Joanie sighed in exasperation. The situation was driving her nuts. Everyone assuming the worst about her, none of them knowing all or even part of the facts.
Steve shifted one hip onto the desk beside her. He took her hand in his, entwining their fingers. “I’m sorry my being here has made us the brunt of so much gossip, Joanie.” His thigh nudged hers. “I thought coming here…after you was the right thing to do. But because of all the talk I can see now that it was a mistake for me to arrive without contacting you in advance.”
Neither resisting nor leaning into his grip, Joanie looked pensively down at their joined hands. “Perhaps if I hadn’t reacted so emotionally to the news, people wouldn’t be talking so much now.”
With his free hand, he lifted her face to his. She didn’t know what it was—the smallness of her office, the intimacy of their conversation—but he seemed larger than she remembered, stronger and more resolute.
“I never meant to hurt you, Joanie.”
Her gaze dropped to the masculine curve of his lips before returning to the seducing brilliance of his eyes. “I know that,” she murmured, feeling herself moving ever toward him. Emotionally, physically…
He rubbed the pad of his thumb across the top of hers, making her feel gloriously alive for the first time in months and months. “I can also understand your not wanting Emily to be the brunt of any scandal or linked to whatever was between us in the past.”
Joanie drew a steadying breath and, because she couldn’t think when Steve was touching her, withdrew her hand from his light grasp. Struggling to hold on to the threads of their conversation, she looked at their young charge, who was now down to just one sock and shoe.
“I don’t want Emily hurt the way I was when I was growing up, Steve,” Joanie said, feeling her heart thud heavily against her ribs.
“I know. And I agree with you that Emily should be protected from conjecture about the past.” He got to his feet. “It doesn’t mean I’m going to stop helping you with the baby,” he specified, leaning close and causing another jittery jump in Joanie’s pulse, “only that I’ll try to go about it in a less scandalous way.”
Joanie flushed but refused to be drawn into yet another quarrel with him. “Thank you,” she said, slipping off the desk, too. She faced Steve equably, her innate graciousness intact. “I would really appreciate it if you could do that, at least until we get this straightened out somehow.”
“Right.” Steve reached around her to help her slip her jacket back on.
He watched as she buttoned it and adjusted the slim rope of pearls around her neck. “So to that end,” he continued casually, “I am going to do the only gallant thing…”
Here it came, she thought, the determined, unflappable, fathomless Steve she dreaded. The Steve who always, always met his goals, no matter what Olympic-size obstacles had to be overcome.
“…and spread the news high and low around the resort that, regardless of the way it first may have appeared, there is no scandal in our past, Joanie,” Steve continued with set jaw, his voice a little rough around the edges but otherwise as calm as ever. “I’m going to tell them that we were—and are—just friends.”
Chapter Five
“Friends,” Joanie repeated in a shocked tone of voice.
“Yes,” Steve said, delighted to see that the idea of them going backward in terms of their relationship didn’t appeal to Joanie any more than it appealed to him. Now all he needed to do was buy them some time and space so Joanie could realize this was so—and admit to herself that she wanted, more than anything, for the two of them to pick up where they’d left off.
Confident, he edged closer. Determined to play it cool, he kept his hands in his pockets. “I firmly believe that if everyone stops trying to conjure up what we were or weren’t to each other way back when, then they’ll stop trying to link you and I to Emily, at least in a biological way. When that happens, the scandal, at least the majority of it, will die down.”
Steve paused to peer down into her upturned face. He took in the tenderness of her lips and the new flush of color in her cheeks. It was all he could do not to draw her into his arms and kiss her until she went limp with longing.
Keeping his eyes locked on hers, he drew a calming breath. “That is what you want, isn’t it?”
Joanie’s lips parted. Everything about her softened. Then realizing she was inviting a kiss, she straightened abruptly and edged away, around the corner of her desk. “Of course. Absolutely,” she said, keeping her face averted.
She didn’t look convinced, Steve thought. “Or would you rather we went the other way and told everyone we were lovers?”
Joanie smiled down at Emily, who was still sitting on the sofa, trying to figure out how to put on the socks she had just taken off. Joanie crossed her arms. “It was just one night. I don’t think one night allows us to call ourselves lovers.”
“Then suppose we say it was a one-night stand,” Steve suggested.
Joanie whirled to face him, brisk color flooding her cheeks. “That will not help.”
He studied the new brilliance in her blue eyes, even as he shrugged off his own suggestion. “I suppose you’re right.”
“Besides, then they’d want to know why we didn’t continue, and then we’d have to tell them all about that last night and—”
“You didn’t see what you thought you saw, Joanie,” Steve interrupted, frustration bubbling up in him anew. He wished he could make her believe that. He wished she trusted him enough to believe in him with all her heart and soul. But she didn’t. And he couldn’t change that, not easily. Maybe not at all.
Still, he wanted to try. He knew before even coming to the island that seeing Joanie again, being with her, would either make or break her hold on him. So far, all it had done was intensify his feelings, both good and bad. She was the one woman he’d ever really wanted. The one woman he’d ever really loved.
She turned away. “I’ve got to go to work.”
Steve paused. Despite her lack of faith in him, they still had a child to protect and nurture, hopefully together. And because they had Emily to think about, he swallowed his pride and let her lack of belief in him go unchallenged, at least for the moment.
“Do you want me to watch Emily?” he asked, knowing more than anything that he wanted to be part of his child’s life, no matter what happened with him and Joanie in the end.
Joanie looked up at him, surprised but wary. Irritation flooded him. He wished she wouldn’t continually act so astonished by every decent or kind thing he did.
“Aren’t you supposed to have tea with Phoebe Claterberry to talk about the speech you intend to give at the closing banquet Saturday evening?” she asked.
“Yes. In about fifteen minutes. But I can reschedule,” Steve allowed. Unlike his own father, he knew what was important. Emily was important and so was Joanie.
“No, I don’t want you to reschedule,” Joanie said. She sat down beside Emily on the sofa and began to help her put on her socks and shoes again. Not content to just sit beside Joanie, Emily stood and scrambled onto Joanie’s lap, hiking her skirt up slightly in the process.
With effort, Steve turned his glance away from the sight of Joanie’s slim, nylon-covered thigh. Remembering how those thighs had felt beneath his hands, it was all he could do not to groan out loud.
“Why not?” Steve persisted, picking up the thread of the conversation. “I’m sure Phoebe would understand if I wanted to reschedule.”
Joanie didn’t look as sure of that as he was.
“Besides, the conference committee already has a general outline of my speech,” Steve added.
Again Joanie shook her head, nixing his suggestion. “Emily’s presence has thrown the resort into enough turmoil as it is. I promised Elizabeth this morning that I could handle working and simultaneously watching over Emily, and I intend to prove that.” She smiled as Emily wreathed her arms about her neck and delivered a smacking kiss to Joanie’s cheek.
Joanie kissed Emily’s head and smoothed her tousled curls with a gentle sweep of her hand. “By putting a crib next to the concierge desk. Hopefully Emily will be entertained just watching all the activity.”
“And if she’s not?” Steve felt frustrated to be continually held at arm’s length. Whether she meant to or not, Joanie was shutting him out of Emily’s life—and her own—again.
Joanie shrugged. “Then I’ll ask for help.”
Steve reminded himself that gaining Joanie’s trust again was going to take time. “From me?” he asked, knowing he wanted to be there for her if she’d let him.
Joanie gestured blandly. “If you’re there to give it.”
“THIS LOOKS GREAT, Steve,” Phoebe said as he filled her in on specific details of his speech and the slide show of his own work with kids that would accompany it. “If you want, I can arrange for a run-through in the dining room after hours, with the mike and projector.”
“Thanks, but it won’t be necessary.” It was all Steve could do to keep from looking at his watch. “I’ve spoken enough to feel comfortable in any situation. I’m sure it’ll be fine. And if anything’s not, we’ll fix it on the spot.”
“Well…okay, but if there’s anything I can do for you between now and then…” Phoebe said, looking reluctant to let the meeting end.
Steve stood. “I’ll let you know,” he promised. But he didn’t expect to call her. Instead, he wanted to spend all his spare time with Joanie and Emily.
“In the meantime, you have your schedule for the next three days,” Phoebe said. “You know where you’re supposed to be when.”
Steve nodded and patted his blazer pocket. “It’s right here.” He noted she still looked stressed, which, considering this was the first time she had chaired a national conference committee, was probably to be expected. “Don’t worry,” he said, reassuring her. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
Phoebe forced a smile. “I hope so.”
They said goodbye. And because Steve had a few hours before his next appearance at the conference, he quickly got his own mission under way.
“I know there’s been a lot of gossip about Joanie and me,” Steve told the bell captain, Shad Teach, as they got a second crib out of storage for use in the lobby.
“Sure has—you two must go way back. That was some kiss I saw the other day,” Shad replied as they headed down to the lobby with the crib.
So much for diffusing the gossip through Shad Teach, Steve thought, striding out of the hotel and heading for the greenhouse.
“I know there are a lot of stories about us going around,” Steve said to Cameron Bradshaw, who was here working on his new hybrid tea roses.
“Son, you got that right!” Elizabeth Jermain’s husband replied.
“But I’m here to set the record straight,” Steve continued, watching as Cameron snipped off one perfect red rose and carefully removed the thorns from the stem. “The truth is that Joanie and I were friends once. We think—hope—we can be friends again.”
“Friends or more than friends?” The judge smiled as he handed Steve the rose.
Steve had no answer for that. He was hoping Joanie and he could go from friends to more than friends in short order.
“Just as I thought. Do yourself a favor, Steve, and don’t protest so much,” the judge advised, giving Steve’s shoulder a fatherly pat. “And in the meantime, take that flower to Joanie. I happen to know that red roses are her absolute favorite.”
So much for fooling the judge where his own aspirations regarding Joanie were concerned, Steve thought as he headed back to the main building. The fact that he wanted to make her his must have been as clear as the nose on his face.
Thwarted but not defeated, Steve tried again, sticking as close to the truth as he dared.
“Those stories about Joanie being in love with me are untrue,” Steve told Columbia, the rose the judge had given him still in his hands. “She never was.” Because if she had been, she would have given him a chance to explain that night, and then she would’ve believed him.
“Call it what you like, Steve Lantz, but I am a woman who knows what she sees. And what I see are sparks between the two of you that couldn’t be put out with a fire hose,” Columbia replied, as she boxed up a light snack of fruit juice and graham crackers for Emily and sent him on his way.
Steve delivered the snack to Joanie at the front desk. Emily was standing in her crib, lobbing her shoes and socks at passersby. They were unerringly amused, but Steve knew it wasn’t going to last. He stopped by Joanie’s desk and handed her the rose. “Trouble in paradise?”
“In more than one way,” Joanie whispered back. She looked down at the rose, her hand trembling slightly as she accepted it. “What’s this for?”
“It’s from the judge. He cut it specially for you, so be sure to thank him.”
“I will. Although I wonder why he sent it via you?” Joanie pulled a white bud vase from beneath the desk and fit the rose into it.
Steve shrugged as she added a dash of water to the vase from the bottle beneath her desk. “I was talking to him at the time.”
Joanie gave Steve a look that was at once skeptical and amused. Steve noted she was more beautiful than he remembered, and more fragile.
“I get the feeling you’ve been talking to a few people, at least Shad and the judge, anyway…who else?” she asked. Wordlessly she handed Emily the toddler cup of fruit juice. Emily held on to the crib rail with one hand and tipped the cup up with the other, drinking thirstily, before she sat down, cup still in hand, to munch on her graham cracker.
Because there were no guests needing attention at the moment, Steve felt free to step behind the front desk, too. “Just Columbia.”
“No one believed you,” Joanie guessed, turning her glance up to his face.
Steve shrugged and turned so the lobby was behind him, Joanie just in front of him. Her golden curls fell from a side part, spilling gloriously over her shoulder to her breast. “They all think there’s something special between the two of us.”
“And we know that’s not true,” Joanie replied quietly, holding his gaze defiantly.
Steve watched as she lifted a slender hand to push back her hair and tuck it behind one delicate ear. Feeling welled up inside him, fierce and undeniable.
“Isn’t it?” he retorted, focusing on the pulse he could see throbbing in her throat.
A snap sounded to their left. They looked over just in time to see Emily wave the cap from her drinking cup in one hand and pour the juice down the front of her overalls with the other.
Joanie groaned. “Oh, no. Em, honey, that’s your last clean outfit.”
Steve was already striding past Joanie to the crib. “No problem. We’ll just go dry you off, won’t we, Em?”
The next few minutes were spent at the men’s-room sink and the hand dryer next to it. Emily thought the whole experience hilarious. By the time he’d finished washing and drying her off, Steve was chuckling, too. “Geh Mama,” Emily said, tugging on his shirt.
“We’re going,” Steve promised, lifting Emily into his arms.
When Steve returned, the crib was gone and Liz was standing at the front desk with Joanie. “Take the afternoon off,” Liz was saying, “and just see to Emily here.”
“I’m sorry she spilled her juice and lobbed her socks at the guests so many times.”
Liz waved it off. “She’s a baby, Joanie. She was just amusing herself.”
“And speaking of amusing herself, maybe we should see if we can’t find some age-appropriate toys for her,” Steve quipped, “and really tucker her out.”
They spent the afternoon alternately amusing Emily and rounding up toys from other employees, then finished with a boat ride around the island. Exhausted, Emily fell asleep
almost immediately, then woke up as the boat pulled into the marina. She looked around once and, to Steve and Joanie’s dismay, immediately began to rub her eyes and cry.
“Looks like someone didn’t get her nap,” Kent Prescott, the marina manager, said as Joanie and Steve disembarked, cranky toddler in tow.
“Maybe she’s just hungry,” Joanie said, patting Emily’s back affectionately and noting it was almost six.
Unfortunately the prospect of dinner did not please Emily any more than getting off the boat had. “She doesn’t look very hungry, does she?” Steve mused in the employee cafeteria as Emily grumpily used her spoon to pound the finely diced chicken and mashed potatoes Joanie had set before her.
“How about some applesauce, Emily?” Joanie offered a spoonful.
Emily clamped her mouth shut and shook her head, refusing to let Joanie feed her. “Out!” she demanded, plucking at the safety strap around her waist and struggling to stand up.
“I don’t think you’re supposed to try and force a baby to eat,” Joanie said with a troubled sigh.
Steve frowned. “I don’t think so, either.”
Joanie met his gaze. “I suppose if she gets hungry later on, she’ll let us know.”
“Probably,” Steve agreed.
Without warning, Emily rubbed her eyes and began to cry. Knowing instant action was called for, Steve unstrapped her and picked her up.
“In the meantime, maybe a bath is in order,” Joanie said.
Steve nodded and headed for the door. “Can’t hurt.” And going back to their quarters would give him more time alone with Joanie and Emily.
Unfortunately the prospect of a bath was about as appealing to Emily as dinner had been. Nonetheless, he and Joanie were determined she should have one. “I thought these bath toys were supposed to be entertaining,” Steve said, ducking as Emily hurled one of the floating rubber ducks at his chest.
Matchmaking Baby Page 8
