Amazing Gracie

by Sherryl Woods

  “No doubt about it.” He studied her a bit. “Actually, I’m pretty proud of my handiwork.”

  “Your handiwork? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You’ve loosened up, darlin’. Another few months and that tidy, sophisticated facade will be stripped away completely.”

  “And you think that’s a good thing?”

  He grinned. “Of course I do. Makes us better suited, don’t you think?”

  “I suppose,” she said doubtfully. Even so, she backed out of his loose embrace. “I still think I’ll like me better if I’m all cleaned up. This ought to be an occasion, after all.”

  He gave a resigned sigh. “It’s not the soap and water that will make it an occasion, but if you’ll feel more confident, I’ll just relax right here on your bed and wait.”

  She kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”

  “Gracie?”

  “Yes?”

  “Don’t take too long, okay?”

  “I’ll be back before you can blink.”

  She stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind her, then leaned against it. Her heart was pounding so hard, it felt as if she’d just finished an aerobic workout and hadn’t cooled down. Of course, the likelihood she’d be cooling down anytime soon was slim to none.

  She stripped off her clothes, jumped into the shower and lathered up in record time. She shampooed her hair. When she emerged, she slathered lotion over her body, then ran a brush through her hair. She eyed the dryer, but guessed that Kevin wouldn’t wait patiently for her to blow-dry her hair. She fluffed it into damp curls with her fingers instead, added a touch of lipstick and a swish of mascara and left it at that.

  Only then did she realize that she hadn’t brought a single piece of clothing into the bathroom with her. Nor was there a sexy robe hanging on the back of the door. There was no way in hell she was climbing back into the filthy clothes she’d just removed. She gazed at her reflection in the mirror and smiled. Her entrance was going to be very provocative. She hoped Kevin hadn’t had second thoughts while she was gone.

  She wrapped herself in the most voluminous towel she owned, but the truth was, it barely made her decent. Nor was there any truly secure way to assure it would stay on for more than a heartbeat. She could only pray the makeshift knot would hold long enough for her to cross the room, otherwise she was going straight from sophisticated to scandalous.

  Drawing in a deep breath, she opened the door. Sunlight spilled across the bed, bathing Kevin in gold and shadows. At the sound of the door opening, his gaze shot to her.

  “Holy…kamoley,” he murmured, his voice ragged.

  “Worth the wait?”

  “Better than any ballgown I’ve ever seen. Get over here.”

  Gracie crossed the room very carefully, one hand locked on the knot of terry cloth between her breasts.

  Kevin drew a little circle in the air. “Turn around.”

  Gracie’s cheeks flooded with heat, but she dutifully turned.

  “If Cannon knew what you did for one of their towels, they’d hire you for an entire ad campaign.”

  “The towel as fashion statement?”

  “Something like that.” He reached up and touched the hand securing the knot. “What happens if you let go?”

  “I’m afraid to find out.”

  “Come on. Be daring. Let’s check it out.” He gently pulled her hand away. The towel stayed where it was. Kevin regarded the knot with a disappointed gaze. Then he slipped a finger into the twist of fabric and gave a little tug. The towel slowly parted and slithered to the floor.

  Gracie swallowed hard, but forced herself not to look away. Kevin looked awestruck.

  “You are so beautiful,” he murmured. “I think I like this look best of all.”

  “It might not be appropriate for church on Sunday,” she pointed out, her voice shaky.

  “Darlin’, this look’s not appropriate for anyone but me to see. Remember that, okay?”

  “Agreed.” She surveyed him slowly, boldly. “I’ve noticed something, though.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I’m standing here stark naked and you have on way too many clothes.”

  “I can fix that in a heartbeat,” he promised, stripping off shirt and jeans and briefs before she could blink. He beckoned to her. “Now, come on over here, so I can touch you.”

  He held out his arms and Gracie moved into them. It was odd, she thought, as their naked bodies came together, fit together. It felt as if she’d just come home.

  There was only a moment to savor that stunning sensation, though. Kevin knew all sorts of wicked and wonderful things to do to her body. Maybe that’s how he spent all those lazy hours in the hammock, dreaming up new and inventive ways to drive a woman crazy. Gracie was relatively certain that no other man on earth was quite as clever or adept with his fingers, that no other man had discovered quite so many erogenous zones. Her senses reached new limits, then topped them, and all the while Kevin took nothing for himself.

  To her frustration, he kept her hands pinned idly over her head while he worked his magic. Only when she had come apart once, twice, three times, the incredible tension dissolving into shuddering waves of pleasure, did he finally heed her pleas and slowly enter her, shattering her all over again with his deep, penetrating strokes.

  This time, though, he was with her, his body shuddering as forcefully as her own, an exultant cry ripped from deep in his chest.

  In the aftermath of that, the feelings that stole over her scared Gracie to death. Contentment, powerful and soul-deep. Wonder. Joy.

  And love. That was the most terrifying of all, because when she looked in Kevin’s half-shuttered eyes, she wasn’t sure she saw anything to match it.

  No, what she read in his eyes was satisfaction, delight, maybe even a touch of masculine smugness. Warmth. A trace of affection, perhaps, but no more than that. He looked like a man who had made love, thoroughly and enjoyably, but not one who was in love.

  Suddenly overcome with regrets, she slammed the door on her own emotions, hoping that nothing of what she felt was visible on her face or in her eyes. For some idiotic reason, she had leapt to the conclusion that this afternoon was about the future. Now she knew without any doubt at all that it had only been about the here and now.

  She felt the sting of tears in her eyes and turned away before Kevin could spot them and see her for the fool she’d been. When the phone beside the bed rang, she was only too eager for the distraction. She grabbed it, even as Kevin protested.

  “Yes, hello.”

  “Is Kevin there?” a man demanded roughly.

  “Yes. May I tell him who’s calling?”

  “Bobby Ray.”

  She rolled over and handed the phone to Kevin, who was regarding her with a watchful, worried look. “ Bobby Ray,” she mouthed silently.

  He took the phone with obvious reluctance. “This had better be good, Bobby Ray, or I’ll have to break every bone in your body.”

  Bobby Ray was shouting now, cursing Kevin. Gracie could hear just about every bitter word, enough to know that Bobby Ray was blaming him for something.

  “If you don’t calm down and tell me what the hell is going on, I’m hanging up,” Kevin said quietly, sitting on the edge of the bed, his back deliberately toward Gracie.

  “Sara Lynn’s gone,” Bobby Ray said bleakly, but still at full volume, which suggested he’d been drinking for some time now. “She’s run off with that son-of-a-bitch jeweler.”

  “I warned you,” Kevin began. “I suppose they made off with all the money, too.”

  Gracie shut him off with an elbow to the ribs. “This is not the time for a lecture,” she whispered fiercely. “Tell him to come over.”

  “Here?” Kevin asked, whipping around to stare at her incredulously.

  She nodded, already scrambling out of bed and searching for clothes to put on. Kevin stared at her for a minute, then sighed heavily.

  “Come on over, Bobby Ray
. We’ll figure out something.”

  He slowly replaced the receiver on the hook. “Mind telling me why you’re so all-fired interested in having my cousin drop by to spill his guts?”

  “He’s upset, drunk most likely from what I heard. He needs to talk. He needs our help.”

  “He needs my help, you mean. This is my problem, not yours.”

  She regarded him wryly. “Actually, it’s Bobby Ray’s problem, don’t you think? What he needs from us is moral support. I’m as good at giving that as you are. Better, more than likely, since you seem to think he’s an idiot for marrying Sara Lynn in the first place.”

  Kevin stood up and jerked on his pants. “My opinion of Sara Lynn is no secret. That doesn’t mean I’m incapable of being sympathetic.”

  “We’ll see,” Gracie responded.

  “The minute Bobby Ray gets here, I’m going to take him out to Greystone Manor. There’s no reason for you to get mixed up in this,” he repeated, his expression grim, his jaw set determinedly.

  “Is it that you think I can’t offer a shoulder to cry on?” Gracie demanded indignantly. “Is it that you don’t want me to know the family secrets? Or do you just like carrying all those burdens around singlehandedly?”

  He glowered at her. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means I think you enjoy having everyone lean on you. It’s the only kind of intimacy you understand.”

  “Don’t be absurd.” He turned his back on her and went scrambling for his shirt and shoes.

  “I think I’m right,” she persisted. “I think you’re afraid if they start to solve their own problems, they won’t need you anymore and you’ll be left all alone.”

  “I have never in my life heard such worthless psychobabble,” he said, and stormed out of the bedroom without a backward glance.

  Gracie stayed right on his heels. “Prove me wrong,” she said.

  He sat on a chair in the darkening kitchen and yanked on socks and shoes. “I don’t have to prove anything to you or anybody else,” he muttered.

  “Maybe not to me,” she agreed quietly. “Maybe you just need to prove it to yourself.”

  20

  Bobby Ray was weaving and bleary-eyed when he stumbled his way onto Gracie’s front porch twenty minutes later. At least he’d had the good sense to call the area’s only cab for the ride over. Kevin watched his arrival with a mixture of disgust and trepidation. He had a feeling this was a very bad idea, in more ways than one.

  Gracie had turned his cousin’s crisis into some sort of test, and for the life of him he couldn’t figure out what she was up to. It was absolutely absurd to think that these incidents gave him some sort of perverse pleasure, which was what she was implying. He wanted Bobby Ray—all of them, for that matter—to stand on their own two feet. It just hadn’t happened. In all these years, they’d run to him every time they’d so much as stubbed a toe.

  As much as he wanted to haul his cousin as far from Gracie’s as he could take him, there was no way to pull it off now. She was waiting inside with a pot of coffee brewing and a plate of cookies warm from the oven. Apparently, she thought they were going to have some sort of blasted tea party.

  Bobby Ray made it to the front door under his own steam. He even tried to throw a punch at Kevin, but Kevin anticipated it and Bobby Ray’s aim was off anyway.

  “Ought to tear you apart,” Bobby Ray said.

  “Ditto,” Kevin said, tucking an arm around his cousin’s waist and guiding him into the kitchen. Bobby Ray leaned heavily against him.

  Kevin tried to make himself remember all the good times they’d had as boys. They’d gotten into more mischief than brothers or best friends. In fact, back then, Bobby Ray had been his best friend.

  He knew precisely when that had changed. They’d been at college then. Roommates, in fact, though Kevin had been finishing up law school and Bobby Ray was still a senior thanks to his lackadaisical attitude toward his classes and his fervent concentration on partying. That was the year Bobby Ray’s daddy had called Kevin and told him he was dying and that he wanted Kevin to be in charge of managing his estate.

  “Bobby Ray’s not responsible,” his uncle had declared from his sickbed. “None of them are.”

  “And who saw to that?” Kevin had asked him pointblank. “Has there ever been a time when you weren’t only too eager to bail them out of a jam?”

  “Maybe not. Maybe it is my fault. But truth’s truth and it’s too late to fix it now,” his uncle Steven had lamented. “They’ll fritter that money away in a year, if I don’t leave somebody sensible in charge.”

  Kevin hadn’t wanted the responsibility, had guessed that it would drive a wedge between him and his cousins, but his uncle had been adamant. It wasn’t as if this were the first time. His own father had reminded him of his duty to half a dozen other relatives as he lay dying, too.

  What had made it so much worse this time was that his uncle hadn’t bothered telling his children about the arrangements, haven’t even told them how ill he was. He’d left all of that to Kevin, as well. It was little wonder there’d been so much resentment.

  Bobby Ray had retaliated by going after Marianne. Kevin had been stunned, but not heartbroken when she had chosen his cousin. He’d wished them well, had even stood up for Bobby Ray at the wedding. Only recently had he come to realize that the expression on Bobby Ray’s face that day hadn’t been happiness, but a gloating triumph.

  There was none of that in his expression now. He was, quite simply, drunk as a skunk. Gracie started clucking over him the minute they entered the kitchen. Naturally Bobby Ray promptly made a halfhearted pass at her, aiming a kiss straight for her lips. Kevin told himself that his cousin was drunk, and besides that, flirting came as naturally to Bobby Ray as breathing. It was the only thing that kept Kevin from decking him. Gracie had ignored the overture anyway, dodging the kiss and steering Bobby Ray toward a chair instead.

  “Sit down, Bobby Ray. Let me pour you some coffee. Have a cookie.” She studied him worriedly. “Or maybe a sandwich would be better.”

  “Stop fussing,” Kevin grumbled. “He’s survived worse.”

  She scowled at him, then beamed at Bobby Ray. “Why don’t you tell us exactly what happened? Maybe we can help.”

  Bobby Ray seemed stunned by the offer. “You’ll help me get Sara Lynn back?”

  “If that’s what you truly want,” Gracie promised in a tone that suggested she didn’t believe for a minute that it was what he wanted.

  His head bobbed up and down. “It’s what I want.”

  “Tell me about her,” Gracie encouraged.

  Kevin sighed and resigned himself to a very long evening and one that would be a far cry from what he’d envisioned. He hadn’t planned on leaving that bed of Gracie’s for hours to come.

  Bobby Ray embarked on a long, complicated tale of how he’d met Sara Lynn and fallen head over heels in love with her. “She thought I was a hero, straight out of a storybook. That’s what she said.” He smiled sadly. “Never been a hero before.”

  “Marianne thought you were,” Kevin reminded him. “Until you disillusioned her.”

  Bobby Ray’s expression turned even more sorrowful. “Made a mistake with Marianne. Married her for all the wrong reasons.” He looked at Kevin. “Trying to get even with you. When she figured it out, she left me.”

  “So you married Ginny on the rebound,” Kevin said. “Even though the two of you had about as much in common as an octopus and an elephant.”

  Bobby Ray nodded. “Another mistake,” he conceded. He looked at Gracie. “Ginny left me, too. Took my new Jaguar with her.”

  “It was the least you owed her,” Kevin said. “She could have taken you for a bundle.”

  “You saw to it she didn’t,” Bobby Ray said. “I can always count on you. Good old Kevin. Saint Kevin.”

  To Kevin’s astonishment, Gracie waved a finger under Bobby Ray’s nose. “Don’t you dare talk about your cousin that way. He
could let you twist in the wind, you know.”

  “Not Kevin,” Bobby Ray insisted. “Wouldn’t do that. It’s not his nature.”

  “Maybe I should,” Kevin said. “Maybe just once I should let you work your own way out of trouble. I may be every bit as bad as your father.”

  The remark was as effective as a slap at snapping Bobby Ray out of his drunken self-pity. “You wouldn’t abandon me now, would you, Kev?”

  “I don’t know what you want from me.”

  “Help me get Sara Lynn back,” Bobby Ray said again.

  “Because you love her?” Gracie asked. “Or because you can’t stand losing another woman?”

  Both Kevin and Bobby Ray stared at her. Bobby Ray looked thoughtful, or as thoughtful as a man drunk on bourbon could look.

  “Could be you’re right,” he admitted. “Tired of seeing ’em get away.”

  “Have you ever considered trying to get Marianne back?” Gracie inquired casually.

  Kevin almost choked on his coffee. “Gracie!”

  “Hush. I want to hear what Bobby Ray has to say to that.”

  “You don’t know what you’re suggesting,” Kevin protested.

  “I think I do,” Gracie said stubbornly.

  “Marianne wouldn’t take me back,” Bobby Ray said. “Too much water under the bridge.”

  “Why’d she throw you out, Bobby Ray?”

  “Because I used her to get even with Kevin,” he repeated.

  Gracie nodded, a satisfied expression on her face. “Not because she didn’t love you, right? She chose you over Kevin, didn’t she? And she hasn’t dated anyone seriously since, according to Abby.”

  Kevin was dumbfounded. “Where did you hear all this?”

  “From Abby.”

  “She’s a kid,” Kevin argued. “She’s not a very reliable source.”

  “I’ll bet she knows her mother pretty well,” Gracie countered.

  “She’s like every other kid. She daydreams about having her family together again,” Kevin protested. “That doesn’t mean it’s the right thing for Marianne.”

  “Maybe Marianne and Bobby Ray should be the judge of what’s best for them,” Gracie argued right back.