“Un-uh,” Jace said, grabbing her arm. “You’ll go up there and discover some reason to prevent our going. How ready does a baby have to get? That’s her diaper bag, isn’t it?” He indicated the tote bag that had been taken to church that morning and was now lying on one of the lawn chairs. “We’ll be back before she has to eat again.”
“And how, pray tell, do you know what her feeding schedule is?” taunted Katherine.
“Lucky guess,” he said, smiling that devastating smile that deepened the dimples on the sides of his mouth and crinkled the lines around his eyes.
Happy bustled out of her house carrying a basket. By the looks of it, they could eat out of it for at least a week. They climbed into the jeep. Katherine held Allison on her lap while Jace put the car bed on the back seat. He waved jovially to Happy as they pulled away.
The lake on the outskirts of town was man-made. Water from several rivers was channeled into it and the surrounding landscape had been turned into a public park which was an attractive spot to weekenders. Jace found a large shade tree on a grassy knoll away from the more crowded spots nearer the swimming area.
He retrieved a quilt from the back of the jeep and spread it out on the deep grass. He deposited the car bed for Allison on the quilt, then unselfconsciously peeled off his shirt.
The sight of his near-naked body was awesome. His trunks were navy blue with thin, red piping around the legs. The fabric was stretched taut across his flat abdomen. There was no line marking the border of his deep tan, and Katherine’s cheeks were suffused with color over her speculation on how such a thing were possible.
“I’ll be back soon. If you need me for anything, just yell real loud.”
“Thank you, but we’ll be fine,” she answered politely.
He shot her an exasperated look before he loped down the hill toward the water. Good! She gloried in his annoyance. Maybe it would spoil this little expedition of his.
Allison was waving her arms and kicking her legs, excited and intrigued by the branches of the tree overhead. Katherine played with her until the baby got tired and started fretting. As soon as Katherine turned her over onto her stomach, she fell asleep.
“Killjoy,” Katherine remarked ruefully as she stretched out on her back on the quilt. Involuntarily, she searched the lake, trying to distinguish Jace’s head from the others that were bobbing up and down in the sun-gilded water. She threw her hands over her head, impatient with herself for caring where he was.
She was in that position, asleep, when Jace came back half an hour later. Katherine had forgotten how revealing her cotton knit tank top could be. It had to be worn braless, for the straps were thin. Her outstretched arms caused her nipples to press impudently against the soft fabric. The matching yellow shorts hid nothing of her long, slender legs, tanned apricot by the east Texas sun.
The sun found an opening in the thick foliage of the trees and shined onto her face. She blinked several times before allowing her eyes to open all the way.
At first she believed Jace’s image to be an extention of a very pleasant dream, and her lips parted in an inviting, lazy smile.
She bolted upright when she realized he was no figment of her imagination. His black hair was still damp and several errant curls lay on his forehead. Nervously, she shifted her eyes away from his naked chest. It was covered with soft black hair that fanned across its broad expanse and tapered to a fine silky line on his stomach.
He reclined, stretching out his long legs and supporting himself on one elbow. He opened the basket Happy had provided and reached inside. “Apple? Orange?” he asked, holding up the pieces of fruit for her inspection.
“N-no, thank you,” she stammered. His arm rested near her knee and his blatant virility completely unnerved her.
“Mind if I do?” He grinned as his strong, white teeth crunched into the apple. “Swimming always works up my appetite,” he mumbled around the large bite. He concentrated on the apple for a few moments before he asked abruptly, “Like your work?” She had briefly outlined her job to him the evening before.
“Yes,” she answered carefully, not sure where this conversation was going to lead. “It’s much more challenging than what I had done before. I’d still like to branch out into other kinds of writing though.”
“Like what?”
Was he really interested, or was this his way of drawing her out, making her reveal secrets, failures? “I’d like to write copy for commercials, magazine ads, things like that.”
He nodded, but didn’t respond. “Do you like Mr.… uh… what’s his name? Welsh?”
She shrugged. “He’s all right, I guess. Sometimes I think he’s a little strange, but then, he may think the same about me.” Her attempt at humor flopped. Jace’s face remained irritatingly noncommittal.
His uncharacteristic reticence made Katherine uneasy and she asked, “What do you do for the oil company? Drill for oil?”
“No. I try, sometimes with success, to find the oil. I’m a geologist for Sunglow.”
“A geologist? I don’t think I’ve ever known one before,” she exclaimed, truly impressed.
“Would you like to get to know one better?” His eyes danced with a mischievous light as he covered her knee with his hand.
His move took her by surprise and for a moment she was too stunned to speak. Finally, in a voice not at all like her own, she asked, “How… how does one become a geologist?”
He laughed and removed his hand before answering. “I studied in Arizona and New Mexico and Texas, too, at one time. Down near Houston. Much to my mother’s horror, I did some research and experiments on an Indian reservation. I told her wild tales about scalping parties and war dances.” He paused and winked at her slyly. “Actually, we only did rain dances.”