Hard Habit to Break (18 page)

Banging several more pans helped cool her temper, and she wondered with bitter amusement if
some unseen person was pulling an imaginary rug out from under her. It was ironic, she thought, that she and Matt had come full circle. Only this time it was Matt making noises about maintaining her pure banker’s reputation. She had the feeling he’d have a good deal more control over the issue now that their roles were reversed. So far, no amount of reasoning or pleading over the telephone had swayed him. No matter what she said, Matt still insisted on keeping the intensity of their relationship quiet. And she loved him all the more for his reasons for doing it. But he was driving her crazy with his methods.

Liz gave a dry chuckle. Clearly that part hadn’t changed.

“That part hasn’t changed,” she repeated out loud as a wild idea about their swapping roles ran through her mind.

She started laughing.

Good thing her roses were still blooming.

At midnight Liz let herself out the back door. Stopping for a moment on the top of the porch steps, she checked the dethorned rose she had tucked into the waistband of her dark blue jeans. Finding it secure she took a deep breath, pulled the navy scarf lower over her hair, and walked down the three steps. She ran across the dimly moonlit lawn. Reaching the garden shed, she headed around the side before finally stopping in front of the hole in the hedge.

She took another deep breath to calm her jumping stomach.

“We meet again,” a deep voice whispered.

Liz shrieked and whirled around, banging the back of her head against the side of the steel shed.

“Owww!” she yelped, rubbing the painful spot. She focused her eyes on the voice’s owner, who was standing on the other side of the hedge. “Matt! I really wish you wouldn’t sneak up on me like that!”

“Well, you scared the hell out of me when I saw a shadow running across the lawn,” he complained with a chuckle. “It took me a moment to realize it was you.”

Dropping her arm back to her side, Liz smiled when he disappeared from view. There was rustling and grunting as he scrambled through to her side of the hedge.

He straightened and gave her a very visible grin. “I’m definitely cutting down the hedge tomorrow.”

“About time,” she murmured, stepping into his embrace.

She felt a shudder of longing when his lips met hers. How she had missed him—missed his warmth, missed his strong arms, missed his devastating kisses. Missed his love.

Finally he raised his head and murmured. “This is killing me.”

“I know.”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I thought I could stay away until … but I can’t.”

“Neither can I,” she admitted, then chuckled. “In fact, I was bringing you a rose.”

She reached between them, pulled the rose from her waistband, and handed it to him.

“You would have had a real surprise if you tried to leave this on my pillow,” he said in an amused voice.

“I was banking on it,” she replied, stroking his shoulders. “Matt, I can’t stand not seeing you.”

“I can’t stand this arrangement either. But it’s just a few weeks. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.

“Matt—”

“Liz, do it my way. Please. I’d never forgive myself if I were the reason you were turned down for that promotion.”

She sighed, not having the heart to fight him when he was so ready to blame himself. Any woman would kill to have a man like Matt, she thought. She knew he would encourage her in anything she wanted to do. Unfortunately, what she really wanted to do was exactly the opposite of what he wanted to do. She felt almost selfish for actually wanting to talk him out of this madness. But if she didn’t, the weeks ahead would be sheer torture for them both.

“Matt—”

“No more arguments,” he broke in, caressing her back. “Now, promise me you’ll do this my way.”

“Then promise me the nights.”

“Liz, it’s too risky.…”

His voice trailed away as she snuggled closer and kissed his jaw. “Promise me the nights, Matt darling.”

With a loving mouth she traced his jawline, and he uttered a soft curse. But his hands tightened on her back in spite of himself.

“Why do I have the feeling I’m being sucker-punched?” he asked huskily as he pulled her to the ground.

“Because you are,” she murmured.

His mouth covered hers.

As she surveyed the Friday evening customers gathered in the bank lobby, Liz found herself wishing for the thousandth time that she were with Matt. She sighed at the growing frustration inside her and suppressed it yet again. Another hour and she’d close the bank. Several hours more and maybe she’d see Matt. For a brief time.

Nothing had been resolved last night, she admitted to herself. Nothing except their obvious inability to keep their hands off each other. They had to talk—and soon. She couldn’t stand the little snatches of time they had together.

“ ’Evening, Liz,” Fred Corliss said, breaking into her thoughts. “Busy, ain’t it?”

Turning her attention to Fred, she smiled and exchanged small talk with him.

After Fred Corliss left, she realized the bank was busier than usual. Customers patiently waited three or four deep in the tellers’ lines. Other customers chatted in small groups. She remembered how surprised she’d been when she’d first come to Hopewell to discover the bank was a kind of Friday night gathering place for the residents. In more heavily populated areas people were always impatient to finish their banking business and be on their way. People here never hurried. She
wished she had a large dose of that patience, especially where Matt was concerned.

Another customer claimed her attention, and then she was occupied with several more who had questions about their loans or accounts. Once the rush of business was over, she glanced up and saw Matt coming through the front doors.

Forcing away the urge to run to him, she permitted herself only a polite smile. But she couldn’t stop herself from rising to her feet and walking around the wrought-iron divider.

“Good evening, Matt,” she said as she approached him.

He gave her a private frown for her singling him out in the crowd of people. She didn’t care. She needed to be next to him, feel his closeness.

“Good evening, Liz,” he finally replied.

“Is there anything I can do for you this evening?”

Liz smothered a grin when his green eyes darkened for a moment. She hadn’t meant her words as a double entendre, but it didn’t matter to her how he interpreted them.

“Just cashing a check for the weekend,” he said loudly. “Busy tonight.”

“The nights usually are,” she replied impulsively, then looked around to see if anyone was paying attention to them. No one seemed to be.

“Stop it!” he muttered under his breath. Louder he said, “Well, I better get in line with the others.”

“I’ll be glad to cash a check for you if you’re in a hurry,” she said with a saccharine smile. She lowered her voice. “You’ve probably got a busy
night
ahead of you.”

“Keep it up and it won’t be,” he muttered.

Chuckling quietly, she wondered how he liked being on the other side of the fence. She decided role reversal was more fun than she’d first thought.

“Actually Matt, if you’ve got a minute, I’d like to discuss your last deposit.”

Anger blazed in his eyes, and Liz admitted that if looks could kill, she’d be dead. She knew she really shouldn’t tease him.

Then again, maybe if she provoked him enough now, he’d have to make a midnight visit—if only to wring her neck.

Smiling innocently she said. “I was thinking about another type of account for you.”

“But I’ve already got an—”

“This is a long-term account, with a lifetime guarantee, and the occasional nine-month dividend,” she broke in smoothly.

As his eyes widened at the implication of her words, she wondered what it would be like to have a baby. Matt’s baby. She had a quick mental image of mischievous green eyes set in cherubic faces and little hands reaching for the cookie jar even after being told no.

More Matts to drive her crazy, she thought with wry amusement. From the look of astonishment crossing Matt’s face, he obviously had never considered children. The naïveté of men. It would serve him right if she got the promotion only to take a maternity leave a few months later.

“Of course, that nine-month dividend is up to you, Matt,” she added finally, deciding to ease up on him. “But it is something to consider. Would you like me to cash that check now?”

Matt glared at her, wanting to paddle her bottom
then and there for nearly giving him a heart attack. At first he hadn’t been sure what she’d been hinting at. A baby! He realized he hadn’t thought about children before. Then he decided he’d love to see Liz nursing his child and conjured the beautiful scene in his mind. A little girl, maybe, with Liz’s wheat-blond hair and gray eyes. But first he’d give Liz hell for teasing him.

“
Nobody move!
”

Someone screamed as Matt whipped around in the direction of the shouted order. He immediately faced two men standing in the doorway of the bank. Their faces were covered with stocking masks, and they each waved a large, very dangerous-looking gun in the air.

Acting on a long-forgotten instinct from the past, Matt threw himself against the men.

As he went down in a tangle of arms and legs with the robbers, he made a desperate grab for one of the guns as it skittered across the floor. He scooped it up at the same moment he realized he was practically sitting on one of the crooks.

He shoved the gun’s muzzle into the struggling man’s face and shouted, “Don’t move!”

The robber stilled instantly, his harsh breathing the only noise he made. As Matt stared down at the man, he became aware of more struggling. The other crook!

Without taking his gaze off the first he bellowed, “
Somebody get the other guy!
”

To his complete astonishment it was Liz’s voice that shouted back, “
I’m trying
.”

He jerked his head up. The customers all seemed frozen in their places. But Liz was half-hanging
on to the robber’s back as she savagely clawed his stockinged face with one hand, trying to grab the man’s empty hands with her other one.

Swearing viciously, Matt scrambled to his feet, yanking the first robber with him. He pushed the man against the wall, next to a small knot of people. Then he shoved the gun into the first pair of hands he found. His quick glance told him the hands belonged to Emily Richards.

“Keep an eye on this one!” he ordered her.

Emily suddenly snapped to attention and swung her bulk around to face the robber. She raised the gun to his chest and said, “Move one finger and I’ll blow your head off!”

Matt barely heard her as he raced to Liz’s rescue.

She was still hanging on for dear life as the second crook bucked and spun like a mechanical bronco. Out of the corner of his eye Matt saw several other men beginning to move toward them. He reached the struggling pair first, grabbed hold of the robber’s jacket, and tried to find an opening to throw in a right hook. Liz was in the way.

“Dammit, Liz! I’ve got him!” he shouted when her nails accidentally raked his shoulder.

“He was going to shoot you!” she cried, still clinging to the robber.

“Let go!”

“You heard him, lady! Let go!” the robber shouted. “Oowww! My eye!”

“Serves you right, you creep!” Liz shouted back, beginning to pound on the robber’s head. “You would have shot Matt!”

“Not me, lady!”

Matt finally gave up trying to separate the robber
from Liz. Better to separate Liz from the robber before she beat the guy to death, he thought as he grabbed at her hands. He missed and received a wild fist in the eye.

“Dammit! That was me!” he shouted, this time grabbing her around the waist.

He pulled her off the robber, who instantly went down under a pile of men. Holding Liz, he stared in astonishment at the mound of humanity beside them. He suddenly realized that it couldn’t have been more than ninety seconds since the robbers had entered the bank. His muscles relaxed slightly as the adrenaline began to drain out of him.

“Okay, boys, you can let him up now. Georgina, call the state police.”

Matt looked over to Mr. Seaver, who had spoken. The elderly postmaster had a Dirty Harry glint in his eye as he trained the second gun with casual expertise on the robber, who was now pinned spread-eagle to the floor by a quartet of men.

Matt shook his head in disbelief.

Liz suddenly stopped squirming in his arms. She turned and sobbed into his chest. “I love you. I love you.”

“Liz!”

“I don’t care. I don’t care. He was going to kill you.”

He shook her shoulders in a desperate attempt to quiet her. “Liz! Stop it! It’s all over now.”

She clung harder, still sobbing. “I love you, and he was going to kill you.”

“He dropped the gun!”

“He still could have killed you! Oh, Matt!”

Feeling helpless against her tears, Matt raised his head and stared at twenty pairs of bulging eyes. Hell, he thought.

“I guess she’s a little hysterical,” he finally said with a lame shrug.

“Hysterical!” Liz pushed out of his embrace and swiped at the tears flowing freely down her cheeks. “Hysterical! You could have been killed, tackling two robbers at once! That had to be the most stupid, the most—”

“Somebody had to stop them before they shot someone!” he shouted, glaring at her. “They would have robbed your precious bank too!”

“The hell with the bank!” she shouted back. “No damn bank, and no damn town, and no damn job is worth losing you, you idiot!”

With a sob she wrapped her arms around him again.

Hell, he thought again in resignation, holding her tightly against him. Everyone started talking at once, but he wasn’t sure whether the attempted robbery or Liz had caused the most excitement. He hoped it was the robbery. With that thought he realized what might have happened if he hadn’t taken the robbers by surprise. Shocked at the idea that he might have lost Liz to a bullet, he suddenly understood her hysteria.

With trembling hands he pressed her closer and murmured, “I love you, Liz. Whatever happens next, always remember that.”