He didn’t see why she’d say something like that. “Oh, they’d notice, all right. Hard not to notice if someone like you was missing.” He cleared his throat, thinking that perhaps he’d gotten too personal. “I know Shayne would be overjoyed to have you.”
The more she thought about it, the better it seemed. This was just what she was looking for—a place to make a difference. And there’d be someone there that she already knew. Someone to talk to so she wouldn’t feel quite so alone.
She made her decision. “All right, then maybe you could call him tomorrow morning and ask if he hasn’t changed his mind.”
There was no need for that. He knew Shayne hadn’t. Luc studied her for a second. The comparison between Alison and Janice was inevitable. Janice had nothing but contempt for Hades, and here Alison seemed almost eager to go. “You’re serious.”
“Absolutely.”
“This is going to mean the world to him.” It pleased Luc no end to be able to be the bearer of this kind of news. Undertaken as a momentary getaway, his trip to Seattle had turned out to be fruitful, not just for Shayne, but for Hades, as well. “Shayne could more than use the help. With three kids to look after, and teaching the local kids, Sydney can only do so much.” And then his eyes sparkled with amusement.
“What?”
“Oh, I was just thinking that you’ve already gotten your feet wet as far as the citizenry in Hades is concerned.”
She didn’t quite follow. “You mean because I met you?”
The song changed, the tempo stepping up. He continued dancing as if it were a slow dance, oblivious to the people around them and their gyrations.
“No, because you’ve already seen me in the altogether. The rest should be a piece of cake.”
Alison could feel the blush working its way up her cheeks and was grateful that the lighting in the club made reading a menu a challenge. If the rest of the men in Hades looked like him, she had no idea why women weren’t overrunning the little town instead of being on the endangered species list.
“Let’s not count chickens before we’ve made a down payment on the incubator. Shayne still has to approve me.”
That wasn’t an obstacle. “You’re breathing, he’ll approve. Besides—” he smiled down into her eyes and she felt her knees shifting composition from solid to liquid “—I can vouch for your gentle bedside manner.”
With effort, Alison squelched the reaction she was having. She looked at him sharply. “What do you mean?”
“The way you took care of me,” he explained. He saw the look in her eyes. He’d seen the same kind of look in the eyes of an animal with its foot caught in a trap. He had no idea what he’d said. “I didn’t mean to say anything out of turn.”
She was being an idiot. He was only trying to be nice, nothing more. Why couldn’t she just take things at face value? She damned the man who had stripped her of that right, stealing it from her.
Alison shook her head. “No, it’s me. I’m sorry. It’s just that—” She hunted for something plausible to blame. “Studying for finals has left me a little edgy, that’s all.” Alison shifted gears. “Why did you come here? On vacation?”
He thought of the letter he’d left on his bureau. “I just wanted to get away for a few days.” Without realizing it, he curled his hand tighter around hers. “Figure out what I was going to do.”
That sounded very abstract. “You mean with the rest of your life?”
“No, with a problem that’s coming home to roost in a few weeks.” She looked at him curiously. “I did something stupid.”
He didn’t strike her as someone who’d do anything stupid. On an impersonal basis, she felt she was a pretty good judge of character. “Oh?”
“Yes, I lied.”
He looked so solemn about it, she had to bite her tongue not to laugh. Without realizing it, she relaxed a little. “And I’m guessing that’s something you don’t normally do.”
“No.”
That would make him one of a kind. Everyone lied. Some more than others. She was guilty of it herself. “I’m surprised they don’t have a statue of you in the Smithsonian.”
“Why? Telling the truth isn’t that unusual.”
The man was an Eagle Scout. “You’d be surprised. What did you lie about?”
He didn’t think of himself as reclusive, but he wasn’t normally this talkative, either. Maybe it was because he needed to share this, and talking to a stranger was easier than talking to a friend. Especially a stranger with beautiful eyes.
“I told someone I was married.”
And that someone counted, she guessed. “An old girlfriend?”
He shook his head. “Not in the way you mean. It was to an old friend who ran off with an old girlfriend. Mine.” His mouth curved a little. That sounded almost humorous. It didn’t begin to touch the heartache he’d felt, standing there at the altar with his family and most of his friends in attendance, waiting for a bride who never came. “I ran into him in Anchorage about three months ago and we started talking.” He hadn’t meant for the conversation to go like this, but somehow one word had linked up with another until he’d found himself lying to Jacob. “He told me how happy he and Janice were and I—well, I—”
It wasn’t hard to fill in the words. “And you didn’t want him to pity you so you told him you were married and happy, too.”
It sounded innocent enough when she said it. But now he was going to have to face up to Jacob with the truth. And look stupid. Served him right, Luc supposed. Still didn’t make him feel better.
“Yeah, something like that. I wouldn’t have ordinarily but I’d just had a little too much to drink.” Even that had been out of character for him. “You’d think tending bar, I’d know not to overindulge, but—” At a loss, he merely shrugged vaguely.
There was a bond between them, a bond that had been formed in that out-of-the-way alley with its dank smells and overflowing Dumpster. She could almost feel his discomfort. And wanted to ease it somehow. “So now you need a temporary wife.”
He laughed at the thought. It was something Ike had said to him when he’d asked him about Jacob’s pending visit. “Yeah, I guess I do—if I don’t want to look like a complete idiot.”
The music was still pulsing around them, but she stopped dancing and looked up at him. It only took her a moment to make up her mind.
“Okay.”
It sounded like an announcement, or at the very least, an answer to a question. But he hadn’t asked anything. Luc could only stare at her blankly. Had he just had a relapse without realizing it?
Chapter Seven
“Okay what?” he finally asked, looking at her uncertainly.
Alison flashed a quick, brilliant smile at him. Kevin had always accused her of thinking faster than she could form words, leaving normal mortals way behind. This was one of those times. “Okay, if that doctor in Hades—”
“Shayne,” Luc interjected, more for himself than for her.
She amended her answer. “If Shayne says that he wants me to come up and work with him, I don’t see why I can’t pretend to be your wife, too.” The incredulous look on his face was nothing short of priceless, she thought. It made her feel more comfortable about her decision. “It wouldn’t be for a long time, right?” She figured that if they kept the charade up for too long, someone was bound to stumble onto it and ruin things for Luc. But, if it was only for a few days, Alison saw no harm in it.
The music swelled and grew loud again. Luc felt a little the way he had when he was ambling through the maze of amnesia. Not sure where he was going, not sure where he’d just come from.
“No, it’d just be for a couple of days or so. Maybe a week at most.” He doubted Janice would want to remain in Hades for longer than that. Rather than pick up the tempo again, he took Alison’s hand and brought her back to the tiny table they were sharing with her brothers. “Just what is it that you’re saying exactly?”
She didn’t think it was that difficul
t to follow. Maybe his brain was still a little foggy from the blow.
“Well, I feel I owe you. You put yourself on the line for me and you didn’t even know me.” Every time she thought of it, it still struck her as pretty damn heroic of him. She had her own personal white knight and she meant to repay him somehow. Besides, she didn’t like being in debt. Debts had a way of piling up. “The least I can do is to help out when you need a favor.”
Accepting her offer would only be compounding the lie. A lie he wasn’t comfortable with, certainly not proud of. It was on the tip of his tongue to refuse her. He hadn’t a clue exactly what had him backpedaling from his good intentions. But he did.
Debating, he looked into her eyes. “You don’t mind doing this?”
“No. It might even be fun.”
The way she saw it, this fantasy marriage would be as close as she would ever allow herself to get to being married again. And there was no harm in it. For anyone. She picked up the mai tai she’d ordered and played with the stem of the glass, moving it slowly between her thumb and forefinger.
Her eyes remained on his as she cloaked herself in humor. “So, tell me about this femme fatale who ground her high heels into your heart.”
“It wasn’t nearly as dramatic as all that.” The assurance was offhand.
Perhaps too much so. Alison had a feeling that Luc had a penchant for downplaying things. “Okay, give me the boring version, then.”
He grinned at the way she put it, then sobered as he let himself remember. Because it was necessary for self-preservation, he kept the events at arm’s length.
“Nothing much to tell. We wanted different things out of life, that’s all. I wanted to stay in Hades, work at the business, she wanted me to extend myself, to strive for bigger and better.” And to give her the wealthy lifestyle she demanded, he thought.
Alison played devil’s advocate, not sure where she was on this. “Nothing wrong with striving.”
The shrug was careless, belying the old emotions that still dwelled, in subdued levels, within. “Didn’t say there was. But I’d just rather spend the time enjoying what I have. If more comes of it, great. If not, well that’s okay, too.”
It was, she thought, an admirable philosophy. He believed in smelling the roses along the way. She doubted if there were many men like that around.
“So when you didn’t turn out to be the next self-made man/Ted Turner type, she turned her attention elsewhere,” she guessed.
Luc took a long pull on the bottle of beer he’d ordered, eschewing the glass mug the bartender had given him. Setting the bottle down, he answered, “Jacob’s more her speed.”
“And Jacob is—?” When he didn’t hear her, she leaned in closer, raising her voice. “And Jacob is—?”
“Was,” he clarified. The music seemed to be getting louder and louder. He was practically shouting and growing lonesome for the Salty Saloon. “My best friend. Once.”
It figured. “Ah, the plot thickens.”
But Luc shook his head. “No plot.” It was all pretty straightforward. He didn’t believe any of it was intentionally planned. It had just laid itself out a certain way, that’s all. “Janice was beautiful and she wanted things out of life I couldn’t give her. Things that it turned out Jacob could provide.” His lips curved slightly, as he remembered long conversations over fishing poles no self-respecting fish came within spitting distance of. “Jacob always had his eye on becoming bigger than life. Bigger than Hades could contain at any rate.”
She detected just the tiniest hint of sorrow in his voice, even with the noise surrounding them. Did he realize that he was still in love with Janice?
“And now Mr. Bigger-than-life is coming back for a visit and you need to show him that you’ve done well for yourself, too, right?”
“Wrong.” Maybe he shouldn’t take this any further, he thought. Lies had a habit of complicating themselves. “I don’t need to show anyone anything.” She looked so interested, he heard himself continuing. “But I did tell him I was married. I don’t know how it came out.” He knew he was repeating himself, but the whole thing still left him feeling incredulous. “One minute we’re just talking, the next minute he’s apologizing to me about ‘stealing’ Janice away and I kind of felt—”
“That he felt sorry for you.” A blind person could have seen that one coming, she thought.
He didn’t care for pity, never had. To be the object of it rankled him and went against everything he believed in. Luc set his jaw hard. “Yeah, I suppose that was it.”
She followed the logical path to the clearing. “So you told him there was no need, that you were happy with—?”
He raised his eyes to hers, God, but he felt silly saying this to her. “Suzanne.”
Alison rolled it around in her head, tried it on for size. “Pretty name.”
He wasn’t sure if she was patronizing him or not. What he was sure of was that he was feeling progressively dumber about mentioning this whole thing. “Look, this was a stupid idea. When Jacob comes, I’ll just tell him the truth, that’s all.”
“Will he rub your nose in it?”
He didn’t answer immediately. “No.”
Alison read between the lines. “But you’re not sure. And you think he’ll feel sorry for you.”
“Maybe.” But that was neither here nor there. And, at any rate, it wasn’t her problem. It was his for giving in at a weak moment.
Technically he was a stranger to her. But there was something about him, something that transcended the rules. She didn’t want to see him embarrassed. “How often does Jacob come back to Hades?”
“This’ll be the first time in three years.” And he wouldn’t have been returning now except that Jacob had come into some property, land that his father had left him, and he needed to dispose of it.
That cinched it as far as she was concerned. It would only be a one-time deal.
“Okay, odds are that the next time Jacob comes into town, you will be married to someone you really care about.” She clapped her hands together, then held them, palms out, signifying a done deal. “You can tell him you divorced Suzanne when you met the love of your life.”
He looked at her closely, trying to draw his own conclusions. “And you don’t mind doing this?”
“I offered, didn’t I?”
Maybe it might work at that. And it was a load off his mind not to be the object of Jacob’s pity. Or worse, of Janice’s. That was the part he’d been dreading, he realized. It was what kept him from refusing Alison’s offer. A man had a certain image of himself. And pity didn’t enter into it.
Luc raised the almost-empty bottle of beer to her in a silent toast. “Alison, you’re one in a million.”
She lifted her head haughtily. “The name’s Suzanne—and you’d be the first person to say that.”
He didn’t see how that was possible, but he had a feeling saying so would only embarrass her, so he kept it to himself. “Well, that’s settled. Would you like to dance again?”
She smiled her assent. Taking the hand he held out to her, she rose. “I’d love to.”
She felt good in his arms, he thought, a second before he locked the feeling away.
Only the late hour they arrived home prevented Luc from placing a call to Shayne the instant he walked through the door. But he was on the phone first thing the next morning, waiting only to make sure that Alison hadn’t changed her mind. She hadn’t.
Sydney answered the phone. Luc could visualize her holding one hand over her ear as she held the receiver in the other. Sara and Mac were squabbling in the background. The noise made him smile. Home.
“Sydney, it’s Luc. Is Shayne still home?”
“Luc, hi!” She sounded pleased to hear his voice. “You just caught him on his way out. Young Dr. Kerrigan is bailing out of this zoo as fast as his long legs can take him. If you hang on a second, I’ll get him for you.” She paused to ask, “Everything all right?”
He glanced at Alison,
standing next to him, waiting her turn. “Couldn’t be better.”
“Okay, I’ll get him.”
Luc heard Sydney call out to her husband and a distant, low voice answer, but he couldn’t make out the words. A minute later, he heard Shayne’s deep voice saying hello. “Luc, nice to hear from you, although I must say I’m a little surprised you’d call me. How are you enjoying Seattle?”
“Nice city, but I miss Hades. Listen, Shayne, I think I found you a nurse.”
There was a long pause. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No, I’m very serious. There’s someone here I’d like you to talk to.” His eyes swept over Alison with an ease and familiarity that took him by surprise. He hardly knew her, yet it felt as if he’d always known her. Always been comfortable around her. He didn’t quite know what to make of it. “Her name’s Alison Quintano. She just graduated from nursing school and she’s—”
Unable to restrain herself any longer, Alison took the receiver from Luc, pressing it to her ear. “Dr. Kerrigan, this is Alison. I’m looking for an assignment to complete my internship and become certified. Luc told me about your clinic in Hades.” God, would she ever get used to that name? She kept thinking of little red devils every time she heard it. “I was wondering if I could—”
“Yes!” Until the word rushed out of his mouth, Shayne hadn’t known the excitement that was attached to it. After all this time, he was finally going to have another professional working at his side. But he wanted her to know, at least in part, what she was letting herself in for. Until someone came to Hades, the full impact of the terrain was impossible to prepare for, but he could at least try—without scaring her away. “The conditions aren’t the best here, but we try to stay up-to-date on the latest techniques at least and the rewards of working with these people are indescribable. They really do need a nurse.”
Found: His Perfect Wife Page 9