Kitabı oku: «Legally Mine», sayfa 3
The elevator opened on a wide hallway. Directly in front of her, glass doors marked the entrance to the offices of McCaffrey Commercial Properties. A pretty receptionist waited behind a circular desk and smiled as Jane walked through the doors. “Good afternoon,” she said. “May I help you?”
“I’m here to see Will McCaffrey,” Jane said.
“You must be Miss Singleton.” She stepped around the desk. “Mr. McCaffrey asked that I show you to his office. He’s in a meeting right now, but he should be through momentarily. Is there anything I can get for you?”
Jane was tempted to ask for a blindfold so she wouldn’t have to stare at Will’s handsome face, or maybe earplugs so she wouldn’t have to listen to his tantalizing voice. Or maybe a bottle of Valium to calm her nerves and quell her racing heart. “No, thank you, I’m fine.”
The receptionist led her down a long hall and opened a door at the end of it. “I’ll let Mr. McCaffrey know you’re here.”
“Thanks,” Jane said.
After the receptionist walked out, Jane wandered around Will’s office, too nervous to sit. His law school diploma was displayed prominently behind his desk and the credenza held a variety of photos, most of them featuring either exotic locales or a golden retriever. What she didn’t find was a photo of a wife, or even a girlfriend. Jane ignored the tiny thrill of satisfaction that raced through her. Whether he was involved in a relationship or completely single shouldn’t make a difference. She picked up a photo of the dog and stared at it.
“His name is Thurgood.”
Jane spun around to find Will standing in the doorway, his shoulder braced against the doorjamb. Her heart stopped for a long moment and she had to gulp down a breath to get it started again. “He’s…cute,” she murmured.
“He’s a big mooch and he sheds all over everything. But I love him. What about you? Do you have any pets?”
Jane shifted uneasily, her feet starting to hurt from the high heels she wore. She wasn’t sure what to say. Were they going to waste time with chitchat, or was he planning to explain himself? Will’s gaze fixed on her face as he waited for her answer.
With a silent curse, Jane fumbled through her purse and pulled out the copy of the contract. She unfolded it and held it out to him. “You sent this to me.”
“Yes, I did,” Will said, a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth.
“Why?”
“I thought I made that clear in the letter,” he replied.
“You can’t be serious.” Jane glanced down at contract. “This was just a whim fueled by a fair bit of champagne and whiskey.” He’d been drunk and feeling sorry for himself and she’d been caught up in a fantasy that the subject of her silly crush might actually show up in six years, contract in hand.
And now he had. She looked up to see Will sweep a bouquet of roses out from behind his back. “These are for you,” he said, grinning, the dimple appearing on his cheek. “English roses. Your favorite, right?”
A shiver skittered down her spine and her indignation wavered. All he’d ever had to do was smile at her and she’d agree to anything from doing his laundry to typing his term papers to helping him pick out gifts for the endless string of girls in his life. Will had always been too charming for his own good—and hers.
But he’d always been a man so completely unattainable that he’d taken on mythic proportions in her mind—the classic profile, a body chiseled by the gods, hands so strong yet sensitive they promised to drive her wild—Jane groaned inwardly. Just a few minutes in his presence and her fantasies were back full force. “It’s going to take a lot more than roses and this ridiculous contract to make me marry you.”
He took a step toward her, his grin widening. “Then tell me what you want, Janie.”
She risked another look at him. Features that had once been almost boyish had taken on a harder edge. He seemed powerful, determined. If he was really bent on marriage, then she was hip-deep in trouble—both legal and emotional. Because when Will McCaffrey wanted something, he usually found a way to get it. She cursed silently at her racing pulse and the flush that warmed her cheeks. “Le-let’s suppose for a moment this contract is legal, which I don’t think it is. You were drunk and I was…under the influence…” She drew a shaky breath. “Why would you want to marry me anyway? We haven’t talked since that day you graduated from law school.”
He slowly crossed the room and stood in front of her. The scent of the roses made her head swim and she held her breath, wondering just how much closer he would come, praying he wouldn’t touch her.
There had been a time when she’d remembered every single time he’d grabbed her hand or brushed his shoulder against hers. She’d carried around a catalog of such events in her head for years and had taken pains to forget them all. Will McCaffrey was no longer the subject of a silly crush or her rampant fantasies. He was a flesh and blood man, a man who still had the capacity to trample her heart and shred her soul.
“Maybe not,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about you.”
“That doesn’t count,” Jane said. In truth, she’d thought about him hundreds, maybe even thousands of times—not in the past six years but just in the past week since she’d seen him on the street. Her attention flitted from his startling blue eyes ringed with thick dark lashes to the tiny dimple in his left cheek, once so familiar. There was still so much of the college boy left in him even though the neatly groomed hair and finely pressed suit made him the picture of respectability.
“Come on, Janie. We were friends once, why can’t we be again? We were good together.”
“Did you suffer a head injury recently?” she demanded. “Have you spent time in a psychiatric hospital? Or are you just seriously delusional? We were never together. You were together with half the girls on campus, but never with me.”
“You’re the only girl—I mean, woman—that I’ve ever had a friendship with. And I’m beginning to realize how rare that really is.”
He reached out and smoothed his palm along the length of her arm. She’d watched him charm so many women, studied his techniques and imagined herself on the receiving end of his attentions. Well, she wasn’t going to fall for his tricks! “Let’s just be honest here.”
“Great,” Will said. “Now we’re getting somewhere. Let’s just lay it all out on the table. I’m all for honesty.”
“For some reason, you suddenly feel the need to marry me. Maybe you’re in the midst of some early midlife crisis. Or maybe you’ve run through all the single women in the Chicago metro area. Or maybe all your buddies have settled down and you don’t have anyone to party with. But rather than dating a woman and going the traditional route, you dug up this contract and wrote me a letter. I suppose you thought I’d jump at the offer. After all, a girl like me would be a fool to turn down an offer of marriage from a guy like you.”
He opened his mouth to speak, a frown of confusion furrowing his brow. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means I’m not going to marry you! We don’t even know each other.” She paused. “Anymore. And I don’t remember signing this contract.” She crumpled it up and shoved it at his chest.
It was a lie. She remembered every moment of that night. She’d been the one to insist they have a witness sign, as well, she’d been the one who’d actually wanted the document to be legal, dreamed that someday he might come back and try to enforce it.
Will drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You’ve changed, Janie. You used to be so…”
“Weak, pathetic, spineless? I’m not that same silly girl who used to hang on your every word, who used to bake you cookies and mend your shirts.”
“That’s not what I was going to say.” He reached out and hesitantly touched her cheek, drawing his thumb over her lower lip. “You’re not a girl at all, Janie. You’re a woman. A very beautiful, passionate, stubborn woman.”
Jane closed her eyes, losing herself for a moment in the warmth of his hand. Oh, God. This was it. This was the start to one of her top five fantasies! In a few moments, he’d sweep her into his arms and kiss her, ravaging her mouth with his lips. And if by some bizarre shift in the cosmos, her fantasy became reality, then she might as well start shopping for a white dress and a bridal bouquet and those little candy-coated almonds tied up in tulle that always sat on the dinner tables at weddings.
There was no way she was going to avoid falling in love with Will McCaffrey all over again…and right now, with her heart slamming in her chest and her pulse racing, she wasn’t even sure she’d ever fallen out of love with him in the first place.
She swallowed hard. “What do you want from me?” she asked, her voice wavering.
“I just want you to forget the past. I want you to go out to dinner with me tonight. I want to share a bottle of champagne and get to know you all over again.”
Jane ground her teeth. Why was he so determined to pull her in again? Couldn’t he sense what this would cost her? She shook her head. “No. I’m not going to date you and I’m not going to marry you!”
“Why not?” he demanded, frustration coloring his tone. “What’s wrong with me? I’m a decent guy. The way you’re acting you’d think I was some psychotic ax murderer with a hump on his back and halitosis.”
“There’s nothing wrong with you. We’re just not…suited.”
Will chuckled softly, shaking his head. “How can you possibly know that?”
“I just do,” Jane replied.
Will shrugged and stepped away from her, the warmth of his touch suddenly going cold. “Then I guess I’ll see you in court.”
Jane closed her eyes and tried to school her temper. “We have to be able to reach some sort of compromise. If you hadn’t run into me on the street the other day, you never would have remembered the contract. And we both would have gone on with our lives.”
“Maybe so,” he said. “But we did meet again and whether that was destiny or providence, I don’t care. It made me realize how much I missed you. And how much I want you in my life again.”
Jane forced herself not to dwell on his words. They were all part of his plan to charm her, to suck all the common sense out of her brain so he could have his way with her. “And marriage is the answer? What if I agree to a date? Doesn’t that seem a more logical first step?”
“I asked and you said no. Besides, now that I think about it, I’m sick and tired of dating. I’m ready to move on with my life,” Will said. He sat down at his desk and leaned back in his chair, linking his fingers behind his head and watching her with a bland smile.
If he wanted a fight, then she was fully prepared to give him one! Jane braced her hands on his desk and leaned over it, meeting his gaze with a glare of her own. “I’m not going to marry you. I’m not going to date you. In fact, I never want to see you again. If you think you can enforce your silly contract, then try it. I dare you.”
Her heart pounding, Jane strode to the door and yanked it open. She briefly considered turning around and throwing a few more threats his way, but in the end, she made a quick escape. One more look at Will McCaffrey might be just what it took to push her over the edge, into a strange fantasy world where she really could marry him and live happily-ever-after.
When she reached the elevator, she leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes. Images of Will swam in her head and Jane groaned softly. Fighting him seemed to be the only option. Or was it?
“I just need time,” she murmured, her desperation thick in her voice. Time to sort out her financial problems without the threat of an expensive court case hanging over her head. Time to come to grips with her attraction to a man she couldn’t possibly love. And time to convince herself that Will McCaffrey wasn’t the man of her dreams.
Yet, in a secret corner of her heart, she wondered what might happen if she agreed to marry him. Would he get scared and back down, deftly avoiding commitment as he had in the past? Or would he actually fulfill the terms of their contract and walk down the aisle with her?
Jane groaned softly, her mind spinning with the possibilities. What if she never found out for sure and lived to regret it? The choices she made today might seem like her only option. But how would they look in ten or fifteen years?
2
A CHILLY WIND BLEW OFF the lake, sending dried leaves swirling into the air. The dismal gray sky obscured the November sun and a cold drizzle shone on the sidewalks. Somewhere nearby, a siren wailed. Will drew his overcoat more tightly around him and jogged across the street against the light.
After what had happened at his office two days ago, Will hadn’t expected to hear from Jane again. He’d handled their meeting badly, but he’d been thrown off track by the notion that she actually believed he was going to force her to marry him! The contract had only been a means to get her to agree to dinner, but since she’d adamantly refused his invitations, he felt backed into a corner. Will cursed beneath his breath. He’d never had to force a woman to date him before. Why was he so determined to have Jane?
Maybe seeing her again would clarify things in his mind. Yes, she was incredibly attractive, and yes, they had shared a past that included a friendship he’d treasured. But they were different people living different lives now. Did that mean they couldn’t begin again? He strolled into the small park across from the Newberry Library and walked along the path, scanning the pedestrians in search of Jane.
She’d left a message for him this morning asking him to meet her, but avoiding any explanation for her request. For now, Will had decided to grab the opportunity to explain his behavior and find a way to set things right with her. At best, she might finally agree to dinner. At worst, she’d tell him exactly where he could shove his contract.
She wasn’t the same girl he’d known back in law school. She’d gone from an awkward teenager to a confident woman and for an instant, Will regretted that he hadn’t been there to see it—to experience it. Hell, she probably had all the men she needed in her life, men who had recognized her beauty the moment they’d met her, men who’d been a little quicker off the mark than he had been.
Will had been with a lot of women and though the passion had been overwhelming at times, he’d never really connected emotionally, never really believed what they’d shared had anything to do with love or even deep affection. It had always been about physical desire and nothing more.
His feelings for Jane were different. She was incredibly beautiful and sexy and intriguing, but he wasn’t intent on seducing her. They were friends first and if they became lovers, it would come as a logical step in their relationship, not from some overwhelming desire to rip each other’s clothes off.
Jane wasn’t the kind of woman he could seduce and then leave. She occupied a different place in his life than all the other women had. Yet, he couldn’t ignore the sparks of attraction that had crackled in the air when they were together these last couple of times. Nor could he deny spending the last few days thinking about her, about how good it felt to be around her, about how he enjoyed the sound of her voice and warmth of her touch.
What he wanted didn’t matter, especially if Jane didn’t want him. If she walked up to him and demanded that he stay out of her life, then he’d have no choice but to back off. Will stopped in the middle of the path and cursed softly. He’d always suspected that she’d carried a secret torch for him, that all he’d have had to do was crook his finger and she’d have come willingly. But whatever feelings she might have harbored for him had obviously been forgotten long ago.
He slowly turned and scanned the park again. For an instant, he thought he saw her sitting on a bench on the far side, but then he realized it wasn’t her. He sat down to wait, watching an elderly man toss a tennis ball to his terrier. After ten minutes, Will began to wonder if he’d been stood up, but then he saw her striding briskly toward him. He stood and she stopped short, watching him for a long moment.
They slowly approached each other, their gazes locked, meeting in the center of the square. “I thought you might have decided not to come,” he said when she stood in front of him.
“I almost didn’t,” Jane replied.
A long silence grew between them and Will fought the urge to reach out and brush a windblown strand of hair out of her eyes. If he could just touch her, then everything would be all right. But he shoved his hands into his coat pockets to ward off temptation. “Would you like to go somewhere, maybe get a cup of coffee? There’s a place just down the—”
Jane shook her head. “No, this will be fine right here. I just have one question to ask and I want you to be completely honest with me.”
“All right,” Will said.
“Why are you doing this? You could have any woman you wanted. Why me?”
“That’s two questions,” he said. “With very different answers.”
“Tell me,” Jane insisted. “The truth.”
Will carefully considered his answer, knowing what he said might make all the difference in her decision. He was tempted to lie, to cover up his real motivations. But if this was going to work, he couldn’t begin with a lie. “I’m thirty years old. My father has been pressuring me to get serious about my future. To find a wife and to start a family. But my social life up until now hasn’t really been focused on that particular goal. I thought I might try another approach. If I want to run his company, I need to show him I’m serious about finding a wife.”
Will decided to stop there. The rest was too difficult to explain. It wasn’t as if he was using her for his own professional gains, though he knew his father would probably consider Jane a perfect catch for a wife. But whether his job was at stake or not, Will still wanted to be with Jane. And looking into her eyes, he had to wonder if there was something more between them, something he couldn’t quite explain.
He waited for Jane’s reaction, waited for her to tear into him or to walk away in disgust or start crying uncontrollably. But all she did was nod. “All right, I can understand that. And why me?”
He shrugged. “It makes sense, Janie. First, there’s the contract. And we were good friends.” He stopped again before revealing the rest of the truth—he was genuinely attracted to Jane, almost overwhelmingly attracted to her. Since they’d met that day on the street outside her office, he’d been plagued with thoughts of her. He was seeing Jane in a whole new light—as a beautiful, intriguing, sexy woman.
“So this is all just a matter of…efficiency?” she asked.
Will chuckled softly. “I’ve spent years perfecting my considerable charm, but where has it gotten me? I still haven’t found the perfect woman.”
“So you’re willing to settle for the imperfect?”
“No!” Will protested. “You’re not imperfect, not at all. We began as friends, Janie. Maybe that’s the way it should be.” He paused. “If you want my opinion, I think we’ve all been sold a bill of goods. We’re out there looking for love and romance and happily-ever-afters, but for most of us, those things just aren’t in the cards and they may never be. I’m thirty years old. I’ve dated enough to know that finding something special is difficult at best.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath of the damp air. “Would it be so bad just to try? What do either of us have to lose?”
He stared down at her, watching her emotions shift across her face like sunlight on water. She was wavering and Will fought the urge to push her just a little bit closer to the edge. All he needed was one night, one perfect date to get her to see that he was right about them.
“We’re different people. You don’t know me anymore.”
He stared down into her gaze. “I know enough,” he said. “I know we’d be good together. Give me a chance to prove it to you.”
She gnawed at her lower lip as she considered his offer and Will allowed himself to feel a small measure of hope. “All right,” she finally said. “But it has to be on my terms.”
“We can do that.” He reached out to grab her hands, but she avoided his touch, clutching her fingers in front of her. “Any terms are good with me.”
She met his gaze and for a moment, he thought he saw a hint of defiance there. “I want a ring. A really big ring. At least three carats.”
Will caught the gasp of surprise before it left his throat. “What?”
“And I don’t want to waste time on a long engagement. If it doesn’t work after three months, we go our separate ways and we’ll tear up the contract. Of course, I get to keep the ring. Agreed?”
She wasn’t talking about a dinner date anymore! She was still stuck on the notion that he’d enforce their contract and she’d moved on to something much more serious. His brain scrambled to make sense of it all. Ring? Engagement? Will tried to think rationally, then slowly realized what he’d seen in her eyes. She was calling his bluff—trying to scare him off with the prospect of commitment. Trying to render his contract null and void. He bit back a chuckle at her audacity. Two could play at this game.
“All right,” he said in a measured tone. “But I have some terms of my own. If we’re going to give this a real shot, then we have to spend more time together. Quality time. I think you should move in with me. That will give us a chance to see if we’re really compatible.”
She stiffened slightly and Will knew that he’d put her on the ropes. She’d back down now.
Jane shrugged. “I suppose that would be all right, with one condition. We would have separate bedrooms.”
God, she was good. She hadn’t even blinked an eye. They’d gone from dating to living together to discussing sleeping arrangements in the course of a minute. “All right, but you’ll have to at least make an effort to perform some wifely duties.” That was bound to send her over the edge, Will mused. Play the male chauvinist card and he’d be back on top again.
As expected, Jane’s composure cracked and her eyes suddenly went wide. “You want me to have sex with you?”
Will laughed. “No, that’s not what I meant. But if you’d like to add that to your list of daily responsibilities, I wouldn’t object.”
“This is not going to work,” she muttered.
“I was talking about things that wives generally do for their husbands. Cook a meal every now and then, do a little laundry, make a comfortable home, listen to my problems about work.”
“And what about a husband’s duties? What are you going to contribute to this arrangement?”
“Whatever you need. Whatever you want. You name it and it’s yours.”
“A lock on my bedroom door,” she muttered. “And my own bathroom.”
“Well, that’s going to be a problem,” he said. “My house only has one. And a half.”
She sighed, regarding him with a suspicious glare. “I suppose I could deal with that. We can work out a schedule for the bathroom.”
“Agreed,” he said.
“All right. Three months,” she said. “Until Valentine’s Day. And if it doesn’t work, we’ll go our separate ways.”
“Three months,” he said. “Who knows what might happen?”
She held out her hand. At first he wasn’t sure what she meant to do and he reached out to take her fingers in his. But she gave his hand a firm shake. “It’s a deal. Maybe we should write up another contract.”
Still stunned by the sudden turn of events, Will could only press her hand between his, unwilling to let her go. “We’ll just make an addendum to the old contract,” he said. “So when would you like to move in?”
“This weekend?” she asked.
“All right.” He couldn’t resist a smile. “How about Saturday? We’ll get you all settled and then maybe we can go out and have some dinner. I know this great restaurant on—”
“I have to work on Saturday, so Sunday would be better.”
“2234 North Winston in DePaul. I’ll expect you Sunday.”
She nodded, then turned to walk away. But he stopped her, refusing to let go of her hand. “Jane?”
She stared down at their fingers, now entwined. “Yes?”
“You asked me why. I could ask you the same question. Why?”
“I don’t have to give you my reasons,” she said. “That’s not part of the deal.” With that, she tugged out of his grasp and strode down the sidewalk. He watched her until she turned a corner and disappeared. Then Will slowly sank down on a nearby park bench, his breath clouding in front of his face.
From the start, all he’d really wanted was a date. And now, he suddenly had a fiancée! He wasn’t quite sure what to think. In the end, he decided to put off thinking about Jane Singleton at all. He’d have three months to figure out how he really felt about her—and how she felt about him.
CARDBOARD BOXES CLUTTERED the floor in Jane’s bedroom. She stared at the summer side of her closet, wondering what to do with the simple cotton dresses and lightweight tops hanging there. “I’ll put these in storage,” she murmured.
Lisa sat on the edge of the bed, sipping a Starbucks latte and watching as Jane moved around the room, tossing clothing and toiletries into various boxes.
“You’re crazy. What has gotten into you, Jane?” She held up her hand to stop Jane’s response. “Wait, don’t answer that. I know exactly what’s gotten into you. An insidious little virus called Will McCaffrey. And here, I thought you’d finally been cured.”
“What has gotten into me is a good case of common sense,” Jane said, grabbing a stack of neatly folded sweaters and placing them into an empty box.
She’d spent two nights tossing and turning, considering all her options. But in the end, it hadn’t been the tossing and turning that had forced her hand. Instead it had been the phone call from her auto mechanic, informing her that she’d have to replace the transmission on her nine-year-old car, a repair that she didn’t have the money to pay for—especially if she had to pay some downtown lawyer to get her out of Will’s ridiculous contract.
“Common sense?” Lisa squawked. “How could moving in with Will McCaffrey have anything to do with common sense?”
“I’m not just moving in with him. I’m kind of…engaged.”
Lisa’s mouth dropped open in astonishment. “Kind of?”
Jane turned her attention back to the stack of sweaters she needed to pack. “I thought I could force him to give up on his stupid contract. I thought once he was faced with the realities of commitment, he’d back off right away and I’d be free of him. It just didn’t work out as I planned.”
“Jane, I can’t believe that contract would hold up. He can’t force you to marry him.”
“That’s not the point. It’s going to cost me to fight him either way, money I don’t have. Besides, this will work out just fine. I’ll have a place to live while I get back on my feet, and after three months, we’ll tear up the contract and I’ll never have to think about Will McCaffrey again.” She paused in her packing and turned to her friend. “I can do this, Lisa. It’s only three months. We’ll put an effort into the business, make enough money to get us through the winter, and in March, we’ll start over again.”
“I told you, you could come and stay with me and Roy. Our sofa is really comfortable.”
“No, I couldn’t.”
“You haven’t even considered your parents.”
“The drive back and forth between Lake Geneva and the city would be too much of a grind. And I can’t tell my mother about our business problems. She’s always wanted me to give up my career and find a husband, ever since we started Windy City Gardens. If she knew the business was this close to folding, she’d have every unmarried doctor in the Chicago metro area lined up at my front door.”
“There has to be another solution.”
“What choice do I have? If I move in with him, that will buy me some time.”
“Janie, I hate to state the obvious here, but this is not a guy you should live with. You know how long it took to get over your infatuation with him. Are you willing to jump back into that fire all over again?”
“I’m a different person now. I see him for what he really is.”
“And what is that? An incredibly handsome, sexy, successful man.” Lisa clapped her palms to her cheeks in mock horror. “Oh, my God, I can see why you’d be repelled. What a nightmare!”
Jane smiled at her friend’s silly expression. “Yes, he’s sexy, but it’s not like I can’t resist.”
“You never could,” Lisa said. “But let’s be honest, Jane. Will McCaffrey always made you feel second best. While he was off romancing his latest conquest, you just waited for whatever crumbs he’d throw your way, certain he was your Prince Charming. It was only after he disappeared from your life that you really began to come into your own. And that says more about him than it does about you, don’t you think?”
Jane sighed softly, the truth of her friend’s words cutting deep. Every instinct told her that being close to Will was dangerous. But she still felt the need to prove she wasn’t the same girl she’d been six years ago. Nor was she the same girl her mother had raised, sheltering her and protecting her from anything that wasn’t clean and pretty and safe, putting silly notions into her head about love and romance and marriage. She’d been naive and far too idealistic when she’d first met Will. Was it any wonder she’d created an elaborate fantasy world around a man who’d treated her like a little sister?
But she was a woman now and Jane knew things had changed. Whatever brotherly thoughts Will may have had all those years ago were long gone. She saw it in the way he looked at her. There was more there than just friendship and she wanted to know exactly what it was. “I’m not that silly girl anymore,” Jane murmured.
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