Beach Reads Boxed Set

by Marie Force

  “Don’t worry. I checked.”

  “Let’s go.” He held the door for her. “If they only knew what was in that bag of yours...”

  “See if you can behave until we get out of here, will you?”

  In the elevator, he pinned her against the wall and kissed her like he hadn’t spent the whole night doing just that.

  She giggled as she pushed on his chest. “Stop.”

  “We’re having a baby,” he whispered.

  “Yes, we are.”

  “I can’t wait.”

  Laughing softly, she cuffed his jaw. “You’d better find some patience. We’ve got a long road ahead of us.”

  A bell chimed to indicate they had reached the lobby where they ran into the doorman Ryan had befriended the night before. “Good morning, Tom.”

  Tom’s face lit up with delight that Ryan had remembered him. “Good morning, Mr. Sanderson, ma’am.”

  “This is my wife, Susannah.”

  “Pleased to meet you,” Tom said, shaking her hand.

  “You, too,” Susannah said.

  “I wondered if you could do me a favor, Tom,” Ryan said.

  “Of course. Anything you need.”

  Ryan pressed his valet ticket and a hundred dollar bill into the astounded man’s hand. “Can you bring the Escalade to my house in Cherry Hills when you get through with work?”

  “For real?”

  Ryan laughed. “Yes, for real.” He rattled off the address. “I’d really appreciate it.”

  “I’d be happy to,” Tom stammered.

  “Can you get a ride home?”

  “No problem.”

  Ryan shook his hand. “Great. If we’re not home, leave the keys in the mailbox.”

  “I will.”

  “Thanks again,” Ryan said, ushering Susannah to the door with his arm around her.

  “What was that all about?” she asked.

  “I want to drive you home.”

  “Oh, for God’s sakes, Ryan! I can drive myself. What if that kid steals your car?”

  “He won’t.”

  “How do you know?”

  “He and I are old friends.”

  She laughed and handed her valet ticket to the attendant. “This is going to be a very long thirty-nine weeks if you’re going to be doing this kind of stuff all the time.”

  “What kind of stuff? Driving my wife home?”

  She shot him a withering look. “Hovering.”

  “Loving,” he corrected.

  “Smothering.”

  “Adoring.”

  “Suffocating.”

  “Protecting.”

  They suspended the debate when the valet arrived with her silver Mercedes coupe.

  Ryan held the passenger door for Susannah and then walked around to the driver’s side after stashing the frame in the trunk. “Thanks very much,” he said, tipping the valet with a twenty. He stuffed himself into the small car and shifted the seat back as far as it would go but still could’ve used another foot.

  “You need to scale back on the tipping,” she said when they had pulled onto Seventeenth Street. “I hate to remind you, but you’re unemployed.”

  “You’ll be glad to know we won’t be on the bread line any time soon. I found out yesterday that my endorsements are safe despite my retirement.”

  “Oh, I meant to ask you what they had said.”

  “Apparently my Q score is intact,” he said, referring to the formula used to determine the value of a persona or image.

  Susannah nodded. “They’d be crazy to dump you, especially now when you’ll be all over the media for a while. I’ll be surprised if there’s ever a dip in your Q.”

  “I should’ve brought you with me to the meeting. That marketing degree of yours is going to come in handy.”

  “I hope I get to finish it before the baby arrives.”

  “You should have plenty of time, right?”

  “We’ll see how I’m feeling. I was so tired the last time. If it’s that bad again, school might have to wait.”

  “I want you to finish, so we’ll do it together. I’ll help you study.”

  “I can just imagine your kind of help.”

  “Magna cum laude, baby. You’d be lucky to have me, and since it’s you, I’ll keep my fee very reasonable.”

  “Something tells me we aren’t talking about money.”

  “More of what you were handing out last night should do the trick.”

  “Eyes on the road, Ryan.”

  They arrived home twenty minutes later to find Henry’s Toyota parked in the driveway.

  “What the hell is he doing here?” Ryan fumed. He leaped from the car but came to a halt when Henry’s mother emerged. “Oh...”

  Susannah got out of her car. “Mrs. Merrill?”

  With a nervous glance at Ryan, Henrietta said, “Do you think I could speak to you for a moment, Susannah?”

  “Of course. Please come in.”

  Ryan unlocked the front door and disabled the alarm. He took Susannah’s coat and offered to take Henrietta’s.

  “I’ll hang on to it, thank you,” she said, appearing to make a huge effort to refrain from looking at him.

  “Can I get you something to drink?” he asked.

  “No, thank you.”

  “Come on into the den,” Susannah said, making brief eye contact with Ryan.

  He squeezed her hand and left her with an encouraging smile.

  She led Henrietta into the den. “Are you sure I can’t get you anything?”

  “You can cut out the social graces, Susannah. We’re past that at this point, wouldn’t you say?”

  Startled, Susannah said, “Yes, I suppose we are. I’m sorry you’re upset. I never meant for any of this to happen.”

  “What did you mean to have happen? When you accepted my son’s proposal, did you ever have any intention of actually marrying him?”

  “Yes,” Susannah said softly. “I had every intention of marrying him.”

  “You’ve broken his heart—again. For years I’ve watched you use him as your fallback guy, but I never imagined you’d be capable of something like this.” She gestured toward the other room where Ryan had presumably gone.

  “I’m sorry Henry’s hurt, but there are things about our relationship you don’t know.”

  “There are things you don’t know. Like, for instance, did you know he left college for a semester after you broke up with him the first time?”

  “No,” Susannah said, stunned. “I didn’t know that. He told me he had an internship...”

  “He barely left his bedroom for three months. His father and I were despondent over his withdrawal from life. Eventually he pulled himself together, but he never got over what you did to him—until recently that is. I’ve never seen him as happy as he was when you two were engaged. He’s waited forever for you, Susannah.”

  “Don’t you see?” Susannah cried. “While he was waiting for me, he was hoping my marriage would fail! I was nineteen years old. I shouldn’t be made to feel responsible for ruining his life because I wasn’t ready to commit to my high school boyfriend for a lifetime.”

  “What about now? Are you responsible this time, Susannah?”

  “I deeply regret that I’ve caused Henry—and you—pain. That was never my intention.”

  “What was your intention when you sent your husband to intimidate my son at his place of business?”

  Susannah gasped. “What are you talking about? I never asked Ryan...”

  Henrietta’s round face twisted into a cold smile as she got up to leave. “I wish you the best of luck, Susannah. Apparently you’re going to need it. I can show myself out.”

  After she heard the front door click shut, Susannah sat perfectly still for a long time.

  Ryan came into the room holding a sandwich. “Is she gone?” he asked. “Damn, that was awkward, huh?”

  “Did you go Henry’s office yesterday and hassle him?”

  Without blinkin
g an eye, Ryan said, “You’re damned right I did.”

  Chapter 24

  “Why?” Susannah cried as she stood to face him. “I asked you not to do that!”

  “No, you said I couldn’t kill him. I was very proud of myself for letting him live.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me about it?”

  “Because there was no way I was bringing him into that room with us last night, not after you had gone to all that trouble to surprise me.” He finished the sandwich with one big bite. “And I didn’t want to upset you.”

  “You didn’t tell me because I would’ve told you not to do it.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Why couldn’t you have just left it alone?”

  His eyes hardened. “He hurt you, Susannah. Did you honestly expect me to let that go? If you did, I guess you don’t know me very well.”

  “I don’t expect you to fight my battles for me. You can’t be going around intimidating people. It’s uncivilized.”

  “Uncivilized.” He took a moment to absorb that. “Right. And what would you call what he did to you? Civilized?”

  “Don’t be twisting my words around. You shouldn’t have done it.”

  “Well, I did, and I refuse to apologize for it. I’d do the same thing if I had it to do over again.”

  “I’m almost afraid to ask, but what exactly did you do?”

  “I just let him know what would happen if he ever came near you again.”

  “Care to elaborate?”

  He shrugged. “Not really.”

  “Was the word ‘kill’ used?”

  “Perhaps.”

  “Ryan! You can’t be threatening to kill people!”

  “It’s not a threat.”

  She threw up her hands with frustration and stormed from the room.

  Ryan followed her into the kitchen. “Don’t be pissed, Susie. It’s not worth it. He’s not worth it.”

  “You’re right, he’s not. He’s not worth lowering yourself to the level of a common thug. That’s exactly what he expects from you.”

  “Then I’m glad I didn’t disappoint him. He hurt my wife, and he did it on purpose. He’s lucky I didn’t have his ass thrown in jail.” With his hands on her shoulders, he urged her to look at him. “I needed to take care of this, Susie. Can you please try to understand that?”

  She studied his earnest face. “I don’t want you doing this kind of stuff. It’s beneath you.”

  “No, it really isn’t.”

  She gasped. “Oh my God.” Her hand flew up to cover her mouth. “What you said last night about me marrying down...Henry put that idea in your head, didn’t he?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “He did! That rotten son of a bitch!”

  Ryan laughed. “Baby, you know it turns me on when you talk like that.”

  “I can’t believe he would say such a thing—especially to a man who can buy and sell him millions of times over.”

  “Well, I said a few things that might’ve driven him to it,” Ryan conceded.

  “What else did he say?”

  “Nothing worth repeating.”

  “Tell me.”

  “Susie...”

  “I want to know, Ryan.”

  He sighed. “Something about all the money in the world not being able to buy class and that he gives us a month, maybe two before I screw it up again. Apparently, he plans to stay in Denver, so he can pick up the pieces like he always does.”

  Enraged, she looked up at him. “I’m sorry you had to hear such ugly things.”

  “Well, I did start it, so I guess I had it coming.” He tugged her tight against him. “Can we please forget about all this and rewind the clock to when we were having a good day?”

  She rested her head on his chest. “I didn’t like hearing about it from someone else.”

  “I’ll apologize for that but not the rest.”

  “I don’t want us to have secrets from each other. We’ve come too far for that.”

  “I’d never intentionally keep something from you unless I thought it might upset you.”

  “You don’t need to protect me from life, Ryan. I’m not made of glass.”

  “No, but you’re carrying my child and keeping you both safe and happy is the only thing in this world I really care about. So please don’t ask me to be anyone other than who I am.”

  She beat lightly on his chest with her fists. “I want a partner not a protector.”

  “Can’t I be both?”

  “You’re enormously exasperating sometimes, do you know that?”

  He grinned. “And you love me anyway.”

  “Don’t push your luck, and quit acting like a bully. Since Henry plans to stick around, you’ll be running into him from time to time. So you need to try a new tactic. If you ignore him, it’ll be much more effective than if you act like you want to beat the crap out of him every time you see him. Our happiness will be the best revenge. He can’t touch us unless we let him.”

  He thought that over for a moment. “I hate to admit you have a point, but you have a point.”

  She flashed a victorious smile. “Excellent. Now, I have a hair appointment—and no, you cannot come with me.”

  “But—”

  “Ryan, I swear to God, you’re going to drive me nuts if you keep this up. Get a hobby, call Bernie, take up golf, find something to do.”

  “What time will you be back?” he asked sullenly.

  “Later.” He looked so pathetic she reached up to leave him with a kiss that gave him plenty to think about in her absence.

  “That wasn’t nice,” he growled as she walked away from him. “In fact, it was downright uncivilized!”

  She giggled. “You’ll survive.”

  He was still pouting in the kitchen when she called “love you” on her way out the door. “You, too,” he replied, as he contemplated following her. Then he remembered he didn’t have a car. “Crap!” His motorcycle was still in the garage, but he never used it in the winter, and he certainly wouldn’t risk it with broken ribs that were finally beginning to heal. “Goddamn it.”

  “Okay,” he said to the empty room. “You’re officially losing it. She’s only going to be gone for a few hours, and nothing’s going to happen to her at the hair salon.” His gut tightened with anxiety when he thought about the baby and the crazy look he’d seen in Henry’s eyes the day before. The combination was enough to fill Ryan with the kind of fear he seldom experienced. The helpless feeling reminded him of his mother being diagnosed with lung cancer at age forty-five after having never smoked a cigarette in her life.

  In an effort to pull himself together, he placed calls to Bernie and Darling, but neither of them answered their phones. With nothing else to do, he went into the den to watch Sports Center where he learned the Mavs had officially promoted Todd “Toad” McNeil to starting quarterback.

  “That didn’t take long,” Ryan grumbled. For the first time, he had a tiny twinge of regret over his decision to retire. Feeling like yesterday’s news, he watched the coverage of Duke’s press conference at which he announced Toad’s promotion. Poor Toad still resembled a deer in the headlights as he faced off with the media for the first time as the team’s leader.

  Ryan watched as much as he could stomach before he flipped through the channels, landing on a special that one of the local channels was running about his own career. “That’s better,” he said with a grin. But as he relived the glory days at Florida and his tenure with the Mavs, he realized Susie was right. He needed to get a life. Turning off the T.V., he picked up the phone to call his agent. It was time to make a plan. He was still talking to Aaron an hour later when the doorbell rang. Expecting it to be Tom returning his car, Ryan continued his conversation as he swung open the front door.

  When he saw who was on his front porch, he said to Aaron, “I’ll have to call you back.” He clicked off the phone. “What are you doing here?”

  Susannah fought the urge to doze as the sty
list dried her hair. The action of the brush and the hairdryer was mesmerizing, and after an all-but-sleepless night, she was ready for a nap. But while her body was relaxed, her mind raced. The more she thought about the things Henry had said to Ryan, the angrier she became. To suggest Ryan had married up! What a thing to say! That must’ve really hurt him. He was sensitive about his humble beginnings and fiercely proud of the many sacrifices his mother had made to ensure he had every advantage.

  Susannah sighed as she thought about the mother-in-law she had adored from the first time she met her. Theresa hadn’t lived long enough to finish decorating the sprawling house Ryan bought for her in a Dallas suburb. He used his signing bonus—the first real money he’d ever made—to make sure she wouldn’t have to work another day in her life. She was diagnosed with cancer just four months later and died soon after. Losing her had been among the most shocking and devastating events in Susannah’s life, and for a long time afterward, she had wondered if Ryan would ever recover from the blow. All these years later it was still a raw wound, and just thinking about it made her angrier with Henry for what he had implied to Ryan.

  I’m so glad I saw Henry for what he really is before I married him. Susannah was still amazed at the twists and turns her life had taken since Ryan’s boots had landed in her foyer nine days earlier. Was it only nine days? She chuckled softly, filled with relief that they had gotten back what they had almost lost forever. Thank you, God, for sending him back to me. Even with all his faults, he’s the only man for me.

  While half of her wanted to strangle him for confronting Henry, the other half—the half she would never admit to—was secretly thrilled by what he had done. To have such a strong, protective, and unpredictable man crazy in love with her was exhilarating, to say the least.

  She left the salon and did a few last-minute errands in preparation for the ball. On the way home, she checked in with Carol and several of the other vendors, all of whom reported they were ready for tomorrow night’s festivities. At this point, Susannah could only hope for the best. Months of planning were coming to fruition, and she had learned from experience that all the worrying in the world wouldn’t change the outcome. A few things might go wrong, but she only cared about raising as much money as possible for the hospital. The Mavericks would match whatever they took in, for a grand total that usually hovered around two million dollars.