by Gina Wilkins
She nodded, as though satisfied with his response.
“No wonder you’ve been so distant from our family lately,” Rachel said after another moment, as though a great puzzle had just been solved for her. “We’ve all been wondering…now I know. You’ve been courting Dana. You. always have valued your privacy when it came to something that important to you.”
Cody murmured something noncommittal. What could he say? How could he explain that he’d been avoiding the family because he didn’t want to get married—only to end up married almost by accident?
“Anyway, I want you to know that I’m very happy for you,” Rachel said, reaching up to kiss his cheek. “I’ve always liked Dana. I’m looking forward to getting to know her better. I hope you and she are as blissfully happy as Seth and I have been.”
Cody’s throat tightened. “Thanks, Rachel. Um, you’re feeling okay?” he asked, anxious to change the subject. “No morning sickness or anything like that?”
“I feel wonderful,” she answered, her smile deepening. “Seth and I are so excited about the baby, and so are the kids.”
“That’s great, Rachel. You deserve to be happy.”
There was a tap on the door, and then Dana peeked in. “Rachel? Seth says you’re going to be late picking up the children if you don’t hurry.”
“I’m on my way.” Rachel stopped impulsively to hug Dana on her way out. “It’s so nice to have another sister,” she said warmly. “I can’t wait to sit down and have a long, cozy chat with you. I’ll have you over for dinner soon, okay?”
“That would be very nice,” Dana said. “Thank you.”
Rachel discreetly closed the office door behind her as she left.
Dana released a long, gusty breath and collapsed into a chair. “Why,” she asked Cody forcefully, “didn’t you throw me out of here when I came in to ask you to go along with this crazy scheme? Why didn’t you just fire me or something?”
He ran a hand through his hair and grimaced. “Neither of us could have foreseen this, Dana. Not in our wildest dreams.”
“Or nightmares,” she muttered.
He frowned. Was it really necessary for her to keep harping on how reluctant she’d been to marry him?
“How did it go with Rachel?” she asked after a moment. “Are you okay?”
He was a bit surprised by the question. “I’m fine. And Rachel accepted our story without question. There’s nothing to worry about.”
She nodded. “One member of your family down…a couple of hundred to go.”
Cody smiled. “Not quite that many.”
Dana tossed her hair back from her face. She looked tired, Cody thought. A bit dazed.
He knew exactly how she felt.
“Jake and the others refuse to allow me to work tonight,” she said. “They think we should go home now. They’re all, er, concerned about us working on our wedding night.”
“How thoughtful of them.”
Dana’s smile was a weak effort. “Should we stay and argue with them?”
“Let’s not,” he said on a sudden decision. “Business is slow tonight, they can get along without us. Let’s go home.”
Dana’s eyes widened at his words. “Home,” she murmured, almost to herself. “That sounds. odd.”
“Get used to it,” he advised her, more grimly than he’d intended.
Jake tried to detain Cody on his way out. “You want to tell me what happened?” he inquired pleasantly.
“No,” Cody answered bluntly. “I’m going to let you stew about it awhile. Just keep in mind that I am married- legally married—and it was all your idea!”
He left Jake looking curious, frustrated-and thoroughly entertained.
Dana followed Cody home in her own car, which started promptly this time, to her obvious relief. Though she had seen his house before, she looked around when they entered as though it was a strange and rather intimidating place. Cody supposed it looked different to someone moving in than it would to an afternoon guest.
He tried to see his house through Dana’s eyes. It certainly wasn’t anything fancy—mostly secondhand furniture and hand-me-down decorations. Rachel and Celia had helped him arrange everything when he’d moved in; they’d selected paints and wallpapers and the few knickknacks that made the place look like a home. He was sure it could use a lot more work, but it wasn’t bad. And, thank God, it was reasonably clean—he’d had someone in to clean it only last week.
Dana turned to him with a forced smile. “Well,” she said. “This is awkward.”
He nodded. “I want you to be comfortable here, Dana. This is your home now, so feel free to do anything you want to it. Uh, with the exception of purple satin or red velvet, of course,” he added, trying to lighten the moment with a joke.
Her smile was merely perfunctory. “Where am I going to sleep?” she asked bluntly.
Cody swallowed. He was instantly assailed with memories of kissing her in his bedroom at her stepmother’s house. Of the way their thighs had pressed so closely together, their hands seeking, lips clinging. Of the big, soft bed that had stretched so invitingly behind them before he’d forced himself away from her.
He couldn’t help thinking that he had another big, soft bed in his room here—and no one to interrupt them should they kiss again. Or anything else that might follow.
She was his wife, Cody thought dazedly. He wanted her to sleep in his bed. With him. He wanted to make love to her, to watch her sleep, to wake her up with tickles and kisses and morning lovemaking.
He wanted to see Dana’s face when she finally lost that careful control she held over her emotions.
He must have been staring at her for longer than he’d realized. She cleared her throat and shuffled her feet, looking uncomfortable. “Cody?” Her voice was unsteady.
“If there comes a time when you need your freedom, I won’t cause you any problems. I’ll always be grateful to you for what you’ve done for me today.”
He could hear her saying the words again, almost as clearly as he’d heard them the first time, in his car. And he reacted to them the same way now, with immediate, powerful resentment—and more than a little hurt.
He didn’t want Dana’s gratitude. He didn’t want her to politely offer him his freedom. He didn’t want her treating him like a pal to whom she owed a rather sizable favor.
She was his wife. And if she came to his bed, he didn’t want it to be out of gratitude.
Oh, man, he thought with a mental groan. Going through that ceremony must have addled your brains, old son.
“There are three bedrooms,” he said abruptly. “They’re all furnished. Take your pick.”
Looking at him oddly, Dana went off to explore. Cody tagged behind her. “That’s mine,” he said when she opened the first door she came to. “But you’re welcome to it if you want. I can move into one of the others.”
“I won’t put you out of your own bed,” Dana replied, stepping away without looking in. She moved across the hall, looked into one empty bedroom and then the other. “I’ll take this one,” she said, motioning toward the room closest to Cody’s. “The other room is a bit larger—Andy can have that one when he comes to us.”
Cody wondered if Dana planned to maintain separate bedrooms even after her brother joined them. He decided to worry about that then.
He was sure that, like him, Dana fervently hoped it would be a long time before unhappy circumstances brought her beloved little brother into her care.
“I’m really tired,” Dana said then, her eyes shadowed. “It’s been a long day, and I have an early class tomorrow. I think I’ll turn in early.”
“Yeah. Me, too. Call out if you need anything, okay?”
“I’m sure I’ll be fine. But thank you.”
She was being so polite he wanted to snarl at her. Or grab her and kiss her until her bland, courteous facade cracked and he found the real Dana Marie Preston—Dana Marie Preston Carson, he reminded himself glumly. Instead, he merely nodd
ed, turned and walked into his bedroom, closing the door behind him with a peevish snap.
He threw himself onto the bed and lay on his back, staring angrily at the ceiling.
It wasn’t quite 10:00 p.m. And it was his wedding night. He was sure a lot of his friends—Jake, for instance—would find this whole situation hysterically funny.
For once, Cody couldn’t share the joke. He wasn’t at all amused.
***
Dana didn’t allow herself to fall apart until she was safely alone in her own bedroom, two closed doors between her and the man who’d become her husband that afternoon. Only then did she start to tremble, so hard it was all she could do to sink onto the bed without falling face first into the pillows.
God, what a day! It was a wonder she’d survived it with her sanity. Or had she?
She couldn’t stop thinking of the way Cody had looked at her when she’d asked him where she would sleep. Something had blazed in his usually laughing blue eyes then, something she’d never seen there before. And she’d found herself fighting the temptation to run…along with an equally strong compulsion to move closer to him and find out exactly what that expression had meant.
Funny. She’d thought, after a year of working for him, that she’d known Cody Carson pretty well. She’d had him pegged—or so she’d believed.
She’d been wrong.
The man she’d met this weekend hadn’t been the shallow, unreliable joker she’d thought she’d known before. The man she’d imagined him to be wouldn’t have immediately bonded with a little boy who’d desperately needed a new hero. Wouldn’t have been so kind to, or so patient with, a frightened, dying woman. Wouldn’t have sacrificed the freedom and irresponsibility he’d seemed to treasure so greatly for the sake of a casual acquaintance and her little brother. Wouldn’t have held her when she cried, or kissed her until her tears had almost turned to steam.
Cody had changed his entire life for her—and as far as she could tell, he was asking for absolutely nothing in return. Not even her gratitude, which he’d rejected instantly and irritably.
The magnitude of his generosity staggered her.
But what was even more astonishing to her was the realization that it wasn’t just gratitude she felt for him. Her eyes had been opened in many ways during the past few days. And one of the things she’d seen was that Cody Carsonher husband—was a fascinating and extremely attractive man.
A man who had looked at her as though he wanted her.
A man she could want in return—except that she was utterly terrified of falling in love with him.
What if she did, only to find out that he wasn’t really the man she now believed him to be?
Or—even worse—what if he was everything she’d ever wanted in a man? A man who’d married her only because circumstances had compelled him to, who didn’t—couldn’t—love her in return?
What if she gave him her heart, only to find that he didn’t really want it? He would shatter it.
She buried her face in her hands. The future loomed ahead of her, grim and frightening. And she wanted nothing more than to bury her head in Cody’s shoulder and re discover that surprising sense of security she’d found there once before.
The telephone woke Cody the next morning, after a restless night of too much thought and too little sleep. He groped drowsily for the extension on his nightstand, knocking off an empty soda can as he did so. “H’lo?”
“Oops. You were still sleeping. Did I inconveniently disturb you and your new bride, I hope?”
Cody rubbed the grit from his eyes with his free hand. “Celia?”
His younger sister laughed, sounding as though she were just across town instead of halfway across the country.
“You are out of it this morning, aren’t you? Must have been an…mmm…interesting night.”
His mind was clearing just enough to allow his memory to return. Cody grimaced. “Rachel called you.”
“Yeah. Last night. I wanted to call you then, but Reed wouldn’t let me. He said no man wanted to talk to his sister on his wedding night.”
Cody muttered something incomprehensible and shifted to sit up in the bed, running his hand through his tousled hair, wishing for a cup of coffee. He really shouldn’t have to deal with Celia before his morning caffeine fix.
He glanced at the clock. It was after nine. The house was silent; he sensed that he was alone in it. He remembered Dana telling him that she had an early class this morning. He wondered if she’d gotten any more sleep than he had last night.
Realizing Celia was still talking, he tried to pay attention. “So, anyway, having eloped myself, I told Rachel I understood perfectly,” she chattered. “It really isn’t important to have all that pomp and ceremony, is it? Reed and I didn’t want to wait long enough to arrange a formal wedding with all the trimmings, and I guess you and Dana didn’t, either.”
“Uh, no, we—”
“I couldn’t believe it when Rachel called. Especially when she said you’d married Dana!”
Cody frowned. “What’s wrong with Dana?”
“Stop being so defensive. Nothing’s wrong with Dana. I’ve always liked her. I just didn’t know you were dating her. To be honest, I thought you were interested in her for a while when she first started working with you, but nothing seemed to come of it, so. Anyway, I think this is terrific and I can’t wait to see the two of you next month. It’s so hard to believe you’re really married!”
“Yeah,” Cody murmured. “I know the feeling.”
“I’m sure your new bride is getting impatient for your attention again, so I’ll let you go. Be happy, Cody. I love you.”
“Love you, too, Celia. Er, thanks for calling.”
He hung up and crawled out of bed, knowing he was in for a long morning of telephone calls. He was right. The phone was ringing again before he’d even finished brushing his teeth.
His grandmother called late in the morning, just as Cody had decided he could face food. He’d gathered the ingredients for a sandwich-and-chips lunch; he resignedly set them aside and answered the phone in the kitchen, wishing he’d turned on the answering machine.
At the sound of his grandmother’s voice, he winced and immediately started shifting his weight, just as he’d done when he was a boy caught in some mischief. He hadn’t reacted this way even when his bewildered mother had called earlier, demanding to know all the details of her only son’s impulsive marriage.
“Hi, Gran,” he said.
“Is it true?” she demanded. “Have you gotten married?”
“Yes, it’s true. Dana and I were married yesterday. You remember Dana, don’t you? The pretty redhead who waited on you last time you ate at my club?”
“I remember her. If you’ll remember, I told you then that I liked her, and that I thought you should ask her out. You told me to mind my own business.”
“I did no such thing.”
“Well, perhaps not quite so bluntly, but the message was the same. You said you and Dana were just friends.”
“We were. Then.”
“So this romance is a recent development?”
“Very.”
“Cody…is there anything you’d like to talk to me about?”
Cody was tempted then to pour out the entire story. His grandmother was the one person who’d always understood him, who’d always listened without judgment, who’d always known just what to say to make him feel better about himself. She fussed over him, fussed at him, at times—but she loved him. Unconditionally. And he loved her deeply in return.
But this was one thing he found he couldn’t talk to her about. Especially not over the telephone. “I know it happened fast, Gran, but don’t worry. Everything’s fine.”
“I can’t believe you let me go on about introducing you to my friends’ granddaughters when you were planning this all along,” she said good-naturedly. “You really do love to get the last laugh on us, don’t you, darling?”
Cody was glad she couldn
’t see his sorry excuse for a smile. She would know then that things weren’t at all as they seemed—that the last laugh this time was most definitely on him.
Granny Fran asked him to bring Dana for dinner on Sunday. Cody explained about Dana’s stepmother. “We’ll be spending most of our free time in Memphis with Barbara and Andy,” he concluded. “But I’m still planning to attend the family gathering next month if everything goes well. We’ll certainly see you then, if not before.”
His grandmother expressed her sympathy about Dana’s family troubles, and her understanding that Cody would be very busy for the next few months. “You take care of your wife,” she added. “She’s going to need you.”
“Yes.” And Cody had made a vow to come through, this time. Whatever he had to do.
He and his grandmother talked a few more minutes, and then concluded the call with I-love-yous and see-you-soons.
Cody felt emotionally drained when he hung up the phone—and it wasn’t even noon yet.
He reached for the mustard, trying to regain his appetite. Before he could open the bread, the doorbell rang.
Sighing heavily, he went to answer it.
His wife stood on the doorstep, her arms loaded with textbooks, her eyes nervous.
“Dana, you don’t have to ring the bell,” Cody chided, stepping aside to let her in. The stressful telephone calls on top of a restless night had left him irritable. He tried to lighten up when he added, “This is your home now.”
“Yes,” she answered quietly. “But I don’t have a key.”
He winced. “Oh. Sorry. I forgot. I’ve got a spare in the kitchen. Have you had lunch?”
“No.”
“I was just about to have a ham sandwich and some chips. Want to join me?”
She managed a smile. “Sure. Just let me put these books in my room and wash my hands.”
Cody walked back into the kitchen and poured himself a soda, briefly wishing for the first time in years that it was something stronger.
Chapter Thirteen
It wasn’t an easy first week of marriage. Not only did they have to contend with the well-intentioned congratulatory calls and conversations with their friends and acquaintances, but they had to adjust to living together and suiting their schedules accordingly. They got along surprisingly well, on the whole. Maybe because they were both trying so very hard.