“What a gentleman,” Amanda cooed. “Don’t you think so, Haley?”
“Yes,” Haley demurely responded.
Nate jerked out his chair and dropped into it.
“What do you think, Nate?” Harold asked.
He peered toward Harold Priebe’s commanding voice. The Priebe patriarch stared back, his bushy brows raised in query. While some guests had taken the party seriously enough to dress up, Harold wore his usual retirement uniform—a pair of cotton pants and a casual shirt splattered with flowers.
“I’m sorry,” Nate replied. “I didn’t catch that.”
“I was saying our dinner will be much better now that we can see the coast.” He motioned toward the massive window that spanned the dining room. Another window just like it claimed the living room’s east wall.
“Oh yes, of course,” Nate agreed and blinked toward the azure ocean, kissed by twilight, that rolled toward the rocky cliffs.
“Are you feeling okay, m’boy?” Harold questioned.
Nate looked back at the man who’d been like a second father to him. He wanted to say something like “Everything’s fine,” but he couldn’t get the half-truth past his lips. Nate made a purpose of never lying. He figured if he even tried, Harold Priebe, of all people, would spot his lack of sincerity within a second—two at the most. So instead of answering, Nate just blankly stared at him.
The room fell silent, and Nate sensed all eyes on him. Harold’s keen gaze, as green as Amanda’s, shifted to his daughter at the end of the table, then back to Nate. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you two were quarreling like an old married couple,” Harold drawled. “Amanda hasn’t said your name for a week, and now that you are here, the two of you are barely speaking.”
Nate grabbed his water glass and gulped the liquid while Amanda gasped, “Dad! Why would you say something like—”
“It’s amazing to me why people want to get married, anyway,” Harold continued and mischievously eyed Angie and Wayne, who were sitting in the chairs across from Nate. “On top of the fighting, it ruins your social life.”
“Speak for yourself!” Wayne jovially responded. The middle-aged banker rested his arm along Angie’s shoulders and gave her an endearing squeeze. Angie gazed at him with the adoration of a new bride. “Angie and I have been married more than four months and haven’t fought yet! And we’re more socially active than before we got married. We’re here, aren’t we?”
The whole group burst into laughter—everyone, that is, except Nate.
“Of course everything’s perfect with you two,” Amanda quipped. “What do you expect? I’m the one who matched you up.” She fluttered her eyelashes.
“And a good matchmaker you are, I say.” Wayne lifted his water glass. “I propose a toast to Amanda. May she live long, and may she see many more successful matches.”
“Hear, hear,” Angie agreed as she and Wayne touched the tops of their glasses.
Amanda lifted her water glass toward Wayne and Angie. Then, with a daring smirk, she shifted it toward Haley and Mason. Beaming, Mason touched his glass to Amanda’s. Haley ducked her head while Amanda drank some water and looked over the edge with calculating certainty that she was about to make another successful match.
Nate didn’t even bother to hide his scowl. When Amanda’s gaze slid toward him, her impish smile faded. She lowered the water glass, darted a defiant glance back at Nate, and set down the glass.
Harold cleared his throat with enough meaning to alert the whole party to the undercurrents between Amanda and Nate.
This could turn into a long night, Nate thought and doubted his wisdom in coming.
Seven
“How are you feeling?” Amanda sidled next to Haley, who was helping herself to an after-dinner cup of tea.
“Fine.” Never lifting her gaze from her task, Haley finished filling her cup from the silver water urn and dunked the tea bag with a spoon.
“I’m assuming you never heard back from Roger?”
“No. Nothing.” Haley sipped her steaming tea and gazed out the dining room’s window toward the dark ocean.
During the throes of an afternoon brainstorm, Amanda had arranged for Mason to pick up Haley on his way to the Priebe villa. She hadn’t been free to talk with Haley since she arrived.
“Well, I’m sure it’s for the best,” Amanda replied and patted Haley’s arm. “You would have never been happy with him. You’re just too special to be stuck on a farm all the time.”
Haley smiled into her friend’s eyes. “You always make me feel like a queen,” she claimed. “You’re better to me than all the sisters I never had.”
“I am the sister you never had,” Amanda declared and looped her arm through Haley’s. Amanda leaned closer. “Did Mason say anything about his surprise on your ride here?”
“Not a word,” Haley said with an expectant grin. “I’ve been dying of curiosity all evening.”
“Here you two are,” Mason exclaimed from the edge of the dining room. “I wondered where my two favorite ladies were hiding.”
Amanda moved away from Haley and hoped she didn’t look like a guilty conspirator.
“I was in need of some tea.” Haley lifted her cup from its saucer as naturally as if she and Amanda had been discussing the beverage and nothing else. “It’s been a long day,” she said and stifled a yawn.
“Would you care for some tea, Amanda?” Mason questioned and reached for a cup sitting on the sideboard.
“No, that’s quite all right.” Amanda shook her head.
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely,” she assured and smiled at Haley. “Such a gentleman.”
Mason’s grin couldn’t have been broader. “I was thinking now might be a good time for me to share my surprise.”
“What surprise?” Amanda questioned with a knowing grin. “We forgot all about your surprise. Was there to be a surprise?”
Haley giggled.
“So I’ve kept you guessing, have I?” Mason teased, his blue eyes sparkling with an attraction Amanda knew Haley couldn’t miss.
“Maybe a little,” Haley admitted.
“Well, come back into the great room then,” Mason encouraged and motioned toward the sunken room where Angie, Wayne, Harold, and Nate sat in conversation. “I’ll go out to my car and bring it in for everyone to see.”
As Mason hurried down the hallway, Amanda whispered, “It’s been in his car this whole time. Did you see it on your way here?”
“No,” Haley replied. “Maybe it was in the trunk.”
“I can’t stand it any longer,” Amanda said and toyed with the collar of her casual jacket. She couldn’t possibly imagine that Mason was ready to propose to Haley and offer her a ring, but the idea wouldn’t be quieted. Before she and Haley entered the great room, Amanda strained for a last glimpse of Mason as he exited the home.
“Whatever he’s up to, he seems to have planned it well,” Haley said.
Amanda looked at her friend who, like her, was staring up the hallway. “Absolutely,” she agreed. “And it’s all for you.” She squeezed Haley’s hand.
Haley’s gray eyes twinkled. “I like a man with a plan.”
“What woman doesn’t?” The two snickered.
“Excuse me, Amanda,” Nate’s voice sliced through their feminine revelry.
Amanda’s neck stiffened as she looked Nate eye to eye. She’d stopped having to look up at Nate by the time she was eighteen. With so many men shorter than she, Amanda liked the effect of looking one straight in the eyes—even if he was only Nate Knighton.
“I’m about to leave,” Nate explained with no hint of kindness, or any other emotion, for that matter. “I’d like to speak with you before I do.”
“Well . . .” Amanda hedged and eyed the villa’s hallway. “Uh . . . Mason is . . . is . . .”
Nate moved closer and whispered, “Blast Mason. We need to talk.” His warm breath brushed her neck and sent a rash of prickles in its wake.
Amanda detected a trace of mint tea on his breath. When she backed away, she recognized more than a trace of ire in his eyes.
“I’ll be in the great room,” Haley said and shuffled away with the clink of her teacup and saucer. “Whoops!” she bleated.
Amanda peered at her friend, who offered a silent apology, then observed the drops of tea pelting the wooden floor.
“Not to worry,” Amanda soothed.
“I’ll get a napkin for it,” Haley offered and scurried back into the dining room.
“Let’s go into the kitchen.” Loosely gripping her upper arm, Nate pulled Amanda toward the swinging door near the sideboard.
“What if I’m not in the mood for the kitchen?” Amanda retorted.
Nate’s dark-eyed glower began a slow tremble at Amanda’s knees.
He’d called her shortly after she arrived home and abruptly told her he wanted to talk about Roger and Haley. No pleasant greeting. No inquiries about how she’d been the last two weeks. Just a blunt demand that they discuss his third cousin and her friend. Amanda thought she was going to deter him with claims of the dinner party . . . until he invited himself.
“And what if I’m not in the mood to talk?” she continued and prayed he didn’t detect that the knee trembles had now swept to her eyelids.
“Well, I am in the mood to talk,” Nate insisted.
Her heart thudding, Amanda stood fast and grappled with how to deal with this new version of her old friend. Nate had never been so confrontational, not even two weeks ago in O’Brien’s.
Silently she glared at him until a trickle of common sense insisted she let him have his say. The sooner he delivered his spiel, the sooner he’d leave. And good riddance, Amanda thought. Who wants to be around anybody who’s acting like this?
Amanda brushed past him and smacked the kitchen’s swinging door. It flopped open with a thud that elicited a yelp from the gray-haired Sarah. She dropped the saucepan she’d been drying and exclaimed, “You scared me batty, Miss Amanda!”
“Sorry, Sarah,” Amanda said and marched past the cook to the kitchen’s outside door.
“I wasn’t thinking about Sarah still being here,” Nate mumbled.
“Most men forget the cook once their stomachs are full,” Amanda shot back and couldn’t imagine what had prompted that sexist remark.
“Humph,” Nate responded, and Amanda wished he wouldn’t “humph” her at a time like this.
She didn’t risk another reply. Instead, Amanda attacked the outside door with the same force she’d used on the kitchen door. The Tasman Sea greeted them with the smell of salt and the swish and pounding of waves against worn rocks and white sand. The full moon rising in the east offered a luminous shimmer upon the heaving ocean. The cold breeze sent a shiver through Amanda, but she feigned indifference. Instinct insisted this was not the time to show any signs of weakness.
As Nate clicked the door shut, Amanda walked across the miniature balcony, and it pleasantly creaked beneath her step. She placed her hands on her hips and observed Nate in the balcony’s lighting.
“So talk,” she said.
A frown line formed between Nate’s brows. “I guess you know Haley rejected Roger’s proposal today?”
Amanda crossed her arms. “Yes, I know.”
He squinted. “You told her to, didn’t you?”
“Haley made her own decision,” Amanda defended as a gust of wind swished her hair across her cheeks.
“Oh, I’m sure she did.” Nate raised his hand. “After you talked her into falling in love with Mason.”
Amanda gaped, and a strand of hair smacked into her mouth. “I’d never interfere to such a level.” She jerked the hair away from her lips.
“Of course you wouldn’t,” Nate mocked. “You . . . you . . .” His face darkened. He worked his lips. Then he turned and marched to the edge of the balcony. His back to her, Nate gripped the railing.
Amanda, now fiercely trembling, hugged her torso and considered running. She’d never had to deal with this side of Nate and pitied anyone who did. She’d also never noticed how broad the man’s shoulders were . . . or how the moonlight dusted his hair with as much gold as it did the sea. A perverse voice suggested his mystery woman saw all this and more long ago. Shaking her head, Amanda crept backward and stopped when she bumped the balcony rail.
Nate whirled around and moved in for more. “Amanda, you cannot spend the rest of your life arranging other people’s lives for them.”
“Whatever makes you think I’m interested in doing that?” She raised her chin. “Just because I don’t think Roger is a good match for Haley—”
“Why didn’t you let Haley decide that by herself?”
“She did!” Amanda stomped her foot. “And if she was so committed to Roger, do you think I or anyone else could have done anything to persuade her?”
Nate jerked his head back and blinked.
Sensing she’d scored a point, Amanda continued, “It’s better for her to find out how she really feels now, rather than after the wedding, don’t you think?”
Nate tugged his earlobe and stared toward the horizon.
“I think she and Mason are really starting to fall for each other. Maybe they’re meant to be. You know, like Angie and Wayne.”
“That idiot?” Nate erupted. “Mason Eldridge doesn’t have one thought for Haley Schmitz.”
“But of course he does!” Amanda argued. “He even brought her a surprise tonight. He’s gone out to the car to get it.”
Nate shook his head. “Mark my word,” he insisted, “he’s nothing but a wolf in sheep’s clothing. And it’s not Haley he’s after. It’s you!”
“Me!” Amanda squeaked and decided Nate Knighton was going daft. No, he’s already gone daft, she thought. “Mason’s nearly a foot shorter than I am! What would he want with me?”
“What indeed?” Nate mumbled and swept a pointed gaze from her feet to her head.
Amanda balled her hands at her sides and considered a dozen retorts, only to say nothing.
He turned for the balcony again and grabbed onto the rail as if he were afraid of falling off. “I watched him all evening, Amanda. You had to have noticed. He hardly took his eyes off you. He’s just being nice to Haley because she’s part of the Amanda package. And besides all that, he’s not someone I’d want my sister—or any woman I care about—getting involved with.”
“This is insane!” Amanda insisted. “He’s a minister! How can you say something so—”
“Because it’s the truth.” Nate whipped back around. “Look at me, Amanda. I’m a man! I’m not one of your girlfriends; I’m a guy!” He pressed his fingertips against his chest and leveled her a stare that bordered on desperation. “I can read other men. I know what Mason Eldridge is thinking. It doesn’t have a thing to do with Haley and has everything to do with you! And if you’ve somehow convinced Haley he’s after her and that she should dump Roger because of it, you’ve royally botched her life—and Roger’s!”
With a huff, Amanda marched past Nate and gripped the kitchen doorknob. “I don’t have to listen to another syllable of this—this—of whatever this is you’ve cooked up in your—your wild imagination.” Amanda paused long enough to realize the bad analogy. Nate Knighton did not equate and had never equated with “wild imagination.”
Until tonight, she thought, and decided there was no reasoning with the man. “If you’ve said all you wanted to say, I’m going back to the dinner party. Mason has a surprise for Haley.”
She lifted her nose like the Siamese she-devil who’d nearly attacked Nate when he arrived, stepped through the doorway, and didn’t look back. Nate rubbed his face and groaned. The whole conversation had gone like he’d presumed—only worse. He fully expected Amanda to defend Haley’s rejection of Roger. But for some unknown reason, Nate had believed Amanda would see the truth about Mason.
“How can she be such a good businesswoman and be so naïve when it comes to men?” Nate mumbled, shook his head, and
rubbed his chin. It’s like she has no concept of the power of her own beauty, he thought. She’s so busy matchmaking, she doesn’t notice when a guy wants to make a match with her.
“Like me, for instance,” Nate said. He stepped back to the railing, looked toward the infinite waters, lifted his face to the heavens, and closed his eyes. His cheeks stung with the air drifting from Antarctica. Likewise, his mind stung with the reality of his own folly.
He shouldn’t be too hard on Amanda and her naïveté when he’d been just as thoughtless in his friendship with her. This whole attraction had somehow sneaked up on him, then bitten him like a venomous sea snake he’d swam with because he was fool enough to believe it harmless.
A woman of Amanda’s caliber wouldn’t be harmless to the most stoic of saints. And Mason Eldridge was far from a stoic saint. The awe-stricken guy had absorbed Amanda’s every word. Poor Haley didn’t stand a chance with Amanda in the room.
Except with Roger, he thought. Nate opened his eyes. His jaw tightened.
“I’m going to have to get over this,” he told himself.
Amanda had made one good point. If Haley really was in love with Roger, she wouldn’t be so easily swayed by Mason. And, like Amanda said, it was better for Roger to know she wasn’t completely committed now, rather than waiting until after the marriage.
But that doesn’t stop Roger’s pain. Nate sighed and thanked God he had stopped himself from making Roger’s mistake.
Fortunately, Nate had recognized his inclinations toward Amanda before he fell in love with her. Currently his heart was not involved. His masculinity was intrigued. That was all.
He further deduced that if Amanda was so clueless about all of Mason’s ogling, she must be oblivious to Nate’s hidden attraction.
All I need to do now is make sure I stay away from her, Nate thought. He wasn’t fool enough to imagine he was immune to falling in love if he didn’t keep his distance.
Not that he’d be opposed to the idea of love, of course, if Amanda were so inclined. But that was the problem. She wasn’t inclined. End of story.
Nate stepped toward the short flight of stairs that led from the balcony to the yard. Then he remembered his jacket on the coat-tree.
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