Ring Out the Old (Twelves Months of Romance - January) Page 5

  Mentally, Billy added prickly to stubborn. Of course, he could be pretty stubborn himself, as Mrs. Prescott was about to learn.

  “Nope, this is man's work,” he told her, turning her around to nudge her gently away from the dishwasher. “So just get out of my kitchen and leave us to it.” He ignored the three feminine mouths open in shock. “Besides, you and I have to guard the cake. Right, Davey?”

  “Right!” Davey beamed, already anticipating his second piece of cake, even though he hadn't had the first piece yet.

  All-in-all, a very satisfactory evening, Billy thought as he made his way home through the cold night. He'd stayed for a second cup of coffee but resisted Davey's plea for a bedtime story. As wonderful as that would have been, Billy had no intention of getting that involved. He wasn't at all sure Jen would let him at this stage anyway, even if he'd wanted to.

  He opened his back door and stepped into the kitchen. Somehow, the spacious country design he'd planned so carefully had none of the charm and warmth of the modern kitchen he'd installed in the bungalow. He flipped on the lights but they did little to dispel the dark, and he realized that he'd left all the light and warmth back in the home Jen had made for herself and her children.

  It was at that moment that Billy finally admitted that it was way too late to keep his distance. Not only the kids had won his heart, but Jen, with her courage and the warmth she kept so carefully hidden behind her prickly exterior had taken up residence there, too.

  Billy went into his home-office and switched on the light over the drafting table. He'd have to hide his feelings from Jen, at least for the time being. If there was one thing she didn't need right now, it was a man stomping his way into her life and taking over her family.

  But he could put all his pent-up feelings into designing a porch for her, just as pretty and practical as she was. Pretty, so she would feel the porch welcoming her home just as he wished he could do, and practical to ease some of the burden of her life.

  * * *

  When Jen pulled into her driveway after work the next day, she didn't even notice the change at the front of the bungalow. She was too tired. Dr. Haskett said she'd come back to work too soon, but she knew she had to keep busy or go crazy.

  The first thing she noticed as she approached the door was the porch light that now went on automatically. She'd had those lights at home … their old home, she reminded herself … so she knew what they were. She'd just been thinking that she should leave the light on in the morning, but she wasn't sure she could afford the added electricity. Now, here was her problem solved.

  “Mom, what's that?” Nicole whispered.

  She must have been more tired than she realized, because right in front of her was the framework for a porch that stretched from the front door across the everything room windows. Billy again. But why hadn't he told her? Or maybe he'd just thought of it this morning and hadn't had time to tell her.

  Jen didn't know how she was ever going to thank him for everything he was doing for them. Probably, he was just improving the property for future sale, but in the meantime, they would enjoy this new convenience. She just hoped he wasn't thinking of raising the rent.

  She immediately dismissed this thought as unworthy of her and an insult to Billy. He'd shown his kindness over and over, never asking for anything in return. He was really the most generous man she'd ever known.

  The size of his heart matched the size of his body; although she'd finally realized last night that he wasn't fat at all. He was just very tall with very broad shoulders and a strong chest.

  What a contrast to David with his lithe, elegant build. David could have been an actor, with his good looks and graceful movements.

  Billy was just what he was. A good, down-to-earth man with a sense of responsibility, who knew just what life was all about.

  Jen finished helping Davey off with his snowsuit and boots, thinking how nice it would be to leave all these wet things outside to drip.

  She pushed herself off the floor, her body exhausted, but her heart considerably lightened by this new evidence of Billy's generosity. She didn't know how she was going to repay him … she was used to working for whatever she got … but find a way she would.

  “Leftovers tonight, guys?” she asked.

  “Cake, too?” Davey asked hopefully.

  “Absolutely,” she declared, ruffling his soft hair. She was amazed that these affectionate gestures were coming more easily to her, and wondered why she'd never made them before.

  Because David was the affectionate one. Because David was better at it than I was. Because David didn't have a practical bone in his body and I was too busy doing everything else.

  She'd had some of these thoughts many times before, but never had they hit her with such force. It seemed that Billy had made more changes in their lives than just a chicken dinner and a porch.

  David’s leaving had a profound effect, of course. Getting rid of that Victorian monstrosity of a house had also made a major difference, but now she could see it as unloading a burden instead of losing her home.

  Her own practical nature had allowed her to keep on keeping on, but Billy had opened her eyes to possibilities. This was her opportunity to shape a whole new life for her family, just as Billy was shaping the bungalow to suit their needs.

  “Davey, why don't you help the girls set the table?”

  “Can I really?” Davey asked, excited at the thought of doing man's work like Mr. Easton would do.

  “Yes,” Jen nodded. “You can put the placemats and the napkins.”

  “All right!” he shouted.

  Jen was surprised to find herself laughing at the boy's enthusiasm instead of snapping at him to keep his voice down, and it was good to see him accept this new mother without question.

  Natalie and Nicole on the other hand were looking at her like they didn't know her.

  “Wouldn't it be fun if the table set itself like Beauty and the Beast?” She smiled and nodded at the dishes still clutched in their hands. Okay, so it wasn't much of a joke, but it was a heck of a lot better than ‘get a move on girls, that table won't set itself’ .

  Davey carefully put five placements on the table and then dragged his stool over to where he had sat the night before next to Billy. He hadn't needed his new friend to lift him up, but it felt really good when he did that.

  “Davey, is that place for Mr. Easton?” Jen asked, dismayed that her son had accepted the man into their life so easily.

  “Yup,” he answered, climbing onto the stool and waiting confidently for Mr. Easton to show up.

  Jen sat down in the seat next to her son and turned his cheek to face her.

  “Mr. Easton has his own house to eat in,” she told him gently, keeping her hand on his cheek. “But I'll tell you what: how about you and I bring him a giant piece of cake after dinner, and we'll thank him for building us that nice porch?”

  “Okay,” Davey agreed, turning his attention back to the good smells coming from the kitchen.

  Jen breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that her son might have inherited some of her pragmatic nature after all.

  * * *

  Jen hadn't known whether to be relieved or disappointed that Billy hadn't invited her and Davey in when they'd delivered the cake last night. They'd only known him for a little over a week and he was already a presence in their lives.

  He was becoming an increasing presence in her thoughts, too. Just as a friend, of course, but she was beginning to wonder where he had gotten his compassionate nature from. Was there some kind of tragedy in his past? And why wasn't a decent, good-looking guy like that married?

  These were things one friend wanted to know about the other friend. Billy knew all about her, but she knew virtually nothing about him. If they were going to be friends, she had to get him on his own so she could dig into the mystery that was Billy Easton.

  Not tonight, though. When she came home, she saw her parents’ car parked in front of the house. Billy's
back porch light was on, and Neil and Joanna were coming out of the house, Joanna laughing at something Billy said.

  Davey ran over to Grandpa to be picked up and the girls followed him more sedately, in keeping with their own almost thirteen years’ dignity.

  “What are you doing here, Mom?” Jen asked, startled into the direct question by the oddness of the situation.

  “Billy invited us over to see the house when you were in the hospital,” Joanna replied. “Since we came over to take you and the kids out to dinner, we thought we'd take him up on his kind invitation.”

  “Great house,” Neil added. “It's obvious that Billy knows what he's doing. Shouldn't be any problem to find a buyer at a good price.”

  “I'm not selling,” Billy said, surprised that he'd blurted it out like that.

  “You're not?” Jen asked, holding her breath, hardly daring to hope.

  “No. The market's changed. Besides, I'm getting too old to be constantly moving around.”

  Billy had said it in an offhand way, but Joanna caught him looking longingly at her daughter. Jen may have been oblivious to the man's feelings, but Joanna was not. She just hoped it wasn't too soon after David running out on them for Jen wake up to what was right in front of her.

  “I see you're adding on to the bungalow, Billy,” Neil said, walking over to lay his hand on the framework. “Are these tracks for the windows?”

  “That's so Jen can move them aside in the summer.”

  Jen was listening to this conversation which, for some reason, was making her nervous. Besides, with the sun going down, the temperature was dropping and she wanted to get the kids inside.

  “How about we go inside and get changed,” she asked the kids brightly.

  Neil caught his wife's raised eyebrows and hoped she was thinking the same thing he was thinking.

  “Why don't you join us for dinner, Billy?”

  “Dad, I'm sure Billy has things to do.” Jen protested. She was becoming more nervous by the minute, and as far as she could tell, there was no reason for it.

  “You don't, do you, Mr. Easton?” Nicole asked.

  “Please say yes,” Natalie added.

  “Please?” Davey pleaded.

  “Jen?” Billy asked, giving her the choice.

  The kids were looking at her, eyes wide. In fact, everyone was looking at her, as if she were the one who didn't want Billy to come along. She closed her eyes, pasting a smile on her face.

  “Yes. Do come, Billy. We'd love to have you.”

  There was really no reason for her to object, and she certainly knew how to be gracious. It wasn't until his smile caused her heart to thump painfully in her chest and her breath to quicken that she finally understood her reluctance. She'd just rung out the old and it was certainly too soon to ring in the new … that is, if she ever wanted to let another man into her life.

  “Well, that's settled, then,” Jen forced herself to say cheerfully past the lump in her throat. She was finally able to herd the children onto the unfinished porch. The porch that Billy was so thoughtfully building for them.

  David had been thoughtful, too. He liked to surprise her with a bunch of flowers on a cold winter's day, but then he also liked to surprise her with his latest useless garage sale find. At least Billy's thoughtfulness had value.

  “Great. We'll collect you in about half an hour?” Neil said.

  Billy waved and headed back to his house, his feet barely skimming the ground.

  * * *

  The dinner was certainly a success by any family's standards. Davey had to go to the men's room twice. Her father took him once and Billy took him the second time. He wanted to go a third time, but Jen made him sit back down. She knew he just wanted to have his hero Billy all to himself.

  The twins had an unfortunate tendency to giggle at odd moments, and when a couple of cute high school boys came into the diner, the giggles reached epic proportions.

  Billy talked to her mother about her online craft business and to her father about his career as a salesman.

  Through it all, Jen ground her teeth in frustration. She'd hardly expected this rough construction worker to be such an accomplished conversationalist.

  But Jen had to be honest with herself. Billy had never shown any signs of being rough and he was certainly a lot more than a day laborer. He was in the business of remodeling and restoring houses which he designed himself. He had to be able to talk to his workers, to suppliers and to prospective buyers. The more she thought about it, the more Jen realized there was no reason to be surprised at this side of Billy.

  What really had her grinding her teeth was that he never said one word about himself. Did he have a string of ex-wives? A dozen children? Was he a deadbeat dad? An axe murderer? Just what did he have hiding in the woodwork?

  Joanna was the only one to notice Jen's dark mood. But then a mother would. A mother also knew when a man had gotten under her daughter's skin, and this Billy had certainly done that.

  Jen still looked tired, but she'd lost that bone-deep exhaustion of total defeat. Joanna didn't know if Jen knew it yet, but there seemed to be a thin sliver of hope around the edges of her. Joanna sincerely hoped that she wasn't wrong about this.

  Whether or not Jen and Billy got together, the man had given her the boost she needed to face the future. That was worth a million dollars all by itself. But she couldn't help wishing that Billy Easton would become her second … and final … son-in-law.

  * * *

  It was Saturday, and Jen was alone for the first time in the little bungalow. She and the kids had whipped through their Saturday chores as she'd known they would. Her parents had picked them up in the afternoon for a sleepover and Jen had waved them a reluctant goodbye.

  Normally, she looked forward to alone time. She needed it to rest and recharge her batteries. But in the short time they'd been in the bungalow, they'd grown closer. At least she felt closer to the children. They had to be, living in each other’s laps the way they were.

  But the fact remained that they were gone for the night, and she had nothing to do except throw together a light dinner and watch some mind-numbing television.

  She checked the fridge for leftovers, but there were none. What they'd brought home from the diner last night had been eaten at lunch. There was always an omelet, but she couldn't face even that. She had too many things on her mind.

  David had left her their savings, as usual not giving a thought to what he might need to get started himself. She wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth; not in her circumstances. But that money was rapidly dwindling, eaten up by Davey's pre-school and the girls’ after-school care.

  Thinking about it was an exercise in futility. Jen knew what she had to do. She had to ask her mother to take over the kids while she worked. This useless brooding was just her way of convincing herself to take the plunge and do it.

  Headlights sweeping across her windows broke her mood. She was just as glad. Getting all down and depressed wasn't going to do her any good.

  “Come on, Angelo. Get out of the truck. A little snow isn't going to hurt you.”

  Billy's voice came to her clearly through the closed windows, and she wondered if Billy had brought a friend home for dinner. Curiosity sent her to the curtains, but a sudden dread froze her hand. Could it be possible that Billy was gay? A good-looking, unmarried man in his forties had to be, right?

  Don't be silly, she chided herself. The man is allowed to have a couple of guys over for sandwiches and cards without being gay.

  “Do I have to carry you?”

  Now Jen was more than curious. She grabbed her coat, not bothering to button it. Throwing open the door, she saw Billy lean into his truck and come out with a panting bundle of fur in his arms.

  “I didn't know you had a dog.”

  “I don't … didn't. Got him today at the shelter.” Billy rubbed his cheek on the dog's head, scratching him on the neck with his free hand. “Isn't he something?”

&
nbsp; “What is he?” Jen moved closer to inspect the black and white dog, who had yet to bark.

  “He's a Jack Russell Terrier mix and he's two years old. He'll need a little training, but we spent some time together this afternoon and we got along great.”

  “Why did you name him Angelo?”

  “I didn't. His owner died, and there was no one to take him. That was his name.”

  Jen had to laugh at the absurdity of this large man holding a small dog named, of all things, Angelo, and looking ridiculously pleased with himself.

  Jen clutched her coat tighter around herself. The cold was beginning to seep through the thin soles of her house shoes, and she knew she had to get back inside. But she was reluctant to leave both the man and the adorable dog.

  “Well, I was going to invite you to dinner, but I see you have company,” she said, nodding at the dog.

  “For heaven's sake, Jen!” he exclaimed, noticing for the first time that she was hardly dressed for the weather. “You'd better come in and get warm.”

  He shut the truck door with a shove of his hip and led the way to his back door, expecting her to follow.

  Jen didn't know why she followed meekly behind Billy. Probably because the cold had numbed her brain as well as her feet. She was too grateful to be getting in out of the cold to think too deeply about it.

  Billy put Angelo on the floor and left him to explore while he helped Jen off with her coat. He handed her a towel from the coat rack so she could dry her wet feet before shedding his own jacket and hat.

  “Let me just give Angelo some water and then I'll go build up the fire.”

  “Okay.”

  Jen was only listening with half an ear. She was too busy looking around the rustic country kitchen Billy had created for himself. Natural maple cabinets, some of them with glass and chicken-wire fronts, a distressed kitchen table and chairs, and a farmhouse sink. The appliances were all up-to-date and modern, but white, to match the sink and the blue-and-white tiles he'd used on the backsplash. It was warm and cozy, yet completely functional, just like the man.

  Billy came back into the kitchen to see the woman of his dreams walking around the kitchen he'd designed and built. His heart swelled as she touched each surface, ending up at the sink, where she stood, gazing out the greenhouse window. He found he had to clear his throat before he could trust himself to speak.