What was it Aunt Berni had said about men, Nellie wondered. It hadn’t made sense at the time, but now she remembered something about Jace not thinking she was his best friend. He was right: She hadn’t been his friend.
She sat on the floor very near him. “How is your brother’s foot?”
“All right,” Jace said tersely, not looking at her.
“And did your mother get over her cold? Is she singing again?”
“Yeah.” He snapped out the word. “Everybody at home is fine.” He turned to glare at her. “And they’ll be glad to see me again. People at home trust me. They don’t believe I’m a liar.”
She couldn’t bear his stare. She looked back at the fire. “I was wrong,” she whispered. “I told you that. I tried to believe you, but I couldn’t believe you’d want someone like me.” She looked back at him. “I still can’t believe it. You could have any woman on earth. Why would you want an old maid like me? I’m not exciting, I quit school when I was fourteen, I’m not anything special at all.”
“You make me feel good,” he said softly, and he leaned toward her as though he might kiss her, but then he pulled away. “You did make me feel good. I thought you felt about me as I did about you, but I was wrong. I think you believed you loved me in spite of the fact that I was a low-life, philandering nobody who was after your father’s money.”
“True,” she said. “I did. After the Harvest Ball, after I heard so many dreadful things about you, I still went to my father’s office to see you. Even thinking the worst about you I still loved you. It has been a joy to discover that I’m in love with a good man.”
For a moment he seemed to sway toward he
r, then he pulled back. “A rich one, you mean. Tell me, has your father drawn up any contracts having to do with Warbrooke Shipping? Is that why you lost weight? Did you and your family think you could snare a rich fish easier with a skinny worm?”
“How dare you,” Nellie said under her breath. “I never even knew about your money until after you’d returned from abandoning me.”
“I didn’t abandon you!” He stood and glared down at her. “I received a telegram saying my father was very ill. I suspect your treacherous little sister sent it.”
Nellie also came to her feet. “You leave my sister out of this. Terel has been a great comfort to me. All those months you were gone and no word from you, I—”
“I wrote you. I wrote you about everything. I sold every stick of furniture, every blade of grass I owned so I could come be with you, and then you told me to get out of your house.”
“And you told me I had three days, yet when I came to you, you threw me out,” she shouted back at him. “Maybe one of your other women would have left her family in three days, but I couldn’t. I would have followed you anywhere.”
“Ha! You can’t leave, your dear sister for even one day. You may as well be a prisoner in their house. You cook for them, clean for them, adore them. And for what? What do they give you in return? They don’t want you to marry and leave them, because where else could they find such a servant as you?”
His words were too close to home. She turned away as tears started to form.
He took a step toward her but didn’t touch her. The tablecloth had fallen off her shoulders, and he could see them shaking with her tears. “Nellie, I’m sorry,” he said softly. “It hurt more than I can say to find out that my love wasn’t returned. Maybe I’ve been spoiled, I don’t know. I’ve only fallen in love once before in my life, with Julie, and she loved me in return. There was never any question that we loved each other. Julie trusted me, she—”
“And her family knew your family?”
“Of course. We’d grown up together.”
“My family didn’t know you. You were a stranger to us and you…you paid attention to a woman no man in town had ever even looked at, much less loved. You—”
“That is the strangest damn thing,” Jace said, his voice rising. “What’s wrong with this town? I was glad the men saved you for me, but they must all be blind or stupid. You’re by far the prettiest girl in town, you’re smart, you’re funny, and you’re the most desirable female I’ve seen in years.”
Nellie turned to look at him. “You’re the one who’s blind. I’m fat old Nellie Grayson, only good for cooking and ironing and—”
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “You were made to love and be loved. Why couldn’t they see that?”
“I’m glad they didn’t,” she whispered against his lips. “If I’d married someone else, I wouldn’t have met you.”
He held her against him, and his hands roamed over her body until Nellie wasn’t sure she could breathe. He released her abruptly. “Look—ah—this is going to be a long night. Maybe we ought to eat something and get a little sleep.”
Nellie looked at him and knew what she wanted to do. She wanted him to make love to her. Maybe out of her own stupidity she’d lost her only chance for marriage and a home of her own, but she wasn’t going to lose this opportunity to spend the night with the man she loved. She wasn’t going to let pride or convention stand in the way of one night with this beloved man.
She smiled at him and moved the basket nearer to the fire. As she looked inside it she said, as though it meant nothing, “You’ll catch your death in those wet clothes. You’d better remove them. You can wrap up in the lap robe.” He didn’t say anything and she didn’t look at him, but she heard him turn and walk to the far end of the room.
Nellie was shaking as she withdrew one package of food after another from the basket. She couldn’t identify some of the items. In the bottom were three bottles of wine, one of champagne, plus lovely crystal glasses. She was wondering how the glasses had not been broken when she saw Jace’s bare foot across from her.
She looked up slowly, up muscular calves to heavy thighs, then a small robe about his waist. She’d never seen a nude man before, and the sight of Jace’s broad, thick, sculpted chest made her mouth dry.