“Sorry,” Jonah repeated, remembering Kate’s father, with his bushy brown hair and his booming voice. The man had seemed so jovial and strong.
“Mom had a part-time job,” Kate continued. Jonah gazed into her wide, hazel eyes, his gaze lowering to her full, red lips. He didn’t want to look at her mouth or recall her kisses, but he did remember vividly, far too clearly. He caught the faint scent of her perfume. Memories from the past mixed with anger from the present, and he had to struggle to focus on what she was telling him.
“…but she had to quit to take care of Dad, and then suddenly I was taking care of both of them. They sold their house and moved in with me.”
“So why don’t you have your things? Surely you didn’t sell them, too.”
She nodded. “Yes, I did. I had to, because of their heart troubles. Without insurance, the medical bills were astronomical, and I had to quit my job to take care of them.”
“You have an aunt and uncle and cousins. Didn’t any of them help?”
“No, they didn’t,” she replied, shaking her head. “They have their own families to take care of. But I managed and didn’t have to go into debt, and I have some money saved for us to start out on. Also, I think I have a promising job lined up. This was a temporary setback, and we survived it.”
He gazed into her luminous eyes and knew if anyone could cope with tough times, it would be Kate. There was a practicality to her, enabling her to get to the essentials. He had always admired her for her ability to handle the tough moments, until the tough moment had been her decision to leave him. But then, that survivor instinct of hers might have been what caused her to walk out on him.
“I’m sorry about your folks,” he said, truly meaning it because he had liked her parents.
She nodded. “They were relatively young to have that all happen, although Dad was thirteen years older than Mom.”
“How’d you find the job here?” Jonah asked.
“Through the Internet.”
She wiped her mouth daintily, and he looked at her lips again for a moment, then tore his gaze away. He didn’t want to remember sexy nights and hot kisses and a myriad other seductive moments with Kate.
He watched Henry, who was steadily eating every bite of food in front of him. So was Kate, and Jonah wondered if they had been going hungry. Again he noticed how thin both of them were. Kate’s blouse looked a size too large.
If she had had a hard time, he was sorry, but it angered him to think that his son had been in dire straits. If she had only let Jonah know, Kate could have so easily avoided any hardships. As swiftly as he thought that about her, Jonah realized that Kate was independent enough to shoulder her own burdens and not expect help from others, much less from an ex-husband who didn’t know about their child.
“Who are your friends, Henry?” he asked, turning his attention to his son.
“Matthew and Billy,” the child answered.
While Jonah talked to Henry about his playmates back in North Carolina, Kate savored her potatoes and spinach. For the past few days, during the long drive to Texas from North Carolina, they had lived on peanut butter sandwiches and cold cuts and whatever else she could buy cheaply and pack in the car.
While he talked to Henry, she studied Jonah. He looked even more handsome than when they had been married. Tall, black-haired, with those midnight brown eyes that Henry had inherited, Jonah had an air of self-assurance and command that he hadn’t had before. Eyeing his navy knit sport shirt surreptitiously, she could tell he had filled out with solid muscle.
During their initial encounter in the drugstore, she had thought she would faint. Never had she expected to see Jonah in this part of Texas. She had always known she should tell him about his son, but it was easy to put off contacting him, and at first, anger at him got in the way. By the time they had parted, she had been furious with him for sticking to his wild lifestyle and staying in Special Forces, which trained him for dangerous assignments.
When she had walked out on him, she hadn’t known she was pregnant. She’d discovered that the first week she was on her own, but in her anger, she hadn’t wanted to tell Jonah or go back.
She had intended to tell him about his son eventually, but it got easier and easier to put it off. When she went through childbirth, Jonah was out of the country on an assignment, and by the time he was back home, she didn’t want to tell him at all.
Finally, enough time passed that she didn’t want to face his wrath or the complications he would cause. When their paths didn’t cross for a year, she’d begun to believe they might never cross again. When her parents both became terminally ill, she couldn’t think about anything except their care and looking after Henry. With her excellent job gone, times had been harsh and lean, because every penny went into caring for the three people dependent on her.
With a rush of warmth, she looked at Henry. He was a lovable little boy, an easy child to raise. She knew he was solemn and didn’t have the preschooling he should have had at this age, but he was bright and affectionate, and she loved him with all her heart.
Her gaze shifted to Jonah, noting that imperial nose, his prominent cheekbones and thickly lashed eyes. As her gaze drifted down to his mouth, she remembered too clearly moments of passion and how Jonah’s kisses could turn her to mush.
She was surprised he hadn’t remarried, but then, his career was his life, and it stood in the way of other commitments. Still, he was breathtakingly handsome, and a lot of women were drawn to men like Jonah. He had an old-world courtesy about him that females liked. Kate had been fully aware of the fury he had controlled today when he had learned about Henry.
Jonah had never lost his temper with her—not in their bickering about his career, not even in the last bitter argument when she had walked out on him. He had always kept his voice down, always kept his wits about him. But she had once seen him wade into a fight to save a slender guy who was being beaten by a gang of men, and Jonah had been wild and fierce and frightening. And he had ended the battle in seconds.
At the first sight of him today, she had hated how her pulse jumped. When he’d taken her arm to help her into the car, she had felt the contact to her toes. After all this time and even when she didn’t want to, she still responded instantly and totally to him.
She wondered if he was stationed in San Antonio now. Wondered if there was a regular woman in his life. She glanced at him again, to find his dark gaze on her, and as she looked quickly away, she tingled all over.
She was self-conscious about her clothes, which were old and worn, and she hated that she had had to reveal all her problems to him. If they were going to have this chance encounter, she wished it had been a month from now, after she had found a place to live and gotten her first paycheck from what promised to be an exciting job.
“Want some more water, Kate?” Jonah asked.
“Yes, please,” she answered politely, knowing they were both being courteous for Henry’s sake, and that every time Jonah looked at her, his dark eyes still blazed with anger.
She watched as he picked up the large pitcher with ease and filled her glass. She had always loved the shape of his strong hands, his blunt fingers with nails clipped short.
“Thanks,” she said, remembering his touch, knowing how his hands could take her to ecstasy. She looked away and tried to stop thinking about him, to stop memory piling on top of memory. But today had been a shock, one she’d been totally unprepared for.
“Would you like more milk, Henry?” Jonah asked.
“He’s fine—” she began, but when Henry nodded, Jonah got up to cross the room to the cafeteria line. Kate watched his long-legged stride. He was so broad-shouldered, his back tapering to a waist still as narrow as when they had married. He wore jeans and loafers, but she could remember Jonah naked, his warrior’s body fit and virile