01 - The Heartbreaker (40 page)

He retrieved her bags and stowed them in his car before returning to cup her elbow in a gentlemanly gesture—unlike the cynical behavior he’d exhibited so far today.

A few minutes later they were on their way. Sweat trickled down Kendall’s back as the darn dress plastered to her wet skin. Despite the air-conditioning in the car, the cool blasts of air had done little to relieve the intense heat. Being in such close quarters with Rick Chandler made her body temperature soar, while he apparently remained oblivious to her charms.

He’d become her tour guide, pointing out the sights, such as they were, in his small hometown. All the while, he maintained a respectable distance while he talked. Too respectable, she thought irritably.

“We’re here.” Rick called her attention to Edgemont Street.

She glanced up. From a distance, the old house was just as she remembered it, a huge Victorian with wrap-around porch and large front lawn. A place where she’d shared tea parties and had her first taste of beading and jewelry design before her aunt’s arthritis changed things. It was also the place where Kendall had nurtured childish dreams of staying forever with the aunt she adored.

But Crystal’s home had been temporary, just like every place prior or since. And once her aunt had been forced to send Kendall packing because of her health, Kendall had learned not to invest too much in the way of hopes and dreams in any one place or person. But if she’d learned that lesson well, then why the painful lump in her throat now, as she looked at the dilapidated house up close, through adult eyes? She let out a frustrated sigh.

Rick shifted the car into park and turned, one strong arm wrapped over the seat. “It’s gotten a little run-down over the years.”

“That’s an understatement.” She pasted on a smile. No need to dump her troubles on the man. He’d done enough for her already. “Aunt Crystal said she’d rented out the house. And since she never asked me to take care of anything while she was in the nursing home, even when I questioned her, I assumed things were going well. Guess I was wrong.”

“Appearances can be deceiving. All
is
well. It just depends on your perspective.”

There was that wry humor again. She laughed aloud, liking him way too much.

“Are Pearl and Eldin expecting you?” he asked.

“The renters?” She nodded. “I called from the road and said I’d be in town but I’d take a hotel. They insisted I stay in the guest house in the back.” She wondered if it was in better shape than the main house in front of her. “I’d hoped to work out an agreement for
them
to buy.” With her aunt’s outstanding bills, Kendall needed to sell for a price at or above market value, not below.

She bit down on her lower lip. “If we reach an easy
agreement, I could be out of here by the end of the week,” she said with more optimism than she felt.

Rick remained silent.

“What?”

He shook his head. “Nothing at all. You ready to go inside?”

She nodded, realizing she’d been stalling. Before she could gather her thoughts further, Rick met her by her car door, ready to help her out. She grit her teeth before touching him, then placed her hand inside his. The electricity sizzled, even more charged than before. She couldn’t shake it off, nor did she want to, but apparently he did because he released his grip fast, leaving her to gather her dress and head for the house.

Kendall made her way up the long drive. Her spiked heels kept catching in the broken sections of the driveway but she managed to stay on her feet—until the last step before the walkway, when her heel dug into the hot tar and wedged in good. While one leg stayed behind, her entire body pitched forward in what was destined to be a facedown sprawl onto the hard ground.

She yelped, then shut her eyes, not wanting to see what happened next.

W
hat was it about women and high heels? Rick didn’t know but this one looked damn cute, even in a wedding dress. He watched her wobble up the driveway and would have helped, but he had a suitcase in one hand and a hunch they were both safer at a discreet distance—until she lost her balance.

He couldn’t prevent the fall, but he could cushion the blow and he dove forward, letting her crash on top of him instead of the solid ground. He took the hit with a hard grunt as his back made painful contact with the walkway step. He sucked in a ragged breath and was caught off guard by her fragrant, arousing scent.

Damn but she was something else. Even with the wind knocked out of him, he was aware of her, and not just because her soft flowing hair tickled his face. She was feminine and soft, everything a woman should be and yet this pink-haired enigma was uniquely herself.

“Are you okay?”

He wasn’t sure who asked the question first.

“Nothing bruised but my pride,” she admitted. “You?”

“I’ve taken harder spills sliding into second.”

“Baseball?”

“Softball against neighboring police departments.” The inane conversation did little to take his mind off the fact that he had her in his arms again. The desire licking at him grew stronger, something she couldn’t possibly feel with all that plush lace between them. But despite the dress,
he
could feel plenty and it was time to untangle their bodies before he made an ass of himself by kissing her senseless. “Think you can get off before you crush me?”

“Is that a veiled reference to my weight?” she asked.

Only a confident female could joke like that, cementing the impression that she wasn’t at all like other women. She rolled off to one side and he missed the light pressure against him.

He glanced over and stifled a laugh. Instead of an easy release, she’d tangled herself further in the dress. “You know what they say. If you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself.” He let out an exaggerated groan and rose to his feet. Then he bent down and lifted the fluffy white bundle into his arms.

“What are you doing?” She grabbed for his neck and held on tight.

His back had taken the brunt of the fall and he wasn’t about to risk a repeat episode. “Protecting my vital body parts from further injury.”

“Funny, you felt pretty intact to me.”

He sucked in a sharp breath. So much for the illusion of safety beneath the layered dress. He wanted her and she knew it.

A woman fresh from a broken engagement, one who affected him this strongly, was dangerous. She also was fun, something he just now realized he hadn’t had in a long while. Life had become routine. It was a sad commentary if he could consider his mother and her small female army of recruits routine. But Kendall wasn’t one of his mother’s women and he liked her more for it.

He strode up the walk, leaving the luggage behind and even managed the steps leading to the house with her in his arms. Without warning, the door opened wide. Pearl Robinson, the female renter of her aunt’s house and one half of an elderly couple living in sin, as Pearl was so fond of telling everyone in town, stood before them.

“Eldin, we have company,” Pearl called over her shoulder. She’d been with Eldin Wingate forever. She smoothed her gray hair back in a bun. “I was expecting Crystal’s niece, but not two of you.” Her gaze traveled over both Rick and the woman in his arms. “You’ve been holding out on us, Rick. And you’ve been holding out on your mother too. Why just this morning, she was lamenting her grandchildless fate.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m not surprised.”

Pearl glanced over her shoulder. “Eldin, get your lazy behind out here,” she yelled, since Eldin hadn’t arrived quick enough to suit her. “And hurry up before he drops her.”

“There’s no chance of that,” Rick whispered in Kendall’s ear, not so much to reassure her as to allow himself another heavenly whiff of her fragrant hair.

“But you won’t mind if I don’t take any chances. Just
in case.” She gripped her small, soft hands tighter around his neck.

He liked the feeling.

“I’m coming, woman.” Pearl’s other half came up beside her, a tall man with white hair and all his own teeth. Or so he claimed. “What’s so important you couldn’t bring our guests inside—” He took one look at Rick and his words came to an abrupt halt.

“Hey, Eldin.” Rick resigned himself to the inevitable questions.

“Hot damn, Officer.”

“Didn’t I tell you?” Pearl asked, looking at her significant other. “That’s the reason I won’t be marrying you anytime soon.” She turned to Rick and Kendall. “We’re living in sin,” she said, lowering her voice, not that there was anyone else around to hear.

“Damn woman won’t marry me for the most assinine reason.”

“Eldin has a bad back and I refuse to marry a man who can’t carry me over the threshold. Did I tell you we’re living in sin?” She dropped her voice again.

As Kendall laughed, her breasts brushed against Rick’s chest and his body completely overheated. “Can we come in before I drop her?” he asked.

“Excuse my manners.” Pearl pushed Eldin back and they cleared a path. “You go on now, Rick, carry your bride over the threshold.”

He’d never live this down. Rick paced the inside of the stifling hot guest house behind Crystal Sutton’s main house. Eldin had brought them over so they could “get
settled,” while Pearl had insisted she needed to go to town for some groceries.

“Groceries, my ass,” Rick muttered. She wanted to tell the world that she’d seen Rick Chandler carry his bride over the threshold. Never mind that there’d never been a ceremony or that the bride and supposed groom had just met. Pearl hadn’t been listening.

The tightness in Rick’s shoulders increased. All he could do was hope that when his mother heard the gossip, she’d put an end to the foolishness. Raina would know that Rick hadn’t married or eloped again. She knew better than to buy into unfounded stories. But the news would spread, everyone in town speculating about Rick Chandler and the lady in the wedding dress he’d carried over the threshold.

He groaned and for the first time considered moving to a huge city where he could be anonymous in a large crowd. He shook his head, knowing it would never happen. Despite the memories here, he loved his family, friends, and the small-town feel of Yorkshire Falls too much to leave. But a man could dream, couldn’t he?

He glanced at the closed bathroom door where Kendall had gone to change. His
bride.
He rolled his eyes at the absurdity and swiped a hand over his damp forehead. Damn but it was like a sauna in here. He’d have to make sure Kendall got over to the General Store and picked up an A.C. unit.

Where was she, anyway? She said she’d needed to change out of the gown but that had been over ten minutes ago. He strode to the bathroom door and rapped twice. “You okay in there?”

“Sort of,” came the muffled reply.

He jiggled the handle and found the door locked. He knocked once more. “Open up for me or I’m kicking the door down.” He hoped it wouldn’t come to that. His back and shoulder muscles remained sore from the dive onto the driveway.

The door creaked open wide. He stepped inside in time to see her lower herself back onto the closed toilet seat and hang her head low between her knees. “I am sooo dizzy.”

He glanced at her, concerned. “It’s no wonder with that damn dress cutting off your circulation. I thought you were going to get out of it.”

“I tried, but it’s hot in here and I couldn’t unbutton the dress on my own, so I sat down for a minute. Then I got to thinking about my aunt and all the years she spent here. I stood up, got dizzy again . . .” She managed a shrug.

She liked to ramble, something he’d learned from talking to her by the side of the road. Her thoughts jumped from topic to topic, but one thing stuck with him. Her pain. Rick had lost his father when he was fifteen. He’d been young, but not young enough so he didn’t remember the man. He’d been a hands-on father, attended all his boys’ baseball games and back-to-school nights.

“I lost my father a while back. I can understand what you’re going through now,” he said, compelled to open up to this woman for reasons he didn’t understand. Reasons that made him wary. But he didn’t censor himself. “It was twenty years ago. I was fifteen,” he said, remembering. “But sometimes the pain is as fresh as if it were yesterday.”

Rick met Kendall’s moist gaze and his heart twisted with understanding. He hadn’t expected to connect with her on any level, especially not on the emotional one he normally walled off. He was surprised he understood this stranger, this woman, so well. “I’m sorry about your aunt.” He hadn’t said so earlier and meant to.

“Thanks.” Her voice held a rough timbre. “Same with your dad.”

He nodded. She and Crystal had obviously shared a special relationship. Family bonding was something else Rick could relate to. The Chandlers were closer than most, bonded by shared memories, both good and bad. With Kendall’s pain both new and raw, he found himself wanting to be the one to ease her anguish—and not because to serve and protect was in his job description.

He swallowed a groan. He’d been down this road once before and received a punch in the gut for his efforts. “Once you got light-headed, didn’t it dawn on you to call for help?” He directed them back to the problem at hand.

She tipped her head to the side. “Such a simple solution. Gee, why hadn’t I thought of that?”

He chuckled. “Too weak, huh?”

“Something like that. Help me?”

Her wide eyes got to him and he couldn’t resist her plea. “Where’s the best place to start?”

“Back buttons.” She hung her head forward, the pinkish red strands brushing against the stark white dress. When she felt better, he’d have to remember to ask her about the hair color, not that it mattered. He liked her anyway. And here he thought he preferred blondes,
though he had to admit he hadn’t a clue what her real hair color was beneath the pink sheen.

He reached for the first pearlized button when the intimacy of the act struck him. He stood in the small bathroom undoing a bride’s dress. No memories rose to suffocate him since he and Jillian had eloped, Rick in uniform, Jillian in a maternity dress. At this point he was long over the hurt and way past the love. Last Rick had heard, Jillian and her husband were happily married with three kids, living in California. Done, gone, and forgotten except for the lessons learned, Rick thought.