Bring Him Home (19 page)

It worked. Claire stopped searching his eyes and dropped her own. “It’ll be fun going on tour,” she said lightly. “Berlin first, isn’t it?” She picked up her bag, a glittering beaded thing that matched her strappy stilettos. “How exciting.”

“Yes.” His spirits heavy, Nate opened the ranchslider and stood aside to let her pass. “I’m looking forward to it.”

If the conversation got any more stilted they could build a pole house on it. As she walked by, another scented tendril tangled around his senses. Grimly, Nate followed her to the ute.

The powerful engine was idling and as they approached, the front passenger door opened and Jo climbed out, dressed in an emerald-green dress that suited her red hair. The two women met in an emotional embrace. “I’m so happy for you,” Claire said.

Over her shoulder, Dan’s bride smiled at him. “Hi, Nate.” He hadn’t attended her wedding, but there was nothing but warm affection in her hazel eyes.

“Hey,” he said awkwardly, and hugged her, lifting her off the ground a few inches. “Great news, Jo.”

“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” she confessed as he put her down. “But I’m sure champagne will help. I should warn you, we’ve already started drinking—” she lowered her voice “—to calm our nerves.”

Puzzled, Nate looked toward the ute. Dan’s little sister waved through the driver’s window. “Our hugs will have to wait,” Viv called, pushing a strand of shoulder-length brown hair out of her eyes. “I can’t get out or Dan will hijack the driving. You two are in the back with Ross.” Nate hadn’t seen Viv since her twin’s wedding years ago, but Dan had regaled the unit with terrible-twin stories for years, so he knew her as living, breathing dynamite.

“Dan and I are riding shotgun,” Jo said, and giggled.

“You
have
been drinking,” Claire commented. “You’re not a giggler.”

“It’s nervous hysteria.” Jo giggled again.

“Jocelyn Swann Jansen!” Viv warned. “Sisterly solidarity, remember?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Winking at Nate, Jo climbed into the front next to her husband. Dan winced as his sister shoved the gear stick into his thigh.

“Why you have to drive a manual is beyond me,” she said, graunching the gears. Her brother groaned.

Ross slung an arm across the back of the seat, behind Claire. “You’re doing great, honey,” he reassured his fiancée. “These overpriced imports are always tough drives.”

Across Claire, Nate stared at him. Ross was anal about driving.

“You’re as rusty as hell, sis,” Dan complained in the front.

“All the more reason to get practice in while I’m home,” she answered cheerfully. “Just remind me to stay on the right side of the road.”

“You mean left,” everyone chorused in unison.

“She meant the correct side of the road,” Ross clarified. “Sheesh, will you all relax! You might want to take your foot off the accelerator a tad here, babe. We’re coming up to a T-intersection.”

“It’s so hard to see without streetlights,” Viv commented. “Oh, wait, I’ve got my lights on low beam.” She flicked a switch on the dash. “That’s better.”

“Okay, that does it,” Dan said. “Pull over, I’m driving. Do your refresher in daylight.”

“Stay where you are, honey,” advised Ross. “Jo gave me shit for years about being a sexist pig when it came to women drivers. I want to make Bridezilla happy.”

“You’re all heart, Ice-cream.” Jo glanced over to the backseat, her dark red curls bouncing with every bump in the road. She grinned at Ross. “Hey, Viv,
Vanity Fair
had an article about the benefits of a long engagement. Remind me to show it to you.”

“On the other hand, Viv,” Ross said to his love, “we don’t want you overtiring yourself trying to keep left and right straight. I’ve got big plans for our first-night reunion.”

“We’ve talked about this, Ice.” Dan twisted his head to complain. “No sexy talk with my sister while I’m within hearing.”

“Okay, Shep.”

Dan faced forward again and Ross leaned forward to caress Viv’s neck. Ice was a guy who needed to be behind the wheel in every endeavor, yet here he was completely relaxed, trusting this madcap woman to carry them safely through a pitch-black night. Nate shook his head in disbelief and beside him, Claire laughed softly.

“Told you things had changed,” she murmured.

He found himself laughing, too.

He loved these people. Dan glanced behind to grin at him, then tightened his arm around his wife’s shoulders. Jo leaned into him. These two had been friends all their lives, a shift in perception and now they were married.

Nate was conscious of the sweet curves of Claire’s body pressed against his side. If he slung his arm across the back of the seat there’d be more room, but that was an intimacy he couldn’t indulge.

Ellie was right. This woman was still vulnerable. Just because confession had cleansed his soul didn’t mean he’d earned a green light to pursue his buddy’s widow. She needed more time to get over the emotional aftermath.

“Are cows an issue on country roads?” Viv said. “I see a shape looming ahead.… Oh, it’s okay, it’s a tree.” She negotiated another sharp bend, sending Claire sliding into him, all soft femininity and seductive fragrance. Inwardly, Nate groaned as he double-checked their seat belts. Monday couldn’t come soon enough.

CHAPTER TWENTY

“W
HEN
DID
YOU
KNOW
,” Claire said to Jo, “that your feelings for Dan had changed?” When did your friend become your love?

Claire put down her glass, damning the alcohol that had loosened her tongue.

“When he told me he loved me,” Jo said. She looked toward the dance floor of the bar they’d ended up at where her husband boogied with Jules, Viv and Ross. Nate was at the bar replenishing drinks.

“Actually it was a terrible moment,” Jo continued. “My health was uncertain, so was my fertility and I’d already decided I couldn’t marry him.” Struggling with survivor’s guilt, Dan had organized their wedding without Jo’s consent.

“But he talked you into it?”

“He wore me down. I realized he wasn’t going to go away, but more important, I realized he needed me as much as I needed him.… Sometimes you’re destined to save each other.”

She smiled at Claire with way more comprehension than she could handle. Nervously, Claire sipped her champagne.

Jo took pity on her. “’Course, it was one-sided for Viv and Ross,” she said loudly as the couple returned to the table. “She did all the saving. I like to think of my sister-in-law as a little yellow bulldozer reducing the iceberg to rubble.”

Claire laughed. Ross and Jo liked nothing better than winding each other up.

“Very droll,” he said, pulling out Viv’s chair.

“Little pieces of rubble,” Viv agreed, planting a kiss on his lips before sitting down.

“Brave words from someone too chicken to set a wedding date.”

“I’ll marry you next time Nate comes home,” said Viv.

Returning from the bar with a tray of drinks, Nate nearly dropped it.

Ross looked at him with spaniel eyes. Hell, Dan was right. His bubbly little sister was diabolical. And not just Viv. Dan, Ross and Jo had spent the whole evening trying to pin him down to a return date.

“Nice try,” he said in a tone even Ross knew not to argue with.

“C’mon, babe.” Ice pulled his fiancée out of her chair again. “They’re playing our song.” And dragged her, protesting, onto the dance floor.

Nate took his seat at the other end of the table from Claire and Jo and brooded over a scotch. Dan sat down next to him five minutes later.

“Why don’t you ask Claire to dance?”

He wasn’t in the mood. “Leave it, Shep.”

“Then take your turn dancing with Jules. She’s finding tonight hard.”

Nate looked across the table at Jules, recognized a kindred spirit and stood. Turned to Dan. “Yeah,” his buddy said. “I’ll dance with Claire.”

“I’ve only just sat down,” Jules protested when he asked her.

“Please don’t turn me down,” said Nate. “Everyone’s watching.”

She laughed. “Fine, I’ll take pity on you.”

He spun her around the floor and discovered she had some skill. Lee had liked to dance; those two would have been something to see.

The music changed to a slow tempo. To Nate’s surprise Jules pulled him close, glancing over her shoulder to check Ross and Viv’s proximity. Locked in each other’s arms, four feet away, they were completely oblivious.

“What the hell are you doing walking away from Claire when you’re in love with her?”

Nate was so startled he stopped dancing. Another couple swung into them. “Sorry.” He began moving again. “I don’t…” He couldn’t lie about loving Claire. “Look, this isn’t something I’m comfortable discussing with you.”

“It’s obvious she returns your feelings and yet you’re burning her off.”

He remained silent. This was none of her business.

Jules gave him an impatient shake. “I’m not backing down, Nate,” she said in a loud voice.

Frowning, he steered them to the far corner of the dance floor. “She’s making a new life,” he said. “I come with baggage from her past that maybe she needs to leave behind.” He wasn’t articulating this very well. “Right now she’s vulnerable and I’m another complication.”

“Ellie’s been giving her two cents’ worth,” she said astutely. “Steve’s mother is a wonderful woman, but she has a problem with transference. It’s Ellie who’s feeling vulnerable, not Claire.”

“Six months to a year for things to settle,” Nate said, guiding her off the dance floor before she could talk him into doing something he shouldn’t. “Then I’ll come back.”

She stopped him as he turned toward their party. “Because there’s always tomorrow?” she challenged. “We both know that’s not always true. There’s only today to tell someone you love them, to put aside your fears and prejudices and neuroses and defense mechanisms, Nate.”

Her grip had tightened on his forearm. He removed her hand and cupped it between his own. “I’m so damn sorry you won’t get a life with Lee. He was…” Words failed him. How did you encapsulate a man who’d always been larger than life?

“A one-off,” she finished for him. “Don’t set yourself up for regrets, Nate. Don’t ever miss an opportunity through—” She stopped. Forced a smile. “Now I’m doing the transference thing. I’ll shut up.”

He hugged her. It was easier than words. But she hadn’t changed his mind. What Ellie said had struck a chord because they echoed his own doubts.

“I’ll keep in touch this time,” he said. “I promise.”

* * *

“N
ATE
’
S
GOT
SOME
MISTAKEN
idea that you’re this fragile flower he has to protect. Damn it, Claire, take the initiative!”

Dragged to the ladies’ room on the pretext she had panda eyes, Claire studied Jules’s outraged expression in the mirror, then reapplied lipstick in the same siren red as her dress.
False advertising,
she thought. “Jules, I’m not chasing a reluctant man.”

“But Ellie—”

“Is right,” she interrupted. “I
am
vulnerable.” She stuck the lipstick in her clutch bag and closed it with a snap. “So is Nate. No more browbeating. He’s not ready to have a relationship and his second thoughts have given me second thoughts.”

“Have you kissed?”

Claire blushed. “Not the way you’re thinking.”

“Then kiss him, Claire, make the first move.”

Claire replaced the lipstick in her bag. “I’ve never kissed an unwilling man and I’m not starting now.”

“He’s not unwilling, he’s scared and noble and… God, this is all bullshit!”

“Why is this so important to you?” she asked gently.

“Because I can’t stand for you both to screw this up for lack of courage.”

There was something more going on here, but a ladies’ room in a busy restaurant wasn’t the place to dig deeper.

“So I kiss him,” Claire said to placate her. “Let’s say the incredible happens and we end up in bed. He still has to fly back to L.A. Monday to go on tour for six months with Zander Freedman.”

Jules waved an impatient hand. “Zander fired him days ago,” she said.

“What?”

“When Nate decided to stay and make sure you were doing the right thing by throwing all your money into the business.”

“Zander fired him?” Claire repeated stupidly.

Jules seized her hands. “And you don’t let a guy that decent walk away without putting up some kind of fight.”

* * *

“W
E
’
RE
ALL
AT
YOUR
PLACE
FOR
breakfast first thing tomorrow,” Ross told Claire when she and Jules returned from the bathroom. “Nate suggested making it early to coincide with Ellie and Lewis being there.”

“Great idea,” Claire said. So Nate was banking on safety in numbers, was he?

“Don’t worry about supplies,” Jo said. “We’ll stop at the supermarket in the morning.”

“I’m thinking lots of red meat to replenish energy,” Ross said wickedly and pulled a laughing Viv onto his lap.

“With plenty of iron for the mother to be,” agreed Dan.

Jo said, “Lover, it could take time to get pregnant, you are aware of that, aren’t you?”

“Not the way we do it,” Dan promised.

“This sexy-talk embargo works both ways,” complained Ross. “But I expect to be the godfather.”

“You would,” said Jo. “I think we’ll go the celebrity route and have multiple godparents to counter your influence. Heavens, I’m talking like I’m pregnant already.” She smiled at her husband. “Your confidence is contagious. I need to touch wood or something to avoid jinxing this.… Ross, bend your head.”

“I won’t be able to make it,” Jules said. “Sunday’s the only time I can catch up on billing. Which is why I should go.” Despite protests, she hugged everybody and picked up her bag, sending Claire a private wink.

Smiling weakly, Claire lifted her empty glass. “Is there any champagne left in the bottle?”

After Jules disappeared from sight, Jo commented to Claire, “She was sad tonight. Were we too much for her with all the loving-couple stuff?”

“No,” Claire said empathically. “It’s good to be around happy.” She’d hated how Dan and Ross had tiptoed around her after Steve died. It only reminded her of the crippled part of herself, not the survivor’s part. “Jules is at a crossroads, that’s all.”

“Lee would hate that she’s lonely,” Ross said. “He’d want us to find her another guy.”

Claire kept her mouth shut and with a glance reminded Nate to do the same.

“Wow,” said Jo. “I hate to say this, Ice-cream, but that’s actually a brilliant idea.”

“But is she ready?” Viv asked Claire.

“I think so.” She spoke cautiously, trying not to telegraph insider information.

“It’s a tall order,” said Dan. “Who the hell could match Lee?”

“There are a couple of nice guys at base,” said Ross.

Claire forgot to be Switzerland. “Are you insane? Jules doesn’t want another soldier.” She realized as soon as the words left her mouth that Nate would read that the wrong way and a quick glance confirmed it.

“Okay, a desk jockey,” Ross said reluctantly. “I guess between the three guys we could rustle one up?”

Nate held up his hands. “Hey, I’m not getting involved. It’s a crazy idea.”

“It’s not something we can leave to these women,” Ross explained patiently. “They’ll give too much credence to charm, money and good looks. We’ll end up with someone we can’t respect. I can’t do that to Lee.”

Only his fiancée attempted to hide her smile. “Now, everyone,” Viv cautioned, “you need to encourage Ross’s new nurturing side, not mock it.”

“Damn right,” he said, rewarding her with a smacking kiss. “Keep protecting these quivering, vulnerable feelings and name a wedding date. I’m not pinning my hopes to Nate’s schedule once Zander Freedman gets hold of him again.”

Claire glanced at Nate, but he was looking into his whiskey.

Viv shook her head, but her tone was admiring. “You never give up, do you, babe?”

“Giving up is for wimps,” Ross declared. He grinned at Jo. “Right, Bridezilla?”

The redhead grinned back. “Right, Ice-cream.”

Nervously, Claire picked up her glass and sculled the last of her champagne. And so say all of us.