He deliberately rubbed his eye. “Must have gotten something in it. There’s a lot of pollen around. Maybe you should sit inside.”
“Not a chance,” she said, already maneuvering another table over to theirs. She frowned at him. “You could help with this.”
He shook his head. “I’m waiting for my cue from Melanie. She seems reluctant for this to happen.”
“She doesn’t trust me not to go poking around into your personal business,” Ashley said unrepentantly. “She’ll get over it.”
He laughed, liking her honesty. “Frankly, I’m not sure I trust you, either. She says you’re hell on wheels in a courtroom cross-examination.”
Ashley gave her sister a long, considering look. “Did she really? I wonder why she’d do that. I guess I’ll just have to work that much harder to catch you off guard, now that I know you’ve been forewarned.”
Melanie arrived in time to overhear the last and groaned. “Could we please sit somewhere else?” she begged, giving a look of silent apology to Mike.
“Not on my account,” he said. “Besides, Jessie is bursting to tell you her news. She wanted to come by a little while ago, but I talked her into coming here to celebrate instead.”
All four women turned their eyes on Jessie then. She squirmed under all that sudden scrutiny, and for a moment, Mike thought her shyness would get the better of her. But then Melanie pulled out the chair beside her, and Jessie immediately scrambled into her lap.
“Guess what?” she said excitedly, her gaze on Melanie’s face.
“What?”
“I got an A on my reading test. Isn’t that the best news ever?”
“That is fantastic news,” Melanie agreed. “In fact, it might be the very best news I’ve heard in a long time. No wonder you’re celebrating.”
“Daddy’s getting crabs so we can hit ’em with a mallet.”
Maggie chuckled. “Sounds energetic.”
Mike met her gaze. “You have no idea. The safest seat is at that end of the table, as far from Jessie as you can get.”
Jessie’s gaze was intent on Melanie’s face. “Are these your sisters?”
Melanie nodded and introduced them.
“I was telling Daddy that I wish I had sisters,” Jessie announced. “And a mom.”
Mike choked on the sip of beer he’d just taken. “Yes, well, we all have our impossible dreams,” he said, as three women studied him with absolutely fascinated expressions. Melanie merely looked as if she’d like to crawl under the table.
“What’s so impossible about that?” Ashley inquired, regarding him intently.
Melanie scowled at her sister. “Leave the man alone, Ashley. He’s not on trial.”
“Just curious,” Ashley said. “Aren’t you?”
“No, I am not,” Melanie said firmly.
“Ha!” The chorus came from Jo and Maggie.
“If you all don’t behave, I’m leaving you here to walk home,” Melanie threatened.
Ashley grinned. “It might be worth it.”
“Yeah, we’d have Mike all to ourselves,” Jo agreed. “Who knows what secrets we could pry out of him?”
Melanie turned to Mike. “Ignore them. I love them, but they’re pains in the butt. They have absolutely no idea of boundaries when it comes to social conversation. It’s a trait they picked up from our father. Since it drove all of us nuts when he did it, you’d think they’d know better.”
He laughed. “I think I can handle your sisters.”
This time she was the one who muttered, “Ha!”
To prove his point, he turned to Ashley, who was clearly the leader of the pack. “Tell me, how’s your social life these days?”
“As if she has time for one,” Maggie murmured.
“Ah, not so hot?” Mike guessed, picking up on the comment. “I have some friends I could introduce you to while you’re here. They’re a little rough around the edges, but I imagine you could whip them into shape in no time.”
“I’m not here looking for a project,” Ashley said haughtily. “If I wanted someone in my life, I’m sure I could find a suitable candidate in Boston.”
He chuckled. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say that sounded downright snobbish, Ms. D’Angelo. Something wrong with a blue-collar guy?”
“Not as long as it’s an Italian-silk-blend blue collar,” Maggie taunted.
Ashley frowned at her. “I am not a snob,” she said, promptly rising to the bait.
“But a blue-collar guy wouldn’t suit you, isn’t that what you just said?”
“No. I said…” Her voice trailed off. “Oh, never mind. You’re only doing this to prove you can hold your own. You don’t give two hoots about my social life.”
“Sure I do,” Mike insisted. “You’re Melanie’s sister. I want you to be happy.”
“And Melanie?” Ashley asked tartly. “Are you trying to make sure she’s happy, too?”
“Doing my best,” he said easily. “Of course, she’d be a lot happier if I stopped pestering her about getting that garden at Rose Cottage into shape, right, Melanie?”
“Absolutely,” she said at once. “In fact, now that my sisters are here, why don’t you make them help? They’re as much at fault as I am for the disaster the garden’s become.”
“Good idea,” he said at once. “What time should I be there in the morning? Say, six? It should be just about daylight then. With all of you working in the garden, we can get the job done in no time. I hope none of you mind getting your hands dirty.”
Ashley glanced at her perfectly manicured nails, then stared at him in horror. “Not a chance, Mr. Mikelewski. Besides, isn’t Melanie paying you to take care of the garden?”
“Nope. I’m a volunteer supervisor.”
Surprise registered in Ashley’s eyes. “Is that so? And this is your profession, landscape design?”
“That’s right.”
“Then why would you offer your services for nothing?” she asked. “What exactly are you expecting in return?”
“A garden that looks like it did in its heyday,” he said simply. “That’s my only mission.”
“Told you,” Melanie muttered to her sisters.
Oddly enough, she didn’t look especially pleased to have whatever she’d told them confirmed. Mike figured he’d think about that later. For right now, it was enough to know that he’d apparently thrown the skeptical, inquisitive Ashley off the scent.
“Then what was that kiss about?” Ashley demanded. “Don’t you dare toy with her.”
“Ashley, that’s enough,” Melanie said, blushing furiously.
“It most certainly is not enough,” Ashley retorted. “I won’t allow this man to take advantage of you.”
“Don’t yell at my daddy,” Jessie whispered, catching all of them by surprise.
Ashley immediately looked chagrined. “Sweetie, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at him.”
Jessie regarded her skeptically. “Then why did you?”
“I lost my head for a minute, that’s all.”
“Where’d it go?” Jessie asked, drawing a laugh that broke the tension.
“Hard to say,” Ashley told her. “But I promise I won’t open my mouth again till I find it.”
That drew the biggest chorus of hoots yet from her sisters.
Mike couldn’t help getting a kick out of them. They were all so damned protective of Melanie, yet so straightforward and blunt with each other. He admired that kind of honesty and loyalty. With no brothers or sisters of his own, he’d never experienced anything quite like it. He’d hoped to find it in his marriage, but look how that had turned out.
“No need to stay quiet on my account,” he told Ashley. “I can take whatever you want to dish out, as long as you’re not afraid of Jessie. She’s as protective of me as you are of your sisters. It’s not a bad trait to have.”
Ashley met his gaze, then slowly nodded. “You’ll do,” she said at last.
Mike faltered at the no
te of approval in her voice. What the hell had just happened here? Had Ashley given him her blessing? He gazed around the table to see three women regarding him solemnly and one looking as if she’d rather be anywhere else on the planet.
He didn’t want Ashley’s damn blessing. That implied that he was seriously interested in a relationship with Melanie, which he absolutely was not. Not that kind of a relationship, anyway.
And the kind he was interested in—hot, passionate and fleeting—was definitely not in the cards.
A part of him wanted to make all of that very clear, so there would be no misunderstandings, but he valued his life too much. He could just hear himself explaining that he only did casual flings and finding himself tossed straight over the railing of this deck. It wouldn’t be pretty.
“Maybe we should change the subject,” Melanie suggested firmly.
“To what?” Ashley asked, her gaze still steady on Mike.
“Something safer and less controversial,” Melanie said. “Say, politics or religion.”
Mike stared at her and realized she was perfectly serious. Or desperate. He could relate to that. The truth was, right this instant, surrounded by D’Angelo women and a daughter who’d just announced a need for a mom, he was feeling pretty damn desperate himself.
7
“That was interesting,” Ashley declared when they’d returned from dinner and her unexpected opportunity to grill Mike. “Let’s have ice cream and discuss what we found out about the intriguing Mr. Mikelewski.”
“Let’s not,” Melanie said, wishing for the moment that she’d been an only child. Having sisters wasn’t always all it was cracked up to be, especially sisters who thought they had a God-given right to meddle. “We were all there. We heard every word you and Mike exchanged. I don’t think we need to do a postconversation analysis like those TV guys who feel a need to dissect a presidential speech the entire nation has just heard.”
“But there’s a lot to be learned from comparing notes, seeing if we all got the same impression,” Ashley insisted. “That’s what makes the jury system so effective.”
“Now the three of you have turned into a jury?” Melanie asked. “That’s comforting.”
“No, I only meant that two heads are better than one, or in our case four heads,” Ashley replied.
“Make that three. You all can compare notes to your heart’s content. I’m going to bed.” Melanie headed for the stairs. “And by the way, your beds aren’t made. You’ll have to do that yourselves. The clean sheets are in the closet. Try not to wake me.”
“Do you get the feeling she’s not happy with us?” Ashley asked before Melanie had hit the bottom step.
“You,” Jo and Maggie replied. “She’s not happy with you.”
“Me? What did I do?”
Melanie leaned against the wall and grinned as she eavesdropped. Ashley really was oblivious to the fallout when she was on a self-righteous mission. She expected everyone to see that she had their best interests at heart, no matter how intrusive her behavior.
“Let’s start with embarrassing her in front of her new friend,” Jo explained patiently.
“And making more of this relationship than either she or Mike thinks there is,” Maggie added. “How would you like it if we spotted you having lunch with some casual acquaintance and then plopped ourselves down at the table and proceeded to cross-examine him?”
“You’d never do that,” Ashley declared confidently.
“No, we wouldn’t, but that is what you do,” Jo said. “It really can be annoying. Melanie got it just right at dinner. Remember how we hated it when Dad did that to our dates? You’re even worse. You’ve got all that hard-ass courtroom experience going for you. If you ask me, Mike held up pretty well. I’m just surprised he didn’t deck you. If it had been me on the receiving end of that interrogation, I might have.”
“Seriously?” Ashley asked, sounding genuinely perplexed by their assessment.
“Yes, seriously,” Jo and Maggie confirmed.
“Oh, God,” Ashley moaned. “I am so sorry. I’d better go tell her.”
Melanie barely made it to the top of the steps before she heard her sister coming after her. She dived into bed and pulled the covers up to her chin.
Ashley appeared in the doorway. “Mel, you asleep?”
“What?” Melanie replied, injecting a note of grogginess into her voice.
“Oh, stop it,” Ashley said impatiently. “I know perfectly well you were listening on the steps. I heard you racing to beat me up here.” She grabbed a corner of the covers and yanked it away to reveal the fact that Melanie was still fully clothed.
Melanie scowled at her. “If you knew, why’d you bother asking if I was asleep?” she grumbled.
“I had high hopes that you’d be honest with me.”
“It was a test?” Melanie asked incredulously.
“I thought it might indicate if you would be willing to tell me the truth about what’s really going on with you and Mike.”
“I have told you the truth. There is nothing going on. I’m not an idiot, Ashley. I’m only here for a few more weeks at most. Why would I get involved with someone, especially someone with a child who could get hurt if things don’t work out?”
“Then you do see all the possible complications and consequences?”
“Of course I do.”
“Just the same, I’d feel a whole lot better if you knew more about his situation with his ex-wife,” Ashley said, her brow knit in a worried frown. “I don’t want his unresolved feelings to come back and bite you in the butt.”
“I’m not going to let that happen,” Melanie assured her. “Sis, I appreciate your concern, I really do, but give it a rest, okay? Otherwise this is going to be a very long weekend.”
Ashley looked as if she might argue, but she finally sighed and gave Melanie a hug. “Love you, kid.”
“I love you, too. Now let me get out of these clothes so I can get some sleep. Yard work is damn hard, and Mike maintains a grueling pace. You’ll find that out for yourself tomorrow.”
Ashley shuddered. “I am not working in the yard.”
Filled with a sudden desire for retaliation, Melanie grinned. “Wanna bet?”
Melanie regarded her three half-asleep sisters with amusement. They were not morning people. That’s why she’d deliberately rousted them out of bed at six.
“If you drink your coffee, you’ll feel better,” she assured them. She’d made a very large pot of it. She wafted a cup under Maggie’s nose, knowing that the scent of her favorite brew would get to her.
“What the devil’s gotten into you?” Maggie muttered, even as she made a grab for the cup.
“It’s revenge,” Jo said. She frowned at Melanie. “Isn’t it?”
“Let’s just say I’m taking advantage of an opportunity that’s come my way to share the pleasure of putting this place in order again.”
“Couldn’t I just scrub a floor or something, maybe later this afternoon?” Ashley pleaded, her head resting on her arms on the kitchen table. “It’s bad enough that I have to get up at the crack of dawn to be in court, but this is supposed to be a break.”
“The floors have been scrubbed and polished,” Melanie pointed out. “The walls have been freshly painted. The windows have been washed. This place is a veritable showcase inside, thanks to me. All that’s left is the yard and the outside of the house. The house can wait. The yard needs to be done now, according to Mike.”
“Where the heck is he? Has he shown up?” Ashley grumbled. “I thought he was the garden drill sergeant. I had no idea he’d designated you to pinch-hit for him.”
“If he’s smart, he’s miles and miles from here,” Melanie responded cheerfully. “I am, indeed, taking over for him. Now come on, ladies, let’s get busy. All that weeding isn’t going to happen by itself. If we finish by lunchtime, I’ll take you into town.”
“And if we don’t?” Maggie asked warily.
“It’s grille
d cheese sandwiches and canned soup,” Melanie told her. “And more weeding this afternoon. I think we’re going to need a scythe to get through the overgrown brush down by the water. There are probably snakes in there, too. You’re not scared of snakes, are you, Ashley?”
Her big sister gave her a sour look. “You’ve turned into a mean, vindictive person since you’ve been here.”
Melanie laughed. “Possibly, but I’m feeling better by the minute. I think I’m just about back in control of my life.”
“Heaven help us,” Ashley muttered, but she got to her feet. “Lead on. Let’s get this over with.”
Melanie put them to work on the messiest, most exhausting tasks she could think of, then settled into the swing with a cup of coffee. She could see why Mike enjoyed supervising so much. There was something downright relaxing about sitting around with the sun beating down on her shoulders and a good cup of coffee in hand while other people did her bidding.
She wasn’t all that surprised when he turned up about nine, glanced around the yard, which was looking about eighty percent improved, and gave her a thumbs-up. “I see you’ve been busy. Nice work,” he said.
“Not me. I’m supervising.”
“Who exactly are you supervising?”
She took a quick glance around and realized that her workers had vanished. How had she missed seeing them sneak off?
“Well, they were here,” she said with a shrug. “I must have closed my eyes for a minute, and they seized the opportunity to escape. Where’s Jessie?”
“Visiting a friend. I thought I’d stop by and see how things were going over here.”
“You mean whether they’d let me off the rack?”
He stared at her blankly. “What?”
“Torture,” she explained. “They came home last night filled with more questions than ever.”
He laughed. “Yes, I imagine they did. Were they satisfied with your answers?”
“No more than they were with yours. I’m hoping to exhaust them, so they’ll forget they ever laid eyes on you.”
“Has that worked for you?” he asked, his gaze filled with amusement.
“Not so much,” she admitted candidly. “But I’m working on it. It’s hard, since you keep popping up around here.”
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