TIS THE SEASON...FOR ROMANCE (WESTMORELAND/MASTERS/JEFFERIES) (13 page)

“You think you know my scent?”

He smiled. “I
do
know your scent. I also know your taste as well, Peggy.”

She flushed thinking this conversation was getting too heated this time of morning. “Why didn’t you wake me?” she asked, moving to the sink to wash her hands. He had prepared breakfast and everything smelled good.

“You were sleeping peacefully. Last night I gave you a reason to want to stay under the covers this morning.”

She smiled. He most certainly had. His skills as a lover had shone through yet again. “If I had my way I would have slept through today anyway. I hate the day after Christmas.”

He lifted a brow. “Why?”

She turned around from getting a plate out the cabinet. “Why not? Think about it. All year everyone looks forward to Christmas Day, decorations go up even before Thanksgiving in most places and everyone, especially the retailers are happy. Christmas Day is fun and everyone has a good time, but then comes the day after. Most people return home, decorations come down and the only people in the stores are those hoping for mark-downs or customers complaining because some item they purchased doesn’t work. For a lot of people it’s a very lonely day,” she said, filling her plate with what she considered an adequate amount of food and sitting down at the table across from him.

He closed his newspaper and gave her his complete attention. “So what did you do last year on the day after Christmas?”

“Nothing. Sonya and Mike spent most of their time over to Carla and Jesse’s place to be with their god-kids, just like they’re doing today. Barbara and Ron decided to travel to Jacksonville and visit with friends, and Courtney went skiing in Aspen with members of her sorority.”

“So basically you were alone?”

She nodded as she took a sip of coffee. “Yes, basically I was alone.”

Willie stood to refill his coffee cup and leaned down and brushed a kiss across her lips. “Well, you won’t have to be lonely again on the day after Christmas because you have me.”

But for how long? Peggy couldn’t help but wonder as she watched him cross the room to the coffee pot. Her mind fast-forwarded to next Christmas and she could see herself, sitting in this same kitchen, sipping coffee alone. She would like to think that this time next year Willie would be here with her, but she had to be realistic enough to know there was no reason why he would be. But then she wasn’t an expert when it came to affairs and didn’t have a clue how long they lasted. At some point he would get tired of her and she would get…

She inwardly decided she would never get tired of him so there was no reason to think such foolishness.

“So what do you want to do today?”

She glanced up at him, surprised. “You want to do something?”

An irresistible smile touched his lips. “Yes. I can think of a number of things we can do together. Spending the entire day with you in bed doesn’t sound so bad and I would be fine doing such a thing. But I’m sure there are other things we can do outside the bedroom and more specifically, out of this house.”

She looked intrigued and raised both brows at him. “Really? Name one.”

“Have you ever toured the Kennedy Space Center?”

She thought about it and said. “Not since I was in high school and we did a field trip.”

“Good. I’ve never been there and would love to see it.”

The thought that he would be sharing something with her sent flutters off in her stomach and she forced them away. She smiled and said, “In that case, I’d love to go to the space center with you.”

“Willie? Are you okay?”

Willie glanced up and saw four pairs of eyes staring at him. He and his business partners, all good friends he’d met years ago at Harvard, were holding an important business meeting regarding the possible merger of a company in Paris.

“Yes, I’m fine,” he said, having been caught day dreaming by his friends. It couldn’t be helped. He had enjoyed the days he’d spent with Peggy over the Christmas holidays and was looking forward to flying out to be with her for New Year’s.

The meeting resumed and he tried paying attention. The Lenoir Corporation was a major textiles company in Paris and was looking for an American partner to increase its visibility on a global scale. The Grail Group wanted to look them over.

“One of us needs to go scope out the place,” Eric Thornton was saying. “I would love to go to Paris if I didn’t have a full plate already that week.” Everyone knew what Eric had on his plate. A couple of years ago he’d partnered with other interested individuals and purchased an NFL team. Eric didn’t want to miss a single game since his team was headed for the playoffs, which could also mean a chance for the Super Bowl.

Willie listened to the comments from the other men on why they couldn’t commit to traveling abroad, while he imagined him and Peggy in the city of love for a week.

“What about you Willie? Can you make the trip to Paris?”

His attention was pulled back to the meeting. “When will I need to leave?”

“Not until the first week in February.”

That would give him a little more than a month to work on Peggy, break down what he knew would be her possible resistance to such a thing. They had been seeing each other for eight months now and were yet to take a trip together anywhere.

He smiled at his friends. “In that case, yes, I’ll be happy to be your man in Paris.”

* * *

“So how was the rest of your Christmas?”

Peggy glanced over at her sister and smiled. She and Barbara had met for lunch at Peggy’s favorite eating place, The Cheesecake Factory in the Millenia Mall. She couldn’t help but recall how she and Willie had celebrated after they’d come from the wedding. “It was nice,” she said, knowing that was an understatement.

Thanks to Willie it had been better than nice. And the day after was enjoyable as well. They had spent the day at the Kennedy Space Center and she couldn’t believe all the exhibits that had been added since she’d last been there.

“Anyone know why Joe didn’t show up at the wedding?” Barbara asked.

Peggy shrugged. “Sonya talked to her father and he claims the baby had a fever and they decided to stay in. Sonya and I figured Suzette talked him out of going since she wouldn’t be the center of attention. Joe’s excited that’s he going to be a grandfather now that’s Sonya’s pregnant and Suzette, being the bitch that she is, is probably fuming about him gloating over his daughter’s condition too much and is tightening her leash.”

“Poor Joe.”

“Poor Joe my ass. He got just what he deserved with his child bride. He won’t get an ounce of pity from me. He was due to retire next year and now he has to continue to work to send a kid to college,” Peggy said.

She took a sip of her iced tea while studying her sister. There seemed to be a glow in Barbara’s face and she had an idea where it came from. “So how are things going with you and Rick?” Rick Blair was her sister’s fiancé and she had a gorgeous diamond ring on her finger to prove it.

She watched the glow transform into a cute blush and Barbara broke eye contact with her as she took a sip of her own drink. “Fine.”

Deciding she needed to shake her sister of out her sudden shyness she asked. “So, how is he in bed?”

Barbara snatched her eyes up to connect to hers and Peggy thought, bingo. She still considered Barbara her little sister since there was a seven year difference in their ages. “What makes you think Rick and I are sleeping together?” Barbara asked in a low voice as if she was afraid someone else might be listening to their conversation.

Peggy smiled. “Several reasons. First is the fact that already the two of you are talking about getting married. Then there was that guilty blush that appeared in your face when I asked how things were going between you two, like you suddenly remembered something – like naked body parts, probably his. And last is the marks I’ve seen on your neck that you’ve tried hiding in several ways.”

Barbara eyes widened. “You saw them?”

Peggy chuckled. “Yes, on occasion. I knew you hadn’t started wearing scarves due to any fashion trend. And by the way, the one you have on now looks nice.”

Barbara blushed again and then she said. “I’ve never known anyone like Rick. He makes me feel…”

“Sexy? Sensuous? Like a natural woman?” Peggy prompted.

Barbara smiled. “Yes. And just to think I spent all those years with Ron thinking that was the best there was.”

Peggy nodded. She knew just how her sister felt. The first time she’d shared a bed with Willie she had concluded that Joe had been a selfish lover. “I know what you mean,” she said.

Barbara didn’t say anything for a moment and then, “So, have you and Willie decided on a date yet?”

Barbara lifted a brow. “A date for what?”

“Your wedding.”

Peggy was taken aback by the very thought. “What makes you think Willie and I are getting married? Ever?”

Now it was Barbara’s time to be taken aback. “You’ve been seeing each other for what, about eight months now? I know the two of you are close and he stays at your place whenever he comes to town. I guess I just assumed the two of you would eventually marry one of these days.”

“No, we don’t plan to marry. Personally I like things just the way they are between us. I’ll never marry again.”

Barbara stared at her sister, not believing what she was hearing. She was talking like the idea of remarrying was leaving a bad taste in her mouth. Granted she of all people knew what an ass Joe had turned out to be, but still. Peggy had been the main one encouraging her to move on with her life after Ron.

“Excuse me,” Barbara then spoke up and said. “But weren’t you the one who encouraged me to get something going with Rick? To move on with my life?”

Peggy smiled. “Of course. I didn’t want you to do like I did by spending the rest of your days wondering what you could have done to hold on to your husband while nursing a bottle of Jack Daniels.”

She paused to take a sip of her iced tea and continued on by saying, “And then there was the hell I put Sonya through by having an alcoholic lush for a mother when my self-esteem took a hit. It took my mother-in-law’s death to knock some sense into me. Before she died she made me promise to seek help and to get over her son because after what he’d done, he wasn’t worth it.”

Barbara slowly nodded, knowing Irma Morrison’s death had been her sister’s wake up call. Irma and Peggy had always been close from the time Joe had brought Peggy home to his parents as the woman he was going to marry. Irma and her husband Fred totally adored Peggy, and they had spoiled their first grandchild Sonya rotten when she was born. Joe’s decision to divorce Peggy to marry a younger woman who lacked of all things, class, was a bitter pill for his parents to swallow and they’d all but disowned him.

Peggy had taken control of her life after Irma’s death by joining a group of women called
Dropped Wives Anonymous
. All twenty-plus women had at one time been dropped by their spouses for some other female or in a few cases, males.

Barbara was pleased with how things had turned out for Peggy in the end. Although her sister had a masters degree in public relations, Joe hadn’t wanted her to work outside the home, so at fifty-two she’d suddenly found herself divorced and unemployed. She could have rightly lived off the trust fund their mother had established for them, as well as Joe’s monthly alimony payments, but she hadn’t. She had taken a job at making Dreams Come True, a nonprofit organization that granted dreams to terminally ill kids. She had met Willie when he had offered to construct, in his granddaughter’s memory, an amusement park for Dreams Come True in Orlando.

“Does Willie know how you feel?” Barbara couldn’t help asking. Her sister and Willie looked so good together.

“I’m sure he does, although we never discussed it. He knows the hell I went through with my divorce, and he knows I’ll never go through it again.”

Barbara lifted a brow. “Do you think that’s fair to him if he wants the relationship to become a serious one?”

A frown settled on Peggy’s face. “First of all, he wouldn’t want such a thing. He knows our relationship is as serious as it’s going to get. He doesn’t love me and I don’t love him. We just enjoy each other’s company. In the case of you and Rick, you two wanted the same thing and are good for each other that way. I think it’s admirable that after all the things Ron did that you would still want to be any man’s wife. Call me chicken, but I refuse to risk my heart like that again. I honestly don’t think I’d recover if I had to go through it a second time.”

Barbara didn’t say anything, and was very much aware Peggy had returned to eating as if the subject was now a closed one. That may very well be true for Peggy, but for some reason she didn’t think it was closed to Willie as her sister assumed. Barbara hadn’t failed to notice how he would stare at Peggy when her sister wasn’t aware that he was doing so.

And Barbara could recognize that look in his eyes. It was the same look Lake would give Courtney, Mike would give Sonya and now the same one she knew Rick gave her. She wondered how Peggy was going to handle it when the truth came to light.