Carolina Girl (14 page)

“Haven’t decided yet. But if you’re in the
habit of breaking promises, I might call you on it until you die.”
Without waiting for him, Rory started back to the car.

A man who offered to teach computers to kids and her sister
was not a man who fit anywhere into her perception of the world. She either had
to readjust her thinking or start running as fast as she could in the opposite
direction. She didn’t have time to indulge in infatuation.

While Mandy rustled around the kitchen fixing breakfast,
Cissy sat at the kitchen table with a basket of unpaid bills in the chair
beside her. Head propped on one hand, pencil in the other, she tried to sum the
total of the figures she’d scribbled on a piece of notebook paper, but
the number she kept getting was too astronomical to comprehend. Way past the
small sum she needed for Mandy’s summer school.

Rory had emptied her savings to cover the deductible on
Cissy’s insurance and to pay part of her dad’s enormous hospital
bill. Cissy hated that, but looking at the pages of expenses on both bills, her
eyes glazed over. Basic math said the balance remaining was larger than the
Grand Canyon. And that didn’t count the mortgage she hadn’t told
Rory about—the one with the overdue payment the bank had called about a
few minutes ago. After yesterday’s revelations, she understood the early-
morning call meant they were pushing her to sell. Understanding didn’t
make it easier.

They’d have to declare bankruptcy. Would they lose the
trailer? Dad’s factory? She had lost her mind believing she could pull
out of this.

All she had to do was pick up the phone and call the realty
company. The cordless sat on the table beside her where she’d left it
after hanging up on the bank call. She had Ralph Turner’s card right here....

The front door opened, and Rory entered, trailing a
disheveled McCloud in what appeared to be yesterday’s clothes, reeking of
rumpled male.

Cissy tried to hide her disappointment. Last night
she’d thought Clay McCloud was the answer to all her prayers. He’d
appeared roughly respectable, understanding, and talented.

This morning he looked like her father after a bad night in
town. She was trusting Mandy’s future to a man with twigs in his hair?

“Give me a minute to clean up,” Clay was saying
as he entered, wielding a bundle of clothes. “I can catch something to
eat at Cleo’s. I don’t want to terrify the kid looking like this.
As Cleo says, Kiz has issues.”

“If you’re talking about Kismet Watkins, yeah,
she’s scared of her own shadow.” Finishing her cereal, Mandy jumped
up from the table and eyed them with interest. “You been sleeping on the
beach?”

Realizing they had an audience, Clay tried not to appear
embarrassed as the long-legged teenager looked from him to Aurora. How the hell
did these women live in one another’s pockets like this?

“Watching turtles,” he replied a little more
curtly than he’d intended.

“There’s a shower in there.” Oblivious to
her niece’s interest, Aurora pointed to her bedroom door. “Throw
your dirty clothes out and I can put them in the machine, or next time you pull
this stunt you’ll only find dirty clothes in the bike’s bag.”

Clay thought about protesting, but with an audience watching
it didn’t seem worth the effort. He should have just driven home, but he
was feeling guilty enough about standing Kismet up after she’d finally
relented and agreed to learn the software. Scaring her to death with his rough
appearance wasn’t on the agenda.

He hadn’t scared Aurora with his appearance. Once she
knew he hadn’t deserted Kiz, she’d even accepted why he was there.
He couldn’t think of too many women who would understand his need to see
and understand things for himself.

Entering Aurora’s bedroom, he glanced around with
interest as he hadn’t the day before. The cheap white poster bed was
probably leftover from childhood. The sleek desk and computer in the corner,
though, looked like something he’d buy and must have come from her banker
days. She’d talked about her job a little yesterday as they’d
trudged from store to store. She hadn’t said, but he assumed she’d
left her career to take care of her family. Playing the part of caretaker
wasn’t the behavior of any MBA he knew, but then, Aurora was full of
surprises. He was enjoying uncovering all the layers.

Maybe it was just the anticipation. He couldn’t
remember the last time he’d had to work at wooing a woman into bed. Had
he ever?

Her bathroom wasn’t large, but it held a tub with a
whirlpool gadget attached and a showerhead. The jasmine scent he recognized as
Aurora’s blended with the potpourri of rose petals on the vanity and the
lemon fragrance of her soap and shampoo. He’d never spent time in a
feminine bathroom, but he had no insecurities about his masculinity, so it
didn’t intimidate him. He wanted to explore, see if he could find the
secret to unlocking Aurora’s armor—only Kiz was waiting, and he
didn’t have the leisure.

Using the lemon shampoo and soap, he lathered quickly,
turning on the cold to tame his unruly sex and unrulier thoughts.

He’d thrown his dirty clothes out the door as
instructed, so Aurora could take them away. She was right: he’d probably
have stuffed them back in his bag and forgotten them.

He didn’t know if he liked her knowing him that well
when he knew next to nothing about her. Women had always been a mystery to him.
They attached themselves occasionally, offered sex, tried to manage his life,
and when he couldn’t be managed, they’d disappear.

Diane had married his CEO after the two of them siphoned
most of the funds his investors sank into the company. He’d sold
everything he’d owned to pay back what he could. After that, he’d
lost interest in following the road to love and fortune, but a man
couldn’t live without sex. So maybe he should scout the layout, learn
what made Aurora tick, and build a safe barrier to keep her out of his life
while encouraging her into his bed.

Jerking on his T-shirt and old jeans, wrapping a raw-hide
shoestring around his wet tail of hair, Clay eyed his scruffy visage in the
mirror and shrugged. He’d left the fancy hair salons behind in L.A., and
he didn’t have his shaving gear with him. Maybe he ought to think about
packing a kit in his bag. Until now it hadn’t occurred to him that he
might need to be presentable to anyone.

Back in Aurora’s bedroom he could hear the low murmur
of feminine voices and the clanging of pots and pans from the kitchen. His
stomach rumbled in appreciation of the scent of hot coffee and frying bacon. If
they continued feeding him like this, he’d have to buy their groceries.

Aurora’s closet and dressers were all closed,
concealing any glimpse of female secrets. He could poke around on her computer,
but it would look pretty suspicious if she caught him. He’d learned her
screen name when he’d been in there last night. He’d have to
surprise her with a virtual card.

He could program a card with laughing Dopeys and dancing
rainbows. Would she get a kick out of that?

Or was she the sort to prefer expensive jewelry?

He stopped in front of the childish white dresser that
matched her bed. A curlicued, gilded porcelain clock was the only ornament. No
jewelry box.

Her neatness compared to his slovenly haven had him shaking
his head. Was there even anything in the drawers? He’d bet that if there
was, it was all neatly sorted in stacks by color.

To verify his suspicion, he tugged open a top drawer. The
scent of jasmine wafted around him, and a cloud of lace and silk spilled over
the edge—underwear!

Grinning, Clay admired the array of colors and frivolities.
Who would have imagined this side of the straitlaced MBA? He couldn’t
resist envisioning Aurora’s voluptuous curves framed in—

“McCloud!”

Guiltily he slid the drawer closed, shoved his hands in his pockets,
and ambled toward the sound of her voice. “Coming.” He wished.

He grinned to himself at the unintentional pun. Jared was
the clown in the family, not him.

Aurora appeared in the doorway and eyed his casual pose with
suspicion. “Admiring your pretty face in the mirror?”

“Hoping you’d left a rubber band lying around.
This thing doesn’t stay in. How do you keep your dresser so neat?”
As the youngest of three brothers, he had the innocent pose down to a fine art.

Standing in front of her, Clay admired the thick swirl
she’d tugged her hair into, but he liked it better down. Before she could
come up with a sharp retort, he located the clasp, opened it, and brought the
whole red-gold heap tumbling to her shoulders.

Instead of smacking him or backing off, she stayed planted
where she was, studying him. “You thought you’d find a rubber band
in my hair?”

He wrapped a long strand of red-gold around his finger and
admired it. “It’s prettier down. Softer.”

He thought the tension between them escalated to stellar proportions.
She watched him warily but the magnetic attraction trapped both of them.
He’d never seen Aurora nervous, even when she’d been facing him
down at his place when she hardly knew him. Now, after sharing those
mind-blowing kisses, he was excruciatingly aware of womanly curves he wanted to
touch and gorgeous eyes watching him as if he were the big, bad wolf.

Maybe it was standing in this bedroom with the froufrou bed
and sexy underwear that heated his awareness and her nervousness.

Reluctantly releasing her curl, hoping to appear nonchalant,
Clay sauntered past her to the women waiting in the other room.

o0o

Aurora hurried to follow Clay. She wasn’t into fooling
herself, so she had to admit the annoying man possessed a crude charm that rang
her chimes. But she didn’t have to act on that attraction. All she had to
do was look around to prove she didn’t need any more problems on her
hands.

Cissy was wearing the closed expression she used to shut
people out, which didn’t bode well for the computer lessons. Was her
sister having second thoughts about selling out? Please, Lord, lend her
strength.

This morning was not turning out at all like she’d
planned.

“Sit down, have some eggs,” she ordered before
Clay could mess with her mind again. “What time were you supposed to meet
Kismet?” Aurora took the frying pan from the stove and dished scrambled
eggs onto a plate she’d set out for him.

Clay glanced around for a clock and grimaced. “In
about fifteen minutes. Was that Jared’s Jeep we passed? Is he still
here?”

“Nope. We told him you’d been found, and he went
back home.” Mandy filled her glass with orange juice and flopped onto the
seat beside Clay at the table. “He said he’d tell Kiz you’d
be late. You really teaching her computers?”

“Graphics. She likes drawing. Why, you
interested?”

Aurora watched as Clay drank his coffee, swallowed breakfast
whole, and answered Mandy’s questions at the same time. Her cheek still
felt warm from where he’d brushed it with his hand when he’d—
Oh, sugar
. She’d left her hair down. No wonder Cissy was looking
at them as if they were space aliens.

“Yeah, why don’t you come over and keep Kiz
company? I think she’d feel better if there was another female there, and
Cleo doesn’t have time to sit with us. Maybe you’d learn
something.” Clay finished off his coffee and glanced up at the wall clock
again.

His gaze caught Aurora’s, and he winked. She fought
back a blush. Damn, but she hadn’t felt bubbly inside like this since
high school. How did he do that?

As Mandy leaped up to change her clothes or fix her hair or
whatever it was teenagers did when going somewhere, Clay turned his devastating
attentiveness on Cissy.

“Is there a good time for us to start your lessons?
It’s probably not wise for you to track through the sand to my place. I
can bring my laptop over here, but if we need to print anything, we’ll
have to borrow Aurora’s printer.”

He glanced at Aurora for approval, and she tingled all the
way to her toes. Incapable of coherent thought, she nodded.

“I don’t want to start something you can’t
finish,” Cissy said with unbecoming surliness. “I don’t need
charity.”

Broad-shouldered, unshaven, and all male, Clay appeared
taken aback by her sister’s rude declaration. “It’s not
charity,” he said cautiously. “It’s keeping developers away
from my brother’s land until we have a better plan. I’m not a
quitter. Are you?”

Rory held her breath, uncertain what had happened with Cissy
between last night and now but praying she wouldn’t back out. Another
time she might marvel that Clay hadn’t taken offense, as most men would.
Right now it was Cissy who held her attention.

Her sister looked torn. She glanced at the bill basket,
glanced back to the end of the house where she and Mandy lived, then met
Rory’s eyes. With a shrug, she picked up her coffee cup. “I keep my
word if others keep theirs. You just let me know when you have time, and
I’ll be here.”

“At four.” He rose from the table.

Trying not to choke on her relief, Rory followed Clay to the
door. “Thanks,” she murmured so her sister couldn’t hear.
“There for a minute, I thought she’d changed her mind.”

“She’s entitled. That’s a heck of a lot of
money they’re waving around.” He held the door for her so she could
follow him outside.

It was early yet, and heat hadn’t taken hold of the
air. Rory breathed deeply, trying not to let her awareness of Clay disturb her
thought processes. Even through the layer of her perfumed soap she could detect
the all-male scent of him. She didn’t think it safe to look too closely
at how the soft cotton of his shirt hugged his chest.

“I really can pay her bills, one way or
another.” She crossed her fingers behind her back and said a little
prayer of hope. She would demand a signing bonus with her next job.