Читать книгу Texas Magic - Nancy Robards Thompson - Страница 11

Chapter Two

Sometimes a girl just had to say what the hell and go for broke with the gorgeous guy who’d been flirting with her since the moment they’d first laid eyes on each other.

Even if it wasn’t going to last longer than the moment...or the night.

Liquid courage wasn’t fully to blame for Caroline turning a moment with Drew into a night. Nope, blame wasn’t even a factor in this equation.

Although she would like to know what had come over her last night. She raised her chin as she peered at herself in the bathroom mirror, wiping away the remnants of stubborn makeup smudges that had not washed away in the shower.

They’d danced until the moment Claudia had tossed her bouquet. Claudia had looked Caroline in the eye, turned around and tossed the flowers right to her. There had been no running or lunging or fighting. With one clean toss, the bouquet had tumbled through the air in a surreal sort of slow motion, before it landed right in Caroline’s hands.

Then, her sister and Kyle had gotten into the limo and had driven off into the night.

Caroline and Drew had wasted no time finding their way up to Caroline’s hotel suite.

Yes, she had been perfectly in control of her choices. Even if nearly every move she had made since abandoning her second trip to the cake table had been out of character.

It was too late to second-guess herself. It was six o’clock in the morning and Drew had been sound asleep when she had tiptoed off to the shower. She took her time, thinking that if he awoke and wanted an easy out, he could dress and slip out while she was occupied in the other room.

No awkward morning-after dances...especially since their “dance” last night had been so perfect. She wanted the end of their tryst—God, was that what this was, a tryst? When was the last time she had used that word? Probably never. That’s why she wanted the end of whatever this was to be as easy and unforced as the beginning: They’d danced during the reception after the limo had taken Claudia and Kyle away, Caroline and Drew had ended up back in her suite with a bottle of champagne, sharing the big marble Jacuzzi. Then they’d heated up the sheets of the big bed she initially thought would swallow her up alone.

But it had not. It had proven to be quite a lovely playground, where she and Drew Montgomery had played games she never dreamed she would take part in with someone like him.

He of all people. Her brother-in-law’s best friend. Good Lord, if Claudia ever found out, her holier-than-thou sister would...well, she definitely wouldn’t approve. As if Caroline’s wedding “nightcap” might somehow sully Claudia’s fairy-tale-perfect nuptials.

Caroline inhaled sharply, refusing to feel guilty over taking a little slice of pleasure for herself for a change. The scent of the lavender bath salts they’d used in the tub last night still perfumed the air.

Never in her life had Caroline felt so drawn to someone she knew so little about. The undeniable vibe she was getting from Drew this weekend was that he was the consummate bad boy. With his charm, she imagined he was a virtuoso at wooing women. The thought sent a particular thrill coursing through her.

Maybe she was overromanticizing the situation, but if she had learned one thing about Drew Montgomery this weekend it was that he had an unshakeable conviction to live life to its fullest.

If not, what’s the point of living?

His words haunted her. Their influence had been the tipping point, and the rest was history. Granted, a very short chapter in Caroline’s romantic history. But still, it was something.

Maybe he was onto something with his “authentic living” philosophy. Maybe she should borrow a page from that philosophy and tell her father that the stuffy offices of Coopersmith & Bales weren’t where she wanted to spend the rest of her life.

What would he say if she told him she wanted to put aside her Harvard Business School education and bake?

She could hear her father’s humorless laugh in the recesses of her mind. It was a stupid idea. It wouldn’t be the first time she had broached the subject. But Charles Coopersmith always seemed to go deaf when she talked about a career change.

Right now everything was in order in the Coopersmith universe: Claudia was married to a man their father had all but hand-picked, and Caroline was in line to step into her father’s role of senior partner when he retired.

A knot formed in her stomach at the mere thought. There was nothing she could do about it right now. That’s why having a one-night stand with the best man at her sainted sister’s wedding—a man of whom her father would never approve—was as close as she would come to defying him.

She tried to shrug off the inner voice calling her a coward. But it didn’t really matter, did it? She knew in her gut that when she left the sanctuary of the bathroom, she would find the bed empty. Drew would’ve taken advantage of her absence to take his leave, and she would leave the fantasy of their one night behind and step back into real life.

So buck up. One night with Drew was exactly what you signed up for. This is how you wanted it to end.

She gave her reflection one last once-over. The foggy bathroom mirror reflected back a soft-focus image of a woman who looked a bit too hopeful to return to an empty bed. She ran her fingers through her damp hair, pushing the errant chestnut strands away from her face. Tightening the sash of the bathrobe, she opened the collar just a little bit so that the right amount of cleavage showed.

She turned out the light before she opened the door, standing in the pitch-dark for a moment to gather herself. She heard a distant door slam; someone moving around in the room upstairs; the distant resonance of a toilet flushing, a shower starting. The symphony of hotel sounds set over the reverb of her own breathing.

All right, come on. You can’t stay in here forever. Slowly, she turned the doorknob and stepped into the dimly lit bedchamber.

The first thing to come into focus was her bridesmaid dress, lying in a crumpled heap on the floor. Next, a trail of various articles of underclothing and men’s clothing—

Her gaze zagged to the bed, where a mound in the bed verified that Drew was still there. She froze, uncertain of what to do. Should she get back in bed or get dressed?

So much for avoiding the awkward morning-after dance.

When Caroline’s gaze adjusted to the low light, the bridal bouquet, which lay on the nightstand, came into focus. Perched precariously on the edge of the table, its bloodred roses were now drooping and showing their age. However, the blunt, thorn-free stems, chopped to uniform perfection and bound tightly in virginal, white satin ribbon, were still perfectly in place.

None of those roses could possibly break free from the pack. Now, if that wasn’t a metaphor for the Coopersmith family way...

In Caroline’s mind, a vision flashed of herself growing old and used up but still toeing the line at Coopersmith & Bales. All the blood drained from her head.

Drew stirred. His hand went up to his face, and he scrubbed his eyes before he propped himself up on his elbow.

“Good morning.” His voice was a hoarse rasp. He eyed her up and down, and the last traces of bravado she had been full of last night vanished, like someone deadheading roses.

“Good morning.” Her words slipped out on a whisper.

Grasping the lapels of her robe, she held them together, as if she were all modesty and virtue.

Oh, God, help me. It was too late for that now—too late for help or for modesty and virtue.

Drew patted the empty side of the bed next to him. “Come here.”

It took a couple of beats to unstick her bare feet from the floor, but finally she forced her legs to move. She perched primly on the edge of the bed next to him, her hands in her lap. Her gaze again landed on the bridal bouquet, but she redirected it to Drew.

He looked so darn sexy lying there on his side, propped up on his elbow, the sheet pulled up to his waist, barely covering his hipbones. His biceps bulged and his broad shoulders looked a mile wide. She swallowed around the angst that was blocking her airway.

“Do you want some coffee?” she offered, finally finding her voice, then cringing at the inane question.

“No thanks.” His hand was on her back, kneading her shoulder through the soft terry of the robe. “That’s not what I’m in the mood for just now.”

Without another word, he reached out and ran a finger along her jawline, down her neck, to the collar of her robe.

In one firm motion, he pulled her on top of him. And coffee completely lost its appeal.

* * *

“Tell me everything, and don’t you dare skip a single detail,” demanded Pepper Merriweather.

Caroline and Pepper had been best friends for as far back as they both could remember. Tonight they sat at Caroline’s kitchen table, sharing a bottle of pinot noir and some to-die-for parmesan spinach dip Pepper had commandeered from the kitchen of Celebrations, Inc.

They’d settled in with a spread of crudités and crackers, and Pepper was obviously expecting the details of Caroline’s time with Drew to be the main course.

Seeing as how they always told each other everything—stories about first boyfriends, first kisses, first heartbreaks, first and last dates—Caroline was having a hard time coming up with diversionary tactics. Because Caroline wasn’t so eager to share the story of her first one-night stand.

She wasn’t embarrassed. On the contrary, she was rather proud that for once she had not bowed to fear and had taken what she wanted. Not to mention the fact that it had happened with a guy like Drew Montgomery. That they’d spent all of Sunday morning in bed. Later they’d gone to brunch and had played together all day, until he’d dropped her off at home.

When was the last time she had played?

She had shared the surface points with Pepper. It was the more intimate details she was keeping closer to her chest.

Really, the only reason she and Pepper were having this conversation was that Pepper had said she’d seen Caroline and Drew dancing at the wedding Saturday night...and then she had seen the two of them leave together. Pepper tended to have a special kind of radar for things like that.

Now here Caroline was with her friend on Monday evening, sharing a bottle of wine, Pepper getting bolder and more insistent with each sip. The vaguer the answers Caroline gave, the more Pepper demanded the details.

The truth was, Caroline felt sort of like Cinderella having been to the ball, having danced with the prince all night, and now her coach had turned back into a pumpkin. Like Cinderella, she wanted more, despite the pact that she had made with herself that it would be just one night. But one night had turned into the next day, and pretty soon that pact she had made with herself was falling through the porch cracks as Drew kissed her good-night just before midnight.

So, now pactless and wanting more, she wasn’t sure how Drew felt.

When he left, he had not promised he’d call. Caroline had convinced herself that that was a good thing. Because if he’d said it, she would’ve gotten her hopes up, only to have them dashed when he did not follow through.

Instead, he had not said it, and here she sat uncertain and vulnerable with her hopes up anyway.

Oh, God, what made me think I could have a one-night stand?

She dug her nails into her palms and reminded herself that it was what it was. She had wanted one perfect night with a guy who was perfectly imperfect for her. One night to release all the wedding stress and then she would return to her regularly scheduled life, which had no room for ongoing romance.

Because of that, she did not dare try to find her prince or hope that her prince would care enough to find her again—although Drew did know where she lived, and she already knew he made no pretense of being Prince Charming.

Well, okay, he’d earned the charming part. That was part of the reason she did not feel like dishing the details with her friend.

Pepper picked up the bottle of pinot noir and refilled Caroline’s wineglass. That was an unspoken signal, and Caroline knew that in exactly four...three...two...one...

“Never in a million years would I have picked out a guy like him for you. But good for you, honey.” She pushed Caroline’s glass toward her and then clinked it with her own. “Cheers! I mean, if I’d been paired up with him, I would’ve gone for him myself. But it was obvious that he only had eyes for you.”

Caroline smiled and shrugged as she sipped her wine, racking her brain for something—anything—to change the subject.

Too late.

“Now, I know y’all spent the night together,” Pepper said, “but the burning question is, when are you going to see him again?”

There was a sparkle in Pepper’s eyes that hinted that her doing such a thing would be pure decadence...and maybe even highly recommended.

Caroline tried to act nonchalant, despite the heat she felt rising in her cheeks. “I don’t know,” she answered truthfully. “I guess that remains to be seen.”

Pepper straightened in her chair as if Caroline had just revealed the juiciest secret of all. “So that means you would see him again?”

Pepper cocked her head to the side, holding her wineglass midair.

“Well, why wouldn’t I?”

Pepper blinked and looked little stunned. “But you want to see him again, right?”

Caroline sipped her wine, buying time. She rolled the liquid around on her tongue, savoring its cherries, plums and earthiness.

Being put on the spot by Pepper sort of had the same effect as flipping a coin for an answer—in that flash of seconds before fate decided the answer, she knew what she wanted in her heart of hearts.

Yes. She did want to see him again. They’d had a fabulous time together. A truly fabulous time. No one was more surprised by this than she was. He’d been sweet and gentle and interesting. What was more, he seemed genuinely interested in her.

He would call.

Wouldn’t he?

Oh, God, what if he didn’t call?

* * *

Drew spent way too many hours in the office, but long hours were the nature of his job as editor-in-chief of the Dallas Journal of Business and Development.

After taking three days off for the wedding and spending all day Sunday with Caroline, he faced the age-old problem when he returned to work on Monday: his head just wasn’t in the game. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Caroline since he’d left her at the door after kissing her goodbye last night.

Even so, that morning, he’d hit the ground running—albeit with a smile on his face—and had not stopped all day.

Now, his computer screen glowed in the dusk of his dimly lit office. An article that one of the reporters had written about the opening of a new credit union in the area stared back at him blankly, and all he could think about was that at this time last night, he’d been with Caroline.

Come on, damn it. Focus on work.

Drew narrowed his gaze at his screen, redoubling his effort. It was stuffy in his closed office despite the cool October weather. Too bad he couldn’t open a window and let in some fresh air. But the one window in his shoebox-size second-floor office was strictly for show and not function.

He got up and opened his office door instead. The newsroom was quiet. Since it was after eight, all the cubicles were empty, including the one that belonged to managing editor Bia Anderson. Since Bia and the staff had worked double time in his absence, he had intended to work extra hard for the next four days to pull the rest of the week’s edition together. He’d sent her home early. He was alone in the office.

The newsroom was eerily silent. The faint smell of coffee hung in the air, mingling with newsprint and something else that was unique to the office. Drew liked to think it was the smell of ambition.

He made his way to the small kitchenette, and for a moment he thought about putting on another pot of coffee, but he dismissed the idea when he saw that someone had already cleaned up the coffee station. No use in dirtying it up again today, even though he was going to be there a while. He settled on a glass of cold water from the cooler next to the coffeemaker and made his way back to his desk.

Since the Dallas Journal of Business and Development hit the stands on Friday—a strategy designed to allow the Journal a slim margin to scoop the competition—the daily paper’s special tabloid-size business section, which ran on Mondays—Drew’s week began on Friday and ended on Thursday.

That meant he worked most weekends. Technically, Monday was midweek for him. After taking off Friday, Saturday and Sunday, he should have been way behind schedule. But since Bia had done such a beautiful job handling the first three days of the week, it wasn’t so bad.

Of course, there were still things that only he could do...in addition to editing the handful of articles that were just coming across his desk.

Being the editor-in-chief of the newspaper meant he had to be disciplined and had to keep everyone else on track. He shifted in his chair, squeezed his eyes shut for a moment as he took a long drink of water. He opened his eyes again.

The Journal may have been a small operation, but Drew ran a tight ship and expected nothing less of everyone else.

Yet, even as he resumed editing the credit union article, his thoughts drifted to the events of the past weekend.

It had been a long time since he’d been distracted like this, and all he could think was, Damn, she was worth the wait. Even though he had no idea he’d been waiting. Or that he’d been waiting for her.

This thought helped him power through the article. He finished it, saved the changes and exited out. Pushing back from his desk, he acknowledged that it was time to take a break more substantial than getting a glass of water. He’d worked through dinner. So maybe a break would leave him better off in the long run.

He picked up the phone and dialed Caroline’s number. It rang four times. He thought it was going to voice mail when she picked up.

“Hello?” Her voice sounded like heaven to his ears.

“Hi, I have this tuxedo hanging in my closet. And I have this really hideous pumpkin-colored tie hanging there with it. I understand that you might know of someone who has an outfit—preferably a dress—that might complement it or at least make it look good.”

Her laugh was low and sexy.

“I think I know just the person you have in mind.”

The sound of her voice made him smile. He leaned back in his chair, and for the first time since he’d left her at her front door last night, he felt the tension melt out of his shoulders.

“So, where besides a wedding does one wear such unsightly pumpkin getups?” he asked.

“That depends on the pumpkins involved,” she said. “Pumpkins are always welcome at the farmers’ markets. This time of year, they’re frequently spotted in the produce aisle of the grocery store. Or for the really adventurous, they’ve been known to frequent ravioli and various pies and pastries. But that’s not for the everyday pumpkin; definitely not for the faint of heart.”

“That’s very good to know,” he said. “So, you’re not faint of heart, are you?”

“Me? No. Not me. Not at all.”

“Did not think so. I didn’t take you for that sort of girl.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Her voice wavered a little bit.

So she wasn’t as tough as she was pretending to be. Quick-witted, yes. But not tough.

“That’s my lame way of asking you if you’d like to go to the farmers’ market with me Thursday night. We can put on our hideous pumpkin outfits and have a scandalous night on the town.”

“The farmers’ market is only open on Saturday mornings. I don’t think we can have a night on the town there.”

“You’re not going to make this easy, are you?”

“No. I’m definitely not easy, if that’s what you were thinking.”

He smiled. She wasn’t exactly what he would call bristly, but he could tell he’d struck a nerve. Of course she wasn’t easy; she was damn irresistible.

“Then how about simply going out to dinner with me Thursday night?”

After a few beats of silence, she said, “I’d like that very much.” Her voice was soft again.

He heard muffled background voices over the line.

“Is someone there with you?”

“Yes. Did you meet my friend Pepper Merriweather? She was at the wedding.”

Of course he remembered Pepper. Everyone in the Southeast knew Pepper Merriweather. “Right. Yes, I did meet her. Her dad is Texas Star Energy, right?”

Caroline laughed. “Yes, though I’d never really thought of him that way. But yes, I guess in a sense he is Texas Star Energy.”

“I’ve interviewed her father before for the paper.”

He paused, waiting for her to react. It was an interesting dynamic. With a certain set of Dallas’s business elite, the Journal had a reputation for being reckless and socially impudent, which, in common man’s terms, meant Drew published the cold, hard truth. He’d butted heads with Harris Merriweather and some of the higher-ups at Texas Star when Drew had asked questions that, for some reason, they did not want to answer.

It was his duty to inform the public. It was also his job to ensure the stories he published were true and unbiased. The only way he could achieve that goal was to talk to people in the know. People who were willing to talk and tell him the truth. When sources stonewalled, it sent up red flags. Those red flags only encouraged Drew to push harder. Still, with Texas Star, he got nowhere.

While Caroline and her friend Pepper moved in those elite Dallas society circles, Caroline seemed no more one of them than Drew was. Maybe that’s why they’d had such a strong connection. Whatever the reason, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d connected with a woman on so many levels.

“So Thursday, then. I’ll pick you up at seven.”

It was going to be a long three days.