His Innocent Temptress by Kasey Michaels

Author:Kasey Michaels
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2001-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Vi Coleman carried two mugs of hot coffee to the kitchen table and plunked one of them down in front of Alex. It was Sunday, Ella’s day off, and Vi took her one-day-a-week job as cook and housekeeper very seriously. But not as seriously as she took her role of surrogate mother to Alex and his brothers.

Sliding onto a chair on the other side of the table, she placed her own mug in the center of the linen place mat and rested her elbows on the tabletop. “So? Are you going to tell me, or do I have to connive it out of you somehow?”

Alex looked at his aunt, at her still youthful face framed with red hair just beginning to fade and filled with huge green eyes that were as young as the morning. “I have no secrets from you, Vi. God knows I’ve tried, but I’ve never been able to pull it off.”

Vi lifted the mug with both hands and held it to her mouth, looking at Alex over the rim. “Really? I’m that good? Well, that’s reassuring. I wish I could say the same about Jessica. That girl hasn’t confided in me for years. I don’t have the faintest notion what she wants to do now, besides sleep late and drive Ella nuts when she decides she absolutely must bake cookies.”

“Give Jess some time, Vi. She just graduated and wants some down time. She knows what you and Randy want, and it’s what she wants, too. She just doesn’t want it right now.”

“I know,” Vi said, sighing as she set the mug down once more. “I think she regrets taking that extra semester of electives, and not finishing up last May. It just doesn’t seem as official, or something, graduating in December. I suppose Coleman-Grayson can wait a few more months for her.”

“I think it’s going to have to,” Alex said, aware that he had only delayed the inevitable. Vi had wanted to talk about Jessica—she always had her only child on her mind—but that didn’t mean he was off the hook.

“Have I given you enough time to figure out how you’re going to tell me?” she asked, proving his point.

“What I’m going to tell you about what, Vi? Really, you’ve lost me.”

“I suppose that could be true,” she agreed after a moment. “You might be thinking that I want to hear what you think about Randy’s news. About your mother. I never met her, you know, but I wish I could have known her. She must have been—must be—quite an extraordinary woman. Brave, loyal, willing to do anything at all to protect her children. Even leave them, within a week of losing her husband to an assassin’s bullet. I can’t imagine the extent of her heartache the day she handed you three over to Randy, then watched you walk out of her life.”

“Mac and Cade don’t know,” Alex said. “Randy did tell you that, didn’t he?”

Vi nodded, wiping at a tear that threatened to spill onto her cheek.

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