My Heart Can't Tell You No (65 page)

“Oh. Then you aren’t with anybody?”

“I’m with John and his wife,” she smiled at him again.

“Then would you mind . . .” He stopped, making Maddie glance back at him to see the uneasiness about him. “How come you’re here with them? I mean—are you friends?”

“John’s my brother.”

“You’re John’s sister?” She noted the disappointment in his voice as she sat down.

“Yes. Is there something wrong with that?”

“No. Nothing.” He placed the tray on the table.

“Would you like to sit down?” she asked, seeing that he stood dumbly before her brother and sister-in-law, waiting to be invited.

“Yes.” He looked over to John. “If I could.”

“You work with McNier, don’t ya?” John finally noticed the young man.

“Yes I do, usually.” He remained standing.

“You work today?”

“Yes.”

“Many calls?”

The young man smiled timidly. “I went out on three. My first transfer to Harrisburg.”

“Won’t be very long and you’ll be heading out farther than that,” John told him, then looked quickly over at Beth. From the movement of Beth’s body Maddie could tell the woman had just kicked his leg. “
What
?!”

“Would you tell the poor boy to sit down? He’s been standing there waiting for your permission,” Beth scolded her husband.

“
My
permission?” John looked up at the young man through confused eyes. “Well sit down if you want to.”

The boy immediately took his place next to Maddie, pulling the chair closer to hers as he looked at her. “I’ve been working at the hangar for almost a year now. What do you do?”

“Do?” Maddie sent a quick glance back to her brother and Beth, seeing John had turned his attention back to the game of pool in the other room and Beth was smiling down at the soda in her hands. “Well—I guess you could say I work in a store.”

“My sister’s a clerk too. She just got out of high school last year.”

“Then that makes you . . .” Maddie asked, but only received an empty gaze. “I mean—if she just graduated from high school, that makes her around eighteen.”

“Oh. My age. I’m twenty-three. Or I will be next week.”

“Really? What day?”

“Next Saturday.”

“Busy day for having babies,” Maddie glanced over to Beth.

“Is that
your
birthday too?” He smiled at her.

“No. It’s—my mother’s.” She neglected telling him that her youngest son’s birthday was also on that day. She wished to save him the embarrassment of finding he was trying his hardest to romance a pregnant twenty-five-year-old who had a baby the year he turned fifteen.

“My youngest son’s birthday too. Isn’t that a coincidence?” Joe’s voice came from behind her, startling her. “You forget to tell him about our youngest son, Maddie?”

Maddie looked over at the boy, seeing the huge eyes watching Joe as he quickly stood up, knocking his bottle of beer over as he did so.

“Joe. I didn’t see you there,” the boy breathed.

“I can tell,” Joe said flatly. “You worked today, didn’t ya?”

The young man grabbed his bottle quickly, trying to stop the beer seeping in John’s direction. “I—I did. Y-yes. I did.”

“Had a transfer to Harrisburg,” John commented, watching the liquid coming his way as Maddie quickly put some napkins down to block it and sop it up.

“You work tomorrow too, don’t ya, Bucky?” Joe asked.

“Yes.”

“Shouldn’t you be home in bed then? You don’t want anything to happen just because you’re in here wasting your time, do ya?”

“No.” His eyes moved back to Maddie, then back to Joe. “I guess not.”

“Good night, Bucky,” Joe dismissed him.

“Good night.” He looked back at Maddie. “Good night, Mrs. McNier.”

“Good night, Bucky,” Maddie replied, her temper rising. That had been totally unnecessary, she thought. The boy was only talking to her, and he was very nice. But when she turned to tell Joe what she thought, he had already moved away.

“Couldn’t have tried harder if he had gone down on his knee and proposed,” Beth referred to Bucky.

“Oh, he was only young. Probably lonely. Since I was the closest unattached female to him, he just naturally wanted to talk, that’s all.”

“Ya think so? Take a look around. There’s quite a few of them been keeping an eye on you—and I doubt at their ages they’d
only
want
to
talk
.”

Maddie did just that—looked around. She was never one to notice such things—and as far as she could see, there was nothing to notice.

“I think you’re seeing things, Beth.”

“All right. Have it your way.” Beth got up from her chair and put her hand on John’s shoulder, forcing his attention away from the pool table. “Either take me out to dance or over to the pool table for a game.”

“You wanna play pool?” John asked his wife incredulously.

“It’s better than sitting here watching you watch someone else play. Ya don’t even have the decency to be distracted by
other
women
—it’s a damn pool table, with men playing, at that.”

“Well, let’s go. There’s an empty table over there.” He almost jumped to his feet, then smiled sheepishly back at Maddie. “I’m gonna beat the pants off of her.”

“I sure hope so,” Beth sighed, making Maddie chuckle as she watched them walk away.

“So, you’re John Baker’s little sister,” came a deep smooth voice from the side of her. When she turned she saw a tall, deeply tanned man about thirty-five years old.

“I’m his
younger
sister—I don’t know about
little
.” She watched as he wiped the table where Bucky had spilled his beer with the towel he had brought with him.

“Oh I don’t know,” he smiled as he sat down with her. “You look kinda tiny to me.”

“Am I supposed to say
thank
you
? Because if you know my brother at all, you’ll know we aren’t very big on giving—or receiving compliments. They don’t mean much to us.”

“I can see why.” His smile was dazzling. “You’re too accustomed to them.”

“No. We’re not. But we’ve got the intelligence to know
most
are insincere.” She turned her glance away from him.

“He’s over at the bar. Last I heard, he was buying our secretary a drink.”

“
Our
secretary
?” she asked as her eyes went immediately to the bar where she saw Joe leaning near a shapely blonde. “I’m afraid you didn’t tell me who you were yet.”

“My name’s Brent.”

“Of course it is,” she said absently as she looked back at him, it couldn’t be something common like Bill or Bob—it had to be Brent.

“What?” Brent laughed.

“Nothing. Brent what?”

“Spencer. Does it make a difference? Have you heard of me?” He leaned back in his chair and studied her with a self-assured smile.

“Spencer? I’ve heard of you. You’re the department supervisor in the hangar. John and Joe work under you.”

“So they say, but usually I listen to them, so usually I wonder just
who
works for
whom
.”

“Somehow I can’t imagine John bossing anyone around.”

“John? Our department’s leader of the pack.”

“What do you mean?” she asked with raised brow.

“Sorry,” he laughed. “I guess that didn’t sound too good, did it? What I meant was John can keep his men in good humor, and still get the work done. John can always be counted on for that. It’s a rare quality in a man.”

“Are you saying Mr. McNier isn’t as productive as John?”

“Not at all. He’s an excellent flyer. My best. But like I said, John’s our leader.” He looked back over toward the pool tables, the expression that covered his face turning her eyes in that direction. She felt her heart sink into the pit of her stomach when she saw Joe with a pool cue in hand as he leaned against the table, and the blonde secretary standing so closely in front of him that she nearly stood between his legs. “Mrs. Green, would you like to dance? I see your brother and his wife have taken advantage of the music.”

“What?” she asked breathlessly as she looked back to him.

“Come on.” He held his hand out to her. “He can’t chase me away as easily as he chased poor Bucky away a few minutes ago. I don’t work under him like Bucky does.”

Maddie took his hand and followed him out to the dance floor, letting him take her in his arms as they moved to the slow music. She swallowed hard as she avoided sight of the room where the pool tables were. When she looked back to her dance partner, she was taken back by the strength of his stare.

“Is there something wrong? I know I didn’t step on your toes yet,” she smiled at him.

“No. Nothing’s wrong,” he smiled in return. “Do you realize how many men are wishing they could be in my place right now? But they brought their wives with them.”

“No.” She looked away from him, his words irritating her.

“I didn’t think so. Well, then I’ll point them out to you. Now, look over my shoulder at that gray-haired man sitting with the skeleton-like woman in the red dress.”

“She’s not skeleton-like,” Maddie smiled. “She’s just thin.”

“Extremely thin. Right now our good Mr. Slack is trying to think of a way to push his
fatherly
charms on you. Charms that won’t be very fatherly for long.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“Believe it. He thinks everything in a dress is just dying to be with him.”

“How do you know?” She eyed him closely.

“Simple. That skeleton is my aunt. Is he looking at you?”

“No. He’s talking to another man.”

“Well, we’ll fix that. When we get close—just smile at him and watch what happens.” Brent danced closer to the middle-aged couple, and, as he predicted, the man’s eyes were immediately drawn to her. “Go ahead. Just smile. See what happens.”

She did as he indicated, out of curiosity. The man’s reaction was immediate. With his poor wife sitting next to him, he stared at Maddie and stood up to approach her, but before he could take a step, Brent was turning her to the other side of the floor.

“See when I listen to you again.” She looked up into his smiling eyes.

“All right,” he laughed. “I’ll admit, that one was unfair. We’ll try another one.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Hey, Spencer.” John and Beth danced next to them. “What the hell ya doing to Slack over there? Looks like he’s getting a helluva good argument from his old lady.”

“He wanted to get up and ravish your little sister—what else?” Brent smiled at John.

“Over my dead body. Better watch it, Maddie. That guy’s a real charmer. Get close to that one and you’ll be in the doctor’s office real quick for a big dose of penicillin.”

“I see.” She looked back to Brent. “Very funny.”

They turned just then, giving her a full view of the small room where the pool tables were, and a partial view of Joe. The blonde had her arms around his waist as she reached up in a more than friendly kiss that wasn’t being refused. Maddie’s footing got twisted, and she stumbled against her dancing partner as she looked at the kiss that was quickly turning to near vulgarity.

“Do you want to sit down a while?” Brent took her by the arm. “You look kinda pale.”

“Yes. I think I’d better.” She hurried with him to the bar where he ordered two whiskeys, then ushered her back to her table where a concerned John and Beth were about to join them.

“Here. Drink this. It’ll bring some color back to your face.”

As she reached for the glass, a familiar hand covered it and pulled it away.

“No drinking,
dear
. Not while you’re carrying
my
baby.”

She didn’t even look up at him. She was so furious! She didn’t trust herself to look at him. Instead, she got to her feet and smiled down at Brent then went back to the bar. She took the whiskey she ordered, but, as she turned back toward the table, she saw Joe slowly walking toward her. She stayed next to the bar and lifted it to him in a toast-like gesture, then downed the contents. It burned like fire—teared her eyes—took her breath away—but she’d be damned if she’d even cough in front of him. She turned and ordered another one, having it refilled just as Joe got to her.

“Put it down,” he ordered.

“Right now I’m on the verge of acting very childishly—and that really pisses me off! So would you be so kind as to get out of my way?” Maddie hissed.