Liz Ireland (18 page)

He darted his tongue out to trace the outline of her lips, and she let out a little breathless gasp. It was amazing she didn’t faint dead away from lack of air. He pulled her closer, plundering her lips, deepening the kiss. Her own tongue touched his, featherlight, causing his already rigid body to press closer still to hers. Lord, she was a luscious thing. Why had he never seen it? Did he really have so
little imagination that he couldn’t see how she had blossomed under his very nose?

He couldn’t recall when it had happened. Only now, holding her in his arms, did he fully appreciate how the years had changed her, changed both of them. He was no longer clinging to the idea of Mary Ann. Paulie was no longer impossibly youthful. Instead, the sprout he had always teased had blossomed into the woman he had never dreamed of finding.

“Oh, Will,” she said on a sigh, leaning into him.

White-hot pain shot through his shoulder, and he let out a sharp yelp of shock.

Paulie jumped back off him, her face mottled red and white. “What happened?”

“My shoulder!”

She gasped. “Oh, dear! I shouldn’t have…” Her hand flew to her mouth when she remembered exactly what she had done. “Oh, no, I shouldn’t have at all! You wait right here—I’ve got to talk to Maudie!”

“Maudie?” Confused, Will gritted his teeth as he watched her retreat in a swirl of mauve. “What for?”

“Never mind—I just do!”

“Ask her for some brandy!” he called out before she disappeared. “Lots of it.”

He relaxed back against the pillows and tried to think about something besides the pain. Like Paulie. And their little experiment. Right now it seemed to him like a little miracle.

He grinned, and placed one hand behind his head as he looked up at the ceiling. His thoughts were a jumble, but one thing was wonderfully clear. He wouldn’t have to propose to Petunia the Tuna anytime soon.

“D
idn’t I tell you?” Maudie asked smugly as she folded a batch of newly ironed sheets. “He kissed you, and with you doing nothing but sitting there talking to him.”

Elbow propped up on the table, Paulie buried her cheek in her hand and sighed fretfully. She’d come down from Will’s room ten minutes ago, but her heart still felt fluttery and jumpy. “Oh, but I went and messed it all up by kissin’ him back.”

The woman winked at her. “I’m sure he didn’t consider the experience messed up.”

“He was just trying to prove that I think he’s good-looking. He didn’t really want to kiss me. Then I went and jumped all over him, losing the bet and embarrassing myself to boot.”

“Sometimes a little embarrassment pays off in the end.”

Paulie frowned. “How so?”

Maudie planted her hands on her hips and pinned her with her sternest gaze, just like Paulie had seen her do with Mary Ann. “Goodness sakes, Paulette. Did it never occur to you that Will might actually find
you
attractive? That he might have actually have kissed you simply because he thinks you’re a pretty girl?”

At the odd sound of someone using the words “pretty girl” in conjunction with her own name, a whiplash moved through Paulie’s spine and she sat up ramrod-straight, stunned at the very notion that her attraction to Will might be mutual. The idea seemed dangerous—like stepping off the edge of a cliff. Unrequited love had been her best friend for so long, she didn’t know whether she had the heart to bid it farewell.

But he
had
kissed her, she thought, her mind clinging fervently to that single fact. Kissed her three times, all told. Three. That number was comforting. One was so paltry—one kiss might very well be a gamble, or worse, a mistake. Two could be considered a fluke. But three kisses added up to something.

A smile spread across her face, and she was just about to present her triad theory to Maudie, only to discover that the woman’s mind had already wandered to more pressing matters. “Now where is that girl?” she fussed, referring without a doubt to Mary Ann. “I swear! Two dollars a week is money thrown away if I’m going to be doing all the work all the time!”

She put the iron back on the hearth and scurried to the door. “Mary Ann!” she bellowed toward the staircase, causing Paulie to wince. There was no doubt in her mind that the sound carried all the way up to the attic. If Joshua had been lacking for a trumpet at the battle of Jericho, he could have just used Maudie instead.

As it turned out, her lung power was wasted. Mary Ann appeared at the back door. “Here I am,” she said, her voice unusually mild and pleasing as she sashayed into the kitchen. “I was just coming to help you do the ironing.”

Both Paulie and Maudie eyed her skeptically. “Well…good,” the older woman said, not quite trusting
this biddability in her servant. She picked up an armful of sheets. “I’ll just carry these up to the linen closet.”

Paulie, suddenly realizing she was about to be abandoned to Mary Ann’s company, sprang out of her chair. “Oh, let me—” she begged.

Maudie shook her head curtly. “No, no. Sit down and enjoy your tea.”

And then she was gone. Paulie turned slowly and trudged back to her seat at the table, glancing once at Mary Ann, whose lips were turned up in a big but somehow less-thanheartfelt smile. Paulie sat down. The silence between them stretched like India rubber.

“Well!” Mary Ann exclaimed suddenly, breaking up their vocal logjam. “It seems that Will has taken a shine to you.”

Paulie’s face reddened. There was no telling how long Mary Ann had been standing at the back door. How much had she heard? She shrugged helplessly, wishing herself anywhere else in the world. It was bad enough discussing Will with Maudie, but to have Mary Ann of all people knowing her secret yearnings was simply unbearable. “I’m sure he can’t care much for me,” she answered modestly. “Not really.”

Mary Ann nodded approvingly as she spread a sheet over Mrs. Worthington’s ironing table. “It’s smart of you to take a realistic attitude.”

Her words stopped Paulie cold. “Realistic?”

The other woman gestured dismissively toward Paulie’s mauve dress. “It’s only natural that he would look at you differently now that you’ve changed your appearance a bit.” Her insincere little smile spread until a dimple appeared in her cheek. “You really do look sweet. Who would have ever guessed?”

Paulie shifted, feeling anger well up inside her. How could a compliment sound so insulting?

“But don’t you mind Will,” Mary Ann counselled. “He’s always been a flirt—he probably just never thought to turn his charm on you before.”

Paulie scowled. Mary Ann was trying to tell her Will didn’t care a fig for her. But Maudie had said that he probably did. And there was the matter of those three kisses. “I’ve never known Will to be insincere.”

A peal of laughter escaped Mary Ann’s lips. “Then you can’t know him like I do. You’d be better off guarding your heart against Will before it’s too late,” Mary Ann counseled her. “I know I am. I don’t care how much he declares he still cares for me.”

Paulie sat stunned. “He said that?”

Mary Ann stared at her as if she were a ninny. “Why did you think he came all this way looking for me?”

Why, indeed. Paulie felt her skin turn clammy. She’d known from the first that Will was carrying a powerful torch for Mary Ann. Why had she allowed herself to forget that? Probably because of the way she’d caught him looking at her sometimes—but Mary Ann said that was the way he looked at every woman.

And yet…the idea of trying to stop loving Will caused something in her to rise up and rebel against Mary Ann’s advice. “But Will kissed me!”

Mary Ann smiled pityingly at her. “A kiss isn’t enough to build a future on.”

At the woman’s patronizing tone, Paulie’s fists balled at her sides, and she couldn’t help herself from blurting out, “He kissed me
three
times!”

Despite her prior certainty that the number three was evidence of a serious interest on Will’s part, she immediately felt foolish.

It didn’t help when Mary Ann began to laugh at her again. “Three kisses or twenty—that just means a man’s healthy, not that he cares about you. Kisses and even lovemaking can be vain promises, Paulie.”

Paulie looked long and hard at Mary Ann. Will was right, she was beautiful. Men had loved her. And things still weren’t working right for her. The idea depressed Paulie. Mary Ann was so experienced, she must know what she was talking about She’d had three different men love her, And now she learned that she couldn’t even trust the inAnd now she learned that she couldn’t even trust the indications she’d taken as positive signs!

She stood on wobbly feet and careened toward the door, shaken by their conversation. “I think I’ll go up to bed now. It’s been a long day.”

Mary Ann nodded. “’Night,” she said casually, as if they had been chatting about something completely insignificant, like the weather.

Instead, Paulie felt as if the very earth beneath her feet was untrustworthy. Her hopes kept getting built up, only to be dashed again soon after. She wasn’t sure who to believe—Mrs. Worthington or Mary Ann. Or whether she could be certain of either woman’s version of Will’s feelings toward her.

But she knew Mary Ann was correct in one respect. She would do well to be a lot more guarded around Will from now on, if for no other reason than to keep from making a damn fool of herself over the man. Again.

Where the heck was Paulie?

Will sat up in bed, his stomach grumbling, watching the door impatiently. Ever since sunrise, he’d been waiting to see Paulie again. Would she look as pretty in the morning
sun streaming through the windows as she had in the candlelight last night?

Despite the insistent gnawing in his stomach, he was feeling much better today. His arm ached like the dickens, but that was an improvement. What troubled him more was his state of mind. He couldn’t believe that he was developing such a yen for Paulie Johnson, of all people. All his life, he’d been sure of himself. His goals were always clear. He was going to save his money, buy a horse ranch, marry Mary Ann, and that would be that. Now the world seemed to be standing on its head. He was dreaming about a strange girl he’d never thought of apart from her being someone to tease, and buy liquor from, and talk to. And to top that,
she
wasn’t even in love with him!

Oh, she’d kissed him all right, but she hadn’t been happy about it. The second their embrace was over, she had fled the room as if a swarm of hornets were after her, Will remembered uncomfortably. Perhaps her hasty exit was an indication that she still harbored feelings for Trip Peabody, that she didn’t want to be held by anyone besides Trip. She might have sent Trip back to Possum Trot, back into the welcoming arms of the widow Hale, but doing so was an act of self-sacrifice.

He drummed his fingers impatiently against the covers, then detected footsteps coming up the stairs. Finally! He sat up a little straighter, rubbing his hand over his stubbly jaw self-consciously. Paulie might be pretty as a picture, he thought ruefully, but there was no telling what
he
looked like!

“Why, Will! You’re up!”

At the sound of Mary Ann’s voice, Will sank down against the pillows in disappointment. She floated into the room carrying his breakfast tray, but he didn’t feel nearly
as hungry as he had when he’d expected Paulie to be the one doing the serving.

He looked her in the eye and remembered that he had failed to accomplish what she had hoped for. “I’m sorry I couldn’t bring Oren around, Mary Ann. All my talking to him managed to do was get me shot, it seems.”

Her face froze for a moment. Then she forced a smile. “That’s all right, Will. I guess everything’s worked out for the best.”

He peered at her suspiciously. “Where’s Paulie?”

“Downstairs, having breakfast,” Mary Ann said. She chuckled. “My, my, I never knew a woman who could put food away so handily as Paulie Johnson. Last time I looked she was on her fourth biscuit.”

Will smiled. “Really?”

Mary Ann shook her head. “I suppose I should take that as a compliment, since I made them myself.” She eased the tray in front of him, and to his dismay, sat herself down in the chair next to him.

Will looked dubiously down at the plate with its fluffy browned biscuits. In all the years he’d been acquainted with Mary Ann, he’d never known her to be much of a cook. “Did Paulie say anything about coming up to see me this morning?”

“I don’t believe so.” She shrugged impatiently. “Really, I don’t know what she’s doing here at all, except getting underfoot.”

Will tilted his head. “I would have thought, since you two were such good friends, that she might have told you a little of what was going on inside her head.”

“Good friends?”

“Yes, Paulie said you and her are…well, that you’d become close over the past few months.”

Mary Ann levelled a pitying, look on him. “I’m afraid
she’s been deceiving you, Will. Goodness, what in heaven would we ever have in common!”

That’s what
he
had always wondered. But why would Paulie lie to him?

Mary Ann dimpled sweetly. “I guess all women keep their little secrets. I doubt Paulie would appreciate it if I told hers.”

“If you mean her feelings for Trip Peabody, I guessed those a long time ago.”

She blinked. “Mr. Peabody?”

“Yes, she told me all about it. And now Trip’s gone, back to Tessie Hale, and I suppose she’s pining for him.”

Mary Ann bit her lip. “Oh, I see…Well, that’s right. And you know, Will, women are apt to do the strangest things when they’re disappointed in love. You have to be careful.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, for one thing, I guess a woman’s first instinct when disappointed by one man is to throw herself into the arms of another.”

Which, as Will suspected, would explain Paulie’s mixed reaction to his kiss last night.

“Why, just look what happened to me!”

Will shot her a distrustful glance. He knew it was hard for Mary Ann to go long without talking about herself, but he couldn’t imagine what parallels she would manage to find between her life and Paulie’s.

“After I got your letter I was so heartbroken I didn’t know where to turn,” she explained, “so I turned to Oat.”

“You turned to Oat because you were pregnant, remember?”

She frowned. “That’s right. I turned to Oren because I was heartbroken, and
then
I turned to Oat.”

Will laughed.

Mary Ann tossed her curls and pouted becomingly. “Oh, I know I’ve made bad fudge out of my life. But it was only because I was heartbroken.” She leaned forward. “Heartbroken over you, Will Brockett.”

Will couldn’t believe his ears, which was a good thing, because his eyes were almost won over by Mary Ann’s superlative job of acting out of contrition. “Next you’ll be telling me that you’ve given up on Oren and want to marry me instead.”

“But that’s just what I
do
want!” she said, her blue eyes wide with surprise.

Will chortled. “You can’t think I’m fool enough to believe you really love me?”

“But I do, Will,” she said, “and I know you love me, deep down. Why else would you have come all this way?”

He rolled his eyes. “Because I made a promise to your father.”

“You know you’ve always loved me.”

Wrong. He’d loved the idea of her. Her seeming innocence. Her beauty. Her family. He’d felt responsible for her. But he knew now those things fell short of love. Love was something else. Love was…

Well, hell. He wasn’t an expert on the subject. But at least he was beginning to understand what it wasn’t.

To his dismay, Mary Ann rose out of her chair and sat gently on the edge of the bed, leaning toward him. “And I know you haven’t forgotten how it used to be when we kissed, Will.”

His lips instinctively pressed into a frown. “As a matter of fact, I haven’t,” he told her, “so I don’t need a reminder.”

She blinked, amazed that he would turn down the delectable offer she’d made him. “Are you saying you
don’t
want to kiss me?”