Baby, It's You (7 page)

“Yes,” he said smugly. “I know about it. Still think you’re staying here?”

“I can’t talk to you anymore right now.”

Kari started to walk away. Greg grabbed her arm and pulled her back around. “You’re not going anywhere.”

She tried to pull her arm away. “Greg, please! Let me
go
!”

He tightened his grip and gave her arm a hard jerk. “Stop all this nonsense and get in the damned car!”

An alarm bell went off inside Marc’s head. Words were one thing. A physical threat was another. He didn’t tolerate that kind of behavior from a man toward a woman.
Ever.

He strode into the parlor. “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”

Greg froze at the sound of Marc’s voice, and Kari’s eyes went huge with surprise. Greg gradually let go of her arm. “Who the hell are you?”

“Forget the introductions. Just keep your hands off her.”

“This is none of your business.”

“You grab her arm like that again, and I’m
making
it my business.” He turned to Kari. “Do you want to go with this guy?”

She looked at Greg, then at Jill, swallowing hard once again. “No. I don’t.”

Marc turned to Greg. “Beat it.”

Shock spilled over Greg’s face. “
Excuse
me?”

“You heard me. Get out of here.”

Greg turned to Kari. “Who the hell
is
this guy?”

“He’s a friend of mine,” Kari said.

“You have friends in this dinky town?”

“Yes,” Marc snapped. “She has friends in this dinky town. And if you touch her again, this
friend
is going to be all over you.”

“Yeah? What are you going to do?”

“You know the easiest way to find out?”

“How?”

“Grab her arm one more time.”

Greg turned to Kari. “Are you going to let him talk to me like that?”

Kari flicked her gaze to Marc. “Yeah,” she told Greg. “I think maybe I am.”

Greg’s expression turned ugly. “Gimme the ring.”

“What?”

“The ring! Give it to me!”

With an expression of disgust, Kari yanked the ring off her finger and slapped it into his palm.

“Sooner or later you’re going to be sorry about this,” Greg said. “But then it’s going to be too damned late!”

He spun around and stormed out of the parlor. Jill watched him leave, then turned to Kari. “What the
hell
do you think you’re doing?”

Kari drew back with surprise. “What am
I
doing?”

“How can you turn your back on Greg?
How?
He’s smart, he’s handsome—”

“Didn’t you hear the things he said to me?”

“Of course he said those things! He’s angry! You would be, too, if he’d humiliated you in front of three hundred people!”

“I’m sorry about that,” Kari said. “I really am. But I just didn’t see another way out. If I had stayed, everybody would have talked me into getting married. But I can’t marry Greg. He doesn’t love me.”

“Doesn’t love you? He gave you that big, beautiful diamond ring, didn’t he?”

Kari was silent.

“And you gave it back to him. I can’t
believe
you gave it back to him! And he bought that gorgeous condo for you, too. What does that tell you?”

“He didn’t ask me how I felt about it. He just bought it.”

“Well, I sure wouldn’t mind if a guy surprised me with an incredible place like that.”

Kari winced. “I’m not really all that crazy about it.”

“Not crazy about it?” Jill threw her hands up. “Have you completely lost your
mind
?”

“All that stuff…” Kari exhaled. “It just doesn’t matter to me.”

“I know you think it doesn’t,” Jill said, her voice low and angry, “but that’s because you’ve always had money. You grew up in that huge house. You have a father who’s a gazillionaire. The whole time we were in college, I had to scrimp and work two jobs, while you had so much money to throw around you could barely carry it all!”

Kari looked stunned. “Is that what you’ve thought all this time?”

“I didn’t care so much back then, because that was just where you came from, you know? But now…God, Kari! I’d
kill
to have a man like Greg, and you just walked away from him!”

“I know it seems crazy,” Kari said. “I know that. But I was sitting there in that wedding dress, thinking about marrying him, and it just seemed so…so
wrong
.”

“But it’s
not
wrong. You were just nervous. A lot of brides get nervous!”

Kari closed her eyes, shaking her head slowly.

“You’re going to regret this,” Jill said. “If you don’t make up with him and go back to Houston—”

“I can’t!”

Jill’s expression hardened. “You can and you should.”

Tears filled Kari’s eyes. “I can’t believe you’re talking to me like this. Haven’t we always stuck up for each other?”

“Yes! But you’ve never done anything this stupid before!”

Kari looked positively stricken by Jill’s words. “Do you really think it’s stupid for me to refuse to marry a man I don’t love?”

“For God’s sake, Kari!
Learn
to love him!”

“Should I have to do that?
Learn
to love the man I’m going to marry?”

“Fine! Stay here. Ruin your whole life. I hope you
never
come back to Houston!”

With that, Jill spun around and left the inn, her footsteps echoing against the hardwood floor of the entryway. Marc heard the door open, then slam behind her. Kari visibly shuddered at the noise, hugging that hairy beast even closer to her chest and looking distressed. A tear coursed down her cheek, and she swept it away with the back of her hand.

“Don’t cry,” Marc said. “That asshole’s not worth it.”

“It’s not Greg,” Kari said, sniffing. “It’s Jill. I thought we were friends.”

“Friends don’t betray you like that.”

“I know. I just thought she would understand.”

“Why did you get engaged to that guy in the first place?”

She shrugged weakly. “Everybody thought it was such a good idea. Particularly my father. Greg works at his company, and my father thinks he’s wonderful. Mostly because they’re just alike.”

“He seems hell-bent on marrying you, but he doesn’t seem to give a damn about how you feel about it.”

Kari was silent.

“I’m just stabbing in the dark here, but does your father happen to have money?”

She paused. “Yeah.”

“A lot of it?”

“More than you can possibly imagine.”

Marc was beginning to get the picture here, and it wasn’t pretty. The asshole wanted to marry her for her money. Maybe he even saw himself at the helm of the old man’s company someday, so he gave her a ring and conned her into an engagement. Her father seemed to think it was an excellent match, so the pressure was coming from two sides. And her friend Jill wasn’t a friend at all if she thought marrying that guy was a good idea. It appeared everybody in Kari’s life pushed her around like a chess piece, right up to the day the pawn finally revolted.

“Thank you for sticking up for me,” Kari said. “That was nice.”

“It wasn’t nice. Nice had nothing to do with it. It was just a logical reaction to bad behavior. You have to call a halt to that kind of crap the instant it begins, or you’ll have more trouble than you know what to do with.”

“Okay, then,” she said. “How about if I thank you for being logical?”

Marc didn’t know what to say to that. He only knew it was time for Kari to do whatever she had to do to get out of Rainbow Valley and on the road back to Houston. Surely she had other friends who could help her. She could return to her old life minus a certain asshole, and Marc would finally be free of the drama he hadn’t asked for in the first place.

“Rick called me this morning,” he said. “He said he pulled your car out of the ditch, but that you hadn’t come by yet. I thought you were going over there first thing.”

“I was,” Kari said. “But I slept late. And then when I came down here…” Her voice faded away.

“Look, I just came to tell you that you need to go see Rick. I asked him to haul your car in, so he needs to be paid for his time.”

“Yes,” she said on a sigh. “I know.”

“Just so you know, he thinks the car is a total loss.”

“
What?
”

“He said the frame is bent, which means it would cost more to fix the car than it’s worth.”

“Oh, no.” Kari sat down, her body going limp, then dropped her head to her hands. The rag mop scurried in a circle on the sofa, then jumped down to sniff a potted plant.

“Your insurance should reimburse you for the current value of the car,” Marc said. “Just call your insurance company, and it’ll all be taken care of.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t own the car. Not exactly.”

“What do you mean?”

Kari sighed. “It’s in my father’s name.”

Marc was confused. “Why?”

“Because he gave it to me as a gift a few years ago.”

“And he never put it in your name?”

“That’s right.”

“So call your father and get him to talk to the insurance company. One way or another, you’ll get a check.”

Kari looked away. “I’m afraid there’s a
teensy
little problem with that.”

Marc felt a glimmer of apprehension. The last time he heard the word
problem
, he got stuck unbuttoning a wedding dress. Unfortunately, she was looking up at him with those amazing green eyes, so he couldn’t stop himself from asking, “What problem?”

And then she told him, and Marc knew for sure that the chaos had only begun.

“Are you
serious
?” he said. “Your own father cleaned out your bank account?”

“It looks that way. He’s a signer on the account. He can do that.”

“Why is he a signer on your account?”

“It’s an old account from when I was in high school.”

“And you never took him off it?”

“It was never a problem before. And if he emptied my bank account, you can bet there’s no way he’ll turn in a claim for the damage on the car and then hand the check over to me. He’s trying to force me to come back to Houston. He thinks if I’m broke, that’s what I’ll do.”

“My God,” Marc said. “Is there a part of your life your father
doesn’t
control?”

Kari was silent.

“You said your only credit card is charged to the hilt. Is that right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Do you have any cash?”

“Not much.”

“Can you pay your hotel bill?”

“Barely.”

“You can’t even feed yourself, can you?”

She sighed. “Not for long.”

“And now I’ve chased away the only person who could get you back to Houston?” he said, his voice escalating. “Why didn’t you
stop
me?”

“You told me I shouldn’t go with him!”

She was right. That was exactly what he’d said. And it was because nothing made him angrier than to see a man treat a woman that way.
Nothing.
So what else could he have done?

Kari stood there looking lost. The goofy little rag mop whimpered, then licked her chin. “Do you really think I should have gone with him?” she said quietly.

Marc twisted his mouth with irritation. “No,” he muttered. “No! Of course not. That guy’s an asshole. You shouldn’t get within ten miles of him. But that means you have a big problem.”

“I know.”

“So what’s your plan now?”

“Well, I was thinking about that before Greg and Jill showed up.”

“And?”

“Nothing came to me.”

Then she was silent. At least her mouth was silent. Those gorgeous green eyes wouldn’t shut up. And he couldn’t turn her away any more than he could ignore a kitten in a snowstorm. Or, more accurately, a dirty bride in a rainstorm.

“Did Gus give you something to eat last night?” he asked her.

“Yeah.”

“You said you slept in. Did you miss breakfast?”

She sighed. “Yeah.”

“Come with me.”

“Where are we going?” she said.

“To Rosie’s for lunch. I’ll buy. But by the time we finish eating, you’re going to have a plan. And then you’re going to put it into action.”

W
hen Marc stepped into that parlor and told Greg to take a hike, he’d seemed like a superhero to Kari. Showing up out of nowhere, standing there with those powerful arms folded over that big, broad chest, skewering Greg with that intense warning expression—yep. Superhero.
Her
superhero. And his self-assurance had oozed over and filled her with the kind of confidence she couldn’t have imagined feeling only seconds before.

But now reality was setting in. Her superhero sat across from her in a booth at Rosie’s Café, looking at her as if there were only certain things he used his superpowers for. Solving her problems in a way
she
liked didn’t appear to be one of them.

“No way,” she said as she swallowed yet one more french fry from heaven. “I’m
not
taking a bus back to Houston.”

“What else are you going to do? You have no money, no job, no car, and no place to stay. Tell your father to give you your money back. Then get a real job instead of a throwaway one at his company so he doesn’t control you anymore. Tell him you’re making your own decisions from now on. And if the asshole comes within ten yards of you again, get a restraining order. There. You have a plan.”

“You make it sound so easy.”

“It is. If that’s what you want, just say it. People will get on board.”

“Sure. They’ll get on board with
you
.” She shrugged weakly. “Greg may have been right about me getting another job.”

“But you have a degree, right?”

“In English literature.”

Marc sighed. “Yeah, there’s not a big market for people who quote Shakespeare. What was your job at your father’s company?”

“I was a marketing specialist.”

“What exactly did you do?”

“I assembled consumer opinion data by compiling, formatting, and summarizing graphs and presentations.”

“So you made copies and stapled them together?”

Kari glared at him.

“You still have expenses back in Houston. What about your rent?”

“I’m living with my father right now.”

Marc screwed up his face. “Seriously?”

“My apartment lease was up. I moved into my father’s house for a few weeks until the wedding so I wouldn’t have to sign a new lease. The house is so big he barely even knew I was there. Then after I got married, I was going to move into Greg’s condo with him.”

“So you have no apartment rent to pay right now.”

“That’s right.”

“Good. That means you can get something cheaper than you had before. That’ll go with your new job that I’m guessing won’t pay as much.”

Kari squeezed her eyes closed. “This is a lot to think about.”

“Yeah, but the faster you deal with it, the faster you can get on with your life.”

“They’re still going to try to get me to marry Greg.”

“Where’s your backbone? Are you telling me you might actually marry the asshole after all?”

“No!”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes. Of course I’m sure!”

“Because if you’re that easily swayed, maybe you never should have left. Maybe you need to be married to a man who’ll tell you what to do.”

“I do not!”

“I’m not seeing much evidence of that.”

“Hey! I left my own wedding, didn’t I?”

“Leaving was easy. Going back and taking care of yourself.
That’s
what’s hard.”

Kari pursed her lips, hating the way that sounded, mostly because he was right. But she knew in her heart it was a mistake to return to Houston. No matter what Marc said about people getting on board with what she wanted if only she spoke up, she was still afraid she’d fall back into her same patterns all over again where she let everybody else’s opinion matter except hers.

“And do you know how you make sure you succeed?” Marc went on. “You burn your boats. What that means is—”

“I know what it means. Alexander the Great. The Persian War. After they landed on the enemy’s shore, he burned their own boats so they couldn’t fall back. They
had
to win the battle.”

“I thought you were a lit major.”

“Like nobody ever wrote a book about that?”

“As I was saying,” Marc said, “if you burn your boats, you have no choice but to fight to the death.”

“Oh, that’s uplifting.”

“Go home. Get face-to-face with your father. Quit your job if he hasn’t fired you already.
Burn your boats.
That way you have no choice but to succeed on your own.”

Rosie swept back by their table again. She was a forty-something woman with short brown hair and a pot of coffee in her hand. According to Marc, she wasn’t a waitress. She owned the place. And she looked even more frazzled than she had the last time she stopped by their table.

“Can I get you guys anything else?” Rosie said.

Marc looked at Kari. She shook her head. The double cheeseburger she’d just inhaled would probably hold her for a week.

“We’re good,” Marc said.

Rosie turned to Boo. “How about you, sweetie?”

When Boo’s ears perked up, she reached into the pocket of her apron and pulled out a dog biscuit. She laid it on the vinyl seat beside him, and he snapped it up. That was the third one she’d given him from what she called Rosie’s Bottomless Basket of Doggy Biscuits.

“You’re getting slammed today,” Marc said.

“Two tourist buses,” Rosie said. “Good for business, but Jolene quit to stay home with her baby.”

“Hard to find good help?”

“First I have to get a few applicants. All I’ve had was one woman who wanted to bring her three children to work with her. Three dogs I’d consider. Three kids—no.”

“I hear you. Harvest is coming up soon. I never can get enough good help.”

“If I hear of somebody who wants to pick grapes, I’ll send them your way.”

As Rosie hurried away, Kari said, “I couldn’t take the bus even if I wanted to. After I pay Gus for the room, I probably won’t even have enough money left for bus fare.”

Marc reached into his wallet, pulled out two twenties, and tossed them on the table. “That’ll cover it.”

She flashed him a tiny smile. “Gee, you must really want to get rid of me.”

“It’s just what needs to happen. You’ll be glad you went back.” He paused. “Assuming you stand up for yourself.”

That hit Kari harder than she would have imagined. Marc clearly had no faith in her ability to stand up to anyone. In fact, she’d been nothing but a gigantic pain in the ass to him since the moment she arrived, and she was pretty sure the only thing he wanted to see of her was her face in the window of that bus as she headed out of town. Just thinking about that made her miserable, and tears burned behind her eyes.

No. Don’t cry. Damn it, don’t you cry!

“I’m going to the ladies’ room,” she said. “Will you please watch Boo?”

Before he could say anything, she scooted out of the booth and hurried toward the ladies’ room, where she grabbed a paper towel and dabbed her eyes. All her life her father had treated her as if she was at best a helpless relative he had to support, and at worst a rock around his neck he wished he could rid himself of forever. But right now something made her feel even worse. She sensed that Marc felt exactly the same way about her that her father did. And for some reason she didn’t fully understand, his respect was something she wanted to have.

Kari heard the door open. She turned to see Rosie come into the ladies’ room. She saw Kari’s face and stopped short. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Kari said.

“Yeah? In my experience, nobody cries for nothing.”

Kari almost said,
My whole life sucks
, but she swallowed the words before they could pop out. She’d just listened to Marc tell her it was time to take control of her own life. Whining didn’t seem to fit into that new paradigm he was trying to acquaint her with.

“I’m just having a little setback,” Kari said.

“Sorry to hear that, sweetie. I take it you’re a friend of Marc’s?”

“Yes,” she said, because what was a friend, anyway? Somebody you went to when you were having a problem and needed help? He’d given her plenty of help last night, hadn’t he?

“Don’t worry, then,” Rosie said. “He’ll help you out, whatever your problem is. He’s good like that.”

But he wants me to go back to Houston, and I’m scared to!

As Rosie headed to one of the stalls, Kari stood helplessly by the sink, knowing she should go back out to the restaurant. But the moment she did, Marc would pay the bill, shove the money for bus fare at her again, and tell her to hit the road.

A minute later, the toilet flushed, and Rosie came out of the stall. She went to the sink to wash her hands. Kari washed her hands, too, so she wouldn’t look as if she was loitering in the bathroom, even though she was. After they both dried their hands, Rosie headed for the door, and Kari wanted to cry all over again. She obviously couldn’t stay in Rainbow Valley with no place to live, no job…

Wait a minute.
Job?

“Rosie?”

Rosie turned back. “Yeah?”

Kari’s mind was spinning in a direction she wasn’t sure was the right one, but she followed it, anyway.

“Didn’t you say you have a job opening for a waitress?”

“Yes.”

“That’s part of my setback,” she said. “I need a job.”

Rosie walked a few steps back toward her. “Yeah? Have you ever waited tables?”

“Well…no.”

“Kids?”

“Just the four-legged kind.”

“Do you live in Rainbow Valley?”

“I’m relocating. That’s why I need a job. Would you consider hiring somebody with no experience?”

“Most of the time I have to. Experienced waitresses are tough to find. But it’s hard work.” Rosie looked her up and down. “Sure you don’t mind getting your hands dirty?”

She started to tell Rosie she’d been way dirtier than this as recently as last night. Instead she said, “Nope. I don’t mind at all.”

“The hours suck. Morning shift starts at six a.m., and the evening shift goes until eight at night.”

“That’s fine.”

Rosie looked unsure for a moment, then nodded. “Okay. If you’re a friend of Marc’s, you’re hired. But only on a trial basis. That’s the way I do it with everybody who goes to work for me. Most people don’t realize just how hard waiting tables is, and most of them wash out.”

“I won’t.”

“Don’t hold your breath on that, sweetie. Let’s see how it goes first. Once you and Marc are through with lunch, come see me and you can fill out the paperwork. What’s your name?”

“Kari Worthington. Can you tell me what the job pays?”

Rosie quoted an impossibly small hourly rate, and Kari’s heart sank.

“But I have waitresses who make decent livings from tips alone,” Rosie said. “It’s all about the hustle.”

With that, she left the bathroom, and Kari turned and looked at herself in the mirror. Okay. How hard could it be to wait tables? All you had to do was ask people what they wanted and then go get it for them. No, it didn’t pay much, but right now she needed just enough to keep body and soul together until she could figure out what to do next.

Marc sat at the table glaring at the rag mop, and the rag mop stared back. Then slowly the dog turned to look at Kari’s plate. He’d already grabbed one french fry when Marc wasn’t looking. No way was
that
happening again.

“Don’t you even
think
about it,” Marc said.

He inched closer.

“Hey.”

Closer still.

“
Hey!
”

The dog recoiled, retreating to the corner of the booth, where he turned to look back at Marc. Marc sighed. Of course Kari would have a dog as undisciplined as she was.

“Hey, Marc. I didn’t know you were coming here for lunch.”

He turned around to see Nina approaching the table.
Oh, crap.

She slid into the booth across from Marc, only to stop short when she saw the rag mop. “Oops…what’s this?”

“A dog.”

“I wasn’t asking for species identification. Whose dog is it?”

Marc didn’t want to go there. He just didn’t. “Kari’s.”

“Kari? Who’s Kari?”

“I’m Kari.”

Marc winced at the sound of her voice. He gave her a quick glance, then turned back to Nina, who already had a calculating look on her face. Oh, this was going to be just
great
.

“Ah,” Nina said. “You wouldn’t happen to be the woman who had an accident last night while you were wearing a bridal gown, would you?”

Kari smiled. “Yeah. That’s me.”

Nina held out her hand. “Hi. I’m Nina. Marc’s sister.”

Kari shook her hand. “Kari Worthington.”

“And who’s this?” Nina said, scratching Boo behind the ears.

“His name’s Boo.”

“Well, hello there, Boo. Aren’t you a sweet puppy?” Then Nina turned to Marc. “Hey!”

“What?”

“Will you shove over and let Kari sit down?”

“She was sitting over there.”

“I can sit over here now,” Kari said. “I’m finished with lunch.”

Marc let out a breath and moved over. Kari squeezed into the booth beside him. Even in a place filled with the scents of Texas home cooking, he could smell her. He didn’t know if it was soap or shampoo or perfume, but it was as if somebody had stuck a bouquet of flowers in the seat next to him. He wasn’t a flowery kind of guy, but that girlie smell got his attention every time, especially when it was radiating from a body like Kari’s.

And she’s nothing but drama, drama, drama
, he reminded himself.
You don’t need that.

“Nina? Who’s at the shop?”

“Rupert got there early. He scheduled a special wine tasting with one of the tour groups coming through today. Did you see the buses?”

“Yeah. I saw the buses.”

“So…,” Nina said, “you two are having lunch?”

She put a great big question mark on the end of her sentence, asking for more information, but no information was ever enough for his sister, so why even go there?

“We were just leaving,” Marc said. “Kari has a bus to catch.”

“No bus,” Kari said, smiling brightly. “Change of plan.”

“What change of plan?” Marc asked.

“I’m not going back to Houston. I have a job now.”