by Candace Camp
Quinn would see right through it, she told herself, after all her big talk about not seeing him again. It made her blush with embarrassment just to think about that slow, knowing smile of his. He would be sure that she hadn’t meant anything she said, that she had simply been hoping that he would talk her out of her decision. And why hadn’t he called her, anyway? Was it that easy for him to give her up?
She told herself that she was being an idiot, and she returned to her work, sternly stopping her thoughts every time they threatened to go astray. She made it through the day. But the next day, she finally gave up with a sigh and drove over to Angel Eye.
Telling herself that she probably would not even see him, she strode into the courthouse and went down to the basement to the county clerk’s office, where she looked up the deed she had come to see. A few minutes later, she climbed the stairs to the first floor. She glanced around, then started toward the tall front doors, telling herself that she was not going to appear even more foolish by loitering around here, hoping that the sheriff would pop out of his office.
Feeling a trifle let down, she stepped out onto the front steps of the courthouse and looked down to see Quinn Sutton coming up them. He stopped, and a wide smile crossed his face—not the knowing smile she had imagined, but a smile of pure pleasure that made her heart flip-flop in her chest.
“Lisa!” he said, trotting up the last few steps to stand just below her, his face on a level with hers. “Well, you’ve made my day.”
Lisa was aware that her smile was far too wide, but she could not seem to control it. “Hi. I, uh, had to check a deed at the county clerk’s office.”
“I’ve been thinking about you,” he said.
“Really?”
“Yeah. Wondering if you would bite my head off if I called you.”
“I hope I’m not that bad.”
“Oh, you’re not bad at all,” he responded in a lazy drawl that made her blood heat.
She could feel a blush rising in her cheeks, and she looked away.
“So,” he went on, “would you have talked to me if I’d called?”
“I guess we’ll never know now, will we?” Lisa responded, realizing even as she said it that her manner was much too flirtatious. “I mean, well, you didn’t, and I—of course I would have talked to you. But it still isn’t a good idea. I mean, well, there’s no point.” Lisa stopped, wondering if she could possibly sound any more foolish.
“No point?”
“Yes. I mean…” Lisa took a firm grip on herself, managing a cool, even disinterested tone. “After all, ethically it’s questionable. And I am going to be here for only a few more months. It would be silly to get involved with anyone. And you…”
“And me what?” he asked after she trailed to a halt.
“You…well, it would be pointless for you, too.” She realized that she could hardly accuse him of being a womanizer, as if she wanted some long-term commitment from him.
“Well, what if we didn’t think about all the heavy stuff, like where you’re going to be in a year and whether we might get into opposing positions professionally and whatever you were going to say about me but realized would be impolite.”
Her cheeks flamed with color. “No! Quinn, I didn’t—oh, all right, I did. I was going to say that everyone says you bounce around from woman to woman, and half the women in town are in love with you.”
Quinn chuckled. “Oh, I think that’s an exaggeration. It’s no more than a quarter of them. Come on, Lisa, haven’t you figured out that small towns love to gossip? You can’t trust half of what you hear. And if I have dated a lot…” He shrugged and smiled engagingly. “Well, maybe I just haven’t found the right woman.”
“See? That’s what I’m talking about. Charming and fickle.”
“You can’t be charming without being fickle, too?”
“They go hand in hand, I’ve found.” She squared her shoulders. “Look, Quinn, you and I both know that you are a hunter, the kind who likes the chase, and you are interested in me primarily because I have been resisting you. Once the chase is over, you get bored and disinterested.”
“The answer to getting rid of me is obvious. Just let me catch you, and I’ll be gone.”
“I’m serious. Everything about you and me is wrong.”
“How can that be true when I enjoy being around you so much? And don’t tell me that it’s more fun to be sitting in your office writing legal briefs than standing around flirting with me on the courthouse steps.”
“Oh, really…” She turned and walked around him.
He pivoted, falling into step beside her. “Come on, admit it, weren’t you hoping, at least a little bit, that you might run into me when you went to the records office?”
“I admit that you are fun,” Lisa said grudgingly.
“Well, then, why don’t we forget the other stuff and concentrate on that? I like to see you because it’s fun, and you feel the same way. So we could go out sometime and have fun. That’s all.”
“It wouldn’t be all.”
“I tell you what, why don’t you go with me to this family thing this weekend?” he asked. “Not a date—just a friend helping out a friend. I don’t have anyone to go with me, and my family will be bugging me the whole time about why I didn’t bring someone. It’s in the afternoon, so that’s not like a date, right?”
“I guess.” Lisa cast him a sideways glance. It scared her a little how much she wanted to agree to go with him.
“So could we agree to do that? Just a friendly thing, non-threatening, no commitment…”
The problem, she knew, was that there was little likelihood that she could be around Quinn for any length of time, and have it not involve something more than friendship. Both the times she had been with him before had ended in a kiss. But what would be so terrible about that? Maybe a little passion was just what she needed in her life.
“Well, I suppose there wouldn’t be any harm…” she began.
“Great. I’ll pick you up at one, Saturday afternoon. It starts at two, but I have to be there early. I’ll pick you up about one, say?”
“I live in the Windemere Apartments,” Lisa replied and began to give him directions.
Quinn grinned. “No need. I know where they are. I followed you home the other night. Remember? I’ll see you Saturday then.”
“Wait. What is this family thing? What should I wear? I mean, is it a picnic or what?”
He grinned. “No. It’s not a picnic. Wear something nice. It’s my brother Daniel’s wedding.”
Chapter 5
It was impossible, Lisa thought, looking at herself in the full-length mirror on her closet door. She should not be going to a family wedding with Quinn. She had told him so as soon as he’d said what the event was, and she had called him at work two days later to re-assert the absolute inappropriateness of the whole thing.
“It’s ludicrous,” she had argued. “I barely know you, and I don’t know anyone else in your family at all. I don’t belong at a family wedding. It’s too—”
“Too what?”
Well, too intimate, that’s what, too weighted in meaning. “It’s a family occasion,” she had said instead. “You shouldn’t take a casual date to it.”
“Why not?”
“Because it is something serious and meaningful to the people who are getting married. It’s an occasion when they want their family and friends around, not complete strangers.”
“They don’t mind if I bring somebody. They expect me to. Look, the wedding’s not going to be big. It’s the second time around for both of them. But half the county will be at the reception.” At her pointedly raised eyebrow, he continued. “Okay, maybe not half. But a whole lot of people. My family has lived here forever, and Daniel’s new wife is the local vet. They know everybody. It’s a big celebration. And if I show up without a date, my brothers will tease the hell out of me all afternoon, and my father and sister will worry because they think I ought to be doing some
serious wife-shopping.”
“And I’m supposed to be a possible wife?” Lisa’s voice slid upward rapidly.
“Now, don’t get your knickers in a twist. They aren’t going to try to hog-tie you and drag you to the altar. But if I can’t even manage to bring somebody to the wedding, they will be sure I’m on my way to old codger-hood.”
He had gone on persuasively, “It won’t be bad, darlin’. I promise you. My family hasn’t eaten anybody in years now. You’ll like my sister Beth—people always do. And, hey, she’s married to a big Hollywood director, so you’ll get to meet somebody famous.”
“Are you serious?”
“Sure. Now why would I make something like that up?”
He had then gone on to relate the story of his pregnant sister’s first meeting with Jackson Prescott on the side of the road, where she was stranded and going into labor, and his frantic drive to the hospital with her, followed by the comedy of errors that had had all the Sutton males ending up in a brawl in the hospital with Prescott. By the time he was through, Lisa had been laughing so hard her sides hurt, and she had given up her attempt to reason with him.
Now, the day of the event, Lisa was still certain that it was a bad idea for her to accompany Quinn to his brother’s wedding. Attending a wedding with someone implied a certain closeness, an intimacy that was not the case with them. It made her feel uneasy. His family was bound to get the wrong impression, and so would the other guests. But, looking at herself in the mirror, wearing the blue dress that she had bought last weekend in San Antonio, she could not bring herself to back out of it. The dress was perfect for a wedding, its wonderfully strappy and enticing back covered demurely by a short jacket, and she was longing to wear her new acquisition. Besides, it set off her skin and her figure so well that she knew, down deep, that she was eager to let Quinn see her in it.
His reaction a few minutes later when she opened the door to his knock was everything she could have hoped for. His eyes widened, and dark reddish light flared up in them. He straightened from his lounging position and stepped forward, his eyes running down her body appreciatively.
“Well,” he said after a moment, “already this is turning out to be better than I thought.”
“You had low expectations?” Lisa asked lightly, mentally observing that Quinn did not look at all shabby himself. For the first time since she had known him, he was dressed in something other than his uniform: a black tuxedo and white pleated shirt with a conservative black cummerbund and bow tie. It was possible, she thought, that he looked even better dressed this way.
“No. Just not a good enough imagination. I knew you’d look good enough to turn me inside out. I just didn’t know how far.”
Lisa glanced down to hide the involuntary spurt of desire that flared in her at the look on his face. Her eyes fell on his feet, clad in black boots.
She smiled. “Dress boots?”
“Yes, ma’am. You are, after all, in ranch country.”
“I see. Does this mean that you are going to be in the wedding?”
“Just an usher. It’s a small wedding, so Dan’s having only his son stand up with him. We three brothers got delegated usher duty. ’Course, that’s better than Beth—she has to dish out stuff at the reception.”
They were among the first to arrive at the small white stucco church. When they walked in, they found four other men, dressed in tuxedos and all similarly tall and dark-haired, lounging about in the center aisle at the front of the church. Lisa’s gaze went immediately to their feet, all clad in black cowboy boots, and she smiled.
“Hey, Quinn.” One of the men glanced up and saw them and started toward them.
“Cater.” Quinn’s gaze went to the others. “Daniel, how you doing?”
“Okay if I don’t throw up.” One of the men answered him, his dark eyes twinkling.
“I’m keeping an eye on him.” This was said by the youngest and tallest of the men. His hair was thick and black, longer and shaggier than the other men’s hair. He was stick-thin in the way of teenage boys who have grown too fast to carry any bulk on them, but the bony planes of his face were very handsome, and Lisa suspected that he was the heartthrob of every girl in school.
Lisa and Quinn walked up the aisle as the men began to amble toward them. The first to reach them was the one Quinn had called Cater. About Quinn’s height, he was black-haired, with startling, deep-blue eyes. He was the most handsome of the brothers, Lisa thought, and also the most polished and sophisticated-looking, the only one who did not appear slightly uncomfortable in his formal suit.
“Lisa, this is Cater, one of my brothers. He’s the writer.”
Cater took the hand she offered, smiling at her, and Lisa thought that this family of men was probably lethal to the female heart. Quinn introduced the other brothers, first Daniel, the groom, whose tanned, slightly weather-beaten face and callused hands spoke of his years working outdoors. If she remembered what Quinn had told her correctly, he raised horses for a living and was considered one of the best in the state at training cutting horses. The young man was, as she had suspected, Daniel’s son James, whom Quinn introduced with pride as being a freshman film student at UCLA. He had flown in the day before from Los Angeles to attend the wedding. The fourth man was Cory, tall with the same rangy build as the others, and obviously the youngest of the brothers, probably in his early twenties. His hair color was medium brown, and his eyes were hazel. He resembled Quinn the most in the face, but without the faint touch of hardness that characterized Quinn’s expression when he wasn’t smiling or joking. He, she was told, was a senior at the University of Texas.
“Well, I can understand why Quinn’s been talking so much about you now, ma’am,” Cory said with a grin reminiscent of Quinn’s own.
“Don’t even think about flirting with her,” Quinn warned him.
“Come on, Quinn, how could we not flirt with a woman who looks like this?” Cory replied reasonably. He glanced past Lisa, and his face lit up.
“Hey! How’s my boy?”
Lisa turned to see that a couple had entered the church. The man was handsome and well-dressed and bore no resemblance to the Sutton men. The woman was tall and attractive, with hair the color of Quinn’s, and Lisa knew that this must be his sister, Beth. The man carried in his arms a toddler who, upon seeing the men, held out both arms, opening and closing his fists eagerly.
“Cowy!” he cried, smiling. “Cowy.”
Cory went to them, reaching out for the toddler, and the little boy practically flew into his arms. Cory lifted him above his head in a way obviously familiar to both of them, and the youngster went off into a paroxysm of giggles.
“Beth, I want you to meet Lisa Mendoza,” Quinn said, introducing them as he went to his sister and wrapped one arm around her shoulders, hugging her.
Beth greeted Lisa with warm enthusiasm. “Sit with us while Quinn’s ushering,” she said, “and I can find out all about you. Quinn is miserable with details. Cory will keep Joseph occupied the entire time, I can promise, so he won’t bother us.”
She linked her arm through Lisa’s and swept her up the aisle to a row near the front, while her husband stayed to greet the circle of men. Warm and vivacious, Beth kept up a lively chatter that smoothed away whatever nerves Lisa had felt on meeting Quinn’s family, and interspersed her comments with a spate of questions, but all in such a charming way that Lisa could not be offended by her curiosity.
“Quinn and I are closest in age,” she told Lisa. “We were best of friends, even though we fought all the time, too. Red hair, you see.” She made a gesture toward her wildly curling mass of hair. “He’s got quite a temper—oh, but he’s never rough or mean, though, and he always gets over it quickly. You just wait a little bit, and Quinn’ll cool down. Have you known him long?”
“No, actually we just met about ten days ago, and I confess that I feel a little awkward coming to the wedding,” Lisa replied. “I’m afraid your family must wonder why I’m i
ntruding.”
“Heavens, no. Quinn always has a date to everything.” She paused, looking a trifle uneasy. “Wait. I didn’t mean that the way it came out. It’s not that Quinn is—is—”
“A womanizer?” Lisa proffered.
Beth’s eyes rounded, and she looked stricken. “Oh, no, you mustn’t think that. Quinn likes women, but he doesn’t play fast and loose with them. I mean, he does date a lot, but he, he—oh, dear, I’m just making it sound worse, aren’t I? Quinn will kill me. What I mean is, maybe he is a bit of a flirt, but it’s not serious most of the time. You know? And it’s not as if he isn’t capable of a deep commitment. I’m sure of that. He is a very loyal person, and his emotions are deep. I—”
Lisa smiled. “Don’t worry. You haven’t smashed my illusions about Quinn. We aren’t really dating, and I don’t expect some sort of big relationship with Quinn. Actually, we met because of our work, and we’re just…friends.”
Beth looked at her a little skeptically. “Well, I can’t speak for you, of course, but as for Quinn—I think he’s interested in you as something more than a friend. This morning when he and I were together, you were all he talked about.”
“Really? I—well—”
“You know,” Beth went on confidentially, “what I was really trying to say is that even though Quinn has always dated a lot of different women, I think it’s because he hasn’t found the right one. He’s a very loving person, and when he falls in love, I think he’ll fall really hard. And he won’t change. I’m sure of that. Right now…I think it’s not that he’s fickle. I think it’s that he’s—maybe guarded is the right word.”
“Guarded? Against what?”
Beth shrugged. “I don’t know. Hurt, maybe. I don’t know if he told you, but Quinn was a cop for several years in San Antonio. It changed him. After he came back from there, he wasn’t as uncomplicated as he had been before. There was a look in his eyes that hadn’t been there before, and he wasn’t—he wasn’t as easy to be close to.”