Can I create a contract with fields to fill in and email it to clients?

does this form have to be a link on a site?  Or can I just create a contract to send to clients and they can email back?

Yes, that's possible.

You can add text, images and fields to your form in the form builder.

If you want a paragraph text with fields on the same line, you can use this widget http://widgets.jotform.com/widget/narrative_fields

You can also add autoresponder notification in your form so your clients will receive a copy of their data over email and they can reply to it whenever they want to. Make sure to set your email as the sender email or reply-to email. http://www.jotform.com/help/26-Creating-a-Form-Autoresponder

After publishing your form, take your form URL and send it to your clients. You can also embed the form to your website using the provided embed codes.

If you need further assistance, let us know.