She just wished she could be sure there was more to it than inbred flirtatiousness or the desperation of a man who needed to present an impression of marital bliss to a judge.
* * *
Luke sat in his new office, surrounded by all the most modern equipment, and tried to make sense of what had just happened with Katie. He’d been toying with the same question for more than an hour now. He’d bought controlling stock in entire corporations with less consideration.
The truth of it was his new wife was a puzzle to him. He couldn’t begin to imagine how that had come about. After all, Katie was his oldest and dearest friend. He’d been her first lover, though he realized he had no idea if he’d been her last. At any rate, nothing about her should be taking him by surprise. That was the main reason he’d come home determined to marry her. He was sick to death of surprises.
To his astonishment, though, she wasn’t the same adoring, compliant woman he’d left behind. She had a mind of her own. She’d learned to take care of herself. In fact, except for cleaning up the financial mess she’d gotten herself into with the boarding house, she didn’t seem to need him at all.
Which made him wonder why she’d accepted his proposal. She could have fixed things at the bank. Despite his tough talk, bank president Charlie Hastings would walk over burning coals for Katie. Katie had probably known it, too.
Instead, she had agreed to marry Luke, become stepmother to his son and negotiated what had to be the oddest prenuptial agreement on record. Or not on record to be more precise, since they were the only people who knew about it, unless Katie had gotten it into her head to file the document at City Hall. He realized he wasn’t so sure this new Katie wouldn’t do exactly that.
Katie was turning out to be far less predictable than he’d anticipated. She was absolutely bursting with surprises. It was a rude discovery for a man who’d been praying for a little stability in his life. He’d come home looking for a tame old friend and found himself married to a hellion.
Yet Luke had to admit he was intrigued with this new Katie. He’d been physically attracted to the old Katie, and that much hadn’t changed. But this new, fascinating woman stimulated him in ways he hadn’t expected. In fact, just thinking about the way Katie had stood in the middle of Peg’s Diner and blatantly defied him turned him on.
Maybe even more important, it made him smile. Ever since Tommy had declared his intent to gain custody of Robby, Luke hadn’t had all that much to smile about. Now he had Katie, who made his blood race just by going toe-to-toe with him and standing up for herself. Given his penchant for taking charge and her determination to control her own destiny, he figured more battles were a certainty. In fact, he looked forward to them.
Suddenly smiling to himself, he tossed down his pen and headed for the door. It shouldn’t take him more than an hour or so back at the boarding house to find something to change. With any luck he ought to be able to stir up another one of those stimulating clashes before dinnertime.
CHAPTER TEN
It didn’t take long for Luke to find exactly what he was looking for at the boarding house. He found that the way to take charge and at the same time drive Katie nuts was in plain view under the June receipts. It was already the tenth of the month and Ginger had yet to pay her rent. Mrs. Jeffers and Mr. O’Reilly paid by the week and both were behind, though only by a few days. The pattern set off alarm bells in his head.
He went back and found that Ginger hadn’t paid rent on a single occasion he could find. The other two paid, but always after some delay. It seemed the only record he could find of people actually paying what they owed, when they owed it, was of the handful of people who were passing through Clover.
Luke resolved to have a chat with all three of the regulars about the need to get the boarding house cash flow back on a sound financial base. No doubt Katie would be incensed by his interference. He could hardly wait for another one of their highly charged encounters.
In fact, he decided, why put it off? All three were likely to be at the Clover Street Hotel—at his expense. Maybe it would be better to have this conversation on neutral turf and away from Katie’s interference. She was at the root of the problem. Everyone knew she was a soft touch. No doubt they played on her sympathy with endless excuses.
He experienced a momentary pang of guilt for leaving Katie out of the meeting, but he ignored it. He had no doubts at all that she would hear about it soon enough. And there was no mistaking his perverse desire to be the target of more of those sparks she threw off when she was angry.
He had no difficulty at all in tracking down two of his quarry. Mrs. Jeffers was playing a cutthroat game of checkers with Robby at a table in the lobby. John O’Reilly was in the dining room with a hamburger and fries in front of him.
Luke asked each of them if they’d seen Ginger. Mr. O’Reilly claimed he hadn’t seen her since the reception at the boarding house.
“I thought she was working at the diner,” Mrs. Jeffers offered.
“I saw her go upstairs,” Robby said. “I think she has a class this afternoon or something. She probably had to study.” He turned a puzzled look on his father. “Why does she have to go to school during the summer? I thought everybody had vacation now.”
“Because she really wants to get into a good college and
