The Best Bride. Сьюзен Мэллери

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СКАЧАТЬ jerked his thumb toward the door. “Get out of here, you traitor.” He followed Austin down the hall toward the front door, all the while accompanied by the sound of Elizabeth’s laughter.

      “I’ll get you for this,” he said as Austin got into his car.

      “I’m scared.” Austin gave him a salute. “Enjoy the ladies.” He pulled his car door shut and started the engine.

      When Travis returned to the dining room, Rebecca had come out of the kitchen.

      “Oh, is he gone?” she asked, twisting her hands together. “I hate it when that happens.”

      Elizabeth glanced at the other woman. “What exactly happened?”

      Rebecca sank into her chair and buried her face in her hands. “I can’t be around that man without turning into a klutz. I have a master’s degree, I got good grades in school. I run the entire child services department for the county.” She looked up at Travis. “I do a good job, don’t I?”

      “The best.” He had to fight back a grin.

      “Don’t you dare laugh, Travis,” she said. “I’m a pathetic creature. Every time I’m around that man, I fall apart. I drop things.” She grimaced at the tablecloth. “Or spill them. I can’t finish my sentences. I’ve only met him three times, but it’s getting worse.” She sighed. “Maybe I should move.”

      Elizabeth giggled. Rebecca turned toward her. “This is not funny.”

      “I’m sorry.” Elizabeth bit her lower lip, then burst out laughing. “You have a crush on him.”

      “I know. It’s awful.”

      Travis reached over and rested his hand on Rebecca’s shoulder. “Be careful, kid. Austin has broken more hearts than my brothers and I put together. He’s not into relationships except for the convenient kind.”

      She looked up at him and smiled. She was dressed in a floral print dress that floated around her body. The garment was loose enough not to even hint at curves below. With her long hair, minimal makeup and flat shoes, she looked like everyone’s stereotypical idea of a librarian. Or a Sunday school teacher. The innocence lurking in her gaze had been one of the reasons nothing had happened between them. He didn’t want that on his already-full conscience.

      “I know that,” Rebecca said. “There’s just something about him.”

      “He’s dangerous.”

      “Yeah, kinda like you.”

      * * *

      He and Rebecca sat on the front porch swing while Elizabeth put Mandy to bed. He could hear the sounds of Mandy’s laughter floating out of the upstairs window. He liked the domesticity of their arrangement. If he couldn’t have the real thing, this was a damn close second best.

      “Elizabeth seems very nice,” Rebecca said, pushing off the porch with her foot and causing the swing to rock.

      “Uh-huh.”

      “That’s what I like best about our friendship,” she said, poking him in the side. “Your articulate statements.”

      He didn’t bother responding. Rebecca had something to say, but he wasn’t going to make it any easier for her.

      “You’re a fool if you let her get away.”

      He didn’t answer.

      “I know you probably think it’s too soon to know if she’s the one or not, but you two look right together. She’s bright, funny, great with her daughter and—”

      “Shut up.” He softened the words by resting his arm on the back of Rebecca’s shoulders and pulled her next to him.

      “But—”

      “No, Rebecca. I can’t do this. I’m not a fool if I let her go, I’m a fool if I try again. You’re right. Elizabeth is great. Mandy’s irresistible, but so what? I come from a long line of failures in the relationship department. None of my uncles, or my brothers have been able to make it work. Neither could I.”

      “Maybe Julie wasn’t the right one for you.”

      “Maybe I should quit trying to be something I’m not.”

      She looked up at him. The porch light illuminated her pale skin and the concern in her eyes. She was as slender and fragile as a porcelain figurine, and just as beautiful. He’d held her close, even kissed her once. And felt nothing. Damn. Why did Elizabeth Abbott have to be the one to make him crazy? It would have been easier to try again with Rebecca. He told himself it was because they were friends, but he knew better. It would have been easier with Rebecca because with her he didn’t have as much to lose.

      “You don’t have to be like them,” she said, snuggling closer. There was a slight chill in the air. He welcomed the decrease in temperature. Maybe it would cool his desire. “You’re your own person. Blaze a new path. Start a new tradition in the Haynes dynasty.”

      “If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it’s probably a duck. No point in trying to be something else.”

      She grinned. “What are you saying?”

      He chuckled. “That I’m a duck.”

      “Well, go ahead and be one if it makes you happy.”

      The ”trouble was it didn’t make him one bit happy. He wanted more. That was the hell of it. He couldn’t be like his father, going from woman to woman. None of his brothers were. They all wanted to make a relationship work and settle down with one woman. Like them, he wanted to get married, have a herd of children and wake up in the same bed for the next fifty years. What right did he have to try for something that was doomed to failure?

      “But maybe Julie wasn’t the one for you.”

      “She was the perfect wife. A guy couldn’t ask for more.”

      “Maybe you didn’t love her.”

      Interesting thought. He was beginning to think he didn’t know what love was.

      “Travis!”

      He stood up when he heard Elizabeth call his name. “Be right back.”

      Rebecca rose and stretched. “I’ll come with you. I want to say good-night to Elizabeth and then leave. I have a lot of work tomorrow.”

      She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. He waited, hoping for some reaction. Some hint of desire. Nothing. Not even the tiniest spark. She could have been his sister.

      “Hang in there,” she said.

      “I will.” He opened the front door for her to go in first.

      Elizabeth watched Rebecca and Travis enter the hallway. They looked good together. Both tall and attractive. Rebecca said something, and Travis laughed. How easily they spent time together. Elizabeth fought down a feeling of envy. After the first year СКАЧАТЬ