Читать книгу Zoey Phillips - Judith Bowen - Страница 8

RYAN STARED at Zoey. Her face, then the rest of her. Zoey felt her cheeks burn all the way down to her toes.

Then, with a shout of laughter, he pulled her into his arms. “So it is! Well, well. Man alive, little Joey Phillips!” And he kissed her—right on the mouth! Zoey nearly fell over, she was so surprised. “Welcome home, Joey. Welcome back to Stoney Creek. You stickin’ around for a while? I sure hope so. Man, have you turned into some kinda babe!”

“About a month,” Zoey said, her face still burning. Babe! “If I can find a place to stay, that is. They’re kicking me out of the hotel on Friday. By the way, I changed my name. Decided Zoey was a little more grown-up.” She knew she was babbling. Ryan’s greeting had totally unnerved her.

“No kidding!” Ryan’s gaze hadn’t shifted. He was giving her a look of admiration she’d rarely seen from him before. Certainly not directed at her. “Zoey. Zoey Phillips.”

He glanced around. Zoey noticed that the man and child who’d been with Ryan in the hotel restaurant had followed him to the table. “Hey! This is my brother’s little girl, Melissa. Lissy, we call her.” He patted the child on her head. “And this is my brother, Cameron. Cam? You remember the Phillips girls? Bunch of good-lookin’ redheads? Maybe you knew some of Zoey’s older sisters?”

The man she’d seen at the shoemaker’s nodded. He seemed a little out of sorts. Annoyed. The little girl with them immediately began chattering to the two Nugent girls.

“Hey, these seats taken?” Ryan addressed Arthur, who shrugged.

“Go ahead, Ry. Sit down. I was just going to dance with my wife. Give you and Zoey a chance to get reaquainted.” He winked at her. Honestly! He was as bad as Lizzie.

Ryan’s brother frowned. “I’ll go get us some drinks if we’re going to be parking ourselves here.” He didn’t exactly sound enthusiastic.

“Sure, sure!” Ryan pulled out a chair and sat down, reaching across the table to clasp Zoey’s hands, his blue gaze riveted on her. He was a toucher, all right. She remembered that from ten years ago. A very physical guy. She was still stunned, her heart beating a mile a minute. He hadn’t forgotten her; it was just that she’d changed so much—looked so good—he hadn’t recognized her.

Not in her wildest dreams had she—

“I can’t believe it! And now I hear Mary Ellen’s coming to town to spend some time with Edith.” Edith Owen was Mary Ellen’s stepmother, who was marrying her neighbor after many years as a widow.

“Yes. She’ll be here this week. I can hardly wait. Mary Ellen asked me to help with Edith’s wedding. That’s why I’m here, really.”

“You two used to be good friends, right?” He was so close Zoey could smell the warm, manly scent of his aftershave, faintly woodsy, faintly citrus, could see the tanned crinkles around his eyes. Ryan Donnelly had always smiled a lot. If anything, ten years suited him. He was definitely handsomer than she’d remembered. To think that she’d once dated him! Well…sort of.

“Best friends,” Zoey said, then added loyally, “Elizabeth, too. But Mary Ellen was the first person I met when we moved to Stoney Creek.”

“Well, son of a gun.” Ryan grinned. “We’ll have to get together, the three of us. We had some good times back then, didn’t we, babe?” Was he thinking of the kisses in the Rialto, as she was? Zoey nodded mutely, feeling every bit the gauche teenager she’d once been.

“Listen.” He squeezed her hand. “We’ll have to have a few dances, for old times’ sake, huh? I promised Lissy I’d dance with her first.” He glanced at the little blond girl with the china-blue eyes who was standing at the table, sharing a drink with Tessa. Arthur had brought lemonades for the children. Lissy’s father hadn’t returned yet. “Okay, honey?”

The “honey” was for his niece, Zoey realized after a split second. Then she was sitting alone at the table, with the two Nugent girls. Arthur and Elizabeth were dancing—somewhere, Zoey couldn’t see them on the crowded dance floor. Ryan had whirled off dramatically, his niece clinging to his neck, her short blond hair flying. The girl seemed to be about Tessa’s age, four or five.

“You okay here?” Ryan’s brother—what was his name again?—appeared at the table and put down two paper cups of beer and a can of Pepsi. This time he was accompanied by the blond woman who’d been at the Gold Dust Café earlier. He didn’t introduce her. Zoey nodded automatically, a little confused, and he headed immediately for the dance floor, hand-in-hand with the blonde. The band had segued into an old Hank Williams tune, a two-step.

Zoey watched Ryan’s brother put his arms around his partner, smile at her and start moving to the music. He was a decent dancer. Most cowboys were. He glanced back briefly and Zoey stared at the wall, avoiding eye contact. The wife? Must be. A nice-looking woman, wearing a green print dress. The type men usually went for—lots of hair and big boobs.

Zoey studied the pair from the corner of her eye as they moved away. He was about the same height as Ryan, maybe an inch taller. A little heavier build, broader shoulders. He was obviously older if he’d known her sisters. She hadn’t met any of Ryan’s family; their pretend romance hadn’t gotten that far.

Imagine! The customer she’d seen in Mr. Furtz’s shoe repair shop, the man who’d ignored her—although she’d been pretty sure she felt some interest there for a second or two, which was weird, considering he was obviously married—turning out to be Ryan’s brother.

Wait until she told Charlotte and Lydia. Small town life was just too full of coincidences!

RYAN RETURNED to the table with his giggling niece. He took Zoey’s hand and bowed low over it. The other two girls were jumping up and down. “My turn!” Tessa yelled.

“Zoey first and then you, Tess,” he said firmly. “Then Becky.”

“Oh, no!” Zoey said, coloring. “I couldn’t leave the girls here all alone.”

“Why not?” Ryan shrugged. “They’re fine. There’s plenty of neighbors around. Hell, here’s Cam, he’ll sit with the kids.”

As he led her onto the floor, he said something to his brother. Cameron looked at her, over Ryan’s shoulder, and Zoey got the funniest sensation. That he didn’t approve? What possible business was it of his, if Ryan danced with her?

Just then Elizabeth and Arthur came back and Becky launched herself at her father. “My turn, Daddy! My turn!”

Elizabeth fanned her flushed face and waved gaily at Zoey as she sat down. Zoey knew exactly what her friend was thinking. That she and Ryan had hit it off. That there was suddenly the excitement of romance in the crisp, cold air of the Fullerton Valley. That Zoey, unmarried at twenty-eight and probably, in Elizabeth’s view, pretty near over the hill, could do a heck of a lot worse. That it was no coincidence that Zoey’s old heartthrob was unmarried and very, very eligible. That, indeed, this was not only serendipity—it could even be fate.

Ryan was a good dancer, just as Zoey remembered. He held her close and her head swam. Everything about him was so familiar and yet so very, very strange.

“Where are you living these days, Zoey?”

“Toronto.”

He whistled. “The big city, huh?”

She didn’t say anything. She was normally an excellent dancer but for some reason she was having trouble keeping in step with him. Nerves?

“Hey! Remember the time we drove out to Varley’s old barn and had a picnic, you and me and Adele and that guy she was going with—what the hell was his name?”

Zoey nodded. “Burke Goodall, wasn’t it?”

“That’s it! Burke the Jerk, I always thought of him.” She felt his right arm tighten around her shoulders. “I was always crazy about Adele, remember that?”

Did she! “Whatever happened? You two ever get together?” Zoey hoped her question sounded nonchalant. It was a question she’d agonized about for a long time, even after she’d left Stoney Creek.

Ryan’s face clouded, and he sighed. “No. Just one of those things, I guess. For a while there—” He shrugged, then went on. “Hell, it wasn’t meant to be, I guess. Enough about me. What about you—married?”

“No.”

“Boyfriend?”

“No.”

“What? Good-looking lady like you?” He hugged her and Zoey thought she’d burst with pleasure and pride. He meant it, he actually meant it!

“Not that I believe you for a minute, but—”

“Hey, believe it. You were always a pretty little thing, but, damn, you’re gorgeous now.”

Pretty little thing? No way! Zoey didn’t think she could stand much more of this. She was glad when the dance ended and Becky materialized beside them, tugging at Ryan’s shirt. “My turn now!”

Elizabeth wanted to leave after the next dance. Tessa had obviously been crying; Zoey had no idea what that was about, either. Kids! At one time, she might’ve been annoyed that they had to go but tonight she welcomed the opportunity. Her head was spinning—worse than before.

“I’m just going to check out the silent auction, okay?” She might as well drop some more money while she was here. It was all for a good cause, as the mayor had reminded them.

“Sure. Fifteen minutes?” Elizabeth glanced at her watch.

“Fine.”

Zoey moved along the line of products and services displayed on the paper-covered tables at the back of the room, pausing occasionally to mark down her bid, leaving Elizabeth’s phone number for a contact since she didn’t know where she’d be when the hotel threw her out. Looking for another place was next on her to-do list. She’d been invited to stay at the Nugents’, but Elizabeth’s offer, while kind, was impossible. She needed peace and quiet.

Okay. Twenty bucks for a manicure. That was a deal. Fifteen for a string of Christmas lights—she’d give those to Elizabeth if she won. Twenty-seven dollars for a sack of premium dog food. Elizabeth and Arthur had a big black Labrador that probably ate them out of house and home.

“Ma’am?”

“Yes?” To her shock, it was Ryan’s brother, hovering behind her right shoulder.

“Care to dance?”