Читать книгу His Valentine Bride - Cindy Kirk, Cindy Kirk - Страница 8

When Friday night rolled around, Ryan already had his evening planned. Meet some friends at Wally’s Place, toss back a few cold ones and play a game or two of darts. Then he overheard Betsy talking on the phone to Adrianna and learned there was a party at Michelle Kerns’s house that evening.

Ryan knew the young ob-gyn but not well enough to merit an invitation to her home. When he heard Adrianna was going to be there, his plans for the evening did a one-eighty. Somehow, someway, he would attend that party.

He made a few calls and within a matter of minutes, Mitzi Sanchez reluctantly agreed he could go with her. Mitzi was an orthopedic surgeon he’d dated a few times. As much as he enjoyed the feisty Latina’s company, the chemistry wasn’t there. Now they were simply good friends. Okay, that might be stretching it a bit.

Still, they were good-enough friends that he could tag along with her. Mitzi had made it clear that once they got to the party, he was on his own.

“Would you quit primping?” Mitzi said in a disgusted tone as they made their way up the walk to Michelle’s townhome. “I swear you’re worse than any girl.”

He finished adjusting the cuffs of his sweater. “I love you, too.”

She made a retching noise and rolled her eyes.

“Seriously, thanks for making me your plus-one tonight.” He glanced down at his black jeans and cowboy boots. While the sweater under his jacket dressed up his party attire, he hoped he hadn’t gone too casual. Adrianna was a hard woman to impress, and he’d already blown several opportunities.

“You’re not my plus-one,” she said. “You’re some guy I’m dragging along because I didn’t have the sense to say no.”

That’s what Ryan liked about Mitzi. She told it as she saw it. It was a shame there was no chemistry between them, because not only was she a beautiful woman, she could also sing karaoke like a pro.

“I don’t know you,” he said as they reached the stoop. “Once you get me through the front door, that is.”

“You’ll owe me, Harcourt.” She brushed back a strand of brown hair that looked as if it had been streaked with peanut butter. Although part Argentinean and part Mexican, with her light hair and blue eyes Mitzi looked more Irish than Latina.

“The first time you get slapped with a malpractice suit, I’m your man.”

“What a pleasant thought.” She reached out to press the doorbell, but he gently pushed her arm down.

“Allow me.”

“Such a gentleman,” came the sarcastic reply.

“I aim to please,” he said just as the door opened.

Before she could object, Ryan placed an arm loosely around her shoulders. He half expected Mitzi to shrug it off or punch him in the side. Instead she gave a long-suffering sigh. “Michelle, I believe you know Ryan Harcourt.”

“Of course.” The hostess clasped his hand firmly in greeting. She was tall, with honey-colored hair and big blue eyes. “Welcome. We have wine and beer and snacks. Help yourself to whatever you want.”

Ryan wondered if that meant he could help himself to Adrianna.

He felt Mitzi’s eyes on him as he placed his coat in Michelle’s outstretched hand. For an uncanny moment he had the feeling he could read her mind.

“The answer is no,” Mitzi said as the hostess stepped away, leaving them alone.

“You don’t even know the question,” he protested.

“I have my suspicions.”

“Ryan,” a familiar voice behind him gasped. “Why didn’t you mention you were coming tonight?”

He turned to see Betsy standing in the hallway near what was obviously the kitchen, holding a glass of white wine. Like the hostess and most of the other women in the room, she wore jeans and a sweater suitable for the ski slopes.

She’d done something different with her hair. He narrowed his gaze. “You look nice.”

“You like it?” Pleasure ran through her words. She raised a hand to her hair that had been long and sleek during the day and now stopped at her shoulders and had a bunch of layers. “I got it cut after work.”

The new style emphasized her large eyes and made her cheekbones more pronounced. He realized suddenly that his friend’s sister—and his new employee—was a very attractive woman. “I do like it.”

Even if he hadn’t, the blinding smile she shot him would have been worth any lie. But it was the truth and he was glad he’d said it. Even after only three days in the office, he’d discovered Betsy responded best to positive reinforcement.

“Are you and Mitzi dating?” she asked, twisting the toe of her shoe into the hardwood.

Ryan glanced across the room where his “date” stood chatting with Benedict Campbell, one of the physicians in her practice. Even though Mitzi claimed to hate the man, she’d protested so much that Ryan suspected there were some red-hot sparks beneath that animosity.

“Nah,” he said. “She just didn’t want to come to the party alone, so I agreed to come with her.”

He glanced around the room. Smooth jazz was playing low in the background and the wine was being served in crystal glasses. Although everyone was dressed casually—practically a given in Jackson Hole—Ryan instantly knew that this wasn’t his kind of party. Although he’d gone back East for law school and had attended many elegant events, he was a country boy at heart. Give him a can of beer, a bowl of chips and football on the flat screen and he was happy.

“Who did you come with?” he asked Betsy politely. Not because he was particularly interested in who she was dating, but rather to pass the time while he searched the room for the woman he’d come to see.

“Oh, look, there’s Adrianna,” Betsy said.

Like a hunting dog that had just gotten a whiff of a delectable scent, Ryan stiffened. He forced a casual smile to his lips. “I haven’t seen Adrianna in months. I bet I wouldn’t even recognize her.”

Even as he said the words, Ryan had to stifle a smile. As if he’d ever forget even the minutest detail about anything to do with Adrianna.

“Oh, I’m sure you would,” Betsy said with great earnestness. “She looks the same. The stylist tried to get her to do something different, but you know Adrianna. She dug in those heels and refused to let him touch her hair.”

“Her hair is beautiful,” Ryan said without thinking. “It would have been a shame to cut it.”

“Ryan agrees with you,” Betsy said and he shifted his gaze to see Adrianna standing there.

“Really.” Adrianna’s cool green eyes settled on him. “About what?”

“About cutting your hair,” Betsy said, seemingly oblivious to the sudden tension in the air. “He said why fool with perfection?”

Ryan didn’t remember saying those exact words, but it was a true sentiment nonetheless.

Adrianna didn’t appear impressed. In fact she was looking at him as if he was the lowest form of worm. Surely she wasn’t holding that one little prank all those years ago against him?

“Ryan is the best boss, Anna,” Betsy said, the words laden with sincerity. “I’m so glad I returned to Jackson Hole.”

“I’m certainly happy you’re back, Bets.” A warmth filled Adrianna’s voice and when she glanced at Ryan, some of the coolness in her eyes thawed. Apparently the nurse-midwife appreciated him more because he’d been good to her friend.

Ryan wondered if telling Adrianna that he’d given Betsy the afternoon off would give him extra points or make him look like a suck-up. He decided not to chance it. “I couldn’t believe it when Betsy showed up to interview, but I’m sure glad she did.”

From the continued thawing in Adrianna’s eyes, he was onto something here.

“Can I get you something to drink?” he asked, smiling at her. He would have included Betsy, but she already had a drink in her hand.

“I’m good.” Instead of meeting his gaze and letting him drown in those emerald-green depths, she glanced around the room. “There’s Travis and Mary Karen Fisher. I need to pop over and say hello.”

Ryan’s heart dropped as she started to walk away, her high-heeled boots clicking on the hardwood, her cute little derriere swaying in those tight-fitting jeans. But at the last minute, she glanced over her shoulder and flashed him a brilliant smile.

“You take care of Betsy,” she said in a low husky voice that conjured up images of rumpled sheets and entwined limbs. “See that she has a good time.”

“Anna,” Betsy moaned, but Ryan scarcely noticed.

How long had it been since Adrianna had smiled at him with such warmth? Years, he thought to himself, too many to count. She was clearly softening to him, which meant if he played his cards right, it wouldn’t be long until she was his.

Betsy stared at her friend’s retreating back and felt heat rise up her neck. The next time she got Adrianna alone, she was going to read her the riot act. Why, she’d practically thrown her at Ryan.

Not that he’d protested, she thought, looking for the silver lining. In fact he seemed in a remarkably good mood.

“Do you want to scope out the appetizers?” she asked. “Not that you have to go with me. Adrianna was just kidding. I don’t need anyone taking care of me.”

She was on the verge of saying more when she snapped her mouth shut. Men hated women who babbled, and right now she was poised to babble with the best of them.

“I’d like to check out the food.” Her heart skipped a beat when he held out his arm. “If I remember correctly the only thing you need to avoid is anything with shrimp.”

Betsy groaned. Honest to goodness groaned. “Of all the things to remember, you had to recall that?”

“It’s not every day I get to see a person covered in hives,” he said with a little too much enthusiasm for her liking. “You even had them on your—”

“Scalp,” she said. “Yes, I remember.”

“Keenan put that pink stuff all over your skin,” he said, warming to the memory. “It looked like Pepto-Bismol.”

“Don’t remind me.” She remembered that night well. Her mother had been out running around God knew where and Betsy had been hungry. She’d eaten some old shrimp rollups they’d had in the freezer. That’s when the hives had broken out. She’d been terrified, then relieved when Keenan had come home early.

But when she saw whom he was with, her terror had turned to horror. The last person she’d wanted to see her with those big red welts covering her skin was Ryan. But he hadn’t laughed or made fun of her. Instead he’d called his parents to find out what they should do.

While Keenan had helped smear the Caladryl lotion on her hard-to-reach places, Ryan had run to the corner store and gotten an antihistamine for her to take. By the time her mother finally dragged herself through the front door at 3:00 a.m., the hives had already started to fade.

“Hey.” He leaned closer, a teasing glint in his eyes. “How many men can say they’ve seen you at your worst?”

“Ha, ha.” Betsy was thankful her voice came out all casual and offhand, which was a real feat considering her knees had gone boneless and she was having difficulty thinking with him so near.

He sat back and his gaze zeroed in on a large buffet table at the back of the great room. A pristine white linen cloth with scalloped edges covered the oak top, but it appeared to be the food which had captured Ryan’s attention.

“Is that—” he turned to her, his eyes wide and guileless “—shrimp cocktail? I could get you one. Maybe you’re not allergic anymore.”

Betsy jabbed him in the ribs, forgetting he was the man she’d loved—and lusted after—for years. “Settle down, or I’m going to tell everyone the story of when Keenan locked you out of the locker room in your boxers—”

“You’re right. Stay clear of the shrimp.”

She couldn’t help it. Betsy laughed with sheer joy. This was the Ryan she wanted. Not the perfectly behaved gentleman lawyer who hadn’t cracked one joke all week. But the Ryan who made her laugh and with whom she shared a common history.

If only she could figure out a way to capture this moment. And better yet, find a way to translate friendship into love.

In the past ninety minutes Adrianna had talked to everyone but him. Yet Ryan wasn’t discouraged. He’d already accomplished a lot for one evening. When the hostess suggested a rousing game of charades, he knew it was time to leave on a high note.

Ryan glanced at the woman by his side, delicately picking a piece of chicken meat from the bone. Her brows were pulled together and she was studying the tiny piece of meat as if it were a complex legal case she was researching. He got the feeling Betsy was bored, too.

Actually, he realized, she was what had saved this party from being a total washout. They’d roamed the room like a couple of old friends, laughing and talking to others they knew and some they’d just met. The buffet table had drawn their attention several times and they’d picked and chosen from its sumptuous bounty.

Betsy was fun, with a quick wit and a sly sense of humor in sync with his own. They talked about the old days and he’d just finished reliving his high school prom debacle when Betsy had decided she desperately needed more wings.

“It’s no wonder you had to lasso a few more,” he said to her. “There isn’t enough meat on one to feed an ant.”

A becoming shade of pink rose up her neck, but she lifted her chin. “I didn’t eat supper. So I’m not quite the porker I appear to be.”

“Porker?” He dropped his gaze and slowly surveyed her lean but curvy body. “Not hardly.”

The pink on her cheeks deepened to red. “You don’t need to make nice,” she said with a dismissive wave. “I love to eat. In fact several times during my childhood I was sorely tempted to cut the candy heart out of my Raggedy Ann.”

“You played with dolls?”

“I did when I was a little girl.”

“You just never seemed the doll-playing type to me,” he said. “I don’t recall seeing any lying around your house.”

“That’s because I hardly had any.” Betsy dropped the chicken wing to her plate, then wiped her fingers on a linen napkin. “Keenan bought Raggedy Ann for me with his paper-route money. She was my first and only doll. He was ten and I was five.”

“Keenan bought a doll with his paper-route money.” Ryan could barely fathom that the rough-and-tumble friend from his youth would do something like that, even if it was for his little sister.

The realization that perhaps he hadn’t known Keenan as well as he thought he did hadn’t even had time to settle in when Betsy grabbed the front of his sweater in her hand and pulled him close. “Don’t you say one word to him about it either.” Her eyes grew piercing. “Understand?”

Ryan considered teasing her a bit more, but something in her eyes made him simply nod. Growing up in the McGregor household hadn’t been easy for either Keenan or Betsy. If his friend had found a way to make it easier on his little sister, well, Ryan would give him a break on the doll thing.

Betsy’s gaze drifted to the groups already forming for the game. She wrinkled her nose. “I hate charades.”

“That makes two of us,” Ryan said. “Want to sneak out?”

A look he couldn’t quite decipher skittered across Betsy’s face. Then she sighed. “You came with Mitzi, remember?”

Mitzi? Heck, he hadn’t seen the brunette since he’d walked through the door behind her. And that was just the way they both wanted it. “We drove separately.”

Ryan thought for a minute. He hadn’t seen Betsy with anyone all night, with the exception of him, of course. But that didn’t mean she hadn’t come with someone. “What about you?”

“I’m on my own.” The words came out on a little sigh.

“Good.”

She cocked her head. “Why good?”

He smiled. “Because you and I are going to do some serious partying and now there’s nothing standing in our way.”