Wildfire (14 page)

They were a motion away from setting forth on an irrevocable course when the phone on Amanda’s bedside table let out a shrill peal. Brady groaned against her smooth curvaceousness, his arms momentarily tightening before he released her with a frustrated sigh. “You’d better get that.”

Amanda reached for the receiver with a trembling hand, her eyes on the rippling muscles of Brady’s bare torso as he rolled onto his back.

Her voice sounded hoarse as she mumbled, “Hello.” She paused a moment and then handed the phone to Brady. “It’s for you.”

He took the receiver, trapping her behind the coiled phone cord. Amanda ducked under it and escaped the tempting confines of the bed. She pulled on the red velour robe she’d worn last night and firmly belted it just as the doorbell rang.

“Damn,” she muttered under her breath, hurrying down the stairs.

“Hi, Amanda,” Beth greeted her once the door was open. “Ready to go to Leeman’s sale?”

Amanda’s face reflected her guilty dismay. She’d forgotten all about agreeing to accompany Beth to the store’s annual early morning sale.

“Oh!” Beth’s eyes and mouth both resembled that rounded letter of the alphabet.

Amanda turned to see what her friend was staring at. Of course it was Brady, cheerfully traipsing down the stairs minus his shirt.

“This isn’t as bad as it looks,” Amanda began.

“Good morning, Beth,” Brady greeted her with no sign of Amanda’s evident embarrassment. He’d crossed the hallway and already shrugged into his shirt before Beth
collected herself sufficiently to reply. “Morning, Brady.”

“As much as I’d love to stay and talk to you, I’ve got to get to work.” He paused on his way out the door to drop a swift kiss on Amanda’s startled lips. “I’ll talk to you later,” he promised with unconcealed relish.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“Amanda!”

Beth’s insistent voice brought Amanda’s eyes back from Brady’s fast-departing figure.

“I’m sorry if I interrupted something,” her friend continued. “You told me to come by at eight thirty and pick you up.”

“You didn’t interrupt anything,” Amanda stated, not entirely untruthfully. The phone call was actually responsible for interrupting something. How had the police department known where to find Brady? Had he told everyone in Deerfield that he was spending the night with her? It sure felt like it. Amanda’s expression darkened ominously as she reviewed the blithe way he’d made his departure, leaving her to correct all the wrong impressions.

“When I get my hands on him…”

Amanda didn’t realize she’d muttered the angry words out loud until she heard her friend’s teasing, “I’m sure he can hardly wait.”

“Beth!”

Beth was unrepentant. “Amanda, it’s obvious from the way Brady looks at you.”

“What is?”

“That he’s crazy about you.”

“He’s crazy all right,” Amanda agreed in an undertone. “He spent the night on the couch.”

“That makes him crazy?”

“Of course it does.”

“Why? Where did you plan on having him spend the night?”

“I didn’t plan it at all.”

“I see.” Beth nodded understandingly. “It just happened.”

“Nothing happened, or almost nothing,” she amended.

“Sounds more like something almost happened. So tell me before I die of curiosity. How did you coerce Deerfield’s sexiest cop into sleeping on your couch?”

“I didn’t coerce him,” Amanda indignantly protested. “It was entirely his idea.”

“Then I’m disappointed in him,” Beth sighed. “Those bedroom eyes of his must be deceptive.”

“No, they’re not.” Amanda spoke without thinking.

“Then why was he on the couch?”

“Look, it’s all really very simple. Someone at the party yesterday came on a little strong and upset me. Brady happened by when I was still shaken up about it. Apparently he got this crazy notion to spend the night down here. He didn’t want me to be alone while I was in what he perceived as an ‘emotional state.’”

“Who says chivalry is dead?”

“Must be the same person who put that spider in my water glass.” There she went again, muttering her thoughts aloud.

“In your water glass? Gross!” Beth shuddered.

“Brady killed it.” Amanda felt a momentary twinge of guilt about the octoped’s demise and hoped its relatives wouldn’t come after her thirsting for revenge!

“Not only does he sleep on couches, but he also kills spiders,” Beth marveled in pretended awe. “I’d snatch him up if I were you, Amanda. A model like that is bound to be much in demand.”

Amanda turned Beth’s words around. “A model like that is also bound to demand much.”

“Mmm, but think what you’d get in return.”

Amanda had thought about it, that’s what worried her. Maybe it would help if she talked about it with Beth, marshaled her defenses and presented them in a reasonable way.

“Are you really set on going to Leeman’s sale today?” Amanda asked.

“Not if you’d rather talk.” Beth checked her watch. “All the good bargains have probably gone by now anyway.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’d only have run up my charge account.”

“Okay. Then let me go get dressed.”

“And I’ll make us some coffee,” Beth offered. “I haven’t eaten anything yet today, and my stomach feels like a bottomless pit.”

While she was upstairs Amanda swept up the broken glass that littered the bathroom floor. She came back downstairs dressed in a pair of gabardine slacks and an olive knit sweater.

Beth had the table all set, the coffeepot and a dish of danish in the center. “I don’t know why you keep fighting it,” she began, before Amanda was even seated.

“Fighting what?”

“The way you feel about Brady.”

Amanda swallowed a bite of sweet roll. “I’m not sure how I feel about him,” she finally confessed.

“That’s a switch. You always seem to know exactly what your feelings are. You’ve never shown the least tendency toward uncertainty before.”

“I’ve never met anyone like Brady before.”

“He is a hunk,” Beth sighed.

“So Susan keeps telling me,” Amanda dryly returned.

“It’s true. But he’s also a nice guy.”

“Beth, I have no intention of getting involved with a young cop,” Amanda said.

“Young?” Beth challenged.

“Well…younger,” Amanda qualified.

“So what’s wrong with that? I’m younger than you are, and we get along fine.”

“It’s all right for friends to be younger,” Amanda tried to explain.

“But not lovers?” Beth irrepressibly inquired.

“Brady is not my lover!”
A
t
least not yet,
an inner voice silently mocked.

“What’s wrong? Don’t you think you can handle Brady? Because if that’s the case, then you’re seriously underestimating yourself, Amanda. I think you two are made for each other. And so does Helen.”

“Helen?”

“Sure. And how can you argue with our resident matchmaker?”

“I seem to recall you arguing with her when she tried to fix you up with her nephew from Minneapolis.”

“That’s different. He was impossible.”

“So is Brady!” Amanda maintained.

“But not in the same way.”

“No, not in the same way,” she acknowledged, remembering Helen’s nephew. “But impossible all the same.”

“What exactly is it about him that aggravates you so much?”

“There are so many things.”

“But I’ll bet you can’t think of a single example.”

Beth was right. Now that Amanda had been given the opportunity, she couldn’t pinpoint any one thing that exasperated her. Brady deliberately embarrassed her, but she’d sound like an idiot if she admitted that that bothered her.

“Does his being a cop upset you?” Beth prompted.

“I’m not sure.”

“There you go again. You seem sure enough that you don’t want to get involved with Brady, but completely at sea as to why.”

“We don’t have anything in common.”

“Then why do you have so much fun with him?”

Amanda sighed, moodily staring at the contents of her half-empty coffee cup. “I’ve asked myself that a million times.”

“Maybe you’re so busy asking that you haven’t stopped to listen,” Beth discerningly suggested. “My advice to you is this: Stop worrying. Just sit back and enjoy it. See what happens.”

Amanda remembered her friend’s words long after she’d left. They came back to her while she was sorting laundry, cleaning the refrigerator, even while microwaving her frozen dinner. When the phone rang she hoped the call would take her mind off the disturbing detective. It did no such thing.

“How was your day, Mandy?” Brady’s warm voice questioned over the telephone line.

“Fine,” was her automatic answer. “And yours?”

“It could’ve been better.”

“It must be tough working on weekends,” Amanda commiserated with overblown sympathy.

“It was tougher leaving you this morning.”

“It was hard on me too, Brady,” she purred. “I could hardly restrain myself.” Her grin took on a measure of satisfaction as she registered the unsteadiness of Brady’s indrawn breath. Here was her chance to get even.

“Restrain yourself from what?” he pressed, wanting to hear more.

“From clobbering you!”

“Not exactly the response I was hoping for,” Brady murmured wryly.

“Look, I appreciate your concern for me, which you showed by staying the night. But it really wasn’t necessary, and I resent the way you embarrassed me in front of Beth.”

“How about a deal, Mandy. I’ll stop embarrassing you if you’ll stop denying what’s between us.”

“Brady, I’m not sure what there is between us.” Amanda found it easier to discuss their relationship over the phone. This way there was only the warmth of Brady’s voice, without the reinforcing impact of his heated glances.

“But you are willing to admit there is something?”

“Yes, there is something.”

“Then why don’t you stop fighting it?” His voice reached out to her. “I won’t hurt you, Mandy.”

“Not intentionally, perhaps.”

“Just keep in mind that you have an equal influence over me.”

“I do?” Amanda sounded doubtful.

“Yes, you do.” There wasn’t a hint of hesitation in his ready affirmation.

“Oh.” She paused a moment, digesting this new piece of information.

Laughing softly, Brady queried, “That all you’ve got to say?”

“No, I’ve got a lot more to say, but I’m not sure how to say it.”

“You’re being cautious again,” he gently chastised.

“Maybe it’s because I’ve never felt this way before.”

“Scary, isn’t it?”

His words astonished her. “For you too?”

“Sure. A cop getting mixed up with a fierce librarian. You’ve got to admit, it sounds a bit far out.”

Had she ever noticed how readily Brady laughed at himself, or had she been too busy getting “het up,” as he said, because he was laughing at her?

“Is this your way of telling me that books and badges don’t mix?” she teased.

“I wouldn’t want to take credit for that line,” he denied with a groan, before continuing on a more serious note. “We’re in this together, Mandy, and I’m no more certain of where we’re going than you are.” His tone was one of tender irony.

“Is that meant to be reassuring?”

“No. I wasn’t trying to be reassuring, just honest. Would you rather be scared alone?”

“Since misery loves company, fright must as well.”

“So is it a deal?” he pressed.

“Is what a deal?”

“I’ll stop embarrassing you if you’ll stop running away.”

“We’ve been acting like a couple of kids, haven’t we?” she murmured.

“I don’t know about that,” Brady mused. “I can recall several occasions when we were acting like adults engaged in adult activities, and enjoying every minute of it.”

“But now we’ll have no more game-playing.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t go that far,”
he denied. “Let’s just say we’re advancing to the next level of difficulty!”

The conversation marked a subtle shift in their relationship. Amanda attempted to come to terms with her feelings for Brady and he
refrained from embarrassing her in public. She learned that with Brady, diplomacy accomplished more than confrontation. Surprisingly enough, Brady discovered the same thing about her.

By Thanksgiving a snowfall of several inches covered the countryside, softening the harsh lines of the starkly barren trees and disguising the surrounding landscape. When Brady discovered that Amanda had never learned how to ice skate, he insisted on teaching her. Due to record cold temperatures, the smaller lakes were already frozen over. They chose one a couple miles west of town, avoiding the more popular recreational areas in favor of a secluded setting.

Amanda was relieved; she had no desire to make a fool of herself in front of a lot of people. Besides, she doubted her ability to stay out of other people’s way while trying to stay upright. She could do one, or the other, but not both.

“I could’ve taught you how to skate down on the lake by the college,” Brady said, his tone one of barely restrained amusement. “We didn’t have to come all the way out here to Indian Lake.”

“Oh, yes, we did. This state has almost fifteen thousand inland lakes, so you can’t say it’s been difficult finding one. I have no intention of making a spectacle of myself in front of a bunch of laughing students.”

“You can make a spectacle of yourself in front of me anytime,” he offered.

Amanda had to laugh at his boyishly hopeful expression. “You’ll see me make an idiot of myself soon enough.”

Brady began the skating lesson as soon as their boots were exchanged for ice skates. “We’ll concentrate on standing up first. On the count of three, okay?”

Amanda nodded.

“One, two, three!”

She got up and nearly fell down again, hanging on to Brady in alarm. Now she knew what a newborn colt must feel like, with spindly legs going out in all different directions.

“Steady,” Brady murmured. “I’ve got you.”

After a few minutes Amanda got accustomed to a sharp edge supporting her instead of a flat surface, and they slowly made their way out onto the icebound lake. Brady went first, turning around and holding out his hands to her. She wrapped her gloved fingers around his and let him pull her along.