Her Convenient Millionaire (6 page)

Sherry put in the last pair of support stockings, closed the suitcase and latched it. Good thing Clara's son had muscles, Sherry thought as she hefted it off the bed. The suitcase had to weigh a couple of tons. Her assigned task finished, all the second thoughts and misgivings rushed in on her again.

For somebody who claimed to want independence, asking a perfect stranger to marry her didn't exactly seem the best way to go about it. But then, independence wasn't exactly the right word for what she wanted. She knew better than to think she could stand by herself in absolute self-sufficiency. Nobody could do everything all alone without any assistance ever.

So she needed a little temporary help. So she asked Mike to marry her. So what? It didn't mean she was in love with him. That kiss didn't mean he was in love with her, either. He only kissed her to try to scare her off. She just had to forget the way it sizzled all the way through to every tiny capillary in her body.

They weren't in love, and it was better that way. Much better. Nobody would get hurt. She was never ever again going to love anybody who didn't love her back, and Mike didn't. He was still going to help her, even though he'd turned down her marriage idea. Only, now she felt guilty for putting him to all this trouble.

“Everything okay in here?” Mike's voice behind her made her jump.

Sherry pasted on her brightest smile. “All done. It was easy once you distracted Clara.”

“I should've said, ‘Are
you
okay?'” He came in the room, shrinking it by at least half. “I couldn't help but notice you looked worried.” His hand rose, as if to touch her, but stalled out before it arrived. “You don't have to worry about your father. He won't bother you. And if he does, I'll be there.”

Sherry bit her lip. “Are you sure? I can't help but think your life would be a lot simpler if you just showed me the door and waved goodbye.”

His grin didn't help matters. “Now, why would I want to do that?”

“I can't believe you have to ask. I've disrupted your whole life. You're moving your mother out of her home. I won't be able to stay with her, which is why you asked me to stay in the first place—”

“No.” Mike touched a finger to Sherry's mouth, stopping her tumble of words. “I asked you to stay because you didn't have anywhere else to go.”

Even so brief a touch burned, but his kindness burned
deeper. Tears welled up in her eyes and she fought them back. “Why are you being so nice to me? You don't even know me.”

“You're my employee—”

“Which I wouldn't be if you hadn't been so nice.”

“You work for me.” Mike spoke over her last words, his voice hard, emphatic. “I take care of my people because they work hard for me.”

“I bet you don't invite them all home to stay with your mother.”

Again his teasing grin came back. “That's because she scares them all off. Believe me, I've tried. She likes you. If I waved goodbye, she'd make my life a living hell. You think she's bad now, you should see her when she's really trying.”

He touched her arm, urging her toward the door. “I said I'd help you and I will. I don't go back on my word.”

“Even if it's the smart thing to do?”

“Even if.” Mike picked up the suitcase. “Maybe it's not the smart thing, but it's the right thing to do. Come on. Let's get Mom moved.”

“Why don't I just wait here? You don't need me sticking my nose in your family business. Not any more than it already is.” She felt awkward with the situation.

“I don't want you staying here by yourself.” He herded Sherry ahead of him. “Not until we know for sure what your father intends. Probably nothing, but I don't want to take the chance. Besides, I need you to carry Mom's medicine. I've got my hands full with Mom and the rest of her stuff. Maybe if we're lucky, any people who see our trek across the lobby will think you're moving on and tell your dad.”

Not one to keep fighting when she'd so obviously lost, Sherry picked up the train case of medications from the dresser by the door and followed along behind, trying to
hide her amusement at Clara's continuing ploys to get out of the move.

 

Mike saw his mother safely installed in his oldest sister's house in West Palm Beach after a litany of complaints and excuses all the way there and after arriving. Nothing new there. On the way back to the island, his cell phone rang.

“Micah Scott.” He identified himself. Had to be business. Nobody else ever called.

“This is Alice.”

He sat up straight. Alice never called unless something important came up, and she was a good judge of the important. “What's up?”

“You said to call if somebody came around asking about the new girl. Sherry, right?”

Chills danced little goose feet down his spine. “That's right.” He pulled to a halt at a red light, resisting the urge to look at the young woman sitting in the seat beside him. He didn't want to alarm her if it wasn't necessary.

“And?” he prompted when Alice didn't continue.

“Somebody came. Big guy, middle-aged, blond hair, red face. He asked for Sherry. I told him she wasn't here. He asked if she worked here. I asked if he wanted a table for lunch. He left.”

Now Mike looked at Sherry. “Is your father a big blond red-faced guy?”

“That's him.” She frowned. “Why?”

“He came to the club looking for you. He left again, peacefully.”

“More or less,” Alice added, catching Mike's comment over the phone. “He yelled a little, but he didn't break anything.”

“Do you think he'll be back?” Mike said, not sure which woman he asked.

“Couldn't say,” Alice said.

“Probably.” Sherry crossed her legs. Mike didn't look. Much. “Tug's hardheaded. If he gets an idea, he doesn't give it up easily. He may not be back today or even tomorrow. But I'm sure he'll be back.”

“Thanks, Alice. Let me know if anything else happens.”

“Sure thing, boss man.”

Mike punched off the phone and slid it back into his shirt pocket. He still didn't think this guy, Sherry's father, had the nerve to do anything serious; but he was liking the picture he had of the guy less and less. “Maybe you should just stay home tonight.”

“No.” Sherry was already shaking her head. “I might have run, but I'm not hiding. Even though I can't stay with your mom for you, with all this going on, I am not going to leave you short-handed at your club, and I'm certainly not going to wimp out on the job after just one day.”

He had to smile, in spite of knowing how dangerous it was. Everything she said made it harder for him to remember that she'd been born to millions, that she was just waiting to collect the millions tucked away for her birthday, and that those millions were the center around which her life revolved.

Maybe he should tell her about his own millions. Her behavior would instantly change, and he wouldn't be so tempted to like her. But as long as she didn't know, she wouldn't like him back, and as long as she didn't like him back, he ought to be okay.

“Since you'll be working nightshift with me,” he said, “and it doesn't start for another four hours, is there anything you need to do before then, while we're out?”

She looked down at her shorts. Mike looked, too. Just a little bit.

“Shopping?” Sherry scrunched up her nose. There ought to be a law against pretty girls doing any nose scrunching.
“I've only got one dress. I should probably have at least one other outfit so I can wear one and wash the other.”

That made him mad, the idea of Sherry locked out without any of her belongings. “We should go collect your things.”

“Later, maybe.” She gave a one-shouldered shrug. “I'm a big coward, okay? I'm afraid if I go back in that house—even with you along—I'll never get out again. And there would be yelling.”

Mike nodded. He didn't much like it, but it was her choice. “Shopping, it is.”

He drove to the nearest mall, sighing internally, where she wouldn't see it. Shopping was not exactly his favorite leisure-time activity, even for himself. Shopping with women rated right beside shaving with tweezers. Given the spontaneous nature of this expedition, the odds of Sherry running into trouble were minimal, but Mike still didn't like the idea of leaving her by herself. So he sighed in silence and resigned himself to an afternoon of…discomfort.

He followed her from store to store, avoiding, to his surprise, the pricier boutiques. Sherry seemed to concentrate on the sale racks, flipping quickly through the merchandise, pausing only occasionally to look at something more closely. As they departed the seventeenth store for the eighteenth, Mike couldn't hold back any longer. “Wasn't there anything worth buying?”

“Maybe.” Sherry didn't seem to be aware she was talking to an actual other person. Her words sounded as if she were thinking aloud. “Those black silk-blend pants had possibilities. But they weren't marked down much. I ought to be able to find something better. Maybe.”

Mike came to a stunned standstill. “Are you trying to tell me that you intend to visit every store in this mall before you buy anything?”

She blinked at him, as if only now realizing he was there.
“Well…yes. How else am I going to know who has the best stuff at the best price?” She tipped her head, obviously considering his frazzled state. “I did tell you to pick a spot and wait for me, remember?”

“And I told you why I couldn't do that. My reasons still hold.” He shifted his weight from one abused foot to the other. “Why can't you just pick something out and buy it?”

“Because I've only got fifty-three dollars cash to go as far as I can make it stretch.”

“What's wrong with plastic?”

She blinked at him. “Nothing. Except Tug canceled all my credit cards.”

He should have expected her jerk-of-a-father to do something like that. Obviously, the shopping was interfering with his brain cells. It had to be, because otherwise he never would have said anything remotely resembling what came out of his mouth next. “Let me pay for it.”

“No,” she said. “Not just no, but hell, no.”

He should have expected that, too. Sherry had argued with every suggestion he'd made so far today. In fact, she'd argued with him pretty much since they'd first met.

“Why not?” he said. “Look, it's worth it to me just to get out of here.”

“Absolutely not.” Sherry spun around and started marching down the mall again. “No. No way, no how, no— Just no. You're not going to do that. Period.”

“Why not?” Now his knees were protesting along with his feet as he followed after her. It was purely psychological, he knew. He could shop for restaurant fixtures for hours on end. But trailing through five zillion dress departments was not fun. “Think of it as an advance on your salary if you want.”

“Can you hear me? No.” She turned to face him, exaggerating her lip action as she spoke. “Read my lips. No.”

He'd rather kiss them. Especially now that he'd kissed her last night and knew just how spectacularly those lips kissed. Well enough to tie him into more knots than a Boy Scout practice rope. Which was why he couldn't kiss them again, and probably shouldn't even read them, given what reading them made him think.

He should just listen to the words coming out of them. She'd been talking all during his mental trip into the forbidden territory of Kissing Land. He figured he was a sentence behind, at the very least.

“…have done too much already,” she was saying. Sounded like stuff he'd heard before. “I refuse to let you do more. I've messed up your life, kicked your mother out of—”

“She'll enjoy having a chance to torture Nina and her family,” Mike interrupted. “She likes having fresh victims every now and then. Probably why she likes you.”

Sherry kept going, as if he'd never spoken. “I'm even eating your mother's food, for heaven's sake. You've given me a place to stay. You've given me a job. You're not giving me anything else. Do you understand me?” Now she paused.

“Yes.” Mike jumped in quickly, in case she was just stopping for a breath. “But would you give me something? Like, a break? Out of all the stuff you've seen in the fifty gazillion stores we've already been to, isn't there a great bargain in there somewhere? Can't you give me just a little, tiny break?”

She stared at him a second, then burst out laughing. “I shouldn't. I offered you an out earlier, remember, and you wouldn't take it. So I know that you know all your suffering is your own fault. Mostly.” She sighed then. “Actually, it's mostly Tug's fault.”

Mike wanted to banish the haunted look from her eyes,
but even if he knew how, he couldn't do it. He didn't dare get any more involved with her.

Sherry sighed again. “Too bad we can't torture Tug.” She thought another moment, then a smile appeared, quickly growing into a grin. “Okay. You've given me the excuse. I still have to try on the pants, but if they fit, I'll buy them. And the blouse I saw in the first store we went to.”

“Thank you.” Mike led the way back into the store, though he knew for security reasons he ought to follow. But following meant watching her walk, and that led to fantasizing, which led to remembered kisses, which led to more fantasizing, which led into deep, deep trouble.

He didn't want to go there. Nor did he want to think about the disappointment he felt when Sherry refused his offer to spend money on her. He ought to be glad she refused. And he was. He liked knowing she wasn't interested solely in what he could give her. And yet, it stung a little— Sherry refusing his gift.

Still, she was right. He'd done enough. He couldn't afford to do any more. Oh, his wallet could afford almost anything. But she was definitely way too pricey for his peace of mind.