Читать книгу Wishing and Hoping - SUSAN MEIER, Susan Meier - Страница 10

“Nothing’s going on!” Drew said, grabbing Tia by the shoulders and turning her in the direction of the foyer. Tia struggled against his hold, but he gripped her tighter.

“Tia forgot how late it was when she volunteered to help plan tonight. You go back to the den and check on Ben. You can call us tomorrow morning and we’ll come over and talk about wedding plans then. Or Tia can come over by herself…whatever you and Ben want.”

With that, Drew pushed Tia up the hall and she gave up fighting him because it wasn’t good for her mother to see them argue or question each other.

But when they were on the front porch, out of range of both of her parents, she glared at him. “Drew—”

“Shhh,” he said, pulling her down the steps and all but dragging her to her car. “If we don’t make too much of a ruckus, maybe nobody will notice we brought two vehicles.”

He tucked her inside her little red sports car, then raced over to his truck. Tia followed him back to his house. Not at all happy with his high-handedness, she parked her car beside his in front of the two-car garage, walked into the foyer and tossed her car keys onto the curio cabinet.

“If you’d given me two minutes I could have talked my mother into planning tonight and I wouldn’t have had to come back here!”

“That was exactly the problem,” Drew said as he ambled off to the left into his living room. “It was obvious that you were trying to get rid of me when we’re supposed to be madly in love and you’re supposed to want to spend the night with me.”

Still in the foyer, Tia froze by the stairway. She barely had time to register a grateful reaction for his saving their charade. The words spend the night with me caused her chest to tighten and her pulse to scramble. She sure as heck hoped he didn’t think they should be sharing the same bed, but even as the idea entered her brain she knew that’s exactly what he thought. She was already pregnant. He knew she found him attractive. They had been magnificent together sexually. Plus, they were getting married. They would be each other’s opposite-sex companion for the next eight months. She couldn’t envision him going without sex for eight months.

She leaned against the newel post to steady herself. This situation just kept getting worse.

Well, she’d already faced two awkward conversations this evening. Time for number three.

Straightening her shoulders, she headed for his living room.

Seated on a white brocade sofa, with his arms stretched across its back and his boots on the coffee table, Drew looked disreputable and self-assured and so handsome that Tia had a sudden case of second thoughts. They might not be right for each other as a real husband and wife, but would sleeping together for the next eight months really be that bad?

“Your mother is suspicious,” Drew said, “because our story is weak. Not only do we have to come up with a more detailed story than what we told your parents, but we should also have a prenup.”

Tia’s eyes widened and her mouth fell open slightly. “You don’t have to protect your money from me!”

“How do you know I wasn’t trying to protect your money from me?”

Taken aback by that possibility, she thought about it, then remembered she didn’t have any money to protect. She’d only been working two years. Not enough time to accumulate a nest egg. Any money she had saved had gone into the down payment for her house.

“I don’t have any money.”

“Okay, then we’re back to protecting mine. But for a few seconds there, when you thought you might have money, you have to admit you wanted a prenup, too.”

This was why she wouldn’t sleep with him. He was nothing like the guy of her childhood fantasies. He wasn’t a sweet, considerate, smitten Prince Charming. He was a grouch who perpetually watched out for himself. “You’re insane.”

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t care what you think of me.” He pushed himself off the sofa and poured two fingers of Scotch. “Can I get you something? Soda? Iced tea? Glass of milk?”

“I’m fine,” she said, but she wasn’t. This morning she had been a happy-go-lucky employee at an advertising firm. She had a job secure enough that she was ready, even happy, to become a mom. In her generosity of spirit and fairness of heart, she’d decided to tell her baby’s father he was about to be a dad. She’d agreed to marry him to protect her father from the potential stress that telling the real story might generate. Now, her father was okay, but she was stuck spending too much time with a man who always looked on the dark side of things. She wished she had realized Drew wasn’t the nice guy she had created in her fantasies before she’d made love with him, but she’d been so caught up in her childhood crush that she’d let herself believe he was the man in her dreams.

He wasn’t. She didn’t know exactly who he was, but he most certainly wasn’t Prince Charming.

“I’m not sleeping with you.”

He peered at her over his Scotch glass. His gaze went from her short cap of dark hair, along her face, down her shoulders, pausing at her breasts, and then tumbled to her toes. For a few seconds he appeared to be considering his answer. Finally, he smiled and said, “I don’t remember asking.”

Embarrassment shot through her, but she ignored it. She didn’t believe for one second that he didn’t want to sleep with her. Still, she wasn’t arguing with good fortune.

“Let’s just say that was another one of those things we had to get out of the way.”

“Good.”

“Good.”

He strolled back to the white sofa and settled again on the plump cushion. “Let’s get back to the prenup.”

“I don’t have any money. I don’t want yours. I think your lawyer should be able to handle that.”

“You don’t want your lawyer to draw it up?”

“I don’t have a lawyer.”

“Then we’ll use mine. But you should get one to look it over before you sign it.”

“Why? Planning to cheat me?”

“No, just teaching you to watch your back. Marriage is as much a business proposition as anything else. It pays not to forget that.”

She would have had a snappy comeback, but as he spoke the room began to spin. She swayed slightly and groped for the back of a nearby club chair with cognac-colored pillows that matched the silk printed drapes.

Before she had a solid hold, Drew was at her side. “Whoa. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. But it’s been a long day.” Really long. All she had wanted was to do the right thing. For her trouble, she was stuck with a lunatic arguing about prenups. “I’m exhausted.”

“Then we’ll talk in the morning. We have the whole house to ourselves for at least two weeks because my housekeeper is taking care of her sister in Minneapolis after surgery. We don’t have to figure everything out tonight.”

Tia shifted out from under his hold. “Great. I’ll get my overnight bag from my car, then you can show me where to sleep.”

“I’ll get your overnight bag,” Drew said as he caught her by the shoulders, turned her around and led her into the foyer. He pointed up the steps. “Pick any room you want. Just don’t take the room at the end of the hall. That’s mine. I’d give it to you if you insist, but since Mrs. Hernandez has been gone, it’s a mess. The others are all clean. Take one of them.” With that, he turned and walked out the front door.

Tia climbed the steps. At the top she gazed down the long, quiet corridor of the second floor of his brand-new house and counted six bedroom doors. She would have taken the first, but curiosity got the better of her and she sneaked down the hall, peeking into each room, gasping every time she opened a door because all six were beautifully appointed. Probably professionally decorated.

And she suddenly realized why Drew wanted a prenup. In the same way that she’d grown up in the past six years, he’d become wealthy. Maybe even the object of women pursuing him for his money. And she’d shown up on his doorstep waving the oldest trick in the book. A pregnancy. After a case of mistaken identity.

Wow. No wonder Drew wanted a prenup. For all practical intents and purposes, it looked as if she’d tricked him.

“Do you have any rope?”

Drew glanced up from reading the morning paper. When he saw Tia standing in his kitchen doorway, he steeled himself against the slam of desire that hit him like a tsunami. He didn’t mind that she had the waistband of her too-big sweatpants bunched in her fist. What got to him was the enticing strip of belly flesh exposed because she had her white T-shirt tied at her midriff. It reminded him that he knew how soft she was. He knew how sweet she smelled. He knew just how good they had been together before he’d figured out she was Ben’s daughter.

Which was exactly why she was totally off-limits. She was Ben’s daughter. Not somebody he’d normally seduce. Not somebody he would sleep with again. Not only that, but their situation hadn’t really been settled. If she wouldn’t sign a prenup, he couldn’t marry her.

When she’d conveniently become sick before they could finish their discussion about the prenup, it had finally sunk into Drew’s thick skull that it was pretty darned odd that Tia had had absolutely no hesitation about making love the day they’d met at the party in Pittsburgh. They didn’t really know each other as adults, so Drew knew there was no emotional bond between them. Which meant the most logical conclusion to be drawn for why she’d fall into the arms of a man she hardly knew was that she had wanted something.

He didn’t have a clue what it was, but he did know that though he was duty-bound to raise his child and protect Ben, there was no way in hell he was losing half this farm. If she thought she was going to hoodwink him out of money, she was sadly mistaken. In fact, he’d decided not to push the issue of the prenup until he had a better handle on what game she was playing.

Gripping her too-big bottoms, Tia ambled to the table. “The first two weeks I was pregnant, I threw up every day and I lost ten pounds. Now all of my baggy clothes are way too baggy.”

“There’s plenty of rope for those pants in the stable,” he said, and turned his attention back to his newspaper. “If we were staying for breakfast I’d get you a bale. Since we’re going out, you might as well shower and put on something that fits.”

“We’re going out?”

“We need to be seen in public before your mother calls the preacher to arrange the ceremony or the local caterer to order two roasters of chicken for a buffet supper, and word of our marriage gets out.”

“You’re right.”

“So go change and I’ll see you at the truck.”

Though Tia cringed at the mention of his truck, much to Drew’s relief, she didn’t argue. She left the kitchen and twenty minutes later, dressed in comfortable-looking capri pants and a crisp white blouse, she joined him by his black truck where he was talking over the day’s chores with two hands.

“Jim, Pete,” he said when Tia joined them. He slid his arm across her shoulders. “You remember Tia Capriotti, Ben’s daughter.”

Jim grinned. Pete took off his hat.

“Sure.”

Tia extended her hand to shake both of theirs. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“We’re going for breakfast right now,” Drew said, not giving anybody a chance to really get to know each other. If her goal was to cheat him, he had to be very careful how chummy he let her get with the people close to him. He still had to marry her. He still wanted to be part of his child’s life. But he’d be darned if he’d let her insinuate herself into his world enough that she could get information to use against him to take half of the farm he’d worked for for the past ten years. “We should be back at about eleven. I’ll check on you then.”

Jim and Pete nodded and headed for the stable. Drew turned Tia in the direction of his truck.

“How about if we take my car?”

“No.”

“I no longer get morning sickness, but I still get motion sickness in any vehicle but my own car. We don’t want to show up at the diner first thing in the morning with me green and begging for crackers.”

He sighed. Unfortunately, she had a point. “Fine. But I’m driving.”

Tia rolledher eyes. “I’m pregnant. I’m not an invalid.”

“No, but I’ve seen the way you drive,” he said, taking the keys from her. “I want to get there in one piece.”

He opened the passenger’s-side door for her. She got in and he closed the door, then rounded the hood. He slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine. It purred to life like the finely tuned piece of engineering that it was, and he smiled. He didn’t know a man in the world who wouldn’t have smiled.

“Nice car.” And not the car of a woman who needed to cheat a man out of money. He frowned. That really was the truth. This wasn’t the car of a woman who needed to trick a man for money.

“Thanks. I bought it as a present to myself two years ago when I graduated.”

Ah. Graduation money. The car didn’t count. “What is it you do for a living, again?”

“I work for an ad firm.”

“You took all those brains your dad told me you had and decided they would best serve the world by selling panty hose?”

She laughed. “I’m pretty good with panty hose, breakfast cereal is the specialty of the company I work for.”

“You think hawking cereal is more important than science or medicine?”

“No, but I don’t have a science or medicine kind of brain. I’m analytical, but I’m more verbal. I could have probably made a lot more money at a drug company, but I like what I do.” She shrugged. “And I don’t do so bad in the money department, either. In fact, as I climb the corporate ladder, my salary will increase quite nicely.”

Drew frowned again. She sounded like a woman who had her future all planned out, not a woman who would marry a guy for money. But that only baffled him all the more. If she didn’t want his money, what the hell did she want badly enough to make love with him that night in Pittsburgh?

“So you have a good job?”

She nodded. “And a house.”

That’s right! He’d been to her house. “Which means you should want a prenup as much as I do.”

“Because of my house?” she laughed. “Every cent I had saved went into a down payment, and I mortgaged the rest. If you tried to take my house, I’d hand you the payment book.”

“So you need money?”

She shook her head as if disgusted with him. “How many times do I have to tell you that I have a job. A good job. A job where I can climb the ladder. I have as much of a chance of being an executive at my company as anybody. I’m fine.”

Drew shifted uncomfortably on the driver’s seat of her car. He got it. She was self-sufficient. She didn’t need him or his money. But that meant the only logical conclusion he could draw for why they’d ended up in bed was that she had been overwhelmingly attracted to him. So attracted to him she’d forgotten all about birth control. So attracted she’d fallen for stupid lines. Really fallen. She’d all but purred with happiness in his arms.

He swallowed, suddenly aware of how close they were in the confines of her tiny car. The attraction they’d felt the night they’d met at the party had not been onesided. He’d been overwhelmingly attracted to her, too. On top of that, the heavenly soft, incredibly sensual woman beside him would be spending the next eight months of weekends with him. If he didn’t get ahold of himself right now, all he would be thinking about for all eight of those months would be sex.

He parked her car in the lot beside the diner and guided her into the small restaurant. Filled with Saturday-morning patrons, the place was alive with conversation and brimming with the scents of fresh coffee, bacon and maple syrup.

“Good morning, Drew,” Elaine Johnston said. Tall and amply built, the wife of Bill Johnston, the diner’s owner, served as hostess normally, but also filled in as a waitress or cook. “And good morning to you, too, Isabella.”

“She goes by Tia now,” Drew interjected, and though Tia laughed, Drew was struck by what a smart move that had been. By telling Elaine that Tia no longed used Isabella but went by the name Tia, he subtly told the woman in contact with nearly everybody in Calhoun Corners that he knew personal things about Isabella Capriotti.

But though that was good for the charade, Drew felt an odd sensation in his gut. They were sexually attracted. She hadn’t tricked him. She didn’t need him. Hell, she didn’t want him—except sexually. Now that he’d waded through the situation and realized she’d found him as irresistible as he’d found her, he was also recognizing that if he played his cards right she could want him again. And again. And again.

As Elaine led them down the aisle between two rows of booths, Drew inhaled a sharp breath. He had to stop thinking like this.

When they were seated and Elaine was on her way to get their coffee, Tia said, “So what now?”

His answer was quick and automatic. “We continue to make people believe that we are madly in love.” But as the words came tumbling out of his mouth, he realized that if she wasn’t the problem—if she hadn’t tricked him and didn’t want anything from him—then, technically, he was the problem. He’d seduced her. He was forcing her to marry him. He was demanding a place in her baby’s life. And now he was thinking about seducing her again.

He was scum.

“We have to make people believe we’re madly in love immediately? Can’t we date?”

“We don’t have time. Wedding’s already set for two weeks from now. Besides, if we start here, right now, the rumor will get to Rayne Fegan this morning.”

“Mark’s daughter? What does she have to do with this?”

“Your dad’s heart condition isn’t the only thing in the editorials. Mark’s also written about things your brothers did as teenagers, wondering why they were never arrested and almost accusing your dad of using influence to keep them out of jail.”

“Are you kidding?”

“Mark’s writing the editorials, but Rayne is the one digging up the past. We want her to find out we’re together so she’ll check up on us and decide we’re for real, and let us alone.”

“You’ve really thought this through.”

“It’s only common sense. There was no reason for Rayne to check on your brothers except to stress out your dad. When she hears about us she’ll think she struck pay dirt for more ways to push your dad and she’ll come gunning for us. But that’s what we want. We want her to ‘accidentally’ find us looking calm and ordinary. Like this has been going on so long that we’re comfortable. So nobody questions the wedding and there’s nothing about it that stresses your dad.”

Tia nodded, then leaned back and smiled at him. Once again, the easy upward movement of her lips was very good for the charade. Very bad for Drew’s libido. Still, he knew what he had to do. Especially when he saw Ossie Burton striding toward them, an evil look on his face, as if he was about to have one hell of a time teasing Drew.

Drew’s chest tightened. He’d vowed in every bar from here to the Chesapeake Bay that he’d never seriously date a woman again, let alone get married. He was not only about to endure months of the greatest physical challenge of his life by resisting a sexual attraction that suddenly seemed as natural as breathing, but he was also about to endure months of the teasing of his life.

Nonetheless, for Ben’s sake, he reached across the table and took Tia’s hand.

Tia and Drew ate breakfast interrupted by diner patrons who popped over to say hello, and the curious stares of people not bold enough to actually come over. When they left the diner, they walked to the small grocery store and picked up a few everyday items, making sure everybody saw them doing common, ordinary things. But when they reached the flower shop, Tia saw Rayne Fegan striding toward them.

“I told you she would track us down,” Drew whispered as he put his hand on the doorknob to go inside. Rayne stopped them.

“Tia!” she said, catching Tia’s arm to keep her from entering the flower shop. “My goodness, I didn’t know you were home!”

“I’ve been home a few times since May.” As if she’d done it a million times before, she turned and smiled at Drew.

Rayne’s eyebrows rose. “Oh.”

“We’ve been dating, Miss Nosey,” Drew said. Compared to Tia, Rayne looked like somebody’s maiden aunt. Though she wore her hair in a youthful ponytail, her long bangs sloppily brushed the frames of her outdated, oversize glasses. Her too-big blouse billowed over jeans that could have been taken in four inches. “I’ll spell it out for you so you don’t have to speculate in the newspaper.”

“Very funny.”

“It’s not funny the way you’re trying to take attention off the real issues of the election by focusing on Ben’s health.”

“He’s our elected official. He set himself up to have his life scrutinized. Whether or not he can actually do the job is a part of that.”

“He’s done the job for an entire year since his heart attack,” Tia said, joining Drew in defense of her father. “If you or your dad don’t realize he’s perfectly able to keep going then you’re wrong.”

“We don’t think we are,” Rayne said. “We think the town needs a young, enthusiastic mayor and we take the responsibility of the press very seriously.”

“In other words,” Drew countered, “you love making mountains out of molehills.”

Rayne shook her head. “We’re doing what needs to be done. Anytime he wants, Ben can pull out. From our point of view he’s the one who needs to reevaluate.” She sighed and glanced at Tia. Drew noticed the way her face softened with regret as she said, “It was nice to see you.” Then she walked away.

“I get the feeling you and Rayne were friends at some point.”

“We were two outcasts in high school. I was the brainy girl, she was the daughter of the guy who could put your misdeeds in the paper. We were a natural pair.”

She turned and entered the flower shop. Drew followed her, putting his hand on the small of her back, directing her to the counter.

“What can I do for you, Tia, Drew?” Sam Jeffries said, wiping his hands on a white cloth as he approached from the table behind the counter where he had been arranging a huge funeral bouquet.

“We’re getting married in two weeks,” Drew said easily.

Sam grinned. “Well, that’s a surprise.”

Drew only smiled before he said, “Tia’s mom will be handling most of the details, but Tia wanted to take a look around first so she knows what to tell her mother to order.”

“I have catalogues,” Sam said, not missing a beat. “I’ve got everything in here from altar bouquets to the bouquet the bride tosses when she leaves the reception.”

“It’s not going to be much of a reception,” Tia said, taking her cue from Drew and speaking easily, naturally. “Just something small in my parents’ backyard.”

Sam flipped open a huge book. “Let me suggest you sift through these,” he said, pointing at some pictures. “Match what you want as centerpieces or decorations with the flowers in your mother’s gardens and it will be perfect.”

Tia agreed with Sam’s logic, but a strange feeling overwhelmed her as she glanced at the bouquets being held by the brides in the photos. Up until she actually saw these pictures, the wedding was an abstract thing. Planning not to live together except on weekends reinforced that. But knowing there would be a ceremony, that they were taking vows, buying flowers, made it all seem too real.

She was quiet on the drive home, but so was Drew. His face drawn in serious lines, he appeared to be thinking so intently about something that Tia knew he probably wouldn’t hear her if she tried to make conversation. She let her gaze slide down to the sure way he gripped her steering wheel, then to his long legs. If she had thought her car was filled with him on the drive into town, it was even worse now.

Over and over she told herself that the awareness thrumming through her was purely sexual, but she couldn’t help remembering that he was marrying her to protect her dad, his mentor. For as much as he’d tried to make her believe he was a jerk, she kept seeing that he had a soft side and she wished she wouldn’t. Every time she realized how much he was putting himself out for her father, she started seeing the Prince Charming in him again and she didn’t want to. She wanted that to be a lie. A sham. Her own imagination. She did not want him to be nice. She most certainly didn’t want to like him. He’d made himself very clear the day before when he’d told her theirs would not be a real marriage. If she liked him too much, she would end up getting hurt.

She was glad he made the excuse of needing to check in with his hands, and left her to her own devices. She didn’t even care when she saw him get into his truck and drive off. She jumped in her car and drove to her mother’s, where she spent two hours deciding everything from what color her two cousins should wear as bridesmaids to which of their friends and neighbors should be invited.

When she returned to Drew’s house to find it was still empty and there were no messages on his answering machine telling her where he was or when she could expect him back, she told herself she was grateful for his rudeness. It reminded her that he could be a real jerk.

But when another four hours passed without a word from him, that gratitude turned into absolute fury. The idiot had left her alone in his house. A house she didn’t feel at liberty to explore now that she knew he had money. She didn’t know where he was or what he was doing. If he had been in an accident, she didn’t even know to send somebody out searching for him.

When he finally arrived home, she was waiting at the door. “Where were you?”

He bestowed upon her the sort of patient male look that all but locked in her perception that he was a total idiot. “What makes you think I’m supposed to check in with you?”

“I didn’t ask you to check in with me. I’m a guest and you left me without a word. I had no idea where you were. So after I spent two hours planning our wedding with my mother, I sat here waiting for you, and I’m starving.”

“You should have just eaten without me.”

Shooting him daggers with her eyes, she turned and strode into the kitchen. “Very nice of you to tell me now that I can make myself to home.”

“I thought that went without saying, since we’re getting married.” He followed her through the swinging door into the kitchen. “I have the prenup.”

Tia stopped. The prenup. So that’s where he was. Getting the document that put an end to all the worry she had that he might think she was trying to trick him. Once she signed it, he would recognize she didn’t want his money. And she wouldn’t have to walk on eggshells around him anymore.

“Great.” Tia walked to the refrigerator, extracted a bag of rolls and a package of deli meat and took them to the table where he sat. “Where do I sign?”

He handed her the agreement. “Last page.”

“Got a pen?”

“Aren’t you going to read it?”

“Should I?”

“Yes.” His voice was quiet, not at all grouchy or demanding, and she suddenly knew what was going on. Pragmatic Drew wanted her to see he wasn’t cheating her. If nothing else, she always had to give this guy credit for fairness and common sense. Only an idiot signed a legal document without reading it.

“You’re right.”

After making a sandwich, she sat at the table and quickly scanned the agreement, reading exactly what she expected to read: articles that outlined that they would each keep the property that they had when they came into the marriage and not have a claim to anything owned by the other. It was short and simple and Tia almost stopped reading, but the very last paragraph shifted in tone.

She read the article and slammed the prenup on the table. “Very funny.”

“I didn’t put any jokes in there. So you’re going to have to explain which article tickles your funny bone.”

“I told you I didn’t want your money. Yet, this agreement says I get a hundred thousand dollars on signing.”

“The hundred grand is for a house.”

“I have a house!”

“I know. But you said you have a mortgage. And I also realized that though you might make a lot of money in that job of yours in the future, as an employee at the bottom of the ladder you don’t make all that much money now. So, the hundred thousand in the agreement is my share of making sure our baby has a home.”

She considered the gesture for only a second before she said, “I don’t want it.”

“This baby is our responsibility—both of ours.” He said the words gruffly, as if he didn’t want her to make a big deal out of it. “I take my responsibilities seriously.”