by Sharon Sala
It wasn’t what he wanted to hear. But it wasn’t a no.
“Then I don’t think you know Amelia as well as you think you do,” Tyler said. “If you object, she’ll bow to your wishes. She won’t walk out on you and Rosemary, even if it means she spends the rest of her life alone.”
Wilhemina was aghast. She’d been so entrenched in the present, she’d not considered the future. And for Amelia, it would mean loneliness.
“Oh my…I didn’t think of that.” She looked away, unable to meet his gaze. “I suppose you think that I’m awfully selfish.”
“No, ma’am, I don’t.”
He rose from the swing and started toward the front door. He could hear Rosemary coming back. Glasses clinked against one another as she struggled with her tray of refreshments. He walked past Wilhemina and then stopped and turned.
For one long moment, he stared at the stiff tilt of her neck and the small tight wad of gray hair on the top of her head. She would have hated to know how vulnerable she looked. He sighed and then smiled, and before she knew it, he had kissed her on the forehead.
“I don’t think you’re selfish. I think you’re a lovin’ woman, Wilhemina. Just let me in on a little of it. I won’t ask for much…except maybe extras on your cookin’.”
She was speechless and more than a little bit touched by what he’d said and done.
And then Tyler opened the door and relieved Rosemary of her loaded tray before it went flying, and her with it. He set the tray onto the table between the wicker chairs and then seated Rosemary beside her sister. “This looks fine, Miss Rosemary. Did you make these cookies?”
She giggled and patted her hair. “Mercy no! And you’d better be glad. I can’t cook worth a darn.”
Wilhemina rolled her eyes. “Rosemary, don’t blaspheme!”
“Darn isn’t a bad word,” Rosemary insisted, as she served lemonade and cookies to Tyler and then to her sister. “It’s what you do to mend socks.” Her eyes twinkled as Tyler winked at her.
He swallowed a laugh along with a huge bite of cookie. These two were priceless. And the best part was, he could see bits and pieces of Amelia in each of them.
“Whoever made these cookies did a bang-up job,” he said, and willingly took a second helping that Rosemary offered.
Wilhemina tried not to preen, but in her world, praise was rare.
“Sister made them,” Rosemary offered. “She can make just about anything.”
The look that passed between Wilhemina and himself was slow in coming, but when it did, it was filled with acceptance and understanding. He cocked an eyebrow and grinned.
“If Amelia can cook half as well as you, I just might not starve after all.”
Rosemary giggled and then gawked at the look on her sister’s face. Wilhemina was smiling!
Amelia tried not to lean on the hot leather car seats as she swiftly rolled down her window. There was no need even turning on the air conditioner. She’d be home before it had a chance to get cool.
Her car started with a gentle purr and she smiled to herself as she headed for home. At least something she owned was in perfect working order. But as she turned the corner toward home and saw a red-and-white pickup sitting in her driveway, she became certain that what was left of the order in her life was about to come to an end.
The sight of Tyler having cookies and lemonade with the aunts left her speechless. Fear spiked. What had they been discussing?
Oh Lord, I never did tell them that Tyler doesn’t know about my life as Amber. And I didn’t tell them not to tell. I knew I shouldn’t have put this off. She got out of the car with trepidation, her voice just the least bit hesitant.
“Hello, everyone.”
Tyler was at her side in an instant. With one hand beneath her elbow to steady her, he quickly relieved her of her briefcase and purse and had her sitting beside him in the swing sipping lemonade before she had time to panic. She glanced at him and then at Aunt Witty and caught a look that passed between them. Had they been arguing? Dear God, please, not that!
“My,” she said brightly, “this is an unexpected pleasure. I didn’t know you were coming to town, Tyler.”
He grinned. “It wasn’t planned, but when I drove by, I couldn’t seem to pass without stopping. And then I was offered some of the best cookies in town. After that…” He shrugged and took another cookie from the plate.
Amelia gawked as Aunt Witty actually preened beneath the compliment. What in heaven’s name has happened? She stared around in amazement.
I know! I’m dreaming. Any minute I’ll wake up and have to shower and dress and go to work. This just isn’t happening because I saw Aunt Witty grin.
Tyler knew Amelia was nervous. He could see her shaking, and her smile was too fixed, her eyes were too bright. She looked to be close to hysterics or tears, and he was in no mood for either.
“It’s okay, darlin’,” he said softly, and kissed the corner of her temple. “We’ve just been talkin’.”
It was subdued and subtle, but it was as public as kisses get. Rosemary clapped her hands. “When’s the wedding?”
Wilhemina frowned. “Rosemary, your manners are lacking. What will Tyler think of us?”
Amelia nearly fell out of the swing. “Aunt Rosie! What ever made you say something like that?”
Her heart gave a thud! This would fix it! Tyler’d be gone in a flash. Nothing like being backed into a corner to send a man packing.
But Tyler just laughed. Not a little, and not quietly. He leaned his head back and laughed until he was choking for air. He laughed until tears hung at the corners of his eyes. More than once he tried to stop, but every time he looked at the shock on Amelia’s face and the overdone innocence on Rosemary’s, it came back in full force.
Rosemary was a case and there was no mistaking it, but to make matters worse, he suspected she wasn’t nearly as flighty as she pretended. A grin was lingering on his face just as Amelia bolted for the house.
“Oh my!” Rosemary gasped, and pressed a hand to her bosom. “I didn’t mean to offend. Maybe I’d better…”
“No, ma’am,” Tyler said, choking back the last of his laughter. “Let me.”
He caught her just before she ran up the stairs.
“Amelia, darlin’, don’t be upset.”
She couldn’t look him in the face.
He sighed. Nothing like back to square one. “She only beat me to the punch, you know,” he said softly.
Amelia jerked, but he refused to let her move. Humiliation swamped her. Now Tyler was stuck with either backing out on their relationship, or being forced into making a decision for which he might not be ready. She could cheerfully strangle Aunt Rosie.
His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “Okay, fine. I’ll give you two hours to pull yourself together, Amelia Ann, and then I’m coming back and we’re going out to dinner. After that, we’re going to my place. Besides other things, we’re going to talk, and I don’t want to hear any arguments, okay?”
She sighed in defeat and then looked up. “Okay,” she said, but he hadn’t even waited for her answer. He was already walking out the door.
Dinner had been a strained affair.
Amelia couldn’t say exactly what she’d eaten. And she had no idea what they’d talked about, although she vaguely remembered trying to keep a halfhearted conversation alive. It was when they headed for the farm that she started to worry. There were so many things she needed to say and she had not the first instinct as to how to start.
Tyler hit a bump in the road and grabbed her leg, absently steadying her as he guided his vehicle around an even larger dip as he muttered. “Darn roadbed. They need to grade these roads at least more than once every six months. The ruts get worse every time it rains…and it’s been doing enough of that lately.”
Amelia nodded. Rough roads and weather were not what was worrying her. The driveway leading to Tyler’s home appeared in the distance. She held her breath, expecting he’d been practicing
a long-winded excuse for why they shouldn’t see each other anymore.
Tears filled her eyes. She ducked her head and stared at her lap, trying desperately not to cry. She would survive. This had happened to her before. She’d lived through it then, she’d live through it now.
And then she looked up at the strong profile of Tyler’s face highlighted by the lights from the dashboard and knew there was no way she’d ever get over losing this man. It would be like losing a part of herself.
“God help me,” she muttered, and rubbed her finger up and down the bridge of her nose, praying she’d hadn’t been wrong about Tyler’s intentions. He’d sworn he loved her. She just hoped it was enough to include all of the Beauchamp women. Including Amber.
Tyler pulled up, then parked and killed the engine. “What did you say, darlin’?”
She shrugged. “Nothing, just talking to myself.”
He leaned over and kissed her full on the mouth, lingering longer than necessary on her lower lip. “Come inside and talk to me instead,” he whispered, and smiled as he watched her face light up.
But once inside, Amelia could hardly face him. They were alone in his house with this awful silence between them and her untold secret eating at her insides.
Where do I start? Admit to Tyler that I’m a fraud, or just let him off the hook and try not to die?
She took a deep breath and turned to face him, but he was closer than she’d expected. In fact, he was so close that when she turned, their lips grazed. She gasped with surprise and then went limp as Tyler took her in his arms and proceeded to explore what she’d unexpectedly offered.
“I have something of yours,” he said, and gave her one last kiss. “Wait here.”
When he came back, her eyes widened as he dropped her missing bra in her hands, then she groaned beneath her breath and stuffed it in her purse, embarrassed by its presence.
He laughed and swept her off her feet and into his arms. “Save room for the one you’re wearing, cause it’s comin’ off, too.”
She choked back a sob, willing to allow him whatever he wanted. It might be the last time in her life she ever knew such joy. She wanted to remember everything about this man for when she was old and alone. At least she’d have something besides regrets for company.
And then everything was forgotten as the business of coming out of their clothes and into his bed became too important to ignore. He turned her around and lifted her hair to unzip her dress, leaving tiny kisses down the path of skin the open zipper revealed. “I love you, Amelia…so much.”
She shuddered as his hands slid beneath the silky fabric to cup the fullness of her breasts. She leaned back against him as the top of her dress fell to her waist. “I love you, too, Tyler. But I don’t want you to feel pressured by what Aunt Rosie said.”
“I’m sorry, darlin’, but that’s impossible. If I feel any more pressure, I’m likely to explode,” and then he moved himself against her hips to emphasize his point.
She sighed and then shuddered as his hands slid down and her dress slid off. Moments later they were side by side on his bed, lost in the overwhelming need to belong to each other.
Her hands sought him out, searching and then moving across his body in a way that made sanity impossible. He rolled over and moved above her, then nearly passed out from the feelings she sent rocketing through his body as her hands slipped lower, encircling him, stroking him.
Tears filled her eyes as she watched the joy on his face. It was something she’d never forget. That she was capable of giving him so much pleasure was almost too much to believe.
Her arms encircled his neck. “Love me,” she whispered.
“Always,” he promised, and then lost himself in her heat. A growl of satisfaction came up his throat as he lowered his head and captured her lips with his own. When she arched to meet his entry, there was no more thought, only feeling.
Joy became pleasure, pleasure became need. And finally the need became an enduring pain as Amelia cried for release.
Tyler was showing her in the only way he knew how that she was everything to him. And then passion superseded sanity as he lost himself in his sweet woman’s arms.
Afterglow only lasts so long. And then, as always, comes reality. Amelia moaned and turned her face into the curve of his neck as he held her fast. She’d put this off too long, but hoped the old saying “better late than never” would hold true. She simply could not lose this man and his love because of a lie. She took a deep breath and said a quick, silent prayer.
“Tyler?”
He shifted her against his chest and slid his hands up her back, tunneling through the rich tangle he’d made of her hair and tried not to smile. She was finally going to tell him, he could feel it!
Letting his fingers drift back down her waist and then lower, lingering on the curve of her hips with loving determination, he murmured, “What, darlin’?”
Amelia gritted her teeth. “I can’t think when you do that,” she said.
He grinned. “Thank God. You don’t want me to think I’m losing my touch, do you?”
She crawled to a sitting position and punched him on the arm. “You are too cocky for your own good.”
Amelia wasn’t in the habit of parading naked in front of anybody, let alone a man, and from this position it was just the least bit embarrassing. She grabbed at a sheet, pulling it across her front and trying not to blush at the fact that Tyler refused to cover himself. When he ignored her distress, she glared at his wicked, knowing grin.
“As I was saying,” she began again, and frowned when he began pulling at the sheet with his toes, trying to unveil her.
When she glared again, he paused, all innocence. “I’m listening.”
“There’s something I’ve been wanting to say to you for some time now.”
“Me too, darlin’,” Tyler interrupted. “I’ve been wondering all this time when I could ask you to marry me. I think now’s as good a time as any. After all, I’ve more or less got you right where I want you.”
“Oh…my! I’d love…I’d be most…” Then she gulped and froze. In the time it took to blink, she went from pale to pink and back again. The sheet fell from her fingers and down into a white wad in her lap. While he watched in dismay, she stuttered once and then started to cry.
Amelia was heartsick. Now he’d done it! It was what she’d wanted to hear ever since she’d first seen Tyler Savage on the streets of Tulip, and he’d gone and asked her before she could confess. What was going to happen now? She still had to say it, but it was going to kill her if he got so angry he took everything back.
He sat up and took her into his arms, then pulled her into his lap and rocked her, wadded up sheet and all. “Don’t, Amelia. Please don’t cry! My God, darlin’, it wasn’t supposed to make you sad. I just want to spend the rest of my life with you. Is that so bad?”
Tears fell faster. A few sobs even bubbled up and entered the scene on a hiccup.
“You don’t understand…”
He sighed. It was time to let her off the hook before he got himself in trouble, too, although he’d figured it had been her secret to tell, not his to reveal. Obviously it was going to be more than she could manage with dignity. And when a man loves a woman, he never wants her stripped of her dignity. Maybe all her clothes…but never her dignity.
He cupped her face in his hands and swiped at the flow of tears with his thumbs as he leaned forward and tasted them on her lips. “I understand a whole lot more than you think, and I still want you to marry me…but on one condition.”
Oh God! Here it comes. I should have known there’d be a catch in this. If he’s going to make me tell Aunt Rosie and Aunt Witty that I can’t…
He grinned wickedly, reminding Amelia of Effie Dettenberg’s warnings of Savage men and their savage instincts. “And the condition is, that you be Amelia all day every day for the rest of our lives…but you have to be Amber by night!”
Her mouth dropped as she took a slow shud
dering breath. He knew! The sorry sucker knew!
Indignation was forming behind those blue-green eyes when Tyler lay her down and then pinned her to the bed with more than gentle persuasion.
“Well,” he asked, as he slid between her legs, “Will you?”
“Lord have mercy,” Amelia gasped, and closed her eyes as a slow smile of delight spread across her face. “How could a woman ever tell you no?”
Epilogue
Wilhemina wadded the handkerchief she was holding and blinked rapidly, trying very hard not to cry in front of the congregation. She consoled herself with the fact that even if she did, it would probably be forgiven. After all, one was supposed to cry at weddings.
Rosemary sniffled between smiles of satisfaction as she watched the look on Tyler’s face turn to one of pure joy. The minister raised his hands, indicating that the congregation stand. Rosemary clapped her hands together in childlike delight. Amelia must be coming!
Raelene Stringer was in her glory. Serving as Amelia’s maid of honor was more than an honor. Making her a part of the wedding had also made Raelene a part of polite society. She stifled a grin at the looks of amazement on the congregation, and then caught her breath when she looked up the aisle.
Effie Dettenberg’s smile froze in place as Rosemary looked her way. It wasn’t anything obvious, but there was something about the set of her mouth that reminded Effie of their deal, so she pursed her lips and straightened her belt. With gusto, she began hammering the chords of the wedding march. As church organist, it was her job to play.
Amelia’s heart was full. Her family was intact and, had in fact, grown by one more—the man who was waiting for her at the end of the aisle. A discreet smile slid into place as she neared the altar, thinking about what she’d packed in her luggage for their honeymoon.
Thanks to Raelene, she had one shiny red spandex outfit, black bustle, black fishnet hose and all. When she came out of the bathroom tonight, Tyler was going to be in for a big surprise. He wanted Amber by night…he was going to get her.