Kitabı oku: «Sgt. Billy's Bride», sayfa 4

Chapter Four

Darcy’s breath caught in her throat. She hadn’t bargained for this. This was only supposed to be a pretend engagement, but the handsome man leaning in to kiss her was all too real. Yet, curiosity and more than a little desire had her closing her eyes and moistening her lips as Bill’s face drew closer to hers.

His lips touched her mouth, landing feather-soft at first, like a butterfly lighting on a flower.

She should have let him lift off and be done and that would have been that, but Darcy couldn’t. She wanted to know what it would be like to kiss this man standing so close to her, so steady, so real. She kissed him back.

Bill uttered a soft moan that only she could hear, or had she only felt it? Then he pulled her closer to him, pressing her against his hard, strong chest. Darcy’s eyes fluttered open for a moment, but only a moment, then drifted shut again as she sank into the delicious sensation of being thoroughly kissed by a real man.

Her lips parted, and Bill accepted the invitation, plunging deep within her recesses. As he probed and tasted her, Darcy felt almost as if she had been well and thoroughly loved.

How would it be if they weren’t pretending?

But this kiss felt too good to be pretense. And Darcy longed to satisfy her body’s desire for more. For him. All of him. She heard herself whimper with need.

If Dick had kissed her like this just once, maybe she wouldn’t have left him in the chapel.

“Come on you two. Get a room,” Edd said from somewhere out in the real world.

Edd’s comment and that brief reminder of Dick was all it took to break the spell. And that’s what Darcy had to convince herself it was, a spell. An enchantment. There was no way she could have responded to this man she hardly knew if she hadn’t been bewitched in some way.

She jerked away, fighting the urge to touch her tingling and sensitive lips. She felt unwanted heat rising to her cheeks, then willed her face to cool.

“Now that’s enough, Edd. Leave those kids be. They don’t need you teasing and taunting them,” Nettie Hays said to her son-in-law from her throne-like position across the room.

“Yes, ma’am,” Edd said. “Let’s leave them to make out without a audience.”

“Just thought we could give you a few lessons,” Bill fired back over his shoulder as he loosened his grip on Darcy’s arms. He turned back to her. “Do you want me to send everyone home?” he asked in an undertone.

Darcy glanced behind Bill to where Nettie seemed to be enjoying her company. “No, not yet. Nettie’s having a good time, but if she begins to look tired, we should tell them that the party’s over.”

“Thank you,” Bill whispered. “I owe you.” Then he turned and grinned at his mother.

No, thank you, Darcy couldn’t help thinking. Bill had shown her more about love today than she had seen in her entire life. She drew in a deep breath, pasted on a smile, and prepared to face the guests and the rest of the party.

IN SPITE OF the crush of guests around him, the only thing Bill could think of was that kiss. That wonderful, breathtaking, unexpected kiss. Maybe he should have anticipated the possibility—hell, probability—of kissing Darcy, but he hadn’t. And now that he had kissed Darcy, he wanted to keep on doing it. But he knew he couldn’t.

It wouldn’t be fair.

Not to him, not to Darcy, not even to his mother, for that matter.

He and Darcy had to figure out a way to make this engagement look good for now and then make it come to an end without hurting anybody. Talk about an impossible task!

He wasn’t used to lying. Pretending to be engaged to Darcy was a lie, even if he wouldn’t mind if it were true.

Bill looked across the room to where Momma seemed to be sinking lower into her chair. He saw that she was tired. Excitement had been replaced by dark smudges beneath her eyes. He wondered how to ask the guests to leave.

“Hey, little brother, I’ve got one sleepy little quarterback here,” Earline said, drawing Bill out of his thoughts and saving him from having to come up with an excuse. She guided a drowsy Little Edd toward the door while Big Edd followed with Chrissie in his arms. Leah, their oldest, brought up the rear.

“Hey, Uncle Bill, I like Miss Darcy. You got a real keeper,” Leah said. She turned toward Darcy. “Can I be in your wedding? I’m the only girl in my class who hasn’t been a bridesmaid yet.”

Darcy looked startled, but she recovered quickly enough. “We’ll have to see, sweetie. We haven’t started to make plans,” she finally said.

It seemed to satisfy Leah, and she left happily enough. Too bad they wouldn’t be able to follow through.

Lougenia, announcing that Momma was tired, followed Earline and her family out. Soon the rest of the guests took the hint, leaving Bill and Darcy alone with Momma.

“I’ll just take my bedtime pills and then leave you two alone,” Momma said. “I’d love to help you clean up, but I just don’t seem to have the energy anymore,” she said as she shuffled into the kitchen for a glass of water.

“That’s all right, Nettie. We can handle it,” Darcy called after her. “You go ahead and get your rest.” She started clearing the dining-room table while they waited for Momma to finish in the kitchen.

“I’m sorry Leah put you on the spot like that,” Bill said as he watched Darcy stacking plates from the ravaged dining-room table.

“Me, too. I hate to disappoint her,” Darcy said, piling flatware on top of the plates. “She’s a nice girl.”

“No nicer than you,” Bill told her.

After Momma went up to bed, he followed Darcy into the kitchen and watched as she deposited the plates on the sideboard and filled the sink with sudsy water. “I’ll dry if you wash,” he suggested, hoping for a way to be close to her without crowding. He knew that Darcy had been just as uneasy about the kiss they’d been forced into as he had, but they’d had to do something or they wouldn’t have made their fake engagement look real.

Or ever heard the end of it.

“You’re on. Though, I’d rather you’d wash and I dry,” she said as she lowered the first glass into the water.

“I don’t expect we ought to risk that slippery, wet china with these big mitts,” he said, holding up his hands.

Darcy tossed a dish towel at Bill which he deftly caught. “Remind me to pick up some rubber gloves in town,” Darcy said. “Or maybe a dishwasher,” she mumbled just low enough that Bill had to strain to hear.

Bill chuckled. “We’ve tried for years to get Momma to let us give her one, but she wouldn’t have a thing to do with it. Said she’d raised five kids without having one, so why’d she need one now?” He thought for a minute. “Now that it looks like there’s gonna be a new Mrs. Hays, maybe we can swing one.”

Darcy dipped a soapy glass under the running water. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “I won’t be here that long, and it’s a big expense. I can make do. After all, you don’t have twenty people over for dinner most of the time.” Darcy looked up at him, her eyes wide. “This isn’t a regular thing, is it?”

“Only for holidays. And most times Lou and Earline would’ve stayed to clean up.” He paused and managed a crooked smile. “I think they were being considerate to give us some time alone.”

“I see,” Darcy said stiffly. “If they’d really been considerate, they’d have helped us get this mess cleaned up quicker,” she muttered under her breath.

“Yeah,” Bill answered huskily. “So we can be alone.”

Darcy jerked her head up, a puzzled expression on her face. Then, just as quickly, she turned back to her work.

Apparently, Darcy didn’t have the trouble separating fact from fiction that he did. Maybe she couldn’t wait for the pretending to end, but he’d just as soon it went on.

No, he reminded himself. He’d like it to be over, too. He had no business thinking about it, even in the abstract. Not with the plans he had for the future.

He put the glass into the cabinet and stared into the darkness outside the kitchen window. He had to finish night school, then get accepted for officer training school, get commissioned as a second lieutenant and establish himself in his first real assignment as an officer. He wouldn’t take a wife as long as he was in the air force. Military life was just too hard on families. Maybe, someday, when he’d retired and settled down, then he’d think about it.

In the meantime, he’d just have to settle for pretending. He glanced up at Darcy as she handed him another wet glass.

There were worse things he could be pretending about.

LATER THAT NIGHT, Darcy lay in the dark in the small twin bed, the pink chenille bedspread tickling her nostrils. She wrinkled her nose to stifle a sneeze, then rolled over, kneaded her pillow, and tried to make herself comfortable. Anything to help her get to sleep.

Last night she’d been too exhausted to think about what she’d gotten herself into, but tonight was another story. She’d spent at least an hour trying to count sheep or anything else to get to sleep, but her mind, or maybe it was her guilty conscience, kept bringing up memories of the party.

She compared it to the formal affair where she’d announced her engagement to Dick. Everything had been by the book down to the last dessert spoon. Aunt Marianne had selected the perfect menu of prime rib, steamed asparagus and new potatoes. The dessert had been tasteful—and tasteless—lemon sorbet. And, thinking back on it, her real engagement party had been entirely lacking in soul in comparison to the lively and friendly birthday party and impromptu engagement party she’d just attended.

If she had to be marrying into a family, she would have much preferred to be joining Bill’s. These people seemed so genuine and caring.

So real.

She closed her eyes and tried to imagine what it would be like to be a real part of this big, happy clan. Not the stiff and formal family that she was a part of.

Smiling to herself, she lost herself in the fantasy. Soon she drifted off to sleep.

“YOU AREN’T PLANNING to bring Darcy with you to church?” Momma asked Bill at the breakfast table.

That was something he hadn’t thought about and a question he hadn’t been prepared to answer. And if it weren’t for Momma, he’d probably skip church. When he’d talked Darcy into agreeing to play his fiancée, he hadn’t anticipated they’d find themselves digging deeper into a mess he wasn’t sure he would be able to get out of. He certainly wasn’t about to drag Darcy into another situation that would put her on the spot.

Taking Darcy to church seemed wrong. It was one thing to pretend in the safety of his own home, but something else to do it in church.

“I’d like to go to church with you, Bill. I met Reverend Carterette last night, and I’d like to attend services at his church.” Darcy reached for a mug for coffee, then turned to Momma. “Will the sweater set I had on at the party last night be all right? I can put on the lower half of a suit for a skirt. I didn’t bring much in the way of nice clothes with me.”

“I’m sure you’ll look lovely, Darcy,” Momma said, beaming. “The Lord don’t care what you’re wearing in His house, only that you’re there.”

Their reasons for pretending to be engaged outweighed the lie, Darcy tried to convince herself. Otherwise, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to show herself in the church. Even if she had met most of the congregation—or so it seemed—in this house last night.

Bill touched her on the shoulder, squeezing it slightly, and Darcy was warmed by his gentle gesture. She liked Bill, she liked Nettie, she had to believe that she was doing the right thing for everyone.

“Well, I’m right pleased that you are going to go with us,” Nettie said. “Most of the time, I have to nag our Billy to death to make him come with me.” She put down her cereal spoon and pushed herself heavily to her feet. “I’ll just go get ready and leave you two alone to eat your breakfast. Services don’t start for a couple of hours yet.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Darcy said, hoping she was doing the right thing. It had seemed so simple yesterday morning when Bill had talked her into pretending. After all, she was going to be helping by keeping an eye on Nettie’s condition. Now, the reason didn’t seem simple at all.

It seemed very complicated, indeed.

She smiled up at Bill, more for herself than for him, as he scraped scrambled eggs onto her plate then sat down across from her. Darcy had thought that matters were complicated when she’d left Dick waiting at the altar two days ago.

If she’d known just how much more deeply involved her life could get, would she still have run? She scooped up a forkful of eggs and looked across the table to Bill and imagined sitting across from Dick.

Yes, she would have.

In Darcy’s eyes, Bill seemed more of a man while serving breakfast to her than Dick had ever been.

HE FELT AS THOUGH he’d dodged a bullet. Bill breathed a figurative sigh of relief as he and Darcy helped Momma down the short flight of steps from the church and escorted her to the car. What he’d expected to be torture hadn’t been so bad, and Momma seemed to have enjoyed showing off her son and future daughter-in-law as much as she had the service.

That alone outweighed the guilt he felt about their deception.

“Excuse me, Miss Stanton?”

Bill turned to see Darcy taken aside by old Doc Williamson. The doctor attended church about as regularly as Bill did, but Bill guessed that he had come to check out Darcy, just as about half of the less-regular members of Bobby Carterette’s flock had.

He helped Momma climb into the Cherokee then stood watch outside the Jeep as Darcy and Doc Williamson engaged in a lively—and long—conversation. “I wonder what that’s all about,” he mused half out loud.

“I reckon the doctor couldn’t wait till the morning to interview his new nurse,” Momma said through the rolled-down window. “You saw how Becky Porter looked about to pop. I reckon he’s afraid she’ll have that young’un and leave him hanging without a nurse, and he wants to be ready.”

“I suppose,” Bill said, his eyes still trained on Darcy and the doctor.

“Don’t worry, Bill,” Ken Peterson, the high-school principal, said, waving as he passed the Jeep. “I don’t think he has any designs on your woman.”

“Uh, no, sir,” Bill said, returning the wave. “Just waiting on her.” If this was supposed to be a fake engagement, he and Darcy must be doing a pretty damned good job of playing their parts. Everybody seemed convinced.

Bill guessed that was a good thing, but maybe not. After all, if he wasn’t careful, he’d begin to believe it, too. And marriage, especially to a woman he’d known all of forty-eight hours, just didn’t fit into his plans.

While he had been distracted by Mr. Peterson, Darcy had disengaged herself from Doc Williamson. She all but skipped back to him, a wide grin on her face.

“I got the job,” she announced enthusiastically, throwing her arms around Bill. “I’m so excited.”

He didn’t know whether to hug her back or step away, but Darcy seemed to realize what she’d done, and, blushing slightly, she quickly let go. Bill felt almost chilled from the loss of her touch.

“Sorry,” she said under her breath, but she apparently couldn’t control her enthusiasm for long, for she continued excitedly. “Doctor Williamson said his nurse is due any day now, and he doesn’t think she’ll make it to term. So he wants me to start right away so she can show me the ropes before she goes into labor.”

“Well, that must make you right proud,” Momma said from her seat in the Cherokee. “That calls for celebration, don’t you think, son?”

Bill turned, surprised by his mother’s remark. He hadn’t even thought that much about it when his mother had mentioned that Doc had the opening, and he hadn’t realized that Darcy had followed through.

“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” Darcy said as she climbed into the back seat beside Momma.

“What did you have in mind?” Bill finally said, dragging his gaze away from Darcy. He turned and quickly rounded the Jeep and climbed in.

“We could stop off at the SaniFreez on the way to Lougenia’s and get an ice-cream cake.” She looked at him, her expression hopeful. “Now, I know I’m not supposed to be eating ice cream, and I do appreciate Lou fixin’ me the right kind of food when she has me come over, but I reckon you young’uns would rightly enjoy having some ruther than fruit salad. And I do declare that I would just love to watch you eat it.”

That was logic that Bill certainly couldn’t argue with. And he also knew that one little serving of ice cream would make little difference in his mother’s condition one way or the other in the long run. “Let’s do it,” he said.

THAT NIGHT, after they had returned from Lougenia’s and Darcy had helped settle Nettie for the night, she found herself alone with her thoughts on the swing on the tiny front porch.

The night was warm and scented with honeysuckle, and fireflies danced over the lawn, entertaining her with their simple show. The only sounds were the chirps of crickets, the drone of june bugs dive-bombing the window screens, and the occasional creak of the swing.

Funny how her life had changed. In just a few days, she’d gone from a troubled, reluctant bride to a happy and contented woman. With a job!

This was the first thing she’d ever really done on her own. Besides running from her wedding. She was finally doing something for herself, and she was helping Bill with his mother, as well.

She still had a few reservations about staying in Nettie Hays’s house when she wasn’t really engaged to her son. She had always, in the back of her mind, imagined having an apartment of her own, but she rationalized that she was earning her way by keeping watch over Nettie. And, there would be time for an apartment soon enough.

The pretense couldn’t go on forever. And neither could Nettie, for that matter. Darcy sighed and tried to push that thought out of her troubled mind. It was enough, for now, to try to make Nettie’s life more comfortable. No matter how long or short it might be.

She wondered vaguely if there was anything that could be done. After all, they’d made great strides in cardiology in recent years. Perhaps, there was something that could be done to reverse Nettie’s condition. She’d check with Doctor Williamson once she’d settled into her new job.

Bill stepped outside, leaned against the doorframe, and seemed to drink in the evening fragrances as she had. He said nothing, but Darcy was very aware of his presence.

She waited for Bill to say something or to sit beside her or to do anything, but he seemed to be content simply to stand there, so near yet so far.

Darcy didn’t know how long they shared the night like that, and the time wasn’t important. She wondered if this was what it was like to be an old married couple, so comfortable with each other that words didn’t matter. She wondered why she seemed so comfortable with Bill when they were involved in such a strange situation.

She drew in a long, deep breath of the warm, fragrant air. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Bill didn’t respond, and Darcy wondered if he had heard her, but whether he had heard her or not didn’t matter. She was content to sit and listen to the summer symphony and soak up the peace and quiet. For now, her problems didn’t matter. For now, this beautiful summer evening was hers to enjoy.

Finally, Bill shifted, and Darcy wondered if he was going back inside to leave her with the night. She’d like him to stay here with her, but if he went, it didn’t matter.

“A while ago you said thank you,” Bill said suddenly, startling Darcy with the abrupt intrusion into the serenity. “Why? I should be thanking you.”

“You’re welcome,” Darcy said softly, knowing exactly why he was thanking her. She supposed she should explain. Maybe she couldn’t tell him everything about her flight from the chapel and Dick, but she could help him understand.

She drew in a long, deep breath, then patted the swing seat beside her. She didn’t care whether Billy joined her there or not, but it mattered to her that she had invited him. “For sharing your family with me,” she said simply, knowing there was no way she could explain her own complicated situation. “I’ve never known such gentle, caring people.

“My family is nothing like that,” she said softly, not really wanting to confess her parents’ shortcomings, even though they might have been well-intentioned, even as she was happy to be free from them. For now. She closed her eyes, as if doing so would make the truth easier to admit.

“They always had a firm idea of right and wrong and what I should do with my life,” she said finally. “They had my life all mapped out and planned in front of me, and it didn’t matter that it wasn’t what I wanted to do.” Darcy gave Bill a moment to probe if he was going to.

“What did you want to do?” Bill accepted her opening, but the question wasn’t the one she’d expected. She’d been prepared to explain about her family duty and expectations, not her own plans. No one had wanted to hear her dreams before.

Darcy sighed and took a few moments to formulate her answer. “I guess I just want to be myself,” she said finally. “Not the woman my parents expected me to be. They lived a life of rules and great expectations. I never felt I could live up to them,” she said, choking up. She smiled, forcing the lump from her throat. “I always knew I was a big disappointment to my father for not being a son, and my mother’s idea of perfection was just not mine.

“I tried,” she said, sighing again. “I really did, but I just couldn’t do it any more.”

“Is that why I found you all alone hitchhiking on that dark country road?” Bill laid his big hand over hers still splayed on the wooden swing seat. He squeezed gently.

Darcy nodded, unable to speak, her emotions overwhelmed by this simple gesture. His touch seemed so warm, so caring, that it made her heart ache. Maybe if even one of her parents had accepted her as Bill’s family had, she wouldn’t be here today. Then, she realized with a pang, if that had been the case, she would never have met Bill Hays.

Though everything else in her life had gone awry, sitting here with Bill seemed very right.