Mr. Wrong (A Homespun Romance) (21 page)

Why indeed?  Katie put the file and the phone book away, carefully brushed away a tiny speck of dust on the desk with the utmost precision and stood up.

It fitted.  The clothes, the car, the man, even the boat.  It all fitted.

Katie walked out to her car, got in and slammed the door shut with a force that boded ill for its rusty hinges.

He could afford dining out every night, exclusive English restaurants and ten thousand glass paperweights with violets in them.

She turned the key in the ignition till the transmission screamed and then reversed out of the parking lot.

She had lectured a well to do lawyer on money, improving his lot in life, and the importance of security.

Katie put her foot down on the accelerator.

She was staring at the garage door before she realized she was home.  How long had she sat there, marveling at the irony of it all? 

The bird in her hand had been the one who fitted her list of requirements the best after all.  One who now would never know Katie McArthur had decided love was the only thing that made life worthwhile after all.

Katie began to laugh.  She laughed till the wetness on her cheeks told her tears had taken over.

Life wasn’t done with her yet.  It was back to its old rule.  Kick the ones who are down.  Again and again.  Katie raced up the stairs to her apartment, to fling herself across her bed and sob the tears she didn’t know she had left.

Her last hope was gone now.  The slender chance that Brady would listen to her, believe she truly loved him.  It was strange.  The very money she had wanted all her life now alienated her from all that she longed for.

“Damn you Brady,” Kate sobbed into her pillow, “why couldn’t you have been whom you claimed you were?”

Kate stared at her reflection in the mirror without really seeing anything.  The green sundress with
its sprigs of lily-of-the-valley and short white jacket would do.  She didn’t want to go to a party but she would be just fine.  The words had become a mantra these days, to be chanted over and over again in the hope that soon she would begin to believe in them herself. 

It was Nan’s birthday and her friend was having a barbecue.  Katie hadn’t been able to think of any plausible excuse not to go and maybe the change would do her good.

Strange, Nan hadn’t mentioned this cousin earlier.  The one whose house she was having the barbecue at.  Katie reached for the paper beside her checking swiftly to see if it was the second or the third stop sign she had to turn at.  Nan was fifty two today.  Katie wondered what she would be like when she was fifty two.  The years stretched ahead empty.  She would be that nice teacher Katie McArthur who would live through her work.  Without Brady there could be nothing else in her life.

Katie switched her thoughts back to Nan and she frowned.  Nan hadn’t been at all well lately.  There had been the time she’d been talking to Karen Webb and Katie had come up to them.  Her face had gone a bright red and she’d clutched at her chest.  When Katie had asked if she was all right, Nan had mumbled something about her blood pressure.  Then the last few days she had seemed so agitated whenever Katie had spoken to her. 

Well, thought Katie, spotting the number she’d jotted down and parking beside the curb, she’d just mention to George that Nan might need a thorough physical.

Karen Webb had asked her twice in the last fortnight if she could watch Cody.  Each time Kate had refused quietly, knowing exactly what Brady’s sister was trying to do.

How would Brady ever forgive her when she couldn’t forgive herself?  Better that he should forget her and get on with his life.  His great, important, well to do life.  Bitterness welled in Katie’s throat reminding her of the hummingbird that used to flutter there.  It was stilled forever.

She was grateful to Brady really.  He had taught her a valuable lesson, saved her from marrying Harold and put her in touch with herself.  Maybe one day she would send him a thank you card.  When she was eighty-five.

Kate stared at the house.  It was part of the tract called Meadow Estates, in Jacaranda Meadows.  On a lower level than Goldrush Hill each house was huge with a
half-acre lot.  In California, where land was always at a premium, the yard alone put the value of the house close to four hundred thousand dollars.  Nan hadn’t mentioned she had a rich cousin. 

Where was everybody anyway?  The house sat well back from the road, Katie had parked on.  There didn’t seem to be any other cars around.  Nan had said it would be an open house type of thing.  Maybe she needn’t stay too long.

Katie rang the bell, waited and then rang it again.  There was no sound from the inside.  Frowning, she extracted the piece of paper from her bag and looked at the number of the house again.  No, she wasn’t making a mistake.  She hesitated.  It was a barbecue so maybe everyone was at the back and couldn’t hear the bell.

Turning the corner of the house she saw a patio, a magnificent tiled pool that looked like something out of Better Homes and Gardens, but still no sign of anybody.  Did she have the wrong day?  With Nan’s recent preoccupation it was a possibility.  About to turn away she caught a flash of red.  Someone was lying by the pool asleep.  Well, as she was here she might as well check.

“Hello,” she called softly not wanting to startle the person.

He jerked upright as if she had lashed him with a whip and as she stared at him, the color drained from Katie’s face and her knees began to tremble.

“Brady!”  she whispered, beginning to back off.

“Katie!”  There was no mistaking his surprise.  “What are you doing here?”

“I was set up,” she said coldly, not caring whether he believed her or not.  “What are you doing here?”

“This is my parent’s house.  They called and asked me to come down this afternoon but there was no one here when I arrived.”

“So, you were set up too,” Katie shrugged, hoping the casualness she was trying to get across, seemed genuine. 

Naturally his parents owned something like this.  They were probably filthy rich as well.  How could they have agreed to this deception?  Was the whole world in on this? 

“I’m sorry to intrude on your privacy.”  Turning she began to retrace her steps.

“Katie, wait!  We have to talk.”

“I have nothing to say to you Mr. Gallagher.”  If she said that often enough to herself she might even begin to believe it.

Brady stopped flummoxed.  Mr. Gallagher!  So, Katie knew.  Well, it didn’t matter except that he’d wanted to be the one to tell her.

“Whatever happened to plain Brady?” he demanded.

This close he could see the new hollows in her cheeks, the sadness in the green eyes that lightened them to the color of the most expensive jade in the world, the lids that looked puffy, the lower lip that wouldn’t stop trembling and had to be held still by her even white teeth.  Even the little gap looked miserable.

Brady’s heart slid into a drumroll.  Could Karen and his mother and Mrs. Kettle have been right after all?

Katie looked at Brady, frantically taking pictures for her memory book.  He was blocking her way, standing just a heartbeat away.  This close she was overwhelmingly aware of the insidious pull he exercised on her senses.  His unbuttoned shirt and cut away shorts left very little to the imagination.

What is it he had just said?  Whatever happened to plain Brady?  In case he didn’t know she would spell it out for him.

“The Brady I knew is dead,” said Katie staring him in the eye. 

How he had lasted two weeks without her, Brady didn’t know.  He wanted her.  On any terms.

“Katie I love you,” he said, “Marry me.”

A pulse leapt into life in the base of her throat but she didn’t bat an eyelash, “No.”

“I have money, Katie.  You can have everything you’ve ever wanted.”

“I know,” said Katie and sidestepped him to keep on walking.

“You know?”  He did a double take.  How had she found out?  “Why won’t you marry me, then?”

“Because of your money.” 

He put a hand on her arm and spun her around.  “Run that by me again.”

There was an electric silence as they both recalled the last time he had said those very words.

“Leave me alone, Mr. Gallagher,” Katie gritted and he could see the tears in her eyes.  “I won’t marry you because you have too much money.  Was it funny making me think you were a salesman, that you had nothing?”

Brady stared at her, unaware that his grip on her arm had tightened painfully, “What’s with you?  First you’ll only marry a rich man, now you won’t marry me because I have too much money.  You’ll have to do better than that lady.”

“Let me go,” Katie hissed.  “I don’t ever want to see you again.”

“I will as soon as you let me have a reason that makes sense.”

Katie looked at his face and all the anger drained out of her.  Who was she trying to kid?  This man meant everything in the world to her.

“I won’t marry you because if I did you’d never believe I loved you for yourself.  You’d always wonder if it was your money that was the real attraction.”

Katie closed her eyes in despair.  There, she had said it out loud.  Now surely he would let her go.

“Katie, Katie darling if you only knew how long I’ve waited to hear you say the words.”

She opened her eyes to find Brady had hauled her into his chest and was planting tiny kisses all over the top of her head.  From there he progressed to her face.  Katie closed her eyes.  If this was a dream she never wanted it to end. 

“Brady you didn’t hear what I said.  You can’t...”

“Hush,” he ordered, "I heard every word.  I love you Katie.  Nothing else matters.”

His mouth captured hers, wreaking havoc with her intentions to be sensible about this.  It was heaven to be back in his arms, feel his strength enshrouding her in a private paradise.  Without breaking contact with her lips Brady lifted her and carried her to the patio, sitting down with Katie on his lap.

“Katie I’m sorry,” Brady whispered finally against her hair, “I couldn’t understand why you wanted money in spite of everything you told me.  But then I went to areas like the one you grew up in and saw how people in the same circumstances lived and what it did to them I wanted to come rushing back to you.  To get down on my knees and beg you to marry me.”  He held her close with a convulsive gesture and Katie looked up surprised at the moisture in his eyes, “But what I saw there scared me, Katie.  I didn’t think anything I could say or do would make you understand my reasons for not telling you the truth in the first place, the reasons for a love that blindly dismissed your requirements.  It’s a selfish love Katie.  It expected you to throw the lessons of a lifetime away and trust a man who seemed to possess nothing, not even the good sense to tell you the truth.  I was turned off by women who always befriended me for what I had.  I wanted you to fall in love with the Brady you took me for.  Then came your bombshell about money and security going hand in hand.  Arrogant, hurt, that you didn’t believe in love, I determined to tear down the walls you had put up around you not really understanding the blood and suffering that had put them up in the first place.  That you love me is a miracle I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve.  Can you ever forgive me, sweetheart?”

But Katie’s hand was on his mouth.  Enough time had been wasted in talk.

“Brady....,” her eyes darkened in invitation and his lips swooped to hers, greedy for what she offered.

Reluctantly he released her after a while, quieting her with a tender touch when she would have drawn his mouth to her again.

“Katie, let me finish.  Halfway through last week I knew what a conceited ass I was, but I didn’t know how to come back.  If you’ll give me another chance, Katie love, just one, I’ll never let you down again.”

“I’m sorry too Brady about the things I’ve said to you.  It took so long for me to realize what really mattered was just your love.  To think I almost lost it.”

“Never that, Katie mine, never that.  I’ll always love you.  Tell me you’ll forgive me for letting you think I worked at Bernie’s.”

“Brady, what were you doing there that afternoon?”

“Helping my mother out in a crunch, darling,” he whispered into her ear, his lips caressing it’s curves.  "Tell me again you love me.”

“Brady,“ the truth shimmered in her eyes as she looked at him and with a groan Brady reached for her.

“Brady,” it was Katie who pulled away this time and held her palms against his chests to maintain a distance between their bodies, “Brady, everybody will think I’m marrying you for your money.”

“Not the people who really matter, Katie mine,” he said tenderly.  “Karen told me how sad you looked and for a while there I think my sister almost hated me.  She said I was the last of the male chauvinist pigs in the twenty-first century.  My Mom gave me the cold shoulder after you went to the shop, and told me there was none so blind as thick headed lawyers who thought they knew it all.    They both know you love me.  As for the rest of the world,  one look at you and they’ll know I’m the luckiest man in the world.”  He kissed the tears away before he took her mouth.