The Trouble With J.J. by Tami Hoag Page A

incredibly sexy color on him and that it brought out his tanned good looks. She was going to stop thinking things like that as soon as he left the room, she told herself. But instead of leaving, he came toward her, leaned down, and kissed her.
    “We’re gonna be a great team, Genna,” he said against her lips. “Trust me. I know these things.”
    Trust him? When pigs fly .
    He sauntered out of the kitchen singing something about being in heaven and walking on clouds.
    He even sings sexily, she thought.
    With Jared out mowing the lawn and Alyssaacross the street playing with Courtney Dennison, Genna took a tour of the house, making decorating notes. She had feared it would resemble a frat house, but it wasn’t so bad. Jared had more or less left it alone, thank God.
    The basement had been turned into a miniature gym with shiny, chrome-plated Nautilus machines. The big country kitchen had been left completely unadorned except for a giant pink hippopotamus cookie jar filled with dry, unappetizing, store-bought cookies. She made a note to bring over some of the peanut butter-chocolate chunk cookies she’d baked at one A.M .
    Crayon pictures Alyssa had drawn covered the front of the refrigerator. They would definitely stay. Genna smiled. Each one depicted a very tall stick person, Jared. She recognized him by his hair and earring. Some showed their new house, and most had Flurry in them somewhere. One showed “Uncle Brutus” with his Mohawk hairdo. There was even one that immortalized Genna. Her head looked like a pyramid, and she had lopsided breasts and a chocolate chip cookie in each hand.
    A print of dogs playing poker hung in the formal dining room. Genna grimaced. That would have to go. An eighteenth-century watercolor should hangon the rich cream and navy wallpaper, she decided. A beautiful cherry corner cabinet stood empty. She had a set of china that would look perfect in it. Maybe she would loan it to him.
    The living room held large, comfortable-looking masculine furniture covered in a nubby oatmeal fabric. The arrangement was haphazard. A minor problem. A framed poster of the Hartford Hawks logo was the only wall decoration. A dozen football trophies sat on the oak mantel in no kind of order.
    Throw pillows would give the room color, she noted on her pad. Maybe they could group the football stuff around Jared’s desk, an oak rolltop beauty that sat off to the far side of the door, cluttered with papers.
    She looked around, wondering what to do with the walls. She had suggested hiring a decorator for the house, but Jared had refused. It was important to him that his house look like a homey, lived-in home rather than a layout for House Beautiful . That made sense.
    Genna glanced out the window to make sure Jared wasn’t doing the lawn in paisley. She shook her head. He wore faded cutoffs that strained the bounds of decency and an enormous Chinesecoolie hat. She printed the word wardrobe on her legal pad.
    Sliding down onto the window seat, she wondered what his lawyer would have to say when he called back. Could his sister-in-law really try to take Alyssa away? The possibility made Genna sick. She freely admitted the shy little girl had stolen her heart. She hated to think of not having Alyssa around. And if it bothered her so much, what must it be doing to Jared? she wondered.
    Not fit to be a parent. Anger boiled inside Genna. Jared was a little unorthodox, but he was more fit to be a parent than many so-called normal people she knew.
    He went by the window again with a flamingo dangling by its throat from a belt loop on his shorts.
    Genna shook her head. “Now I’m defending him.”
    She tried to imagine the sister-in-law, Simone. Jared’s comments made the woman sound like the next prime-time soap vixen: Alexis Colby in a bad mood. It was hard to picture her in a different light, since Genna was on Jared’s side, but she made an effort. Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle was as good as it got. Women who