The First Man You Meet (7 page)

‘‘Y
OU BROKE OFF
your engagement with Janice?’’ Shelly demanded furiously. Something inside, some reservoir of emotion, felt as if it had burst wide open. ‘‘You fool,’’ she cried. ‘‘You idiot!’’ Her eyes brimmed over with tears and deep, deep inside her heart began its stirrings of glad excitement. ‘‘That was the worst thing you could have done!’’

‘‘No,’’ he said. ‘‘It was the smartest move I’ve ever made.’’

‘‘How can you say that?’’ she wailed.

‘‘Shelly?’’

He reached for her as though to offer comfort, but Shelly jerked her arms away and stepped back, freeing herself from his grasp. ‘‘Janice was perfect for you,’’ she lamented.

‘‘How do you know that?’’ he asked calmly, much too reasonably to suit Shelly. ‘‘You never met her.’’

‘‘I didn’t need to. I know she was right for you. You’d never have asked her to marry you if she wasn’t.’’

‘‘Janice is a wonderful woman and she’ll make some lucky man a good wife, but it won’t be me.’’

‘‘You’re crazy to break off your engagement. Crazy!’’

‘‘No, I’m not,’’ Mark returned confidently. ‘‘I’m absolutely certain I did the right thing. Do you know why?’’

Shelly could only shake her head, wiping away the tears with the back of her hand. She was ecstatic—and yet she was so frightened. She loved him, she was sure of it. Then why had everything become confused and difficult?

‘‘What you said about love the other day changed my mind.’’

‘‘You listened to me?’’ she cried in real horror. ‘‘Do I look like an expert on love? I’ve never been in love in my life!’’ Not counting what she felt for him, of course. She’d always thought love would clarify her life, not make it more complicated.

Mark ignored her outburst. ‘‘You helped me understand that I was marrying Janice for all the wrong reasons. I’d decided it was time to settle down. Janice had come to the same conclusion. She’s thirty and figured if she was going to marry and have a family, the time was now. It wasn’t a love match, and we both knew it.’’

‘‘This is none of my business,’’ Shelly said, frantically shaking her head as if to chase the words away. ‘‘I don’t want to hear any of it.’’

‘‘You are going to hear it,’’ Mark insisted, gripping her elbows and gently drawing her closer to him. ‘‘You claimed people shouldn’t plan love. It should take them by surprise, you said, and you were right. Janice and I are fond of each other, but—’’

‘‘There’s nothing wrong with fond!’’

His eyes widened in obvious surprise. ‘‘No, there isn’t,’’ he agreed, ‘‘but Janice isn’t a zany video producer. I like spending time with you. I’ve come to realize there’s a certain thrill in expecting the unexpected. Every minute with you is an adventure.’’

‘‘A relationship between us would never last,’’ Shelly insisted, drawing on the most sensible argument. ‘‘It would be fine for a while, but then we’d drift apart. We’d have to. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re nothing alike.’’

‘‘Why wouldn’t a relationship last?’’ Mark asked patiently.

‘‘For all the reasons I listed before!’’ Mark was so endearing, and he was saying all the words she’d secretly
longed to hear, but nothing could change the fundamental differences between them.

‘‘So you aren’t as adept in the kitchen as some women. I’m a fair cook.’’

‘‘It’s more than that.’’

‘‘Of course it is,’’ he concurred. ‘‘But there’s nothing we can’t overcome if we’re willing to work together.’’

‘‘You know what I think it is?’’ she said desperately, running her splayed fingers through her hair. ‘‘You’re beginning to believe there’s magic in Aunt Milly’s wedding dress.’’

‘‘Don’t you?’’

‘‘No,’’ she cried. ‘‘Not anymore. I did when I was a little girl…I loved the story of how Aunt Milly met Uncle John, but I’m not a child anymore, and what seemed so romantic then just seems unrealistic now.’’

‘‘Shelly,’’ Mark said in exasperation. ‘‘We don’t need to do anything right away. All I’m suggesting is we give this thing between us a chance.’’

‘‘There’s nothing between us,’’ she denied vehemently.

Mark’s eyes narrowed. ‘‘You don’t honestly believe that, do you?’’

‘‘Yes,’’ she lied. ‘‘You’re a nice guy, but—’’

‘‘If I hear any more of this nice-guy stuff I’m going to kiss you and we both know what will happen.’’

His gaze lowered to her mouth and she unconsciously moistened her lips with anticipation.

‘‘I just might, anyway.’’

‘‘No.’’ The threat was real enough to cause her to retreat a couple of steps. If Mark kissed her, Shelly knew she’d be listening to her heart and not her head. And then
he’d
know… ‘‘That’s what I thought.’’ His grin was downright boyish.

‘‘I think we should both forget we ever met,’’ she suggested next, aware even as she said it how ludicrous she
sounded. Mark Brady had indelibly marked her life and no matter how much she denied it, she’d never forget him.

‘‘Are you forgetting you threw yourself into my arms?
You
can conveniently choose to overlook the obvious, but unfortunately that won’t work for me. I’m falling in love with you, Shelly.’’

She opened her mouth to argue that he couldn’t possibly love her…not yet, not on such short acquaintance, but he pressed his finger to her lips, silencing her.

‘‘At first I wasn’t keen on the idea,’’ he admitted, ‘‘but it’s sort of grown on me since. I can see us ten years in the future and you know what? It’s a pleasant picture. We’re going to be very happy together.’’

‘‘I need to think,’’ she cried, placing her hands on either side of her head. Everything was happening much too quickly; she actually felt dizzy. ‘‘We’ll leave it to fate…how does that sound?’’ she offered excitedly. It seemed like the perfect solution to her. ‘‘The next time we bump into each other, I’ll have more of a grasp on my feelings. I’ll know what we should do.’’ She might also take to hibernating inside her apartment for a month, but she wasn’t mentioning that.

‘‘Nope,’’ Mark returned, slowly shaking his head. ‘‘That won’t work.’’

‘‘Why not?’’ she demanded. ‘‘We bump into each other practically every day.’’

‘‘No, we don’t.’’

He wasn’t making any sense.

‘‘
Street Suite
was a setup,’’ he informed her. ‘‘I made sure we bumped into each other there.’’

‘‘How? When?’’

‘‘The day at the beach I saw the play ticket sticking out of your purse. Our meeting at the theater wasn’t any accident.’’

Mark couldn’t have shocked her more if he’d announced
he was an alien from outer space. For the first time in recent memory, she was left speechless. ‘‘Tonight?’’ she asked when she could get the words out. ‘‘The library?’’

‘‘I’d decided to stop off at your apartment. I was prepared to make up some story about the wedding dress luring me into your building, but when I drove past, I saw you coming down the front steps loaded down with library books. It didn’t take a whole lot of figuring to know where you were headed. I found a parking space and waited for you inside.’’

‘‘What about…the IRS office and the beach?’’ She didn’t know how he’d managed those chance meetings.

Mark shook his head and grinned. ‘‘Coincidence, unless you had anything to do with those. You didn’t, did you?’’

‘‘Absolutely not,’’ she replied indignantly.

Still grinning, he said, ‘‘I didn’t really think you had.’’

Shelly started walking, her destination unclear. She felt too restless to continue standing there; unfortunately the one action that truly appealed to her was leaping into his arms.

Mark matched his own steps to hers.

‘‘It’s Aunt Milly’s wedding dress, I know it is,’’ Shelly mumbled under her breath. She’d tried to bring up the subject earlier, but Mark had refused to listen. ‘‘You broke off an engagement because you believe fate has somehow thrown us together.’’

‘‘No, Shelly, the dress doesn’t have anything to do with how I feel,’’ Mark responded calmly.

‘‘But you’d already decided to marry someone else!’’

‘‘I’m choosing my own destiny, which is to spend the rest of my life with you.’’

‘‘You might have consulted with me first. I have no intention of getting married…not for years and years.’’

‘‘I’ll wait.’’

‘‘You can’t do that,’’ she cried. He didn’t understand
because he was too respectable and adorable and so much of a gentleman. The only thing that would work would be to heartlessly send him away before he wasted the better part of his life waiting for her.

She stopped and turned to face Mark. She was careful to wear just the right expression of remorse and regret. ‘‘This is all very flattering, but I don’t love you. I’m sorry, Mark. You’re the last person in the world I want to hurt.’’

For a moment Mark said nothing, then he slowly shrugged and looked away. ‘‘You can’t be any more direct than that, can you? There’s no chance you’ll ever fall in love with me?’’

‘‘None.’’ Her breath fell harshly, painfully, from her lips. It shouldn’t hurt this much to do the right thing. It shouldn’t hurt to be noble. ‘‘You’re very nice, but…’’

‘‘So you’ve said before.’’

Falteringly, as though the movement caused him pain, he lifted his hand to her face, his fingers tenderly caressing the delicate curve of her jaw.

Until that moment, Shelly hadn’t understood how fiercely proud Mark was. He could have dealt with every argument, calmed every doubt, answered every question, but there was nothing he could say when she denied all feeling for him.

‘‘You mean it, don’t you?’’ he asked huskily. He was standing so close that his breath warmed her face.

Shelly had schooled her features to reveal none of her clamoring emotions. His touch, so light, so potent, seemed to clog her throat with anguish, and she couldn’t speak.

‘‘If that’s what you want—’’ he dropped his hand abruptly ‘‘—I won’t trouble you again.’’ With those words, he turned and walked away. Before she fully realized what he intended, Mark had disappeared around a corner.

‘‘You let him go, you idiot!’’ she whispered to herself. A lone tear escaped and she smeared it across her cheek.

Mark meant what he said about not bothering her. He was a man of his word. He’d never try to see her again—and if they did happen upon each other, he’d pretend he didn’t know her.

He might eventually decide to marry Janice. Hadn’t he admitted he was fond of the other woman?

Shelly’s heart clenched painfully inside her chest. Before she could stop herself, before she could question the wisdom of her actions, she ran after Mark.

She turned the corner and was halfway down the sidewalk when she realized he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. She came to a skidding halt, then whirled around, wondering how he could possibly have gotten so far in so short a time.

Mark stepped out from the side of a building, hands on his hips, a cocky, jubilant smile on his face. ‘‘What took you so long, darlin’?’’ he asked, holding out his arms.

Shelly didn’t need a second invitation to throw herself into his embrace. His mouth feasted on hers, his kiss hungry and demanding, filled with enough emotion to last a lifetime.

Shelly slid her arms around his neck and stood on her tiptoes, giving herself completely to his kiss, to his love. The only thing that mattered was being in his arms—where she was supposed to be.

‘‘I take it this means you love me, too?’’ he whispered close to her ear. His voice was rough with emotion.

Shelly nodded. ‘‘I’m so afraid.’’

‘‘Don’t be. I’m confident enough for both of us.’’

‘‘This is crazy,’’ she said, but she wouldn’t have moved out of his arms for the world. Breathing deeply, she buried her face in his chest.

‘‘But it’s a good kind of crazy.’’

‘‘Aunt Milly saw us together in her dream. She wrote me about a tall, blue-eyed man.’’

‘‘Who knows if it was me or not?’’ Mark whispered into her hair, and brushed his lips over her temple. ‘‘Who cares? If fate had anything to do with me finding you or if your aunt Milly’s wedding dress is responsible, I can’t say. Personally, I couldn’t care less. I love you, Shelly, and I believe you love me, too.’’

She glanced up at this man who had altered the course of her life and smiled, her heart too full for words. ‘‘I do love you,’’ she said when she could. ‘‘An accountant! In a suit! Hardly the husband I imagined for myself.’’

Mark chuckled. ‘‘I’d never have guessed I could find myself head over heels in love with a woman who wears the kind of clothes you do, but I am.’’

‘‘I do love you,’’ Shelly repeated and closed her eyes.

T
HE MORNING
of her wedding day, Shelly, who was rarely nervous, couldn’t sit still. Her mother was even worse, pacing in front of her, dabbing her eyes and sniffling.

‘‘I can’t believe my baby’s getting married.’’

Shelly had to restrain herself from reminding her dear mother that less than a month before, she’d been desperate to marry her daughter off. Thank goodness Jill was around. Without her best friend there to reassure her, Shelly didn’t know what she would have done. While her mother fussed with the caterers, complained to the florists and fretted about who had a key to the kitchen in the reception hall, Jill led Shelly upstairs to her childhood bedroom and helped her dress. When Shelly was finished, Jill stood back to examine her.

‘‘Well?’’ Shelly asked, smoothing her hand down the antique dress, loving the feel of the satin and lace against her fingers. It was probably her imagination but now that
she was wearing the dress, really wearing it, she could almost feel a magic quality.

Tears gathered in Jill’s eyes as she stared at her friend.

‘‘That bad?’’ Shelly teased.

Jill pressed her fingertips to her lips. ‘‘You’re beautiful,’’ she whispered. ‘‘Mark isn’t going to believe his eyes when he sees you.’’

‘‘Do you really think so?’’ Shelly hated sounding so insecure, but she wanted everything perfect for this day. She was crazy in love—and crazy enough to give her mother free rein planning her wedding. Crazy enough to go through with a formal wedding in the first place. If it had been up to her, they’d have eloped weeks ago. But Mark had wanted the wedding and her mother certainly wasn’t going to be cheated out of this moment. So Shelly had gone along with it.