Good Husband Material. Susan Mallery
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spoke easily, even though the last place he wanted Daisy to send him was that back room with no windows and only one door. Yesterday, facing four armed bank robbers hadn’t done much but increase his heart rate. But the thought of being trapped in a small place with Daisy on the hunt made his insides shrivel up and play dead.
Still, there was no escaping the inevitable. And he always had his handy-dandy test button escape route.
He walked down the hallway that led to the conference room and stepped inside. But instead of finding it empty, he saw someone else waiting. A tall, slender someone with short blond hair and the prettiest blue eyes this side of the Mississippi.
“Morning, Kari,” he said as he stepped into the room.
She glanced up from the list she’d been making, frowned in confusion, then smiled. “Gage. What are you doing here?”
“Waiting on Daisy. She’s going to interview me about yesterday’s bank robbery.” He hesitated before taking a seat.
Some decisions were harder than others and this was one of them. Did he want to sit next to her so he could catch the occasional whiff of her soft perfume, or sit across from her so he could look at her lovely face? He decided to enjoy the view, and pulled out the chair directly opposite hers.
“What brings you to the newspaper this morning?” he asked as he set his hat on the table.
Kari’s mouth twisted slightly. “Daisy called and asked to interview me about the bank robbery. I wonder why she wanted us to come at the same time.”
Gage had a couple of ideas, but figured this wasn’t the time to go into them. Instead he studied Kari, who seemed to be trying not to look at him. Was that because of last night? Their kiss? The heat they’d ignited had kept him up half the night. He might not have much of a reaction to Daisy, but being around Kari proved that he could be intrigued in about a tenth of a second under the right circumstances.
This morning she wore a white summery dress that emphasized her slender shape. He eyed her short hair, which fluttered around her ears.
“What?” she said, watching him watch her. She touched her hair. “I know—it’s short.”
“I said I liked it.”
“I wasn’t sure if you were lying,” she admitted with a smile. “I always figured you were more of a long hair kind of a guy.”
He leaned back in his chair. “Actually, I try to be flexible. If it looks nice, I like it.”
He continued to take in her features, noting changes and similarities.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
He grinned. He was thinking that he would very much like to take her to bed. Once they’d shared several hours of one of life’s greatest pleasures, he would like to get to know the woman she’d become while she’d been gone. Not that he was going to say that to her. From time to time, circumstances forced a man to tell little white lies.
“I was wondering how much work you’re planning on doing at your grandmother’s house.”
Kari blinked at Gage. She’d expected him to say a lot of things, but not that. He’d been looking at her as if he were the big bad wolf and she were lunch. But in the kind of way that made her body heat up and her heart rate slip into overdrive.
So, she’d been thinking about last night’s kiss and he’d been mulling over paint chips and siding. Obviously her ability to read Gage and handle herself with grace and style hadn’t improved at all in the time she’d been gone.
“I’m still figuring that out,” she said. “The biweekly cleaning service kept the house livable, but it’s still old and out of date. I could redo the whole place, but that doesn’t make sense. I have a limit to both my time and money, so I’m going to have to prioritize.”
He nodded thoughtfully.
My, oh my, but he still looked good, she thought, as she had yesterday. And the pleasure she took in seeing him hadn’t worn off yet. She wondered if it would. By the end of summer, would he be little more than just some good-looking guy who happened to live next door? Could she possibly get that lucky?
Before she could answer her own question, Daisy breezed into the conference room. From her low-cut blouse to the red lipstick emphasizing her full lips, she was a walking, breathing pinup girl. Kari felt bony and string-bean–like in comparison.
“Thanks so much for coming,” she said as she closed the door, then took the seat next to Gage. “I’m writing a follow-up article for the paper and I thought it would be fun to interview you both together. I hope you don’t mind.”
Kari shook her head and tried not to notice how close Daisy sat to Gage. The other woman brushed her arm against his and smiled at him in a way that had Kari thinking they were way more than friends.
But that didn’t make sense. Gage wasn’t the kind of man to be involved with one woman and kiss another. Which meant Gage and Daisy had once been a couple or that they were still in the flirting stage. Either concept gave her the willies.
Daisy set her notebook on the table in front of her but didn’t open it. She leaned toward Kari. “Wasn’t that something? I mean, a bank robbery right here in PL.”
Kari blinked. “PL?”
“Possum Landing. Nothing exciting ever happens here.” She smiled at Gage. “At least, nothing in public. I thought it was so amazing. And, Gage, throwing yourself in front of the bullets. That was amazing, too. And brave.”
He grunted.
With a speed that left Kari scrambling, Daisy turned to her and changed the subject. “So, you’re back. After all those years in New York. What was it like there?”
“Interesting,” Kari said cautiously, not sure what this had to do with the holdup the previous day. “Different from here.”
“Isn’t everywhere,” Daisy said with a laugh. “I’ve spent time in the city, but I have to tell you, I’m a small-town girl at heart. PL is an amazing place and has everything I could ever want.”
She spoke earnestly, focusing all her attention on Gage for several seconds before swinging it back on Kari.
“What’s it like seeing Gage again after all these years?”
Kari blinked. “I’m, uh, not sure what that has to do with the bank robbery.”
“I would have thought it was obvious. Your former fiancé risks his life for you. He protects you from the hail of gunfire. You can’t tell me you didn’t think it was romantic. Don’t you think it was the perfect homecoming? I mean, now that you’re back.”
Kari risked a glance at Gage, but he looked as confused as she felt. What on earth was Daisy’s point with all this? As Kari didn’t want anything she said taken out of context and printed for the whole town to see, she tried to think before she spoke.
“First of all,” she said slowly, “Gage and I were never engaged. We dated. Second, I’m not back. Not permanently.”
“Uh-huh.” Daisy opened her notebook and scribbled a few lines. “Gage, what were you thinking when you walked into the bank?”
“That I should have followed my mama’s advice and studied to be an engineer.”
Kari smiled slightly and felt herself relax. Trust Gage to ease the tension in the room. But before she could savor her newfound peace, Daisy broke into peals of laughter, tossing her pen on the table and clutching Gage’s arm.
“Aren’t you a hoot?” she said, beaming at him. “I’ve always enjoyed your humor.”
The expression on her face said she had enjoyed other things, as well, but Kari didn’t want to dwell on that. She tried to ignore the couple across the table. Daisy wasn’t having any of that.