Smart Girls Think Twice by Cathie Linz Page B

her mom’s antics.
    “What’s wrong?” Jake looked over his shoulder to see what had caused the sudden change in Emma.
    Her mother waved at him and came closer.
    “Run for it.” Emma gave him a shove to get him started. “Go. Save yourself.”
    “I’m not afraid of your mother,” Jake said.
    “You should be. Very afraid.”
    “Hello, Mrs. Riley,” Jake said.
    “I thought I told you to call me Maxie,” her mother said coyly.
    “Well, Maxie, you’re certainly looking lovely this afternoon.”
    Emma did a combo eye roll and face scrunch. Jake tossed out compliments the way the Tastykake factory tossed out desserts. She’d be a fool to take any of them seriously. Or to take him seriously. Maxie batted her triple-mascara-coated eyelashes. “Why thank you, Jake. We just finished up the bridal shower. The wedding is only a week away, you know.”
    Jake nodded. “Emma and I were just talking about that.”
    “You’re not backing out, are you? Oh please, please tell me you’re not backing out.”
    Just kill me now. Emma closed her eyes and bit her lip to prevent herself from screaming out loud.
    “We were just talking about the details,” Jake said.
    “Yes, Mother, we were just talking about the details.”
    “Right.” Maxie nodded knowingly. “The details. Maybe you should discuss the details somewhere private. But before I leave you two, I just have to say, Jake, that you look better than any of those male strippers we just saw.” Having made that statement, she returned to the Tivoli.
    Jake turned to Emma. “Male strippers?”
    “It wasn’t my idea.”
    “Did you enjoy their show more than you did mine?”
    “Not really, no.”
    “I’m glad to hear that.”
    “Wait, I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”
    “No?” He reached out to cup her cheek before trailing his fingers down to the corner of her mouth. Yes, yes, yes was humming through her entire body, a fire kindled by the touch of his hand. There wasn’t a no molecule left inside of her.
    “Woof.”
    Startled, Emma looked down to see Jake’s dog sitting beside him. “Hi there. What’s his name?”
    “His name is Mutt and he’s a pain in the butt.”
    “Woof.”
    “Surely not,” Emma said. “He’s kind of cute now that you’ve got him cleaned up.”
    “You must have a strange definition of cute.”
    “Yeah, I probably do.” Physical appearance had never been a big deal to her. She did find odd things to be cute. Which was why her reaction to Jake was so unusual for her. She’d never been one to fall for a hunky guy. There wouldn’t be any point in doing so, since they weren’t the type to appreciate a plain Jane.
    She really needed to dissect her attraction to Jake and work on overcoming it because there was no logic in continuing to practically melt at his feet. She might be something of a geek, but she did have her pride.
    So no more kissing Jake, no more melting in his arms like ice cream on a hot day. From now on she was taking the cool, restrained approach. The newly revised, totally in control Emma told Jake, “I’ll meet you at the Serenity Falls Country Club at five for the reception.”
    And then she walked away.
    You rock , her inner academic diva raved.
    Don’t stumble and fall , her inner dorky geek warned.
    Monday morning, Jake checked his text messages to see if the private investigator he’d hired had any additional news. Dan had already answered his earlier message several days ago regarding Nic, who was indeed the owner of Nick’s Tavern. As to her being his birth mother, well that was still unknown at this point.
    Too much stuff was unknown. Like the reason Emma had gone all cool on him the other afternoon. All he’d said was that she must have a strange idea of cute. What was wrong with that?
    There was nothing in his in-box—no new text messages. Just the last list that Dan had sent him with a narrowed down list of possible names for his birth mother.
    One thing he had discovered yesterday