“I can’t help myself, I was born to be charming.” Patrick looked back at Maddie. “How about it?”
“Uh, sure,” she said, trying not to see the other O’Rourkes grin and nudge each other with their elbows. It must have seemed he was trying to get her alone, but Maddie didn’t think so. Not for romantic reasons, anyway. It was obvious what happened that afternoon had been an accident he didn’t want repeated.
Outside, the night air was crisp and frosty, though it was still early in the fall. The scent of wood smoke mingled with the fragrance of evergreen and damp earth. It seemed familiar, tickling something in the back of her mind. She’d lived in Washington until she was two years old, so it must be from the time in her life she didn’t consciously remember.
“Warm enough?” Patrick asked as they strode down a dark, tree-lined path.
“I’m fine.”
Before leaving he’d made sure she put on a jacket, though he’d decided not to wear one himself. She’d thought it was part of his macho male act, but maybe not. She wasn’t used to the damp air in the Northwest; he might be.
“I wanted to talk to you,” he murmured after several minutes of silence.
“Could have fooled me.”
“What’s that supposed—Never mind.” Patrick stopped and stuck his fingers in his pockets. “I keep thinking about this afternoon.”
“Me, too. It seems strange to visit your family so soon after we…uh, did that.”
“We didn’t do anything, that’s the point,” he said sharply. “It just happened.”
Maddie rolled her eyes. Maybe things like that “just happened” to Patrick, but it seemed more dramatic to her. It wasn’t every day a girl found out what she’d been missing when it came to kissing and other extracurricular activities.
“It seemed like something to me,” she muttered.
“Right, and that’s what I’ve been worried about.”
“Oh.”
“The thing is, I shouldn’t have kissed you in the first place. It wasn’t right after everything you’d been through.”
“I would have objected if I didn’t like it.”
Patrick smiled wryly. Yeah, Maddie would have objected. She had a mind of her own and said whatever she thought.
“I want to be honest with you, because your ex-fiancé obviously wasn’t,” he said. “I think you’re terrific, but I’m not a marrying kind of man. Even if I was, I couldn’t think about it until I was sure the station was a success. I’ve been afraid you might have gotten the wrong idea.”
The wrong idea? What was it with Patrick and “ideas.”
She straightened. “You what?”
Warning tension sneaked up his spine. “You’re so innocent, I thought you might have read more into us kissing…like that. It should never have gone that far. Not that it went anywhere, just not where it should have.” He shook his head, knowing he sounded like an idiot. Maddie did that to him, driving sane thought from his brain and replacing it with drivel. “I take full responsibility.”
“Isn’t that nice of you.”
“Maddie—”
“No.” Maddie poked her finger in Patrick’s chest. She didn’t know whether to laugh or be furious. “I am not a child and I don’t need you trying to protect me or apologize for something I could have stopped on my own.”
“I’m older and should have known better.”
“So being ‘older’ makes you think I want to marry you because of one little kiss?” She deliberately made her voice incredulous.
“It wasn’t so little.”
“It was a kiss, that’s all. Isn’t that what you’ve been saying? How dumb do you think I am?”
He winced. “I don’t think you’re dumb.”
“Could have fooled me. We barely know each other, I just got cheated on by my fiancé, and you keep thinking I’m going to get ideas about us spending the rest of our lives together. At the moment I’m not even sure I like you, why would I want a lifetime?”
“I guess I deserve that.”
“I’m trying to figure out what to do with my life,” Maddie continued irately. “I’m certainly not thinking about marrying anyone. I thought I made that clear. You certainly have, so I don’t know why we’re having this discussion again.”
“Yeah, right.”
Her reaction was stinging Patrick’s pride, but he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut on the subject. It had been an arrogant assumption, but Maddie was different from other women—innocent and idealistic, despite what happened with her fiancé. She was exactly the type to start seeing him through rose-colored glasses. If only she could understand that he kept doing and saying the wrong thing because he was afraid of hurting her. And now he had a sneaking suspicion that he’d wounded her in some other way.
“Beth and Kane offered to take me back to the bed-and-breakfast place. I’d better see if they’re ready to leave,” Maddie said.
There was a stiff dignity in her voice that didn’t suit the Maddie he knew, but Patrick just nodded. He didn’t know what would happen if Kane found out about the way he’d kissed Maddie. His brother adored his new wife, and if Maddie was Beth’s sister, then Kane would be protective of her, as well.
For a guy who liked to keep things simple, his life was going to hell in a hurry.
His best bet was to keep out of Maddie’s way. It would be hard with her working at the radio station, but that’s the way it had to be.
Maddie typed a few words into her computer, then put her chin on her hand and stared at the screen without really seeing the display. In the past two weeks Patrick had barely spoken to her. He’d treated her exactly the way she’d first wanted, like any other employee. Kane and Beth had taken her home, and while she’d spent time with the O’Rourkes since then, Patrick had been conspicuously absent.
Her mother always said to be careful what you asked for, and this might be one of those occasions. How could she begin to figure him out when he barely said good morning to her?
I think you’re terrific, but I’m not a marrying kind of man.
Thinking about Patrick’s absurd “warning” still annoyed Maddie. How many times did he think she had to be warned? He’d said he wasn’t “nice,” he’d said he didn’t want to get married or have children. As a matter of fact, he’d said a whole lot of things that were perfectly irritating.
“Darn him,” she said beneath her breath.
Heaven knew she had plenty of things to think about besides Patrick, like the fact she had a new sister and brother-in-law, when she’d lived her whole life as an only child. Though the O’Rourkes had treated her connection to Beth as a foregone conclusion, they’d gone ahead and done the research to confirm it. Kane had even paid for some expensive genetic tests, the results coming back the same day his investigators got their hands on the adoption records for both Beth and herself.
So now she had a twin sister. An identical twin.
Her parents planned to fly out soon to meet Beth and had talked to her by phone several times. Once they’d gotten over their dismay over the girls being separated, they’d been thrilled that Maddie had found a sister. Some adoptive parents might have been threatened when their kid went looking for a birth family, but not her mom and dad. They were the greatest.
Sighing quietly, Maddie corrected a typo in one of the graphics. She needed to concentrate on the new advertising campaign. Stephen seemed to like her ideas, so at least she was doing all right in the employment department.
Just not in the heart department.
Maddie gave up and gazed out the window. It was a stormy day and everyone had been complaining about it raining for the past several days. They’d also been coming down with stomach flu in record numbers, leaving the station short staffed.
“Is the weather getting to you?” Stephen asked, breaking her reverie. “You don’t get this much rain in New Mexico.”
She pasted a smile on her lips and shook her head. “No. I like it, it’s what keeps everything green.”
“That’s what Patrick always says.”
Patrick.
Great. Couldn’t she go one minute without thinking about the man? He was driving her crazy with his polite nods when they passed in the hallway or met in the break room. It wasn’t that she wanted him to kiss her again, but why had he suddenly started treating her like a contagious disease?
“You’re doing an excellent job. I told him you were responsible for those new advertisers. He was pleased.”
Oh, goody.
“I’m going to take a break and get a cup of coffee,” she said, unable to contain her restlessness. “Can I bring you anything?”
“No, I still have some of Candy’s French roast in my thermos.”
This time Maddie’s smile was genuine. There had been a few raised eyebrows when the Formidable Finn started making the advertising director a thermos of coffee every morning, but her stern demeanor kept everyone silent. It had been a simple matter to suggest Candy make an extra thermos for Stephen, with the excuse it was just going to waste at home. And it shouldn’t take more than a few nudges to get them together, especially since she’d learned Stephen was the source of Candy’s whimsical cat jewelry—all from years of Christmas gift exchanges and “gestures of appreciation.”
Going into the break room she saw Candy making a cup of tea. “How are you? Any sign of the dreaded flu?”
“So far so good. I don’t get sick easily. Is Stephen all right?” she asked anxiously.
“He’s fine,” Maddie assured her new friend. “Did you know he calls you Candy now in private? And he won’t touch a drop of anyone else’s coffee.”
Candy turned pink. She’d stopped pulling her hair back from her face so harshly, and looked quite lovely as a result. There hadn’t been any sign of Stephen asking her out on a date, but Maddie was convinced her handsome supervisor was more than interested.
“I wish you could have shown up twenty years ago,” Candy said wistfully.
“Twenty years ago I wouldn’t have been much help. I was more interested in playing with dolls than anything else.”
“Then I—” Candy fell silent as Patrick appeared at the door. “I’d better get back to my desk.” She walked past Patrick, giving Maddie a wink he couldn’t see.
“Something going on?” he asked.
“Not a thing.” Maddie hurriedly poured herself a cup of coffee from the office pot. She turned, wondering if Patrick would have that same darned polite expression he’d been wearing the past two weeks.
It was so frustrating.
He’d touched her in ways no man had ever touched her, but now he acted as if they were practically strangers.
Which they were, Maddie acknowledged silently. And he’d made it plain things weren’t going to change, either.
Drat it all. She didn’t have any experience with men beyond her relationship with Ted, and he’d hardly been any help in understanding how things were between men and women.
A wry humor made her shake her head. Ted. They’d been children playing at being adults, never going past the stage of holding hands and following the rules of “No hands above the waist in the front, and none below the waist.” Healthy rules meant to protect them both, enforced with a father’s glare and a warning that few boys would ignore.
Maddie sipped her coffee and looked at Patrick from under her lashes. He definitely wasn’t a boy. And she doubted there was a single rule he hadn’t broken.
There hadn’t been many “bad” boys in Slapshot, but she recognized the faint remnants of Patrick’s days as a teenage tough. Maybe it was the hint of a sexy swagger when he walked, or the midafternoon beard shadow that gave him an aura of dark danger. Or a dozen other things that made him so very…interesting.
Maddie, Maddie. Haven’t you learned anything? chided a voice in her head. If she couldn’t trust the boy she’d grown up with, how could she trust a man like Patrick O’Rourke?
She couldn’t, that’s what.
“Stephen says you’re doing a fantastic job,” he commented, pouring the last of the coffee into a cup and unplugging the pot. “I understand you’re working on a proposal for new billboards to advertise the station. I’ll look forward to seeing it.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Yes, well, I’d better get back to my office.”
She made a face at his retreating back. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate Patrick giving her a job, she just wished he wasn’t being so standoffish. He was the one who’d decided to kiss her, not the other way around.
Okay, maybe she did want him to kiss her again. Sort of like an experiment, to see if she would still react the same way.
And if he’d react.
Maddie blushed furiously at the notion of Patrick getting aroused because of her. She was pretty sure he’d felt that way, but her experience was limited, and doubt was insidious. She’d heard it was easy for women to pretend a response, but could men fake it? Had she been right thinking he’d responded in the first place? Patrick had been pressed against her and he was quite…impressive down there. She could have been misunderstood.
“Boy, are you mixed up,” Maddie told herself.
The station seemed practically deserted with so many people out sick. She’d just stopped to smile at the DJ—best known as the Seattle Kid—when he began frantically waving at her. She tiptoed inside.
The DJ thrust the headset and microphone at her. “Gotta go. The music’s almost done,” he groaned, making a mad dash out the door, one hand clapped over his mouth.
Maddie stared at the headset a full ten seconds.
To her relief the technician walked in at that moment, but he backed away with a horrified expression, shaking his head when she tried to hand him the microphone. He began making motions with his hands, obviously urging action, but she didn’t know anything about the equipment in the booth.
“They’re expecting DJ chatter. Say something,” Jeremy said in a loud stage whisper. “You’re live.”
He pointed to the On Air sign lighted up on the wall, and Maddie started feeling a little nauseous herself. The motto of KLMS was Nothing Is Worse Than Dead Air, but she wasn’t sure it applied to a novice with just two weeks’ experience in the ad department.
“Uh…hello,” she said into the mike, to Jeremy’s obvious relief, who continued to make encouraging motions. “This is Maddie Jackson, and I’m…uh, filling in for the Seattle Kid, who seems to have suddenly come down with the stomach flu like most everyone else who works here.”
She cleared her throat, put her coffee down and sat in the recently vacated chair. The electronic board in front of her looked like something out of Star Trek with its blinking lights and dials. There was no way she could figure out how to play something without help.
“And for those of you uttering a sympathetic murmur of support, I’m sure he appreciates it. I have to confess this whole radio thing is new to me. I’m from a little town in New Mexico called Slapshot and haven’t been in the Seattle area for very long. We’ll figure out how to play some music for you in a minute, but in the meantime…” She paused, desperately trying to remember what sort of things DJs talked about on the radio.
Jeremy kept up his hand signals and Maddie took so many fast breaths she was in danger of hyperventilating. She was petrified. There were literally thousands of people listening to her, and for once in her life she couldn’t think of anything to say.
“I’d like to talk about…kissing. And men,” she blurted out, only to see Jeremy abandon his signaling and clamp his hands over his head.
Okay, maybe kissing wasn’t the best subject. But at least there wasn’t any dead air to worry about.
Chapter Seven
Patrick stared at the container of aspirin on his desk. Since Maddie had come to work at KLMS he’d practically emptied the economy-size bottle; pretty soon it would eat an economy-size hole in his tummy. Maddie was making him crazy—even crazier than having sixty percent of his employees out sick because they’d gotten a twent
y-four-hour virus that was turning into a week-long siege in the bathroom.
Kissing her had been a huge mistake, no matter how good it felt at the time. He could see the confusion in her face every time she looked at him now. And why shouldn’t she? She came from a world where intimate kisses meant something.
It did mean something, said the internal voice that reminded him of his father.
The voice was constantly with him these days, no matter how hard he tried not to hear it. If he had acknowledged the voice, he would have reminded it that he’d only just met Maddie, they were little more than strangers, so how much could a kiss between them mean?
The memory of Maddie’s kiss-swollen lips, dazed eyes and the tantalizing rise and fall of her breasts filled his head, and he groaned.
More than anything he was furious with himself. How could he have kissed Maddie in the first place? It was bad enough that he’d lost control with a complete innocent, but Maddie was recovering from a broken heart. It smacked of taking advantage, and the O’Rourkes had a code about women that was as old as Ireland. Never, in all the outrageous things he’d done as a kid, had he done something he thought would hurt a girl.
Then he’d gone and stuffed his foot in his mouth, trying to tell Maddie not to get any ideas about marriage. That had been arrogant of him. No wonder she was so offended.
“Boy, do I have a problem,” he muttered, tossing down a couple more aspirin tablets.
The radio was playing on his desk, set to a low volume, and for some reason it sounded like Maddie—probably because he couldn’t stop thinking about her. With a sigh he turned up the dial to hear what was going on in the broadcast booth.
“…he’s a little old-fashioned, but that isn’t the problem. I mean, my dad is old-fashioned, and he’s wonderful,” said the voice.
It was Maddie.
Patrick shook his head to clear it, unable to believe what he was hearing. How could a scatterbrain like Maddie get herself on his radio station?
“And he’s a great kisser, but now he acts like I’m kryptonite or something. I could swear he was interested …you know, physically, but maybe I was wrong. Can a man fake that kind of thing?”
The Right Twin For Him (O'Rourke Family 2) Page 8