Dating A Silver Fox (Never Too Late) (28 page)

He slid his hands over her shoulders and down to her middle back before meshing their fronts in a surprise move that excited both of them when firm breasts met hard chest muscle. Jane’s shocked exhale followed by a tremble turned him into a brick wall against her. Desire hit instantly, making him want to do all sorts of inappropriate things, especially for a very public hospital waiting room in a town where Morrison Fox was well known.

“This is going to sound like a lecture, but it can’t be helped. What you’re wanting to do with me is not fair to your date,” Walter scolded with a laugh at Jane’s guilty expression. “Why look for a substitute? I’m here and interested back—very interested—wishing we were not in public interested.”

Jane backed out of Walter’s arms, angry at herself for being disappointed when they didn’t tighten to hold her in place. Indecision about him had plagued her since the first time Walter had flashed those perfect teeth of his in her direction. She wasn’t used to being unsure about anything or anyone, at least not for long.

“Dating would never work for us,” Jane said. “But I’m flattered by your attention.”

“You’re more than flattered,” Walter said with fifty times more confidence than he was feeling, a feat Harrison had trained him to perform flawlessly, and one he was grateful for now. “Harrison had me reading body language by the time I could walk. Your dilated pupils are a strong tell, but that lip-biting thing combined with the sighing tells the real story. Admit it. You want me bad.”

“Don’t be so egotistical. I’m just deprived. It’s been a while since I dated,” Jane said softly, reluctant to have this kind of personal discussion but determined to convince Walter of the logic of her resistance. “And look at you, Walter. Your body would make any woman feel the urge. I’m sure this is not a secret to you, even at your age. I’m sure you capitalize on causing urges all the time.”

“So you think wanting me is just an errant urge brought on by physical attraction between us?” Walter asked, feeling his temper rising for the first time. He knew it wasn’t reasonable. He had taken advantage of his fair share of errant urges. He just didn’t want to think of Jane as one. He didn’t want Jane thinking of him that way either.

Wow, Walter thought, staring at the woman still biting her damn lip over him, was he that serious already? He hadn’t even kissed her.

“Yes—it’s just physical attraction I’m feeling. I haven’t been dating. My interest in you is a negative side effect of me not taking time to have a social life,” Jane said bluntly.

Walter could actually feel his eyes narrowing. He raised his fists until they were chest level and cracked his knuckles in front of her while he glared over her obstinate, wrong-headed reasoning.

“Your interest in me is because we have the kind of chemistry that exceeds our ages and everything else,” he said firmly, no doubt at all this time.

Jane shook her head as she stepped farther away. The temptation to declare him right was strong, but her self-preservation was stronger. At some point in the near future, she would wake up forty. Walter wouldn’t even be thirty then. She was not going to become some desperate older woman needing assurances all the time about being sexy enough to hold onto a younger man.

“Lydia plans on coming by to visit Harrison on her way home today,” Jane said, fishing her keys out and hooking her purse over her shoulder.

“You are not going to enjoy your date while you’re thinking about us,” Walter said tersely. “And this discussion is not over.”

Jane sighed, but this time it was with consternation. “Yes, I will enjoy my date, and the subject of us is closed. Come by the office if you want that list of home health providers.”

Walter’s brief nod and glare made her stomach tighten painfully as she left the waiting area and headed to the elevators to leave.

Was she actually intimidated by his now open declaration of being interested? Was she really concerned that she’d upset him? Was that
guilt
she was feeling about her date?

No—it couldn’t be. He was just miffed because she’d nicked his ego turning him down. She wasn’t doing anything wrong in turning down a date with a twenty-six-year-old.

Actually, she was doing them both a big favor not starting something with so little potential.

Chapter 21

“This subject is boring, and I don’t want to talk about how sick I am any more. Let’s talk about more interesting things. Have you slept with Morrie yet?” Harrison demanded, laughing when Lydia glared, smiling wickedly at her rapidly flushing face.

“How is that any of your business?” Lydia asked, trying hard not to acknowledge the question.

“It probably isn’t,” Harrison said with a shrug. “But I’m dying, so you should humor me.”

“You are not dying,” Lydia said sharply, lifting a giant plastic glass from the side table and handing it to him. “You’re just not drinking enough water. Here. I’m not leaving until this is gone.”

“Bossy should be your middle name. Tell me the answer and I’ll drink the whole cup,” Harrison said, taking the glass from her.

“Why do you persist in provoking me?” she asked. “You know I started volunteering here just so I could see you regularly. Now I can barely spend ten minutes in your company without wanting to kill you. Keep this up and you won’t get a chance to die naturally.”

“You’re just frustrated. You need to get laid, honey. It will change your whole outlook,” Harrison said flatly, taking a sip to soothe at least part of her ire at him. “And if you always liked me so much, why wouldn’t you date me when I asked you out all those years ago? Was I too old for you? What was I—oh yeah, I was seventy-four. I could still get it up without help then.”

Lydia folded her hands in her lap, pressing her lips together. Harrison had been incorrigible as a younger man. The older version had absolutely no politeness filters at all. It made it difficult to tolerate him for long.

“No. You weren’t too old. I just didn’t think I could walk a mile in Doris Graham’s shoes and compare very favorably,” Lydia admitted, working not to grind her teeth when he laughed at her admission.

“You wouldn’t have been in competition. Doris wasn’t like other women, and I never looked for an actual replacement,” Harrison said lightly. “I still miss her, but I would have been good to you. Of course, any man is better than that limp dick you were married to for so long. You always deserved better than William McCarthy.”

“Yes. I believe I am quite clear on your opinion of my late husband, since you have made it a point to tell me that very thing at least once a year for the past ten,” Lydia said. “And his—equipment—wasn’t limp. Quite the opposite.”

“I wasn’t being literal. That was my way of saying William McCarthy didn’t treat you as well as he should have,” Harrison said as he laughed. “However, I like your response back. It actually hovers on the verge of being a dirty joke. Morrison Fox must be making more progress than I thought.”

“I am not discussing my relationship with Morrie either. Get your own sex life,” Lydia said, appalled that the word ‘sex’ rolled off her tongue to Harrison when she had yet to be able to say it to Morrie. Or Regina for that matter.

Besides, what she did with Morrison Fox was nobody’s damn business, especially not Harrison Graham’s. It was bad enough Harrison had her confessing to having a relationship with him. What was wrong with her lately?

“Mind your own business,” Lydia said firmly, glaring at the man in the bed. “And stop being so damn nosy.”

“Okay, but just promise me you’ll give Morrie a real chance. One day soon they’ll be bringing me in here for a lot more than dehydration. Consider it my dying wish to see you with a love hangover just once before I kick off,” Harrison said sincerely. “I have a good feeling about Morrison Fox and you.”

“Why are you so concerned about me all of a sudden? I’ve been alone for years. I thought you were trying to marry off young Walter to ensure your future progeny has the proper DNA. Turn your attention to your own family, you old goat. I’m doing fine,” Lydia said, crossing her arms.

Harrison snorted. “Never mind the question. You haven’t slept with Morrie yet. I can tell.”

“Really? Well it just so happens, you’re wrong. He’s already spent the night in my bed,” Lydia declared, then shook her head at having confessed to yet another personal thing. Harrison Graham would break the most covert spy with his nagging questions.

Harrison looked Lydia over before searching her gaze thoroughly. “Nope. I don’t believe you. I don’t know what went on, but you look just like you always have. Nothing has changed.”

Lydia uncrossed her arms to rise and pace. It wasn’t her fault Morrie turned her down. There was no reason to feel guilty about it at all.

“What I do or don’t do with Morrie is none of your business.”

“What
did
you do? Turn him down?” Harrison demanded.

Anger over being accused when just the opposite was true flooded her face. Of course, it had to be
her
fault. It couldn’t be Morrie’s fault. Morrie was a man. Men were infallible.

Well, screw that, Lydia decided. But she was not going to give Harrison the pleasure of more gossip.

“I am not having this conversation with you,” Lydia said firmly, her voice rising along with her agitation.

“Fine. Be afraid of him too. I know that’s the real reason you stayed away from me. One day you’ll be in here and it will be too late to take the kind of risk that might bring you real happiness. Is that what you want?” Harrison demanded.

Lydia stopped walking and closed her eyes. “No. Of course that’s not what I want. It’s not what anyone wants. I don’t want you in here alone either. I don’t have a lot of friends—real friends. I count you among the few I claim. I know I haven’t said this to you before now, but it’s still true. I consider you a real friend, Harrison.”

“Then this ‘real friend’ is telling you to let Morrie teach you how to enjoy life. If he wasn’t Jewish, he’d be the perfect man for you,” Harrison said.

“What does his faith have to do with anything?” Lydia demanded, surprised at Harrison’s pronouncement.

“Morrie is a man of strong beliefs. That’s hard to compete with if he decides to put the rest of his life’s energy into something else instead of you. You’d be no better off,” Harrison explained, the logic of it clear to him. “I’d like to see you with a man who would make you smile and laugh every day.”

Lydia laughed softly as she tucked hair back behind her ears. “Rest your worries on that one. I find Morrie’s faith one of the most appealing things about him. For all his bluster, he’s sincere and earnest in important matters. I know on the surface it looks like I don’t fit well with him, but we have become friends over the last few weeks. Maybe nothing more than friendship is happening between us, but for the record, that was Morrie’s damn call, not mine. And I better not hear it being announced anywhere outside of this room.”

Harrison ignored her threats and focused on the hurt in her eyes. Why would the man turn her down when it was all Morrie had been about?

The fool must be already too much in love with her to do the deed without her loving him back. Go figure. But Fox was probably in for a long damn wait.

“No man wants to take advantage—at least no decent man. I’m not saying we’re not opportunists. We are. But when it comes to the woman a man cares about most, he wants to be on equal ground with her,” Harrison said. “You know Morrie is not like William, right?”

“Yes. I know that,” Lydia said quietly. “It didn’t take long to figure that out.”

“Then what’s holding you two back?” Harrison demanded.

“Did it ever occur to you that I’m the problem? And I’m working on it, Harrison. Okay? I’m working on it. Now please get off my case,” Lydia ordered.

“Okay,” he said. “I’m sorry I pressed. I’m just worried you’ll close down and not let him past those defenses of yours.”

Lydia looked at the man in the bed, huffed out a frustrated breath, and came to sit back down. “Stop trying to fix me. And stop trying to fix me up with Morrie. I already like him. If we get there, we get there. If we don’t, I’m not going to die over the loss.”

Harrison held out his hand, and Lydia put hers into it.

“Good,” he said, squeezing her fingers. “I just want to see you be happy. Under that layer of mean you keep polishing is one of the best women I’ve ever known. I should never have stopped trying to seduce you.”

Lydia released a painful sigh. She’d never had that kind of interest in Harrison, but she wasn’t going to torture the older man by making sure he knew it. The door opened in time to spare her a retort and to let Morrie in carrying a balloon that said “Happy Birthday” on it.

Lydia laughed and made a sound of disgust as he winked at her.

“You just can’t do normal, can you Morrison? Let me guess. They were out of ‘Get Well’ balloons, so you improvised,” Lydia accused sharply. “I can’t wait to hear your rationalization. The bullshit was already deep enough in this room before you walked in.”

Harrison chuckled from the bed. “Actually, my birthday is tomorrow. Were you going to forget me this year, honey?”

“Oh,” Lydia said, pulling her hand gently from Harrison’s while he laughed at her embarrassment. “I’m sorry, Morrie.”