The Wedding Dress. Kimberly Cates
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he was supposed to bring a guest her lunch. But this wasn’t about Veronica, or even about Jared. Emma ignored everyone except Davey Harrison as he led her to her seat.
“Veronica, go get Ms. McDaniel some food from the canteen,” Davey commanded, glancing down at his watch. “They should be serving dinner now anyway.” The blonde compressed her mouth into a sour line.
“I’ll go,” the redhead volunteered. She climbed to her feet, brushing a twig off of her canvas shorts.
Davey’s smile grew suddenly shy. “Thanks, Beth.”
Beth. So Davey had a definite crush on the girl, bless his heart. Not that he’d ever have the confidence to let Beth know it.
Emma felt someone watching her, angled her face so she could see. Jared Butler’s wolflike gaze fixed on her, so inscrutable she shivered almost as much as her dog did. But why should she care what Jared thought? Davey Harrison was beaming as if she’d crowned him king of the world.
JARED WISHED Emma McDaniel would get the hell out of his head so he could get some work done. Even as a lad he’d been able to compartmentalize his life into neat little boxes, lock away his emotions and immerse himself in centuries past.
How many times could he remember his father’s wistful face peeking into his room of an evening? Angus Butler had been so fiercely proud Jared was top of his classes that the old man would never have dreamed of pulling his son away from the pile of books that always littered the boy’s bed. Yet now Jared understood the price his father had paid for such unselfishness. Jared knew about silences too deep, where ghosts lived just waiting for a chance to haunt you.
While Angus had been silent when Jared withdrew, Jenny had been sad. I thought things would be different once we were married. But you feel so far away and I can’t reach you….
He’d grown so damned impatient. I’m right here.
No. You’re somewhere off inside your head.
She’d been right. He’d lived most of his life cut off from the present, building castles in his mind, peopling them with ladies and knights far more real to him than his wife had been. Even students he cared most about—like Davey—he managed to keep boxed up in his head when necessary.
But damn if Emma McDaniel would stay where Jared put her. She kept popping out like some crazed Jack-in-the-box just when he least expected it. Jack-in-the-box? Ha! More like any red-blooded man’s hottest fantasy popping out of a cake at some stag party.
No wonder college lads decorated their walls with her picture. She had the kind of beauty that stopped men in their tracks—elegance, grace, a natural sensuality that made men want her, know they could never have her. She might as well be the moon; she was so far beyond their reach.
And now she’d smashed his concentration again. She’d glided across the heath like a princess in ancient tales of magic, about to sacrifice herself to some dragon. But this time no knight had ridden to her aid. The lady had done the rescuing, sweeping into the midst of the football game and transforming Davey from the shy butt of the more athletic boys’ jokes to her chosen champion. The boy looked as if he hadn’t a coherent thought left in his head.
Jared bundled away the site maps he’d been updating and watched Emma from beneath hooded lids.
So the lad is dazzled by her. At least Davey has the excuse he’s not even twenty yet. What about you, Butler? Admit it, man. When the woman carried that disaster of a dog out of your tent, she took your brain as well.
Jared closed his eyes, remembering. The skin exposed when Emma had opened his shirtfront still burned, but not from the wounds her vampire dog had inflicted. Soft, feminine fingertips had blazed invisible trails on his bare chest, leaving Jared so hot, another plunge in the cold burn would’ve been a relief.
She’d been so warm, so real when she’d pulled his hand into her lap, her red mouth vulnerable with regret that he’d been bitten, her eyes shining as if he had slain dragons instead of driven off a crotchety old farmer and his dogs.
But he’d broken the spell with a vengeance when he’d betrayed the fact that he’d read her letters.
How would you feel if I read private letters of yours?
Letters so emotional he’d actually cried over them the way she obviously had? He’d feel violated, exposed…furious. But then, he never had poured his feelings out on paper. Not since he’d learned the danger. Once in writing, your words could be used to trap you.
He heard a silvery ripple of laughter and opened his eyes to see Emma, transfixed by whatever Davey was talking about. The woman seemed to relish the fish and chips on her paper plate with the unabashed delight most people of her type would reserve for cuisine from a five-star French restaurant. Yet despite her animated conversation with Davey and her own obvious hunger, she paused now and then to slip her ridiculous-looking dog the choicest bits of food.
Something about the woman hammered at Jared’s heart: her ratty dog cradled on her lap, her beautiful smile thawing Davey’s shyness, the way the first spring sunshine thawed the heath, coaxing flowers out of winter-barren ground.
In half an hour Emma McDaniel had managed to achieve what Jared had struggled to do for years—forcing the other students to see Davey in a different light. But why had she done it? Questions racketed through Jared’s mind.
He saw Veronica slide onto the bench across from Emma and Davey, something sharp in the blonde’s gaze. Beth, Sean Murphy and the rest of Veronica’s adoring throng crowded into the remaining seats.
It was a strange combination. Curiosity, Jared’s fatal flaw, got the better of him.
He rose, took his notebook and a Ziploc bag containing a recent find to the table next to Emma’s.
“Dr. Butler, won’t you come join us?” Veronica called. “I’m sure someone would be happy to move.”
Just like a dog juggling for alpha status in a pack, Veronica was always nudging one of the quieter kids to give up their seat. Usually, Davey would have bailed, but Jared doubted a crate of explosives could blast the boy from Emma McDaniel’s side tonight.
Even if Davey had started to fall into his old habit of moving, Jared instinctively knew Emma would have stopped the boy. Whiskey-dark eyes had the same protective glint in them Jared had seen when the lady had been a heartbeat away from plunging into the middle of a dogfight after that little scrap of a mutt whose life she’d saved.
“I’ve got work to do,” Jared said, staking out an empty table by spreading his things across it. He drew a magnifying glass from the leather pouch on his belt, removed the finger-length chunk of metal from the plastic bag, then chose the seat where he’d have the best vantage point to keep an eye on the unfolding scene.
For a heartbeat Emma’s gaze locked on the find Jared was pretending to study, her avid curiosity surprising him.
But a second later, Jared was sure he’d imagined it. Emma focused on Davey once more. The kid was describing the evolution of castles to her, from wooden motte and bailey fortresses to the grand stone structures like Castle Craigmorrigan. Emma listened with rapt attention, peppering the conversation with surprisingly astute questions, as if her sole purpose was to make Davey shine.
Jared figured it took Veronica about three seconds to hijack the conversation.
“We can talk about castles all summer, Davey,” she said, sprinkling malt vinegar on her own fish. “But we’ll only have Emma here for a little while. Wouldn’t you all rather hear about her?”
A chorus of enthusiastic approval rose from the other students. A resigned aura settled over Emma’s features, as if she’d expected to be hit with questions at some point. But Jared sensed a wariness about Emma, too. Smart girl, he thought. Veronica sounded way too friendly considering the glint in her eyes.
“You look so different in person!” Veronica said, nibbling meditatively on a chip.