by Mollie Molay
“Why don’t I see you back to the hotel so you can get some rest,” he finally said into the silence that had fallen between them. He rang for the elevator. “When I think back on the condition I was in last night, I realize I must have given you a bad time.”
Emily’s smile faded. “No rougher than yours,” she said quietly. She stiffened and moved away. “You look as if you could use some rest, too.”
“Guess so.” He mentally kicked himself for taking the smile from her face. “At any rate,” he went on, “it’s time I checked in with my foreman, Duke. I wouldn’t want him to think I’ve fallen off the face of the earth. There’s still work to be done on the fire station.” He took a deep breath as the elevator door opened. “So, back to the hotel?”
“Only for another day or two.” She shrugged helplessly. “I’m afraid I used up most of my ready cash at the auction. If Daniels doesn’t come back soon, I’ll have to max out my credit card.”
T.J. was tempted to take her home to stay with him for the duration, but instinct told him he would be courting trouble. That was the important thing he had to remember. No matter how strongly he was attracted to Emily, and no matter how obligated he felt to go on helping her with the lawyer, he wasn’t ready to continue to be a bridegroom, real or otherwise.
“Tell you what,” he said, “I know a pretty good bed-and-breakfast down near the beach. Several of my clients have stayed there while we renovated their homes. I’m sure you’d be welcome there until the estate is settled.”
Emily looked uncertain. “I’m not sure I can afford it. It all depends on what they charge.”
“It’s in your ballpark,” he assured her. He knew better than to offer to help her. She was an independent and proud woman. He could tell Emily wasn’t used to taking favors, but he felt he owed her.
Hell, she’d paid three hundred and fifty dollars for his brother, hadn’t she? The way he looked at it, since Tim had run out on her, she was entitled to a refund. His own services were on the house.
As they walked to his car, he could sense he hadn’t convinced Emily to take him up on his offer to find a less expensive place to live. “I’ll call and make a reservation for you at the Hollisters’ when we get back to the hotel.”
Emily nodded reluctantly. Not only because of the unexpected expense caused by Daniels’s departure, but because it looked as if T.J. would be around only for a little while longer.
There was the way he’d started calling her Em.
He couldn’t possibly know how much the nickname meant to her. If he kept calling her Em, he would surely break her heart before they were through.
Independence was fine, but the thought of never seeing T.J. again after her inheritance was settled left her with a hollow feeling.
“A gentleman left a message for you, Miss Holmes,” the desk clerk announced when Emily asked for her key. He handed her an envelope. “The message is inside,” he explained. “We keep all of our guests’ messages confidential.”
A gentleman? Since the only people who knew where she was staying outside of T.J. were Daniels and her mother, Emily’s heart began to beat like a drum. The lawyer’s return meant T.J. would leave, and she would never see him again.
“I’m back!” T.J.’s cheerful voice sounded as he came up behind her. “For a time I wasn’t sure I’d driven here by myself or if it was all a bad dream. I’ll never know how I managed to get here in the first place without getting in an accident.” He sobered when he saw her troubled expression and noticed the envelope in her hand. “Bad news?”
“I don’t know,” she replied, torn between her warm memories of spending part of last night in T.J.’s arms and her dread of finding out what was in the envelope. “I haven’t had a chance to look at the message. I’m not even sure who it’s from.”
“You’ll never know until you open it, will you?” T.J. led her to a secluded corner of the lobby. “This spot ought to be private enough. Why don’t you take a deep breath and go for it?” He paused, as if uncertain whether or not to stay. “I’ll wait for you over by the pool, but feel free to call me if you need or want me.”
Need him? Maybe not, she thought as she watched him saunter away with that sensuous lope of his. Want him? Heaven help her; for all the good wanting him would do her, she did. She knew she would always want him, even after he’d gone his own way. To hold her, to make love to her, to finish what they’d started.
The question was did he want her?
From the first moment they’d met, she’d sensed he couldn’t make up his mind what to do about her or with her. Even after he’d kissed her in the way of a man who desires a woman, she still didn’t know where she stood with him.
She waited until T.J. disappeared through the door and into the hotel gardens and wished with all her heart she could ignore the message and go after him.
With a sigh, she tore open the envelope and read the message that left her as cold as if she’d been plunged into a bath of ice-cold water.
The message was from Sean Foster, her ex-fiancé. The last person she wanted to hear from, let alone ever see again. And yet, as she studied Sean’s familiar handwriting, she felt a stab in her heart. She’d built a dream of a home and children into their relationship before he walked away. Maybe it was impossible to forget your first love.
She crushed the slip of paper into a tight ball and threw it into a nearby container. She didn’t want to see Sean, and suddenly realized she didn’t want to see T.J. again, either. Her experience with both men had taught her a hard lesson. There wasn’t a man alive she could trust to want her for herself.
With a quick glance around the lobby, she decided now was her chance to check out before either man appeared. If she intended to take charge of her life, the time was now.
“Emily, sweetheart!” Emily froze at the sound of Sean’s familiar voice, the last voice she wanted to hear. She swung around.
Caught in a corner of the lobby, there was no way to escape him. Seeing him again brought back memories she fought hard to forget. “Hello, Sean. What are you doing here? How did you find me?”
He dropped his arms, but she knew him well enough to recognize the proprietary look in his eyes. As if he’d sensed any lingering sentiment she might feel for him, he acted as if she still belonged to him. If he’d taken the trouble to try to understand her and the way she might feel about his desertion, he would have known she wasn’t the same woman he’d walked away from.
“I’ve seen the light, Emily, and I wanted to start over,” he answered. “Unfortunately, by the time I realized how wrong I was to leave you for Stella Morgan, you’d already left town.”
Emily backed away. “I asked you how you knew where to find me?”
“I would have searched everywhere for you, sweetheart,” he assured her, turning up the brilliant false smile that had fooled her three years ago. “Luckily, my aunt told me she ran into your mother at the beauty parlor and your mother mentioned you were down here.”
He sounded sincere, even repentant, but Emily knew better. His turnaround was too convenient. Now that she had objective eyes to see the truth of their relationship, she wondered if Sean had ever really cared for her. Or if she’d been a convenient woman to romance while he waited for a woman with money like Stella to come along. Meeting his false smile, she finally knew what kind of man Sean was. Stella hadn’t been as wealthy as he’d believed her to be. She could never reconcile with Sean.
She hardened her heart. He’d fooled her once, and he wasn’t going to fool her twice. “Was that before or after my mother told your aunt why I’m in Los Angeles?”
He shrugged, the answer in his eyes. “Come on, Emily. I’ve told you I’m sorry I was such a jerk. I’m here now, that’s what counts. We loved each other before, so how about getting together again?”
Emily already knew the answer. Old memories might linger, but sometimes they belonged in the past. She had to get rid of him, and now. By the time he showed up again, she’d be
long gone. “Why don’t you call me tomorrow. We’ll talk about it then.” Her heart skipped a beat at the lie.
A faint flush covered his face, but he shrugged. “If that’s what it takes, I’m game. I’m staying with a friend in the valley, but I’ll get in touch with you first thing in the morning.” He paused. “But first, here’s something for you to remember me by.” Before Emily could react, he took her in his arms and kissed her.
Across the lobby, T.J. froze in his tracks. Emily, the woman he’d grown to admire for her honesty, was caught in the passionate embrace of a man. He couldn’t believe his eyes, until he remembered the envelope she’d been holding when he left her a few moments ago. Her ex-fiancé? Had the guy come back to take up where they’d left off?
She must have welcomed the kiss, or she would have called for help by now. A pang of jealousy shot through him. He started toward her, then stopped. Emily had reminded him she intended to take charge of her life, hadn’t she? Whomever she was kissing, it was none of his business.
So much for being afraid he might break her heart.
Maybe he had it coming. He’d never told her how grateful he was to her for taking care of him. Or taken the time to tell her his gratitude had turned into something more. It was either too late for him. Or maybe he’d never had a chance.
EMILY HURRIED to her room after promising to answer Sean’s plea for a second chance in the morning. She’d already made up her mind to check out now, if only to get rid of him. She was never going to allow herself to be hurt by Sean or manipulated by T.J.—a man who waxed hot and cold until she couldn’t be sure how he felt about her.
To her dismay, a second upholstered armchair had been added to the furniture in her room. The hotel doctor must have passed the word along that she and T.J. were newlyweds. A bucket of champagne on ice had been placed on a stand alongside. A floral arrangement and a basket of fresh fruit were on the small table. The only item missing was a wedding cake.
Newlyweds. Although she no longer associated the word with Sean, the description held too much pain for her to dwell on it. She hadn’t fully realized until this very moment that she would have been happy to forget her dream of Italy and spend the future with T.J. If he’d really wanted her to.
She gazed at the bed where she’d spent part of the night in T.J.’s arms. And the upholstered armchair where she’d watched over him while he slept away his fever. Both vivid reminders that she’d gone beyond merely being attracted to the man. They were reminders that she’d actually begun to fall in love with him.
She started to pack the few things she’d brought with her. It was foolish to dwell on the past. She’d promised herself a chance to live a long-held dream to travel to Venice, Italy. Now that she was alone and armed with the truth to gain her inheritance, she’d do it without the man who’d stolen her heart.
Chapter Eight
“You may as well let me in, Em. I’m not going to go away.”
Emily opened the hotel door to T.J. “How on earth did you find me?”
“When I found out you’d moved, I went to Daniels’s office. Seems you left a forwarding address with his secretary. But more to the point, why did you check in here instead of letting me take you to Hollisters’?”
Emily hesitated. There was no way she could tell him that after Sean had appeared she’d sworn off men for the duration, she was almost broke. “I wanted to be alone for a while to think things over. The doorman at the Beaumont told me about this hotel. It’s not only convenient, it’s inexpensive.”
“Inexpensive is right,” he answered with a glance over her shoulder at the worn carpet, the sagging window blinds and a narrow bed covered with a fading blanket. Emily deserved more. If he had his way, she would be sleeping on silken sheets in a room filled with furniture fit for a queen.
Emily wasn’t surprised to hear T.J. had been persistent in trying to find her. He had enough self-assurance for two men, let alone one. To add to his appeal, just by looking at her, he made a woman feel wanted. She’d caught the message from the moment she’d laid eyes on him working alongside his crew at the building site.
There probably wasn’t a woman alive who wasn’t susceptible to his killer smile.
In his tan slacks, crisply pressed white shirt and brown jacket, he looked as if he’d stepped off the cover of a magazine. To add to his charm, the shock of hair that persisted in hanging over his brow lent him a roguish look. The same look that had attracted her to him and that had evidently done a number on Daniels’s secretary. Poor woman, she hadn’t had a chance.
He looked so pleased with himself, she sensed the secretary had given him more than an address. “What else did she give you?”
“I told Maggie you needed the key to your aunt’s cottage. Since she’d seen us together, I guess she made the assumption we were married.”
Emily was taken aback. “Too bad Daniels didn’t buy the charade as well as his secretary.”
“To tell the truth, I don’t think Maggie likes Daniels any better than we do.” T.J. glanced over Emily’s shoulder. “Are you alone, or is someone here with you?”
Emily frowned at the intimate question. “I’m alone. Why?”
“The last time I saw you, you were having a reunion with some guy.”
Emily thought back to when T.J. had left her alone so she could read Sean’s message. She’d sent Sean away and hadn’t wanted to see him again, but she’d still been puzzled when T.J. hadn’t come back before she checked out of the Beaumont. Now she knew why. He’d been jealous.
“That was Sean, my ex-fiancé.” Embarrassed that T.J. had seen her in Sean’s arms after telling him Sean had jilted her, she opened the door. “If you want to talk, you might as well do it inside instead of out in the hall.” She closed the door behind him. “Sean had the idea we would get together again, but I managed to put him off. If you’d have stuck around long enough, you would have seen him leave.”
“It doesn’t matter,” T.J. replied. He tried not to let his relief show. But it did matter to him who Emily kissed. He couldn’t bring himself to confess he’d felt a pang of jealousy when he’d seen Sean grab her and kiss her.”
“I saw you, but when you didn’t call for help, I figured you had to know the guy.” He gazed into Emily’s eyes and told her the first direct lie he’d ever told her but not that it had taken all his willpower to turn on his heel and leave her with Sean. “After all, it’s none of my business whom you kiss.”
“It isn’t? Then what are you doing here?”
Emily’s eyes reflected her unhappiness. He wanted to tell her it mattered. He wanted to tell her he didn’t want her to kiss anyone but him. He couldn’t bring himself to say the words her eyes told him she wanted to hear.
Yesterday, he’d sworn to forget her. To chalk her up as another woman with an itchy foot, the kind he’d avoided like the plague. Instead, she drew him in like a magnet.
“I came to take you to check out the cottage. If it’s habitable, I figured you might want to stay there. What the heck, it’s rent free.”
The light faded from her eyes. He wanted to kick himself, but he was afraid to finish what he’d started back in the elevator yesterday.
Emily hesitated. “What about Daniels? What will he do when he finds out I’ve moved in?”
“Under the circumstances, he hasn’t a prayer of stopping you,” T.J. answered. “If he tries, he’ll have to answer to me. So, if you’re game, why don’t you get a sweater, and we’ll check out the cottage?”
Emily still hesitated. He watched while she glanced around the threadbare room, struggling to make up her mind. “I wouldn’t want you to get into trouble because of me.”
“I’m not expecting any trouble, Em. I’m your friend. You can trust me.”
Friend. He hadn’t seriously thought of Emily in terms of more than friendship until now. He cared about her in ways he’d never thought he’d feel. Maybe that’s what real love was all about, he mused while Emily took a sweater out of
her suitcase and looked around the room. Caring for someone more than you cared for yourself.
He gazed at Emily’s long, navy-blue skirt, matching sweater and sheer white silk blouse. She looked lost, vulnerable, and it was his fault. He felt a jolt of guilt, mixed with desire shoot through him. If he got any closer, emotionally, to Emily, he’d fall in love for sure.
“Ready? Let’s go see if the cottage is in any shape for you to live in.”
“What happens if Daniels comes back and finds us there?”
He gazed at her with unrepentant good humor. “Maggie’s promised to call me and warn me.”
Emily sighed and gave in.
When they reached Venice, moonlight and stars were reflected off the water in the canal that fronted the cottage. Warm summer breezes sent the fresh, salty scent of the ocean through the air. Seagulls flew overhead and dove into the ocean to catch a meal before sweeping off over the horizon.
“I’ve felt as though I’m coming home every time I come here,” Emily said softly. When T.J. gazed down at her, she motioned to the cottage, a dreamy look in her eyes. “You might think I’m being fanciful, but I can still hear Aunt Emily’s welcoming voice. I can smell my favorite shortbread cookies she always had ready for me. I even feel the warmth of her welcoming arms.”
She sighed and stood gazing at the white weathered cottage that glimmered in the dusk. “I’ve felt more loved here than anywhere else in my life.”
“Then, stay here, Em,” he said impulsively. He put his arm around her and drew her close. “It sounds as if this is where you belong.”
“I wish I could, but I’m afraid it’s not practical.” Hand in hand, they walked along the canal pathway to the porch of the silent cottage. “I’m Placerville’s head librarian. I’ve taken a leave of absence for three months, but I can’t just walk away for good. And there’s my mother who lives in Placerville. Outside of some cousins back East, Mom’s the only relative I have left. I couldn’t ask her to leave her job, her friends and come down here to start a new life at her age.”