Unforgettable Heroes Boxed Set

by James, Maddie

  Lillian smiled, but he could tell she did it only for his benefit. There was an unusual solemnity in her voice when she said, “Oh, Wes, we’re never going to be able to pull this off.”

  “Pull what off?”

  “This whole happy newlywed stuff. We’ve done okay so far because we really haven’t talked to anyone. I mean, we did a little at the dance, but that wasn’t personal. It wasn’t about us. If we go to those people’s place for supper, they’ll know for sure we’re fakes.”

  She had a good point. They’d shared some interesting experiences together in the last couple days, but they’d been too busy either bickering or coping with camping to learn about each other.

  “So, we’ll make it up as we go. Little white lies never hurt anyone.”

  Lillian rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah, good suggestion. What are we going to do, take turns answering and hope the other will remember everything? We don’t even know what day we got married. Would have gotten married if we weren’t big fat liars.”

  Wes sighed. “You have to make everything difficult, don’t you?”

  Once again, she’d pulled one of those lightning fast changes of personality he hated. Five minutes ago, she’d been poking a fungus with a stick and now here she was, agonizing over something that wasn’t even going to happen.

  She wasn’t an easy woman to reason with, but he was going to try anyway.

  “So we’ll take care of those things before we leave, and once we get there, we’ll ask questions. Make them do all the talking. For Pete’s sake, they’ve got kids. You ask her about her pregnancies and I’ll get him talking about sports, and it will be okay. You worry way too much.”

  “They’re still going to ask us stuff,” Lillian insisted. “Like when we got married, for sure.”

  “June 16.” That was a date near and dear to Wes. He’d won a hundred bucks on the lottery that day, the most he’d ever picked up off a scratch-off ticket.

  “When’s my birthday?”

  Wes laughed. “Trust me, they won’t expect me to know. Men never remember their wives’ birthdays.”

  “What about kids?”

  “What about them?”

  “Are we going to have them?” Lillian leaned forward, as if this was a serious discussion.

  He pursed his lips and thought. Finally he said, “You want to get your business off the ground first, and I’ll feel more comfortable if we have a little nest egg in the bank first.”

  Lillian pondered for a moment before nodding. “Okay, then. The two big questions out of the way. If any other questions of that nature come up, let me handle it.”

  “What if you’re not around?”

  “I’ll be around,” Lillian answered, her mouth set in a grim line. “If Frank has planted a spy here to report on how we’re enjoying our forced vacation, it will be someone just like Mindy’s family. Granted, they really might just be making a friendly gesture, but maybe they’re waiting to trip us up instead. We’re supposed to be newlyweds, so I plan to stick right by your side all night.”

  “Fine,” Wes said, as if he had every intention of doing what she said. He’d sit beside her while they ate, but the first chance he got, he was heading off for somewhere womanless with the man of the campsite. He hadn’t had this much togetherness with any one woman since he’d helped his mom move to Florida two years ago, and he was ready for a change.

  A different kind of change was in order first, and that was into something more presentable. His pants were muddy from the hiking, and he had more than his share of cave dirt on him as well. Lillian was in even worse shape, thanks to her greater misadventures in the land down under that afternoon.

  He headed inside the tent and sorted out bath towels and soap bars, and gathered together an outfit for Lillian as well.

  “Ready?” He started for the bathhouse before she could reply.

  “Wes, wait up!” Lillian got up from the picnic table where she’d been poking chunks of mud from the soles of her hiking boots with a thick stick. She yelled again as he kept on walking and then took off.

  She couldn’t blame him if he was trying to ditch her. She hadn’t exactly been Little Merry Sunshine today, after all. But the rain, and the stupid caves, and then losing an ultra-expensive phone…anybody but Wes would understand. Or maybe he did, all too well. Just because he seemed to be adapting better didn’t really mean anything. For all she knew, it was just a big show.

  She was only a few steps behind when they reached the block building, and accepted the bundle he handed her without asking any questions. Besides, she couldn’t have if she’d wanted to. He’d disappeared into the men’s side too quickly.

  “Wait for me out here!” she called to his back as she headed for the showers inside the women’s bath area. She hoped there’d be some hot water left because it would feel awfully, awfully good on her aching back.

  Her wish was granted. The water poured out of the showerhead in a satisfying stream, a warm flow of tiny needles massaging all the sore places. Longing for the scented shampoo sitting at home in her own bathroom, she created a lather with the bar of soap Wes had included and ran her hands through her hair.

  She might have stayed in there all night if she hadn’t heard voices as other campers came for their own showers. Sighing, Lillian shut off the water, toweled herself dry and reached for the neat stack of clothes that had been folded inside the towel.

  And nearly screamed.

  These she hadn’t seen before, and wished she was still in her former state of oblivion. Granted, Wes had said the sale had limited choices, but certainly there was something better than this.

  Anything would have been better than this.

  Trouble was, she could see only two options, to either put her dirty clothes back on or, despite their gaudiness, don the new outfit.

  She opted for cleanliness and got dressed. She gathered her towel and dirty clothes and then went outside to meet Wes, avoiding the mirrors above the sink as she did so.

  “You look like I thought you would.”

  Lillian itched to smack that smug look off his face. If she’d had any other choice of clothing, she probably would have. But like it or not, she had to go meet Mindy’s family in calf-length electric blue capri pants, a camp shirt in the most violent floral pattern she’d ever seen and, for lack of other footwear, the same damned hiking boots she’d worn for the last three days.

  With socks, of course. It was impossible to wear boots without socks. And everyone knew just how fashionable hiking boots and were teamed with skin-tight, high-water pants.

  “Yep, just like I thought you would.”

  Afterwards, she decided she’d have been just fine if he hadn’t repeated himself. But she was sick of the stupid clothes he’d bought, tired of looking at nothing but grass and trees and really, really short of sleep. So she opened her mouth for just one scathing remark, something like “You mean a two-dollar hooker?”, and it all came pouring out.

  Wes stared at her, his eyes glazing over as she let him have it with both barrels. Told him in a discreet but no-nonsense voice how much she hated his taste in clothes, the way he snored, and the stupid things he made her do. Kept at it, in fact, until he did something she never expected.

  Laughed.

  He laughed, and that was the very final straw.

  Turning on her heel, as well as she could in awkward footwear, she stomped toward their campsite, taking the long way down the circular drive so she wouldn’t have to walk past him. She’d had as much of Wes Hatfield as she could take. He was the most arrogant, self-centered, idiotic man she’d ever met.

  So he was incredibly attractive and made her bones melt when he kissed her. There was no way that could make up for all the stupid things he kept doing.

  She was working herself into a fine fury, striding past fancy RVs and fold-down campers with strings of lights twinkling merrily along their canopies. She might have hit full fury by the time she got back to that blasted tent if Wes hadn’t
come up beside her, grabbed her arm and hissed, “Look happy. There’s Mindy’s family.”

  Lillian stopped so fast he nearly fell over her. She turned toward him, prepared to give him a gigantic piece of her mind. Before she could, he yanked her tight against him, hissed “They’re watching and they could be,” and kissed her.

  Hard.

  Passionately.

  Enough to dissolve her anger into something softer. But just at that point, he stopped, turned her around and said, “Hi there, folks. Something smells good.”

  He clutched Lillian’s hand so hard she thought bones might break and started toward the happy family waiting for them. A larger version of Mindy smiled at them from the camper doorway, while Mindy and her younger brother came running toward them. Lillian supposed the man with their back to them, tending the fire, must be Mindy’s dad.

  A tiny shard of envy stabbed her. This was the kind of life she wanted some day: a husband who loved her, a couple of great kids, even a dog to play ball in the backyard with the husband and kids. It was just one more dream to be put on hold until her current dream, fulfilling the potential everyone saw in her, finally came true.

  She shook off the regret. As far as these strangers were concerned, she and Wes were well on their way to becoming the Typical American Family, starting with their wedding on…she searched her memory for their fake wedding date. It was gone. She tamped down a spark of panic. If they bothered to ask, she’d stay quiet until Wes offered the date. He’d remember. He’d picked it, after all.

  “Hello, I’m Kim Hamilton.” The woman stepped out of the camper and extended her hand. “You’ve met Mindy and that’s her brother. Nathan is six.”

  She waved a hand toward the man at the fire. “And the chef tonight is my husband Bill.”

  Much to Lillian’s surprise and relief, the Hamiltons didn’t ask a single one of the probing questions she’d feared. Mindy’s mom, Kim, turned out to be a non-stop talker, which suited Lillian. She answered with the occasional “Oh, really? and “Uh, huh”, which was just about as much as Wes himself got to contribute. It was easy to see where Mindy got her personality.

  The night was fully dark, and the mosquitoes were out for their nightly buffet before Lillian managed to break into Kim’s monologue.

  “It was a wonderful evening, but we really have to go,” she said, standing and inching toward the roadway.

  “Oh, but it seems like you just got here.” For a moment, Lillian thought Kim was going to grab her and force her back into the webbed chaise lounge.

  “Lil’s right.” Somehow, Wes had gotten from the other side of the campfire to Lillian’s right elbow, which he was grasping firmly. Maybe he thought Kim was about to make her move, too, Lillian decided.

  He eased them both toward the pavement, somehow keeping control of the conversation awake from the loquacious Kim.

  “The stew was great, and that chocolate cake! It was every bit as good as my Great-aunt Louise’s, and hers is the hit at every family funeral. But we’ve had a long day, and Lil’s used to turning in early. Old childhood habit.”

  Lillian felt her heel hit the road behind her as Wes offered their final goodbye, and they took off at a near-run, hand in hand, toward their own blessedly quiet campsite. As soon as they were out of earshot, Wes began to chuckle.

  “Oh, man, were we wrong.” He wrapped an arm around Lillian’s shoulders, pulling her close. “Whoever Frank has spying on us, if he’s got one, it’s not Kim or Bill. Nice folks, but they’re too busy with their own lives to care about anyone else.”

  Lillian laughed. “Tell me about it. I don’t mind knowing that Kim’s a registered nurse, they’ve been married twelve years, and that her recipe for snickerdoodle cookies has brought all these people to her blog. But I could have done without that play-by-play of her gallbladder surgery, personally.”

  They walked along without talking then, but Lillian was intimately aware of Wes beside her. It was more than the comfort of being tucked under his arm, or the scent that was uniquely Wes, now enhanced by the continual aroma of wood smoke. Much as he infuriated her sometimes, he was still fun to be with. His genuine interest in everyone he met set him apart from the other men she knew. He wasn’t sizing them up as competitors or looking for some advantage for himself in every new acquaintance. He just liked people, and it showed.

  He cared about them, too. He’d been great with little Mindy tonight, playing horseshoes after supper and letting her point out the constellations to him while Kim had monopolized everyone else.

  “Want me to start a fire?” Wes moved over to the iron ring where dead ashes lay.

  “Sure.” The lie slipped out easily. Watching wood burn for yet another night was the last thing Lillian wanted. She’d rather kick the kindling out of Wes’s arms, grab his hand and lead him into the tent and softness of the flannel sleeping bag. Being out here away from civilization had awakened something primitive in her. She wanted to be naked, to be consumed by Wes, screaming out the passion too long banked. She wanted to be possessed and dominated by the man whose eyes had flickered to her.

  The longer they were here, the harder it was to remember her normal life. In this little pocket of semi-civilization, surrounded by nature, time was compressed. Friendships that might take weeks or months to develop in suburban neighborhoods or workplaces happened overnight here. She had begun to recognize the faces she saw on her trips back and forth to bathhouse.

  She’d also begun to see more in Wes than he’d presented in her conference room. Once they left here, she’d never see Wes again. She knew that, and so did he. Their paths would never have crossed if not for her desperate need for a pretend husband and wouldn’t again. So why not enjoy the moment without worrying about the future?

  She watched Wes as he deftly built the fire to an orange blaze. Three days ago, he’d never even been near a campground, yet no one walking by would be able to tell. He was a chameleon, blending into his surroundings no matter where he went. She sighed. She wished she had that confidence, instead of being so worried about making a fool of herself.

  ****

  From the other side of the fire ring, Wes poked the glowing logs with a heavy stick, pulling back as a spray of sparks twinkled up into the night. He’d seen a different side of Lillian tonight. Her patience with Kim’s constant chatter was only one of the things he’d admired. She’d been great with the kids, too, listening patiently to Mindy’s little brother as he shared his story about fishing with his dad that afternoon, and then playing horseshoes with Mindy.

  He hadn’t figured Lillian would be good with kids. Most by-the-book, order-obsessed types like her couldn’t tolerate kids, sometimes not even their own. He’d been able to imagine Lillian with a rug rat or two of her own tonight, which had reminded him of why there couldn’t be a repeat of last night’s action in the sleeping bag.

  Oh, he wanted Lillian. No question about that. He wanted to taste her again, to feel the softness of her breasts against his chest, to have those long legs wrapped around him as she cried out his name. But any doubts he’d had about her being the house in the suburbs type had disappeared when she’d wrapped her arms around Mindy in a big bear hug as they’d said goodbye. She’d looked so good doing that, like she was supposed to be a mom.

  Which is why he’d built a big fire, and intended to sit by it all night, if he had to. Or at least until Lillian got tired and went to bed.

  Alone.

  Chapter Ten

  The worst had happened.

  They’d run out of wood and, as best as Wes could tell by squinting at his watch in the firelight, it was only nine o’clock. Another half hour, forty-five minutes at the most, and they’d lose both the flames and the smudgy smoke of their campfire. Without the fire, they’d have nothing to stare at but each other. Without the smoke, the mosquitoes would eat them alive.

  Lillian bent down to roast more marshmallows and Wes swallowed hard. She had no idea the effect she had on him. She couldn’t
have, or she wouldn’t keep doing that. The shirt gaped open when she leaned over to check the marshmallow, allowing him way too ample a view of those great boobs of hers. And the curve of her fanny in those pants…he forced his eyes to her face.

  And groaned. She’d pulled a marshmallow from the roasting stick and had it to her lips, sucking the soft, gooey center from the crystalized exterior.

  It was more than any mortal man should be expected to endure.

  “Want some?” She tipped her head toward Wes and smiled an invitation. The ache in his groin became more intense as she leaned forward and offered him the second browned marshmallow.

  “Uh, no, I don’t think…” he managed to stammer as he realized the top button of her shirt had somehow come undone. Her breasts looked even more tempting this close up.

  He managed not to grab her, or them, as she leaned toward him and said, “Oh, come on. You can’t imagine how good this tastes.”

  Her fingers came up at his lips, offering him a bite. Wes found his mouth opening as she slid the marshmallow between his teeth. He wasn’t sure if he chewed it or swallowed it whole, because his full attention was on her slightly-parted lips and the glow in her eyes. She was trying to seduce him. For the life of him, he couldn’t remember why he’d thought that was a bad idea. Everyone here thought they were man and wife, Lillian was making it damned plain she’d be happy to back up that illusion with some sleeping bag action and he couldn’t come up with one good reason to say no.

  He glanced down at her shirt, on which one more button had somehow mysteriously come undone, and saw two good reasons to say yes. She possessed the most beautiful breasts he’d ever seen, and he’d checked out a whole lot of women since he’d hit puberty. He knew how they felt in his hand and how she moaned when he teased her nipples with his teeth.

  “Aren’t you going to thank me?” He could barely hear Lillian’s low, husky request for the thudding of his pulse.