Naturally Naughty - Leslie Kelly [32]
“My mother’s…wait, you know my mother?” She paused. “You know who I am?”
“Yes. To both questions.”
“How? And what do you mean, you’re renting Mom’s duplex? That’s not possible. You can’t be living in her house.”
“You didn’t know she’d rented it out?”
“Well, of course, but to J. J. Winfield…” Her voice softened. Even in the low lighting provided by the flashlight and the moon shining in through the bare front window, he saw her cheeks go pale and her mouth drop open. “Oh, no. Tell me your name is not J. J. Winfield.”
He shook his head, sending a bolt of relief shooting through her body. “No, it’s not.” Her relief quickly disintegrated when he continued. “No one except my parents and your mother have called me J.J. since I was a teenager. I go by Jack now.”
Kate couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Certainly she couldn’t speak. The man she’d had fabulous sex with in the theater several weeks ago was J. J. Winfield—the son of Mayor John Winfield? The man she’d come back to town to seduce and to destroy was the one who’d already hurt her so badly by breaking his promise to call after their amazing encounter? She covered her eyes. “This is a nightmare.”
“Kate, I’m sorry, I had no idea you were coming back to Ohio. Your mother never mentioned it.”
She didn’t know which was worse. That he was here and she had to face her inattentive lover, or that he was John Winfield Junior. Somehow, the memory of all those long, silent, lonely weeks since she’d seen him last seemed the more devastating now.
“No, of course you didn’t know I was coming.”
Her mother couldn’t have told him, because even she hadn’t known. Kate and Cassie hadn’t told Edie because Kate knew her mother too well. She’d be on the first plane back here if she thought Kate was coming to stay in town.
Cassie was one thing—everyone in the family knew Cassie could take care of herself. With her looks, brains and her self-confidence, Cassie had never really had to rely on anyone for anything. Except love and loyalty, which the Tremaine women were always quick to provide to one another.
But, to Kate’s eternal annoyance, her mother seemed to think Kate was too easily hurt, too vulnerable, and in need of protection. Which really sucked when she wanted people to see a hardworking, intelligent, kick-ass businesswoman. Not the girl who’d cried into her teddy bear after so many childhood hurts, the girl who’d hidden in her tree house and made up stories about how her father hadn’t really died and would one day come back.
Not the girl who’d been dumped on prom night.
Jack couldn’t have heard about her return from anybody else, either. Kate and Cassie had been careful to keep their plans quiet, to avoid the inevitable protests and backlash. She was sure many people had known Cassie had been working in the old storefront for the past three weeks, preparing to open a ladies’ shop, but not the exact nature of the ladies’ shop.
“No, you couldn’t have known I’d show up. You never would have stayed here, in this house, had you known,” she said. “Because, you couldn’t very well avoid me if we were practically roomies. And obviously, you had no intention of seeing me again. Right?” She couldn’t keep the accusation out of her voice. She wondered if he heard the tinge of hurt there, too.
She waited for him to run the usual male line. I meant to call you, babe, just lost your number…forgot to pay my phone bill…broke my dialing finger…was sent away on a deadly, top-secret government mission.
“I should go,” he said, not even acknowledging her justified anger.
His lack of response angered her even more. He couldn’t even attempt to make up a lame excuse? He wasn’t going to be courteous enough to give her the chance to tell him what she thought of him? Wasn’t going to try to sweet talk her so she could tell him he could touch her again when hogs started flying over Pleasantville, leaving the appropriate droppings right down the middle of Magnolia Avenue?
That wasn’t how the game worked. Uh-uh. No way was he getting