“The only way you’re going to be able to do that is to accept her just as she is,” Summer answered bluntly.
“I’ll try. Will you come over and give me some pointers?”
She wiggled her bare feet on the coffee table in front of her and watched them with a little smile playing at the corners of her mouth. “How are you at taking advice, Derek?”
“I haven’t had a great deal of experience at it,” he answered ruefully, “but I can try. Shall I pick you up in an hour?”
“Sure. See you then.” She hung up the phone and wriggled her toes happily. She tried to tell herself that she was suddenly in such a good mood because she now had plans for the rest of the day. She tried to tell herself that she was pleased that Derek seemed willing to try to patch things up with his sister, which should make both Anderson siblings happier. But she knew that the real reason she felt good was that she would be spending the afternoon in the company of a man she was beginning to like very much. Not an ideal hero, of course, she reminded herself rather sternly, trying to quell some of the anticipation she felt toward seeing him with her old, standard excuse for not getting involved. Still, teasing Derek had turned out to be more fun than she’d expected.
Then her smile faded. Swimming. She’d have to wear a bathing suit in front of him. Her body wasn’t so bad, but there was no way to conceal her mutilated right knee in a swimsuit. After five years she’d learned to wear her maillots and occasional shorts without too much regard for what others thought of her scars, but for some reason Derek’s reaction was more important to her. She told herself that she was being silly. He’d already seen the scars, hadn’t he? Still, she knew that her scars and limp would only remind both of them of the many reasons there could be nothing more between Summer and Derek than friendship. He would want a woman who was more nearly perfect, physically and every other way. Summer wanted a man who could accept her, flaws and all.
So she would concentrate on making friends with him and helping him do the same with his estranged sister. And she would try very hard to avoid any more intimate scenes like that near kiss the morning before. No matter how much she might be tempted to do otherwise.
IN HIS ELEGANT SAUSALITO HOME Derek replaced his own receiver and frowned down at the telephone beneath his hand. Calling Summer with the impromptu invitation had been an impulse, just as dropping by to invite his sister to breakfast yesterday had been. Dumb move, Anderson, he told himself.
He wondered dispassionately at the urge that had made him call Summer and invite her to his home. True, he wanted very much to come to some kind of an understanding with Connie. And true, Summer was Connie’s best friend and would therefore be the logical person to advise him on how best to approach Connie with a long-overdue attempt at reconciliation. But was that really the reason he’d called Summer? Or was it just an excuse to spend more time with her?
From the little Connie had told him about her roommate, he hadn’t expected to like Summer Reed immediately. But he had. So much so that he’d wanted to spend more time with her. Alone. He had to ask himself if the real reason he’d wanted to ask Connie to breakfast yesterday had been so that he could see Summer again and find out if she was really as intriguing as she’d seemed at the party. She was.
He swallowed, remembering the rush of heat that had hit him at her door. He wanted to be with Summer, not only because she made him want her to the point of distraction but also because she had proved to be such damned good company. She irritated him, she amused him, she kept him on his toes. She made him feel alive again, really alive for the first time in nearly a year. He’d thought he was past thriving on risks and challenges. It seemed that he was not.
Summer was not at all the type of woman he’d expected to find himself suddenly obsessed with. And yet he was.
It was a shame she was wasting her very obvious intelligence and competence in a job that admittedly bored her and a series of parties that seemed only to fill her free hours. Of course, he had no right to criticize her. Could it be that his sister’s life should be equally exempt from his well-meant interference?
He had never meant to drive Connie away from him when he’d come home. It was just that he’d had such expectations for her when she’d been a bright, spunky little girl. He couldn’t help but be disappointed that she wasn’t taking advantage of the opportunities she’d had to better herself. Ever since her marriage to that jerk actor when she’d been no more than a kid, she’d seemed intent on living as frivolously as possible. Was he supposed to just stand by and say nothing?
With a frown and a shake of his head he abandoned the troublesome self-debate and allowed himself—just for a moment—to contemplate Summer’s visit with an unfamiliar sense of anticipation.
Catching sight of himself in a mirror on the wall in front of him, he realized he was wearing a stupid, infatuated schoolboy grin. The expression made him look like a stranger, even to himself. What was this woman doing to him to make him look like that? What was it about her that was tying him in knots, making him plot and connive for ways to convince her to spend more time with him?
He was going to have to be very careful, he told himself sternly, the grin slowly fading to be replaced by a look of wary caution.
And then he found himself whistling as he started toward his kitchen to thaw the steaks.
4
“YOU’RE AN EXCELLENT SWIMMER,” Derek complimented Summer after a swimming race he’d won only with great effort.
Gasping for breath, Summer clung to the edge of the pool, tossing her wet bangs out of her eyes and smiling at him. “Thanks,” she said when she’d regained her voice. “I spent hours in pools during my recuperation, from my accident to strengthen my leg. I still try to swim laps three or four times a week.”
Derek reached out to brush a wet strand of hair away from her eyes. “I thought you said you weren’t athletic.”
She wanted to turn her cheek into his hand, to drop a kiss into his palm. Instead, she casually shook his hand away and pulled herself out of the pool. “I’m not,” she threw back at him, reaching for her gaily colored beach towel. “Exercising is just something I do, or I’d end up walking more like a duck than I do now.” Wrapping herself in the huge towel, she dropped onto a lounge chair at the pool’s edge, watching as Derek shoved himself out of the rippling blue water.
More than once during the afternoon she’d found herself tempted to ignore her resolution to keep things between them strictly platonic. There had been several incidents in the pool, when wet skin had brushed wet skin, that could have turned into something dangerous if both she and Derek hadn’t been so obviously trying to remain in control. She’d known from the moment he’d picked her up that Derek was as determined as she to make an effort to ignore the unbidden attraction that had flared between them from the beginning.
Summer had fallen instantly in love with Derek’s home, a good-sized house of rock, cedar and smoked glass nestled into the Sausalito hills. Though she was sure the place had been professionally decorated, Derek had opted for comfort and warmth rather than trendy style. Each room he led her into on the quick tour he’d given her upon their arrival had been beautiful, yet Summer could easily imagine a family living in the home without worrying about smudges and clutter. She could be very comfortable in such a house, she found herself thinking, then made herself stop picturing herself in residence here. Such thoughts were detrimental to her peace of mind.
She’d been in Derek’s company for more than two hours now and was surprised at how well they got along. Carefully avoiding the subject of his sister, they’d kept their conversation light and impersonal, with Summer tossing out her usual quota of one-liners and Derek serving with amiable resignation as her straight man. She had yet to make him laugh outright, but the hint of a smile had flashed frequently in his pewter-gray eyes. The only quips that made him frown were the ones she made about her physical impairment.
In response to her remark about walking like a duck, he was scowling now as he draped his lean form on the chair beside his guest’s. He pointedly made no reply.
Chuckling under her breath
, Summer slid an oversize pair of purple-framed sunglasses onto her nose and settled comfortably in her chair to enjoy the still-warm early September sun, allowing the beach towel to fall aside to reveal her becomingly simple scarlet maillot. It was simply habit to keep the towel draped over her scarred knee when she was with people she didn’t know well. She was hardly aware that she had done so this time.
Derek was lounging in a position almost identical to her own, his eyes half closed as he squinted meditatively across the pool. Since he wasn’t wearing his glasses, his eyes looked smaller, his dark lashes longer. Summer took advantage of the opportunity to study his roughly carved profile and powerful, slim physique.