Sherryl Woods - Courting the Enemy

It wouldn’t happen again, Karen vowed, as she went back to work on the puzzle with total concentration. This might be just a silly contest, but Grady was clearly playing as he did everything, with a winner-take-all attitude. It would be wise to remember that, because the next time she might lose more than a game.

Grady had never expected to get turned on by doing a jigsaw puzzle. Oh, he’d always found competition to be invigorating, but arousing? Never. Which meant this had to do with his opponent.

He glanced at Karen, amused by her flushed cheeks, by the tip of her tongue caught between her teeth, as she focused totally on the puzzle. She was a feisty, sneaky competitor, far more devious than he’d ever envisioned. She had taken him totally by surprise when she’d flirted outrageously in a very successful attempt to distract him.

Not only was he distracted from the game, he was totally absorbed by the female puzzle sitting opposite him. He realized that he was no closer to his goal of understanding Karen than he had been on the day he’d decided to start spending time with her. There were too many layers, too many contradictions.

Her blind loyalty to her husband’s memory bumped up against her sense of fair play. Her wistful dreams clashed with the harsh reality of her life. She was stubborn and hardheaded, yet vulnerable. Her eyes could flash with defiance and anger one minute, with heat and desire the next. And heat and desire were what she aroused in him, on a more continual basis.

Something was happening between the two of them, but Grady was at a loss to understand it or to predict where it might lead. Nor did he dare jump to any conclusions, because one misstep could ruin everything.

The ringing of a phone jarred the peaceful ambiance. Karen looked up, startled, and maybe even a little bit afraid. Or was it guilt that caused the color in her cheeks to heighten again? Guilt that she was sharing the day with him?

It took her a minute to react, but then she bolted for the kitchen. He heard her answer the phone with a terse greeting, then her voice dropped and he could hear nothing at all.

Knowing it would infuriate her, he used the time to add another dozen pieces to his section of the puzzle. He studied her work and his own and concluded that he had the game easily won.

When she came back into the room, she looked shaken.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

She nodded, but her expression remained troubled and she stood several feet from the table, as if she didn’t dare sit down and join him.

“I don’t believe you,” he said bluntly. “Who was on the phone?”

“Just Gina, making sure that everything was okay out here.”

So far, he didn’t see the problem. “And?”

Worried blue eyes finally met his. “She’d heard you were here.”

“How would she hear a thing like that?” he asked.

“One of the neighbors apparently saw you turning in here earlier in the day yesterday. Somebody asked Hank about it, and he told ’em to mind their own business. Dooley apparently wasn’t so circumspect.”

Grady was indignant. “Seems like a lot of commotion over you having a visitor.”

“Not just any visitor,” she reminded him. “You.”

“So what?”

“Grady, don’t play dumb. You know how the Hansons will feel when they hear about this. It’s bad enough that people are probably calling every ten seconds to report that you’ve been stopping by to help out. When they hear you were here overnight, they’re going to go ballistic.”

He reached for her hand, but she snatched it away. “Karen, nothing happened last night.”

She scowled at him. “Don’t you think I know that? But it’s appearances that matter.”

“Really?”

“With Caleb’s parents, it is.”

“And their opinion matters to you?”

“Of course it does. He was their son. This was their home. I have a duty…”

He found himself battling exasperation. “The only duty you have is to yourself.”

She shook her head. “You’re wrong. People don’t live just for themselves. You have to consider the impact your actions could have on everyone you care about.” Her gaze challenged him. “Isn’t that what you’re doing?”

He regarded her with confusion. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Don’t you? You told me you want to buy this ranch because of your grandfather,” she reminded him. “It’s never been about you, has it? It’s been about your sense of duty toward a man you admire and love and to those who came before him, people you never knew at all.”

The accuracy of her assessment made him pause. “Okay, you’re right.”

“So you have your obligations and I have mine. I don’t want to hurt the Hansons, Grady. I really don’t.”

“And my being here will hurt them.”

She nodded.

Because he hated seeing her so unhappy, he stood up. “I’m sure the highway has been plowed by now. My truck will make it down your driveway. I’ll go.” His gaze locked with hers. “If that’s what you want.”

“I do,” she said, but there was little conviction in her voice. Clearly she was struggling with herself.

Again Grady took pity on her. He would go, but not before he stepped closer, trailed a finger along her cheek. Unable to resist, he rubbed the pad of his thumb across her lower lip, needing to know if it was a soft as it looked. It was, and it quivered beneath his touch.

“It’s okay, Karen,” he told her quietly.

“It’s not,” she said. “I shouldn’t be insisting that you go. If something happens-”

“Nothing is going to happen. I’ll call you when I get to my place, if it’ll make you feel any better.” He forced a grin. “Though I’d think you might actually feel better if I slid into a ditch.”

She stared at him, clearly aghast at the suggestion. “How can you say a thing like that?”

“I am a thorn in your side, aren’t I?”

“True,” she admitted with her unfailing candor. Then she sighed. “But I’m starting to get used to it.”

Another tiny triumph, Grady concluded. He would savor that on the long, cold, risky ride home.

Grady stayed away for two weeks. Even though it was something she’d once hoped for, Karen found herself watching the driveway day after day, regretting the attack of conscience that had had her sending him off after the snowstorm.

She knew he’d gotten home safely, not because he’d called, but because his housekeeper had. It was as if he’d taken her cue and decided to go one step further, cutting off all contact. The disappointment she had felt the second he had left had only grown in the days since that afternoon.

“You certainly look miserable,” Gina declared when Karen drove into Winding River to have a spaghetti dinner at the restaurant where her friend was filling in as cook. Tony had used Gina’s willingness to step in for him as the perfect excuse to take his wife on a long-promised trip to Italy.

“Just what every woman wants to hear,” Karen said. “Maybe I should have stayed home. I can probably boil pasta as well as you can.”

“Ouch,” Gina protested.

“Well, I can.”

“But your pasta isn’t homemade. Mine is.”

“You’ve got me there, though I doubt I’d notice the difference.”

“Which brings us back to miserable,” Gina said, sitting down opposite her. “I’ve got some time to talk. We’re not that busy. What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Karen said honestly. There was nothing good or bad going on in her life. Every day it was just more of the same exhausting work and loneliness. She’d had a brief respite, thanks to Grady…which made it seem even more depressing now.