Wife Wanted

by Christine Rimmer

  “Why would you have given them away?”

  “Did I say that?”

  “Come on. Spill it.”

  She laughed. “All right. Because I was so jealous of them, that’s why. They always had each other, no matter what else went wrong. They had that thing that identicals so often have. A world of their own. It was sometimes as if they could read each other’s minds, you know? And even though they were two years younger than me, which should have given me some kind of edge over them, I was the one who felt left out.”

  “So you were jealous of their closeness.”

  “Yes. And that’s not all.”

  “I’m listening.”

  And he was. Listening. So intently. As if he really cared. She felt her cheeks coloring. “Why am I telling you all of this?”

  “Because I asked. Go on.”

  “It’s not important.”

  “Natalie.” He looked at her levelly. “I want to hear it.”

  She believed him. She shouldn’t, she knew it. But she did. She heard herself confessing, “Well, to me it always seemed that, between the two of them, Allie and Rocky were perfect.”

  “Perfect?”

  “Um-hm. They seemed to have every single desirable trait that I lacked. Beauty and courage, a spirit of adventure, an air of excitement that followed them both wherever they went. And you know what?”

  “Uh-uh.”

  “They’re both still like that. Gorgeous and brainy and brave and exciting.” She rested a hand on the bench cushion and leaned toward him. “And Caroline, my older sister, is no slouch, either. The truth is, I’m the boring sister.”

  He faked a groan. “Are you fishing for compliments?”

  She thought about that, then confessed, “Sure sounds like it, doesn’t it?”

  He leaned toward her, so there were only inches between their noses. She caught a hint of his after-shave, a fresh, outdoorsy scent, and found herself thinking that he smelled every bit as good as he looked.

  He said, “You are not boring.”

  She sighed. Rick was a terrific guy.

  Too terrific, a voice way back in her mind warned, to ever want or need someone like you.

  She had to get some distance. Fast.

  She shifted back away from him. “We should either drop the anchor or start up the engine again. We’re getting a little too close to shore.”

  They started the engine. Toby, who’d been sitting on the deck with Bernie, got up and stood proudly beside his father as Rick took the wheel. At a cove Natalie knew, they dropped the anchor.

  When she and Rick were settled on the padded bench once again, Natalie found herself asking him, “Are your parents still alive?”

  Rick shook his head. “They died when I was in my teens. An electrical short that started a house fire. Late at night, while we were asleep. I woke up and managed to get Mom out, but couldn’t find Dad. A neighbor saved me, but they… neither of them made it.” He looked out over the water.

  Not stopping to consider whether such a move was wise, she laid her hand on his. “How sad for you.”

  He looked down at where she touched him. “It was a long time ago. I went to live with my aunt and uncle, but they didn’t have kids, either. Anyway, I always wanted a bunch of brothers and sisters. But you know what they say, if wishes were horses…” As his voice trailed off, he looked up into her eyes. Then, slowly, he turned his hand and wrapped his fingers around hers.

  Natalie was stunned. It seemed at that moment like the most intimate thing any man had ever done to her—to turn his hand and take hers and look right into her eyes as he did it. Suddenly, the day seemed terribly hot, the air unbearably close and humid against her skin. And the hand that held hers was so warm and encompassing, sending little shivers zinging through her.

  She realized he was smiling at something behind her. “What?” she asked, turning.

  Bernie was stretched out on the deck, asleep. And Toby had used the dog as a giant-size pillow. The big brown-and-white belly cradled the small, dark head. The boy’s eyes were closed, and his thin chest rose and fell in an even, shallow rhythm.

  Natalie turned back to Rick again. He smiled at her, deep into her eyes. And for a moment, what they were doing—sitting here, holding hands as the boy and the dog slept so peacefully a few feet away—seemed the most natural, right, thing in the world to be doing.

  But then reason reasserted itself.

  Natalie Fortune, are you out of your mind? that voice in her head warned. Before you know it, you’ll be doing his laundry and raising that darling little boy for him.

  It occurred to her that there were worse fates.

  And that was when she knew she was really in trouble here. She’d barely gotten rid of Joel. In fact, Joel still refused to admit he’d been gotten rid of. It was way too soon to be falling for another man—and especially not a man like this. A man who was just too good to be true.

  She pulled her hand free. He let it go.

  There was an awkward, awful moment when she had no idea what to do next.

  She glanced frantically out toward the water again, spotting a blue-and-white patio boat far off to starboard, past the mouth of the cove where they lay at anchor, and focusing on it to keep from looking at Rick. She squinted. The boat seemed to have two people aboard. She wished she was on it.

  Anywhere but here, where she was having much too lovely a time for her own good—and where she kept doing and saying things she shouldn’t.

  “Natalie?” His voice was so gentle.

  “Umm?”

  “Are you…all right?”

  “Of course,” she lied.

  She still didn’t have the nerve to look right at him, so she went on staring at the faraway boat, her entire body tingling with a thoroughly dangerous kind of awareness. And though she still couldn’t meet Rick’s eyes, she knew very well that they were trained on her face.

  And it was hot. She shifted around again, because the backs of her legs were damp from the leather seat pad. And she raised her arms and lifted her hair off her neck. The air caressed her damp skin, cooling it a little.

  Rick was leaning on the railing.

  She dared to give him what she hoped was a very casual kind of smile. “It’s hot.”

  He went on watching her. “Very.”

  “Funny. When people think of Minnesota, they think of snow. But we have our summers, too.”

  “We certainly do.”

  She reached into the pocket of her shorts and found an elastic hair band, which she used to quickly tie her damp hair into a high ponytail. Then she straightened her shirt, which had pulled out a little when she lifted her arms. “Better,” she said, and forced herself to smile directly at him.

  It was a mistake. In his eyes there was a look—a questioning, hopeful look. And though her mind kept saying, “No” to that look, the rest of her was shouting, “Yes!”

  She should say something totally innocuous now, she knew it. But she couldn’t think of what.

  So that meant he was the next to speak, and what he said wasn’t innocuous at all. “I’ve been…alone for a long time now.”

  And then, with one or two glances at his sleeping son, he quietly began to tell her about his ex-wife, Vanessa Chandler, whom he’d met at a friend’s Christmas party and married a year later. He frankly confessed that he hadn’t put as much time and attention into the marriage as he should. He’d put so much energy into succeeding at work, there wasn’t a lot left over for his marriage. Vanessa had felt neglected.

  And then, later, he hadn’t been much of a father to Toby. Vanessa had divorced him when Toby was only a year old, then moved back to Louisville, where her widowed mother lived, taking Toby with her. Visits with Toby had been few and far between. Vanessa would have been perfectly happy never to set eyes on Rick again, as long as he sent the support checks on time. And Rick had been so busy getting ahead that he didn’t pursue his parental responsibilities as he should.

  “So now,�
�� he said ruefully, “I’m trying to make it up to my son for all the times I wasn’t there for him.”

  “I think you’re making a pretty good start.”

  He muttered a thank-you, then asked, “What about you?”

  “Was I ever married, you mean?”

  “Yeah, for starters.”

  She shook her head. “Never married.”

  “What about ‘meaningful relationships’?”

  And then, there she was, telling him about Joel, how she’d met him when she first started at Travistown School and how they’d been together for five years. That Joel had called it off between them about a month before. That she had been deeply hurt at first, but had gotten past that.

  “And now, I’m planning to fully enjoy my freedom.”

  “Hence the decadent extended cruise?”

  “You got it. The cruise is my attempt to do something purely self-indulgent for once, something that has nothing to do with kids or dogs or other people’s emotional needs.”

  Rick listened and nodded and seemed honestly interested in every word she had to say—which was probably why neither of them paid much attention when Toby rolled himself into a ball on the deck and stopped using Bernie for a pillow.

  After that, Bernie sat and stretched and padded over to starboard, where he hefted his front paws onto the padded bench and stared at the patio boat that still drifted on the slow currents several hundred yards away.

  Four

  “The first time was chancy, Kate,” Sterling said. “But this time is pure folly. And would you please put down those binoculars? We’re close enough that the sunlight could reflect off the lenses and tip them off about what you’re up to.”

  Kate pointed at the canopy overhead. “I’m in the shade.” She adjusted the focus on the binoculars. She could see Bernie, looking back at her. And when she scanned to the right just a little, she could see the back of Rick Dalton’s head and Natalie’s sweet, gentle face. They were leaning close to each other, apparently deep in conversation.

  “Kate.” Sterling reached out and snared the binoculars from her hands.

  She glared at him. “Sterling, really.”

  In two long strides he was at the stern, stowing the binoculars in the built-in chest there. “That takes care of that,” he said, with way too much satisfaction, as he returned to sit beside Kate.

  “Oh, all right. Have it your way.” Kate retied the scarf she wore and adjusted her dark glasses. Then she produced a snowy handkerchief and blotted her brow. “It’s much too hot to argue with you, anyway.”

  “You shouldn’t be here.”

  “I know, I know.” She patted his hand. “But I couldn’t resist. I had to see the man and the boy for myself, that’s all. And now I have. And I feel wonderful about them. They’re going to be much more than just perfect tenants. Wait and see.”

  Sterling grunted. “Fine. Let nature take its course with them, then. We have some much more serious problems to deal with than whether Natalie will find herself a new boyfriend or not.”

  “Nothing’s more serious than love.”

  “Do you know how low the company stock has fallen? Yesterday it closed at—”

  “I know where it closed yesterday.”

  “The shareholders are screaming. And every employee you’ve got is terrified about what will happen next. Security has been breached. Badly. The Secret Youth Formula…”

  Kate waved her hand and Sterling fell silent. “I know, I know.”

  The Secret Youth Formula was Kate’s pet project at Fortune Cosmetics, an as-yet-unperfected gel blended of certain herbs and vitamin extracts that could actually reverse the aging process.

  Not too long ago, someone had broken into the lab and stolen the formula. Probably the same person who had set the series of fires at the labs. And tried to kill Kate. And sent a henchman to pretend to be a crazed fan who kidnapped Allie. And continued to make trouble.

  “As of now, though,” Kate reminded her friend, “while it may not be business as usual, we are holding together.”

  “Barely. Everyone’s near the breaking point. Your two sons are at each other’s throats. Nathaniel’s always felt he could run the company better than Jake. And lately, with what Jake’s been doing, I’m beginning to agree with him.”

  “We’ll get to the bottom of all of it. Eventually.”

  “But will we do it in time? On top of everything else, there’s that damned Ducet woman.”

  “She’s a problem, I know.”

  “She’s more than a problem. She’s a bad-press machine. She keeps giving interviews to the tabloids about how the family isn’t accepting her.”

  “Since she is not my daughter, I don’t see any reason why the family should accept her.” Kate’s lost child, the twin to her first daughter, Lindsay, had been a boy. Kate knew this. And so had Ben. But when the child was kidnapped, shortly after his birth, the FBI had ordered the information kept under wraps in order to maintain closer control of their investigation. The sex of the child had never been released to the public. And Kate, hurting too much to talk about it, had forbidden mention of the child over the intervening years.

  Now, because of the lost FBI records, except for the kidnappers themselves, Kate was the only one whose statement could get rid of the fake heiress for good and all.

  “The last thing we need right now is more bad press,” Sterling said.

  But Kate was firm. “I want Ms. Tracey Ducet to play her whole hand before we discredit her. I want to know what she’s up to. And I want to find out if she’s got anything to do with our problems—from the fires at the lab to the hijacker who caused my plane to crash.”

  “I’m not a nervous man, Kate. But I’m becoming very nervous lately.”

  “Just a bit longer, Sterling. I really must know who’s behind all the terrible things that have been happening.”

  “I’m worried about Jake. Really worried. He behaves like a man about to do something desperate.”

  “Go see him. Right away. Try to get him to open up to you.”

  “Jake is your son. You, of all people should know the likelihood of his opening up to anyone, ever.”

  “Do what you can. And give me a full report.” She stood and went to the stern.

  “Kate. Don’t…”

  But she already had the binoculars out of the chest.

  “Sometimes you’re so damn reckless,” Sterling muttered.

  Kate only smiled and turned the focus on the binoculars, so that she could see the man and woman on the other boat.

  On the Lady Kate, the conversation had drifted away. Natalie and Rick sat close together, both enjoying the silence. Natalie sighed and gazed over the railing. Even here, where it was shallow enough to drop anchor, the waters below the bow looked deep and still.

  “What are you looking at?” Rick asked.

  “It’s not what I’m looking at. It’s what I’m looking for.”

  He leaned over the side, close enough that their knees brushed, and looked into the water with her. “All right, Ms. Fortune. What are you looking for?”

  She told him, in a teasing whisper. “The friendly monster of Lake Travis.”

  “The what?”

  Still staring into the slightly mossy depths, she explained, “When I was a little girl, and Grandpa Ben used to take me out on this boat, he’d look over the edge into the water and say he saw a friendly monster down there.”

  Rick chuckled.

  She looked up from the water and into his eyes.

  They shared a smile.

  Rick’s glance strayed to her mouth.

  Natalie knew then that he was going to kiss her. And she wanted him to kiss her. She knew it would be lovely. And warm. And tender. And arousing…

  Not to mention a major error in judgment, some wiser voice far back in her mind chided her knowingly.

  She froze, then straightened, pulling away from him.

  Rick frowned. “Look, Natalie, I—”

  Be
fore he could say another word, she put up a hand. “We should get back.”

  He watched her for a moment, then nodded. “All right.” He turned toward the deck.

  They realized simultaneously that Toby and the dog were gone.

  Rick stood, his thoughts all for his son now. “He never wanders off.”

  Natalie got to her feet, as well. “I’m sure they’ve just gone inside.”

  Rick was already at the cabin door.

  Inside, they found Bernie sitting in front of a storage cabinet opposite the kitchen counter area. The dog looked at them, whined softly, then lifted a giant paw to scratch at the door of the cabinet.

  Rick knelt and pulled open the door.

  Toby was there in the dark space, his legs drawn up to his narrow chest and his arms wrapped tightly around his knees.

  “Toby, come on out.”

  The boy huddled closer into himself and hid his head against his knees.

  “Come on, now….”

  Toby hunched up tighter still.

  Natalie was standing behind Rick. When he looked around at her, she read the frustration in his eyes.

  “He does this sometimes,” Rick said. “Finds himself a tiny space and then won’t come out of it. He used to do it a lot, but it’s tapered off recently.” He shook his head. “His doctor says I shouldn’t make a big deal of it.”

  Natalie had an idea. “Why don’t you join him?”

  “What?”

  “Just get in there with him.”

  Rick looked at her as if she were a few cards short of a full deck.

  “Trust me. I’m right about this.” She folded her arms and tried to look supremely confident, though she really had no way to be sure whether her idea would work or not. But in her experience, troubled children sometimes responded positively to adults who were willing to venture into their world with them. “Go on, Rick. Do it.”

  For several seconds, Rick didn’t budge. But then, with a grimace, he dropped to his knees.

  He cast her a glance that clearly said, This had better work. Then he instructed lightly, “Scoot over, son. Let me in.”

  Still hunched into himself, the boy slid deeper into the cabinet. Rick couldn’t actually fit in there, but he did manage to stick his head and shoulders inside with his son.