Natural Born Daddy (20 page)

Jordan glanced at his wife. Kelly's cheeks were flushed with embarrassment. She'd looked everywhere but at him since they'd arrived. He couldn't decide whether he wanted to console her or to shake her.

Dammit all, he hadn't wanted to head back to Houston today any more than she had. He still wasn't quite sure how it had happened, except that she'd dug in her heels and then he'd dug in his and their disagreement had escalated from there. Somehow he'd forgotten how often that used to happen to them as kids. They were both quick to anger and stubborn as mules. It had always taken Luke or Cody to coax them out of their funks.

He glanced at his older brother and caught a grin tugging at Luke's mouth. Obviously he was recalling the same thing. The amused reaction left Jordan feeling faintly disgruntled. Clearly he couldn't count on much help from that direction. Luke seemed perfectly content to let him and Kelly work this fight out all on their own.

“I'm sure Jordan and Kelly have their reasons for going to Houston today,” Luke observed, confirming Jordan's opinion of his brother's intention to stay the hell out of this argument.

Jessie didn't appear to have the same reticence. “What reasons?” she demanded, frowning. “Dani's perfectly fine here with us, aren't you, sweetie?”

Dani nodded. “I'm helping Consuela take care of Angela. She's messy.”

The comment drew a faint smile from Jordan. “I can vouch for that,” he murmured.

“Hey, that's my daughter you're maligning,” Jessie said. “Dani, honey, why don't you go check on her? She's with Consuela.”

As soon as the child had run off to the kitchen, she turned her determined gaze back on Jordan. “Okay, explain.”

Jordan swallowed hard under the scrutiny. “I don't think so.”

Jessie looked from him to Kelly. “Kelly?”

“Ask Jordan.”

Luke laughed out loud at that. “Maybe their reasons are none of our business,” Luke suggested.

Jessie did not seem pleased by her husband's observation. “Of course, it's our business. We're talking about your brother and my friend.”

“That doesn't give us inalienable rights to interfere,” Luke shot back.

Suddenly, to Jordan's astonishment, Kelly chuckled. “Stop it, you two. The next thing we know, you'll be fighting and you won't even know why.”

Jessie regarded her intently. “Do you know why you're fighting?”

Kelly considered the question thoughtfully. “I know,” she said. “I'm not so sure Jordan does.”

He frowned at that. “Hey, don't make me into the bad guy here.”

Luke gazed heavenward. “How many times have I heard those words from you two? You'd think after all these years, you'd learn to fight fair.”

“I'm not the one…” Kelly began.

“Whose side are you on, big brother?” Jordan demanded.

“Ah, the sweet sound of two stubborn personalities butting heads yet again,” Luke said. “Jessie, maybe we should back off and let them fight it out.”

“Not in my living room,” she countered. “I do have a compromise, though.”

At the mention of compromise, Kelly's gaze caught his. He wasn't sure but he thought he detected amusement dancing in her eyes. “Bad idea,” he told Jessie. “I'm afraid compromise is what got us into this argument.”

Jessie wasn't about to be put off so easily. “That's not possible. Compromise is good.”

“Not necessarily,” Kelly muttered.

“Well, you'll just have to listen to mine,” Jessie declared. “If you two absolutely must go to Houston, wait and leave in the morning, let Dani stay here until you come back. At least you'll have some privacy for the next week or so. It may not be a honeymoon in the Caribbean, but it's the best I can offer on short notice.”

Jordan glanced hopefully at Kelly. Given time, he knew they could work this disagreement out. It would go much more smoothly if they didn't have Dani to worry about. It was Kelly's call, though. He wasn't
about to start their marriage by forcing her to leave her daughter behind. He didn't ever want her to think that he wasn't interested in all of them being a family. Unfortunately, she didn't look overjoyed by the suggestion.

“I don't know…” She looked at him, clearly struggling with the prospect of abandoning her child even for a few days. “Jordan?”

“It's up to you.”

“Come on,” Jessie urged. “It's the perfect solution. She's having a wonderful time here and she's no trouble at all. You were planning for her to be here a few days anyway. Besides, you don't want her caught up in the middle of your argument, do you?”

Jordan watched Kelly debating with herself, clearly aware of the sense of Jessie's suggestion, but resisting it just the same. He kept silent and let her work it out on her own.

“I suppose it would be okay just this once,” Kelly agreed eventually. She shot a determined look at Jordan and added, as if daring him to contradict her, “We'll pick her up Friday evening.”

“Absolutely,” he agreed.

Still looking worried, she gazed at Jessie. “Are you sure it won't be an imposition?”

“Absolutely not,” Jessie said. “Right, Luke?”

Luke cast a quick look Jordan's way. Jordan gave his older brother an almost imperceptible nod.

“Right,” Luke agreed.

“And you'll stay the night,” Jessie prodded.

Clearly Kelly would have preferred to eat dirt, but she nodded. Jordan figured he had till morning to think how to mend fences.

* * *

They were on their way at daybreak. Dani hadn't batted an eye at their departure, but Kelly had been misty-eyed ever since.

“Are you sure you don't mind leaving Dani here?” Jordan asked after he'd made the turn onto the highway. “There's still time to change your mind.”

“No, I think it's best that you and I resolve some things before we try to get on with having any kind of normal family life. Jessie was right. Dani heard enough fighting between Paul and me. I don't want her to go through that again.”

Jordan studied her intently. “Are we going to fight?”

She sighed and met his gaze. “It seems inevitable, doesn't it?”

“What seems inevitable to me is being married to you,” he said at once. “The rest of it is just details.”

Kelly's startled expression gave way to something that might have been relief. “Do you really mean that?” she asked.

“I never say anything I don't mean,” he assured her. “Sometimes I don't phrase things tactfully enough. Ginger's always getting on me about that. Sometimes I cut to the chase too soon, but I always, always mean what I say.”

He slowed the car and eased it onto the shoulder of the road, so he could look directly into her eyes. “When I stood in front of that minister night before last and promised to love, honor and cherish you all the rest of our days, I meant every word.” He leveled a gaze straight at her. “Did you?”

Tears shone in her eyes and her lower lip trembled as she nodded. “I did.”

“Then, like I said, sweet pea, all the rest is details.”

T
he very first detail Kelly intended to deal with was getting the two of them out of Houston permanently. She had forgotten how heavy and oppressive the air there could be in midsummer. Clothes clung damply the minute they stepped out of the car. The movement between stifling heat and air-conditioning was capable of inducing pneumonia, especially since Jordan kept his home at Arctic-level temperatures. A chill sped through her at the blast of cold air that hit her the instant he opened the huge, carved front door.

Other than the frigid temperature, Kelly really had nothing against Jordan's house. She'd been in it dozens of times when she had lived in Houston. She'd always admired the neat sweep of perfectly tended lawn, the cool turquoise waters of the pool, the thick, lush wall-to-wall carpeting, the decorator-chosen selection of fine paintings and antiques.

None of it, though, seemed to have anything to do with Jordan, at least not the man she knew. What
frightened her was the possibility that it might reflect this other Jordan, the shrewd businessman she wasn't nearly so fond of, the man who bargained for a bride with the same single-minded determination with which he'd go after an oil contract.

Only his study, with its book-lined walls, its slightly faded Southwestern decor, its original Remington bronze sculpture, seemed to fit his personality or his taste. The rest was too formal, too sterile.

And she could just imagine how long it would take Dani to destroy all those yards and yards of white carpeting that had clearly been chosen by someone without children or, worse, by someone who never intended to have children.

Children? Dear heaven, they hadn't even discussed them except in the most passing way. What if Jordan really didn't want more? What if all that white carpet had been the idea of a man who saw his house as a showplace rather than a home? What had happened to her brain? Why hadn't she asked the most basic question of all?
Do you, Jordan Adams, want a family?
Paul had certainly taught her that was something that couldn't be taken for granted.

Seeing Jordan with Dani must have reassured her, but she'd been a fool not to ask anyway. Making assumptions was the worst sort of mistake a woman could make, especially when it was a lesson she should have already learned.

Standing in the doorway, her thoughts in turmoil, she was startled when Jordan lifted her off her feet to carry her across the threshold. She was struck anew by the enormity of what they had done. Somehow, even more than the vows they'd taken, the traditional
act of being carried across the threshold into Jordan's home, onto Jordan's turf, reminded her of all the unanswered questions, of the compromise she had agreed to to be with this man she loved. A renewed sense of panic set in.

Apparently oblivious to her shift in mood, Jordan set her carefully back on her feet in the huge foyer, then took her hand as he led the way upstairs for the first time.

It was late. The drive had taken forever and they had stopped often, rarely talking, just grabbing a bite to eat or a tall, cool, soft drink to soothe their parched throats. Going to bed seemed only logical, but Kelly wasn't ready for that. She couldn't seem to form the words, though, that would halt their inevitable progress up that wide, winding staircase. Being alone with Jordan in Luke and Jessie's guest suite sure had been hard enough. This was awful.

At the doorway to the master suite, he paused. “Kelly?”

She heard an unfamiliar note of uncertainty in his voice and met his gaze. “What?”

“I want you to be happy here. I want us to be happy.”

He seemed to be imploring her to reassure him that their quick, impulsive marriage was moving onto more solid ground. Unfortunately, she had too many uncertainties herself to be able to say exactly what he clearly wanted to hear.

Instead she gazed across this threshold into a room she hadn't seen before. In all of her previous visits she'd studiously avoided so much as a peek at a room that had seemed emotionally off-limits to her as Jordan's friend, rather than his lover. She hadn't
wanted to see the bed to which he took other women but never her.

Now, she surveyed the dark furnishings that had been someone's idea of a bachelor's taste and opted for a touch of humor. “You could go a long way toward making that happen by getting rid of the fur bedspread and the waterbed.”

As she'd hoped, he grinned. “The fur's not real.”

“No, but without it, you could probably raise the thermostat another ten degrees.”

“Too cold in here?”

“Not if you're wrapped in that thing.”

He chuckled. “Okay, I get the message. Now, about the waterbed. Have you ever slept in one?”

“No.”

“Don't knock it till you've tried it.”

“Jordan, I get seasick. You couldn't even take me out on the creek in a rowboat, remember?”

He turned an interesting shade of green at the memory. “I'll have it out of here in the morning,” he promised. “Of course, we should check to make absolutely sure it's a problem.”

Kelly regarded the bed doubtfully, but there was such a gleam of pure anticipation in Jordan's eyes that she kept her doubts to herself. “If you say so.”

She approached the king-size waterbed tentatively. There was something incredibly seductive about it, especially with that expanse of soft, fake fur spread across it. She sat down and tested her stomach as the bed shifted beneath her. The ebb and flow of the water was disconcerting, but not entirely unpleasant.

“Well?” Jordan asked, his expression hopeful.

“So far, so good,” she admitted.

“Mind if I join you?”

She eyed the bed nervously. “Not as long as you don't fling yourself on the bed and set off a tidal wave.”

Clearly amused, he dropped down beside her. His weight set off another softly rolling wave.

“Ready for the next step?” he inquired.

“Which is?”

“Getting out of our clothes.”

She stood hastily and backed off a step. “I think I'll do that on firm ground, thank you very much.”

“But you will be back?”

She gazed into worried blue eyes and sensed a deep concern for getting things off to the right start here in his home. “I will be back,” she promised, then amended, “Tonight.”

“And tomorrow?”

“Maybe we ought to take one night at a time,” she said, casting a suspicious look at the bed. “You might not even want me back in there tomorrow if this doesn't go well.”

“Maybe not in
this
bed,” he agreed with a mischievous smile that reminded her of the Jordan of old. “But, like I told you before, this can be out of here first thing in the morning and one more to your liking in its place.”