“Of course.”
“Why wasn’t I cursed with brothers, instead of sisters?” Maggie inquired of no one in particular. “Surely they wouldn’t meddle—or whatever it is you’re calling this untimely visit.”
“No, a brother would just bust in here and demand to know Rick’s intentions toward his sister,” Melanie said. “Be grateful for what you have. I haven’t asked him a single question.”
“Why is that?” Maggie asked.
Melanie grinned. “Because the answer’s already written all over his face. The man is smitten. That’ll do for now.”
Before Maggie could rally, her sister and Mike were gone, leaving her to face Rick.
“I am so sorry,” she said, mortified. “Melanie may have expectations, but I assure you I don’t.”
“It’s not a problem,” he assured her, even though he looked a little shell-shocked. “I think I’d better take off, though.”
“Probably a good idea,” Maggie concurred. “For all I know, she’s out there peeking in the windows and taking notes so she can report back to everyone in Boston.”
She walked Rick to the door, feeling oddly out of sorts and fearful. Had Melanie’s frank analysis scared Rick silly? It had certainly terrified her. She wouldn’t blame him if he headed to Boston—or maybe Timbuktu—first thing in the morning.
When they reached the door, Rick tucked his hand under her chin and tilted her face up till their eyes met. “See you tomorrow.”
“Really?” There was an annoying hint of relief in her voice.
“You don’t think a five-minute visit with your sister is going to scare me off, do you? We have a deal.”
“You made it before you realized what you were going to be up against. I wouldn’t blame you for taking off.”
“Not going to happen.”
“Why?” she asked, honestly bewildered.
His lips curved slightly. “Haven’t you heard? I’m smitten.”
She watched as he strolled away, her heart in her throat. Oh, boy, she thought a little desperately. That little revelation was far more dangerous than he realized, because she was apparently more than a little smitten herself.
5
Rick cursed himself for being far too eager to see Maggie the next morning. Then again, with any luck, maybe he could convince her to postpone the start of the ground rules for another day. He’d spent a very long night missing the feel of her in his arms.
As soon as the scheme entered his mind, he told himself to forget about it. He’d made a promise and if Maggie really was hung up on the shallowness of her past relationships, having him turn up first thing today trying to get her into bed would only add to her conviction that it was all she had to offer. He needed to spend a couple of hours otherwise occupied before he saw her. Maybe that would take the edge off his desire.
Though the bed-and-breakfast where he was staying offered a morning meal, he was feeling too uptight to stick around and wait for it. Besides, he wanted something more substantial than the continental spread they put out. He’d seen a diner in town the day before that looked promising.
When he walked in, he immediately spotted Maggie’s brother-in-law and another man in a booth. Mike saw him and waved him over. Despite the potential minefield joining Maggie’s brother-in-law presented, Rick knew there was no choice. He crossed the room and dragged a chair over to sit at the end of the table.
“Jeff, Rick Flannery,” Mike said. “Rick, this is Jeff, who owns the nursery in town.”
Rick gave Jeff another look. After years in photography, he had an eye for faces. He recognized this one. “You’re the blabbermouth,” he said at last, more amusement than condemnation in his voice. “You were in the café when I was getting coffee yesterday.”
Jeff grinned. “Guilty,” he admitted.
“Uh-oh,” Mike said. “Should I get out of the way before fists start flying?”
Jeff gave him a quizzical look. “Why would we fight?”
“Because I passed along what you told me. Melanie called Ashley for information, then dragged me over to Maggie’s so she could get a firsthand look at Rick. Poor guy was squirming by the time we left.” He turned to Rick. “Frankly, I’m a little surprised you’re still in town.”
“I don’t scare off that easily,” Rick said, though there had certainly been times in his life when last night’s interference by a protective sister would have been more than enough to send him away.
Mike chuckled. “Brave words. You should be terrified. Remember, I’ve gone up against the D’Angelo sisters. Look at me now.”
“Don’t pay any attention to him,” Jeff said. “He’s as happy as a bull in clover. Melanie’s the best thing that ever happened to him.”
“True,” Mike said complacently. “But Rick might not be as eager to settle down as I was.”
Jeff hooted. “Eager? You? Please. Don’t pay any attention to him, Rick. He was as gun-shy as a man can be.” He grinned. “Sort of like you, I imagine, if you’ve been able to resist all those gorgeous models this whole time.”
Rick grinned at him, not surprised that even here in a tiny town in Virginia’s Northern Neck his reputation had gotten around. He’d been on the pages of some of those supermarket tabloids and appeared on TV entertainment shows often enough to become a celebrity in his own right. And he’d discovered that a lot of men envied his proximity to some of the world’s most gorgeous women.
“Who says I resisted?” he asked Jeff, in part because it was the kind of comment most men expected of him.
“Oh, please tell me I did not hear that,” Mike said with a groan.
“Jealous?” Jeff asked. “Can’t say I blame you.”
“No, I am not jealous,” Mike said. “I’m just trying to figure out how Melanie’s going to react if she thinks her sister is involved with a guy who’s worked his way through the fashion world with more than his camera lens.”
“I can’t speak for your wife, of course,” Rick told him. “But Maggie knows all about my past history. She’s okay with it.”
Both men stared at him incredulously. “Really?” Mike said. “You sure about that?”
They looked so skeptical, Rick was forced to reconsider. Wasn’t the truth a little murkier than that? Maggie knew about his past, but wasn’t that one of the very reasons she didn’t trust their relationship to last? Well, hell.
Acceptance of something that couldn’t be changed was one thing. Obviously, though, it wasn’t going to be quite so easy for her to pretend it had never happened, that it hadn’t shaped who he was, or that it wouldn’t affect his relationship with her. His love ’em-and-leave-’em reputation would hardly bolster her confidence that he was a good bet for her own transformation into a woman who was looking for stability and steadfastness from a man.
“Okay,” he admitted at last. “She’s probably not happy about it.”
“There you go,” Mike said. “A reality check. Women love it when we recognize those. Makes ’em think we’re sensitive.”
Jeff nodded. “And speaking of reality checks, you and I need to get over to the Winstons and get those shrubs in the ground. I told her we’d be there by eight.”
Rick glanced at the clock and noted they were already twenty minutes late. “Sorry I kept you.”
“Not to worry,” Mike said. “We’re talking Northern Neck time here. The world’s a little more laid-back than what you’re probably used to.” He gave Rick’s shoulder a squeeze. “See you around. Try not to tick off Maggie. It’ll have a ripple effect and land on me.”
Rick chuckled, but Mike’s expression remained somber.
“Not joking, pal. Trust me on this. The D’Angelo sisters stick together. It can be a bit daunting.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Rick promised.
“By the way,” Mike added, “next time you come in here, you might prefer to avoid me if you’re actually interested in eating. The owner—Brenda Chatham—has never quite forgiven me for marrying Melanie,
so the service I get usually sucks.”
Sure enough, as soon as he and Jeff were gone, the elusive Brenda finally appeared. By then, though, his conversation with Mike and Jeff had cost Rick his appetite. He ordered coffee.
She regarded him with disappointment. “Sure I can’t get you anything else? The waffles are the best around.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so. And, come to think of it, make the coffee to go.”
He needed to hit the road and clear his head. The few minutes he’d spent with Mike and Jeff had been entirely too disconcerting. Rick had the uneasy feeling he’d just stumbled into a gigantic spider’s web, and it was already tightening around him.
Maggie was getting antsy. It was close to noon, and there had been no sign of Rick yet. She was doing precisely what she’d vowed not to do. She was obsessing over the man.
To avoid falling into that trap, she grabbed her purse and headed for the door, only to run smack into her sister.
“Going someplace?” Melanie asked. She seemed disgustingly cheerful this morning.
“Out,” Maggie said tightly. She was in no mood for a continuance of last night’s cross-examination.
“Where? If you’re going to lunch, I’ll join you.”
“I’m not going to lunch,” Maggie said.
Melanie gave her a sharp look. “Maybe you should. Your blood sugar seems to be a little low. You’re cranky.”
“Thanks for the observation, but my blood sugar’s just fine.”
Her sister chuckled. “Then it must be Rick. Has he done something to upset you?”
“Of course not.”
“Oh, I thought maybe you were starting to worry that he’d taken off,” Melanie said mildly. “And if that was worrying you, I could put your mind at ease.”
Maggie scowled at her. “Oh?” she asked as if it didn’t matter.
“Mike saw him this morning.”
“Where?” she asked a little too eagerly, spoiling the whole indifferent effect she’d been going for.
Melanie’s expression turned triumphant. “Then it is Rick that has you in such a foul mood,” she concluded. “Mike saw him at the diner. Rick joined him and Jeff for a bit.”
“What time was that?”
“Seven-thirty or eight, I imagine. I didn’t ask for a timetable.”
That was hours ago, Maggie realized. It didn’t tell her a blessed thing about where Rick was now. It shouldn’t matter, dammit, but apparently it did.
“Where the hell is he now?” She didn’t realize she’d spoken aloud until she saw the worried expression on Melanie’s face. “Pretend you didn’t hear me say that,” she pleaded.
“Did the two of you have plans this morning?” Melanie asked, sounding as if she would willingly gear up for battle if Maggie had been stood up.
“No, not exactly,” Maggie moaned. “I’m being absurd, aren’t I? This is precisely why I can’t get involved with Rick Flannery. I start to fall for a man, and the next thing you know, he’s all I think about. I obsess and ruin everything.”
“Then every time you start to obsess, do something else,” her sister advised. “Rick’s not going anywhere, Maggie. I meant what I said last night. It’s obvious he’s fascinated by you. Ashley thought the same thing. Otherwise I’d be over here helping you try to run him off.”
As much as she wanted to believe her sisters, Maggie wasn’t so sure. She fully expected Rick to tire of her, to tire of the rules she’d laid down. He’d tired of more sophisticated women. Maybe with her it had just happened sooner than she’d anticipated.
Before she could say any of that, though, Rick’s sleek little sports car turned off the road and came to a stop beside Melanie’s dusty SUV. Rick emerged, looking windblown and sexy as hell.
“Ladies,” he said, coming over to drop a casual peck on Maggie’s cheek. “Am I interrupting?”
“Nope, I’d say your timing is perfect,” Melanie replied, giving Maggie an I-told-you-so look. “I’m on my way. Take her to lunch. She’s getting cranky.”
Maggie shot an appalled look at her sister. “I am not.”
Despite the denial, though, she had to fight to keep a sharp note out of her voice when she turned to Rick and asked, “What have you been up to this morning?” She hoped she sounded casual and interested, not possessive and panicky.
“Miss me?” he asked.
“Hardly. I’ve been busy around here,” she fibbed. “You still haven’t answered my question. Did you have a good morning?”
“Sure.”
She had a weird feeling he was being deliberately evasive. It made her more determined than ever to get to the bottom of his absence. “Doing what?”
He gave her a quizzical look. “I went for a drive, took a few pictures, nothing much,” he said with a shrug. “Am I missing something, Maggie? Are you upset that I wasn’t here sooner?”
“No, of course not. We didn’t have plans.”
“And I thought we’d agreed that you wanted some space, that you didn’t want me underfoot every second.”
She sighed. “Yes, we did agree to that.”
“But you started feeling insecure, didn’t you?”
She felt ridiculous that he could see through her so easily. “I thought maybe you’d changed your mind and left. I wouldn’t have blamed you, after all the pressure you got from Melanie last night.”
“Your sister doesn’t worry me. You do. You have to trust me when I tell you that I won’t leave without saying goodbye. And if you want something from me that I’m not giving you, you have to tell me that. I can’t read your mind.” He tilted her chin up and looked into her eyes. “Deal?”
Duly chastened, she nodded. “Deal, and you’re absolutely right,” she said. “So here’s the plan.”
He shook his head, obviously amused. “More rules?”
“More rules,” she agreed. “Your mornings are your own. I’ll do my thing around here, catch up on work, whatever. I won’t even look for you till lunchtime unless we make plans ahead of time. If something comes up for either of us, we’ll call.”
“Sounds very fair,” he said, obviously biting back a grin. “Let me clarify one thing, though. Do I need to schedule when I’m going to kiss you?”
She swallowed hard at the glint in his eyes. “No. I think that can be perfectly spontaneous.”
“Good,” he murmured just before he closed his mouth over hers.
Heat slammed through Maggie, wiping out thoughts and worries and any remaining self-consciousness about her pathetic little performance a few minutes earlier. Obviously her idiotic behavior hadn’t turned him off completely. Quite the opposite, in fact. They were both breathless and gasping when he finally released her.
“Come on, darlin’,” he said, grabbing her hand. “Let’s go to lunch.”
“I could fix something here,” she offered.
“Bad idea.”
“You don’t trust my cooking,” she asked incredulously.
“Your cooking’s spectacular. What I’m afraid of is the kitchen getting a little too hot and chasing us straight up to the bedroom. I know that’s a violation of one of those rules of yours.” He gave her a hopeful look. “Of course, if you want to rescind that particular rule, I won’t hold it against you. In fact, I’ll applaud your generous spirit.”
For the first time all day, Maggie laughed. “You wish. Let’s go, Flannery.”
“Where?”
“It hardly matters, as long as there’s not a bed in sight.”
He winked at her. “Who needs a bed when there are all these fields and secluded beaches close by?”
Maggie groaned. Now that image was going to be in her head all afternoon. They weren’t going to pass a cornfield without her imagining the two of them hidden away from view, their hands all over each other.
“You are a cruel man,” she murmured as she stepped into Rick’s car.
“Just wanted to even things up. You’ve been tormenting me ever since I got here.”
She smiled. “Good to know.” Maybe if he said it often enough, she’d finally start to believe he really meant it.
After several days of fighting to keep his hands to himself, Rick recognized the absolute necessity of finding a lot of distractions. Otherwise he’d spend every minute trying to convince Maggie to jump into bed with him.
Of course, he argued, if he were around all the time, she might start to believe that he wasn’t going to run out on her at the first opportunity. Better, though, that she learned that lesson during his absences.
Besides, as they’d discussed when she’d laid out more of those absurd ground rules of hers, she’d come here because she needed space away from him to think. They’d agreed very sensibly that she could hardly do that if he was underfoot every second. He wasn’t convinced that thinking was the answer, but she was, so for now he’d let her have her way.
But all that thoughtfulness and consideration was leaving him at loose ends most mornings. Usually having so much time on his hands would wear thin after a day or two, but he’d started packing up his camera, climbing into his car and exploring the region, heading off in a new direction every day.
After the first day, he was forced to admit that it was no longer just an exercise. It was, in fact, oddly exhilarating to be taking pictures for the sheer pleasure of it, rather than for an assignment.
Nature was turning out to be an even more fascinating subject than the gorgeous women he usually shot. Models had their idiosyncrasies, most of which he’d seen by this time, but nature’s lighting, the capriciousness of the birds, the ever changing swells on the Chesapeake, were just as challenging. He’d spent one entire morning taking pictures of the centuries old Christ Church as the light filtered through the surrounding trees. As a result, his excursions were taking longer and longer, but he always called to let Maggie know he was running late. It was a concession he wouldn’t have made for most women, but it was such a small courtesy that it seemed absurd to balk at it or to view it as some sort of attempt on her part to put him on a short leash.
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