Читать книгу In The Tycoon's Bed - Maureen Child - Страница 12

The fireworks booth was doing a booming business.

Nothing like a small-town Fourth of July, Sadie thought with a tired smile. She’d missed this when she was living in Houston and now that she was home, she wanted to be a part of it all.

Which was why she was standing behind the counter explaining the finer points of whistling rockets and multicolored fountains to excited kids and their tired parents.

She tried to see past the crowd to where Hannah was watching over her napping twins. But there were just too many people in the town square. Seemed like every citizen of Royal had turned out for the festivities. The noise level alone was almost deafening. Between the crowd itself and the country-and-western band playing at the far edge of the square, peace and quiet would be hard to come by today. But then, who needed peaceful on the Fourth of July?

Summer heat sizzled every breath and the delectable scent of barbecue drifted on a lazy wind. Sadie was having a good time. In fact, the day would have been perfect. If not for thoughts of Rick Pruitt. The man was keeping her on edge, though she hated to admit it, even to herself.

True to his word, he was getting to know his daughters, dropping by the house every day during the last week, playing, reading stories, helping with bath time. And the girls were delighted with the attention. Both Gail and Wendy woke up every morning now asking when Daddy was going to come.

“How you doing, Sadie?”

“What?” She turned and smiled at Abby Langley. “Sorry, I was daydreaming, I guess.”

“In this heat, maybe you’re just hallucinating.”

Sadie laughed and shook her head. “If only …”

Abby leaned one hip against the counter. Handing Sadie a bottle of cold water, she uncapped her own and took a long drink. “Boy, that’s good. Okay, so who’s the daydream about? A certain marine, I’m guessing.”

Sadie took a grateful sip of the icy water and let it slide through her system. Even with the fans behind them stirring the hot July air, it was stifling in the fireworks booth.

“Hey, Abby,” one of the other workers called out.

“Sadie and I are on a break,” she answered.

“I could use one. Too much heat and too many thoughts,” Sadie admitted. “And yes, your guess was right. All of those thoughts are about Rick.”

Abby was one of the only people outside her immediate family who knew the truth about the twins’ father. Sadie hadn’t had many close friends in her life, so she treasured Abby and had really missed their friendship when she and the girls were living in Houston. Abby understood growing up in Royal as the daughter of wealthy parents. But she also knew what it was like to strike out on her own. She had made a dot-com fortune when she lived in Seattle, then come home to Royal to marry her high school sweetheart. Everything had seemed perfect for her.

Of course, nothing had turned out the way she’d expected. What ever did?

“Tell me,” Abby urged.

Sighing, Sadie said, “He’s been coming over every day. Spending time with the girls …”

“And this is a bad thing?”

“No.”

One of the other workers in the booth reached past Sadie for a box of red sparklers. Sadie took Abby’s arm and pulled her away a few steps. Lowering her voice, she continued, “It’s not that I don’t want him to get to know his daughters. They should have a father in their lives and they’re already crazy about him—”

“I hear a ‘but’ in there somewhere.”

“But,” Sadie acknowledged with a nod, “what happens when he ships out again? He’s home on leave. He’s still a marine, Abby. Which means he’s not staying in Royal. When he leaves, the girls won’t understand. They’ll just know their daddy’s gone.”

“Okay, that would be hard,” Abby said as they both deliberately ignored the customers starting to stack up on the other side of the counter. “But isn’t it still better for them to know him?”

“Yes, of course, it’s just …”

“Confusing?”

“Extremely,” Sadie said with a sigh. “You know, even when I was a kid, Rick Pruitt … confused me.”

Abby laughed. “Sadie, when we were kids, all boys confused us. Hasn’t changed much.”

“No.” A sad smile curved Sadie’s mouth as she idly straightened a stack of Magic Wonder fountains. “But for you, it was different. Your family was rich, but they didn’t keep you separate from everyone in town. Brad and I went to private academies, remember?”

She shrugged as if it didn’t bother her, but it still did. When she was a girl, Sadie had wanted friends. She’d seen the other girls her age going shopping or sitting in the diner, laughing together or flirting with boys, and she had desperately wanted to be one of them. But except for Abby, she remained an outsider. Just as she had been for most of her life.

“True, you weren’t around much,” Abby mused. “Even when you were, your father didn’t really like you hanging out at the diner with the rest of us.”

Sadie laughed at the image. “The children of Robert Price didn’t ‘hang out.’” She took another sip of water and looked out over the crowd gathered in the square. “We didn’t really belong in Royal, you know? Oh, born and raised here, sure, but we could only see the other kids on the weekends, so we never really built the kind of friendships here that everyone else had. Our father was too determined to keep us isolated for whatever reasons.” She smiled, reached over to squeeze Abby’s hand. “If not for you, I would have been miserable. It was hard on me, but in a way, I think it was even worse for Brad.”

“In what way?”

Sadie pushed a stray lock of blond hair out of her eyes and shrugged again. “I don’t know, he was popular with the girls in town.”

“Of course,” Abby muttered. “He never did have any trouble attracting girls.”

Sadie grinned. “He’s my brother and he irritates me beyond all reason at times, but come on. He is great-looking.”

“Maybe,” Abby allowed.

Still chuckling, Sadie said, “Anyway, even though most—” she paused for a knowing look at Abby “—of the girls liked him, the guys in town weren’t real thrilled with the ‘rich guy’ swooping in on the weekends.”

“Yeah,” Abby said softly, reluctantly. “I’d forgotten about that.”

Sadie blew out a breath. “God, that sounds so whiny, doesn’t it? Poor little rich kids….”

“You’re not whiny. Ever. So,” Abby prodded, “tell me about Rick?”

Sadie smiled ruefully. “You remember, he was Mr. Popularity even then. Captain of the football team.” She shook her head and called up the memory of a teenaged Rick Pruitt, and in response, she felt that odd fluttering in her stomach again just as she had then. “He wore jeans and boots and T-shirts and his hair was too long and his eyes were too dark and he looked like every girl’s dream of a bad boy who was really a good guy.”

“Yeah,” Abby said, smiling with her. “I do remember Rick as a teenager. Pretty studly even then.”

Smiling, she looked at Abby. “He would walk into the diner and every girl there would turn to look at him.”

“Even you,” Abby said.

“Me, too,” she admitted, then laughed a little. “But he hardly knew me. Still, anytime he said hello, I’d start burbling and stammering. I felt myself blushing and couldn’t stop it. Ridiculous, right?”

“Not really. We all acted like that as kids.”

“Yes,” Sadie said, “but I’m still doing it. The old Rick was pretty irresistible. Now, though, since those last tours of duty, he’s … changed. Become more—I don’t know, not closed down, because he’s open and loving with the girls. But there’s something about him that is shut away. Locked down. And that tears at me, Abby. Oh,” she said, pausing to huff out a frustrated breath, “I don’t know why he affects me like he does, but it’s automatic. Rick Pruitt’s around and my brain turns to mush and my body lights up like one of these skyrockets we’re selling.”

“So having him around all week was a little tough?”

“Just a little.”

“I hear that,” Abby said, looking past Sadie to frown. “Nothing’s as easy as it should be.”

Sadie turned to follow her friend’s gaze and sighed when she spotted Brad walking through the crowd. “So, you’re having a few issues with men right now, too, huh?”

“You know I love you, Sadie,” Abby said, scowling at the oblivious man as he stopped to greet a friend. “But your brother sometimes makes me want to scream.”

“He has that effect on women. Even his sister,” Sadie admitted ruefully.

“Well, this woman isn’t going to let him win. He’s trying to ignore me at the TCC. Thinks because I’m an ‘honorary’ member, what I have to say shouldn’t matter.” Abby winked at her. “He’s the most hardheaded man I’ve ever come across and arguing with him is like trying to talk sense to a wall. But, I don’t give up easy and Bradford Price won’t know what’s hit him when I’m through with him.”

Sadie grinned in solidarity. It was nice to know she wasn’t the only female being driven slowly insane by a man. “Good to hear. Can’t wait to see it.”

“There’s something else you should see right now.”

“Hmm? What?”

Abby turned Sadie toward the counter. “Why don’t you take care of this customer?”

Rick Pruitt leaned his forearms on the sun-warmed counter, looked through the screen at Sadie. “So, what kind of fireworks do you have?”

He was in uniform and Sadie felt her breath slide from her lungs in pure, female appreciation. He looked tall and strong and proud. The left side of his chest was covered with rows of colorful ribbons and a few medals glinted dully in the sunlight.

A couple of women walked past behind him and Sadie saw them giving him a slow once-over. Even though a spark of jealousy flared up inside her, she couldn’t blame the women a bit. Rick was the kind of man that men wanted to be and women simply wanted. And when one corner of his mouth tipped up in a half smile, Sadie knew she was in very deep trouble.

Just as she had admitted only moments ago, she could actually feel her brain shutting down while her body kicked into high gear.

“Sadie?” he prompted, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. “Fireworks? What kind are we talking about?”

It wasn’t easy, but she managed to get a grip on her imagination and her hormones. “The usual kind. They’re safe and sane and very pretty.”

Then she sent a frown after Abby who walked away chuckling. A second ago, she’d been thinking how much she had missed Abby when she was living in Houston. Now, her best friend had left her alone with the very man Sadie had been complaining about. The traitor. Looking back at Rick, she forced her brain to wake up and pay attention, then kept her voice brisk and businesslike.

“What can I get you? All of the proceeds go to the women’s shelter.”

“Ah,” he said. “Like the pink flamingos.”

“Exactly.” And, Sadie knew that Summer’s shelter would be getting a nice donation today, judging from how busy the fireworks stand was. “So, what do you need?”

“Now, that’s a tricky question, Sadie,” he said, voice dropping to a low rumble that only she could hear.

She couldn’t stop the wave of heat that washed through her at the teasing, sexy note in his voice. Despite the crowds surrounding them, it was as if they were suddenly all alone. What was it about him that got to her so completely? Sadie felt as though every nerve in her body was standing straight up and trembling.

Sadie had never felt this way about any other man. Ever.

Certainly not the husband she had married for all the wrong reasons. In fact, up until that one night with Rick, Sadie had been half convinced that she was simply not meant to experience the tingling, overpowering pleasures that she read about in romance novels.

But in Rick’s arms, she’d found more than she had ever thought possible. Now staring into those brown eyes of his, she was so very tempted to find it all again. He was temptation personified and she was pretty sure he knew it. As if he was aware of her thoughts, his eyes warmed and seemed to twinkle and that’s when her breath caught in her lungs and a low, burning ache settled deep inside her.

Somehow, against all odds, she found the strength to rein in her hormones.

Her daughters’ faces swam in her mind and that helped. The girls had Rick’s eyes, sparkling with mischief. Her twins. The daughters she and Rick had made together on that passion-filled night.

Sadie wasn’t a lonely single woman anymore. She couldn’t just fall into bed with a man anymore, no matter how tempting. She was a mom. A mom who couldn’t afford to start something with the father of her girls, because the only reason he wanted her now was their girls.

He was charming and attractive and truth be told, a walking orgasm waiting to happen. But if they didn’t share two daughters, would he be trying so hard to seduce her? Sadie didn’t think so.

Steeling herself, she smiled. “Did you want to buy some fireworks, Rick?”

One eyebrow lifted, but he nodded as if he understood that he wouldn’t be drawing her into a flirtatious battle. “Sure.” His gaze slipped past her to the shelves stocked with brightly colored boxes of fiery splendor. “Why don’t you tell me what kind of fireworks the girls like?”

Her heart twisted. How sweet was that, she thought. He wanted to get something for his daughters to enjoy. Helplessly, she admitted that the one sure way to her heart was through her daughters. And no doubt, a cynical voice inside her whispered, he knew that very well. She ignored that little voice. “They’re so little, this will be their first year actually seeing fireworks. I think they’re going to be overwhelmed.”

“I’m glad I’m here to see it with them,” he said.

“I am, too.”

“Are you?” he asked, sliding one hand across the counter to sweep beneath the screen to touch her fingers.

A quick bristle of sensation swept through her at his touch and she pulled her hand away. She was standing on a razor’s edge here and one push either way was going to dissolve what was left of her balance.

“Of course I am,” she said. “The girls will love having you here.”

“That’s a start,” he said.

“Sadie,” Abby asked, as she walked up with a smile, “everything okay?”

“Fine,” she answered. “Abby, you remember Rick Pruitt.”

“Sure. Nice to see you again. Love a man in uniform.”

He grinned and Sadie’s stomach did a quick flip-flop.

“That’s just why we wear them, Abby. Marines like to please their women.”

“Women?” Abby asked.

His gaze shot to Sadie. “Woman,” he corrected.

Then, as if he hadn’t started a brush fire in her bloodstream, he pulled out his wallet. “Give me a few of those red, white and blue sparklers and a couple of the Fiery Fountains.”

Getting busy, Sadie grabbed up his order, put it all in a bag and took his money.

“Keep the change for the shelter,” he said.

“Thanks. The shelter appreciates it.”

“Happy to help.” His gaze was locked on hers.

She pulled in a deep breath and sighed. “Rick, what do you really want?”

“You already know the answer to that, Sadie.”

Sadie searched for something else to say, but came up empty. What was there left to say? Hadn’t they been talking circles around each other for a week now? Nothing had changed. He wanted to marry her for their daughters’ sakes and she refused to get married for the wrong reasons. Again.

He picked up the bag and asked, “I’ll see you later, then?”

“We’ll be here for the fireworks show.” Knowing how the girls would be excited to see him, she pointed off to the gigantic black oak that stood in the town square. “Hannah and the girls are over there if you want to say hello.”

A wide smile creased his face. “Thanks. Think I will.” His gaze shifted to Abby. “Nice to see you.”

“Thanks, you, too.”

When he walked off, Sadie watched him until he was swallowed up by the slowly moving crowd. Then she sighed and Abby nudged her in the ribs.

“What?”

“He’s still gorgeous.”

“Yeah?”

“He looks at you like you’re the last steak at a barbecue.”

“I know.” That’s just how she felt when he was around.

“So what’s the problem?”

“He’s not here to stay, Abby,” Sadie said, resting one hip against the counter.

“You don’t know that. Word is he’s thinking about retiring.”

“Maybe,” she said, looking back over the crowd in the direction Rick went. “But even if he did stay in town, it isn’t me he wants. It’s his girls.”

Abby laughed and dropped one arm around her shoulders. “Not what it looks like to me, Sadie. He’s really into you. It’s in his eyes.”

“He just desires me. That’s different.”

“And could be fun.”

She shook her head even though she was smiling. “Fun isn’t on my schedule,” she said sadly. “I’m a mom now. I have to do what’s best for my daughters.”

“And what exactly is that?”

“Wish I knew,” Sadie whispered as Abby moved off to wait on another customer.

The rest of the day passed in a flurry of activity. There were rides for the twins, a small petting zoo and a country-fair-like atmosphere at the booths filled with pies and handmade crafts.

Sadie had as good a time as a woman could who was twisted into knots. Rick was there. All day. He carried the girls when they got tired, indulged them in ice cream and candy and Sadie could only hope their tummies were tough enough to handle all the sugar. Sadie should probably have drawn a few lines in the sand. Put a lid on sugar consumption at least. But Rick was so excited with his daughters and the girls were simply nuts about their daddy. She simply couldn’t force herself to be the disciplinarian at the party when everyone was having so much fun.

They settled on the blanket beneath the tree for a late lunch. It was just the four of them since Hannah had found a group of friends among the crowd. While the girls ate bananas and mac and cheese, Sadie unwrapped the sandwiches Hannah had packed for her. She handed one to Rick.

When he took it, his fingers brushed hers and she gasped a little. He heard it and smiled. “Thanks.”

“Don’t thank me,” she protested. “Hannah packed the lunch.”

“I wasn’t talking about the sandwich.”

“Oh?” She looked at him as she reached over to hand Gail a cup of milk.

“I meant,” he said, smoothing one hand over Wendy’s dark brown curls, “thanks for sharing our girls with me today.”

“You don’t have to thank me for that, Rick,” she said softly. Yes, he was confusing the hell out of her personally, but his obvious love for the twins warmed her heart. “They’re your daughters, too. I want you to know them. I want them to know you.”

He glanced from each of his daughters’ tiny faces back to Sadie. Dappled shade danced across his face as the leaves of the black oak dipped and swayed in the sultry breeze.

“I appreciate that. I do.” He took a bite of the sandwich, chewed and swallowed. “But I want more than the occasional day with them, Sadie.”

“I know that.” She picked up the sippy cup of milk Wendy toppled over and set it upright again. “But—”

“No buts about it, Sadie. They’re my family. My blood.”

“And mine,” she reminded him.

“Yeah, which brings me back to my point.”

She cut him off. Sadie wasn’t going to give him the chance to talk marriage again. Sharing the twins wasn’t enough of a reason to get married. She wouldn’t take that step again unless she was in love. “I know what your point is, Rick, but I haven’t changed my mind.”

“Why the he—” he broke off, looked at the girls and gave a rueful smile. “Why the heck not? We were good together.”

“Yes, for one night.”

“Could be every night.”

“Marriages aren’t only lived in bed.”

“Doesn’t hurt.”

She sighed. “Rick, we’ve been over this already.”

“And will be again,” he told her, his brown eyes locked with hers.

“What’s the point?”

“We have kids.”

“And we can both love them without being married to each other.”

“We could be a family,” he said softly.

And for one brief moment, that word seemed to reverberate inside her. She had always wanted a family of her own. It was the main reason she had agreed to go along with her father’s plan when he married her off to Taylor. She had believed back then that even if a marriage hadn’t started out for the right reasons that two people who wanted to badly enough could build something good.

But she’d found out soon enough that a marriage without love wasn’t a marriage at all.

“It’s a bad idea, Rick,” she said finally and met his eyes.

“You don’t know that.”

She actually laughed and Gail looked up at her with a grin. “Oh, yes,” she said, “believe me when I say I do.”

“You can’t use your marriage as a measure of what we could have.”

“It’s exactly what I should do,” she told him firmly. “My marriage was a misery because there was no love there. I married him for all the wrong reasons and I paid a heavy price.” She paused, looked down at her daughters, laughing and babbling to each other, and she felt a well of love fill her. Shaking her head, she looked at Rick. “This time, it wouldn’t be only me paying the price. And I won’t risk putting my girls into an unhappy home.”

“You think I would risk that?” Rick picked up a piece of banana and handed it to Wendy. “I only want what’s best for them.”

“And I believe you,” Sadie said. “We just disagree on what’s best.”

He laughed shortly. “You think you’ve got your mind made up about me,” he said after a long moment, “but things change, Sadie.”

“I’m not going to change my mind,” she warned.

“Don’t make statements that are going to be hard to back down from when I finally convince you to see things my way.”

“Are you always this confident?”

“When I know I’m right,” he assured her.

A squeal of sound shattered their conversation and had Sadie’s ears ringing. Wendy cried for her mommy and Gail crawled to her father and scrambled up onto his lap.

The mayor stood on a hastily built stage at one end of the square. Tapping and blowing into a microphone, the feedback was loud enough to tear paint from walls.

“Sorry about that noise,” the mayor said, “but I think we’ve got it whipped now.”

The crowd stirred, then settled down as they waited for the inevitable speeches. Sadie’s gaze slid to Rick. He had one arm wrapped around Gail’s sturdy little body and jiggled her instinctively to keep her happy.

He did that so easily, Sadie thought with a sigh. He had stepped into fatherhood so smoothly, it was as if he had been with the twins since the beginning. And if he had, she wondered, how would things be different now?

Might they have already become the family he claimed to want?

“I know,” the mayor called out, his voice echoing weirdly through the speakers, “that none of you came to listen to speeches …”

“That won’t stop you, Jimmy,” someone in the crowd shouted.

“That’ll be enough outta you, Ben,” the mayor chided with a smile. “I’ll make this short. But since we’re all here and since it’s our country’s Day of Independence, I wanted to take the time to honor a few of our own.”

A ripple of applause skittered through the crowd. Hesitant, since no one was sure what the mayor was up to yet.

Then he let them all know.

“Rick Pruitt?” Mayor Jim called. “I know you’re here son, so come on up to the stage, will you?”

Frowning a little, Rick set Gail down on the blanket. His features went dark and his eyes were suddenly shadowed. Dutifully, though, he shrugged, then walked through the other picnickers toward the stage. Meanwhile, the mayor went on with his small roll call.

“Donna Billings. Frank Haley and Dennis Flynn, you come on up here, too.”

Sadie’s gaze locked on Rick as he walked up the steps to take his place on the stage. The other people who had been called up stood alongside him, each of them in uniform. They all looked as uncomfortable with the attention as Rick did.

Then the mayor announced, “How about we give a big Royal round of applause for our very own finest. Let’s thank them all for their service to us and our country.”

As the gathered townspeople erupted into wild shouts and thunderous applause, Sadie felt a chill of pride ripple along her spine. From across the square, Rick’s gaze locked with hers and she knew that he had been right. If she wasn’t careful, he might just change her mind.