In Separate Bedrooms (18 page)

‘No, it isn’t Sophie,’ Jack answered her calmly. ‘She’s absolutely fine, perfect company for Harry. And I didn’t tell you over the weekend that I would be taking Sophie when we got back because, quite frankly, we had lots of other things to talk about.’

Such as Sharon Keswick. Such as his having four sisters and not four girlfriends, as she had originally thought. Such as—

‘Mattie, my parents returned to England this morning, and my mother rang half an hour ago and invited the
two of us over for dinner this evening,’ Jack interrupted her increasingly angry thoughts.

‘And that’s the reason you’re telephoning me?’ Mattie returned disbelievingly.

‘Yes. You see—’

‘No, Jack,’ Mattie cut in determinedly. ‘The answer is definitely no!’

‘Why?’ he demanded.

‘Well, one of the reasons is that I’ve only just got back from spending the weekend with you—’ she began.

‘Your mother is going out this evening, so don’t try to use spending time with her as your excuse for refusing,’ Jack interjected.

Mattie gasped. ‘How did you know—?’

‘I called the house before calling you at the shop, and during the course of our conversation Diana told me she would be out this evening,’ Jack explained patiently. ‘Besides which, it was pretty obvious yesterday that the vet liked—more than liked—Diana,’ he added reasoningly.

Mattie couldn’t say she had noticed, but then her head had been pretty full of thoughts of Jack yesterday to notice much else …

‘Okay, so my mother is going out,’ she conceded. ‘But I’m still surprised that a man like you could even suggest the two of us have dinner with your parents this evening.’

Under other circumstances, she would have jumped at the chance of seeing Jack again, for whatever reason. But she had genuinely liked his parents, his mother in particular had been very kind to her over the weekend, and this act she and Jack had perpetrated had already gone on long enough, as far as Mattie was concerned.

‘Look, I appreciate that you made your feelings towards me quite clear earlier,’ Jack answered. ‘But I was under the impression that you liked my parents—’

‘I do!’ she put in hurriedly. ‘That’s the reason I’m not going with you to have dinner with them this evening. Jack, the weekend was one thing.’ She sighed. ‘But it’s over now, and you owe it to your parents to tell them the truth about—about us,’ she said haltingly. ‘I, for one, wouldn’t feel happy continuing to deceive them in that way—and I don’t think you should, either!’

Silence on the other end of the telephone line followed her outburst.

But what else could she do or say? She simply couldn’t go on pretending that she and Jack were a couple—not when it was what she most wanted in the world, and knew would never happen.

‘Jack?’ she queried anxiously seconds later at his continued silence.

‘You said a few minutes ago that you were surprised that a man like me …’ Jack answered slowly. ‘Exactly what sort of man do you think I am, Mattie?’

The sort of man she had fallen in love with! Loyal. Kind. Loving. Family orientated. Add to that the facts that he was also handsome, sexy, and incredibly charming, and what chance had Mattie had not to fall in love with him?

‘The sort that wouldn’t continue to act the deliberate lie, that our relationship is, to his parents,’ she claimed softly.

‘Mattie …’ Jack’s voice was gentle. ‘… as far as I’m concerned, it isn’t an act.’

‘I just can’t do it any more, Jack!’ she groaned. ‘I really like your parents, and— What did you just say?’
She stopped suddenly, becoming very still as his words penetrated the misery that had surrounded her all morning.

‘It isn’t an act on my part, Mattie,’ he repeated evenly.

‘But—’

‘It never has been,’ Jack said.

Mattie swallowed very hard, all the colour fading from her cheeks, suddenly feeling hot and cold at the same time, her breath so shallow it was barely perceptible. Jack couldn’t really have just said— Could he …?

‘It’s okay, Mattie,’ Jack cut heavily into her frozen silence. ‘I’m not expecting you to make any declarations of love back—as I said earlier, you made your feelings towards me more than clear this morning. But I—’

‘Jack,’ she interjected, her hand slippery with heat as she tightly gripped the telephone receiver, her legs feeling shaky, ‘I don’t think this is the sort of conversation we should be having over the phone—’

‘Well, after this morning, I’m certainly not about to tell you any of this to your face,’ Jack assured her. ‘You know, I never knew until this morning how painful rejection could be. I’m almost thirty-three years old, you know, Mattie, and it never bothered me that I had so far not met the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. You can’t know this, but my parents fell in love with each other at first sight, and I always expected that’s how it would happen with me. Well, it did,’ he concluded dryly. ‘I just hadn’t taken into account the fact that the woman I fell in love with at first sight wouldn’t feel the same way about me!’

But she did! She was just so stunned by Jack’s admission that she couldn’t speak!

Jack
loved
her? Had fallen in love with her at first sight? The same way she had fallen in love with him …

Jack gave a sad sigh. ‘I appreciate what you’re saying about dinner with my parents this evening, Mattie. It was a bad idea. A desperate move by a desperate man,’ he conceded. ‘I’ll explain to my parents, tell them what was really happening over the weekend. My mother will just have to live with the disappointment of not seeing you again. As will I,’ he pronounced flatly.

‘I—but—no!’ Mattie finally managed to speak—at the same time knowing she sounded like a bumbling idiot. She was just so stunned. So shocked. So
euphoric
. Jack loved her! She didn’t need to know anything else.

‘No?’ he repeated uncertainly.

‘I think dinner this evening with your parents sounds a wonderful idea,’ she told him breathlessly. ‘I—it wasn’t—isn’t an act on my part, either, Jack,’ she added quickly.

Before she lost her nerve! Pride was one thing—it was what had driven her to make that damning statement this morning, after all. But Jack had been totally honest with her; she owed him the same honesty in return. She didn’t owe it to him—she gladly gave it to him! Besides, hadn’t Thom warned her that he had lost Sandy five years ago because he’d been too stupid to tell her how he felt about her? Mattie didn’t want to make the same mistake with Jack!

‘Mattie …?’ The uncertainty could still be heard in Jack’s voice.

Proof enough—if she needed any!—that Jack was telling her the truth when he said he had fallen in love with her at first sight; he was the least uncertain person she had ever met in her life!

‘Could we talk about this—face to face, do you think?’ she suggested nervously. ‘A telephone really is the most—the most—’

‘Impersonal thing in the world,’ Jack finished for her, definitely less uncertain than he had been. ‘Don’t move, Mattie,’ he told her quickly. ‘I’m coming right over!’

‘I’m not going anywhere,’ she assured him emotionally.

Except … Her shop, surrounded by buckets of flowers and artificial arrangements, was hardly the ideal place, either, for the sort of conversation she thought—hoped—the two of them were going to have!

‘Jack!’ she called desperately before he had chance to end the call.

‘Yes?’ he replied slowly, sounding uncertain again.

‘There’s a park across the road from the shop. I—I’ll be waiting there for you,’ she told him. ‘It’s such a beautifully warm day, and—’

‘As long as you’re waiting for me somewhere, Mattie, I don’t care where it is!’ Jack responded decisively. ‘I’ll be there in ten minutes,’ he promised before ringing off.

Mattie slowly replaced her own receiver, still not quite able to believe what was happening to her. To them. She hadn’t misunderstood, had she? Jack really had said he had fallen in love with her at first sight, hadn’t he?

Hadn’t he …?

M
ATTIE
was standing by an ornamental garden, pretending an interest, when she caught sight of Jack striding purposefully towards her from the direction of the south gate, hastily looking away again as she wondered what they were going to say to each other. The telephone might be impersonal, but it was that very impersonality that had made it possible earlier for her to talk to Jack in the way that she had. Face to face like this—

Jack felt no such inhibitions, sweeping her up into his arms the moment he reached her side. ‘I love you, Matilda-May Crawford!’ he groaned before bending his head, his mouth taking possession of Mattie’s in a kiss that allowed no room for doubt as to the truth of his claim.

Jack did love her!

Mattie’s arms moved up about his shoulders, her fingers becoming entangled in the dark thickness of his hair as she returned his kiss with all of the love she had bottled up inside her.

Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes fever-bright, by the time Jack raised his head to look down at her with piercing brown eyes.

‘Whew!’ Jack gave a shake of his head. ‘I hope you don’t believe in long engagements!’

Mattie moistened her lips. ‘Engagements …?’ she questioned.

‘Engagement. Singular,’ he corrected, his arms about
her waist moulding her body against his. ‘Ours,’ he elaborated decisively—just in case she should be in any doubt as to his meaning! ‘I want to marry you, Mattie.’ His voice softened emotionally. ‘In fact, nothing less than marriage will do,’ he stated.

Marriage? But— She hadn’t thought that far ahead! Was still trying to come to terms with the fact that Jack claimed to be in love with her!

She shook her head dazedly. ‘But you don’t even know me,’ she protested. ‘We’ve only known each other for—’ she did a quick calculation in her head ‘—for nine days!’

He shrugged. ‘I knew how I felt about you after nine
minutes
,’ he admitted. ‘I took one look at you when I visited the kennels last Sunday, and knew I had finally met the woman I’ve been searching for all my life,’ he said simply.

It had taken her a little longer than that—perhaps ten minutes or so!

‘As for knowing each other,’ Jack continued, ‘we have the rest of our lives together to do that. By the way,’ he added lightly, his eyes teasingly dark, ‘I should just tell you that I’m not really grumpy in the mornings; I just wasn’t too happy this morning because the time was rapidly approaching when I knew I had to say goodbye to you.’

Mattie knew how he’d felt!

Jack looked at her face concernedly, his expression softening to tenderness as he easily saw her shy confusion. ‘Let’s go and sit on that bench over there,’ he suggested gently, his arm lightly about her shoulders now. ‘We can tell each other our deepest, darkest secrets. And then I’ll ask you to marry me again. Okay?’

Mattie took a deep breath. ‘Okay,’ she accepted, already knowing what her answer would be; nothing Jack told her about himself could possibly change the fact that she loved him. Absolutely. Completely.

‘Do you want me to go first, or would you like to do that?’ Jack asked once they were sitting down.

Mattie gave a self-derisive grimace. ‘I may as well; it will probably be much shorter than what you have to say!’

He looked at her, arching an eyebrow. ‘I’m not sure I care for your inference, Miss Crawford.’

No, in retrospect, it had sounded a little— Well, after all, she knew very little about Jack’s personal life before the two of them had met—except for Sharon Keswick, of course, and that didn’t seem to have been too successful. But it was wrong of her to assume there had been lots of other women in Jack’s life.

‘Sorry.’ She made a face.

‘Apology accepted,’ Jack said, eyes gleaming with laughter.

‘As for me,’ Mattie went on, ‘there isn’t much to tell. I had a crush on the Maths teacher when I was at school—’

‘Male or female?’

‘Male, of course.’ Mattie frowned in mock reproval. ‘Then I had a couple of boyfriends during my university years—’

‘How many is a couple?’ Jack scowled darkly.

‘One or two,’ she answered breezily; Jack really cared that there had ever been any other man casually in her life! ‘One definitely, because we dated for a couple of months—just dated, Jack,’ she assured him hastily as his scowl deepened. ‘And the other one … We didn’t actually
get through the first date together, so I’m not sure he really counts!’

Jack looked quizzical. ‘What happened?’

‘He seemed to think that buying me a pizza—a pizza, for goodness’ sake!—entitled him to sharing my bed for the night. I soon corrected him about that assumption!’

‘I’ll just bet you did.’ Jack chuckled. ‘Is that it? No big, dark secrets?’

‘Well …’ She hesitated briefly. ‘I did have a brief relationship last year that ended when the man in question confessed he was already engaged to someone else and the wedding was imminent!’

‘Ah,’ Jack murmured comprehendingly.

‘Ah, indeed,’ Mattie agreed. ‘No excuse, I know, but—I really am sorry about the mix-up with the cards on your sister’s flowers.’ She looked at him anxiously.

‘No real harm done,’ Jack replied. ‘And it would have taken me that much longer to meet you without it,’ he reasoned.

That was one way of looking at it …

‘Your turn,’ she invited warmly.

‘Hmm.’ Jack gave the matter some thought. ‘Well, I had a crush on the Games mistress when I was at school. Dated three girls during university—there wasn’t the time for any more than that,’ he insisted as Mattie looked sceptical. ‘Since then … I’ve had a couple of relationships in the last ten years, but nothing serious, and I’ve more or less managed to stay friends with both those women. And Sharon you know about,’ he admitted. ‘I haven’t so much as had a date since I went out with her a few years ago; she’s the type of woman to cure you of the idea of ever going out with a woman again, let alone having any fun with one!’

Exactly how she had felt after going out with Richard! And Jack really
didn’t
like Sharon, Mattie realized happily.

‘Until you came along.’ Jack smiled.

‘There’s no doubting you had great fun then—at my expense!’ she acknowledged dryly.