Ever After (39 page)

“And you put it on?”

“Actually, he slipped it on my finger. I tried to take it off before I went to bed but it stuck and I couldn't get it off this morning either.” She held out her hand. “What do you think of it?”

“Garish. Flamboyant. Not like you are. Mind if I try getting it off?”

“Be my guest.” He pulled her up and led her to the sink, where he spent nearly half an hour working to remove the ring. He tried bar soap, liquid soap, Crisco, butter, and bacon grease. None of them budged the ring.

Through all of it, Hallie kept smiling. She liked standing so close to Jamie, liked his concentrated effort to get the ring off.

“I think my finger is swollen,” she said, “and until the swelling goes down, the ring will stay there.”

“There's a toolbox in the—”

“No!” she said and curled her hand up. “Could we please just have breakfast? What time is the wedding?”

“Ten. I showed you the church. After the ceremony, we're all moving to Alix's chapel for the reception. There are big tents there.”

“It sounds great. Will there be dancing?”

“Into the night. Tell me about you and Braden. Is he why you were sulky all day yesterday?”

“I wasn't sulky! I just wanted—” She was not going to be put on the defensive. “Braden is my friend and he's always been there for me. Whenever something bad—or good—happened in my life, Braden was there. I wouldn't even have gone to college if it weren't for him.”

“What did he do?”

“It's a long, boring story, but if it weren't for him I probably would have gone from high school to working in a burger joint. But besides the big things, Braden held the back of my first two-wheeler. When a toy broke, Braden fixed it. One time when I was in high school, he heard that I'd gone out on a date with some kid he knew and Braden came to get me. He knew that my date often bragged about what he did with girls in the backseat of his dad's car. I was really mad at him then, but later the boy nearly raped a girl. Braden saved me. See? He and I have a long history together.”

“It sounds like my little sister and me,” Jamie said. “I took her on her first ride on a horse. I walked her pony over her first jumps. I've become an expert at putting heads back on dolls. I can even rebraid the hair of a Barbie.”

“But you two are related. It's different with Braden and me.”

“It seems so,” Jamie said, “if he asked you to marry him. You two set a date yet? Choose your wedding colors?”

She got up from the table. “You're being a jerk and I don't want to talk about this any longer. Tomorrow I'm going to the
local hospital to talk to them about temporary work.” She put her dishes in the sink.

He went to stand beside her. “You can't be thinking of moving back to Boston to live in some perfect little house with him. Is that really what you want? No ghosts floating around? No bothersome naked cousins? No man who freaks out when a car backfires?”

“Stop it!” Hallie said. “Braden is—” She wasn't sure how it happened, but suddenly their anger turned into passion.

Jamie pulled her into his arms and kissed her. At first the kiss was hard and she pushed at him. But his big body against hers made her pull him closer. His lips on hers softened and the kiss deepened. His tongue touched hers.

Hallie forgot who she was, where she was. Only this man and this moment mattered.

When he lifted her and set her on the table, she didn't protest. His hands went under her shirt and her bra unsnapped. He took his lips away only long enough to pull her shirt over her head so she was bare from the waist up. In the next second, his shirt came off.

His beautiful chest, scarred as it was, was against her breasts, his hot, bare skin next to hers.

Hallie's heart was pounding, her breath coming fast. His lips were on her breasts, her neck, then back up to her waiting mouth. All she wanted in the world was to get the rest of their clothes off.

“Hallie?” came Braden's voice. “Where are you?”

It took long moments for her to realize where she was and who was calling her. She pushed at Jamie, but his eyes were glazed, as though he were in another world.

“Jamie!” Hallie hissed. “Let me go!” She pushed hard at him. “In here,” she called to Braden as she ducked down and slid off the table away from Jamie. She grabbed her T-shirt and hurried into the pantry. It was only when she was in there that
she realized her new lacy black-and-pink bra was still in the kitchen, hanging by a strap on the back of a chair.

She peeped around the door to Jamie. He was pulling his shirt on over his head. “Pssst!” she said and pointed to her underwear.

Jamie started to reach for it, but Braden appeared in the doorway.

“Good morning,” Braden said.

Jamie put himself between the blond man and the chair. Behind his back, he lifted the bra.

“How are you feeling today?” Jamie asked as he moved sideways across the kitchen toward the pantry.

“Not so good but better than I thought I would. Is there any coffee? And where is Hallie? This is her house, isn't it?” Braden wiped his hand across his face. “I don't remember too much from last night, but I did see her here, didn't I?”

“Sure you did. She stepped outside. Let me get her.” Jamie went into the pantry, closed the door behind him, and held out the bra to Hallie. “He doesn't even remember last night, but you're wearing his ring!” he whispered.

“Turn around,” she whispered back.

“We were just about to make love for the
second
time, and now I'm not allowed to
see
you?!”

“Sex on a table or against a wall isn't making
love
. It's two people who have been doing without for a long time in a situation where they can't control themselves.”

“I've been ‘controlling myself' for over two years and I've been in lots of easier situations than this one.”

Hallie turned her back on him and removed her T-shirt. She put her arms through her shoulder straps of the bra and tried to fasten it in the back. But her hands were shaking so badly she couldn't do the clasp.

“Here!” Jamie said angrily. “Let me.” He quickly put the hooks and eyes together.

She turned back to face him. “You're good at that, aren't you?” she said just as angrily.

He was staring at her breasts in the bit of lace that had been designed to lift and enhance. It was doing its job very well.

“I have cousins,” he said softly.

“What does that mean?”

“Girl cousins cut their teeth on boy cousins. I've fastened so many bikini tops I couldn't count them.” He looked back at her eyes. “That's what relatives do. They help each other.”

Hallie pulled the T-shirt over her head. “I guess that's supposed to mean you think Braden and I are related. Well, we're
not
. Would you move so I can go to him?”

“Of course. Go back to the rebound guy who gives you a used engagement ring that you don't even like.”

“Once again, you're being a jerk.” She had her hand on the doorknob as she looked back at him. “You wouldn't tell Braden about…about us, would you?”

“About our extreme sexual attraction to each other? That every time we get too close, clothes go flying? Is that what I shouldn't tell him?”

Hallie couldn't help herself and laughed. “However colorfully you state it, just don't tell him, all right? Whatever you think, Braden is real to me.”

“And I'm not?” Jamie asked softly, all his anger gone.

“You and your whole family are a fantasy. Will you promise me?”

Jamie closed his eyes for a moment. “Yeah, I'll keep my mouth shut. Anything else you want from me? Blood on a contract?”

“You are too much! Just behave yourself and don't hurt Braden.”

“Hurt him?” Jamie said. “What makes you think I'd—?” But Hallie had left the big pantry and closed the door behind
her. He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. He
did
need to get himself under control.

There was a sound, as though something on the shelves had moved. He opened his eyes and saw that by the door into the tea room, a little wooden butter mold had fallen to the floor. When he picked it up and put it back on the shelf, he saw the piles of clothes on the couch. He could tell the clothes were for him and he guessed that Hallie had brought them back from her shopping trip.

Why had she left them in the tea room? Why hadn't she shown them to him?

All he could figure out was that she was very angry at him about something, but he had no idea what. All day yesterday, every time he got too near her, she jumped away. She had stayed intently focused on trying to find a job somewhere in the U.S. If he so much as mentioned that he might possibly like to spend time with her past when his knee was healed, she bit his head off.

Jamie had backed down, pretended to read a book, and just answered questions. He refrained from saying, “I have PTSD. What's your excuse?” He didn't think Hallie's bad mood would allow her to laugh.

But that evening, the arrival of a drunken, stinking, blond lawyer had turned her into a pot of melting honey. Instantly, her snapping turtle persona was gone and in its place was an ooey-gooey, eyelash-batting girl who nearly swooned at the sight of a skinny, pale guy with regurgitated beer down the front of his shirt.

Jamie was sure his own actions got him some high marks in Heaven. He had helped his rival get into bed, checked his vitals, and even got the boys to help clean him up a bit.

All for Hallie.

Jamie picked up a sweater off the couch. It was exactly the
kind he liked: good quality but not flashy. The complete opposite of that hideous ring that was nearly welded to Hallie's finger.

“You two did this, didn't you?” he said aloud to the spirits in the room. “You're two well-meaning old biddies who want Hallie to get a whole man, not a damaged one like me. That's what this is about, isn't it?”

Jamie threw the sweater back onto the couch. “The hell with the lot of you!” He turned on his crutches and went out the door. He needed to get dressed for his aunt's wedding and as soon as it was over he was going home. Back to Colorado, where only horses stamped a man's heart to the ground.

In the tea room, two beautiful young women looked at each other and smiled. In their experience, sometimes you had to light a fire under a man to get him to do what he should.

“H
allie,” Braden said when she entered the kitchen. He'd showered, washed his hair, and put on one of Jamie's sweatshirts—which hung on him. “I was beginning to think I'd dreamed you last night.”

“No, I'm very real. Want some coffee? There are muffins on the table.”

“Actually, I am hungry, but I don't see the muffins.”

Hallie looked up from the coffee pot and saw that the basket was gone. She looked under the table, but it wasn't there either.

“Wind blow them off?” he asked.

“Something like that. How about some toast?” She had to turn away so he wouldn't see her blush. Jamie tossing her onto the table must have sent the whole basket flying somewhere.

“Hallie, you look great. Have you lost weight?”

“I think so, but I don't know how. There's a B&B next door
and the owner's mother brings us lavish teas with cakes and cookies, and we eat every bite.”

“The ‘we' refers to you and your client? Is he the big guy I just met? On crutches?”

“Yes, that's Jamie. He got you into bed last night.”

“I'll have to thank him.”

Hallie put a plate of buttered toast in front of him.

“That's an interesting ring you're wearing,” Braden said.

Hallie tugged at it but it didn't move. “Sorry. I couldn't get it off. Jamie tried but no luck.” She poured him a cup of coffee. “I'll stay away from the salt today and it'll come off.”