“Did you ever date anyone else?” Sam asked. “Before you were married, I mean.”
Kevin laughed. “Not successfully. I had a date now and then with someone else in high school, but it never felt right. You know how it is when you just don’t mesh. It was always Debbie for me.”
“And still is?” she asked.
“No. Not really.” He dragged his spoon slowly through his soup, watching the noodles trail in the spoon’s wake. “Oh, I go out some. But I’m not interested in marrying again or even having a close relationship with anyone else. But it’s not because I haven’t let go of Debbie.”
They ate in silence for a time, but it was a comfortable silence and he watched her hands as she ate. Her fingers were slender, yet he sensed a strength in them that belied their delicacy. Those hands worked hard, as the scratched knuckles attested to, but they could still inspire some interesting daydreams. His breath caught at the idea of those hands on him, and he had to look away. Cool Kevin did not let his emotions take charge.
“So, what about you?” he said after a moment. “I know you said the other day you weren’t about to reel someone in, but I can’t believe that you don’t have anybody special in your life.”
“I have a lot of special people in my life.”
But not that one special someone. That surprised him; pleased him, for some crazy reason. “Don’t worry,” he said. “Someday your prince will come.”
“For all I know, he may already have come by. I’ve been pretty busy lately.”
“Don’t be too busy.”
“Why do you say that?” Sam asked. “You speaking from experience?”
“Not exactly,” he said. “Just sort of general logic. But I don’t think love is like a train. You know—don’t worry if you miss one, another’ll be along soon.”
“You believe there’s only one person for each of us?”
That stopped him, made his heart quail at the thought. If he believed that, it meant with Debbie gone, he was finished with love. He hadn’t been looking for someone else, hadn’t even thought about looking for someone else; but did he want to give up all chance that he might find love again?
“I don’t know,” he finally replied, feeling her eyes on him. He tried to laugh. “I guess I ought to be pretty depressed if there is.”
“Well, I don’t believe in one true love,” she said sharply as she got to her feet. “I mean, suppose I have a cold and skip the party where I’m supposed to meet my true love. I have to spend my life alone because I took care of my health? You want any more of the soup?”
“Uh?” He looked up, feeling bewildered. “Ah, no. You go ahead. I’ve had enough.”
He watched her walk over to the stove with quick, sure strides. There was a grace about her, a fluid rhythm that drew his eye and ignited his senses. Yet, despite the strength of her movements, she was all woman, and in his blood a deepening ache grew to match her rhythm. It was time to leave.
“I have to be getting back to the office,” he said, picking up his dishes. “Thanks for the lunch and the company.” He carried his things to the sink.
“Just leave them there. I’ll load up the dishwasher.”
She walked with him to the kitchen door. He thought maybe she would stop there, was hoping it, even, he told himself. But he was glad when she came on through the living room with him. There was nothing wrong with eyeballing a beautiful lady. He wasn’t a young stud anymore, but he sure wasn’t dead.
Sam put her hand on his arm to stop him. “I need a favor. A big favor.”
“Okay.”
“I mean, a really, really, really big one.”
“It’s still okay.” Actually, it really wasn’t. Her hand on his arm was stirring wild feelings in his body. Feelings that he was sure his senses had forgotten. Like a need to crush her young body to his. He really had to run. Although it was doubtful that he could get to his shower fast enough. Maybe he should just jump in the lake out back of the inn.
“You remember my dad mentioning a Las Vegas Night his seniors group was sponsoring?”
“I was aware of it. I saw some ads in the paper.”
“Well, everyone’s really been bugging me to go, but I don’t date much. I mean, it seems like all the guys my age want to settle down and I don’t. But since you said you feel the same way, I thought maybe…”
She ended her sentence with a shrug. And Kevin felt the air go out of him. He should have run when he had the chance. Now, since she’d asked him, it would be impolite. He cleared his throat. “You want me to take you?”
She made a face, crinkling up her eyes and pouting her lips into such a tempting frown that he had to fight all the hungers that were washing over him again—a need to laugh, a need to dance, a need to sweep her into his arms.
What he really needed was to leave.
“If you’re not already busy tomorrow night.” She brushed the fingers of both hands through her hair. “I know it’s the last minute, but I just thought it would make things easier. You see, my dad really wants me to go. And my brothers are all hot to find me a date. And—” She shook her head. “Ah, forget it. It was a dumb idea.”
He had a choice. He could be wise or he could be foolish. He could dance around the edge of danger or he could play it safe.
“Sure.”
“You probably have better things to—” She stared at him for a moment. “Sure?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Are you sure?”
“Suretainly.”
She laughed, the sound running over him like a brook trickling over stones and setting them alive.
“You’re the first guy I’ve asked for a date since Jason Rhembold,” she said. “I was a freshman in high school and we had this Sadie Hawkins dance. It was just before Halloween. I’m babbling, aren’t I?”
“What time do you want me to pick you up?”
“I can drive.” She took a deep breath and shook her head. “I’m the one who asked you.”
He ignored her. “Eight o’clock all right?”
She raked her hair again. “Yeah, that’ll be great.”
“Fine.” He nodded. “I’ll see you at eight tomorrow night.”
She took another deep breath. “You know, there’s no problem with me driving.”
“I couldn’t do that,” he said, shaking his head. “The Duke wouldn’t allow it.”
Sam made a face.
“You know,” he said. “John Wayne.”
“I knew which duke you were talking about.”
“Good.” She was glaring at him and he was filled with an irresistible urge to sweep her into his arms. The Duke would certainly have approved of that. But he wasn’t John Wayne or even a John Wayne wanna-be. He nodded and turned on his heel.
“See you tomorrow,” she called after him.
This was not a real date, Sam told herself as she pulled her deep blue silk dress out of the closet the next evening. And there was no reason for her heart to sing as it did while she showered or for her cheeks to glow even before she put any makeup on. It wasn’t like she’d never been on a date before.
Luckily, the mortgage money was already in their account. So no matter what kind of fool she made of herself, they couldn’t take it back. Or could they? She wasn’t too sure about these periodic checks that Kevin was supposed to make. The clock told her that she was pressed for time, though, and had better limit her analysis to which earrings to wear. When she hurried downstairs a few minutes after eight, Kevin was waiting in the living room with her father.
“Look at Cinderella,” Dan Scott whistled:
“Very nice,” Kevin said.
“Golly, yes,” Sam mocked. “All that soot washed off pretty darned good.”
Her father snorted in the background, but before he could make any more comments, she kissed him on the cheek. “We’ll see you at the hall, Dad.”
“I’d better,” he said. “I don’t want you young folks sneaking off.”
Kevin lau
ghed as he opened the door and looked back at her father. “Some of us are not all that young anymore.”
“Hey.” Sam stopped as she was halfway out the door. “Speak for yourself, fella.”
“Yeah, I suppose I should.”
Sam could have sworn some of the light went out of his eyes, and she frowned as they walked to his car. Was he sensitive about his age? He couldn’t be that many years past thirty—although he was a vice president of the bank. That might mean he was close to thirty-five.
“Sam?”
Startled, she saw that Kevin was holding the car door open for her. Lord, where was her mind going? “Thanks,” she said as she slipped into her seat.
He hurried around to the driver’s side and, once he’d settled himself, gave her a smile before starting up the car and putting them on the road.
It wasn’t a compact car. It was a luxurious sedan with more than enough room for two people, but it felt so close—as if she and Kevin were hand in glove. She could almost feel the tickle of the hairs on the back of his hand. Her body was filled with tension. A sweet kind of tension that could only be satisfied by wrapping herself around him. She quickly directed her attention out the window to the passing scenery.
She had to admit that she was getting to like Kevin a whole lot. He didn’t treat her like her siblings did—like a little kid in need of watching and rescuing from imagined dangers—too often. He didn’t treat her like a little kid much at all. And that was a danger in itself, but only if she let it get in the way of her goals. Just because she felt a wondrous tightening of her nerves and her heart when he was close, it didn’t mean she would compromise who she was and where she was going. Her heart could be weak, but her resolve was not. By the time Kevin pulled into the parking lot at the VFW Hall, Sam had her body and emotions under complete and total control. Almost.
“Looks like there’ll be a good-size crowd,” he said as he helped her from the car.
“Dad said ticket sales went well.” The parking lot was gravel and seemed uneven under her heels so she put her arm through Kevin’s for support. “Thank you, kind sir.”
“My pleasure,” he murmured.
Strange what kind of tricks a person’s ears could play on them. If she hadn’t known that this was just a onetime kind of thing, she would have thought he really meant it. “You must have had some other role models besides John Wayne,” she said. “I didn’t think he was known for any kind of sensitivity.”
“Hey, the Duke was a very sensitive guy.”
“He hid it well,” she said.
“Maybe he felt he had to.”
“I thought he only did things because he wanted to, not because he had to.”
“This could turn into a real argument,” he warned.
“I never argue,” Sam said. “I’m just telling you how things are.”
He opened the door for her. “I know your father is going to be here. How about your brothers and sisters?”
“My brothers are on an Indian Princess camp out with their daughters. You know, that YMCA program for fathers and daughters? Fiona’s here with her husband and Cassie’s with her fiancé.” Sam stopped just inside the doorway. “Oh, Fiona was hoping we would sit with them. Is that okay?”
“Sure. That would be nice.”
The lobby had Christmas lights strung over everything so that the room fairly glowed. They each turned in their tickets for a wad of play money and some chips, then worked through the crowd into the main room. The game tables were set around the perimeter while tables for sitting filled the middle. Sam found her hand in Kevin’s. A wise precaution, given the people milling around them.
“Is that Fiona?” Kevin asked, nodding toward a figure waving at them.
“You have a good memory.”
“Not really. She reminds me of you in little ways.”
“She does?” Sam hadn’t thought any of the three of them resembled each other.
“Hi, guys.” Fiona had come up to meet them. “How are you?”
“I’m just fine and dandy.” Sam pulled Kevin slightly forward. “You remember Kevin? He’s giving us the money for our bed-and-breakfast.”
“Lending,” Kevin said with a chuckle. “We’ll want it back, you know.”
Sam gave him a pained look.
“Sorry.” He flashed his heartbreaker smile. “Banker humor.”
“I didn’t know there was such a thing,” Sam said. “I thought bankers and humor were mutually exclusive.”
“Ah, a math major.”
“No way,” Sam replied. “I had to take a statistics course for my library science major.” She stopped at the table and introduced Kevin to Fiona’s husband, Alex, and then their middle sister, Cassie, Cassie’s fiancé, Jack, and his aunt Hattie.
“You look sort of familiar,” Kevin said as he shook Jack’s hand. “Aren’t you—”
“Yes,” Sam interrupted. “He’s a famous ex-football player turned lawyer, but he’s very modest so we don’t talk about it.”
“Actually, I was going to make a remark about lawyers,” Kevin said.
“A banker telling lawyer jokes.” Jack snorted. “That’s really a case of the pot calling the kettle black.”
“Behave, you two.” Sam turned to Cassie. “So have you guys looked around? There any games here I have a chance of winning?”
Fiona just groaned, then looked at Kevin. “Sam is the most incredibly lucky person I know. She always wins stuff.”
“I do not,” Sam protested. She thought about all the times she’d argued that she could do something herself, and lost. All the times she’d fought against her brothers’ fix-up dates and lost. All the times she’d wondered if this guy might be the one…
But then she’d stopped looking, so that wasn’t really a loss.
Her sisters weren’t thinking along those lines, though. “What about that raffle in high school when you won the stereo?” Cassie asked.
“Or the radio contest last year?” Fiona added.
“Or all the games we played as a kid, when we were afraid you’d cry if you lost?”
“I would not have,” Sam protested, but everyone just laughed. Boy, was she glad that she and Kevin had stopped by. “Come on,” she said to him. “Let’s go lose our junk money.”
“Save some prizes for the rest of us,” Cassie called out as they left.
Sam didn’t deign to reply, but took Kevin’s hand as they wandered through the crowd to the nearest game table. It held a roulette wheel.
“Want to try this?” Kevin asked. “Or should we give other people a chance before you sweep all the prizes?”
“Boy, I thought you would be on my side,” she said and took her hand from his, but only to put a small stack of chips on the number six. “I’m not any luckier than anyone else. I bet you’ve won your share of contests and games.”
“Not me.” Kevin put a small stack of his own next to hers.
She just frowned at him slightly. Even though her siblings joked that she always won, they never followed her lead. Never. They were always too busy hoping she’d be wrong and they’d be right. It was a strange feeling to have someone actually look up to her. Figuratively speaking, that is.
Somehow it seemed more personal, more intimate than holding his hand and having their shoulders brush as they went through the crowd. She just looked away, staring down at the wheel, though not really seeing it. Dealing with that, coupled with her attraction to Kevin, she felt like she was walking a tightrope. Playing with matches. Daring to walk the rapids.
And she liked the rush that swept over her.
“Number six!” the man running the game called out. “We have two winners.”
Their piles of chips doubled in size and Sam laughed. What a pair she and Kevin made! Her siblings would be sorry they weren’t along.
“Well, what now?” Kevin asked. “Do we let it ride? Pick another number or move on to a new game?”
“You pick,” she said.
He picked
up half the chips, handing her her share. “I’m not that brave,” he said and moved the others onto the red square. “This is my first meeting with good luck. I don’t want to push it.”
“‘Faint heart never won fair maiden,’” she quoted, and put the chips he’d handed back with the others. “I can tell you’ve got a lucky streak just waiting to burst out.”
“You think so?”
His eyes caught hers and all sorts of dreams danced in the air between them. There was fear lurking in his soul, and hope wanting to burst free. A shadow was hanging over his heart—a shadow that he wanted to push aside so that he could grasp at life again. But that fear kept getting in the way.
She wanted to help him break free. She wanted to help him learn to laugh and dance and feel the magic of the stars. She wanted to help him come alive.
“And we have another winner!”
The man’s voice broke the spell and they both turned to look at the wheel. They’d won again!
“You see?” Sam said with a laugh and threw her arms around Kevin. “Didn’t I say you were lucky?”
His eyes looked startled, but only for a moment before his arms came around her. He swung her slightly, laughing, and let the joy surround them. She could feel his body relax—the hard muscles seeming to let go of tension—and open itself up to happiness. Or at least to the possibility of it.
“We make a great team,” Sam said as he let go of her. “Nobody can beat us.”
“We’ll win every prize,” Kevin agreed.
“We’ll be the envy of everyone here.”
“We’ll be generous and play another game for a while.”
She laughed again and helped him gather up their chips, dropping them into the pocket of his suit coat when her hands couldn’t hold them all. Then, as they moved on, he let his arm slip around her shoulders.
Ever so slowly, like an ember growing into a flame, she felt a rising heat where his hand rested. The fire spread, winding over her shoulders and easing into her heart. A longing began to expand, seeping into every inch of her being, every shadowy hidden corner of her soul. A need to belong, a sudden certainty that life could hold so much more.
One Big Happy Family Page 6
