It was terrible timing, but he looked so odd from this perspective, she smiled.
“It isn’t funny,” Sonny said. “She licked me on the lips!”
“Cleo!” Jake scolded. “I’ve told you not to French kiss on the first date.”
Gentry closed her eyes, praying that when she opened them, she’d be alone.
“Your choice, Daniels,” Sonny said. “I can take a swing at you whether you’re sitting or standing.”
“What about if I lie flat?”
“Let’s find out.”
“Sonny!” Gentry rolled onto her side and into a sitting position. “If you’ll stop acting out your own version of Rocky, I’ll tell you why Jake is here.”
“One explanation comes readily to mind.” Sonny scowled down at her, and all Gentry could think of was a line from a song. A frown is a smile turned upside down.
“That isn’t the explanation.” Jake got to his feet and Sonny took a swing at him. At the time, luckily, Jake was bending down to grasp Gentry’s arm and help her up…and the punch sailed over him.
Gentry grabbed Sonny’s arm and held on. “I never realized you were so violent,” she said. “Will you stop and listen to me. There’s a perfectly reasonable explanation.”
He looked at her, his anger diminishing beneath the censure of her expression. “I’ll listen,” he said.
She relaxed a little. Sonny might not like it, but he’d believe her. He had no reason not to. “I snagged a button in the lace and Jake was only trying to get it free.” She twisted at the waist, to show him that a button on her sleeve was indeed snagged in the lace at her back. “See, there’s nothing to be upset about.”
“I was only trying to help,” Jake said.
Sonny still looked upset. “Did you call him to come over and help?” he asked. “Or did he just happen to show up at the exact moment you snagged the dress?”
“He came to return something I lost,” she informed him crisply. So there, she thought.
“What?”
“What?” She repeated Sonny’s question.
“What did you lose?”
“What did I lose?”
His expression turned suspicious again. “What did you lose, Gentry? What was Daniels returning?”
Gentry looked at Sonny, drew a blank and stalled. “What was he returning…?” Rush in here with the answer anytime, Jake. Finally, with a disgusted sigh, she turned to him and pointedly asked, “What did I lose, Jake?”
“You don’t know?” Sonny said, incredulous.
Jake reached into his shirt pocket and extended his hand to show her the button.
“Oh,” she said, pleased. “The missing button.”
“What missing button?” Sonny leaned close, checking to make sure it really was a button.
“The missing button on this dress,” she informed him, and held out her hand, turning it palm up, so he could see. “On the wrist.”
“Where?” he asked.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, it’s right—” She cut her gaze to her wrist, directing his attention to the single, unattached fabric loop that should have held a button, but didn’t. Except now…it did. Every loop had a corresponding button. Not a missing link among them. Gentry frowned. “It must be the other sleeve,” she said. “I only thought it was this one.”
Sonny took her by the shoulders and spun her a half turn. A moment later, he spun her back. “No buttons missing there, either.”
“Well, it came off of this dress somewhere.” Jake took her by the shoulders, spun her a half tum and ran his finger down the back of the dress. “All there.” He spun her back, picked up her hand and ran his eye along the buttoned sleeve, double-checking Sonny’s initial inventory. His forehead furrowed with a frown. “Sonny’s right,” he said. “The buttons are all there.”
“Then where did this one come from?”
“Which one?” Sonny asked.
“The one Jake’s holding in his hand. The one he was returning.”
Jake rubbed his jaw. “I gave it to you, Liz.”
“No, you didn’t. It was still in your hand a minute ago.”
He held out his hands…empty.
“It must have fallen on the floor.” She scanned the light-colored carpet.
“So,” Sonny said. “To sum up, Jake came to your bedroom to return a missing button and had to stay because another button snagged in the lace and you needed his help to get it free. Right?”
That sounded like a fair account, and she nodded her acceptance of it.
“Only no buttons are missing,” Sonny continued. “Except the button he came here to return.”
“But you saw it.”
He shook his head, his eyes cool with solidifying suspicion. “I’m not sure what I saw, but it obviously was not a button.”
She could see this was not going well. “Don’t jump to conclusions, Sonny. You can certainly see that my hand is caught, otherwise I wouldn’t keep holding it at this awkward…” She tugged against the snag to demonstrate the strength of her testimony and her hand swung from behind her in a smooth arc, like a discus thrower winding up for the throw. She caught it with her other hand as it passed her waist, staring at it in surprise, then raising her eyes to Sonny’s I-knewit expression. “This is just a simple misunderstanding,” she began, but he cut her off.
“Gentry, I think I’m quite capable of understanding what you’ve said…and what was obviously going on in this bedroom before I interrupted it.”
Her temper flared into a low, don’t-mess-with-me, I-only-did-it-for-you huskiness. “I didn’t want you to know, Sonny, but since you’ve found out, I may as well tell you everything.”
Behind her, Jake made a strangled sound, but she ignored him and kept her sultry gaze on her fiancé’s face. “You see, it’s just as you thought. Jake broke in here like a madman and began making wild and passionate love to me in my dressing room. I wanted to resist, but he can be so…convincing.”
“Gentry…” Jake growled a warning, but she simply incorporated it into her improvisation.
“No, no, Jake. He deserves to know. You mustn’t blame Jake, Sonny. It wasn’t all his fault.”
“That’s a relief,” Jake muttered.
“I should have screamed.” She brought up her arm and laid her forehead against it. “Maybe I wanted him to kiss me, I don’t know.” The arm fell away. “But when you knocked, I panicked, and even though my closet was so close I could have reached in and grabbed a robe, I seized the nearest dress…which happened to be forty tons of satin with hundreds of tiny buttons, but I persevered because I wanted to protect you from thinking the worst. I quickly—because I knew how impatiently you were waiting—unbuttoned the dress and slipped into it. Then I quickly rebuttoned every button while trying to keep you from catching a glimpse of me in the wedding dress, because I knew that would be bad luck. Then I discovered one of the buttons had snagged in the lace, but I was so desperate to see you that, with one arm twisted painfully behind my back, I rushed to the doorway only to have some unseen force hold me back and prevent me from reaching you.”
She paused to let her lashes flutter down to her cheeks, then swept them up to look soulfully into his eyes. “I struggled against fate, Sonny, truly I did. I know Jake will throw all of his weight behind mine when I assure you that only a force stronger than all of us could have kept me from fulfilling my destiny and giving you a smooch!”
For a moment, the silence in the room was similar to an audience’s stunned reaction to an Oscar-winning performance. Then it was broken by a rhythmic clap, clap, clap.
“Bravo,” Jake said. “That was magnificent, my dear. If only you could have given this performance for Sergeant Orange yesterday, maybe he wouldn’t have held us in jail half the night.”
Sonny’s confused gaze stumbled to Jake, then returned to Gentry. “Jail?” His tone sounded dazed…or possibly numb. “You were in jail?”
“Not in jail,” she clarified. “Just at the jail. It was
a misunderstanding,” she said. “Sort of like the one we’re having now.”
“But you were arrested?”
“No,” she assured him. “Sergeant Orange wanted to arrest us…well, me, anyway…but there was no evidence. It was clear I hadn’t committed a murder.”
“Murder?”
“Actually, that was resolved before we left the hotel.” Jake stepped forward to add his two pennies’ worth. “Sergeant Orange was operating on the theory that he should do the city a favor and get Gentry off the streets for the night.”
“He thought I was a prostitute,” she explained. “Because I was wearing your jacket.”
Sonny stroked his narrow mustache. “Where was I?”
“Dead—” Jake held Sonny’s gaze “—asleep.”
“The pain medication they gave you at the hospital knocked you out,” Gentry told him.
“I was unconscious?”
“No,” Jake said. “But you definitely weren’t feeling any pain.”
Sonny continued to stroke his mustache and stare at Jake. “I knew there was something I wanted to remember about you, Daniels.”
They squared off like bulldogs, eyes wary, stance ready, all but drooling testosterone.
“What would that be, Harris? My admirable selfrestraint?”
“No.” Sonny moved his hand away from his mustache and smiled. “I want to remember how your nose looked before it got in front of my fist.”
“Sonny!” Gentry gasped out a protest, but Sonny had drawn back his left arm and his fist was already on its way to connect with Jake’s face. Luckily, Jake jerked back, his reflexes kicking in to save his nose. “You missed!”
At her relieved shout, Jake turned to frown at her. “What do you mean, ‘You missed’?” he repeated just before the momentum of Sonny’s windmill swing carried him all the way around and brought his right hand—the one with the cast—into direct contact with Jake’s heretofore unbroken nose.
SYDNEY SLATHERED HER LEGS with tanning gel, then tossed the bottle over Hillary’s prone body to Heather. “In my opinion, the situation is getting desperate. Jake’s leaving tonight. If we don’t do something, she’s going to go through with the wedding as planned.”
“You didn’t really believe she wouldn’t, did you?” Hillary’s head rested, facedown, on her crossed arms, making her voice sound muffled and lethargic. “She’s been planning this wedding for nearly two years.”
“Four,” Heather said. “If you count the time she spent planning the other wedding. Mitch and I won’t have a long engagement, I’ll tell you that right now.”
“You’re just anxious to wear those sexy teddies, Heather.” Sydney adjusted her sunglasses and the angle of the deck chair. “I can’t imagine what it’s like for Gen to have to plan every inch of her walk down the aisle.”
“She has Sonny to keep her centered,” Hillary said.
“What does she see in him?” Heather asked. “I mean, he’s nice enough, and steady as a stone, but…well, Jake is so much more her type.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being steady and dependable and…nice.”
Sydney pulled her glasses down and looked over the rim at Hillary. “We’re not saying there’s anything wrong with Sonny Harris. He might be bearable, if he were with a woman who could temper his compulsiveness and give him some instruction on how to behave in a crowd. Someone like you, Hil, for instance.”
Hillary’s head came up with a jerk, but when her eyes met Sydney’s, she quickly looked away. “Don’t be ridiculous. He and Gentry are a perfect fit. Everyone says so.”
“Except her best friends.” Heather sat up and looped her arms over her knees. “I say we do something to stop this.”
“Like what?” Hillary returned her head to her arms. “Kidnap her and keep her locked up until after Saturday?”
Sydney lay back, drinking in the warmth of the sun. “Hillary, you are brilliant. That is a terrific idea.”
“Grow up, Sydney. We are not going to kidnap her. Even best friends should only go so far in pressing their opinions. Gentry is perfectly capable of deciding who she will or won’t marry and whether she will or won’t go through with this wedding.”
“Feeling a bit peevish, are we, Hil?” Sydney asked.
“No,” came the muffled but huffy reply. “I’m just tired of all these childish pranks. We should stop behaving like children.”
“Hmmm. What do you think, Heather? Is it time to commit to a staid and mature existence?”
“She’s kidding, Syd. Hillary will be last one of us to grow up. As long as she can raise a little hell with her friends, she can manage to be perfect and proper the rest of the time. Isn’t that right?” She leaned over and dropped a piece of ice in the center of Hillary’s tanned back.
Hillary swatted it aside with the back of her hand. “Why don’t you two go play somewhere else?”
“Because we need your detailed planning ability,” Sydney said, “in carrying out the kidnapping of Sonny Harris.”
“Sonny?” Hillary raised her head.
“I thought we were going to kidnap Gentry.”
Sydney shook her head. “Sonny makes a much better hostage. He’s not overly suspicious of us and he has the advantage of being completely unnecessary for the next few days. We can say he’s out of town on business and no one will be the wiser. It’ll be a breeze.”
“Won’t Sonny be suspicious when we lock him away somewhere?” Hillary asked.
“We’re not going to lock him away anywhere, my precious. You’re going to persuade him to take a little trip with you. Heather and I will handle the rest from here.”
“And just how would I persuade a man I barely know to take a trip with me?”
“Your brilliant mind will think of something. I do adore scheming like this. If only Gentry could be in on it.”
“She’ll never forgive us if Sonny doesn’t show up for their wedding.”
“He will, Heather. We’re only going to keep him a couple of days and let her think about the worst that could happen if he didn’t show up. It’ll be good for her.”
“Are you kidding? She’ll kill us,” Hillary protested.
Heather wavered. “Kidnapping is a federal offense.”
“For the last time, we are not kidnapping him. We’re just going to get him out of the way for a while.”
“This is exactly the sort of adolescent prank I was talking about, Sydney.” Hillary rolled over and sat up, her hands closing tightly over the edge of her deck chair. “It needs to stop.”
Sydney rolled onto her side and took off her glasses so she could meet Hillary eye to eye. “When our friendship reaches the point that we say ‘to hell with it,’ ‘so what’ or ‘it’s none of my business,’ then we’ve written the last chapter in our relationship, because caring about one another, Hil, is what the four of us do best.” She put her glasses on again and settled back. “Now, are you in or out?”
Hillary’s sigh was as deep as the Grand Canyon. “I’m in.”
Heather smiled. “I’m in, too.”
Sydney laughed. “So am I.”
“I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU actually hit him!” Gentry paced her bedroom, annoyed with Sonny, irritated with Jake and furious with herself for being involved with them.
“He had it coming,” Sonny defended himself while he held an ice pack on his hand. “You have to admit he’s been asking for it ever since he got here.”
“We’re not talking about his behavior, Sonny. We’re talking about yours. You shouldn’t have hit him, no matter what he did, said or thought about.”
“What about your behavior, Gentry?” He exposed her sore spot with one question and she paced some more.
“My behavior was…” She really hated having to admit she’d been wrong. “It left something to be desired.”
“So you admit you should have insisted he leave and not let him run wild in your house like a tomcat on the prowl.”
“Honestly, Sonny, you are so parano
id about Jake. I’ve told you he’s history. I learned my lesson. How many times do I have to tell you I’m going to marry you before you finally believe me?”
He gave her a sheepish look. “I suppose I’ll believe you on Saturday.”
Saturday. Their wedding day. Gentry sighed, wondering if the curious lump in her stomach was anticipation or dread. “Maybe it would be better if we steered clear of each other for a day or two. Take our prewedding frustrations out on some of the other people in our lives for a change, instead of each other.”
“You don’t want to see me until the wedding?”
He looked hurt, and she wished she wasn’t too upset to care. “I don’t want to quarrel with you, Sonny,” she said. “We’ve planned this wedding for so long, I just want it to be perfect. If we spend the week at each other’s throats because Jake had the poor judgment to show up uninvited, then he’s ruined our wedding again. Let’s give ourselves some space. Okay?”
He stood and walked to the door, clutching the ice bag awkwardly with his cast. “All right, if that’s the way you want it. Call me when you’re ready to see me. I’ll be waiting.”
Gentry sank onto the love seat and put her head in her hands. He was such a martyr at times. All she wanted was a little time. A chance to catch her breath and look forward to the future. Jake’s presence had stolen both. But he was leaving tonight, and tomorrow he’d be out of her life forever and everything would go back to being the way it was before. Perfect.
All she had to do was get through tonight. The rest would be easy. She could make it one night, knowing he was nearby. One night. Not even twenty-four hours.
She settled into the window seat and tried to amuse herself with thinking that Sydney, Hillary and Heather were probably plotting at this very moment to get her into the magic wedding dress. They could spin their devious wheels from now until Saturday, but she was never putting that dress on again. Now that she was out of it, she was sure she’d imagined the whole implausible afternoon. It had been a silly dream.
A silly dream about Jake.
She shut her eyes and leaned her head against her knees. One night. Just one more night.
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