The No Sex Clause (15 page)

“Wow, that’s a beauty – a vintage Mustang?”

“She sure is – 1965. I did her up myself. Restored everything, even the paintwork, put in a new engine….” And all the way to the Cattlemen’s Bar he described in minute detail all the steps in repairing the car, from his crafty negotiations with old man
Woodstall, in whose barn the car had been mouldering for the past 20 years; right up until the day he’d proudly entered the vehicle in the Knotting Grove New Year’s Parade.

“I’m entered into the parade again this year – it’ll be great to have you riding beside me,” he said as he opened the door to the bar and the smell of beer and smoke enveloped them.

“I’m sure that would be wonderful, but I don’t think I’ll still be here. I have to get back to England and my job.” She began to tell him about her career at the university in Yorkshire, but he interrupted to talk about the time he and the baseball team he played with had visited London for a tournament.

Anna sighed, wondering how soon she could reasonably leave. She had been bored out of her mind within twenty minutes. Even more disconcerting was the way his hand kept landing on her knee and working its way slowly up her thigh. She removed the offending hand for the umpteenth time and glared at him, but he didn’t seem to get the message. He was on his third beer and a little more than seasonally merry.

“I love the way everyone is staring; they’ll all be wondering about the beautiful woman I’m with. Let’s give ‘em something to stare at.” And without any warning, he leaned over, grabbed her shoulders and pulled him towards her as his wet mouth descended on hers. One hand went up into her hair to keep her immobile as he stuck his tongue down her throat; the other snuck up under the hem of her dress to rub strong fingers against her thigh.

Anna struggled and a sense of disgust and panic swept over her. Joey had found them a table in the darker part of the bar; no-one seemed to notice the kissing and groping. Or maybe, no-one cared. She could feel his erection against her leg, hard through his jeans, and had the sudden awful thought that he might have his way with her right there in the bar and no-one would help her even if they could see.

He was, after all, Joey Henderson, a local citizen hero.

And she was just the Mouse.

“I’ll take you around to the Adams house, first off – I doubt if the Mouse, er, Anna, has a hot date for this evening.” Maria caught Jed’s hard look and her pretty face flushed – the curse of the redhead. “I didn’t mean anything by that – not really. I heard she’d only come back into town last night. I doubt if she’s had time to catch up with anyone.”

“She didn’t call you, then?”

Maria didn’t miss the sarcasm in his voice. “No. I’m afraid I kind of stretched the truth if I gave you the impression that Anna and I were friends. High school is real dog-eat-dog – if you hang around with the wrong people, you’re doomed forever.” Maria took a quick glance around the small apartment she lived in over a grocery store, with its clean but old-fashioned furnishings and shrugged. “I guess even hanging around with the cool kids doesn’t mean you’re not doomed.”

“Life’s not easy for anyone, Maria, especially if you want to follow a dream like you do.” Jed had met many Marias in his time – young men and women who wanted fame and fortune so desperately it hurt.

“But you, you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth.” It was a statement, not an accusation. Jed perched on the arm of a worn velour recliner and studied the young woman in front of him. She was pretty, although the years of failure and frustration and minimum wage work would soon take their toll, unless she found a fairy godmother.

“I was lucky, yes. But my business – the television and radio network – that’s all mine. My father was a lawyer.”

“So you still had the money to follow your dreams. That’s what makes you different from the folks here in Knotting Grove, where half the town’s been unemployed since they closed the paper mill down.”

He nodded. “It’s true – my dad co-signed my first loan with the bank, and the folks had already paid for my university. But one thing I do know is that to be successful you need two things: talent, and hard work.”

Maria walked over to a small bureau and pulled out a CD. “Take this with you, and listen to it. I have the talent. And I’m not afraid of the hard work.” Her expression was so serious that Jed’s heart tugged. He promised that he would listen to her CD. And he meant it.

The Adams house was a Victorian cottage, with a pretty arbour over the front gate leading up a stone pathway carefully cleared of snow and ice. A polished brass knocker graced the front door, and Maria gave it several hard thumps. “The old folks are a bit hard of hearing,” she told him in response to his raised eyebrows.

“Okay, okay – I’m coming, no need to raise the dead,” an old woman’s scratchy voice with a strong eastern European accent warned them. The woman who opened the door just enough to peek out at them was white haired but her back was ramrod straight; her expression stern as a parade ground drill sergeant’s as she looked both Jed and Maria up and down as if checking for flaws.

Jed had the uncomfortable feeling that her sharp eyes could see right through to his soul – and wasn’t impressed by what she saw there. Judging by the way Maria was shuffling alongside him, he was pretty sure she felt the heat of that inspection, too.

“Well, well – Maria Wilson? Come on in and get warm – that flimsy dress, you’ll catch your death. You young people these days…” the words floated back to them as Sofia turned and walked down the short hallway, obviously expecting that they would obediently follow.

Jed glanced at Maria and she rolled her eyes. “Straight out of the Gulags, that one – no wonder Anna…”

“Not the Gulags, dear, I lived in Moscow,” the old woman called back at them, showing that there was nothing wrong with her hearing. She motioned them to chairs, and as she did so, Jed was sure he saw a glimmer of laughter dart across her face before the severe expression closed over it again.

“I will bring you hot tea; it is good for warming a body up after being out in this cold. And then you can tell me what you are here for,” Sofia said, daring them to begin speaking as she swept from the room. Jed glanced around at the comfortable, well-used room with the colourful throws on the settee and chairs; and disappointment that Anna wasn’t there flittered through him.

A moment later the door opened and a tall, heavyset man walked in. Jed stood as the man offered his hand and introduced himself as Dan Adams, Anna’s father. “Or foster father – she was never comfortable calling us her parents, even though she was here for 12 years, living with us and we thought of her as our daughter.

“But, I think Anna never forgave her parents for dying and leaving her, so she couldn’t forgive us for taking her in and, as she thought, trying to take their places.”

There was such a sad note in the older man’s voice that Jed immediately felt sorry for him. “Was Anna difficult?” he asked, imagining a younger, pigtailed Anna with that sharp, guarded look that warned people to keep out of her space without even saying a word. Yet when she lifted those barriers….

“Oh, she was just a poor orphaned child; she could never come to terms with the shock of her life changing in an instant. Unfortunately, there were no other relatives that could take her in, people she was familiar with, so Sofia and I agreed to have her with us until they found another, younger set of foster parents.

“But the thing is, we fell in love with her – Anna was to us the daughter we’d never had. To her, we were the parents she didn’t want. A sad tale, but now she’s grown and successful, perhaps she’ll see the world in a different light.”

The little room was filled with silence then – what was there to say?

Finally, Sofia came bustling in burdened with a tea tray laid with cups and saucers, a creamer and sugar, a lovely Wedgewood tea pot and a plate of something delicious looking.

“Here is the tea, and some of my pumpkin bread still warm from the oven. Maria, you’re so skinny that a bit of good home cooked food will do you good – otherwise, that cold wind is going to blow you away.” She handed round cups filled with strong brown tea, oblivious to Maria’s offended glare. Jed’s stomach rumbled and he realised he’s missed supper; taking a bite of the warm, moist pumpkin bread, he thought he’d never tasted anything as good in his life.

“This is pumpkin bread, Mrs Adams?”

“You’ve never tasted it before?” She looked incredulous.

“I’ve never tasted anything this good before. Anna must be crazy not to be happy with you as parents – gee, I’d like you to adopt me if you’d feed me this way.”

Sofia gave him a look that said she thought he was full of BS but that she liked it anyway.

“So, Maria, are your parents well? And your brother?”

“Yes, Mom’s fine, still working at the bakery. Dad’s not happy to be retired, always looking for something to do. Brian would like to be retired and can’t understand why he has to work at all,” Maria said, a smile playing around her lips.

“Ah, boys! They can be such lazy creatures,” Sofia replied, matching the smile. “And is Mr Walker here going to help you with your music career?”

Jed was jolted out of his enjoyment of a second piece of cake as he realised that the couple knew who he was. Had Anna been talking?

Sofia broke into an indulgent smile. “Of course we know who you are – we watch television, too.” she said.

Jed wondered if the older woman could mind-read.

“Although we didn’t much like the way you talked to our Anna. Not at all. You were very rude, young man,” Dan rumbled from his recliner. “And then there was that magazine article – you’re about to get married to that very rich woman, but you’re out carrying on with Anna?” The older man looked positively dangerous, and Jed found himself quailing before his outraged gaze. But still he met the other man’s eyes without flinching.

“That’s why I’m here, sir – I have always believed that there is no bad publicity and I do believe Anna’s book sales have gone up following that exposure on television. It was later that I realised that Anna’s not used to that, coming from an academic background and all. I wanted to tell her how I feel, but she fell on the sidewalk and I took her to hospital…”

“Is that how she got that bandaged ankle?” Sofia interspersed, her sharp eyes having missed nothing.

“What with her being in pain and then the pain killers having an effect – that’s why I was carrying her into her hotel.” Dan harrumphed and Jed hurried to add: “There was nothing going on there – that article – what it insinuated, well, it didn’t happen. I stayed with Anna until she fell asleep, and then I went home to my own bed.” He felt a quick flick of the warmth he’d experienced, holding Anna in his arms as she slept.

“As for the rest of the article – it was all a fabrication. Felicity is an old friend from childhood, and I’m afraid she’s had a crush on me for about that long. But I have never given her reason to believe that we were an item, let alone likely to get married.”

“So why would she do such a thing?”

Jed hesitated. He couldn’t bring himself to tell the Adams that Felicity had claimed she wanted to save him from someone as ‘unsuitable’ as Anna, so he shrugged. “I really care about Anna in a way I’ve never cared for anyone before. I came down to Knotting Grove to find her and apologise.”

“And will she accept your apology, do you think? Anna’s very headstrong, you know.”

“I hope so, sir – I hope so. I’ll do whatever it takes…”

“Well, you’d better get moving, then or you may be too late. Anna’s out on a date with the young man she had a crush on in high school, this very minute.”

“Anna’s out with Joey?” Maria gasped, grabbing her bag and pulling Jed out of his chair. “Let’s go,” she told him curtly. “They’re probably at the Cattlemen’s Bar.”

“So Anna wasn’t the only one to have a crush on him, eh, Dan?” Sofia said with a knowing smile as the two visitors got up and hurried towards the front door.

“Well, that Wilson girl can have him – Anna’s too smart for that one, and too ambitious. My money’s on the television gent,” Dan replied, reaching for another slice of pumpkin bread.

* * *

Anna had finally fought her way out of Joey’s grasp. “I think it’s time I went home,” she told him, anger glinting in her eyes. But he missed the signals entirely, announcing that he was going to get them another little drink. “It’ll loosen you up a bit, sweetheart,” he said as he swayed a little on his feet. “But first, I need to take a…er, visit the little boys’ room.” He winked at her with what he thought was a coy expression but which Anna thought made him look like a fool. Was Joey as boorish as this when they were in high school? Or was it just being a disappointed hero that had made him this way? Or had Anna just been blinded by teenaged hormones? Whatever it was, she couldn’t spend another minute in his company.

The moment he was out of sight, she grabbed her purse and jacket in readiness for a quick escape. The door opened, letting in a breath of fresh winter weather. And Jed Walker.

She gasped when she saw him, feeling a shiver of pleasure until she realised that he wasn’t alone. Jed was out on the town with Maria Wilson. Disappointment was a pressure under her breastbone, robbing her of breath.

Tears pricked against her eyelids and she bit her lip to hold back the cry that wanted to pass her lips. Jed and Maria! How long had that been going on? Had the manipulating pig been romancing the other woman while he claimed to care for Anna? Was this Louis all over again?