Some Girls Do

by Leanne Banks

  Katie held back a moment and watched the three of them climb the steps. Her chest felt so tight she couldn't breathe. God, how she wished Michael were here. Damn him for arranging this and leaving her to manage the shock on her own. The sight of her brother with her sisters was so sweet she almost couldn't bear to look.

  Turning away, she hid behind a huge maple and wept. She begged her mother's forgiveness for not believing in her. After all, Sunny had come through. There'd been some frightening moments, but even in death, she'd managed to take care of her children. Her mother had been far from perfect, but she'd done her best, and Katie's life was the richer for it. Of all her siblings, she suddenly felt the luckiest, because she'd had the most time with her mom. Knowing how to two-step and wear high heels had come in handy, and Popsicles, the song “You Are My Sunshine,” and fairy tales took the rough edges off of life.

  It took several moments for her to collect herself. Thank goodness, her siblings were distracted. She made a quick dash to the rest room and splashed water on her face, and joined the trio on the front porch.

  Dee squinted her eyes at her. “Still a little splotchy.”

  Katie smiled. “Kind of you to notice.”

  “Does Mama talk to you?” Jeremy asked suddenly.

  Katie watched her sisters’ faces freeze in surprise.

  “What do you mean?” Lori asked, facing Jeremy so he could see her speak.

  “She sings to me. I hear Mama and she sings to me. I can't hear music anymore, but I can hear her sing.”

  Silence descended on the four of them. Dee dabbed at her eyes. “I assume you already knew about this.”

  Katie nodded.

  “She tells me I'm not alone,” Lori admitted. “She tells me my sisters love me.” She slid a sideways glance at Dee. “She must be talking about Priss.”

  Katie chuckled at Lori's gentle joke. “What about you, Dee? You hear anything from the hereafter?”

  “She says I'm gonna be the death of her.”

  “But she's already dead,” Lori said.

  “My point exactly.” She paused a moment. “A few times I wondered if I was going nuts, but I heard her sing too. It was just before I ran away that last time. I would hear her sing every night after he beat—” She broke off and smiled, ruffling Jeremy's hair. “Well, I'm glad to know I'm in good company.”

  The revelation scored Katie's heart. Oh, how she wished she could have done something. No wonder Dee was guarded. She bit her lip and glanced at her watch. “It's dinnertime for the students. We should leave.”

  Jeremy protested. Hugs were repeated all around with promises to return. Katie and her sisters drove to Katie's apartment, but Lori and Dee were scheduled to return to Texas that night.

  “You've done well for Jeremy,” Dee said.

  “Thanks. I would have liked to have done well for you if I'd known.”

  “Water under the bridge. It's been twelve years, Priss. You can't be responsible for everyone.”

  But it wasn't enough. “If you ever want to live with me, you can,” Katie impulsively offered.

  Dee lifted an eyebrow. “It's a little crowded.”

  “Wilhemina and Douglas will be leaving soon. I mean this invitation,” she said, hugging both Lori and Dee. “I don't want to lose touch.”

  “Me either,” Lori said.

  “Me either. I'll be in touch.” Dee smiled. “You always showed us the right way to do things. You haven't stopped.”

  Katie felt the threat of more tears. “Trust me, I'm not perfect.”

  “You didn't ever say what Mama says to you,” Lori said.

  Katie rolled her eyes and sighed. “Mama tells me to have sex.”

  Dee laughed. “With Michael, I'll bet. Ah, gotcha. I can see it on your face.” “Shut up,” Katie said. “But call me.”

  “Anytime?” Lori asked with a wide smile.

  “All the time.”

  “I would like, to see you at Wilhemina's wedding tomorrow,” Katie had said. “I would really like to see you, and no I'm not pregnant.”

  Her words kept him awake. She kept him awake. Nothing new there. He had half wanted her to be pregnant. That way, it might have been easier to—He broke off his thoughts, disgusted with himself. Staring at the ceiling, he remembered her voice getting tight and choky when she'd talked about her sisters. Then she'd cussed at him for not being there. He'd felt like a heel, or at the very least, an idiot.

  He was deliberately locking himself in the Rasmussen prison to prove a point to the prick of the century when the woman he needed more than he needed his next breath needed him with her. The silent knowledge sank through him. God help him, he was head-over-ass in love with her, and he was scared to death she was somehow going to slip away from him. Which made his current choice of holing himself up in Rasmussen's house doubly asinine.

  Michael stared at the ceiling and calculated, how many accounts he would have to get to make up for Ivan Rasmussen. By early dawn, he reached his decision.

  Michael walked into Ivan's office. Ivan glowered at him. “Why haven't you left?”

  “I wanted to prove the point that I was stable and reliable, but it occurs to me that I really don't care what you think of me anymore.”

  Ivan met his gaze. “If that's true, then why don't you leave?”

  “I am,” Michael said and felt the oddest weight lifted from his chest. “I only have one more week and I could make it with no problem, but there's somebody waiting for me, somebody I care about a helluva lot more than I care about you. So you can keep your security contract wherever you like. I'm going to your daughter's wedding,” he said, and walked out of the office.

  He hadn't walked ten steps before Ivan appeared at his side. “You can't say something like that and just leave.”

  “I just did.”

  “But you can't.”

  “Yes, I can.”

  “I order you to—”

  “Nuh-uh-uh,” Michael said, holding up his hand in a stopping motion. “You can't order me because I don't work for you.”

  Ivan's brows knitted. “Is she marrying the hog farmer?”

  Michael nodded. “He's a nice guy and he thinks the sun rises and sets on Wilhemina. She glows when she's around him.”

  Ivan sighed and looked away. “She's getting married today.”

  “Yep.”

  “Where?”

  “Can't tell you.”

  Ivan looked affronted. “I'm the father of the bride. I damn well deserve to know where my daughter is getting married.”

  “Not if you're gonna be disruptive.”

  “I won't be disruptive. I just,” Ivan said and stopped. “I just want to see her.”

  “Okay. Want a ride?”

  Michael wasn't certain it was a great idea for Ivan to attend the wedding given his previous attitude, but he had an inkling the old coot was coming around. And when Michael saw Ivan catch a glimpse of Wilhemina in her lace wedding dress, he was shocked to see tears in the man's eyes.

  All fine and good, but Michael wanted to see Katie. He searched the small crowd and saw her standing near the minister holding a bouquet of flowers. The sun glinted on her hair, and he could feel her smile from thirty feet away. For that moment, though, all he could do was stare.

  She must have felt him looking at her, because she turned and her gaze latched on to his. Her smile broadened and he felt his heart trip over itself. He walked, then ran to greet her, taking her in his arms.

  She felt warm and wonderful and like everything he'd ever wanted. “I've missed you,” he said.

  “Me too. I didn't think you'd come.”

  “I brought Ivan, but I probably lost the contract.”

  She pulled back and searched his gaze. “Are you okay with that?”

  He nodded “I needed to see you. You look beautiful,” he said, taking in the flowing pastel dress and baby's breath in her hair.

  “Thanks. It was nice to buy something that wasn't gray.”

  “I knew
you were pretty even when you wore gray.”

  “When it came to me, it always seemed like you knew just a little too much.”

  “I want to know more,” he told her, and it was the truest thing he'd ever said.

  Her eyes darkened with an emotion that grabbed his gut and wouldn't let go. “I don't have a condom with me,” she said in a low-voice. “But I'm on the pill.”

  She was going to give him a heart attack. “Why?”

  She looked from side to side, then bit her lip. “Because I don't want any barriers. I just want—” She took a quick breath that undid him, then tied him in a dozen knots. “I just want you.

  “You're going to make it difficult to get through this wedding ceremony if you don't stop talking like that,” he warned her.

  “How long do I have to stop?”

  “Until the minister pronounces them man and wife. Can we get this show on the road?”

  The ceremony felt interminable, but in actuality only lasted eight minutes. The minister pronounced them man and wife, and Douglas laid a whopper of a kiss on his new bride. Ivan strode up to the couple and for a second Michael was afraid the old man was going to take a swing at Douglas. That would have been a mistake, given the fact that Douglas stood a good five inches taller. Instead, however, Ivan kissed his daughter, shook his son-in-law's hand; and gave the couple a fat check with a condition. There would always be a condition with Ivan. He made Wilhemina promise they would bring the baby to visit frequently.

  Michael and Katie exchanged hugs and good wishes with Douglas and Wilhemina, then Michael pulled Katie away from the crowd. “I want to be alone with you, but I brought Ivan. He'll need a ride home.” He swore.

  “Let him take your ear. We can pick it up later,” Katie said.

  “How?”

  “I bought a used car.”

  Michael smiled at her obvious joy. Damn, he wished he'd been there when she'd picked it out. “You did?”

  “You don't quite approve?” she asked.

  “I just wish I'd been there too.”

  “Can I drive you to my apartment?”

  “Yeah, let me give Ivan my keys.” Michael gave Ivan the keys and joined Katie in her little compact. He barely refrained from running his hands all over her lithe little body as she drove to her apartment.

  “It's small,” Katie said apologetically as they entered her front door.

  “That's okay.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I'm not looking at the apartment. I'm looking at you.”

  “Oh,” she said, her gaze growing dark and unbearably sexy. He'd seen that look before when she was aroused.

  Unable to wait a moment longer, he picked her up and carried her to the back of the small set of rooms. He thanked his stars that his radar was working. He found the bed with no problem and immediately began to remove her dress. His impatient mouth took hers. Her impatient hands tugged at his shirt buttons. One flew onto the floor. Michael felt as if he'd been hard for two weeks with no relief.

  “I want to go slower,” he muttered, kissing her with carnal pleasure as he rubbed his hands over her breasts and rib cage.

  “Another time,” she said in a breathy voice that affected him like an intimate stroke. He pushed her dress and panties to the floor. She felt like silk. She was his most secret dream. He slid his fingers between her thighs. She was already wet.

  The knowledge nearly sent him over the edge. He swore. “Too fast. I'm warning you,” he said, stripping off his briefs and slacks.

  He pushed her down on the bed and stared into her eyes.

  She looked aroused and vulnerable. “Promise me that you'll never make a promise you can't keep.”

  That was easy. “I promise I'll never make a promise I can't keep.”

  She licked her lips and her lids lowered. “Promise this won't be the only time.”

  Michael thrust inside her. “I promise this will not be the only time.” She moved beneath him and he began to pump. She was so tight and so wet that it didn't take him long. He had wanted her for so long. If not forever.

  Afterward, he pulled her against him. “I will not rush next time.”

  She laid her head against his chest. “Remember not to make promises you can't keep.”

  “Well you could help a little.”

  She looked up at him. “How?”

  “If you were less sexy, less beautiful inside and out, less of everything I could ever want.”

  She sucked in a quick breath. “Careful. You'll turn my head,” she said, as if she were trying to keep it light.

  “I keep trying,” he said, dead serious. He lifted her chin so she would look at him. “I wished you were pregnant.”

  Her eyes popped wider. “Why?”

  “Then I could get you to stay with me.”

  “You probably could get me to stay with you without getting me pregnant.”

  “Probably?”

  She nodded.

  “How would I do that?” he asked, lacing his fingers through hers.

  “If you loved me.”

  He put it all on the line. “I love you, Katie Priss. I want to make promises to you and keep them. I want to be yours and I want you to be mine.”

  She closed her eyes. “Could you say that again?”

  “Which part?”

  “The I love you part.”

  “I love you.”

  She opened her eyes. “And I love you.”

  And Michael knew everything in his life would be just fine as long as he had Katie.

  “Laugh hard enough to make your stomach hurt. Sing loud enough to wake the neighbors. Love as if the whole world's survival depends on it, and you will have a wonderful life.”

  —SUNNY COLLINS'S WISDOM

  Epilogue

  One month later, Katie and Michael embraced a few friends and Katie's sisters and brother after they said their vows to each other. Delilah had come a few days before the wedding and insisted on helping Katie prepare. In a strange and wonderful way, that time together of doing girly things like manicures and fittings had been healing. Katie knew Delilah still had a ways to go before she would be able to trust again, but she knew they'd both made a start, and she felt hopeful. But it was impossible not to feel hopeful with Michael around.

  Michael kidnapped Katie at the reception and drove-all the way down to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. They stayed in a villa on the far north end, a little off the beaten path.

  Katie stood on the beach in the circle of her husband's arms and watched the moon on the water. “Why here?”

  “You know,” he said, rubbing his lips over her throat.

  Her heart flip-flopped every time he touched her that way. He knew it and enjoyed it. She smiled, unable to believe her good fortune.

  “Because this is where my mother got knocked up.”

  He frowned at her. “Because this is where Katie Priss started. A very important place.”

  Her heart tightened at his fiercely loving expression. She smelled the yellow rose she carried, her mother's favorite. She began to pluck the petals from the rose.

  “What are you doing?”

  “It's a memorial.”

  “Huh?”

  She tossed the petals over the edge of the waves and let the ocean breeze carry them away. “Thanks, Mom. For everything.” She turned into Michael's arms again. “Did I ever tell you that my mother always approved of you?”

  “I got that impression.”

  “Really? When?”

  “On that first flight when you took Valium and you told me she thought I needed a blow job.”

  “I don't remember telling you that.”

  “I-uh-think that's one of the side effects of mind-altering medication.”

  “When did you know I would be important to you?”

  He chuckled. “When we were in that closet together and you were pissed that you had to stand so close to me. Ivan said that terrible stuff about my family and instead of being nasty to me, you cal
led him a prick. I kept seeing you do nice things for other people. I wanted you to be nice to me.”

  His longing made her heart ache. The only thing that helped was that she knew that for him, she was like a cool glass of water that he never tired of drinking. She cradled his strong, precious, face in her hands. “I never dreamed you were possible. You've been so wonderful to me, to Jeremy.” Michael had already kept his word and taken Jeremy to a baseball game. He'd also insisted that Jeremy spend as much time as possible with them.

  Taking a deep breath at the emotion that had welled up inside her repeatedly over the last couple of days, she tugged at his collar and buried her face in his throat. I think you should prove that you're real.”

  “How do I do that?” She felt his smile against her forehead.

  “You start with your clothes.”

  “And?”

  “You take them off.”

  “Why?”

  He was being ornery. “I told you so I can make sure you're real.”

  “How do you plan to do that?”

  “I plan to use all my senses, sight, hearing, touching, tasting—”

  Not giving her a chance to finish her plans, he hauled her over his shoulder toward their villa. He would start warning her any minute. She loved that. She wanted Michael Wingate to spend the rest of his life loving her and warning her.

  She slid her hand under his jeans to his bare backside.

  “I'm warning you, Katie Priss…”

  About the Author

  Leanne Banks is a USA Today best-selling author with over thirty novels and novellas to her credit. She holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology, which she says qualifies her to treat only fictional characters. Winner of multiple writing awards, she never fails to be delighted when readers write her praising her books as fun, feel-good reads. Leanne's debut single title, SOME GIRLS DO, is her response to readers’ repeated requests for a longer book. Leanne lives in Virginia with her husband and two children, but can usually be persuaded to take a trip to the beach at the drop of a hat. You can visit Leanne at www.leannebanks.com

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