A Little Dare - Brenda Jackson [51]
Just like always.
Eleven
S helly stretched out in her bed with a sensuous sigh. Almost two weeks had passed since she and Dare had spent the night together on a blanket in her backyard. Since then, nightly meetings in the backyard on a blanket had become almost a ritual. He had become almost a fixture in her home, dropping by for dinner, and inviting her and AJ to a movie or some other function in town.
AJ was beginning to let his guard down around Dare, but as yet he had not acknowledged him as his father. Shelly knew Dare’s patience was wearing thin; he was eager to claim his son, but as she had explained to Dare weeks ago, AJ had to believe in his heart that his father wanted him for a son before he could give Dare his complete love and trust.
She then thought about her own feelings for Dare. She had to fight hard to keep from falling in love with Dare all over again. She had to remember they were playacting for AJ’s sake. To anyone observing them, it seemed that he was wooing her. He was giving the towns people something to talk about with the different flower arrangements that he sent her each week.
A couple of people had taken her aside and warned her not to be setting herself up for heartbreak all over again, since everyone knew Dare Westmoreland was a staunch bachelor. But there were others who truly felt he was worthy of another chance, and they tried convincing her that if anyone could change Dare’s bachelor status, she could.
What she couldn’t tell them was that she was not interested in changing Dare’s bachelor status. Although she had detected some changes in him, she could not forget that at one time he had been a man driven to reach out for dreams that had not included her. And she could never let herself become vulnerable to that type of pain again. For six years she had believed she was the most important thing in Dare’s life, and to find out that she hadn’t been had nearly destroyed her. She had enough common sense to know that what she and Dare were sharing in the backyard at night was not based on emotional but on physical needs, and as long as she was able to continue to know the difference, she would be all right.
She pulled herself up in bed when she heard the knock on her bedroom door. “Come in, AJ.”
It was early still, an hour before daybreak, but she knew he was excited. Today was the day that Dare’s sister Delaney and her family were arriving from the Middle East. The Westmoreland brothers were ecstatic and had talked about their one and only sister so much over the past two weeks that AJ had gotten caught up in their excitement; after all, the woman was his aunt, although he assumed Delaney didn’t know it.
He opened the door and stood just within the shadows of the light coming in from the hallway. Again, Shelly couldn’t help but notice just how much he looked like Dare. No wonder the town was buzzing. “What is it, AJ?”
He shrugged. “I wanted to talk to you about something, Mom.”
She nodded and scooted over in bed, but he went and sat in the chair. Evidently, he thought he was past the age to get into his mother’s bed. Shelly’s heart caught. Her son was becoming a young man and with his budding maturity came a lot of issues that Dare would be there to help her with. Not only Dare but the entire Westmoreland family.
He remained silent for a few minutes, then he spoke. “I’ve decided to tell the sheriff I’m his son.”
Shelly’s heart did a flip, and she swallowed slowly. “When did you decide that?”
“Yesterday.”
“And what made you change your mind?”
“I’ve been watching him, Mom. I was in Kate’s Diner one morning last week when he came in, but he didn’t see me at first. When he walked in, all the people there acted like they were glad to see him, and he knew all their names and asked them how they were doing. Then it hit me that he really wasn’t a bad cop or a mean cop at all. No one would like him if he was, and everybody likes him, Mom.”
Shelly blinked away the tears from her eyes. AJ was right. Everyone liked Dare and thought well of him.