Heartstrings and Diamond Rings (31 page)

“I have this one and two more for this house,” she said.

“We’ll come back for them,” Alison said.

Heather unlocked the front door and the three of them went into the house. Alison went into the dining room to set down the box of programs she was carrying. Then she went back to the entry hall, intending to go back outside to grab another hors d’oeuvre tray from Karen’s car. On the way there, she happened to glance up the stairs, and she was shocked at what she saw.

Brandon was standing on the midfloor landing, looking as handsome as ever.

And he was wearing his great‑grandfather’s suit.

K
aren came back into the entry hall, and when she saw Alison looking up, she looked up, too.

“Holy moly,” she whispered, her jaw practically dragging the ground. “Is that the guy who owns the place?”

“Yes,” Alison said, her voice hushed. Just as she’d imagined, the suit made him look taller, broader, and ten times sexier, and she felt a stab of longing so powerful it nearly knocked her to her knees.

“I thought he wasn’t going to be here.”

“I thought so, too,” Alison said.

“All this house stuff is too much trouble,” Karen said, still dazed. “We should just sell tickets to look at
him
.”

Heather came up beside Alison. “What’s he doing here?” she whispered.

“I don’t know.”

“Do you want me to hang around?”

“No. I’m okay. Just…just give us a minute.”

“Come on, Karen,” Heather said. “We’re out of here.”

“But we have to set up for the—”

“Now.”

Karen shook herself out of her trance and followed Heather out the front door.

Brandon started down the stairs, and every nerve in Alison’s body tightened with anticipation. He wasn’t supposed to be here. And the suit. Why was he wearing the suit?

She was dying to go to him. To run straight back into his arms again. But maybe this wasn’t what she thought it was.
Don’t do it. Don’t be a gullible fool.

Again.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Isn’t this the day of the tour?”

“Yes.”

“That’s why I’m here.”

“But you said you wouldn’t be.”

“I changed my mind.”

“No,” she said as he hit the bottom step. “Don’t do this. Don’t you
dare
do this.”

He stopped in front of her. “Don’t do what?”

“This roller coaster ride is making me sick.”

“What roller coaster ride?”

“The one where first you’re here, then you’re not. The one where you want me, and then you don’t. I can’t do that anymore.” She turned and walked toward the dining room. “I have to get ready for the tour.”

Brandon followed her, and when she stopped at the table, he put his hand on her shoulder. She spun around. “Don’t
do
that!”

“Why not?”

“Whenever you touch me, I lose my head. Right about now, I need to hang on to it.”

“We need to talk.”

“Fine.” She pointed to the other end of the dining room table. “But you’ll have to stand over there.”

“Huh?”

“
Way
over there.”

He stepped back a little.

“More.”

He moved a little more.

“Brandon—”

With a roll of his eyes, he walked all the way to the other end of the table. “There. If I walk any farther away, I’ll be in the neighbor’s dining room.”

“That’s fine.”

“Can you hear me clear down there?”

“Perfectly.”

“This is weird.”

“You’re lucky I’m not making you text me from the other room.” She nonchalantly grabbed a stack of programs from the box. “Okay. You can talk now.”

“I gave up the Houston deal. Another investor bought out my position.”

She dropped the programs as if they were on fire. “What?”

“I’m keeping this house.”

“What?”

“And I’m keeping the matchmaking business.”

“Stop!” She held up her palm, suddenly feeling breathless. “I told you. No more roller coasters, or I swear to God I’m going to throw up.”

Brandon frowned. “Gee, Alison. I imagined you having a lot of reactions, but that wasn’t one of them.”

All at once, she felt exposed and vulnerable and helpless, as if her emotions were being laid bare all over again and she couldn’t do a damned thing to stop it from happening. But she
was
going to stop it. This time she wasn’t going to act like she had in the past, just handing over her heart so a man could stomp all over it.

“So let me get this straight,” Alison said, her formerly helpless heart racing out of control. “You decided to give up real estate investing, and you’re starting by backing out of a deal that was going to make you hundreds of thousands of dollars?”

“That’s right.”

“And you’re going to live in a house you said was nothing more than a money pit?”

“The thirty thousand dollars I was going to put into the Houston deal will go a long way toward making this money pit a home.”

“And you’re going to continue being a matchmaker?”

“As long as there are people out there looking for true love, I’m going to be finding it for them.”

That sounded so wonderful. Every last bit of it. But for Brandon to show up here and now and say those things sounded like a product of her own wishful thinking. And if there was one thing she’d learned in this life, it was that her own wishful thinking led absolutely nowhere.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “A few days ago, you were planning to leave. You didn’t want any of this. Why the sudden change?”

He put his hands on the back of a dining room chair and looked away, seemingly lost in though for a moment. “It wasn’t a sudden change,” he said finally. “It didn’t happen in a day. Or a week. Or even a month. It’s been happening since the day I met you. I was just too dumb to see it.” He bowed his head, and when he lifted it again, he fixed his gaze on her, and his dark eyes were filled with longing. “What I finally realized is that the man you want is the man I’ve become. And I was hoping you’d give that man a chance.”

Alison’s throat felt so tight she could barely breathe. Oh, God, how she wanted to. But did he mean it? Did he know what he was saying? Would he give up his old life because of her, and then resent it later?

“What would you do if I said no?” she asked.

He paused a long time, swallowing hard. “I’d still stay here.”

Alison was stunned. “You would?”

“I love matchmaking. I love this town. I love this old house. I love going to McCaffrey’s. All those things have made me happier than I’ve ever been in my life.” He paused, his voice hushed. “But they won’t mean half as much to me without you.”

She lifted her hand to her mouth, clenching her teeth, trying to hold back the tears.

“But if you decide I’m not the one,” he said, “I’ll move heaven and earth to find the man who is.”

“No! Please, Brandon. Stop. After the first four you set me up with, I couldn’t even fathom what number five would look like.”

“I was hoping he looked like me.” His fingers tightened on the back of the chair, his knuckles whitening, as if he was afraid of what she might say. “Alison? Am I the man you’re looking for?”

She wanted so badly to cross the room, throw her arms around his neck, and beg him to kiss her until she passed out. But she’d been there before. Feeling as if a wonderful future was dangling right in front of her, only to have it ripped away from her at the last minute.

Brandon sighed softly. “Look, I know you don’t trust me, and I don’t blame you. But if you don’t believe everything I’ve just told you, then at least believe this. There’s only one reason on earth I’d put on this horrible, itchy, uncomfortable suit and walk around looking like a total idiot.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I love you.”

She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She was afraid if she spoke, all the wonderful emotions bottled up inside her right then would come tumbling out, setting off Richter scales across the globe. Did she really want to be responsible for that? She took an extra deep yoga breath to try to stay calm, but yoga breaths only went so far.

“My life changed the day I met you,” Brandon said. “With you, I found out I could be a better man than I ever imagined. You showed me that family means everything when I barely knew what one was. You made me believe in love. And if you’ll let me,” he said, his voice deep with emotion, “I’ll move heaven and earth to make your world a better place, too.”

In that moment, Alison was absolutely sure she felt fuzzy little heartstrings reach out from Brandon’s heart to wrap around hers.

“Just one more question,” she finally managed to say.

“What’s that?”

“What the
hell
are you doing clear over there?”

He came around the table and she met him in the middle. He swept her into his arms and spun her around, then set her down and kissed her, a long, slow, scorching kiss that promised a whole lot more to come. Later. After about five hundred people traipsed through his house. Alison seriously considered locking the door and telling everybody to go home so they could be alone for the rest of the day.

“Are you going to regret giving up all that profit on the Houston deal?” Alison asked. “Maybe you should have stuck around with Tom and made a few hundred thousand dollars before coming back.”

“If I had, would you have ever believed that I intended to stay here for good? Or would you figure I’d stick around only until the next deal came along?”

“I don’t know.” She paused. “Maybe.”

“I didn’t want to lose you. If I hadn’t given up that deal, I might have. It just wasn’t worth it to me.”

His words sent warm shivers along every nerve in her body, making them hum with pure joy.

“Wait a minute,” Brandon said. “Why aren’t you wearing the blue dress? The tour starts in an hour.”

She shrugged. “After everything that happened, I just didn’t think it would be right.”

“Is the dress ready?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, go put it on. How else are we supposed to be lord and lady of the manor?”

Right about then, Alison didn’t even need the stairs. She could have floated up to the second floor.

“Tell the truth,” she said. “You just don’t want to be the only one dressed funny.”

“Exactly.”

“I know you don’t like the suit, but it’s hot.”

“Damn right it’s hot. I’m suffocating.”

“Wrong kind of hot,” she said with a smile, trailing her fingertip down his lapel. “You know how old stuff turns me on.”

“Good. At least I know when I start losing my hair and need a prescription for Viagra, you’ll only love me more.” He gave her a soft smile, then brushed a strand of hair away from her cheek and kissed her. “Time’s wasting, sweetheart. Better get dressed.”

But she just couldn’t make her feet do their job. She stood there a moment longer, and her chin started to quiver. Then tears filled her eyes. She took a step forward and wound her arms around his neck again, and he circled his arms around her.

“This is going to be the best day of my life,” she whispered in his ear.

He stroked his hand up and down her back. “It’s already the best day of mine.”

Karen’s reaction to Brandon definitely set the tone for the rest of the day. All the female tour patrons seemed far more interested in viewing Brandon than in viewing his house. Maybe that really was a viable fund-raising opportunity. And if he didn’t want to wear the suit again next year, he could just go naked. Charitable giving to the East Plano Preservation League would go through the roof.

Or maybe Alison would just keep Brandon—naked—to herself.

“Well, we did it,” Heather said as they closed the door behind the last visitor. “I can definitely say that the East Plano Preservation League is far better off financially today than it was yesterday.” She smiled at Alison and Brandon. “And you guys deserve gold stars for getting into the spirit of things and dressing the part. I’m thinking we need to make period costumes part of the home tour every year.”

“No!” they said in unison, then looked at each other and laughed.

“What’s wrong?” Heather asked.

“I already knew I didn’t want to wear an itchy, uncomfortable suit all day,” Brandon said. “But guess who got a taste of her own medicine?”

“God, it was awful,” Alison said. “I couldn’t breathe. I could barely walk in the damned thing. How did women wear dresses like this every day of their lives?”

“But you both
look
fabulous,” Heather said.

“And next year I’m going to look fabulous in a pair of fat pants with an elastic waistband,” Alison said.

“And I’m going to look fabulous in a pair of sweatpants and a Dallas Cowboys T-shirt,” Brandon said.

Alison smiled at him. “People will demand their money back.”

“But won’t we be comfortable?” He leaned in and gave her a kiss.

“Hey, what did he just do?”

Alison spun around to see her father and Bea coming down the hall. Bea was smiling. Charlie looked confused.

Bea poked him. “So I need to explain the birds and bees to you?”

“I know all about the birds and bees. What do you think? A stork dropped Alison through the chimney?” He turned to Brandon. “I thought you couldn’t date my daughter because you’re her matchmaker. So what’s the deal with that?”

“She’s no longer a client,” Brandon said, still staring at Alison.

“Huh?”

“His job was to match her up,” Bea said. “And it looks as if he did a damned fine job of it.”

Charlie turned to Alison. “Well, I guess he beats that gay interior designer you used to date.”

Alison sighed. “Dad. I told you. He wasn’t gay. The Harley guy…
he
was gay.”

“I still don’t believe that.”

“Well, Brandon isn’t gay,” Bea said, “so it’s a moot point. Come on, Charlie. Let’s head to McCaffrey’s. I could use a drink.”

But on their way to the front door, her father proved that he wasn’t nearly as clueless as he acted. He looked back at Alison and gave her a furtive wink and an approving smile, and she read the gesture loud and clear.
Good choice, kid. Hang on to him.

As Bea and Charlie left the house, Alison went to the window and watched them walk side by side toward the street where her father’s truck was parked. Halfway there, he eased closer to Bea. After a few more steps, his hand rose to the small of her back. A small, wispy memory drifted through Alison’s mind, slowly coming into focus: her mother strolling down a sidewalk with her father, and that same warm, protective hand was guiding her.

Brandon came up beside Alison and slipped his arm around her. “Your father seems happy.”

“He is.”

“I think Bea is, too.”