“You’re sure?”
“I want to get this out of the way so I can unwrap my other present.”
“Me?”
Gray smiled. “Best Christmas gift I’ve ever received.”
Chapter Nine
He sat up and switched on the bedside lamp before reaching for the smaller box. Amy marveled at the elegant black and gold giftwrap. “Looks expensive.”
“It’s not polite to ask.”
“I’m just making an observation.” She turned the box around, noticing a gold foil sticker on the bottom. “Did you get this in Dallas?”
Gray nodded. “I wanted to get something appropriate for you, but I didn’t want anyone around here to tell you what I was buying.”
Amy sat up, hooking the sheet under her arms as she reached for her gift to Gray. “I wanted to get something appropriate for you, too, but you’re a hard…I mean a difficult…man to buy for.”
Gray gave her a slight smile, one eyebrow raised. “I have simple tastes.”
Amy placed her index finger along her pursed lips and frowned. “Where have I heard that before? Ah, yes, a cat food commercial. I think the punch line is, ‘Only the best.”’
“Hmm. It’s nice to know what you think of me.”
She snatched the gift box from his hands. “I think you’re pretty terrific. Now, what did you get for me?”
She carefully opened the black and gold paper, then pulled out a jeweler’s box. She recognized the store logo, and her heart beat faster. Surely he hadn’t purchased some expensive piece of jewelry. Good gracious, she was expecting leather gloves or a silk scarf! Neither would fit in such a small box.
“I wasn’t sure what to get, so I thought this would be appropriate for you.”
For a pretend girlfriend? she wanted to ask. She eased the top off and pulled out the velvet box inside. Thank goodness it didn’t appear to be a ring box. They were smaller, weren’t they?
“Gray, are you sure about this?”
“It’s a Christmas gift, Amy. Nothing more.”
“Okay.” She took a deep breath and opened the box. A beautifully crafted white gold caduceus, sparkling with tiny diamonds, glittered in the golden light of the bedside lamp.
“For the town doctor,” he said with a smile, tipping the box toward him and looking at the pin nestled against the royal blue velvet.
Amy told herself to be relieved this was only a pin for a doctor, not a personal piece of jewelry—like a ring—for a girlfriend. At the same time, she realized her feelings were confused because of their lovemaking earlier. She felt so much closer to Gray, so much less like a pretend date and more like a real lover.
But even as a lover, she couldn’t accept something like a ring. No, that would cause too many tongues to wag in town.
“It’s beautiful,” she said softly. “You shouldn’t have, but I think it’s beautiful and I’ll wear it proudly.”
“You can wear it as a necklace, too,” he advised, showing her a clasp on the back. “Just run a chain through here.”
“Okay.” She placed a hand along his jaw, then leaned forward and kissed him sweetly. He’d just shown her another side of him, the part that enjoyed giving and sincerely wanted the receiver to be pleased. “Now, it’s time for you to open my gift.”
He reached for the bag, then carefully separated the many layers of tissue. “Are you sure there’s something inside here?” he teased.
“Absolutely.” She sat up and pulled the sheet higher. She supposed she should get dressed, but there hadn’t been an appropriate time. Besides, it was kind of fun to sit in bed naked and open Christmas presents. Definitely a new experience.
He pulled out the framed watercolor-and-ink original. “Amy, this is wonderful. How did you arrange for it so quickly?”
“I have my connections,” she said mysteriously. In truth, a high school student who had some artwork displayed in the bank lobby had jumped at the opportunity for a commissioned painting. He’d barely finished it during Christmas break. Fortunately, the watercolor had dried quickly so she could put it in the frame just in time for the holiday.
“This looks just like Grayson Industries, only with the landscape a little more complete.”
“I told the artist to fill in any gaps as he saw fit.”
“I’ll have to plant some crepe myrtle at the corners. I think he had a great idea.” Gray tilted the framed watercolor, smiling as he took in the details. “This is such a thoughtful gift. Thank you,” he said as he leaned toward her for another sweet kiss.
“I’m glad you like it.”
“Not at much as I like you.”
He pressed her back into the pillows, the gifts pushed aside. His hands framed her face, and his lips descended. Amy’s heart raced as she anticipated what was to follow.
A horrible, shrill siren split the night.
Amy sat up, dislodging both Gray and the sheet. “What’s that?”
“Either the smoke or carbon monoxide detector. It’s never gone off before.”
Gray leaped from the bed, pulling Amy along by the hand. “We have to get out of here now.”
“But I’m naked!”
He tossed her his black cashmere sweater and pulled a blanket off the floor, where they’d pushed it earlier. She grabbed her panties as they hurried toward the steps.”
“Our gifts!” She turned back to the bed and placed both items in the large gift bag. She wasn’t about to let either one burn up, just in case there really was a fire. Or there might be an explosion. The idea that this beautiful house might be in danger shook her as much as the shrill alarm.
Gray grabbed the cordless phone on the way down the stairs. Hand in hand they ran from the house and out to the driveway.
Gray wrapped his arms around her shivering body. She’d pulled his cashmere sweater down to her thighs. He’d wrapped the blanket around them both since his chest and arms were exposed. Both their feet were bare, and the concrete was dry and cold. Despite his natural warmth and enticing smell, the situation was no fun.
Amy did a lot of dancing around and rubbing her feet together, but she didn’t think it was working. They weren’t in danger of frostbite or imminent hypothermia—it wasn’t that cold outside—but they were darn uncomfortable. Although she knew they needed the emergency crews to address whatever problem was occurring in the house, she wasn’t looking forward to facing them wearing bikini panties and Gray’s sweater.
So much for keeping their intimate relationship a secret. She’d really hoped she didn’t have to announce to the world that she was carrying on a hot and heavy affair with Gray. Life would have been so much simpler if they’d only been seen on social dates.
Despite their intimate position and the lack of clothing, tension that had nothing to do with sexual desire radiated from him. He was no doubt worried about his house, although he’d sworn he wasn’t. They’d watched for any signs of fire. They’d also kept all the windows and doors closed, as instructed by 911, in case there was a leak.
“I still don’t see any smoke,” she said.
“I really think it was the carbon monoxide detector.”
He’d told the dispatcher that, so perhaps they’d send someone beside the officer on duty and the volunteer fire department. Someone who could fix the problem. “You’re probably right. Tug must have hooked up his gizmo or gadget or whatchamacallit wrong.”
“I’m going to murder him.”
“Not if I get to him first,” she said through clenched, rattling teeth.
The sound of sirens drifted through the night. Headlights darted wildly as several vehicles wound their way through the hills to Gray’s house. “I’m not ready for this,” she said, hating the thin, reedy quality of her voice. Hating the thought that in about thirty seconds, Ranger Springs’s arsenal of rescue personnel were ascending on them.
“You can take the blanket and…” he looked around, frowning at the sparse landscape with low bushes and no large trees.
And
hide was what Gray meant. No matter how tempting the proposition, she didn’t think it would help. For one thing, her locked car—Why in the world had she locked her car in this remote location?—was still parked in the circular drive. For another, someone was bound to spot her sooner or later, lurking in the bare-branch azaleas or peeking out from behind the low cedar bushes. How ridiculous would she look then?
“I’m not ashamed of what we did. I’m just sorry we got caught.”
A black Bronco screeched to a halt beside Amy’s car, the alternating red and blue lights flashing a wild kaleidoscope across the landscape.
Gray’s expression seemed more grim. “At least Ethan showed up.”
“This is good?”
“Better than some deputy or patrolman I don’t know.”
Gray pulled Amy behind him and adjusted the blanket as the fire truck pulled in back of the Bronco. More red lights flashed wildly, illuminating the night. Volunteer firemen, most as haphazardly dressed as she—except they wore pants and shoes—jumped off the truck. She knew most of them. Some were her patients; some had been in school with her. Some were just friends of the family.
All of them would be talking about this tomorrow.
With a sigh, she tugged the cashmere sweater farther down her thighs and said a silent prayer that she’d become as invisible.
Thankfully, the fireman got busy with equipment on their engine. Ethan Parker, Gray’s friend and chief of police, walked over to them.
“I take it this was bad timing,” he said to Gray, a slight smile on his face. He looked over Gray’s shoulder. “Hello, Dr. Amy.”
“Hello, Chief.”
“Quit smirking,” Gray remarked. “From where I’m standing, this isn’t funny.”
“Of course not. But from where I’m standing, just a tiny smirk seemed appropriate.”
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“Sure. My idea of fun is getting up in the middle of the night, leaving my nice warm bed and sweet wife, and coming out her to rescue your butt.”
That seemed to silence Gray. His friendship with Ethan was one of the reasons he’d moved his business to Ranger Springs rather than some other small town. Although they didn’t socialize often since Ethan was now married, Amy knew the two men had a close relationship.
Ethan glanced at both of them. “Would you like to get in out of the cold? The Bronco’s warm.”
“You don’t have to ask me twice,” Amy said.
“I’m going to talk to Ethan for a moment.”
Amy disengaged herself from Gray’s very warm, very bare back. “Keep the blanket. I’ll be fine inside the vehicle.”
As quickly and unobtrusively as possible, she walked to the Bronco. Before she made it inside, another vehicle pulled to a screeching halt beside the fire truck, catching her in the high beams. “Hanson’s Air Conditioning and Heating to the rescue,” Amy murmured, knowing the night had just gotten worse.
“WELL, THAT WAS AN interesting evening,” Gray said as he stood by the large window in the living room and watched the Hanson van roll away into the waning hours of the morning.
“It started out pretty good,” Amy said, walking up behind him, sipping her third or fourth cup of hot tea.
He turned and tried to give her a reassuring smile. “That would be the meal, right? I hope what followed was more than ‘pretty good.”’
“Fishing for compliments? Okay, it was great. I’m not sorry about what we did, but I had hoped to keep it between us. I’m not used to having my personal life discussed around every coffeepot and across every table.”
Gray placed his hands on her upper arms. “Of course you are,” he corrected gently. “They talk about you all the time, usually in a complimentary way. They want you to be happy. You’re their collective daughter, their friend, their physician. The difference is now they have something a little more juicy to discuss.”
“How encouraging. I wonder how long the ‘juicy’ topic will last.”
“You’re the expert on small towns, but from my observations, this should keep them talking for a good while.”
Amy buried her face against his chest, her breath teasing him through the sweater he’d donned when they were allowed back in the house. “I really hate this. I don’t want to look into my patients’ faces and wonder if they’re disappointed in me as a person. I don’t want my father to endure snide remarks or sympathetic gestures over his daughter’s immoral conduct.”
Gray took the mug from her and put it on a nearby table. “Then there’s only one thing we can do.”
“I don’t want to stop seeing you.”
Her soft voice sent a shiver of anticipation through him. He wanted her to want him. After one night of making love, he couldn’t consider letting her go. Not without a fight, especially when all they were battling were a few potentially narrow-minded opinions.
“Then agree to be my fiancée.”
She pulled back, her blue eyes wide and startled. “What?”
He took a deep breath, knowing so much depended on his reasoning. “We’re already pretending to be dating. How much more complicated will it be to take it another step? If the citizens of Ranger Springs believe we’re getting married, surely they won’t think too badly of us for doing more than sharing meals and attending parties together.”
“But…you mean take our dating relationship to a greater height of deception?”
He frowned. “I wouldn’t put it like that.”
“It’s exactly like that. I mean, we aren’t getting married.”
The words hung heavily in the air. He didn’t want to think as far ahead as marriage. Engagement was enough for now. Enough to keep her in his bed. Even as the thought popped into his head, he knew he was being selfish and petty. He should be thinking of the larger issue: the problem of Amy’s reputation and his position in the business community.
Yes, a pretend engagement was exactly what he and Amy needed to stabilize the situation. As long as everyone was happy, he and Amy could continue their relationship. They would be seen together in public, but in private, they could explore this strong attraction. Their sexual chemistry hadn’t been unexpected based on their initial reaction to each other, but was startling nonetheless. He wouldn’t give that up for any reason, especially one as flimsy as worry over what other people thought.
“Is a pretend engagement such a difference from a pretend dating situation?” he reasoned.
“Yes! If we tell everyone we’re engaged, they’ll actually expect us to get married!”
“I don’t see any problem, Amy,” he said calmly. “Lots of couples have long engagements.” He placed one palm against her cheek, then sunk his fingers into her hair. “Maybe we’ll enjoy being engaged more than we did just dating.”
“But to what end?”
Gray shrugged. “Why don’t we take it one day at a time.”
ONE DAY AT A TIME? The man was obviously crazy, Amy thought as she tossed restlessly in her own bed. Maybe he’d breathed in too much carbon monoxide and his thinking was confused. Muddled. That was the only explanation for this plan of his to combat the talk that was sure to follow.
Ethan wouldn’t say anything, but Tug would. And at least half of the volunteer fire department would have told their wives or girlfriends already. You should have seen Dr. Amy, barefoot and wearing only that man’s sweater! She didn’t need one of Gray’s sophisticated hearing devices to hear the gossip.
But to pretend an engagement to avoid criticism? Could she do that? Should she do that? She’d be deceiving her father even more. He was already hoping Gray would be the right man for her. She felt terrible about getting his hopes up. Her father believed in happily-ever-after…until death do us part. Hadn’t he waited eighteen years to date again after her mother’s death?
Amy sighed, hugging her pillow to her chest. She hadn’t been able to sleep, despite arriving home around three o’clock in the morning. She wanted to call her father, to ask him to cove
r her shift at the clinic in the morning, but her absence would no doubt make the rumors more dramatic. She could imagine the Springs Gazette lead story: After a wild night of sex, Dr. Amy Wheatley called in sick at the medical clinic, ignoring her patients for her lover, prominent Ranger Springs businessman Grayson Phillips.
This time she groaned and gave up on the idea of sleeping. She might as well make a pot of coffee, fix herself some breakfast and get over to the clinic early. She could get some paperwork done before Gladys arrived.
And she could think about her answer to Gray’s proposition. He’d kissed her tenderly when she’d left his house, asking her to call him later with a response. She had no idea what she would say. She suspected she wasn’t thinking too clearly.
Three hours later, bleary eyed from lack of sleep and an abundance of charts and forms, Amy looked up to see her father standing in the doorway.
“Good morning, Daddy,” she said as cheerfully as possible.
“You look like hell, Amy girl.”
“Thanks. It’s good to see you too.”
“You had a bit of excitement last night, I hear,” he said, walking into her office and sitting in one of the chairs.
“Where did you hear that?” she asked carefully.
“Down at the café. Seems Jimmy Mack Branson’s son was on the fire truck that made a late night call out to Gray’s house. He told Jimmy Mack, who told Thelma while I was gettin’ coffee this mornin’.”
“Gray suspected the grapevine would be especially busy this morning.”
“Well now, it’s not everyday that a whole truckload of our friends and neighbors get to see my girl runnin’ around barefoot in the middle of the night wearin’ nothin’ but a sweater.”
Amy winced at her father’s plain-spoken words. “At least the gossips got most of the details right.” She’d definitely been barefoot, wearing little besides Gray’s sweater. “I was wearing my panties, by the way.”
“This situation doesn’t sound too funny from this old man’s point of view.” Her father’s face was getting red and he was frowning. She didn’t want to be the cause of her father’s unhappiness, but darn it, he shouldn’t question her decision. She’d just been in the right place at the wrong time!
The Best Blind Date in Texas Page 12