by Janet Dailey
His dark gaze narrowed on Belinda.
"I saw your car in the driveway."
His voice indicated that he hadn't believed what he'd seen.
"Our little triangle is complete now," Maggie quipped. "Sit down, Wade. Join us for a cup of coffee, although you might feel the need for something stronger."
He slid a questioning glance at her before sharply returning his attention to Belinda. "What are you doing here?"
If Belinda found the situation awkward, she didn't show it.
"I was in the neighborhood so I thought I'd stop by and assure Maggie that there was no permanent damage to my dress. I had no idea you were coming."
"When you weren't home, I had no idea you would be here, either."
His attitude was wary and suspicious, not completely accepting the surface explanation.
Maggie rose from her chair, a false smile, tinged with cynicism, curving her mouth. "I'm afraid the cat is out of the bag, darling." She walked past him to the kitchen cupboard.
"What cat? What are you talking about?" His frown darkened in confused anger.
Lack of sleep had deepened the lines in his face, highlighting his male attraction.
"Belinda knows you spent the night with me," she told him sweetly, and poured a third cup of coffee.
"She knows what!" Wade roared after a stunned second.
"Don't raise your voice, darling," Maggie chided him with mock reproof. "I said Belinda knows you and I were together all night. Don't worry, dear, she doesn't mind."
"Wade, I don't want you to think I was checking up on you," Belinda inserted as he was momentarily at a loss for words. "Believe me, that's the last thing I would do."
"You see?" Maggie's green eyes rounded with innocent serenity. "She does understand."
She started to hand Wade the cup of coffee and paused. "Would you like it plain, or shall I lace it with a little Scotch?"
"I'll take it plain," he snapped, and reached for the cup. His accusing dark eyes impaled Maggie. "Perhaps you'd better explain to me what's going on? What have you been telling Belinda?"
"Me? I haven't told her anything." Mockingly Maggie placed one hand on her heart and lifted the other as if taking an oath.
Wade gritted his teeth, anger seething through. "You —"
"Don't be angry with Maggie," Belinda broke in. "She didn't tell me anything until she found out that I already knew."
"Knew what?" Wade turned roundly on the girl at the table.
"Darling, you aren't listening," Maggie taunted, and brushed past him to take her chair at the table.
He flashed her an impatient look and demanded of Belinda, "What makes you think I spent the night here?"
"It's fairly obvious, I think." Belinda shrugged. "After you left me, you came back here. And you never came home last night."
"Naturally, she reached the logical conclusion that —"
"Stay out of this, Maggie." Wade cut her short and glowered at Belinda.
"So you assumed I spent the night with Maggie. I admit I was tempted. With the right encouragement, I probably would have!"
"Oh."
For the first time, Belinda looked to be in water out of her depth.
"Then where were you?" Immediately her hand waved aside the question, indicating Wade should ignore it.
"No. No, you don't have to answer that. I don't expect you to report your every move to me. I have no intention of tying you down, or interfering in any way with the freedom of your movements."
"You certainly can't accuse Belinda of being possessive, Wade."
"Maggie!"
Wade warned her to keep silent.
"Sorry," she said with false innocence laughing in her green eyes.
"If you like, I can leave you two to thrash this out on your own."
"If there's anything that needs thrashing, it's you," he retorted.
"I feel so awful, Maggie. I owe you an apology for what I was thinking," Belinda insisted.
"No, you don't." Maggie's natural candor surfaced. "If I could live last night over again, it would probably turn out to be just the way you thought it had. Your assumption was wrong, but not because I didn't want Wade to stay.
"I did, but I was afraid one of us, or both of us, might regret it in the morning. So don't apologize. If anyone is sorry, it's me," Maggie concluded and stared into her coffee cup, all her cynical humor at the situation gone.
"Now that you have that confession out of your system," Wade declared, "I think it's time Belinda was leaving.
"Come on," he told his fiancée and helped pull her chair away from the table. "You and I have some things to discuss."
"Of course, Wade," Belinda agreed. But he wasn't giving her a chance to disagree as he took hold of her arm and forced her to walk to the side door.
Over her shoulder, she managed, "Goodbye, Maggie. I'm sorry. Maybe we can have our talk another time."
Maggie nodded and suppressed a shudder of dread. "Another time," she agreed. "Goodbye," and hoped she never saw her again. But of course she would; Maggie was convinced of that.
As the door closed she heard Wade demand, "What were you going to talk to Maggie about?"
She didn't hear Belinda's reply, but she knew the answer. Their little tiff would work itself out; Belinda would see to it.
There was no doubt in Maggie's mind that Wade had chosen his fiancée.
A remark he had made when he first walked in had given his decision away.
He had said that when he hadn't found Belinda at home, he had wondered where she was. So he had obviously been returning to her.
A broken sigh came from her heart, and her fingers raked into her tousled red hair to support her lowered head.
Being prepared for his decision didn't make the wrenching pain any easier to accept. The rest of her life yawned emptily before her and Maggie wondered how she would make it alone.
She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and bit into her lower lip.
Car doors slammed and engines started. Sniffing back a sob, Maggie tossed her head to shake away the throes of self - pity.
Mike could walk in at any minute and she didn't want him to find her crying. There would be plenty of lonely hours to indulge in that.
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Chapter Seventeen
BRISKLY SHE ROSE to clear the coffee cups and juice glass from the table.
Returning the sugar bowl and cream to their respective places, she wiped the table and refilled her cup with coffee.
As she was walking back to the table, the side door opened.
When she saw Wade enter the kitchen, Maggie dropped the cup in her hand. It shattered on impact, spilling its hot contents on the floor amid the fragments of broken pottery.
"Damn, look what you made me do!" she cried angrily to hide the leaping joy of hope in her heart. "Do you have to burst in on people all the time? Why can't you ever knock?"
As she stooped to pick up the broken pieces, Wade was there to help.
"Be careful or you'll cut yourself," he muttered impatiently. "Let me do it. You get a rag to mop up the coffee."
Finding his closeness too disturbing, Maggie obeyed.
She took a rag from under the sink and began mopping up the floor, careful to avoid the fragments Wade hadn't collected yet.
"I thought you'd left with Belinda," she murmured to explain her shock when he had returned to the house. "I heard your car."
"I was parked behind her. I had to move my car so she could get out."
He put the broken pieces of the coffee cup in the waste bin.
"You could have gone with her. You didn't have to come back."
Maggie wished he hadn't.
"I didn't?"
A dark eyebrow lifted quizzically.
"No."
She refused to meet his look. "I realized that you'd made your decision. You didn't have to come back to tell me or explain."
"You're as bad as Belinda about jumping to conclusions," he
said.
There was an underlying grimness to his voice.
Maggie thought she understood the reason for it. "Look, I know you're upset with Belinda right now. But she's young and she's trying very hard to behave the way she thinks best."
"You think I've decided to go ahead with my plans to marry Belinda?"
"Yes — you said …"
Maggie made the mistake of glancing at him, and the look in his eyes confused her.
"What did I say?" Wade prompted, still watching her in that bemused way.
"Where were you last night?" she asked instead of answering.
Belinda might have been reluctant to ask him, but Maggie wasn't.
"Driving. Thinking. I drank a lot of coffee at a lot of different restaurants — I don't remember which ones."
"This morning you went to Belinda's home to see her. You said so," she reminded him.
"So you assumed that meant I was returning to her." Wade followed her comment to the conclusion Maggie had reached.
"Weren't you?" she asked, suddenly breathless.
"No, I was trying to do the proper thing. I wanted to break my engagement to her before coming to you,"
He took the wet rag from her hand and tossed it in the sink.
"I never dreamed she was here,"
"Are you sure?"
Maggie hardly dared to believe him. "What happened this morning didn't have anything to do with your decision?"
"It eliminated any doubts that might have been lingering."
His hands gently settled on her shoulders.
"Belinda is very understanding. I doubt if she ever loses her temper or starts arguments."
Maggie felt bound to point out the sharp contrast between them.
"Milk toast can make one feel better for a while, but a steady diet of it would soon make life very bland. Life with you was never dull, Maggie.
"I much prefer the road ahead of me to be filled with challenge. How about you?"
"Yes."
Maggie gravitated toward him. In the next second she was wrapped in the hard circle of his arms, his mouth crushing down on hers.
Joy burst from her like an eternal fountain, her happiness spilling over in the wild rush to give him ail of her love. It was impossible. It would take a lifetime to do that.
Wade seemed to recognize that, too. He broke off the kiss to bury his face in the lustrous thickness of her red gold hair.
His arms remained locked around her, and she felt the powerful tremors that shuddered through him.
"I love you, Maggie." The deep intensity of his emotion couldn't be muffled.
"I pretended I didn't, even to myself. But I never stopped loving you."
"And I never stopped loving you, but I was too scared to admit it," she responded.
"You? Scared?" Wade laughed softly at the thought. "My tigress has never been afraid to tackle anything."
"That isn't true, because I was always afraid of you. I realized that last night after you'd left." Her fingers outlined the angle of his jaw, free at last to caress him as much as she wanted.
Wade lifted his head to look at her, a frown creasing his forehead.
"Why should you be afraid of me?"
Her dimples came into play for a moment. "Whether you're aware of it or not, there's a certain quality about you that's dominating. But I don't think I was so much afraid of that.
"Subconsciously I realized that I loved you so much nothing else mattered. I was in danger of becoming totally absorbed in your personality, losing my own identity.
"I was constantly fighting that, which meant always arguing with you."
"Now?"
"Now I'm going to stop fighting the fact that I love you," Maggie promised, rising on tiptoe to kiss him.
His gaze roamed possessively over her face, the hands on her back keeping her close.
Faint, loving amusement glittered in the jet blackness of his eyes.
"Does that mean no more arguments?" he mocked.
"I doubt it," she laughed. "I'd hate to start boring you."
"I'd probably start picking fights if you did." His mouth teased the edges of her lips. "If only to have the fun of making up afterward."
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Chapter Eighteen
WHEN MAGGIE COULD no longer stand the tantalizing brush of his mouth, she sought the heady excitement of his kiss.
Wade let her take the initiative for a few breathless moments before taking over with a mastery that left her weak at the knees.
She clung to him, her heart beating wildly, as Wade forced her head back to explore the hollow at the base of her throat.
"Poor Belinda," murmured Maggie. "She's going to feel so badly when you tell her."
"I already have," he said against her skin.
"You have?"
"Yes, when I walked her to her car."
In the unending circle of his love, Maggie was generous enough to feel sympathy.
"Was she very upset?"
"Belinda?" said Wade as if it were impossible. "She took the news with her usual calmness."
"Don't tell me!" Maggie swallowed back a disbelieving laugh. "She didn't recite some platitude that it was better you found out before you married her, did she?"
"You took the words right out of her mouth," he admitted.
"She should be on exhibit in some museum. Sometimes I can't believe she's for real," she sighed.
"Belinda has a lot to learn about life and people. It's easy to think you have all the answers when you're young."
"Yes," Maggie agreed. "I'm just glad, though, that we have a second chance."
"Our marriage will be better this time," Wade promised her.
"Our heads may be in the clouds, but our feet are solidly on the ground."
"Speaking of marriage, when do you want the wedding? Is next week too soon?"
"Tomorrow couldn't be too soon," she declared.
"For me, either."
His arms tightened to crush her ribs.
"Dad?"
Mike's voice called from the living room.
The front door was closed and the sound of running feet approached the kitchen.
Maggie and Wade exchanged a smile as he burst in on them.
"I didn't know you were here, dad, until I saw the car in the driveway." His dark eyes rounded as he took in the fact that his mother was firmly enwrapped in his father's arms.
He seemed hesitant to draw any conclusion. "You aren't mad at mom anymore, are you?" was the closest he would come.
"No, I'm not mad at her anymore." Wade smiled down on Maggie, then bent his head to kiss the tip of her nose.
"By the way, Mike, I've decided I'm not going to marry Belinda."
"You're not?" he repeated uncertainly.
"No, I'm not. I've decided your mother is much more in need of a man to look after her and keep her out of trouble, I've volunteered for the job, having had past experience. And she's accepted."
"Does that mean …" Mike began. "Are you and mom going to get married again?"
"Yes, we are," Maggie answered.
"For good?" Mike asked.
Wade answered, "For good and bad, fighting and arguing and loving for the rest of our life." He looked at Maggie as he spoke, warming every inch of her with the love that shone in his eyes. "I hope you're as happy about it as we are, Mike."
"You bet I am!" he exclaimed now that he was fully convinced that they meant it.
"Oh, wow! I hoped — does this mean we're going to live in Alaska?"
"Yes. Would like that?" Wade watched closely for Mike's reaction,
"Would I? You could teach me how to ski! And maybe we could buy a sled and some dogs? And mom could go fishing with us and catch one of those big fish like we did!"
Mike began making plans.
"With our luck, the fish will probably pull her into the water," Wade laughed.
"Wow! I gotta go tell Denny we're moving to Alaska!" Mike exclaimed, and shot out of th
e kitchen for the neighbor's house.
As the door banged shut behind him, Wade curved a finger under Maggie's chin and turned her head to look at him.
There was a shimmer of tears in her eyes.
"What's the matter, honey?"
"Mike was so happy." She smiled at being so silly as to cry over that.
"I know."
He gently wiped the glistening tears from her lashes. "I never did ask you whether you wanted to live in Alaska."
"You know I don't care where I live so long as it's with you," Maggie told him.
"Careful! You're beginning to sound corny," Wade teased her.
"I don't care," she sighed, and rested her head against his shoulder.
She had never known such contentment.
"We'll call the real estate company on Monday and put the house up for sale. What about the furniture? Do you want to store it or take it with us?"
"We can take some of it and store the rest," Maggie decided, and sighed.
"What's that for?"
"I was just thinking about all the packing and sorting that has to be done. I have to give notice at my job. There's the utilities to call — there's so much to do."
"Would you rather not move?" Wade asked.
"No, it's not that. I just wished I had a genie who would do it all for me."
She laughed at her laziness. "How soon will we be going?"
"After our honeymoon."
"Are we going to have a honeymoon?"
"Don't all newlyweds?" he teased.
"Where are we going?"
Maggie was curious.
"I thought we'd take the boat and go up to the San Juan Islands in the sound, maybe all the way to Vancouver," Wade told her.
"What boat? You don't mean Belinda's?"
Maggie pulled away from his arms, astounded by his suggestion. "Isn't that expecting rather a lot from her?"
"That wasn't Belinda's boat. Did you think it belonged to her family?" he queried in amusement.
"Yes. Whose else would it be? I mean, you'd borrowed her car, so I naturally assumed you'd borrowed her boat."
"Well, I didn't. It belongs to one of the men who works with me.
"He gave me the keys and told me to use it while I was here," Wade explained.
"Oh."
"Do you feel better now?" He gently drew her back into his arms.
