'Why are you smiling?' she asked him.
'I was thinking about something Ma always said. And I've just discovered that she's right.' Then he told her.
'And that made you smile because…?'
Byrnes cleared the salad plates from the table.
'Because I realize that what began for us a few months ago as one thing is, at least for me, morphing into something entirely different,' Ryan said softly. And his brown eyes engaged her green ones.
Ashley felt a warm wave of pleasure sweep over her. 'For me too,' she admitted, ignoring the blush spreading over her cheeks. It had become a fact of life: Ryan Finbar Mulcahy could make her blush.
'I don't want to pressure you into something you don't feel,' he continued.
'I didn't say anything because I didn't want to push you either,' Ashley replied.
'Then if I said I loved you it wouldn't send you screaming into the night?' His handsome, sexy face was suddenly boyish and hopeful.
'No.' Her voice was practically a whisper. 'And if I said I loved you, would you feel as if I had trapped you into a corner?' Her beautiful face held an anxious look.
'No, I wouldn't. I'd like to be in a corner with you,' he told her. 'Putting you right up against the wall, and-' He stopped as Byrnes set a plate before him.
The butler's face was totally impassive, and Ryan might have believed he was both deaf and dumb except that his ears were turning quite a bright red. But without a word the dignified Mr. Byrnes turned and made his way from the porch with his usual grace and decorum.
A fit of giggles overcame Ashley, and Ryan couldn't help chuckling himself.
'Oh, I'll never forgive us for embarrassing him like that,' Ashley said.
'Sorry. I forgot myself for a moment,' Ryan apologized to her.
'Oh, don't chastise yourself too much,' Ashley said. 'Once he was out of our sight I'll bet he ran all the way to the kitchen to tell Mrs. B. that we've fallen in love.' She stopped, and then continued, 'We have fallen in love, haven't we, Ryan? Or did I misunderstand you and make a dope of myself?'
Reaching across the table he took her hand and, raising it to his lips, kissed it. 'You didn't misunderstand at all; nor did I. Yeah, I've fallen in love with you, baby. And I've never loved another woman before. Lusted after them, yeah. But never loved.'
'And I love you too,' Ashley said, tears in her eyes. 'But I can't claim to have not said that before, because I have. But now I realize I didn't really know what the devil I was talking about. I didn't feel anything for Carson or Chandler or Derek that I feel for you, Ryan. I never thought about babies with them.'
'You're thinking about babies with me?' His mouth turned up in a smile.
'Yeah, I am. A little boy with dark curls and big brown eyes like his daddy,' she replied. 'Crazy, huh?'
'How many babies?' he asked her.
'How many do you want?' she responded, smiling back at him.
'Three too many?' he said.
'Three's a good number,' she agreed.
'Ashley?'
'Yes, Ryan?'
'I
'And I
After dinner they made love again, and this time with such tenderness that Ashley cried when she came to climax. She was loved. She loved. Their crazy marriage of convenience had by some miracle turned into a love match. They were even talking about a family. She began to think that they would have to start thinking about a religious ceremony to formalize the love they admitted to having for each other. Lina would be so pleased, but first things first. She had two new shops to staff and open.
Ashley drove into town on Tuesday with her husband. They stopped at his apartment first. He introduced her to his doorman, explaining that his wife would be using the apartment now and again. The doorman, he knew, would spread the word to the superintendent and the other help in the building. Ashley already had a key, as they had had one made the previous day in Egret Pointe.
Her appointment for the city store was at eleven in the morning. Their car parked in his building's garage, they hailed a cab and headed back downtown. The contractor was a big, jovial fellow. Ashley had met him only once before. They had conducted most of their business on the telephone once she had hired him. He let them into the store, and Ashley's first reaction was delight. The fresh gray paint with its elegant white trim looked perfect. The pale silver-gray carpeting was plush. The display cases were ebony and glass. The lighting fixtures were discreet but for the elegant gold sconces on the walls. She checked the stockroom, the manager's office, the bathroom, the small lunchroom she had insisted upon for her employees. 'What do you think?' she asked Ryan.
'It's good, but has the electric been upgraded to handle the computers, the register, and the security system?' he asked the contractor.
'I got the papers from the city inspector right here, Mr. Mulcahy,' came the response. 'The security system ain't hooked up yet, but the guy is coming next week.'
'We're opening the first week in November,' Ashley said.
'It'll be ready before then, I promise,' the contractor replied.
'And the window painter for the shop's name and logo?' she wanted to know.
'Tomorrow. I wanted the best guy, and he's hard to get,' the contractor explained. 'You know about those things, Mr. Mulcahy.'
'You know me?' Ryan said.
'My father knew your father,' the contractor answered. 'It's a small world when you're a woodworker.'
Ryan nodded. 'When can we see the mall store?'
'Tomorrow be all right, Miss Kim… Mrs. Mulcahy?' The contractor wisely addressed the question to Ashley. After all, she was paying him, not the husband.
'How about Thursday afternoon instead?' Ashley suggested. 'Then we can just head out of town from there. Three o'clock?'
'That's fine with me, Miss Kim… Mrs. Mulcahy.' He laughed. 'I'll get it right eventually,' the contractor promised.
'You had better,' she said with a smile. 'If these two shops do well I'll probably be opening a few more in the area.'
'Yes, ma'am!' he responded with a broad grin.
Ryan left her afterward, and Ashley hurried to a luncheon meeting she had scheduled with Nina's friend Suzette. The two women met at Felicity's Tea Shoppe on Madison. Nina had reminded Ashley that the two women had met briefly when Suzette had visited Nina the previous year, and sure enough they recognized each other. They were seated, and as they ate lunch Ashley explained to Suzette what she wanted. Suzette assured her that she could handle the shop, asked some salient questions that impressed Ashley, and then the two women negotiated a salary. Ashley was rather relieved at what Suzette wanted. It was less than she had been prepared to pay, but as Nina told her later, Suzette's boss had had an investment retirement fund for his employees, and under the law Suzette had taken hers with her. She was comfortably fixed, and with Ashley picking up her medical insurance and adding to that fund, she could accept less of a salary.
'Do you want me to do the hiring for the shop?' Suzette asked. She was an elegant, well-spoken woman in her
