His Valentine Bride. Cindy Kirk

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СКАЧАТЬ can say they’ve seen you at your worst?”

      “Ha, ha.” Betsy was thankful her voice came out all casual and offhand, which was a real feat considering her knees had gone boneless and she was having difficulty thinking with him so near.

      He sat back and his gaze zeroed in on a large buffet table at the back of the great room. A pristine white linen cloth with scalloped edges covered the oak top, but it appeared to be the food which had captured Ryan’s attention.

      “Is that—” he turned to her, his eyes wide and guileless “—shrimp cocktail? I could get you one. Maybe you’re not allergic anymore.”

      Betsy jabbed him in the ribs, forgetting he was the man she’d loved—and lusted after—for years. “Settle down, or I’m going to tell everyone the story of when Keenan locked you out of the locker room in your boxers—”

      “You’re right. Stay clear of the shrimp.”

      She couldn’t help it. Betsy laughed with sheer joy. This was the Ryan she wanted. Not the perfectly behaved gentleman lawyer who hadn’t cracked one joke all week. But the Ryan who made her laugh and with whom she shared a common history.

      If only she could figure out a way to capture this moment. And better yet, find a way to translate friendship into love.

      In the past ninety minutes Adrianna had talked to everyone but him. Yet Ryan wasn’t discouraged. He’d already accomplished a lot for one evening. When the hostess suggested a rousing game of charades, he knew it was time to leave on a high note.

      Ryan glanced at the woman by his side, delicately picking a piece of chicken meat from the bone. Her brows were pulled together and she was studying the tiny piece of meat as if it were a complex legal case she was researching. He got the feeling Betsy was bored, too.

      Actually, he realized, she was what had saved this party from being a total washout. They’d roamed the room like a couple of old friends, laughing and talking to others they knew and some they’d just met. The buffet table had drawn their attention several times and they’d picked and chosen from its sumptuous bounty.

      Betsy was fun, with a quick wit and a sly sense of humor in sync with his own. They talked about the old days and he’d just finished reliving his high school prom debacle when Betsy had decided she desperately needed more wings.

      “It’s no wonder you had to lasso a few more,” he said to her. “There isn’t enough meat on one to feed an ant.”

      A becoming shade of pink rose up her neck, but she lifted her chin. “I didn’t eat supper. So I’m not quite the porker I appear to be.”

      “Porker?” He dropped his gaze and slowly surveyed her lean but curvy body. “Not hardly.”

      The pink on her cheeks deepened to red. “You don’t need to make nice,” she said with a dismissive wave. “I love to eat. In fact several times during my childhood I was sorely tempted to cut the candy heart out of my Raggedy Ann.”

      “You played with dolls?”

      “I did when I was a little girl.”

      “You just never seemed the doll-playing type to me,” he said. “I don’t recall seeing any lying around your house.”

      “That’s because I hardly had any.” Betsy dropped the chicken wing to her plate, then wiped her fingers on a linen napkin. “Keenan bought Raggedy Ann for me with his paper-route money. She was my first and only doll. He was ten and I was five.”

      “Keenan bought a doll with his paper-route money.” Ryan could barely fathom that the rough-and-tumble friend from his youth would do something like that, even if it was for his little sister.

      The realization that perhaps he hadn’t known Keenan as well as he thought he did hadn’t even had time to settle in when Betsy grabbed the front of his sweater in her hand and pulled him close. “Don’t you say one word to him about it either.” Her eyes grew piercing. “Understand?”

      Ryan considered teasing her a bit more, but something in her eyes made him simply nod. Growing up in the McGregor household hadn’t been easy for either Keenan or Betsy. If his friend had found a way to make it easier on his little sister, well, Ryan would give him a break on the doll thing.

      Betsy’s gaze drifted to the groups already forming for the game. She wrinkled her nose. “I hate charades.”

      “That makes two of us,” Ryan said. “Want to sneak out?”

      A look he couldn’t quite decipher skittered across Betsy’s face. Then she sighed. “You came with Mitzi, remember?”

      Mitzi? Heck, he hadn’t seen the brunette since he’d walked through the door behind her. And that was just the way they both wanted it. “We drove separately.”

      Ryan thought for a minute. He hadn’t seen Betsy with anyone all night, with the exception of him, of course. But that didn’t mean she hadn’t come with someone. “What about you?”

      “I’m on my own.” The words came out on a little sigh.

      “Good.”

      She cocked her head. “Why good?”

      He smiled. “Because you and I are going to do some serious partying and now there’s nothing standing in our way.”

       Chapter Three

      Betsy glanced at the glass of wine in her hand. Could someone have slipped something in her drink? That was the only explanation. She had to be hallucinating. There was no way on God’s green earth that Ryan Harcourt would ask her to party with him.

      She glanced up and into those eyes that reminded her of liquid silver. “Pardon?”

      “Good. I knew you’d be up for it.” He disappeared into a bedroom and returned with two coats—her Eskimo-inspired parka and his stylish but rugged L.L.Bean coat.

      “How did you know this one was mine?” she asked, slipping her arm into one sleeve.

      “You’ve worn it to the office every day this week.”

      Yes, but it had also been safely tucked into the coat closet by the time he arrived. While it was warm, Betsy was well aware it wasn’t the most fashionable of outerwear. Obviously all her stealth had been for nothing.

      The man was observant. Too observant. Alarm bells began ringing in her head. He’d noticed her coat. What would be next? Would he one day look in her eyes and see what she tried so hard to hide?

      He can’t know I love him. I won’t allow that to happen.

      “Nothing gets past you,” she said with a halfhearted chuckle.

      “Thanks for the compliment,” he said, sounding pleased.

      Before Betsy knew what was happening, he’d hauled her off to the hostess, and they’d said their goodbyes to everyone, including Adrianna, who seemed oddly pleased to see her best friend leaving the party early.

      Because СКАЧАТЬ