interjected. “They might think you dumped me.”
“Oh sure,” she said with complete disbelief. “Exactly how many women have dumped you, Russ?”
Russ put his hands on his hips and sighed. “There was probably someone in high school. Hell, I don’t know, Carly. All I know is you need a piano player and I need a female escort. We’ve always been pals, so there’d be no harm in it.”
He shrugged his powerful shoulders once again. “As far as your reputation is concerned, everybody knows your brothers practically keep you under lock and key and that you’re as innocent now as the day you were born. Seeing me won’t change that.”
With each placating word, she became more insulted. She’d never been particularly confident of her feminine allure. To know that Russ viewed her as a nonwoman hurt. There was no basis for her feelings and that only made her more upset.
She had only one thing to say to him.
“G-G-Go t-to hell!”
For one endless second, she watched shock envelop his face. Then, completely mortified, she turned on her heel and left the room. She instinctively raced for the back door. So caught up in her humiliation, she barely noticed the astonished faces of her brothers in the hall.
Aunt Bitsy asked her to take a bowl of ice outside. Carly complied, but her final instruction to Russ rang through her mind like a chord played on a poorly tuned piano.
She winced. It had been six years since she’d stuttered.
Back in the parlor, Russ was trying to collect his thoughts when Carly’s brothers entered. He had a couple of seconds’ grace before they started in on him in descending order.
“What was that all about, Russ?” Daniel began.
“You’ve been playing poker again,” Garth said, pointing at the cards on the cherry table.
Jarod’s mouth was tight with disapproval. “Carly’s never told anybody to go to hell before.”
Then finally Troy offered the most telling piece of information. “She stuttered,” he said accusingly.
Four pairs of violet eyes stared at him, waiting for an explanation. If Ethan, Nathan and Brick were here, they’d be staring him down too. Another man might have trembled in his boots, but Russ had known the Pendletons a long time. He’d played football with two of them, shared a college dorm room with Garth, and worked alongside all of them after a vicious tornado tore through their daddy’s farm.
They were the closest thing to brothers he had. They could also be a pain in the ass.
“We played whiskey poker, and she lost,” Russ said simply.
Garth’s mouth twisted ruefully. A chuckle escaped from him, then another. Soon, the room was filled with masculine laughter.
“Carly always did hate to lose,” Daniel said.
“She was madder than a hornet. You probably should have let her win, Russ,” Troy pointed out.
Russ shook his head. “No. Carly’s tired of being treated like a child. She’s ready to stand on her own two feet.”
“Yeah, but she’s a girl,” Troy said.
“Do you remember how you felt when people kept calling you a boy after you turned twenty?” Russ asked. “Do you remember what you did to prove you weren’t a boy?”
They all remembered. Russ could read it on their faces. He remembered the struggle for manhood himself, the taking of a woman not out of love, not even out of respect, but out of an empty search for proof.
The atmosphere in the room grew thoughtful.
Daniel cleared his throat. “You’re trying to tell us something.”
“Nothing you don’t already know,” Russ said gently. “Carly’s a woman. She still needs you, but not in the same way she used to.”
Troy shifted his stance. “But if we don’t look after her, who will?”
Russ wanted to say that he would, that they needn’t worry. But that wouldn’t solve the problem. She didn’t want to be taken care of. “I think Carly wants to look after herself. If she doesn’t get some space, she might decide she needs to prove herself. And you don’t want that.”
They all muttered their agreement.
The men grew uncomfortable with the serious discussion and found excuses to leave the room. Garth, however, hung back and when the others had left, he turned to Russ.
“You want her,” he said bluntly.
Russ’s lip curved grimly. “You know me well.”
Garth shook his tousled dark head and sighed. “I don’t know if she’s ready for this, Russ.”
“I’m not waiting any longer. I’ve been planning this for two years.”
Garth’s eyes widened in surprise. “Two years? I guess this isn’t just one of your flings, then.”
Russ understood the question. After all, when they had roomed together in college, Garth had seen the number and variety of females that had paraded in and out of his life. “I mean business,” Russ assured him. “Cut me some slack. Between you and your brothers and Carly’s drive for independence, this summer is going to be pure hell.”
Garth chuckled and gave Russ a commiserating pat on the shoulder. Russ shoved his hands into his pockets and sighed. He was determined to remain clearheaded and objective. With painful accuracy, he recalled the one time he’d acted impulsively and the disastrous results. He’d made a complete fool of himself during his brief ill-fated marriage, and it wouldn’t happen again. Russ prided himself on his ability to extricate himself from emotionally volatile situations. As a matter of fact, he’d given Carly’s brothers a tip or two on the subject.
Shaking his head, Russ thought back to Carly’s parting comment. He hadn’t counted on the full scope of her feminine pride. He’d tried to make his request as nonthreatening as possible. In trying to reassure her, he’d obviously botched his plan. Now he had to figure out how to get things back on track.
The next morning, Carly was late for church. She scooted in the last wooden pew, not wanting to draw attention to her tardiness. It was those crazy erotic dreams. She’d tossed and turned a good part of the night, then overslept this morning. And it was all Russ Bradford’s fault.
The ushers took the offering, and the choir sang a soothing hymn. The quiet setting had just begun to calm her when Russ appeared beside her pew. Carly tensed, but moved over.
She kept her gaze fixed straight ahead at the pastor, although she couldn’t hear a word he said.
Russ leaned over and murmured in her ear, “To err is human.”
She remained silent.
“Are you ever going to speak to me again?” he whispered.
Giving up her
