Completely Smitten

by Susan Mallery

  Relief pooled inside him when she didn’t call his bluff.

  Instead, they lapsed into silence, the kind he would feel obligated to fill with any other woman. But Piper didn’t expect him to be witty or charming. She didn’t mind when he was obnoxious and cranky, and she could be obnoxious in return. Gradually relaxing, he leaned his seat back and closed his eyes, letting Piper’s humming and the motion of the car lull his nerves.

  He didn’t wake up until he heard the sirens behind them.

  Piper’s gaze flew to her rearview mirror, and her heart sank. Ignoring Josh’s muffled laughter at her colorful language, she pulled the car over.

  She’d been stopped twice in one week! “My insurance company is going to send a guy to break my kneecaps.” She rolled down her window, looking up to meet the steel-gray eyes of a very tall patrolwoman.

  With her platinum-blond hair and high supermodel cheekbones, the officer was probably a Nordic goddess when she smiled. At the moment, though, she was scowling. “License and proof of insurance, please. Do you know how fast you were going?”

  Piper didn’t think it would look very good if she admitted she had no idea. Before she could say anything at all, Josh leaned across her, addressing the officer.

  “Afternoon, ma’am,” he said, exaggerating his normal Texas drawl. “I just wanted to apologize. I’m the one who’s got to be somewhere, and my sister was hurrying for me. I shouldn’t have encouraged her to drive so fast.” He flashed a full-voltage smile. “You should give me the ticket.”

  Piper mentally rolled her eyes. He was only going to irritate her. And what was he going to say when she asked where they had to be in such a hurry?

  But the woman didn’t ask. Instead, her cold gaze turned smoky, and she smiled. “I don’t think there’s a need for anyone to get a ticket today. Your sister just needs to slow down.”

  Josh’s voice was pure honey. “Thanks so much, Officer—?”

  “Blake. Julie Blake.”

  “I suppose it would be too forward to ask if you’re in the Houston phone book, Julie Blake?”

  Unbelievable! The previously stone-faced officer actually blushed.

  If they’d been in Josh’s car instead of hers, Piper would have tossed her cookies right there on the dashboard.

  After Officer Julie assured them she had a listed number, wished them a good day and sashayed back to her own vehicle, Piper let Josh have it. “What is wrong with you? Are you just one giant gland?”

  “Hey, I appreciate the gratitude, but don’t get all mushy or anything.”

  “Gratitude?” She forced herself to drive away slowly. “For what—the lesson in flirting? Thanks, but I’ve caught the Josh Weber seminar plenty of times.”

  “I wasn’t fl— Okay, I was, but only to try and help save your kneecaps.”

  “What if your charm hadn’t worked? What if you’d just made her mad?”

  Josh stared at her. “Have you ever seen my charm fail?”

  The question would have smacked of arrogance were it not for one thing: she never had seen his charm fail. Women adored him. Even she, who should know better, had been forced to admit lately that she wasn’t completely impervious to his flirtations.

  “I think you’re jealous,” he said, a smirk in his voice.

  Exasperated, she almost threw her hands in the air, but decided not to, in the interests of steering. “Jealous? Of the Scandinavian patrolwoman?”

  “I don’t think ‘Blake’ is Scandinavian.”

  “I couldn’t care less who you throw yourself at. You and Miss Swedish Cheekbones could—”

  “I meant,” Josh interjected, “jealous because I’m so much better with the opposite sex than you are. Face it, you’re no expert on catching men.”

  “You make guys sound like fish. Or, more appropriately, a disease. For your information, and my mother’s, my sister’s and the entire population of Rebecca, Texas, I don’t even want a man! So why would I work toward catching one?” Gee, don’t hold back, Piper.

  Though she’d surprised herself with her vehement response, Josh took her overreaction pretty well, simply shaking his head. “You know what? You’re right, and I’m sorry.”

  She bit the inside of her lip. “Oh, great. Apologize and make it completely impossible for me to stay mad at you.”

  “I do my best. To tell you the truth, I don’t even know why I’d say anything about you finding a guy when…”

  “When what?”

  “Nothing.”

  Piper risked glancing up from the road, but Josh’s face gave nothing away. His eyes were shuttered, his mouth neither scowling nor even hinting at his usual flirtatious smile. In fact, it was almost eerie how expressionless his gaze was. Not vacant, but flat…as though he had no emotions at all.

  Well, this trip was off to a fabulous start so far.

  She pulled into the parking lot of a gas station. Silence reigned. Even if she’d known what to say, the very set of his shoulders deflected conversation. Not for the first time, she wondered what it must be like to love someone who could shut you out so completely with an instant, invisible wall.

  But what must it be like for Josh, trapped on the other side of that wall?

  Piper smiled at the ridiculous thought. He lived the life most bachelors dreamed of, and seemed perfectly content with it.

  As she slid her credit card through the slot at the gas pump, Josh got out of the car. He crossed the parking lot, and Piper watched a group of college-age girls gape in open admiration. The man couldn’t help his own appeal. She shouldn’t have called him a giant gland when he was doing her a huge favor.

  She was just a little on edge. This was her first trip home in years, and though she’d never admit it out loud, a herd of butterflies was stampeding in her stomach. The idea of pretending to be involved with Josh for the next few days was hardly steadying her nerves.

  Still, she couldn’t let him know the effect he had on her. Best case scenario, he’d tease her mercilessly until she had to kill him and hide his body on some deserted Texas road. Worst case, she’d make him uncomfortable and ruin their friendship.

  She’d just finished filling the car when Josh appeared at her side, a brown paper bag in his hand.

  “How about I drive for a while?” he offered. “And before you bite my head off, my offer has nothing to do with you going Mach 10. You know how antsy I get when other people are behind the wheel, and this way you don’t have to do the whole trip yourself.”

  She surrendered her keys, knowing she probably shouldn’t drive, anyway, when she was so preoccupied with her dubious homecoming. As she slid into the car and fastened her seat belt, he thrust the bag in her direction.

  “I got these for you,” he said. “I thought you might need them this weekend.”

  The paper crinkled as she unfolded the top and looked inside. Half-a-dozen Chocomels.

  Piper grinned, the earlier tension between them gone. “You are the greatest, Joshua Weber.” She savored the first bite of chocolate. “You know, I got to thinking about what you said earlier. You were wondering if we should know trivial facts about each other.”

  “Yeah, but you said they weren’t important.”

  “They aren’t. Not the trivial ones, anyway. But there are other things that might be. I hardly know anything about your childhood, and my family might think that’s odd.”

  Okay, using her relatives as an excuse to pry was both flimsy and obvious. Luckily, Piper was curious enough not to be picky.

  “You know where I grew up. You know I’ve lived in Texas all my life and went to the University of Texas on scholarship.”

  She folded her arms over her chest and waited, unwilling to be put off with vague answers.

  He sighed. “How specific did you want me to be?”

  “Maybe something a little more personal than the state you lived in.”

  “I didn’t expect this from you,” he said quietly, the very softness of his tone making her feel as though s
he’d betrayed him.

  Perhaps she had. She’d known beforehand how he’d feel about this.

  “Fair enough.” She relented. “You don’t want to talk, we don’t have to. But my family’s going to ask you questions this weekend. I’ll support however you want to handle them, but you should probably give the matter some advance thought.”

  A few minutes of silence passed, and Piper turned to watch the flat autumn landscape roll by outside her window.

  She almost jumped in her seat when Josh unexpectedly volunteered, “I lived in a total of six foster homes. The last family, the Wakefields, actually looked into adopting me. But they got transferred to Europe before the legal stuff could take place, so I stayed in an orphanage until college. A fraternity contact led me to a job in Houston, and you know the important stuff from there.”

  For a moment, she couldn’t feel anything but surprise that he’d actually shared this with her, but then sympathy crowded out her first response. Six homes and none of them really his. “Josh, I—”

  “It was great,” he interrupted, his voice way too upbeat. “Like a cruise brochure. See new places, meet new people. Even got my own room once.”

  But never a family. Losing the Wakefields must’ve been like losing his parents all over again. “I’m so sor—”

  “Don’t.” His gaze snapped toward her, and she saw the anger in his expression that belied his falsely cheerful tone. “My life turned out fine, and I wasn’t looking for your pity. I wasn’t looking to discuss this, period. But you’re all so insistent.”

  You’re all… Meaning women? Why had she pushed when she’d seen him withdraw time and time again from lovers who’d tried to force him into conversations he was uncomfortable having?

  Maybe because you hoped you meant something different to him than those women.

  The thought bothered her on many levels. Had she selfishly pried into a painful past just to prove something? And what was that “something,” anyway? Josh was a friend, and they’d never be anything more. If she behaved so insensitively in the future, they might not even remain that.

  “You misunderstood my apology,” she said. “I’m not sorry for you, but for being nosy. It’s none of my business. We all have parts of our lives we don’t like to discuss, and I should’ve respected that.”

  He relaxed the set of his jaw, but his green-gold eyes sparked in a way that let her know she wasn’t off the hook. “So what’s the part you don’t like to discuss?” he challenged.

  She supposed she owed him this, and he should hear the whole story before this weekend, anyway. “Charlie Conway.”

  “Guy you dated in college, right?”

  “Yeah.” They’d had an instant bond on campus, being from the same hometown, but she’d still been surprised that he’d asked her out. In high school, he’d gone more for the school-spirit, cheerleader type. Piper, captain of the girl’s softball team, had chosen shop over home ec. Not that she was the only one—several other girls had decided shop was an excellent place to meet guys.

  Piper took a deep breath. “Charlie and I were engaged for six months.”

  “What?” Josh’s head jerked in her direction so quickly that she hoped for his sake Rebecca had a licensed chiropractor.

  “He asked me to marry him. I said yes.”

  “You? You’re the most anti-marriage woman I know.”

  She preferred to think of herself as anti-giving-up-your-identity-for-a-man. For years, she’d shaken her head as her father made the household decisions, swearing she would never be as passive as her mother or some of the other female role models Piper had had when she was younger. In eighth grade, she had felt personally let down when her favorite teacher married one of the junior high coaches and moved to a town where he’d been offered a job, even though the school didn’t currently have an opening for her.

  Piper wasn’t unreasonable; she knew relationships meant making some concessions. Charlie had been her first lover, and she’d viewed their relationship with an excited idealism. The very fact that he’d lavishly praised her independence had made her want to prove she could compromise, too, to make little decisions that made him happy, like taking a class together that he was really enthusiastic about instead of the elective she didn’t need but had found interesting. Over time, the issue of a three-hour-a-week art history class she hadn’t taken somehow became the issue of how they should spend the rest of their lives.

  After their engagement, he’d amended his plan to go to law school and move to a big city, deciding instead he’d run as Rebecca’s mayor. The decision itself had shaken her, but more upsetting was the fact that he hadn’t discussed it with her at all. He’d simply made the resolution, figuring he could get her to agree to it later. It was sometime after that when she realized just how many things she had agreed to in the time they’d been together. He’d been molding her in small, subtle ways toward the very life she’d said from the start she didn’t want.

  Had her mother once been the same way? A free-spirited woman with her own goals, who’d sacrificed them one by one in the name of love and compromise? Only it wasn’t compromise when just one person was giving in. As much as Piper loved her dad and her brother-in-law, sometimes she got really angry on behalf of her mother and sister. Then again, Mom and Daphne were adults, and Piper doubted they’d appreciate any interference. She just wished her family would afford her the same consideration.

  “I can’t believe you were engaged,” Josh said, bringing her out of her thoughts. “Why did you wait until now to mention this?”

  Why did he sound so accusing? “You’re the one who was just saying we all had stuff we didn’t like to discuss. Besides, you knew Charlie and I were together for a long time.” She’d simply omitted the part about the ring and the short-lived search for wedding gowns.

  Josh was quiet, and she wondered what he was thinking. She’d expected him to maybe tease her about her brush with matrimony, but he seemed almost angry.

  Finally, he muttered, “I just can’t believe you were engaged.”

  Looking back on it, neither could she. It had been a close call, but at least she could take comfort in knowing she’d learned from the mistake.

  Josh squinted in the growing darkness to consult the directions Piper had written down. He’d been following the information on the piece of paper for over an hour now, since Piper had fallen asleep. If not for her deep, even breathing, he might have suspected she was feigning sleep to end what had become a tense conversation earlier.

  Although, now that he thought about it, that type of avoidance was really more in line with his behavior than Piper’s generally outspoken nature.

  Of course, for an outspoken person, she’d been awfully secretive for the last two years on the subject of her engagement. He’d been so startled by her announcement he’d temporarily feared the car would end up in a ditch.

  Before, she’d always made what happened with her and Charlie sound like a natural breakup, that they’d both wanted different things after college. The explanation had made sense, but what exactly had happened? And did she harbor unresolved issues that explained why she didn’t date now? Was there a chance she actually missed the guy or wanted him back?

  Oh, sure, she gave plenty of reasons for her lack of a love life, but Josh was still surprised that she didn’t date. Piper might roll her eyes and call him a giant gland, but he’d noticed that she expressed her emotions physically. The hugs she impulsively doled out, the killer workouts she threw herself into when she was ticked about something—judging by them, the woman must be suppressing one hell of a sex drive.

  You have no business contemplating her sex drive, he reminded himself. When he and Piper had first become friends, her disinterest in all things romance-and-relationship related had made her “safe.” Knowing she didn’t want anything beyond a platonic friendship had made her so easy to be with, he’d unintentionally let down his emotional guard. Maybe not enough to be comfortable discussing Dana or his pas
t, but certainly more than he did with other women. Now, however, he regretted the diminished barrier between them, because lately, being alone with Piper seemed about as safe as being locked in a trunk with a swarm of killer bees.

  And yet here you are with her this weekend, getting even more involved. Chump.

  The sun had dipped over the horizon, but Josh could still make out the white mailbox with numbers matching the address Piper had written down. At the precise second he was realizing what a bad idea this weekend was, they’d arrived.

  He slowed the car to turn right, passing over a metal cattle guard that jolted the car.

  Piper yawned. “Wh-what is it? Are we lost?” She sounded almost hopeful.

  “Nope. We’re there. I think.” He drove down a bumpy dirt road. “Is this supposed to be the driveway?”

  “More or less.” She pulled down the visor and makeup mirror, checking her appearance and smoothing her braid. “You’ll be able to see the house in a minute.”

  They crossed a small hill, and a white ranch house came into view. Josh steered the car onto the paved driveway and parked. A screen door clattered shut, and a group of people he couldn’t quite get a look at in the darkness ambled down the steps of an old-fashioned wraparound front porch and into the yard, calling greetings.

  Wearing the expression of a gladiator going to face the lions, Piper climbed out of the car. It was hard to say which one of them, she or Josh, was currently exhibiting less enthusiasm for the weekend that stretched ahead of them.

  The first person to reach them was a man almost Josh’s height, with blond hair and a wide smile. He bypassed Josh without so much as a curious glance and pulled Piper into a hug that lifted her off the ground.

  “Piper! You’re more beautiful than ever.” The man kissed her cheek before setting her back down. “I’ve missed you.”

  The guy didn’t seem to notice how strained her expression was, but Josh took a step toward her, sending what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

  She returned the smile, though it didn’t reach her eyes. “Josh, meet Charlie Conway.”