by Arlene James
She took a deep breath, folded her arms, and crossed her legs. “Six months,” she said, staring straight ahead. “Not a day more. Not one day more.”
He put his head back, then raised it stiffly, swallowed and swallowed again. “Thank you,” he said softly. “From the bottom of my heart, thank you.”
She glanced to the side. He turned his head away, but not before she saw the tear squeezed from his tightly closed eyes. Instantly she felt her hastily erected barriers crumbling, but she wouldn’t believe he was that moved. She wouldn’t. It was the day, she told herself, this damned difficult day. She pressed her knuckles to a trembling lip and watched Dallas slide past the limousine window.
Chapter Five
“And so we’ve agreed,” Parker said reasonably, his fingers plucking at the knife-edge crease of his slate-gray slacks, “only you will ever know the truth about this marriage.”
Edward leaned forward, braced his elbows against his desktop, and templed his fingers beneath his chin, regarding both Parker and Kendra with the blandly thoughtful expression that had suckered so many unknowing opponents. Kendra glanced guiltily down at her lap, reading all too clearly the temper boiling beneath the calm exterior. Parker crossed his legs and lifted his chin slightly. Edward abruptly dropped his hands to the desktop and glared at Parker.
“You son of a bitch,” he said. “You sorry son of a bitch.”
Parker grimaced, uncrossed his legs and leaned forward. “You’re the one who told me to get married.”
“So you immediately go out and arrange to marry the one woman I’ve ever wanted. You put a mighty high price on friendship, old buddy.”
Parker sighed in the manner of one forced to counsel a particularly dull child. “The two of you broke up ages ago. Besides, you know perfectly well this is not a romantic situation. It’s merely an agreement between friends, a temporary arrangement. She’s going to help me keep Darla, help me take care of her until I figure out what I’m doing. Then we’ll each go our separate ways. It’ll seem to everyone else that a friendship of long-standing was spurred into a romance by a mutual tragedy but that the marriage simply didn’t work out. After six months or so we’ll quietly secure a divorce.”
“What’s wrong with an annulment?” Edward asked sharply.
Parker shrugged. “Whatever. Makes no difference to me.”
“Oh, I think it might,” Edward answered, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “A divorce can be had for the flimsiest of excuses—or none at all—but an annulment is a little more difficult to attain, especially if there has been sexual congress.”
Kendra felt her cheeks turn to red. “No one need worry about that,” she said flatly, keeping her gaze trained on the hands that nervously smoothed the brown suede skirt she wore with matching boots and a cowl-necked sweater of deep gold. She had pinned her hair up in a loose swirl at the crown of her head and let the shorter tendrils fall where they may. One of them now tickled the back of her neck, but she felt too self-conscious in the presence of these two very familiar men to even lift a hand to dislodge it.
She was already deeply regretting her decision to go through with this scheme. Facing Edward was difficult enough. Facing her father and pretending that she had fallen desperately in love with Nathan’s rapscallion brother would be next to impossible. But she understood that the marriage must look real and permanent in order to sway the court. Sandra Pendleton would attempt to discredit them as it was. For that reason and that reason only, she had just that morning called Devon Hoyt in New York and had her name removed from the roster of the U.N. medical team. He had been polite but most distressed and had pressed her for a reason.
She hadn’t wanted to lie to him, but since she couldn’t tell him the truth about her impending marriage, she’d decided not to mention it at all, saying instead that the sudden and tragic death of two dear friends had made it necessary for her to change her plans. She had apologized profusely and told him that she hoped to eventually be able to renew her commitment to the team. When he had blurted that he had so been looking forward to seeing her again, she had felt a sharp stab of guilt and muttered that she, too, would have liked to have renewed their acquaintance. He had begged her please to rethink, but when she had told him weakly that it wouldn’t be possible, he had told her that he would need written notification of her withdrawal. Writing that letter had been one of the hardest things she had ever done. And now this. She wondered if she could possibly be more miserable and decided that she probably could. She sighed and stilled her hands.
“Let’s get this clear,” she said, tension making her snap when she only meant to be adamant. “I’m doing this to keep Sandra Pendleton from gaining custody of the baby. To tell you the truth, I don’t know if Parker can take care of Darla or not, but I suppose I’ll know soon enough, and if he can’t, I’ll be there to help until other arrangements can be made.”
“There won’t be any other arrangements,” Parker interjected tersely.
She inclined her head, unwilling to argue the point. During the past night, she had determined that the helpless infant must be her first priority, and she intended to stick to that determination come what may. It had occurred to her at some point during her hours of rumination after the difficult matter of seeing two dear people laid to rest that she would have a considerable amount of power in this situation. Parker dared not let the true circumstances of this impending marriage come to the attention of the court if he intended to acquire and keep custody of little Darla. Therefore, if she saw during the marriage that Parker was not going to be a proper guardian and caretaker, she could see to it that other arrangements were made for the baby. All she had to do was admit that the marriage was a ruse and testify that Parker was unable to discharge his duty to the child. She had even prepared a defense for her own culpability in the matter of the marriage, that being that she believed Sandra Pendleton an even greater risk to the child than Parker. She just didn’t see any point in telling all this to Parker. Why make an enemy of the man with whom she would be living for the next six months? Besides, the most important thing at the moment was quelling Edward’s anger. It would be up to him, after all, to make their argument in court.
She lifted her gaze to meet Edward’s glower. “As I was saying, I’m doing this for Darla and for no other reason. This will be a marriage in name only. We’ll live together, and we’ll share responsibility for the baby for six months—and only six months. Then I’ll be free to get on with my life by renewing my commitment to rendering medical aid in Africa. I expect to do it with a clear conscience and an annulment.”
Edward met her gaze levelly for several seconds then abruptly switched his attention to Parker. “And what have you got to say to that?”
Parker crossed his legs again, ankle balanced on knee, and plucked at the hem of his slacks. “Nothing, except... Nothing.”
Edward nodded. “Good. Keep it that way. Then I may not have to take your head off your shoulders.”
Parker dropped his foot to the floor and sent his friend a warning glance. “Just do your job and mind your own business and we’ll all get through this with as little difficulty as possible.”
“That,” said Edward, leaning back to lace his fingers casually across his middle, “is exactly what I intend to do. This whole thing being my idiotic idea to begin with, I think you’ll agree that it is my business, especially as my reputation as an attorney could be at stake.”
“Now listen here, White...” Parker began angrily, but Kendra had had enough for one morning.
She shot up to her feet and scolded them both with a divided look. “That’s quite enough from both of you. Let’s get one thing straight, gentlemen. I have the final say here. Without my cooperation, this marriage does not even take place, let alone maintain itself long enough for your purposes. It will go as I determine it will go, and I think I’ve made myself plain as to that. Now I would appreciate it if we could get out of here. I have a great deal to do today. Not only do I
have to prepare to get married tomorrow, I have to see about getting my job back, and I promised Cheryl’s aunt that we wouldn’t be gone long. We’re going to have to find another babysitter right away, I’m afraid.”
Having said her piece, she stepped past Parker, who scrambled to yank his feet back out of her way and follow. Edward, too, came to his feet and moved toward the door.
“I’m just looking after your best interests,” he mumbled, catching at her sleeve.
“I happen to be the client,” Parker reminded him.
“That could change,” Edward rumbled.
“Oh, for crying out loud!” she snapped. “This is difficult enough without the two of you acting like petulant schoolboys. Knock it off!”
Edward had the grace to look sheepish. “I just don’t want you hurt.”
Parker was downright combative. “Nobody’s going to get hurt!”
“I know you!” Edward shouted, getting in his face. “You’re the one who uses women like Kleenex and tosses them away as soon as you’re done!”
“I resent that!”
“I resent you hitting on the one woman who means anything to me!”
“Oh, grow up! It’s over. It’s been over a long time. And I’m not hitting on her, I’m just marrying her!”
Just marrying her. Kendra caught her breath, surprised at the pain in that callous remark. Not hitting on her. Not interested in her personally. Just marrying her. “That’s it,” she said softly, and walked out, ignoring the gaping stare of Ed’s secretary, Brenda, Edward’s rumble and Parker’s shout.
“Kendra!”
She walked on, fast, hearing Parker’s parting shot at Edward.
“Some best friend!”
She walked past the receptionist and across the smartly tiled foyer to the hand-carved door with the heavy, leaded glass inserts and out onto the stoop, down the steps and along the sidewalk. Traffic whizzed by on Oaklawn Avenue.
Parker caught her before she reached the corner and the parking lot set discreetly among the trees and wrought-iron lamps. “Just where do you think you’re going?” he asked.
“Africa.”
“Come on now, honey...”
“Call me honey again and I’ll break your jaw!” She would, too, if she had to use a tire iron. She jerked free of his hold and glared down at the toes of her boots.
“I thought you were going to help me,” he said plaintively.
“I thought you were going to behave like a human being.”
He closed his eyes, counted silently to ten and opened them again. “What’d I do? Ed’s the one who started braying like a jackass. I just...” He stopped, sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m a little touchy, all right? For Pete’s sake, these last four days have been hell!”
They had, of course. She cooled. It wasn’t anything anyway, just a little feminine pique. She usually had better sense, but then it had been a difficult four days. She lifted a hand to brush along the thick, sloping ridge of his shoulder.
“We’re both a little touchy.” She felt him relax and took her hand away.
“Truce?”
She nodded. “Sure. Why not? We aren’t supposed to fight until after the wedding anyway.”
He smiled, turned and slid an arm about her waist, urging her forward. “We’re not going to fight at all,” he said. “We’re friends, remember?”
“I remember, but I wonder if Edward will.”
He frowned and kicked a pebble that had found its way up onto the sidewalk. “Why did you break it off with him?”
She thought of all the sane, sensible excuses she’d been giving everyone since the break up, but somehow she couldn’t make herself repeat them. Then she told herself that she just didn’t know why she’d found it increasingly impossible to think about living with Edward White throughout the rest of her life, and to a certain extent that was true. But there was something else, and she knew it, something lurking just beneath the surface of the vague doubts and dissatisfactions. It didn’t make much sense, but suddenly she had words for it and she just blurted them out.
“He’s too much like my father.” But she loved her father, adored him. He was a solid, steady, dependable man, just like Edward.
Parker dropped a look on her, his mouth quirking up on one side. “Dan’s a good man,” he said. “I’ll never forget what he did for Nathan, taking him into the business like that, putting his faith and trust in him, but if you don’t mind my saying so, I always found him a little...well, dull.”
Dull, she thought. Solid, steady, dependable. Comfortable. She lifted a brow at that. “I guess,” she said testily, “given your playboy existence, that my father’s wholesome life-style and long, uneventful marriage to my mother must seem pretty tame, but it’s just what ninety-nine percent of the world holds its breath and hopes for.”
“Including you?”
“Of course, including me.”
He shook his head, grin widening. “I don’t think so, Nurse Ballard. If that were the case, you’d have married good old, dependable Edward White months ago, but instead you went looking for adventure in Africa—or would have if I hadn’t tossed an orphaned infant into your lap.”
She didn’t like the fact that he’d come so close to pegging something she’d dared not voice aloud. What was wrong with her anyway, tossing aside a perfectly wonderful man like Edward White and then marrying a libertine like Parker, never mind the reasoning? Edward had pleaded for deliverance, too. Edward wanted, needed, a wife, someone to press his shirts and order his house, someone to talk to on long, quiet nights. Edward had promised her stability and normalcy and...comfort. She shook her head, scattering the unwelcome thoughts back into the fuzzy netherworld of semiconsciousness. One thing had nothing to do with the other. She wasn’t marrying Parker because she wanted to. She was marrying Parker because of Nathan’s darling Darla. She stuck her chin out and resorted to the old excuses.
“I didn’t marry Edward because I discovered that I’m just not ready to settle down. I want my life to count for something. I have valuable training that should be put to good use before I settle into domestic bliss. Once I’m tied down to a family of my own, it’ll be too late.”
The look in his eyes was blatantly skeptical, but he only said, “And what about Edward?”
“Edward will find someone else,” she said confidently, and in her mind she added, someone dull. The unbidden thought sent a guilty flush to her cheeks, but she pretended a sudden exuberance to cover it. “We’d better get moving. I have a thousand things to do.”
He held her at his side for a moment, his hand clamped into the curve of her waist; then he smiled and nodded. She slipped away, hurrying toward... She didn’t know what she was hurrying toward anymore, or even what she was running from.
* * *
They were married late in the afternoon by a judge Edward knew. The three of them went in, Edward gnashing his teeth and glaring, and had it done in short order. Two clerks in the office signed the license as witnesses, Edward refusing to do so while muttering something about his license to practice law. Parker knew, even if Edward did not, that it had much more to do with losing. Edward was an excellent attorney, a great racquetball player, a good competitor in almost any arena, all because along with that fine mind he possessed an absolute loathing for loss. Edward played to win, which was to say that Edward actually played very little at all. He did not love Kendra so much as he hated to lose her, or at least it seemed so to Parker, not that it mattered a great deal, for Parker knew something else: Kendra and Edward were wrong for each other, totally wrong.
Kendra was an uptight little thing who needed someone fun and uninhibited to loosen her up. Edward was an uptight big thing who also needed someone fun and uninhibited to not only loosen him up but to challenge him, as well. It was all very tidy, because it allowed Parker to feel not in the least guilty about marrying his best friend’s ex-fiancé. Very tidy. Especially as the ex-fiancé, now new wife, was a pediatric n
urse who nurtured no illusions about him and yet possessed a strongly passionate nature of which she was just barely even aware, and Parker had decided somewhere along the way that there would be no annulment. A divorce, yes—amicable, timely, civilized—but no annulment. But there wouldn’t be a wedding night, either.
Such a campaign would require a great deal of finesse and careful planning. The first time would have to be an accident, or as close to it as seduction could be, anyway. It must be an anomaly, a moment of foolishness coupled with overwhelming urges. After the initial tumble, he saw no reason why they could not continue to enjoy themselves until it came time to part. But first he had to show her that sex, in proper perspective and under the right conditions, was harmless, a thing unto itself, which could be kept carefully separate from the marriage, such as it was, and even from the friendship, which he did treasure, especially after she had very generously married him. He began with the kiss that came with the pronouncement of their binding.
Not too ardent, but not perfunctory, either. It had to be engineered precisely, with just enough clinging of the lips to demonstrate possession. He did not take her in his arms. Instead, he placed his hands upon her shoulders, and then moved one of them carefully to the side of her head, gently cupping her ear, his fingers lightly infiltrating the fine strands of rich brown hair with its shimmers of bronze and copper. He canted his own head to the precise angle and leaned forward slightly, settling his mouth against hers and closing his eyes. She tasted sweet, very, very sweet, and as clean as sun-dried linens. He felt a heady thrill of anticipation and smiled as he pulled away from her. Her gaze was solemn and troubled and closed.
