“Sounds nice to me. My parents are kind of stiff.”
“And my sisters and their husbands are all the same way.”
She couldn’t tell what he was so stressed about. “I promise I won’t be offended.”
“Yes but…” His Adams’ apple moved up and down. “She’s going to expect the same of us. Especially since we’re newlyweds.”
“So you’ll have to sleep in here, I’m guessing.”
“You guessed right. She’d be giving us a sex-talk if she thought we weren’t sleeping together. But I can make a pallet on the floor.” He shook his head. “Mom has no boundaries. And all my sisters are just like her.”
“How did you end up so different? Do you take after your dad?”
“No, Dad’s an instigator.” His mouth twisted in a crooked smile. “Actually, our whole family is pretty demonstrative. I’m usually the same way when I bring a girl home.”
“You are?” She finally remembered to pull her hand out of his grasp. “But you and Carlie dated almost a year, and you never even kissed her.”
His face ducked away. “She told you that, huh?”
“She said you were waiting for it to be special.”
“Did she tell you why?” He looked back, a bit of venom in his narrowed eyes. “Did she tell you she was reading a book about waiting until you were married to kiss? She laid down the law the first night we went out.”
“Oh, I remember that book. I didn’t realize she was that into it.”
So Jarrett had wanted to kiss Carlie when they were dating, but he’d held back because he happened to be the nicest guy on the face of the planet. He’d refrained from kissing her because she’d read some trendy book. The story only confirmed what she thought… Jarrett had truly been in love with Carlie, and deep down inside, he probably still was.
“I can’t help wondering if things would’ve been different if I’d ignored her and kissed her anyway.”
“You were trying to respect her wishes.”
“At least I thought I was, but it seems like she didn’t even remember telling me that. With my luck, she changed her mind and thought I knew.”
“Maybe you should remind her about it Sunday night when she comes over to discuss whatever it is her agent is proposing.”
“With Mom and Dad here, that meeting needs to change. Maybe we’ll move it to Matthew’s office.”
“That’s a good idea. Matthew does seem to calm her down.”
“Right.” He mumbled, as if he weren’t really listening. His eyes focused on a distant place beyond the bedroom walls. “You know, I thought waiting until marriage was a bit much, so I got her to agree that our first kiss would happen at a special moment. I’d planned to kiss her when I proposed. I even had the ring.”
Rylie didn’t want to listen, but she needed to. Hearing about his love for Carlie would keep her grounded. How miserable he must be, stuck in a fake marriage to Carlie’s identical sister and being forced to act affectionate. Whenever he was with Rylie, it would remind him of what he’d lost with Carlie.
“I’m sorry it all turned out like this,” Rylie said. “I’ll do whatever I can to help.”
His gaze darted to her and back to his lap. “Do you mean that?”
“Of course! What do you need me to do?”
“Well…” His sultry eyes bored into hers. “Once or twice next week, while my parents are here, we need to kiss. Like a real kiss… on the lips.”
“Oh.” The word came out as a squeak, something you would hear from a cartoon mouse, which was about how she felt.
As she was trying to figure out how she could possibly kiss him on the lips without revealing her feelings for him, he added a sentence that sent her into a coughing fit.
“And you need to look like you enjoy it.”
CHAPTER 12
It was almost six o’clock by the time Jarrett pulled into the garage with their precious cargo. With Gabe’s arms and legs securely velcroed around her, Rylie could have carried him hands-free, but she hugged him like a precious bundle as she carried him inside. Jarrett brought the bags inside and shut the door, his heart too big for his chest. They were home, at last. His new family… at least for the next year. With Rylie’s help, he’d calmed down about the decorating mishap. It helped a great deal to see the family room back to normal when he walked in the door with Gabe.
“Are you hungry, buddy?” Jarrett didn’t bother to use his broken Spanish. From all the adoption resources he’d greedily consumed, he’d learned children Gabe’s age would quickly pick up the language simply from hearing it. Jarrett would reserve Spanish for times when they were unable to communicate any other way.
Rylie carried Gabe into the kitchen, his face buried against her chest. But he looked up with interest when Jarrett took some cheese out of the refrigerator. He hadn’t lost his hair yet, but that would happen. Jarrett knew from experience the best thing to do, once it began to fall out, was to shave it off. For the duration of his treatments, Gabe could live at home instead of the hospital, unless he got an infection. With leukemia, that was a constant threat. A brightly-colored elastic sleeve covered the PICC line on Gabe’s thin arm, a necessary inconvenience that would let him avoid being repeatedly poked with needles.
Jarrett was fully confident handling Gabe’s medical complications. It was the fatherhood aspect that made him nervous. Why did Rylie seem so calm about parenting?
She sat down with Gabe in her lap, and he twisted toward the table, accepting the piece of cheese Jarrett offered him and eyeing the jelly Jarrett spread on a piece of bread before retrieving the peanut butter from the cabinet.
“You know,” Jarrett said, “I’m used to being perfect at everything I do. But parenting… I’m feeling a little inept.”
“All we can do is read a lot, ask for help, pray, and do our best.”
“Have you ever thought about being a parent? I mean, before you got stuck doing it for Gabe.”
She scooted out from under Gabe, who barely protested, preoccupied with his dinner.
