Page 10 of The House on Blueberry Lane

“I think you do, but since you claim you don’t, I want another server for our table and stay away from the kitchen if you want to keep your job.”

Instead of saying anything, Monica stormed off. He watched her talk to another waitress who turned and came to their table. It was Cissy. He knew and liked her. She and another classmate, Randy Corrington, had married out of high school and now had a couple of kids.

She smiled both at him and then Velvet...like Jaye thought any good waitstaff should. “How are you guys doing today?”

“I’m fine,” Velvet said, smiling back.

“So am I, Cissy,” Jaye said. “How’s Randy?”

“He’s doing fine. His electrical company is pretty busy these days. We appreciate your brother Franklin putting in a good word for him.”

Jaye shrugged. “Randy’s work speaks for itself and Franklin knows it.”

Moments later Cissy had taken their order and gotten their drinks. Jaye was glad he was sitting facing the kitchen. He had warned Monica not to go near it, and she better take heed to his warning since the owner was a good friend of the Colfax family. It didn’t take much for him to recall one other time a waitress had gotten pissed at his one-and-done policy. Although he had spelled it out for her from the beginning, she had wanted more. When he’d refused, she deliberately put maximum strength hot sauce in his chili. His tongue had burned for a week.

When he and Velvet were alone again, she looked at him and said, “You didn’t have to dismiss that first waitress. I was fine.”

He frowned. “Well, I wasn’t. Nobody disrespects my date.” And he meant it. A smile replaced his frown when he said, “Now you want to tell me the story behind the name Velvet?”

She chuckled and his breath got lodged in his throat. When did the sound of a woman’s chuckle ever do that to him? Okay, he would be the first to admit he was physically attracted to her, and it was a strong attraction. Stronger than most. But still, he wasn’t one to let a woman—no matter how beautiful, curvy or leggy—go to his head. At least not the one connected to his neck. The other one he had no problem stimulating.

She took a sip of her iced tea through her straw and, suddenly, he got hard. Damn. He shifted in his chair, grateful he was sitting or else he would have embarrassed himself. For a man, an arousal was something you couldn’t hide.

When she smiled over at him, he felt a tinge of something so foreign he grabbed his own glass of iced tea and, not bothering with the straw, took a huge gulp. It was either that or the heat consuming his midsection would get the best of him.

“My paternal grandmother named me,” she said. “She was a huge Elizabeth Taylor fan and National Velvet was her favorite movie. She gave birth to one son, my father. So she missed the opportunity of naming a daughter Velvet. My parents let her do the honor with her first and only granddaughter.”

Jaye nodded. “Do you have any brothers?”

“No. I was my parents’ only child. What about you? Any siblings?”

“Yes. My father has three sons. I’m the oldest.”

She nodded. “You mean your parents have three sons, right?”

He frowned. “No, I meant what I said.”

A moment of silence stretched between them, and he felt the need to apologize. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so abrupt. It’s just the subject of my mother is a touchy one with me.”

“Oh.”

Jaye felt he’d told Velvet all she needed to know. In fact, he’d told her more than he told most people. It wasn’t any of their business. Besides, he had only just met her that day. But still, for a reason he didn’t understand, he felt he needed to explain since he knew, unlike some women, she was too kind and considerate to ask why.

After taking another sip of tea, he said, “My mother left my father for another man when I was twelve. And she never looked back.”

“I’m sorry, Jaye,” she said softly. “I am truly sorry.”

He held her gaze, seeing sadness and not pity in her eyes. Some people didn’t know there was a difference, but there was. He could handle the sadness, but he didn’t want anyone’s pity. Jack Colfax, Sr., and his sons had survived just fine without Eartha Colfax in their lives. The woman hadn’t been mother material, anyway. She’d been the great pretender.

Although his brothers might have been too young to understand, he hadn’t. He’d known the nights when his father had been working two jobs, first as general manager at a bank during the day, and then as a professor of finance at a university two nights a week, so his wife could be a stay-at-home mom.

But she hadn’t been a stay-at-home mom. She hadn’t come close. While her husband had been working himself hard, she’d been having affairs right under his nose. He’d been too trusting and too loving. He hadn’t known anything until she’d asked him for a divorce so she could marry her lover. Jaye had seen firsthand the hurt and pain his father had suffered because of loving a woman.

“It wasn’t your fault,” he finally said. “My father, brothers and I did just fine without her.”

She still had that sad look in her eyes and he felt a tightness in his chest. He was tempted to reach out and smooth her sadness away, knowing it was there because of him. He had told her too much. More than he’d told any woman. Why? And why was he allowing Velvet Spencer to get under his skin?

Jaye was glad when Cissy returned and placed a huge delicious-looking seafood platter for two in the middle of their table.

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