“This is absolutely perfect.” She took it off the hanger and held it against herself. “The color makes me blush!”
“I thought it was pretty sexy.”
“So put it on.” At Alexis’s look, Sunshine rolled her eyes. “I’m going, I’m going.”
“Really going? And no eavesdropping?”
“How will I know if you need help?”
“Because I will tell you all about it afterward.” Had she really just promised that?
“All right. No need to get your knickers in a twist.” Sunshine walked toward the door.
“Wait! He’ll see you.”
She smiled. “Not if I don’t want to be seen.”
“Let me look.” Alexis quietly cracked the door, and then pulled it open a little more.
Vincent had turned off all the lights except one of the bedside lights leaving the edges of the room in shadow. Oh, good. He must be reading, and once he had his glasses on, he didn’t see much past the printed page.
Alexis opened the door wider, then gestured behind her for Sunshine to sneak past.
When nothing happened, Alexis looked over her shoulder, but Sunshine was gone.
Wow. She was good. Alexis had been concentrating on Vincent so much, she’d missed Sunshine leaving.
Alexis hurried to put on the negligee. She’d been in the bathroom for so long, she considered just walking out naked, but remembering Sunshine’s advice about keeping things gradual and subtle, Alexis pulled the thing on for what she hoped would be the last time. Honestly, she was going to wear it out at this rate.
Turning off the light in the bathroom, Alexis quietly opened the door.
Well, this was it. Show time.
She approached the bed. Vincent had, indeed, been reading. Part of Alexis was miffed, but she reminded herself that an indefinite amount of time had passed while she’d talked with Sunshine.
She hoped Vincent hadn’t overheard them because she sure didn’t have an explanation if he had.
And then Alexis watched Vincent’s head slowly nod forward.
Not again. “Vincent?”
No response. Alexis stood by the bed and gently tugged the papers from his loose grasp.
Some things just weren’t meant to be.
Alexis slid the big, old-fashioned black glasses from his face, turned out the light, gathered her clothes and snuck back to her room.
DON’T LEAVE! What was the matter with that girl? Did she listen to nothing Sunshine told her? What about the cuddling? How about the ribbon? At least she could have tied on the ribbon, even if she didn’t want to stay.
Sunshine started to appear in front of Alexis in the hallway, but didn’t.
Sunshine recognized that look of relief on Alexis’s face. She’d felt it, herself, on more than one occasion. And so she let Alexis go back to her room while she thought about what that look of relief meant.
WAS IT POSSIBLE TO GET a cookie-and-milk hangover?
Dylan rubbed his stomach and looked at the depleted pile of cookies. His first official binge.
“Mmm. The cookies are popular tonight.”
He hadn’t heard anyone come in. A blonde, wearing a getup that made her look like an eighties backup singer for Madonna, peered at the cookie tray, then at Dylan.
He wondered if he looked guilty. “Have one. They’re real good.”
Smiling, she walked over to him. “You’re a friend of Alexis’s, aren’t you?”
After what just happened, was he still? “Yes. Are you?”
“I’d like to think so.”
“Are you here for the wedding?”
“I work here. I saw you rehearsing with her.”
“I’m the best man.”
The woman gave him a long look. “Honey, I’m beginning to just wonder if you aren’t.”
ALEXIS WOKE UP EARLY the next morning, determined to try again with Vincent. He was tired last night. But this morning, all systems should be go.
However, when Alexis got to his room, Vincent was packing.
Had she scared him away? Or did he think less of her because she wanted to sleep with him before the wedding?
He was older and more conservative…but wait a minute. He’d grown up in the era of free love.
“What’s all this?” she asked.
“Alexis, it’s impossible.”
Her stomach clenched. “No! Vincent, we can make this work. I’m sorry if I came across as too aggressive last night.”
“No, no, no, no.” He stopped packing and gave her a quick kiss. On the forehead. “You were delightful. I…was distracted.”
Comatose, more like.
“Then why are you leaving?”
“Because I cannot get a decent connection—landline or cell phone. The Internet seems to be down all the time and the faxes cut off midway through. It’s impossible,” he said again. “I’ll just take a puddle jumper to Wyoming and save us all time.”
“You’re going to Wyoming?”
“It’s not far. We’re already in Colorado. I’ll be back by noon tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow! Three hours before the wedding?”
“That’s plenty of slack time.” He grinned. “You won’t start without me, will you?”
“But…but we have friends and family coming in today. What am I supposed to tell them?”
“I know that you are capable of greeting them without me at your side.”
“But it would be very nice to have you at my side.” She abruptly switched tactics. “And there is the pre-nup to finish negotiating.”
“You and Dylan work it out,” Vincent said as his phone chirped. “Alexis, could you arrange for a breakfast tray to be sent up and finish packing for me?”
He turned away and Alexis understood that it was a rhetorical question.
Well. Pack? For him? She didn’t know him well enough to pack for him. Then she laughed inwardly at the irony of it.
It sounded very wifely. Very servile. She wasn’t sure she wanted to set that kind of precedent.
She gave herself a mental slap. Here he was, frantically trying to get away so that he could get back and she was quibbling about throwing a few things in a suitcase.
Alexis used the room phone to call for breakfast, ordering a large one, which Vincent could eat or not as he chose. Then she just added everything in the closet and drawers except his wedding clothes to the suitcase and zipped it shut.
Vincent was gone before his breakfast arrived, so Alexis ate it. Every bit, including bacon which she hadn’t eaten in years.
Clearly, she must never, ever live in high altitudes.
After gorging herself on pork products, she called Margaret and went in search of Dylan to finish with the pre-nup.
She was not looking forward to facing Dylan again.
She’d deliberately avoided thinking about him and the way he’d kissed her.
What a jerk. That was so unlike him, too. Even when she’d been terribly hurt, she’d never thought of him as a jerk.
She left a message on his voice mail to meet her in the lobby where she was going to arrange for use of the small conference room, if it was still available.
Better to get this over with before her mother and sister arrived. They would be watching her to see how she acted around Dylan and the image Alexis wanted to project was two old friends meeting again. Bygones were bygones. Fond memories, that sort of thing.
It sounded good, but when Alexis saw Dylan walking toward her in the lobby, she had no idea if she could pull it off.
“I’m sorry,” he said at once, his face revealing signs of a sleepless night. “Not for kissing you—”
“You’re not sorry you kissed me?”
“Heck no. That was great. Wouldn’t have missed that. It was totally inappropriate and I know it. I regret that. But I’m apologizing for what I said.” He gave her a somber look. “I wanted you to hate me.”
“Good job.”
“Yeah. I was trying to put it all on you, which
was wrong.” He flicked a hand through the air. “Well, I hold you in the highest esteem, it’ll never happen again, etc. etc. Now, is Margaret going to be here soon?”
“Just like that? I’m supposed to forgive you and forget all about what a jerk you were just like that?”
“You want me to suffer? You got your wish. I have suffered. I’m suffering now. You know what I did? I drank and OD’ed.”
“Dylan!”
“On milk and cookies. Lots and lots of cookies.”
It did sound like something he would do.
Alexis snickered and then laughed, laughed until her eyes watered and her sides hurt. She was still laughing when Margaret arrived. Even worse, she’d forgiven him.
“Now this is what I like to see,” she said. “It’s always easier when both sides get along.” They headed for the conference room. “Especially when we have issues as serious as these.”
Issues? “What issues?” Alexis had read the pre-nup. She hadn’t discovered any issues.
They sat around the table. “Dylan has been a very naughty boy.”
Both Dylan and Alexis stared at her. Did she know?
Margaret tapped the paper and sat back. “The conjugal-rights clause. Why, the way it’s written, a judge could decide that Vincent could take a mistress, buy her a Harry Winston diamond ring the cost of which would come out of Alexis’s settlement.”
What? Alexis looked down at her own bare finger. She and Vincent were going ring shopping after they got back from Colorado.
Dylan grinned. “I wondered when you were going to catch that.”
“How could you put that clause in?” Alexis asked.
When Dylan shrugged and didn’t meet her eyes, she knew it had come from Vincent. Well, family law wasn’t his strength. Thinking he knew everything about everything was.
Alexis sat back and listened to Dylan and Margaret hammer out new language. It was so effortless for Dylan.
She almost wished he hadn’t apologized so she could still despise him. The fact was, she couldn’t. She should have slapped his face. Or the verbal equivalent. And she sure shouldn’t have kissed him.
He glanced over at her, including her in the conversation, but Alexis wasn’t listening. One look from Dylan and the butterflies took off in her stomach.
A few kisses from Vincent and she saw ghosts in the bathroom.
Not a good sign. And she thought she handled stress well.
Margaret was smiling at her. “If that’s everything, then I’ll have fresh copies printed and we can sign after Vincent returns tomorrow.”
“Thanks,” Dylan said. “The facilities here aren’t set up for that.”
“My hotel has a full business center of which I’ve been gladly availing myself.” She stood.
Alexis and Dylan stood, as well. “I do appreciate you flying out here. I’m sorry this has taken longer than we planned,” Alexis said.
Margaret shook their hands. “It’s been a pleasure. Ta ta, kiddies.”
Alexis and Dylan glanced at each other as she left.
“That was pretty jaunty for old Margaret.”
Alexis watched her lawyer hurry through the lobby. “She’s met a man.”
“Who?”
“Oh, I don’t know. But only a man can put that kind of spring in a woman’s step.”
Dylan looked down at her. “So, Alexis, where’s your spring?”
“Wyoming.” They stood in the doorway looking out on the lobby. Alexis didn’t quite know what to do with herself so she wandered toward the historical parlor.
Dylan followed. “He’s coming back, isn’t he?”
She wished Dylan would go away. Forgiveness was one thing. Attraction was another. “If he weren’t coming back, he would have told me. Jilting isn’t Vincent’s style.” Not on purpose anyway.
She stared up at the old photo of the girls of the house. This time she studied it, specifically Sunshine’s face.
The girl who’d been talking to her was a dead ringer. So to speak.
“If you’re at loose ends, would you like to take a walk around Maiden Falls? Maybe visit the falls themselves?”
It would be great to get out of the hotel. Alexis turned to Dylan, ready to accept, when the expression on his face stopped her.
Naked yearning. He wasn’t even trying to hide it. No wonder he wasn’t sorry he’d kissed her. He wanted to kiss her again. Worse, if he tried, she’d let him.
He might yearn, but he wasn’t offering a concrete alternative to her current life’s plan. Not that Alexis was interested. “I’ve got some puttering to do before my family gets here. Choose wines, check out the centerpieces for the wedding supper, that kind of thing.”
“Alexis…”
Her breath hitched. He was going to say something he shouldn’t. Maybe even offer her that alternative. “Don’t.”
“I was only going to say goodbye.” Dylan reached out and caressed her cheek with his knuckles. “If you change your mind, just say the word.”
“And what word would that be?” she snapped.
“Walk. If you change your mind about going for a walk.”
They gazed at each other for a long time. “I won’t,” she said at last.
With a tiny nod, Dylan strode from the room.
7
“HEY! WAKE UP!”
Sunshine blinked and forced her eyes all the way open. Rosebud stood over her.
“Sorry, I fell asleep on your couch. I know you like to read here.”
“Never mind that,” Rosebud said. “While you were sleeping, your groom took a powder.”
“What?”
“He left.”
Sunshine sat bolt upright. “Left as in left?”
Rosebud nodded. “He’s gone.”
“Where’s Alexis?”
“She’s still here wandering around and trying to avoid the cute one.”
Sunshine winced. She felt hung over.
“What are you going to do?”
“Let me think.” Thinking was hard. She needed a couple of years more sleep. Sunshine closed her eyes just to clarify her thoughts.
Rosebud poked her. “You appeared in front of someone other than your assigned couple, didn’t you? That’s why you’re so tired,” she whispered.
She needn’t have bothered whispering. Miss Arlotta would still be able to hear her. “It was that Dylan, wasn’t it? I can’t believe you chanced it. I mean he’s a good-looking one, but you only have to help this last couple and you’ll get to go to the Eternal Picnic.”
“It’s okay. It was business. He’s in love with Alexis and I’m afraid she’s in love with him, too.” Sunshine filled Rosebud in on last night.
Rosebud was nodding when Sunshine finished. “I think you’re right.”
Sunshine didn’t want to hear that, especially from Rosebud, because Rosebud was very smart and very seldom wrong. “Why? What happened?”
“Only that they stood right here in this room and looked at each other making goo-goo eyes while their little hearts went pitter-patter. And now they’re trying to avoid each other.”
“Not that. It never works. Where are they?”
Rosebud took her hand. “In the ballroom.” By the time she finished talking, they were there in time to see Dylan walk in on Alexis and the wedding coordinator.
“Ooh, feel those sparks.”
Sunshine sighed. “Well, shoot patoot.”
Rosebud patted her arm before drifting away. “If there’s a wedding tomorrow, you’ll deserve that trip to the Great Picnic.”
Sunshine took in the expression on Dylan’s face, the awkwardness, and the increasingly bleak look on Alexis’s face.
The air was thick with sexual longing.
Ha. Now that was something Sunshine understood. Well, well. It appeared that Alexis had the right idea, but the wrong man. And it was up to Sunshine to help her figure it out. Before tomorrow.
THE PIANO HAD BEEN MOVED in here and Dylan had thought the ballroom would
be empty.
Once he’d decided to forget about a future with Alexis, he thought seeing her would be easier, not more difficult.
“I was looking for the piano,” he explained.
“They moved it in here for tomorrow.” Alexis stated the obvious.
Behind Alexis, Tracy was pouting at him because he hadn’t called her. He’d forgotten all about Tracy.
“I was in town and found a book of Tin Pan Alley sheet-music reproductions.” He held it up so Alexis wouldn’t think he’d been stalking her.
“Go ahead.” She gestured toward the piano. “You won’t bother us.”
But she would bother him.
Dylan sat down and turned to the table of contents. And there they were. Song titles from 1895–1920 that summed up his life right now: “I Can’t Tell You Why I Love You But I Do.” There it was in a nutshell, wasn’t it? He wished he had time to figure out what he wanted to do.
“I’ve Got a Feeling for You” and he wondered how long it would last.
“I Love You in the Same Old Way.” Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe it was a whole new way.
“Let Me Call You Sweetheart,” except he had no right to call Alexis sweetheart anymore because he’d blown it seven years ago. Or had he blown it? Seven years ago, he’d been convinced that he’d made the right decision.
“Let Bygones Be Bygones.” Alexis had forgiven him for last night far more quickly than he’d had any right to expect.
“I Just Can’t Make My Eyes Behave.” Dylan stole a look across the room where she was choosing between three centerpieces and taking a long time to do it. Centerpieces. Not legal maneuvers, but center-stupid-pieces. And they all looked alike. What was the big deal?
She was going to be miserable doing stuff like this for the rest of her life, couldn’t she see that?
Alexis glanced at Dylan as though she felt him watching her. They stared at each other, then Dylan rippled a chord on the piano.
Pressing her lips together, Alexis turned back to Tracy, pointed at one of the centerpieces, then stood and hurried from the room.
And the song Dylan began to play? “Goodbye My Lady Love.”
FORGETTING ABOUT DYLAN wasn’t working. Vincent should never have left and he really shouldn’t have fallen asleep last night.
And now she was only going to get three hours before her wedding to find out if they were compatible sexually.
Can't Buy Me Love Page 10
