“Well, if you’re really interested.” She gave them a plucky grin when they made polite noises of interest. “Oh, it’s nothing. I volunteer my time for literacy, as well as doing work with an organization that helps unwed mothers. I also sit on the board of the Arts Council, and finance an after-school program for the disadvantaged youth in Boston. Those are the main ones.”
“Damn, you’re a regular Mother Teresa, aren’t you?”
Julie wondered how Brother Dan liked being the one to replace her as the object of familial scorn. When she finished smirking at him, she bailed Caroline out. It was only fair. She really was a nice.timid person. And a relative. “I suppose you’ll miss all that, once you and Mike are married and you and Reginald move here, right?”
“Oh, no,” Caroline chirped brightly. “We’re not—um, I’m not moving here. I couldn’t possibly. Mike is resigning from the FBI, and we’ll live in Boston.”
“That hasn’t been decided.” Everyone, including a startled and chagrined Caroline, looked at Mike.
So, it really was possible to speak through clenched teeth. Leaning forward, Julie upped the ante. “Well, you’re moving to Boston, Mike. Won’t that be lovely? I guess if I’d thought about it, I would have realized that there’ll be no need for you to work after you’re married, right? You can stay home with Caroline and Reginald and Aaron all day. And, just think, you won’t have to be Mr. FBI anymore. You can be Mr. M-O-M.”
Mike glared a huge hole right through her. Julie grinned, actually enjoying this nasty streak of cattishness she hadn’t known she possessed. Well, darn it, she’d never wanted something this bad before. And she wasn’t giving him up without a fight. Or without causing a fight, as the case may be.
The band chose that moment to start up. Julie was sure she knew of one table that was glad they had. The familiar strains of “I Will Always Love You” filled the room with soulful sound. Just great. A song about always loving someone you can’t have. Perfect for lovers and for slow dancing. What her father called a “buckle polisher.” Julie’s cattishness and taunting mood vanished. If Mike asked his fiancée to dance, she’d…she’d burst into tears.
And she nearly did when he leaned over to whisper something in his lover’s ear. Caroline, the beautiful, blond cousin, turned smiling eyes up to her fiancé and nodded. Julie crunched her skirt mercilessly as she balled her hands into fists. And then she practically fell off her chair when Mike stood up and held his hand out. “Would you like to dance?”
Only he wasn’t talking to Caroline. Or to Joan or Susan. He was talking to her. Julie. She said, “No.”
Mike’s handsome face went grim. “Yes, you would.”
Someone—again to her left—pinched her side.hard. With a yelp, Julie was on her feet and glaring at her brownhaired sister-in-law, who just smiled sweetly back at her. Julie pointed at Joan, readying to share with her a particularly earthy suggestion, but then Mike grabbed her arm and led her, jerking futilely in his grasp, to a dark corner on the far side of the crowded dance floor.
Out of view of their table, he wrenched her into his arms, holding her as closely as possible without actually stuffing her in his pocket. But it was anger, and not tenderness, in his eyes. “Just what in the hell do you think you’re doing, Julie?”
Struggling none-too-subtly to put some molecules of space between their bodies, she said tightly, “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Then, you’re the only one who doesn’t.”
Julie looked up into his dark eyes and felt a staggering blow. Not a physical blow—just an awareness of something she’d thought earlier but hadn’t actually absorbed until now. This man was truly the only man she would ever love. She would always love his stubborn jaw, his high cheekbones and fine, straight nose. And the feel of his trim, muscled body pressed to hers.
What was she going to do when he married her cousin? To Julie’s utmost consternation, her body gave away her thoughts. Her chin quivered and tears gathered in her eyes. But still, she couldn’t look away from his face, only inches from hers.
“Don’t do it, Julie. Just.don’t do it.” With that, Mike pressed her head to his chest, turning her face away from the tables and toward the band. Exhaling sharply, he murmured, “Dammit.”
She sniffed, blinking rapidly to clear the tears, and then closed her eyes. His hands on her turned exquisitely, painfully tender as he rubbed one hand up and down her bare back, exposed by the low cut of her dress. His other hand was pressed into the small of her back, holding her to him. Julie never hesitated, knowing this might be her only chance to embrace him. She slipped her hands inside his sports jacket and wrapped her arms around his torso, nestling into him as if they shared the familiarity of ten years of marriage. She breathed deeply of him, loving the scent of his after-shave and his own clean, male scent.
Julie closed her eyes, trying desperately to squeeze away fresh tears. A ragged sniff escaped her, threatening her control. But there was something she had to ask him and it couldn’t wait. Pulling back from his embrace, she bit at her lip and gathered her courage. “Why did you kiss me?”
Mike slumped against her, as if he’d been preparing himself for this question. “I knew you were going to ask me that.”
Looking up at him, Julie fell in love all over again with the chiseled nobility of his jaw and high cheekbones.
“I don’t know, Julie. I don’t know why I kissed you. I just had to.”
She blinked and lowered her gaze to stare at a pearl button on his shirt. Raising her head again, she plunged in deeper. “Why? Why did you have to? I mean, it’s obvious, after seeing you with Caroline, that you care for her.”
His expression closed, became defensive. “Yes, I do.”
Suddenly, her heart felt too heavy in her chest. “Then why, Mike? Why kiss me?”
He shifted and looked away, focusing on a point somewhere above Julie’s head. She watched him, wanting with all her being to stroke the shadowed column of his neck and to smooth away the creases at the corners of his frowning mouth. When he looked back down at her, his soul was hidden. His black eyes were like mirrors that reflected only her. “I can’t answer that.”
“Can’t? Or won’t?”
“Can’t.”
Julie firmed her mouth, then let loose a hushed torrent of words. “What am I supposed to think? I think you’re playing with me. It seems to me you’re just getting prewedding jitters, and you have to have one last fling. But if I’m just a.a ripe field for your last wild oats, then I’ll hate you forever, Mike DeAngelo.”
Mike flinched and stepped back—onto the dance floor. Two or three couples bumped into him. Mumbled apologies came his way, but were ignored as he glared down at her. “What kind of loser do you take me for?”
She didn’t reply.
“Great. You’re wrong, Julie. If you knew me better, you’d know that.”
“Well, I don’t know you better. It just seems to me that you couldn’t kiss me like you did not twenty minutes ago, and then go sit by your fiancee, with your arm around her, and act like nothing happened, if you weren’t a player.”
For one instant, Mike stared at her as if she were something disgusting he’d found on the bottom of his shoe. “I don’t need this garbage.”
Then he turned and walked away, leaving her staring at his departing back.
4
“MS. COCHRAN I’m sorry to bother you, but.”
Julie looked up from the thick file in front of her that was giving her a killer Monday headache. Framed in the doorway of her crowded, second-floor office was Charlene, her executive assistant. When the woman noticed Julie’s pained look, her expression fell.
“No, it’s not you, Charlene. It’s this convoluted loan application. What do you need?”
“For the record, I don’t need anything, but you might want some aspirin. Your mother’s here.”
Julie clutched at her forehead. “No. Not today.” It hadn’t even been forty-eight hours since Nana’s party, and the last thin
g she wanted was to answer questions about what had happened to make Mike and Caroline, not to mention her, leave so abruptly. She’d purposely not answered the phone all day yesterday, and boy, had it rung. “Don’t we have security in this place? Or will they just let anyone in this bank?”
Charlene grinned. “Sorry.”
Julie grimaced and went over her battle plan. “Okay, is she ‘here’ here, or downstairs meddling in the tellers’ lives?”
“Downstairs meddling. This is an advance warning.”
“Good. Tell her I died.”
“I already did when I was down there a minute ago. She didn’t buy it. Said it would’ve been in the paper, and she’s already read the obituaries today.”
“Great. Tell her I got transferred to Timbuktu.”
Charlene frowned. “We have a branch there?”
“You’re right. She wouldn’t believe it. Then, I have no choice. I’ll just have to kill her.”
“I won’t tell.”
Julie laughed with her. Poor Charlene had a new hair color she hated and her kids were in a different day-care as a result of a ten-minute conversation with Ida Cochran last week.
“Oh, there’s something else.”
Julie arched an eyebrow. “You’re killing me here.”
“Sorry. I just thought you’d want to know that she’s not alone.”
Julie’s stomach tightened. “Dear God, don’t tell me she brought her bridge club up from Sun City Center again on a field trip? I swear she acts like coming to Brandon is open house at an elementary school. And wipe that grin off your face. You’re enjoying this too much.”
Charlene chuckled. “No. No bridge club. It’s not even your father. It’s some cute little tyke about three years old.”
Now all of Julie’s insides went cold. She’d kidnapped Aaron DeAngelo. Mike would call down the wrath of God on her demented mother. “Tell me, Charlene. What does this little boy look like?”
“Oh, he’s so cute! He has blond hair and blue eyes, and he’s carrying a teddy bear.”
Julie nearly slumped over her desk in relief. “Thank God. It’s Tommy, my nephew. My sister and her husband are here for the week. Wait. That explains it. I forgot she and Mom were coming up today for lunch. Did you notice if there was a blond, pregnant woman with her?”
Charlene shook her head and looked thoughtful. “I didn’t see her. But the lobby’s crowded. She could’ve been in the rest room, I guess. Anyway, I only spoke to your mom for a minute.”
“Good thing. Otherwise, you might’ve had to sell your house and have your dog spayed.”
“Yoo-hoo! Julie! We’re here. Are you ready for lunch, sweetie?”
At the sound of her mother’s voice in the foyer outside, immediately followed by the self-defensive closing of several office doors up and down the corridor, Julie and Charlene exchanged glances.
“You’re on your own, boss.”
“Coward.” Julie pushed her leather chair back and stood up, calling out, “Come on in, Mom.”
Charlene sidled out the doorway amid a flurry of introductions to Susan and Tommy, and I-told-you-so comments on how much better she looked as a brunette, as Ida swept in and hugged her baby to her. “Hi, sweetie. There’s something wrong with your phone at the apartment. I called you all day yesterday and there was no answer. Oh, you look so grown-up and in-charge here. Doesn’t she, Susan?” Ida turned to her older daughter. “See? Just like I told you-right there on the door, it says Senior Commercial Loan Officer. That is my baby. I just wish that picture of her downstairs was better.” She turned back to Julie. “Honey, you should open your mouth more when you smile.”
Julie copped a purposely droll face. “Hi, Mom. It’s nice to see you, too.”
“Oh, you know what I mean. Just overlook me. Well, can you go now? We thought we’d try that salad restaurant. All that roughage will be good for Susan’s colon. It’s important that pregnant women don’t get constipated.”
“Mother!” Julie’s blond and beautiful sister put her hands to her flaming cheeks. “You have told that to everyone we’ve spoken to from your house to here—including the guy at the gas station and all the tellers downstairs.”
Julie gave her older sister a sickeningly sweet smile. “Welcome home, sis. Do you remember now why you live in California?”
Julie hugged her older sister and then swooped Tommy and his teddy bear up into her arms to cover his little baby face with kisses. While he squealed and squirmed in her arms, she turned back to her mother, a smile on her face. But it instantly fled when a movement outside her office caught her eye. And held her attention.
Julie sucked in a breath. Her mother and Susan instantly sobered, as well, and turned abruptly in the direction Julie was staring. It was their turn to take surprised breaths. Standing in front of the closing elevator doors across the small foyer from them, and looking like an avenging angel, was Mike DeAngelo.
In a dark, tailored suit, white shirt and tie, he stood there, one knee bent, his hands in his pockets. He could have been posing for a men’s wear layout He also could have been chiseled out of granite, for all the warmth he exuded. His black-eyed gaze bore directly into Julie’s, despite the intervening distance and the other people present.
Julie swallowed hard and tried her best to ignore her erratic heartbeat.
Ida was the first to find her voice. “Before you even think it, I didn’t have anything to do with this.”
Julie spared her mother a glance, but then her gaze sought Mike out again. He hadn’t moved. She’d forgotten she was still holding Tommy until Susan helped him down from her arms.
“We’ll wait downstairs, Julie. Come on, Mom. Come on, Tommy.”
Julie thought she nodded her agreement, but she couldn’t be sure. Suddenly, she felt as wooden as Pinocchio. And it was going to take more than a puppeteer to make her move her arms and legs.
Her family left her office and walked to the elevator. When they neared Mike, he smiled and spoke briefly to them, moving aside for them to pass. Once they’d boarded the elevator, her mother and Susan both turned will-yoube-okay? faces to her. Julie managed to raise a hand in a vague gesture that was meant to reassure them. Then the elevator doors closed.
She forced herself to swallow. Mike skirted the low chairs and magazine-strewn tables in the waiting area to come stand at the door of her office. He stared at her without blinking. He looked so.professional. And impersonal. Well, he’d certainly paid attention the day they’d taught that look at the FBI academy.
When she began to sweat in earnest, she tried for a light tone. “Is this a personal or a professional call?”
He finally blinked. “Personal.”
Her heart thudded. “Oh. So, I can assume we’re not being robbed, or you haven’t uncovered an embezzlement scheme?”
“No.”
“’No, I can’t assume,’ or—”
“Knock it off, Julie.” He dropped his federal agent pose to step inside and close the door behind him. Running a hand through his close-cropped hair, he paced within the small confines of her office. Then he stopped and faced her, his gaze flitting over her like she was some sort of enigma he had to solve. “I don’t even know what I’m doing here. Caroline is still here and is at this minute with Aaron. And me? I’m supposed to be on my way to Plant City on a case. And, yet, here I am.”
His uncertainty in her presence forced control into Julie’s hands. She crossed her arms and shifted her weight to her other foot. “Maybe you came to apologize for Saturday night.”
His response to that was to mumble a particularly descriptive curse as he slouched into the chair in front of her desk. Leaning back, he braced his elbows on the armrests and laced his fingers together. Then he looked her up and down. “All right. We can do this your way. I’m sorry about Saturday night.”
Julie heated up like a simmering kettle. “Well, that sounded sincere. Do you even know what you’re apologizing for?”
His eyelids drooped da
ngerously. “Why don’t you tell me?” -
She was glad to. “For kissing me when you had no right to, for one—”
“You didn’t like it?”
She ignored his interruption. “And for leaving me standing there by myself like that, in front of all my relatives—”
“You insulted me.”
“Oh, did I? And what did you do? You embarrassed me. You hurt me. You humiliated me. You—”
He was on his feet and holding her by her arms before she could finish her sentence. “Stop. You’re right. All of it. I swear to God, I never meant to. I guess that’s why I’m here. To tell you—” he shook his head slowly several times “—I never meant to hurt you.”
Julie wondered if he could hear the roaring in her ears. No longer able to maintain eye contact with him, she looked off to the side, focusing on a three-drawer file cabinet in the corner. “Thank you for that much. I do believe you.”
He exhaled and loosened his grip on her arms. She forced her gaze back to him. Well, she was glad she’d made him feel better. Too bad she didn’t. Darn him, it would have been better for them both if he hadn’t come today. Or ever again. If he felt such a need to apologize, he could have sent a card or flowers or left her a message on her answering machine. Her number was in the book. And he could have at least waited until his fiancée had left.
Then it hit her—right there while she stared up into his black eyes and watched him eyeing her mouth. Yes, her intuition told her, he could have done any of those things. But he hadn’t. Because he’d wanted to see her again. It was that plain and simple.
But he was engaged to her cousin—a really nice woman, her conscience railed. Okay, she didn’t think the rich girl was particularly suited to Mike, but that was none of her business. And he obviously cared enough about her to put a ring on her finger. All right, such was his life. What about hers? What about everything that was important to her— her promotion and the late nights and weekend hours she was putting in on special bank projects she’d begun? Was she just going to trash all the months of hard work—for a man she couldn’t have?
A Man In Demand Page 5