She put a halt to thoughts of Matt. The last thing she needed was another guy who wanted a fling—and nothing more. Once before, she’d fallen in love with a man who hadn’t been marriage—or any other kind of permanence—material and had ended up hurt. And alone. How ironic that she’d managed to make that mistake twice in a little over a year.
“Katie? Anyone home?”
“Huh?” Katie jerked upright. “I’m sorry, Sarah, I didn’t hear you.”
“I was saying I still can’t believe what a week it’s been! Between people stopping by the store, to ‘casually’ mention that they heard about your pretend ‘engagement,’ to the way business picked up, I feel like we’ve been sitting on a star or something. Olivia Maguire’s orders alone will make up the shortfall on the rent.” Sarah waddled out from behind the counter, carrying a dish garden she had adorned with a sage-colored ribbon. She placed the ceramic container of plants beside several others that Katie was arranging in a display.
“You are the talk of Mercy,” Sarah continued. “That story about you kissing Matt in Sav-a-Lot has grown to epic proportions, with some saying you tackled him to the floor.”
“I did not!”
“I know that, but gossip in this town always gets out of hand.” Sarah trimmed a few dead leaves from a potted plant. “Miss Tanner is the only one who isn’t thrilled. She came in here with that moose of hers and told me what a rotten no-good man you’ve hitched yourself to.” She grinned. “I told her I’ve met Matt and thought he was sweet.”
“Sweet? I don’t think we’re talking about the same man.” Katie laid a sheet of crimson fabric over an old worn table. She stuffed some boxes under the fabric to provide varied height stands for the arrangements. “Well, if nothing else, I’m glad this deal with Matt has increased sales, because right now, I’m engaged to the invisible man.”
“He’ll be back.”
“No, I don’t think so.” The dish garden completed, Katie turned to work on a half finished silk arrangement on the counter. “Matt made it clear he’s not interested in anything real.”
“Try again, Katie.” Sarah laid a hand over hers. “This one looks like a keeper.”
“Looks can be deceiving.” Katie jabbed a bunch of faux baby’s breath into the arrangement. She added several fern fronds to the back and sides, turning the container and tucking greenery in here and there.
“You’ll never know unless you go out with him again.”
“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” she replied. “The wedding is tomorrow night and since I told him the deal is off, it looks like I’m going stag or not at all.”
“I think you should invite him anyway. Drag him off to the wedding like a cavewoman with a prize mastodon.”
Katie chuckled, then sobered. “Why? I’ll just end up hurt and alone after the rice hits the ground.”
“Katie, Katie, Katie. Have I taught you nothing?” Sarah grabbed Katie’s shoulders. “If you’re with him and he’s pretending to love you, it could be a nice taste of the real thing. He might like it so much, he falls in love…for real.”
“I’ve thought of that.”
“And?”
“It could just as easily be me who does the falling in love, not him.”
“You’re already halfway there, aren’t you?”
Katie focused her attention on the arrangement rather than on the truth in Sarah’s question. She shouldn’t have brought up his name. Every time she talked about Matt, she felt a sharp pang. He’d opened a different side of her self, encouraged her to taste more of what life offered. And at the same time, he’d treated her with a reverence and a tenderness she’d never known before. He was a contradiction in what he said and what he did and she sensed he hoped for more for himself, but didn’t know how to get it.
Ever since that first kiss and the way he’d played along with her charade, she’d hoped he’d be interested in more than a fling. But he hadn’t been and that fact was driving itself home, straight through her heart.
“Even if he did fall in love,” Katie said, “which I doubt he would, he’s told me he’s not looking for anything permanent.”
“What guy is? Katie,” she said in a solemn, confidential voice, “it’s our job as women to teach men what a great thing monogamy really is.”
“Apparently I’m not a very good teacher,” Katie scoffed. “Look at Steve. If anything, I made him more of a womanizer.”
“Steve is a walking advertisement for neutering.”
Katie laughed. Imagining Steve on an SPCA poster, encouraging women to get their straying mates neutered, was the funniest thing she’d thought of all day. “You never did like Steve much, did you?”
“I always thought you could do better, Katie. I know you always hoped he’d change, but I don’t think Steve was ready to grow up. I knew you wouldn’t listen to me. You had to figure that out on your own.” Sarah handed Katie a carnation. “Anyway, let’s get back to Mr. Right—”
The door jangled and Olivia Maguire breezed in. Today, she was dressed in head-to-toe crimson, the perfect contrast for her pale blond hair and ivory features. If Katie didn’t know better, she’d swear Olivia had just come from a fashion shoot at Versace.
“Those arrangements were a hit with my customers,” Olivia said by way of introduction. “I’d like to start working with you on future projects.”
“That would be great,” Sarah said. Katie had to force herself not to clap or dance with joy. The increased business had great potential for helping them out of their financial slump.
“I work with a number of clients in town,” Olivia began. “And I just got the contract to oversee the rest of the renovations at the Lawford Country Club. Seems the first designer didn’t get it right.” She whisked a stray hair back into place in a single, graceful movement. “There’s plenty of work for your shop through my company. Plenty.”
“We’d be happy to work with—”
“Lots of contacts with some of the affluent people in the area,” Olivia interrupted before Sarah could finish. “Exactly what your shop needs, from what I’ve heard.”
“It would be nice, yes,” Katie said. Nice was an understatement.
“Great. Maybe a partnership could be beneficial to both of us.” Olivia extracted a pile of business cards from her purse. “You spread the word about my business, and I’ll do the same for you.”
“I’d be happy to do that.” Katie took the cards and placed them in a visible spot by the cash register. She handed a few of the shop’s cards to Olivia. When she did, she thought she saw a flicker of distrust in Olivia’s eyes, but it disappeared as quickly as it came.
“Thank you.” Olivia tucked them into her purse, then crossed to the display of dish gardens. “I’d like to order two of these, in that stoneware dish you have there. They’d be great on the lobby tables.” She tapped a finger on her chin, back in business mode. “I also have a client who is looking for something to jazz up her kitchen. Can you design one with a miniature herb garden? Kind of country chic?”
“Certainly,” Sarah said. “We have one over here that’s growing really well.” She led Olivia to another display.
Within a few minutes, Olivia had settled on her order. Before she left, she stopped by Katie. “I’m happy we’ll be working together. Your business is the perfect complement to mine.” Her gaze narrowed. “I’m glad to see it’s as important to you as mine is to me.”
What did that mean? Had Olivia heard Katie and Matt were dating? Was she angry? Before Katie could ask, Olivia was gone, leaving a trail of expensive perfume in her wake.
“Come on, let’s celebrate. You look like you could use a pick-me-up.” Sarah waved Katie over to the door in the back that led to their combination lunchroom and storage area. “Besides, I have a surprise for you.” With a flourish, Sarah flung open the door. “Ta da! Our latest moneymaker.”
Hanging on the coat rack was a clown suit so loud and garish, it would have embarrassed Ronald McDonald. Th
e wig, a rainbow of fuzzy hair sticking up and out, looked as if it had been struck by lightning. The clown outfit was purple, decorated with orange and green spots and enormous matching pompoms running down the center. Two-foot-long black-and-purple shoes lay beside the suit, completing the ensemble.
“Oh no, not me.” Katie backed away from the glaring costume. “It was bad enough being a banana. I’m not running around town dressed like Bozo.”
“The only people who will see you are under the age of ten. Besides, once you get the makeup on, no one will know it’s you.”
“There’s makeup, too? As in big red lips and U-brows?” Katie shook her head. “How is this going to help us make money? If anything, I’ll scare the customers away.”
“It’s for birthday parties. I got some money from my father for my birthday and well…put it toward the store.” She flushed a little, anticipating Katie’s protests before she finished. “Don’t say it. I want the store to succeed, too. The suit was marked down and was too good a deal to pass up. I ordered a small helium tank so we can start delivering balloons.” She put up a hand when Katie started to sputter a response. “You don’t have to perform, just show up, twist together a couple of balloon animals and wave goodbye to the kiddies. An easy twenty-five bucks. Besides, our competition doesn’t do anything like that. We’d be the only clowns in town.” Sarah grinned and tugged the outfit off the hanger, handing the wig to Katie.
“Here, see if it fits. There was another one at the costume shop but it looked like it might be too big for you.”
Katie looked at the Paul Bunyan-size shoes and the tent of a clown suit. “Oh yeah, this is just my size. What is this? A three…hundred?”
Sarah laughed. She slipped her hands under the wig, stretching it to fit Katie’s skull. “Come on, be a sport.”
“No one I know better see me in this getup,” Katie told her as she stepped into the flowing purple jumper, “or my reputation as a serious businesswoman is shot.”
“That went out the window the day you agreed to stand on a street corner in a banana suit.” Sarah came around to Katie’s back and fastened the snaps. “There. Now all you need is the shoes and you’re a clown.”
“You didn’t have to get all dressed up on my account.” Matt’s deep voice came from just over Katie’s right shoulder.
Katie wanted to die. She wanted to dash over to the corner and curl up into a multicolored ball and stay there until closing time came and she could escape under cover of darkness. She wanted to do anything but turn around and face Matt clad in a clown suit and rainbow wig, after walking away from him last week, her head held high.
At least she hadn’t put on the big floppy shoes.
“Hello, Matt. How nice to see you.” She was a calm, cool and collected clown, but her heart was catapulting in her chest and her brain was shocking it with strong doses of reality. The chances of Matt reconsidering relationships and commitment were slim to none.
But hope washed over her anyway.
Oh, she had missed his smile. His touch. His eyes, and the way they crinkled in the corners when he laughed. The dimple under his chin…everything.
“Don’t tell me,” he said, “you’ve decided to run away and join the circus? Or do you have some secret fetish with fake hair and big shoes that I should know about?”
“Very funny,” Katie said, tugging off the wig. Sarah was laughing so hard, she had to clutch her stomach.
But then just as quickly, the air in the room changed, like a wisp of spring blowing in. Sarah murmured an excuse about tending to some flowers, then slipped out of the room.
“I’ve missed you.” Matt’s voice was hoarse. He lifted a hand to touch her cheek. “Very much.”
Knowing she shouldn’t, but unable to stop herself, Katie leaned into the feel of his work-rough hand against her cheek. His eyes were as blue as the sky early in the afternoon before the sun fully blossomed.
Olivia’s odd comment and the store’s future were far from mind. All she saw, all she felt, was Matt.
I want him. The realization hit her squarely in the gut. All of him. His mind, his soul.
He’d captured a part of her heart already, this man with a tragic past and a half built house. It wasn’t the intrigue of dating a bad boy, as he’d put it, it was the temptation of uncovering the layers of his soul, of finding out what had shaped and formed him.
Not that she didn’t find his physical shape downright appealing, too. Every time he was around, fireworks launched themselves in her midsection, exploding bombs of desire that no fire extinguisher could douse.
Her reactions to his kiss, to his every touch, told her this man was powerful, captivating and dangerous. She needed to get involved with him about as much as she needed a hole in her head, as her mother would say.
She forced herself to pull away. “Did you stop by for some flowers?”
“No. I stopped by for you.” Matt reached inside the pocket of his leather jacket and withdrew a small, wrapped box. “A peace offering,” he said, handing it to her.
Katie tossed him a you-think-this-will-make-up-for-your-clown-joke look and took the gift. Even in the brightly colored clown suit, Katie was appealing. The tentlike outfit covered up every curve she had, but somehow, that made her more enticing. In his mind, he pictured what she looked like underneath the clown suit and whatever else she might be wearing. Bozo costume or not, those images ratcheted his pulse up a few notches.
He’d been unable to push her from his mind ever since he’d dropped her off at her apartment. He knew she was right to walk away, to stick to her own ethical code rather than get sucked into his slightly murky one by agreeing to a no-strings fling. And he knew he was wrong for being here, for trying to entice her back into his arms again.
But he couldn’t help himself.
In one week, she’d managed to set fire to areas of his body and, he had to admit, his soul, that had been nearly reduced to ashes. There’d been a couple of women over the years that he’d considered staying with after the sun rose. Invariably, though, he’d opted for the quick fix—the type of relationship that didn’t last longer than the need to quench his bodily urges. He wasn’t a glutton for punishment, and getting his heart stomped on once in his life was one time too many.
He suspected, no—he knew—that he could fall for Katie and fall hard. After he’d left her, he’d had to force himself to walk down the hallway and out the door instead of turning around and making promises he knew he couldn’t keep. At that moment, minutes after tasting the sweetness of her lips, he would have said anything to bring her back.
“This isn’t a red rubber nose, is it?” Katie took the ribbon off the box and began to tug off the wrapping paper. “Oh, Matt! Where did you find these?”
He didn’t answer. He was too busy watching her smile spread across her face and light up her eyes. When she looked up at him, there was happiness reflected in the hazel depths. A tingle ran through him. He should make her smile more often. A lot more often.
Katie held up the tiny pair of enamel and gold earrings, letting them dangle from her fingers. They sparkled in the light. “I’ve never seen earrings in the shape of bananas before.” She chuckled.
He didn’t tell her he’d driven all the way into Indianapolis to shop for her, that he’d spent four hours looking at ordinary rings and ordinary necklaces until he’d finally happened upon the banana earrings in a small shop on the north side of the city. The salesclerk had eyed him suspiciously when he bypassed the traditional diamonds and sapphires, opting for the fruit-shaped novelty pair instead.
“They reminded me of you. I couldn’t pass them up.”
She unfastened the gold studs she wore on her lobes, replacing them with his gift. “What do you think?”
He picked one up in his fingers, the back of his hand drifting down her cheek. “Beautiful, absolutely beautiful.”
She flushed and stepped back. His hand dropped away. “Thank you, Matt. They’re lovely.”
“Okay, delicious,” she chuckled.
“And so are you. Delicious, that is.” He tilted her head up and lowered his mouth to hers.
It was wrong to kiss her, wrong to keep intruding on her heart and body when he knew he wasn’t going to hang around long enough to sort out the pieces when it was over between them. But he couldn’t resist, couldn’t ignore the urgent, pounding message his body was sending him.
“Matt, we shouldn’t. We—”
“Shh,” he whispered. “Just kiss me.”
She hesitated for one agonizing second, then closed the gap between them and wrapped her arms around his back. When she did, a strange zing rippled through him. Coupled with the heady rush of desire that hurtled through his body as they kissed, the feeling surprised and amazed him.
If he’d been forced to name that feeling, he’d have to call it joy. That was something he hadn’t felt in a long, long time.
His hands roamed along her back, rippling over the valleys of her spine. Her breasts fit perfectly in the space left by his opened jacket.
She murmured his name against his mouth and he nearly came undone. Their kiss turned wild, each of them gripped by a fever to taste and tempt the other. Mouths and tongues combined in a dance of desire that foreshadowed what could happen if they’d been in a bedroom instead of a cramped storage room.
A bell tinkled from somewhere in the front of the store and Katie broke away from him. “A…a…customer,” she stammered. “It’s not good for business to get caught necking in the back room.”
A draft of cool air filled the space between them. Katie might as well have been ten miles away.
“We could neck quietly,” he said, moving to take her in his arms again. “I promise, I won’t make a peep.” Just let me kiss you again, just let me know that feeling one more time before you send me on my way.
“No.” She firmly pushed him away and turned toward the door. “Thank you for the earrings, Matt. They’re exactly what I needed to complete my banana persona.” Her tone was teasing, but the distance between them didn’t disappear. “It was nice to see you again,” she said. The happiness in her eyes, however, had been replaced by regret.
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