Once Tempted (36 page)

“Erica, you’re getting caught up in the emotion of Carrie and Brian’s wedding plans. It’s too late—”

“I’m not, and it’s not too late. I know it isn’t. Especially now that I’ve had a chance to see things more clearly. I was stupid to take what we had for granted, not to recognize how special it was, how wonderful you are. But I’m going to make it up to you.”

“What about that guy you were with?”

“What? Oh, Landon? He wasn’t right for me.”

So it hadn’t worked out between Erica and her high-tech mogul, Ward thought. That would explain why she was suddenly impressed with his supposed virtues.

“Listen, Erica, this idea of yours, that somehow we can get back together, is frankly delusional. It won’t work. We can’t go back, and even if you’re no longer in a relationship, I am.”

“You mean with Tess? But Ward, what you and I had—it was real, not some office fling. Tess, well …” She gave the smallest of dismissive shrugs. “She’s not right for you.”

He could have replied that if what Erica and he had together was so real, why, then, had she walked away from the engagement? He could have added, too, that for him, being with Tess actually felt a damned sight more “real” than what he’d “shared” with Erica, which was kind of interesting since Tess went out of her way to insist that she had no interest in a serious relationship with him.

But he made neither point because, basically, he didn’t particularly want to talk to Erica about anything, let alone his feelings for Tess. He settled for, “Sorry, Erica. The answer is no. I have no interest in rekindling a relationship with you. End of story.”

He’d spoken the words in a flat tone. To his amazement she smiled and then leaned in and kissed the corner of his mouth. He froze, wondering if she really had lost her friggin’ mind.

“I’m not going to give up on us, Ward. I’m the woman
for you. I’m going to convince you of how right you and I are together. You’ll see,” she said with cheerful confidence.

Ward was still shaking his head after the muted thud of his front door shutting had melted away. Damn it, this woman really did not know when to quit.

T
ESS AWOKE THE
next morning groggy. She had slept poorly, plagued by troubled dreams inspired less by the fatigue from the whirlwind meetings she’d arranged for Carrie and Brian and more by the distressing telephone conversation she’d had with her mother. Like so much in the Casaris’ lives, it centered on Christopher. According to her mother, the past couple of days had been bad for him, to the point where the floor supervisor had warned her that they would have to contact Christopher’s doctor to increase the dosage of his medication. Her mom thought Chris’s outbursts were a result of seeing the dentist, but the supervisor wasn’t convinced. Her mother was praying Chris improved by next week.

The news was depressing. Her brother had been doing relatively well. But the problem with Christopher’s condition was that every period of stability brought false hope. It led them to believe that somehow the doctors had at last hit upon the right dosage and combination of meds and therapy for him. Their elation was soon dashed.

Tess knew that while upping his meds might temporarily lessen Christopher’s violent outbursts, it opened the door for new problems. The antipsychotic drugs
weren’t without side effects, and Christopher already suffered from severe gastrointestinal problems.

The quiet despair in her mother’s voice was terrible to hear. So often her mother did her utmost to hide the fears she lived with. Tess knew the reason. Her parents didn’t want her life to be marked by the all-consuming worry that darkened theirs. Keeping her at arm’s length from their troubles was their way of showing their love and their regret that she could never claim their attention.

She could never blame them for their chosen method of dealing with a thirty-four-year-old tragedy. But the strain in her mother’s voice made her feel terrible for being at Silver Creek, a beautiful place and far from the unending worries her parents faced. The guilt was impossible to suppress, even though her mother had assured her repeatedly how happy she and Tess’s dad were that she was doing well at the guest ranch and that the job as events planner was so fulfilling.

In the wake of their conversation, she couldn’t help but think that setting up an account for Christopher with the Bradfords’ money had, in the end, achieved little. Yes, it had eased the financial burden for her parents, but the emotional weight that came with caring for him—a weight equally taxing—hadn’t been lifted. She’d witnessed the same with David’s parents when for weeks on end he’d lain unresponsive until not even the machines attached to him could keep him breathing.

The sole bright spot in the conversation had been in getting her mother to agree that should Christopher’s condition deteriorate, she’d let Tess know so that she could arrange to come help.

With another family this concession might seem normal, only to be expected; with Tess’s it was huge. But for all their sakes, for Christopher’s, especially, Tess hoped her mother wouldn’t need to make that call.

She’d been walking along the path from her cabin to the main lodge, hardly aware of her surroundings. Ward’s voice broke into her abstracted daze and, blinking, she saw the pale pink of the rhododendron bushes that seemingly overnight had come into bloom.

Ward was dressed in a pair of wheat-colored jeans and a blue-checked shirt. He was freshly shaved. By now Tess knew his schedule well. He’d have been up for hours, helping with the animals, checking on the steer’s cut, Ziggy’s leg, and the newborn calves, foals, and lambs. Today, he’d have awakened even earlier to shower and change in time for this last meeting with Brian and Carrie.

“Hey.” He smiled as his gaze traveled over her face. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Phil said he’d be here at eight thirty so I thought I’d head up to the lodge.” It was just past eight o’clock.

“Everything else okay?” he asked. Something in her voice or expression must have struck him as off.

She put an effort into her smile. She wasn’t used to sharing her worries about Christopher with anyone, except perhaps Anna. Tess remembered the day her dad and mom had moved Christopher into the private facility. She’d gone to stay with the Vecchios. In Anna’s pink bedroom she’d sat on Anna’s bed and hugged a teddy bear and wept.

“I’m fine.”

He didn’t look entirely convinced. “Your family all right?”

Just when she thought she couldn’t fall in love with him any more, she tumbled a little deeper. “Yeah. Mom’s worried about Christopher.”

He wrapped an arm about her shoulders and drew her forward, pressing a kiss against her temple. “You don’t
have to be at the meeting, you know. Phil and I can go through the guest list—”

“And miss out on the popovers Roo’s baking this morning? Not likely,” she replied lightly. “Did you check on Ziggy? How is he?”

“Still limping. The area around his ankle is puffy and warm, but at least he didn’t bow a tendon. That’s an injury that can take a lot longer to heal. I’m hoping that with rest and icing, he’ll be able to go back out on the trail in a week or so.”

“And how was dinner?” she asked as they began heading up the path. Ward had lowered his arm, but they walked close enough for her shoulder to brush his upper bicep—and close enough for her to see the muscle in his jaw clench at the mention of dinner. “Did it go all right?”

“Yeah.”

She hazarded a guess. “Erica?”

Bingo. “The woman doesn’t know when to quit.” His tone was exasperated.

“Poor you,” she said without sympathy. “So how many new ways did she find to describe your total wonderfulness?”

“Frankly, I lost track.”

“Wow. I hope you’re not expecting me to compete.”

“No. That’s what I like about you. Your refreshing honesty when it comes to my character.”

“Yes, I see you all too clearly. Warts and all.”

He grinned. “Much better. Damn, I’m starving. I hope Roo made her strawberry butter to go with the popovers.”

“Was the barbecue not good last night?” Jeff and Chris, his sous-chef, had prepared a barbecue with sweet potato fries, roast vegetables, a field salad, and cornbread as sides. The menu was what they’d be serving on Friday night for the wedding guests. Dinner would be
buffet style, relaxed so the guests could mingle and dance to the swing band Tess had booked for the evening’s entertainment. For those who didn’t eat meat there would be vegetarian chili. Dessert would feature an array of fruit tarts and ices.

“Brian had thirds of the barbecue, so I’d say it passed his taste test—and he loved the two micro beers Reid chose. But listening to Erica catalog how wonderful I was killed my appetite.”

“The things you suffer.”

He swooped down for a kiss, never breaking his stride. “I’m hoping you’ll ease my pain later today.”

“I have the afternoon off.”

“Exactly,” he replied, with a smile in his voice that she couldn’t help but return.

“It’ll be fun to have someone help me do the laundry.”

He gave an exaggerated wince. “Not quite what I had in mind. But perhaps I’ll be able to interest you in some other activities afterward. I’ve been told I’m wonderfully persuasive.”

“Wonderfully cocky, too,” she said, adopting a prim tone that would have made the nuns at her school nod approvingly.

“That I am. And let’s just leave my wonderfulness at those two qualities, okay?”

She laughed. “If you insist.” Never mind that she, too, could list a whole bunch of other ways in which Ward was wonderful; a man as confident as he was didn’t need a recitation. But it irked to find herself once again in complete agreement with Erica.

E
VEN THOUGH CHECKOUT
time wasn’t till noon, there were a number of guests already in the dining room, presumably those with long drives ahead of them or early flights to catch—or those who wished to squeeze in a trail ride or run before leaving. On Sundays the kitchen offered a buffet breakfast as well as menu items—including popovers. When Ward and she entered, several guests stood along the long table set up at the end of the dining room, helping themselves to yogurt, homemade granola, scrambled eggs, sausage, and bacon.

She saw Brian, Carrie, and Erica at a table for six. Brian and Carrie were talking animatedly.

Erica wasn’t. She was staring at the entry to the dining room, obviously on the lookout for Ward. Her expression flickered when she saw him with Tess, but by the time they reached the table—Ward stopped to speak to a number of the guests to say he hoped they’d enjoyed their stay—her expression was serene.

Like Carrie, she was dressed for traveling, though Erica had chosen a navy silk polka-dotted shirt that Tess could tell was expertly tailored, while Carrie wore a more casual light pink cardigan top.

Erica’s hair fell loose past her shoulders in a smooth blond curtain. As Ward and Tess approached, she flicked it back in a practiced move and smiled.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Good morning, everyone,” Ward answered for them while Tess ignored the sensation of being sized up by Erica. Her gaze traveled over her, calculating exactly how much Tess had spent on her multicolored, ribbed sweater dress with its blocks of purple, tan, orange, and gray, which she’d accessorized with the chunky necklace Anna had bought her and her favorite pair of pumps. It consoled her that whatever price Erica arrived at would be much higher than what she, a devout sales shopper, had actually paid.

Luckily she’d had the sense to wear a businesslike outfit even to a Sunday breakfast meeting. But even dressed professionally it was hard to appear as self-possessed as Erica—harder still when she now knew that the other woman had spent most of last night riffing on Ward’s wonderfulness.

In just how many ways had Erica enumerated his bravery, intelligence, humor, and sizzling-hot sexiness? This thought was followed by another: After dinner, had Erica offered to demonstrate her appreciation of him even more concretely? Actions spoke so much louder than words.

She had to stop this, thought Tess. She was becoming small and jealous and she hated that.

They were just about to settle into their seats when Phil arrived. Ward introduced him, and Carrie made sure to thank him for arranging to come to the ranch on his day off.