He laughed, a low, lazy laugh. “That’s what you think. I keep away from big cities if I can help it.”
“Where do you live? For that matter, who the hell are you?” she demanded, sliding over to the corner and curling her feet up underneath her. She’d given up fighting for the moment She’d come to her haven, the one place where she was certain she wouldn’t run into anyone she knew, and he was there. There were some things not worth fighting. An hour’s conversation over coffee and French fries wouldn’t do any harm. Besides, she was curious.
“I don’t want to talk about me.”
“Tough,” she said sweetly. “What have you got to hide?”
“Unlike you, a hell of a lot.”
“What makes you think I don’t have anything to hide?” she demanded, oddly offended.
“You’ve lived a blameless life, haven’t you? Straight As in the proper prep school, one of the seven sisters colleges, the perfect daughter, the best friend, the proper fiancée. Always doing and saying the right thing.”
It shouldn’t have wounded. She smiled tightly. “You’re very astute.”
“Except that I don’t think that’s what you really are. I think that beneath that polished, perfect exterior is wild woman trying to escape.”
“Nope,” she said. “There is no wild woman inside me. You’re a romantic.”
“Yes.”
“So tell me how you know my godmother, who has to be the most elusive human being on this planet Where do you live, and what do you do for a living? And don’t brush me off with some glib answer. I’m curious. Consider it a gift of charity. I need to be distracted from the pressures of my wedding, Entertain me.”
He toyed with his cup of coffee, and she looked at his hands. They were rough, scarred, tanned and oddly elegant as they encircled the thick mug. Good hands, gentle but strong.
“All right,” he said. “Where do I live? Right now it’s in an abandoned garage in the middle of your family’s property. That’ll be home for another week. Then I’ll head to Spain, then on to East Africa, and then I’m not sure.”
“You don’t have a home?”
“Several, in fact. Nothing particularly elegant. The old farmhouse in Spain is probably in better shape than the other places, but that’s because I spend more time there. A hunting cabin in the Northwest Territories of Canada. A tiny cattle ranch in Argentina. A truly disreputable house in Venice. A number of other places scattered throughout the world.”
“So instead of Indiana Jones you’re really a jet-setting millionaire, traveling between your many homes?”
He laughed. “Nope. I don’t like to be tied down. I have a knack for making money when I need it. Louisa says I’m the luckiest human being she knows, but I’m not so sure of that. I just have a certain ability to know what will work and what won’t.”
“So you basically wander the world, making investments like some banker? It sounds boring.”
He laughed. “The last job I had was building bridges in East Africa. Trust me, it wasn’t boring in the slightest.”
“How do you know Louisa?”
“She’s my aunt Married to my uncle Jack for forty-eight years, until he died in his sleep. Damned tame way for the old man to go, too.” He sighed. “She’s a character, your godmother. A holy terror, not afraid of anything or anyone, with the biggest heart and the deepest laugh.”
“She sounds like the stories I’ve heard of my aunt Tallulah,” Susan said faintly.
“I imagine they’ve got a lot in common.”
“It’s probably just as well she didn’t come for the wedding. She’d be sorely disappointed in her godchild.”
“Why do you say that?”
“You’ve already pointed out what a good little girl I am. Always doing and saying the right thing. Do you think someone like Louisa would appreciate such a boring little paragon?” She couldn’t keep the faint bitterness out of her voice.
“The thing about Louisa,” Jake said in a soft voice, “is that she knows people. She’d see right through you to the woman beneath. I think she’d love you.”
She jerked her head up, startled. “Why?”
“Because you have a fierce heart. You make me think of some fairy-tale princess, the whole world trapped inside you while you sleep.”
