She regarded him with a wry expression. “Since that doesn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon, it’s a moot point, don’t you think?”
Because he wasn’t one bit happy about what he suspected his less-than-honest motives to be, he said, “We could settle it today, if you’d just be reasonable.”
“Me? You’re the one who won’t give an inch.”
“For good reason.”
“Which you refuse to explain.”
He groaned. “Dammit, Heather. This is just another example of you acting on impulse without thinking things through.”
He could tell that the accusation stung, because of the renewed hurt that promptly registered in her eyes. But her chin went up and the sass in her voice didn’t falter when she shot back, “Well, if I’m such a screwup, I’m surprised you ever spent a minute with me. You won’t mind if I get back to work. This little play of mine might not matter to you, but it does to me. Contrary to your low opinion, when I start something, I like to see it through.”
This time when she stalked off, spine rigid, Todd didn’t try to stop her, partly because he didn’t know what else to say. He’d already bungled the past few minutes so badly he doubted she’d forgive him. Why was it he could negotiate with some of the most powerful, egocentric people in television without missing a beat, but when it came to carrying on a simple conversation with Heather, he managed to blow it?
Because the stakes were higher, he conceded. Business was just that, business. He might be one of the more dysfunctional men around when it came to relationships, but even he recognized that what he had—or didn’t have—with Heather mattered more. In fact, he was slowly becoming aware that it might be the only thing in his life that really mattered. That didn’t mean he had to like it.
Sighing, he set off to find her and apologize. Accusing her of being impulsive might be accurate, but it was a low blow, especially when that was one of the things that had drawn him to her in the first place. She was everything he wasn’t—carefree, spontaneous, emotionally connected. Acting impulsively wasn’t the sin he’d implied; it just went against his thoughtful—okay, plodding—nature. There were times when he envied her spontaneity, her ability to live life with a passion, seizing whatever chances came her way and making the most of them. The expression about turning lemons into lemonade could have been coined for her. He doubted she realized how much he admired that about her.
He found her sitting under a tree, drinking a soda while Angel sat nearby eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He lowered himself to sit beside her.
“I’m sorry,” he said eventually when she didn’t seem inclined to react to his presence.
“For?”
“Acting like a jerk.”
A reluctant smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “Keep talking.”
“You just took me by surprise. I thought you intended to head back East. You keep telling me that’s the plan. It bothered me that you were jumping into this theater thing with both feet, getting a lot of people I care about all excited about something, when you might not follow through.”
“I don’t walk away from commitments,” she said pointedly.
Todd heard the unspoken accusation in her words and struck out with one of his own. “That’s not quite true.”
“Oh?”
“You walked away from me.”
“Only because you’d already gone,” she said, resting a hand against his cheek as if that might take the sting out of her words. “You left me the day you signed on permanently with Megan.”
“Not that again,” Todd said, impatiently removing her hand because her touch was too distracting. “I took that job to give us some financial stability. I’m not going to apologize for wanting to take care of you.”
“Who asked you to? We were doing fine, Todd. We weren’t starving or living on the streets.”
“It wasn’t enough. You deserved more.”
“Your choice. I didn’t need more.”
They had had the same argument a hundred times before she had walked out. They’d both been stubbornly entrenched in their positions. Obviously that hadn’t changed. It was also old news.
“We’ll never see eye to eye on this,” he said. “So there’s no point in discussing it.”
She regarded him with visible exasperation. “How many times have I heard that? When I won’t give in, you just cut off the discussion. How are we supposed to resolve anything if we don’t thrash it out, weigh all the arguments and options? Shouldn’t we at least listen to each other?”
He regarded her ruefully. “And then what?”
“Compromise?” she suggested. “I’ve heard it’s a great way to settle disputes.”
“Your idea of compromise is to talk until I give in,” he said.
“That’s certainly one way to go,” she conceded lightly. “Then again, who knows, you might eventually muster up an argument that gets me to change my mind.”
“Are we talking about career planning or custody now?”
“Your choice.”
Suddenly the last thing he wanted to do was to discuss either topic. They were too complicated, too fraught with minefields. He turned his head slightly, captured her hand and pressed a kiss to the palm. “How about we don’t talk at all?”
“Now, there’s a solution,” she whispered, seemingly as eager as he to stop all the arguing. She leaned toward him as his mouth came down to cover hers.
The familiar swirl of urgent need and spinning senses took over then, pushing everything else aside. That had been their pattern, letting explosive chemistry solve what logic couldn’t. Unfortunately—then and now—when the slow, deep kisses or the magnificent sex ended, the deep-rooted complications were still there and, as far as Todd could tell, there wasn’t a realistic solution in sight.
After that kiss, Todd seemed to be in a much more agreeable frame of mind. Heather managed to talk him into bringing some of the experts from Megan’s production company out to the barn to consult on lighting and set design. But there was something else she wanted from him, something she feared he’d reject out of hand. She had to get him in exactly the right frame of mind before she tried any sneaky persuasive tactics on him.
“Come to dinner at my place when we finish here tonight,” she suggested. “We should be quitting in another half hour or so. I promise I can do better than peanut butter and jelly or macaroni and cheese.”
“I don’t know. Maybe you should fix those just for old times’ sake.”
Although there were certain aspects of old times she was hoping to re-create, those Spartan meals weren’t among them. “Leave dinner to me. About eight? Or have you gotten used to ranching hours out here? I can have dinner on the table earlier, but Angel will still be awake.”
“Eight is fine,” he said too quickly, as if the prospect of avoiding Angel appealed to him even more than the lateness of the dinner hour.
For once Heather ignored the reaction. She didn’t want to head down that particular path when she had a more immediate problem to resolve. She bounded up, pressed another kiss to his cheek, then called for Angel.
“Come on, sweetie. Let’s go see where Joe is,” she said, knowing the comment would annoy Todd.
She had seen the way Todd had watched the two of them earlier, frowning just at the sight of them chatting. If only he knew, she thought with amusement. She was trying her level best to get Joe hooked up with Flo. Half of their conversations were spent with her touting the other woman’s virtues.
So far, though, Joe had stubbornly resisted the bait. For some crazy reason he had gotten it into his head that Flo wasn’t interested in him.
“She turned me down flat not once, but twice,” he told Heather. “I can take a hint.”
“Maybe you should ask her why,” she’d suggested.
“And maybe you should mind your own business.”
Of course, she had no intention of doing that. She just had to get the two of them together under the right circumstances. Flo was not the kind of woman that any healthy virile male, which Joe most definitely was, could resist for long.
She found Flo inside, balanced precariously atop a ladder, spreading paint across the frame of a window. Her hair had been tied back with a hot-pink, western-style bandanna. Her white shorts displayed an awesome length of bare, curvy leg. Joe was standing a few yards away, mouth agape as she reached for a distant bit of trim. The stretch tugged her form-fitting top out of the waistband of her shorts to expose more smooth flesh.
The ladder wobbled, not dangerously, but Heather deliberately let out a yelp of dismay which startled Flo. Joe sprang forward, just as the ladder toppled, catching Flo in a solid grip against his chest. Her arms instinctively circled his neck. Joe’s gaze locked on her literally—and justifiably—heaving bosom.
Watching, Heather gave a little nod of satisfaction.
I think my work here is done,
she said to herself and slipped out of the barn before either of them realized her role in their currently intimate situation.
The conversation she’d meant to have with Joe could wait till morning. Besides, leaving now would strand Flo, who’d ridden to the barn with her. She was pretty sure she didn’t have to worry about the woman getting a lift home. In fact, unless she was very much mistaken, it might be quite a while before Joe even got around to putting her down. She knew better than to think that one little incident constituted a relationship, but judging from the way those two had been gazing at each other, it was definitely a good beginning.
Now she just had to get home and find a way to work the same sort of magic on Todd.
17
N
aturally Angel chose that night to be difficult. She turned the bathroom into a sea of sudsy water while taking her bath. Once in bed she cried and pleaded for another story and then another, until Heather was almost at her wit’s end.
This was the very reason she’d come to Whispering Wind, so Todd could share the burden of these charming episodes. Unfortunately tonight would not be the best occasion for him to see his daughter at anything less than her best. That meant getting Angel asleep well before he arrived, even if she had to bribe her. It was not a tactic she liked using, so she made one last attempt at simple persuasion.
“Sweetie, Mommy has to change clothes and fix dinner.”
“Why, Mama? Me ate. P’butter ’n’ jelly, remember?”
“Yes, I remember. But I haven’t eaten. And Todd’s coming over.”
Oops! Wrong thing to say. Angel’s expression brightened at once.
“Wanna see Todd!” she declared eagerly, even as she sleepily rubbed her half-closed eyes.
“No, baby. It’s past your bedtime now.”
“Wanna see him!” Angel wailed. “Please, Mama!”
At this rate, Todd might get peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner, after all, Heather thought despondently. And she wasn’t going to be fit company for anyone, much less at her persuasive best.
“Angel,” she said firmly. “I want you to close your eyes this very instant.”
To her astonishment, Angel blinked rapidly at the unexpectedly sharp tone, then dutifully snapped her eyes shut.
“See, Mama,” she cajoled. “I sleeping.”
Heather breathed a sigh of relief. “Good girl. Sleep tight. I’ll see you in the morning.”
She flipped on the night-light, then turned off the overhead and eased out of the room. Outside the door, she leaned against the wall and waited to see if Angel’s sudden display of agreeability would last. Not a sound, she thought when several minutes had passed. That was definitely promising.
She grabbed a quick shower, pulled on a long gauzy skirt, a tank top and a pair of sandals. For once she left off her bracelets, because she knew Todd found them annoying. Since tonight was all about persuading him to do something that would likely go against the grain, she figured it was a necessary concession.
Unfortunately he took one look at her bare arms when he walked in the door and eyed her warily. “What do you want?”
She regarded him innocently. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“No bracelets. That’s a sure sign you want something.”
She laughed. “I just forgot them after I took my shower,” she insisted. “I was running late. If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll go put them on.”
He held up a hand. “No, please. I imagine you were late thanks to the cowboy.”
“No, thanks to your daughter. She wanted to wait up for you. It took longer than usual to get her to settle down.”
That seemed to distract him from both Joe and the bracelet issue. “I don’t understand why she’s formed this attachment for me. I really haven’t tried to encourage it.”
He seemed genuinely bemused and troubled.
“I think she senses the bond,” Heather told him. “Kids do.”
“Just the way cats seem to gravitate toward people they know are annoyed by them?” he suggested dryly.
She frowned at the comparison. “Would it be so terrible for your child to actually love you?”
“Yes,” he said bluntly. “I don’t have anything to give back to her.”
“Todd, that’s absurd,” she said impatiently, then tried to temper the response. “You’re very good with her.”
“No,” he insisted. “Just because I don’t ignore her doesn’t mean I’m good with her.”
This wasn’t getting them anywhere. Heather figured if she didn’t change the topic, Todd would automatically start contradicting everything that came out of her mouth. She’d never get him to fall in with her plan that way.
“Have a glass of wine,” she suggested, already pouring his favorite red wine.
His eyebrow quirked when he saw it, but he accepted the French vintage without comment, then followed her into the kitchen where she’d managed to get the salads ready and on the table. The chicken was still baking.
“It will be another half hour or so,” she apologized. “I didn’t get dinner in the oven until just a few minutes ago.”
“No problem. I’m not starving.”
“Let’s sit out on the steps awhile, then. It’s a nice night.”
In truth, the temperature had dropped dramatically since sundown. She still hadn’t gotten used to the way Wyoming weather could change so drastically from one minute to the next. She sat down beside him and promptly shivered.
“Cold?” Todd asked.
“It’s chillier than I expected.”
To her astonishment, he inched closer and draped an arm over her shoulders.
“Does that help?”
The contact definitely turned up her inner heat by several degrees. She nodded and snuggled closer. This was going well. Between the wine and the intimacy, he ought to be feeling really mellow in no time at all.
“Spill it, Heather.” The light command proved he hadn’t forgotten his suspicions that she was up to something.
“What do you—”
“The expensive wine, the lack of bracelets, dinner. Sweetheart, I know you. You’re up to something. You might as well spit it out and save us both the suspense.”
She considered trying to distract him with a kiss, but concluded that would only rouse his suspicions further.
“I can’t imagine why you think I’m up to something.”
“History,” he said succinctly. “Those bracelets never come off unless you’re trying very hard not to annoy me. The only time you care about that one way or the other is when you want something and you’re convinced I’m going to say no unless you go to extreme measures.”
“Speaking of annoying,” she muttered.
“What?”
“You know me too well. And I am definitely not supposed to be that predictable. It’s exasperating. Men are not supposed to be perceptive enough to figure out our tricks.”
“Since I have, why don’t you cut to the chase? Is this about Angel?”
She shook her head, then smiled at his barely perceptible sigh of relief.
“What then?”
“I told you I’m doing this play.” She felt him stiffen ever so slightly.
“Which has nothing to do with me,” he said emphatically.
“That’s not entirely true.”
“Heather, I’ve already agreed to get you some professional help with the lighting and the sets. I don’t know what more I can do.”
“It’s not much,” she assured him. “Just one teensy little favor.”
He edged away from her, then stared into her eyes with a steady, penetrating look. Before she could even open her mouth, he was shaking his head. “Oh, no. Forget it.”
“I haven’t even asked yet.”
“Don’t waste your breath.”
“But it’s a great part.”
“I don’t care if it’s Macbeth at the Old Vic in London, I’m not doing it.”
“Actually it’s Romeo,” she said, testing him because she knew he’d always harbored a desire to do that particular Shakespearean tragedy.
His expression never wavered. “No,” he said flatly.
“You would turn down a chance to do
Romeo and Juliet
with me?”
“In a barn in Wyoming? You bet.”
“Then how about
Oklahoma!
?” she asked quietly. They had done the musical in summer theater on Cape Cod. It had been one of the best summers they’d shared.
The heat in Todd’s eyes suggested he remembered every passionate minute of that summer as vividly as she did. The scowl on his lips suggested he wasn’t happy about it.
“You really are a sneaky, rotten person, aren’t you?” he said, but without any real rancor.
“Does that mean you’re tempted?”
“It means I am appalled that I ever had the misfortune to fall for a woman who knows how to zero in on my weaknesses.”
“Would that be your weakness for a classic musical that’s guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser?”
“Not exactly,” he said, his gaze locked with hers. He brushed a strand of hair back behind her ear.
“Surely not your weakness for a certain costar?”
“You know damned well that was the summer we first started talking about living together,” he muttered. “We’d been dating for a year. We shared that cottage at the beach to save on expenses, then decided we ought to make the living arrangement permanent.”
She feigned wide-eyed surprise. “Was that when we made that decision?”
A faraway look crossed his face. “Why would you want to go there again, Heather?”
“It was the best time of my life. Why wouldn’t I?” she countered.
“Because no good can come of it.”
The regret in his voice told her otherwise. “I’m not nearly as convinced of that as you seem to be,” she said, pausing long enough to brush a kiss across his lips before standing up and heading inside. “Just promise me you’ll think about it while I get dinner on the table.”
“You’ve had days to dream up this scheme and you’re giving me five minutes to think about it?” he grumbled, following along behind her.
“Five minutes is plenty long enough to decide, especially for a man with your decision-making prowess,” she insisted as she dished up the chicken and carried the plates to the table, then gestured for him to sit opposite her. “Just this once, go with your gut.”
“My gut is telling to stay as far away from this little production of yours as I possibly can.”
“Oh.”
He grinned as he speared a piece of chicken. “Still want me to listen to my gut?”
“No. Tell your scaredy-cat gut to go to hell,” she said at once. “Jump in with both feet. Do something totally impulsive. Take a risk.”
She saw immediately that she’d gone too far. Todd’s hand froze halfway to his mouth. Mentioning
risk
had been a bad idea, she realized at once. For reasons she’d never entirely understood, Todd was vehemently opposed to risks of any kind. Phrase it as a dare or a challenge and he’d seize it in a heartbeat, but risks turned his complexion ashen. She was certain there had to be a story behind it.
“I take it back,” she said hurriedly. “There’s no risk at all. In fact, this will be a breeze. You know the play inside out. You know the songs. We’ll barely have to rehearse. You got rave reviews when we did this.”
“Rave?” he repeated doubtfully, but he finally took that bite of chicken that had been hovering in midair.
“They were. The critics loved you. They thought I was adequate. I need you to do this play with me. How could I possibly go on with anyone else? They’ll fall in love with you and overlook my inadequacies.”
He finished chewing. “No one as beautiful as you could ever be described as inadequate.”
She waved off the compliment. “I need you,” she repeated emphatically. She could see from his wavering expression that she’d finally struck just the right note of desperation. Todd was the kind of man who thrived on being needed. It was why it had been so easy for Megan to seduce him into staying on the job with her company. She had been in desperate need of someone to organize her out-of-control corporate life. He had leaped into the void like Superman going off to save Lois Lane from certain calamity.
“You don’t need me,” he hedged, taking another forkful of food. “This is good, by the way.”
“Thanks. I told you I’d learned a few things in the kitchen. And I do need you. Who else around here has the talent?”
“Maybe you ought to hold auditions and find out,” he suggested. “Maybe your cowboy buddy can sing like an angel.”
“Joe has already said he’ll step onto that stage only after I’ve taught his prize steer to fly. He sounded like he meant it.”
“So how come you’ve taken his no for an answer and refuse to listen to me?”
“Because Joe is not crucial to the success of this play. You are.”
“Maybe you should have taken the scarcity of actors into account before you leaped into this theater project.”
“Why would I when I knew that one of the best actors on Broadway was right here?”
He frowned at the flattery. “Speaking of award-caliber acting, you’re laying it on a little thick, aren’t you?”
“Come on, Todd, if you won’t do it for me, do it for the town you claim to have adopted. Think of the fun people will have getting involved with putting on a musical.”
“You sound like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland in some old movie.”
“Cute,” she muttered. “Okay, then, think of the enjoyment they’ll have attending a real theater out here in the middle of nowhere. This could be a big contribution to Whispering Wind and its future.”
His gaze narrowed. “A one-time theatrical venture is going to contribute to the town’s future?”
She leveled a look straight at him. “It wouldn’t have to be a one-time venture,” she said quietly, turning the words into a dare as much as a promise.
“Meaning?”
“You’re a bright man. You figure it out. In the meantime, I’ll get dessert.”
Fresh strawberries and mounds of whipped cream, she thought with a smile as she went to retrieve them. If he thought everything that had come before tonight had been sneaky and low-down, this was totally diabolical.
She brought the bowls to the table and watched the quick flare of heat in Todd’s eyes as some extremely erotic memories predictably slammed through him, just as she’d planned. He sat back at once and held up his hands in a gesture of surrender.
“Okay, okay, I’ll do it.”
Heather grinned and slipped onto his lap. She dipped a lush, ripe strawberry into the cream and held it to his lips. “I just knew you’d see it my way.”
“Of course you did,” he said dryly. “I never stood a chance.”
“I hear you’re going to star in a production of
Oklahoma!,
” Megan said before Todd could even shrug out of his jacket the next morning.
“Excuse me? What grapevine are you tapped into? Or have you left some sort of a bug in Heather’s apartment?”
She chuckled. “It is a small town and this is hot news.”
“I only agreed to do this last night, after a whole lot of soul-searching,” he claimed. And the sight of a bowl of strawberries and whipped cream. To his very deep regret, Heather knew exactly how to push all of his buttons.