That Thing Called Love

“Christ.” He shifted uncomfortably. “That old rehabbed chicken coop?”

“Yeah. Where her mom just curled up and died. I’m talking literally. From what I heard, the woman couldn’t live with her loss of status and just willed herself to die. But it took her a while. By the time she passed, Jenny was a senior and had been working for the Pierces almost two years.”

“So—what? They just replaced Kari with her?” Even as the words left his mouth, he knew he was the last person with any room for righteous indignation.

But somehow that didn’t stop him from feeling it.

Max gave him a look that suggested he was thinking the same thing. But he merely said, “The one time I went to their house to see Austin, I was strongly discouraged, so I’m hardly an expert on their mind-set.”

That sidetracked Jake. “You wanted to see Austin?”

“I thought I should meet my nephew.”

He simply stared at Max for a moment before admitting, “It never occurred to me you were his uncle. But you are, aren’t you?”

“Not as far as Emmett and Kathy were concerned,” Max said drily. “They said considering my background with you and the fact that the little dude didn’t know me from Adam, they didn’t see the point in my spending time with him—that he’d only be confused.” He shrugged. “They were probably right. I mean, you and I never acted like real brothers. Why should my relationship with your get be any different? But I always wondered if maybe I shouldn’t have pressed them a little harder. Done more. Hell, I put more effort into getting to know the boys over at Cedar Village,” he added, naming the home for delinquent boys on Orilla Road outside town.

Then he shook his head. “That’s not what we were talking about, though. Because one thing I do know about the Pierces is that they sure as hell mourned Kari. So I doubt replacing her with Jenny entered into the equation. I think they saw a hardworking girl who was the age their daughter had been when she died and who was struggling to make ends meet—and thought they could help. In the end, I believe they came to think of Jenny as the next best thing to a daughter.”

“What about her? What did she get out of the relationship, besides the obvious?”

Max’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t like what you’re implying, bro.”

“She went from the Bakers’ chicken coop to the Pierces’ big Craftsman.”

“Where she refused every enticement to live a life of leisure.” Max looked him in the eyes. “And you know she could have. But Jenny kept working at the inn and, after graduating, put herself through college. With no help from the Pierces, from everything I’ve ever heard. She earned her promotions with good, old-fashioned hard work. And she moved out of that big Craftsman. Bought the little cabin she lives in from Emmett.” Max gave him a hard look. “So, you don’t want to be calling that kettle black, pot.”

Jake scrubbed his hands over his face. “I know. I know.”

“I’ll tell you what I think she got from her relationship with Emmett and Kathy. They were considerably older than her own parents, and I think she looked on them as sort of grandparents. You gotta know how they spoiled Kari—”

He nodded. God, did he ever.

“They did the same thing with Austin, but Jenny curbed it wherever she could. So the kid is less spoiled than his mother was. And she flat-out refused to let them spoil her.”

“Yeah, she’s a goddamn paragon,” Jake muttered, staring across the room at her profile.

“Pretty much,” Max agreed cheerfully. “A helluva lot more than you can ever hope to be.”

Jake abruptly became aware that the strawberry blonde was watching him watch Jenny, and even as he noticed, she leaned into the table to say something to her friend. Jenny turned to look his way, a friendly, interested smile on her face.

It turned cool as the evening wind when she saw him.

“Shit.”

Max glanced over his shoulder, then looked back at him with raised eyebrows. “And you call yourself a big-city sophisticate? Hell, even us rubes know if you stare at a female like a dog at a juicy bone long enough—”

“The hell I did!”

Max thrust an authoritative forefinger at him. “Dog.” The finger thrust in Jenny’s general direction. “Juicy bone.” He shook his head. “Jesus, kid. I’m embarrassed to acknowledge some of the same blood runs in our veins. It was only a matter of time until you were busted.”

CHAPTER FOUR

JENNY STROLLED INTO THE INN’S dining room the following morning, only to rock to a halt in the doorway when she saw Jake Bradshaw sitting alone at one of the window tables. How did he do that? How the hell did he manage to be everywhere she went?

Wasn’t it enough that he’d thrown a monkey wrench into her get-away-from-it-all evening with Tasha last night? Now he had to invade her dining room, as well? This was her time of the morning, dammit, her territory, her inn.

Okay, maybe the latter wasn’t hers in the legal sense, aside from the portion Emmett had so generously bequeathed her. But in all the ways that mattered, she claimed ownership. The Brothers Inn had been a major part of her life since she’d arrived in Razor Bay at sixteen. Hell, it was the reason she’d come to this town in the first place—the promise of a job when the pampered life she’d known had disintegrated in the wake of her father’s arrest and incarceration.

And ever since Emmett had promoted her to general manager, she’d made a habit of coming to the dining room each morning at the end of the breakfast shift to eat that much-touted most important meal of the day. She’d found it particularly beneficial since Austin had moved in with her. Breakfast at the inn was her way of easing into the day, a transition between getting the teen off to school and diving into her busy shift at the inn.

Striding across the room, she smiled at or murmured hellos to the few guests still finishing up their meals, before stopping at Jake’s table.

“What are you doing here?” Okay, so it was obvious, given the topped-off coffee cup at his elbow and the plate containing a smear of egg yolk, an untouched bunch of red grapes and a single crust of toast, which he’d pushed out of the way to accommodate the Bremerton Sun he was reading.

But it was the best she could do when she wasn’t allowed to say, You breathe, therefore you bother me—get the hell out of my dining room.

“Hey.” He looked up from the newspaper spread out on the table. Flashed her a million-dollar smile. “I’m having breakfast. You, too?”

She crossed her arms beneath her breasts and tapped the toe of a fabulous-if-she-did-say-so-herself Steve Madden Mary Jane. It reverberated a soft tattoo against the hardwood floor.

Jake’s smile faded. “Is it a problem that I’m staying here? Do you want me to leave?”

Yes! The moment Austin had left this morning, she’d put in a call to the Pierces’ lawyer to discuss her chances of keeping the boy with her now that his absentee father had stated a willingness to fight for custody. Already feeling ragged from the results of that conversation, learning that blood relatives are almost always chosen over a nonrelated contestant, she wished nothing more than for Jake Bradshaw to go far, far away.

And never come back.

But he’d made it pretty clear that wasn’t going to happen. And she knew the bastard had been right when he’d told her that either she could make things easier for Austin, or she could stick to her guns and likely make them a lot more difficult. So she sighed and dropped her arms to her sides.

“No. We don’t make a habit of turning customers away at The Brothers just because we don’t like their looks.” Hearing herself, she almost blew a pithy little raspberry, but managed to sink her teeth into her lower lip before she could follow through on the impulse. But, please. She doubted anyone had ever turned this guy away over his looks. “Or their history. Not if they aren’t currently doing anything wrong.”

He raised his eyebrows. “But it’s just a matter of time, eh?”

“You said it, not me.”

He laughed. “You’re not shy about trying to kick my teeth down my throat, are you? I like that about you.”

She gave him her politest GM smile. “Always happy to oblige.”

“I bet you are.” He kicked the chair across from him away from the table. “Have a seat.”

The response that rose to her lips was very un-GM-like, not to mention an anatomical impossibility. Austin, she reminded herself firmly. I have to consider Austin first and foremost.

She sat. “Thank you. I’m not sure I’ve ever received an invitation so suave.”

He grinned. “It’s my big-city polish.”

Dammit, she didn’t want to like anything about this guy, but she couldn’t stop the corners of her lips from twitching upward in appreciation. Then the decision she’d made after a night spent tossing and turning slammed front and center.