A Family Kind of Gal Read Free Page A

always had. Hell, what a mess.
    â€œMind if I sit down?” he asked, then didn’t wait for an answer but slid into one of the tall ladder-back chairs that flanked an old claw-footed table.
    â€œSuit yourself.” She ran stiff fingers through her hair, then seemed to realize she was being too defensive. Waving with one hand, as if to disperse the cloud of fury surrounding her, she said, “Come on, Jay. Why don’t you tell me what you’re doing down here? If it isn’t to spy on me, there must be a reason. The last I heard, you hated all things that had to do with me or this town.”
    â€œHate’s a pretty strong word.” But she was right. He didn’t trust her, and as far as Bittersweet, Oregon, went, he had plenty of reasons to despise this small town filled with small-minded citizens.
    Folding her arms over her chest, she lifted one delicately arched eyebrow, silently urging him on.
    â€œAs I said, I’m here on business.”
    â€œIn Bittersweet?” She shoved a lock of blue-black hair from her eyes. “Don’t tell me you chased an ambulance all the way from Portland down here.”
    That stung. “I left the firm.”
    â€œNo way.” She cocked her head as if she hadn’t heard him correctly. “But I thought you were a partner.”
    â€œI was. Sold out.”
    â€œSo,” she encouraged, suddenly wary, “why?”
    â€œDad offered me a job with his company.”
    She laughed without a drop of mirth. “Come on. Don’t give me that worn-out line about an offer you ‘couldn’t refuse,’ Jay.” She rolled her eyes. “Oh, this is rich. You with Santini Brothers. I never thought I’d see the day.”
    â€œNeither did I.” He stretched his bad leg and rubbed at the pain in his knee through his jeans. “Since I was down here on business anyway, I thought I’d check up on you and the kids.”
    â€œAh. As I suspected.” Her shoulders slumped a bit, and she looked at her nails. “Since when do you care?” she asked in a voice barely above a whisper.
    She always had been forthright. Nearly to the point of being rude. Well, two could play that game. “I’ve always cared.”
    Her eyes darkened for a second. A shadow flickered in their whiskey-colored depths, and the pulse in the hollow of her throat, above the deep V of her blouse, beat a fraction more rapidly. Hell, she was beautiful. No wonder his brother hadn’t been able to resist her. Neither had he.
    â€œSo how have you and the kids been doing?”
    â€œI already told you. We’re fine.”
    â€œNo problems?”
    Her jaw tensed a bit. “None that we can’t deal with, Jay,” she said and wished he’d just disappear. She glanced out the window and spied Christina drawing stick figures on the walk. “You can tell your dad that we’re doing fine. No, change that.” She waved expansively. “Tell him we’re great. Not a care in the world.” She’d never gotten along with Philip’s father, Carlo, nor with his mother, for that matter. As his second wife, so many years younger than her husband, Tiffany had been looked upon as a bimbo, a fraud, a little girl who didn’t know her own mind and worst of all, as someone who was after all the Santini family’s wealth. Considering the circumstances, all those thoughts were nothing but a cruel, ironic joke.
    And what did J.D. care? When had he ever? Her heart pumped a little at the sight of him, and she silently called herself an idiot. He was just as ruggedly male as she remembered him, with his long, jeans-clad legs, black hair in need of a trim and penetrating silver-gray eyes.
    â€œWhat about the juvenile authorities?”
    Her fingers tightened into fists. “Don’t worry about it.”
    His smile was cynical and downright sexy. If a woman noticed. Tiffany told herself she didn’t.