Читать книгу Her Secret Valentine - Cathy Gillen Thacker - Страница 11

“I don’t know what has gotten into you,” Ashley fumed as Cal charged through the floodlit darkness of the backyard to the barn a hundred yards away.

He gave her a wickedly teasing look. “A little John Wayne perhaps? And for the record,” he wrapped an arm about her waist, tucking her into his side, “it’s long overdue.”

“It is not!” she told him with a determined toss of her head. She dug in her heels, flung off his arm and turned to face him. “And you can not do this!”

He lowered his face until they were nose to nose. “Want to bet?”

Ashley’s heart pounded in her chest. She stabbed a finger at his chest, trying not to notice what a beautifully sculpted body he had. From his broad shoulders and well-muscled chest to his narrow waist and long legs, there wasn’t an inch of him that wasn’t fit and toned to the max. “I mean it, Cal.”

He inclined his head at her, just as stubbornly. “So do I,” he told her in a voice that brooked no dissent. “I don’t care if you like it or not, Mrs. Hart.” He drew in a slow breath and stayed just exactly where he was. “You’re coming with me and you’re coming right now.”

The next thing she knew, he was swinging her up into his arms and striding across the lawn.

“The last time you did this was on our wedding night!” Ashley said breathlessly.

He grinned with customary self-assurance. “You planning to give me one of those?”

Ashley tried not to notice how the skirt of her dress was riding up her thighs, or how his powerful arm felt clamped beneath her hips. “Not tonight I’m not!” She wiggled in an attempt to get free. “Not after this!”

Oblivious to her machinations, he regarded her with a mysterious glint in his eye. “We’ll just see how romantic you’re feeling in a minute,” he murmured huskily. He set her down in front of the double barn doors and opened the latch.

Once used to store farm equipment and fruit from the orchards, the big, red-sided building had been empty the only other time Ashley had been to the farm. She discovered it wasn’t empty now as Cal hit the switch that brought on the overhead lights hanging from the rafters. A lawn tractor, hand mower and edger occupied one corner. But it was what was in the center of the cement-floored space that left her speechless.

“Oh, my…” Ashley stared at the big red heart on the windshield of a red ’64 Mustang convertible in letter-perfect shape, from the pristine retractable white top and fancy silver wheel covers, to the candy-apple-red vinyl interior. It looked like the borrowed vehicle they’d had their very first date in.

Still watching her carefully, he took her gently by the hand, and led her toward the car. “Happy early Valentine’s Day,” he said when they neared. Wrapping both hands around her waist, he brought her close enough to kiss her temple affectionately. “This is for you.”

She stared at him in amazement.

“You bought this for me?”

“For us. Yes.”

“But we’ve never done anything this extravagant for each other for Valentine’s Day!” Ashley protested. Usually, they exchanged cards, and went out to dinner, and that was about it.

“I know.”

“Then why now?” She gazed at him. Was this part of his family’s influence, too? Or all Cal’s idea?

“Because we used to be closer,” Cal told her in a low, sincere voice. Abruptly, all the love he had ever felt for her was in his eyes. “And I know we could be that connected to each other again if we just let ourselves go back to the beginning and start over. And where better to do that than in the car where our courtship began, eleven-and-a-half years ago?”

Ashley had to admit, the Mustang had already generated a lot of good memories in just a few scant minutes.

He regarded her with distinctly male satisfaction. “Want to test drive your new Mustang?”

Her hopes rising about them being able to fix the problems in their marriage after all, she took the keys he handed her. “Absolutely—if you’ll come with me.”

He winked at her cheerfully, suddenly looking like the carefree, charming med student she had fallen in love with years ago. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Cal opened the door for her, and Ashley slid behind the steering wheel. Circling around to the other side, Cal dropped into the passenger seat. Electricity sizzled between them as Ashley recalled how they used to do a little “parking” in this car, too.

“As much as I’d like you to try it with the top down…” Cal said.

Ashley shivered, just thinking about the wintry air blowing over them. “Yeah. I think it’s too cold for that tonight, too.”

“But when warmer weather comes,” Cal predicted, fastening his old-fashioned lap belt, “we’ll have a lot of fun with it.”

It certainly sounded as though he was in this for the long haul, Ashley thought, as she fastened her belt, too. She shook her head, marveling at how accurately Cal had targeted her feelings.

To her delight, the motor started easily and ran with a gentle purr. “I can’t get over how much this looks like the Mustang we started dating in,” Ashley commented as she took it out on the country road and drove it through the moonlit countryside.

Cal draped an arm across the back of the seat. “It doesn’t just look like it, Ashley.” He leaned over and kissed her shoulder. “This is the Car.”

A quick glance his way showed her he wasn’t kidding. Ashley turned onto a road that would take them back in the direction of the farm. Enjoying the quick responsiveness of the motor, and the tight command of the wheel, Ashley asked, “How did you manage that?”

“I talked to Marty—the friend we used to borrow it from—and got the serial number and worked backwards from there,” Cal told her as she slowed the car and turned into the long, narrow driveway.

“Unfortunately, the guy who owned it last summer didn’t want to sell it to anyone because it’s such a collector’s item now,” Cal continued affably. “So Hannah had to help me convince him to part with it. And then she spent the fall putting on a new coat of paint and making sure it ran like a dream.”

Ashley guided the car back into the barn and cut the motor. “You were working on this all the way back then?” she asked in amazement. He’d never said a thing!

Shrugging, he released the catch on his safety belt. “I wanted you to have a spectacular coming-home present.”

Spectacular was the word for it, all right. Ashley couldn’t think of a better, more meaningful gift he could have given her. Except the gift he had unknowingly given her and she’d lost, before. The gift he still knew nothing about.

Ashley paused, aware yet again how much she loved Cal. More than anything, she wanted to be close to him again.

Maybe it was time she stopped guarding her heart. Instead, she could concentrate on tearing down the walls between them and building a better foundation for their marriage. Heaven knew this was a remarkable start. Just knowing he, too, wanted things to be better between them made all the difference. For the first time in months, she was optimistic about their future together. Optimistic that it wouldn’t be just great sex and their love of medicine holding them together…

She wreathed her arms about his neck and leaned over to kiss him. “This is without a doubt the sweetest thing you’ve ever done for me.”

His lips moved warmly on hers. To her relief…and disappointment, he didn’t try to take the caress further. “I’m glad you like it,” he whispered, holding her close as she snuggled against him.

“I more than like it, Cal. I love it.” Ashley splayed her hands across the solidness of his chest. As she looked at him, her heart felt lighter than it had in ages. “But you know what this means, don’t you?”

Cal shook his head, still holding her eyes with all the tenderness she had ever wanted to see.

“I still owe you a Valentine’s Day present. And it’s going to have to be a whopper to live up to the gift you’ve given me.”

“Ah, Ashley, don’t you understand?” Cal chided her gently, pulling her close yet again for another long, soulful kiss that ended much too soon. He threaded a hand through her hair. “Just coming home with me and spending the month with me in Carolina is present enough.”

THE NEXT MORNING, Cal woke at his usual time of 6:00 a.m. Congratulating himself for going against his baser instincts to seduce Ashley back into his bed the night before, he rose and headed downstairs to put on the coffee. And then waited. And waited. And waited.

When Ashley still hadn’t stirred five and a half hours later, he went up to check on her. She was curled up on her side, sleeping soundly, one hand tucked beneath her pillow. Knowing she’d never get on Eastern Standard Time unless she made an effort to adapt to the five-hour time difference, he opened the drapes and let the January sunshine pour across the guest bed. “Rise and shine!”

Ashley moaned and burrowed deeper in the covers. “What time is it?” she asked without opening her eyes.

“Almost noon,” Cal leaned against the brass railing at the end of the double bed. She appeared to be going back to sleep. He nudged her foot. “Want to go for a run with me?”

Ashley opened one eye. “Mmm.” She made a soft, sexy sound low in her throat. “Maybe later?”

Cal was about to coax her further when he heard a car in the drive. He crossed to the window and saw Ashley’s father’s Mercedes coming up the lane. This was…unexpected. “Ashley, I think your dad’s here,” Cal said.

Ashley scoffed and put one of the pillows over her head. “Get real,” she mumbled.

Cal plucked the pillow away from her ear. “I mean it, Ash. I’m not kidding. Your dad just drove up to the house.”

Ashley started, and ran a hand through her “bed-head” hair. As usual, she looked more apprehensive than pleased when confronted with a meeting with her parents. “I’ll keep him company while you get dressed,” Cal promised, aware he wasn’t much more comfortable with his father-in-law than Ashley seemed to be.

By the time Cal made it downstairs, Harold Porter was standing on the front porch of the farmhouse. Cal hadn’t seen Harold for nearly a year but he looked the same as always. His impeccably cut silver hair was brushed away from his forehead in a suave, sophisticated style that didn’t move even in the stiffest breeze. His skin bore the perennial suntan of a man who played golf, sailed and skied. Not that those activities were pleasure-oriented. Cal knew that everything Harold Porter did revolved around his work. And sometimes the only place a business meeting could be worked in was on the slope, the deck of a boat or a superbly manicured green. Hal Porter did whatever was necessary to get the job done, which was how he had risen through sales and marketing departments to become CEO of a prominent pharmaceutical company that was headquartered in the Research Triangle Park.

“Sir.” Cal shook his father-in-law’s hand and escorted him inside. Despite the fact it was a Saturday morning, Harold Porter was decked out in an expensive suit and tie.

“I can’t stay.” Harold shrugged out of his cashmere overcoat and handed it to Cal. “I’ve got a flight to Chicago later this afternoon, but I wanted to drop in and see you and Ashley before I headed to the airport.”

Cal wasn’t surprised. Harold traveled at least five or six days every week. Many weekends, he didn’t make it back to North Carolina at all.

Cal hung up Harold’s coat. “Ashley will be down in a minute. She’s just waking up.”

Harold frowned and glanced at his Rolex in obvious disapproval.

“She’s still on Hawaii time,” Cal explained, wishing Ashley’s father wasn’t so hard on her. “Can I get you some coffee or juice?”

Harold waved off the offer and regarded Cal soberly. “Actually, I’d like a word with you privately, if I may.”

Aware this couldn’t possibly be good, Cal led the way past the unfurnished rooms at the front of the house, to the family room at the rear. After Harold sat on the leather sofa, Cal took an easy chair and waited. The curt admonition wasn’t long in coming. “I thought I had explained this to you when you asked her mother and me for her hand in marriage,” Harold began sternly.

Cal was beginning to think of that conversation as the Devil’s Bargain. One he never should have made in order to get their blessing for the union.

“Ashley is very much like her mother and me,” Harold continued matter-of-factly. “She will never be happy unless she is free to be all she can be professionally. I know, because for the first six months after Ashley was born Margaret tried to give up her career goals and aspirations and be a full-time mother because she thought that would please me. She was never more miserable, nor was I.”

Which meant Ashley couldn’t have been happy, either. Cal knew that to have a happy baby—and a happy family—you had to have happy parents.

“I would hate to see you and Ashley walk down that same path, even for a short while.”

Resenting the implication that he had behaved less than honorably in any instance, Cal held up a silencing palm. “Sir, with all due respect,” he said angrily, “I resent what you are implying here. I assure you I have never done anything to hold Ashley back professionally.” Even when that meant biting his tongue when it came to her leaving him for a good two-and-a-half years. “In fact, I’ve done everything possible to help and encourage Ashley to follow her dreams.” At considerable cost to our marriage. Cal was sure the time apart had contributed to the emotional distance between them.

Harold lifted a skeptical brow. “Then I don’t understand what she’s doing here for a month, lazing around and sleeping ’til noon, when she doesn’t have a job yet.”

Thinking of the emotionally and physically exhausted woman upstairs, Cal’s patience waned. “She’s earned some time off.”

Harold frowned and cast a glance at the doorway, as if he didn’t want them to be overheard. “She can take that once she’s secured a position worthy of her education and training.”

“Thanks for the advice, Dad.” Ashley stood in the doorway. The expression on her face indicated she had caught the last of what Harold had said, but no more. And that was good, Cal thought, because he never wanted Ashley to know about the stipulations her parents had put on their blessing for Cal and Ashley’s marriage. It was enough that he knew that their concern had not been that he love her with all his heart and soul, but rather that he wouldn’t interfere with the stellar career achievements they expected of their only daughter.

Still moving tiredly, Ashley came farther into the room.

She was wearing a pink plaid flannel robe over her nightshirt, and slouchy pink sweat socks covered her feet. Her face was still bare of makeup, but she had brushed her hair and fastened it in a sleek chignon at the nape of her neck. She looked vulnerable and repressed—not at all like the carefree young bride who had been driving a Mustang convertible around country roads at midnight. Cal’s heart went out to her once again.

Ashley had no trouble being her own woman when she was away from her parents. But when she was in their presence, she always seemed to shrink a little and fade into some stressed-out realm where Cal could not always reach her.

“Ashley.” Harold stood, embracing her in a warm, paternal hug.

Cal noted with some relief that Harold looked genuinely glad to see his daughter. Ashley looked happy to see her father, too. But she was also wary. Nervous. On edge. Which was how she always acted around both her parents, no matter what the situation.

“I take it you haven’t accepted the job in Maui,” Harold said.

“No,” Ashley said simply. Her glance cut over to Cal briefly before she turned her gaze back to her father. “I haven’t.”

“Well, it’s probably a good idea to scout around first,” Harold said, his tone gentling amiably as they all took a seat once again. “So where else are you looking?” Harold pressed.

Ashley folded her hands primly in her lap and sat with her back perfectly straight. “I haven’t gotten that far yet, Dad. It was enough to finish my fellowship.”

Her father frowned, making absolutely no effort to hide his disapproval about that. “I gather you are planning to job-hunt from North Carolina, then.”

Ashley hesitated and this time she didn’t look at Cal at all. “Yes.” He reached over across the sofa and squeezed her hand reassuringly.

“Makes sense.” Harold nodded thoughtfully after a moment. “Travel arrangements would certainly be easier from the mainland.” Harold chatted on for several minutes. He gave Ashley a list of potential contacts who might know of suitable positions. Then he rose. “Well, I’d better get going. Don’t want to miss my flight to Chicago. I’ve got a business dinner there this evening.”

“Where’s Mom?” Ashley asked, also standing.

“She’s still in Boston. She won’t be home for another seven to ten days. A new semester is a very busy time for the university. As chancellor, she can’t afford to be away.”

“Right,” Ashley said.

If Ashley was disappointed her father had so little time to spend with her, she was not showing it. “Well, travel safely, Dad.” Ashley rose on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. Harold hugged her again, even more warmly this time, shook Cal’s hand and was off.

Ashley and Cal stood watching until Harold had driven away.

As soon as he was gone, Ashley let out a long breath. Her slender body seemed to deflate. “I’m sorry about that,” she said, shaking her head. “He should have called first, let us know he was coming.”

“He’s family, Ashley,” Cal corrected his wife gently. “Your father doesn’t have to call for permission first. He’s welcome here anytime. In fact, I wish he would come here more,” Cal said sincerely. Perhaps if Ashley and her parents spent more time together their relationship wouldn’t be so strained. He knew they loved each other. They just hadn’t quite figured out how to show it. A lot more interaction, on a more casual basis, might help that.

Ashley looked full of resentment. “If my father’d been coming here on business, he would have called ahead out of courtesy.”

“Maybe he thought you’d duck him if he gave you too much notice,” Cal teased gently and waited for her reaction. As he expected, it wasn’t long in coming.

Ashley turned to Cal, moisture brimming in her china-blue eyes. “I love him.”

“I know.” Cal wrapped an arm around her shoulders and brought her in close to his side.

“I love both my parents,” she insisted thickly.

“I know that, too.” He comforted her with a kiss on the top of her head.

Ashley leaned into his embrace, as if soaking in the comfort he was trying to give, then moved away. She threw up her hands in frustration as she paced back and forth. “They just drive me crazy.”

Cal knew that, too. “You could just tell your father you don’t want to talk about the job search.”

“That wouldn’t stop him from putting his two cents in,” she complained.

Probably not, Cal thought and released a long, frustrated breath.

“Anyway,” Ashley sighed. She started to run her hands through her hair, the way she always did when she was restless, then stopped when she encountered the sleekly arranged chignon and pins. Looking as if she no longer wanted to discuss this, she eyed him up and down, taking in his ancient sweats and running shoes. “Did you say something about going for a run with me?”

He had, but that was before she was standing in front of him, looking so…wrung out and pale. He didn’t want to say so, but physically she didn’t look up for a long walk never mind a run in forty-degree weather. “Yeah, but—” Cal paused as the beeper at his waist began to buzz. He looked at the numbers running across the front, grimaced. He glanced at Ashley in apology, aware this was something he’d forgotten to mention. “I’m on call this weekend.”

He turned the beeper off and headed for the phone.

“That the hospital or a patient?” Ashley asked.

“Hospital.” Which meant it wasn’t likely a problem that could be solved over the phone. He picked up the phone and dialed. Ashley was still waiting when he had finished talking. “I’ve got to go. A sixteen-year-old kid got hurt on an ATV. From the sound of it, I’m going to be a while.”

He was already grabbing his keys and wallet. “I’ll call you later,” he said.

Ashley flashed him a wan smile.

Cal headed for the door then came back, hooked an arm about her waist and pulled her close. Aggravation boiling up inside him, he kissed her soundly. He wished the demands of their profession weren’t separating them again so soon. “Damn, I hate leaving you today,” he said.

This time her smile was real. And sexy as all get out. “We’ve got time,” she murmured reassuringly. Both hands on his chest, she shoved him in the direction he had to move. “Now, go.”

LOOKING BACK, Ashley didn’t know how she managed it. But she waited until Cal had driven off before she gave in to the nearly overwhelming nausea that had plagued her from the moment she had woken up. She rushed to the bathroom, where she promptly threw up.

Telling herself it was just nerves—and the pressure her parents were exerting on her to find a job “worthy” of her education and training—Ashley forced herself to shower and dress. And then she threw up again.

Wondering if she were coming down with something, she took her temperature, found it normal. Then she said to hell with it, and went back to bed.

By the time an hour had passed, and she had napped a little more, she felt remarkably better. At least as far as the steadiness of her stomach was concerned.

As far as the rest of her went…well, the more she thought about it, the more questions she had. And there was only one way to get the answers she needed. So she got up, grabbed the keys to the Mustang, and went to see an old and dear friend.