A run-in with her sister was the last thing she wanted.
Dropping her hand, she made her way to the parking area and waited for Anna. It took forever. Mr. Wilson on his tractor drove faster than her sister.
Finally, her sister angled into a parking spot and turned off the engine. Jenny smiled, trying to muster up some enthusiasm. She saw her nephew was in the backseat. She waved. He didn’t wave back. Great, just what she needed. Another ornery male.
Several moments passed before her sister got out of the car; Cody stayed put.
Jenny tried not to feel underdressed. Even on a weekend morning, her sister managed to look like she’d just come from a Paris boutique. The pale lilac skirt and matching fitted jacket had exquisite, exclusive, and expensive stamped all over it. “This is a surprise.”
“Good one, I hope.”
“Always,” Jenny said and wished it was true. At one time it had been.
Anna looked around the yard. “Grandmother’s garden looks lovely. She always knew you’d be the best care-taker.”
If her sister’s compliment hadn’t instantly put Jenny on guard, then the affectionate tone would have. As far as Jenny could remember, the last time Anna had said something nice to Jenny was when they were kids and Jenny had roasted Anna’s marshmallows during their cookouts on the beach. But then Anna had outgrown Barbies and grown boobs and decided everyone needed a life plan by the time they were thirteen. Her tolerance for her younger, less driven sister had all but evaporated.
“Thanks,” Jenny said warily.
Her sister looked past her, toward the hangar. “Zeke sounds busy.”
It wasn’t Zeke, but there was no way Jenny was going to tell that to her sister. She was sick and tired of having every aspect of her life analyzed by her family. “So, what brings you all the way out here?”
“Well, I—” Anna broke off midsentence. “That is not Zeke.”
Jenny turned and saw that Jared—still shirtless—had emerged from the hangar. He grabbed something, then headed back in.
“Is that who I think it is?” Anna asked, sounding like a breathless schoolgirl.
“It’s no one you know.”
“I think I can make an accurate guess.”
Yes, Jenny thought. Unfortunately, her sister could.
“You sure know how to pick them,” Anna continued. “I’ll give you that.”
“I didn’t pick him.”
Anna grinned at her. “I would have.”
“Anna!”
“What?”
“You’re married.”
“Married, not buried.”
Something in her sister’s tone caught Jenny, and she found herself looking more closely at Anna. But as she searched her sister’s features, Jenny knew she must have been mistaken. The tentativeness. The trace of uncertainty Jenny had thought she heard had been an illusion. Anna had never had an unsure moment in her life.
“Come on, this I have to see.”
Her sister was halfway across the yard before Jenny could react.
Jenny hustled to catch up, knowing there was no way she could stop her sister. For a woman who drove a good ten miles under the speed limit, Anna was a surprisingly fast walker. “Don’t you mean meet?” Jenny asked when she reached Anna.
Anna flashed her a huge smile, the kind that Jenny hadn’t seen for years—if ever. “Yeah, right. Meet.” She smiled again.
The hangar’s large front doors were open, and sunlight flooded most of the vast interior. Toward the far end, Jared was working on one of the hydraulic flaps. The muscles on his chest and arms bunched and rippled as he worked underneath the plane’s flap. Every time he reached forward, his Levi’s slipped a little lower on his hips, exposing more of his rock-hard abs and the thin, dark line of hair that spiraled around his navel and disappeared into the waistband of his jeans.
Jenny felt a sudden rush of anger, and it had nothing to do with his working on her plane and everything to do with him standing half-naked in front of them making her remember the way the heat of his hand had felt against her skin as he’d held her, steadied her, while she put on her flip-flops.
Anna let out a long-drawn-out breath. “That’s your partner?”
“Don’t call him that.”
“I never expected him to be so—”
“Arrogant? Obnoxious? Overbearing?”
Her sister tore her gaze away from Jared. “Gorgeous.”
He was turning them all into besotted fools. “Let’s go,” Jenny said and started to turn away.
“Not on your life. I’ve been dying to meet your partner ever since Mom described him.”
Her sister had never been infatuated with a guy. Ever. Not even with her husband. She and Phillip had had the perfect relationship. They’d met, fallen in love, and gotten married all in six