If The Shoe Fits (13 page)

He wouldn’t have cared. But if it meant he’d
have her hands on him, even for the briefest of moments, he’d
willingly sacrifice his pants.

But there was still the matter of The
Husband.

“
Thanks.” Reese took a step away,
knowing he had to. It was the right thing to do.

And so was leaving. “I guess I’ll see you
Friday, then. By the river. For the site visit. It’s a good idea.”
God help him, he was babbling.

Reese Charmant did
not
babble.
Ever.

“
So, um, have a good night.” He
shoved his hands into his pockets, his fingers fiddling with a
coin, and wished he could just get out of here with his sanity, his
dignity, and his honor intact.

He thought he had until he realized that her
scent had followed him all the way home.

***

She’d touched his hip. What had she been
thinking?

Bella snorted as she sank onto a chair at the
DeLeo’s kitchen island, her knees wobbly from the searing awareness
of that contact. Thinking? She hadn’t been thinking. She’d been
reacting. To him. To his apology. To that stupid water that was
going to ruin pants she really shouldn’t care about ruining.
Especially
if he was apologizing for kissing her. He must
have really regretted it.

Which made her feel about as attractive as her
namesake in the rags-to-riches rags days.

Okay, enough of the negativity. It’d been a
long day and she was wiped out. Add the added sexual awareness
she’d been dodging all evening and she was ready to call it a
night.

She grabbed her purse and reached inside for
her car keys. A gold coin rolled out. Hmmm. She thought Sophia had
tossed them all in the fountain.

Oh well. With as distracted as she’d been
lately, anything was possible. She just hoped Reese had no idea
that
he
was the cause of her distraction.

***

Back on Front Street in his half-furnished
apartment, Jonathan groaned and shook his head as he sat back in
his chair, the television before him turned off, but still filled
with images.

Did
anyone
know what to do with lucky
charms these days? Wishing for the opposite of what they wanted was
not
the purpose the coins had been manifested
for.

He dropped his head into his hands as the
split images of Bella in the DeLeo’s kitchen and Reese zooming off
in his car faded from the screen.

This was going to be harder than he’d
thought.

Chapter Twelve

“
Lucinda Isabella!”

Bella counted to ten. Twice. Madeleine calling
her in that tone of voice was never a good thing; using her full
name was even worse.

Saying a swift prayer to keep her cool, Bella
backed through the French doors to the patio, the breakfast tray
balanced precariously in one hand, a pot of steaming coffee in the
other.

“
Your breakfast just came out of
the oven.” She set the tray on the glass-topped wicker table in
front of her wicked stepmother. Some days she really wouldn’t mind
the fairy tale coming true.

“
It’s not the breakfast.”
Madeleine snapped the front page of the Society page in her face.
“You failed to mention the party you catered last night was at the
DeLeo home.”

Because she knew the woman would have finagled
a way to attend. Connie DeLeo was who her stepmother aspired to
be.

“
Constance DeLeo is the on the
Arts Center Board.” Madeleine rattled the paper again. “How did it
go? Did you make any beneficial comments about me, any kind words
or recommendations for me to be on the Board?” Her stepmother
arched a perfectly-plucked, wickedly-black eyebrow.

“
Actually, Madeleine.” Bella set
the coffee pot on the table, just out of arm’s reach away, her own
little rebellion. “I was there to work for the woman, not do your
PR. My main goal was to see that her party ran smoothly.” Before
Madeleine could interrupt—because she would; she always did—Bella
took the newspaper, folded it in half (just below a line mentioning
the catering, she was happy to see), and set it beside the coffee
pot—also beyond arm’s reach. “Working so diligently speaks well of
Casteleoni’s, and since you
are
a Casteleoni, I’d think you
be glad that I care about our name.”

“
Yes, well it is fortunate that
the staff seems to be up to the task.” Madeleine helped herself to
a portion of the breakfast casserole, then reached for the coffee,
only to glare at Bella as she had to stand to reach the pot. “I’d
be unhappy if there were poor reviews from one of your events. If
that happens, I’ll have to get involved with the day to day running
of the company.”

Over her dead body. Madeleine’s, not
Bella’s.

“
As I said, everything went well.
And will continue to do so despite your threat. I will handle it as
I see fit—just as I did with Mr. Tildwell and his son after my
father’s funeral.” She couldn’t resist the barb. That situation had
been a defining moment in their relationship.

“
That is one of the reasons I am
not
on the Board today.” Madeleine sat back down and poured
the coffee.

Bella had the urge to dump the entire pot on
Madeleine’s head. “For God’s sake, Madeleine. The man caught his
son cornering me in the back hall of the funeral home and had the
gall to say
I
was trying to trap him into marrying me since
my parents had both died, and you really expected me to
apologize
?”

“
You could have used it to our
advantage.”

“
You mean
your
advantage,
but I’m not going to compromise my principles for your
ambitions.”

“
Oh, I think there’s something
you’ll compromise for, my dear.” Madeleine’s mouth stretched into
that thin, teeth-bared grin she was so bloody good at. “Or should I
say
someone
?”

Sophia.

It was always Sophia. When Madeleine had
wanted to be head of the PTA, Bella had had to show up at a meeting
and tell all the members—in tears, no less—how wonderful Madeleine
had been to her and her sister, and how special it would be to
share Madeleine’s generosity with the school community by electing
her president. That Madeleine had never run after her term was over
was quickly forgotten by the woman herself—the position hadn’t been
prestigious enough for her.

Since then, Bella had tried to keep away from
those predicaments. But the stakes were higher now. And Madeleine,
damn her, knew it.

“
I thought you aren’t on the Board
because there’s someone else in the running?”

“
Where did you hear
that?”

“
Staci.”

Madeleine’s eyes narrowed. “Anastasia needs to
learn to keep her mouth shut.”

Good luck with that
was what Bella
wanted to say, but wisely, kept her own mouth shut.

“
I trust you to keep this
information to yourself. I don’t need rumor and innuendo running
rampant while the Board is making its decision. Of course, they
can’t possibly pick anyone other than me. Casteleoni’s has been
around for years. We’re a fixture in this town.”

“
No worries, Madeleine. My lips
are sealed,” Bella replied as she headed back into the kitchen. She
talked about her stepmother only when necessary and hated being
lumped in with that collective
we.
She hated that Madeleine
was
a Casteleoni, and she especially hated that the woman
was using her family’s reputation to make her own name. But if it
kept Sophia where she should be, Bella would make the
sacrifice.

If only she didn’t have to sacrifice
everything…

Reese had looked so good last night, relaxed
and joking with his buddies. She’d had to escape to the kitchen to
stop from staring at him. But that hadn’t stopped the replay of
their kiss from cycling on an endless loop during the monotony of
dishwashing.

Then he’d come into the kitchen and, well,
it’d made for both a sleepless night and some pretty nice dreams
when she’d finally drifted off.

She could only hope Casteleoni’s would become
so inundated with business that she’d amass the money for the
custody battle quickly because once it was over, she might try
making her own wish come true.

***

“
What’s up with washer-woman?”
Staci asked her mother as Bella walked past her without so much as
a hello. And after all she’d done to set her up on a date with
Reese. Honestly, the girl just didn’t have a clue how to do
anything when it came to guys.

“
Oh.” Mother waved her spoon
dismissively. “We were simply having a meeting of the minds.” She
took a sip of her coffee. “Hers was meeting the directives of
mine.”

Staci “hmmmed” and slid into the cushioned
wicker chair across to the table. Mother could be very
persuasive
. All three Fontaine women could. All they had to
do was dangle the threat of sending Sophia away and Bella would do
whatever they asked. Just like a puppet.

Sometimes—rarely, but sometimes—Staci felt bad
about that. Sophia wasn’t really a problem. She was actually a
neat, well-behaved child. But it was the only way they could keep
control of Bella and, well, if Bella didn’t do things around the
house, she and Drew would have to because there was
no
way
Mother would ever dirty her hands. And that was
so
not
happening.

Shrugging, Staci picked up the newspaper.
“Hmph,” she grumbled as she read the Society page. “Not a word
about me in this article, but there’s good ol’ Bella’s
name.”

“
What?” Her mother set down her
spoon. “Why should there be a mention of you?”

Staci didn’t bother hiding her smile. It
wasn’t often she could one-up her mother with gossip. “Because I
was there, too.”

“
Bella actually let you work with
her?”

“
No, Mother!” Staci slammed down
the article. “You know, I do have some worth as a person. I went
with one of the football players. The one who caught the winning
touchdown in the Super Bowl if you must know. As his
date.”

“
Which player? That Reese Charming
person?”

“
Not him.” It figured
he’d
be the one whose name Mother knew instead of Luke’s. Even
unintentionally, Mother had that knack of always making Staci feel
second best. “And it’s Charmant, Mother, not Charming. You’d better
learn it because he’s a big-wig in this town with a successful
business and,”
la-la-la
was what she wanted to add, but
opted for, “he’s hired our little Bella to cater the annual charity
auction for the hospital next month.”

“
Bella?” Mother’s coffee cup
rattled on the saucer, spilling it onto the hand-embroidered
placemat she’d had made for her wedding to Sal. The fact that she
made no move to blot up the mess spoke to her level of upset at
this news.

Staci had never seen her mother so flustered
and had to admit there was a certain satisfaction in having been
the one to do that to her.

“
Yep. Bella’s going to be working
with him.” Staci sat back. If she were a cat, she’d be puffing
feathers from her mouth.

“
You mean Bella is in contact with
that man?”

“
Yes. She spoke to him last night
at the DeLeo’s and he’s been to the restaurant at least
twice.”

“
She could ruin me.” Mother
absently mopped up the coffee. “Why, he’s—” Mother shook her head,
as close to sputtering as Staci had ever seen her. “She could ruin
everything.”

“
Relax, Mother,” Staci took the
napkin and cleaned up the rest of the coffee as much as possible.
That placemat was a goner. “It’s just some big dinner. She does
those all the time. Plus, I’ll see to it that she doesn’t mess it
up.”

“
You?” Mother’s eyebrow arched in
the derision Staci had come to expect over the years.

Someday, Staci was going to master that
movement because it conveyed so much more than just the acidity in
her mother’s tone—acidity that, once again, was directed at her.
God, she was so sick of never measuring up to Mother’s
expectations.

“
Yes, me, Mother.
I’m
working with Bella on the auction so I’ll be around to make sure
nothing happens.”

“
Honestly, Anastasia. It’s a nice
thought, but drama follows you around like a puppy. If only you’d
learn to keep your mouth shut. Why would you tell Lucinda about the
other candidate for the Board position? If she says anything about
that, it’ll all be over. Why, I’d be better off if—”

All of a sudden Mother’s eyes narrowed and
Staci swore she felt daggers being thrown at her from those little
slits.

“
Wait.” Madeleine snapped her
fingers. “I have a better idea. You—” She pointed at Staci—”are to
drop this catcher guy—”

“
He’s a tight end,
Mother.”

“
I really don’t care to hear of
his physical attributes, Anastasia.” Madeleine took her time
slicking her pinky finger over that damned eyebrow. As
if
Staci could miss it or what it meant. “You need to drop him and
start dating that Charming guy.”