by Peggy Webb
“I’m glad I could take your mind off the storm.”
“Oh, you did more than that. Much, much more.”
“Sandi.” He couldn’t sit still, not while she was sitting in his bed naked and desirable and love-struck. “A man can make love with a woman for many reasons. I wanted to help you through your fright.”
“Oh, didn’t you like it?”
Her artless question nearly unhinged him. “Yes.” He raked his hand over his beard stubble and through his hair. “It was enjoyable.” Coward. “But I don’t want you to mistake what happened here. Sex does not equal love and marriage and babies.”
“You don’t like babies?”
“Well, yes, I love babies, but—”
“I’d like four or five. Maybe six.”
“You want six children?”
“Yes. I think large families are so wonderful.”
“I do, too, when they belong to someone else.”
“Oh.”
Matt felt like Ebenezer Scrooge. “Look, Sandi. The bottom line is you and I are acting out a role for Mother’s benefit, and we’ve gotten carried away a couple of times and—”
“Of course.” Throwing back the sheets, she arose from the bed, a naked Venus, goddess of everything her lovely green eyes surveyed, cool and completely in control.
Without bothering to cover herself with that little drive-a-man-crazy gown she’d been wearing, she strolled across the rug and patted his face as if he were a wayward and rather backward child.
“Did you think I was talking about our children, Matt?”
“You certainly gave that impression.”
“You’ve been working too hard and worrying too much. Why don’t you take the day off and have some more fun? Don’t you worry about me. I’ll sit with your mother awhile, sketch a little if she’s up to it. Then I thought I might go into Shady Grove, see what sort of fun I can find.”
Matt pictured her strolling through the streets of the small southern town, an exotic flower among bitter-weeds. The local good old boys would be panting after her like bird dogs after a fox.
“Maybe I should go with you, show you around.”
“Don’t be silly. I’ve trekked all over the world alone.”
“And collected a fiancé in every port.”
Cocking her head to one side as she considered that option, she said, “That is a thought. I’ll tell you one thing, though. When I pick a father for my children, it will be a man with a heart.”
They glared at each other like adversaries in a Roman arena. Matt was so confused he didn’t know whether he was the gladiator or the lion.
Chapter Seven
Avoiding the kitchen altogether, Matt stayed in his mother’s office going through the morning mail, and when he finished that, he started sharpening pencils and untangling paper clips. Anything to avoid running into Sandi.
Time crept by on turtle feet. He felt ridiculous hiding out like this. Disgusted, he threw the paper clips back into his mother’s desk drawer and strode off to her bedroom. He wasn’t about to become a captive in his own house.
He would show Sandi Wentworth that he was a man to be reckoned with, a man who said what he meant and meant what he said. He would tell her in no uncertain terms that there would be no repeat performances of last night, that he’d felt nothing whatsoever except…
“Hi, Matt.” Sandi’s smile dazzled him, made him forget everything except the way she lit up a whole room. “I was just asking your mother where a girl goes in Shady Grove when she wants to frolic?”
“Frolic?”
“Yes, frolic. You know. Have some fun.” He felt like a man who’d had the wind knocked out of him. “I’m off now. Bye.” She waggled two fingers at him. “See you later.”
Flattened, that’s how he felt. Like a man who’d just been run over by a steamroller.
She was the most maddening woman he’d ever met.
“What did you tell her, Mother?”
“I suggested she check out Ray’s Pool Hall.”
“The pool hall?”
“Ray serves the best barbecue in Shady Grove.”
“It’s full of jocks on the make.”
“What’s the matter, Matt? Can’t you stand a little competition?”
“Good God, Mother. Why didn’t you just tell her to stand on the street naked with a sign around her neck?”
“Why, Matt, I do believe you’re jealous.”
He was fixing to issue a hot denial, when he remembered the damnable charade. Why had he ever agreed? Lord, he needed a break.
“Bye, Mother. See you tonight.”
“Where are you going?”
“Into town. I have some things to take care of.”
“You’re going like that?”
“What do you mean, like that?”
“You haven’t shaved.”
The beard stubble was all Sandi’s fault.
“I’ll do it later.” Every minute he lost was simply more time for Sandi to get into trouble.
“Matt, is something wrong?”
“Wrong? What would be wrong?”
“You look like you didn’t sleep a wink.”
“Insomnia,” he said, then left quickly before his mother could pry further.
Spurred by half-baked plans and panic, he hurried to his room, grabbed his cordless razor and tore off to Shady Grove. He didn’t have a minute to lose.
Shaving with one hand and driving with the other, he tried to firm up his plan, tried to figure out exactly what he would say and do when he found Sandi.
Fortunately, downtown Shady Grove occupied only six square city blocks, so spotting her car was a cinch. She’d gone straight to the pool hall.
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” he said.
Several car horns honked at him. One man even rolled down his window and yelled, “The light’s green, you fool.”
Sandi Wentworth had him so turned around he was stopping on green to paraphrase poetry. He shot past the pool hall and had to double back. Then he found a parking space and sat in hundred-degree heat with his windows rolled up while he tried to come up with a strategy.
He made his living coming up with winning strategies, and yet not a single idea occurred to him. Finally, Matt just left the car and went into the pool hall.
Though the place was dim even in daytime, he had no trouble spotting Sandi. All he had to do was follow the crowd of admirers. They stood in front of her booth like linebackers guarding the goal.
Matt had never seen a shiftier, sleazier lot of men. He’d arrived in the nick of time. As he stormed to the rescue, he heard them vying for a seat at her corner booth.
“Aw, come on, sugar, let me sit with you.”
“Have a heart, beautiful.”
“Give a working guy a break, sweetheart.”
Matt elbowed his way through, and none too politely, either. “The lady’s with me.” Sandi opened her mouth to protest, so he slid into her booth and kissed her. Hard.
She came up sputtering, and he had to do it all over again. The fragment of his mind still conscious noticed the men slinking off, one by one.
This time he didn’t give her a chance to sputter. He kissed her until he felt her body go slack and her mouth go soft. Her hand stole around his neck, and she made the most delicious murmuring noises he’d ever heard.
If he hadn’t been in a public place there’s no telling what he might have done. Saved, he broke off the kiss and said, “Let’s get out of here.”
“I’m hungry.”
“So am I,” he said, not thinking, not doing anything except wanting.
“You’ll have to order your own plate. Lucy says the barbecue is divine, and I’m too ravenous to share.”
She gave him that glowing, welcoming smile and he’d have eaten the whole pig if she’d asked.
“Fine. We’ll eat barbecue.” He called the waitress and ordered ribs.
“I’m glad you could join me, Matt. I do want us to be fr
iends.”
He could see her romantic wheels turning. First they would chat in cozy corners, get comfortable with each other till their ill-fated encounters faded, then before you knew it, he would be right back where he didn’t want to be. Between the sheets while visions of love and commitment danced in her head.
“I came here to rescue you, Sandi. That’s all.”
“Oh.” She fell silent while the waitress put their food on the table. Enough for a small army. He hadn’t eaten a bite of breakfast, and sex always made him hungry. Suddenly Matt realized he was starving.
He dug in and it was a while before he noticed her full plate.
“You’re not eating.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“A few minutes ago you were starving.”
“I’ve lost my appetite.”
He shoved his plate aside. “Fine, then, we’ll leave.”
“Go ahead. I’m staying.”
“You’re not staying here by yourself.”
“Oh, yes, I am.”
“Dammit, Sandi.”
“Getting mad will get you nowhere. I don’t like surly men.”
Matt ran his hands through his hair, an untidy habit he’d picked up since he met Sandi Wentworth. “You think you can take care of yourself with that bunch of Neanderthals?”
“I don’t need you to take care of me.”
“Somebody has to do it.”
“Ha!” She stood up out of the booth and marched off with her chin up and her back stiff. One of the Neanderthals jumped up to intercept her, but she withered him with one look.
Take that, you overgrown playboy. Matt gloated over his victory for all of ten seconds, then he realized that all he’d done was drive Sandi out of the pool hall. There were plenty of other places in Shady Grove where a woman looking for trouble could go.
He sighed. There was no use trying to stop a woman bent on mischief. He was too old and too tired to follow her all over town, putting out fires.
And he couldn’t go back to O’Banyon Manor. His mother would ask too many questions.
In the end, Matt took a hotel room, closed the blinds and fell into bed. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.
The kitchen floor was cold on her bare feet, but Lucy didn’t care. She was starving to death. She licked the crumbs off her fingers and had reached for her third piece of fried chicken when Kitty burst through the door swinging a baseball bat.
Lucy dropped her chicken leg on the floor. “Good grief, put that thing down. You scared me to death.”
“I scared you! I thought we had a burglar in the kitchen.”
“What’s all the commotion?” Dolly was wearing so much beauty cream they could see nothing but her eyes.
“Lucy’s in the chicken.”
“You would be, too, if you’d had nothing but broth and weak tea for days.”
“I have no sympathy.” Kitty grabbed a piece of chicken for herself. “You should have already told Matt the truth.”
“That would spoil everything. I think my son’s in love, but he doesn’t know it yet. We need a few more days.”
“I agree with Lucy.” Dolly bypassed the chicken in favor of chocolate cake. “If she tells Matt she’s not dying, he’ll be so mad he’ll leave and then everything we’ve planned for will go down the drain.”
When he got home, Matt pulled off his shoes so he wouldn’t wake anybody.
There were no lights underneath Sandi’s bedroom door, but he paused anyway. For what he didn’t know. She was obviously asleep…in her bed…in the fetching little gown.
He stifled a groan and tiptoed toward his room. Suddenly a door down the hall swung open and there stood his cousin, Josh.
“You finally made it,” Josh said. “I never expected to see you tomcatting around here.”
“Shh.” Matt motioned toward Sandi’s door, then joined his cousin. Open suitcases exploded all over the room. “You’ve come to stay a while?”
“Two or three days.”
Matt laughed. “I see you still pack light.”
“Yeah, well, you never know what you might need.”
“I’m glad to see you, and I know Mother will be. I can hardly believe she’s dying.”
“She’s not.”
“What did you say?”
“I overheard them in the kitchen earlier. She’s faking it in order to do a little matchmaking.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. Otherwise I would never have told you.”
Matt had to sit down. Rage warred with relief. “How could my mother have put me through this?”
“Sometimes people do the wrong thing for the right reasons. I’m sure she did it out of love.”
“When I finish with her, she’ll wish she’d never done it at all.”
“Wait a minute, Matt. It’s after midnight.”
“What better time to catch my opponent off guard?”
“What do you plan to do?”
“Wring a confession out of her. I’m good at that. I’ll teach her not to meddle.”
“Now, there’s a good idea. Why don’t we teach them a lesson?”
“What did you have in mind, Josh?”
Chapter Eight
Sandi was just emerging from her bath when she heard a knock on the connecting door.
“Sandi, it’s Matt.”
Well, of course, she knew who it was. Who else would be in his bedroom with the magnificent bed that she couldn’t get out of her head no matter how hard she tried? Every time she shut her eyes she saw herself wrapped in his arms in the middle of that beautiful bed just right for conceiving children.
Actually, she didn’t even have to shut her eyes. She could be doing an ordinary task like brushing her hair or putting on her shoes, and all of a sudden she’d remember that night and just stand there holding her shoe or her brush, paralyzed.
“Sandi, are you in there?”
“Yes, I’m here.”
“I have something very important to discuss with you. May I come in?”
What could be so urgent he couldn’t wait until she’d left her bedroom? Or maybe that was the whole point. Maybe he wanted to be alone with her in her bedroom.
All sorts of visions came to mind, and every one of them delicious.
“Hmm,” she murmured.
“Sandi? Is everything all right in there?”
Everything except her mind. She was losing it. What other reason did she have for mooning over a man who made no bones about his feelings? She wasn’t Matthew Coltrane’s kind of woman. That was all. The sooner she got that through her head, the better off she would be. The better off they would all be.
“Yes.” She unlocked the connecting door and peered around. “Give me a minute. I just got out of the bath.”
“Certainly. Take your time.”
She vanished behind the closed door and Matt stood in his bedroom shell-shocked. All he could think about was the way she’d looked with little beads of water on her naked shoulder. He’d wanted to lick every drop off, wanted it so badly he had to cram his hands in his pockets to keep from grabbing her.
When she opened her door he had to dally a minute to get himself under control.
“You’re sure you don’t mind if I come in?”
“Not at all.” She swung the door wider. “Excuse the mess. I haven’t made the bed yet.”
Tangled sheets, still sweet-smelling from where she’d slept. Silk gown, carelessly tossed aside. Strappy high heels kicked off last night. Red. Sexy.
Matt sat down and twisted sideways so she wouldn’t see his condition. She sat down opposite him, her robe gaped open, long bare legs crossed, one swinging. He wished she had put on some clothes. But he didn’t mention it, didn’t want her to know he noticed.
It was a good thing they were going to break up. They would both be saved further embarrassment.
“The reason I wanted to see you this early is that I found out Mother’s not dying.”
“
That’s wonderful. I’m so thrilled. I can’t wait to see her. Did the doctor misdiagnose her?”
“No. She never was dying. She made it all up in order to do some matchmaking.”
“Oh, that’s…” Sandi put her hand over her mouth and her shoulders started shaking. For a minute he thought she was crying. Then a peal of laughter escaped.
“I fail to see the humor.”
“I’m…” Clapping her hand over her mouth, she tried to stop the laughter, but it exploded, doubling her over. When she came back up for air, tears of mirth streamed down her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to make light of this, but just think about it.”
“That’s all I’ve been doing all night. I’ve come up with a plan that I hope meets your approval.”
“You sound so serious and…lawyerly.”
“That’s what I am. Serious and lawyerly. Mother was so busy scheming she forgot that little detail.”
“I’m sure she meant well.”
“My cousin Josh believes the same thing. He overheard mother with Aunt Kitty and Aunt Dolly.”
“Your cousin is here?”
“Yes. He’s a preacher so maybe he’s right about her meaning well. Still, I think she needs to be taught not to meddle, and that’s where you come in…if you agree.”
“Well, of course.” She would agree to anything that would keep her at O’Banyon Manor. She tried to look helpful but not too eager, cooperative but not too easy, and all the while, her insides were doing exuberant cartwheels. I’m staying, I’m staying.
“She threw us together hoping for romance, and we’re going to show her disaster.”
“Disaster?”
“Yes, we’ll break up in a noisy, uncivilized manner that will make Mother wish she’d never heard of romance.”
“Isn’t that out of character?”
“For me, you mean?”
“Well…I suppose I did. Nobody is surprised at what artists do or say.”
“Falling in love is out of character for me, so nothing should come as a surprise.” Too late Matt realized his slip of the tongue. If he corrected his statement and said, “pretending to fall in love,” that would make his earlier confession even more noticeable.
