Satin Sheets and Strawberries (7 page)

She was beautiful. How could a woman be so seductive without even trying? he wondered. With a visible shake of his head, he reminded himself he was there to thank her for all she had done. And because he’d disregarded his responsibilities, Kelli was now going to be hurt. The kiss they shared last night had been a mistake. It couldn’t be repeated. They might come to some kind of mutual agreement on his aunt and uncle, but never on the desire that burned between them.

With a heavy sigh he sat down and reached into the basket for a bottle of soda. He drank half the bottle before coming up for air. With a frown he stared across the pond at the pair of graceful swans and wondered how he had known exactly where to find Kelli . . .

Kelli woke slowly with the terrifying knowledge she wasn’t alone. Cautiously peeking out from behind her lashes, she breathed a sigh of relief when she spotted Logan. The blond highlights in his brown hair gleamed in the afternoon sun and a frown marred his brow as he stared out across the pond.

A blush of embarrassment swept up her cheeks. She hated being caught sleeping. In a hurried movement she rose to a sitting position and yanked at her baggy sweater.

"Good morning, sleepyhead."

"I think that should be ‘Good afternoon.’"

He watched her try to hide a yawn behind her hand. "I hope you’re hungry."

"Hungry?"

With a lofty wave toward the basket, he announced, "Your lunch is served."

Bewilderment shone in her eyes as she glanced from Logan to the picnic basket. What was he up to now?

Logan read the confusion in her sleep-filled gray eyes and smiled his friendliest smile. "It’s a peace offering. No matter what my opinion is, you are part of the family now. I think we should at least get to know each other, and possibly become friends." With a little-boy smile tilting up the corners of his mouth, he said, "Come on. I even packed it myself."

Kelli hesitantly stood up, brushed off her backside, and tried to run her fingers through her tangled mane. "What’s in it?"

A twinkle of mischief shone in his eyes. "It’s a smorgasbord of American food."

She looked down at her muddy boots with disgust. She undid the zippers and pulled them off before sitting down on the blanket. "Didn’t they have American food in Sudan?"

"Sure, but by the time Mahmud finished cooking it, it didn’t taste American." Logan flipped up the lid of the hamper and pulled out a soda. "I didn’t know what foods you liked, so you are getting all of my favorites. If you don’t like something, you don’t have to eat it."

Kelli took the cold bottle of soda and read the label. "Your favorite soda is sarsaparilla?"

"Do you know how hard it is to find sarsaparilla in Khartoum?"

A sympathetic smile curved her lips. "I could imagine."

Logan returned her smile as he watched her relax and drink her soda. He leaned over and with a flourish produced two hoagies from the depths of the basket. "Your main course, madam."

Kelli’s taste buds stood up and cheered. Here was a man who knew the way to a woman’s heart. Logan watched as she slowly unwrapped her American hoagie, with the works, as if the answers to the universe were held inside the paper. He laughed as a full-blown grin lit up Kelli’s face. "What’s so funny?"

Kelli smiled at Logan and wondered how to answer. For a horrible moment she thought he was trying to seduce her with food. When she unwrapped the hoagie and spotted the mound of onions nestled between the meat, cheese, lettuce, and tomato, she knew her fears were unfounded. No man brought onions to a woman he was planning to seduce. She picked up the sandwich. "Nothing’s funny, I just love hoagies." Then she took a large bite. Satisfied with her answer, he picked up his sandwich and got down to the serious business of lunch.

Kelli wiped juice from the tomato from her chin and groaned. Logan had finished first, but she had put up a good fight. "I concede. When it comes to hoagies, you’re a bigger pig than I."

He had watched a small drop of juice roll down her chin and groaned. It would have been so easy to reach over and gently capture the moistness with his mouth. When she wiped the juice away with a paper napkin, frustration ravaged his body. He placed a friendly smile on his face and said, "Sorry. I didn’t mean for it to turn into a race."

Kelli finished off the rest of her soda, leaned back on her elbows, and watched Caer waddle toward her nest. "No need to apologize. I never can resist a challenge."

Logan leaned back and faced the pond. The silence that surrounded them was broken only by an occasional honk from the swans, or a gentle chirping from nearby birds. After a few restful minutes he said, "Tell me about Ben."

She sighed wistfully. "He was brilliant. He could fix or build anything. Do you know he built the house all by himself?"

"Is he the one who installed the doorbell that plays ‘We’re Off to See the Wizard’?"

"He made me that chime for my seventeenth birthday."

"Impressive. I suppose he also was the inventor of Killer, your attack dog."

She softly chuckled, and said, "Afraid so."

"You miss him, don’t you?"

She had to clear the lump that had caught in her throat before she could answer. "Every day."

Logan forced himself to remain seated and not to gather her in his arms and promise her everything would work out. "Did you love him?"

"Like a father. When I first moved in with him there was some serious speculation in town."

"About what?"

"A sixteen-year-old hoodlum and a fifty-year-old man. Youth Services did more than their share of checking up on him. It’s really funny, the one person who everyone thought would be bad for me turned out to be the best. People in town didn’t understand Ben. He was a loner. He never went into town, unless he had to. The only friend he had was Josh’s grandfather. They were fishing buddies."

"That’s how you met Josh."

"Yes. When the whispers in town started, Ben and Emmett, Josh’s grandfather, had this idea to pair us up. Since Josh didn’t have a steady girlfriend, we went along with it."

He studied her profile. "Nothing serious came of it?"

"No, much to Ben’s and Emmett’s disappointment."

"Why? Josh seems like the all-American dream date." Kelli laughed merrily. "If you’d seen Josh eight years ago, you wouldn’t have said that. Every father in town forbade his daughters from even talking to him."

"Josh?"

"Yep. He rode the biggest Harley-Davidson in the county and wore a gold crucifix in his right ear. His idea of dressing up was clean jeans and polishing his sunglasses."

"And Ben allowed you to date him?"

"We made a perfect pair. I was rebelling against the town for gossiping about me and he was furious at the daughters for listening to their fathers. Wherever we went, people knew we were there."

"But he’s a policeman."

"Now he is; then he was just a frustrated young man. We both made the honor roll, and every time we aced a test they yanked us to the office and accused us of cheating." After a thoughtful moment, she asked, "Do you know something, Logan?"

"What?"

"People do judge a book by its cover."

Logan was angry for her sake. Poor Kelli. A frightened teenager thrown to a pack of wolves, only to be torn apart at every change. Being forced to listen to vicious talk about Ben, the one man who loved her enough to pull her off the streets. "I’m sorry."

Kelli heard the disgust in his voice and smiled. "Thanks, but it’s been over for six years. I turned respectable the year I started college and Josh left for the police academy. Now boys who use to proposition me with some very interesting ideas bring their kids and wives here to see the fairies."

She chuckled. "Josh is now the town’s number-one catch. Every mother is practically throwing their virginal beauties at his feet."

"Ah, but is he biting?"

"To the great disappointment of every mother—and some very testy daughters—he hasn’t even nibbled."

He lifted his brow, amazed. "Nothing?" He watched Kelli shake her head and eye the picnic basket. "Interesting."

"No, predictable. Did you bring anything else?"

"Of course." He lifted the lid of the hamper. "Why predictable?"

Her mouth watered as she saw the bag of potato chips. "They’re still judging the book by its cover."

"Are you saying he’s not true-blue under that badge?"

She narrowed her eyes. "All I’m saying is he’s the same today as he was nine years ago. Loyal, honest, and the best friend I ever had."

"I seem to be apologizing to you a lot today. I’m sorry. I won’t question your friendship with Josh again." He saw her guarded expression and pulled up a cellophane package of Ding Dongs. "Am I forgiven?"

"Maybe."

"For two chocolate cakes surrounding a heap of delicious cream all covered with dark chocolate, I need a definite answer."

"Yes, providing I get to ask the next question." He smiled graciously and handed her the package and another sarsaparilla. "Sure. I have all my own teeth, stopped believing in Santa Claus by the time I was ten, and flunked my driver’s test the first two times. I’m allergic to asparagus, deplore horror movies, and my favorite color is yellow. I love my job, can’t spell worth a damn, and my checkbook’s never balanced. I’ve never married, but I once lived with a girl during college. I don’t believe in ironing, ESP, or that we will one day balance the national budget. Did any of that answer any of your questions?"

A mischievous smile touched her lips as she shook her head. "No. I was just curious if you always wore such interesting shorts."

Startled, he asked, "My shorts?"

"Yeah, you know, those cute boxers. I especially like the green ones with the light bulbs all over them."

"How in the hell would you know what my shorts look like?"

Her voice was all innocence. "I did the wash this morning."

Logan willed back his embarrassment. He was a thirty-four-year-old man and the subject of his shorts shouldn’t cause him to blush like a schoolboy. "I thought Ruth was the housekeeper."

"She is, but I do all the laundry."

"Why?"

"The machine is very temperamental. It only listens to me. The two times she tried to wash a load catastrophe struck."

"Catastrophe?"

"The first time the water hose snapped and we ended up with a flood in the laundry room. The second time it wouldn’t rinse the suds out of the clothes."

Logan studied Kelli’s serene expression; something wasn’t right. A housekeeper who didn’t do laundry? A living room that magically cleaned itself? In the two days he had been there, Ruth had baked and cooked meals that Kelli usually wasn’t around for. When it was time for the dishes, Henry or Kelli was always there to lend a helping hand. When his aunt had some free time she was either napping or knitting Kelli another red sweater. But he would get to the bottom of the housekeeper who never kept house later; he decided to answer her original question now. "My shorts are a conversation piece."

Kelli looked at Logan’s earnest expression and burst out laughing. The more she thought about it, the more she laughed. An image of Logan standing there in just his outrageous skivvies didn’t inspire conversation. Lust? Maybe. Wanton desires? Probably. A need for a quiet tête-à-tête? Never! She would be lucky if she could breathe in such a situation. As the laughter subsided she barely choked out, "Do you like to hold conversations while you stand around in your B.V.D.’s?"

He grinned. She had a magical laugh. It held the sweetness of youth, a promise of passion, and the silkiness of seduction. Put it all together and she was arousing him with a laugh. He suddenly shifted position and wondered when he had become a masochist. He suddenly had to hear that laugh again. He held up an imaginary cigar while wiggling his eyebrows in his best Groucho Marx fashion. "Anytime you want, I’ll take off my pants and chat up a storm. Just let me know."

She adored his humor. It said a lot about the man. She wasn’t sure how she would have handled a friendly chat about her undies, but he was handling it marvelously.

Maybe too marvelously. This afternoon she had fallen for his charm and had completely forgotten about being enemies. Distrust and sadness replaced the laughter in her eyes. No sense crying for the moon. As a child she had learned that wishing for unattainable things only made the pain linger. With a sigh of regret she brought their camaraderie to an end. "When are you going back?" Logan knew the instant the harmony between them broke. It was written in her eyes. He ran a frustrated hand through his hair and groaned. "I told you last night, I don’t know."

"The company you work for just told you to take as much time as you like? Come back when you’re ready?"

"It’s more complicated than that. My contract was up. Now I can either renegotiate and return to Khartoum or some other overseas field, or I can find another job."

Panic ripped through her. If he didn’t return overseas, that meant he would either be moving away, taking her family with him . . . or becoming a permanent guest at Fairyland. Either way spelled disaster. She tried to keep her voice steady. "What do you want to do?"

"I’m checking into some matters before I make a final decision."

Kelli’s mind screamed for her to think, and fast. "There must be a lot of benefits that come with staying with one company ten years. Pensions, insurance, K-plans, not to mention the travel. I’m sure all that will play a key role in your decision."

"Kelli, I know all the pros and cons. My main concern right now is for my aunt and uncle. What’s best for them."

"Why not just ask them?"

Logan collapsed onto his back and stared up at the fluffy clouds in the sky. How could he explain the atmosphere that surrounded Fairyland? It was beautiful, serene, and enchanted. A place where magical beings roamed. Ruth and Henry had a modest and comfortable home, everything they could need and a sense of being wanted. Why would they leave? But was it the right place for them? "They’re my responsibility."

"They’re old enough to make their own decisions," snapped Kelli.

"Listen, I’m trying to do what’s best for them."