The Laws of Attraction (13 page)

“I wouldn’t call it a crisis,” he said. “Just thinking about a few things.”

She sat up beside him. Now was her chance to return the favor and listen to him, just as he’d allowed her to go on and on. “Talk to me.”

He shook his head. “I have the woman of my dreams in my bed and you want to do career counseling? I don’t think so.”

“What did you want to do?”

“This,” he said, reaching for her.

When his mouth closed over hers, all thoughts of jobs and just about everything else flew out the window. He was right. Why waste time on anything else, when there were so many sensations they had yet to share?

“Where exactly were you all day yesterday?” Maggie asked when Ashley finally returned her call the next morning after she got home from Josh’s. “I called three times after I got back from dropping everyone off at the airport.”

“I know. I got the messages.”

“And I dropped by the house.”

“Doesn’t surprise me a bit,” Ashley said.

“Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Oh, stop it, were you with Josh or not?”

“None of your business.”

“Which means you were,” Maggie concluded. “Just how serious are things getting between the two of you?”

Ashley didn’t have a good answer to that. The sex was definitely serious. In fact, it was magnificent. She couldn’t say the same about the relationship. There were some huge gaps that needed to be filled in before she could honestly say they had one.

“I can’t answer that.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

“Does it matter?” she asked irritably.

“Yes, it matters. I’m coming over. We obviously need to talk.”

“We do not need to talk. And I don’t want you and
Melanie to get the idea that you need to start planning the wedding.”

“I should hope not,” Maggie said so emphatically that it caught Ashley off guard.

“I thought you liked Josh.”

“I do. We all do. In fact, all the guys are going over to Melanie’s tonight to bond over beer and burgers, which is why I was calling you. Melanie and I want you to join us here.”

“Why? Are you serving beer and burgers, too?”

“Please. I’m the sister who cooks, remember? I’m serving roasted pork with apricot sauce, mashed potatoes and an asparagus salad. Melanie’s bringing a decadent chocolate cake.”

“Do the men know about this meal? It might make them rethink the whole beer-and-burgers thing.”

“I think it’s more about the bonding than the menu,” Maggie told her. “And I’ve instructed Rick not to come home without a few answers about the mysterious Josh Madison.”

“Meaning?”

“We all like him, but what do we really know about him?”

“About as much as you knew about Rick before you climbed into bed with him,” Ashley reminded her tartly.

“Ha-ha,” Maggie retorted. “But I learned a whole lot more before I agreed to marry him.”

“I haven’t agreed to marry Josh.”

“Then the subject has come up?” Maggie said, seizing on Ashley’s inadvertent slip of the tongue.

“In passing,” she admitted. “But do you honestly think I’d consider spending my life with a guy I hardly know?”

“Not without running his Dun and Bradstreet rating,” Maggie said. “Have you done that?”

“No, I have not done that,” Ashley said, wounded yet again by the suggestion that her standards for men were suspect. “In fact, that’s insulting. I’m not a snob.”

“Not a snob, just very certain of the kind of man you want in your life. Are you telling me you no longer care about the designer apparel and the Rolex watch?”

“It’s never been about the damn clothes,” she snapped, even though Josh’s wardrobe had been one of the first things she’d noticed. It hadn’t impressed her. Lately, though, she’d hardly noticed what he wore. It simply hadn’t mattered.

“No, it’s been about the man having enough ambition to be able to afford them,” Maggie agreed. “Maybe I’ve missed something. What does Josh actually do for a living? Do you know something about his career that the rest of us don’t?”

“No, I’m not entirely sure, either. I do know that he’s thinking of making a change, same as me.”

“Great, two of you in career crisis. That ought to provide a nice solid foundation for marriage.”

“Go to hell,” Ashley said, losing patience with the whole conversation, mostly because she didn’t have any of the answers about Josh she probably should have, given the increasing intensity of her feelings for him. She didn’t do anything impulsively, yet she’d managed to get involved with a virtual stranger in barely more than a week. And, like it or not, she was involved with him.

“We’ll discuss this some more tonight. I’ll see you at seven,” Maggie said sweetly.

“I never said I was coming.”

“But you will.”

“Oh? Why is that?”

“Because you know if you don’t, Melanie and I will be on your doorstep by seven ten.”

“Fine. Whatever.”

“I mean it, big sister. You need a plan of action. You need to find out who Josh is before you get any more deeply involved with him.”

“Now who’s being a snob? Isn’t it enough that he’s been amazingly supportive and kind? Isn’t it enough that he’s smart and fun, to say nothing of sexy?”

Maggie chuckled. “Nice defense for a woman who’s only casually interested in the guy. We’ll talk some more about that, too.”

“I can’t tell you how I’m looking forward to it,” Ashley said sarcastically and hung up.

If she had half a brain, she’d stay as far away from her sister’s tonight as she possibly could. Unfortunately, unless she hid out in another state, Maggie and Melanie wouldn’t hesitate to track her down. No, it was better to go and save all of them the trouble. She’d just perfect her technique for saying
no comment
to anything she didn’t care to answer.

J
osh studied the uneasy expressions on Mike’s and Rick’s faces and concluded that he was about to be served up along with the burgers. “Okay, guys, what’s the deal?”

They were surprisingly reticent. Mike flipped the hamburgers on the grill and avoided looking at him directly. Rick sighed.

“I’m waiting,” he prodded.

“We’re on a mission,” Rick finally admitted. “From our wives,” he added, as if there were any question about who’d put them up to it.

Josh bit back a chuckle at the idea of these two men, both of whom obviously had a very strong sense of who they were, being manipulated by the women in their lives. It was a testament to how deeply they loved their
wives. “Interesting. And you felt obligated to accept this mission?”

“Oh, yeah,” Mike confirmed. “If I were you, I’d run right now. The list of very intrusive questions we were given is endless.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out a wrinkled piece of paper. “Melanie made notes. She didn’t trust my memory.”

Rick held out a similar sheet of paper. “Neither did Maggie.” He frowned at Mike. “I think we were supposed to be more subtle about it.”

Josh laughed. “You definitely missed the boat on that. Doesn’t matter, though. I’m afraid I can’t hide from a few questions,” he said with some regret. “It would send the wrong message, don’t you think?”

“That’s what I said,” Rick commented. “Once those two scent blood, they’ll be all over you like a couple of hound dogs. You can forget about pursuing Ashley. Maggie and Melanie will take up all your time, pestering you with the same questions, making your life a living hell. We’re your best bet. At least with us, you’ll have sympathetic male ears.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Josh said wryly. “I don’t suppose there’s any chance at all that you can just tell them I’m a great guy and let it go at that?”

“Fat chance,” Mike said. “It’s details they’re after. They think you’re keeping a lot of deep, dark secrets from Ashley.”

“Nothing important,” he assured them. “But I suppose my word on that isn’t enough.”

“Afraid not,” Rick said apologetically.

Josh took a long swallow of his beer, then sat down
in one of the Adirondack chairs on the deck. “Okay, go for it. Ask whatever you want to.”

“Maybe we should at least wait till after you’ve eaten,” Mike suggested, obviously not at all anxious to get started. “These are going to be outstanding burgers. I’d hate to ruin your appetite. And a couple of beers from now, the inquisition won’t be quite so painful.”

Josh shrugged. He was in no hurry to get into this discussion. “Works for me. And make it two burgers. I’d like to put this off as long as possible, too.” He turned to Rick. “Did you really have this much trouble with the sisters when you were courting Maggie?”

“To tell you the truth, the sisters were great,” Rick confided. “Maggie was the tough sell. She thought it was all about the sex. She figured the fire would burn itself out eventually and we’d have nothing.”

Josh lifted a brow. “But it wasn’t about the sex?”

“Well, sure it was, at first,” Rick admitted. “I’d played a very gorgeous field for a very long time. Done it damn well, too. I couldn’t imagine myself settling down.”

“What changed?” Josh asked.

“Maggie ran. Naturally, since no woman had ever done that to me before, I came after her. She still didn’t trust me or what we had. I fought. She resisted. It didn’t take long for me to weigh settling down against a future without Maggie. I realized very quickly that it was no contest. Once I got to that point, marriage was the obvious answer.”

“And that took how long?” Josh asked.

“A few weeks.”

“Same with me,” Mike said. “My first marriage had pretty much been a disaster. I wasn’t looking for a wife,
especially with Jessie wildly out of control. I’ll be grateful till the end of my days that Melanie looked beyond the mess we were in and took us on. She’s made everything since then seem easy.”

Mike handed each of them a burger, then sat down with his own. After he’d taken a couple of bites, he glanced slyly at Josh. “Why are you so interested? Are you thinking about marrying Ashley?”

“It’s crossed my mind a time or two,” Josh admitted. “Like I told you before, though, there are a lot of issues that need to be resolved before either one of us could take the idea seriously. Ashley’s career means a lot to her and it’s pretty messed up. She needs to work that out. She’s not entirely sure who she is or what she wants right now. Me, I think it’s clear what she ought to do, but it’s not my opinion that counts.”

“You could steer her in the right direction,” Mike reminded him. “Make the idea of relocating her practice here irresistible.”

“I’ve planted the idea in her head, but so far she’s been fairly resistant.”

The two men exchanged a look that Josh couldn’t interpret. “What?” he asked.

“Maybe you should offer to go into practice with her,” Rick suggested casually.

Josh choked on his beer. “Excuse me?”

Mike grinned. “Hard to keep a secret like that in a town this small. Ever since you showed up, I’ve been running into people who’ve been only too happy to tell me how lucky I am to have such a successful lawyer for a neighbor. Seems a lot of these folks read the Richmond papers. Lucky for you, Melanie hasn’t gotten wind of it yet.”

“Neither has Maggie,” Rick added. “What I can’t figure out is why you’d want to keep it quiet from Ashley. You haven’t told her, have you?”

Josh shook his head. “I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but the night we met she made some crack about me obviously not being a lawyer since I wasn’t ready to sue her for damages after that accident. Since I’d been wrestling with whether to change careers or at least leave my firm in Richmond, I sort of went along with her. I figured I could use a break from the whole big-time lawyer image. It was only later, when I realized just how deep her own issues with the law ran, that I saw how stupid it had been not to tell her in the first place. Now I’m not sure how she’s going to take it.” He regarded them hopefully. “She could be thrilled to discover we have that in common, couldn’t she?”

Rick chuckled. “She could be, but my guess is she’s going to be mad as a hornet.”

“I agree,” Mike added. “I’m no expert, but I have figured out that women don’t like being lied to.”

“It wasn’t a lie,” Josh said. “It was an omission.”

“Well, pardon us all to hell,” Rick said, obviously amused. “An omission.” He nodded sagely. “Yes, indeed. Explain it just that way. I’m sure that’ll make all the difference.”

Josh sighed at the grim reality check. “Okay, okay, she’s going to be furious.”

“Add in the fact that her client lied to her, her boss at the law firm betrayed her and, according to Melanie, her last relationship ended because of a lie, I think furious is putting it mildly,” Mike added.

Josh looked from one man to the other and decided it was definitely time to cast pride aside and plead for help. “What the hell do I do now?”

“Grovel,” Rick suggested cheerfully.

“Get the truth out there and
then
grovel,” Mike corrected.

“I’m not sure I know how,” Josh said. He’d never had to grovel before in his life. But to save what he had with Ashley, he was willing to give it a try. “Do I start with flowers?”

Rick laughed. “You are so pathetic. I seem to recall being exactly like you, right, Mike?”

“You were pitiful,” Mike concurred.

“Not helping, guys,” Josh said. “Clue me in on the groveling thing. I’ve never had to do it before.”

“Send flowers and candy,” Mike suggested. “Take over wine and candles and dinner.”

“No, no, no,” Rick protested. “You have to remember who she is.”

Josh stared at him blankly. “I thought all women loved the whole flowers and candy business.”

“They do, but keep in mind what’s important to Ashley. Buy her a briefcase or the latest handheld computer gadget. Buy her a shingle for a law office.”

“Hey, I like that one,” Josh said.

“Just don’t make it Madison and D’Angelo on the sign,” Mike recommended. “D’Angelo and Madison is better. Aside from getting top billing, she’ll think she has the upper hand.”

Josh laughed. “She does have the upper hand. She has since the day we met.”

He didn’t see that changing in this lifetime, not as
long as he continued to be completely dazzled by her. He pretty much expected that would last forever.

“How could you, of all people, get so deeply involved with a man you barely know?” Maggie asked, regarding Ashley incredulously. “You pride yourself on digging beneath the surface, scrambling all over for every bit of evidence in a case that could exonerate a client. Didn’t you stop for one single second and ask yourself what you really knew about Josh before you climbed into bed with him?”

Trying not to feel foolish, Ashley shook her head. “He was just sort of there. It’s not as if we were really dating. We literally drifted into spending time together. It was fun and uncomplicated, at least at the beginning. I didn’t want a lot of information. I didn’t figure I needed it, since I was going to go back to Boston in three weeks and probably never see him again. Besides, he wasn’t my type.”

“As if tall, dark and gorgeous isn’t everyone’s type,” Melanie scoffed.

“That barely registered,” Ashley admitted.

“Because you didn’t think he was polished enough or ambitious enough,” Maggie guessed.

Ashley sighed at how that made her look, but it was true. Dammit, she was a snob, after all. “Okay, yes,” she admitted. “He seemed to lack some of the essentials that have always been important to me.”

“And now?” Melanie asked, regarding her sympathetically.

“And now it’s gotten complicated,” Ashley said. “Those things don’t seem to matter quite so much.”

“How so?” Melanie asked.

“She’s fallen for him,” Maggie replied before Ashley could say a word. “She’s slept with him, the sex was fantastic and now she has stars in her eyes that enable her to overlook his possible lack of a bank account or decent wardrobe of designer suits and Italian shoes.”

Ashley frowned at her. “You’re one to talk about falling in lust, then falling in love. Wasn’t that precisely how it was with you and Rick? Isn’t that exactly why you hightailed it out of Boston—because you were falling for him because the sex was good?”

“Great,” Maggie corrected. “The sex was incredible.” She grinned. “Still is, in case you were wondering.”

Ashley groaned. “Too much information.”

Melanie chuckled. “Besides, she wants us to stay focused on her.”

“Trust me, not so much,” Ashley retorted. “We could drop this entire subject and it wouldn’t bother me a bit. I can deal with my personal life on my own.”

“Obviously,” Maggie said. “That’s why you know so much about the man you’re sleeping with.”

“You don’t have to be sarcastic,” Ashley told her.

“I think I do,” Maggie said. “This isn’t like you at all, big sister. It’s a recipe for disaster. You need to start asking some questions. What if you find out he just got out of jail?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Ashley said, then realized she truly didn’t know enough to dispute the possibility. And her judgment hadn’t been sharp enough to recognize a murderer when he’d been sitting right next to her for weeks. Who knew what secrets Josh might be keeping? He seemed so down-to-earth and sincere, she couldn’t imagine that there was a dark side lurking somewhere
inside him, but she couldn’t swear it didn’t exist. That was worrisome.

“Okay, I promise I’ll sit down and have a heart-to-heart with him before this goes any further.”

Maggie studied her with a narrowed gaze. “How much further is it going to go? All of this could be moot, if you’re going back to Boston soon.”

Ashley sighed. “I don’t know if I am or not,” she told them. “And I really, really don’t want to discuss that tonight. I’ve made a promise to myself that first thing tomorrow I’m going to sit down and start making a list of my options.”

“Is staying here one of them?” Melanie asked.

“It’ll be on the list,” Ashley conceded. “But not near the top. It’ll be there because I can’t afford to dismiss anything out of hand.”

“Will it be on there at all because you like the idea at least a little or because of Josh?” Maggie asked.

“What difference does it make?” Ashley replied.

Her sisters exchanged a knowing glance. It was Melanie who answered. “A big one, I would think,” she told Ashley. “Whatever you decide, it has to be what’s best for you. Josh shouldn’t even enter into it. Not unless you’re more serious about him than you’re letting on.”

“It’s complicated,” Ashley said again. She was crazy about him, but she didn’t want to be, didn’t think she should be. In fact, if she had an excuse, any excuse at all, she’d disentangle herself from the relationship and flee back to Boston. As bad and as unpredictable as her professional life there was, it was a whole lot easier to understand than the current roller-coaster ride of her emotions.

She stood up. “I’m going home,” she announced. She didn’t bother explaining that the home she intended to run to was in Boston. She needed to get her emotional feet back under her.

“We haven’t even had dessert,” Melanie protested. “You have to stay for chocolate cake.”

“Not tonight,” Ashley said. She gave each of her sisters a fierce hug. “Thanks for helping me to get a clearer picture of all this.”

Maggie looked surprised. “We actually helped?”

“Yes, brat. You helped. You, too, Melanie. I think I know exactly what I need to do next.”

But she had to make one important stop before she left town. She had to see Josh and try to explain why she was bailing on him and everything that had been building between them.

Ashley had forgotten about the whole guy-bonding session. When she got to Josh’s, the house was dark. She could leave him a note, try to explain her decision without having to bear the disappointment that was bound to be in his eyes, but when she really thought about it, she knew she couldn’t take the coward’s way out. If nothing else, she owed him for being there for her during the worst days of her life.