Smooth Talking Stranger (Travis Family #3)(69)
Jack watched intently as I came to the sofa. "You think she'd hurt him?"
"Oh, not physically, no. Mom never hit me or Tara, or anything like that. But she was a drama queen, and she yelled a lot—which is why, to this day, I can't stand raised voices. I don't want her to do that to Luke. And basically, if I don't want to be alone with her, I can't imagine subjecting Luke to it." I set my mug on the coffee table and reached for the baby. "Here's my boy," I murmured, snuggling his warm, wriggly body against my chest. I glanced at Jack. "How often do you raise your voice?"
"Only at football games. No, that's not true—I also yell at contractors." He leaned over and kissed my temple. His hand closed lightly in my hair. "Do you have plans for the day?"
"No."
"You want to spend it with me?"
I nodded immediately.
"I'd like to take you and Luke to LakeConroe," Jack said. "I keep a boat there. I'll call ahead to the marina and they'll pack lunch for us."
"Would it be okay to take Luke out on a boat?" I asked uncertainly.
"Yeah, he'd be safe in the cabin. And when he's on deck, we'll put him in a life vest."
"Do you have one his size?"
"We’ll get one at the marina."
Lake Conroe was about forty miles north of the Metroplex, and it was unofficially known as Houston's playground. The lake was approximately twenty-one miles long, vaguely scorpion-shaped when seen from overhead, with a third of its shoreline bordered, by the SamHoustonNational Forest. The rest of the area featured high-priced residential communities and almost two dozen golf courses. I had never actually been to Conroe, but I had heard about the lavish water-color sunsets, the luxury resorts and fine restaurants, and its reputation for world-class bass fishing.
"I don't have any experience with boats and fishing," I told Jack on the drive up. "So I'll help as much as I can, but I just want to make certain you understand that I'm flotationally challenged."
Jack grinned, setting his cell phone in one of the cupholders between the front seats of his SUV. Wearing black rimless aviator sunglasses, board shorts, and a fresh white polo shirt, he radiated sexy vitality. "There are boat valets to help us launch. Your only job is to have a good time."
"I can do that." I felt cheerful, alight with a sense of impatient happiness I had never felt before. I actually found it difficult to stay still in my car seat—I was tempted to wriggle like a child on the last day of school with five minutes to go before summer began. For the first time in my life, there was no other place I would rather have been and no one else I wanted to be with. I twisted around to look at Luke's car seat, which was facing backward.
"I should check on him," I said, reaching to unbuckle my seat belt.
"He's fine," Jack said, reaching over to take my hand. "No more crawling back and forth, Ella. Stay buckled in and safe."
"I don't like it when I can't see Luke."
"When do you get to turn him around?"
"He'll have to be a year old, at least." Some of my happiness dimmed. "I won't have him then."
"Have you heard from Tara lately?"
I shook my head. "I'm going to call her tomorrow. Not only do I want to know how she's doing, I want to give her an update on Luke." I paused reflectively. "I have to admit, I'm surprised by how little interest she seems to have in him. I mean, she wants to know if he's basically okay, but all the details—how he's feeding and sleeping, how long he holds his head up, that kind of stuff—she doesn't seem to care.
"Did she ever have an interest in babies before Luke?"
"God, no. Neither of us did. I always thought it was as boring as hell when other people talked about their babies. But it's different when it's your own."
"Maybe Tara didn't have him long enough to feel a bond with him."
"Maybe. But by the second day I was taking care of Luke, I'd already started to—" I stopped and flushed.
Jack glanced at me quickly, his eyes hidden behind the dark lenses. His voice was very gentle. "Started to love him?"
"Yes."
His thumb rubbed an easy circle over the back of my hand. "Why does that embarrass you?"
"I'm not embarrassed, it's just . . . it's not easy for me to talk about that kind of thing."
"You write about it all the time."
"Yes, but not when it involves my own feelings."
"You think of it as a trap?"
"Oh, not a trap. But it gets in the way of things."
I saw the flash of his grin. "What does love get in the way of, Ella?"
"When I broke things off with Dane, for example. It would have been messy and difficult if we'd ever gotten to the point of saying we loved each other. But because we hadn't, it was much easier to detach."
"You're going to have to detach from Luke at some point," Jack said. "Maybe you shouldn't have said it to him."
"He's a baby," I said indignantly. "He has to hear it from someone. How would you like to come into the world and not have anyone say they loved you? "
"My parents never said it. They thought you shouldn't wear out the words."
Lisa Kleypas's Books
- Devil's Daughter (The Ravenels #5)
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- Lisa Kleypas
- Where Dreams Begin
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- Scandal in Spring (Wallflowers #4)
- Devil in Winter (Wallflowers #3)