His sexy grin was a shadow of its usual wattage. “Is that an invitation, Mazie? I’ll have to take a rain check.”
She pretended his teasing didn’t fluster her. “Try to behave. Is there any word yet?”
He yawned. “No. The surgery actually started thirty minutes ago. They said it could take hours.”
“Go change,” she said. “I’ll wait right here.”
Though J.B. in a tux was eye candy of the best kind, she almost preferred the man who returned moments later. A rumpled J.B. in casual clothes was dangerously appealing.
She raised an eyebrow. “Where’s your tux?”
“I wadded it up in the bag. Has to go the cleaners anyway.”
“Ah. Do you want to sit, or shall we walk the halls?”
“You’re probably tired,” he said.
“My adrenaline is still pumping. If you want to make a few laps of the building, I’m game.”
J.B. poked his head into the lounge long enough leave his bag and to tell his dad where to find him. Then he rejoined Mazie. “Let’s go. I can’t stand to do nothing but wait.”
* * *
J.B. was ridiculously glad to see Mazie.
He was a selfish bastard for asking her to stay, but her presence gave him something to hang on to. In front of his sisters and his dad, he had to be strong and unflappable. With Mazie, he could be himself. The distinction should have worried him, but he was too tired to think about the reasons why.
For now, he would ignore his ambivalent reactions to being with her in this charged situation.
They walked the halls in silence. His name and his face were well-known in Charleston, particularly to the hospital staff. His family had been major benefactors for years.
No one bothered Mazie or him. A few nurses here and there said hello. With the lights dimmed and most patients asleep, the building was sleepy and secure.
He ignored the elevators and climbed the stairs, Mazie on his heels.
When they were both breathing hard, he pushed open the door on 4B and crooked a finger at her. “Let’s take a look at the babies.”
Though the nurse on the other side of the glass frowned, she didn’t shoo them away. He could almost watch Mazie’s heart melt into a puddle of maternal instinct when she scanned the row of clear plastic bassinets. “They’re so tiny,” she whispered. “How can they be so small?”
“We were all that little once upon a time.”
She bumped his hip with hers. “Not you, surely. I can’t even imagine it.”
They stood there in silence. A third of the infants slept peacefully. Another third blinked and examined their surroundings with myopic interest. But it was the last third who demanded all the attention. They wailed and scrunched up their faces, making their displeasure known.
He shuddered. “How do new parents do it? You can’t Google how to take care of a newborn.”
“Sure you can. You can Google anything. Besides, you promised your mother grandchildren. You’d better get over your fear of babies in a hurry.”
“Are you volunteering?” His heart squeezed at the thought of having a daughter who looked like Mazie.
“Heck, no.” She chewed her bottom lip. “To be honest, I’ve always been afraid that I might turn out like my mother. I love the idea of kids, but parenting scares me.”
“And what about marriage?”
“What about it?”
He sneaked a sideways look at her, noting how intently she studied the helpless infants. “I thought every woman wanted to get married. You didn’t object to being my fake fiancée.” Under the circumstances, maybe he hadn’t given her a chance to protest.
“C’mon, J.B. You can’t be serious. This is the twenty-first century. Women have lots of choices.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.” He was inordinately interested in her answer.
She shrugged. “I don’t know if I’ll get married. Watching what my father went through...”
“Did he ever consider divorcing your mother?” Divorce was a painful subject for J.B. His failure still stung deeply.
“No. At least I don’t think so. Jonathan thinks he’s still in love with her after all these years. But he never goes to see her.”
“Because she doesn’t recognize him?”
“I guess that’s the reason. It must be very painful.”
J.B. glanced at his watch. When Mazie let down her guard with him, he actually thought the two of them might finally be able to heal the decade-old rift. But no matter how appealing that prospect was, their timing was off. “We’ve been gone a long time. I’d better get back to the cardiac floor.”
When they reached the surgical lounge, a nurse had just come out of the OR with an update. The surgery was going well. It would be at least another hour and a half, and then recovery.
J.B. grimaced. He took Mazie’s arm and drew her away from the others. “Go home,” he said. “I shouldn’t have asked you to stay.” Her skin was smooth and warm beneath his fingertips. He had to resist the urge to stroke her.
“Don’t be silly. I’m here. Relax, J.B. I’ve got nowhere else I need to be.” Her smile seemed genuine, though still cautious perhaps.
“This isn’t the evening I had planned,” he said, his voice husky with fatigue and something else he was too tired to hide.
She cupped his cheek in her hand. “If you’re talking about sex, we already took that off the table...remember?”
“Says who?”
His teasing wasn’t up to its usual wicked voltage.
“Says me.” She paused. “I enjoyed tonight,” she said. “Dinner. Dancing. When you’re not being a condescending jerk and breaking a girl’s heart, you’re a pretty nice guy.”
* * *
Mazie hadn’t meant to be so honest, but it was hard to hold a grudge at 3:00 a.m.
J.B.’s jaw was shadowed with dark stubble. His hair was rumpled. The clothes she had brought him smelled of starch and laundry detergent. The blue button-up shirt and navy cotton pullover strained across his broad, hard chest.
The man looked like he had just crawled out of the covers and thrown on whatever was at hand. And yet he was still the sexiest thing she had ever seen.
She flashed back to his bedroom, for one brief moment imagining herself sprawled on that ruby comforter with J.B. leaning over her.
Her breathing quickened.
To make things worse, she couldn’t help remembering the pink and blue swaddled babies. No matter what she’d said to JB, she wanted to have a normal family like his. But it just wasn’t in the cards for her.
Even her own brother had disappeared.
The Tarletons were a mess.
J.B. took her arm. “Let’s sit down. Are you hungry?”
“No,” she said. They settled onto a padded bench. Once she was off her feet, the fatigue came crashing over.
He pulled her into his chest, wrapping an arm around her. “Close your eyes. Catnaps are my specialty.”
The man wasn’t kidding. In seconds he was snoring softly.
Mazie sighed and tried to do the same. But she couldn’t relax. Being this close to J.B. lowered her defenses. She didn’t want to like him. She didn’t want to empathize about his worry for his mother. And she surely didn’t want to be engaged to him.
Once upon a time, she would have welcomed the chance to be part of J.B.’s life. Those dreams had been crushed early and well. Now, she was almost positive that this sudden affability on his part was a calculated effort to win her trust.
The reality of selling her building to him was not the point. If she decided to go through with it, she would make him pay dearly for the privilege of relocating her.
No, what was really dangerous to her peace of mind was the possibility that J.B. could worm his way into her heart and then walk away when he got
what he wanted.
While Mazie struggled internally with the extraordinary feeling of being wrapped in J.B.’s arms, Leila awakened and crossed the room. She tapped Mazie on the knee. “I need coffee,” she whispered. “You want to come with me?”
Mazie nodded, welcoming the rescue from her own rapidly eroding good sense. Slipping out from underneath J.B.’s heavy arm, she grabbed her phone and wallet and followed his sister out of the waiting room. The sandwich shop and the main dining room were closed, but near the front entrance, a sleepy barista dozed over her iPad at a coffee counter.
Leila ordered her drink tall and black. Mazie couldn’t face that much caffeine in the middle of the night, but she asked for an iced green tea. They found seats in the nearby atrium.
Mazie smiled sympathetically at the other woman. “This must have been really scary for all of you.”
“Terrifying.” Leila buried her nose in her cup. “My mom is a superhero. Seeing her like this...” She sniffed and wiped her nose.
“Were there any symptoms?”
“Honestly? I don’t know. She’s the kind of person who would badger the rest of us to get flu shots and go to the dentist, but she might have ignored her own warning signs ’cause she’s always so busy.”
“Heart surgeons perform miracles these days.”
“Yeah.” Leila yawned and set her empty cup on a nearby table. “I’m sorry our family drama ruined your special night.”
“Oh, that’s okay,” Mazie said quickly, wincing inwardly. The ground beneath her feet was quicksand. How did a recently engaged woman react? “The important thing is for your mom to be okay.”
Leila grinned, seemingly fortified by her java. “To be honest, I was pretty shocked about this engagement. After the debacle of J.B.’s first marriage, he swore he’d never tie the knot again.” Her eyes rounded, and she slapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh, lordy. Please tell me you already knew about that...the marriage, I mean.”
“Of course. He’s been very upfront with me. You do remember that my brothers and I used to hang out at your house all the time? Not so much as adults, but enough to keep up with J.B. and his escapades. He told me his wife was pretty awful.”
“Mom and Dad tried to stop him, but he was madly in love. I was just starting high school, so I thought it was all terribly romantic. It didn’t take long for the truth to come out. All she wanted was money. Poor J.B. was collateral damage.”
“He seems to have bounced back pretty well,” Mazie said, hoping she didn’t sound cynical.
“I haven’t seen him go out with the same woman more than two or three times. He’s rabid about not giving anyone of the opposite sex the wrong idea. He’s a workaholic, and he’s not interested in anything permanent.” She frowned and cocked her head. “How did the two of you hook up? I’ve watched you avoid each other for years.”
“Ah, well...” This was the tough part. She was a terrible liar. “We occasionally crossed paths at a party or a gallery opening. But I suppose we got closer when he started this renovation project down near the Battery. He wants to buy my property. I kept saying no, and he continued to beg.”
“Interesting. I’ve known my brother to do just about anything to seal a deal, but marriage? That’s a new one.”
Mazie knew Leila was teasing. But her careless comments underscored Mazie’s own insecurities. If Mazie had said yes when J.B.’s Realtor called the first time, or even the second, Mazie never would have gone out with J.B., and she never would have been put in the situation of lying to his family.
“Shouldn’t we get back upstairs?” she said.
Leila nodded, all animation fading from her face. “Definitely.”
As they walked into the surgical lounge, Alana updated her sister with the latest progress report. J.B. and his dad appeared to be asleep.
Mazie kept to herself in one corner of the room until she realized that a real fiancée would never be standoffish. Instead, she moved to sit close to J.B., hoping that his sisters would think she didn’t want to wake him.
At four fifteen, a weary surgeon came in to talk to them. The siblings formed a united front around their father. The doctor was upbeat. “The surgery went as expected. We did a quadruple bypass, so she’ll have a long road ahead of her. Healing takes months, not weeks.”
J.B.’s expression was strained. “When can we see her?”
“She’ll be in recovery for some time. We’ll rouse her slowly. When she’s awake, we want everything to be low-key and calm. Nothing stressful at all. I’d recommend all of you go home and get a few hours of sleep. Come back later in the morning. If there’s any problem, a nurse will contact you immediately.”
Mr. Vaughan didn’t like that answer. Mazie could tell. But the poor man looked dead on his feet.
Leila put an arm around her dad. “Alana and I will go back to the house with you, Papa.”
J.B. kissed the top of her head. “Thanks, sis.” He hugged his father and Alana. “I’ll take Mazie home and then see you guys around lunchtime.”
Leila frowned. “But you live the closest of any of us to the hospital.”
J.B. didn’t miss a beat. “Mazie doesn’t,” he said.
Mazie could see the speculation in their gazes, but she was too tired to play her part. Did the girls think J.B. would have a fiancée living under his roof already? Fat chance. She’d had it from his own sister’s lips that the man didn’t like relationships.
In the parking lot, she tried to lobby for common sense. “Let me call a car,” she said. “There’s no reason at all for you to drive me home.”
They had come straight from their date to the hospital. Her car was out at the beach house.
J.B. destroyed her argument by kissing her deep and slow. His tongue stroked hers. “There’s a better option,” he muttered, as he turned her legs to spaghetti. “For once, just trust me.”
Ten
“Trust you?” Mazie eyed him warily.
He grimaced. “I’m so tired my eyeballs ache. Leila was right. It will be dawn soon. I don’t really want to spend the next hour driving you to the beach and then heading back to my own place. Come home with me,” he said huskily. “My house is five minutes away. We both need sleep.”
Mazie hesitated. This family crisis had thrust her into a position of intimacy that was difficult to handle. She was a compassionate person. She could see that J.B. was dealing with stress and fatigue. Still, her sense of self-preservation was strong.
She’d been avoiding this connection forever, and now here it was, rushing her far too quickly into the quicksand of shared desire and impulsive choices.
“I’ll be fine in a cab.”
He took her wrist and reeled her in, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. “Pretty please, Mazie Jane. I don’t want to be alone.”
She examined his face in the harsh glow of the security lights. If she had seen even a shred of evidence that he was playing her, she would have walked away. But the hell of it was, she thought he was sincere.
“Okay,” she said, giving in more or less gracefully. “It will only be for a few hours anyway.”
They both climbed into the vehicle without further conversation. J.B. drove with a steady hand on the wheel. His profile was stark. Bold forehead, straight nose, firm chin. Mazie felt as if she was seeing him for the first time. It was clear that his family adored him and that he was someone they leaned on.
At his house, she hovered in the hallway. “I’ll crash down here,” she said. “Why don’t you go on upstairs and get comfortable?”
He frowned. “I have a perfectly lovely guest room right across the hall from my suite.”
“I don’t want to argue about this J.B. Not right now.” If she climbed those stairs, all bets were off. Too cozy. Too everything.
His gaze cooled. “Fine. We’ll share the sofa.”
Most of J.B.’s beautiful home was decorated in true Charleston fashion. No doubt one or both of his sisters had helped, maybe even Jane. But at the back of the house in his personal den, he had opted for masculine comfort. An enormous flat-screen TV. A couple of huge recliners and an oversize sofa that looked as if it was covered in the soft, scarred leather of old aviator jackets.
He kicked off his shoes and grabbed two afghans from the cabinet to the left of the TV. “Make yourself at home. Are you hungry? Thirsty?”
She shook her head, wondering why she had voluntarily stepped into the lion’s den. “I’m fine. Go to sleep, J.B. You’ll have to be back at the hospital soon.” Without waiting to see if he would take her advice, she curled up on one end of the couch and laid her head on the arm. At the last minute, she remembered to send a text to Gina letting her know that Mazie would not be coming in to the store this morning...or at least not until much later. Then she silenced her phone.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw J.B. sprawl a few feet away from her and prop his feet on the coffee table.
The lure of sleep was strong. How did she end up here? Was this really as innocent as it seemed?
J.B. groaned and rolled his neck. “I’m too damn tired to relax.”
Mazie sighed. “Lie down, for heaven’s sake. Let me rub your head.”
“I can think of other places I’d rather have you rub.” His fake leer didn’t have enough energy to be insulting.
“On your back, Mr. Vaughan.”
As she sat up, J.B. stretched out full-length, his feet propped on the other arm of the sofa. With his head in her lap, he relaxed. Thick lashes, unfairly beautiful for a man, settled on his cheeks.
“Thank you, Mazie,” he muttered.
She stroked his forehead, feeling the silkiness of his hair. Keeping her touch light and steady, she watched as the lines of tension in his face and shoulders gradually eased.
Blame It On Christmas (Southern Secrets Series Book 1) Page 9