Invitation To A Wedding, page 16
“I’m glad to see him. I’ve missed the big guy.”
What about me? she wanted to ask, but of course she didn’t. She had her pride, and she was clinging to her self-control by a thread. If she didn’t get off the town square soon, she was going to explode, and it wouldn’t be a pretty sight.
“Come on, Bruiser. Here, boy.”
Bruiser looked at her as if he’d never seen her before, then turned his tongue-lapping attention back to Ben.
“Don’t go like this, Josie.”
“Like what?”
“As if we were perfect strangers.”
Josie’s thin control snapped. “How do you want me to act, Ben? Like one of those gushing belles who pretends everything’s all right, even if the house is burning down around their ears?”
“Can’t we just be friends?”
“How typically male. You come on like gangbusters, then you get scared and run away, and then you want me to act like your best buddy so you can salve your conscience. Sorry, Ben. My friends don’t walk out on me. They stick around, no matter what.”
“I thought I explained my reasons, Josie.”
“Did it ever occur to you that when two people have been intimate, that implies a commitment? One of them shouldn’t just decide on his own to end it without even giving the other one a chance to express an opinion.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way.”
He was not sorry he’d walked out, not sorry he’d ended the relationship, not sorry they would never lie in bed in the moonlight together or sit on the patio feeding each other strawberries.
Josie was so mad she could bite tenpenny nails in two. She was so mad she could have stomped her foot and made a hole all the way to China.
“Bruiser, come here this minute, or I’m going to give you to the dog pound.”
He knew she meant business, for he skulked over with his tail between his legs and his soulful eyes begging her forgiveness. She stooped to pick up his leash.
“Josie… Don’t go like this. Don’t leave mad.”
If she didn’t leave mad, she was going to leave crying, for the tears were pushing against her throat, ready to burst forth.
“It’s the only way I can leave, Ben.”
She whirled around and marched off with as much dignity as she could muster, which was considerable. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. She was thinking in Shakespearean again. Maybe there was hope for her, after all.
Chapter Sixteen
True to her word, Ashley had made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
“Low-fat bread, sugarless peanut butter and spreadable fruit instead of jelly,” Ashley said, waving her arms toward the table.
“You look pale, Ashley. The firm’s working you too hard.”
Ashley was a legal secretary and her hours were often as horrendous as those of the lawyers she worked for. After Ashley’d inherited her aunt Hettie’s estate last year, Josie’d asked her why she didn’t quit her job, but Ashley said she’d go crazy being a lady of leisure.
“I’ll tell them you said so.” Ashley swept toward the table trailing Jungle Gardenia perfume and a tie-dyed caftan. “Let’s eat. I’m starving.” She poured two glasses of skim milk and set out pottery plates with hand-painted roses and linen napkins with lace edging.
Josie grinned. “At my place you’d be lucky to get paper plates. Heck, you’d be lucky to get a peanut butter sandwich.”
All of a sudden she started crying. Ashley came around the table and put her arms around Josie.
“I don’t even have a place,” Josie sobbed. “It’s Ben’s apartment. He even paid the rent. And I can’t go home. Mother and Aunt Tess would drive me crazy. It’s such a mess, Ashley. What am I going to do?”
Her best friend smoothed her hair and squeezed her hard, then went to get a box of tissues.
“Here. Wipe your face and blow your nose and you can tell me about it.”
Josie swabbed her eyes and honked her nose, then reached for another tissue to mop up the fresh set of tears that rained down her face.
“The whole town’s talking about it. What is it you don’t know, Ashley?”
“The most important thing of all. Do you love him?”
“I hate him. He made love to me then walked out. I saw him in the park, and he’s not the least bit sorry. He’s just…big and gorgeous and wonderful and…oh, Ashley, I love him so much I can’t breathe without him.”
“Then we’ve got to figure a way to get him back.”
“He won’t come back. He’s the most stubborn man alive.”
“Why did he leave? Did he say? And what did you say? I don’t know what happened at all. Gossip is never the same as the truth.”
“He didn’t give me a chance to say anything.” Josie’s emotions swung wildly between despair and anger. Right now, anger had the upper hand. She tore viciously into a sandwich. “It was that quick.” She snapped her fingers. “First, he’s in my bed making me feel like I own the world, and then he’s out of the door.”
“See. I knew you loved him.”
“Yeah, well, he doesn’t love me back.”
“I’ll bet you a million dollars he does. Men get scared, that’s all.”
“How do you know?” Ashley gave her a funny look, then lowered her head over her food. Josie was immediately contrite. “I’m sorry, Ashley. I didn’t mean that. No wonder Ben walked out. I’m a nasty-tempered witch.”
“You are no such thing. You’re a good woman with a broken heart. Now, tell me why he left.”
“He said he’s an outsider in this town, and he won’t subject me to that.”
An image of Glennella Mae Wages came to her mind, and Josie’s volatile emotions swung toward rage. She banged her fist on the table, and Bruiser leaped up from his snooze by the window.
“Can you believe it, Ashley? The gall of this town. The nerve! They flock to him to take care of their aches and pains, but when it comes to socializing with him, he’s an Indian. It makes me so mad I could bullwhip the whole town.”
“I have a better idea.”
“You do?”
“Yes. We’ll change the town’s attitude.”
“I don’t see how we can do that. I’ve never even been able to change their attitude about me, let alone somebody else.”
“We start by spreading a little of Ben’s money around.”
“Maybe I’m losing my touch for intrigue, Ashley. I’m afraid I don’t get it.”
“Dear old Aunt Hettie is going to help us, God rest her soul. Since I came into her estate I’m probably the town’s biggest philanthropist, though nobody knows that.”
“What does that have to do with Ben?”
“I was just thinking about writing a very large check to the town’s parks and recreation department to help fund the new little league baseball stadium. Anonymously, of course. Except this time, I’ll drop a few broad hints that will lead them to believe it came from the new doctor in town. That, plus the rumors we spread should do the trick.”
“Good grief, that’s brilliant, Ashley. Money talks, to coin a dazzling new phrase. I didn’t realize I had such a devious friend.”
“You don’t know the half of it.” Ashley padded barefoot into the kitchen and came back with heaping bowls of ice cream topped with whipped cream and cherries.
“I thought this was an Ethiopian supper.”
“Supper was. Dessert’s a different matter.” Ashley set the confections on their plates, then ate earnestly before she went back to the matter at hand. “I thought we’d follow up the donation with a letter from Ben expressing his interest in the sport of baseball…he used to play, didn’t he?”
“He was the best. He could have gone pro.”
“Perfect. In his letter he’ll tell his background of college ball and volunteer his services as a little league coach.”
“I suppose you’re going to write the letter.”
“Absolutely. And you’re going to steal his letter-head.”
“Great. I knew I liked this plan.”
“And while you’re at his office stealing his supplies, you’re going to flirt like mad.”
“I will not.”
“Do you want him?”
“More than I can say.”
“Then you’ll be witty and vivacious and charming and flirty. And just when he’s charmed out of his pants and thinking you must be crazy about him, you drop a little hint that your newfound vivacity is due to another man.”
“I’ve never been less than straightforward with Ben, Ashley. He’ll catch on to me in a minute.”
“I knew you’d do it!”
“I didn’t say I would.”
“Yes, you did. A woman will do anything to have the man she loves. Meanwhile, do you want some more ice cream?”
“More! Good grief, Ashley, if I eat any more I’ll look like the Goodyear blimp.”
“I take that as a yes.”
Josie laughed as her friend padded back into the kitchen to scoop up seconds on ice cream.
“I feel better than I’ve felt since Ben left, Ashley.”
“Good. That’s what friends are for. To pick you up when you fall. Let’s take our ice cream to the sofa. This hard chair is killing my back.”
After they’d settled on Ashley’s chintz-covered sofa, they discussed what Josie would wear for the seduction.
“It’s not a seduction, Ashley.”
“How can it not be? If you love someone, all encounters are a seduction.” Ashley licked the whipped cream off her bottom lip. “I think you should wear that red dress you wore to the prenuptial wingding with Jerry Bob.”
“That’s an evening dress.”
“So what’s to keep you from dropping by late, on your way to a big shindig?”
Josie laughed. “I think the wrong one of us went into drama. I never knew you had it in you, girlfriend.”
“There’s a lot more to me than meets the eye.”
“I’ll say. Some man is going to be very lucky to get you. Speaking of which…you haven’t said a word about yourself. What’s happening with you?”
“Got a week or two?”
“You bet. Fire away.”
“Some other time, Josie. For now, let’s concentrate on you. Let’s talk more about our plan. You can spread the rumor of Ben’s philanthropy at school, and I’ll take care of the law community.”
“And Aunt Tess can tell the rest of the town.”
Ashley’s face lit up. “That’s brilliant, Josie. I wish I’d thought of that myself. Can you imagine the old biddy’s face when she finds out the man she’s dished the dirt on is suddenly the man everybody with a pet project wants to suck up to?”
They laughed until they had to hold their sides. Then Ashley finished off Josie’s second bowl of ice cream, put on some shoes and took Josie and Bruiser home in her car.
When Josie walked into his office in her eyepopping red dress, Ben nearly fell out of his chair. He glanced at his intercom as if it had suddenly grown horns and a tail. It wasn’t like Nettie Jean to let somebody come into his office unannounced. It wasn’t even like her to let anybody come into his office without an appointment, period. She guarded his privacy with the determination of a bulldog and the zeal of a Baptist preacher in a room full of sinners.
Josie propped one hand on the doorframe, and flashed him a brilliant smile.
“I’m afraid I conned your secretary into letting me see you. I hope you don’t mind.”
She didn’t speak so much as she purred. And, by George, Josie was posing. She had something up her sleeve, and as soon as Ben’s heart slowed to normal he was going to figure out what it was.
“Of course not, Josie. You know you’re always welcome. Won’t you sit down?”
He hurried around his desk to pull out a chair for her, but he was too late. She’d already perched herself on the edge of his desk and crossed her legs. Her long, gorgeous legs clad in silk stockings that had some sort of sparkly stuff that winked at him every time she swung her foot.
Ben watched her swinging leg, mesmerized.
“You’re sure?” Josie asked, then pouted her full red lips at him.
Ben wasn’t sure of his name. He wasn’t even sure he was breathing. If she kept swinging her leg like that and pouting those kissable lips at him he was going to need a transfusion.
“Sure about what?”
“That you don’t mind my being here?”
“Absolutely not. Make yourself comfortable.”
“I already did.”
“So I see.”
Ben didn’t know which was more dangerous, standing close to Josie in her killer red dress or sitting behind the desk with her on it. He chose the latter, not because it seemed safe, but because he needed something to support his legs. They felt rubbery, as if he’d breathed too much oxygen and his face was about to kiss the floor.
Actually, what he wanted to kiss was Josie, starting with her red lips and moving straight down to her cleavage. No sooner had he sat down than she leaned wa-a-ay over and put that part of her anatomy on display.
“Ben?” He’d never heard her voice so sweet and sexy. Or had he? He was having trouble remembering.
“Yes?” He would have said yes to anything she wanted.
“I hope you don’t misinterpret my visit.”
He didn’t know how to respond to that without stepping into a hornets’ nest, so he kept quiet and waited for Josie to reveal herself.
Strike that. She was already revealing more of herself than Ben could bear. He waited for her to reveal her purpose. That was it. Ben tried to focus on Josie’s purpose, but he kept getting distracted by the parts of her that kept popping out of that scarlet seduction she called a dress.
“I came by to give you something,” she said.
She’d already given him a racing pulse and labored breathing and temporary insanity. What more could she give?
“I don’t think it’s fair that I’m living in an apartment where you’ve already paid the rent, so I came to reimburse you.”
“Forget it, Josie. It’s the least I can do.”
“No. I insist, and if you refuse I’m going to be extremely upset.”
Would she leave if he took her money? If she stayed on his desk much longer he wouldn’t be responsible for the consequences. The thing that was uppermost in his mind was spreading her across his desk and seeing how much of her beautifully revealed bare flesh he could kiss.
“All right, Josie. You can pay the rent on the apartment.”
“Great! Is a check all right?”
“Certainly. If it bounces, I know where to find you.”
Funny he should mention bouncing. She leaned over once more and began digging around in her purse while her breasts moved in wonderfully enticing ways.
“Aha. I knew it was in here somewhere.”
When she handed him the check she was practically prone on his desktop. Ben longed for a bucket of ice water to dump over his head. Anything to cool him off.
His hand closed over hers, and for a moment he was looking directly into her eyes. Her pupils were unnaturally large and bright. She was playing a game. But what? If he weren’t so distracted by the scenery she provided he might figure it out.
“Ben? I’m suddenly so hot…and thirsty. Would you mind giving me something bi-i-ig and cool?”
Whatever she was playing, he was beginning to enjoy the heck out of it. This was a side of Josie he’d never seen, this coquettish vamp with the face of a saint and the body of a siren.
Now that the shock was wearing off, maybe he could throw in a bon mot or two himself.
“How big, Josie?”
“About like this.” Without missing a beat she extended her index fingers and showed him a measurement. Horizontal, he noticed.
“I see you still have an appetite for king-size things.”
The little hoyden actually ran her tongue over her lips.
“Yes. I’m very greedy.”
“Then let me see if I can’t whet your appetite.”
He stood up and towered over her, pleased to see her squirming. What would she do if he kissed her? Gazing down at her he was sorely tempted, but the thing was, he didn’t know what he would do.
He’d learned the hard way that Josie was a dangerous woman. It was so easy to lose control around her. And then he’d be right back where he started, entangled, with no easy way out.
There was no way he would subject Josie to the isolation of being paired with a man the town refused to accept.
“I’ll get your drink.”
He left abruptly, and when he got to the kitchen he leaned over the sink and splashed cool water on his face. The brief respite gave him a chance to regroup. He’d never known Josie to resort to games, and he’d certainly never seen her play the coquette. Why now?
Every detail of their last evening together came to his mind, but the thing that stood out most was what she’d said. “I love you, Ben.”
Was that why she had come today? Because she loved him? He’d heard that women would go to any lengths to have the man they loved, but he’d always thought it was one of the many fallacies about relationships. He also knew that it was not smart to generalize, that individual behavior varied.
Where was his big brother when Ben needed him? He was tempted to give Jim a quick call. That’s how desperate he was. That’s how desperate Josie had made him.
Still…no matter what she felt for him or he felt for her, nothing had changed. And short of a miracle, it wasn’t going to.
The smart thing to do was take her a glass of water and tell her goodbye. Again. Painful as that would be.
Ben got the tallest glass he had and filled it to the brim. When he returned to his office he was relieved to find Josie sitting in a chair, though there was not a single thing sedate about her. Even sitting she exuded more sex appeal than most women would if they were doing an impromptu strip on top of the dining-room table.
“There you are,” she said.
When she left the chair and came toward him it was no ordinary walk: it was an unfolding, like one of those accordion-pleated fans painted with exotic scenes and brilliant colors. With every step she took, she dazzled him.
“I was beginning to think you were lost.” She wasn’t speaking so much as purring, and though he knew it was an act he could feel the sensual pull of her voice all the way to his toes. “I was beginning to feel abandoned.”
