Dinner First, Me Later? Read online

  One thing, however, Dani did know for certain.

  She definitely wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

  Chapter 10

  While Jake was pushing a shopping cart through the supermarket late Saturday afternoon and ignoring the strange looks shoppers were giving his fresh-from-LA daughter, Alicia was sitting on Tish’s front porch with Tish and Jen, watching the kids skate around the cul-de-sac.

  “I can’t believe you’ve already made plans to have dinner with your brother tonight, Alicia,” Tish complained.

  “Well, I’m sorry,” Alicia said, “but I’m not a mind reader. How was I supposed to know you’d decide to have a spur-of-the-moment cookout?”

  Jen said, “Alicia’s right, Tish. You didn’t decide to have the cookout until this morning. You aren’t being fair.”

  Alicia smiled over at Jen. “Thank you, Jen.”

  “Then bring Alfie to the cookout with you,” Tish insisted.

  “No!” Alicia said a little too sharply.

  “Well, you don’t have to snap my head off!” Tish scolded. But her eyes immediately narrowed in suspicion. “What’s really up with you, Alicia? You said you drove Jake straight home last night. But why am I getting the feeling you’re not telling us the truth?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Alicia said. “I told you. Nothing happened. I drove Jake home. He got out of the car. I went home myself. And I didn’t mean to snap at you. It’s just that a cookout is the last thing Alfie would agree to attend tonight. He’s had another major love life setback. I need to talk him through it.”

  “Great,” Tish grumbled, seemingly satisfied with Alicia’s explanation. “You’re not coming to the cookout now, and neither are Zada and Rick. I just talked to Rick a few minutes ago. Zada’s having trouble getting Lizzie to breast-feed. The doctor isn’t releasing them to come home until tomorrow.”

  Jen looked over at Tish. “You know, Tish, maybe it’s better if we don’t overwhelm Danielle with too many people at first. Your family and mine will be plenty of people for the poor kid to meet on her first day here in Woodberry Park.”

  “I agree,” Alicia said.

  “Maybe so,” Tish said, but she looked back at Alicia again. “I still think you’re hiding something, Alicia.”

  Alicia laughed. “What on earth could I be hiding?”

  “I don’t know,” Tish said, grinning a wicked grin. “But you can bet I’m going to ask Jake his version of what happened when you brought him home last night.”

  “You do that,” Alicia said. “I just wish I could be there to see the disappointment on your suspicious little face when Jake tells you exactly what I’ve already told you. Nothing happened.”

  It was almost midnight Saturday night when Alicia made it home to Woodberry Park after having dinner with Alfie. Beautiful nurse Gwen (whom Alfie now referred to as Nursezilla) had dumped Alfie without much of an explanation, other than hinting that she still had feelings for an old boyfriend. Poor Alfie had been devastated.

  He’d also been so caught up in his own grief he hadn’t even asked about the dinner party. Especially after Alicia mentioned Zada had gone into labor even before dessert could be served. If Tish had gone through with her threat to pump Jake for information during the cookout, Alicia only hoped Jake had played it as cool as she had.

  Alicia was still thinking about Jake as she neared the top of the hill. She told herself she wasn’t even going to glance at his house, but she did. A light was still on in Jake’s upstairs master bedroom window. The same bedroom she’d been in exactly twenty-four hours earlier—for the first and for the last time in her life.

  For a second, Jake’s comment about it not being fair that they’d run into each other at this point in their lives returned to haunt her. But only for a second. After all, wasn’t that how life usually worked out? Bad timing. Missed opportunities. Unrealistic expectations.

  Unrealistic was the only way Alicia knew to describe any type of relationship between her and Jake. She also knew she’d be an idiot to think she’d crossed Jake’s mind even once from the moment she walked out of his bedroom.

  No strings attached, Alicia reminded herself.

  They’d both agreed to that rule.

  Jake’s daughter was his only concern now.

  Jake let out a long sigh, walked out of his bedroom, and headed down the hallway. Danielle had been the epitome of a spoiled brat the entire night at the cookout. She’d hardly said a word to anyone. She’d acted outright insulted when Tish suggested she might like to play with the kids. And Jake knew her curt yes and no answers had gotten on everyone’s nerves.

  But he had to give his new friends credit. Everyone had pretended not to notice Danielle’s outrageous appearance or her rude behavior, which he was sure irritated Danielle far more than if they’d acted shocked or offended. Only Tish’s nine-year-old twins, Mark and Mike, had been bold enough to call Danielle on her new punk-Goth look.

  “Are you a vampire?” Mark had asked her.

  When Danielle ignored the question, Mike had said, “No. She’s a zombie. Zombies never talk.”

  In an attempt to scare the twins away, Danielle had held her arms out zombie-style, and lunged at them. A big mistake on her part. The delighted twins wouldn’t leave her alone for the rest of the evening. Danielle had ended up playing zombie for them whether she’d wanted to or not.

  At least the nameless dog had enjoyed the cookout, Jake reminded himself, still thinking back over the evening. In addition to everyone sneaking the mutt food when he begged for a bite, Jen’s eight-year-old daughter, Sonya, had played with him constantly.

  His thoughts returned to Danielle.

  She’d marched straight upstairs after they’d returned from Tish and Joe’s house around nine o’clock. She hadn’t said good night. Nor had she given him the courtesy of answering when he’d asked her if she had everything she needed. She’d just left him standing at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for her bedroom door to slam. And it did, with a forceful BAM!

  Welcome to fatherhood, Jake thought as he stopped at Danielle’s closed bedroom door. The TV was still on. He could hear it blaring through the door. Jake knocked softly.

  No response.

  He cracked the door open and peeked inside. Danielle was sound asleep, the dog curled up in the bend of her knees. Jake tiptoed across the bedroom, took the remote from her nightstand, and clicked the TV off. But before he turned off her bedside light, he stood looking at his daughter for a long time.

  Surly or not, his daughter was finally home with him.

  Jake adjusted her covers, bent down, and lightly kissed her cheek. Even if she had awakened, Jake knew being able to kiss his sleeping daughter for the first time since she was an infant would have been worth every bit of Danielle’s wrath.

  Dani waited until she heard her bedroom door close before she reached up and touched her cheek. Memories she didn’t realize she possessed instantly surfaced.

  When she’d been little, Jake had always hugged and kissed her a lot, she did remember that. It was after her sixth birthday that she’d started pushing him away if he tried to show her any affection. After her sixth birthday was also when she’d started getting angry.

  Dani rolled over on her back, staring at the ceiling.

  She’d been so scared when she couldn’t shake Carla awake that morning. She’d sneaked into her mother’s bedroom only wanting to show Carla a picture of a house she’d painted with her watercolors. It was the type of house she’d always dreamed of having, with just the two of them living there, and no Natta who always treated Carla as if she were a little kid, too. A real home of their own. The type of home all of her other friends had.

  But Carla wouldn’t wake up. And when she’d gone to get Natta, her grandmother had scolded her severely for being in Carla’s bedroom at all. She supposed Natta had been in such a panic she didn’t realize that even a six-year-old was smart enough to understand words like overdose and attempted suicide.


  After that morning, she never saw Carla except on what Natta called her mother’s “good” days. But those days had gone from few and far between when she was little, to almost never when she was older. And she wasn’t buying Natta’s bipolar disorder crap, the explanation her grandmother always gave for Carla’s deep depression. Besides, she’d researched the disease herself on the Internet at school and learned there were medications you could take for the problem. Just not the drugs Carla preferred, she guessed, proving she’d never been that important to Carla, either.

  And that took her thoughts right back to Jake.

  She remembered asking Jake at Christmas the same year of Carla’s overdose if she could come and live with him. He’d pulled her onto his lap and said, “I’d like nothing better than for you to live with me, Ladybug, but it would make your mommy too sad.” She’d wanted to tell him that her mommy was always sad anyway, but the chauffeur Raoul had walked closer to the table when he overheard her question.

  Not that it would have mattered, she supposed.

  A tear rolled down the same cheek Jake had just kissed, and Dani reached up to wipe it away. She’d promised herself she’d never shed one tear over Carla, and she hadn’t. But she wasn’t really crying for Carla, when she thought about it.

  She was crying for herself.

  She didn’t want Jake acting like they were going to be a family now. It was too late. And she definitely didn’t want him kissing her on her cheek!

  Natta would be furious if she didn’t make Jake’s life miserable enough to send her back to LA. And she really did want a chance at the modeling career Natta had all planned out for her. In fact, she wanted to be a model more than she’d ever wanted anything else in her entire life.

  What teenage girl wouldn’t want her picture on every teen magazine in the whole wide world?

  That would sure show those mean girls at school who wouldn’t give her or Hayley the time of day. She’d already promised Hayley once she did become famous, she’d make Hayley famous, too. Just like Oprah had made her best friend, Gail, famous.

  They’d be best famous friends forever!

  She and Hayley had talked for hours about how great it was going to be getting fan mail from girls their age from all over the world. They would answer every letter themselves, giving advice on makeup, fashion, even a few boyfriend tips—though neither of them had a boyfriend yet.

  Maybe she and Hayley would even make a movie together. The Olsen twins were way too old to appeal to their age group now. Like Hayley had pointed out, someone would take the Olsen twins’ place, and it might as well be them.

  After their movie was a huge success, they would have enough money to get a place of their own, and hire their own maid and housekeeper. Then she wouldn’t have to put up with Jake or with Natta, and Hayley wouldn’t have to put up with the stepfather they’d nicknamed “The Evil One” because he was always threatening to send Hayley away to boarding school.

  She and Hayley had made a pact, and she’d never let Hayley down. Never! They were best friends for life.

  So, forget what Natta wanted.

  Forget what Jake wanted, too.

  She was a woman with plans of her own!

  Chapter 11

  On sunny Sunday summer mornings Alicia always had her breakfast outside by the pool while she read the Sunday morning paper. Sunday was also the only day she indulged herself with her favorite thing ever—baked from scratch cinnamon rolls straight from the oven.

  Alicia hummed a happy tune as she arranged everything perfectly on her outside wrought-iron patio table. She placed the plate of cinnamon rolls in the center of the table, knowing she would limit herself to two, and give the remaining rolls to Tish for the boys to have later. She adjusted her glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice to the right side of her plate and lined up her silverware.

  Lastly, she opened her Sunday paper and spread it out flat so she could begin with the Sunday morning headlines. But as she took a seat at the table, she caught a glimpse of movement from the corner of her eye.

  Alicia froze.

  She’d been meaning to get the latch on the back privacy gate fixed, but she hadn’t. As luck would have it, something was pushing against that gate right now. When the gate swung open, Alicia instinctively reached for her table knife.

  Was it a squirrel? Or a dog? Alicia wasn’t sure. What hurried through the gate after whatever it was also turned out to be a big surprise. Dressed all in black, the girl had pink and purple streaks in her hair, and a silver ring in her nose.

  The animal ventured closer, coming to a stop right beside Alicia’s chair. It sat up on its haunches and began pawing at the air. The bark confirmed it was a dog.

  “He must have smelled your breakfast,” the girl said and walked across the patio in Alicia’s direction. She stopped in front of her chair, looked down at Alicia’s plate, then back up at her. “If you give him a bite of your cinnamon roll, he’ll stop begging and leave you alone.”

  Alicia tore off a tiny piece of the roll and tossed it to the dog, but she never took her eyes off the girl’s face. Her eyes were outlined in the same black liner as her hideous-looking lips. Still, she was strikingly beautiful.

  “I’m Dani,” she said. “Who are you?”

  “Alicia Greene,” Alicia told her before it registered what the child had just said. She couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice when she added, “You’re Jake’s daughter?”

  Dani frowned, her friendly demeanor instantly changing. “I should have realized you would know Jake,” she said, her hands on her hips as she looked Alicia up and down. “Blond with big boobs. Yeah. You look like his type.”

  Her rudeness shocked Alicia, but instinct told Alicia not to show it. “And I should have realized you were Jake’s daughter,” Alicia said. “You look like someone who would come from LA, and you obviously have no manners.”

  Dani stood there for a moment staring at Alicia.

  Alicia held her gaze, refusing to back down.

  “I think I’m going to like you,” Dani finally said. “At least you aren’t giving me that poor orphan look the women I met last night gave me.”

  “Don’t count on liking me,” Alicia was quick to inform her. “Kids and dogs always hate me.”

  Dani plopped down on the chair beside Alicia without being asked. “In case you haven’t noticed,” she said, “I’m not a kid. I’m thirteen.”

  Alicia said, “I thought you were much younger. Mature people rarely put rings in their noses.”

  She rolled her eyes. “The nose ring is fake, okay?” She unclipped the ring from her nostrils and held it up for Alicia to see, then fastened the silver nose ring back in place. “Just promise you won’t tell Jake. He acts like it doesn’t bother him, but I know that it does.”

  Alicia shrugged. “Your secret’s safe with me.”

  She smiled. “See, I told you I was going to like you. And Kiwi likes you, too.”

  “Kiwi?”

  She bent down, picked the dog up, and placed him on her lap. “I decided to name him Kiwi because he’s such a fruity-looking dog.”

  “Good choice,” Alicia agreed.

  “Want to hold him?”

  “No!” Alicia exclaimed.

  “Oh, puh-leeze,” Dani scoffed. She placed the dog on Alicia’s lap before Alicia could protest. “Maybe dogs haven’t liked you in the past because you’re afraid of them.”

  Alicia looked down at the dog.

  The dog looked back up at her.

  “Pet him,” Dani urged. “He won’t bite you.”

  Alicia patted the dog lightly on top of the head. He curled into a ball and settled himself comfortably on her lap.

  “See,” Dani beamed. “He likes you. I like you. Looks like your kid and dog curse has been broken.”

  “Except you aren’t a kid, remember?” Alicia reminded her. “You’re thirteen.”

  “Thirteen’s close enough to make me an old kid,” Dani said, and looked around the
backyard. “I have a pool back in LA,” she said, changing the subject. “I’m really going to miss not having a pool here in dullsville.”

  “There’s a great pool at the Woodberry Park clubhouse,” Alicia told her. “You should go. It will give you a chance to meet some new dullsville friends.”

  “I don’t make friends easily,” Dani said.

  “Maybe you should rethink your fashion statement,” Alicia mentioned.

  She rolled her eyes again. “You think I normally look like this? Well, I don’t.”

  “Let me guess,” Alicia said. “The way you look is another way to irritate Jake?”

  Dani grinned mischievously and nodded.

  “Hey,” she said. “What about your pool? Would you mind if I came over to swim here instead of the clubhouse pool?”

  Her question caught Alicia off guard. “It isn’t safe to swim alone,” Alicia said, trying to discourage her.

  Dani looked around her patio again. “Who lives here with you?”

  “No one,” Alicia said. “I live by myself.”

  “Do you swim alone?”

  Alicia shook a finger at her. “I see where you’re going with this, and the answer is still no. I don’t allow anyone to swim in my pool unless I’m home.”

  “You’re home now,” Dani said and grinned again.

  You little trickster! Alicia thought. And still trying to discourage her, Alicia said, “I don’t really know your father, Dani. I doubt he’d agree to let you swim at my house.”

  “I bet he’d agree if you came over and introduced yourself,” Dani said brightly.

  “No!” Alicia said, thinking back to her declaration that she intended to stay on her side of the street and expected Jake to do the same.

  But Dani had already jumped up from her chair and was hurrying toward the back gate. “I’ll go tell Jake you’re coming,” she yelled over her shoulder.