Lone Star Wedding. Sandra Steffen

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СКАЧАТЬ can’t, Parker.”

      Parker understood a simple no when he heard one. This wasn’t a courtroom, and she wasn’t a witness he could badger. She was a woman, and she’d made herself perfectly clear. He straightened and carefully returned the clasp to the edge of her desk. He did a quick inventory of the room. There were framed photographs on several shelves behind her; a yellow flowered sofa sat at a comfortable angle near a matching overstuffed chair. White lights were strung through the fronds of huge potted plants. Balloons bobbed from strings that were tied to an antique filing cabinet, a cardboard cut-out clown propped nearby.

      It occurred to him that Hannah Cassidy made her living from planning more than weddings. Redistributing his weight to one foot, he said, “I’d like to hire you.”

      “What?”

      She had a suspicious mind. He’d given her good reason for it. “I’m thinking about having a party.”

      “You’re kidding.” Her disbelief showed in the tone of her voice. Recovering slightly, she said, “What kind of party?”

      “I don’t know. I just thought of it.”

      “Parker, why are you really here?”

      That was a good question. He worded his answer very carefully. “It isn’t because I have a lot of idle time. It’s just the opposite. Yesterday I was trying to talk an irate husband out of hiring a private investigator to follow his wife, whom he suspected was cheating. I was in the middle of trying to explain that in no-fault divorce states, there’s no use. Suddenly your image crowded into my brain. You’re interfering with my concentration.”

      Hannah didn’t know what to say. Doggone it, she felt complimented. She had no business feeling that way. She and Parker were complete opposites. While she planned weddings down to the smallest detail, he took marriages apart, asset by asset.

      “Look. I have an appointment across town with a very anxious bride to be.” She opened a drawer and pulled out a price list and several brochures depicting the different themes she’d used in planning parties. Placing the pamphlets near the edge of her desk, she said, “You can look these over, if you’d like. If you truly want my help planning a party, let me know. Otherwise…”

      He glanced at the brochures, the rest of her statement hanging in the air, unfinished. That “otherwise” spoke volumes. He could hire her services as a party planner, but she didn’t plan to see him socially.

      “I see,” he said. “Maybe I’ll do that.”

      “Goodbye, Parker.”

      Hannah watched him stride toward the door. It was in her own best interests to let him go. And she was letting him go. It was better this way. A clean break from what could have turned out to be a disastrous relationship.

      She covered her lips with three fingers, remembering how it had felt to kiss him. If she let him go, how would she ever know what might have been?

      She didn’t need to know. It was for the best. For both of them.

      She wondered if he’d really been burning the candle at both ends. Had there been shadows beneath his eyes?

      “Parker?”

      His fingers were already wrapped around the doorknob when he turned around. His eyes looked hooded. She couldn’t read their expression from here. “You forgot your brochures.”

      He retraced his steps, taking the brochures from her outstretched hand. Praying she didn’t regret this, she took a breath for courage and said, “I can’t have lunch with you, but I could free up my schedule for this evening. We could talk about this party you suddenly want to have then.”

      The eyes staring into hers filled with a curious intensity. “Dinner?” he asked.

      She pushed her chair out and stood. “That would be too much like a date.”

      There was a good reason for that, Parker thought. “What else did you have in mind?”

      “Do you own a bike?”

      “A motorcycle?”

      She shook her head. “A bicycle.”

      “Not since I was thirteen.”

      “That’s what I thought. You probably don’t have a pair of in-line skates in the back of your closet, either. Something tells me you get your exercise playing racquetball or walking on a treadmill. I prefer more spontaneous activities.”

      Parker had the strangest urge to defend himself.

      “Maybe we could go for a walk,” she said.

      “You want to take a walk?”

      She smiled. “That sounds lovely. Thanks, I’d love to.”

      Parker shook his head. She thought she was so smart. That was okay. He happened to like smart women. “I’ll stop by around seven.”

      “You can if you want to, but I won’t be back until seven-thirty.” She was grinning openly now.

      “Seven-thirty, it is.”

      “Oh, and Parker? I have one small stipulation.”

      Of course she did.

      “You can’t try to arm wrestle me into using my influence to change my mother’s mind about going public with her engagement to Ryan.”

      Parker took a frank and admiring look at her. Her hair was down today, her dress a creamy beige that seemed to blend in with her surroundings. She had a great body, but he was beginning to realize that in front of him stood a woman who preferred to be recognized for having a great mind.

      “If we arm wrestle,” he said, his gaze delving hers, “it’ll be to determine how far we go.”

      Leaving her to mull that over, he strode loftily out the door.

      Three

      “Look, Parker, there’s a paddleboat.”

      Parker glanced at the contraption moored to the edge of the boardwalk that lined the San Antonio River. Yes, he supposed the apparatus floating on two plastic pontoons was in the paddleboat category. Why Hannah was hurrying toward it was beyond him. “Where are you going?”

      She slowed down as she glanced over her shoulder, but he noticed she didn’t stop completely. “I heard they were going to try these out again along with the newer, motor-powered ones they’ve been using these past several years. Let’s take a boat ride. Hurry, before someone else beats us to it.”

      Following her around a table of women who were lingering over desserts and iced teas along Paseo del Rio, or River Walk, a dining and shopping district in downtown San Antonio, Parker wondered if he was the only one who noticed that people weren’t exactly lining up to ride the leg-powered devices. He figured there was a good reason for that. It required energy, something that Hannah hadn’t run out of since they’d set off on their “little” walk an hour and a half ago.

      It СКАЧАТЬ