about the financial advisor who talked to the
seniors?"

Lexa grabbed napkins from the pack lying on the counter. 
"I went to see him the next day to find out his qualifications.  He said
he graduated from Temple with a degree in accounting.  There was a diploma on
the wall, but something about him doesn't ring true."

"Mary was here this afternoon.  She was thinking about
investing money from C.D.'s that were up for renewal.  She went to Mr. Stanley
to see what he thought.  He advised her against it.  He proposed she put her
money into an adult community.  Leisureville, she called it.  It's in Florida and just getting started.  There's a swimming pool, tennis, shuffleboard, a social
club.  There are plans to start another in South Carolina and Texas, too.  She
can invest as little as two thousand dollars or as much as she wants.  And if
she invests now, she gets her name on a list. If she wants to buy one of the
houses, she would get first choice.  Stanley says she'll earn more interest
than she could hope to get on C.D.'s, a money market account or a mutual
fund."

Lexa had been listening carefully as she placed silverware
in their proper setting at the small dinette table.  "Can she afford to
risk her money?"

Josh shrugged.  "Maybe it's not much of a risk.  If
it's run by a stable corporation, it would be like a bond or a real estate
investment trust."

"I'd like to know the name of the company so it could
be checked out with a rating service," Lexa said, obviously worried.

"But wouldn't Mr. Stanley have done that?"  Clare
looked perplexed.

Lexa took the plastic wrap from the food Josh had brought to
the table.  "He should have."  Lexa began thinking out loud. 
"Unless he has an ax to grind.  Some interest of his own.  But then he
wouldn't be advising in good faith."

"I know, you don't like his eyes," Josh
remembered.    The hairs on Lexa's neck prickled.  She also remembered her
proximity to Josh, his warm breath on her cheek when he'd asked her what she
thought of his eyes.

Josh fished serving spoons from a drawer.  "Most people

are still babes in the woods when it comes to finances.  And
they can't tell a scam when they hear it. I have a friend who's a detective in
the police department.  Maybe he can make a check on Stanley and find out if
he's legitimate.  There are too many con artists out there who prey on the
elderly."

Lexa was glad Josh wasn't dismissing his aunt's concerns. 
With a contact in the police department, he could probably get farther than she
could. 

 Supper with Josh and Clare was an experience for Lexa. 
Josh and his aunt laughed, argued, and joked freely with no undercurrents or
hostilities.  It was different from her own family.  When she went home, she
and Dani ate quietly with their father and only engaged in polite
conversation.  Lexa was worried how her father was going to take the news that
Dani was pregnant.

Josh watched Lexa as she spoke with him without meeting his
eyes, as she talked with Clare as if they'd been friends for years.  She was an
enigma.

She'd turned up at the store for a tour.  He'd been
surprised how much that pleased him.  Of course the way he'd been dressed, or
rather, undressed...  Her eyes on him had made his pulse gallop, his body
throb.  How often could simply a woman's gaze do that?

He still didn't know exactly what had happened at the store,
though he could make a good guess.  He'd mentioned five kids, wanting a big
family.  And she'd gotten as nervous as a scared rabbit.  She was a career
woman, all right.  The thought of diapers and teething rings probably seemed
dreary and unexciting.  Though she'd been interested in infants' toys.

He definitely couldn't figure her out.  She'd checked on Stanley.  He couldn't fault the way she'd handled herself so far.  As far as her advice to
Clare, the house might not be such a bad idea.  At least he didn't have to
worry about his aunt being lonely.

Clare brought Josh's attention back to the conversation. 
"Lexa, would you like to play a game of Scrabble after dinner?  If you
distract him, I could win for a change."

Again, Lexa evaded his line of vision.  "I'm sorry,
Clare.  But I have to make a few calls tonight that could be lengthy."

Josh couldn't help but think that was an excuse to leave, an
excuse not to be there with him.  "Business?"

"No.  I'm working with an interdenominational church
group.  We'd like to get something going in the area for teenagers.  We're
trying to convince business concerns to buy a building and turn it into a teen
center.  The kids need activities to get them off the streets.  The churches
are willing to provide volunteers for manpower."

"It sounds like a difficult undertaking."

"It's a challenge."

"You like challenges."

"Yes, when I know the result will be worthwhile."

He liked challenges, too.  And Alexandra Kittredge was fast
becoming one.

After they'd finished supper and cleaned up the kitchen,
Lexa went to the living room for her jacket.  She'd been very careful not to
get too close to him.  Josh wondered if that was because she felt the same
electricity he did.

When she said good-bye to Clare, Josh decided to tempt
fate.  "I'll walk you to your car."

"That's not necessary."

"I could use some fresh air.  Clare, I'll be back in a
few minutes."

"Take your time."  His aunt gave him a wicked grin
that had matchmaker stamped from one end to the other.  She turned to Lexa and
hugged her.  "I'll see you at the Halloween Party if not before."

Lexa and Josh stepped outside into the crisp autumn air. 
Stray leaves flittered in the breeze.  Josh walked with Lexa down the curved
path cutting through the yard.  "Did you have a good weekend with your
sister?"

"It was nice."

"Are you close?"

Lexa smiled.  "Yes.  We're as different as night and
day.  But we've always had each other."

"The two of you against the world?"

She nodded, hesitated, then said, "Dani and I had
problems with our step-mother.  So that made our bond even stronger."

Josh stood on the sidewalk with Lexa, entranced with the
gold in her hair shimmering under the streetlight's glow.  "Are you going
to the Halloween Party by yourself?"

"Yes."

"I could pick you up."

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why not?"

She ducked her head and took her keys from her purse. 
"It just isn't."  She turned away to open her car door.

Deciding to confront her head-on, Josh clasped her
shoulder.  "Lexa, why are you running from me?"

CHAPTER FOUR

"I'm not running."  Lexa could feel the heat of
each of Josh's fingers burning through her jacket and blouse.

"Then go to the Halloween party with me."

Lexa knew she shouldn't.  She suspected the more time she
spent with Josh, the more time she'd want to spend with him.  How had she
gotten herself into this mess?  She looked up at him and that was a mistake. 
His honest blue eyes enticed and excited her.  Couldn't she have a taste of spending
some time with him?  Just a taste?

"All right.  I'll go with you.  But..."

"But?"

"But I can't get involved with anyone right now.  If we
go, we go as friends."

His gaze was filled with questions he didn't ask.  Maybe
because he guessed she wouldn't answer them.  He smiled.  "That sounds
good to me."

***

Yes, friendship sounded good, Lexa thought as she poured
herself a cup of punch.  But deep down, she knew more than friendship was
simmering between her and Josh.

They'd arrived an hour ago and had been socializing most of
that time with Clare and her friends.  Lexa felt very safe...until she looked
at Josh.  History had never seen a sexier or more handsome Dracula.  His long
legs encased in slim black trousers, the black turtleneck hugging his chest,
the dramatic black cape trimmed in red.  He'd discarded the mask soon after
they'd arrived.

Someone's IPOD attached to a dock and speakers blared songs
from the fifties and sixties.  Lexa took a sip of punch.

A hand on her shoulder startled her.

"Okay, gypsy, let's see how good you are at the
jitterbug."

She turned around, knowing the voice as well as she knew her
own.  "What if I don't know how?"

Josh grinned.  "Something tells me you do.  And if you
don't, I'll teach you."

She set down her cup.  "The jitterbug was one of the
few dances I enjoyed learning when I was twelve and taking dancing lessons.  At
that age, I didn't want a boy any closer than the next room.  It sure was
better than the fox trot."

"And now?"  He was teasing and serious at the same
time.

"Now, I don't dance with boys."

Hot, dark desire sparked in Josh's eyes.  He took her hand. 
"Let's see you jitterbug, gypsy."

She and Josh matched their basic step and then begun.  Her
full red skirt swirled around her when he twirled her; her white satin blouse
clung as he spun her, guided her, pulled her into a sidecar position and swept
her in a circle.  When the dance was over, he pulled her to him and gave her a
giant hug.  "You were terrific."

His damp heat met hers and locked her to him.  Her arms had
automatically circled his back to return the hug.  But she felt his belt buckle
against her stomach, she smelled intoxicating male, and when she gazed into his
eyes, she wanted to stroke his face.  Impossible.  Totally impossible.  Where
was her common sense?

She pulled out of his embrace and fanned herself with her
hand.

"Need a breath of fresh air?"

"Sounds good."

They were only standing outside a few moments when Lexa
realized fall was gone and winter was making its entrance, at least after the
sun went down.  She shivered.

"Do you want to go back in?"

Lexa took a few deep breaths, needing the sense-clearing of
the colder air.  "No.  Not yet."