She frowned.The last person she wanted to see was Lash and the last thing she wanted to do was think about her grandfather’s death.But if there were more papers to sign regarding Delaney’s will, she would have to do both.
“Well, I was just about to—”
“It won’t take long.”
She was honest enough to know that what she’d done by marrying Ryder had probably ended a lifetime of plans Lash must have had.Everyone knew that Lash’s father had gone through the Marlow money as if it had been water and that his mother had run off with a trucker soon afterward.Everyone also knew that while Lash was a lawyer of the courts, his only ambitions leaned toward the restoration of his family name and the family home.And, if she’d married him as Delaney had planned, it could have happened.He would have had unlimited money at his disposal.
She shuddered.It was a wonder he didn’t hate her guts.She thought of the wedding gift he’d sent that was still in her desk drawer at the office.In spite of his own disappointment, Lash had found it within himself to do the right thing and wish her well.She sighed.Guilty conscience won out.
“I suppose so,” she said.“If it won’t take long.”
“Certainly not, my dear.I can promise that what I need won’t take long at all.”
“Then I’ll be waiting.”
She hung up the phone as Ryder walked in the room carrying a bright yellow, happy face balloon.The frown on her face disappeared.
“Oh, how sweet!Who sent me the balloon?I haven’t had a balloon since I was little.”
He leaned over and kissed the top of her head, then handed it to her.
“It’s kind of pitiful compared to all these elegant flowers, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Although the kiss was as harmless as if it had come from a child, Casey felt her face flush.After last night, the wordharmlessdid not mesh with the man who’d walked out of the apartment and into the rain.
“Is this from you?”
He stood at the end of the couch, absorbing the aftermath of yesterday’s wreck on her face.Finally, he nodded, and then he grinned and Casey thought she would forever remember the way he looked, smiling down at her with the sunlight coming through the window behind him.
“With no strings attached.”Then he laughed aloud when she dangled the one tied to the balloon.“Except the obvious, of course.”
Casey grinned and handed him the balloon.“Will you tie it on the back of that chair for me?”
He did as she asked, then gave the balloon a final thump and set it to bobbing as he moved away.The big yellow happy face smiled down at her from across the room.Casey smiled back, then noticed that Ryder was leaving.
“Can’t you sit down and talk to me?”
Ryder stopped at the doorway.When he turned, there was an odd, almost childlike hurt on his face.
“You don’t need to pretend with me, Casey.”
Suddenly, last night was out in the open.All the tension that had sent him out in the rain was back between them and there was nothing to say that would change what had happened.
Angry, she threw off the afghan and stood, unwilling to say this lying down.“The last time I played pretend, I was six years old.I pretended my mother and father weren’t dead.When it didn’t come true, I never tried again.”
Ryder absorbed her anger as well as the passion with which she spoke, letting it flow over and then around him.Just when he thought she was finished, she came at him again.It would seem she wasn’t through.
“There are things that need to be said between us.I would think that saying them in the bright light of day would be a hell of a lot smarter than waiting for dark.The world closes in when the sun goes down.Even with the absence of light, I’ve found it a difficult place in which to hide.”
Stunned by the truth in her words, he couldn’t find it in himself to walk away.
“So… is this our first fight?”he asked, and was rewarded by the red flush he saw staining her cheeks.
“Can’t you be serious?”she muttered.
“Well, yes, ma’am, I can be serious as hell.However, I don’t think you’re one bit ready for that.”
Casey paled.Just when she told herself he was a comfortable man to be around, that stranger came back.
