Tomorrow Will Be Too Late (12 page)

Alice seemed to handle it pretty well, most probably because she expected something along
these lines
to happen, he decided, reluctantly admiring the feisty girl. Whatever he
might
hold against Kate and the role she played
in his
dirty divorce two years ago, her sister was the best thing that
had
ever happened to Thomas, as far as he was concerned. A voice inside his head whispered that he was a hypocrite, since it was exactly this perfect union that he
had
threatened to
destroy if
Kate didn’t help him with his plans
. He didn’t have to think about
it
,
he hurried to remind himself, thanks to her playing along. She
told him her decision almost instantly, even before he had a chance to ask her.
He recalled coming to pick her up, her neighbor peeking from behind her windows as he pressed the doorbell. He felt like smiling at the old woman and waving, a
lighthe
art
edness
he
hadn’t
e
xperienced in years taking over.

‘She isn’t going to vanish into thin air, you know. You can stop looking at her non
-
stop, Justin.’ A sulky female voice interrupted his reminiscing, and he looked into a pair of green eyes that watched him with displeasure. Sophie, Thomas’
s
sister
,
was visibly bored with the whole hoopla.

‘I have to say that it seems that the Fletcher sisters know how to impress men, no doubt,’ she continued sourly, her cherry
-
red mouth set into a pout. ‘
Just
look at my brother trotting obediently on his leash.’

He could have told her that it must have been an easy thing for him to do after all those years of practice with his family, but decided against it. It was no good to step
down
to her level of spitefulness, especially
since
behind
that
arrogant façade he could sense vulnerability that she hoped to hide from the rest of the world.

‘
Don’t
tell me that it won’t be nice to have another woman in the house, Sophie
,
’
he
answered soothingly, marveling at the way the sunlight brought out
the burgundy
hues in her red hair. ‘I remember you complaining plenty of times about being surrounded with boys
.
’

She
was the only girl in a family of four boys, something she
had come
to lament in the years he had known Thomas. He suspected that once she got over the fact that her privileged only
-
female
-
in
-
the
-
family position changed, she would enjoy
having
Alice
around
more than she would have ever thought.

‘So what’s with you and
Kate
anyway?’
s
he
asked now, a note of hostility in her lovely voice. ‘I thought you didn’t do dating, Justin
.’

He
remembered the circumstances of this statement, of course. A year ago, while he visited before his departure to Africa, she had made it clear that she was interested in him in a way
that went
beyond his friendship with her brother. With the typical Sophie
-
like flair
,
she
had
waltzed into his bedroom clad in nothing but a towel that dropped conveniently to the floor the moment their eyes met.
Always one to act
rather
than talk, she was ready to take their relationship in a new direction now that he was free and single again. Only
,
he wasn’t interested. Not even while staring at her perfect, luscious body only inches away from his frozen frame. He couldn’t understand himself
,
he thought angrily, his senses unaffected by such complete display of her beauty. He was a man, after all
, a
man who
hadn’t had
a lover in a long time, his celibacy a choice he
had
made after his fiasco with Victoria. He should have been affected
,
at least physically, if nothing else. Sophie was
absolutely breathtaking
, her pale alabaster skin and pink
-
tipped breasts tempting enough to move a saint. Apparently he was beyond repair, he thought wryly, as he grabbed the towel from the floor and handed it to her in an unmistakable gesture.

‘We’re friends,’ he
said
in response to her question about Kate
, his eyes going once again to the reason
for
this unholy
inquisition. She was blissfully unaware of the storm their very
much-displayed
friendship ha
d
caused so far, luckily for her. But it wouldn’t last, of course
,
and he could only imagine the comments she would have to be able to handle in the two weeks leading up to the wedding.

He didn’t care about her being cornered
,
did he? He tried
reassuring
himself, failing miserably, as a dormant sense of chivalry stir
red
deep inside him and prompted him to run to her rescue
—w
hich was ridiculous
, given their rather less than perfect history.

‘Well, she seems to certainly think it’s more than that
,
’ Sophie
answered
, her face resentful. ‘
The
way she was clinging to your arm as you arrived, that’s more than a friendly feeling, Justin. You might be a bit… rusty in all that, but a woman can tell right away
.
’

He felt like
laughing, which
would not go down well, he thought as he bit his lip in an effort to remain serious. Sophie had no clue
,
of course
,
how far off she really was regarding their amicable entrance. How could
she
? She wasn’t there in the
car as they were pulling to the curb. One look into Kate’s distant face would
have
allow
ed
her to figure out that not all was perfect in paradise.

‘Excuse me for a sec,’ he said instead, hoping that she would move on to someone else soon. This was the best part about
Sophie
, he mused as he walked over toward Kate, his eyes focused on her slim back. She had plenty of
crushes
on her brother’s friends, or so he was told by the exasperated Thomas.

He reached the little group and decided to take the risk that might not pay off after all. He couldn’t know how Kate would react
.
Still, his hands seemed to have acquired a life of their own as he touched her shoulder, his fingers lingering just a second too long to appear completely innocent. He could feel her body tense under his fingertips, making him think of a frightened animal that stills before bolting away into the thicket.

‘I was just wondering if there were any instructions that I
’
m not supposed to miss for the big day,’ he said with deceptive cheerfulness, fooling everyone present. Everyone but Kate, of course. As he saw faces smile all around, she remained
still under the light pressure of his palm resting on her shoulder.

‘That will come a bit later
.
’
Alice
joined them, her lovely face glowing. ‘
There
is the part of orchestrating you bot
h in perfect timing, of course.’

‘How about we pr
actice walking together
,
then?’
he
asked smilingly and earned a few guffaws of laughter. He wanted to escape this cheerful crowd, he thought, the memories of his own wedding
,
not that far off in the past
,
coming back to haunt him. He might have moved
on and got
ten
over the fact that V
ictoria wasn’t exactly the best wife material to start with, but his pride still smarted as he recalled the horrid off
-
track direction their relationship
had taken
almost instantly. When he thought about it, the unraveling of their future together started at the moment he had slipped the slim, golden wedding ring on her finger
. He still remembered the way she looked at him when the priest pronounced them husband and wife, a triumphant light coming into her lovely eyes. It wasn’t the triumph of a woman in love, jubilant to be with the man she loved
.
Rather
, it was
a cool, calculative glance of a hunter that was satisfied with the result of the hunt, the
prey
stalked and finished off properly.

‘
There
’
s a nice path around the church
.
’ Alice smiled encouragingly, visibly set on bringing them closer together. ‘I
’
m sure Kate will be eternally grateful if you save her from standing here, Justin.’

Another round of laughter followed
,
and he smiled politely, realizing he had to respond in kind if he didn’t want her to think him a creep or worse.

‘
Well
, how about that, Kate?’ H
e turned to the girl
at
his side, his eyebrows
rising
in a question. ‘Shall we go and soak
up
some sun before i
t hides behind the clouds again? I bet that it takes a bit to adjust after all the heat of Down Under
.
’

If she didn’t feel like going with him, she must have thought better of it, because she nodded, her face reluctantly agreeable.

‘Yes, I have to say that I’ve forgotten how rainy and misty it is here, after my two year
reprieve
.’ She peeked toward the door, the rectangle of bright light and greenery a stark contrast against the dark walls of the interior
. ‘Back there, even the rain seemed brighter.’

A
wistful note
crept
in
to
her voice
,
and he had a feeling that she missed more than the weather. Was there a man she had left behind? And if so, what was he like? What kind of a man managed to move her heart? He was annoyed at how disconcerting he had found the whole idea,
his self
-
preservation instinct finally kicking in.
So
what if she had someone there, a lover most probably
?
A man without a face who kissed the sweat of her skin in the midst of the tropical downpour she was so fondly remembering? It meant nothing to him or what he planned to use her for. When they were done and even, she could run back into
the other man’s
arms, disappearing from his life for good.

‘
I’m sure y
ou can
tell
me more about it, Kate
.’ H
e took her elbow and maneuvered her to the door, aware of the many pairs of eyes burning holes in their backs. Was he rushing things too much? It seemed that no, he was believable enough for
everyone to accept the fact he and Kate were on a path to becoming a couple. He could tell it by the indulgent smiles of the other couples and speculative glances of
the
women
.

Once safely outside, away from the judging eyes, she stepped aside in a move
so
fast and fluid that he had to blink to readjust his vision.
One second she was at his side, her arm under the light grip of his guiding hand, the next she was a few steps away, her eyes wary on his face.

‘I’d say we
’
ve filled the quota for a promising couple for weeks to come
.’ H
er voice carried
an
unmistakable note of hostility. He wondered what was hiding behind the stormy gaze of her lovely eyes. And he wondered even more why it matter
ed.

‘It was a good start, I
suppose
,
’ he nodded, walking slowly toward the gravel
-
covered
path that
disappeared behind the brick wall surrounding the church. He noted that she followed him, however reluctantly. So far so good, he thought, eyeing the grounds decked
out
in their spring splendor. The mild, humid weather prompted the bushes and trees to flower, the fresh green leaves and white flowers adding an almost surreal air of beauty to the place.
The slope rose gently into a hill, its green grass dotted with yellow dandelions and small white flowers he didn’t know the name of. The sun broke through the clouds again, patches of brilliant, robin
’s-
egg blue sky visible through the mosaic of white and lead
-
colored cumulus. A perfect day to be outside, he thought sarcastically, the warmth of the sunrays on his skin dispersing some of the frozen coldness he felt inside
. It was impossible to not fall under the spell of the beauty of their surroundings, his thoughts calming down to a pleasant hum.