The Md She Had To Marry Part 20

back against him.

She folded her arms over her stomach and remained fully upright. "Logan, you say you're happy with

me."

"I am."

"Then why can't you let the past go? Why can't you forgive my sister for ... choosing another man over you?" She turned beneath his hands, so she could face him. "I don't call her anymore, Logan. Because I feel uncomfortable myself, about the whole thing. I don't want it to be like this. I don't want to lose touch with her. She's my sister. And she's my friend. And I love her very much."

"I never said I expected you to cut off contact with her."

"No. But you ... you don't want me to talk about her. You behave as if you'd just as soon forget that she and Mack even exist."

She paused, waiting for him to argue with her, to rea.s.sure her, to tell her he didn't mind talking about Jenna at all. That he most certainly did not want to forget she existed.

But he didn't argue.

She made her final point. "You won't go and visit her."

He did have a reply to that. "I will. Eventually. You just have to back off a little. Give me a little more time."

More time. "You already said that."

"And I think it's a reasonable request."

She stared at him, thinking, I love you. Do you love me?

Should she ask him?

Somehow, she just couldn't bear to.

It seemed to her that a declaration of love ought to be freely given. It wasn't something a woman should pull out of a man-like a splinter or a shameful confession. She warned in a gentle voice, "Don't take too much time,Logan. Eventually I'll simply go toKey West without you."

"I understand," he said.

"Do you?"

"Let it go, Lace."

"All right. I will. For now."

Two days later, when Jenna called, Lacey told her it would be a while before she andLoganvisited.

Jenna didn't ask why. She said she'd look forward to their visit whenever it came. And that any time Lacey needed her, all she had to do was call. The phone rang again not two minutes after Lacey hung up from her conversation with Jenna. It was Barnaby Cole. "I had to call you. My fingers were just itching to punch up your number." Lacey laughed, but her heart had started beating hard and fast. "What?" "They just left."

"I take it you mean Xavier and Belinda Goldstone."

"You take it right." Barnaby's voice, always deep and booming, seemed even deeper than usual, and charged with excitement. Lacey could see him in her mind's eye, a chocolate-skinned, muscular giant of a man, hunched over the phone, fiddling with the small gold hoop he always wore in his left ear.

"How long were they there?" she demanded.

"Over an hour."

"And? What happened? Barnaby, stop torturing me. Tell me, before I have a heart attack."

"Tell you-?"

"Everything."

"Everything." He chuckled, that low, rolling chuckle of his that Lacey had always loved. "All right. Let's

see. They came up the freight elevator, since that's the only way to get here. Xavier made the introductions. The art dealer said the same thing that everybody says. It must be fabulous to have all this s.p.a.ce-but the neighborhood is so dangerous, didn't I worry a little about my own safety? I said-"

"Barnaby. Stop it." He chuckled some more. "Stop what?" "When I said 'everything,' you know what I meant. He pretended innocence. "Oh. You want to hear about yourpaintings ..." "That's right. So tell me. Tell me right now." "Well, let's see. I'd taken them out of the storage racks and propped them against the walls of the studio, in the order you told me to. I led both the Goldstone woman and Xavier back there. She took one look at them-"

"Oh, G.o.d." Lacey ordered herself to breathe. "What?"

"-and she turned to Xavier and me-we were standing behind her. She waved at us, a shooing gesture, with the back of her hand. 'Leave me alone,' she said. 'Give a woman some s.p.a.ce.'"

"So? You and Xavier-" "We went out to the kitchen area. I bought an espresso machine, did I tell you? We made lattes." "You and Xavier made lattes, while Belinda Goldstone looked at my paintings." "That's right. She was in there forever." "And when she came out?" "She was very quiet. I offered her a latte. She said she had to get back to the gallery." "And that's all?" "You should have seen her face." "Why? What was wrong with it?" "Nothing. She loved what she saw." "Youthink she loved what she saw." "No, Iknow she loved what she saw. She'll be calling you, just wait." "Wait?" Lacey let out a wild laugh. "Wait?I'll go crazy..." "Call Xavier. Maybe she said something more to him after they left." She did call Xavier. He didn't answer, so she left him a message. He called back two hours later, after she'd nursed Rosie and changed her diaper and spent the rest of the time pacing the floor.

Xavier said virtually the same thing Barnaby had said. That he was sure Belinda Goldstone would be

calling her soon. "Soon? When issoon?" "It's Friday, Lace. And it's after three. The working week is over." "Oh. Great. That's just great." "I'm sure she'll call you Monday. Or sometime next week." "I might have a nervous breakdown before then." "A nervous breakdown would be counterproductive. My advice is to work." "Work." "Yes. And do ... whatever mothers do with their infants. Go someplace wonderful for dinner. Make love with your husband. Live your life and live it well."

"If Belinda Goldstone happens to call you-"

"She won't. Not about you. It's between you and her now. I gave her your number."

"She asked for it?"

"Yes. So settle down. Wait. She will call. She'll ask you to meet with her. She'll offer to become your dealer. And she'll want to discuss your first show with her gallery."

"You're talking about it as if it's really going to happen."

"Because it is. Wait and see-and calm down. You deserve this, Lace. Remember that. You've worked long and hard to get to this point." * * * Lacey decided not to tellLoganabout the calls fromL.A.She had no real news yet, and he'd seemed so cool on the subject the other time they'd discussed it. She decided it would be wiser to wait until she had something concrete to say. By the time he came home, after eight, she had settled down considerably. She'd even spent a couple of hours in her studio working on a painting she'd started of the twins.

He brought flowers. And his eyes were tender and hopeful.

He didn't mention Jenna or the argument of the night before. But he did say, "I missed you all day. I couldn't wait to get home and get my arms around you."

He gave her the flowers and then hardly allowed her the time to put them in a vase before he was pulling her close and raining kisses on her upturned face.

"I love kissing you. It's something about the way you smell, like no one else, so d.a.m.n sweet..." His lips moved down to her throat. He began to draw on the skin. She laughed, putting up a playful struggle. "Remember. Tomorrow night. The Health Aid Society Banquet."

He growled against her neck and took his bruising kiss lower.

A few minutes later, he was leading her toward the stairs, stopping in the breakfast room and the hall, first to remove her big s.h.i.+rt and then her skinny tube top, which he'd already slid down so it was bunched around her waist.

On the stairs, he helped her out of her shoes. He took away hercapri pants in the balcony hall. By the time they reached their bedroom, all she had left was a pair of red bikini panties.

He got rid of them, too.

Then he guided her down onto the bed and he kissed her all over, until she moaned and writhed and forgot all about the love words he never said and the sister he wouldn't visit and his cool, distant responses when she'd hinted at a breakthrough in her career.

* * * The next night, at the Meadow Valley Country Club, Lacey andLoganshared a table with Dan and Fiona and Helen and her husband, Bud. After the food and the speeches, there was dancing. Lacey whirled in her husband's arms and thought that being the wife of a handsome doctor did have its moments-especially when the doctor in question wasLogan.

They danced for a half hour without stopping, waiting on the floor as each number ended, and then picking up the rhythm again when a new song began. Finally, though, the five-piece combo took a break.

Lacey whispered in her husband's ear, "We're going to have to leave soon, I'm afraid."

He knew what she meant. "Are you all right?"

"So far." Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s were beginning to feel just a bit uncomfortable. "But I'd say that Rosie's probably getting hungry and I would prefer not to have a leaking accident-and don't look now, but that nice pharmaceutical supplies salesman is headed our way. I think it's time I paid a visit to the ladies' room."

Loganheld her closer and murmured for her ears alone, "Great. Leave me when I need you most." She kissed him on the cheek. "I'll be back. Then we'll go." The salesman was closing in asLoganreluctantly released her. Lacey followed the arrows to the club's black and white marble ladies' room, which was, surprisingly enough, unoccupied. She proceeded down to the end stall. She'd barely shut the door and engaged the latch when she heard the main door open again. High heels tapped against the marble tiles.

"No one here." That was Helen Sanderson's voice, pitched low, but quite clear. Voices carried easily, amplified against the cool marble walls. Lacey froze, feeling awkward and a little silly, wondering if she should announce her own presence, then thinking how gauche that would sound. She heard a stall door open, then another, and then two sets of footsteps again, this time entering the stalls.

"She really is lovely," Helen said. Two latches clicked shut. "And quite charming, as well."

"Yes." That was Fiona. "Those gorgeous big blue eyes and that angelic face-you did hear the story, didn't you?"

Dread. Lacey felt it. Like a lead weight in her stomach. She knew what was coming.

And it was.

"Of course," Helen said."Jenna Bravo's sister.An affair that resulted in pregnancy. A marriage was

probably the best choice, under the circ.u.mstances. And they certainly do appear devoted to each other."

Lacey leaned her forehead against the cool metal of the stall door thinking,It's too late to speak up now. She lifted her head, straightened her shoulders. Buck up, she silently instructed herself. The things they're saying are only the truth. "Yes," said Fiona. "I think it's all working out rather well.It's obviousLoganis thoroughly taken with her. I think a lot of it is-oh, how to say it-physical? But there's nothing necessarily wrong with that, now is there? Over time, I'm sure the relations.h.i.+p will deepen and mature."

One toilet flushed, and then the other.

Lacey thought. That's all. They're going to shut up now.

They weren't.

Helen said, "I understand you've been taking her under your wing."

"I have," Fiona replied. "I really do enjoy her. And I think, as time goes by, she'll settle down. She did have a few problems as a high school girl. Wild antics and crazy pranks. And she ran away a lot, from what I've been able to find out. But all that's in the past. Nothing to worry about now, from what I can see. I'm trying to guide her along a little, to get her involved with the auxiliary at Miner's General and a few other important pet projects of mine. She insists she doesn't have the time, that she's going tomake something of herself as an artist."

"So I heard." The stall latches clicked again, the women's shoes echoed on the marble tiles.

Lacey remained absolutely still. She thought, I will be quiet. I will be tactful. I will do what my sister would have done under these circ.u.mstances. I will wait here with my mouth shut until they leave.

Water ran in the basins. Fiona declared, "Marrying Logan is the best thing that ever could have happened to her. She's been living hand-to-mouth inLos Angelesthe past several years, hoping her art would someday support her." The water stopped. Lacey heard the whisk-thump of paper towels being pulled from dispensers. "It's sad, I think, a bright, sweet girl like that, with such big dreams and no hope of their ever coming true."

That did it. It was just one condescending remark too many.

Lacey whirled and hit the flush b.u.t.ton, though she'd never gotten around to using the toilet. Maybe it was small-minded of her, but she found the corresponding hush from the sink area gratifying in the extreme.

Then she turned back to the door, clicked open the latch and exited the stall, shoulders back andchin aimed high.

Fiona and Helen turned from the mirrors with matching expressions of mortified horror.

Fiona found her voice first. It sounded slightly choked. "Uh, Lacey. Oh, my..."

Lacey granted Fiona a blinding smile as she stepped up to the sink and flipped on the gold-tone faucet.

She squirted soap onto her palm and stuck her hands beneath the water, sending a second smile, as dazzling as the first, in the doctor's direction. She said sweetly, "You two really ought to find a more private setting for your intimate conversations." Fiona started to speak, and then coughed instead. Helen merely continued to look dismayed. Lacey turned off the water and yanked a towel from the dispenser. "I'll tell you what. Sometime in the next year or so, I'm having a major show of some of my most recent paintings, inLos Angeles-have you heard about my show?"

Both women, in unison, swung their heads from side-to-side.

Lacey wadded her towel and tossed it in the trash. "Well, you have now. And of course, you will both be invited. Can I count on you to come?"