His eyes widened in disbelief. The woman beside Anna was nothing short of gorgeous.
Greer? It couldn’t be.
“Greer?” he heard himself ask hesitantly.
Greer’s throat was almost completely closed. “Yes?”
He stepped back, as if that could somehow make him understand the transformation a little better. It hardly seemed possible that this was the same woman he’d been spending all this time with.
And yet…
He found his tongue again. “My God, woman, what have you done to yourself?”
Dismay fell over her like a wet towel. This had been a mistake and now she was ruining what was probably the last evening she’d spend in his company. She felt like fleeing from the room.
“You don’t like it?”
“Like it?” How could she even suggest that? Hadn’t she looked in a mirror? “I’m—I’m—” He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “Hell, I don’t know what I am.” Shaking his head, he absorbed the vision from head to toe like some smitten schoolboy. “I didn’t know you could look like this.”
Maybe it was going to be all right, after all. Greer could feel the blush conquering her despite her best efforts.
“Anna did it.” But as she turned to look behind her, she found that, in true fairy godmother fashion, Anna had disappeared.
Taking her hand, Rafe drew Greer’s attention back to him. “Remind me to thank her.”
The orchestra had begun playing and couples all around them were beginning to dance.
“We’re in everyone’s way.” Feeling like a duck miles away from water, Greer began to back away. “Maybe we should get off the floor.”
But he caught her hand, stopping her retreat. “No,” he contradicted her. “Maybe we should dance.”
She wanted to protest that she didn’t dance. That there had never been anyone to ask her to and no reason to learn, but she couldn’t seem to find the words as Rafe took her into his arms and began to move slowly to the warm, dreamy tempo that was surrounding them.
She fell into step, following his lead. Knowing she could remain like this forever if he asked her to. He was a much better dancer than she would ever have expected him to be.
He guessed at her thoughts. “Surprised?”
She began to nod, then stopped, embarrassed. “I just didn’t think cowboys did anything other than line dancing,” she confessed.
He took no offense, knowing she meant none. “One of the few memories I do have of my mother is her trying to teach the four of us how to dance. She said you never knew when it would come in handy and that it was a good icebreaker.”
She didn’t know about breaking any ice, but dancing this close to Rafe was certainly melting her.
“Your mother was a smart lady.” Greer leaned her cheek against his chest, fervently wishing the moment would go on forever.
“In some ways,” he allowed. The scent of her perfume was slowly filling his senses. Making things happen. He thought of his decision. “I can’t get over the change in you.”
She lifted one shoulder, unwilling to take any of the credit. “Anna’s been very kind.”
Kindness had nothing to do with it. And Greer’s modesty never failed to amaze him. “You’re not a hard person to be kind to.”
Self-conscious, Greer made no response. She saw Anna looking in her direction. There was a wide smile on the other woman’s face as she danced by with her husband.
She really shouldn’t allow herself to get too comfortable, Greer thought. It was far too easy to get carried away. And then what? She had to remember this was all make-believe for Rafe. Make-believe with a definite timetable.
Greer raised her head and looked up at him. “We need to talk.”
“All right,” he said gamely. “About what?”
“About what the judge said.” When Rafe didn’t look as if he knew what she was talking about, she added, “She wants to see us in six months.”
There was something in her tone that made him feel uncertain. “Will that be difficult for you?”
Going to the ends of the earth for him wouldn’t be difficult for her, but that wasn’t what she was getting at. She was struggling not to allow herself to go down for the third time, not to drown in her feelings for him.
“No, but I was thinking that since Mrs. Maitland had her lawyer essentially buy the Prestons off, you won’t really need me anymore.”
His smile faded. Still dancing, his hand tightened on hers. Rafe looked at her intently. “What do you mean?”
He knew exactly what she meant, Greer thought. Why was he making her spell it out for him? “Well, you can tell the judge that we’ve had a falling out. That way you won’t have to lie anymore.”
Something made him hold her a little closer, as if he was afraid that she would slip through his hands this instant if he let her. “But wouldn’t I be lying about the falling out?”
“Yes, but—” Why was he doing this? She slowed her pace. “You’re beginning to confuse me.”
Well-honed instincts told him he wouldn’t like where this was going. “All right, what is it you’d like me to explain?”
Why was he forcing her to say this? Wasn’t it enough that it was going to happen? “Why you’d want to go on with the charade when you don’t have to.”
His eyes held hers as he took the plunge and bared his soul to her. “Maybe because I’ve gotten comfortable thinking of you as my future wife. Maybe because I want to turn the charade into the real thing.”
Greer stopped dancing. She stared at him a split second before she turned on her heel and hurried off the floor, plowing through the crowd to the door. She managed to get out of the ballroom and down the hall before he could reach her.
Excusing himself right and left, Rafe made his way after her.
“Greer, where the hell are you going?”
Without the crowd to impede him, Rafe caught up to her in three giant strides and spun Greer around to face him.
He wasn’t prepared for the tears.
The sight of them cut through him like a dozen sharp little stilettos. Guilt that this was somehow his fault tempered Rafe’s anger. He softened his voice. “Why are you crying?”
Angry at him for spoiling everything, angry at herself for ever having believed for a single moment that any of this could ever be true, she retorted, “Because you’re laughing at me.”
“Hey, hold on.” He stopped her gruffly. “If I were laughing at someone, I’d be the first one to know. I sure as hell wouldn’t be left in the dark like this.” His voice softened a shade again. “I’m not laughing at anybody, least of all you.” When she raised her eyes to his face, she looked as if she were wavering. “What makes you think I was laughing at you?”
Greer brushed back the tears that had stained her cheeks. “Well, why else would you say what you did?”
He still wasn’t following what she was telling him. “Say what?”
Greer looked up toward the ceiling, trying to use gravity to stop the fresh supply of tears that insisted on coming. She watched as the light from the chandelier bounced against the rectangular, gilt-edged mirror that ran along half the length of the wall. “That you wanted to marry me.”
“Because I want to.” How difficult was that to understand? Afraid she would bolt again, he placed his hands firmly on her shoulders. “My mother taught me how to dance, she didn’t teach me how to talk. Leastwise, not to say the kinds of things a woman like you would want to hear, so if I was stumbling around like a rodeo clown his first time out of the chute, I’m sorry, but I’ve never done this before.”
She realized that she’d begun to hold her breath and made a concentrated effort to take in air. “‘This’?”
Damn it, how hard did she want to make this for a man? “I’ve never proposed before.”
Maybe not breathing was making her light-headed. “Then you’re serious?”
What had he been trying to tell her? he thought in exasperation. “Su
re, I’m serious.”
She needed this made perfectly clear. “You want to marry me?”
“Yes.”
Greer refused to allow herself to believe him. The fall from cloud nine would be much too great to survive. “Why?”
Rafe threw his hands up. “Why does anyone want to get married?” He blew out a breath, knowing what she was waiting for. “Because I love you,” he fairly shouted. “Okay?”
She shook her head. “No, not okay. You don’t love me, you love the dress.”
Now, that had to be the dumbest thing he’d ever heard. “I’d look pretty silly in that dress.”
He was twisting her words, she thought. “I mean you saw me in it and—and that made you think that I was something I’m not.”
His eyes narrowed as he tried to follow her reasoning. “What are you not?”
Was he determined to rob her of her dignity completely? “Pretty.”
The answer astonished him. “You really believe that?”
He didn’t look as if he was having fun at her expense, yet how could she think it was anything else? She knew what she looked like. And even if she didn’t, there had always been people around to point out, deliberately or otherwise, just how very plain she was.
“Don’t you?”
“No.” Before she could argue the point, Rafe turned her so that she could see her reflection in the mirror. “Maybe you’d better go back and get your glasses again because you’re just not seeing things right. You are pretty. Very pretty.”
She was more than that, but he had a feeling that getting the woman to see that she was beautiful was going to be a long, drawn-out, uphill battle. And whether or not she was wasn’t the point of his proposal. What she was inside was.
Greer waved a dismissive hand at the reflection. “That’s just makeup.”
He wouldn’t let her turn away. He wanted her to stop and really see herself. She needed to know that she was on equal footing with people in every way.
“Can’t ‘make up’ what’s not there, and as far as I can see, you didn’t have any plastic surgery between yesterday afternoon and now, so that must mean it’s you under the lipstick and the eye shadow. You’re not an ugly duckling, woman, stop behaving like one.”
She turned around to face him. “If you feel like that, why didn’t you say anything before?”
He supposed that he was guilty of that. “Partially because I didn’t know I felt this way, and then when I did know, I had to work up my nerve.”
She was back to being confused because he couldn’t possibly mean what that sounded like. “Your what?”
“You heard me. Nerve. I said I had to work up my nerve.”
“You were afraid?” Even though she said it, she didn’t believe it. It just seemed too impossible. Rafe Maitland hadn’t struck her as a man who was afraid of anything.
His eyes held hers. He’d never felt anything was so right before. “Yes.”
“Of me?”
He inclined his head. “Of getting turned down.”
This just seemed too impossible. Maybe she was actually home in bed and just dreaming all this. “You actually thought I’d turn you down?”
“Woman, you did turn me down,” he pointed out.
She grew silent for a moment. He was right, she realized, she had. Her fear of getting hurt had made her run before there was a reason to. And it seemed now that there was no reason to run at all. She looked into his eyes and saw that he was serious. That he had meant every word.
The charade had somehow, when she hadn’t been looking, become real.
Greer wet her lips. “Could I have another crack at that answer?”
It was going to be all right, he thought. Despite the missteps he’d taken, it was going to be all right.
“You can have as many cracks at it as you want until I get the answer I want.” He took her hands in his. “Greer, will you marry me?”
“Yes, oh yes.” Tears filled her eyes. This time, she didn’t bother trying to hold them back.
Touched, humbled, relieved, Rafe brushed away her tears with his thumb. “The first thing we have to do is find something I can call you besides Greer.” He lightly touched his lips to hers, then smiled. “How about ‘darlin”?”
The smile came straight from her soul. “Works for me.”
He took her into his arms. “Me, too,” he told her, then sealed the arrangement, and the rest of their lives, with a long, sensual kiss.
Epilogue
Megan looked from one face to the other in her office and found she had difficulty in hiding both her pleasure and perhaps, a touch of smugness—just this once. Rafe and Greer had come to her to ask for her blessing.
Again.
“There’s no need to ask, you already know I’m delighted about your upcoming wedding.”
“Yes, but, well, we did deceive you,” Greer pointed out again, feeling that perhaps Mrs. Maitland didn’t understand when they’d explained everything to her just now. It did sound a little outlandish, at least for someone who’d always been so straightforward about everything.
“Did you now?” Megan’s smile widened as her eyes sparkled.
“Yes,” Greer said uncomfortably. She glanced at Rafe, who had held her hand throughout the confession. It made her feel a little braver about this. About everything, really. She had this feeling that there wasn’t anything she couldn’t do, as long as Rafe was there beside her. “About the initial engagement and even about the summer romance—”
Megan decided to put them both out of their misery. “My dear, I might have been somewhat deceived by the engagement, but trust me, as soon as you mentioned the summer romance, I realized what had to be going on.” Although at the time, she wasn’t sure just why Greer had agreed to the deception. “I can do my math, Greer. You couldn’t have fallen for Rafe when you were sixteen, not unless you had a weakness for eleven-year-olds.”
Greer flushed. She should have known Mrs. Maitland would catch on to the inconsistency. “But you never said anything…?”
“No, because I wanted you to. You had your reasons for this and I trusted your judgment enough to wait until you were ready to tell me.” She looked at the two of them, thrilled at the turn of events. “I was also secretly hoping that fiction would become a reality because you did look so perfect together. And my patience seems to have paid off.” She squeezed both their hands. “So yes, you have my blessing, now and always. And now perhaps you can give Anna an actual date for the wedding so that she can start getting busy. My offer for the house still stands.” She remembered the message on her desk from R.J. “And by the way, Rafe, R.J tells me you’ve taken my suggestion about looking into buying a ranch here to heart. I will underwrite any place you choose.”
Not that he wasn’t grateful, but a man had to set some limits, even with family. “I won’t take charity, Megan.”
“Who says anything about charity?” Megan scoffed. “It’ll be a loan. And the most advantageous one I have ever agreed to, seeing as how I don’t want to lose the best assistant I’ve ever had.”
Rafe blew out a breath, amazed at the generosity. There was a piece of land that had caught his eye. It would be a perfect place for him and Greer to begin their life together. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Just say yes,” Megan told him briskly, “and we can move forward from there.” She glanced at her calendar. “Now, if you two will excuse me, I have a luncheon I’m already late for.”
Cheerfully kissing them both goodbye, Megan left her office and hurried down the corridor, humming. She was still humming as she walked through the electronic rear doors. She came outside just in time to see a very pregnant, very pale-looking young woman making her way toward her.
“Megan Maitland?” the woman asked, grasping her arm.
Megan immediately slipped her arm around the other woman to help support her. “Yes, but—”
“I’m your niece, Laura Maitland. I’ve come about the invitation.” It was all
the woman managed to say before her fingers went lax.
She sank to the ground in a heap.
THE INHERITANCE
Copyright © 2001 by Marie Rydzynski-Ferrarella
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8726-0
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