time away from Cooper to regain perspective. To get angry with him again and remember all the reasons she despised him. “Besides, one of us ought to stay here and keep an eye on things. It would be a shame if that rented TV took a walk.”
Later the convention center would be locked up and a security guard would patrol, but right now, the place was chaos.
Cooper actually looked a bit disappointed. “Want us to bring you something back?”
“Sure, a sandwich or something would be great.”
She watched the two men walk away, wishing she could go with them but knowing it wasn’t a good idea.
While they were gone, she arranged the life-size fish cutouts Max had found somewhere. By the time she was done, schools of smaller fish swimming through a sea of navy-blue satin were chased by bigger fish and even a shark. Their booth was going to look sharp.
An hour later Cooper and Max returned, bearing a takeout bag that smelled heavenly.
“Wow, look at that!” Max stared with exaggerated shock at their booth. “You’re really good at this, Allie.”
“You think it’s okay? Everything’s easily movable if you want to change it.”
“I wouldn’t change a single fin,” Cooper added.
His approval warmed her from the inside out. She’d been hoping they would like her work. She wasn’t contributing a dime to this project, and she felt a little guilty that she would be the one to benefit from it. She wanted to do her part however she could.
“Here, this is for you.” Cooper handed her a small plastic bag. Inside it she found a box of plastic bandages and a tube of antibiotic cream.
“You act like I’ve severed a limb,” she said with a smile. “But thanks.”
It had been a very long time since anyone cared about her well-being. Not even Johnny would have fussed over a small injury. Shoot, when she’d gotten a fishhook stuck in her hand he’d told her to push it through, snip it off, pour some peroxide over it and be done.
She devoured her burger and fries while Cooper and Max put on the finishing touches. At one point Cooper’s phone rang, and though she tried not to listen, she gathered the caller was Cooper’s mother. He didn’t say much, just listened with a pained expression.
It was kind of funny, thinking of Cooper as some woman’s little boy.
At ten o’clock they were shooed out so the convention center could lock up.
“Guess I’ll see you guys in the morning,” Max said as they exited the building and headed in the opposite direction from where Cooper’s car was parked.
“Oh, he’s not staying at the hotel with us?” The suite was plenty big enough. If Max and Cooper didn’t want to share a room-and men were funny about that, even with two huge beds-one of them could sleep on the fold-out sofa in the living area.
“He’s made his own arrangements, I guess,” Cooper said.
Fabulous. She would be alone in a hotel room with a man who had ignited her fantasies all day long.
A man she couldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole.
COOPER HAD NO PRAYER of sleeping. He’d punched his pillow into a hundred different shapes, added and subtracted blankets, even fixed himself a stiff bourbon from the hotel room’s minibar. But it was no use.
Images of Allie would not leave him alone.
At least on the boat, he didn’t have to look at her all day long. He could distract himself driving the boat or getting a drink for a passenger. But in the close confines of the booth, he’d been unable to avoid watching her.
Thank heavens she’d worn long pants rather than those derelict short-shorts. But the faded denim had hugged her bottom as intimately as a lover, and every time she leaned over, Cooper’s mouth went dry. When she reached for something, the shirt rose, giving him a glimpse of her midriff and molding the fabric to her round breasts.
To make matters worse, she’d been pleasant and cooperative the entire day. Under any other circumstances, he would actually like the woman.
He had to remind himself over and over that she was the one who was trying to steal his inheritance. She was the one who’d buffaloed a sick old man into writing a new will.
Of course she was charming and delightful. That was how women stuck it to men.
It didn’t seem as if she were deliberately charming him. He was the one who’d suggested they put aside their differences temporarily, so they could survive the weekend and, more important, project an aura of unity to their potential customers.
He’d never imagined cooperation could lead to such personal difficulties.
Suddenly a deafening buzz nearly tossed him out of bed, and he realized it was a fire alarm.
Hell. Seemed like every time he traveled, some joker set off an alarm and he ended up traipsing down umpteen flights of stairs to the lobby, only to discover it was a false alarm.
He climbed out of bed, threw on the shorts and T-shirt he’d planned on wearing for a morning jog, and headed into the living area.
Allie burst from her bedroom. “What’s going on? What’s happening?”
God Almighty, she had on nothing but a nightgown that was so skimpy she might as well not have bothered.
He looked everywhere but at her. “Jeez, woman, would you put some clothes on?”
“Is there a fire?”
“Probably not.” But a recorded voice was blaring from the hallway that they should proceed to emergency exits. “Allie. Put some clothes on.” Before he grabbed her and took her right there while the building burned down around them.
She looked down at herself and did that blushing thing she did so well. “Oh. Oh, God.”
She darted back into her room and slammed the door. Moments later she reappeared in shorts, T-shirt and flip-flops. She clutched her purse to her chest and looked utterly terrified. “Shouldn’t we go?”
“Yes. But don’t be scared. It’s probably nothing.”
“They wouldn’t blast us out of bed for nothing.” She hurried for the door.
He had to remember that she wasn’t a seasoned traveler like he was; this experience could be disconcerting if it was new to you. He followed her out the door. Other people were emerging from their rooms into the hallway, some laughing and making jokes, some clearly irritated.
They all started down the stairwell. No one was scared-until they reached the seventh floor and smelled smoke.
Chapter Nine
When the group of hotel guests smelled smoke, they got very quiet.
Allie was too terrified to utter a word. This was the stuff her nightmares were made of and one reason she liked being close to the ocean.
They walked down one more flight, but the smoke got thicker and Allie stopped, refusing to go any farther.
“The smoke is probably coming from one of the lower floors,” Cooper said. “Smoke rises. We have to keep going down past it.”
What he said made sense, but Allie couldn’t get her feet to cooperate. She felt as immovable as a hundred- year-old tree.
“Then let’s go back up one story,” he suggested, “and down the hall to the other stairwell.”
She nodded, but she still couldn’t move, not until he put his arm around her and gave her a good nudge. She clung to his arm as they walked up past a group of people determined to head down despite the smoke.
When they entered the seventh floor it was clear of smoke. She breathed a small sigh of relief, though she wouldn’t truly relax until they were outside on the ground. They made their way down the hall to the opposite side of the hotel.
The second staircase was free from smoke, thank God. Allie ran as fast as she could down the steps, passing other, slower people in her quest.
