“Jordan?”
He looked up from the fragile cup and saw that Kelly was regarding him with a puzzled expression. Those huge brown eyes of hers were filled with concern.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
“Rexanne broke the engagement,” he announced casually.
“Good,” Kelly replied without the slightest hint of sympathy.
“Damn,” he muttered irritably. “Did everybody dislike her except me?”
“I didn’t dislike her,” Kelly corrected. “I just thought she was all wrong for you.”
“Why?”
“She was using you.”
“Weren’t they all,” he said dryly.
“As a matter of fact, yes,” she said as she poured the boiling water into the pot, tossed in a handful of tea leaves and waited for it to steep.
“Have you ever approved of any woman I’ve dated?”
Kelly took the question he’d intended to be sarcastic seriously. “There was one, back in college. I think her name was Pamela. You dumped her after the first date.”
“And she was right for me?”
“I didn’t have all that long to check out her sincerity,” she reminded him, “but, yes, I think she could have been. She was sweet.”
Jordan scowled. Sweet? Perhaps innocuous would have been a better description. He didn’t even remember a Pamela, which didn’t say much for either her or him.
“Actually, I think my taste is improving,” he said, his gaze fixed on Kelly’s face. There was no immediate reaction beyond a faint flicker of something in her eyes, something he couldn’t quite identify. She seemed slightly more alert, perhaps even a little wary.
“You’ve already found a replacement for Rexanne? Isn’t that a little cavalier?”
“Not really. I told you a long time ago that I thought it was time for me to settle down.”
“Right, so you proposed to the first woman to cross your path after that, and look where that got you.”
“She wasn’t the first woman to cross my path,” he protested. “I was seeing several women at the time. Rexanne seemed like the best choice.”
“Maybe out of that lot, but did you ever stop to consider there was slim pickings in that bunch?” She waggled a slender finger at him. “I’ll answer that. No, you did not. You just decided you wanted to be married and filled the opening as methodically as you would have a position at your company. You probably had a stupid checksheet.”
She wasn’t all that far off the mark, though he wouldn’t have told her that for another gusher in his oil fields. “Well, I’m not going to be so hasty about it this time,” he said.
“You just told me you’ve identified the woman you want to marry. It’s been what? Two days? Maybe three since your engagement broke off?”
“Four, actually.”
She rolled her eyes. “Definitely long enough,” she said with a touch of unfamiliar sarcasm. “Jordan, why can’t you just relax and let nature take its course?”
He gave her a disdainful look. “I don’t have a lot of faith in nature.”
She gave him a wry look. “You would if you’d been in that barn with me an hour ago.”
“I don’t think the fact that your tomcat can’t keep his paws off of Francie is a testament to nature in its finest moments.”
She shrugged, a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth. “Okay, you may have a point about that. So, who’s the latest woman to capture your fancy?”
He leveled a look straight into her eyes and waited until he was sure he had her full attention. “Actually, it’s you.”
Kelly—calm, serene, unflappable Kelly—succumbed to a coughing fit that had her eyes watering and Jordan wondering if he’d gone about this in an incredibly stupid way. It wouldn’t be the first time the direct method had failed him.
Still, he was determined to make her see the sense of this. All of those lectures he’d given himself about dressing it up with a little sweet talk flew out the window. He set out to hammer home the logic.
“It’s a perfectly rational decision…” he began.
“You’re not serious,” she said when she could finally speak.
He pulled the jewelry box from his pocket and placed it on the kitchen table in front of her. Since she was eyeing it as if it were a poisonous rattler, he flipped it open to reveal a stunning three-carat diamond that pretty well proclaimed him to be dead serious. Despite its impressive size, it was simpler than the engagement ring he’d purchased at Rexanne’s urging. She’d wanted flashy. Kelly struck him as the kind of woman who would admire simplicity. Gazing into her eyes, however, he had the sinking feeling that admiration for his taste in rings was the last thing on her mind.
“You’ve obviously lost your mind,” she said, but her voice was softer now and laced with something that might have been regret.
“Quite the contrary. It’s the only rational decision for both of us.”
“Rational,” she repeated as if it were a dirty word.
There was an ominous undercurrent he didn’t quite get. “Actually, yes. I’ve given it quite a lot of thought. We’ve known each other forever—there won’t be any nasty surprises. We’ve both had more than our share of those. I can give you the kind of life and financial security you deserve.”
“And I can give you…what? A hostess? A cook, perhaps? A bed partner on cold nights?”
Jordan could feel the blood climbing into his cheeks as she enumerated some of the very thoughts that had occurred to him. They’d sounded better in theory than they did spoken out loud by a woman who was clearly insulted. She wasn’t taking this well at all. He searched for a new approach. “Now, Kelly…”
Unfortunately he never got to finish the sentence. Kelly was already shaking her head, rather emphatically, it seemed to him.
She stood and glowered down at him. “Not a chance. No way. Forget it, bud. Take a hike.” She seemed to be just warming up.
The flare of unexpected temper just might be one of
