“But it’s not simple. It’s gotten all messy and complicated, and now you want to cut and run.”
“And you don’t?” Darcy demanded.
“Maybe not.” He pointed toward the clubhouse. “Drive.”
She cut across the first fairway, glancing over at him as they bumped along. He kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, trying to contain his frustration. It would have been too perfect to meet the woman of his dreams just days before he retired. Maybe he was looking for something that wasn’t there simply out of fear about the changes taking place in his life.
“That was my agent,” he said. “I’ve been traded to Atlanta.”
Darcy gasped. “Atlanta? But that’s all the way across the country.”
“Yeah, the last time I checked my map it was.” He studied her expression and then drew a deep breath. The hell if she didn’t care! For an instant, he saw it there in her eyes. She wasn’t ready to give him up. “I was going to retire, but now I’m thinking I might be able to get a few more years out of the arm. They want to see me in a few days.”
“You’re going to go?”
Kel knew he shouldn’t play with her emotions. But if this was the only way he could gauge her feelings, then he’d use it. “It’s an option I should explore. If they don’t want to put me into regular rotation, I might be able to get by without the surgery. It would probably mean a cut in my salary, but I’m all right with that.”
“So you’ll go to Atlanta?” Darcy asked.
“What do you think I should do?”
Darcy shook her head, forcing a smile. “What I think shouldn’t matter.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. It doesn’t make any difference what you think because you don’t really care.”
“That’s not true,” she murmured, her voice turning defensive. “I would miss you. I
“Right,” he said. “I do have some big decisions to make.”
The only problem was Kel’s heart was telling him to do one thing and his head was telling him to do the exact opposite. He wanted to believe he and Darcy had a future, but he knew she felt differently. And with just one night left together, Kel wasn’t sure he’d have enough time to change her mind.
6
DARCY STOOD AT Kel’s door, ready to knock. After their one-hole round of golf, they’d come back to the hotel and Kel had disappeared into his room to call his agent. Darcy had spent the next hour with her father, discussing a new corporate advertising campaign.
She still hadn’t worked up the courage to issue her ultimatum, even though she’d decided exactly what to say. Darcy wanted a seat on the board immediately and a promise that she would be next in line for a vice presidency at corporate headquarters. And if Sam Scott didn’t agree, then she was prepared to walk away. In addition, she’d decided she should tell him the truth about Kel-that their relationship had been over before it had ever started.
Things had been so easy between her and Kel over the past week. It had almost made her believe that they could sustain a real relationship. But since her father had arrived, things had begun to go bad. Maybe it was the impending end of their little “arrangement” that had set them both on edge, but they couldn’t seem to be together without an argument arising.
She tipped her head back and sighed deeply. This was what she’d wanted, proof that the attraction they had was passing at best. Proof that she’d made the right decision to put her career first.
Tonight would be their last night together and she’d have to make it special. Tomorrow would be Valentine’s Day and they’d say good-bye to each other for good. A sharp stab of regret pierced her heart and she pressed her hand to her chest. It would have been nice to have a Valentine for once. But Darcy knew better than to get caught up in silly romantic fantasies. Still, she did have feelings for Kel and, to her dismay, they were beginning to feel a lot more like love than lust.
Was she falling in love with him? Kel had touched her body like no other man had, but he’d also managed to touch her heart. He was sweet and funny and honest, all the qualities she wanted in a man. Yet she couldn’t quite believe that he wanted her as much as she wanted him.
Darcy reached out and rapped on the door, then gathered her courage. Maybe it was time to risk her heart. What’s the worse that could happen-he’d leave? He was already planning to do that.
The door swung open and Darcy looked up at Kel. He was dressed and toting his garment bag and a small duffel. “Darcy. I was just coming down to talk to you.”
Her gaze darted back and forth between his face and the bags he carried. “You’re packed?”
Kel nodded. “I’ve got to go home. There’s just so much going on and I really can’t think here. I’ve got calls to make and meetings to schedule.”
Darcy swallowed hard and tried to control her emotions. Was this how it would end, in the hallway, he going one way and she going the other? “You’re going to Atlanta then?”
“Yeah, I think I am.”
She gnawed at her lip, trying to calm the whirlwind of thoughts in her head. “I-I just wanted to say a few things before you left.”
He waited, but Darcy couldn’t decide exactly how to begin. “Everything happened so fast between us,” she said. “Sometimes I wonder if things could have been different if we…” Darcy let her voice trail off. It was silly to think of what might have been. “I had a wonderful time,” she said. “And I’m glad we met that night in San Francisco, and that we met again in the candy shop.”
He reached out and took her hand, drawing her into the room. His garment bag slipped to the floor and Kel pulled her into his arms and kissed her. He lingered over her mouth, his tongue teasing at the crease between her lips. When he pulled back, his gaze met hers. “Will you miss me?” he asked.
Darcy felt tears pressing against the corners of her eyes. She laughed softly, brushing a stray tear off her cheek. “Of course I will. Gosh, why am I crying? It’s not like you’re leaving for the moon. We might run into each other again someday.”
“I’d like that,” Kel said. “And maybe, just to make sure, I could call you and we could figure out a time and a place to meet.”
Darcy laughed softly. “Wouldn’t that be a date?”
“Yeah,” Kel said with a slow grin. “I guess it would be.”
“Well, I think that would be a sensible thing, just to make sure we don’t accidentally miss each other.”
Kel kissed her again, molding her mouth to his as his hands furrowed through her hair. “All right, that’s the plan. Someday, I’ll just give you a call.”
“You’d better get going,” Darcy said. She didn’t want to weep in front of him and the emotion clogging her throat was making it difficult to talk.
“Will you walk down with me?”
Darcy shook her head. “No, I think I’m going to stay here. I wouldn’t want to make a fool of myself in front of my staff. You never know what I might do to get you to stay a little longer. I have been known to tear off my clothes in your presence.”
“All right then,” Kel said. He brushed one last kiss on her lips, then opened the door. “See ya, Darcy.”
“See ya, Kel,” Darcy replied.
She watched as the door swung shut, then stood frozen in place for a long time, willing herself not to chase after him, to accept the fact that he had gone. When she was sure she wouldn’t follow him, Darcy walked into the bedroom and flopped down on the bed.
They’d spent so much time in this spot, she mused. But without him, it was just an ordinary bed. Darcy grabbed his pillow and held it over her face, inhaling his scent. There would come a day when she wouldn’t be able to recall this smell. “I’ll just take this with me,” she murmured. She sat up and hugged the pillow.
