Sparks Fly (7 page)

He groaned. He had forgotten about her eagle eye. Hoping to deflect her, he said, “I’m here to talk about you. I’ve called several specialists from New York City and-”

She held up a hand to halt him. “I know you want the best care for me, honey, and I appreciate it, but I’m just fine here with the local doctors.” Will opened his mouth to protest. “I won’t hear any more about it. The doctors have been wonderful and I’ve seen the x-rays. All I’ve got is a slight hip fracture.”

“But Mom-”

“My favorite son just flew all the way out here to see me and I don’t want to argue with him.”

“I’m your only son.”

Joyce grinned merrily. “That’s right, isn’t it? So then, let’s talk about you.”

He pulled up the nearest chair and plopped down into it, knowing he wasn’t prepared to deal with Sergeant Mom in his current state of mind. Somewhat sarcastically, he said, “Would it help if I just gave you my diary?”

“I didn’t know you kept a diary?”

“I don’t.”

His mother’s peals of laughter could be heard down the hall, which brought in the troops. Half an hour later Will was sure he had met every doctor, nurse and secretary who worked in the hospital.

He was too tired for all of the hand-shaking and small talk, but it was a heck of a lot better than the maternal inquisition.

When the meet-and-greet had ended, Joyce said, “What do you bet every mother with an unmarried daughter within fifty miles is getting on the phone right about now?” Seeing his look of alarm, she said, “Sorry honey. Word travels fast when an unmarried, good looking, successful man comes to town.”

Taking pity on her son, certain that the troubled look on his handsome face had something to do with a woman – and that there would be plenty of time to get to the bottom of everything tomorrow –she said, “Why don’t you head out to the cabin before the wanna-be-blushing-brides show up? The guest room is all made up for you.” Glancing out the window she said, “I’d hurry to the house if I were you. I think I see the young ladies arriving already.”

Will grabbed his car keys and gave her one last peck on the cheek. “I’ll be back first thing in the morning.” He raced out to his rental car, pretending he didn’t hear any of the women calling after him.

* * *

Angelina just barely made it to the end of an awful day.

Frankly, she was surprised by her own behavior. She had never been a bitter or jealous person, not to mention the fact that she was the one who had done Susan wrong, not the other way around.

But now, the dam on her feelings for Will seemed to have broken and she couldn’t figure out how to rebuild it.

Hoping to clear her heart and soul by working up a sweat in her garden, she grabbed her clogs and gloves from the closet, stripped off her professional clothes, pulled on her comfortable, faded gardening duds, and headed out to the backyard.

“Weeds. Perfect.” She bent down and started yanking them out. With wild abandon she weeded like never before.

Just as she was laying into another patch of weeds, she heard the phone ring and ran inside, kicking off her clogs. She tried to convince herself she was anxious to get the call because it might be an important client, but knew she was hoping it was Will on the line.

“Angelina?”

Hearing Susan’s perky voice on the other end of the line, Angelina stifled a groan and pulled off her gardening gloves.

“Susan, it’s so nice to hear from you,” she lied.

“I wanted to call to thank you for working so closely with Will.”

Angelina gulped in a mouthful of air and choked. She had never dreamed that her life could turn into such a ridiculous soap opera.

“His office looks better than I’ve ever seen it before. But that’s not really why I’m calling. I hired you because of your reputation as a Feng Shui Cupid to reunite me with Will, as you well know, but I wanted to let you know that I’ve changed my mind.”

“You've changed your mind?” Angelina echoed. “Why?”

“I've finally accepted that I'm not the woman of Will’s dreams. And he isn't the man in mine.”

Angelina’s mouth had fallen open and she was completely speechless. “I, uh...” she began, but thankfully, Susan was on one of her rolls.

“And Angelina, it’s okay. For the first time, I have a feeling that Will is going to be really happy. Even if it’s not with me. In fact,” Susan added, “I’d like to have you come over to my house for a consultation. It’s time for me to finally get on with my own life.”

Moments later, as Angelina hung up with a new consultation penciled into her calendar, all of her preconceived ideas about Susan had flown out the window. Susan certainly wasn’t the fly-by-night, ditzy blonde that she looked to be. Hidden beneath her surface perfection seemed to be a deeply intuitive heart.

Which then made Angelina wonder: If she'd been wrong about Susan, could she be wrong about Will too?

Will relaxed the minute he entered his mother’s house. Nearly every room in the small cabin looked out onto the lake, and there were memories of laughter and happiness all around him. After locking the front door to keep out any single women on the prowl, he picked up the phone and dialed Angelina’s number, but he got her voice mail again.

Not comfortable with the idea of pouring his feelings out to her voice mail, Will vowed to call her again in the morning to set things straight. He just hoped she wouldn’t hang up when she heard his voice.

He was used to getting what he wanted regardless of the obstacles in his way. But for some reason, dealing with Angelina was proving to be the most difficult test of his life.

None of his current worries, however, stopped him from having a romantic dream about her that night. He woke up at 5 am, images of her beauty, her smile, still vivid in his head. He went into the kitchen, plugged in his computer and got online hoping work would ease the ache he felt inside.

It didn't.

Will was back at the hospital at 8 a.m. sharp. His mom was already sitting up in bed and drawing in her sketchbook.

“Good morning, honey. Didn’t get much sleep last night, did you? Want to talk about it?”

At Will’s stunned look, she said with a twinkle of mischief in her eyes, “I have all-seeing Mother abilities.”

Will rolled his eyes, although it was true.

“Besides,” she added, “I’ve got nothing better to do until the doctor agrees to let me go home today, so you may as well eat some of this god awful food on my tray and tell me everything.

Will laughed. He sometimes forgot how different his mother was from every other mother in the world. Spending time with her was more like hanging out with one of the guys. Well, sort of, anyway, if one of the guys was his mom.

He bit into the muffin she handed him and had to go spit it out in the bathroom sink. “I think they baked cement into it.”

“There’s gum in my purse.” Not missing a beat she pointedly asked, “So, who is she?”

Will looked up from digging in her bag for the gum.

“You have woman trouble written all over you.” Joyce folded her hands on her lap. “Why don’t you start at the beginning.”

By the time Will made it to the end of his story, Joyce was worn out from holding in her laughter for so long. One day he would be able to see the humor in the situation, but right now he was too overwhelmed by what sounded to her like love at first sight.

Will’s cell phone rang and as he dealt with a corporate issue, Joyce developed a plan.

Later that day, happily settled back at home with her paints and canvas, shee sent Will off to the grocery store and put her plan into action.

She picked up the phone and dialed information. “I’d like the number for Angelina Morgan please.”

Five minutes later, Joyce called the airlines and charged one first class plane ticket to her infrequently-used credit card. She was happy that some of the money Will insisted on depositing into her saving account each month was finally being put to good use.

* * *

Angelina still wasn’t exactly sure what had happened. One minute she was being clear-headed and firm with Will’s mother—explaining how it was impossible for her to rearrange her schedule to fly to New York for a consultation and that she was happy to give her the number of an excellent consultant in New York, not mention the fact that $5000 really was far too much money to pay for her services—and the next minute she was in her bedroom packing because an airport limo was parked in her driveway.

On the drive to the airport she wondered what the real story was behind the out-of-the-blue phone call. She didn’t believe for one minute that Will’s mother desperately needed her expertise. But since it would be several more hours before she could get any answers, she tried to relax and enjoy the new experience of flying first-class.

It really was very nice, she admitted as she chose
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
to watch on the personal DVD player the flight attendant gave her. She couldn’t help but enjoy the gourmet meal they laid across her tray table.

Kicking out the footrest, she accepted the glass of champagne the stewardess offered her at the end of the movie and closed her eyes. Tonight would be soon enough to unravel everything. Right now she was going to concentrate on savoring this small taste of the good life.

* * *

Joyce looked up at the clock. 9 p.m.. “Honey, I’m going to turn in now.”

Will looked up from his laptop. “Do you need help with anything?”

She wheeled over to him in her on-loan wheelchair. “Just give me a kiss on the cheek and I’ll roll away.”

Will chuckled. “You’re pretty good at that thing. Where’d you learn to maneuver it so well?”

His mother winked at him. “I’d tell you, but then I’d have to run over your toes.” She paused, her smile softening. “It really is nice to have you home for a few days.”

“Next time you don’t have to throw yourself off a ladder to get me here.”

Joyce was laughing as she wheeled off out of the living room, leaving Will alone with his thoughts. All day, he’d been calling Angelina, but every time her voice mail picked up.

Whenever he'd had a problem, he'd always found a good solution. But he was floored by his continuing ineptitude in dealing with Angelina.

A knock sounded on the door. He prayed that it wasn’t another young woman sent over by her parents to meet him. He opened the door slowly, expecting the worst. He couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Angelina?”

“Will? What's going on?”

Angelina looked even better in real life than she did in his dreams. Her clothes were slightly rumpled from the flight. Rumpled looked amazing on her.

“I’ve just flown all the way across the country and all you can do is stand there gaping at me?”

Will wasn’t sure what possessed him just then. He knew he should have had better control over his baser urges, but he just didn’t.

“I should have done this instead.” He reached for the woman he hadn't been able to stop thinking about.

And kissed her.

* * *

Angelina was so surprised by Will’s kiss that she kissed him back.

It should be illegal for anyone to kiss as well as he did, she thought. Will deepened the kiss and Angelina whimpered in response. But when Will made a low sound of pleasure deep in his throat, Angelina immediately crashed back into the real world.

She broke off the kiss and stumbled away from Will, hating the fact that he was too darn potent for her to think rationally. “Stop trying to confuse me. Tell me what’s going on right now,” she insisted, congratulating herself on her fairly poised delivery considering that she felt as put together as an unmade puzzle.

“I don't know. I have no idea why you’re here. All I know is that I’ve been calling you every hour for two straight days. You have no idea how frustrating it is when all I get is your voice mail. But now you're here, standing right in front of me.”

Angelina was stunned by his soliloquy. “You’ve been trying to contact me for two days?”

“Maybe I should have left a message, but I wanted to explain things in person.”

He wanted to
explain things.
It was too close to what Bryce had said to her at the end of the summer. Will had just kissed her like he'd was a dying of thirst and she was water...but when was she going to learn that passionate kisses didn't mean anything to men like them?

Trying for mature, hoping for calm, Angelina managed. “It’s OK. You don’t need to explain anything to me.”

“I don’t?”

She pasted a cheerful smile on her face. “I understand perfectly.”

“You do?”

“Of course.”

“But...”

Angelina cut him off before he could say anything that would hurt her more. She faked a yawn.

“If I’m going to have a good consultation with your mother tomorrow morning, I’d better get some rest.”

“My mother called you?”

Angelina stared at him in disbelief.

Judging by the closed, wounded look on Angelina’s face, he knew she wouldn’t believe him if he told her the truth. Frankly, he was having a hard time believing what his mother had done. She was worse than any of the other scheming mothers he’d encountered during the past twenty-four hours.

Was it wrong to be so pleased by her meddling?

“I hate to tell you this, but there’s only one spare bedroom.”

A look of utter disbelief and exhaustion settled over Angelina’s face.

Will cleared his throat and jammed his hands in the pockets of his jeans. He wanted to reach out for Angelina to comfort her, but something told him his touch wouldn't be welcome. Not when she was so clearly upset with both him and his mother.

“I’m going to grab my stuff right now and clear out so you can have it.”

He groaned inwardly, knowing that there was no way he was going to be able to get any sleep on the couch in the living room, with Angelina just a wall away. As it was he was fighting the urge to pull her back into his arms.

How could it be that in weeks he had gone from being perfectly sane and in charge of his life to losing control over everything?

Right now, his only chance at temporary sanity was to dunk himself into the cold lake water.