Amazing Gracie Read online

  “Max, I thought you were going to give Helen a call,” she said.

  “Why the hell would he be calling Helen?” Kevin demanded.

  “I thought she might enjoy taking Max sightseeing.”

  Kevin stared at her blankly. “Why?”

  She kicked him under the table.

  “Ouch, dammit.” He frowned at her.

  “Call her, Max. Something tells me Helen gets out and about early.”

  “Actually, she does,” Kevin said, still regarding her with evident confusion. “Max and Helen?” he mouthed when Max’s back was turned.

  Gracie nodded.

  Kevin sighed heavily, but at least he kept his mouth shut while Max made the arrangements.

  “We’re going to see the birthplace of Robert E. Lee,” Max announced when he’d hung up.

  “Stratford Hall,” Gracie said. “I hear it’s wonderful.”

  “You haven’t been?” Max asked.

  “No, not yet. I’ve been busy.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Spending time with me,” Kevin said at once. His expression turned grimly determined. “Shall we tag along to Stratford, Gracie?”

  Actually, that wasn’t what she’d had in mind at all, but she could see that Kevin wasn’t about to leave Max alone with his cousin, whether Helen might have preferred it that way or not. Kevin’s wariness of Max apparently extended to what might happen between him and any of the women Kevin knew.

  “Sure, why not,” she said. “You don’t mind, do you, Max?”

  Max shot a look at Kevin that could have withered an entire garden, but he forced out a terse agreement. “The more the merrier.”

  Gracie feared there was going to be nothing merry about the outing at all, but she hadn’t counted on Helen’s wiles. Helen managed to separate the two couples in the blink of an eye. Before Gracie knew what was happening, she and Kevin were headed on a long walk toward the river beyond the main plantation house, while Helen and Max went off on the tour.

  “She’s very good,” Gracie said, staring after her admiringly.

  “Good? She’s a blasted sneak,” Kevin grumbled. “I don’t like her being off alone with that man.”

  “Max is harmless.”

  “That’s not what you were saying last night.”

  “I don’t recall half of what I said last night,” she admitted. “The point is, Helen can deal with Max. You don’t have a thing to worry about. Besides, there are a dozen other people on that tour. What could happen?”

  “Pardon me for saying it, but your judgment where Max is concerned is not exactly top notch. And Helen is proving to be a very slippery woman. I am not reassured.”

  “Come on, Kevin. It’s a beautiful June day. The flowers are blooming. The sky is blue. I’m sure you can think of something better to do than worry about your grown-up cousin and whatever passing fancy she’s taken up with Max.”

  He’d been staring after Helen and Max, but he turned then and stared into her eyes. “Something more interesting to do, huh?” he said softly. “Only one thing I can think of that might distract me.”

  Gracie’s breath caught in her throat. “What’s that?”

  He reached out and skimmed a finger along her cheek, then dragged it oh-so-slowly across her lips until they parted in a gasp. She swallowed hard as his head descended and his mouth met hers.

  Oh, yes, she thought as a sweet thrill reverberated through her. From her perspective, this was definitely better than worrying about Max and Helen. She opened her eyes and met Kevin’s gaze. He smiled.

  “Feeling better?” she asked.

  “Not just yet,” he said. “But I’m definitely getting there.”

  15

  Throwing Helen and Max together might have been a mistake, Gracie concluded when Max was still ensconced in her tiny guest room after a week. His presence in the house might have been awkward enough by itself, but with Kevin inevitably thrown into the mix, the tension was sometimes thick enough to cut with a knife.

  Lately she’d found herself caught in the middle of a turf war declared by two very possessive men. Max apparently couldn’t help himself. Even though his interest in Helen was obvious, he couldn’t seem to resist making a daily pass or two at Gracie. Force of habit, she suspected. She had no idea what Kevin was up to.

  For some reason, though, Max’s attempt to stake his claim annoyed her more than Kevin’s did. She planned on analyzing that more thoroughly once Max went back to France.

  She also planned on trying to figure out why, after all the opportunities she’d had over the past few days and several long walks right past it, she still hadn’t shown Max the old Victorian house that was at the heart of her relationship with Kevin. She had a feeling she wasn’t going to like the answer to that one bit.

  Add to that general emotional confusion Kevin’s casual touches, which were startlingly provocative no matter how innocently intended, and she was a nervous wreck. Kevin was the kind of man who stole every single legitimate opportunity to touch a woman. There was never anything overtly sexual about the quick brush of his fingers across her knuckles or the grasp of his hand on her elbow, but Gracie found the accidental contact astonishingly sensual. Her reaction to it was downright disconcerting. She had to keep reminding herself that Kevin was a totally unambitious, laid-back human being, not the sort of match for her own type-A personality at all. Obviously this was some sort of passing, hormonal quirk.

  Even so, mix in a few bone-melting goodnight kisses and there was no telling where things would lead one of these nights when they were left alone to sit and wait for Max and Helen to finish whatever it was they were doing in Max’s steamed-up rental car.

  “Do you know how ridiculous this is?” she inquired late one night, breaking into the companionable silence as she and Kevin rocked side by side on her porch, sipping lemonade.

  “How ridiculous what is?” Kevin asked distractedly, his gaze locked on that car halfway down the block.

  “The two of us sitting out here, waiting up for a couple who are in their thirties. Don’t you think Helen is beyond needing a chaperone?”

  “Not if she’s out with him,” Kevin replied.

  His grim tone startled her. “What exactly are you afraid of? That he’ll seduce her? That he’ll whisk her off to France? That they’ll fall in love and get married?”

  “Bite your tongue.”

  “Kevin, your cousin is old enough to decide whether she wants to go to bed—or to France—with a man.” Gracie was delighted to discover that she didn’t feel the slightest twinge of jealousy over either prospect. That confirmed what she’d been so sure of all along: she wasn’t the least bit interested in Max as a lover.

  Kevin sighed. “Okay, maybe I am being overly protective. It’s just that she’s vulnerable. She has been ever since Henry died.”

  “And despite your complaining about your family, you have a white knight complex where each of them are concerned. Remember something, though. You thought I was vulnerable, too. I managed to handle Max just fine, didn’t I?”

  He scowled. “Sure, you introduced him to Helen, for which I may never forgive you.”

  Gracie grinned. “Actually, I thought that was a rather ingenious strategy.”

  “It was a lowdown, sneaky, rotten strategy. Now I have two of you to worry about around him. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. No matter what’s going on between him and my cousin, he hasn’t given up on you, Gracie.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “I don’t trust him.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with Max.”

  “If you like the pompous, snooty sort.”

  “Apparently Helen does.”

  “Yeah, well, what does she know? She hasn’t met many men like Max before.”

  “Kevin, I thought her husband was a successful CEO of a multinational conglomerate.”

  “He was, but we’d known him all our lives.”

  “Who’s being snooty now? Is Virgi
nia blue blood the only blue blood good enough for a Daniels?”

  He frowned at the accusation. “I am not a snob,” he insisted. “But I am holding you responsible if Helen gets hurt or this turns ugly.”

  “Helen’s a big girl. She’s looked radiant to me the last few days. Maybe she’s willing to risk being hurt. And the only way it’s going to turn ugly is if you and Max start brawling one of these nights.”

  “Don’t tempt me. I repeat, I don’t like the way he looks at either one of you.”

  Tired of all this talk of Max and Helen, she regarded Kevin speculatively. “Kevin, don’t you have something better to do than worry about your cousin?”

  He finally turned his full attention on her then. A grin tugged at his lips. “You offering to distract me again, darlin’?”

  She feigned a long-suffering sigh. “If that’s what it takes to give the two of them some privacy.”

  He reached for her hand. “Get on over here then.”

  Warning herself of the dangers, she slipped onto his lap a little too eagerly. She didn’t know what it was about this man that had allowed him to creep past her defenses, but the truth was, she had discovered recently that she enjoyed tempting fate.

  Snuggling against his chest, her head tucked on his shoulder, she felt warm and safe and deliciously aroused. To keep her libido in check, though, she took the opportunity to make a renewed plea for more information on the Victorian.

  “It’s not for sale,” Kevin repeated for the umpteenth time, though his heart didn’t seem to be in it. In fact, he was busy nibbling on her ear.

  “Rent it to me, then,” she suggested, trying out a new angle. “I’ll make all the repairs in return for a break on the rent and a long-term lease.”

  He pulled back. “Do you do all of your negotiating this way?”

  “Of course not. This is a technique I reserve for special cases.” Actually, she’d only just now discovered how stimulating negotiating with Kevin could be.

  “No wonder you had such good luck with the asparagus farmer. I’m quite sure Max couldn’t compete with this.”

  “Very amusing. Will you rent it to me or not?”

  “Not.”

  She studied his face intently. “Kevin, what is it about that house that makes you so protective of it?”

  “I’m not protective.”

  “Could have fooled me. What would you call it?”

  “I am just trying to do my legal duty as manager of the property.”

  Gracie lost patience with the same old nonsense. “Then how come you don’t cut the damn grass?”

  “Maybe I will.”

  “When?”

  “One of these days. School’s almost out.”

  She tried to puzzle out the implication of that and finally gave up. “What does that have to do with anything?” she asked.

  “Just an observation,” he said evasively, then studied her intently. “Now it’s my turn.”

  “Your turn for what?”

  “To ask probing questions.”

  She eyed him suspiciously. “Such as.”

  “You didn’t tell Max about your plan to open a bed-and-breakfast, did you? You haven’t even pointed out the house to him. I know because I’ve been waiting and waiting for him to say something or insist on a tour.”

  She wasn’t sure she liked the new direction of the conversation. This was an area she’d already found troubling. She shook her head.

  “How come?”

  “It was none of his business.”

  “Is that it or were you afraid he’d tell you exactly how crazy your idea was?”

  “It is not a crazy idea, and Max’s opinion doesn’t matter to me one way or another.”

  “If you say so.”

  “I say so,” she said firmly, but she couldn’t help wondering if maybe that had been her concern. Was she afraid that Max, with all his years of hotel experience, would laugh at her plan or possibly denigrate the whole idea of exchanging a career with Worldwide for opening up a bed-and-breakfast in what he obviously considered to be the middle of nowhere?

  She could say Max’s opinion didn’t matter, but the truth was she respected him, even if he was way too absorbed with the bottom line.

  “Gracie?”

  “What?”

  “Maybe you should talk it over with him, get the perspective of an expert.”

  “I’m an expert,” she responded testily. “I have the degrees and the résumé to prove it. Besides, this is my dream. I don’t want Max Devereaux anywhere near it.”

  “And me?”

  She gave him a rueful smile. “Like it or not, you’re smack dab in the middle of it.”

  Kevin was worn out by the time Max Devereaux finally left town. This business of keeping an eye on Gracie was very tiring.

  As for Helen, she’d made a blasted game out of eluding him to sneak off with Max. He couldn’t imagine what his cousin saw in the man, but to each his own. Despite his grumblings to Gracie, he did recognize that Helen was an adult. She’d been walking around in a daze ever since Henry’s death. If Max managed to distract her even a little, Kevin actually agreed with Gracie that there was no reason to get too worked up over it. It wasn’t as if it was the start of something lasting. In fact, the very thought of Max as a cousin-in-law made him shudder.

  Not as much as the thought of Max with Gracie, however. He smiled, thinking of how cleverly Helen had managed to keep those two apart. It hadn’t been quite enough to allow him to relax his guard, but it had given him a few peaceful moments, when he’d been able to concentrate totally on Gracie and the fact that he’d suddenly become rather addicted to her kisses.

  After several days of nonstop running around, he was finally back in his hammock, contemplating the meaning of life. Or, more specifically, the meaning of his reaction to Gracie. He couldn’t think of the last time he’d thought so much about sleeping with a woman without actually doing anything about it. For some reason, though, Gracie didn’t strike him as the kind of woman he should be fooling around with unless his intentions were totally honorable.

  Which they weren’t, he concluded emphatically. No way in hell was he drawing her into the circus of his life. It was bad enough that Bobby Ray had tried to use her and that Helen had poked her nose into their affairs. He was sure the rest of them would find some way to use or abuse Gracie’s good nature if they knew she was important to him. Thankfully, most of the rest of them were out of town and, since it was summer, Uncle Bo was too busy fishing to get into much mischief.

  As for Aunt Delia, he could only thank his lucky stars that she hadn’t gotten it into her head to make his relationship with Gracie her own personal project.

  “I’m surprised to find you here,” the woman in question said, turning up just then and interrupting his peace and quiet. “Shouldn’t you be off somewhere with Gracie?”

  “Gracie’s safe and sound at home, alone,” he told his aunt with evident relief. “I’m taking a break. What brings you outside? It’s hot out here.”

  “Jane called from Richmond. She’s wondering if you have any intention of showing up at the office for the remainder of the century.”

  “Were those her words or yours?”

  “Her thoughts, my spin,” Aunt Delia conceded.

  “Thanks to e-mail and the fax, I have no reason to go to Richmond in the middle of a heat wave.”

  “Kevin, it’s eighty-five, not a hundred and ten. Besides, it’s demoralizing for your staff when you never actually put in an appearance.”

  “I’ll show up when something comes up I can’t deal with on the phone,” he said. “Unfortunately, most of my clients are dead. I’m just left to deal with the beneficiaries, who have absolutely no desire to get together with me unless the checks are late. That’s the joy of estate law. Most of the time, I don’t even have to show up to submit the wills for probate. And thanks to dear old dad, the Daniels name will be on the letterhead for all eternity, no matter how much time I actuall
y put in at the office.”

  His aunt glowered at him. “Listening to that nonsense, if I didn’t know better, I’d conclude that you are the laziest man on the planet,” she said.

  He lowered his sunglasses and winked at her. “Maybe I am.”

  “No, you are not,” she retorted sharply. “I know exactly how many clients you have, how many of them are pro bono, and you handle every one of them with the kind of compassion and attention they deserve. So why do you insist on acting as if you could give a damn about work?”

  “Balance, Aunt Delia. Balance. Do you have any idea how much concentration it requires to achieve it?”

  “I suspect quite a bit less than you devote to it,” she said dryly. “Does Gracie have any idea what you actually do for a living or that you work at all, for that matter?”

  “I certainly haven’t told her. She likes thinking I’m a disreputable bum. It enables her to believe she’s living on the edge just by associating with me.”

  “Well, that’s certainly a dandy way to build a relationship,” his aunt grumbled. “Whatever happened to old-fashioned honesty?”

  “I am honest. I just avoid getting into the details. Besides, who said anything about trying to build a relationship? We’ve covered that. Gracie’s just a friend.”

  “A very special friend, judging from the way you scooted off to make sure she didn’t go back to France with that Max person.”

  “Don’t read too much into that. I just didn’t want her to make a mistake she’d regret. She asked me to stick around and offer moral support.”

  “Which you absolutely detested doing, right?”

  Kevin slid his sunglasses back into place. “That’s enough meddling for one day. Go away.”

  “You can get rid of me if you want, but it won’t stop you from thinking about her,” Aunt Delia said smugly. “If you want my advice—”

  “Which I don’t.”

  She ignored him and went right on. “I’d tell you to snatch her up before somebody else comes along. You’re not getting any younger, you know.”

  “Thanks for the update on my age. Mind telling me why it’s relevant?”

  “Babies, Kevin.”