A Marriage Between Friends. Melinda Curtis

sheer force of will she managed to take a jerky step back. Surely he’d see her discomfort. He’d always been good at picking up on her body language, but it had been so long he probably didn’t realize. Long arms reached for her. Large hands settled on her shoulders and drew her to him.

      Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t… “Don’t!” she cried, her feet suddenly obeying her mind. Her butt hit the remaining sawhorse and she would have flipped over it, but Vince held her tight.

      “I’M NOT GOING to support your casino.” Wary-eyed, Jill wrenched herself free from his grip and edged around the sawhorse until it stood between them.

      “Mom? Are you okay?”

      “I’m…fine.” She gave her son a weak smile.

      “Jill?” That unwanted protective male instinct, the one only Jill aroused, had reawakened. Vince wiped his palms, still warm from touching her, against his trousers and stepped away.

      “I’m fine,” Jill repeated, hefting one end of the sawhorse and dragging it toward the open shed behind the garage. “I’m not supporting your casino.”

      “I haven’t asked you to,” Vince snapped, taking the other end of the sawhorse and examining her face, hoping to find a reason for his old obsession.

      Jill stumbled under his scrutiny, but kept walking backward.

      On the first day of kindergarten Jill had stuck up for Vince in front of a teacher, and he’d contracted a bad case of puppy love that continued through childhood only to fizzle out less than a year after their wedding day. She was pretty enough, but no longer his type. He liked his women pouty and aggressive in bed, women who didn’t mind that he wore a wedding ring and wasn’t interested in anything long-term. Vince took note of how high up Jill had buttoned her flannel shirt.

      Nope. He was definitely over her.

      “Just so you know,” Jill said woodenly, “people come here to get away from it all. Having a casino at the turnoff to Shady Oak doesn’t exactly reinforce that feeling of peaceful solitude.”

      Vince didn’t want to talk about the casino. “The two can coexist.”

      “Not on my mountain.” Taking baby steps, Jill led him into the gloomy, crowded shed. Once the sawhorse was on the floor and the only barrier between Jill and the door was Vince, she froze, watching her husband from the shadows as if scared of him.

      Of him. As if he’d been the one who attacked her. Could the day get any worse? Vince stubbornly refused to move, waiting for Jill to show some backbone. “I don’t think you own the entire mountain.”

      “No.” She still didn’t move.

      They stared at each other in silence for several seconds more.

      With a sigh, Vince backed out of the shed and into the boy.

      Craig’s son.

      The vivid blue eyes and reddish-brown hair were Jill’s. Try as he might, Vince couldn’t see anything in this kid of the solidly built, blond mama’s boy who’d date-raped Jill.

      “Who are you?” the kid asked.

      “Vince Patrizio.” Vince offered his hand and took the opportunity to lead the boy back to the garage.

      The smell of new wood permeated the crisp mountain air. From what he could see, Shady Oak was a replica of an old Western town. There were small bungalows with covered plank porches and wooden rocking chairs. The garage was painted to look like a red barn. A two-story 1800s-style building with a sign across large double doors proclaimed it to be Edda Mae’s Dining Emporium. The entire place would have looked like a kids’ movie set, except there was no landscaping, just dirt and pine trees.

      “I’m Teddy Patrizio. We have the same last name.” Teddy cast a questioning sideways glance at Vince.

      Vince was only half listening, still thinking about Jill’s Western corporate retreat, a concept very similar to the themed casinos in Vegas. “It’s a good last name. It’s Italian. I’m happy to share it.”

      Jill hurried past, picking up a tool chest on her way to the front of the garage. Wearing boot-cut jeans, her legs looked long and Vince found it hard not to follow her every move with his eyes until he realized he had an audience.

      Another sidelong stare from the boy. This one appraising. “I don’t look anything like you.”

      “Teddy!” Jill turned at the corner of the building, her voice giving away her distress.

      The kid leaned closer to Vince and whispered, “I know who you are.”

      Premonition prickled the hair on the back of Vince’s neck and he found himself bending lower.

      “Theodore Tatum Patrizio!” Jill’s gaze collided with Vince’s, a plea for help in her eyes, but Vince didn’t understand what she needed.

      And it was suddenly important that Vince knew who her son thought he was.

      “You’re Batman.” Teddy smirked at Vince, then winked at his mother. “Right, Mom?”

      “Teddy.” Jill shook her head, looking incredibly relieved. “That wasn’t funny.”

      “You’ve lost me,” Vince said.

      “It was a joke.” All traces of humor gone, Teddy knelt and picked up a paintbrush as his mother disappeared into the garage. “You’re not my dad,” the boy said in a dejected voice after a few brush strokes.

      Vince hadn’t expected such honesty from one so young. “No, I’m not.”

      “But you’re related to me.”

      Watching them, Jill hesitated at the corner of the garage.

      “Well, I married—”

      “Vince, no!”

      “—your mother.”

      “You are my dad. I knew it.” Teddy jumped up, tossed the paintbrush on a scrap of newspaper and flung his arms around Vince.

      His palm landed awkwardly on top of Teddy’s soft auburn hair.

      “Teddy. Teddy, let go, baby.” Jill was at Vince’s feet, pulling Teddy back to her. But the boy only clung tighter to Vince. “Teddy, he’s not your father.” Jill skewered Vince with a look.

      “But you’re married.” The boy stared at his mother with eyes suddenly welling with tears.

      Jill shook her head and drew Teddy away from Vince.

      “But—”

      “Your father didn’t want…” Jill’s voice trailed off and she looked at Vince helplessly.

      Teddy cut a quick glance in Vince’s direction. “You didn’t want me?”

      “Dad, I’ll be good. I promise. Don’t leave.” Trying not to cry, Vince blocked the door. But his father was bigger and stronger and had no trouble easing Vince aside. Had no trouble leaving without looking back.

      “I always wanted you.” On impulse Vince put a hand on Teddy’s skinny shoulder. He’d been ready to take on the responsibility of fatherhood and give this boy the love he deserved. When he’d asked Jill to marry him he’d told her that everyone deserved to be loved, even a baby you hadn’t counted on.

      “Vince, don’t build his hopes,” Jill warned.

      Teddy wiped tears from his cheeks and gazed up at Vince reverently. In that moment, Vince would have done anything for the kid.

      “You always think things are more complicated than they are,” Vince said softly, unable to take his eyes off Teddy.

      “And you always believe you’ve found the best and only solution.”

      Vince scowled and stared pointedly at his ring