A Match Made Under the Mistletoe

by Diana Palmer

  “Get it over with,” she murmured. “I hate suspense.”

  He jammed his hands in his pockets and studied his feet. “Moreland called me.”

  Her heart jerked, but she didn’t let the emotions dancing inside her find expression in her face. “Oh?”

  “He’s willing to drop the lawsuit, especially in view of our efforts—your efforts—to clear his name. But I couldn’t get across to him that it was your investigation that cleared him,” he added apologetically. “When I mentioned your name, he blew up.” He sighed. “What it boils down to is this. He’ll drop the lawsuit if I fire you. That’s my only option.” He shuffled angrily. “Johnson says if I don’t fire you, we’ll both get the boot.”

  She felt every drop of color draining out of her face, but she forced a smile to her lips. “I expected it, you know,” she said gently. “I was looking for a job when I found this one.”

  “Yeah,” he said curtly. His eyes studied the expression on her pale face. “I’m sorry as hell.”

  She shrugged. “It’s been an experience. How long have I got to clean out my desk?”

  He sighed bitterly. “Until quitting time. I’m giving you two weeks’ pay, maybe that’ll get you through to another job.”

  She tried to mask her apprehension with a smile. “I’ll be okay. If things get too tight, I can always go home to Georgia,” she reminded him. “The editor of Dad’s old paper would give me a job on the spot. All I have to do is ask.”

  That, at least, was true. But how was she going to leave this city, and Bryan Moreland behind, when the picture of them would haunt her until she died? If only she could see him once more, touch him…

  “I said, you might have a shot at the radio station,” he repeated, interrupting her melancholy thoughts. “I hear they’re looking for a leg person.”

  She smiled and rose, offering him her slender hand. “Thanks, Eddy. I’ve enjoyed working here.”

  “You’re one hell of a reporter,” he said with grudging praise. “I hate to lose you. If it weren’t for that damned lawsuit—the truth is, our budget won’t stand it, and he’s got every law in the books on his side.”

  “It was my fault…”

  “And mine,” he said firmly. “Nobody held a gun on me and made me print it. The evidence was there. I didn’t know it was engineered any more than you did. By the way,” he added, “there’s every indication that Ed King is going to be recalled even before his case comes up,” he grinned. “That ought to make you feel a little better.”

  She returned the smile. “It does. See you around, Eddy.”

  * * *

  Bill Peck sat, perched on the edge of his chair, watching Carla clean out her desk, an enigmatic expression on his face. He ignored the phone that was screaming insistently beside him.

  “Where will you go?” he asked gruffly.

  She shrugged. “Back to my apartment to wallow in self-pity.”

  He chuckled in spite of himself. “Hell, does anything get you down?”

  “Crocodiles,” she murmured as she put the last of her notepads into a brown bag with her other possessions. “I never go near swamps for that reason.” She closed the bag and turned, her eyes soft as they met his. “Thanks for everything, my friend.”

  His face tightened. “Thanks for nothing,” he grunted. “I helped cost you your job. If I’d interfered at the beginning…”

  “I believe in fate,” she interrupted. “Don’t you?”

  “Suppose I called Moreland, and told him the truth?” he asked quietly.

  “No,” she replied, turning to face him. “What happened between Bryan and me…it’s nothing to do with anyone else,” she finished weakly. “If he wants to think that it was all my fault, let him. I’ll be gone soon, anyway.”

  “Gone where?” he asked.

  She smiled. “Home. I’ve missed it.”

  “Not a whole hell of a lot,” he replied doggedly, “Or you wouldn’t have stayed this long.”

  “I’ve learned things here that I could never have learned in a small town,” she reminded him. “And you’ve shown me the ropes. I’ll never forget you.”

  “Don’t get mushy,” he growled, moving forward to perch himself on her desk. “When are you leaving?”

  “I’ve got two weeks before I have to make a definite decision,” she told him, grateful for her own foresight in keeping up her savings deposits. It would give her a little more leeway.

  “Then you may stay in the city?” he probed.

  She looked down at the brown bag, testing its weight and rough texture. “I don’t know. I don’t want to think about it right now. It’s been a rough week.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Thank you for helping me do it,” she said fervently.

  “I like the guy,” he said, and his pale eyes smiled at her. “Keep in touch, okay?”

  “Okay. If you hear of any openings around town, let me know.”

  “I’ll keep both ears open.” The smile went out of his eyes. “I’ve gotten used to you. I won’t want to look at this damned desk for a week.”

  “Have Betty sit on it,” she suggested with an impish grin.

  “Two-ton Betty?” he groaned. “Who’ll pay to replace it?”

  “Definitely not me,” she told him. She took one last look around the busy office, its rushing reporters and ringing telephones and editors calling over the din. “How quiet it is here,” she sighed.

  “Good thing you’re leaving,” he replied. “Working here has deafened you.”

  “Don’t take any wooden tips,” she cautioned.

  “You, too.”

  She turned and walked out the door into the lobby. The temptation to cast a farewell glance over her shoulder was strong, but she didn’t yield to it. With her head high, she walked out onto the busy sidewalk and merged in with the crowd.

  * * *

  Not going to work was new to Carla. Since her eighteenth birthday, she’d had a job of some kind, even if it was only a summer one working for her father. But to see four walls day after day, no new faces, no people, was like slow torture. She kept the television on, but the soap operas were more than she could bear, and the radio got on her nerves after the second day.

  There was too much time: time to regret her behavior, time to think about Bryan Moreland and his ultimatum that the paper fire her. How he must hate her. Not only had she betrayed him falsely, but he even thought her declaration of love was part of that betrayal, that she’d pretended affection for him solely to get a story.

  She almost laughed at the thought. And he’d said that no normal woman would be interested in a middle-aged man. Didn’t he realize how very attractive he was? How strong and charming and exciting he was to be with? Didn’t he realize that she’d have loved him if he’d been totally gray and walked with a cane? Age didn’t matter. Time didn’t matter. She’d have given anything for just a few years with him—to love him, to bear his children, to grow old with him.

  * * *

  Tears blurred her eyes. The firing was a message, as surely as if he’d given it in person. He was telling her, in the most deliberate way possible, that he wanted her out of his city. And she had a feeling that if she approached any other news media for a job, the doors would all be closed.

  It must have come as a tremendous shock to him, realizing that two of his most trusted friends had set him up as the scapegoat for their land deal. And to top it all off, to think that a girl reporter would lead him on and flatter his vanity just to get the goods on him…

  “But it isn’t true,” she whispered tearfully. “Oh, Bryan, it isn’t true!”

  She dropped down onto the soft cushions of the sofa and cried like a lost child. It was the first time she’d yielded to tears since her firing, but it seemed to ease the hurt a little.

  * * *

  By the end of the week, she was regaining some of her former spirit. She’d already decided that her only course of action was going home, but she wanted to wait until her
father returned. That would be just another three or four days, and she couldn’t spend them sitting in the apartment staring at the walls. She became a sightseer, taking buses all around the sprawling city to visit the park, the museums, the historic landmarks. It was all new to her suddenly, as if she’d gone around blind as a reporter and was just now seeing the city without her blinders.

  The days went by quickly, and on the very last one she found herself retracing her steps through the ghetto she’d visited with Bryan Moreland. The slums were already being bulldozed down now, and signs were going up heralding the construction of new, modern apartments for low-income groups. She couldn’t help feeling a surge of pride for the man who’d fought so hard to bring this dream to fruition. If only she could tell him how very proud she was.

  Her slender figure looked even thinner than usual in the gray suit she was wearing. A pale green scarf around her throat emphasized her green eyes, and the braided coil of dark hair seemed even darker against it. The black coat and boots she wore seemed to fit in with the darkness of her mood as she walked aimlessly back toward the downtown business district, her sad eyes on the dirty, cracked sidewalk. She felt so miserable, so lost and alone. Her chest lifted in an aching sigh and she didn’t notice where she was going until she ran head-on into another pedestrian. Strong hands came up to grip her arms, and she looked up with an apology on her lips. Then her heart leapt inside her chest.

  Bryan Moreland’s dark, angry eyes were looking straight down into hers, and she couldn’t even manage a weak greeting, the shock of seeing him was so great.

  CHAPTER NINE

  She stood there looking up at him like a slender statue, without life or breath or strength.

  His face was hard, haggard, and she searched its leonine contours with a drowning hunger, lingering on the curve of his mouth, the darkness of his narrow eyes.

  “Excuse me,” she said finally, breathlessly, moving back as if the touch of his hands scorched her.

  He let her go abruptly and pushed his big fists into the pockets of his beige overcoat. “I thought you were on your way out of town, Miss Maxwell,” he said roughly.

  She nodded. “I…I leave tomorrow,” she managed. “The…uh, the slums…it’s going to be quite a feat.”

  “My going away present to the voters,” he remarked curtly. “I won’t run for reelection.”

  She dropped her eyes, feeling cut to the quick. “It was all my fault,” she mumbled. “Saying I’m sorry won’t even scratch the surface, but I am, oh, God, I am,” she whispered fervently.

  He laughed shortly, without a trace of humor. “Chalk it up to experience, honey,” he said sharply. “Maybe next time you’ll be a little more cautious about your methods.”

  She glanced up at his set face through her long, dark lashes. He looked as formidable as ever, only harder. Her heart almost burst at the sight of him.

  “There won’t be a next time,” she said absently. “I…I’m not going back into journalism.” She smiled wanly. “I hate the very idea of it, now.”

  He scowled. “Guilty conscience, Miss Maxwell?” he asked mockingly. “A little late, isn’t it?”

  Tears blurred him in her eyes. “Yes,” she said in a whisper.

  He drew in a deep, harsh breath. “Just for the record, you’d never have gotten me as far as the altar. I wanted you pretty damned bad, but one night would have worked you out of my system.” His smile was cruel and mocking. “Too bad things worked out the way they did. Another date or two, and I’d have had you.”

  A strange sound broke from her lips. It was like the end of a dream. She’d cradled the thought that at least he’d cared for her once. But now, she didn’t even have that. Not even that! He’d only…wanted her!

  Without thinking, she turned and ran away from him, the crowd blurring in her tear-filled eyes as she tore through it, deaf to the sound of her name being called roughly behind her.

  She elbowed through a crowd waiting for a city bus at the corner and darted out across the busy street, too overwrought to notice that the pedestrian light was red. She never saw the taxi that turned the corner and sped straight toward her. She was dimly aware of a horrible hoarse cry from the curb and a sickening thud that seemed to paralyze her all over. Then there was a strange cold darkness that she fell into, swallowing her up in its veiled cocoon.

  * * *

  The first conscious breath she drew was incredibly painful. She felt a strange tightness in her chest and her hand encountered bandages under the thin nightgown she was wearing.

  She couldn’t remember what had happened. She was only aware of crisp sheets, medicinal smells and metallic noises all around her.

  Her eyes slid open lazily, thick from drugs. They widened as Bill Peck came into view at her bedside.

  “God, you gave us a fright,” he said heavily, rising with a weary smile to stand beside the bed and hold her hand.

  “Have I…been here long?” she whispered.

  “Two days,” he replied. “Give or take a few hours.”

  “How bad am I?” she asked, wondering how she could even talk, she hurt so much. It felt as if every bone in her body was broken.

  “You’ve got several fractures, three broken ribs, a concussion, and you’re damned lucky the cab driver had lightning reflexes or you’d be dead,” came a rough angry voice from the doorway.

  She turned her head, groaning with the effort, and found Bryan Moreland standing there, dark and forbidding, and looking as if he hadn’t slept in a week. His sports shirt was open at the neck, his hair was ruffled, and he was plainly irritated.

  “Sorry to disappoint you,” she whispered miserably.

  Some unreadable expression flashed across his face. “Who the hell said you have?” he demanded.

  Bill Peck let go of her hand with a grin. “If you don’t mind, honey, I’m going to get out of the line of fire. Get well, huh? And if you need anything, just call.”

  “Thanks,” she said weakly.

  He winked at Moreland and closed the door gently behind him.

  Carla turned her eyes back to the wall, moaning softly with the pain. “What do you want now?” she asked wearily. “A leg?”

  “I want you to get well.”

  She bit her lower lip to keep the tears at bay. “I want to go home,” she said tearfully. “My father…”

  “Is still on his cruise,” he finished for her. “He sent a cable the first day you were in here. Peck and I went to your apartment to get some gowns for you, and it was waiting under the door.”

  “Oh.” She felt the tears wind down her cheek. She was hurt and she wanted her father.

  “You’re coming with me,” he said without preamble.

  She turned on the bed, her eyes staring at him as he stood looking down at her, his dark face daring her to argue.

  “I can’t,” she told him.

  “Maybe not, but you’re sure as hell coming,” he said doggedly, his jaw going taut as he studied her young, bruised face. “Mrs. Brodie’s going to live in for the duration, until I get you back on your feet.”

  Her lips trembled. “You don’t owe me anything.”

  His face seemed to darken, harden. “You got hit because I upset you. I might as well have thrown you under the wheels myself.”

  She closed her eyes. Would she ever be free of guilt? She wondered miserably. First hers, now his. She didn’t want to be on his conscience. And most of all, she didn’t want to go home with him, to have to see him every day, knowing that he hated her, blamed her, that he was only salving his conscience by having her around.

  “I don’t want to go,” she whispered.

  He gave a harsh sigh. “I don’t want you around any more than you want to come,” he growled at her, “but there isn’t much choice. You can’t go home with no one to look after you, and I’m damned well not going to let you stay with Peck!”

  “Why not?” she asked sharply. “He’d take care of me.”

  “So will I,” he said,
his dark eyes unfathomable as they studied her thin form under the sheets.

  Her eyes closed, and tears washed out from under her tight eyelids. “Please don’t make me go,” she pleaded unsteadily. “Haven’t you punished me enough?”

  There was a long silence, and when she looked at him, his back was turned. He was staring out the window blankly, his hands rammed into his pockets. “It’s only for a few days,” he said tightly. “Until you’re back on your feet. We’ll both grit our teeth and bear it. Then you can damned well go home and get out of my life.”

  She turned her face back to the wall, hating him, hating what she felt every time she looked at him. It was going to be pure hell, and if there had been any way she could have talked her way out of it, she would have. But all the doors were locked behind her.

  * * *

  She studied the white fences and bare trees and chilly-looking Herefords as Bryan Moreland’s sleek Jaguar wound up the farm road.

  All her arguments hadn’t prevailed against the brooding, irritable mayor. He simply silenced her with a hard look and went right ahead. Even Bill Peck wouldn’t take her side against Moreland. It was as if every friend she had had deserted her. No one was willing to stand against Moreland.

  Mrs. Brodie was waiting for them at the front door, smiling and sympathetic. She reminded Carla of a loving, kind aunt, standing there in her white starched apron.

  “There, there, you poor little girl, we’ll soon have you back on your feet,” she cooed, following along behind Moreland as he carried Carla down the hall into a spacious bedroom with a blue and white French provincial color scheme.

  “I could have walked,” she protested as he laid her down gently on the canopied bed.

  He stared down into her eyes without rising, and she was aware that Mrs. Brodie had disappeared, calling something back about fetching Carla some hot chicken soup.

  “And broken Mrs. Brodie’s romantic heart?” he chided. His dark eyes searched her wan, bruised face. Reluctantly his hand moved up to tuck a strand of dark hair behind her ear. “You do look terrible, little girl,” he said gently.