by Susan Meier
But getting on the elevator, she couldn’t stop the voice that whispered to her that advice wasn’t the only thing she’d given Ty over the weekend. She’d also given him the cold shoulder. She’d pulled so far away from him emotionally, they could have been living in different houses. His decision to try her advice might be his way of saying that he missed her. God knows she had missed him. Especially when she’d glimpsed how sweet he was with Sabrina in his unguarded moments Saturday evening and Sunday morning. She desperately wanted him to be the nice guy and from his “experiment” it seemed he now wanted that, too.
Her heart leaped and her hope soared. If the nice guy really was coming out, then the time they had to live together until the playground presentation and the Wall Street Journal interview would be very different. He might even stop pretending he didn’t find her attractive. There was a good possibility he would kiss her again.
When just the thought of having his lips touch hers weakened her knees to the point that she worried about her ability to walk, Madelyn realized the deed was done. She didn’t merely like Ty anymore. She loved him.
Or at least she loved the man she knew lived way deep down inside him somewhere. A man who, it appeared from his behavior that morning, was digging his way out. But if the nice guy didn’t succeed, Madelyn knew she was in big trouble. The nice guy might be able to love her, but the bossy, pushy tyrant couldn’t. And if she didn’t handle this correctly, she would get her heart broken.
Driving home that night, Ty felt restless and irritable. The day had gone remarkably well with him being superconsiderate and polite to his employees. Every meeting ran smoothly. Every discussion came to a satisfactory conclusion. But Ty didn’t think the results of his experiment were conclusive. They only proved his employees liked being mollycoddled. They did not prove his business would continue to make money enough to employ an entire town full of people or that Bryant Development would continue to run at the high standards that caused them to win job after job.
The school of hard knocks had taught him that the only way a company stayed on top was by pushing. Pushing, demanding and never backing down had been Ty’s edge for so long, he wasn’t sure the company would survive if he suddenly became soft. He would survive. His employees would thrive—or at least so they thought. But he wasn’t sure the company would. And this company was the only thing he and Seth had left of their parents. Changing his business strategy was an enormous risk. Ty wasn’t one for taking risks. He thought. He planned. He negotiated. He did not gamble.
Pulling into his driveway, Ty sighed. He was so tired of thinking about this that he wanted two fingers of bourbon, a four-hour sports marathon—any sport would do—and some blessed peace and quiet.
Instead, he walked into the kitchen to find a crying baby and a less-than-civil female who announced there was no dinner and she wasn’t cooking.
“Why didn’t your mother make dinner?” Ty asked as he rummaged through his cupboards, ostensibly looking for something he could make from among the groceries Madelyn’s mother had purchased.
“She had a church thing this afternoon.” Madelyn paused long enough to sigh. “Why don’t you just call Louie’s?”
“Because the restaurant doesn’t do takeout and I have to set up some kind of special deal with him.”
“Then make some macaroni.”
For that Ty turned. “I ate enough macaroni to last a lifetime after my parents died. I did not become wealthy to eat like a pauper.”
For a few seconds Madelyn stared at him, then in the cutest, most bubbly way she began to laugh. Ty stared at her in total confusion. Soon Sabrina stopped crying and she stared at Madelyn, too.
Ty’s eyes narrowed. “Well, that was certainly a creative way to quiet her.”
“I couldn’t help it,” Madelyn said, using her free hand to wipe away her tears. “I like macaroni and you talk about it as if it’s poison.”
“It’s not poison. I’ve just had my fill.”
“Then why don’t you take the baby and I’ll try to find something to cook.”
Now that Sabrina wasn’t crying anymore, that sounded like a good idea. Ty walked over and slid his hands around Sabrina’s waist to take her from Madelyn, but as he began to pull Sabrina away, he caught Madelyn’s gaze and the strangest thing happened. She smiled at him and every antsy jumpy nerve, every piece of stress tightening his muscles, instantly relaxed.
And he finally understood why Madelyn liked him, because it was the same reason he liked her. When he was being himself they clicked. Something about her matched with something inside him. She didn’t simply challenge him. She also calmed him. And he didn’t only push her. He also made her smile. Frequently, he made her out-and-out laugh. He couldn’t remember the last person he had been able to make laugh.
They complemented each other. She’d seen it all along. But he was only seeing it now.
He hadn’t let anybody get to know him in eight years, but day-to-day dealings had taught Madelyn a lot more about him than he would ever deliberately show anybody. And living with her, he knew some very important things about her, too.
And he liked what he knew. That was why they were drawn to each other. It wasn’t sex. It wasn’t chemistry. It was a personality connection.
Though it didn’t hurt to have the chemistry.
He smiled at her and her face seemed to blossom to life, and he knew everything he had been thinking was true. He liked her. She liked him.
Shifting Sabrina to his right, he bent and kissed Madelyn. As his lips met the softness of hers, his heart seemed to tumble in his chest. He liked her. Every molecule in his body sprang to life just being in the same room with her. Kissing her, having his mouth pressed against hers, made him happy. But he wasn’t sure he could make the changes she wanted him to make. He wasn’t even sure the changes she had already wrestled from him would last. He certainly wasn’t sure if what they felt would last forever.
The thought stopped him. Madelyn had never failed him. And he was trying to change for her. But it seemed unfair for them to look at a possible romance as an all-or-nothing circumstance. Particularly since there were hundreds of points of compromise that they were ignoring.
Juggling Sabrina but holding Madelyn’s gaze he said, “I have an idea.”
“Yes?”
“This thing between us isn’t going away.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“And you don’t believe anything I tell you about me being a nasty man who you should stay away from.”
She smiled. “Not even a little bit.”
“So I was thinking that maybe what we need is a compromise.”
Her brow furrowed in confusion. “What kind of compromise?”
“Well, I like you and you like me. And we’re both adults. So maybe that sleeping together idea we’ve tossed around isn’t such a bad one.”
She gave him such a horrified look that Ty knew he’d phrased his suggestion all wrong. He tried again. “I’m not just asking you to sleep with me. I’m asking you to compromise. You want me to change. I’m not sure I can. I’m not even sure this relationship will last. But I know for sure it won’t even get off the ground unless we meet in the middle.”
She smiled, took the step that separated them, and slid her arms around his neck. “Two days ago I would have agreed, but today I don’t.”
He shifted Sabrina to accommodate Madelyn being close to him. “I assume you have a good reason to back this up.”
She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his lips soundly. Holding Sabrina as he was, he couldn’t participate the way he really wanted to and Madelyn pulled back before he could figure out a way to prevent her from breaking their kiss without dropping the baby.
“I know you’re going to say I’m wrong, but I think I love you.”
His mouth fell open. “After two weeks?”
As if she didn’t hear his protest, Madelyn continued, “So I’m not settling for second best. I don’t
want to sleep with you, I want you to love me.”
He gaped at her. He had softened enough to compromise with her and now she was forcing him into the all-or-nothing situation? “After two weeks?”
She shrugged. “In some ways, it’s very complimentary that you’re willing to break a lot of your own personal rules to sleep with me. But if we try things your way and sleep together before you have any real feelings for me, you would be missing out on so much. And I can’t let you do it.”
His eyes narrowed as he took in everything she said. “Your not sleeping with me is for my own good?”
“Exactly.”
“Parts of my anatomy totally disagree with that right now.”
“Those parts of your anatomy have been controlling you for too long. This,” she said, tapping his chest where his heart would be, “is what I want from you.”
With that she turned and began rummaging through the cupboards as if nothing had happened. But Ty knew everything had happened. First, he’d changed his morning routine and begun mingling with his employees. Now, he’d nearly begged a woman to try a relationship with him even though it broke about fifty of his own personal rules, and she’d said no because she wanted his heart.
He almost wished he could give it to her but he knew he couldn’t. Not because he needed it for anything else, but because if he gave her his heart, he really would change. He really would lose his edge and his company would go to hell. People would be out of work. His parents’ dream would be gone.
And that was the bottom line. He hadn’t simply given up on the idea of relationships eight years ago when Anita shafted him. He’d given up his own personal pleasure so that the people of Porter would be employed, his parents’ dream would live and he, Seth and Cooper would be respected.
After so many years, he couldn’t just throw it all away.
Especially not for a woman.
It seemed insane.
It was insane.
And he wouldn’t do it.
Chapter Eight
The sun was warm and bright on the morning Ty was to make the presentation of the playground equipment to the day care. Madelyn and Ty hadn’t really spoken since their conversation when she told him she wanted his heart, but she had watched him wage a battle of sorts all week. Try as he might, he couldn’t go back to being Tyrant Ty. He wanted to. She knew he believed that was how he had become successful. But after his experimental day of being nice to his employees, he simply could not be as cool and remote as he had been. He also couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off her. More than that, though, she’d seen him reach to touch her several times, then pull back, as if he couldn’t prevent his instinct, but refused to succumb to it.
At least not yet. Whether Ty liked it or not, he was changing, and Madelyn decided all she had to do was let nature take its course and soon Ty would be accustomed to this new way of living. And once he got accustomed to his new behaviors, he would realize having her in his life was a big part of that.
But for now there was still a struggle going on. That was why she wasn’t surprised when he hired a limousine to take them to the presentation. It was his way of trying to hang on to his former style of doing things. But again, Madelyn wasn’t worried. Ty might arrive as the distanced executive determined to maintain the identity he’d built, but once he gave the speech she had written and the townspeople applauded both his comments and his generosity, Tyrant Ty would be a memory.
The chauffeur pulled the limousine onto the back driveway of the two-story frame dwelling on Marigold Street that housed the day care. After a few seconds, the uniformed man opened Ty’s door. Ty stepped out and reached in to get Sabrina. The chauffeur assisted Madelyn.
“We won’t be more than an hour,” Ty told the driver, then faced Madelyn. As he juggled his briefcase and Sabrina, and Madelyn arranged the jacket of her pale peach suit, Seth walked across the grassy backyard.
“Good morning,” he said, taking Sabrina from Ty.
“Good morning, Seth,” Madelyn said brightly, filled with enthusiasm.
“Good morning, Seth,” Ty said, clearly not as upbeat and happy as Madelyn, but she didn’t care. She was confident enough for both of them.
“Since the two of you are going to be busy,” Seth said, straightening the pink bonnet on Sabrina’s head to provide maximum protection from the midmorning sun, “I thought I would take the baby and spend some time getting to know her.”
Madelyn watched Sabrina as she cocked her head and studied Seth. The baby had seen Seth only the few times Madelyn had brought her to work. Though he’d held her once, they really didn’t “know” each other. Still, Sabrina wasn’t afraid of him, simply curious.
“I think it’s a good idea for you to spend some time with her,” Madelyn agreed.
Ty shook his head. “You mean you’re not going to force me to hold her while I make the presentation speech to remind everybody I have a big heart?”
“You do have a big heart,” Seth said, but he walked away and Madelyn realized something else she’d been missing up until now. Seth quietly, subtly reminded Ty of his good points as much as she did.
When Seth was gone, Madelyn faced Ty. She and Seth easily saw his goodness, and this morning the residents of Porter would see it, too. Because deep down inside he was a good man.
She straightened his pale-blue tie, then smoothed her fingers down the lapel of his navy blue jacket. “No baby today.”
“Wow. You’re going to let me loose on the community with no prop.”
“You don’t need a prop.” Hands flattened against his lapels, Madelyn stepped closer. “You’re smart,” she said, letting herself get closer still. “You’re more responsible than any man I’ve ever met,” she added, rising to her tiptoes so their mouths were only a breath apart. “And you look fabulous.”
With that compliment, she breached the final space between them and touched her lips to his. She felt his sharp intake of air, but when she pressed in closer, allowing their bodies to touch, she heard the thump of his briefcase falling to the ground. She knew she’d annihilated him the way he had the first time he’d kissed her.
She felt his hands on her back and deepened the kiss. His mouth automatically opened to hers and right there on the sidewalk she took him as high and as far as propriety allowed. Then she stepped back and smiled at the stunned, aroused expression on his face.
“You’re also a good man. Not perfect. But good. In fact, I believe that so much, I’m not even going to insist that you give my speech. I want you to go out there and speak from your heart.”
His voice was sinfully smoky when he said, “You’re not coming with me?”
Madelyn struggled to stay where she was. She wanted to grab his hand, take him home and entice him to fulfill the promise that sizzled between them. But right now it was more important to show him he didn’t need her.
“Nope. You don’t need Sabrina and you don’t need me. I want you to see for yourself that these people like you for you.” She caught Ty’s gaze and held it. “Just as I believe that underneath all your gruffness you’re a good man, I also believe that deep down all these people like you. I don’t see how anybody could resist you. God knows I sometimes can’t. Just be yourself.”
With that she walked away.
And openmouthed with pure unadulterated shock, Ty stared at her retreating back. He would have worried that after that kiss he wouldn’t be able to think about anything but making love to Madelyn…. Except she’d inspired him. No, she hadn’t inspired him. She’d challenged him. She believed he was a good man and she believed these people liked him. If he didn’t somehow get them to show it, he would let her down.
And after that kiss he couldn’t let her down.
He wouldn’t let her down.
But he and Madelyn would be doing more than talking after they returned home from this event. Madelyn might think she couldn’t sleep with him unless he gave her his heart, but she had enough of his heart for the time being. He migh
t not be giving her the total commitment she wanted or expected, but tonight he wasn’t letting her out of her flirting so easily.
Tonight he would prove to her that they were exactly where they were supposed to be for the amount of time they had known each other. He’d compromised enough. It was time for her to do something for him.
With Seth minding Sabrina, and Madelyn making her way to the front of the house to stand with the day-care moms, grandparents and just plain curious Porter residents, Ty walked to the back porch alone. He climbed the steps, but before he reached the screen door, Amanda Jennings opened it.
A short woman, with straight brown hair cut in a line about ear-length and big blue eyes, Amanda resembled a doll. Ty could understand why the kids adored her.
“Good morning, Mr. Bryant.”
“Good morning, Amanda. Are we ready?”
“Yes, it’s almost ten. I have a table set up on the front porch,” she said, leading Ty through a room full of toy boxes and shelves littered with dolls, trucks and board games. “I think this would work best if you said a few words to the people who are gathered, then hand me the truck that symbolizes the gym equipment that will be delivered Monday. I’ll thank you for your generosity, then we can cut a piece of the cake that’s on the table.” She paused and glanced back at Ty. “Since we don’t have a ribbon or anything to cut. After that, we’ll step out of the way and my staff will finish cutting the cake and serve it.”
Ty nodded, but his stomach was tied in knots inside. It was one thing to use the public elevator and say good morning to a few people. It was quite another to stand in front of the spouses, children and parents of his employees and give a donation that could very well be construed as him trying to buy the town’s affection before the Wall Street Journal reporter arrived on Monday.
Still, after Amanda introduced him, Ty confidently stepped forward and gave the speech Madelyn had written about creating leaders because he believed its message was true. The remarks had seemed like a piece of drivel when he’d first read them. But today he sincerely hoped that somehow or another the care and generosity of a community could inspire a child to become a leader.
