Adding Up to Marriage Read Online Free Page A

emergency.” And I would hang myself if she was the only option. “But…I’m glad you had fun with her.”
    â€œAre you kidding? She’s like the coolest girl ever!”
    Yeah, let’s hear it for the cool girls, Silas thought, returning to the living room. Like a hummingbird, Jewel madly darted from spot to spot, folding, straightening, pickingup. At Silas’s entrance, she glanced over only to disappear behind a tablecloth as she stretched her arms to fold it in half.
    â€œNothing’s broken,” she said from behind the cloth, then reappeared, the cloth neatly folded into eighths in three swift, graceful moves. “In case you were wondering.”
    Glued to the spot, Silas watched her zip, zap, zing around the room as he got grumpier by the second. “But where do you get off going into my room and getting my comforter off of my bed?” Silas said. Okay, whined. “I sleep under that! Naked! And now it’s dirty!”
    In the midst of hauling a cushion larger than she was back onto the sofa, Jewel shot him a look. “Geez, it might be a little dusty in places, but it’s not dirty. And the boys brought it out, I didn’t go into your room and disturb your things. Trust me, I’m not that desperate.”
    For what? floated through Silas’s brain, only to get shoved aside by Jewel’s “You sleep naked?” as she scooted across the room to smack at several large smudges on the comforter.
    It took a second. “I sleep what? ”
    That got another look. A puzzled one, this time. “Naked. You know, without any clothes?”
    â€œI know what it means! But isn’t that kind of a personal question?”
    She frowned at him. “Um…okay…it wasn’t me who introduced the word into the conversation. You did.”
    â€œI did not!”
    â€œYes, you did,” she said patiently. “Because my imagination’s not that vivid. Not that it matters to me one way or the other.” Huffing a little, she dragged the king-size comforter off the dining table, only to have it swallow her whole as she tried to fold it, like she was wrestling a monster marshmallow. Finally she gave up and dumped it onthe sofa. “But you don’t strike me as the sleeping-naked type.”
    â€œCould we please move on?”
    â€œYou’re really cute when you blush. And it’s okay, really. Since I do, too.”
    â€œDo what?”
    â€œSleep naked. You hungry?”
    Lord above, being in the same room with her was like riding the Tilt-A-Whirl at the fair. Over the dizziness, Silas watched her zip to the kitchen, ignoring—more or less—the way her butt twitched as she walked. Then he opened his mouth to say “no,” that all he wanted was for this night to be over, but then he realized, one, that his stomach felt like it was going to eat itself and, two, that the house smelled like an Italian restaurant.
    Against his better judgment, he let his gaze sweep what he could see of his kitchen from where he stood. As he feared, it made Armageddon look like a minor dustup. The sooner he got this chick out of his house, the better. Except—
    â€œDamn. I should’ve run you home before I put the boys to bed.”
    â€œOh! That’s okay, I figured you’d get back late. So I called Patrice, asked her to come get me in a little while. We’ve got a couple clients to see early tomorrow out at Jemez, so I’ll probably crash at her house, since it’s halfway to the pueblo already.”
    The idea of this woman being responsible for bringing someone’s baby into the world made him shudder. But then, childbirth was a messy business, too, so he supposed she felt right at home. He looked at his kitchen again.
    â€œThere’s actual food in there somewhere?”
    â€œJust something I tossed together out of whatever you had on hand,” she said, shoving aside…stuff to plunk