Susan Mallery - Dream Wedding

“Oh, we aren’t busy,” Cassie said. “I’m only seeing Joel and I can call him and cancel.”

“Joel would be your young man?” he asked.

“Uh-huh. We’re engaged to be engaged.” She held out her left hand. A thin gold band encircled her ring finger. The diamond set there was so small it looked like a grain of sand.

“It’s lovely,” he told her.

She beamed.

Cassie started asking him more questions. He answered automatically, most of his attention focused on her sister. Chloe didn’t rejoin them at the table. Instead she moved around the kitchen, doing odds and ends that to his mind looked like busywork. Almost as if she was staying as far away from him as possible. Did he make her nervous?

There was something between them, he thought. Some kind of a connection. He knew there were people who would dismiss a feeling that they’d met someone before. He didn’t. He’d traveled too much and seen too many things he couldn’t explain to overlook the obvious.

When he looked at Chloe there was heat and desire, but there was also something else. An intangible he couldn’t explain but that he wouldn’t ignore, either. He wanted to get to know her better. At least circumstances were conspiring to assist him in his quest. If she was going to be writing about him, she could hardly spend the three weeks he was in town avoiding him.

She turned and opened a drawer. As she choose forks and knives, one fell to the floor. She knelt down to pick it up. The movement prickled at the back of his mind. As if he’d seen her kneel before. But when he probed his mind, the image that appeared to him was of Chloe completely naked, kneeling on a bed of straw.

Not that he was complaining, but where on earth had that thought come from? He swore silently and forced himself to pay attention to Cassie and her list of questions. Thank God he was sitting down and no one could see the obvious and rapid physical response to his vision. Clearly he’d been without a woman for too long. He’d outgrown the appeal of a bed partner in every port, but he was still a man who had needs. At some point in time he was going to have to do something about them.

Cassie stopped her bombardment long enough to get up and fix a salad. Chloe walked over to the table and began setting it.

“Pot roast, vegetables, mashed potatoes and salad,” she said. “Not very exotic fair. Are you sure you wouldn’t like me to run to the gourmet store and grab a bottle of chocolate-covered ants or something. Just so you’ll feel at home?”

Her voice was low and teasing. She stood close enough that he could inhale the scent of her. “I think I can handle this.”

He wasn’t talking about the food, but did she know that?

“If you’re sure,” she said and picked up his empty bottle of beer. “I’ll get you another one.”

Cassie sliced tomatoes into the bowl of lettuce and cut-up vegetables. She grinned at him. “So when was the last time you had three women waiting on you?”

He thought for a second. “It’s been a couple of months. I was staying—”

Small bits of radish hit him in the face.

“Hey!” He looked up and saw Chloe prepared to launch another assault.

“That was an incorrect answer,” she told him. “You should try again.”

He eyed the piece of radish. “Charity, you’re not protecting me from these bloodthirsty nieces of yours.”

“You were just bragging how you can handle things. So you’re on your own.”

“I’m seriously outnumbered.”

Chloe tossed him another piece of radish. This one he caught and popped in his mouth.

“No one here is impressed,” she informed him, her eyes bright with laughter.

The teasing continued throughout the preparation of the meal. Arizona enjoyed watching the three women work together. They moved with an easy grace that told him they did this often. Their banter reminded him that on occasion his chosen life could be very solitary. Sure he loved what he did, but his lifestyle didn’t allow for a home of his own, or many intimate connections. He had lots of acquaintances, but few friends.

He tried to distance himself from the situation, to observe instead of participate, but the trick didn’t work this time. He kept finding himself pulled into the conversation. The sense of family was strong and he was the odd person out. As the three women joined him and began dishing up food, he realized he was the only man at the table. He liked that in a group.

When everything was ready, Cassie plopped herself next to him and smiled. “I have a ton more questions.”

Chloe took the seat opposite his, while Charity was next to her. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I don’t know if I can answer anything without first getting an agreement that everything we discuss here is off the record.”

There was a stunned moment of surprise followed by a burst of laughter. Both women looked at Chloe, who raised her hands in the air. “Fine. I won’t take notes, record the conversation or make any attempt to retain it in my brain. I’m sure that important secrets will be shared here tonight, but the public will just have to stay uninformed.”

“So how long are you in town?” Cassie asked.

“Three weeks.”

“Where were you before you got here?”

“South America. I was making arrangements to ship the gems. Before that I was in India.”

Chloe passed him the bowl of mashed potatoes. As he took it from her, she shrugged. “You’ll have to forgive her. Cassie works with preschool children. She doesn’t get out much.”

Cassie gave her sister a mock glare. “Oh, and you’ve traveled the world yourself. I know you have a lot of questions, too. You’re just pretending to be sophisticated.”

Arizona leaned toward Chloe. “It’s working,” he said in a low voice.

Her dark eyes flickered with an emotion he couldn’t quite register, then she smiled and looked away.

“What do you usually look for?” Cassie asked as he finished serving himself and passed on the mashed potatoes. “Bones and stuff?”

“I’m not that disciplined,” he admitted. “I know it’s important to study the details of life in lost civilizations, but I don’t have the interest. I want to learn about the unusual. The mystical and unbelievable.”

Cassie frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Magic. Objects that cast spells or connect the wearer to whatever gods that society worshiped.”

Chloe put some salad on her plate and gave him an innocent smile. “Remember the last Indiana Jones movie, Cassie? It’s the one where they were looking for the Holy Grail—the cup Christ is said to have used at the Last Supper. Arizona looks for stuff like that.”

Arizona wasn’t fooled. Chloe might have just been assigned the story, but she would have spent the day doing research. She had to know that he loathed being compared to that fictional movie character Indiana Jones. There was no way he could compete with that kind of hero and come out anything but second best. Tweaking the tiger’s tail, he thought. She obviously wasn’t a pushover. He liked that in a woman.

Cassie stared at him wide-eyed. “Really? So you’re interested in legends?”

“All kinds. Old stories, myths about the past.”

“Family legends?”

There was something about the way she asked the question. Chloe focused on her sister. “Mr. Smith doesn’t want to hear about that,” she said, her expression tight. “It wouldn’t be interesting.”

A mystery, he thought as he glanced from sister to sister.

“Just because it didn’t work for you doesn’t mean it’s not real,” Cassie said. “We have a family legend. The Bradleys do anyway. That’s the family on our mother’s side.”

“Cassie, I don’t think—” Chloe began, but her sister waved her off.