Suddenly a Bride (14 page)

“He, um, he didn’t seem to mind,” Elizabeth said, turning around to face Will. “Still, I don’t know if I can leave him. He is my employer.”

“And it is Sunday,” Will reminded her. “He said you should go. Besides, I promised the boys. I know, I know, I shouldn’t have done that, but I don’t like breaking promises. Breaking promises to kids just makes it worse.”

She sighed, nodding her head. “They’ve been talking about Dorney Park nonstop since you were here yesterday. And I’m not being gracious, which I should be, because volunteering to watch the twins run berserk in a park filled with wave pools and waterslides is a sacrifice above and beyond the call of duty.”

Will grinned. “You just proved why you have to go with us, the lawyer in me feels it necessary to point out, Ms. Carstairs. The defense rests.”

“Good for you, Counselor,” Elizabeth muttered, trying not to smile as they headed for the front door. “Because it’s probably the
only
rest you’re going to get for the next five or six hours.”

W
ill sat on the bench beside the walkway leading to the carousel and watched as Elizabeth, just leaving a small refreshment stand across the way, prudently wrapped napkins around the paper cups holding scoops of rainbow water ice before handing them back to Mike and Dan.

After three hours of enjoying the water park as seen through the eyes of a pair of seven-year-olds, Will was now enjoying the sight of a beautiful, enticing, oblivious-to-her-charms mother of two who, apparently, had been using him to decide if she wanted to marry the very nice, personable, wealthy and rock-solid bestselling author, Richard Halstead. Not that Chessie had said that, exactly. No, that part had been his cousin’s bright idea.

Then again, a reasonable person or, at the least, a defense attorney, might point out that he was here only because his cousin had blackmailed him into being nice to a lonely young widow. No. Wrong, Counselor. That was last week. He was here
now
because Elizabeth Carstairs was the most fascinating creature he’d ever met, and he could hardly believe his luck at having found her, found her two wonderful sons, found a new meaning in a life he’d thought was perfect until real perfection had actually entered it and smacked him in the face.

And if Elizabeth knew he’d initially gone after her because of some twisted, half-baked plan of Chessie’s, she’d shove one of those water ices in his face and refuse to ever see him again.

Elizabeth and the boys were distracted by one of the park employees dressed up in a huge, fuzzy cartoon-character suit that had to make the warm, sunny day feel like he was working in the second level of hell.

The twins were laughing at the cartoon animal’s antics, joining in with other young children who were vying for the character’s attention.

Will took the opportunity to look at Elizabeth. Of all the sights at the amusement park—and there were many—none interested him so much as the vision of youth and happiness she so effortlessly exuded with her unconscious grace and delighted smile.

Her still-damp hair pulled back into a casual ponytail, her nose shiny from the chlorine and a touch of sun she’d picked up at the water park, she looked
young, carefree, and still as sexually appealing to him as she had in his bed, with moonlight streaming across the sheets, caressing her enticing curves as he traced his hand over her bare hip.

Will had been a firm believer in the idea that a woman, once a mother, was no longer—oh God, what an admission!—really a woman. That she was a mother first, a wife second or third and a woman last of all.

When he was wrong, he could be more wrong than anyone he knew.

Marriage was something years in the future, for when he got tired of late nights and endless women who were both forgettable and interchangeable. Children? He hadn’t even considered children in his life.

Now he was considering both.

This wasn’t him. He was selfish. He was self-centered. He did nothing unless it was his idea, pleased him, benefited him in some way. Dorney Park? He hadn’t been to Dorney Park since he was a kid, and they’d only had one wooden roller coaster, not this dazzling array of coasters and dancing cartoon characters and wave pools. He’d outgrown that sort of entertainment, much preferring a trip to Philadelphia or New York to see a show. When he was in the water, that water was clear blue, tropical and bordered white sandy beaches.

Maybe he’d been in the sun too long. Maybe that foul ball at practice the other day had hit his head a little harder than he’d thought at the time.

Maybe he should drop the baseball team, take the jail
time and the doubled fine, and save himself before it was too late….

The cartoon character with the fuzzy head the size of a large Pilates exercise ball grabbed the twins’ hands and began dancing with them to the song playing over the park’s sound system.

Will recognized the song, an oldie-but-goodie from the Beach Boys in their heyday.

Elizabeth was standing at the edge of the small crowd, laughing and clapping her hands in time to the music as she watched the boys try to mimic the steps of their new friend.

Suddenly, before he could let sanity into his brain, Will got to his feet and walked over to her, slipping his arm around her waist. “Let’s show them how it’s done,” he said, grabbing her left hand and stepping into what he hoped was the jitterbug.

She followed him as if they’d been dancing together forever.

Parents clapped. Children goggled. Mike and Dan shouted encouragement.

There was nothing tentative about Elizabeth’s response. She didn’t seem to care that they were in an amusement park, that she was a
mom
or that he was the man who had only recently taken her to his bed and had made no promises once that incredible, wildly passionate interlude was over.

She was intelligent, beautiful; she loved life. Her ponytail swung back and forth as they broke apart, as they came together again, as he twirled her under his
arm, as he danced them in circles to the beat of silly bubblegum music. Her unaffected smile and shining bright eyes sent a sucker punch to his gut.

And Will knew he was in big, big trouble….

They sat shoulder-to-shoulder on the bottom step of the wooden slat stairs that led up to her apartment over the garages. It was more dark than dusk, and both boys had been asleep almost before their heads hit the pillows. Mikey, in fact, had nearly nodded off while brushing his teeth at the bathroom sink.

Elizabeth folded her hands and rested them on her knees, looking out on the vast grounds of Richard’s estate at the fireflies that had just begun blinking as they circled the area as if performing their nightly rounds.

“It’s beautiful here, isn’t it?”

She could feel Will’s eyes on her as he answered. “It’s beautiful anywhere you are,” he said, and then laughed self-deprecatingly. “And that was one of the worst lines I’ve ever uttered. As a defense lawyer, I’ve uttered more than my share. But I mean it, Elizabeth. You’re a beautiful woman, inside and out.”

Elizabeth lowered her chin, wishing she could be flattered but knowing that she was a fraud. Will was becoming more interested in her. She wasn’t an oblivious teenager; she knew he was interested. She was worried at her own reaction to him, feeling as if everything was happening too quickly, that she might have thought she was taking baby steps back into life, but suddenly she’d found herself poised at the edge of a cliff.

The next step, if she took it, was going to be a doozy.

“I should go see how Richard is feeling. We’ve been gone a long time.”

“I wouldn’t do that. Eve’s car is still in the other driveway. I’ve known Eve for a long time, and
shy
and
retiring
aren’t words I’d use to describe her. Do you really want to drop in unannounced?”

Elizabeth turned to him, her eyes wide in shock. “You…you think that—Oh, don’t be ridiculous. Richard isn’t like that.”

“Really? How do you know?”

“I know because—” She stopped, closed her mouth before she said
because he’s never been like that with me.
“Because,” she said desperately, “he couldn’t even bend over to pick up the remote control earlier today.”

Will leaned in, kissed her cheek. “Beautiful
and
innocent. Let me put it this way. When we left, Eve, trained massage therapist and admitted fan-girl of the great man, was talking about getting him into bed, stripping him to his waist—at least that far—and then oiling up her hands and rubbing them all over him. And I didn’t hear Richard objecting, did you? The mental picture I get is of Eve, skirt hiked up, straddling your injured boss across his thighs as she really leans into the massage, all while telling him how handsome and talented he is. That’s a lot of…muscle stimulus going on, Elizabeth.”

Her face was burning. She knew it was. “I…I’ve never seen—that is, I’ve never
pictured
Richard as being that way. I mean, I’ve read his books. I know that Jake LaRue is rather, um, is rather
active
with the—but
you don’t have to kill somebody to write about murder, do you?”

“Some research is more fun than other kinds, I imagine,” Will said, his voice still teasing, his smile visible in the now rapidly fading light.

Elizabeth looked toward the house. For the first time she noticed that there were no lights on downstairs, but only a faint bit of light visible around the corner windows of Richard’s bedroom suite.

“Well, that’s going to make it easier,” she said before she could clap a hand over her traitorous mouth.

“Pardon me? I think you’ve lost me. What makes what easier?”

“Hmm?” Elizabeth was slipping into her own private thoughts, at least one of them making her quite ashamed of herself. “Um…easier that I don’t have to go back over to the house tonight, that’s all.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out the small receiver for the baby monitor she carried with her when she had to leave the boys alone to do something for Richard. “I know this thing works, but I still don’t like leaving them, even though they’re asleep and I’m only about one hundred yards away.”

Will put his hand beneath her chin. “You’re embarrassed. I made you see Richard as someone other than your boss, as a man, and I’ve embarrassed you.”

“I suppose so,” she said, getting to her feet and stepping onto the grass, putting some distance between them. “Richard is more than my boss, though.”

And then she stopped. They’d had such a wonder
ful, even memorable, day. She didn’t want to end it by telling Will how she’d so blatantly used him.
Dear God, he thought he was taking me to bed while I was taking
him
to bed. What kind of person am I?

“Do you suppose it will be back to work for you both tomorrow morning?”

“I suppose so. I was just beginning to enjoy the idea of having a week’s vacation when he called to say he was coming home. Now he’s here, and I don’t know what I should be doing.”

Will stood up, as well. “You could ask him to hang a sock over the front door knob if he’s tied up,” he suggested, still with that infuriating grin on his face. “Can we take a walk? You said that thing works all the way to Richard’s house, so it has to work the same distance in the other direction.”

Elizabeth almost involuntarily looked up the length of the stairs, not knowing if she was doing a “mental eye check” on her sons or considering making a break for it. “Sure,” she said, knowing how silly she was being. “It is a nice night.”

He slipped his arm around her shoulders as they began leisurely walking across the lawn toward the tennis court, where a vapor light turned an area of the court a soft white-blue. Crickets chirped in the undergrowth, and lightning bugs lit their little yellow lamps here and there, like stars blinking near the grass.

“I suppose the boys will want to catch them again, as they’re fascinated by the glow,” she said, pointing in the general direction of the lightning bugs. “They al
ways let them go again the next morning. I thought I’d have trouble getting them to do that at first, so I started telling them all that business about if you love something let it go—but by then the lid was already off the jar and the boys were running for their bikes. It turns out that lightning bugs are not half as interesting when they’re not putting on a show. In the morning they’re just bugs.”

“That’s very profound, in a disturbing sort of way, considering that I’m put in mind of our last time together,” Will said, stopping on the grass and turning her so that he could rest his hands on her shoulders. “I hope you don’t think that I’m only interested in you when you’re…glowing.”

He’d surprised her. “I didn’t mean it that way at all.”

“No, of course you didn’t. That was probably my guilty conscience twisting the meaning. Do you know you’re not my type, Elizabeth?”

“If you mean, do I remember Kay Quinlan, yes, I’ve considered that.”

“Ah, yes, Kay. She was never important to me, or I to her, now that I think about it. No woman has ever been important to me. That makes me pretty much a bastard, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t think there’s a Boy Scout merit badge for fooling around, no,” she said, becoming more and more uncomfortable by the moment. She didn’t know real people had conversations like this. She’d certainly never imagined herself a part of one of them, that much was certain.

Will shook his head slightly. “You’re not as sweet and innocent as you look, are you? You know what I’m saying. But do you know what I mean? What I’m not saying? Because for a man who gets his kicks making fantastic pitches to juries, I’m doing a really lousy job of defending myself.”

“Maybe that’s because your client isn’t innocent,” Elizabeth said quietly. “Then again, Will, no one is. Totally innocent, I mean. We all do things we’re sorry for, even when our intentions had seemed reasonable at the time. I know I have, even very recently.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

What was he doing? Did he want her to confess to something so that he could confess to something and then they could both tell each other to forget it, it’s all right and then move on?

And move on to what?

“No, I don’t think so,” she said, and she would have backed up, except that he had now slid his hands down her sides to cup her waist, hold her where she was.

“I don’t, either. Sometimes what we think is important isn’t really all that earthshattering, or at least it’s something better left unsaid, something that could only hurt something good.”

“Will?” Elizabeth cocked her head to one side. “I think you’re scaring me. You have something to tell me, don’t you?”

“I might. And you might have something to tell me?”

“I might.” She took a deep breath, let it out on a sigh. “Sometime.”

“But not tonight?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so, no. There’s somebody else who has to hear it first.”

“But we’re good?” Will asked her, pulling her closer.

“I didn’t know we were bad,” she said, raising a hand to stroke his cheek.

“We’re not. But we could be. How soundproof are the walls in that apartment anyway?”