Читать книгу Four-Karat Fiancee - Sharon Swan - Страница 11

Never in a million years, she’d told him. Amanda recalled that ringing statement on a cloudy April afternoon, thinking that she had been as good as her word.

Dev Devlin might now be a wealthy man, especially in comparison to most of Jester’s far-from-affluent residents, but she hadn’t given in to him one inch. Winter had bowed to spring and her quiet bookstore still shared a building with his busy bar—something that continued to rub both parties the wrong way, even though Main Street hadn’t seen a real confrontation between them since the town sheriff had actually stepped in to break up the last one several weeks earlier. Although neither had declared an end to hostilities, the two of them seemed to have struck up a wary truce. Which was just as well, Amanda told herself, because at the moment she had something more important than her problems with the Heartbreak Saloon’s owner to consider.

She had the fate of four children to think about and worry over. Four young kids who had lost their father and mother.

Four orphans she’d only recently discovered existed.

But she couldn’t think about them now. At the moment she had to keep her mind on business, Amanda knew, because today problems had also cropped up at the Ex-Libris, her bookstore.

“What do you plan to do with all this new stock?” Irene Caldwell asked. A widow in her early sixties, Irene was a big reader and faithful Ex-Libris customer who also took on the role of occasional, and very able, helper at the bookstore whenever the need arose.

Amanda braced her elbows on the store’s dark mahogany front counter and studied a copy of Midnight Passions, one of many filling several cartons stacked on the dove gray carpet that stretched the length of the high-ceilinged room. The hardcover novel featured a dusky rose cover slashed with bold ebony letters that left little doubt as to its sexy subject matter.

“Most of the books will be shipped back to the distributor’s warehouse, since I made it plain enough to them over the phone that I didn’t order a hundred copies.” Amanda blew out a breath. “The manager I talked to wasn’t overjoyed at the news, but I told him he was getting them back, regardless.”

Casting another look around, Irene shook a head topped by graying hair worn in an upswept style and slid her hands into the front pockets of her navy wool cardigan. “How many did you order?”

“Ten, and I’m not even sure I can sell all of those. A display will stir some interest, but sales remain to be seen.”

“Hmm. Well, it probably wouldn’t hurt you to take home a copy,” Irene said with a twinkle in her eye.

That had Amanda smiling a faint smile despite everything. “Figure it will put me in the mood for a man…and possibly marriage?” Which, she knew, would please the older woman no end. Having had a happy marriage of her own, Irene would undoubtedly have little objection to seeing the world’s entire adult population pair off into loving couples pursuing a lifetime of wedded bliss.

“I must confess that romance seems to be in the air lately,” Irene said, eyes still twinkling. “First Shelly Dupree stopped running the coffee shop long enough to fall for Jester’s handsome new doctor, Connor O’Rourke. Then Jack Hartman finally took a good look at Melinda Woods, after which the two vets decided to share more than a practice. And then, just recently, Luke McNeil, who’s always been an excellent sheriff but needed more in his life than law enforcement, reconciled with his long-ago sweetheart, Jennifer Faulkner.”

“Mmm,” was the most neutral comment Amanda could offer. Despite Irene’s theory, all she smelled in the air was the fragrant jar of potpourri she’d set beside the cash register.

“You probably wouldn’t still be single yourself,” Irene pointed out, “if you had encouraged one of the nice boys you dated before you went off to college—or one of the nice men who asked you out when you came back to Jester.”

But none of those boys she’d shared popcorn with at Pop’s Movie Theatre—or the men whose dinner invitations she’d mostly declined since her return to Montana nearly three years earlier—had been right, not for her. And while, as the child of divorced parents, she might not believe quite as much in happily ever after as Irene did, Amanda couldn’t deny that she hoped to find Mr. Right someday—a man who just might sweep her off her feet and send her pulse leaping.

Which is exactly what happened four months ago on a snowy January night.

No, Amanda quickly countered in response to that sudden thought. It was just the excitement of the moment.

Unfortunately her more candid side knew that wasn’t the total truth of the matter. Dev Devlin, for all that he irritated her, was an attractive man. Dark blond hair the color of ripening wheat. Deep blue eyes that echoed a Western summer sky. Six feet tall and well-muscled.

Yes, he was quite a sight.

He’d also, however, been more than wild enough in his younger days to have her sure he’d never really settle down. And that alone made him the wrong man for her—because, for all that she valued her independence, she was also a settling-down kind of woman. Deep down, she wanted the kind of marriage Irene felt everyone was entitled to, and that meant waiting for the right man.

Just then the heavy mahogany door sporting a gleaming glass center opened and Finn Hollis stepped in from the sidewalk. Thin and lanky, with a full head of white hair, the retired librarian was another of Jester’s big lottery winners and had become one of the bookstore’s best customers, too, during the past few months. Finn, however, seldom wanted any of the books Amanda had in stock. No, the widower with a slew of children and grandchildren to keep him happily occupied had acquired a passion for collecting rare books, as well. Which usually meant a profit for the store, but could also mean putting some real effort into tracking down the items on Finn’s latest list.

And unless she was mistaken, Amanda mused, the folded piece of white stationery Finn currently held in one large, lined hand was yet another order to be filled.

“Hello, ladies,” Finn said in his normal courteous fashion.

Unlike some of Jester’s residents, the man who owned a sprawling farmhouse north of town didn’t favor Western-style garb. Instead, his tweed jackets and dark trousers implied a more scholarly bent, and Finn did seem to be a font of knowledge on many subjects. Amanda had pitted her brain against his more than once, and despite receiving good enough grades to earn a scholarship to a small yet well-respected college in the Pacific Northwest, she’d seldom bested him. Now she managed to greet him with her second smile of the day, although the nagging worries she couldn’t quite set aside made it a halfhearted effort.

In contrast, Irene’s own wide version looked far more enthusiastic. And amused. “Don’t tell me you’re ordering more books, Finn Hollis.”

His gaze took on a sheepish glint behind wire-rimmed glasses. “I can’t seem to help myself.”

Amanda studied the list he’d handed over. As she’d expected, none of the titles would be simple to find. She’d have to spend several hours at the store’s computer this afternoon just to make a respectable start. “It’s a good thing you have a big home,” she told him.

“Still, if you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself up to your ears in the printed word,” Irene tacked on with dry humor.

“That’s why I’ve decided to add on a library wing,” Finn informed the two women. “I suppose if Dev Devlin can build an entire house, and a large one at that, I can indulge my hobby.”

When both her companions slid sidelong glances her way, Amanda knew they’d be far from surprised if she offered a caustic comment in response, not considering what had probably taken on the dimensions of a local feud—or a battle royal between the sexes. But she just wasn’t up to it. Not today.

“I understand the new Devlin house will have six bedrooms,” Finn added after a moment.

“My goodness,” Irene said. “What would a single man need with a half dozen bedrooms?”

“Maybe he plans to fill them with willing women,” Amanda suggested, just a bit archly. No one, not even her, would argue the fact that the Heartbreaker Saloon’s owner had a longstanding reputation as a ladies’ man. “He must be getting tired of entertaining his, ah, women friends in the back room he’s living in behind the bar.”

“He doesn’t seem to have, er, entertained anyone for quite a while,” Finn confided in a low murmur, proving that even Jester’s most scholarly resident wasn’t opposed to a bit of gossip. “Not from what I’ve heard, that is.”

And where he’d heard it was at Dean Kenning’s barbershop. Amanda was all but positive of that. Finn and Dean were still great cronies, even though Henry Faulkner, their longtime friend, had recently passed away.

“Well, it hardly matters to me,” she said. “I don’t care who the man in question entertains as long as he does it quietly.”

Irene and Finn exchanged a look at the pointed tone of that last word. “Yes, well, I have to go,” the older woman wasted no time in saying, as though afraid that, if the female half of the battle of the sexes got started on the subject of the male half, the shaky truce Amanda suspected many were watching with interest might collapse—just as the picnic pavilion at Jester Community Park had strangely collapsed last month, prompting an ongoing sheriff’s investigation.

“I believe I have to leave, too,” Finn said. “I appreciate your getting those books for me, Amanda.”

And with that, they both were gone, leaving the Ex-Libris’s owner to her own devices. The proud owner, Amanda couldn’t deny, aiming her gaze around the front of her store. With its wide display window containing an attractive assortment of current literature and its walls covered by tall mahogany bookshelves backed by flocked wallpaper featuring a delicate lilac stripe, it was as classy a place as she’d been able to make it—right down to the lilting notes of the “Violin Masters” CD that currently played softly in the background.

Only the shipping cartons stacked everywhere marred the scene. If they weren’t picked up tomorrow, she would make another call and be even more blunt if she had to about expecting them to be taken back. She hadn’t spent several years after college working for a major bookselling chain in Seattle for nothing. She could get things accomplished.

In fact, she’d risen to the position of assistant manager before concluding that big-city life didn’t really suit her. What she wanted was a bookstore of her own in the small town she thought of as home. So she’d come back with her hard-earned savings in hand, and now, at the age of thirty, she had more than enough experience behind her to get things done.

In the business world, at any rate. There was still, Amanda knew, the fate of four young children to consider. And there, she was far from sure how much she could do.

She only knew she had to try.

BY THE TIME Amanda put the gracefully scribed Closed sign in the front window at six o’clock, she wanted nothing more than to go home and soak in a hot tub. Even beyond that, she knew what she needed was the good night’s sleep she’d failed to get for the past several evenings. Maybe, she mused as she tallied the day’s receipts, taking something with her to read besides the intricate mystery she was currently in the middle of would help. And with that thought, her gaze landed on the copy of Midnight Passions still resting at one side of the counter.

Why not? she asked herself. It would indeed be something different, and that could be just what she needed to relax a bit.

What Amanda didn’t want, and her nerves certainly didn’t need, was to catch sight of one of the Heartbreaker Saloon’s patrons weaving his way toward her as she left the Ex-Libris at just after six-thirty. She recognized Guy Feldon. He was one of the people who had followed hard on the heels of Jester’s newfound wealth.

“Millionaire, Montana,” was how the press had dubbed a place little more than a pinpoint on the state map, and the town had been flooded with reporters. Thankfully, the relentless press coverage seemed to have died down, although some residents’ private business was still being leaked to the media. More than a few of Jester’s citizens suspected that one of their own was acting as informer, but no one really knew who was responsible.

The burly man currently approaching with unsteady steps wasn’t with the media, however. No, Guy Feldon appeared to be basically an opportunist who wouldn’t hesitate to take advantage of another’s good fortune. He usually played the part of the lazy drifter, but more than one person had remarked on spying a cunning glint in his eye.

Now his gaze was trained on Amanda, and she by no means liked what she saw in it. When it raked her from head to toe, even the fact that most of her body was covered by the classic wide folds of her beige raincoat brought little comfort.

“Well, hi, sugar pie,” Feldon drawled, his speech slurred.

Sugar pie? Amanda’s teeth clenched in response. It didn’t take a genius, she thought, to see that she was headed for trouble. Or, rather, trouble was headed for her.

“Cat got your tongue?” Feldon came to a wavering halt right in front of her. “Have to say I envy it if it does.” His mouth curved in a leer.

“I’d appreciate it if you’d get out of my way,” Amanda replied with brisk directness. Living in a big city had taught her the value of maintaining a firm front in an environment where crime was an unfortunate fact of life. One of the benefits of returning to Jester was that she never so much as felt uneasy walking alone on an empty street—never until now.

“Too bad I’m of no mind to step aside.” Feldon leaned in. Even in the dimness of a twilight sky, his face looked nearly as flushed as the red checks on his flannel jacket. “I might be persuaded, though, if you gave me a sample of what I’m missing.”

You should live so long, Amanda reflected with disgust. She took a better grip on the book she held, hitched her sleek shoulder bag higher, and prepared to move on. “If you don’t let me pass, I’m turning around and heading to the sheriff’s office.”

Feldon’s hand snaked out to grab her arm. “I don’t think so,” he muttered, his expression suddenly as dark as his shaggy black hair.

Amanda knew it was too late to run. But she could shout for help, she decided even as another large hand came up to cup her chin hard enough to keep her lips clamped shut.

“Maybe I’ll just take, since you don’t feel like giving,” Feldon said, leaning closer, then closer still. Amanda did her best to struggle, but he was almost twice her size. Her pulse began to pound as all-out panic threatened.

And then he was yanked right away from her by someone who stared daggers at Guy Feldon from under the wide brim of a tan Stetson before sending the burly man lurching into the street with a well-placed fist to the jaw.

For once, Amanda was actually glad to see Dev Devlin.

A few people poked their heads outside at that point, as if just aware that something was up on Main Street. Amanda took note of it with a quick glance around her even as most of her attention remained fixed on the two men steps away.

“Come on, Feldon,” Dev said in a near growl, his fists still clenched. “Let’s see you take on someone more your size.”

“Damned if I won’t,” the other man shot back.

Amanda watched what happened next, thinking that it was like a scene straight out of an action movie. Fists flew with abandon and several grunts were exchanged when they found their target, but it wasn’t long before a clear victor emerged as Dev sent his opponent flying with a particularly solid punch.

“More?” he asked after taking a few rapid strides forward to stand over the burly man sprawled in the street.

Feldon looked up. “I’m done.”

“Well then, so are we,” Dev said, “unless the lady wants you dragged over to the sheriff’s place so she can press charges.”

Mindful that several people had gathered for a closer look at the fight, Amanda shook her head. She still wanted nothing more than to go home.

Dev brushed his palms on his snug-fitting Levi’s and reached up to tap his hat down lower on his forehead. “Looks like you’re getting off easy,” he told his opponent as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his brown leather jacket. “I suggest you haul yourself up—and think about leaving town while you’re at it, because I’ve just decided that this place isn’t big enough for the both of us.”

Feldon mumbled what might have been a curse, then got to his feet and beat a swift retreat.

After watching him disappear around a corner, Dev looked at Amanda. “Are you all right?”

Vaguely aware of other voices echoing that question, she dipped her head in a nod and kept her gaze on the man walking toward her. The truth was that after everything that had happened that day and all she had on her mind, she found herself close to tears. Nevertheless, her pride had her determined not to shed any before an audience.

“Thank you,” she said, gazing into the deep blue eyes of the Heartbreaker Saloon’s owner. For coming to my rescue, she could have added, and didn’t. It was startling to realize that the person she’d been at odds with for so long had done exactly that.

He studied her, taking in what she hoped was at least a somewhat calm expression. She knew he wasn’t fooled by the way he frowned. “If you’re on your way home, I’ll walk you there.”

“That’s not necessary,” she assured him.

“Whether it is or not, I’m doing it,” he countered.

Too tired to mount a real protest, Amanda surrendered with another nod. The irony of it wasn’t lost on her. Who would have ever thought she’d give in to this man on anything? she asked herself. And did this mark a change in their relationship?

Something told her that just might be the case as she issued an absent goodbye to the people gathered around and fell into step beside him.

Dev’s blood gradually cooled as he concentrated on shortening his stride to match his companion’s. Their footsteps tapped out a slow rhythm as they walked down a darkening street. There was no point in wondering whether he should have kicked Feldon’s butt for good measure, he told himself. Hopefully, the jerk would take the advice he’d been given and leave town. If not, Dev vowed to personally see to it.

He might be a successful businessman—he might be a millionaire—but he could still get a dirty job done if necessary. This evening’s brawl had proved that. He hadn’t lost the knack of putting his fists to good use. Except these days he knew when to back off. Seeing Amanda Bradley safely home had been more important than continuing to pound on the man who’d been forcing himself on her.

A man who’d had more to drink than he should have at the Heartbreaker, Dev’s conscience reminded him.

He frowned in response, thinking that if someone was known to be driving, he and the two bartenders working for him didn’t hesitate to shut them off or take car keys away. But how the hell was anyone supposed to know that a man—a customer—would practically assault a woman steps from the saloon’s doorstep?

Sure, the Heartbreaker’s male regulars could get rowdy at times. But assault a female? No way. Most of them would have liked nothing better than to pound on Feldon themselves, given the chance. So instead of letting guilt nag at him over what had happened, Dev figured everyone would be better off if he just tried to do his damnedest to make sure it never happened again.

“Nice night for a stroll down Mega Bucks Boulevard,” he said in a bid to make conversation.

Amanda glanced up at him and spoke for the first time since they’d started their walk. “Do you find our mayor’s habit of renaming streets since the lottery win to be as bizarre as I do?”

The question, while straightforward enough, was issued in a softer tone than Dev was accustomed to hearing from the Ex-Libris’s owner—who, he remembered, had informed him somewhat haughtily during one of their go-rounds that the store’s name came from a Latin phrase that loosely translated meant “from the books.” And it was just as well she had told him, because he knew he’d have never figured that one out.

He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Can’t see how renaming a few streets hurts anything.”

Jester’s mayor, Bobby Larson, had also been touting the idea of building a hotel on land now dedicated to the community park, and Dev was less sure how he felt about that plan. The one thing he was dead certain of was a definite desire to avoid town politics. He had plenty of other things to occupy him.

Such as his house, he thought as they crossed Maple Street, where the new Devlin residence would soon reach the move-in stage. He’d been headed there for the daily check he made on it when he’d found himself trading blows with Guy Feldon instead.

“Were you hurt in that fight?” Amanda asked, as though she’d caught the direction his thoughts had taken.

“No.” He had no intention of whining about a few aches and pains. “What have you got there?” he asked, changing the subject as he glanced down at the book she held tightly to her. All he could make out were the edges of a dusky rose cover.

“Oh.” She hesitated a moment. “It’s, ah, a novel, just something I thought I’d try.”

“Something different than you usually read?”

Again she paused. “Well, let’s just say it’s a change from what I’ve been reading lately.”

Her reply was just vague enough to have him wishing he could get a better look at that book. Maybe it would tell him more about the woman he’d come to think of as a thorn in his side. He still believed the best thing he could do was buy her part of the building they shared. He could even knock down the wall separating their properties, make a few changes to spruce up the bar area and expand his business—which was thriving, if he did say so himself.

Her business was another story, he more than suspected. If it weren’t for the pastries usually on hand in a sitting area at the back of the bookstore, along with tea served in fancy cups to wash down a helping of the local news of the day, how many customers would regularly visit the place? Probably not enough to turn a healthy profit. If only he could convince her to sell out to him.

They arrived at Amanda’s one-story white frame house in a matter of minutes. Dev took note of the fact that although it was a long way from new, it appeared well cared for. It was a far cry from the rundown house he’d grown up in on the outskirts of town, that was for sure. This place looked…homey, he guessed was the word, with its front yard enclosed by a short picket fence and what seemed to be, judging by what he could make out in the light coming from a nearby streetlamp, a circle of dried lavender decorating the plain wood door.

“I’ll wait until you get in before I take off,” he told her when they reached the covered front porch.

“All right.” She retrieved a key ring from her shoulder bag and opened the door, then switched on an inside light and turned back to him. “Thank you again for…” Stopping in midsentence, she stared up at him, her gaze narrowing. “You are hurt. There’s blood on your lip.”

That came as no surprise, since he’d started tasting it when they were halfway to her place. “It’s nothing,” he said.

“It’s something,” she replied with a trace of the brisk tone he more often associated with her. “Come in and let me have a look at it.”

He thought about declining. But it could be he’d get another opportunity to bring up the subject of buying her out. Deciding to take his chances, he said, “Okay,” and let her lead him into the house.

The inside seemed as homey as the outside, Dev concluded with a glance around the living room. Again everything looked far from new, but it also looked comfortable, even cozy—a lot cozier, certainly, than anywhere he’d ever lived.

Amanda laid the book she’d been carrying on a small end table and propped her leather shoulder bag on top of it. “Take off your jacket and have a seat,” she told him as she switched on a short brass lamp. “I’ll be right back with a washcloth and the first aid kit.”

He obeyed orders, tossed both his jacket and hat on an overstuffed moss-green chair and sat down on a plump flowered sofa. His gaze was drawn to a photo standing on a narrow wood wall shelf, one he recognized as a shot of a younger Amanda with her mother, who he recalled had passed away about ten years earlier after a short illness. By then, Amanda’s father had long since left town, and under circumstances no one living in Jester at the time had probably forgotten.

Dev leaned his head against the back on the sofa and waited for his hostess to return, then waited some more before he finally began to wonder if something was wrong. Could she be the one who was really injured? After all, she’d been putting up a considerable struggle when he’d yanked Feldon away from her.

She might not appreciate his roaming around her place, but he was going to check on her anyway, he decided. If she got teed off, well she’d been teed off at him plenty already.

Dev got up and started down a narrow hallway toward the rear of the house. Off to one side, he saw light spilling through an open doorway. Not about to stop now, he kept going and soon poked his head in what turned out to be a small bathroom. There, he found Amanda standing at the sink with thin tears running down her cheeks.

She jumped when she spotted him. “I was coming back in a minute,” she said, brushing the tears away. Her face had gone nearly as pale as the high-necked white blouse she wore with pleated wool trousers.

“If that jerk hurt you, I’ll see he pays for it.” It was as firm a promise as Dev could make it. God, he hated to see a woman cry. He’d rather take a solid punch in the chest.

Amanda shook her head. “No, he didn’t hurt me. I’m fine, really.” She sighed. “It’s just…been a long day.”

Which it may have been, Dev allowed, but he didn’t think that was all of it. If Amanda Bradley could hold her own with him—and she had on many occasions—it was hard to believe she’d wind up teary-eyed unless there was a damn good reason for it. Not, he reminded himself, that it was any of his business.

He leaned against the doorjamb and folded his arms across the twin front pockets of his denim shirt. “Want to patch me up now?”

Sighing again, this time in what might have been relief that he hadn’t pressed the subject, she nodded and reached up to open the mirrored medicine cabinet. “As long as you’re here, why don’t you wash the blood off first?”

He did, making quick work of cleaning the cut at a corner of his lower lip. Then he propped a hip against the sink and let her fuss over him. As close as they were, he couldn’t help but catch a whiff of the subtle floral scent coming from the person whose pink-tinged mouth, currently pursed in concentration, continued to fascinate him. As to why it fascinated him, he still hadn’t figured that one out.

Right now he did his best to ignore the fact that they were standing a scant inch from each other, telling himself that he’d been without a woman for too long if certain parts of him could even threaten to get stirred up at a time like this. Then the sting of the antiseptic regained his full attention in a hurry.

“Sorry,” she said at his brief flinch.

“No problem.”

The job was done and they were back in the living room in a matter of moments. It was time to take off, Dev knew. Trouble was, the remembered sight of those tears was still eating at him.

“Look,” he said as he reached down for his jacket, “I know it’s flat-out none of my concern, but probably no one knows better than I do that for a small person, you can also be a pretty tough one when your back’s up. To get as upset as you obviously were a few minutes ago, something more than a long day has to be behind it.”

Her gaze met his. “As you said, it’s none of your…” Her voice trailed off as the starch suddenly seemed to go right out of her. She walked over to the sofa and sank onto a plump cushion. “I just need some sleep,” she murmured—more to herself than to him, it seemed, as though she were talking out loud. “I can’t keep tossing and turning night after night.”

He set his jacket down again. “Sounds like you’ve got things on your mind.”

She glanced at him and exhaled a short breath. “You could say so.”

Maybe her store was doing even worse than he’d figured. That was all he could come up with. And if that was the problem, he knew he could offer her a quick solution. “If it’s business—” he started to say before she halted him with a slight wave of one hand.

“I wish it were as straightforward as something to do with business,” she told him.

“Then what is it?” he asked, deciding to be blunt about it. Maybe it was none of his concern, but now that his curiosity was roused, he couldn’t let it go, either. Not unless she kicked him out.

But for once, Amanda Bradley didn’t seem capable of doing that, and as if recognizing she was stuck with him, she said, “What I’ve got on my mind involves four young children.” She paused for a beat. “Relatives, actually.”

That caught Dev off guard. “Relatives?” he repeated after a moment.

“Yes,” she said, again meeting his gaze. “These particular children happen to be my sisters and brothers.”

What? He realized his mouth was in danger of falling open. She was an only child who’d moved to Jester with her parents when she was just a slip of a girl. He knew that as well as he knew his own name. Hell, everyone who’d been in town for a while knew it.

“How in the world,” he had to ask her, “can you have sisters and brothers?”

“I can if my father had more children after he left Jester. Which, I just recently learned, he did.”