Evan. Diana Palmer

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СКАЧАТЬ anything at all for her?” Miranda asked.

      “I don’t know. If he does, he’s buried it. He’s stubborn, and he can be cruel when he’s pushed. Anna’s made a game of it, playing at flirting and teasing. He thinks that’s all there is to it. He doesn’t think she’s serious.”

      “But she is.”

      He nodded. “I’m sure of it. It’s a camouflage. After all, the safest way to hide your feelings is to exaggerate them. Poor little thing. Randall isn’t a patch on Evan, but she’ll wind up marrying him out of unrequited love for my brother.”

      “Such a waste.” Miranda sighed.

      He pulled her closer. “Indeed, it is. Thank God we’re past all that uncertainty.”

      She smiled, lifting radiant eyes to his. “I love you.”

      His blue eyes kindled. He bent and kissed her softly. “I can send that back, multiplied.”

      “Yes,” she whispered, pressing close. “I know. We have so much, Harden.”

      His lean hand lightly touched the soft swell of her belly and his eyes blazed into hers. “More than I ever dreamed,” he whispered. “Did I ever tell you that you’re my life?”

      Miranda was too choked with emotion to even answer. She pressed close against his side while his lips brushed her forehead with exquisite tenderness.

      Anna, watching them covertly, wanted to cry. What they felt for each other was almost tangible. She’d never known that kind of intimate caring. She probably never would. Randall’s idea of romance was a few kisses punctuated with groping. He might make an excellent doctor, but he had a long way to go as even a lukewarm lover. And he wasn’t, could never be, Evan.

      She sipped her punch while Randall spoke to someone he knew from the hospital. She wouldn’t look at the door, she absolutely wouldn’t. She wasn’t going to give Evan the satisfaction of knowing that he was killing her with his indifference.

      “Finally, something to drink!” came a husky, purring voice from behind her. “Hello, Anna!” Nina Ray said, smiling faintly. “I hope that punch is spiked. I really need a drink. Evan had to park almost in the pond! My feet are killing me from so much walking.”

      “That’s nothing unusual is it, for a model?” Evan taunted.

      Anna couldn’t meet his eyes. She glanced at his white shirt and black tie and dinner jacket and averted her gaze to gorgeously dark Nina in a white and black gown that put everyone else’s dresses to shame.

      “You look great,” Anna said sincerely. “I see you all the time in fashion magazines. For a small-town girl, you sure hit it big.”

      “I had a lot of help, lovey,” Nina mused. She glanced up at Evan with a self-confident sexiness that made Anna grind her teeth in frustration. She’d never learn how to do that.

      “Where’s Polly?” Evan asked as he filled punch cups for Nina and then himself.

      “Circulating,” Anna said, smiling. “She’s very much the lady of the hour.”

      “She deserves it,” Evan replied. “That mall will bring in a lot of new businesses, and plenty of revenue.”

      “Everything helps to swell the tax base,” Randall remarked, joining them. He smiled at Nina. “You look lovely!” he enthused, and Anna could have hit him. He hadn’t been half that vocal about her own appearance.

      “Thank you. And who’s this?” Nina asked, her dark eyes flirting with Randall.

      “Randall Wayne,” he said, taking her slender hand in his. He actually kissed the knuckles, just above the red-painted nails. “Nice to meet you, Miss Ray.”

      Nina beamed. “You know who I am?”

      “Everyone does. Your face is unmistakable. I see it on magazine covers all the time.”

      “Yes.” Nina sighed complacently. “My career has taken off since Evan helped me find that new agency.”

      “Anything to help,” Evan said suavely. He was trying not to notice Anna and failing miserably. In that silver gown, her exquisite skin was displayed almost too blatantly. Her honey-brown tan made her complexion even prettier and emphasized her big blue eyes. It was an effort to keep away from her.

      “The band is very good,” Nina remarked. “Evan, do let’s dance!”

      She took his hand and headed for the dance floor without giving him time to speak to Randall or Anna. Not that he would have, anyway, Anna thought. He was giving her a blatant message—hands off. She lifted her cup of punch to her lips with a sigh.

      “This punch needs help,” one of the guests remarked, slipping a bottle of whiskey from under his dinner jacket. “Here goes!”

      Anna watched him fill the bowl with a wry grin. She knew one of the guests would have hives if he saw that. Evan didn’t like punch, though, so there was little likelihood that he’d imbibe. He hated alcohol. Anna had heard that he actually took a glass of wine back to the kitchen one night when he was having dinner with Justin and Shelby Ballenger.

      She mentioned that to Randall after the punch spiker had sampled his handiwork and retired to the dance floor with his partner.

      “Yes, I heard about that,” Randall remarked. “Justin and Shelby have three boys now, haven’t they?”

      “Yes. They’re neck and neck with Calhoun and Abby.”

      “They have two boys and a girl,” he reminded her. “I heard Harden and Evan’s brother Connal mention it at a party I attended a week ago.”

      She laughed gently. “Connal insisted that Calhoun and Abby had a daughter just after their second child was born. They don’t. They have a son named Terry, and when Connal heard the name, he assumed they’d gotten the daughter they wanted. He knows better now, of course, but it’s become something of a family joke. Not that anybody mentions it to Calhoun or Abby.”

      “Terry is kind of a unisex name,” Randall said.

      “It’s short for Terrance, which isn’t,” she corrected. “Imagine that—two brothers and six sons and not a girl in the bunch.” She shook her head.

      “What about Shelby’s brother, Tyler?”

      “He and his wife can’t have children,” Anna said with quiet regret. “But they’ve adopted five! Nell was very upset, but Tyler involved her in one of those foster parent programs. In no time, she was knee-deep in kids who’d had no real home at all. They said the children are the greatest miracle of their lives.”

      “A unique solution,” Randall agreed. “One couple in seven is infertile. It must be difficult, although they seem to have found a way to cope with the loss.”

      Anna lowered her eyes to the punch table and thought about never having Evan’s children. Not that she would, because he had Nina. It was sad and sobering.

      “I suppose if you love each other, no obstacle is insurmountable,” СКАЧАТЬ