The Manning Grooms (17 page)

“I’m not willing to marry just anyone,” she insisted.

“I feel the same way.”

They glanced at each other and then immediately looked away. Silence again filled the car. James didn’t know what Summer was thinking, but he knew where his thoughts were taking him and it spelled trouble.

As they neared the outskirts of Boulder City, James mentioned some of the local facts he’d read. “This is the only city in Nevada that doesn’t allow gambling.”

“Why?”

“It was built for the men who worked on the construction of the dam. I’d guess it has something to do with making sure the workers wouldn’t squander their hard-earned cash on the gaming tables. If that happened, their families would see none of it.”

“I wonder if it helped,” Summer mused aloud.

The next hour and a half was spent driving over Hoover Dam. They didn’t take the tour. The day was windy, and James was afraid Summer’s sweater wouldn’t be enough protection against the cold.

Once they were back on the Nevada side, they stopped long enough for pictures. James felt the wind as he took several scenic photos of the dam with the digital camera he’d bought last year.

Far more of his shots were aimed at Summer. She was a natural ham and struck a variety of poses for him. He wanted a keepsake of his time with her.

James asked another tourist to get a picture of the two of them together. He placed his arm around her shoulder and smiled into the camera.

“Can you send them to me?” she asked, rubbing her arms in an effort to warm herself.

“Of course,” James agreed, pleased that she’d asked.

He turned up the heater when they returned to the car. He noticed that Summer’s eyes were drooping about ten miles outside Boulder City. He located a classical-music station on the radio, and the soft strains of Mozart lulled her to sleep.

She woke when they were on the Las Vegas freeway. Startled, she sat up and looked around. “Wow, I must be stimulating company,” she said, and smiled.

“I’m accustomed to quiet. Don’t worry about it.”

“James,” she began, then yawned, covering her mouth. “What do you think of women who ask men out on dates?”

“What do I think?” He repeated her question, never
having given the subject much thought. “Well, it seems fine in theory but I can’t really say since it’s never happened to me.”

“Do you view them as aggressive?”

“Not necessarily. I know women invite men out all the time these days.”

She smiled, and her eyes fairly danced with excitement. “I’m glad to hear you say so, because I bought two tickets to a magic show. It’s this evening at one of the other downtown hotels. I’d enjoy it very much if you went with me.”

James had walked into that one with his eyes wide-open. “A magic show,” he murmured with pleasure. He hadn’t even dropped her off at the hotel yet and already he was looking for an excuse to see her again.

“It’s the late show, as it happens, which doesn’t start until eleven. You’ll come with me, won’t you?”

“Of course,” he said. If he wasn’t driving, James would have pumped his fist in the air.

Although she’d spent nearly the entire day with James, including lunch and a light dinner on the road, Summer counted the hours until they met for the magic show. She was dressing when the phone rang.

“Hello,” she said, thinking it could only be James. Her heart began to beat faster.

“Summer, it’s Julie.”

“Julie!” Summer had tried to call her friend earlier that evening, but she hadn’t answered either her cell or the apartment phone. “Happy New Year!”

“Same to you. How’s it going with the distinguished attorney?”

Summer sank onto the edge of the bed. “Really well. By the way, he’s a superior court judge now.”

“Wow. That’s great. So you’re getting along well,” her friend echoed in knowing tones. “Do you still see him as a father figure?”

“No way,” Summer said, and laughed. “There’s less than ten years between us.”

“So.” Her friend’s voice fell. “Tell me what’s been happening.”

“Well.” Summer wasn’t sure where to start, then decided to plunge right in. “He kissed me last night, and Julie, it was incredible. I don’t ever remember feeling like this in my life.”

“So you’d say there’s electricity between you?”

That was putting it mildly. Hoover Dam should produce that much electricity. “You could put it that way.”

“This is just great!”

“We went to see Hoover Dam this morning, and tonight we’re going to a magic show.”

“This sounds promising.”

That was how it felt to Summer, as well. “James invited me to drive to Red Rock Canyon with him tomorrow to feed the burros.”

“Are you?”

“Of course.” It had never occurred to Summer to refuse. She didn’t care if he asked her to study goat dung; she would gladly have gone along just to be with him.

“Julie…”

“Yeah?”

“Would you laugh at me if I told you I’m falling in love with this guy?”

“Nope. I’ve seen it coming for months. You pored over his letters, and for days after you got one, it was James this and James that. I’m not the least bit surprised. This guy must really be something.”

Summer’s heart sank as she confronted the facts. “He’s a judge, Julie. A superior court judge. I’m an actress. We’re too different. I live in Anaheim and he’s in Seattle. Oh, it’s fine here in Vegas, but once we leave, everything will go back to the way it was before.”

“You don’t want that?”

“No,” Summer admitted after some hesitation.

“Then you need to ask yourself exactly what it is you
do
want,” Julie said.

Her roommate’s words rang in her mind all through the magician’s performance. Summer sat beside James and was far more aware of him than the talented performer onstage. There was magic in the air, all right. It sizzled and sparked, but it didn’t have a thing to do with what was happening onstage.

After the show, James escorted her to his car, which was parked in a lot outside the casino.

“You’ve been quiet this evening,” James commented.

“I talked to my roommate earlier,” she told him when he slid into the driver’s seat.

“Does it have something to do with Brett?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head for emphasis. When James inserted the key to start the car, she
placed her hand on his forearm to stop him. “James,” she said softly, “I know this is an unusual request, and I’m sorry if it embarrasses you, but would you mind kissing me again?”

He didn’t look at her. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“Considering what happened the first time, it seems unnecessarily risky.”

“I see,” she murmured, disappointed.

“Summer, listen,” he said impatiently. “You’re beautiful and very sweet, but I’m too old for you.”

“If you’re looking for an excuse, James, you’re going to need something better than that.” This was the second time he’d brought up their age difference, and it made her mad. “Forget I asked,” she said heatedly. “It was a stupid idea.”

“That’s exactly what I said.” He turned the ignition switch, and the engine fired to life.

“You’re probably going to tell me you didn’t feel anything. Go ahead and lie, but we both know that’s exactly what it is—a lie.”

James expelled a labored sigh. “I didn’t say anything of the sort.”

“Then you’re afraid.”

Summer noticed the way his hands tightened around the steering wheel.

“I prefer to think of myself as cautious.”

“Naturally,” she mumbled.

What surprised Summer was how much his rejection hurt. No doubt James viewed her as immature and naive. Pushy, as well. She was probably the first
woman who’d ever asked him out and the only one who’d sought a kiss.

Shame burned in her cheeks. The sooner they were back at the hotel and she could escape, the better.

The engine revved, but they weren’t going anywhere. In fact, James had pulled the car onto the side of the road.

“You might as well know,” he muttered, turning off the car. “I’ve had one hell of a time keeping my hands off you as it is. It doesn’t help that you’re asking me to kiss you again.”

Having said that, he drew her into his arms. His lips were hungry and hard, his kiss long and deep. He broke it off abruptly.

“There,” he whispered. “Satisfied now?”

“No,” she whispered back, and directed his mouth back to hers.

This time the kiss was slow and sweet. Her mouth nibbled his, and she was completely and utterly amazed by how good it was.

“Summer,” he said, “we’re going to have to stop.”

“Why?” she asked, and her tongue outlined his lips.

James groaned, and she experienced an intense sense of power.

“I don’t have a lot of control when it comes to you,” he admitted.

“I don’t mind.”

“I wish you hadn’t said that.” He kissed her again, deeply, and when the kiss ended, she was clinging to James, mindless of anything but what was happening between them.

James rested his forehead against hers, his breathing uneven. After he’d regained some control, he locked his arms around her and drew her close. For the longest time all he did was hold her.

It felt like heaven to be in James’s arms. Summer felt cherished, protected…
loved.

“I was afraid of something like this,” he said quietly.

“Something like what?”

He groaned. “Think about it, would you?”

“I
am
thinking about it. I don’t understand the problem. I like it when you kiss me and touch me. I assumed you liked it, too.”

“I do,” he said. “That’s the problem.”

“If you say you’re too old for me, I won’t be held responsible for my actions.”

He chuckled at that. “All right,” he said, brushing the hair away from her face. “I’m not too old for you in years, but in attitude.”

“Well, that’s easy enough to change. We’ll start first thing in the morning.”

“Start what?” he asked, clearly confused.

She kissed him, letting her lips play over his. “You’ll see.”

J
ames was waiting in the lobby early the following morning. Summer’s face broke into a disgruntled look when she saw him. Hands braced on her hips, shaking her head, she walked around him.

“What?” he asked, thinking he might have left part of his shirttail out.

“Where did you say we were going?” she asked.

“Red Rock Canyon.”

“Do you always wear a shirt and tie to feed wild burros?”

James wore a shirt and tie to everything. “Yes,” he answered.

“That’s what I thought. Then I’d like to suggest we stop at a mall first.”

“A mall? Whatever for?”

She looked at him as if she questioned his intelligence. “I’m taking you shopping,” she announced. “If you have any objections, you’d better voice them now.”

“Shopping,” James repeated slowly. That was probably his least favorite thing to do. He avoided malls whenever possible. “But why?” he asked innocently. He wasn’t giving in without a fight.

“Clothes,” she informed him, then added in case he hadn’t figured it out, “for you.”

He frowned.

“You don’t have to do this,” Summer said. “I think you look wonderful in a suit and tie, but you’d be far more comfortable in jeans and a T-shirt.”

So this was what she meant about altering his attitude. She hadn’t mentioned that it involved torturing him by dragging him in and out of stores.

“James?” She gazed up at him with wide eyes. “Are we going to the mall or not?”

It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her he felt perfectly relaxed in what he was wearing. He would’ve said it, too, if she hadn’t blinked just then and her long, silky lashes fanned her cheek. Without much effort this woman was going to wrap him around her little finger. James could see it coming, but he lacked the strength to offer even token resistance.

“How long will it take?” he asked, and glanced at his watch, trying to give the impression that the burros only made their appearance at certain times. They did, but not in the way he was hoping to imply. The minute they suspected visitors had something edible, they appeared.

“We won’t be more than an hour,” she promised. “Two at most.”

He was being fed a line, and he knew it. They’d be lucky to make Red Rock Canyon before nightfall.

“All right,” he said with a sigh, wondering how a mature, reasonable male would allow a woman he’d barely met to dictate his wardrobe.

A relationship between them was unrealistic for so many reasons. The age factor, for one. And then she lived and worked in southern California, while his life was in Seattle. He didn’t know much about acting, but it seemed to him that if she was serious about her career, California was the place to be. Long-distance relationships rarely survived.

“You won’t regret this,” she said with a smile.

She was wrong. James already regretted it.

The only shopping mall he knew of in Vegas was the one located on the Strip between two of the largest casino hotels. He drove there and pulled into the underground parking.

When he turned off the ignition, Summer leaned over and kissed him.

“What was that for?” he asked, although he realized he should be counting his blessings instead of questioning them.

“To thank you for being such a good sport.”

Little did she know.

To his surprise, Summer stuck to her word. It took less than two hours for her to locate everything she felt he needed. James followed her around like a dutiful child—and discovered he was actually enjoying himself. He let her choose for him, and she
did well, generally picking styles he might have picked himself.

“I feel like I squeak when I walk,” he said as he led the way back into the underground garage. Almost everything he had on was new. Right down to the running shoes and socks. He’d changed in a washroom at the mall.

“You look twenty years younger,” Summer told him.

“In which case, you could be accused of cradle-robbing.”

She laughed and slipped her arm through his. She pressed her head against his shoulder, and James derived a good deal of pleasure from having her so close. He was still trying to figure out how he was going to keep his hands off her.

“Sometimes it feels like I’ve known you forever,” she whispered.

James felt the same way. It was as if she’d been part of his life for a very long time. “I have the feeling I’m going to have a huge long-distance phone bill once I get back to Seattle.”

Summer closed her eyes and sighed deeply.

“What was that about?” He unlocked the car door and loaded the shopping bags into the backseat.

“I’m grateful, that’s all,” Summer told him.

“Grateful?” James asked, joining her inside the car.

She was quiet for a moment. “I don’t respond to other men this way—the way I have with you. I can’t give you a reason or a logical explanation. In the last year, since we’ve been writing, I’ve felt close to you.
It’s as if you know all there is to know about me. My secrets, my faults, everything.

“That night a year ago, when we met, was probably the most devastating of my life. I don’t know what I would’ve done if it hadn’t been for you. Generally I’m the first person to dismiss this sort of thing, but I believe we were destined to meet.”

James had wondered about that himself, although he’d always seen himself as a rational man. Of all the people in that massive New Year’s crowd, they’d found each other. It had to mean
something
. He didn’t doubt that fate, kismet or whatever you wanted to call it, had brought them together.

“I’ve never experienced the things I do when you kiss me,” she confided.

She wasn’t alone in that, either. He started the engine and pulled into the traffic that continuously flowed along the Strip. Concentrating on his driving rather than looking at Summer helped him restrain his emotions—and his impulses.

If they’d stayed in the parking garage much longer, James knew they’d have had a repeat performance of the night before.

Kissing her again had been a big mistake. He’d spent half the night fighting off the image of her in bed with him. If he took any more cold showers, the hotel was going to complain about the amount of water he used.

Summer’s voice was unsure when she spoke. “I thought that after last evening you wouldn’t want to see me again.”

James nearly drove the car off the road. “Why would you think that?”

She lowered her gaze to her hands, which were folded primly in her lap. “Well, I behaved so…brazenly.”

“You?”
She obviously didn’t know how close he’d come to losing control. Superior court judges weren’t supposed to lose control. James couldn’t remember the last time something like this had happened. Probably because it never had…

“It’s good to know I’m not in this alone. I don’t think I could stand that.”

“Trust me, I’m experiencing the same feelings you are,” he told her in what had to be the understatement of the century.

“We’ll both be going our separate ways in the next few days. Until just now, I didn’t know if I’d ever hear from you again.”

“We’ve been in touch all year—why would that end?” He didn’t expect anything permanent to develop between them, though; that would be asking too much.

“We can take turns calling each other,” she offered. “Maybe exchanging e-mails.”

“All right,” he agreed.

Summer was silent following that, and he was beginning to recognize quiet moments as a warning. “What’s wrong?”

She glanced at him and smiled softly. “I was thinking it would be nice to see each other every once in a while. I hope I don’t seem pushy.”

Seeing her on a regular basis suited him just fine. They hadn’t even gone their separate ways yet, and James was already starting to feel withdrawal symptoms.

“I could fly up and visit you one month, and you could fly down and visit me the next,” she suggested, again sounding uncertain.

James’s hands tightened around the steering wheel. He suspected that the more often he saw her, the harder it would be to let her go.

“You’re not saying anything.”

“I was thinking.”

“What?”

The complete truth would have embarrassed them both. “I was reviewing my schedule.” The primary wasn’t until September, but Ralph Southworth, a businessman and longtime friend who’d agreed to head James’s campaign, had made it clear long ago: From here on out, James’s life wasn’t his own. Every place he went, every civic event he attended, would be a campaign opportunity.

“And?”

“February might be difficult for me to get away.” His workload had suffered because of this vacation, and another trip, however brief, so soon afterward could cause additional problems.

“That’s okay, I can come to you. In fact, I’ve probably got enough frequent-flyer miles to make the trip free.”

“Great. Then I’ll try to come to Anaheim in March.”

“Wonderful.” She lit up like a sparkler on the Fourth of July. Then she hesitated and bit her lower lip. “April might be difficult. Disneyland stays open until midnight
during spring break, and we add a second
Beauty and the Beast
show in the evenings. It’s hard to get a free weekend then.”

“We can work around it.” He didn’t want to mention that from June onward, his schedule would be impossible. There was no hope of visiting California, and even if she was able to come to Seattle, he couldn’t guarantee he’d be able to spend any time with her.

“Yes, we can work around any obstacle,” she agreed. But she didn’t sound optimistic.

They were outside the city now, driving on a two-lane highway that led to Red Rock Canyon. “I’ll be very involved in my campaign this summer.” He didn’t feel he could be less than honest.

“Summer’s the busiest time of year for me, too,” she said with an air of defeat. “But we can make this work, James, if we both want it badly enough.”

It frightened him how much he wanted Summer, but he was a realist, so he pointed out the obvious. “Long-distance relationships hardly ever work.”

“How do you know? You’ve had several and you speak from experience?”

James resisted the urge to laugh at her prim tone. If memory served him, his first-grade teacher, Mrs. Bondi, had used precisely that voice. Come to think of it, he’d been in love with her, too.

“You’d be shocked by how few relationships I’ve had,” he confessed.

“Do we have a relationship?” Summer asked softly.

James certainly hoped so. “Yes,” he answered. And
then, because she seemed to need convincing, he pulled onto a dirt road, behind a ten-foot rock. A trail of red dust plumed behind them.

“Why are you stopping?” she asked.

James wore a wide grin and held out his arms. “It appears to me you need a little reminder of how involved we are.” James knew he was asking for trouble. Trouble with a capital
T.
His resistance was about as weak as it could get.

“Oh, James.”

“A few kisses is all, understand? I don’t have much willpower when it comes to you.”

“You don’t?” The words were whispered. “That’s probably the most beautiful thing you’ve said to me.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much?” James asked as his mouth swooped down on hers. He kissed her the way he’d been wanting to all morning. No, from the moment he’d watched her approach him in the gazebo.

He kissed her again and again, unable to get his fill. He demanded and she gave. Then she demanded and he gave. He moaned and she sighed. Then and there, James decided he’d do whatever he had to—move heaven and earth, take a red-eye flight—to be with her. He doubted once a month would be enough.

He plowed his hands into her hair and sifted the long strands through his fingers. With their mouths still joined, he lowered one hand to her throat. Her pulse beat savagely against his fingertips.

James had never thought of himself as a weak man.
But with Summer he felt as hot and out of control as a seventeen-year-old in his dad’s car.

Reluctantly he dragged his mouth from hers and trailed moist kisses along the side of her neck.

“James.”

“Hmm?” He brought his mouth back to hers, kissing her slow and easy. Talking was the last thing on his mind.

She pulled slightly away. “James.”

“Yes?” he asked, distracted.

“We seem—” she whispered breathlessly.

His lips returned to her face, lighting on her forehead, her nose, her chin.

“—to have company.”

James went still. When he’d left the road, he’d made sure they were out of sight of other drivers. “Company?” he repeated. He could already imagine the headlines. King County Superior Court Judge Caught in Compromising Position in Las Vegas.

“They look hungry.”

James’s gaze followed Summer’s. Burros, five of them, stood outside the car, studying them intently. They were waiting for a handout.

James grinned. At least the burros didn’t carry a camera.

Summer smiled, too.

“I brought along a loaf of bread,” he said, and reached into the seat behind him.

“Should we get out of the car?” she asked.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He’d read about the burros, but wasn’t sure how tame they were.
“Perhaps we should lower the window a bit and feed them that way.”

Summer opened her window a couple of inches, far enough to ease a slice of bread out to the eager mouths. Just how eager was something they were to quickly learn.

“Oh!” Summer backed away from the window as a large tongue poked through the small opening.

Soon they were both laughing and handing out the bread as fast as they could. James was going to be sorry when it ran out. Summer certainly seemed to be enjoying herself, and so was he.

When the loaf was finished, they raised the windows. It took the burros a while to realize their food supply had come to an end.

When the burros finally left, James started the engine and pulled back onto the road. They drove for another hour, stopped and toured a visitors’ center, taking in the beauty of the countryside.

James felt Summer staring at him as he drove back to the city.

“Now what?” he asked.

“I can’t get over the change in you.”