She’d nodded, retreating. Gabriel volunteered nothing and she refused to ask him anything outright. To do so would have only made her seem unduly curious.
But she was curious, Courtney thought now as she stared out the French doors. Curious why a man who professed to have graduated with a degree in engineering from UCLA had been earning a living renovating a guest house.
Curious why a man who claimed to have married into a family of social prominence had all but sold himself into what amounted to servitude for two years for a sum that would have been thought of as petty cash by many people.
Why had he turned himself into an indentured servant when he supposedly had other resources?
He certainly didn’t look like an indentured servant from here. She watched him set the door aside, and then bring out another one. His biceps bulged.
Mandy would have left drool marks from here to the pool if she could have seen him. As for that first morning’s encounter in the bathroom, she doubted Mandy’s heart could have withstood it
. Courtney could feel her own skin warming just thinking about it.
Just as it did when she lay in her bed at night, wondering what it would be like to have her new husband make love with her.
She shook her head. Nothing that looked that good could possibly live up to its packaging.
But that didn’t stop her from wondering what it would be like. Or why he hadn’t made another move toward her since that first morning.
Didn’t he find her attractive? Wasn’t she even worth an effort?
At this rate, she wasn’t going to survive two years. She was going to make herself crazy inside of a month and then it wouldn’t matter who got the inheritance.
Squaring her shoulders, Courtney threw open the French doors and walked out. The sound of Katie’s laughter floated lightly through the air on the summer breeze. Courtney couldn’t help smiling. The sound never failed to create a feeling of well-being within her. Katie was the perfect antidote to her father.
As she approached, Courtney saw that Katie was playing on the lawn with the puppy she’d impulsively bought for her last week. It was a consolation gift because Katie had missed Mandy’s poodle after Cuddles had gone home.
Katie was lying on the grass, having her face washed by a fast-moving pink tongue. The dog, Squiggles, a black toy poodle, was doing a thorough job.
His back to the main house, Gabriel tensed. She was coming. He couldn’t hear Courtney’s approach over the noise Katie and the puppy were making, but the breeze had just shifted and he could detect the lightest bit of her perfume.
It was enough to alert him. And arouse him.
The drill bit suddenly punctured the wood, going farther than he’d planned. He stifled a curse. With a little wood putty strategically applied, it could be fixed. But it shouldn’t have had to be fixed. You would have thought, he mused in disgust, that a man his age wouldn’t have to go through this kind of garbage.
Maybe it was just the stress of worrying about Katie getting to him.
He knew better than to lie to himself. He’d gone down that road once, lied to himself to ignore the obvious. And all that had accomplished was to postpone the inevitable. The truth always had a way of coming out and bringing consequences along with it.
Courtney watched his back as Gabriel worked. Even his body language shut her out. It looked like a solid, flesh wall. She’d done some shutting out of her own. Since the morning after the wedding, she had gone out of her way to avoid Gabriel as much as possible, except for dinner. She might have succeeded, too, if not for Katie. Katie seemed determined to wiggle her way into her life.
She already had.
Scrambling up into a sitting position, Katie sent the dog tumbling over on its side, a mass of paws and ears.
“Mommy, you’re up.” She looked overjoyed to see her. At least someone was, Courtney thought, glancing at Gabriel again. “Daddy said not to bother you, so I didn’t.”
Courtney sat down beside Katie on the lawn. The puppy began sniffing at her sandals. “Thank you. I like to sleep in.”
Squiggles started nipping at her toes. Courtney yelped and Katie tugged the dog over toward her. The animal moved in a boneless heap, reminding Courtney of a cat she’d once had.
“Why don’t you sleep with Daddy?”
Courtney’s head snapped up. Katie’s innocent question brought an abrupt end to her nostalgic journey.
“Jenny’s new mommy sleeps with her daddy,” Katie persisted.
Wasn’t four too young to ask questions like this? At a loss, Courtney looked toward Gabriel for help.
John was accustomed to Katie’s inquisitive mind, though it had never taken such a personal direction before. “Your new mommy kicks when she’s asleep.” He could see that Courtney didn’t care for his explanation, but it was the best he could come up with on short notice. He grinned at his daughter. “And I don’t like getting bruised.”
“And your daddy snores,” she countered, “so I can’t sleep. Having two separate bedrooms is more restful for everybody.” Courtney looked at him pointedly.
“Oh.” Katie accepted the explanation without question. A moment later she was immersed in a tug-of-war with Squiggles over her sneaker. Giggling, she jumped up and began to chase after the dog. “John dropped his hammer into the opened toolbox. “Katie,” he called her name sternly. “You know what I said about running around.”
With a sigh; Katie stopped instantly. Turning, she walked slowly back to him.
Courtney glared at Gabriel. Just what was his problem? Didn’t he want to see anyone have fun? Annoyed, she got up and chased after the puppy.
Katie’s gleeful shouts of encouragement rang in her ears as she managed to corner Squiggles between the guest house wall and one leg of the sawhorse.
“Gotcha!” Holding the squirming bundle of fluff against her, Courtney brought the puppy and Katie’s sneaker back to the little girl. “There you go, pumpkin.”
Taking him, Katie stumbled beneath the burden before righting herself. Courtney saw Gabriel reach for his daughter, then stop when she didn’t fall. He looked as if he thought she was going to break.
Courtney turned to him, lowering her voice. “Why don’t you let her play? All children like to run around. It’s only natural.”
His eyes darkened. Maybe for once she was trying to be nice, but that still didn’t give her the right to butt in where she didn’t belong. “How many children do you have?”
There they were again, on opposite sides. By now, she should be getting used to this. “She’s my only one at the moment.”
Oh no, not here, lady. You don’t belong in this part of my life. “No, she’s mine.” His voice was low, even and would brook no argument “I’ll thank you to leave my daughter to me.”
Courtney shoved her hands into her back pockets. All right, maybe she had been a little lofty, but he’d rubbed her the wrong way. “I don’t see why—”
There was no arguing this point But maybe she needed the rules spelled out to her.
“Look, you bought me for two years, you didn’t buy Katie.” Squatting, he rummaged through his toolbox, not really focusing on anything that was inside. “That means you have no say in the way I raise her.” He wanted his daughter to have fun, to be happy, but he was so afraid of overtaxing her heart. “I shouldn’t have even let you give her that dog.” He knew why she’d done it, and had even been moved by her thoughtfulness. But maybe it had been a mistake to accept it.
Courtney curbed the urge to tell him what she thought of him. She knew it was pointless. He didn’t care what she thought of him. But he did care about Katie. Didn’t he like seeing her happy?
Courtney watched Katie playing with Squiggles. “They look like they belong together.”
They did—or they would, after Katie was well. “Yeah, well, to your lawyer, so do we.”
It was like arguing with a rock. She let the matter go. “I haven’t thanked you for that yet. Standing still for
Parsons’s questions. The morning after my—our wedding,” she reminded him when he looked at her blankly.
He’d rather enjoyed pretending to be the loving spouse. Especially since he could see that it made her nervous. Courtney had a little vein at the side of throat that throbbed whenever she was agitated. It had throbbed a great deal when he’d held her to him for the lawyer’s benefit
. And maybe, he admitted, a little for his own.
John shrugged, finally zeroing in on the plane he was looking for. “Just doing my job.”
That’s all it was to him. A job. And she was paying him for it. Handsomely. There was no need to thank him, she upbraided herself ruefully. Her check would do that more than adequately.
“Well, your services are needed again, husband-forhire,” she informed him coldly. “I’m having a party Saturday—”
“Don’t you people do anything except party?”
She clenched her hands at her sides, not wanting to lose her temper in front of Katie. “I wish you’d stop referring to me as ‘you people.’ In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a crowd, I’m an individual.”
“Oh, I’ve noticed all right. Probably more than either one of us would want.” That stopped her, he noted. He really didn’t want to argue with her. It was just that whenever Courtney was around, he found himself getting testy.
And when she wasn’t around, he found himself thinking about her. And getting testy.
Because he didn’t want to want her as much as he did.
There was no one else around to take his frustration out on. So she got the brunt of it. It was only fitting, seeing how she was the cause of it
. “And what’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded.
“You’re a smart girl. You figure it out.”
“It’s not ‘girl’ these days,” Courtney corrected him. “It’s ‘woman.’”
His eyes drifted over her body, remembering how she’d looked wearing that spiderweb she called a nightgown. “I’ve noticed that, too.” He obviously wasn’t going to get any work done with her lingering around him. John turned around to face her squarely, giving her his undivided attention. “Okay, what am I supposed to do at this party?”
“Behave.” She saw his eyes narrowing and held up her hand. It had been a cheap shot and she knew it. “Truce. I’m just going to introduce you to some of the people who weren’t at the wedding—”
He knew she’d said it was going to be part of the deal, but he didn’t have to like it. The thought of being “introduced” to even more of her shallow friends rubbed a very raw, very familiar spot. “Are you going to parade me around on a leash, or do I get to roam free like a tame pet?”
She was getting tired of his balking at everything. “No one twisted your arm to agree to this bargain.”
A mirthless smile creased his lips. “No, you’re right, no one did. Sorry.” He began planing the bottom of the door. When he had tested it earlier, it had stuck on the door sill. “I’ll be there.”
The about-face left her suspicious. “In a suit, this time.”
He shrugged, applying muscle as he moved the plane along. “In anything you want.”
Wood shavings fell at her feet. Courtney moved back. “You know, you really don’t have to do that. After all, you’re supposed to be my husband.”
“Don’t the husbands in your world have hobbies?” More shavings rained down. He tested the side of the door with his finger, then decided to give it one more pass. “Your father did. Besides, anyone you hire won’t do as good a job as I can.”
“Think a lot of yourself, don’t you?”
He glanced and was surprised to see a smile on her face. He swallowed the retort that had risen to his lips. “Only when it’s merited. Now, if you don’t mind, you’re in my way.”
Well, politeness certainly wasn’t his long suit, she thought. Courtney turned on her heel without saying a word.
Gabriel watched as she left. It was a hell of a predicament he’d gotten himself into.
But he’d survived Diane and he could survive this. Although, he had to admit that he didn’t remember Diane ever affecting him quite like this.
He saw Katie hurrying after Courtney, struggling with the puppy she held in her arms. “Katie, where are you going?” he called after her.
“With Mommy,” she cried.
Turning, Courtney saw Katie’s slow progress. She crossed to her and took the puppy.
“Come here, Squiggles.” Sloan was going to love this, she thought. “I’m going to have to ask Mandy how she toilet trained her dog.”
“Don’t you mean housebroke?” Katie offered her the word her father had used.
“No, I think Squiggles has got breaking things in the house pretty much down pat.”
Katie giggled and Courtney slipped her free hand around the little girl’s shoulders as they walked into the house.
Hell of a predicament, John thought again. It took him a few minutes before he got back to work.
Chapter Nine
Courtney didn’t see them immediately. The carefully handmade card and the tiny rectangular box with its navy blue bow were sitting off to the side on the vanity table, out of her direct line of vision.
When Courtney first walked into the room out of the shower, her bathrobe wrapped around her, her mind was touching on a dozen last-minute details concerning the party that night. She wanted everything to be perfect.
An uncustomary flutter of nerves rushed over her. Exhaling, she ran her fingers through her hair. Already beginning to dry and curl, it felt like a mass of tangles to the touch.
Courtney glanced at the mirror, frowning. Should she leave it that way? Or wear it up? Gathering her hair off her neck, she examined the results. It didn’t help make up her mind.
Gabriel would probably think all this was trivial. But it wasn’t She was thirty today, and while that might not be earthshaking, it meant something to her. She wasn’t just a carefree kid anymore. There were responsibilities awaiting her.
More responsibilities, she amended. It wasn’t as if she’d been a madcap heiress up to now, although Gabriel probably thought so.
Gabriel.
Her frown deepened. Why did all her thoughts keep circling around him, returning to him as if he were some kind of mystical point of origin? Courtney picked up a comb and tried to pull it through her hair. Resistance met her. Just like Gabriel.
Was she making a mistake? She needed the party, the diversion it created, but she knew that Gabriel didn’t like having to attend. Forcing him to mingle so soon with her friends might be putting too much pressure on him. To his credit, he’d borne up to the wedding and the interview with Parsons pretty well so far. It really wasn’t fair of her to expect so much so quickly.
But the party was supposed to be in his honor. He couldn’t very well not show up. If he was absent, rumors would start flying.
Rumors would probably start anyway, Courtney thought. She knew this crowd. A lot of them lived for rumors.
Courtney reached for her moisturizer. Her skin felt like leather lately. Or was that just tension constricting everything?
Her fingers came in contact with paper rather than the familiar round jar.
She looked down on the vanity and saw the card, and the gift sitting behind it. Curious, she picked them both up.
Who—?
There were three stick figures drawn on the front cover of the card. One was very obviously a man, and his pointy little hand was holding on to the equally pointy little hand of a smaller, blonder figure. They were both looking at a much larger figure, also blond, and if the less-than-artful shoes on the stick feet were any indication, this was a female.
Courtney’s smile spread, filling her. No one had ever drawn a picture for her before. Certainly not of her. Above the figures, in childish scrawl, were the words Happy Birthday, Mommy.
She could feel her throat tightening as she read. Just a silly little piece of paper, she thought. A silly, little, dear piece
of paper.
Inside the card, in lettering that was far more ornate than what was on the outside, were the words Yeah, me, too. Beneath was Gabriel’s signature, followed by a drawing of a hammer and chisel.
She’d gotten a birthday card from Rambo and his child. Who knew that beneath that monosyllabic exterior beat the heart of an artist? Courtney blinked back a sudden tear and sat down on her bed, staring at the card. The gift lay clutched in her other hand, unopened and, for the time being, forgotten.
Holding the card brought back memories. Courtney could remember sitting and drawing a card for her father on his birthday. One of the servants had gently offered to take her to a store to buy one, saying that her father would prefer a real card. But she had stubbornly refused, finishing the one she was making. Her father had professed it to be his dearest treasure. Less than a year later, she’d thought he was just being kind.
She knew now that he hadn’t been. He really had treasured the card. Just as she treasured this one.
Courtney glanced toward the connecting door. How had they known that her birthday was today?
There was only one way to find out. She slipped the wrapped box into the pocket of her bathrobe.
“Katie,” she called, walking into the little girl’s room.
Katie was already in bed. Gabriel was sitting beside her, an open storybook in his hands. Courtney saw that, unlike her, he was already dressed for the party. And he was wearing the suit that she’d laid out for him. She couldn’t understand why he’d resisted wearing it before. The suit looked wonderful on him.
Sackcloth and ashes would have looked wonderful on him, she thought, remembering what she’d said about dressing for an interrogation.
Katie sat up, the sleepy look fading from her eyes as she saw the card in Courtney’s hand. Squiggles, lying asleep at the foot of the bed, raised his head, then went back to sleep.
“You found it. I told Daddy I didn’t think you saw the card I drewed—”
“Drew,” John corrected automatically. How could an ordinary bathrobe look so damn enticing? But it did. On her. Especially the small area that was still wet, just across her breasts. He wondered if he had enough time to take a cold shower.
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