Foul Play - By Janet Evanovich Page 0,34
her eyes and reached for the lemons.
“I was surprised you didn’t give an interview. I would have thought you’d want to tell your side of the story.”
“I know those two,” Amy said, slicing lemons. “They aren’t interested in the truth. They just want something juicy. I wouldn’t dignify them with an interview.”
Jake put the cooler on the kitchen counter. “We have a couple chicken salad sandwiches left. What say we eat them for supper?” He set two placemats and plates on the little kitchen table and doled out the sandwiches.
Amy took a bowl of potato salad and a container of pickled beets from the refrigerator. “I have some leftovers.”
“I know this sounds strange, but you make me homesick. My mom is a great cook … just like you.” Jake tasted the potato salad and sighed.
“This is just as good as my mom’s. When I was a kid we had potato salad all summer long. And there was always cold fried chicken. I have two brothers, and I can’t tell you how much chicken we went through during the month of July. My mom is a seasonal cooker. In the winter she makes homemade chocolate pudding. I’d come home from school and walk into the house and almost get knocked over by the smell of that pudding cooking.”
Amy gave Jake his lemonade and sat across from him. “Sounds like you had a nice childhood.”
“I guess it was average. I was always fighting with my brothers, but we really liked each other.” He wolfed down his sandwich and looked enviously at Amy’s.
Amy got the chicken salad from the refrigerator and made Jake another sandwich. “Did you always want to be a vet?”
“Yup. I collected baby birds that had fallen from their nests, and rabbits that cats had maimed, and rescued turtles from the middle of the road. My mom was terrific. She put up with a lot. I had fish and hamsters and lizards and never cleaned my room.”
He took Amy’s hand in his. “I’d like you to meet my family. My brother Nick lives in East Stroudsburg. He has a wife and two kids. My brother Billy lives in Wind Gap with his wife and three kids. And my parents are just down the street from Billy.” His eyes had turned warm, and his thumb stroked across her wrist, causing her to lose interest in chicken salad.
“East Stroudsburg and Wind Gap are in Pennsylvania?” she asked halfheartedly, trying to steel herself against the rush of heat in her body.
He nibbled her fingertips, closed his eyes and pressed a kiss into the palm of her hand. “Mmmm. Pennsylvania.” His voice hummed against her skin.
“Pennsylvania is very romantic. In the Poconos they have honeymoon hotels with heart-shaped bathtubs. And the northwestern part of the state is wilderness with deer and bear and raccoons.”
“Raccoons,” Amy mechanically repeated, watching him kiss her wrist and work his way up her arm.
He skirted the table and pulled her to him. “You make me crazy,” he rumbled in her ear. “I can’t even sit across from you at the kitchen table. I keep thinking about you in bed, naked.”
Amy shivered. She liked the easy, possessiveness of Jake’s touch.
They walked hand in hand to the bedroom and kissed again. Amy turned to close the curtains and gasped in dismay. “They’re still here!”
Jake looked out the window. The van was parked across the street. “What are they doing there?”
Amy gritted her teeth. “They’re waiting for a story. Ugly little scandalmongers.”
“I don’t believe this. This is all over a chicken. The bird wasn’t even healthy.”
Amy made a rude gesture and snapped the curtains closed. “Damn.”
Jake tweaked a blond curl. “Boy, you’re really steamed.”
“These guys could make life very unpleasant. They’ll stick to me like glue until they get something damaging, or until a better story comes along. I’m Lulu the Clown. There are lots of children out there in television land who love and respect me. I have a responsibility to those kids. It was bad enough they blipped me off the air without so much as an explanation, but now my personal conduct is under attack.”
He kissed her nose affectionately. “This is a painful question to ask, but I should go home now, shouldn’t I?”
“Yes. I can’t afford to have you spend the night here.” She touched his lower lip with her fingertip. “I don’t want you to go.”
Jake smiled. “I know. Don’t worry. I’ll be back.”
Amy waved good-bye to Jake and locked all her doors. She drew her curtains