The Danforths: Toby, Lea and Adam. Anne Marie Winston
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to the woman wearing it.
In such a gown, Heather looked no more like a nanny than Cinderella looked like someone destined to sweep hearths for the rest of her days. If anything, Heather reminded Toby of an ice princess as she coolly made her way toward him. The way her gown so lovingly caressed her curves made him believe it had been designed expressly for her. Classic in design, the garment was a shimmer of sequins and beads that glittered with each step she took.
The hemline was deliberately angled from below one knee to midthigh on the opposite side. At five foot two inches tall, Toby had no idea Heather’s legs could look so long and shapely in a pair of strappy silver shoes designed to make a man want to hang himself with his necktie. Her legs went on forever. He tore his gaze away from the sight only long enough to glare at the other men whose gazes were transfixed on the heavenly apparition floating across the wide expanse of the lobby.
Jacob jabbed his brother in the side and asked, “Where the hell’s that one been all your life?”
“Presumably checking on Dylan,” Toby answered dryly.
He took inordinate pride in the fact that he managed a swallow of champagne without choking on it. He drained the flute and set it on a passing waiter’s tray. Not wanting his brother to see that his hands were shaking, Toby shoved them deep into his pockets and leaned against a marble column for support. He struck a pose of accidental insolence.
“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” Jacob countered. “Not all women are like Sheila, you know.”
“Don’t tell me Genie’s twisting your arm to get you involved in one of her harebrained matchmaking schemes.” His groan conveyed more than words alone ever could.
Though the smile that crossed Jacob’s face might be considered sly, his manner was so sympathetic that it invited Toby to open up as he used to when they’d shared their deepest secrets from their bunk beds after the lights were turned off.
“I don’t believe in pushing a man into something he doesn’t want, but I’ve got to tell you, little brother, that after fighting it tooth and nail for way too long, marriage is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I’m not much for giving advice, but I’m going to tell you something that I hope you take to heart. Don’t let one bad experience scare you away from happiness. It’s one thing to carve a niche out for yourself in the wilds of Wyoming and quite another to hide from life completely.”
Since those words came from his brother and because they were motivated by sincere concern, Toby chose not to hit him square in the mouth as he would any other man who would presume to chastise him. As it was, he simply stepped aside when his sisterin- law Larissa linked her arm through her husband’s and drew him to the dance floor with an apology to Toby. The sight sent a tiny twinge of jealousy through him.
It was all well and good for Jacob—barely back from his honeymoon—to lecture him on the glory of wedded bliss, considering the fact that he had never been divorced. His marriage wasn’t based on deceit. His wife hadn’t lied about using birth control and deliberately gotten pregnant in hopes of “snagging” a good catch. Jacob had never had a hole punched through his heart. A hole so big that the wind whistled through it whenever he stepped outside. Never had a woman stolen his son’s voice from him in her haste to move on with a more cosmopolitan life.
Or stolen his own faith in marriages like the one his parents shared for so many wonderful years. It was the kind of permanence he had taken for granted growing up. That his wife wasn’t willing to work through their problems still stung. Toby didn’t wish his brother ill. He just longed to find something as amazing as Jacob had. Fearing that was impossible, it was far easier to turn his back on love altogether than to risk being hurt again.
“Is anything wrong?” Heather asked, stepping beside him and studying the furrows lining Toby’s brow.
She wore her hair loosely pinned at her nape and swept up in a style that was utterly feminine and flattering. A few loose tendrils framed a face that appeared unaware of its own beauty.
He shook his head as if to clear it of old cobwebs and resisted the urge to test the texture of a silken tendril between his fingers. “Nothing, except that you take my breath away. If you’ll just be so kind as to stand beside me for the rest of the evening, your beauty should discourage all the single women my mother has lined up in hopes of fixing me up. Ever since the whirlwind romance that picked Genie up and deposited her in front of an altar with the man of her dreams, she’s been wanting to duplicate the experience for me.”
Heather crooked an eyebrow at him. “I take it you don’t believe in whirlwind romances.”
Who would have thought that a man who looked so at ease in saddle-worn blue jeans could look so fabulous in a tailor-made suit? Had he the inclination, Heather supposed Tobias Danforth could make a living as a model. Not one of those pretty-boy types who bounced a beach ball over a volleyball net, he would be better suited to sales that required a man of rough edges. Heather could picture him in an advertisement that juxtaposed a close-up of the character lines in his face against the backdrop of the Grand Tetons. Or playing blackjack in Monte Carlo wearing the same tuxedo he donned for tonight’s festivities.
Or in a pair of underwear that left little to the imagination and shamelessly played on his sex appeal to sell their product…
A glass of champagne looked like a tempting way to wash away the dryness that had settled into her throat like a desert. Heather nonetheless politely refused the one offered her. She met Josef in a similar setting and, as she recalled, complimentary champagne had done nothing then but cloud her judgment regarding the man who came to be her mentor first—and later her tormentor.
She could sympathize all too well with Toby’s cynicism.
“You’ll have to forgive me if I’m a little sour on the subject of romance at the moment,” he told her.
“There’s no need to apologize.” Certainly not to me, she added to herself.
Having no desire to pry into her boss’s private life, Heather hoped to be accorded the same respect in regard to her personal affairs.
Affairs being the operative word, she thought bitterly to herself, wondering why she hadn’t simply worn a hair shirt for the evening instead of something soft and feminine.
Sensing the change in her demeanor, Toby obliged by changing the subject. “How’s Dylan doing?” he asked.
Heather smiled when she thought of Dylan and Peter chasing each other through an inflatable playground that had been set up in an adjoining courtyard.
“You were right. He’s still not talking, but he and Peter are inseparable, and they seem to understand each other well enough without words.”
“Who’s to say that relationships don’t function best that way? Words damned sure didn’t keep Dylan’s mother from turning her back on the two of us, and I guarantee there were plenty of words between us.”
Heather could tell Toby regretted his words as soon as he’d said them. His angry outburst explained much and softened her heart toward him even more. The fact that he kept a photograph of Dylan’s mother on the piano back home made her wonder if he wasn’t still in love with her.
“You didn’t have an amicable divorce?” she asked softly.
“That’s an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one,” Toby replied.
“Sheila’s decision to leave tore our family apart. It was especially hard on Dylan.”
“Except for the day you arrived, he hasn’t spoken a word since his mother left.”
“I’m sorry.”
Heather’s heart went out to him. Not demonstrative by nature, she didn’t stop to think about the ramifications of putting a hand gently to the side of his cheek. Just shaven, his jawline felt smooth and solid against her palm. A gesture born of compassion turned suddenly reckless, producing shock waves so intense in the pit of Heather’s being