gossip grapevine buzzing day and night, I’d have to be brain dead not to know everybody’s business, including hers. How’d you find out Carol broke up with me last night because she’s moving to Houston a week earlier than she thought?”
“She broke up with you because you wouldn’t propose.”
“Damn, you’re good.”
Lula laughed.
“It was pretty late when she called me,” he muttered.
“To be exact, it was 8:30 p.m. ’Cause you stood her up.”
“Next time I want to know what’s going on in my life I’ll call you.”
“If you’re driving Janie, she’s expecting me at 7:30 a.m.—sharp! You know how grumpy she gets if she has to wait even one second.”
“I know how grumpy she is—period—any time I come around.”
“That’s just because she’s afraid to let you know how much she likes you.”
“Right!”
“Trust me. Her mother knows. Remember, I was the one who had to put her back together after you kissed her under the mistletoe.”
“Goodbye, Lula.”
“Just read her letter. It made me weep.”
Chapter 3
A devil bit him in the tail when Matt saw her street sign and realized he was almost to her house. He finger-combed his inky hair. He adjusted his red tie with the pink flamingos. Hell. Maybe the thing was too loud. He ripped it out of his collar and tossed it behind him as he yanked his collar open.
What was it? Every time he got around Jane, he got like this.
Maybe the big sexy mouth that had haunted him ever since he’d gotten up this morning had him a little crazed. Maybe it was the thought of her perfect yellow house with its perfect white shutters and a picket fence, yes, a real picket fence, damn it, the kind that made a man think of kids and a future and a sweet, alluring woman waiting for him at night, that unnerved him. Or maybe it was just her.
Not to mention the letter.
Had she written it?
Whoa! He wished that phrase that kept replaying like a broken record while the big, neon-red lips puckered would stop. His head hurt just thinking about it. He’d popped two aspirin, but they weren’t cutting the pain.
…there has never been anyone in my heart except you.
How could this be when she ran from him instead of to him that night. People who kissed like that and couldn’t stop belonged in bed together. He’d been a coward not to go after her. But after some of the hurtful things she’d said, Matt knew he’d done damage and should leave well enough alone.
As if this helped his current predicament, he thought gloomily. Without having a why for the childish insanity that getting anywhere near her brought out in him, he stomped on the gas pedal so hard the powerful engine roared. It was 7:30 a.m. sharp when Matt skidded into her driveway, leaving a trail of black marks just to prove he was the big grown-up brat she thought he was. Next he honked. Just a couple of light taps just to make her mad.
She had ears like a lynx. She’d hear him.
Her front door opened immediately. The second he caught the merest glimpse of her slim, curvy body in the shadowy doorway, a hot bolt zapped him. As always, she hid that perfect figure under one of her dull conservative black suits and high-collared blouses. As always, every pearl button was securely fastened. As usual, her long, platinum-blond hair was tied back in that odious little knot in an attempt to downplay her looks.
Oddly, the severe hairdo served to accentuate the high cheekbones and the classic lines of her exquisite face. And it was exquisite—a perfect oval. Everything she did just made her more attractive, at least to him, which was probably why she did it—to annoy him. She’d been annoying the hell out of him since she’d been a first-grader, so she was an expert at it by now.
Her blue eyes swept over her perfectly manicured lawn, the row of potted geraniums and the well-tended ivies hanging in her oak trees before zeroing in on him. Pushing her stylish, if thick, metal-framed glasses up the slender bridge of her nose, she stepped onto her porch. Her blue eyes, which were fringed by long, inky lashes, widened before they narrowed—on him. Her beautiful mouth, the mouth of his wet dreams, opened and closed with distaste.
“Your mom said you needed a ride,” he yelled. She pivoted on a single high heel and slammed the door in his face.
“Good morning to you too, darlin’!”
Okay, so he shouldn’t have honked.
Gripping the steering wheel, he waited a minute. When she didn’t come out, he got out, finger-combed his hair again, and then climbed her steps two at a time. Before he could knock, she opened the door.
She was on her cell phone now. “Mom! Mother! I know you’re there.” Abruptly Jane snapped her phone shut. With her eyes glued on his pink shirt, she said, “She hung up.”
“Happy birthday, darlin’.” He bowed low.
She didn’t smile.
“We’d better go,” he said.
“I’ll just be a minute,” she said icily, and true to her word, she was back in seconds with her briefcase and purse. He helped her into the Porsche, and in no time, they were zooming out of her driveway.
“Sorry about this,” she said. “My mother—”
“Mothers like ours are forces of nature.”
“She should have called me first, not you.”
“It’s a done deal now, darlin’.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“It would be, if you’d let it,” he said. “You always complicate everything.”
She inhaled deeply. As he sped down the familiar, oak-lined streets, she turned her back to him and stared out her window gloomily. “It’s just that I hate to owe a man like—”
“Me? A man like me? What do you think a man like me will exact as repayment—a pound or two of your delectable flesh?” He grinned at the back of her head. “You can relax. No hidden camera today.”
She whirled around, her face red. “See—this is why I always dread being anywhere near you. You make light of things that matter a great deal to me.”
“I was just teasing,” he said softly.
“I don’t like it.”
“Sorry. I grew up with brothers.” He paused. “You smell good. Like jasmine.”
“Would you stop?”
“I
