He turned and glared in her direction. His stance, everything about him was tense and remote. She might as well have been pleading with the moon for all the impact her words had on him.
“Never mind,” she said, climbing inside the cab and snapping her seat belt into place. She’d talk to Reed when he was ready to listen, which he obviously wasn’t now.
He climbed in beside her. No more than a few inches separated them, but in reality they were worlds apart.
Reed had known it was a mistake to marry Clare. Even as he’d uttered his vows, he’d realized she’d soon regret the deed. He hadn’t counted on it happening quite this soon. He’d assumed he’d encounter a few doubts in the morning, but knowing Clare, he expected her to show a certain resolve to work matters out. Clare wasn’t the type of woman who’d take something as serious as marriage lightly. Even a Las Vegas marriage.
Her broken engagement had made her especially vulnerable, Reed mused. She’d come to Las Vegas to act as the maid of honor to her best friend when she’d desperately yearned to be a wife herself. Her generally good judgment had been clouded with visions of contented marital bliss. All her talk had been just that.
Talk. She meant well, but he knew better than most the path of good intentions.
It hadn’t mattered who she married as long as she could say she was married. It salvaged both her pride and her honor to marry him, and he’d definitely been willing. Since he was the only one with a clear head, he should have been the one to put an end to this nonsense. Instead he’d gleefully taken from her all that she was offering.
Reed had called himself a fool any number of times, but he’d never thought of himself as vindictive. He did so now. Because he loved Clare and had for years, because she represented everything unattainable to him, he’d taken advantage of her.
His reputation with women might have had something to do with her eagerness to marry him. She mentioned it herself. Perhaps by marrying him she was proving to the world that she was woman enough to handle him. Reed smiled grimly to himself. His reputation. What a laugh that was—and all the result of a lie Suzie Milford had spread several years back. For some odd reason it had followed him, enhanced by time.
Women were more stubborn than men and often had trouble admitting they were wrong. Reed had to find some way to convince Clare it was necessary before she could persuade him otherwise. His love for her had already eclipsed his judgment once, and he couldn’t allow it to happen a second time.
An hour passed, and neither of them said a word. Tullue was almost three hours’ distance from the air port, which gave him an additional two hours to sort through the problem.
“I need to eat something,” Clare said just before they boarded the Edmonds ferry. Her hand was clenched around a brown plastic pill bottle she’d taken from her purse. “I need food in my stomach before I take the medication.”
Her headache had returned, and Reed felt a rush of remorse. She was in pain and he’d been so caught up in self-recriminations that he hadn’t noticed.
They drove aboard the Washington State ferry and parked. “Do you want me to bring you something back?” he asked, thinking it would be easier for him to climb the stairs up the two decks than for Clare to make the long trek when she wasn’t feeling well.
“If you wouldn’t mind. Please.”
“What would you like?”
“Anything…a muffin, if they have one, and maybe a cup of coffee.” He couldn’t be sure, because it had been impossible to view Clare from where he was seated on the plane, but he guessed she’d forgone the snack the airline had served.
It was early afternoon and she hadn’t eaten all day. She must be living on adrenaline and pain.
“I’ll be as quick as I can,” he promised.
She offered him a weak smile and whispered, “Thank you.”
Once he was in the cafeteria-style galley, Reed bought them both turkey sandwiches, large blueberry muffins, drinks and fresh fruit.
Clare’s eyes revealed her appreciation when he returned.
“Thank you,” she said again and reached for the coffee. Peeling away the plastic top, she sipped from the paper cup, then, unwrapping the turkey sandwich, she ate several bites of that. When she’d finished, she removed the cap from the pill bottle and swallowed down a capsule.
Reed reached for the prescription bottle and read the label.
In a heartbeat, he understood. Everything made sense now, it all added up.
Clare hadn’t been herself the night before and with good reason. She’d combined a glass of champagne with her prescription drug when the instructions on the bottle specifically advised against doing so. It hadn’t made her drowsy or drunk as the warning claimed, but it had drastically affected her personality.
No wonder she’d gazed up at him with stars in her eyes and blown kisses to complete strangers at the far end of the craps table. He doubted she’d even realized what was happening to her,
“I’m sorry about this morning,” she said after several minutes. “I didn’t mean to offend you…I’m hoping we can put the incident behind us and talk.”
“We can talk.” Although he didn’t know what there was to say. Everything was crystal clear in his mind. If he hadn’t been so crazy in love with Clare he would have realized right away that something was drastically wrong.
He was a world-class jackass. The only option left to him was to try to undo the damage this marriage had caused, before it ruined Clare’s life.
“First and foremost I want you to know I have no regrets,” she said softly, sweetly and, to his remorse, sincerely.
Her words sent Reed’s world into a tailspin before he realized she couldn’t very well admit she wanted out. Clare wasn’t the type of woman who would treat marriage casually. She wouldn’t give up without a fight. Unfortunately she hadn’t figured out what had prompted the deed. The issue was complex; her reasons for marrying him had been both emotional and physical.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” she asked, when he didn’t immediately respond. “I can’t stand it when you don’t talk to me.”
“What would you like me to say?” he asked. He’d never been a man who felt the need for a lot of words. This situation baffled him more than any other.
“You might tell me you don’t regret being married to me. There are any number of things you might say that would reassure me that we haven’t made the biggest mistake of our lives.”
Reed felt at a complete loss.
“You’re impossible—How do you expect us to make any worthwhile decisions when you refuse to communicate?”
“What type of decisions?”
She apparently didn’t hear his question or she openly refused to answer it. “You certainly didn’t have a problem talking to me last night. Compared to now, you were a regular chatty Cathy.”
“Chatty who?”
“Never mind.” She jerked her head away from him and glared out the side window. “The least you could have done was warn me.”
“That I prefer to wear my hair in braids?”
“No,” she fumed. “That you intended to change personalities on me. I thought…I hoped…” Her voice broke, and she hesitated.
“I’m not the only one who went through a personality change,” he told her quietly, thinking it was best to get it out in the open now and be done with it. “I don’t suppose you happened to read the label on your medication before you drank the champagne, did you?”
“No…” She reached for her purse and dug around until she located the bottle. After reading the warning, she raised her soft brown eyes to his. “The champagne…I didn’t even think about it. But I wasn’t drunk, I mean…”
“No, but you weren’t yourself, either. You generally don’t eat food off someone else’s plate, do you?”
Clare went pale. “So that’s what was different.”
He was gratified to note she wasn’t going to play word games with him. “No wonder you were so uninhibited, bl
owing kisses to strange men. What about the public displays of affection between the two of us,” he continued. “I don’t imagine you usually kiss men in the streets. If anyone changed, Clare, it was you.”
Her head rolled forward, and she caught it with her hand.
“Marrying me was like everything else about our time in Vegas. Unreal. You no more want to be saddled with me as a husband than—”
“That’s not true,” she argued. “I want to be your wife, no matter what you say. But you’re too…hardheaded, too macho to admit it, so you’re trying to put everything on me.”
Reed knew he dare not believe she was sincere about their commitment to each other. “Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”
She went silent as they pulled into Kingston and drove toward Tullue.
“What do you want to do?” she asked after a time, sounding very much as though she were close to a physical and emotional collapse. Reed realized now wasn’t the time to press the issue, although he preferred to have it over and done with. Later would be soon enough.
“I’ll follow your lead,” he told her when it was apparent she expected an answer. They were nearly to Tullue by then, and Reed was both regretful and, in the same heartbeat, eager for them to separate. He couldn’t be near her and not want to hold her. Couldn’t be this close and hide his love.
“My lead?”
“As far as I’m concerned, we can do this any way you want. I wasn’t the one crossing prescription medication with alcohol.” He didn’t know why he continued to throw that in her face. Clare was confused enough. “You have every right to bow out of this entire episode,” he concluded.
“Bow out?”
“It’s a bit late for an annulment, don’t you think?” The question had a sarcastic twist.
“You think we should get a divorce?” Her voice broke and wobbled before she regained control. “I’m probably the only woman in the world who can’t manage to hold on to a husband for more than twenty-four hours.”
Reed had no comment to make. A divorce wasn’t what he wanted, but it wasn’t his decision to make. After taking advantage of her the way he had, he couldn’t allow his desire to dictate their actions.
“What if…if I’m pregnant?”
The subject had been foremost on his mind the night before, the prospect filling his heart and his soul with a profusion of happy anticipation. No more. A child now would be the worst kind of complication, torn between two worlds without the guardianship of parents who would offer love and guidance to an understanding and acceptance of his or her heritage.
“Is it possible?”
“Of course it’s possible,” she flared, taking offense at his question.
“When will you know?”
She shrugged. “I…There are the home pregnancy tests, but I’ve never used one before so I don’t know how long I’ll need to wait for an accurate reading.”
They were in the outskirts of Tullue. Within a few all-too-short moments he’d have her home, and they had yet to settle even the most rudimentary of the many decisions facing them. Everything hinged on what Clare decided to do about the marriage.
“I…I don’t know what to do,” she said, pressing her hands over her ears as though to block out all the questions that plagued her. “I can’t think…I was so sure, and now I don’t know what I feel.”
“Sleep on it.”
“How can you be like this?” she cried. “‘Don’t you care what happens? We’re talking about the rest of our lives and you make it sound so…so unimportant.”
“It is the rest of our lives, Clare. It’s much too important to answer here and now when your head aches.”
“In other words, live my life in limbo, take all the time I need, but in the meantime what happens with us? Or would you rather I conveniently forgot our little…misadventure?”
“I’m not going to forget it.”
“You certainly seem to be giving me that impression.” Her eyes were bright, but Reed couldn’t tell if she was holding back tears, because she gasped softly and went pale.
“What’s wrong?”
She straightened and rubbed the heel of her hand under her eyes. “Nothing. Just…just pay attention to the road.” No sooner had she finished speaking than Reed noticed a white pick-up truck pullin behind him.
Jack Kingston.
Reed tensed, welcoming the opportunity to confront the man, to make him pay for the misery he’d caused Clare.
“Don’t look so worried,” he said, grinning over at her.
“Please, Reed, don’t do anything foolish.”
“Like what?”
“Start a fight.”
He was offended that she’d be so quick to assume he’d be the one looking for trouble. Then again, she might be worried he’d hurt her pretty Anglo boyfriend.
Reed heard Clare draw in several deep breaths as though she needed to calm herself. He noticed her hands were trembling and how she nervously wove a stray curl of hair around the outside of her ear.
The other man followed him for a couple of miles even when Reed slowed to a crawl.
“Reed, please.” Clare sounded almost desperate.
“Please, what?”
“Just take me home.”
“That’s exactly what I intend to do.”
“Ignore him, please,” she begged, showing more life than she had in several minutes. “It’s over between Jack and me. I don’t want to have anything to do with him.”
“Fine, I’ll make sure he understands that.”
“No.” She sounded frantic.
“What are you so worried about? More importantly who?”
“Jack doesn’t like you…He didn’t like the idea of me flying to Las Vegas with you and I’m afraid he’s looking for trouble.”
“No problem, sweetheart, trouble’s my middle name.” He eased his truck to a stop in front of Clare’s house and turned off the engine.
“Reed,” Clare said, pressing her hand against her forearm, her eyes beseeching. “Just ignore him.”
“Get out of the truck, Clare” came Jack’s angry voice from behind her.
“Let’ s leave,” she suggested. “There’s no reason we have to put up with this.”
“Leave?” Reed spit out the word. “Sweetheart, I’ve never backed away from a fight in my life, and I’m not about to start now.”
Chapter Six
“Clare,” Jack called a second time. “Get out of that truck.”
Clare’s mind was whizzing, as she tried to decide the best course of action. Reed seemed almost eager to fight her former fiancé, to prove his dislike for the other man, to defend her honor. She couldn’t allow him to do that. Jack wasn’t worth the effort.
“I’ll never ask much of you,” she said, trying hard to keep her voice even and controlled, “but I’m asking you now.”
“What is it you want me to do?” Reed’s steely gaze bored into hers.
“Don’t fight Jack.”
“That’s up to him,” Reed said matter-of-factly. He opened the door and stepped out onto the street.
Jack was out of the truck in a flash. He stormed across the lawn, jerked open the passenger door and offered Clare his hand, as though she required his assistance.
Clare ignored him and gathered her purse and sweater as Reed walked around to the bed of the truck. Jack’s gaze moved from Clare to Reed and then back again.
“We need to talk,” Jack said to her.
“No, we don’t,” she countered with a tired sigh. “Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going inside. I’m exhausted and definitely not in the mood for company.”
“I’ve done some thinking,” Jack called after her, eyeing Reed malevolently, as if he found even the sight of him distasteful, as if he’d welcome the opportunity to prove how much of a man he was by challenging Reed.
Clare watched with a sick kind of dread as Reed carried her suitcase up the walkway leading to the front door.
Having no luck with her
, Jack seemed to want to impress her by hassling Reed. He raced down the sidewalk, leaped in front of Reed and shouted, “Stay away from Clare!”
Clare gritted her teeth, not knowing what would happen. To his credit, Reed said nothing, sidestepped Jack and continued walking until he reached her front porch, where he deposited her suitcase.
Jack followed on Reed’s heels, waiting for an opportunity to make trouble.
“Thank you,” Clare said softly to Reed, when they met as he was returning to his truck. “For everything.”
Reed’s gaze met hers, and for an instant she detected a hint of a smile. “You can handle this jackass?” he asked.
She nodded. “No problem.”
Reed studied her for an elongated moments. Clare wished they could kiss. They’d never had any problems communicating when it came to the physical aspects of their relationship. She’d been so certain their marrying him was good and right and now she felt terribly confused. If he left now, she was afraid it would be the end, and she wanted so badly for them to find a way to build their lives together.
“Goodbye,” she whispered, knowing it would be impossible for him to stay. “I’ll be in touch with you soon.”
“You won’t have anything to do with Reed Tonasket,” Jack flared angrily from behind her. “And that’s final.”
“Might I remind you, Jack,” she said smoothly as she reached her front door and freed the lock, “you have no right to tell me whom I can and cannot see. If I chose to see Reed again, it’s none of your business.”
“Oh yes it is.”
Reed was almost to his truck. If Clare could distract Jack long enough she might be able to prevent further confrontation between the two men.
“I’ll make certain he knows it, too,” Jack said, walking away from her.
“I might even choose to marry Reed,” she said a bit louder. If she’d wanted Jack’s attention, she had it then. For that matter she had Reed’s, too. His eyes seemed to be warning her, but she chose to ignore the silent entreaty.
“Why is it,” Jack demanded impatiently, “that everything boils down to marriage with you? That’s what this is all about, isn’t it? You think you’re going to make me jealous. Well, I’m telling you right now, it isn’t going to work.”