Free A Bride for Jackson Powers (Desire, 1273) by Dixie Browning Page B

didn’t help matters. He’d been aroused, but that was a normal, male-morning thing. She’d been aroused because…well, just because. Naturally they hadn’t made love, but she couldn’t help wondering what might have happened if the circumstances had been different.
    Neither could she help wondering about Sunny’s mother. Had they been married? Was he divorced? Separated? Had she died? Was he still in love with her?
    “Well,” she said decisively, having made up her mind to look on the practical side. It was a job, and she needed employment, even temporary employment, if she was ever going to get back to Oklahoma. “I guess it won’t hurt to delay my own plans for a few more days.”
    They boarded some forty-five minutes later. The plane was filled to capacity, carry-on baggage limited to Jax’s briefcase and Sunny’s bulky diaper bag. They’d checked the carrier at the gate. The flight attendant promised milk and snacks the minute they reached cruising altitude and slipped Jax a package of pretzels for Sunny to chew on.
    Lost in their own separate thoughts, neither spoke as the plane picked up speed down the runway. They lifted off, and Hetty closed her eyes, clinging to the armrests in a white-knuckled grip. Not until they werein the air did she release the breath she’d been holding.
    Moments later she felt two distinct thuds somewhere in the belly of the monstrous plane and fought panic all over again.
    Jax covered her hand with one of his own. “Relax, it’s only the wheel flaps.”
    “I knew that,” she said, trying hard to turn abject fear into a joking matter.
    “Sure you did. It’s when it doesn’t happen that you start to worry.”
    “Yes, well…I didn’t notice it when we left Oklahoma City, but that was back in the old days, when flying was still an adventure.”
    He chuckled and settled Sunny more comfortably on his lap. He’d taken the window seat at Hetty’s insistence when she’d told him she’d rather not see how far off the ground she was. “As soon as the seat-belt light goes off, you might want to check out the john. I’ve heard there’s real soap there.”
    “No shower?”
    “Don’t be greedy.”
    “Okay, I’ll go first and wash up, but if they start serving before I get back, grab me two of everything.”
    “You got it.” His smile was tired, but warm. “Don’t know much about airline food, do you?”
    “Enough to know it’s better than no food at all.”
    She would like to believe there was more than amusement in his smile, but then, she’d read somewhere that extreme hunger could make a person delusional.
     
    The flight was surprisingly uneventful. “Those people across the aisle are sleeping,” Hetty murmured. “I don’t think I could ever be that blasé about sleeping in public.”
    “I dunno, you did pretty well on the floor back at O’Hare.
    “Only because I was exhausted and there was nowhere else.”
    “Actually, there was a hotel, but by the time I could get a bid in, it was filled to capacity. We were probably better off where we were.”
    “I couldn’t have done it alone. I mean, sleeping and all.” Her color had improved while she was devouring chicken à la airline. Now it flared up again. “You know what I mean,” she mumbled, embarrassed, and Jax assured her that he did.
    He was still trying to convince himself that he wasn’t making a mistake. He’d used Sunny as an excuse, but his secretary could’ve arranged some interim solution. There were bonded temps for almost everything these days.
    The practical side of his brain said it was a logical solution to both their problems.
    Another side—the same one that had prompted him to buy the Lizzie-Linda, was whipping out warnings he was trying hard to ignore.
    The plain truth was, he wanted her. Not the glamorous creature he’d mistaken her for at first, but theunpretentious woman he’d discovered as he got to know her better.
    Or maybe it was the combination that intrigued him. He