“I guess that’s the way it is when you meet the right woman,” Mike said. “What do you think, Rick?”
Rick blinked and dragged his gaze away from his wife. “What?”
Mike chuckled. “Josh and I were discussing whirlwind courtships.”
Rick laughed. “You’re definitely asking the experts. Maggie and I were together for, what, a couple of months?”
Josh’s jaw dropped. “And you’ve been married how long?”
“About four weeks,” Rick said. “The D’Angelo women don’t waste a lot of time. A smart man seizes the moment when they’re around.”
Josh fell silent, staring at the three women at the opposite end of the table, their heads together. How had he missed it? Of course, the three women were more than just friends. They were sisters. Melanie had even said as much when she’d referred to their grandmother Lindsey earlier. He’d been fooled by the different last names or maybe by the fact that they’d all grown up into such vibrant but distinctive women.
As girls, they’d been cookie-cutter versions of each other, varying only in height. Oh, they’d been gorgeous enough to catch his attention and leave him tonguetied, but they’d worn their hair in similar styles and dressed in variations of the same shorts and halter tops. Back then, there had been no mistaking the family resemblance. In fact, only those who knew them well could keep them straight. Josh hadn’t known them at all. They’d been on the periphery of his life, a taunting re minder of what an outsider he was.
Josh studied them quizzically, then asked Mike, “Isn’t there another sister?”
“Jo,” he said at once. “She still lives in Boston. You knew the D’Angelo sisters, growing up?” Mike asked.
“Not really. It’s more like I knew of them. We didn’t exactly travel in the same circles.”
“But didn’t Melanie say your family knew their grandmother?” Rick asked.
“Fairly well, as a matter of fact,” Josh admitted. “But you know how kids are. They find their own friends, especially in the summertime around here.” Determined to move on, he asked, “How did you meet them?”
“Maggie and I met in Boston,” Rick said. “I stepped in at the last minute to handle a photo shoot for her magazine. She came down here, and I followed her.”
“Melanie and I met here,” Mike explained. “She was staying at Rose Cottage for a bit.” He grinned. “Sort of the way Ashley’s staying there now for a little R & R.”
Rick gave Josh a considering look, then added pointedly, “History tends to repeat itself at Rose Cottage.”
Not this time, Josh thought. Not that he wasn’t attracted to Ashley. He was. Not that he didn’t intend to see more of her while she was here. He did.
But his life was in chaos, and something told him hers was, as well. That made it a very bad time to be thinking in other than the most immediate terms. Dinner. A few laughs. That kind of thing.
When he glanced around the table, he noticed that four pairs of eyes were regarding him way too speculatively. The only eyes that counted, however, were watching him with unmistakable wariness. Clearly, Ashley was no more inclined to be railroaded into a relation ship than he was. And wasn’t that all that mattered?
“Maybe you and Ashley should get together to work out a settlement for the damages from the accident,” Maggie suggested without any attempt at subtlety.
“We’ve taken care of that,” Ashley replied at once.
To his shock and dismay, a streak of totally unfamiliar perversity sliced through Josh. “I’ve been thinking maybe we were a little too hasty. Neither of us was thinking too clearly.”
“I was thinking just fine,” Ashley retorted. “I offered to pay for all the damages since it was my fault. That offer still stands.”
“As a lawyer, you should know an offer like that could open you up to exorbitant demands,” Josh countered. “You’ve admitted guilt. You couldn’t possibly have been thinking clearly or you would never have done such a thing.”
“I was taking responsibility for my actions,” she retorted. “You turned me down.” Her gaze narrowed. “Are you changing your mind? Suddenly feeling the onset of whiplash, perhaps?” she inquired tartly.
If it would keep the fire in her eyes, Josh would have prolonged the argument as long as possible, but they were being watched with total fascination by everyone else at the table. He didn’t want to encourage the meddlers.
“Possibly,” he equivocated, rubbing his neck. Sure enough, sparks of indignation lit her eyes.
“Well, be sure to let me know when you’ve made up your mind,” Ashley replied, a hint of sarcasm in her tone. “Why is it that men can never make a decision about anything?”
“Hey,” Rick and Mike protested in unison. “Don’t turn this into some sort of gender war and drag the rest of us into it,” Mike went on.
“Uh-oh,” Maggie said. “Watch your step, Ashley. You’re about to unite these men in a common cause. Something tells me it won’t be pretty.”
“Doggone right,” Josh agreed, suddenly eager to stir the pot. “Men are not the problem. We think logically and rationally.”
“Oh, please,” Ashley said. “What was logical or rational about letting me off the hook so easily?”
“You were clearly shaken up. I was trying to be a nice guy,” Josh retorted.
“Ha!” Ashley muttered.
“Women hate that,” Rick advised.
“They see it as a sign of weakness,” Mike confirmed.
“Well, you can be sure I won’t make that mistake again,” Josh vowed. “I thought you were a reasonable woman.”
“I am. You’re the one behaving like an idiot. You’re no more injured than I am.”
He frowned at her. “You’re calling me an idiot?”
“You bet I am.”
As the exchange ended and her declaration hung in the air, Ashley suddenly blinked and looked embarrassed. “What just happened here?”
Maggie grinned at them. “Offhand, I’d say we just witnessed an explosion of hormones. I, for one, found it rather fascinating.”
“Stimulating,” Melanie added, casting a pointed look at her husband.
Before Josh could utter a desperate denial, Ashley whirled on her sisters. “Eat dirt,” she muttered, then stood up. “I have to go.”
Josh was way too tempted to follow her. Instead, he merely winked as she passed. “Drive safely,” he murmured under his breath.
She stopped and scowled at him. He waited for her to utter the curse that was obviously on the tip of her tongue, but she fought it and won.
“Lovely seeing you again,” she said sweetly. Her voice, thick with Southern syrup, nonetheless lacked sincerity.
“I’m sure we’ll cross paths soon,” Josh said. “Hopefully without colliding.”
Though he had to admit, as he watched her walk away, that bumping into Ashley D’Angelo, literally or figuratively, was starting to make his life a whole lot livelier.
3
Fresh from his second disconcerting, intriguing encounter with Ashley D’Angelo, Josh knew he couldn’t delay the inevitable talk with Stephanie for another minute. That explosion of hormones Maggie had referred to had been very real. It had been a couple of hours now, and he was still half-aroused when he thought about it. Stephanie had never had that effect on him. They’d been friends who’d understood what was expected of them and accepted that real passion wasn’t part of it.
Even as he reached for the phone, he acknowledged that it was probably a conversation he should be having face-to-face. Since he didn’t plan on being back in Richmond for a while, though, he wanted to get it over with now, tonight. Something told him that by morning, or at least by the time he had his next encounter with Ashley, he should be totally free from the past.
Fortunately, Stephanie was a night owl. Even though it was after eleven, he knew she’d be awake. What he hadn’t expected, though, was the sound of a party in full swing in the background when she answered. She sounded c
arefree and happy, happier than he could recall her being in a long time. Somehow when they were together, she always seemed subdued and thoughtful.
“Steph, it’s me,” he said.
“Josh, sweetheart, I wasn’t expecting to hear from you this late.”
“Evidently.” He had no idea why he couldn’t seem to keep the edge out of his voice. He wasn’t jealous. No, if anything, he was relieved. Maybe this odd mood he was suddenly in simply had to do with the possibility that now wasn’t the best time to have this conversation, after all. “Look, you obviously have company. Maybe I should call back in the morning.”
“Don’t be silly. It’s just a few friends kicking back on a Friday night. I’ll just go into the other room, where I can hear better.”
The music and laughter grew more muffled. “There. That’s better,” she said. “How’s it going? Are you having a good time? Are you getting all that deep thinking done?”
“Some of it,” he said.
“I wish you’d let me come with you. Maybe I could have helped. You’ve always liked bouncing ideas off of me in the past.”
“Normally that’s true,” he said, “but not this time. I had to work this out on my own.”
“You’re thinking about us, aren’t you?” she asked, sounding resigned but not surprised.
Josh had always known that Stephanie was smart and intuitive, but he hadn’t expected her to cut right to the chase on this one. “Yes,” he admitted. “I think we need to talk about where we’re headed.”
“Okay,” she said.
“I owe you better than a conversation on the phone, but I didn’t want to wait till I get back.”
“Come on, Josh, just say it and get it over with,” she chided.
“I know your father is counting on us announcing our engagement soon and that we’ve been talking about it for a long time now,” he began. “But I think you and I both know that he’s more enthusiastic about the idea than either of us are.”
His words were greeted with silence.
“Stephanie?”
“What are you saying, Josh?” she asked.
He sucked in a deep breath and forced himself to be brutally honest. “That we’re all wrong for each other, Steph. We both know it. We’ve been trying to make the pieces fit, but they don’t. This isn’t your fault, Stephanie. You’re amazing. It’s me. I want something else. I wish I could explain it better than that, but I can’t. I only know this isn’t fair to either one of us. I need to let you go, and I feel sure you’ll be far happier with someone else.”
“I see,” she said softly.
She didn’t sound half as brokenhearted as he’d feared she might. “I’m sorry,” he apologized.
“No need to be,” she said, sounding oddly relieved.
Josh was astounded that she was taking his announcement so well. He’d expected tears or histrionics. In fact, he’d been dreading a messy emotional scene, if only because he was throwing a monkey wrench into her father’s plans for the two of them, and Stephanie was, first and foremost, a dutiful daughter who understood what was expected of her.
“Do you mean that?” he asked, still not quite believing that the breakup could go so smoothly.
“To be honest, I’ve seen this coming,” she confessed. “It’s something I should have done myself, but I’ve never had the courage to defy my father. I guess I owe you for making it easy.”
“You’re really okay with this?” he asked.
“Were you hoping I’d fight you?” she asked, sounding amused.
“No, of course not, but—”
She laughed. “No buts, darling. You’re off the hook. I’m weak, not stupid. To be perfectly honest, I’ve known for months now that we’re not a good match, not for the long term. I guess I was hoping that Daddy was right, because you are so damn nice.”
Josh was getting a little tired of being nice tonight. Nice guys usually finished last. Sometimes he wondered if that wasn’t why he was so uncomfortable in a courtroom. He hated going for the jugular. He preferred mediation to confrontation.
“You’re probably letting me off too easy,” he told her. “I doubt your father will be half as understanding. Would you like me to explain all this to him?”
“Forget about Daddy. I’ll talk to him,” Stephanie assured him. “I won’t let him kick you out of the firm over this.”
“You don’t need to go to bat for me,” Josh said. “I’ll handle your father if I decide I want to stay on.”
“If? You’re thinking about quitting your job?” she asked, clearly far more shocked by that than by his decision to break up with her.
“Actually I am,” he admitted. “But I’m trying not to do anything hasty.” He was a plodder, after all. He liked knowing that all his ducks were in a row before doing anything too drastic. It had taken his immediate and in tense attraction to Ashley to get him to make this decision. Otherwise he might have drifted along indecisively for a while longer just because being with Stephanie was comfortable.
“I do love you, you know,” she told him. “Just not the way you ought to be loved. And I want you to be happy.”
“I want the same for you.” He recalled the lively sounds of the party. “Something tells me you won’t have to wait too long.”
“What about you?” she said. “What kind of woman do you really want?”
An image of Ashley resurfaced for about the hundredth time since they’d met that afternoon. He wasn’t about to mention it, though. He wasn’t that foolish. Stephanie might be taking the breakup with a great deal of grace, but he doubted she’d like knowing that he’d found a replacement already.
“I’ll let you know when I’ve figured that out,” he promised.
She laughed. “Please do. Will you call me when you get back to Richmond?”
“Sure, if you want me to.”
“I’d like us to stay friends,” she told him with unmistakable sincerity. “You’re the best one I ever had. I’m not sure I realized that until tonight, when you set me free.”
“Then this is a good thing for both of us?” he asked, still worried a bit by her calm demeanor.
“It really is,” she assured him. “Now go out there and find the woman who’s really right for you, and I’ll dance at your wedding.”
“You’re amazing,” he said sincerely.
“I know,” she said, laughing. “I think I’m just now figuring that out, too.”
Josh hung up and sighed. Relief washed over him. That had gone a thousand times better than he’d anticipated. If only all the other decisions on his plate would go half as smoothly.
Ashley had scrubbed the kitchen floor, cleaned out the refrigerator, rearranged the cupboards and even considered the bags of bulbs that Melanie had surreptitiously left on the back steps. She might be going stir-crazy, but she wasn’t quite ready for a close encounter with the garden worms just yet.
Still, it was barely midmorning, and she’d already done every single thing she could think of to do inside the house. She’d passed her limit on coffee for the morning and eaten a bran muffin and a banana, which was more than she’d usually consumed by this hour.
Normally by late morning, she’d been to the gym and had already been at her desk for hours. There was little question that exercise was what she needed now to take the edge off the stress.
Suddenly she recalled the kayak that used to be stored in what had once been a garage but was too small to accommodate anything other than the smallest of to day’s vehicles. She found the key to the lock and opened the creaky door. Sure enough, the kayak was still inside, along with its paddle.
Pushing aside all the boxes that had been stored around it, she finally managed to drag the kayak out. She hosed it down, then dragged it to the water’s edge. She found a baseball cap on a hook in the kitchen, retrieved the paddle from the old garage, then climbed into the kayak and shoved off, praying that paddling was like riding a bicycle, something one never forgot.
At first sh
e stayed close to shore to be sure the kayak was still seaworthy and hadn’t sprung any leaks over the years. When she was finally satisfied that it wasn’t going to sink and that she still had the hang of paddling it, she grew more ambitious.
The September sun was beating down on her bare shoulders and glaring off the water. She wiped the sweat off her brow and paused long enough to twist her hair into a knot on top of her head and stuff it under the cap, then began to paddle in earnest.
It took Ashley some time to find her rhythm and longer to move at a pace that provided real exercise. When her arms and shoulders started aching, she let the kayak drift, leaned back and closed her eyes. The sun felt good now that it was being tempered by a breeze. Her body felt energized and, in an odd way, lazy at the same time. Maybe this was what relaxing felt like. If so, she might be able to get used to it eventually.
A part of her immediately rebelled at the thought. She wasn’t going to get used to this. She needed excitement and challenges. This was just a little break, a chance to regroup.
To prove her point, she sat up straight, grabbed the paddle and put herself into the task of rowing back to the cottage. She was not about to turn into some goal less, lazy slacker, not even here. Not even for three weeks.
Her sisters might have taken away her legal pads and her pencils, but the stores in town would have more. Suddenly it seemed vital that she get new supplies and put her nose to the grindstone. Pleasant as it was, she was wasting time out here.
Her enthusiasm waned almost as quickly as it had peaked when she realized that she had no real work to do. She was supposed to be thinking, contemplating her future, but the idea held no appeal at all. She could make lists and prioritize all she wanted to, but something told her she would only be floundering right now. Her brain really did need a break.
Well, hell, she thought, letting the paddle fall idle as tears stung her eyes. She brushed at them impatiently and took up the paddle again. Dammit, she was not going to wallow in self-pity. If she couldn’t excel at law right now, then she could excel at kayaking, she decided with grim determination. Maybe the world had enough lawyers anyway…at least for a few more weeks.
Return to Rose Cottage Page 4