A Family Circle 1 - A Very Convenient Marriage (15 page)

"I thought we'd already established that." Sam stifled another yawn.

"Last night, when you dragged me onto your lap, you knew I was worried that he might suspect something, that that was why I sat down on the arm of your chair."

"I couldn't resist," he admitted without the least sign of repentence. "You were doing such a good job of playing the doting bride."

"You took advantage of me.''

"You got your revenge," he reminded her. "You drove your elbow halfway to my spine, and I'm probably permanently crippled from the damage you did when you stepped on my foot."

"Good." She nodded in satisfaction. "Maybe that will teach you not to treat this situation like it's some kind of game."

She turned and stalked into the bathroom without giving Sam a chance to respond. He stayed where he was, his eyes on the closed door. The bed beside him was still warm and a trace of soft, floral scent clung to the sheets.

It occurred to him, not for the first time, that this mar-riage-of-convenience business wasn't nearly as simple as it had seemed at first.

T
he rain of the day before had given way to deep blue skies and warm sunshine. Breakfast was a noisy affair, involving a great many good-natured insults tossed back and forth about who'd burned the bacon and who'd undercooked the pancakes, both of which were perfect as far as Nikki could tell.

After the meal, Nikki helped to clear the table. She and Rachel talked easily as they worked, and any silences were filled in by Mary, who seemed to never run out of questions about anything and everything.

"You're very good with her," Rachel commented, after Nikki had fielded a particularly convoluted inquiry.

"I like children," Nikki said, her face soft with affection as she watched the little girl carefully carry a plate from the table to the counter.

"Mary could use some cousins. Not that I'm hinting or anything," Rachel added, smiling.

"I... We haven't really discussed that." Nikki was pleased by the steadiness of her voice.

"Well, there's plenty of time," Rachel said comfortably.

Nikki murmured an agreement and made her escape as quickly as possible, retreating into the living room, which was momentarily empty. She couldn't take much more. Her conscience was already screaming bloody murder. How could she have been so incredibly blind? To think that this marriage wouldn't affect anyone but her and Sam.

She wandered around the room, touching a knickknack here and there but not really seeing anything. They'd be leaving here soon and she might never come back. It wouldn't be all that hard to avoid visiting Sam's family for the next eleven months. After all, she didn't care what they thought of her. Did she? She shied away from the answer to that question.

Finding herself next to the piano with its row of photographs, it occurred to her that there was probably a picture of Sam's wife. Seized by a sudden curiosity, she bent to look at them.

There it was. Picking it up, she carried it over to the window, where the light was better.

It was an informal shot, obviously taken at their wedding. Nikki guessed that Sam had been in his mid-twenties and the woman at his side looked a little younger. They were smiling at the camera, but there was something about them that suggested they were aware only of each other. They looked young and very much in love.

Her eyes skimmed over the quietly pretty brunette and focused on Sam's face. This was a different man than the one she'd married—younger, with fewer shadows in his eyes.

Nikki was so absorbed in the photograph that she didn't hear Sam's voice until he was right outside the living room. She couldn't be caught standing here with his wife's picture in her hand. In a panicked flurry, she stepped behind the open drapes. She regretted the move immediately. She was going to look like a complete fool if anyone caught her lurking behind the drapes like a second-rate burglar. But it was too late to change her mind.

"I don't want to argue with you about this. Just take the check," Sam was saying.

"I don't want it." It was Cole's voice, and he didn't sound happy. "I can come up with the money on my own."

"How? By selling your plane? Then how are you going to earn a living?"

"I'll manage," Cole said tightly.

"You don't have to manage. I've got the money. When the time is right for Mary's surgery, it will be paid for."

Mary's surgery? What kind of surgery?
Nikki's heart clenched at the thought of something being wrong with the beautiful, dark-eyed little girl.

"Where did you suddenly come up with this kind of money?" Cole asked. "Unless they've started paying cops a helluva lot more than they used to, you don't have this kind of bucks."

"Nikki's rolling in the stuff. When I told her about Mary's surgery, she wanted to help." Nikki wondered if she was the only one who heard the strain in Sam's voice.

"No." Cole sounded adamant, and she heard him move abruptly away and then back again, as if he couldn't stay in one place. "It would be bad enough if it were your money, but I'm sure as hell not going to sponge off your wife. I'll pay for it myself," he insisted stubbornly.

"Don't be an ass." Sam didn't trouble to soften the sharpness in his voice. "Nikki is family now. She wants to do this."

Which was true, even if Sam didn't realize it
.

"No." Nikki didn't need to be able to see him to know that Cole was shaking his head. "Absolutely not."

"Swallow your damned pride and think of what's best for your daughter."

"What's best for her is to have a father who doesn't take charity," Cole said sharply.

"This isn't charity, dammit! I'm family. And don't tell me you wouldn't do the same damned thing if the situation were reversed."

"It isn't reversed and I don't want your wife's money. I'll do it on my own."

"So your pride is more important than Mary's health?" Sam snapped furiously.

There was a brief silence, and Nikki half expected to hear it end with the sound of Cole's fist connecting with Sam's jaw. But the next sound wasn't that of a fist against flesh. Cole sighed, a quick, harsh sound that held both anger and resignation.

"I hate it when you're right. No, my pride isn't more important than Mary's health. I'll take the money." The words sounded as if they'd been pulled from him.

There was a pause, and Nikki imagined Sam handing him the check.

"This... means a lot to me, Sam, to both of us. Thank you."

"You'd do the same for me."

"Yeah, but I wouldn't be so obnoxious about it." Nikki was relieved to hear a trace of humor in Cole's voice.

"I'm oldest. I get to be most obnoxious."

"You're very good at it."

"Thanks."

"I'll catch Nikki before you guys leave and thank her," Cole said.

"No!" Sam must have realized that his response was too sharp, because he softened it immediately. "She'd be embarrassed. I'll pass on your thanks."

"I'd really like to say something to her myself. This means a lot to Mary and me. I'd like to thank her."

"No, really. She's...very self-conscious about having money and... I know it would just make her uncomfortable."

Nikki bit her lip to hold back a chuckle at the blatant discomfort in Sam's voice. Obviously, she wasn't the only one finding herself floundering under the false pretenses they'd created.

"If you're sure." Cole sounded doubtful.

"I'm sure. I'll tell her how much you appreciate it."

There was another silence, and Nikki mentally urged them to leave. Her nose was starting to itch and she wasn't Sure how much longer she could resist the urge to scratch it.

"I've got to ask you something, Sam." Cole sounded uneasy. "You didn't marry Nikki to get the money for Mary's surgery, did you?"

Her itchy nose was immediately forgotten. Nikki held her breath, waiting for Sam's response. Would he tell Cole the truth?

"Have you looked at Nikki?" Sam's tone was rich with amusement. "Can you imagine anyone marrying her for her money?"

Cole's tone didn't lighten to match his brother's. "I can imagine you doing it if you thought it would help one of us," he said slowly. "You've been trying to protect us ever since we were kids."

"I was the eldest. There wasn't anyone else."

"Yeah, but we're not kids anymore. If you married Nikki so you could give me this money, I don't want any part of it. I can still figure out a way to pay for the surgery."

"I think you've seen too many movies." Nikki wondered that Cole didn't hear the false note in Sam's light tone. "I married Nikki because I wanted to. She's beautiful, she's intelligent, and the fact that she happens to be rich just worked out well for you and Mary."

"You're sure?" Nikki could imagine the searching look Cole gave his older brother.

"I'm sure. Now, will you put the damned check in your pocket? I don't think I've ever seen anyone so reluctant to take money. God help Ed McMahon if he ever tries to give you any."

Cole laughed reluctantly. "Maybe you should call and warn him."

"Maybe I should. I've got to find Nikki. We have to hit the road pretty soon."

Nikki waited until she was sure they were gone before leaving her hiding place. Thank heavens neither of them had seen her. It would have been a little difficult to explain why she was hiding behind the curtains with a picture of Sam and his first wife clutched in her hands.

She carried the photo back over to the piano, but before setting it down, she stared at it for a few more minutes, her thoughts spinning with all she'd learned. In the past couple of days, she'd seen the man she'd married in a whole new light. He'd been married and, from the way Rachel spoke, he'd loved his wife.

He was devoted to his family, enough so that he'd married a woman he didn't know to get the money for his niece's surgery. Why hadn't he told her that was what it was for? She'd assumed he was driven by greed, while holding her own motives up as pure and noble. The memory of her smug condemnation of Sam as a fortune hunter made her squirm inside.

"Sam's looking for you." Rachel's voice came from directly behind her. Nikki started and spun around, guiltily aware of the photo she held.

"I was just... looking at some of the pictures," she blurted out.

Rachel's dark brows rose in surprise. "You're family, Nikki. You're welcome to look at them all you like."

Aware that she'd reacted oddly, Nikki forced a smile. "Lena used to always accuse me of getting into things I shouldn't. I guess I still half expect her to catch me with my fingers where they don't belong."

Rachel smiled. "I haven't slapped anyone's fingers in a very long time."

"Oh, she never slapped my fingers. She just gave me this long-suffering look and then took me out to the kitchen and put me to work helping with dinner." Nikki's face softened with affection. "She spoiled me rotten, actually."

"Is Lena your mother?"

"Oh no. Lena is our housekeeper, only she's always been more like a mother to me. Marilee is my mother, and I doubt if she'd notice if I had my hand in a tank of piranhas." There was amusement rather than condemnation in her tone. "Not that she doesn't love me," she added, with more duty than conviction. "But Marilee lives in her own little world and she doesn't pay much attention to anything outside it."

If Rachel thought there was anything strange about the fact that Marilee's child apparently hadn't been a part of that world, she didn't comment. She held out her hand for the photo. "Which one were you looking at?"

Nikki reluctantly handed it over, wishing she hadn't given in to the moment's curiosity about Sam's wife. "I just wondered what she looked like. Sam.. .hasn't said much about her."

Which wasn't a lie. Sam hadn't said anything about her.

Rachel studied the photograph for a few seconds before lifting her gaze to Nikki's face, her eyes shrewd. "Did Sam mention Sara at all?"

Nikki opened her mouth to say that, of course, Sam had told her that he'd been married before. But she couldn't get the he out. She shook her head.

"We... haven't really known each other all that long," she said quickly, trying to forestall the questions she saw in Rachel's eyes.

"Sam told me it was a whirlwind courtship," she murmured.

"I suppose it seems foolish to you—us marrying so quickly, I mean."

"I'd known Sam's father less than a month when we got married and we were very happy. Sometimes you just know something is right," Rachel said slowly.

"Yes."

And sometimes you know it's wrong and do it, anyway.

Rachel hesitated a moment longer, her eyes searching. Nikki felt as if she had the word phony emblazoned across her forehead in flashing neon lights. But she obviously didn't look as guilty as she felt.

"I think Sam's about ready to leave." Rachel reached past Nikki to set the photograph on the piano.

"I'll go find him." She was vividly aware of Rachel's eyes following her as she left the room.