Mr. Wrong (A Homespun Romance) (12 page)

Brady’s withdrawal freed Kate to look around, examine the little table with cushioned seats on either side, a flower arrangement adding a nice touch.  On the other side was another steering wheel and instrument panel.  Why on earth would they need two?  The galley area, had a refrigerator, a microwave and a two ring stove, a stainless steel sink, tiny cabinets for storage.  The bathroom even had shower facilities and there was another sleeping area beyond it that held a double sized mattress.  She peeked into the main bedroom again, noting the storage lockers and feeling the soft mattress.  Now she knew exactly how the expression dream boat had been coined.  This one was it.

Kate stared at her reflection in the mirror, after she had slipped off her jumpsuit.  The person who looked back at her seemed a stranger, ready for any adventure.

`No! Slow down.  Remember who you are,' admonished her brain.

`No,' said her insurgent heart, `just for today let me forget everything.  Who I am.  Where I come from.  Everything.'

She stepped out on deck and hesitantly climbed the ladder to the bridge.  Brady had divested himself of his bright Hawaiian shirt and white cut offs and was at the wheel in black swimming trunks looking like a Greek statue.

Kate raked a hand through her curls and went to stand beside him her eyes sweeping over the instrument panel and the steering wheel that looked like something out of Star Wars.

He turned and she knew his gaze was taking in every inch of her inside and outside the black maillot.

“Hi!  How are you feeling?”

Kate had forgotten all about being seasick and she stared surprised at Brady, “I’m fine.”

He threw his head back and laughed at her tone, the sound mingling with the sun and the waves they were ploughing through to become an offering to the sheer joy of being alive.

“You haven’t thought of being seasick,” he chuckled, "That’s good.  Put a life jacket on and then you can either sit here or sunbathe in the cockpit or study in the cabin.  Whatever you feel like.  I’m going to take Shenondoah out to my favorite place and then we can swim.”

“Shenondoah.  Is that what this boat is called?”

He had turned to face her and Kate’s eyes were drawn to his chest.  There was no sign of any bruising on the left.  Her eyes fixed on the tiny pinpoints of his nipples and Kate wondered what it would feel like to explore them with her mouth and tongue.

“Uh-huh.”

When he hid behind those glasses Kate really couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

“Who owns her?”

“She’s owned by a family actually,” said Brady slowly.  “Three people have shares in her.”

“She’s beautiful.”

Kate lifted her face to the sun letting the wind tumble through her hair and flirt with her scalp.  Brady watched as she stood a little away from him, feet slightly apart to accommodate the boat’s motion, hands hanging down at her side, eyes closed.  The long slender exposed length of her neck, the curve of her body in the swimsuit that looked like something his grandmother would have liked to wear, made him swallow hard.  It wasn’t hard to imagine Kate in an itsy bitsy teeny weeny polka dot bikini.  Not yellow though.  Green.  A green one with white dots.

“Want to steer her?”

“Can I?  I mean I won’t crash her or anything, will I ?”

The look on her face reminded him of Cody as he said, “There’s nothing to it.”

Hesitantly Kate placed her hands on the wheel while Brady explained the mechanics of driving a fully powered super cruiser. 

Gradually Kate relaxed, lulled by the way the boat purred along, the heady power that she was actually doing a good job of controlling it, if Brady was to be believed.  She listened carefully while he explained boating rules and regulations, how to call for help on the radio if an emergency occurred. 

The wind and excitement whipped the color of her cheeks to carmine and she could feel her body soaking up the sun.  Kate hadn’t felt this good in a long time.  Not since her birthday in fact.

“Brady!”

A sudden look around showed him nowhere close and she panicked.

“What is it Katie?”  She jumped as his voice sounded close behind her, followed by the pop of a can top.

“Don’t leave me,” Kate begged.

“Never Katie.  Want a soda?”

“Please.”  Tension had dried her throat out.

He handed her the can, watching as she placed her lips over the spot where his had been and took a swallow.  Brady’s tongue flicked out to lick lips suddenly dry.

“Thanks.”  Like an anxious driver, her eyes didn’t shift from the horizon.

“Relax, Katie.  There’s a lot of ocean out here.”

“I’ll try,” Katie laughed.  She had been tense and there was really no need.  As Brady said there was a great deal of ocean out there and he wouldn’t let her make any wrong moves.

Kate stared at the water almost blinded by the fact that had just surfaced.  There was no doubting it.  The fact was unalterable.  She felt as safe with Brady as a wobbly toddler did with its parents.  He wouldn’t let her come to any harm.  Ever. 

The only danger she faced was Brady himself, the unrelenting attack he had launched on her defenses.  The indomitable will she sensed behind that cheerful exterior would not let go of her easily.

Kate kept at it for half an hour and then Brady took over, veering to the west slightly.

When eventually Brady anchored in a secluded cove Kate was surprised.  The place was like a movie set.  They were about three hundred yards away from cliffs that rose straight out of the water and towered over them, like gigantic columns from another age.  Above, the sky was so blue it almost hurt to look at it.  There was no other sign of human habitation, no sound other than the gentle lap lap of water against the side of the boat, the call of a lonely gull.

“This place is gorgeous.  Where are we?”

“Brady’s Cove,” he said solemnly, “I own exclusive rights, but I’m willing to share it with you.  I’ll have the deeds drawn up Monday to make it legal.”

Kate laughed at his teasing.

“Shall we swim?”

She nodded and he went over the side turning to wait for her to follow.  Kate dived in, reveling at the icy cold water against her heated flesh.  Coming up she struck out strongly, aware by the churning of the water that Brady was beside her.

That he meant to keep his word about them spending the day as friends became very evident with each passing hour.  Not once by look, gesture or word did he do anything to give her any cause for alarm.

Which Kate told herself fiercely was what she wanted after all.

“You swim well,” Brady’s voice was muffled by the towel he was using to absorb the water from his hair.  “Do you swim a great deal?”

Remembering his remark that he swam daily Katie said, “No.  I don’t get the chance now.”

“You used to?”  He was spreading the towel out on the deck, the ripple of muscles under his skin creating waves of longing in Kate.

“Yes.  In my first job, I met a girl whose parents owned a pool.  In exchange for cleaning it and mowing their yard, I could swim there.  It didn’t take long to learn how.”

Kate didn’t add that she’d felt it was part of
herself imposed curriculum to be a good swimmer.

Brady’s left brow rose but he said nothing, merely patting the surface of the towel he had laid out for her a narrow three inches of deck demarcating it from his.

They reapplied their sun block, each taking care not to offer to help the other.  Katie had put her first coat on in the cabin.  Then they napped, positioning themselves in the shade so they didn’t wake up broiled.  Kate woke first and turned her head cautiously to glimpse Brady’s face slack in sleep, touchingly vulnerable.  Kate remembered the other time they had napped like this, wishing she were closer to Brady, had an excuse for absorbing the feel of him once again.   Fighting the urge to reach out and trace his features with a finger, commit them to memory forever she sat up, reaching for the sun block lotion.  She never burned but it wouldn’t hurt to be careful.  Besides it would keep her restless fingers occupied.

A movement behind her told her Brady was awake as well.  He sat up and stared out at the water.

“This is the life,” he said his voice still slightly sleep roughened.  “Sometimes I think I’d like to sail around the world in a boat.  Days on end with nothing except the sun, the ocean and one’s thoughts for company.”

Kate said nothing because suddenly she wanted to agree with Brady.  It must be nice to do just what one wanted.  Act on impulse.  Let go.  It just needed a lot of money for those luxuries.

“Katie, if you had all the money you wanted in the world what would you do?”  Brady asked a little while later, his thoughts still on his ocean voyage.

“I’d get braces,” said Kate matter of factly.

“What?”  There was no mistaking the explosion of incredulous amazement in Brady’s voice.

Kate turned to him, “See this gap in the front?”

Baring her teeth she pointed to it with the tip of her tongue, making Brady feel the need to dive into the water again, “I’ve always felt awfully self conscious about it.  Wearing braces for a while would close the gap.”

“Oh, Katie,” Brady’s voice shook with the laughter he tried to suppress, “That gap is beautiful.  It makes you look so special.”

Kate stared at Brady unable to hide her surprise.  What did he mean special?  Harold’s mother had offered to let her have an orthodontist’s number.  Brady didn’t mean he actually liked it?

“Beside the braces, what else would you like to do if you had all the money in the world?”

Here it comes.  The mansion, the diamonds, the fast cars, the jet set life style, Brady thought.  Well, it was better to have it out in the open.  It would give him a clearer idea of how to deal with it.

She was quiet for so long he wondered if Katie had simply tuned his question out.

Keeping her face averted Kate said quietly, “I’d like to buy a huge house in the country with some land.  I’d have animals there and a huge garden and I’d collect children.  The children no one wants.  Give them a home, somewhere to belong, security, love.”

The color Brady felt on his face had nothing to do with exposure to the sun.  It burned there and he felt a liquid warmth seep into his eyes.  Never in his wildest dreams had he anticipated an answer like this.  What did she want money for if not for a life of luxury?

Kate blinked.  Now, what had she gone and done?  Where had the words come from?  She had never really thought of anything like this and yet when Brady had put that question to her the answer had jumped out of her mouth as if launched by a subconscious that had ruminated over it for years.  But shock couldn’t lessen the effect of her own words on Katie.  They were true.  If she really ever had all the money she needed in the world, she didn’t want to sit around like a lounge lizard, her greatest worry the thought of what she would wear to the next party, her hair, or the color to tint her nails.  She wanted to do something useful with her life and her newly born project surely qualified for that category.  That was the kind of somebody Kate McArthur would enjoy being.

CHAPTER
6

Kate couldn’t understand what Brady meant when he finally said, “You’ll be the death of me, Katie mine,” in a queer husky voice.

Before she could ask, he was on his feet, “Let’s eat, I’m starving.”

He held his hand out to her to pull her to her feet but as soon as she was standing he let her fingers go, sparking off an absurd regret in Kate that he showed no desire to prolong physical contact. 

‘You, my dear, are unanimously voted Miss Quite Contrary of the Year, her heart informed her.  Which is it to be?  You do?  Or you don’t?'

They feasted on crackers, caviar, cold cracked crab, an assortment of hors
d’ouvers and salads followed by some of the largest, juiciest strawberries Kate had ever seen.  His mother must give lavish parties.  She sampled everything, relishing the adventures her taste buds were having.  Brady even produced a can of whipped cream for the strawberries but Kate preferred to eat them as they were, reveling in the slight edge of tartness some of them had.

“That’s the best meal I’ve ever had.”  Replete, she leaned back and stretched her legs out in front of her. 

The banquette that Brady told her converted into another bed was a soft pearly gray, and at the window, white curtains with a pink and gray  border gently fluttered, complementing the gray carpet.  Above them, what looked like the moon roof in a car, was open letting in light and a gentle breeze.  His friend’s taste in boats was impeccable. 

That Brady used the boat often was obvious by the way he handled it.  She was sure he didn’t take it out alone.  Kate wondered what his other companions had been like.  Pretty, sexy and liberated?  Did they make good use of the sleeping accommodations?

“It’s a beautiful boat,” Kate said aloud.  It was time to rein in her thoughts.  “Thank you Brady, for inviting me to spend the day with you.  I’m glad I chose you over Pestalozzi.”

“Who’s Pestalozzi?”

Not a rich Italian with a string of pizza
parlors, as his next contender?

“A pioneer of childhood education who lived long before our time.”

“Hats off to him.”

Katie laughed.

“I’m glad I beat him hands down,” Brady said wryly as his heart celebrated with continuous cartwheels.

Katie was beginning to relax again with him.  He had regained lost ground today, that was for sure.  At times he’d had to sit on his hands not to reach out for a touch of that sensational skin, or use the pretext of helping her to feel the smooth nubile muscles of her back, but the slow headway would all be worth it in the end if Katie agreed to put her happiness into his hands, trust him with the rest of her life, return his love.

Kate stared out at the water through the oval porthole beside her as she nibbled at what felt like her twentieth strawberry.  If she didn’t stop this soon she wouldn’t even be able to roll of the boat. 

“Come on, sleepy head, wake up.”  Brady’s gentle teasing brought her back,  “I’ll teach you how to play gin rummy.”

They played cards, listened to some dreamy music on the little radio and then later they swam again.  It was definitely cooler when they got out the second time and Brady said, “We’ll have to head for home soon.  It’s a pity May has been so cool this year but that’s California for you.”

Brady showered first while Kate lingered on deck.  Eyes dreamy she stared out at the water, imagining a little piece of land at the foot of those imposing cliffs, a little cottage, a man and a woman who loved each other, their children. 

With your dimples and Brady’s eyes?

A shudder, not wholly due to the cooling temperature, went through her.  Brady had been a perfect gentleman.  Not by word or gesture had he done anything to create any kind of sexual awareness but the very care he had taken not to initiate or prolong even the simplest physical contact had almost driven her crazy.    Brady had proved he could keep his word and she was about to go out of her mind with longing, to throw herself into his arms and twine her fingers through his black hair, beg him to bring her fantasies to life.  Kate felt weak.  Her hormones seemed to have gone from dormant, to alive, to frenetic too quickly for her to understand all this.

By the time Kate showered in what Brady had told her was called the head, tidied the cabin and came up on deck with two steaming mugs of tea he had the boat started. 

Silently he handed her a sweatshirt and Kate slipped it on, glad of its warmth, rolling up the too long sleeves, her stimulated senses telling her the garment was Brady’s.  He must keep some clothes on board because he’d changed into acid washed jeans and a white shirt with too many buttons undone, that provided a sharp contrast to the vee of his bronzed chest.  Apparently the cold didn’t bother him.

He didn’t offer to let her take the wheel on the way back and Kate didn’t want to.  Sitting on one of the leather seats in the bow, Kate found the vibrancy of the sunset a perfect match for her thoughts.  Her watercolor life had suddenly taken on all the bright hues in front of her as if a master artiste had decided to repaint the canvas of her life in vivid oils.

In the marina Brady turned to her after he had stowed the picnic basket away in the trunk of the Volvo.  Kate had wondered aloud if they shouldn’t be doing something to clean the boat, vaguely remembering a mention somewhere that salt water ruined them and they had to be hosed down or something every time they were used.  But Brady had said someone was paid to take care of it and all he’d done was lock it.

“Are you very tired?” he asked.

Katie shook her head.  She was on a natural high and could have accompanied him to the moon if he’d asked her to.

A finger came up and was laid against her lips, “That’s so you won’t refuse,” Brady explained, as her eyes grew till they resembled twin saucers, “A little way from here is a seafood shanty.  I want you to have dinner with me there.  And I don’t want to hear a word about going Dutch.”

With his finger against her lips befuddling her senses, their light touch more intoxicating than the strongest liquor, there was nothing Katie could do except nod her head.

The dinner was every bit as delicious as Brady had promised.  The catch of the day, mahi-mahi, melted in Kate’s mouth and even Brady’s teasing comment that she was eating shark didn’t mar her liking for it.

She dozed on the way home, sliding out of it when the car stopped, to reluctantly open her eyes.  It was almost midnight, time for her fairy godmother to go off duty. 

“Thank you Brady,” Kate mumbled, "you’re the best friend a girl could ever have.”

But one little kiss wouldn’t have hurt.  Just a tiny token of... of....well, never mind.

Brady wondered how much it would cost to take out a full page ad. in the Los Angeles Times that read, `Today goes down in History as the day I won Katie’s trust.  The tiny print at the bottom would continue, `Even though it almost killed me’.

Walking had always been Kate’s favorite exercise and she’d spent other days in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains hiking, a rucksack on her back, with only her thoughts for company.

All day yesterday she had tried to balance what she felt with what she knew and it hadn’t worked.  The side on the seesaw representing reason stayed up, no matter what cautions she piled on its end. 

Cleaning her apartment, going on a three mile walk and then applying herself to a term paper had been local anesthetic that had worn off as soon as the task was completed and by nightfall Kate had known she needed to sort the contents of her head out, thankful that Brady was probably busy celebrating Mother’s day with his family.