Kitabı oku: «Barefoot and Pregnant?»

Chapter One

Never rely on physical chemistry between yourself and a man. Sexual attraction is fleeting.

Elise lifted her glass to her lips and sipped her tonic water with a twist as she gazed at the hotel’s reception room filled with local hospital employees and benefactors. She’d dressed carefully this evening in her favorite “little black dress” and wore a new shade of lipstick called Seduction. It looked like a soft pink to her, but she supposed that when you paid $35.00 for a tube of lipstick, the manufacturers couldn’t just call it Pink.

Ordinarily, Elise hated these kinds of affairs, but Waterfront Realty had bought her the expensive ticket for the benefit. It was her job to smile, sip tonic water and shmooze, looking for potential clients. She’d been to so many of these events in the past few years that she knew the drill by heart. She would make light conversation with people she didn’t know. Then she would push dry chicken and overcooked green beans around on her plate, listen to a dull speech and then go home to have a bag of popcorn for dinner and watch a late-night talk show.

But tonight was different. She could feel it from the top of her recently foiled head to the tips of her new pumps. Tonight was going to be different. She was going to date men, fill out the form, add the scores and find a husband.

Elise spotted Liz Jefferson coming toward her in a way-too-tight black dress. She was drinking a glass of wine and probably not her first. Elise admired Liz’s ability to hold her liquor. Elise never drank in public, not because she had anything against alcohol, but because it made her act stupid. One drink and she was telling anyone who would listen how she had always wanted a puppy as a child and had never been able to have one because it might soil her father’s white carpet.

At that moment, it occurred to Elise that she had white carpet in her condo.

And no dog.

How had her life gotten so far from what she had wanted it to be? She had always sworn she wouldn’t be like her father. Was that who she was becoming?

“Hey, babe.” Liz glided over. Elise guessed her dress was too tight to allow her to walk.

“Seen anyone with potential?” Liz parked beside Elise and swirled her Chardonnay, gazing over the rim of the glass into the room.

“Same old, same old, so far,” Elise said.

There were men in tuxes everywhere. Elise knew many of them. She had dated quite a few. There was Joe Kanash, who revealed sheepishly to Elise after two dates that he was not quite divorced. Then there was Bobby Rent. He slurped his lobster bisque and whistled through his nose whenever he got nervous, which she discovered was often. Then, of course, there was Alex Bortorf the proctologist, Mark Wrung the department store owner—the list was endless. Some of the men both Elise and Liz had dated, though, thankfully, never at the same time.

Elise sighed. Now that she was here, she was beginning to get cold feet. How was this self-help book better than any other? She ought to just go home now and start popping popcorn for her usual late-night date with Letterman. Besides, her new pumps were hurting her feet.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Liz said lifting her hand to her hip to pose. “A new face at one o’clock. No ring on his finger.”

Liz was better than Elise at recognizing the married ones. Elise shifted her gaze as she raised her glass, but she didn’t drink. Goodness. It was a new face. And a nice one at that. The man taking a canapé from a waiter’s tray looked to be mid-to late-thirties. He was a natural, sun-bleached blonde with one of those bad-boy haircuts. Just a little long at the ears and the nape of the neck. His face was suntanned, but she doubted it came from a bottle or a tanning bed. He was tall, but not overly so. Maybe six foot, six-one. He had a good build, but she could tell he wasn’t a gym rat. His tux fit so well that it had to be his and not one of those rented ones that would have to be back at the dry cleaners by noon tomorrow.

The man turned and made eye contact with Elise. She was surprised to feel the warmth of a blush on her cheeks. She hadn’t realized she still could blush.

Liz elbowed her. “Hey, I had dibs. I spotted him first.”

The Adonis looked right at Elise, a twitch of amusement on his sensuous lips. She wondered if he had caught what Liz said or he was just used to single, desperate women gaping at him.

Elise couldn’t take her eyes off him. Then, suddenly he was coming her way. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to run away or open her arms to him.

The blonde walked right up. “Hi,” he said, halting in front of her.

Elise gripped her glass. She’d met a million men in her life. It seemed as if she’d dated most of them. What was it about this one that suddenly left her speechless? Usually she was so good at causal conversation.

She smiled back and managed a “Hi.”

“Name’s Zane, Zane Keaton.” He offered his hand.

Liz glanced at Elise, at Zane and back at Elise again. “I can see there’s no need for me to even bother to introduce myself,” she said glibly as she glided away. “Later, babe.”

Zane still held Elise’s gaze as she shook his hand. She laughed, unable to help herself. “Okay,” she said. “I’m definitely embarrassed. I usually play a little harder to get than this.”

“Me, too.”

“I didn’t mean to stare. I’m Elise Montgomery.”

“Nice to meet you. Your friends call you Ellie?”

She cocked her head. “Actually, no one ever has.”

It was his turn to laugh. “Well, you look like an Ellie to me.”

Out of any other stranger’s mouth, his words would have sounded ridiculous to Elise. At the very least, a really bad pickup line. But she was oddly flattered. She didn’t feel like an Ellie, but secretly she had always wished she could be one. To Elise, an Ellie was relaxed. Carefree. As the daughter of Edwin Montgomery, she had never felt like she was, either.

“So, you come to this kind of thing often?” Zane stood beside her, gazing out at the room.

“Way too often,” she confessed.

“Me, too. I hate ’em.” He chuckled. “I was supposed to be here with a date, but she bailed on me at the last minute.”

She noted that he said date and not girlfriend. “Flu?”

“That,” he confessed, “or an aversion to bad hors d’oeuvres, long boring speeches and dry chicken.”

Elise tipped back her head and laughed louder than she really should have. A man and a woman, both dressed in black standing nearby glanced their way.

Elise covered her mouth, embarrassed. “Everyone’s going to think I’ve had one too many,” she whispered. “Don’t make me laugh like that.”

He grinned. “What’s the point in living if you can’t have a good belly laugh every once in a while?”

She glanced at him. Was this guy for real? Good-looking, charming and funny? She eyed his left hand. Liz said there was no ring, but she double-checked to be sure there was no white telltale ring of skin where a wedding band normally rested. Negative.

“So if your date bailed, why did you still come?”

He met her gaze, his eyes sparkling. He just seemed like such a happy guy. A guy who was happy with himself. A girl didn’t see that often in the dating world.

“It was my sister, Meagan, who was supposed to come with me. Our grandfather was one of the major contributors when this hospital was being built in the sixties.” He lifted one broad shoulder. “He’s in a nursing home now and can’t get to things like this. I come for him. Bring his donation check. Say hi.”

That was so sweet that for a moment Elise didn’t know what to say. A man with family ties? A man who cared about the previous generations? Elise had never even known any of her grandparents. “It was nice of you to come in his place.”

“Yeah,” Zane sighed. “But I just told Pops I would come, not that I’d stay. I’ve been here an hour, shook hands with everyone on the board. Ate several little balls of what, I have no idea and now I’m bored. Time to hit the road. How about you?” He lifted a brow.

He was just a little cocky, but not obnoxiously so. In a world of mamby-pamby beta males, could this possibly be the last alpha wolf in the pack? She resisted a smile. “There’s still the dry chicken and the boring speech to get through.”

He nodded. “You’re absolutely right. We could go into the dining room and saw on that chicken. We could yawn through the speeches, or…” His tone changed as if he had some secret to share only with her.

“Or?” she murmured, transfixed by his gaze.

“Or, we could slip out the back and take a walk on the beach. If you’re hungry, I’ll buy you a cheeseburger when I take you home. I know a great little dive.”

Elise stared at him in disbelief for a moment. Slip out of here? She’d spent more than an hour getting ready for this affair. She’d bought new shoes and Seduction lipstick. Waterfront Realty had paid five hundred dollars for her to see and be seen here tonight. Elise couldn’t just walk out…could she?

Well, her company hadn’t really paid for the chicken, had they? Their check had been a donation to fund the new maternity wing.

A smile played on her lips. To sneak out would be totally out of character for her. Elise Montgomery always went by the book. She always followed the rules, and the rules were that if your boss paid five hundred dollars for bad chicken, you ate it. But she could already tell that Zane Keaton was not a man who played by the rules.

“Ah, you found her, Zane.” Richard Milton, a prominent local attorney, approached them.

Zane lifted a brow.

“Elise Montgomery, the real estate agent I was telling you about. You want to make a large land purchase in this county, she’s the person to know.”

Elise felt her face grow warm with embarrassment.

“You’re a real estate agent?” Zane asked looking to her, as if he didn’t quite believe the attorney.

She nodded. “That’s right.”

“Well, I’ll leave you two kids alone. Call me if Elise finds what you’re looking for.” Richard walked away.

Elise smiled at Zane. “So you’re looking for land.”

He lifted a broad shoulder. “Maybe. So, you still game?”

“Game?” she asked.

“For getting out of here.” He pointed to the door.

“Come on, Ellie, it’ll be fun,” he whispered when she didn’t answer right away. His breath was warm in her ear. The chemistry was wicked. “And just a little naughty. Tell me you like to be naughty once in a while.”

She looked at him in wide-eyed surprise and he winked.

The man winked…it was like right out of an old black-and-white movie she liked to watch on Sunday afternoons when she should be working.

“Okay,” she exhaled, tantalized by the thought of just walking out. “But I need to tell my friend Liz that I’m going. She gave me a ride here.”

He took her empty glass from her hand and placed it on the tray of a passing waiter. “Tell her you won’t need a ride home.” He pointed at her. “Now I’m giving you two minutes to meet me at the door. Then we make our getaway.”

Elise watched Zane walk away, feeling a little numb. Was this the night she had dreamed of since she was little girl, tucked in at night by a nameless nanny?

She found Liz at the bar. “I won’t need that ride home.”

Liz grinned. “How’s he coming on that checklist of yours?”

“Too early to say,” Elise confided. Inside her chest her heart was pounding. Her pulse fluttered. She couldn’t remember the last time a man had made her feel this way.

Liz nodded with a conspiratory look. “Call you later,” she mouthed.

Elise made a beeline for the door, her black clutch purse tucked under her arm. She couldn’t believe she was doing this. She did feel naughty and she had to admit, the feeling was wonderful.

Zane was waiting for her just outside the hotel’s reception area. He offered her his elbow. His smile made her feel like a million bucks.

“I figure we’ll make a grand exit,” he said as he strode forward, his chin high as if they were royalty.

“We get out on the beach and we throw our shoes into the dunes and make a run for the water.”

Elise laughed. “I can’t really walk on the beach. I’m wearing hose.”

He opened the door that led onto the hotel’s veranda. “Hose, shmose. Take them off.”

Take them off? Elise felt as if her brain was on overload. Stand on one foot and peel her panty hose off on a public beach?

Zane led her across the hotel’s Victorian-style veranda and down the steps that led to the white sand beach. “Okay, twenty questions.”

“What?”

“Let’s play twenty questions. Well, my version.” He walked around to the back of the staircase and kicked off one shoe and then the other. “I ask a question. I give you my answer and then you give me yours.”

She gingerly removed one high-heeled leather shoe and then the other. The feel of the sand through her hose on her feet was deliciously warm. “What kind of questions?” she asked suspiciously. Usually on first dates—and she figured she could classify this as a date—she stuck to safer conversations such as where she went to college and what the NASDAQ was doing.

“Easy stuff,” Zane said. “Like your favorite color. Mine’s black.”

“Black? Black’s not a color.”

“Sorry. It’s my answer. Black is my favorite color. Let’s see, black like a moonless night. Black like the backside of a penguin. Yours?”

She laughed. “Mine’s green.” She paused. “Green like a man’s face after he’s tasted his mother-in-law’s potato salad.”

He laughed. “Now you’re getting the hang of it. Come on.” He opened and closed one hand. “Off with the hose. I swear, I don’t know how you women wear those things.”

She grabbed the rail of the step, then hesitated. Did she put her hands under her skirt, or try to wiggle the waistband down through the material of the dress?

Zane spun around, presenting his back to her. “Go ahead. Do what you have to do get them off. No one’s looking.” He made himself busy rolling up his pant legs.

Elise took a deep breath and reached under her dress and grabbed the waistband of her hose. She gave a yank, got them down around her thighs and lifted one foot. “Whoa!” She swayed as she lost her balance in the soft sand.

Zane caught her before she went down, his eyes comically squeezed shut. “Got ya.”

Using Zane’s muscular forearm to balance herself, she quickly slipped out of the hose. “Done,” she said as proud of herself as if she’d just sold a half-million dollar piece of property. She stuffed the hose into her pumps.

“Ready?” he asked.

She nodded.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her along. “Okay, question number two. “Chocolate or vanilla ice cream?”

“Soft serve?”

He grinned.

“Swirl.”

“Definitely swirl,” he agreed. “I like you already.”

As they walked across the beach toward the water, they covered questions three and four. By the time they reached the edge of the cool, frothing ocean, Elise wanted a turn at asking the questions. “Okay,” she said laughing at his last answer. “Here you go, favorite sport to watch. Mine’s baseball.”

He looked at her, with obvious surprise as they started north up the beach. “Not ice skating? All the women I’ve ever known like ice skating.”

“Orioles fan since birth, with or without Cal Ripken, Jr.”

“You want to get married?” he asked.

She laughed. He was kidding of course, but she still felt a trill of excitement. Obviously he wasn’t a man completely against the idea of the institution of marriage. “Another,” she begged.

“Cap’n Crunch cereal with or without crunch berries?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Gross. Granola, with raisins.”

He shook his head. “That’s it. Wedding is called off.” He splashed as he walked, wetting her calves. “On to more serious matters. Name of your first grade teacher.”

The questions went on way beyond twenty. The sun was setting over their left shoulders on the bay before they finally turned around and headed south toward the hotel again. Elise couldn’t stop laughing, not just at some of Zane’s crazy answers, but the way he said things. He was so genuinely confident in himself. So self-assured. So real. As they walked back up the beach toward the hotel and their shoes, Zane caught her arm to help her through the soft sand. “I’m starving. Those quarter-size hors d’oeuvres just didn’t do anything for me.” He looked to her. “You want to grab a burger before I take you home, Ellie?”

Ellie. He called her Ellie again. She liked it. She liked the way she felt when he called her that. “A burger would be good. Of course it will have be that dive now.” She pointed to their abandoned shoes. “There’s no way I can wrestle into those hose again.”

He laughed as he grabbed her shoes and passed them to her. “My car’s just up the hill.” They took a set of steps to the parking lot as he explained to her the finer points of grilling a good hamburger. He led her toward a vintage green BMW and opened the passenger door for her.

A gentleman and driving a BMW? The man was in the triple bonus round….

Elise tossed her sandy panty hose into the hamper. “She shoots, she scores!” she announced jubilantly.

She laughed. Shooting baskets with dirty hose? Talking out loud to herself? She didn’t know what had gotten into her.

Yes, she did. Zane Keaton.

Dressed in sleek, satin pajamas, Elise padded barefoot down the hall to the spare bedroom she used as an office. She flipped a wall switch and soft light flooded the room painted in beige neutrals. From the desk, she grabbed a light blue piece of paper and a pen. She leaned over and wrote “Zane Keaton” in loopy handwriting on the top line of the Husband Finder checklist. She tucked a lock of her blond hair behind one ear and began to fill in Zane’s physical details: 6’1”, blond hair, blue eyes. She knew the worksheet was really for “official” dates, but “official” or not, her evening with Zane was the best date she had ever had. Well, maybe with the exception of the hot Texas evening she’d spent with Johnny Carlisle when a traveling carnival had passed through town, and she’d slipped out of the house. Of course she’d only been fifteen at the time, and Johnny had been her first kiss, so that probably didn’t count.

Elise grabbed the paper and pen and took them down the hall. She glanced at the Career heading and halted in the middle of the living room.

She couldn’t believe she hadn’t asked Zane what he did for a living. She’d spent an entire evening with the man. He was such a good listener for a man. The hours had slipped by like the seconds it took to enjoy a bite-size candy bar. And she hadn’t asked him about his work. Her father would be horrified.

Elise held the pen poised over the Career section: Professional, Business Owner, Other. She decided on “other” just so she didn’t have to leave the line blank. She hated blank lines and the way they stared accusingly at you. After all, what did it matter what he did for a living? Zane was obviously going to score high enough to warrant another date.

The phone rang and she glanced at the Irish porcelain clock on an end table. It was almost midnight. Eleven in Texas, too late for her father to call; he was an early riser. She darted for the phone. Liz had said she would call, to see how her evening went with Zane. Elise was dying to tell her friend what a wonderful evening she’d had. To tell her about the barefoot walk and the fact that Zane had convinced her to eat not just a burger, but fries, too. She had probably consumed an entire day’s worth of calories in one sitting and she didn’t care.

“Liz,” she said excitedly into the phone.

“Ellie?”

The male voice startled her….

He’d called her Ellie.

“Zane?”

He chuckled, his voice low and sexy. “I didn’t think you’d be in bed yet.”

She glanced at the clock again. She’d barely been home half an hour. He had to have walked into his house and immediately picked up the phone to call her.