Texas Magic. Nancy Robards Thompson

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СКАЧАТЬ roses were now drooping and showing their age. However, the blunt, thorn-free stems, chopped to uniform perfection and bound tightly in virginal, white satin ribbon, were still perfectly in place.

      None of those roses could possibly break free from the pack. Now, if that wasn’t a metaphor for the Coopersmith family way...

      In Caroline’s mind, a vision flashed of herself growing old and used up but still toeing the line at Coopersmith & Bales. All the blood drained from her head.

      Drew stirred. His hand went up to his face, and he scrubbed his eyes before he propped himself up on his elbow.

      “Good morning.” His voice was a hoarse rasp. He eyed her up and down, and the last traces of bravado she had been full of last night vanished, like someone deadheading roses.

      “Good morning.” Her words slipped out on a whisper.

      Grasping the lapels of her robe, she held them together, as if she were all modesty and virtue.

      Oh, God, help me. It was too late for that now—too late for help or for modesty and virtue.

      Drew patted the empty side of the bed next to him. “Come here.”

      It took a couple of beats to unstick her bare feet from the floor, but finally she forced her legs to move. She perched primly on the edge of the bed next to him, her hands in her lap. Her gaze again landed on the bridal bouquet, but she redirected it to Drew.

      He looked so darn sexy lying there on his side, propped up on his elbow, the sheet pulled up to his waist, barely covering his hipbones. His biceps bulged and his broad shoulders looked a mile wide. She swallowed around the angst that was blocking her airway.

      “Do you want some coffee?” she offered, finally finding her voice, then cringing at the inane question.

      “No thanks.” His hand was on her back, kneading her shoulder through the soft terry of the robe. “That’s not what I’m in the mood for just now.”

      Without another word, he reached out and ran a finger along her jawline, down her neck, to the collar of her robe.

      In one firm motion, he pulled her on top of him. And coffee completely lost its appeal.

      * * *

      “Tell me everything, and don’t you dare skip a single detail,” demanded Pepper Merriweather.

      Caroline and Pepper had been best friends for as far back as they both could remember. Tonight they sat at Caroline’s kitchen table, sharing a bottle of pinot noir and some to-die-for parmesan spinach dip Pepper had commandeered from the kitchen of Celebrations, Inc.

      They’d settled in with a spread of crudités and crackers, and Pepper was obviously expecting the details of Caroline’s time with Drew to be the main course.

      Seeing as how they always told each other everything—stories about first boyfriends, first kisses, first heartbreaks, first and last dates—Caroline was having a hard time coming up with diversionary tactics. Because Caroline wasn’t so eager to share the story of her first one-night stand.

      She wasn’t embarrassed. On the contrary, she was rather proud that for once she had not bowed to fear and had taken what she wanted. Not to mention the fact that it had happened with a guy like Drew Montgomery. That they’d spent all of Sunday morning in bed. Later they’d gone to brunch and had played together all day, until he’d dropped her off at home.

      When was the last time she had played?

      She had shared the surface points with Pepper. It was the more intimate details she was keeping closer to her chest.

      Really, the only reason she and Pepper were having this conversation was that Pepper had said she’d seen Caroline and Drew dancing at the wedding Saturday night...and then she had seen the two of them leave together. Pepper tended to have a special kind of radar for things like that.

      Now here Caroline was with her friend on Monday evening, sharing a bottle of wine, Pepper getting bolder and more insistent with each sip. The vaguer the answers Caroline gave, the more Pepper demanded the details.

      The truth was, Caroline felt sort of like Cinderella having been to the ball, having danced with the prince all night, and now her coach had turned back into a pumpkin. Like Cinderella, she wanted more, despite the pact that she had made with herself that it would be just one night. But one night had turned into the next day, and pretty soon that pact she had made with herself was falling through the porch cracks as Drew kissed her good-night just before midnight.

      So, now pactless and wanting more, she wasn’t sure how Drew felt.

      When he left, he had not promised he’d call. Caroline had convinced herself that that was a good thing. Because if he’d said it, she would’ve gotten her hopes up, only to have them dashed when he did not follow through.

      Instead, he had not said it, and here she sat uncertain and vulnerable with her hopes up anyway.

      Oh, God, what made me think I could have a one-night stand?

      She dug her nails into her palms and reminded herself that it was what it was. She had wanted one perfect night with a guy who was perfectly imperfect for her. One night to release all the wedding stress and then she would return to her regularly scheduled life, which had no room for ongoing romance.

      Because of that, she did not dare try to find her prince or hope that her prince would care enough to find her again—although Drew did know where she lived, and she already knew he made no pretense of being Prince Charming.

      Well, okay, he’d earned the charming part. That was part of the reason she did not feel like dishing the details with her friend.

      Pepper picked up the bottle of pinot noir and refilled Caroline’s wineglass. That was an unspoken signal, and Caroline knew that in exactly four...three...two...one...

      “Never in a million years would I have picked out a guy like him for you. But good for you, honey.” She pushed Caroline’s glass toward her and then clinked it with her own. “Cheers! I mean, if I’d been paired up with him, I would’ve gone for him myself. But it was obvious that he only had eyes for you.”

      Caroline smiled and shrugged as she sipped her wine, racking her brain for something—anything—to change the subject.

      Too late.

      “Now, I know y’all spent the night together,” Pepper said, “but the burning question is, when are you going to see him again?”

      There was a sparkle in Pepper’s eyes that hinted that her doing such a thing would be pure decadence...and maybe even highly recommended.

      Caroline tried to act nonchalant, despite the heat she felt rising in her cheeks. “I don’t know,” she answered truthfully. “I guess that remains to be seen.”

      Pepper straightened in her chair as if Caroline had just revealed the juiciest secret of all. “So that means you would see him again?”

      Pepper cocked her head to the side, holding her wineglass midair.

      “Well, why wouldn’t I?”

      Pepper СКАЧАТЬ