Read Online The Invitation by Jude Deveraux - Free Book Online Page B

handsome. “You must come in and have some hot chocolate,” she said, “and some cookies.” She wanted to remind herself that, compared to her, Billy was just a child. Looking at him, it wasn’t easy to remember that he was a boy.
    â€œI’d prefer coffee,” he said, motioning to her to lead the way.
    Once inside the house she felt awkward and had to force herself to move. “How is your family?”
    â€œAll of them are well. And your mother?”
    â€œDied a couple of years ago,” she said over her shoulder as she moved into the kitchen.
    Billy was right behind her. “I’m sorry. Here, let me help you,” he said, reaching above her head for a canister of fresh coffee beans.
    Jackie started to turn around and found herself looking straight into Billy’s sun-browned throat, then, as her eyes lifted, at his chin, a chin so square it could have been sculpted with a carpenter’s hand plane. For a moment she found her breath catching in her throat. Then she stopped herself and stepped from under his encircling stance. “My goodness, but you do look like your father. How is he, by the way?”
    â€œThe same as he was when you saw him four days ago.”
    â€œYes, of course. I…”
    Billy smiled at her, at some joke that only he knew, then pulled out a chair at the table in the corner of the pretty kitchen and motioned for her to sit down. “I will make the coffee,” he said.
    â€œYou can do that?” Jackie was of the school that believed that men could do nothing except what they were paid for or received awards for. They could fight wars, run huge businesses, but they couldn’t feed themselves or choose their own clothes without a woman beside them.
    Billy poured the right number of beans into the grinder, then began to turn the crank, all the while watching her with a slight smile.
    â€œSo tell me all about your life,” she said, smiling up at him, trying her best to remember that she had once changed this man’s diapers.
    â€œI went to school, graduated, and now I help my father do whatever needs to be done.”
    â€œManaging the Montgomery millions, right?”
    â€œMore or less.”
    â€œNo wife or children?” It seemed impossible to think that a kid she used to baby-sit could possibly be old enough to have a wife, let alone children.
    â€œI told you that you were the only woman I would ever love. I told you that on the day you left.”
    At that Jackie laughed. “On the day I left, you were eight years old and your nose came to my belt buckle.”
    â€œI’ve grown up since then.” As he said this he turned around and poured the ground beans into the coffee pot, and Jackie couldn’t help noticing that he had grown up very, very well. “So how’s your family?” she asked for at least the third time.
    Billy turned, removed his wallet from his back pocket, took out a stack of photographs, and handed them to her. “My nieces and nephews,” he said, “or at least some of them.”
    While the coffee was brewing he bent over her and showed her the photos, some of them of groups, some of individual children. She liked the fact that this man was sentimental enough to carry photos of children with him, that he knew their ages and something about the personality of each child. But for Jackie the experience wasn’t all that pleasant. She remembered the parents of these children as children themselves. There was one little dark-haired girl who was the same age as her mother had been when Jackie had last seen her.
    â€œI think I’m getting old,” Jackie murmured. In her own heart she hadn’t aged a day since she’d left Chandler. She still felt eighteen, still felt that there were lots of things she had to do before she became a grown-up and started acting like an adult. She wasn’t yet sure what she wanted to do with her life. She’d had a