now.”
There. The words were out. And she felt horrible about it. She glanced quickly at his eyes. Was he radiating contempt? Was he sneering? To her surprise, it didn’t seem to be that way.
“No problem,” he was saying, waving it away as though money was no object. “Just let me know what you need.”
“No!” She said that a bit too loud and looked around quickly. Luckily the music had hidden her cry, but she leaned in closer. “No, really. It’s not like that. What I would want to do is to keep working as long as I possibly can.”
“Why would you do that?” he broke in. “You don’t need to.”
“Yes, I do. I can’t just…”
“Callie, we’ll play it by ear. Whatever feels most comfortable for you, that’s what we’ll do.”
She closed her eyes for a moment. He was being almost too nice about this. She didn’t deserve it. But then, he did want something from her.
Looking at him earnestly, she quickly tried to explain her dilemma, how she desperately needed to pay for her mother-in-law’s nursing care, how she wanted to be in the position to get the best medical help possible for Tina- how she was so far in debt both goals were completely out of reach at the moment.
“So you see, all my motives are not so pure,” she told him, chin high but bright spots in her cheeks. “If I do this with you, I have to know if you will be willing to help me financially. Purely as a loan,” she added quickly. “Believe me, I’ll pay back every penny. But if this is going to be a problem, even just a nagging thing with the potential to build…”
Watching her, he could see how hard this was for her to ask. Didn’t she understand how laughably easy it would be for him to do this for her? No. In a flash of perception, he knew she did understand that. Still, she felt this would look like she was offering herself up for sale and she hated that.
Hey. No problem. He could take care of something so simple, so why not do it? There would be plenty of difficult things down the road. Get rid of the small stuff.
“Callie…” Reaching out across the table, he took her hand in his and held it. “It’s done. I’ll have my accountant call you and arrange for what you need.”
She flushed and tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let her.
“Listen to me. It’s done. I won’t even be personally involved.” His gaze darkened. “And it’s not contingent on our plans. You can walk away and think it over and decide against marrying me, and it’s still done. Consider the matter closed.” He smiled at her doubtful look. “Now let’s get back to baby talk. What’ll we name him?”
Her eyes stung and there was a sudden large lump in her throat. To think he could so casually wave a magic wand and take a weight off her shoulders that had been threatening to crush her. She wanted to thank him, but she couldn’t speak. And now it was she who was holding tightly to his hand.
“Why, Grant Carver, you handsome man, you!”
They both jumped and Grant jerked away from Callie’s hand as though it had suddenly turned white-hot. He looked up at the tall, beautiful woman who’d stopped by their table, then rose to his feet to greet her.
“Amy. How nice to see you.”
“Oh, Grant!”
The woman came in for a hug and clung to him so long, he had to peel her off his chest.
“This is Callie Stevens,” he said, looking a little grumpy and stepping back so she couldn’t do that again. “Callie, this is Amy Barnes, an old friend.”
Amy nodded to Callie but it was obvious she only had eyes for Grant. As slender and sleek as a high fashion model, she was wearing a tight designer suit that had probably cost about as much as Callie’s car.
“I’m here with the girls,” she said, gesturing toward where three other women who could have been her clones waited, giggling and looking coy. “We’re having lunch. Isn’t this the most adorable place? I love the music. It just makes me want to dance.” She did a little two-step to demonstrate, looking as provocative as possible. “Listen, honey, why don’t you come over and say hi to the girls? They’d love it if you did.”
Grant looked as though he’d been asked to eat a bug. “Uh…well, you see, Ms. Stevens and I are in a kind of a meeting about something important right now. And I’m afraid-”
“Oh.” She flashed a false smile Callie’s way. “Well, okay then. But you call me, ya hear? We need to get together and talk over old times. You know…” She moved closer and spoke in a hushed voice. “It’s Jan’s birthday next week. I think we really should-”
“I’ll give you a call,” he said hastily. “Give my best to the girls.”
He dropped back down into his seat as she sashayed her way across the room.
“My wife’s best friend,” he said by way of explanation.
She nodded, glancing surreptitiously toward the women and wondering if his wife had been one of that type as well. If so, was he going to be satisfied with a complete change of pace? He was in for a major culture shock.
But she pushed that thought away, because adding it to her other doubts would put her brain on overload. She just didn’t have room for more. She had a big decision to make. Whatever she decided, it was going to change her life for good.
She took a good long, penetrating look at the man sitting opposite her. Could she marry him? Could she live with him? How well did she really know him?
Well enough, she decided. Yes, she knew a lot about him when you came right down to it. And the fact that he was impossibly attractive didn’t hurt. If he’d been a small, cramped, ugly man who had an annoying voice, would she have been able to marry him?
Luckily she didn’t have to answer that, because no one was going to ask her.
“Okay,” he was saying, glancing at his watch. “I’ve got to get back to the office. You go home and think it over.”
“How much time do I have?”
He thought for a moment, looking at her warmly. “How about twenty-four hours?” he said. “I’ll pick you up for dinner tomorrow at five. We’ll talk it out then. Okay?”
She nodded slowly, then frowned. “I don’t suppose you’d be up for making a list of your bad points, just so I’d have something to mull over?” she asked.
He threw back his head and laughed. “Not on your life. It’s all good, Callie. It’s all going to be good.”
It’s all going to be good.
She wished she could believe that. A lifetime of bad outcomes had trained her to expect the worst. That was why she called Grant the next morning and told him she couldn’t do it.
“I’ll be right over,” he said.
“No,” she countered quickly. “It’s no use. I’m going out. You can’t change my mind.”
“Why, Callie?”
She drew in a deep breath and sighed. “There is one big fat obstacle we didn’t cover, and the more I think about it, the more I think it will doom our plans, no matter how careful we are.”
“And that is…?”
“Love.”
“Love?” His voice was hoarse. “I thought we’d settled that. We’re against it.”
“It’s all very well to say this is totally a business deal, based on mutual benefits and ruled by facts and logic. But once we’re married, we’ll be together a lot. What if one of us loses our objectivity and…” She searched for the right words. “How are we going to guarantee we can keep this on a business level?”
He was silent for a moment. “That’s a tricky one, I’ll admit. In order to do this at all we have to have a certain affection for each other. We have to like each other.”
“And I think we do,” she said almost reluctantly.
“Absolutely. But neither of us wants any emotional entanglement. You don’t want a reprise of your marriage, do you?”
“Heaven forbid.” She sighed. If only he knew how bad that had been. “But, Grant, there’s still the danger of- well, one of us starting to care too much.”
“I can tell you right now that this is not going to be a real problem for me,” he said.
He paused and she could almost hear him weighing what he could tell her with what was just too much to reveal.
