He tightened his grip on her arms and slowly, but firmly, pulled her toward him.
She held back. “What are you doing?”
With one small tug, he had her against him. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly to him. “I’m going to kiss you.”
He silenced her protest with his mouth. Angling his head to make his possession of her lips more complete, he moved slowly and seductively, snuffing her resistance.
He knew it had worked when she moaned and went pliant in his arms. She twined her wrists around his neck and leaned into him. Her breasts pressed and burned into his chest, and he wondered why he had thought he was in control. One or two of her feminine moves had about knocked him on his keister. And he didn’t mind one little bit.
Things had changed for the better between them. Their relationship had gone to a higher plane, and he didn’t dare name it. Even though she taught English, Kelly would never admit that she had as much trouble with labels as he did. There was no room for words now. It was time to just feel, and let sensation take them.
Mike trailed kisses over her cheek and traced the curve of her ear with his tongue. He smiled at the ripple that shook her, then groaned when she stood on tiptoe and did the same to him.
“Kelly, I want you. Let me love you—”
She went still in his arms, then leaned her forehead against his chest. Finally she looked up at him and whispered, “Don’t say that, Mike.”
“I know you want me, too.”
“I’d be lying if I denied that. I just can’t—” Her eyes pleaded with him to understand.
He didn’t and decided to take matters into his own hands, or arms. He scooped her up and started to carry her toward the bedroom.
“What are you doing?” she asked, startled.
“I’m ending our friendship.”
“No—”
“So we can move forward—”
“Put me down, Mike. I can’t do this.”
He stopped instantly and held her for a moment, savoring her softness, her fragile femininity, before letting her slide down the length of him. When he let her go, she put distance between them and stopped in front of the breakfast bar. Her shoulders lifted as she drew a deep breath of air into her lungs.
“Why, Kelly? What’s wrong?”
Sadness and confusion twisted together on her face, and he wanted to hold her. All he wanted to do was make her happy. He’d sure screwed that up.
“Mike, will you take care of Sammi for me? For a little while?”
“You know I will. But where are you going?”
“To look for an apartment.”
She grabbed her purse and keys. Before she could walk out, he moved in front of her. “Don’t do it. Talk to me, Kelly.”
She shook her head. “It’s too late for that.”
“We’ve always been able to talk. No matter what the problem. Tell me what’s wrong.”
“As soon as I find a place of my own, everything will be fine again. Please get out of my way, Mike.”
Running a hand through his hair, he stepped aside. Short of playing the Neanderthal, he had no way tò stop her. When the front door slammed, he gritted his teeth. He couldn’t believe she was really going to leave. He didn’t want to believe it.
He’d been saying he didn’t believe in love for so long, he figured he wouldn’t recognize it if it reached out and bit him in the butt. Which was exactly what had happened. Hell of a time to figure it out, at the same moment the windows stopped rattling from her slamming the door as she left. The fact was, he loved her.
He had done everything but come out and tell her how he felt. Why was she running away from it? Was she still holding out for Prince Charming?
“I’m not the tights and cape type.” He stared at the front door as silence echoed through the house. “But I love you, Kel.”
Chapter Eleven
Kelly drove around Newhall for a while but couldn’t bring herself to stop at any apartment buildings with For Rent signs in front. She was so confused. She needed someone to talk to. She needed her best friend. She needed Mike. But she couldn’t talk to him about him, so she settled for Susan.
When she pulled up in front of the Wisharts’, two young men were shooting hoops in the driveway. Kelly had met Brian and Scott once before. She smiled, remembering Susan saying that she had been tempted to call them Don Juan and Lothario. The names would have been appropriate. They were darn cute.
“Hi, guys,” she said, walking past them on the concrete driveway to the front door. “Is your mom home?”
Brian, the oldest at twenty, caught and held the basketball. He was tall and blond and lanky. “She’s at the grocery store. Should be back soon, though, if you’d like to wait.”
“Thanks. I need to talk to her about something.”
“Want to play a little one-on-one?” Scott grinned at her. He was about the same height as his brother, good-looking and blond. He seemed to be a fun-loving eighteen-year-old who, from all reports, had been a Casanova since a girl had put that first note in his kindergarten cubby. Kelly could see why. He was an outrageous flirt.
She smiled, responding to his charm. “Sure. You don’t think I can play, do you?”
“Show me.” He tossed her the ball, and she caught it easily. His eyebrows went up in surprise.
She bounced it a couple times, then moved toward the hoop and pushed the ball off her palm. It missed. “I’m a little rusty. I just had a baby, you know.”
“Yeah. We heard,” Brian said. “Mom said she’s real cute.”
“I think so. Mike says—”
“How is Coach?” Scott asked. “He was so cool when I played football last year.”
“He’s fine.” Kelly bounced the ball a couple times. She looked at the guys and before she could stop it, the question popped out. “I’d like to ask you something. Do you think a man and a woman can have a fulfilling platonic friendship?”
Scott’s blue eyes widened as he looked at his brother. “Bro, you want to field that one?”
“You’ve had all the experience,” Brian said, his lean cheeks suspiciously pink. “You tell her.”
Susan’s husband, Brad, opened the front door. Both boys turned and spoke at the same time. “Hi, Dad.”
Brad’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. “I haven’t had a greeting that enthusiastic since you were little and I came home from a business trip with presents. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were glad to see me.”
“We’re always glad to see you, oh ancient wise man,” Scott said. “You’re just in time. Kelly has a question for you.”
“Hi, Kelly.” Brad sent her a friendly smile. “Nice to see you.”
“Hi, Brad,” she answered.
The boys started shooting baskets again as she joined their father on the front porch. She looked down at the welcome mat, and she smiled wryly at the words, Wipe Your Feet, Stupid. Leave it to an English teacher. An appropriate saying with a healthy dose of self-esteem thrown in.
“What’s the question?” Brad asked.
“Can a man and a woman have a satisfying platonic friendship without getting physical? I need a man’s point of view. You’re a man.”
“That wasn’t exactly a question, but I can answer with a reasonable amount of certainty. I am a man.”
“Can things stay the same? I mean, why complicate a perfectly functional friendship with man-woman stuff?”
When he stroked his beard, she knew she had come to the right place to talk. He looked the essence of wisdom, in spite of the mismatched plaid shorts and striped shirt. After all, wise men weren’t expected to be snappy dressers. Take Doug, for instance. Always looked like a fashion plate, and he’d turned out to be a jerk and just another pretty face.
But then there was Mike. Good dresser, good-looking. Good God, she was so muddled.
Brad stared at the ground for a while. Then he stuck his hands in his shorts pockets. “That’s a good question. I think it probably depen
ds on the man and woman involved.” At the sound of a car, he glanced up. “Look here. Susan’s back,” he said, a distinct note of relief in his voice.
The garage door went up, stopping the basketball game, and Susan drove into the garage. As automatic as the door, Brad and the boys opened the rear of the compact station wagon and disappeared into the house with groceries.
Susan joined Kelly on the front porch. “Hi. What’s wrong?”
“What makes you think there’s something wrong?”
“I know my men. Unloading the car usually takes an act of Congress around here. They did it without being asked, including my cute but unobservant husband. For him it takes a nuclear explosion to blast him loose from the couch.”
“Are you saying I’ve cleared the room?”
“Yeah.”
Kelly was surprised. She’d thought her question had been cloaked in idle conversation and veiled in humor. She followed Susan into the house. In the kitchen, plastic bags of groceries littered the circular oak table, tile countertops and the floor. Susan rifled them, pulling things out and putting them away. As Kelly emptied the one closest to her on the table, she marveled at the amount of food it took to feed a family of four, two of which were young men. It made her glad she’d had a girl. Especially since she would be single soon and on her own with Sammi.
“Susan?” The other woman turned and met her gaze. “I’m leaving Mike.”
Shock widened Susan’s eyes. “Why? What did he do?”
“Nothing. It’s me—”
“He must have done something. Although I can’t imagine what. He’s really a sweetie.”
“All he did was try to change the rules.”
Susan slanted her a sardonic look. “Good God, how could he? The man should be drawn and quartered.”
“Be serious.”
“All right I have a feeling there’s something I don’t know. You want to fill in the blanks?”
Kelly nodded. If she was going to get good advice, Susan needed the facts. “Mike married me to save my job, give my baby a name and help me keep custody of my baby if Doug sued me.”
“So Mike’s not the father?”
“You believed that rumor?”
“It wouldn’t have surprised me. Like I said at the wedding, a blind man could see that there’s something special between the two of you.” Susan looked at her as she wadded up a plastic bag. “So did Doug sue?”
Kelly nodded. “Mike steered me to a lawyer friend of his, then proceeded to keep me in the dark about what was going on. To protect me he said.”
“You sound upset about that.”
“I am. Mike and I have always talked to each other about everything. He shut me out of this. I don’t know if I can get over that.”
“Like I said, draw and quarter Sir Walter Raleigh for being your hero. He’s got it coming if you ask me.”
Kelly was starting to get irritated. This was not the sort of satisfaction she’d expected from Susan. “That’s what I meant about changing the rules. We had an agreement to stay married four months. Just before school starts, I was supposed to move out I could be a divorced single mother and keep my job, just not a single mother, never been married.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“Mike wants me to stay.”
Susan gasped in mock horror. “How awful!”
Kelly glared at her. “Whose side are you on, anyhow?”
“The side of true love.”
“Two four-letter words back-to-back,” Kelly muttered in disgust. “Cameron would eat that up.”
“What?” Susan opened a brand new package of chocolate-covered caramel cookies and held it out
“Nothing.” Kelly took one and bit into it “Speaking of the L-word,” she said, “I think he loves me.”
Susan’s gaze snapped to hers so fast, Kelly was surprised she didn’t have whiplash. “He said that?”
“No, but I’d bet anything that he wants to,” Kelly said sadly.
“Rip the man’s tongue out”
“Come on, Suse. You’re supposed to be helping.".
“How do you feel about him?”
“I love him.”
Susan brushed a strand of blond hair from her forehead. A puzzled expression wrinkled her brow.. “I don’t get it. If you’re in love with him and he’s crazy about you, why are you leaving him?”
“I can’t believe you don’t understand.”
“And I can’t believe you’re discussing this with me. Mike’s the one you should be talking to.”
That was the first thing Susan had said that made sense to her. Now she knew why she’d come here. Every once in a while she needed a good mental slap. She’d just gotten it. She consulted Mike about everything else. It had gotten to be a habit, one she didn’t want to break.
She walked over to her friend and took another cookie. Then she hugged the other woman. “I was wrong. You should never teach biology,” she said.
Susan grinned. “I don’t plan to. I’ve got my lesson plans under control.”
“With a name like Wishart I’m surprised you don’t give better advice in the man-woman department.”
Susan took her by the shoulders, turned her and gave her a gentle nudge toward the door. “Here’s some advice. Go be loquacious with that hunky husband of yours.”
Chapter Twelve
“Susan says I have to talk to you, Mike.” Kelly stood in the master bedroom, watching him towel dry his dark, wet hair.
“I wanted to talk, and you ran out of here like a wide receiver looking to break a record,” he said, staring at her. “But Susan tells you to do it, and it’s okay?”
“I’m confused. Please don’t make this harder.” Kelly set her purse and keys on the dresser. “Is Sammi all right?”
“Fine. She’s been fed, bathed and is now taking her afternoon nap.” He draped the towel over his shoulder and crossed his arms over his bare chest. “What else did Susan say?”
“Nothing.”
He shook his head. “Work with me, Kel. If she didn’t say anything, how did she change your mind about talking?”
“She said you should be drawn and quartered and have your tongue ripped out.”
“Good God, what did I ever do to her?”
“Nothing. It was tongue-in-cheek humor.” A small smile pulled at her lips for a moment. It had seemed easy when she’d been with Susan. Now that she was facing her hunky husband, loquacious was the last thing she wanted to be. Folded in his strong arms was the first thing that came to mind. Kissed was number two on the list. None of the above came under the heading of friendship.
“I’m glad she was kidding. But she must have said something right. You’re here.”
“I have this problem, Mike.”
“What is it? Maybe I can help.”
“I’ve got this problem with a friend. I need to talk to you about it.”
“Susan couldn’t help you with it?”
She lifted one shoulder. “I’ve never been able to confide in anyone the way I can in you.”
“I see.” One corner of his mouth lifted in that half grin that made her heart race and her pulse pound.
“You’re not going to make this easy, are you?” she asked.
“Should I?”
“I’ll give you ten good reasons why you should.”
Her eyes dropped to the towel knotted around his middle. If things went in a certain direction, this could be the second time she saw him naked.
“Why should I make this easy for you?” he asked.
“Because you’re the last of the really nice guys. And you’d be doing it for you, me, Sammi, Susan, Brad, their children, my brother—”
“Wait a minute. I’ll go along with you, me and Sammi, but you’re cheating with the rest.”
“No. I’ll drive them nuts if you don’t make this easy on me and listen.”
“So talk. I’m all ears. Tell me about this problem with your friend. Is this person male or female?”
>
“Male.”
A glow crept into his dark gaze that set off a wildfire in the pit of her belly. “Do I know him?”
She nodded. “He’s the best friend I’ve ever had.”
“So what’s this problem you’ve got with him?”
“He doesn’t want to be friends anymore.”
“What does he want?”
“A wife.” She looked at him. “That four-letter word about sums it up.”
“Why does it scare you that things are changing? There’s nothing wrong with starting out as friends and taking it from there.”
She wasn’t so sure about that. “What we had was a perfect friendship. It worked—” she hesitated, searching for the right adjective “—perfectly.”
“What makes you think it won’t work if you become a wife to him?”
“He was married once.”
“And you think he doesn’t want to be married again?”
“No, he made it clear that he does. And that’s the problem.”
“It’s obvious I’m the friend, Kelly. I do want to be married to you. If you have a problem with that, I need you to spell it out.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not the brightest guy in the world.”
“Why do you do that? Put yourself down that way? You’re one of the smartest people I know.”
“I’ve been alone too long. I’m not very good at this relationship stuff. I’m selfish and—”
“How can you say that? You’ve taken me into your home, married me to save my job and my baby. That’s pretty unselfish if you ask me.”
“I’m not perfect, you know. I’m opinionated and think I know what’s best. I don’t mean to, but I tend to bulldoze people.”
“But everyone who really knows you understands that you wouldn’t intentionally hurt anyone. Your heart’s in the right place.”
“Speaking of hearts, I didn’t mean to scare you off before. When I said I was ending our friendship, you didn’t let me finish. It’s not over, just…heating up.”
Her pulse raced. “What are you saying, Mike?”
“I know you’re holding out for romantic love. God knows I’m not the most romantic guy in the world. But I do love you, Kel.”
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