by Robyn Neeley
She forced herself to look at him calmly. “Thank you.”
“I wish I could feel you were going to take me up on that.”
“Maybe I will.”
“I won’t hold my breath.” He let her go.
Casey sat up and shoved her hair behind her ears.
“I don’t like knowing that things I said messed you up like this,” Kalin said.
“What makes you think I’m messed up?”
Kalin smiled. “Are you sure you want me to answer that?”
Casey stared at the Christmas tree, almost wishing he hadn’t brought it, then at the pile of gifts beneath it.
“I’ve hurt you enough. The last thing I want is to make you feel I’m trying to compound the injury.”
“I believe you.” A thought struck her and she began to laugh. She glanced over her shoulder, brimful of laughter, to see Kalin watching her with expectant blue eyes. “Have you ever thought of trying to control me with sex?”
Whatever he’d expected her to say, that wasn’t it. His mouth dropped open and his eyes widened. “What?”
“You heard me. A woman who is as wanton as I am would be willing to do almost anything for a tumble in the hay with you.”
Kalin stared at her, clearly nonplused. A moment later, he laughed with her. “I don’t think I’ve ever been paid such a high compliment before. I’m glad you think I’m so good in bed.”
“Oh, I don’t know that you’re so good in bed,” she said in suggestive tones. “But I sure would like to find out.”
Kalin smoothed his hand over her shoulder. “There’s one thing you’re very good at, and that is putting a man on the spot.”
“Good. I like the feeling that I’m not the only one always being put on the spot.”
“You never were.” Kalin pulled her into his arms and hugged her, hard. “Uncle Jack was on my case for weeks about the way I lost my temper in public that time. Even my mother wanted to skin me alive, and usually I’m her blue-eyed boy.”
Casey, stunned at this revelation, looked at him.
“Just accept the fact that I suffered over that little incident almost as much as you did,” he said roughly, and kissed her.
His kiss was hard and hurting, but healing as well. Casey pressed her body against his and wondered if she could coax him into following her into the bedroom.
Kalin massaged her shoulders. “I’ll speak to Uncle Jack about your grandmother. I hear depression is common after a stroke.”
Casey accepted the change in subject. “She doesn’t seem depressed. She told me exactly what songs she wanted at her funeral. She says there’s no sense in pussyfooting around about death, or pretending she’s coming home when she isn’t.”
Kalin rubbed her back. “What did you say?”
“Say? I shut up, of course.”
“I’m sorry, Casey. I wish I could do something to help.”
Casey smiled. “Believe it or not, you have. Your presence on the scene is tremendously comforting to her.”
“Oh? Is that so?”
She leaned back and gave him her sassiest grin. “She thinks you’re about to save me from a maiden’s worst fate.” She chuckled and added, “All this talk about law school has made her nervous.”
“What’s a maiden’s worst fate?” Kalin asked, releasing her.
Casey reminded herself again that Kalin wasn’t seriously interested in her. He wanted to assuage his sense of guilt.
She turned away and smiled at him over her shoulder. “Granny thinks the worst thing that can happen to a woman is to die unmarried. Not even the idea that I could become a rich, old maid lawyer is enough to comfort her.”
Chapter 9
Kalin walked into Casey’s grandmother’s hospital room early on the day after Christmas. Alice had finished the egg custard Casey had prepared for her and had dropped off to sleep.
Casey almost dropped the china plate when he appeared in the door. He wore a dark suit and a red tie that accentuated his height and his blue eyes. The sight of him took her breath away.
He scanned her tense face. “Casey, are you all right?” He came closer to look down at her grandmother’s sleeping face. “Is she always this still?”
“Yes, that’s what worries me. She’ll sleep until this afternoon, when her friends arrive to visit.”
Kalin folded her in his arms. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. Uncle Jack is giving her special attention. Is that a twelve-day weather chart on the wall?” He nodded toward the chart Casey had affixed to the hospital wall the day before in a position where Alice could see it easily.
She nodded. “Granny is thrilled with it. She won’t let me forget to make notes of the weather every day.”
The chart contained twelve boxes, each with a date and a corresponding month noted on it, and plenty of space for Casey to record each day’s weather.
“Lydia is fascinated with the Twelve Days. I’ll tell her to drop by. Did you open your present this morning?”
Casey blinked. “I’ll open it tonight when I get home.”
“Don’t forget. I’ll call you, okay?”
She nodded.
“Take care of yourself,” he said, gave her a quick kiss, and left.
She hastened to the door and watched as he walked down the hall. He had the confident, easy carriage of a natural athlete. The fact that she still loved to watch him disturbed her. She stood in great danger of emotional dependence on Kalin again.
“I keep on telling you,” Casey told Bonnie later, as the two sat over lunch at Cap’n Bob’s. “We’re just good friends.”
“Oh, yeah? So where is he?” Bonnie stirred her coffee.
Casey grimaced. “He had to go back to Houston for a trial. He’s representing a rape victim in a personal suit against the rapist.”
“That’s Kalin for you. You ought to go watch him.”
“That’s what Granny said. She lectured me this morning on making a young man feel admired. It was priceless.”
Bonnie waved her coffee cup in a manner that brought one of Casey’s newly hired waitresses running with the coffee pot. “Your grandmother is a fountain of wisdom, Casey Gray. You ought to rent a motel room and be in court every day he is. You may never get another chance. I doubt he’ll practice much longer.”
Casey waited while the waitress refilled Bonnie’s cup. “I’d like to, but I have to work and keep an eye on Granny.” She lifted her own cup to her lips. “Besides, tomorrow is the tenth anniversary of Derrick Davenport’s death, and Kalin will probably think I’m trying to trick him into marrying me or something.”
“Casey, that’s ridiculous and you know it.”
Casey shrugged. “How should I know it? That’s what he accused me of before, and all I was guilty of then was not wanting him to leave me.”
“He accused you of trying to trick him into marriage?”
Casey shifted and sloshed hot coffee over her fingers. “Yes, he did. He also said I had made him look like a fool.”
Bonnie’s brown eyes widened. “He said that? Did it occur to you to ask him what he meant?”
“I did, and he said that if I didn’t know, it was a waste of time to tell me. What really seemed to get him was all that junk the newspapers printed about my future aspirations.” She swallowed coffee and added, “No telling what they’ll print this time.”
Bonnie looked thoughtfully at her coffee cup, then at Casey. “You mean that stuff about how you were going to study in Paris, and have your own TV cooking show?”
Casey winced.
“Well, you can’t blame him. You really did used to lay it on heavy about going off to cooking school and all. Poor old Kalin probably thought you could hardly wait to get away from him and hit the big city.” She met Casey’s stunned gaze for
a moment, then said, “You spent a lot of time convincing Kalin you thought more of earning money to go off to school than you did of him, and now you’re surprised because you succeeded.”
Casey was simmering gently when Lydia appeared to show her a photocopy of another ad they might run. “Bring her a serving of our new rice dressing,” she snapped, thinking the new arrival was their waitress.
“Don’t mind her,” Bonnie said when Lydia looked startled. “She always gets like this when I point out the flaws in her thinking. You’re Kalin’s sister, aren’t you? I’m Bonnie, Casey’s best friend. I used to advise her on how to seduce your brother.”
“Please tell her to seduce him thoroughly.” Lydia laughed. “He’s driving us all crazy.”
The moment Lydia returned to the office, Bonnie said, “Now you listen to me, Casey Gray. You’re the most loving person I’ve ever known. But … give you a job and you go crazy. Mark my words, Kalin got the impression that you’d rather earn a couple of dollars than be with him.”
Casey was insulted. “I like to take time off as well as anyone, but I have certain obligations.”
“Right. Cap’n Bob’s would collapse. Your grandmother would pick that moment to get worse.” Bonnie leaned forward. “Trust me, Casey. No one is indispensable. Forsake this joint and go to Houston. You won’t regret it.”
• • •
By the time Casey reached the Houston court where the trial was proceeding and had slipped into a seat at the back of the courtroom, she was already regretting it.
She hadn’t changed from her gray wool suit and the pale pink silk blouse she’d worn to work. A sudden warming trend in the weather meant she now felt half-roasted.
Worse, she kept thinking of the duties she left undone or had turned over to the inexperienced Lydia. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, then peered around a woman’s head for a sight of the protagonists.
Kalin stood before a table with a stack of documents spread out before him and fiercely objected to something the defending attorney said. Even from the back of the courtroom, his blue eyes were easily visible when he turned.
The judge sustained the objection, and Kalin sat down.
Casey watched, fascinated. The Kalin she knew was easy-going and relaxed, rarely raising his voice, and certainly not given to acting.
Kalin, the attorney, reacted with intense emotion to everything the defending attorney said, leaping up to shout objections, and looking about as relaxed as a cat on an electric fence. When he conducted a cross-examination, he did so with vigor, firing questions with a rapidity Casey hadn’t guessed he could achieve.
By the time the trial concluded for the day, she professed herself in awe. However much he’d disliked it, Kalin hadn’t wasted his time in law school.
She rose with the rest of the spectators and walked slowly forward. Kalin conferred with his client as he packed his papers into his briefcase and didn’t see her until she stood about twenty feet from him.
He glanced up and his eyes widened. For a moment he froze, then he hastily excused himself and came toward her.
He gripped her arm, his eyes fairly blazing. “You came. How long have you been here?”
“Yes, and I’m glad I did. I came in at the point where you were objecting to the defense lawyer’s attempt to prove your client smoked pot in the tenth grade.”
“If we weren’t in court, I’d kiss you. You don’t have to get back right away, do you?”
“I thought I’d take you to dinner first. I spotted an attractive little Italian restaurant on the way here.”
“Great. Wait right here.”
Casey watched as he spoke to his client once more, admiring the way his suit outlined his broad shoulders, and how his long, slim hands illustrated something he said.
When he returned, his face was full of anticipation. They walked through the building, which despite its newness, managed to project an air of mahogany walls and ancient stability. Kalin’s hand rested at her back in its old, possessive manner, and Casey realized she liked it there.
The restaurant Casey had noticed was hardly more than a hole in the wall of an older building, with warehouses and railroad tracks nearby, but the greenery in the window had caught her eye.
“I enjoyed your performance this afternoon,” she told him, sipping wine. “Are you sure you want to quit law?”
“Being a lawyer is almost as bad as being a doctor. Everyone calls you at midnight to get them out of jail.” He smiled at her. “If I’d known you were there, I’d have put on the performance of my life.”
Casey laughed. “I never knew you could carry on like Perry Mason. It was great.”
She let her eyes linger on his face, loving the happiness reflected in the glow of his eyes and the curve of his chiseled mouth. Alice and Bonnie had been right.
“I used to go and watch my father every now and then. He was better than any actor. I just can’t do it if I don’t believe in my client and my case.” He stopped and surveyed her intently, then reached across the table to take her hand. “After dinner, will you come by my apartment? There’s something I want to show you.”
At the moment, she’d have agreed to almost anything he suggested. She was rewarded by the way he smiled at her.
“By the way,” she said slowly, unsure how to phrase her next statement, “I’m going to need a good lawyer. Are you taking new clients, or are you scaling down your practice?”
“Darling, I’ll represent you anytime. Whom are we suing?”
“We aren’t suing anyone. I spoke to Joe this morning, and I’ve decided to buy Cap’n Bob’s.”
Kalin’s eyes narrowed and he leaned back in his chair, still holding her hand. “Have you?”
“As you pointed out, Granny will never recover completely. I’ll need a job close to home so I can take care of her.”
“You mean you can’t stand to be left alone with your own thoughts,” Kalin regarded her steadily.
Casey flushed with annoyance and tried to pull her hand away. “Forget I mentioned it.”
“Don’t imagine meanings into things I say.” He kept her hand and smiled. “I’m glad to hear you intend to remain in Winnie. I’ll handle the sale for you. You’re certain this is what you want?”
“I’m certain.” Casey straightened as their waiter arrived with their food.
As they ate, Kalin entertained her with a description of some of the cases he’d taken since he began his practice. She listened and laughed, well-pleased that she had listened to Bonnie. Kalin seemed almost like the young man she’d known years ago, loving and eager to share his life with her.
When they left the restaurant, he drove her straight to his apartment in a pink brick building that fronted a busy street. He pulled his SUV into a slot before the end apartment and hustled her up the metal stairs to the end door on the second floor.
Casey stepped inside and glanced around cautiously. The living room was furnished in a casual country style that suited Kalin, and he had every available surface in the room stacked with books and manuscript pages. The sight was so homelike, she smiled and walked forward to sit on the sofa and turn over the top page of the stack of paper reposing on the coffee table.
When she glanced up, her eye fell on a framed map of Galveston Bay with all the best flounder beds marked in red. In the corner of the room, as if he’d dropped them there and had never bothered to move them, he had propped two fly rods and a net. The duck decoy telephone she’d given him for Christmas held a place of honor on an end table.
“Do you like my humble abode, or are you itching to reduce it to a state of unnatural neatness?” He remained standing, watching her examine her surroundings.
“I love it.” Casey cast an affectionate glance around the room. “It looks like you.”
“I’m glad yo
u think so. Wait until you see my computer setup. You’ll be impressed.”
“I’m already impressed. You’ve got all your gear right out here where you can see it.” She studied the hunting rifle in its case he had stored behind a padded armchair.
“That’s Uncle Jack’s. I had it repaired for him at a shop near my office the other day.”
She smiled. “Is this another new Western?” She shucked off her wool jacket gratefully.
“Take it home with you and write me one of your famous twenty-page critiques. I’m about ready to send it off, so let’s hope it doesn’t need a total rewrite.” He touched her hair. “Maybe I can sweeten your disposition before you start reading.”
Casey glanced at him, wondering at the serious note underlying the teasing words.
He pulled her up to stand beside him. “Come on. I want to show you something.”
She followed willingly and looked with interest around his bedroom. A framed Western landscape hung over the bed, and a pair of flounder gigs were propped against a wall.
Kalin guided her across the room to the corner containing his computer equipment. His printer sat on top of the file cabinet, and his computer occupied a hutch that had a framed photograph sitting on the top shelf.
Casey came closer and saw herself as she had looked during her senior year of high school.
There were several other photographs of her taped on the side of the file cabinet. As she assimilated them, Kalin’s arms came around her from behind.
“You may not realize it,” he said, “but you’re directly responsible for the sale of my first book.”
“Me?” She turned her head but couldn’t see his face.
He kissed her temple and hugged her. “I kept that picture over my keyboard so I could see it while I worked.”
“Next you’ll be telling me I inspire you.”
“You have no idea. I longed to be able to tell you someday that I sold a book.”
Casey heard the smile in his voice. “It was only a matter of time. I always knew you would sooner or later.”