Wylde by Jan Irving Page A

Noah’s eyes widened. Trapped!
    He laughed, enjoying that Noah would probably have to go out with him after all, and he actually didn’t mind Josh coming with them. “Sure, I’ll take you both out tonight, but your Dad has final say on the movie choice.”
Josh rolled his eyes. “Just please tell me it won’t be Disney, okay? I’m not a total kid!”
    A
T THE diner, Jade refreshed Alec’s coffee as he leaned back in his chair. He looked tired, she noticed as he nodded courteously toward her, though his flushed cheeks gave him away; He was still sweet on her. He’d been sweet on her forever, but Jade didn’t want to run him over in one of her drive-by affairs. He was a nice kid, maybe seven years younger than herself. Nicely shaped too, ever since he’d been in the Rangers.
Alec cleared his throat. “Say, Jade, I thought you’d be at home, resting.”
    “Can’t afford to lie around, and it was embarrassing the other night, being carted off in an ambulance,” she said. “I’m just glad that Thomas is okay. His mother fired me.” Jade raised a brow.
“I’m sorry, but you can’t blame her.” Alec shook his head. “Even if she seems a bit of a difficult woman.”
     
“And why is that?” Jade asked in an imperious tone. “Because a woman like you around her little boy? Nuh uh. The woman and her husband are total control freaks, Jade.”
     
“I’ll have you know, I’d never have…!”
    Alec raised a hand. “Hey, I know. I’ve been… I’ve known you since I was fifteen, remember? She just doesn’t know that you’re a good person as well as beautiful.”
    Jade cleared her throat, rubbing the bruise on her forehead self-consciously. “Yeah, right.” Knowing he was going to ask her out, she let a little coffee splatter, buying some time because she wasn’t sure exactly what her answer would be. “Oh crap!” she cursed loudly, making heads turn in shock. Well, let Alec see her for who she was, and that wasn’t goddamned Doris Day, now was it? “Sorry about that!”
    “It’s okay. You didn’t get me,” Alec said. A wry look came into his soft chocolate eyes, as if he knew what she was up to, cutting him off before he could make a move. Huh.
    She turned her back, deciding that even if she didn’t want him, there was no harm in him wanting her, so she rolled her hips as she headed to the counter for paper towels to clean up her mess. But when she looked over her shoulder, sure he’d be staring at her lush ass like every other man in this hick town, she saw with surprise he was looking into her eyes gravely.
He stood up, took his hat and nodded to her politely before quietly leaving.
    “Well, damn!” Jade was abruptly irritated. Why did he have to do something that would make her think about him and wonder? The only other man immune to her attractions was the Chief, and wasn’t that a waste, since he was such a honey.
“You’re nothin’ special, Alec Danvers,” Jade muttered, slamming the coffee back down on its warmer.
    I
T WAS just after dark when she got in her beloved jeep and headed for the foothills where she lived. Her house was about a mile from that missing pot farmer’s, Morley Orris. Truth be told, she kind of missed him living there, even though he had a habit of lurking and nosing into people’s private stuff. Jade always figured that was an unhealthy trait, with all the secrets in her small town, people fooling around on the side, but for her part she had none, so Morley didn’t threaten her. And with him missing, no one lived on the lonely deadend road at the foot of the mountain but Jade.
    But of course she wasn’t afraid or anything. Folks talked about some ghost on the mountain, but that was all just bull. She’d been hearing campfire stories since she was a girl. She knew truth from fiction, and despite the upsetting experience she’d had the other night, she was convinced the only things up that mountain were wild animals and too much fresh air. Too bad