A Second Chance Page 20
Zach smiled with a slow nod. “You’re right, I don’t need details. She is very special and,” he looked around the room as if to make sure no one was there. “If you don’t mind not telling her I said this, she’s a bit of a manizer.” That seemed to strike Zach as funny and he laughed. “You know, like a womanizer, only a manizer.”
“I got it.” But it wasn’t funny to him. “What about it?”
“Well we were afraid she dug her claws into you.”
That would be an understatement as Curtis remembered it. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”
“Good. She’s going to be staying here for a bit and we don’t want it to be awkward for you.”
Curtis ran his tongue over his teeth and then did it again. His tongue was numb. “I’ll be fine. I’ll be working lots of shifts at the hospital so I won’t be hanging around here too much.” At least not anymore.
“You’re okay with her?”
“Sure.” Why wouldn’t he be? No reason to get worked up just because a woman used you for a quick romp. Really, he was more of a man than that.
“Well I’d better get out to the guests. Feel free to hang here and rest your head.”
Curtis acknowledged his generosity with a grunt as he tipped his head back on the couch.
The house was quiet when he finally pried open his eyes. Someone had laid a throw over him, Regan no doubt. His head was throbbing and his mouth was desert dry.
Curtis swung his feet to the floor and stood slowly. Perhaps the caterers had left something in the refrigerator. He could do with a sandwich on those senseless little rolls they had served.
He stumbled to the kitchen, swung open the refrigerator and the light illuminated the room. He winced and realized he’d heard a stifled gasp of someone sitting at the table.
Focused on the small figure at the table he shut the door quickly. “Thought I was alone.”
“I was hungry.” Her face was coming into focus, but the accent alerted him to who the woman in the dark was. She stood and started toward him. “I just came down for a little snack. Can I make you something?”
He’d wanted to laugh as he wondered if she’d ever had to fend for herself in her life. That wasn’t fair. Obviously she’d made herself something to eat right there in the kitchen.
“I’m fine. Go finish your snack.”
“You’re angry with me.”
“You think?” He stepped back from her as she approached. That expensive perfume which had tangled with his senses the last time they stood in that kitchen was playing games with his body again.
“Curtis, I’m sorry. I meant you no harm.” She moved closer to him in the dark. “Mon ami?”
“Friends? Sure.” He turned and reached into the cupboard for a glass. At the sink, he filled it with water and felt it land in his stomach. He hadn’t slept on that couch long enough to ward of the drunk he’d put on. “Damn,” he said under his breath.
“Are you all right?”
“Just hadn’t planned on spending the night on my sister’s couch. I wanted to get home.”
“I’d be happy to give you a ride.”
He lifted a brow. “You drove?”
Simone cleared her throat. “You’ll be pleased to know I have leased a car. I can drive.”
“Hmm, well ain’t that something.”
He thought he knew her well enough that she’d have had a driver waiting in a car for beck and call.
Even in the dark, he saw her straighten. “You think I’m just some spoiled brat, don’t you?”
“Honey, if the high heeled shoe fits…”
Her hand whizzed through the dark and had he been sober he might have had a chance to block it before it hit his cheek. The sting of it raced through his skin and a curse flew from his lips. “Forget the ride. I’d rather walk home.”
“Why did I think you had better manners than this? Ju idiote.”
She stormed out of the kitchen. If she was going to be around for a while, he’d have a few more chances of pissing her off and that seemed just fine with him. Curtis rubbed at the ache on his cheek.
Well the last thing he needed was for his sister to see him be disrespectful to her houseguest. He’d call a cab. He’d sleep off his drunk and in two days he’d be at the hospital buried in broken bones, cut hands needing stitches, and heart attacks. Suddenly it seemed more appealing than ever.
Simone paced the floor of her bedroom. Oh, he’d set her off and what made her angrier was that she deserved it. Why had she thought things would just fall into place? She had left him stranded on a yacht in the middle of nowhere. She hadn’t had the decency to tell him she was leaving or provide for him a way home. Zach had to wire him the money to make it back to Tennessee and she’d heard that he was paying dearly for that at the hospital.
She’d used her wealth to treat him like a prince and then banish him like a pauper. Hadn’t he made it clear to her that even though most people thought doctors were self-righteous and rich, he wasn’t? Hadn’t he told her that he spent more time at the hospital than he did in his little, poorly decorated apartment? Those student loans were plenty and paychecks weren’t, he’d said.
But she hadn’t expected to fall for him.
Simone looked out over the dark garden from her window and sighed. She’d spent so much of her life trying to be in charge she didn’t know what to do when she felt the control slip from her heart. The fact that she’d had many men on that very yacht should have kept things in perspective, but they hadn’t. Curtis Keller was the only one who had taken care of her on that yacht and she didn’t know how to deal with it.
Sure, many men took care of her. Each of them wanted a piece of what Simone Pierpont could offer them. Curtis Keller asked for nothing.
They’d been thrown together as dates for Carlos’s last wedding. They’d met a few times, but once the bubbly started and the music slowed, things changed. She’d changed in his arms that very night and she followed him to that little, rundown apartment he called home, and she’d loved every moment they’d spent there.
Without a bag, she’d worn his shirts around the house. He’d had an extra toothbrush that he’d paid no more than a dollar for that he gave her, and she’d kept. There was no food in the house of the single man and he ordered pizza and over tipped the driver. It was heaven.
Then she convinced him to run away with her for a few weeks. Leave behind the responsibility and the woes of saving lives. Make love to her on the French Riviera under the stars. And so he did.
And that was where she’d left him.
Simone crawled into bed and pulled the sheets up to her chin as if to hide herself in the dark. She’d never been in a situation where she didn’t know what to do or have her daddy go fix all her problems. The last time she’d spoken to her father, he’d turned her away. Taken away her trust fund, her villa, everything. To him she was nothing, and he’d made that perfectly clear.
It was hard for her to imagine. Her mother had married, again, and lived in Spain. And now she couldn’t even afford to go to her. Zach had been kind enough to fly her to America and offer her a place to stay. She was sure even Regan didn’t know he’d done as much.
He didn’t know why she was there, but she’d tell him. And Zachary Benson would never turn her away. That was what friends did for each other.
She’d hoped Curtis wouldn’t turn her away either, but it didn’t look as though things were going her way.
From the book she bought, she figured she had a good two months before she needed to make her decisions on matters at hand. Zach offered to help her find a job. Why would she need a job, she supposed he wondered. Suddenly an apartment, dark and dank like Curtis’s, seemed appealing.
It would all be okay.
She was nearing the end of her thirties and she’d never taken care of herself. She could learn.
The first tear rolled down her cheek and she brushed it away.
People did it all the time.
She wa
s good with math. A budget. She could make a budget. Clothing. She and Regan had once been the same size. Perhaps she could talk her into passing down some of the clothes she had yet to work herself into after Tyler’s birth. That would do for a little bit.
She blew out a breath and sucked up the tears that continued. She’d learn to take care of another. People did it all the time.
Simone ran her hands over her belly and swallowed hard. Soon Curtis wouldn’t turn her away. At least not completely. But she’d have to prove that she could take care of herself before she told him she was carrying his baby.
Bernadette Marie grew up obsessed with pens and notebooks, each one filled with lists and ideas for stories. Not much has changed. This wife and mother of five sons has a passion for writing stories about falling in love, finding love where you left it, and strong families.
Bernadette Marie is an accomplished martial artist who holds a Black Belt in Tang Soo Do and she is a chronic entrepreneur. She is a member of Romance Writers of America and Colorado Romance Writers.
Visit her website at www.bernadettemarie.com for news on upcoming releases, signings, appearances, and contests.
Photo: © 2009 Damon Kappell/Studio 16
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter One