Lynnette Kent - Expecting the Best

Eventually, her shoulders drooped.

“Some women are just not cut out for happily-ever-after.” She rested her forehead against the glass. “My mom made a choice once, and he dumped us both when I was three months old.”

“That classifies him a bastard, but it doesn’t say anything about your mom, or you.”

“Yes, it does!” Her head came up and she turned, dark eyes glittering. “My mom built a life for us all by herself. The rest of her family helped out, but Mom worked two jobs and went to secretarial school, then spent twenty years taking orders from men with half her brains so that I could have clothes and a car and...and skiing. And a decent career.”

“I didn’t say—”

She lifted a hand. “I know. But she managed her life without a man, and did a damn good job. Now I’m doing the same. I mean it—some of us are better off alone.”

Zach pondered for a minute. Was that an invitation to exit? He was surprised by how much the prospect bothered him. Still, when a lady said no... “Well then, maybe I should leave.”

He rolled to the near side of the bed and sat up, feeling around on the floor for his robe. Just as he found it, Shelley’s scent reached him. Her small hands slid over his ribs and her soft breasts, bare and aroused, pressed against his back. His breath left him in a rush.

“You don’t want to go out in the middle of a cold, snowy night,” she whispered over his ear. “Do you?”

He chuckled. “I think the answer to that is pretty obvious.”

“So, don’t.” She laid kisses across his shoulder while her hands—her warm, clever hands—roamed south. “I don’t want you going anywhere right now.”

“That’s good,” Zach sighed, relaxing under her caress. “That’s really, really good.”

SUNDAY MORNING, the snow had stopped and the plows were out in droves. While Shelley called Allyson in Wyoming, Zach made a visit to the hotel shops and came back with clothes for them both. They ate lunch downstairs in the dining room.

“I’ll bet Allyson’s loving this snow.” He poured coffee into Shelley’s cup and then his own. “I went up last winter to visit Claire, and they had snow-maidens all over the lawn in Cheyenne.”

Shelley stirred in cream and artificial sweetener. “She could barely talk this morning for all the excitement. We E-mail several times a week—I’ve probably got hourly updates waiting in my mailbox.” Her smile was part sigh. “I can’t deny she’s happy where she is. Claire and Dex are doing a great job.”

She didn’t look exactly happy, but she wasn’t bitter, either—she’d come a long way in two years. “Sounds like you’ve accepted the situation. That’s a big step.”

Her calculating gaze pinned him to the wall. “And you haven’t.”

Zach retreated behind his own coffee. “Don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.”

“At least I didn’t love Dex anymore. But you were still in love with Claire when they got married. Weren’t you?”

He stared into his cup for a speechless second. “I—”

“She’s an unforgettable woman. I don’t blame you for wanting her back.”

“Shelley—” Denial would be good, if he could get his mouth around the words. But he wasn’t used to lying.

“I realize I’m a substitute.” He glanced up to find her watching him with a calm, impersonal stare. “But that’s okay. This is just for kicks, right?”

Zach waited for the red haze to clear out of his vision before trusting his voice. “Are you finished?”

“With my lunch?”

“And your ridiculous...”

“It’s not—”

He got to his feet. “Coming back to the room?” No was on the tip of her tongue, he could see it. But she stood as well, and put her napkin on the table. “Why not?”

Upstairs, they faced each other across the newly made bed. Zach didn’t let the lady go first this time. “Have you decided this one’s over, too, Shelley? Time to move on?”

“I thought I’d say it before you had to.”

“Nice of you. What if I had other plans?”

“Do you?”

“Hell, I don’t know!” He shoved his hands into his pockets. His mother would kill him if she heard him swear in front of a woman. But then, his mother would kill him for almost everything he’d done since 7:00 p.m. Friday night.

And why was he thinking about his mother? “I thought we were enjoying the moment and each other, Shelley. I wasn’t making plans.”

She turned to look out the window at the cleared streets. “We were. But we both know this isn’t going anywhere. I just wanted to let you off the hook.”

“Gee, thanks.” He couldn’t think, couldn’t see how to turn the situation. She might relent if he touched her, but he would still be irritated, which wasn’t a good prelude to sex or anything else.

“So,” she said, in that same calm, impersonal tone. “I think I might be going, now that the streets are passable.”

Now he had her. “You came in my car.”

She stared at him, her eyes wide with panic. “I can get a cab.”

Another point for his side. “Good luck finding a driver who’ll take on a snow-covered interstate.”

She knew the truth when she heard it. “Great. Just great.” Her disappointment was so real, Zach almost laughed.

“So you can’t get away from me yet. Come sit down.” He pointed her to the chair on the other side of the table. She gazed at him with a question in her eyes and he repeated the motion. “Yes, sit down.”

He opened the dresser drawer and found a notepad and pen. Desperate situations called for desperate measures. “Did you ever play Battleship?”

THEY SHARED the pen through four games, when the ink ran dry. Zach called down to room service for a bottle of champagne, cheese and crackers, and a box of pens. The war escalated as the room darkened until they could hardly see their marks on the paper. Shelley finally stood up to turn on a lamp.

“That makes us even.” She looked across at Zach, sprawled in a chair with his head back and a half-full glass of champagne dangling from his hand over the arm of the chair. “Twenty games each.”

“We need a tiebreaker.”

“World War Three?”

“Or something like that.” His voice had gone back to the leonine purr she’d followed for two days now.

Her pulse jumped, but she fought to stay sane. “Zach, that’s not a good idea.”

“Why?”

Because I’m already in too deep, she wanted to say. “Let’s...let each other go easily.”

“Okay.”

Shelley took a deep breath of relief.

He stood up. “Tomorrow morning.”

The breath blew out in exasperation. “Zach—”

But he was already kissing her. He warmed her lips with his breath, filled her mouth with his taste, and she had no hope of anything except holding on and enjoying the ride. With Zach, she knew that’s all she could count on. The ride of her life.

MONDAY MORNING, the weather thawed. Shelley froze.

Zach didn’t attempt to break the ice. The next move, glacial or otherwise, would have to be hers. “Here’s my number.” He handed her a piece of paper. “Call me. I always return my messages.”

Now that she’d summoned a cab, she wouldn’t even look at him. “Sure.” She gathered up her clothes and lingerie and folded each item carefully into a shopping bag. “You can reach me anytime at the office. I have call forwarding.”

“Okay.”

He watched as she put her blue dress shoes on top of the clothes and folded the handles of the bag together. When she looked over, her eyes were wide and bright. Was she trying not to cry?

She succeeded. “Thanks, Zach, for...for everything. I’m not being very graceful, but this was a wonderful weekend.”