Wanted: Husband, Will Train Page 17

  Courtney stepped back, gesturing at their handiwork. “See? Practice.”

  Pride shone in Katie’s smile as she took her father’s hand to assist her descent from the chair. She turned toward Courtney. “We did it.”

  Courtney leaned down and pressed her forehead against Katie’s. “You did it. I just hung around and helped a little.”

  She glanced up. John was just standing there, watching the two of them. Watching her. And making her toes curl and her skin heat.

  So what else was new?

  She nodded toward John as she whispered to Katie, “Doesn’t he look good?”

  Katie’s expression was somber. “Very good.”

  John waved a hand at the compliment. He could feel the bow tie cutting off the circulation to his neck already. It had nothing to do with the actual tightness of his tie. It was the mere existence of the tie that did it. Even while he’d worked as an engineer, he’d avoided all contact with ties unless it was absolutely necessary.

  “Well, ‘he’ feels miserable.” He looked at his reflection. All he saw was a very unhappy-looking guy who was much more at home in jeans and a work shirt. “Why can’t you just have a barbecue?”

  She laughed, adjusting his collar for him. “Because you don’t get people to fork over a thousand dollars a plate for hamburgers, coleslaw and baby-back ribs.”

  “Plates sure cost a lot,” Katie declared with wonder.

  “They do when they belong to Courtney,” he told his daughter. Fund-raisers had always left him cold. He’d been forced to attend several, all political, while he’d been married to Diane.

  “They don’t belong to me. They belong to the Children’s Foundation for Better Health,” Courtney corrected, reciting the name of the hospital her father had founded and underwritten. “Now let’s get going.”

  He glanced at his watch. It was early. The invitations she’d sent out had said the party began at seven. He didn’t want to spend any more time mingling with cardboard people than he absolutely had to. “Whatever happened to being fashionably late?”

  Courtney smiled. “Someone taught me the value of time.” Threading her arm through his, she urged him toward the stairs. Katie gleefully followed. “Besides, I’m in charge of this little ‘shindig,’ as you called it, and there are probably seven emergencies going on even as we speak.”

  Courtney stopped at the bottom of the stairs to give him a once-over. “Your tie is tied, your shoes are on. You look gorgeous.”

  Her point wasthat he was out of excuses. She wasn’t consciously fishing for a compliment, although she would have gladly accepted one. Prior to Katie’s arrival into her room, Courtney had dressed very carefully for this function, but not with an eye out to impress any of her guests. All she wanted was for John to notice her. More than that, she wanted to knock his shoes off and burn up his socks.

  She had thought that wearing a skintight, hot-pink dress slit dangerously high on her thigh with no back to speak of might just do the trick. But so far, his socks appeared unscorched.

  John watched the way the light from the chandelier seemed to bounce off the hot-pink sequins of her gown, adding color to her skin. When she turned to pick up her wrap, he felt his palms itch. The dress was backless and almost sideless, rendering him almost speechless.

  He wanted to take her to bed, not to a party. Taking the wrap from her hands, he dropped it around her bare shoulders. “You look pretty gorgeous yourself,” he whispered.

  His breath slid along her cheek. If she wasn’t chairing the function, she would have been sorely tempted to forget about attending. She was, anyway. But duty was something that was ingrained and she couldn’t turn her back on it just because he was making her want things. Badly.

  She smiled up into his eyes. “I thought you’d never notice.”

  “Oh, I noticed all right,” he assured her. “I always do.”

  And it was true. He noticed everything about her. He had even before he’d made love with her. But now, it was as if all his senses had been heightened. Usually, you had to lose one sense for the others to become sensitive. But he seemed to have gained one—an infinite sense of her. His other senses had just hurried to keep up.

  “Can I stay up and wait for you?” When they turned in unison to look at her, Katie was shifting back and forth on her toes, looking from one to the other, hope dancing in her eyes.

  Up to now Courtney had been indulgent with Katie, but she was beginning to understand that loving sometimes meant saying no. She bit her lip, looking at John for guidance. She felt her way through this. “We’re going to be back awfully late.

  John certainly hoped not. Even staying there an hour was going to be sixty minutes too long.

  “Not that late,” he countered. He took Katie’s chin in his hand, striking a bargain. “Okay, if you promise to take a nap first.”

  He could feel the pout in his palm as it grew. “Do I have to? I’m a big girl.”

  She was becoming stubborn, he thought, and wondered if being around Courtney had anything to do with it. In any case, this was nonnegotiable. “If you want to get bigger, you’ll nap. Deal?”

  She sighed. When Daddy looked like that, there was no way around him. Katie nodded. “Deal.”

  They left her with Sloan, though John would have rather remained with Katie himself.

  “Don’t worry, Sloan’ll take care of her,” Courtney promised as she got into the limousine. “Everyone at the house loves her. It’s no hardship taking care of Katie.”

  He thought of the mind-numbingly dull evening ahead. “Yeah, but who’ll take care of me?”

  “I will,” Courtney said without missing a beat

  . “You’re going to be busy,” he reminded her.

  There was no denying that, but it didn’t mean they had to be separated. “And you’re going to be at my side the entire evening.”

  She meant it, he thought. Right now, he wasn’t certain if that was a good thing. “You really know how to threaten a guy, don’t you?”

  She laughted, curling up against him in the back seat as the chauffeur started the car. “You ain’t seen nothing yet. Wait until I bring out the rubber hoses.”

  Because it came so naturally to him, John slipped his arm around her shoulders. “I can hardly wait.”

  John had never given much thought to the way money was collected to fund the facilities so vital to Katie’s well-being. He’d been too concerned with Katie’s health to wonder where and how the money was found to build the various wings of a hospital.

  It took, he realized now, the combined generosity of the very people he had looked down on all these years with nothing short of contempt. His experience with his ex-in-laws and their friends had colored his perspective of the whole class. Or rather, discolored it.

  Now, as he looked from the dais at the sea of welldressed people sitting at their tables, listening to Courtney deliver an impassioned speech, he was forced to reassess his feelings.

  They might be richer than he was, but they were people just the same. People who were moved by the suffering of children they would never know. Moved to donate their time via fund-raisers, and to donate their money.

  He hadn’t been fair. Not to them, certainly not to Courtney. But a man could learn from his mistakes and make amends. As long as there was breath left in a body, amends could always be made.

  He looked back at Courtney as she finished her speech. He had to admit that she’d surprised him. But then, she’d been doing that right from the beginning.

  Courtney shifted her note cards, covering them with her hand. She was departing from what she’d prepared. Instead, she looked into her heart. A heart that had opened even wider since Katie had entered her life. Now she could imagine more fully the anguish parents felt, knowing their child was ill with something that wouldn’t go away within a day or a week. Ill with something that might shorten their lives and rob them of the joy of growing up.

  She thought of how she would feel if something
threatened that happy little girl who was waiting up for her at home. Her heart quickened, inspiring her words.

  Courtney smiled at the tables, which were filled with people she recognized. People she’d cajoled and coerced into coming to these fund-raisers year after year. Good people.

  “Now, I know that you are probably about to consume the most expensive filet mignon you’ve ever purchased, barring Louis, of course,” she paused, gesturing toward the man, “who likes to fly to France for lunch.” Her eyes met Mandy’s as she laughed. “But, at the risk of sounding a little like a broken record—for those of you who remember vinyl—after dinner I’d like you to open up your checkbooks again as well as your hearts and write yet another check for the foundation.”

  The smile faded, her eyes growing serious. “We would really like to complete work onthat new surgical wing by the end of the year. For some of these children, you are all they have. You are their key to hope in a world that has suddenly been rendered hopeless for them. And some of those children who desperately need the services of the wing under construction won’t be able to wait around until I’ve finished begging and pleading for the money.

  “They need the wing yesterday. I’d like to at least promise them that it’ll be there in the not-too-distant tomorrow.”

  And then the smile returned, flitting over as many people as she could make eye contact with. “Now, eat up and then pay up. Bon appétit.

  Retreating, Courtney left the podium amid hearty applause. She saw a strange, meditative look on John’s face as she stepped off the dais.

  This was the first time he’d heard her speak, she thought. She wondered if he’d heard something he found disagreeable. “What?”

  She’d moved him. Really moved him. He felt like a heel for what he’d thought of her. “I didn’t think you cared that much.”

  It wasn’t a criticism, but an admission. Inch by inch, they were coming along pretty well, she thought in satisfaction. Like any newlyweds. Their marriage didn’t feel as much of a sham as it had before.

  “There’re a lot of things about me you don’t know.” Her hand in his, she made her way to the head table. “I don’t spend all my time watching sexy-looking engineers working on my guest house.”

  “Lucky for me.”

  All in all, it wasn’t nearly as bad an evening as he’d anticipated. He supposed, in part, that was due to his own attitude. He’d lost it. He was no longer looking at Courtney’s “kind” as bored, rich people with time and money weighing heavily on their hands, people who contributed nothing useful to society. If not for them, places like Harris Memorial, the hospital where Katie had been treated since she was born, wouldn’t have existed. Or, if it had, it would have been woefully underprepared to attend to Katie’s special needs.

  And then, of course, there was Courtney. She hadn’t let him hang back. Rather than leaving him cooling his heels, Courtney incorporated him in every facet of the evening, never leaving his side except for when she delivered her speech. And even then, he had been only a few feet away.

  He didn’t mind. He liked being near her. Liked, too, having his eyes opened to his mistakes. And he had been mistaken about Courtney. Badly mistaken.

  With the pride of a new bride, a role that seemed to be becoming increasingly easier for her to play, Courtney introduced John not only to more of her friends, but also to some of the doctors on the staff at the Children’s Better Health Hospital.

  John’s mind swam with names and faces as he tried to remember each one.

  One he didn’t have to try.

  “And this is Dr. Darel Benjamin,” Courtney told him. “Dr. Benjamin has just graciously accepted a position on our hospital staff, as well as continuing to attend his patients at Harris Memorial. Dr. Benjamin, this is my husband, John Gabriel.”

  The bearded, distinguished physician looked at John in surprise as they shook hands. “Well, I certainly didn’t -expect to see you at one of these, John.”

  John didn’t risk looking at Courtney, afraid his expression would make him look guilty. He didn’t want her finding out this man was Katie’s doctor. His daughter’s health was still his problem to handle. His and Katie’s.

  “It’s part of my husbandly duties,” he said glibly, looking around for a way out.

  Benjamin looked at the couple before him thoughtfully. “I’m afraid I’m a little confused. When did you two marry?” He addressed his question to John.

  “Recently,” John answered before Courtney could say anything. He wanted to get her away before Benjamin mentioned anything about the upcoming surgery. “If you’ll excuse us, Doctor.”

  Not waiting for a reply, John took Courtney’s arm, drawing her to the other side of the room.

  She felt as if they were running from something. “What was that all about?”

  Courtney glanced back at the doctor, now engaged in conversation with Rita Hennessy. The older woman was undoubtedly pumping him for free advice regarding her imagined heart condition. Rita loved coming to these functions and buttonholing doctors for free advice, which was fine with Courtney. The woman always donated’ generously when the time came.

  She turned her attention to John. “Where do you know Dr. Benjamin from?”

  John picked up a glass of wine. He had refrained all evening, but now he felt as if he needed a drink.

  “Diane.” He deliberately avoided her eyes. “He was—is, I imagine,” he corrected himself, “Diane’s father’s doctor.” He’d had no contact with either in-law since the divorce, except for Diane’s funeral. That had hardly been the time to exchange pleasantries or play catch-up..

  He figured his explanation would satisfy Courtney. The initial referral actually had come from Diane’s father. Benjamin had been the specialist called in when fetal distress had turned out to have a name. Ventricular Septal Defect A large name for a very small hole in the wall of the lower chambers of Katie’s heart..

  It really was a small world, Courtney thought. She felt bad, subjecting John to the unexpected meeting. “I can see how that would have made you feel awkward.”

  He had endured the evening without complaint and had even been entertaining to some of her friends. She saw new respect emerging in their eyes. And something more than tolerance in his. This had shaped up to be one of the more successful evenings of her life.

  It was time to take pity on him.

  Courtney took his arm. “I’m tired, how about you?”

  Now that she mentioned it, he did feel pretty wrung out. “Yeah.”

  “Then let’s go home.”

  John was surprised by her suggestion. And more surprised at himself when he didn’t jump at it. “Aren’t you supposed to stay until the end?”

  Technically, he was right. She had always been the last one out the door since she had taken the position over from her father. At first it was because she’d had something to prove, and later it was because she truly believed in the cause she was involved in.

  But now she had other responsibilities. “Mandy can handle everything,” she told him.

  He looked across the floor and saw the petite brunette. Surrounded by men he had a feeling she had handselected, Mandy was carrying on an animated conversation with all of them.

  “Mandy?” The question was enveloped in a laugh.

  But Courtney was serious. “She’s really very good. She can separate a man from his money faster than a mosquito can draw blood. It’s rather humbling to watch.”

  Courtney’s eyes were drawn in the same direction as his. But she saw what he couldn’t. It might look like simple flirtation, but Mandy was at work, promoting the hospital.

  “I just got the position as chairwoman because my father started the foundation. If it was assigned according to merit, the position probably would have gone to Mandy. I made her my assistant. Let me go tell her we’re leaving.” A smile played on her lips. “Unless, of course, you want to stay.”

  He shook his head, already thinking of the night that was st
ill ahead for them. “No, four hours is about my limit.”

  John followed her, glad to be leaving, but glad he had come, as well. For, by coming, he’d gotten to see Courtney in her element, her true element. Watching her at work had added dimension to her for him. He realized that she had never really been the spoiled heiress he’d imagined her to be. There had been a generous side to her all along.

  Knowing that was going to make leaving her all the more difficult when the time came.

  But the time wasn’t now, he reminded himself. Now, he had more pressing things on his mind. She was coming to his bed tonight. Nothing had been said. He just knew.

  “It’s getting a little crowded,” Courtney said over her shoulder. “You stay here, I’ll extricate Mandy from her court.”

  He watched her disappear into the crowd. Within moments, she’d returned, Mandy in tow.

  “All set,” she announced. “Mandy’s agreed to take my place for me.”

  Mandy was at his side instantly. Taking his arm, she looked up at John. “Okay, let’s go home.”

  A bemused expression washed over Courtney’s face. “Mandy, what are you doing?”

  Mandy was all innocence. “Well, you said to take your place. So I am.” She wrapped both arms around John’s and fluttered her lashes seductively. “Your place or mine, Johnny?”

  Courtney slowly removed Mandy’s hands from John’s arm as he laughed. “I meant here—take my place here.”

  Mandy snapped her fingers. “Drat. I think you got the better end of the deal,” she said wistfully.

  “As long as you’re swapping partners, mind if I cut in?”

  The question came from behind them.

  The smile melted from Courtney’s lips as she turned around to face Andrew. She didn’t remember seeing his name on the list and knew she hadn’t invited him. He had to have come as someone’s guest.