Seaspun Magic (8 page)

Arianne looked over at him. Then her hps parted in shock, for he was gazing raptly at her, and for the first time she became fully conscious of just how little she really had on. Her short nightgown didn't conceal much, and the skimpy panties below were more provocative than practical.

Instantly Leo veiled his expression. The heat in his green eyes became a shimmer of ice again, but that split second had left an indelible effect. She couldn't have been more vitally aware of her curvaceous figure or of the fact that he was practically undressed, too. The breadth of bare shoulders, the blond mat smoothed over a tanned expanse of sleek muscled power.. .she couldn't stop staring.

A band of excitement tightened around her chest, shortening her breath and making her feel light-headed. Her throat felt dry, and her tongue edged out to moisten her lips. It was the hardest thing imaginable to pretend nothing had happened, and it was almost impossible to keep from dashing in a panic for her robe.

But that would be admitting to her madly thudding heart, and there was no way she was going to do that. It was the first time in what seemed like years and years that she had felt like a woman, not just a mother. A beautiful, endlessly desirable woman, too; how intoxicating to think he felt that way about her! What a delicious surprise! She knew her body was what Jill liked to call "luscious" and that her schedule, diet and exercise program made it easy to keep that way, but she had no idea Leo felt such a deep attraction to her. Her discipline had paid off! And she'd always thought she did those push-ups only for herself....

While she tucked Erin into one bed, he put Rae in the other. And when they both straightened up they found themselves hemmed in in the aisle between the two beds and much too close together.

Slowly she looked up, to find his gaze fastened on her shadowy cleavage disappearing beneath an edge of sheer peach fabric. He didn't hurry to meet her eyes but looked a little farther down before drifting up the white throat, pausing on her mouth. And at last, by which time she felt ready to faint, he met her eyes.

The possibilities between them shot the air with sweet sparkling tension. In her filmy attire she shivered, stung by the intensity between them, striving to fight against the heat wave flushing her from the inside out.

Rae's west windows rattled from a buffet off the ocean. Her eyes wandered there but soon sought Leo's again. As the wind soughed through the firs below and found sounding places in the old house, she realized she was yearning to feel a man's strong arms around her, and she wanted his. She was aching for this particular man who was smiling ever so faintly at her at three-thirty on a dark and stormy winter morning.

But she merely raised an impudent eyebrow, and when, after a telling hesitation he stood aside, she sailed past him. "Good night, Leo," she said, sounding cheerful.

She didn't stop until she closed her bedroom door behind her, and then she sagged against it, running a hand over her forehead. She had resisted the greatest temptation of her whole life. She hadn't been sure, but she thought she might have hated herself in the morning. After all, she didn't know how long he would be staying. What if his travelogue was finished, his convention center land found and the headaches suddenly and conveniently all gone? When he left, she didn't want him walking away with a part of her…

Thank heavens they were both going away for a few days. They would both need the break to put things back in their proper perspective. Somehow or other, the situation had got out of hand. She should never have let him stay…

***

The rest of the weekend in Seattle passed quickly. It was wonderful to be home. Her mother forced her to loaf while she cooked and cleaned and played with Rae. Friends and neighbors crowded the dining-room table for the turkey on Thanksgiving Monday. Her cousin, the cookie mogul, was there, and she had an entertaining time laughing with him over the latest episode in his rise to fame and fortune. Twenty-five, black-haired, blue-eyed and gorgeous, he was a favorite friend of hers.

"You whip up better cookies than seances, Mikey. That's for sure!" she said, chuckling.

"Arianne, Reggie came to see me last week."

"Oh?" She was silent for a moment. The news sent only the faintest tremor through her. "What did he want?"

"You, of course. He's started looking for you once more."

"By now he's probably forgotten all about me again."

"You should tell him about Rae."

"Yeah." She sighed. "I guess I'd better...."

"I told him you were still in New York."

"And he believed you? You know, I never thought I'd be so happy he didn't get to know any of my friends!"

"Hm. You know I don't agree with what you're doing. Going into hiding was the same thing as admitting you were guilty! You should have stayed in town. You should have reopened your business in back of the shop, just like before you married the, the—"

"Don't say it, Mikey. Anyway, it's all past. There's nothing to worry about—" she thought instantly about Leo and her heart constricted in her breast"—and one of these days I'll surprise everybody and come out of my cocoon."

"I'll be there, cheering. So tell me about your B and B..."

"Come on, you two," her mother interrupted at what Arianne considered a timely moment. "The turkey's on the table, and you, Mikey, have the honor of carving it, since you're the only man in the family!" Rianna Sawyer, plump and dimpled, looked the furthest thing from a being of the spirit world as was possible. Rae hung from one of her hands and in the other she had a huge basket of piping-hot crusty buns.

"Let's go, Mikey!" Arianne said enthusiastically, sniffing all the delicious aromas.

"I wish you'd get married, Arianne," Mikey said grouchily but good-naturedly, waiting for the women-folk to go into the dining room where everybody else was already seated. "Then somebody else would carve the turkey for a change!''

"That's a wonderful idea!" Rianna exclaimed. "If you two would only get married to each other all our problems would be over!"

"How do you figure that?" Arianne laughed.

"I'd still be carving the turkey!" Mikey pointed out.

"Yes, and I know just how to solv? that difficulty, for Christmas I'm sending you to gourmet carving school! Now get at it, and try not to eat all of it in the process!"

Rianna took her place at the head of the oval table. Mikey, at the foot, started doing his duty on the magnificent Thanksgiving bird, which was nestled in a bed of glistening California grapes and autumn leaves Arianne had cut from colored paper.

Arianne was wedged in beside her Aunt May, Mikey's mother, and one of the neighbors, Mrs. Edith Drew, a librarian at the nearby university. Mr. Drew was an architect. Arianne had known them practically all her life and had grown up with their youngest daughter, Judy. Judy sat across the table from her with her husband, Darwin. Beside them were two more of Arianne's friends. Completing the twelve were Mr. and Mrs. Tony Caravetti, who owned the Italian delicatessen right next door to the magic shop below. It was a noisy, jolly gathering, and Rae thoroughly enjoyed being the center of so much attention.

"He's growing so fast!" Judy exclaimed.

"Soon he'll be in school!" someone else added.

"My, he certainly likes his turkey!" Mrs. Caravetti said with a chuckle. Rae was transferring chopped bits into his mouth with both small fists.

"If he keeps stuffing himself like that," Mr. Drew observed, "He'll be bigger than you soon!"

Arianne smiled. "I'm sure he weighs more already. I think it must be all that fresh country air."

"I must say you sound very fond of your backwoods lair. I never would have thought you'd be happy in the country!" Darwin exclaimed. "I can't imagine you with time on your hands!"

"I wish I had some extra time," and Arianne laughed. "Somehow or other I manage to be busy, even in Port Townsend. Just wait until Judy has your little bundle of joy, and I'll remind you of that remark!"

"Just a month to go!" Judy beamed. "I want a boy, and of course Darwin wants a girl. What do you think it will be?"

Arianne shook her head. "If your doctor won't tell you, do you think I should?"

"You mean you know?" Judy squealed.

"No!" Arianne lied hastily. "Of course I don't! Anyway, I knitted your baby a jumper to wear at Christmas. By then it'll be a month old already!''

"So what color is the jumper?" Darwin queried, trying to be sly.

"It's red, naturally!"

"How does the little one get along with your B-and-B guest?" Judy's mother squeezed in.

"A little too well, I'm afraid. He follows Leo around like a baby chick."

"This Leo sounds nice, actually," Judy mused, studying Arianne's face.

"Oh, he is... very nice," she supplied, trying hard to keep her face expressionless. Curiously enough, she felt a twinge of longing to have him present.

"But not handsome..." her mother informed the crowd, "and not tall, either, and he has blond hair and eyes like white jade—that's what I hear. You've been sharing your home with this stranger for weeks and weeks, and considering all that time, dear, your information is surprisingly scanty!"

"I hardly see him!" Arianne justified. "You sense a romance under every rock, mother! And something tells me my Leo Donev is not the marrying kind!" And so the lively meal went…

It was wonderful to get away, to be pampered at home, and terrific to see all her friends. Arianne especially enjoyed the talkathons with Mikey and her mother.

"Now tell me all about Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome—the Larry you mentioned earlier," her mother encouraged, settling them both down with a drink much later after all their company had gone.

"There's not much to tell. He's all three,
and
boring!''

"Your B and B is nice—your new beau is boring. Arianne, dear, are you sure you're okay? You seem to have lost all interest in the opposite sex. I don't mean to pry, but it does seem a little.. .unhealthy. Are you really sure hiding out in the country is such a good idea?"

"I'm not hiding out—at least not anymore! And do you think I want Larry to be boring? I'd simply adore it if he...he..."

"If he what?"

"If he made me feel like doing anything other than yawning!"

Rianna laughed in amusement.1 'Why don't you move back to the city, darling, and take over the magic shop? You know how much work it is for one person, what with stocking the shelves and all the ordering. If you moved back to town, why, we could spell each other. Think of the fun we could have. It would be like the old days."

"I'll think about it, mom," Arianne promised, knowing her vigorous parent could handle the work load just fine and that her generous offer was made out of concern. She smiled in heartfelt gratefulness for the caring. On the whole, she suddenly did feel better about almost everything.

"I wish you'd explain just one thing," her mother went on. "What is white jade?"

"You've seen it, mom. It's sometimes sold right alongside regular jade, only it's about ten times as expensive because it's rare. Sometimes it's called 'milk jade' because it's such a pale green. It's a bit like mother-of-pearl, but not quite. Very light and very clear…"

"Now we're getting somewhere!" Rianna settled more comfortably in her easy chair.

Arianne raised her brows uncomprehendingly.

"Dear, if you can express the precise shade of Leo's eyes, you've spent some time looking into them. Don't you remember you told me Larry's eyes were, and I quote, 'brown'!"

"Leo's eyes are unusual, that's all," Arianne tried to explain.

"You could have said they were green. And what makes you think he's not the marrying kind?"

"This sounds silly, but I think it's his crooked nose. He gives the impression of being tough. Totally independent. He's not your run-of-the-mill bibliophile! Especially not with all his muscles."

"Frankly, dear, this Leo sounds fascinating, crooked nose and all! For ajl his muscles, though, it's too bad he's so unhealthy. Headaches, did you say?"

"Well, what he's really doing in the Port is..." Arianne related to her mother what Leo had told her about the convention center and travelogue.

"Oh, I'd like to meet him! He sounds anything but boring to me, darling, no matter what you say!"

"I never said Leo was boring!" Arianne exclaimed, wide-eyed.

"It's just that he's not the marrying kind?" her mother clarified offhandedly, as if that detail were scarcely important, as if they hadn't spent the better part of the hour discussing one Leo Donev.

***

As wonderful as it had been to get away, did it ever feel good to get back to her own home Tuesday morning! Arianne didn't want to delve too far into the reason she felt so pleased to see Leo's car in her lane, or why she could hardly wait to see him at dinner that night.

Between then and now, though, she had work to do. Since Orly had reserved the day to organize the last-minute Christmas orders, she decided to drop Rae off at Jill's before going in to the shop. And since she didn't have the baby and all the regular baby paraphernalia, she walked in, taking the briar path down to the beach, going into town the long way around.

It wasn't a very busy day. She had plenty of time to help Orly with placing special orders to their various suppliers for everything from caviar to almond paste to chili papadams. Finally it was nearing five o'clock. Two elderly women came into the shop, and recognizing them, Arianne winced. "The town hags," Jill called them. Orly called them "Doom and Gloom."

Thinking of this, her eyes twinkled merrily as she filled their orders. Such a display of happiness seemed to annoy them, for she became the object of their speculation. Three more customers came into the shop.

"A quarter pound of those...mixed," Doom said. She was the one with the blue rinse. Arianne weighed a bag of red and green maraschino cherries. Then, she had to go into the rear of the shop for another bag of the preserved fruit. Rather than emptying the huge bag into it's tray in the glass-fronted showcase, to save time Arianne simply filled Doom's small quarter-pound bag from the big one. Out in the front of the shop, she could just barely hear Doom continuing on in conversation to her partner, Gloom.