Blue Clouds

by Patricia Rice

  “Yeah! That’s the best part. Everybody can go. Will you come, Pippa? Please, please, will you come? It’s a party. Everybody has to come.”

  She suspected the fine hand of Seth or Lillian behind this plea, but she was feeling too lost and unhappy not to accept the Wyatt family conniving this time. She wanted to go to a carnival, to see the Ferris wheel, play silly games, and hear the merry-go-round. All right, so she wanted to see Seth again, too. But she wouldn’t make any more of it than that.

  At least, she’d try not to. She had to remember the emotional vacuum Seth lived in. She’d seen no evidence of the walls crumbling.

  “Tell me when and where,” she agreed. Chad’s delighted reply assured her she was doing the right thing, whatever the consequence.

  ***

  The rainbow-colored lights of the Ferris wheel illuminated the darkening clouds on the horizon. It seemed only fitting that a rare California summer thunderstorm should form on Seth’s birthday. Pippa glanced worriedly at the billowing black clouds, then proceeded to ignore them in favor of the festive flags flying at the entrance to the field Seth owned—the one next to the foundation of the new plant.

  She could see people roaming the construction site as freely as they did the fair, pointing out new features, following a map of the blueprints. What genius had persuaded Seth to introduce his new company to its neighbors in such a manner?

  Whoever it was, she gave them a mental pat on the back as she climbed out of her little Mazda with her arms full. Maybe she should leave the package behind until she found some help.

  But she was in too much of a hurry to see Chad. And Seth. Okay, so she wanted to see Seth. So, shoot her.

  A cheerful calliope greeted all arrivals as Pippa hurried across the grassy parking lot, carrying her surprise. She saw no ticket booths. Of course, if this was a party, they wouldn’t charge admission for the night. She’d never heard of anyone hiring an entire carnival for a party, but Seth was capable of it. She wondered who he’d invited.

  The entire town, she decided a minute later as she waved at Meg and family and noticed other familiar faces in the crowd. She didn’t hurry to Meg’s side as she once might have done. She wanted to find Seth first.

  She could scarcely miss him. Hands full of multicolored helium balloons, Seth loped toward her. The tight brackets around his mouth and the nervous desperation in his eyes faded as he approached her. Her heart twisted at the sudden flash of white teeth and the warm smolder of gray eyes. She hadn’t known how much she missed him until even her bones ached at the sight of him.

  He stopped shy of hugging her, and Pippa gulped a little. She felt like a sixth grader with her first boyfriend. Tentatively, she handed him the immense, gaily wrapped package in her arms. “This isn’t really from me, but from a bunch of people.”

  The tension in his stiff posture eased further, and he grinned like a little boy. “A birthday present? May I open it now?”

  He acted as if no one had ever given him a present before. Amused, Pippa nodded. “That’s what presents are for.”

  He handed her the bouquet of balloons so he could tear into the wrappings. She’d had a packager find a box that would contain her gift, and Seth had to tear through that, too, before he could find the contents. Nearly four feet high, and slender, the box made an awkward container. Seth had to set it on the ground to rip off the top.

  As he caught a glimpse of the contents, he threw Pippa an uncertain look. Then apparently deciding it was a joke, he grinned again and ripped the thin box down the sides. A cheap, plastic, nearly four-foot statue of a baseball player emerged.

  By this time, Chad had wheeled up and a small crowd had gathered. A short man wearing a baseball cap in the back of the crowd shouted, “We kinda forgot to give it to you before!”

  Seth glanced around, found Oscar, and scowled slightly, but he lifted the statue to read the inscription. “ ‘Most Valuable Player’?”

  Someone else yelled, “The team lost the final game without you. There wasn’t much argument over who deserved the trophy.”

  “Most valuable player,” Seth murmured again in amazement. A slow grin gradually worked its way across his face. He looked up and winked happily at Pippa. “Well, it looks like I’ve finally got something to sit on that mantel in my room. Thank you all. I don’t have to make a speech, do I?”

  “You can thank Pippa for reminding them they owed it to you,” Meg pointed out.

  Pippa started to protest, but Seth engulfed her in a hug, then, picking up his trophy and cradling it in one arm while holding her shoulders with the other, he addressed the crowd. “Maybe the new plant can start a softball league. But I want first base.”

  The crowd cheered and jeered, a few men approached to slap him on the back, others merely waved and wandered off on their own pursuits, tugged by wives and children. Seth’s arm tightened around Pippa’s shoulders as Meg planted a kiss on his cheek, stole balloons from Pippa, handed them to Chad and her kids, then herded them all off in the direction of the ice cream stand.

  Wonder still hovered around the edges of Seth’s expression as he accepted greetings from a few more of the crowd, but Pippa could tell from the pressure of his arm that he was nervous as hell. He didn’t know how to accept accolades of any sort, not even in jest. Bravely, he smiled and shook hands. When one teenager hesitantly mentioned that she adored his books, Pippa thought Seth would literally crumble.

  The town knew he was Tarant Mott?

  She looked at him in alarm. He nodded stiffly at the girl, and as she wandered off, he shrugged for Pippa’s benefit.

  “Chad got a little excited when he saw one of my books at Meg’s house. Meg may have kept quiet, but unfortunately, there were a number of other people in the room at the time.” He shifted his shoulders uncomfortably and stared over the heads of the happy crowd swirling around him.

  If she hadn’t introduced Chad and Mikey, no one would ever have known his identity, and now the whole town knew Tarant Mott and Seth Wyatt were one and the same. His privacy was lost, and it was all her fault.

  Horrified at the realization, she bit her lip and struggled for an appropriate reply. “I’m sorry. They all know who you are now.” Stupid statement. Her brains had gone begging.

  Seth smiled. “Yeah. I’m getting the impression that’s why they’re all here tonight. It’s okay if I’m eccentric now. I’m a writer. They aren’t afraid of writers.”

  Pippa knew she should be more serious about the situation, but his reply conjured interesting images, and she bit back a giggle. “So much for the Big Bad Wolf image. Writers are harmless. Everyone knows that.”

  He growled and bared his teeth at her, and her heart soared. He wasn’t furious with her. He almost seemed playful. Hope reeled out the strings of her heart. She tied a balloon to his statue’s neck.

  Thunder rumbled overhead.

  “I don’t suppose you have a big top with lightning rods anywhere around here?” she suggested, glancing at the roiling clouds.

  “Where else would we put the clowns?” Catching Pippa’s elbow, Seth dragged her down the main sawdust path laid through the field.

  He gathered corn dogs and cotton candy and towering soft drinks as he passed the stands, until their hands and arms overflowed. They had to find Chad and tie balloons to his and Mikey’s, chairs, then lay the trophy across Chad’s lap so they could nibble their way through the feast. Pounding his chair in excitement like any normal six-year-old, Chad scarcely noticed their presence. Beneath the protection of the canvas, clowns rolled out on unicycles and miniature fire trucks and every conceivable kind of vehicle until the children screamed with laughter.

  Thunder clapped and rain poured outside the tent, but the brilliant lights inside focused all attention on the show. The kids in wheelchairs had front-row seats. The rest of the bleachers filled with an audience escaping the rain. Seth dragged Pippa onto a bleacher behind the chairs, then ignored her after the show started. Pippa smiled and hugged his arm
as she watched his intent gaze absorb all the absurd activity in the ring. He’d really never seen clowns. Amazing.

  She wondered if the next book would include a clown killer, or more likely, a clown hero.

  By the time the show ended, the rain had stopped and they’d consumed enough junk food to make them sick for a week. Chad looked a little green around the gills, but he glared challengingly at his father as they edged toward the entrance. “I want to ride the roller coaster.”

  “You’ll make yourself sick. Try the merry-go-round first.” Still holding Pippa protectively with one arm, Seth guided his son’s path over the wet grass with equal care.

  “Merry-go-rounds are for kids,” Chad scoffed.

  “You’re a kid.” Seth swatted his son’s shoulder affectionately.

  Pippa watched this byplay with amazement. Not too many months ago, Chad would have been screaming and turning blue with rage and Seth would have been panicking and caving in to whatever he wanted. The argument now threatened to be no more than a typical childhood struggle.

  “I want to ride the unicorn,” Chad threatened.

  Pippa threw Seth a nervous glance. She wasn’t entirely certain Chad had the physical capabilities of sitting on one of those up-and-down horses. Seth didn’t appear concerned.

  “You’ll ride whatever is available. I’m not chasing anyone off the unicorn just for you.” They pushed with the rest of the throng onto the midway.

  “Then I’ll ride the roller coaster,” Chad announced with satisfaction.

  Amused, Pippa pinched his skinny arm until Chad looked up at her, almost hopefully. “Brat,” she whispered.

  “Am not.” He puffed up belligerently, fighting a smile.

  “Am too.” Pippa tousled his hair until he dodged.

  Before they could repeat the refrain of the old argument, Seth’s reverent exclamation intruded. “My God, will you look at that?”

  They both glanced up where he was pointing.

  The setting sun had broken free of the lingering clouds, casting buttery light across the horizon, illuminating billowing black with tints of indigo, and casting rosy hues over the lower stratus until one whole side of the sky looked as if a mad oil painter had cleaned his brushes across it.

  “Blue clouds,” Chad whispered in awe.

  “Yeah. Maybe God’s watching over us after all.” Seth kneaded his son’s shoulder with affection and assurance. “Wish me luck, kid, and go find Mikey.”

  Pippa didn’t even ask what he was doing as Seth motioned George over to take charge, then led her away. Her heart pounded in her ears now. Awe couldn’t describe the emotion swamping her as she glanced up at the magnificent clouds, then back to the determined man dragging her down the midway. Seth’s curls tumbled in dark disarray across his forehead, and she had the insensible urge to reach out and brush them from his eyes. One look from those eyes warned her she’d better tread carefully. She wasn’t a wimp, she told herself. She had a backbone now. She’d never been afraid of Seth. Just sometimes, it was better to let him have his way.

  He pulled her to the front of the line at the Ferris wheel. Pippa had already noticed that the rides were free to one and all. Since Seth was paying for it all, she supposed he had the right to bully his way to the front. But when he gestured at the operator and the wheel immediately started unloading its human cargo, she threw Seth a questioning look.

  He ignored her.

  Completely devoid of ail passengers, the wheel halted, and the operator gestured for them to come forward. Walking rapidly, Seth tugged Pippa toward the waiting seat. If she had had any presence of mind at all, she would have dragged her feet and screamed at the top of her lungs. But she didn’t. Couldn’t. The whole scene—the carnival, the clowns, the crowds, the clouds—all created a little glass ball of a world that Seth alone controlled. Sort of. Just enough to make her feel helpless and light-headed and outside herself.

  The attendant lowered the bar, pulled back the lever, and whirled the wheel into the evening sky.

  It didn’t stop for more passengers. They soared around once, fast enough for the breeze to sweep through their hair, color their cheeks, and bring them closer together for warmth. All Pippa’s senses screamed into alert as Seth circled her shoulders and smiled down at her.

  They reached the pinnacle of the arc and halted.

  The panorama of the carnival spread out before them. Beneath the early dark of the clouds, colored lights glittered and blinked in garish Christmas displays. The calliope music lilted hauntingly on the wind. Merely cheerful colors from this distance, the crowd milled far below, going about their happy business, while she and Seth swung at the top of the world.

  Pippa took a deep breath and finally dared a glance up at Seth.

  He stroked her cheek with one finger. “I wanted to give you something in return for everything you’ve given me.”

  Those weren’t exactly the words she wanted to hear, but right now, right at this wonderful, marvelous moment, she would accept anything he offered. Anything.

  “Whatever I gave you must have been pretty spectacular to deserve all this,” she answered lightly, not daring to hope for more than a joke at her expense. “I never thought plastic trophies had that much value.”

  “I love you, even if you are an idiot.”

  Before Pippa could absorb the impact of his words, Seth caught her chin and held her until she was so thoroughly kissed, she wouldn’t be able to walk straight if they returned to the ground now. She wrapped her arms around him as she remembered why she’d left. She’d needed to hear the words, needed him to acknowledge what was between them. She’d had to be positive he wanted her for the right reasons, to know she’d broken through that stony wall.

  Gazing at him starry-eyed as they held on to each other and gasped for air, Pippa noted his smug look of satisfaction.

  “We can do more than kiss if you’ll just say yes,” Seth stated with some semblance of calm.

  Pippa’s lips curled at the corners. “Say yes to what? Skydiving from this seat?”

  “You do this to me on purpose, don’t you?” Looking a little more ruffled, Seth patted his pockets until he found what he was looking for. Producing a jeweler’s box, he snapped it open and took a deep breath. “I’m perfectly capable of taking you out to movies and restaurants and whatever you deem suitable for a dating couple, but I’d really rather you just said yes right now so I don’t have to suffer in uncertainty any longer than necessary.”

  As a proposal, it had to rate right down there with his man-eating gophers, but for Seth, it was a love poem more beautiful than anything Emily Dickinson ever wrote. Pippa scarcely noticed the glittering diamonds on the gold band inside the box. She couldn’t tear her gaze away from Seth.

  “I love you,” she prompted.

  Seth grimaced, ran his free hand through windblown curls, then realizing he’d already discovered the right tactic, he pulled her close and kissed her again, blushing her mouth with his and murmuring, “I love you, too.”

  Pippa giggled and hugged him back.

  “I’ll make you say it every day,” she warned.

  “Every night,” he compromised. “I have to get some work done during the day.”

  “All right, every night. And any time on the weekends.”

  Seth groaned and pulled her so tightly into his embrace that she could feel his heart beat next to hers. “You’ll be the death of me, won’t you?”

  “Yeah, but we’ll die happy.”

  She wrapped her arms around him and covered his face with kisses as the wheel jerked to a start and the notes of the calliope pounding out “Love Makes the World Go ‘Round” soared above the cheers of the crowd waiting below.

  For a recluse, Seth had made a spectacular entrance into the human race. And for a man thoroughly steeped in cynicism, he was making a remarkable plunge into the terror of trust that married life required.

  Pippa smiled as the last piece of blue cloud dipped into the horizon—a defi
nite promise for better days ahead.

  About The Author

  With several million books in print and New York Times and USA Today's bestseller lists under her belt, former CPA Patricia Rice is one of romance's hottest authors. Her emotionally-charged contemporary and historical romances have won numerous awards, including the RT Book Reviews Reviewers Choice and Career Achievement Awards. Her books have been honored as Romance Writers of America RITA® finalists in the historical, regency and contemporary categories.

  A firm believer in happily-ever-after, Patricia Rice is married to her high school sweetheart and has two children. A native of Kentucky and New York, a past resident of North Carolina, she currently resides in St. Louis, Missouri, and now does accounting only for herself. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, the Authors Guild, and Novelists, Inc.

  For further information, visit Patricia’s network:

  www.patriciarice.com

  http://www.facebook.com/OfficialPatriciaRice

  https://twitter.com/Patricia_Rice

  http://patriciarice.blogspot.com/

  www.wordwenches.com

  GARDEN OF DREAMS

  by Patricia Rice

  All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not inspired by any person known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  This edition published by Book View Cafe 2012

  © 1998 – Patricia Rice

  Originally published 1998 by Ivy Books,

  The Ballantine Publishing Group

  GARDEN OF DREAMS (Sample)

  by Patricia Rice

  “I know what you’re going through, Nina,” the man behind the desk said sympathetically, leaning forward to show his earnestness.

  Nina contemplated saying, “No, you don’t,” but stopped herself. She’d just come from a confrontation where she’d insanely held a shotgun on the cell tower installers, but a lifetime of caution came easier. That’s why she was here, doing things the proper way.