Читать книгу The Millionaire She Married - Christine Rimmer - Страница 10

The phone rang at nine. It was Logan, calling from his hotel room in Seattle. He said that he was learning more about the advances in the treatment of childhood infections than his practice could afford. There was a certain very pricey piece of state-of-the-art equipment he wanted to buy.

As he talked, Jenna tried to keep her mind on what he was saying, tried not to think about Mack, about how angry she was, how trapped she felt. About what in the world she was going to do now.

“Jenna? You still with me?”

“Of course. I’m right here. How’s the food there—and are you getting enough sleep?”

“The food? I’ve had worse. And yes, I’m getting plenty of sleep. What about you? Miss me?”

“Desperately.”

He chuckled. “Don’t overplay it. I’ll become suspicious.”

Suspicious. Oh, Lord. If he only knew.

And he should know. She would have to tell him.

But not now. Not on the phone from seven hundred miles away.

She’d tell him when she could sit down with him, face-to-face, after he returned home.

He asked, “So what are you and Lacey up to tonight?”

“We’re not. I came home and there was a note on the fridge. A hot date, it said.”

“I didn’t know Lacey was seeing someone in Meadow Valley.”

“I don’t think she is. It’s probably just one of her old high school friends, Mira or Maud—or maybe both.”

“The terrible twins. Scary.” He spoke jokingly. But he wasn’t joking, not really. Logan had never approved of Lacey’s old friends. He didn’t much approve of Lacey, either, though he always treated her kindly, partly for Jenna’s sake and also because he liked to think of himself as Lacey’s “honorary” older brother.

“The twins are all grown up now,” Jenna reminded him. “And they’ve settled down considerably. They haven’t spray-painted obscenities on high school walls or gotten caught breaking and entering for years. Maud’s married and a mother—and a darn good one, from what I hear.”

“That’s reassuring,” Logan muttered dryly. “Seriously. Is Lacey all right? She seemed a little…subdued the other day.” Logan had been at the house when Lacey had first arrived from L.A.

“She’s fine. Just taking a break from the rat race, she said. A few weeks in her hometown. Some rest and relaxation. Oh, and she also mentioned that a certain gallery owner had been talking about showcasing her work. Evidently the deal fell through somehow.”

“A disappointment.” His tone was knowing.

“That’s what it sounded like to me. So if she seems a little down, that’s probably why.”

“She’ll get over it.”

“Of course she will.”

“What she ought to do is get a real job. She’s twenty-five years old, after all. Time to make a few realistic decisions. There’s no reason she couldn’t move back to Meadow Valley permanently. That house of your mother’s is half hers now. As soon as you and I get married, she could have it to herself. Plenty of room to set up a studio and paint in her spare time. She ought to—”

“Logan,” Jenna cut in gently.

He was silent, then he chuckled. “I know, I know. None of my business. But she is your sister. And I worry about her.”

“I know you do. And it’s very sweet of you.”

“Tell me again how much you miss me.” She could picture the loving smile on his handsome face. The image made her feel about two inches tall.

“Jenna? Are you there?”

“I miss you,” she said. “A lot. And I…” Her throat closed up. She had to swallow before she could get the words out. “I love you. Very much.”

“And I love you, Jenna Bravo. Did you get those papers in the mail from Florida yet?”

“Uh. No. No, I’m afraid that I didn’t.”

“Well. It’s only been a few days. We have to exercise a little patience, I suppose.”

“That’s right. Logan, I…” But no, she told herself again. Not now. It’s not right to tell him something like this over the phone.

“What is it?” Concern threaded his voice. “Is something wrong?”

“No. Nothing. Nothing at all. I just…I’ll be glad when you’re home.”

Softly he agreed, “So will I.”

Jenna hung up feeling like a two-timer, a woman of questionable moral character, dishonest and bad. She could have killed Mack McGarrity. She muttered a few choice expletives under her breath.

And then, before reason could reassert itself, she got out the phone book and looked up the number of the Northern Empire Inn.

She dialed it quickly, and when the operator answered, she growled, “Mack McGarrity’s room, please.”

He picked up after the first ring. “McGarrity here.” His voice, so deep and firm and resonant, vibrated along her nerves, sent a shiver moving just beneath the surface of the skin.

She could hear a television in the background, a man talking, then audience laughter. “Hello?” he said, impatient now, sounding like the old Mack, the oh-so-busy Mack, the Mack who’d dragged her to New York City without bothering to get her input on the move—and then hardly had a spare moment for her once he got her there.

She opened her mouth, then shut it without making a sound. What was there to say that she hadn’t already said?

She heard him draw in a breath. And then, in tender reproach, he whispered her name.

“Jenna…”

She lowered the handset and laid it oh so carefully back in its cradle.

Jenna didn’t sleep well that night. She couldn’t get comfortable in her own bed. And then, when she finally did drop off, she had a dream about Mack.

About making love with Mack.

In the dream, their lovemaking was every bit as beautiful, as sensual and sweet and soul shattering, as it had been in real life.

They lay on a white bed—the bed in the window of her shop, as a matter of fact. In the dream, though, the bed drifted in some warm and safe and hazy place. It floated, with Jenna and Mack naked upon it, in a kind of misty void.

Mack touched her, the way he used to touch her—in the beginning, when it was all so new and magical. When what he’d found with her was still enough to make him put aside temporarily the demons of ambition that drove him.

His eyes were the sky, blue turning cloudy. His hands, so warm and strong, moved over her body in a lazy, arousing dance. She moaned, and he kissed her, the deepest, longest, most sensual kiss she had ever known. It went on and on. She pressed herself closer to him and realized that he was already within her. There was that perfect, full sensation of joining.

Her eyes drooped closed. His kiss deepened even more. Impossible, that a kiss already so deep could continue to intensify. But it did. And they were moving together, sighing together, on the wide white bed in the middle of a warm and lovely nowhere.

Then all at once she was standing in the waiting room of a doctor’s office, looking through the receptionist’s window.

And it was Logan, not a receptionist, who stared back at her. “There’s no cure for you, Jenna.” His voice was icy cold. “I’m afraid your case is terminal.”

She woke with a cry, sitting straight up in bed.

The next day Jenna looked in the phone book for the number of the attorney who had handled her divorce from Mack. It wasn’t there. She remembered the address, so she drove by the attorney’s office that evening, on the way home from Linen and Lace. But her lawyer had moved. The building was now occupied by a florist’s shop.

Logan didn’t call that night. Jenna felt guiltily grateful for that. As long as she didn’t talk to him, she didn’t have to keep asking herself if it was better to tell him the truth right now—or to wait until she could tell him to his face.

Sunday, Linen and Lace opened at one in the afternoon. Jenna went out at a little after ten o’clock and bought bagels and cream cheese. Then she woke Lacey and the two of them sat in the breakfast nook, warm September sunlight pouring in the windows, drinking coffee and sharing an impromptu brunch.

Lacey talked a little about her stalled career dreams. She’d been living in L.A. for five years now. She shared a downtown loft—in a rather rough neighborhood that made Jenna nervous—with a friend, a fellow artist. Lacey painted every chance she got, and she was making connections, building a network of people who knew and liked her work. Every now and then she’d sell a painting. But as yet, her long string of jobs waiting tables and serving at private catered events were what paid the rent.

Jenna really did believe her sister had talent. And Lacey had come a long way from the troubled, rebellious teenager who’d once been known by her teachers as the Scourge of Meadow Valley High. Now Lacey really cared about something.

“You work hard,” Jenna told her. “And you love what you do. You just keep working. Someday you’ll get the recognition you deserve.”

Lacey had what Jenna always thought of as a naughty angel’s face—wide blue eyes, a lush, full mouth, a delicate nose and beautiful pale skin. She liked to wear tight-fitting tops and flowing, semitransparent skirts. To Jenna, she always seemed a cross between a rock star and a fairy princess.

Now the full mouth was stretched to a grin. “It’s obvious why I come home—to hear you tell me that I’m bound to succeed.”

“And you are. I know you are. Do you need money?”

“No, I do not. I’m managing just fine.”

They shared a second bagel and Jenna poured them each more coffee.

Then Lacey asked, “So what’s gone wrong in your life lately?”

Jenna tensed, but tried her best not to let Lacey see it. “What do you mean?” She hoped she sounded breezy. “Everything’s fine.”

Lacey leaned closer. “Come on. It’s me. Your bad baby sister. I grew up spying on you, remember? I saw you get your first kiss.”

This was news to Jenna. “You did not.”

“I did. You kissed that redheaded boy, the one with all the freckles, whose ears stuck out. Chuckie…”

Jenna felt her cheeks coloring. “Oh, God. Chuckie Blevins.”

“You were thirteen. And that Chuckie. He was some kisser. He slobbered all over you—and you wiped your mouth after. But in a very Jenna-like way, so considerately, waiting until Chuckie wasn’t looking.”

“I can’t believe you were watching that.”

“You bet I was. It was probably the most exciting thing I ever saw you do.” Lacey shoved a thick hank of curly blond hair back over her shoulder and sipped from her coffee cup. “And I still want an answer to my question. What’s going on?”

“I don’t—”

“Oh, stop it. Something is going on. You try to hide it, but you’ve got that worried, nervous look in those eyes of yours. It’s the way you looked when you ran away from Mack McGarrity.”

Jenna stiffened. “I beg your pardon. I did not—”

Lacey didn’t even let her finish. “You did, too. Okay, okay. You called it a visit home. But you brought your cat with you, for heaven’s sake. And you never did go back to New York. You bustled around here, inventing little cleaning and decorating projects to spiff up the house, acting busy but looking worried and sad, putting on fake smiles and trying to stay upbeat. But I could see. Anyone who cared about you could see. Something was very wrong.”

“Well, my marriage was ending. Of course I was worried. And I didn’t go back to New York because there was no point in going back. It was over between Mack and me.”

“Jenna. I’m saying that you’ve seemed the same way for the last couple of days—not sad this time so much, but worried and really preoccupied. And I want to know what’s bothering you.”

Jenna looked at her sister for a long time, torn between the probable wisdom of keeping her own counsel and the real need to share her problem with someone she could trust.

Need won out. “Mack’s in town.”

Lacey set down her bagel without taking a bite of it. “You’re joking. It’s a joke, right?”

“No. It’s no joke.”

“In town? Where in town?”

“He’s staying at the Northern Empire Inn.”

“And he came to town to see you?”

“Yes.”

“Does Dr. Do-Right know?”

“Lacey, I really wish you’d stop calling Logan Dr. Do-Right.”

Lacey wrinkled her nose. “Sorry.” Then she put on a contrite look. “Let me try again. Does Logan know?”

“I’m telling him as soon as he gets back from Seattle.”

“Translation. You haven’t told him yet.” Lacey picked up her bagel again, looked at it, then dropped it for the second time. “I can’t stand it. Talk. Tell me everything.”

“It’s awful,” Jenna warned. “It’s embarrassing and unfair and just plain wrong. And if I thought I could get away with it, I’d do something life-threatening to Mack McGarrity.”

“Just tell me what’s going on.”

So Jenna explained the whole mess to her sister.

At the end, Lacey asked, “Have you called your lawyer about it?”

Jenna sighed. “I don’t have a lawyer, not as of this moment. The lawyer I did have has apparently closed up shop and moved away. He’s not in the phone book anymore. And yesterday I drove by the address where he used to have his office. There’s a florist shop there now.”

“Great,” Lacey remarked, in a tone that said it was anything but. “So you need a new lawyer.”

“That’s right. And I’ll need a good one, I think. If I do end up having to divorce that man for the second time, he’s promised me he’ll think of a thousand ways to drag things out all over again.”

“You know, he’s always been kind of an S.O.B.”

“You said it, I didn’t.”

“Maybe if you just hang tough, he’ll give up.”

“I keep hoping the same thing. But…” Jenna let a weary shrug finish the thought.

Lacey nodded. “Mack McGarrity is not the type who gives up.”

“Exactly.”

Lacey picked up her coffee mug and sipped. Then she set the mug down. “Can I ask you something?”

“Go ahead.”

“Didn’t you notice that you never got the final papers for your divorce?”

Jenna braced her elbows on the table and rubbed at her eyes. “It crossed my mind now and then. But you have to understand, it was over. We’d made an agreement. The rest felt like formalities. And I wasn’t thinking about marrying anyone else then, so…”

Lacey was watching her way too closely. “Don’t hate me, but are you really sure it’s over between you and Mack?”

Jenna’s answer was immediate. “Of course I am. Why?”

“Well, there was just something so…powerful, between the two of you. It’s not the same with Dr. Do—er, Logan.”

Jenna knew she shouldn’t ask, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. “What do you mean, not the same?”

“Well, you and Logan are just perfect for each other, on the surface. A couple of straight arrows who want to raise a bunch of cute, happy kids. But there’s something a little bit…” Lacey let the sentence trail off unfinished.

Jenna shifted in her chair impatiently. “What? A little bit what?”

“I don’t know. Lukewarm, I guess. Something kind of tepid about the whole thing.”

Jenna felt defensive—and tried not to let it show. “Logan and I are both mature adults now. We know what we want. If that seems lukewarm to you—”

Lacey put up a hand, palm out. “Look. Sorry. I’m talking out of turn. Logan adores you. He always has.”

Jenna easily read between the lines of what Lacey had just said. When Lacey used words like tepid and lukewarm, it wasn’t Logan she was talking about.

Jenna shifted in her chair again. “There is a lot more to making a marriage work than how much heat is generated.”

“I realize that,” Lacey said gently. “Honestly I do.” She reached across the table and wiggled her fingers. “Come on. Put ’er there.”

Jenna slid her hand into her sister’s.

“So,” Lacey said. “What do you plan to do now?”

Jenna groaned. “Leave the country?”

Lacey gave Jenna’s hand a squeeze. “Come on. Seriously. What next?”

“Well, I’ll see a lawyer on Monday, just to make certain of my options.”

“And then?”

“If it turns out there’s nothing I can do but give Mack his two weeks or divorce him all over again, I’m going to wait a while. Hang tough, as you put it. See if, just maybe, I can outlast him. I mean, eventually he has to get tired of hanging around here…doesn’t he?”

“Hey, don’t ask me. I’m only the little sister—and if he won’t give up and give you the papers, then what?”

“What choice do I have? I’ll start divorce proceedings. Again.”

Lacey looked down at their joined hands. “What will you tell Logan?”

“The truth.”

“When?”

Now Jenna was squeezing Lacey’s hand. She teased, “For someone who has never liked Logan, you seem awfully worried about him all of a sudden.”

Lacey pulled away. “What do you mean, I never liked Logan? Of course I like Logan. Just because he drives me insane with his endless and irritating advice on how I should run my life doesn’t mean I don’t care about him—and you haven’t answered my question. When will you tell him?”

“As soon as he gets back from Seattle.”

Jenna went to see a new lawyer on Monday and heard what she already knew. She could turn in the old papers, signed by both parties, and be eligible to remarry in about six months. Or she could start the whole process all over again.

After she talked to the lawyer, she did nothing. After all, she told herself, that was what she had planned to do, see if she could wait Mack out.

Logan had arrived home too late on Sunday for them to get together. But Monday night they went out to dinner. Jenna planned to tell him about Mack then. But she didn’t. She said nothing. She spent the meal asking him a thousand unnecessary questions about his trip and trying her best not to let him see how on edge she was.

Logan stopped in at the house for a while when he took her home. Lacey was there. Logan mentioned that he’d noticed an ad in the Meadow Valley Sun. The local art supply store needed a sales representative.

“Thanks, Doc,” Lacey replied. “But I think I’d rather enter a convent. Or maybe hire myself out to a medical research lab somewhere. You know, as a human guinea pig for important experiments that could mean the end of cancer in our lifetime.”

Logan let out a weary sigh. “Lacey, I’m not joking. It might turn out to be a good thing for you.”

Lacey opened her mouth to utter more wisecracks, but Jenna caught her eye. Lacey smiled sweetly. “No, thanks, Doc. Really.” A moment later she slipped from the room.

She reappeared as soon as Logan left.

“You didn’t tell him, did you?” She was shaking her head.

“I just couldn’t bear to.”

“You’ll have to. Eventually.”

“I know. And I will. Eventually.”

But not right now.

For right now, Jenna waited. Though she couldn’t sleep at night and she was distracted in the daytime, she waited. And felt frustration and misery and a kind of righteous fury that Mack had put her in this untenable position in the first place.

She waited, hoping against hope that Mack would see how unreasonable and outlandish his ultimatum was. That she’d check the mailbox one evening and find the signed papers there—along with a short note of apology from Mack saying he regretted any pain he’d caused her and he was headed back to Key West.

She waited.

And she thought too much about Mack—so much that she found herself wishing more than anything that she could make herself stop thinking about him. She wished she could stop thinking about the ways he was the same as he used to be—and the ways he was different. Wished she could stop wondering about what he might be doing with himself, hanging out at the Northern Empire Inn with nothing to do but wait for her to call. She wished she could stop thinking about how she shouldn’t be thinking about him and she was going to stop thinking about him—which only led her to think about him some more.

On Wednesday she and Logan met for lunch. He frowned at her across the table and said she seemed distracted lately. He wanted to know what was wrong.

She evaded. She thought, this will all blow over. Mack will come to his senses and send me the papers and then Logan and I can laugh about how silly the whole thing was.

Logan said, “Those papers haven’t come from Florida yet, have they? Is that what’s been on your mind?”

She gulped and admitted that the divorce papers had been on her mind, and that no, she didn’t have them yet.

“Maybe you should call Mack McGarrity again.”

Before she was forced to come up with a reply to that suggestion, the waiter miraculously appeared with their food. Once the waiter left, she exercised great care to move the conversation onto safer ground.

On Wednesday evening, as she was closing up the shop, Jenna thought she saw Mack across the street, just going into a store called Furniture By Hand. She stood at her own shop window for several minutes, waiting to see him come out of the other shop’s door. He never emerged, at least not while she watched for him.

She wondered, was it really Mack? Or just someone who looked like him? Or worse, could it be her imagination working scarily overtime? It occurred to her that she couldn’t even be sure that he was still in town.

That night she called the Northern Empire Inn for the second time. She asked for Mack McGarrity’s room. And the clerk put her through.

He answered on the second ring that time. “McGarrity here.”

She said, “I was hoping you might have come to your senses and gone home.”

“No. I’m still here.”

“This isn’t right, Mack. It isn’t fair.”

She heard him draw in a breath. “It’s only two weeks, Jenna.”

“Give me those papers and go back to Florida where you belong.”

“Not until you come with me.”

She knew that the next thing she said would be shouted. So she hung up the phone, her nerves disgustingly aflutter.

She thought of those words her sister had used. Lukewarm. And tepid.

There was certainly nothing tepid about her response to Mack McGarrity.

But what about Logan? Was she lukewarm and tepid when it came to him?

Well, what if she was—just a little?

Maybe she liked it that way. Maybe she was mature enough now to appreciate a kinder, gentler sort of love.

Except…

Well, it had been beautiful with Mack. In bed. Beautiful and astonishing and utterly right.

And the truth was, she and Logan had never actually made love. Not in the complete sense of the word. Not in the consummated sense.

They’d agreed to wait until after the wedding.

And waiting had seemed good and right, up till now.

Up till Mack McGarrity had appeared in town.

Up until those dreams Jenna kept having now about the way it used to be with Mack. How Mack couldn’t keep his hands off her and how she couldn’t stay away from him.

How they didn’t wait.

Maybe, she thought Wednesday night, after she hung up on Mack for the second time that week, she and Logan needed not to wait. Maybe she and Logan needed a night in each other’s arms. A night to seal their bond in the most elemental of ways.

Yes. That might just be it. She needed to make love with Logan in order to wipe out the memory of Mack’s touch.

She shared her insight with Lacey on Thursday night.

Lacey blinked those big blue eyes. “Wait a minute. You’re saying you and Dr. Do-Right have never…?”

“We were waiting.” Jenna hated how prim she sounded. “Until the wedding. And stop calling him Dr. Do-Right.”

Lacey nodded, a very unconvinced sort of nod. “Waiting. Right.”

“People do wait, you know.”

“I know.”

“You’re not acting as if you know.”

“Well, I mean, it just took me by surprise, that’s all. The thought of it, of you and—”

“Do not call him—”

“I won’t. The thought of you and Logan…” Lacey’s face was red.

“The thought of Logan and me what?”

“Well, you know. In bed. Making love. I never thought about that. But I guess that makes sense—that it would be hard for me to picture.” Lacey laughed, a thoroughly irritating little titter of a laugh. “Because you’ve never done it, right?”

Jenna felt vaguely insulted. “You are not helping me out one bit here.”

“I’m trying.”

“Try harder.”

“I will.”

“Good. So?”

“So, in my humble opinion, if you really want to seal your bond with Logan, the first thing you ought to do is to tell him the truth. That Mack’s taken a room at the Northern Empire Inn and he intends to stay there until you agree to go away with him.”

“I am not going to go away with Mack.”

“Don’t tell me that, tell Logan.”

“I will.”

“When?”

“Tomorrow night, all right? Is that good enough for you?”

“Now is better. And don’t look at me like that. You asked.”

“Well, fine. All right. I’ll call him right now, tell him I need to talk with him.”

Lacey turned around and snared the phone off the breakfast nook wall. “Here you go.”

Jenna took it—and then just sat there, holding it.

“What?” Lacey groaned. “All of a sudden you’ve forgotten his number?”

“Of course I haven’t forgotten his number. I know his number.”

“Hey. Look here. You’ve got him on autodial.”

“Lacey—”

But it was too late. Lacey had punched the button and Logan’s phone was ringing.

“This is Dr. Severance.”

“Uh. Hello.”

“Jenna. Hello.” As always, he sounded so happy to hear her voice. “What’s up?”

“I wonder…” She hesitated.

Lacey mouthed the words, “Do it!”

Jenna made a face at her sister and then forced herself to go on. “Do you think you could come over here? There are a few things I need to talk to you about.” Lacey gave her the high sign and a big, congratulatory grin.

Logan said, “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. I just…really need to talk to you.”

“I’ll be over right away.”