By Proxy (2 page)

“Let’s start over, okay?” She smiled woodenly and put out her hand. “I’m Jenny Lindstrom. I’m Ingrid’s best friend. Sorry I fell into you.”

A mulligan. Okay.
Her manners amused him. He offered his most charming smile as he enveloped her smaller hand in his, looking into her eyes. “Sam. Kristian’s cousin. And you can fall for me anytime.”

She stared at him, stone-faced, then swallowed and looked down at their joined hands for a moment before pulling hers away. An unmistakable flush of pink suffused her cheeks.

Just from shaking hands? Whoa.
He tried not to grin
. So, Miss Snippy isn’t quite as cool and confident as she seems.

“It’s nice to meet you, Sam,” she finished crisply.

He couldn’t resist needling her again. “Ready to get married, Jenny?”

Her eyes flew open again, and her pink cheeks turned an appealing shade of scarlet. “Proxies!” She blurted out. “We’re just proxies!
We’re
not actually—”

Sam chuckled and winked at her. He couldn’t remember the last time he met someone so ripe for teasing. It wasn’t as easy to rattle the girls in Chicago. “Oh, well, thank heavens. It would have been pretty forward of you to ask me to
marry you
. We barely know each other, and you may have
fallen
for me already, but I’m not that kind of guy…”

Her expression was positively glacial.

Sam cringed for her benefit, trying not to grin at her discomfiture. “Oh, come on! I’m just trying to lighten up the mood—”

She blinked at him and appeared about to say something, then must have decided against it because she turned sharply and opened the door in front of her. Again, he found himself trailing behind, not something he was used to.

She stood at the counter speaking to the secretary. “…for the Svenson-Nordstrom wedding. Umm, we’re late.” She glanced in annoyance at Sam and then back at the secretary meaningfully.

The secretary straightened her glasses to give Sam a cross look, then sighed loudly and gave Jenny a sympathetic nod. Sam rolled his eyes.
Leave it to two women to gang up on the only guy in the room.

“Well, now. Well, now. That’s a problem.” The secretary squinted at the computer screen in front of her and typed on a few keys. A loud, angry beep answered back. “Yup. Just as I thought. Sorry, Miss. Judge Hanlon left at two forty-five sharp and won’t be back until Monday morning.”

Jenny’s hands clutched the counter between her and the secretary. “No! He can’t! No! We—we’re proxies for the Svenson-Nordstrom…they’re counting on us…” She looked at Sam, her face a mixture of anger and panic.

He cleared his throat and stepped up smoothly beside her. “Surely there must be an alternative.” Pushing aside his cashmere coat, he reached into his back pocket and took out an expensive crocodile wallet. “Perhaps we could call Judge Hanlon and explain the situation? I would make it worth his while to come back in. I’m more than happy to pay a surcharge.”

Jenny looked down sharply, staring at her shoes, the flush in her face spreading to her neck. He furrowed his brows, turning back to the secretary who glanced at Jenny and then stood up, directing her full attention to Sam.

“Put your wallet away,” she stated.

He grimaced at her tone then closed his wallet, realizing his blunder.
Oh, no.

“I only wanted—”

“You only wanted to fix things by offering money to a public servant? Well, that’s just not our way, son.” She straightened up to her whole five feet and placed fleshy fingers on beefy hips, lowering her glasses to take a hard look at his face from across the counter. “I don’t think you’re from around here, so I’ll explain this as fair as I can. Judge Hanlon is gone for the weekend, deep into Yeller, and he’s only coming back in time for the nine-thirty Sunday morning service at All Saints in Big Sky. So if you two want to step in for your friends and make sure they get married, you’ll come back Monday morning
on time
and we’ll forget this silly wallet business even happened.” She nodded once and set her glasses back up on her nose.

Rarely had he felt so foolish and young in his adult life. His cheeks tingled with an uncomfortable flush.

The secretary plunked back down on her stool and returned her attention to the computer screen in front of her. “Monday. Ten twenty-five a.m. That’s the earliest I can do.”

Jenny nodded quickly beside him. “Yes. Thank you. Yes, ma’am. We’re grateful.”

Grateful?
Monday? Is this a joke? Stuck here for the weekend?
Oh man, are you going to owe me one, Kris!
One look back at the secretary’s dour face made him swallow his thoughts.

“Yes, ma’am. Monday it is.”

The secretary glanced up again and pursed her lips, narrowing her eyes at Sam with disapproval. “Wouldn’t hurt you a bit to stick around for a day or so, son. I imagine it might even do you some good.”

Oh, enough of this, already. I was a little late. Geez, you’d think I killed someone!
He smirked at her and mumbled, “I can’t wait.”

She handed Jenny the appointment card, and they turned to leave.

“On time!” boomed the secretary from her stool behind the counter.

They turned in unison and cowered. “Yes, ma’am,” they said, backing out of the room, shutting the door carefully behind them.

***

Jenny was
not
happy.

She click-clacked back down the corridor in her uncomfortable high-heeled shoes.
What next?
She thought of him taking out his expensive-looking wallet and shuddered in embarrassment at the high-handed way he’d treated that helpful secretary.
Ugh! Big-city ways
.

They reached the stairs leading to the lobby and she struggled into her parka. He took the shoulders of the coat to hold it for her and she paused for a beat, staring straight ahead, before she accepted his help wordlessly. His hands lifted her hair off her neck, where it was trapped under the collar.

“Hey!” She whipped around, surprised by such an intimate gesture.

He put his palms up in the universal sign of surrender and swallowed a grin, his eyes flicking briefly to her chest. “Sorry, ma’am…” he drawled. “J…ust trying to help.”

Oooo! He was full of himself!
He was doing that charming thing again and didn’t seem sorry one bit. She zipped up and crossed her arms over her chest, her brows knitted in consternation.

“I think you’ve done enough to
help
today.”

“Wow. You’re something! Without me, you would have been sprawled out on the lobby floor twenty minutes ago. I don’t remember a ‘thank you,’ come to think of it…”

“Well! Maybe if you’d been on time, I wouldn’t have slipped on the floor which got progressively worse while I waited for you for over an hour.
Thank you
for that.”

“Ohhhhh. I see. It’s
my
fault you fell into me.”

“
You
were late!”

“You’re a real piece of work, lady. I said I was sorry for being late.”

“Well, that and a dollar’ll buy me a pop.” She swung her purse up on her shoulder.

“Have you even noticed how bad the weather is outside?”

“Yes. Yes, I have. In fact, I was watching it get worse while I sat on a bench waiting for you, and now I’m real excited to drive home in it. So, thanks for that too.”

He whistled low, shaking his head back and forth. “Okay. For the last time, I am
sorry
for being so late. Last thing I’d want to do is let Kris down.”

“Well, I’d hate to know what the
first
thing you want to do is!”

“Wow, you’re—” He ran a hand through his hair, his face finally as irritated as hers. “You’re
snippy
. And
bitter
. You are snippy and bitter!”

Snippy. Bitter. Ouch.
Her shoulders drooped down like a sail losing its wind, and she took a step back as though she’d been slapped, staring at her shoes and trying not to cry, which was hard because of the rising lump in her throat. “I missed a day of school. My students missed an important review for their midterms. We missed the appointment for Kris and Ing. It was hard enough to come up here and do this in the first place, and now it’s just going to hang over me all weekend. I’ll have to miss another day of school on Monday doing it all again. And I…I’m embarrassed that I fell on you, and I don’t like driving in bad weather if I can avoid it. I’m not bitter. I’m just…I’m
upset
.”

She looked up and he was staring like he didn’t know what in the world to do with her. He raised his eyebrows, about to say something, then shook his head. She braced herself for another snappy retort.

“Okay. Let’s start over. Again.” She was surprised to see him offer a gentle smile. “How about I take you to dinner? To make up for everything? Looks like I’m staying the weekend.”

Jenny eyed him warily but was grateful that the lump in her throat hadn’t grown, staving off tears. “I don’t think so—”

“Come on,” he cajoled. “I’m Kristian’s cousin. I can’t be
that
bad. Just unaccustomed to your aggressive Montana weather patterns.”

She stared at him and felt a brief, unexpected flash of pleasure as she recalled his hands on her waist, her body pressed against his. Why did he have to be so good-looking? Her resistance faded, and she sighed in resignation. “Okay. I guess. We do have some e-mails to send. Ingrid and Kris probably think they’re already married.”

“Great. We can find somewhere around here to have dinner and send them an e-mail. I have my iPad with me—”

She interrupted him, shaking her head. “Oh, I can’t stay
here
. I have to get home. I can’t stay in Livingston all night. I have a puppy, and she’s been home alone too long. She needs a walk.”

He stared at her for a moment, digesting this information with a barely concealed smile. “Well, I checked out of my hotel in Bozeman this morning. I could come stay in…”

“Gardiner.”

“—Gardiner, for the weekend, I guess.”

She cocked her head to the side, and really looked at his face for the first time. When he wasn’t trying to be so cool and sarcastic, his eyes were kind. He was several inches taller than she, as tall as her brothers even, but his hair was a redder blond than theirs. Long lashes gave his brown eyes a softer look than the rest of his face, which was angular and chiseled.
Handsome. Ingrid had been right about that
. She felt that tingling sensation on her waist again, the imprint of his strong hands holding her.

She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes and opening them as she exhaled, resetting herself again.

“Okay,” she said. “It’s not far. You can follow me. I’ll pull up in front. Light blue Rav-4. I’ll take you to the Lone Wolf Lodge on the way home. It’s the…nicest.”

“Sure. And we can meet up after you walk…"

“Casey,” she said.

He was confusing her: She would expect someone from the city to complain about how staying the weekend in Montana was inconvenient or cramped his style. But here he was, asking to take her out to dinner, not raising any objection to following her to Gardiner. Maybe she didn’t have his number, after all. She smiled at him for the first time—really smiled at him like he was worth smiling at—then turned and started down the stairs.

***

Sam’s pulse quickened and he started breathing faster.
That
was unexpected. He was totally caught off guard by the impact of Jenny’s smile. From the top of the stairs, he watched her bottom sway back and forth gently with each step and suppressed a groan.
Come on, man! She’s a prickly, uptight schoolmarm with a puppy. Not your type!
But the combination was unexpectedly charming and ridiculously homespun and he grinned.

Her long blond hair fell halfway down her back, and his hands tingled, remembering the silky softness when he lifted it off her neck.
Why did I do that?
He hadn’t even realized what he was doing until she whipped around. While he freely admitted it was totally inappropriate, it had somehow seemed like the most natural gesture in the world at the time.

He started down the stairs after her, but by the time he stepped outside, she was nowhere to be found. What was with that? How come he always felt twenty paces behind her? Sophisticated she was not, but she sure had a knack for making him feel like a dawdling schoolboy.

Once in his rental car, he made a mental note to call the rental company in Bozeman and extend the contract for another few days, then pulled up behind her in front of the courthouse. She waved to him in the rearview mirror and they started the trip to Gardiner.

He shook his head. The situation certainly had not turned out as he expected. He had
expected
to meet some meek country gal, stand politely next to her, say whatever words were required of him, shake her hand good-bye, then drive the two hours back to Billings to catch his flight home to Chicago, feeling satisfied about the good deed he had successfully completed for his favorite cousin. Instead, Jenny Lindstrom had literally fallen into his life, and here he was bound for someplace called Gardiner with a woman who was—in her own fresh-faced way that, frankly, made his heart pound—one of the prettiest girls he’d ever met.

Prickly and pretty. Well
,
it’s only for a weekend. Maybe she’ll chill out a little. Anyway, it’s for Kris. Be nice. Maybe the—what was it?—the Lone Wolf Lodge will have wi-fi.

In vain, he tried to find some music other than country-western but finally had to choose between Carrie Underwood and Patsy Cline. Patsy won the draw with ease. His parents had often played her music on long car trips when he was little, and he loved her husky voice. A local station was having a retrospective on her life, so he’d be covered for the hour-long drive south. While Patsy sang about falling to pieces, he thought about what he would say in his e-mail to Kris.

When he'd received Kristian’s e-mail last week, there was no way he could have said no. He had a ton of vacation time piled up anyway and it was a slower time of year at the investment firm where he had worked since graduating from college seven years before. People rarely made significant financial investments before the holidays, so it was one of the better times to take a day off.