The One-Week Wife

by Hayley Gardner

  She paused for a breath. “But on the other hand, I don’t want anyone to report the guy to the police and get him harassed if all he was doing was exercising.”

  “At midnight? Cut me a break. What kind of vandalism was there?”

  Gina sat on a chair opposite the counter and unwrapped a mayonnaise-free tuna sandwich from her bag lunch. “Well, two nights after the sign incident, Mr. Stephens’s handsaw disappeared.” She nibbled and scrunched up her face.

  “Mayo-free again, huh?” Chantie asked.

  She nodded. “I almost didn’t wear this dress today.” But she’d needed the comfort of wearing her favorite color—china blue silk—even if the dress was now form-fitting instead of drapey, so she’d left it on. “Anyway, now the saw is back.”

  “What did it do, go into business for itself?” Chantie asked, raising one elegantly plucked eyebrow as she opened a padded mailer holding an order of wedding invitations.

  “Nobody knows,” Gina told her. “Mr. Stephens found it this morning where he’d originally left it.” She frowned deeply. “And Matt was out walking in the middle of the night. Isn’t that a coincidence?”

  Chantie laughed. “Just ‘cause he wants to keep to himself, you think a grown man stole a saw? Sweetie, you need to get yourself a di-ver-sion. You have too much time to think, and that isn’t good.”

  “This is serious,” Gina insisted. “There were also dishes stolen off the Wheelers’ patio. They haven’t reappeared yet. And somebody broke into Jeb Tywall’s rusty shed, then spray-painted words on the side of it.”

  “What words?”

  “Paint Me.”

  Bursting into laughter, Chantie put down the invitations. “Sounds like you got kids running loose with a sense of humor,” she said. “That’s usually what it is when there’s graffiti and little things missing around our block. Trust me.”

  “Kids,” Gina repeated. Gosh, she hoped not. “But that doesn’t explain why the guy goes for walks late at night.”

  “Maybe he’s an insomniac,” Chantie offered.

  “He’s sure robbing me of my sleep,” Gina said glumly, returning to her sandwich as Chantie returned to her work. The man’s wavy hair and dark looks had invaded her dreams. Loneliness vibrated almost constantly through her like a lyric from a sad song, and all because Matt had reminded her with a look days ago that she was a woman without a man.

  Like Chantie had minutes before, Gina glanced around at the lace, the roses and the crystal wineglasses on display. The business was the hearts and flowers she gave to her soul. Seeing couples in love kept the tiniest hope alive deep inside her that someday real love would find her again. But after over a year in the bridal shop business, the hearts and the flowers seemed meant for everyone else but her.

  Damn Matt Gallagher anyway. She’d been happy until the day she’d met him. Was he a criminal, or did she just want some reason to keep picturing his broad shoulders, muscular arms and searing looks in her mind over and over?

  “Face it, Gina, he makes you hot,” she muttered. But that didn’t matter, since she didn’t want a man and sex without love, and she and Gallagher were total mismatches. He was the no-trespass type. She organized neighborhood watch meetings, baked cookies for kids and had hired an assistant she didn’t need, all because after years spent as a lonely, ignored only child, she hated the idea of being by herself. And now Matt Gallagher was making her wonder if, no matter how many friends she had, she’d ever feel complete without a man to hold her. Ridiculous!

  “I guess I do need a diversion,” she told Chantie. “But first I have to find out who’s vandalizing my neighbors.”

  “That is a diversion. But how are you going to do that?” Chantie leaned over the counter on her elbows.

  “I already held an emergency neighborhood watch meeting yesterday. We’re stepping up our lookout with all-night shifts. My turn’s tonight.”

  “Saturday night, and you’ll be sitting in your yard with a pair of binoculars.” Chantie shook her head in disgust, but then her eyes lit up. “Say, you’ll have to keep your eyes on this Gallagher, won’t you?”

  “Among other things,” Gina said, blushing because she already had been.

  Chantie noticed. “Uh-huh!” she said, fanning herself with her hand. “I knew it! He’s good-looking and you want him!”

  “All I want,” Gina said sternly, “is to keep the neighborhood nice so I can enjoy my life. If you don’t stop the bad element when it moves in, it’ll just multiply, and then you can’t get rid of it.”

  “Now you’re saying this guy is a bad element.” Chantie giggled. “I’ll bet that means he’s real good My mama used to tell me, ‘The badder the boy, the greater the joy.’”

  Gina tittered. “And how would she know that?”

  “Danged if I know.” Chantie shrugged her shoulders. “To hear her tell it, she was Saint Agnes and found me under a pile of feather dusters in a special room for married ladies in Mr. Ulysses’ corner store.”

  Gina collapsed into giggles that lasted a few seconds—until she remembered. “Uh, Chantie?” she asked. “Exactly how bad can the boy be?”

  “Depends,” Chantie said cautiously.

  “I kind of forgot to tell you, my new neighbor might have been in prison.”

  Chantie’s mouth dropped open.

  “I’m not really certain.” Gina had never felt more confused. By the time she’d finished explaining her suspicions to Chantie, the other woman was frowning, too.

  “Girl, handsome or not, maybe you’d better avoid him, after all.”

  “You think he might be dangerous?”

  “I think there’s absolutely no way of telling for sure unless something happens. Just don’t let your heart take over that head of yours, Gina.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” Gina protested. “I’m absolutely not interested in getting involved again.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Chantie uttered skeptically. “You haven’t been this intense about anything since I met you. Like it or not, you’re already involved in this guy’s life.”

  Gina Delaney was following him down the dark streets of the subdivision. Purposely slowing his pace so she wouldn’t fall too far behind, Matt was halfway between amused and irritated. Dressed in tight jeans and a shirt that hugged her breasts like it was a size too small, Gina would be a temptation to any lunatics roaming the streets. And since she was outside so late because of him. Matt felt duty-bound to watch out for her. But damn it, he needed to find some way to convince Gina to leave him alone.

  This was the third night in a row he’d been too restless to sleep. Unfortunately, he was still too leery to do what he’d come to Bedley Hills for. Finally, after all these years, he knew exactly where his father was, had even stared at his house from across the street two nights in a row, but he couldn’t bring himself to knock on Luke Gallagher’s door. He was still too angry, and that alone held him back.

  Had it been his brother he’d found, he wouldn’t have hesitated. During the past ten years, he’d written letters and run periodic ads in a few towns around Coresburg Junction, Kentucky, where he and West had started out in the foster care system. Even after being transferred to Europe, Matt had paid a retired air force acquaintance to keep up the ads and forward his mail to him.

  A year ago, the ads had finally paid off—in a way. His mother had seen one in the Coresburg Junction paper and written to him. On his very next trip to the States, Matt had visited her, hoping she would have some news of West.

  It had been a tough reunion—but they had talked, and he’d learned her side of what had happened. Mary had told him that after his father had abandoned them, she’d gotten a job, which she’d soon lost. With no money and no relatives to turn to, she’d had no choice but to give up her boys—she’d thought temporarily. By the time she’d gotten a job and returned for them, he and West had been swallowed up by the system, and she’d been told she couldn’t have them back. And no, she still didn’t know where West was.
/>
  Matt had returned to Germany numb. To avoid thinking about how he felt, he’d thrown himself into work and earned a promotion to captain. But then his mother had written him something that had brought him here, to Bedley Hills, Ohio. His father had written her. An ex-alcoholic, Luke Gallagher wanted to straighten out his life. To do that, he was trying to find and apologize to the people he’d hurt—make amends, if he could. One of those people was Matt.

  All Matt could think now was that his father was a few years too late.

  His lips set in a fine, tight line, he rounded the outside edge of a privacy fence bordering a corner lot and waited for Gina. After he saw her home safely, he would flat out tell her to leave him alone. He needed to concentrate on how to handle this meeting with his father, and he couldn’t do that with this mama bear following his every move. It was bad enough he kept thinking about her at the damnedest times—about how it would feel to hold her…to kiss her. Since the afternoon she’d slipped through their mutual hedge, she’d been distracting as hell.

  “I am not involved in his life,” Matt heard Gina say as she approached. “No matter what Chantie says, I am not involved in his life…”

  His life? Gina had a crush on him? Damn, this was worse than he’d thought. Now he’d never shake her loose. Matt watched Gina step off the curb, stop and stare in confusion up the street as she realized he wasn’t there.

  “Are you looking for me?” he asked, stepping forward and crossing his arms over his chest

  Squealing in fright, Gina whirled and pointed her flashlight, spotlighting him in its dim yellow glow.

  “Your batteries are dying,” he noted.

  “What are you doing walking around alone at this hour?” she asked, leaving the light on.

  “None of your business,” Matt said. He couldn’t help but stare at the two buttons that held her shirt together over her breasts with a lick and a prayer. All she had to do was fling her arms open wide…

  “It is my business.” The light wavered as Gina gestured with her arm and Matt gulped. “I’m head of the neighborhood watch, and we’ve had vandalism in the area.”

  “All the more reason you shouldn’t be out in the middle of the night alone,” he said. “See how easily you could get trapped by some vicious animal?”

  “The only predator I’ve seen since I left the house is you,” she said.

  As soon as she said that, Matt took another step forward, sank his fingers into the softness of her shoulders and swung her shapely body against his before she could lurch away. For a second she stared up at him, her big brown doe-eyes defiant.

  “Don’t you dare,” she warned, but she didn’t pull away.

  Matt had only meant to show Gina how vulnerable she was, but suddenly, now that he had her so close he could feel her heart pounding, his own defenses were slipping away. Gina was so soft and warm in his arms, and it had been so long since he’d held a bit of heaven, that he couldn’t resist. Leaning down, he kissed the soft curves of her lips. Her mouth trembled, and then her lips parted and pressed against his. The flashlight thumped against the sidewalk and rolled with a scraping sound into the street. Gina’s hands tentatively slid up his arms, and Matt got the distinct impression they’d both been waiting for this moment to happen.

  Matt lived for the exquisiteness of the moment, relished the feel of Gina’s hands squeezing his shoulders and running down the length of his chest. With his tongue, he deepened their kiss, caressing the smooth, warm skin of her neck with fingers that almost trembled as he touched her. Normally he didn’t find short hair attractive on a woman, but Gina’s looked sassy and sexy, and he loved the way it felt against his fingers now. An intense desire burning inside him, he tried to remember the last time he’d wanted a woman as badly as he wanted her.

  Just about the time he thought that, Gina moved her hands and pushed away from him with a strength that the lushness of her body belied. Matt stared at her, certain that her wide eyes and kiss-swollen mouth were going to haunt him all night. For exquisite moments, he’d been able to pretend he could feel, that he wasn’t an iceberg of frozen emotions, that there was no hurt residing anywhere in him. No woman had ever been able to do that for him—until now.

  “Why did you kiss me?” Gina asked.

  One side of Mart’s mouth quirked upward. “To frighten you into leaving me alone.”

  “Well, you failed miserably,” Gina said.

  “Yeah.” He grinned. “I could tell.”

  She bristled. “Until I find out if you’re our vandal, I’m going to be your shadow.”

  “Just don’t go getting any ideas,” he said, almost teasingly. “I’m not in the market for a relationship.”

  “Well good, because I’m not for sale.” No, she thought, but she could probably be had. From her waist down, Gina was literally throbbing. Damn the man for reminding her of just how needy she was. Double damn him. “Look, I’m reasonable. Just tell me why you’ve been walking the streets, and I won’t give you any more trouble.”

  “That kiss wasn’t any trouble at all, Gina,” he said, deftly avoiding the issue. “Do you really like being out this time of night playing P.I.?”

  “I hate it,” she said. “I’d like nothing more than to go home and go to bed.”

  “I’ll be happy to take you there.” Matt couldn’t remember the last time he’d smiled this much. Talking to this woman was an adventure.

  Gina scowled at him. “You’ll take me home, you mean.”

  “Of course,” he said. “What did you think I meant?”

  “You can cut the act, Gallagher. I have a feeling the last time you were innocent you were probably about eight.”

  “Ten,” he said absently. Before he turned eleven and his whole life fell apart. Her remark had pulled him out of the warm dark night and back into the cold light of reality. He couldn’t take Gina Delaney to bed. He didn’t want to.

  Okay…maybe he did, he amended, sensing the pressure of the bulge in his jeans. But it would be a big mistake. He couldn’t get involved with a woman like her, the hearth, home and kids type. That would lead to love, and love he didn’t invest in. Too fleeting. Houses and land, those things never failed you. When he retired, he thought he might buy both in the middle of nowhere. Too bad he couldn’t buy love, make sure he owned it forever—but he couldn’t

  “I can assure you,” he said as Gina finally moved to scoop up her flashlight and they fell into step side by side, “I am not behind any vandalism. I might like my privacy, but I’m not out to hurt a soul.”

  “Don’t you care that everyone finds your recluse act strange? You’ll never fit into the neighborhood if you keep acting so weird.” Gina was trying to act as though everything was normal, but the truth was, her body still felt on fire from his kiss, and her lips still wished for another.

  “Since I don’t trust people, I don’t particularly care what anybody thinks about me.”

  “You don’t?” Gina’s eyebrows lifted in amusement. “Are you aware sometimes your voice says Do Not Disturb at the same time the look in your eyes crosses out the Not?”

  Matt shook his head. No, he hadn’t been. His feelings had never shown on his face—until he’d met Gina.

  They rounded a corner, and he caught the fragrance of wildflowers from her hair. From nowhere, the scent conjured up the vision of a bed of real flowers, with Gina lying in the middle, watching him—

  “What are you thinking?” she asked.

  “You don’t want to know,” he said. Too gruffly, maybe, he thought when he saw the hurt on her face. But he didn’t care what she thought of him. He didn’t care about anyone, and he didn’t need anyone. Every time he did, he just had the rug yanked out from under him, so why bother?

  “I saw you go out this morning,” he said to change the subject. She’d been wearing a china blue silk dress that had clung to her curves. He’d never forget the way she’d looked when she moved in that dress. His mouth and throat went dry, and he swallowed so he could
talk. “To work?”

  “To my store. I own a bridal shop called Weddings and Whatnot.”

  Too damn cute for words. Matt couldn’t say anything, so he focused on watching the dark hollows and shadows around them. If a vandal were lurking, he wanted to be ready. He didn’t want Gina to be in danger.

  Gina sighed. They were back on their street, and Matt hadn’t told her what she needed to know. “You walk late at night just so you don’t have to talk to people, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, and as you can tell, it hasn’t worked at all.”

  She pointed her flashlight at his face to see if he was teasing, but his eyes were dark and unreadable.

  “Tell me about this vandalism,” he said, turning away from her light. He didn’t know why he’d asked, but he had.

  Gina didn’t know why she wanted to tell him, but she did. As she finished the part about the “paint me” graffiti on Jeb Tywall’s dilapidated shed, Matt started laughing.

  “I fail to see what is so amusing about an old man purposely being irritated,” she said.

  “I saw the graffiti artist,” he admitted. “She was older, chubby, had curly, short gray hair that looked like she stuck her finger in a light socket—”

  “Jeb’s wife?” Gina asked. Wishing she could see Matt better under the streetlight, she stopped on the sidewalk to stare at him. “Jeb’s wife did that?”

  “I don’t know who she was, but I swear I saw her painting the shed when I was pulling out of the driveway one morning last week. You’ve got to believe me.”

  “But she couldn’t be doing the rest…” A giggle escaped her lips. It sounded like something Babs Tywall would do. The lady had enough gumption to paint a message and let her husband think they’d been vandalized. From a counseling standpoint, that marriage fascinated Gina—it should have ended long ago.

  Mrs. Stephens’s front porch light flicked on, and Gina started walking again. Great, one of the neighbors might have spotted her walking with the recluse. Next, if she wasn’t careful, they’d think she was in on the vandalism.