He didn’t look at all worried. “Do your neighbors know you have a sadistic streak?”
“It’s the first time it’s surfaced.” Crossing her arms, she added, “You apparently bring out the worst in me.”
“I told you that. You just wouldn’t listen.” He shifted uncomfortably.
“So I’m listening now,” she said, stepping out onto the patio. “What’s the favor?”
“I wouldn’t ask you…that is, I know I shouldn’t ask you after the argument we just had…but the fact is that I really care about your opinion of me—”
“Just ask, Matt,” she said. “And for goodness sake, go ahead and get up.”
He did, brushing off his knees and looking relieved. Gina didn’t know what to think. He cared about what she thought of him. That had to mean something. But then again, she didn’t dare hope that it did. Maybe Matt had the right idea—sometimes it was easier not to care about people. Good Lord, she was tired of getting hurt.
“I want you to pose as my wife tonight.”
“Since you’re too smart to ask me to bed at this point—” she pulled in a deep breath and looked straight at him “—I take it you want to try again with your father?”
He nodded. “I don’t know if I can tell him the truth about you, but I can at least get to know him a little better than I do now.”
“Why did you change your mind?” If he wanted only to make Luke miserable, she didn’t want any part of it.
“I figured if you went through the trouble of flattening my tires to get me to stay, maybe you had a good reason, and it wasn’t that you were worried about my father.” His face was earnest, and his eyes examined hers to get her reaction. “You did it to prove something to me, so I thought long and hard and decided I should rethink what I’m doing here. Even if I don’t have any feelings for Luke, I can’t leave our relationship like this.”
She simply stared at him.
“What are you thinking?” he asked, sounding anxious.
“I’m thinking that if counseling is as easy as flattening a client’s tires, then I wasted one heck of a lot of time and money on schooling.” She wanted to laugh, but somehow, nothing was funny anymore. “Are you still going to let him think you’re happy?”
“I’m not unhappy, Gina.” His big shoulders shrugged underneath his blazer. “Will you do it? I know I have no right to ask you, but it’s just for one more evening.”
“After all your talk about my interfering?”
“You’re not interfering if I’m asking.”
In a warped way, Gina guessed that made sense. She was thrilled he had changed his mind and seemed earnest about making his father feel better, but she was also cynical because Matt still wanted to pretend he was happy, and therefore he wasn’t going to be honest. In a way, he was still hiding, even though at least now he was showing he cared.
And last, deep inside her, even though she expected nothing from him, she was hurt. His change of mind about leaving had nothing to do with them.
But despite all that, Gina nodded. This was almost, in a way, what she had flattened Matt’s tires to achieve. Father and son would get back together one more time. She could put up with the pretense of being Matt’s wife for a little while longer, she guessed, if it brought about the result she wanted—Matt’s happiness. If it didn’t, at least it would buy her the time and closeness to Matt she needed to try to show him how he could make himself happy.
And if he had to leave her, then she had to change the man’s life. She couldn’t let him go otherwise, knowing he was going to spend the rest of his life alone. She couldn’t, because she thought she might be falling in love with him.
Because Matt’s father had an AA meeting that night, they had to wait a whole day to visit Luke offered to skip it, but Matt quickly said they could come the next evening instead after Luke got off work. The last thing he wanted, Matt told Gina, was to be responsible if his father fell off the wagon. To Gina, that sounded promising, as if Matt really might reconsider about his father.
The hour or so they spent at Luke’s went smoothly. Matt listened to his father’s story of how he’d sunk to the bottom and finally decided he was going to turn his life around. Not going into a lot of detail, Matt even opened up some about his own life, and about how he’d lived on the streets for a while. Luke had listened with tears in his eyes and apologized again for having made him go through that, and Matt simply nodded. Even without the actual words of forgiveness, the atmosphere was peaceful, and Gina sensed the two were beginning to connect.
The only difficult part about the whole time they spent with Luke was that Matt was once again playing the attentive husband. And irritated as she still was with Matt, Gina couldn’t keep herself from leaning intimately against the side of him, or resting her hand on his thigh as he talked. Her body seemed to be saying that one night with Matt wouldn’t be enough to keep her satisfied forever.
She told her body to shut up.
Too soon, the three of them were walking toward the front door, saying goodbye. Matt was promising to write and telling Luke he had just received new orders that would put them at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia next, instead of where he had been going.
“So Gina can go with you?” Luke asked.
Gina shifted uncomfortably as Matt nodded. Then she watched, her breath catching, as Luke extended his hand to his son. Matt glanced down at it, and a second later, the two were shaking hands.
“I shouldn’t have doubted you, Matt,” Luke said. “I can see that you’ve built yourself a nice life. How you managed, I don’t know, but I’m happy for you, and I’m proud of you. I can rest easier at night now, knowing that you rose above what I did to you and West and your mom and made something wonderful for yourself.”
Gina felt her throat tighten. Matt looked so reserved—couldn’t Luke see that? Luke looked so happy, because he believed a lie. It wasn’t right. She worked her bottom lip against her teeth, trying to decide what to do.
“I’ll be all right, Luke,” Matt said, his words sounding heartfelt. “I really will.”
“Good. It’s been my dream since I sobered up to get everyone reunited if I could.” He opened his mouth as if to say something else, then closed it and pumped his son’s hand harder.
Gina could feel the seconds ticking away. If she didn’t do something now, while the two men were together and could still talk, Matt would leave for Virginia, and it would be too late. He had told her he planned to write his father, but he doubted he would ever come back to Bedley Hills. Seeing his father brought back too many memories, and there was still the fact that his brother was gone. From what he had said to her, Gina was fully aware nothing had really been accomplished tonight for Matt.
Gina blinked and swallowed. Matt wouldn’t be able to feel love until someone showed him what love was. She knew what she had to do, and she was fully aware that Matt wouldn’t understand it as the loving gesture it was. He would hate her forever.
“You and Gina will keep in touch—I’m counting on it,” Luke was saying.
Gina took a deep breath. “Don’t worry, Luke, I will, since I live here in town, anyway.”
Luke frowned.
“Gina, don’t do this,” Matt warned softly.
She looked at Luke, because if she looked at Matt, she knew she would see the betrayal he felt in his eyes, and she couldn’t bear to see that right now. “We aren’t married, Luke. Matt met me a couple weeks ago right here in Bedley Hills and convinced me to pose as his wife so you would think he’s having a wonderful life. But he isn’t. He’s miserable.” Her eyes filled with tears. “But he needs somebody in his life, Luke, and if it can’t be me, I hope it can be you.”
Turning, she fled out the door and to the sidewalk, ignoring the fact that Matt was calling her name, walking away from Luke and Matt as fast as her high heels would carry her. It was still early evening, and light outside, so she hoped Matt would let her walk the mile or so home while he talked things out wi
th his father.
All the way home she fought back the tears, but she thought what she’d done was probably all for the best. Either Matt would put his past to rest and go on with his life, or he’d get his anger out with his father. Either way, he would at least have a chance at happiness. She was certain he wouldn’t want her now, but maybe she was probably better off, too. As he was now, they were too different. She frightened him, because she needed to be close. Matt needed his emotional privacy and his physical distance, and she hated that. If dealing with his father helped him, and he came to her, so be it. But she’d dealt with enough people to know she shouldn’t hold her breath waiting.
When Gina didn’t answer his call, Matt turned back from Luke’s door and slammed it shut. Damn that woman. From the second he’d met her she’d played havoc with his life, turned it upside down, kept him so he didn’t know if he were coming or going. She had no right to tell Luke the truth. No right at all.
Luke. Blinking, he looked at his father and saw a man who suddenly looked much older than his sixty years.
“Is it true?” Luke asked.
Matt waited, only his father didn’t say anything else. Nothing. The man just stood there, looking like he’d been socked in the gut.
This shouldn’t have happened, he thought. He had come here a second time so when he left Bedley Hills, his father would be at peace with his life. Gina had wrecked everything. Never trust anyone, his sense of protection reminded him. How quickly he’d forgotten. The old coldness and caution flooded back into Matt, freezing that warm feeling he’d had inside a few minutes before Gina had dropped her bombshell. A flight of fancy he’d indulged in, thinking Gina was one in a million. Nice while it lasted, but so stupid. Life was for the cynical, not the naive. If you trusted, you got hurt. It was as simple as that.
What Matt couldn’t figure out was why Gina had interfered. Revenge? But he guessed the reason didn’t matter. It tore him apart that Gina, just like the rest of the people in his life, had looked after her own desires first. She’d wanted Luke to know, so she’d told him, never mind if it hurt or bothered him.
“Son?”
“I lied,” Matt agreed, facing his father. “Gina told you the truth. I probably am the most miserable human being she’s ever seen, only I think she probably meant miserable as in lousy worm.”
Luke’s eyes narrowed. “You haven’t known Gina that long, and she seemed awfully worried about you.”
“Gina’s made it her life’s work to worry about everyone except herself. She’d be a lot better off if she devoted her energy to finding a good man to fall in love with.” Matt didn’t even want to think about that happening.
Luke moved over and sat back down in his chair. “Seems to me there’s a lot more going on between you two than what I’ve heard.”
“And there’s going to be a lot more,” Matt said, pacing the length of Luke’s rug. After he was done talking to his father, he was heading to Gina’s and he was going to—
Oh, yeah, he thought, halting his steps suddenly. She was female, so he couldn’t deck her.
Suddenly all the fight drained out of him, and he plopped onto the couch, purposely working on relaxing his muscles and his anger. He could yell, though. Right now he thought he could yell at Gina Delaney a whole lot.
But wasn’t she at least right about his needing family? Reaching up, he raked his fingers through his hair, and stared at his father, who seemed to be occupied with his own thoughts. He could admit that he’d been just coasting along, alone, and maybe start changing his life for the better, or he could tell his father, See you, and retreat back into his shell. Only, since Gina had come into his life, he’d discovered that his shell was a cold, lonely place, and he’d turned into the crab of the century. He didn’t want his life to be like that anymore. He wanted happiness—that much he was sure of.
Deciding that making the right choice didn’t mean he had to forgive Gina, he nodded at his father. “She shouldn’t have opened her mouth to you, but, yeah, what she said was true. I lied to you about being happy. I do like flying, but apart from that…” He took a deep breath and blurted it out, “Apart from flying and searching for West, I don’t really have much of a life.” He’d only started to get one when he’d come to Bedley Hills and become Gina Delaney’s neighbor.
His father nodded slowly. “I’m sorry. I’ll repeat that until the day I die if you need me to. And please know, I’m here if I can do anything for you at all.”
Matt nodded, gulping as a surge of heat warmed his face and his eyes. He blinked furiously, and forced his jaw out, stifling down the emotion in his heart. He was acting like a damned little kid. He was a man, and he could handle this. He could handle having family again—at his own pace. Gina shouldn’t have interfered.
“Son?”
“I need to think awhile.” Matt stood, as did his father. “I do have to leave Bedley Hills for Virginia—I wasn’t lying about that. But I might be able to keep some leave days open and get around to see you sometimes.”
His father brushed at something in his eye before offering his son his hand. Matt stared down at it for a few seconds, and then he did something he would never have envisioned himself doing before he’d come here.
He leaned forward and hugged his father.
“You’re so quiet, I know something’s up,” Chantie said to Gina as she finished closing out the cash drawer late the next afternoon. “It’s that Matt, isn’t it?”
“Hmm.” Gina slid the drawer in place and locked it. She’d peeked into the driveway next door that morning, and his car was still there, but she had a feeling he’d be leaving soon. Men like Matt didn’t change. He hadn’t come over to yell at her last night, and she had a feeling that was probably because he was too angry. She’d never hear from him again, and it was her own fault for trying to help him. For once, she should have minded her own business. Matt had warned her…
She had to admit, though, Matt wasn’t in first place for the most miserable human being she’d ever run across any longer—she was.
“What I know is that you want him,” Chantie said. “What I don’t know is why you aren’t trying to fight for him.”
“Because Matt doesn’t want or need anyone, Chantie,” Gina replied, locking up the money bag in her small safe. “He worships his privacy, and he doesn’t have any friends. Does that sound like someone I could fall in love with?”
“Let me see,” Chantie said, resting her elbow on the counter and her chin in her hand. “This guy is a pilot, he’s drop-dead gorgeous, and he really likes you. That’s as rare as Halley’s Comet. If you don’t go for it, I’m going to have you declared certifiably insane.”
“I’ve already had it,” Gina muttered under her breath.
“Whoa, ho, I heard that!” Chantie said, and then asked in a low girl-talk voice, “So how was it?”
“I meant,” Gina said sternly, “that the man is making me insane.”
“Yeah, sure that’s what you meant.” Chantie grinned. “A pilot, handsome as sin, he likes you, and he’s good in the sack. I think I want you to buy me a lottery ticket—you’re the luckiest girl in Ohio. You know I’ll take care of your store for you. You could follow him to the ends of the earth, and have a happyever-after—or two. So what’s stopping you?”
“I think you’re overstating the simplicity of the situation.” Gina walked over to the box of chocolates Matt had used to bribe her. Taking a piece, she offered the box to Chantie, who shook her head. “A relationship between two people should never be based on liking each other and being good in the sack. It can’t last. There has to be love.”
“Says you. You’re spouting that counselor stuff at me while you’re eating comfort food,” Chantie pointed out. “You’d better take off your white coat and live a little, girl, before you let the best thing that ever happened to you get totally away. Geez! If you don’t want him, then at least tell me I can take a stab at him myself.”
A wave of jealousy rolled
over Gina and her mouth fell open. The word no was on the tip of her tongue, but then she remembered—she really didn’t have any right to deny Chantie something she didn’t hold any claim to.
“Ha!” Chantie pointed her finger at Gina. “Gotcha! If you could have seen how rocked you looked when I said that, you’d realize what a deep thing you have for this guy. Maybe you are in love with him, and you don’t even know it.”
“I’m not in love,” Gina denied flatly, popping another chocolate into her mouth and letting the soothing smoothness melt over her tongue. The intensity of the jealousy she’d felt at the very suggestion of Chantie dating Matt was only physical. It had to be. She and Matt weren’t in love.
Were they? They couldn’t be. Love wasn’t a jumble of confusion and wrangled nerves. Love was stable, solid, trusting and dependable. Love was what she’d had with Mac; what she’d sworn would never strike twice.
Wasn’t it? She put the box down on the counter.
“That’s more like it.” Chantie nodded in approval. “You got to keep in shape if you’re going to catch a hunk like Gallagher.”
Gina shook her head. “He said my body is beautiful.”
Chantie moaned. “I should have a man who worships me like this. You say he doesn’t know he’s in love, either?”
“I am not in love,” Gina insisted.
“You aren’t in love and you don’t want him to stay—”
“Of course I do. I wouldn’t have let the air out of his tires if I didn’t.”
Chantie hooted in glee.
“Oh, Lord, why did I tell her that?” Gina asked, gazing up toward the ceiling.
Chantie laughed harder. “Eating chocolate is mellowing out your brain. Have yourself a couple more pieces and tell me exactly why you messed with the man’s wheels.”
“It’s not for the reason you’re thinking. He had some unfinished business with his father here, and he was all set to run out on it.”
The One-Week Wife Page 12