“Why didn’t she call me herself?” Harry asked. “Why did she send you?”
“I don’t know,” Sara replied. “Maybe she thought you wouldn’t come if she asked.”
“But she must be aware of how I feel…” He stopped. “I’ll go.”
“We’ll take you.”
Harry stepped outside and closed the door, obviously not caring that he was wearing a bathrobe and slippers. “I’m ready.”
Ben looked at Sara and shrugged as the three of them headed for the van.
HARRY SAT FORWARD in his seat and stared as Sara drove through the open gates onto West’s property. On the way up the driveway, they passed three trucks from Green Toes Lawn Service, two vans from Secure Security, two utility trucks from the electric company and a station wagon with a magnetic sign on the door that read Boots Plumbing. Sara did a few simple calculations in her head, adding the number of trucks, multiplying the number of workers, and hoped they weren’t getting paid double overtime for working on the weekend. Even without figuring that in, she had to wince at the total.
“What happened here?” Harry asked. “This looks like a garden party, except there doesn’t seem to be a garden.”
“Or a lawn.” Ben checked the progress of the repairs. “Looks like they’re going to put in a whole new system.”
“Hmm,” Harry said. “I thought West just installed this one a couple of months ago.”
“Probably wasn’t working right,” Ben said nonchalantly.
“That seems odd.”
“West is very particular about his lawn, you know.” Sara kept her voice even and unconcerned, although her stomach was doing an anxious loop-de-loop as she steered around the pile of dirt and timbers that once had been a rose garden. “We’re here.”
Arthur opened the kitchen door for them. “Well, well. Returning to the scene of the crime, are we?” He nodded to Harry. “Good morning, Mr. Schaffer. You’re a little late for the pajama party. Perhaps you’re here to have breakfast with Mr. West?”
“He’s here at DeeNee’s request.” Sara wanted to get in and out before West found out she had been there. “This way, Harry.”
“My job offer still stands, Arthur,” Ben said, following Sara and Harry Schaffer up the stairs. “You can work for me anytime you say.”
“How comforting.” Arthur came up the steps after them. “I do hope Miss DeeNee didn’t invite the three of you to join her for breakfast in my bedroom.”
“She said she was locked in.” Sara looked at the butler accusingly. “And since you have a master key…”
Arthur’s eyebrows rose in offended dignity. “Miss DeeNee locked herself inside my room, with my keys, and has refused to come out.”
“You don’t have an extra key?” Harry asked in a Perry Mason kind of voice. “That’s odd.”
“It’s my room, Mr. Schaffer,” Arthur said. “For privacy reasons, there is only one key. Until recently—” he glanced pointedly at Sara “—that hasn’t been a problem.”
Ben leaned toward the closed door and rapped his knuckles on the wood. “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, open the door. Prince Charming is here.”
Harry shifted from one slippered foot to the other. “I don’t understand why she wanted me to-”
The door flew open, and in an instant, Harry Schaffer lost whatever he had meant to say, his implacable calm and his poker face. He stood outside Arthur’s bedroom, awestruck at the sight of DeeNee Ridgeman in the wedding dress.
She stared back, equally fascinated by Harry Schaffer in his bathrobe.
“DeeNee,” he said.
“Harry,” she replied.
“You look incredible.”
“So do you.” Her smile seemed a little nervous. “I can’t seem to get this dress unbuttoned. Do you think you…”
“It will be my pleasure.” He stepped into the room, and the door swung shut.
Ben looked at Sara. “I think they want to be alone.”
“In my bedroom?” Arthur, for once, appeared confused.
“It certainly looks that way,” Ben said, turning toward the stairs. “I’m going to rustle up some grub. Anyone want to join me?”
Sara turned to Arthur with a frown. “Did she ask you to unbutton the dress?”
“Yes, but she wouldn’t hold still, kept walking back and forth in front of the mirror.” Arthur stared at the closed door. “When it became obvious she couldn’t get out of the dress, I went to get the scissors. That’s when she locked herself in.”
“Does West know about this?”
The butler continued to frown at his bedroom door. “He has had a couple of restless nights and isn’t awake yet this morning.”
“Restless nights, huh?” Ben paused on his way to the kitchen. “Wonder why. He must have lost an important case recently.”
“I don’t lose important cases.” West’s voice traveled up the stairs, snapping everyone to attention. “Arthur? What’s going on up there? Who are you talking to?”
Arthur looked at Sara and lifted his thin shoulders in a small apology before he answered. “Ms. Gunnerson,” he said. “And Ben, the bartender from the other evening.”
“Sara?” West questioned the information. “Sara’s here?” The stairs creaked as he started up them.
Swallowing hard, Sara prepared a whole slew of apologies in case West put her on trial here and now. “Hi, West,” she said as he stopped and stared at her from one stair below where Ben continued to stand. “You’re probably surprised to see me this morning, aren’t you?”
“Nothing you do surprises me, Sara.” His gaze turned to take Ben’s measure. “It’s a trifle early in the day for a glass of wine, but unless you’re here to pour one for me, I can’t imagine what you’re doing in my house.”
“I’m not a bartender today,” Ben said evenly. “I’m here to pick up a wedding dress.”
“You’re obviously in the wrong place at the wrong time, because there isn’t a wedding dress within a mile radius.”
A muffled giggle could be heard behind the closed door, and West’s attention swung in that direction. “Who is in there?”
No one answered, and he pinned Sara with a demanding gaze. “Will you please explain who is in there and what is going on?”
She wished he wouldn’t use that tone of voice. And she wished Ben wouldn’t keep leaning against the stairwell with his arms crossed, looking from her to West as if he had a secret he couldn’t wait to share. And she wished DeeNee had taken the dress home with her before she tried it on. And she wished she had Ben’s camouflage pants and vest so she could just blend into her surroundings and no one would know she was here.
On second thought, she wished she wasn’t here. “DeeNee needed help,” she began hesitantly. “And I owed her a favor and—-”
“My sister’s in there?” West pointed at Arthur’s bedroom door.
Sara nodded, feeling guilty despite having nothing to do with whatever was happening behind that closed door. “With Harry Schaffer.”
“What?” West pushed past Ben to get to the door and pounded his fist against it. “DeeNee, if you’re in there, you’d better get out here this minute.”
“Go away, West. You bother me.” A giggle followed, and he pounded on the door again.
“Don’t make me come in there after you, DeeNee. Think about what you’re doing. Think about who you’re—”
The door opened and Harry stepped out, tightening the sash on his rumpled bathrobe. “I’m going to marry your sister, Ridgeman,” he said. “Get used to calling me brother.”
West looked stunned, then angry as he shoved the door back on its hinges. “DeeNee? What in hell is going on around here?”
“Good morning, West.” DeeNee, clad only in an oversize T-shirt, walked to her brother and kissed him on the cheek. “Congratulate me. Harry and I are engaged.”
“This is rather sudden, isn’t it? I wasn’t aware the two of you were dating.”
“It happened very suddenly.” DeeNee
smiled at her fiancé, and he smiled back. “And we have Sara and Ben to thank for it.”
Sara blinked. Even Ben looked surprised.
“And what,” West asked, “did they have to do with your engagement?”
“Well, if Sara hadn’t put on the wedding dress, I might never have thought of trying this. Ben was the only person who could unbutton the dress when she was wearing it, you see. And I had this idea that if I put on the dress, Harry would have to be the one to unbutton me.”
“You’re talking nonsense,” West said sternly. “What wedding dress? And why would Sara be wearing it?”
DeeNee pointed at the bed, where the wedding dress lay in ivory innocence. “That’s the dress, and she wore it over here Friday night because Ben’s dog ate the other dress.”
His gaze turned like clockwork to Sara.
“It’s a long story,” she said. “And really it isn’t all that interesting.” He obviously wasn’t satisfied with that answer, so she tried again. “That dress ended up at my house by accident and it…I accidentally put it on and then I couldn’t get it off and the dog tore the dress I meant to wear to the party and…and Ben did have to unbutton the dress for me.”
West stroked his chin. “Let me be sure I understand. You accidentally put on a wedding dress and wore it to my house?”
Her eyes caught the glint of amusement in Ben’s eyes, but she didn’t feel much like laughing as she answered West with a halting nod.
To her surprise, West was the one who laughed. “That is priceless, Sara. Absolutely priceless. Tell me, did this accident happen before or after you accidentally relandscaped my yard?”
“That was an accident, West. You can’t think I would damage your property on purpose.”
His lips formed a smug reply. “You do have considerable manipulative skills, Sara. This wouldn’t be the first time you’ve done something to get my attention.”
“You think I planned to tear out your sprinkler system?”
“Perhaps not specifically, but you have to admit that if you wanted me to take over your business, being in my debt would be one way to facilitate that. And, although I don’t have a final figure, you are going to owe me a great deal of money.”
She was stunned. “Why would you think I’d want you to own my business?”
“Perhaps we should continue this discussion in private.” He reached for her hand, motioned DeeNee into the hall, then pulled Sara inside Arthur’s bedroom. After closing the door, he raised her chin with the tip of his finger. “Hasn’t your master plan been to marry me since the first day we met?”
She was too embarrassed to admit that she’d planned their first meeting, as well, so she nodded a reluctant agreement.
“So, when we became husband and wife, then my investment in your business would be a given, anyway. I believe you were just hoping to speed up the process. Tell me, sweetness, when you put on the wedding gown, did you plan on accidentally getting me in front of a minister? Or were you hoping that once I saw you in bridal white, I’d drop to my knee and propose?”
Sara didn’t need his help to lift her chin another degree. “No, West. That wasn’t my intention at all. It was all the result of one rather silly impulse. An accident.”
He chuckled softly. “You’re not impulsive, Sara. And you don’t do anything by accident. That’s one of the things I love about you. You’re so predictable.” His knuckles stroked softly across her cheek as his voice lowered to a whisper meant only for her ears. “Even the other night…I was surprised to find you in my room, but I wasn’t surprised to find you were gone when I got out of the shower. You’re not a seductress, Sara. You’re an intelligent, ambitious woman and you don’t have to stage a disaster or put on an ugly old wedding dress to convince me to marry you. I decided two weeks ago that I would ask you to be my wife. I had planned on a more romantic place and time, but you’re obviously impatient, so…” He held her hand and got down on one knee, and Sara wished more than anything that he’d get up and not say what he was about to say.
But he said it. He proposed marriage, offered her the security of his name, his position, the stability of his home and family. This was the future she had planned for herself, the reality she had shaped with her own actions, the destiny she had manufactured from her own design. How could she refuse it? Why would she even consider doing so?
Because Ben had a laugh that made her happy? Because his touch made her shiver with desire? Because he was all the risks she dared not take in one enticing package?
And that, of course, was her answer. Ben was a risk. He hadn’t asked her to marry him and wasn’t going to. He might spend a week with her, or a year, talking about love and marriage and the future, but sooner or later, he’d lose interest and move on. And no amount of planning on her part would stop him.
“Sara?” West was still on his knee, still waiting for her answer. “Say you’ll marry me before my leg cramps, okay?”
She looked at the wedding dress on the bed. The ugly old dress that had brought Ben into her life, and would take him out of it, as well. It was just a dress. She could see that now. It hadn’t twinkled. It wasn’t magic. It was just an old, ugly dress. With a sigh, she shut out the memory of Ben’s kisses and gave West her predictable, unsurprising, “Yes.”
BEN STUFFED his backpack into the sidecar and then carefully folded the plastic-wrapped wedding gown on top of it. He covered the cargo with Cleo’s blanket and patted it down to make a nest for her. But eventually, of course, there was nothing left to do except leave.
He looked at the house where Sara lived and said goodbye to a porch swing and kids playing in the yard. They’d never really existed, anyway. He’d been foolish to imagine he could ever be part of such a scene.
The front door opened and Sara stepped onto the porch. Across the yard, their eyes met and Ben looked away first. His heart ached with love for her, its rhythm so heavy he couldn’t understand how it could keep beating. Until she and West had walked, hand in hand, out of Arthur’s bedroom that morning and announced their engagement, it hadn’t occurred to Ben that she might not return his love or that her heart might choose someone else. Until that moment, he hadn’t realized he could lose.
She approached the Harley with measured steps and with Cleo at her side. “Sure you won’t stay for lunch?” she asked brightly.
“I can’t, but thanks, anyway.” He patted the blanket, smoothing it out, tucking in the corners, pretending he was anxious to be on the road. “It’s been great, but…”
“Adventure calls. I know.” She leaned down and scratched Cleo’s ear. “You’re invited to the wedding…if you’re in the neighborhood.”
He’d rather carve his heart into ribbons with a butter knife. “I doubt I’ll be back this way anytime soon.”
She nodded as if she’d expected that answer. “I thought maybe I should explain about this morning…about the engagement.”
“What’s to explain? You told me you were going to marry Ridgeman within an hour of our first meeting. I had no reason to believe you’d change your mind.”
“Yes, you did. You had every reason to think I had changed my mind. We made love only hours before West proposed. Our bodies made promises that I’m sure we both meant to honor. I meant to honor them, Ben, truly. I don’t fall into bed with every man I find physically attractive. In fact, you’re the first in…well, in a long time.”
“You don’t owe me an explanation, Sara.”
“Yes, I do. I just don’t have one to offer. What happened between us shouldn’t have happened.” Her eyes were clear as she held his gaze. “Even if West hadn’t proposed this morning, I would still feel that way. You and I don’t have a future together, Ben. You’re not part of my plans. I’m sorry.”
There was only one argument he could raise to refute her words, and he employed it with desperate resolve, covering the space between them in long strides, pulling her into his arms, taking her lips in a long and searching kiss.
H
er response was instant and indisputable, but she pulled away and denied it with a lift of her chin and a flash of indignance in her eyes. “That isn’t a proper way to kiss another man’s bride.”
“My mistake. I thought I was kissing you.”
“Don’t go away angry, Ben.”
“Just go away?” He was angry. At the father whose careless dreams had instilled this fear in her, at the mother who had left her with too much responsibility, at the plans she had made that shut him out. “Imagine my surprise, Sara. Until now, I prided myself on being a good sport. But I don’t like losing. And I especially don’t like losing for the wrong reasons. And most of all, I don’t like losing you.”
Her hands twisted as she stared at the ground, and when she lifted her eyes, he saw a suspicious shimmer in their depths. He hoped she would cry, give him an excuse to hold her one more time. But he didn’t expect her to shed a single tear…and she didn’t.
“I was never yours to lose, Ben.”
“Is there anything I can say to change your mind?”
“Please don’t try. I’m not like you. I can’t believe in love at first sight. I can’t live for this moment without worrying about the next one. I need some certainty about what tomorrow will bring. I need to know I’m safe.”
“And you think marrying Ridgeman will ensure that?” It was the wrong thing to say, he realized, when she stiffened.
“If you intend to challenge my decision, be honest about it. Admit that you’re not safe, that you’re high risk and dangerous, that life with you would be precarious and uncertain.”
“True,” he agreed. “Everything you said is absolutely true. The trouble is, you’ll find it’s true with Ridgeman, as well. Safety is an illusion. Life is precarious and uncertain and unpredictable. For all your planning, Sara, you are as much at its mercy as I am.”
“I don’t think so.”
“You’re about to jump off another wall.”
She shook her head. “No. This time I’m going through the gate, just the way I planned.”
The Fifty-Cent Groom Page 18