Sweet but Sexy Boxed Set (46 page)

Chapter Four

Saturday evening

“
Rob, you’re an incurable romantic,” his ex-wife Jessica had told him soon after they met. Maybe that’s why he had blindly ignored the warning signs in their marriage until it was too late, and why, even after what had happened, he was happy for his dad.

Rob stood on the broken sidewalk, one foot resting on the bottom step to the porch, and watched his seventy-two-year-old father embrace Grace Baron. At his dad
’s knock, she had rushed out of her front door and into his open arms, apparently oblivious to the world around her. Their public display of affection embarrassed Rob. He looked away toward the shaded street peppered with white picket fences and turn-of-the-twentieth-century houses.

A widower, his father deserved what pleasure and contentment marriage to Mrs. Barron would bring. He had buried two wives, after all, Rob thought glancing back. He was impressed by the older man
’s willingness to start over. And from what he knew about his future stepmother’s joyless first marriage, Rob figured she too had earned a bit of happiness.

He shouldn
’t be too eager to try it again. Jessica had burned him badly. But the risk-taker optimist within longed for a second chance. Maybe being an incurable romantic wasn’t smart for a lawyer who had to deal with hard facts. In his personal life, the constant push-pull of dream versus reality had proven to be a constant plague.

“
Someone will take off your rose-colored glasses,” Jessica had warned early on.

She should know since she was the one who did it.

Rob continued up the steps as Kelly came to the door and froze doe-like, her eyes wide with alarm. He couldn’t blame her reaction. It must feel strange for Kelly to see her mother in the arms of a man not her father.

“
Are you two lovebirds going to break it up?” he asked, hoping to add levity to an awkward moment.

Of course, the two only had eyes for each other. They missed the uncomfortable look on Kelly
’s face and the way she hung back as if afraid to leave the safety of the house.

Rob was keenly aware of Kelly. He sensed her uneasiness and something more: fear. Was she alarmed to discover her mother
’s upcoming marriage? He learned today that Grace, for whatever reason, had neglected to be honest with her daughter. He only hoped his dad wasn’t walking into a family situation beyond his ability to control.

The two lovebirds drew apart but continued holding hands.

“Kelly, dear, come meet Howie,” Grace said, urging her daughter forward by extending her free hand.

Kelly took a step outside. She wore a flattering white sleeveless sundress that showed off her tanned skin. Rob
’s eyes were automatically drawn to the fitted bust and the waistline that hit beneath it—empire style, he thought it was called. The skirt flowed from there, ending above Kelly’s knees. His gaze traveled down her shapely bronze legs to strappy white sandals. He slowly lifted his gaze back up again to her eyes.

My God! What a far cry from the dowdy school girl he had once known. To say his interest was piqued was the understatement of the year.

Not many women her age could wear such a dress. Jessica certainly couldn’t. She was always fighting her weight. And Kelly’s short-cropped red hair that softly framed her face made her look even younger than her almost forty years.

Her gaze shifted from the couple to Rob and back again, and then she pasted a smile on her lips to cover the shadow of annoyance that crossed her face.

“Howie, this is Kelly, my daughter. You’ve heard me talk about her.” Grace was anxious, Rob could tell, but she put on a proud smile.

His dad was his gracious self, dropping Grace
’s hand and clasping Kelly’s in a welcoming handshake. “I’m pleased to meet you,” he said, his words friendly.

“
Nice to meet you.”

Rob wondered if she meant it.

There was an air of hostility about her. And mystery. Rob figured no one knew about their brief affair in high school—if one night in the backseat of a car could be called an affair. At the time, it had seemed important—all those secret meetings at the library, the hand holding and whispered conversation culminating in that night of sex.

Sneaking around had been exciting, partly because Kelly
’s father had an authoritarian reputation and partly because his friends would be shocked if they knew. It had started out as a lark, talking to the “nun” at the library. But there was nothing nun-like about her Rob had found out.

And never forgotten.

“You look lovely tonight, Kelly,” he said to her.

He was eager to get to know her again. There was something intriguing about sharing a secret with her, even one as harmless as a one-night stand over twenty years earlier.

Kelly
’s stomach twisted and she viewed Rob with mistrust. “Thanks. You clean up pretty good yourself,” she said unable to come back with anything wittier.

This nightmare didn
’t quit. First she had run into Rob, and then she’d found out her mother was engaged to be married. Now Rob’s father was holding hands with her mother like a man head over heels in love. There was something off-putting about the whole thing. Of course, most people would think it charming and sweet for two old people to find love again.

No one knew what Kelly knew. And no one could understand her fear.

“Let’s not stand out in this heat,” Howie suggested. “I don’t want my little flower to wilt.”

Grace giggled and Kelly thought she would be sick. She glanced at Rob who winked as if he understood her predicament.

“I’ve gotten used to it,” Rob whispered as they followed their parents to Howie’s Lexus SUV. “They’re very happy together.”

Kelly wasn
’t ready to admit her feelings out loud, although she suspected her body language gave her away. “I thought you had misgivings.”

“
A few, but I figure there’s nothing I can do to stop them even if I wanted to.”

Wonderful.
This disaster was going to happen.

Rob handed Kelly into the backseat while his father helped her mother into the passenger side. Rob shut her door and came around to the other side, climbing in beside her.

Their closeness was unnerving. Kelly fought down the flaring panic that rose in her chest and made her feel like throwing up.

“
I hope you like this restaurant.” Rob’s attempt at small talk was pathetic.

“
I’m sure I will.” Kelly hoped her lack of interest would shut him up.

Sitting in the backseat with Rob was eerie. She had stepped into a time warp. Twenty-one years ago, she and Rob had shared the backseat of another one of his father
’s cars. Kelly shifted nervously on the bench seat, feeling the leather’s coolness against her exposed back. Glancing at him, she caught recognition lighting his eyes. Rob remembered too.

“
This seems oddly familiar,” Rob said under his breath.

Her mother and Howie were chatting, oblivious to the occupants of the backseat. Still Kelly didn
’t want to go where Rob was going.

“
I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She looked out the window trying to signal an end to the conversation.

“
Come on. You can’t have forgotten.”

She turned quickly, her senses alert.
“There are a lot of things I haven’t forgotten.” Her voice was too sharp, her breath coming fast.

Kelly didn
’t need his probing or the allusion to their past.

“
Easy now,” he cautioned. “I didn’t mean to touch a sore spot.”

“
Well, you have and I appreciate you not talking about it. It’s been a long time. We don’t need the past interfering with the next few days. We have to get along for their sakes.” She nodded toward the front seat and their parents.

“
Point taken.”

Rob turned his head to look out his window. They rode in silence the rest of the way, listening to Grace discuss the strawberry wedding cake June Hobson was baking for the occasion.

****

A local family had purchased The Eagle
’s Nest Grist Mill several years earlier. They had stocked a pond with trout and another one with catfish and turned the old mill into a restaurant serving fried fish, fries, hush puppies and coleslaw.

The meal was tasty, but Kelly, having no appetite, only picked at the catfish. Her mother, on the other hand, had never been so jovial. Kelly was surprised by the change in the woman. Granted, she was free from the confines of a dysfunctional marriage. But there was something more to her mother
’s new happiness, and it had everything to do with Rob’s father. Kelly listened half-heartedly to their talk of wedding plans and tried to avoid eye contact with Rob.

After a desert of key lime pie and coffee, Howie asked,
“Care to take a walk around the pond?”

“
It’s much too hot for me, Howie, dear,” Grace said. “Why don’t the two young people go on?”

Matchmaking.
Kelly didn’t need to be a mind-reader to figure out her mother’s not so subtle motive.

She pushed back her chair, and it scraped on the plank floor. Rob jumped to his feet and held the cane back chair for her.
Ah, the perfect gentleman.
Kelly bristled at his thoughtfulness, knowing she was being foolish. She walked ahead of him down the winding steps and out into the heavy twilight of a hot July day.

The restaurant was in a log cabin built next to the nineteenth century era mill. Kelly stopped beside the mill trace and listened to the slap-slap sound of the water powered paddle. It turned in slow rhythm. The air smelled of heat, frying fish and wet, moss-covered wood.

Rob came up behind. Her skin prickled.

“
It was a different time,” he mused aloud.

Kelly let out a long breath, annoyed that he aroused fears and uncertainties.
“Life was harder,” she stated simply.

“
But there was honesty about it.” His voice remained thoughtful. “When life was about basic survival, it was less complicated.”

“
Seems to me life continues to be about survival.” Kelly stepped away, trying to shut down any conversation between them.

Rob wasn
’t so easily put off. He followed, and they strolled silently together along the gravel path beside the catfish pond until they came to an empty bench on the other side.

“
Let’s sit down and watch the sun go down,” he suggested.

Kelly hesitated but then sat down, scooting to the edge of the wooden bench as Rob sat beside her. The last time she
’d shared a bench with a man, he had proposed.
Another of the night’s ironies.

In the western sky, the sun was an orange splotch immersed in the hazy heat of the evening. They sat quietly a few minutes.

“I’ve wondered why you never married,” Rob remarked casually.

“
I never found the right person…unlike you,” Kelly responded. She knew her reply was insensitive, but she didn’t like being put in this spot and couldn’t keep the irritation from her voice.

“
I’m not sure I believe in the ‘right person’.”

There was so much hurt in Rob
’s soft response that Kelly glanced at him.

He searched her face.
“What about your baby’s father? Did he step up to the plate?”

Fear cut right through her.
“No.” The lie rolled from her tongue with ease. She’d had plenty of practice. “I raised C.B. with the help of my great-aunt.”

“
What a bastard,” Rob muttered under his breath. He looked at her. “If that had been my child, I would have stepped up.”

“
Really?”

“
You sound skeptical.”

She glared at him and blew out an unladylike snort.
“I couldn’t depend on my parents. They didn’t even ‘step up.’ So why should I trust your empty words?” Kelly glanced down. “It’s a moot point anyway.”

“
I have no business asking you about your life,” he said and then added with a sly grin, “but I must admit you intrigue me.”

She laughed mirthlessly to cover her annoyance.
“We hardly know anything about each other. We were different people twenty years ago.”

“
You’re right.” He let out a breath. “It’s just that riding with you brought back a rash of old memories. Good ones, I must admit.”

“
Memories are inexact things.”

“
I suppose so.” Rob lapsed into silence.

Danger signals clamored in Kelly
’s head. Only a few more discussions like this and Rob might put two and two together—backseat, pregnancy, Kelly leaves town. It wasn’t hard to figure out knowing what Rob knew. He was the only one who had all the puzzle pieces, the only one who could guess her secret.