I can understand that.
She glanced at him, but she couldnt see him well enough to gauge his expression.
He leaned toward her, his eyes narrowed. Why did you come out here?
I wanted to do something wild just once in my life, if you must
know, she replied. My sistershes five years older than I amleads me around like Im a lost soul. Shes so afraid that Ill have a terrible accident and die. Our parents are gone, and that would leave her alone in the world. I cant seem to breathe without Joyce Ann asking if Ive got asthma. I havent been out of Jacksonville in my whole life, so I thought it was time. I escaped on a plane and didnt tell Joyce Ann where I was going. I left her a note and told her Id call her in a week and tell her where I was.
I imagine shes worried, he said quietly.
Probably. She stared at her hands. I guess it was a cowardly thing to do.
Why dont you go inside and call her? You dont have to tell her where you are. Just tell her youre all right.
She hesitated, but only for a minute. I should, shouldnt I? she asked softly.
Yes, you should. He got up and reached a lean, very strong hand down to pull her up. For a few seconds, they were almost touching and she had her first really good look at his face.
He had a lean face with a jutting chin and thin lips and high cheekbones. His eyebrows were dark over deep-set eyes and there were little wrinkly lines at the edges of his eyes. His hair was thick and very dark and he combed it all straight back away from his face. He was a hard-looking man, but appearances could be deceptive. He was much more approachable than shed imagined.
If she was looking, then so was he. His gaze was slow and very thorough, taking in her delicate features like a mop soaking up water. The hand still holding hers contracted with a caressing kind of pressure that made her stomach tighten as if something electric had jumped inside it. She almost gasped at the surge of delicious feeling.
Dont stay up too late, he said. Youre two hours behind your time in Jacksonville. It will take a couple more days for you to get used to the difference.
All right. Thank you, Mr. Lang.
Most people call me Nate, he said quietly.
Nate. She liked the way it sounded. He must have liked it, too, because he actually smiled. He dropped her hand and stood back, letting her move around the chair and back to the small guest cabin she occupied. She paused at the corner of the patio and looked back. She made a little farewell gesture with her hand, smiled back self-consciously, and went on her way.
Chapter Two
You might at least have asked my advice, the older woman said. Honestly, Christy, I dont know whats gotten into you lately. The new clothes, the new hairstyle, and going without your
Now, Joyce Ann, Christy soothed, you said yourself that I was getting into a rut. Im fine. There are some very handsome men out here, she added, dangling the sentence like bait.
Joyce Ann swallowed it whole. Men?
Thats right. Especially one. Hes very dashing and romantic, and hes always talking to me. Well, that was true, except that the way he was talking to her wouldnt sound very romantic to her sister.
Well, he couldnt be much worse than Harry, I guess, came the reply.
Christy didnt like thinking about Harry. He was more of a last resort than a suitor, the kind of man her more staid image attracted. Harry probably wouldnt have cared for the new her. Harrys been nice to me, she said. Its just that he wants a mother for his sons more than he wants a wife.
You arent desperate enough to marry Harry, Joyce Ann said firmly. Now tell me about this Arizona man.
Hes sexy and very nice.
Thats different, Joyce Ann said, and laughed. In that case, Ill forgive you for worrying me to death. How long are you going to stay?
Another week or so.
Good, good. Darling, do let me know how things go. And do, please, wear your
Goodnight, Joyce Ann. Ill keep in touch, I promise!
She hung up with a long sigh. That was out of the way. Now she could enjoy herself, without having Joyce Ann hang over her shoulder trying to shove men in her path.
The image change was her own idea, though, not her sisters. She was tired of the routine her life had become. She wanted to do something wild, something different. And people had to take chances and do outrageous things once in a while if they didnt want to stagnate. So shed signed on for this expedition, something shed always longed to do, shed bought new clothes unlike anything shed ever worn before, and shed changed her appearance. There were a few little minor drawbacks, like walking
into people, but in the meantime she was having a ball. Until tonight, shed actually forgotten Harry and his plans for her.
As she got ready for bed, she thought about Nathanial Langs attitude toward her. For a man who found her an impossible trial, hed certainly changed his tune. Hed been almost companionable tonight. She remembered how nervous shed felt around him at their first meeting, and compared it with the ease of talking to him earlier. It was as if hed wanted her to be curious about his life, to want to know him as a person. And, she discovered, she honestly did. He wasnt quite the stick-in-the-mud shed thought he was. He was much more. She went to sleep on that tantalizing thought.