A Man to Believe In Read Online Free PDF Page B

breakfast.
    “I’ll have a deluxe barbecued beef sandwich,” she announced, her mouth watering at the prospect of all those crunchy french fries and a mound of creamy coleslaw. Jake dittoed her order.
    Harriet turned away, then turned back abruptly. “I hope I’m not telling tales out of school,” she whispered, leaning so close to Jake that her springy curls brushed his cheek. “But that man Susie came in here with yesterday sure was a handsome devil.Made me wish I were several years younger, I tell you.” She smiled and winked. “Might be Susie’s finally found someone special, huh?” Before Jake could comment, Harriet turned and sailed toward the kitchen.
    Cori watched a scowl spread over Jake’s rugged features. So, Harriet’s teasing remark had hit a nerve. Was Susie the black sheep of the family? she wondered. Or did Jake simply hate the thought of a man dating his baby sister?
    “Tell me about your family,” she prodded, her curiosity aroused.
    Jake sucked in a deep breath and curved his mouth into a broad smile as he thought of his sisters. Other men might view family responsibilities as a burden, but he saw them as a blessing. Yes, even when he was called on to protect Susie from yet another good-looking man with a no doubt overactive libido.
    “Susie’s the youngest, and the hardest to handle,” he began. “Rather spoiled, I have to admit. She was just a baby when Dad—” Jake looked away for a few seconds. When his eyes met Cori’s, she saw no trace of the humor she’d seen a minute ago. “When our father deserted the family almost twenty years ago. Since then, I’ve been like a father to her.” He smiled sheepishly. “Somehow I’ve managed to be overindulgent and overprotective at the same time.”
    Cori sighed softly, remembering a time when she’d have given anything to have had an older brother to lean on. Now she knew how dangerous it was tobecome so dependent on someone, but years ago she’d felt differently.
    “Susie was lucky to have you.”
    “Mention that to her when you meet her, will you?” Jake suggested with a chuckle. “She doesn’t always appreciate my brotherly concern, says I’m bossy and overbearing.”
    “You?” Cori teased.
    His eyes widened. “Can you imagine?”
    She found herself laughing, but her sympathies were still with Susie. She had known Jake for only a matter of hours, but she’d learned he wasn’t the type to relinquish control easily. He’d taken charge of things from the moment they’d met, signaling the start of their charade without a word to her, trying to drag her to lunch without even asking her. She had no trouble picturing the battles Susie and Jake must have had as Susie had been growing up.
    “Bossy and overbearing, huh?” she said, appearing to consider the appropriateness of those character traits. “Susie may have a point there.” She smiled, enjoying the uncomfortable look on his face. “Any more siblings?”
    “Yep, two more. Mary’s five years younger than I am. She’s thirty-two, widowed, with three little kids.”
    “Widowed? Already?”
    Jake turned his head and glanced out the window at the traffic on Walnut Avenue. “It was pretty tough on her for a while, but she’s learned to adjust.”
    Cori gave him a sympathetic smile. “And your third sister?”
    “Elizabeth. She’s twenty-eight, married, with ababy.” Jake took a long drink of his iced tea and refilled their glasses. “They don’t need me so much anymore, but for quite a few years there I had my hands full.”
    When Martin Tanner disappeared a few days after Jake had graduated from high school, Jake immediately canceled his plans to go away to college, he explained. He enrolled in night classes at Glendale Community College, and spent his days working for his grandfather at Tanner Construction. “I wasn’t about to leave my mother alone to take care of two young girls and a three-month-old baby.”
    Cori was momentarily stunned. “That’s a