Christmas Babies. Ellen James
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of it. He changed tack. “So we’ll talk about my house,” he said.
Danni took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Bryan, but I can’t do the remodeling for you.” She waved at the papers and folders strewn across her desk. “As you can see, my schedule is already overextended.” She was telling the truth. Her advertising job didn’t exactly leave a lot of time to spare. She had no business considering moonlighting as a carpenter. Much as she loved the idea.
“Yesterday you couldn’t wait to get to work on the place,” Bryan said. “I saw it in your eyes. So why are you backing off now?”
Danni gave what she hoped was a nonchalant shrug. “I can’t deny it’s a wonderful house. But you know that—you bought it.”
His face tightened. “I didn’t buy the place for its charm.”
Danni knew she was stalling for time, but she would probably never see him again after today. Could a few more moments really matter?
“Why did you buy the house, Bryan?” she asked.
He got a brooding look. “Let’s just say it was…a promise I made to myself. A promise fulfilled.”
It occurred to Danni that she wasn’t the only one with a secret at the moment. “Come to think of it,” she said, “I didn’t see much furniture around. No boxes to be unpacked…I thought you’d moved in. Unless you intend to wait until after the remodeling.”
He made an impatient gesture. “I’m not moving in. I bought the place as a sort of…investment.”
“If it were my house,” Danni said, “I’d move right in. I’d let the remodeling happen all around me. I know that would drive a lot of people crazy, but I’d want to be right in the thick of it, figuring out what the house needs as things go along.”
“I don’t exactly want to get personal with the place,” Bryan said dryly.
“You almost sound as if you don’t like the house.”
“Let’s just say it brings back memories,” Bryan said, almost as if to himself.
Danni was more puzzled than ever, but she knew she’d delayed long enough.
“Thanks for stopping by and all,” she said, “but I really do have to get back to work.”
“Let’s see. You ran out on me yesterday—and now you’re showing me the door.”
“That’s the basic idea,” she said. “Goodbye, Bryan.”
His eyebrows drew together. “You act like you’re not just refusing my house, you’re refusing…me.”
Suddenly Danni felt impatient to have it over with. “I don’t really see that we have much of a relationship,” she said coolly.
“That’s not what you told me a few days ago. You told me you thought this could be serious.” Bryan gazed at her so intently that she had to glance away.
Kristine. What else had Danni’s sister told Bryan? Told him while pretending to be Danni?
“You can’t run out on me now,” he said softly. “I’ve been advised to try something new in my life. No more corporate-type women. In fact…I’ve been told it’s good for me to be dating a carpenter.”
“Well, I am a corporate woman, aren’t I?” Her only claim to actual carpentry experience were those long-ago summers when she’d been in her teens, and she’d helped Grandpa Daniel build his house. The summers when she’d been truly, uncomplicatedly happy.
Bryan glanced around her office, then brought his gaze back to her. “I like you better in a tool belt.”
If she listened to him another second, she’d be lost. She’d find herself right back in his arms….
“Bryan, there’s so much you don’t know about me.”
“I’m listening.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. You’ll find out soon enough. Right now there’s nothing more to say except goodbye.” Quickly she went to the door and opened it. Bryan gave her another long, thoughtful glance. And then he left.
Yes, it was going to be a long night.
KRISTINE WAS FLOORING IT—and Danni hung on as the golf cart went thumping up a rise of the Sugar Beach Country Club. As it reached the crest, the view was admittedly magnificent—the green sweep of the golf course merging into white-gold sand, the Pacific shimmering pure blue to the horizon. But then the cart went charging downward again, and Danni berated her sister.
“Stop. Enough already. You’ve made your point.”
“And what point would that be?” Kristine asked, paying no attention to the golf clubs rattling in the back.
“That you’re nothing at all like the other society wives at Sugar Beach. You don’t play it safe. You live dangerously.”
Kristine stopped the cart so abruptly that Danni almost tumbled out the front. Kristine just sat there, hands clenched in her lap, staring at the ocean. Her oversize sunglasses made it impossible to read her expression.
“Kris,” Danni said at last, breaking the unnatural silence. “You haven’t answered my first question yet.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“You know exactly what I mean. When do you plan to tell Bryan the truth?”
Kristine went on staring straight ahead. “You said you’d give me two days. My time’s not up yet—”
“It’s four o’clock in the afternoon. Your time’s running out fast. And after the things he said last night—I want to make damn sure he learns the truth as soon as possible.”
Now Kristine turned to look at Danni, her mouth narrowing. “You saw Bryan last night?” she asked a moment later.
“He showed up at my office. Said he thought things were getting serious between us.”
“Just how serious did things get last night?” Kristine asked in a tight voice.
“I wish you’d listen to yourself,” Danni burst out in exasperation. “You try to have an affair, pretending to be me, and then you act jealous because…I can’t even go on. It’s too ridiculous, and too awful at the same time.”
“Just say it. I’m awful.” Kristine was suddenly all motion. She clambered out of the cart, grabbed a golf club seemingly at random, and started off across the fairway. Danni had to hurry to catch up to her.
“Kris—”
“I don’t blame you for hating me. Sometimes I hate myself. But I got so crazy when Ted…when Ted…” She couldn’t seem to finish. Instead she found her golf ball and took a forceful whack at it.
“If Ted’s the problem,” Danni said, “Bryan McKay isn’t the solution.”
Kristine marched away again, club in hand. She was wearing a very fashionable ensemble—cream-colored slacks, matching cashmere sweater, perfectly coordinated spiked shoes. You didn’t live in exclusive Sugar Beach, just north of San Diego, without exhibiting the proper fashion sense. The town wasn’t quite Beverly Hills in status, but it was close enough. Danni didn’t much care for the Sugar Beach crowd, herself. She suspected her sister didn’t either, but that was something else Kristine wouldn’t confess.
Now Danni trailed after her sister. “Okay, so you won’t talk about your husband. Just let me know when you plan to talk to Bryan.”
“I already arranged to see him, all right?”
“Make sure you tell him everything—”
“I’m fulfilling my part of the bargain. So why are you hounding me, Danni?”
“I