“I wonder why,” Katie said sweetly, still not glancing at her husband. “So, what are you having?”
“A conversation with my wife,” Luke said in a low, lethal tone.
“Sorry, not on the menu. The special this morning is a Western omelette.”
“Fine, whatever,” Luke snapped.
“I want pancakes,” Robby said, oblivious to the undercurrents. “It’s really neat coming here for breakfast. I can have pancakes anytime I want. Daddy burns them.”
“I do not burn them,” Luke said testily.
“You should see what he does to eggs,” Robby added, not the least bit intimidated by his father’s foul mood.
“Well, fortunately, Sonny is a whiz with pancakes and eggs,” Katie said. “I like coming here for breakfast, too.”
“I can’t imagine when you find the time to eat it,” Luke said.
“Do I look as if I’m starving?” Katie retorted.
The question was a mistake. She knew it the moment the words were out of her mouth. Luke slowly, deliberately surveyed her from head to toe with a provocative consideration that had her skin practically sizzling. Dear heaven! She barely resisted the urge to fan herself with a menu. “Nope, you do have a few curves,” he observed generously. “More than I recalled, in fact.”
“Thanks so much.”
“Good color in your cheeks, too,” he commented, grinning.
“Oh, go to—” She stopped herself in the nick of time, plastered a phony smile on her face and stalked off to place the order.
Unfortunately Sonny was one of the best short order cooks in the business. He had Luke and Robby’s food ready before Katie could gather the composure necessary to fool all of the interested observers into thinking that she and Luke were not having their first marital tiff.
“I hope you’re enjoying yourself,” Luke said, when she thumped the plates onto the table.
She eyed him warily. “Are you trying to make a point?”
“It’s your last day,” he said, taking his first bite of omelette. “This is terrific, by the way.”
“I’ll give Sonny your compliments.” Then added cheerfully, “And I wouldn’t bet on this being my last day, if I were you. You’d lose.”
“We’ll see.”
He said it so smugly, as if there were some angle she hadn’t considered, that it gave Katie pause. Regarding him speculatively, she moved on to another table. If he wanted more coffee or more anything, too bad, she thought with a touch of defiance. She’d spend her energy on customers who appreciated her waitressing skills. Luke probably wouldn’t even leave a tip. He probably thought he’d already tipped her well enough by depositing that check into her account.
The next time she glanced toward Luke’s booth, it was well after nine o’clock. He was sitting there scribbling notes on a tablet he’d apparently filched from Peg’s supply under the cash register. There was no sign of Robby.
With only one other customer in the place chatting happily with Ginger at the counter, Katie couldn’t think of a single way to go on avoiding her husband. She poured herself a cup of coffee and carried it with her to his table, then slid in opposite him. He glanced up.
“All done making your point?” he inquired.
“And what point would that be?”
“That I can’t run your life.”
Katie regarded him intently. “I’m not sure. Have I gotten it through that thick skull of yours yet?”
“Only the first layer. Maybe you’d better try explaining to me why you want to work yourself to death this way.”
Okay, Katie thought, that was a reasonable enough request. She tried to formulate an explanation that wouldn’t cause him to order her to shut down the boarding house instead. Luke seemed to have turned into an either-or sort of guy. She had to make him see that both jobs were essential to her.
“I love the boarding house,” she began. “I poured all of my energy into it.”
“To say nothing of your money,” he reminded her.
She frowned at him and he held up his hands. “Sorry,” he said. “Go on.”
“But Ginger and the others all have their own lives. Sometimes I just need a break from all the quiet, from doing laundry and dusting. I like coming in here and hearing what’s going on around town. I like meeting the tourists. Plus I owe Peg. I get a sense of satisfaction from being able to pay her back in some small way for all she did for me. Having the boarding house and the diner gives me a sort of balance in my life.”
To Luke’s credit he listened to every word she said, but his expression grew bleaker by the minute. Katie didn’t understand his reaction.
“You still don’t understand, do you?” she asked.
“I understand,” he said flatly. Blue eyes met hers. “But where in this equation do Robby and I fit in?”
Katie felt as if all the breath had whooshed right out of her. “Is that what you’re worried about? That I won’t have time for the two of you?”
“There are only twenty-four hours in a day,” he reminded her. “You’re already cramming them to the max.”
Katie was stunned that he would think that he and his son would get only whatever leftover minutes she could salvage from an already overburdened schedule. Maybe what astonished her even more was the fact that it really seemed to matter to him at all.
“I suppose I hadn’t thought about how it would seem to you,” she admitted honestly. She looked directly into his eyes. “But, Luke, you and Robby will always be my first priority. I meant every word I said when we took our vows.”
He was regarding her doubtfully. “Every word?”
“Of course.”
“What about obey?” he teased, his expression suddenly lighter.
“That word was never spoken,” she retorted.
“Oh, I’m certain it was. Love, honor and obey, wasn’t that it? I’m sure Justice of the Peace Abernathy read from a very traditional version of the ceremony.”
“Absolutely not. I would have remembered.”
He grinned and reached for her hand, lacing his fingers through hers. “You do remember the love and honor part, though?”
“Vaguely,” she murmured, barely able to concentrate for all the dangerous sensations rioting through her.
“Maybe we should talk about that in more detail later, when we’re alone,” Luke suggested.
“Uh-huh,” Katie managed when she could catch her breath. This was not good, not good at all. “I’d better go now.”
Luke’s grin widened. “Where?”
She shook her head to clear it, then glanced desperately around for someplace, anyplace she might be needed in a very big hurry. “The kitchen,” she said hurriedly. “I have to help clean up in the kitchen.”
“All done,” Peg sang out.
“Now what?” Luke inquired with that lazy, smug expression firmly back in place.
“I have to go...” she racked her brain “...to the store. I have to get food for the boarders.”
“They’re staying at the hotel, remember?”
“That’s ridiculous,” Katie countered. “I’ll tell them to come home. They shouldn’t be spending their money on hotel rooms, when they’ve already paid me.”
“I’m paying for their rooms,” Luke said. “I’m sure Mr. O’Reilly’s in heaven with room service at his command. You wouldn’t want to spoil it for him, would you?”
She sighed. “I suppose not.”
Luke gave a little nod of satisfaction, then stood, leaned down and kissed her in a slow, leisurely fashion that melted every single bone in her body. “I’ll be waiting for you at home.”
Thoroughly dazed, Katie simply stared after him as he strolled from the diner.
“Whew!” Ginger said, emerging from the kitchen waving a dish towel in front of her face. “That man is hot enough to fry bacon.” Realizing what she’d said and about whom, she winced and turned an apologetic look on Katie. “Sorry.”
“For what?” Peg interjected
. “Appreciating a man who could turn the Arctic into steam heat?” At Katie’s look of astonishment, she added, “Well, it’s true. Luke does have a certain way about him.”
A possessive smile crept over Katie’s face. “Yes,” she said finally. “He does indeed have a way about him.”
She just wished she could be sure there was more to it than inbred flirtatiousness or the desperation of a man who needed to present an impression of marital bliss to a judge.
* * *
Luke sat in his new office, surrounded by all the most modern equipment, and tried to make sense of what had just happened with Katie. He’d been toying with the same question for more than an hour now. He’d bought controlling stock in entire corporations with less consideration.
The truth of it was his new wife was a puzzle to him. He couldn’t begin to imagine how that had come about. After all, Katie was his oldest and dearest friend. He’d been her first lover, though he realized he had no idea if he’d been her last. At any rate, nothing about her should be taking him by surprise. That was the main reason he’d come home determined to marry her. He was sick to death of surprises.
To his astonishment, though, she wasn’t the same adoring, compliant woman he’d left behind. She had a mind of her own. She’d learned to take care of herself. In fact, except for cleaning up the financial mess she’d gotten herself into with the boarding house, she didn’t seem to need him at all.
Which made him wonder why she’d accepted his proposal. She could have fixed things at the bank. Despite his tough talk, bank president Charlie Hastings would walk over burning coals for Katie. Katie had probably known it, too.
Instead, she had agreed to marry Luke, become stepmother to his son and negotiated what had to be the oddest prenuptial agreement on record. Or not on record to be more precise, since they were the only people who knew about it, unless Katie had gotten it into her head to file the document at City Hall. He realized he wasn’t so sure this new Katie wouldn’t do exactly that.
Katie was turning out to be far less predictable than he’d anticipated. She was absolutely bursting with surprises. It was a rude discovery for a man who’d been praying for a little stability in his life. He’d come home looking for a tame old friend and found himself married to a hellion.
Yet Luke had to admit he was intrigued with this new Katie. He’d been physically attracted to the old Katie, and that much hadn’t changed. But this new, fascinating woman stimulated him in ways he hadn’t expected. In fact, just thinking about the way Katie had stood in the middle of Peg’s Diner and blatantly defied him turned him on.
Maybe even more important, it made him smile. Ever since Tommy had declared his intent to gain custody of Robby, Luke hadn’t had all that much to smile about. Now he had Katie, who made his blood race just by going toe-to-toe with him and standing up for herself. Given his penchant for taking charge and her determination to control her own destiny, he figured more battles were a certainty. In fact, he looked forward to them.
Suddenly smiling to himself, he tossed down his pen and headed for the door. It shouldn’t take him more than an hour or so back at the boarding house to find something to change. With any luck he ought to be able to stir up another one of those stimulating clashes before dinnertime.
CHAPTER TEN
It didn’t take long for Luke to find exactly what he was looking for at the boarding house. He found that the way to take charge and at the same time drive Katie nuts was in plain view under the June receipts. It was already the tenth of the month and Ginger had yet to pay her rent. Mrs. Jeffers and Mr. O’Reilly paid by the week and both were behind, though only by a few days. The pattern set off alarm bells in his head.
He went back and found that Ginger hadn’t paid rent on a single occasion he could find. The other two paid, but always after some delay. It seemed the only record he could find of people actually paying what they owed, when they owed it, was of the handful of people who were passing through Clover.
Luke resolved to have a chat with all three of the regulars about the need to get the boarding house cash flow back on a sound financial base. No doubt Katie would be incensed by his interference. He could hardly wait for another one of their highly charged encounters.
In fact, he decided, why put it off? All three were likely to be at the Clover Street Hotel—at his expense. Maybe it would be better to have this conversation on neutral turf and away from Katie’s interference. She was at the root of the problem. Everyone knew she was a soft touch. No doubt they played on her sympathy with endless excuses.
He experienced a momentary pang of guilt for leaving Katie out of the meeting, but he ignored it. He had no doubts at all that she would hear about it soon enough. And there was no mistaking his perverse desire to be the target of more of those sparks she threw off when she was angry.
He had no difficulty at all in tracking down two of his quarry. Mrs. Jeffers was playing a cutthroat game of checkers with Robby at a table in the lobby. John O’Reilly was in the dining room with a hamburger and fries in front of him.
Luke asked each of them if they’d seen Ginger. Mr. O’Reilly claimed he hadn’t seen her since the reception at the boarding house.
“I thought she was working at the diner,” Mrs. Jeffers offered.
“I saw her go upstairs,” Robby said. “I think she has a class this afternoon or something. She probably had to study.” He turned a puzzled look on his father. “Why does she have to go to school during the summer? I thought everybody had vacation now.”
“Because she really wants to get into a good college and she’s taking these summer prep classes. She wants to take at least one class each summer, hoping that she’ll qualify for a scholarship,” Mrs. Jeffers explained. “That’s the only way she’ll ever be able to afford to get a degree.”
Thinking about Ginger struggling to get into college against the odds made Luke stop for a minute to consider what he was about to do. Then he thought of Katie, struggling equally hard to stay afloat, and his resolve strengthened.
“I’ll give Ginger a call on the hotel’s house phone,” he said. “I’d like to have a minute with all of you. Mr. O’Reilly will join us as soon as he’s finished his lunch.”
Mrs. Jeffers instantly looked worried. “Is everything okay? You haven’t changed your mind about us staying on at the boarding house, have you? I’m sure you and Katie would like to have your privacy, but we all love it there.”
Robby shot a look of alarm at his father. “They have to stay, Daddy.”
This wasn’t going nearly as smoothly as he’d intended. Withstanding Robby’s accusing looks was far worse than dealing with Katie’s disapproval. “Of course, everyone is staying,” he reassured them. “It’s just that there’s something I thought we should talk about.”
“Will Katie be here?” Mrs. Jeffers asked.
“No.”
“But shouldn’t she be in on this?” Mrs. Jeffers protested. “It is her boarding house, after all.”
Luke thought how reassured Katie would be to hear one of her boarders talking this way. “I’m just trying to save her some worry,” he promised. “I’ll fill her in later.”
“If you say so, dear,” Mrs. Jeffers said, though she still sounded doubtful.
It was nearly two o’clock by the time Luke had everyone where he wanted them, in a secluded alcove in the hotel lobby where they could have some privacy.
“I was just going over the boarding house books this morning,” he began. Immediately the expressions on the faces of all three boarders fell. Obviously they guessed where this was heading. “I’m sure it’s just slipped your minds, but it seems that everyone is behind in paying the rent.”
“But Katie knew...” Ginger began.
“Katie always...” Mrs. Jeffers chimed in.
“Now see here, young man. I don’t know that this is any business of yours,” John O’Reilly stated flatly. “We’ve all made our arrangements with Katie.”
This was no
t going at all the way Luke had hoped. He’d been certain that once they saw how their lackadaisical attitudes toward financial matters hurt Katie, they’d all want to help her out.
“Maybe I’m not making myself clear,” he said.
“Oh, I think you are,” Mr. O’Reilly countered. “Pay up or get out, isn’t that it?”
“No, of course not,” Luke protested.
“Sounds that way to me,” the retired fireman said.
“Me, too, dear,” Mrs. Jeffers concurred.
Only Ginger was silent, possibly because huge tears were spilling down her pale cheeks. Luke suddenly felt like a heel. It seemed his good intentions were backfiring. He rushed on to try to set things straight before he really botched things up.
“I’m not trying to bully you,” he said. “I’m just worried about Katie.”
As if a switch had been flipped, they were suddenly attentive.
“What’s the matter with Katie?” Ginger asked. “She’s not sick, is she?”
“Well, no, but...”
“Is she upset?” Mrs. Jeffers asked.
“Not with you all,” Luke replied candidly.
“Well, for heaven’s sakes, spit it out, boy,” Mr. O’Reilly ordered. “You know we care about Katie. She’s family.”
“She could lose the boarding house,” he said bluntly.
His announcement was greeted with shock. The gasp he heard, however, could not be attributed to any of the three people in front of him. In fact, he had a very strong suspicion that it came from the very woman under discussion.
Apparently his guess was far more accurate than his understanding of boarding house politics, because all three people jumped to their feet and rushed to encompass Katie in hugs, while murmuring appropriate expressions of sympathy and worry. He seemed to have been forgotten—or simply dismissed as the bearer of bad tidings.
When he finally got a glimpse of Katie’s face through the cluster of clucking sympathizers, his gaze clashed with green eyes that blazed with outrage. Glancing away from that look of condemnation, he suddenly realized that his son was mysteriously absent from the scene. He guessed that the little traitor had found some way to get word of the meeting to Katie.
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