Waiting for Someone Like You (Destiny Bay-Baby Dreams Book 3)

by Helen Conrad

  It was hard for her to believe any woman would have to pretend to be in love with Tanner. But despite all his efforts to seem casual, she could read the remnants of pain still unhealed. Still, she held back the sympathy. Common sense told her he wouldn’t accept it from her right now. “You call that ‘the usual’?” she asked instead.

  His wide mouth twisted and shadows filled his eyes. “Sure. Women are just like anybody else. They’re in this life for what they can get.”

  That was a philosophy that horrified her. “I’ll bet you never gave poor Eileen a chance,” she protested. “What happened, did you ever get her side of it? Did you ever let her explain?”

  His laugh was as harsh as a winter wind. “You know, I actually did talk myself into doing just that. A couple of weeks after the breakup, I went to see her, to see if we could straighten things out.” He’d been ready to do just about anything to get rid of the black despair he’d felt every morning when he got up and looked in the mirror. He’d really thought he loved her. His face hardened. “And that was when I found her in bed with my uncle, trying to see what she could get out of him.”

  Her eyes widened. “The colonel?”

  Tanner nodded, cursing himself as he did so. He’d never meant to tell her that. He’d meant never to tell anyone. The worst would be if it got back to Uncle John, who still had no idea what Eileen and he had meant to one another. He remembered how he’d felt, how his heart had turned to stone that day. He’d left Eileen’s apartment without either of them knowing he’d been there. But he’d seen and heard enough to know there could be no mistake.

  And now he considered himself lucky. At least he’d been forced to face the truth. What if she’d fooled him and he’d made up with her and they’d been married? He would have hated to see Uncle John’s face at that wedding.

  Kat recoiled. This was a bit more than she’d bargained for. After all, she didn’t know anything about this Eileen person. Why on earth was she defending her?

  But she knew she wasn’t exactly doing that. What she was defending was a view of life that Tanner didn’t have and didn’t seem to want. She was defending love and trust and marriage and commitment. Funny, she’d never realized what a big partisan of those values she really was.

  Eileen wasn’t a good argument for her case, though; she could see that now. It was too bad Tanner had been taken for a ride that way. She knew from experience—betrayal hurt a lot.

  Still, Tanner was an experienced man. Eileen wasn’t the only woman he’d ever dated. She probably wasn’t even the only woman he’d ever been close to. He couldn’t base his whole outlook on that one incident.

  “Okay, so Eileen didn’t work out,” she said, trying to keep the tone light. “One rotten apple doesn’t mean the entire season is spoiled.” She smiled at him. “Maybe you need to get engaged again, just to test the waters. I think you’ll see they’re not quite as full of sharks as you might think.”

  He drummed his fingers on the tabletop, obviously impatient with the topic. “I’ll never get engaged again,” he said shortly. “I don’t have the time. And it’s just not worth it.”

  “Oh, I get it,” she said teasingly. “Not only don’t you trust women, you’re scared of them, too, aren’t you?”

  He looked startled, then annoyed, “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “Sure. That’s it.” She leaned forward, warming to her theory. “All your teasing and flirting is just a front. You can’t let a woman get too close, because then...”

  “Are you ready to go?” He pulled out his wallet and threw an assortment of bills out on the table. “It’s been a long day. I’d like to get some sleep.”

  She bit her tongue and nodded, gathering her things together, realizing she seemed to have touched a very tender nerve. She’d thought he would join in on the joke and laugh with her. Instead he looked like a thundercloud about ready to let loose. What had happened to his sense of humor?

  “I’m going to stop in at the powder room,” she said a little stiffly. “You don’t really have to wait for me.”

  “Of course I do. I’m not going to let you wait for the ferry all alone in the dark.” But he didn’t say the words as a gallant gentleman who wanted to protect his lady fair. His tone was almost grudging.

  She hesitated, about to tell him where he could put his phony chivalry, but then she thought better of it. After all, she didn’t really want to take that ferry. She was still certain he would ask her up to his room. It was just a matter of timing.

  “I’ll just be a moment,” she said.

  He nodded. “I’m going to check in at the desk,” he told her stolidly. “I’ll meet you back here in a few minutes.”

  He watched her walk away and sighed to himself, knowing he had overreacted to the charge of being afraid of women. He wasn’t afraid of women. The entire concept was absurd. And yet, he had to admit, he was afraid of something. Something he didn’t want to analyze too closely. Something that had to do with Kat.

  Kat. He shook his head, still watching her until she disappeared behind a peach-colored door. She was completely annoying, and yet in a funny way, he knew he liked it. He liked the way she poked at him. He liked the way she didn’t back down, didn’t pretend to agree with him, or to kowtow to his every wish. He liked the way she treated him as a friend, someone she could talk to. Well, she tried to, anyway. He had to admit, he’d been thwarting her in that direction for the past few hours.

  He frowned, knowing why he was trying to distance himself from her. It was because he liked her too much. And the one thing he dreaded most of all was the way he knew her eyes would change once she knew he was wealthy. He’d seen it happen too many times before not to believe in it. Usually, he could live with it. As long as he didn’t really care, it didn’t affect him very much. But somehow he couldn’t stand the thought of seeing Kat’s eyes glazing over with that feverish look of greed. He didn’t want to stick around to see it.

  He picked up his messages at the desk—two urgent demands that he call New York right away, both sent early in the afternoon—and was turning away when the clerk called him back.

  “Did I see you dining with Miss Katherine Clay just now?” the man asked.

  Tanner nodded. “Yes. I’m on my way to meet her.”

  “Ah. Would you mind delivering her messages to her? I’m afraid they may be urgent, and they’ve been here so long....”

  Tanner hesitated, then stepped back to the counter. “Sure. I’ll make certain that she gets them.”

  The clerk handed him three slips of paper and thanked him profusely. Tanner walked off with them but as he began to stuff them into his suit coat pocket, one slipped to the ground and he caught sight of the name “Carrington”. That stopped him cold, but he waited until he was out of sight around a potted palm before he flipped the papers over so that he could see what they were.

  Three messages, all from someone named Ted in Nebraska.

  “Hold the phone and stop the presses,” said the first one. “It looks like your boys are part of those Carringtons, after all. That means they’re loaded, sweetheart. All bets are off. If Mildred still wants to marry the colonel, give her your blessings and stand back.”

  The second message was more terse. “Where the hell are you? Call me right away. I’ve got details.”

  And lastly, “If I don’t hear from you in the next twelve hours I will assume priorities have changed and you have no need for this information.”

  Tanner stared at the papers and read them over again. Very interesting. So Kat had someone doing a little investigating, did she? He felt a twinge of indignation, but before it could come into full resentment, it was overtaken by something else—the realization that this seemed to be pretty clear proof that Kat and her mother were not the gold-digging schemers he’d once suspected.

  It didn’t come as much of a surprise. He’d been practically positive about Kat for hours now, and her mother he didn’t even know. He should have felt a vast sense of relief.
Instead he felt mostly a tightness in his chest, a wariness in his heart. In a way, this only made things worse.

  And there was another problem. The content of the notes was a bit too explicit. This was it—exactly what he’d been dreading. It was perfectly obvious that Kat had no idea what kind of money he represented. Once she knew all about him, she would be like all the others. The money would be the important thing. He looked at the crumpled papers in his hand. He ought to burn them and buy himself another few hours of grace.

  “That was fast.” Suddenly there she was. “What’s that?” she asked, eyeing the papers in his hand.

  He never made a conscious decision to deceive her. It happened automatically, before he had a second to think it over.

  “Oh...nothing,” he said, folding them quickly and reaching to shove the scraps into his pocket. “Just my messages. They can’t seem to do without me in New York.”

  One of the papers fell free and fluttered to the ground, right at her feet. Tanner lunged for it, but she was too quick tor him. She bent at the waist and grabbed it.

  “Messages from New York, huh?” she said teasingly, slapping it at him. “How do I know it’s not information from the detectives you probably hired to look into my background?”

  He did a bit of a double take, wondering if she’d read what was on the page, or if she’d pulled that out of the air. It seemed almost too coincidental. But so far, she hadn’t even glanced at the printing on the page.

  “What makes you think I need to hire detectives to understand you?” he said evenly, itching to snatch it out of her hand before she read it.

  She tossed her hair. “Oh, nothing really,” she said mockingly. “Just the way you’ve been accusing me and my mother of being criminals since the moment we met.”

  He clenched his hand into a fist, forcing himself not to look at the paper. “I wouldn’t do that, Kat. I wouldn’t violate your right to privacy that way.” He saw the look of surprise on her face, but he couldn’t keep from twisting the knife. “Why? Did you hire someone to look into my life?”

  Her cheeks were lit up like Las Vegas at night. “No,” she said quickly, handing over the piece of paper without another glance. “I didn’t hire anyone.” And technically that was true, but she couldn’t meet his eyes for a moment.

  He took the message, glad she hadn’t looked at it, and shoved it into his pocket. “Good,” he said. “Let’s get you back to your cabin.”

  That wasn’t what she was expecting, but his arm slid around her back and before she knew it, she was walking with him through the soft night air, on the way to the ferry.

  She had a quick flash of perception. He was trying to get rid of her. Why hadn’t she realized it? He was going to escort her home, kiss her quickly, and head off into the night.

  CHAPTER NINE:

  The Old Brush-off

  The ferry was ready to go as soon as they arrived. The only other people aboard were a couple in evening dress who looked as though they’d spent their time at the opera, and two young men who eyed Kat appreciatively, then took one look at Tanner and quickly dropped their gazes.

  The ferry puttered across the inky water. Tanner and Kat sat beneath the star-studded sky and looked out over the slick black waves. The lights of the ferry sparkled across the water. The moon was a sliver, illuminating very little, but the lights of the hillsides glittered in the distance. A spray of water made her flinch and giggle, and he drew her closer, protecting her with his arm. She curled into his embrace without hesitation. This was what she wanted. His warmth flooded her and she raised her face for his kiss.

  His lips were cool at first, but it only took seconds for them to warm and she opened to him, wanting to tell him how she felt in the only way she could right now. His kiss was slow and languid and lazy, and she turned so that she could take in more of him, flattening her hand against his cheek, letting her palm enjoy the roughness of his late-night beard. She wanted to go on this way forever, never letting him go.

  And then the ferry docked on the island and she reluctantly drew away from him. His eyes looked black and shiny in the moonlight. They walked up the ramp and the other people melted away along paths that led through the shadows of the trees. She turned to look at him. Without the lights of the ferry, it was difficult to make out his features in the dark. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but she knew his intentions. In a moment, he would to be gone. She couldn’t stand it.

  “Tanner?” she said softly.

  He hesitated. She knew he was tempted to reach for her. She could feel it. She yearned toward him.

  “Good night, Kat,” he said gruffly, and he turned away and left her there in the dark.

  But it was all for the best. At least, that was what she tried to tell herself late the next morning as she sat alone in the coffee shop and stared into her iced latte. She’d come awfully close to letting a man into her life in ways she hadn’t done in years—had, in fact, vowed never to do again. There under a midnight moon she’d lost her head a bit.

  She was sane now. She wasn’t going to let that happen again.

  But she had a new dilemma. Her mother had left at the break of dawn, murmuring apologies, as she and the colonel had spontaneously made reservations on a whale-watching trip that would be gone for two days.

  She’d come all this way and her mother had deserted her! Very annoying. What was she going to do for two days? She was vaguely tempted to go on back to Nebraska.

  She was a bit surprised to see Tanner stumbling blearily toward her table, dark glasses hiding half his face. He’d been left high and dry just as she had.

  “So you didn’t offer to go with them?” she asked cynically as he slumped down in a chair away from the light of the window.

  “Grrhhgr,” was all she heard, but he nodded when the waitress offered black coffee.

  She blinked. “Did you get drunk after you left me last night?” she asked, appalled.

  He lifted the glasses so that she could get a glimpse of his bloodshot eyes. “None of your business,” he muttered, shoving them back again.

  The corners of her mouth twitched. “Then I guess you won’t be having a nice big runny cheese omelet this morning,” she noted cheerfully.

  “Grrhhgr,” he said again, wincing.

  “Serves you right,” she murmured softly. Putting her elbows on the table, she leaned her chin against her fisted hands and stared out at the sparkling ocean. It was a beautiful day. But what was she going to do with it?

  One thing she was sure she wasn’t going to do was sit here and moon over a man who didn’t give a darn about her. That was for sure. He was being nice and quiet right now, or she would already be heading for the door. She figured she had about a half hour before he woke up and started to bother her again.

  She wasn’t far off. He began to stir, and then finally to come awake just a little before the lunch crowd began to arrive. She was busy working the crossword puzzle in the newspaper when he cleared his throat and pulled off the glasses.

  “Give me a five letter word for ‘prospector’,” she said aloud, looking at him expectantly, pencil poised.

  “Gold-digger,” he shot back.

  She frowned reprovingly. “Too many letters. Starts with an ‘m’.”

  “Miner,” he said reluctantly.

  She smiled. “Perfect!” And jotted it down.

  “How about a four letter word for ‘rat fink creep’?” he asked her back.

  She looked at him, startled. “What?”

  “’Jerk’,” he grumbled. “That’s what I was to you last night. Sorry.”

  “Oh.” She bit back a smile. “I wasn’t exactly the image of decorum yesterday myself,” she said. “I’d say we’re even.”

  His slow smile began to work it again and she relaxed, smiling back.

  “You want to go to Destiny Bay with me this afternoon?” he asked her. “I promised Shelley I’d make a run up and get some of her baby stuff that she needs.”

 
“Oh.”

  Well, here it was, her chance to stand tall and stand strong and let him know she wasn’t going to hang around waiting for him to kiss her again. She didn’t need this in her life. In fact, she….well…

  “How far is Destiny Bay? How long will you be gone?”

  “It’s north, about a two hour drive. If you take the coastal route, it’s longer, but great for scenery. I figure I’ll stay overnight and come back tomorrow morning.”

  She hesitated. “Where will you stay?”

  “My cousin Rafe has a condo on the beach. I usually crash there when I come to town.” He stretched his arms out and yawned. “Rafe is gone on a business trip, as usual, so I’ll have the place to myself.” He smiled at her again. “Unless you come with me.”

  She stared at him. She knew what she ought to say. But she also knew she wasn’t going to be saying it. “I…I’d really like to come along,” she said. “But no funny business. Okay?”

  “’Funny business’?” He groaned as though her innocence pained him. “Don’t worry. I’m barely up to breathing as it is. ‘Funny business’ is not in my immediate future.”

  “Okay, then.”

  They took Shelley’s little sports car and rode with the wind in their hair, taking the long, slow way up, stopping at every little beach town and every white sand bay. They put quarters in the candy claw machines at the fun zones and shared a cone of cotton candy. They ate chocolate covered bananas and shaved ice and walked for miles along the beach. Some areas had old-fashioned cheesy boardwalks and others had cute little trendy shops. Some had cardboard shacks running right down to the waterside and others had millionaires’ mansions on cliffs overlooking the surf.

  “Rich people,” Kat said scornfully as they walked through the sand looking up at the beautiful wood houses with shiny black glass windows.

  He frowned. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard her disparage the rich. He wasn’t about to let her know he was one of them, but it irritated him anyway.