Just Pretending

by Myrna Mackenzie

  “Well, if they do, then I suppose they’d feel uncomfortable having me there, too. We’re in this case together, Gretchen. And besides, my family understands that this case isn’t about you or me. It’s about justice. My parents in stilled the need for justice in me at an early age. I suppose that’s part of the reason I elected to get involved in the type of work I’m in.”

  “Your parents have always struck me as very fair people,” she agreed. “Do you think Frannie and Austin will be there? I haven’t seen your sister much lately. I like her.”

  Her voice sounded so eager, he couldn’t help holding out one hand as if he wanted to capture that eagerness, brush his fingers over the softness of her lips in a long, slow caress.

  He caught himself just in time.

  “Sorry, partner,” he said, lowering his hand to his side again. “I’ll try to behave in public tonight, and I’ll make a point of calling Frannie. Cleo, too. We’ll make it a special occasion.”

  “The traveler finally comes home to the heart of his family?”

  “And he brings a date,” he said with a wicked grin.

  She raised her brows. “Is that what I am?”

  “No, but I thought I’d gone too long without getting a rise out of you.”

  She chuckled. “I’m wise to you, Hannon. I’m learning how you think. You’re going to find it harder and harder to get a reaction from me.”

  But as she pulled back to walk away from him, he did raise his hand. He let his fingers trail down her cheek. And then he bent and placed his lips just where his fingers had been.

  “Tonight,” he promised her. And though he’d meant to prove something to her, that he could indeed get a reaction from her—and judging by the dusky pink of skin, he definitely had—the jolt of pure desire that skimmed through him proved something even more to himself. His reaction to Gretchen Neal was getting stronger. He was going to have to either back away or else move forward and move on. There was, after all, no other choice but to sit and simmer and hunger for the lady’s touch.

  And that was a dangerous combination. A man—or a woman—who was spending all his or her time steeped in desire wasn’t thinking about the business at hand. And in his and Gretchen’s business, that kind of preoccupation could be deadly.

  “David? You there?” David was almost ready to step out the door on his way to pick up Gretchen for the evening when Sascha’s call came through.

  “Sasch? What’s wrong?” Hearing the slur in his friend’s voice, David gripped the phone so hard he thought the plastic might bend.

  “What could be wrong, my friend? I’m fine, very fine. It’s you I’m worried about,” Sascha said, his voice dipping down low and sad.

  “Nothing to worry about here, Sasch,” David said quietly. “Everything’s fine.”

  “No. It’s not. I heard it in your voice the other day. You’re getting tangled up with your Detective Neal.”

  “We’re working together, Sascha. Why are you worried? Have you heard something about Gretchen that I should know?”

  Sascha’s laugh was low and harsh. “Who needs to hear anything? She’s a woman, isn’t she?”

  Ah, so now they were getting to the point. “Sascha, has something happened between you and Bridget?”

  Silence. Complete and utter silence.

  “Sasch? Answer me.”

  More silence, then a muffled curse. “What could happen? I told her I wanted to marry her, she decided she loved her ex-husband more. As if I didn’t know better. Hell, I’ve been married, David. I’ve been up that mountain, and it was an awful, unpredictable and ultimately disappointing climb. Why did I think I wanted to risk that again?”

  “I’m so sorry, Sascha. You’re sure she’s gone for good?”

  “She ran like a rabbit caught in the cross fire of two hunters. And what’s more, you know Ted Cosgrove?”

  “Sure. Nice guy.”

  “Nice divorced guy. Or almost divorced. His wife left him just last week. She wanted to be free and now Ted can barely see how to tie his shoes in the morning. He looks awful. He feels awful,” Sascha said, clearly equipped with first hand knowledge of what the man was going through.

  A long sigh slipped through David. He wanted to take his friend’s pain. Damn, he wanted to be there to help Sascha, but that wasn’t possible. “Sasch, I wish—”

  “Don’t wish. I didn’t call to talk to you about Bridget or even about Ted, Dave. Not really. I just called to tell you to stay the same as you always have been. Be careful if a woman makes your clothes fit too tight and your head swim and your heart bang around inside your body like an atomic Ping-Pong ball. You know that feeling, David?”

  He wasn’t sure if he knew that feeling exactly, but he had a pretty good idea what his friend was referring to. And he was also pretty sure Sascha was right. About being careful.

  “I won’t do anything impetuous, Sascha,” he promised.

  A low groan followed. “David, your middle name is impetuous.”

  David felt his smile forming. If his friend could tease him just a little, Sascha’s world still held a bit of brightness.

  “Yeah, but I have a good friend who keeps the reins on me. Thanks, Sascha,” he said.

  “No. Thank you,” Sascha told him. “I really did call to talk about Bridget, I guess. It’s helped to hear your voice.”

  And it had helped to hear his friend’s voice, too, David realized. Sascha had sprinkled in that tinge of reality he’d been grasping for and missing these past few days with Gretchen. Now maybe he could get on with things, with work, and just leave the lady alone, the way she wanted to be left alone.

  But first, he was taking her to a family dinner. He had a pretty good feeling that Sascha would have begged him not to do this.

  It wouldn’t have worked. This far, at least, he was committed.

  “But this is where we hit the end of the line, Hannon,” David reminded himself. “That’s the way the lady wants things and the way you have to want them, too.”

  “It’s so very good to see you here, my dear,” Edward Hannon was saying just a short time later, taking Gretchen’s hand in his own. “You don’t need to be a stranger, does she, Yvette?”

  Yvette smiled and let out a low laugh. “As if you and I had ever met a stranger, Edward. But you know what he means, don’t you, Gretchen? Or maybe you don’t. Edward and I tend to follow a different drummer, as they say. I think we may have been a sore trial to our strait laced little Frannie.”

  Little Frannie, a grown and very married woman, smiled and pressed a kiss to her mother’s cheek. “And you know I love you for being just who you are.”

  “Yes, but I sometimes think you felt a bit uncomfortable. Perhaps you would have liked a few more rules. Perhaps you should have had them if you needed them. Anyway, Gretchen, dear, please don’t be a stranger anymore. We like seeing you. We’re glad to have you here tonight. You did well, David,” she said, as if he’d just gotten an A on his report card.

  He gave his mother a lazy, indulgent smile and Gretchen suspected he was used to his mother praising him as if he were still unable to tie his shoes without help.

  “David climbed a tree yesterday to retrieve a lost kitten. He didn’t even wait for the cherry picker to come,” she volunteered before she realized just how juvenile her own words sounded.

  “Of course,” Edward said. “He wouldn’t. David always did do things his own way. We worried about him a bit as a child, but really, there wasn’t any reason to worry. David was just David. Rules never seemed to apply to him.”

  “Yes, he broke every one and somehow managed to get away with it, too,” Frannie said with a laugh. “I was always in awe of how he did it. But I suppose you’re a bit of a rule breaker, too, Gretchen. It takes a rather adventurous sort to go into law enforcement.”

  “Maybe,” Gretchen agreed. “For me it was just a natural progression. I’d grown up taking care of all my brothers and sisters, helping them fight their battles and making sure
their rights weren’t violated. I fell in love with law enforcement right from the start.”

  “I hear you got Wayne Sadine to go for counseling and to try joining AA,” Cleo said. “That’s quite an accomplishment. Wayne was always pig headed.”

  Gretchen shrugged. “I think his willingness to try had more to do with the fact that the powerful Hannons have taken Peggy under their wings. For the first time someone gave him a reason to want to change. How is Peggy, by the way?”

  “She’s a delight,” Yvette said. “I feel so very sorry that I never thought to interfere enough to offer to take her in.”

  But David had. His first thought had been to get Peggy out of harm’s way.

  “Don’t worry, my dear,” Edward said. “She’ll have a place here for as long as she wishes. And it won’t be charity, either. She’s a bright young lady, one who insists on pitching in to help out in whatever way she can. If she wants a job here, there’s always plenty to do. If not, we’ll help her find work elsewhere and get back on her feet. She won’t have to be dependent on a man if she doesn’t want to be.”

  His kind stare told her that he understood that not being dependent was an important issue for her. She smiled her gratitude.

  “Why don’t you take Gretchen for a tour of the Big Sky, David?” he offered. “I’m not sure she’s ever seen the place by moon light.”

  “Yes, Gretchen, it’s really quite beautiful at night,” Celeste said.

  “Rather romantic,” Yvette agreed.

  “How could I turn down such a lovely offer?” Gretchen asked, rising from the table. The black silk of her short dress swished against the tablecloth as David slid her chair back and held out his hand.

  “My family’s pretty smooth, aren’t they?” he asked with a twinkle in his eye as they moved out onto the moonlit terrace. “I’m sure they think I was being a bit slow about luring you out here.”

  Gretchen couldn’t help laughing as she looked up into his dark eyes. The man was sinfully handsome in formal black and white. And she knew from experience that there wasn’t anything the slightest bit slow about him.

  “I think your family is delightful. Your parents move together as if they’re a single unit. It’s obvious that they adore each other. I can see why the Big Sky attracts so many people to come here and then to come back again. Who could resist such a warm, caring atmosphere?”

  “Ah, then, you’re saying that you find us irresistible, are you, Ms. Neal? In that case, let me pull you farther into the shadows.”

  He slid his hand up her bare arm to the naked skin of her back. “Mmm, you should dress this way around the office,” he told her.

  “It’s not very practical,” she said suddenly. “I wasn’t quite sure what to wear for a meal at the Big Sky.”

  “Anything,” he told her. “Denim. Silk. Nothing. But this is nice. Very nice.”

  “David,” she said, placing her hand on his chest as he leaned closer. “Your family—they don’t think—”

  “That we’re lovers? I’m not privy to their thoughts, Gretchen.”

  “But you know them so well.”

  Yes, he did, and he knew that his parents, liberal as they were, would like him to settle down closer to home.

  “You’re not in danger with me, Gretchen. I promise you that.”

  “I wasn’t afraid of that. You don’t frighten me, David.”

  “What does frighten you? Anything?”

  She studied his question for long minutes. “Commitment. Boredom. Being tied to someone so that their life has too great an effect on mine. That was my mother. Always following my father around. Always raising babies. And because I was the oldest, it was my life, too. I don’t want that, David.”

  He rested his forehead on hers, looked down into her moonlit, worried eyes. “Then you’re safe, Gretchen. In spite of my warm, loving family, they were very busy people when I was growing up, and I was a somewhat sickly kid. I didn’t fit in with other kids and I learned to like my own company, my own way of doing things. After years of forging a solitary path, I’m not a good candidate for marriage, I’m afraid. You’ve seen how pigheaded and stubborn and pushy I can be. I’m not likely to change or to want to change. So you’re safe from me in that sense.”

  “In that sense?”

  He nodded, grazing her jaw with his lips. “But not any other. Because I am pushy and pig headed and stubborn, Gretchen. That said, I’d still leave you alone if you weren’t attracted to me. You’re not attracted?”

  “I’m not blind to your charms, Hannon. I’m a woman, after all.”

  His lips rose in a smile against the bare skin of her throat and he kissed his way up to her lips. He touched his mouth to hers, then pulled away just a breath.

  “And I’m a man, Gretchen. Neither of us may want marriage, but I want you in every other way a man can want a woman.”

  “And you’re a stubborn man, I’ve heard. Someone seems to have told me that.”

  “I wonder who,” he said, kissing her again.

  “Some silly man, no doubt. Should we go back inside?” she asked, her head falling back as he found the soft curve of her breast with his teeth and nipped slightly. “No.”

  “No,” she agreed.

  And he slid his hands up her body and placed a chaste kiss on the top of her head.

  “No?” she asked.

  “Not yet. Not until we have a proper bed and not until we’re away from a roomful of people speculating on what we’re doing.”

  “Mmm, they might make me marry you if I ravished you,” she agreed.

  “Indeed,” he agreed. “My family looks out for those who try to take advantage of other people.”

  “I want to take advantage of you, David.”

  He slid his arm along hers and found her hand. “I know. And the fact that you’ve said that leads me to the truth.”

  “The truth? As in, who killed Raven Hunter?”

  “Exactly. And, also, who filled Gretchen Neal’s wineglass one too many times?”

  She stared up at him. “I’m not drunk, David.”

  “No, but you’re happy enough to lose all those prickly inhibitions that usually inhabit your body. When I have you—and I mean to—I want you inhibitions and all.”

  “I see,” she said, leaning close to kiss him on the shoulder right through the black linen of his suit. “I wonder who did fill up my wine glass too many times.”

  He groaned low in his throat and led her to his car. “The same fool who’s going to drive you home right now. The man who doesn’t intend to make that same mistake again.”

  “The next time will be different? Will there be a next time?”

  “I guarantee there’ll be a next time, Gretchen. And maybe even a next and a next. I have the feeling that you and I are going to need a few ‘next times’ to get each other out of our systems.”

  She leaned back against the seat as he handed her into the car and fastened her seat belt against her hips.

  “I’d like that, David. To get you out of my system. It’s very difficult getting my job done when I’m always looking up into your eyes.”

  “Gretchen?”

  “Yes?” Her voice was dreamy and soft and sleepy.

  “Don’t say another word,” he said as he joined her in the car. “And just be grateful that my family in stilled in me a certain amount of fortitude. It’s that and only that that’s saving us both from behaving very foolishly tonight.”

  But when he looked over, he found that Gretchen had gone limp with sleep. He lifted her hand and kissed her slender fingers before starting the car.

  “Let’s get you home, partner. Tomorrow you have to be tough and in charge again. Tomorrow we take things a step further.”

  Chapter Six

  Gretchen held the sea-green breath of a dress up in front of her the next day. Except for the jacket, meant to be worn during the church service for Pamela’s wedding, the gown was simplicity itself. With spaghetti straps and a neckline that dipp
ed in a simple low scoop, the pale clingy material hugged the body in a long straight line to the floor.

  “No wonder Pamela wanted to make sure it fit,” Gretchen said to a curious Goliath as she slipped into the gown one more time just to make sure. “One extra spoonful of chocolate ice cream could mean disaster with a gown like this.” As it was, the dress smoothed over her curves like a caress. It was perfect, except…she looked like a woman in search of a man.

  “Which only means one thing, Goliath. My family will be on the prowl, out scouring the streets and parking lots looking for a man for me. They’ll consider this dress a slap in the face, a reminder that once again I’m all dressed up without a proper husband to take me home and impregnate me. And then they’ll start looking for a husband for me. Again.”

  She must have said that last word just a little too firmly. There must have been just a bit too much tension in her voice, because Goliath tilted his head and backed away a step or two.

  She chuckled softly. “Don’t worry, Goliath. I’m not mad at all males. I just don’t see why everyone thinks I absolutely must have one to take home and keep forever. And you know, there’s only one way to fight the inevitable, don’t you? I’ll just have to keep dancing all night. A different man for every song. Otherwise, my best friends and family are going to do their darnedest to pick out a suitable mate to claim my time and my attention. The evening will be long and slow and painful.”

  A short, sharp bark signaled her doggy buddy’s agreement.

  “You know what I mean, don’t you, Goliath? I know how you like to play the field. The truth is that someday, somehow, I’m just going to have to make the truth clear to them. I’m not a marrying kind of woman. And that’s final. When I wear this dress, I’m going to have the time of my life, and I’m going to go home alone at the end of the night.”

  It appeared that Jackson Hawk had finally located Storm, but there was still a question mark as to when the man was going to show up. That fact didn’t sit well with David. Another day had passed, they were no closer to a break, and he wanted this case solved. His aunt was clearly being affected much too much by all the upheaval, and he himself couldn’t stay away from his work too long. Phil had been indulgent and understanding about his need to—finally—take some time for himself, but his time, after all, belonged to the government, something Gretchen had been asking him about just that morning. Trying to get rid of him more quickly, David suspected with a frown.