Bachelor at Her Bidding (Bachelor Auction Book 2) (11 page)

“Rachel Cassidy. From
what I remember, she was very quiet and shy at school,” Phyllis said. “Nice girl, though. From a nice family – they’re all kind-hearted.”

“Uh-huh.” Where was his grandmother going with this? Ryan wondered.

“At the day center, someone was saying you were kissing her at the counter in the pharmacy.”

News really did travel fast. “I did. Purely to make a point to Carol Bingley.”

“Oh,
her
.” Phyllis rolled her eyes. “The most mean-spirited person in Marietta.”

Which just went to prove how bad Carol was, Ryan thought, because his grandmother wasn’t known for saying harsh words about anyone.

“I, um, said if she’d been one of your pupils, you would’ve taught her to keep her mouth shut if what she was about to say wasn’t true, helpful, necessary or kind.”

“It’s a good principle. If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all,” Phyllis agreed. “I know nowadays there are people who claim it’s oppressing you if you can’t say exactly what you want – but I’ve always found it makes the world a kinder place if you think about what you say and how it’s going to make someone feel before you actually open your mouth.”

“Me, too.” He smiled at her. “What would you like for dinner tonight, Gram?”

“Whatever’s easy for you.” She looked slightly anxious. “I really should take my share of the cooking.”

Had she forgotten that she’d promised not to use the stove again? He tried to keep the worry out of his voice. Maybe if he tried a different tack, she might take it in. “Think about it this way – you spent a lot of years looking after me, and now it’s my turn to repay the favor and look after you,” he said. “So please don’t worry, Gram. I don’t mind fixing dinner.” Even though he spent all day cookng for other people. He loved his job.

“You’re a good man, Ry,” she said softly. “So are you dating Rachel?”

He suppressed an inward sigh. How ironic that the one topic he’d like his grandmother to forget was the one she remembered – even though he’d changed the subject. “No. We’re just good friends,” he said.

“Pity. She’s a nice girl.” She looked at him. “And you need a life of your own.”

“I’m perfectly happy with my life as it is,” he said gently. “I’ll make you a cup of coffee and I’ll see what we have in the fridge for dinner.”

The next morning, Ryan had plenty of ribbing at work. “Tsk, making out with the doc smack in the middle of the pharmacy,” Mardie, the saloon’s waitress, teased. “Don’t you have a better place to take her, Ry?”

He rolled his eyes. “It wasn’t like that. But at least it got the point across to a certain person.”

“The whole town’s talking about what you said to Carol Bingley. It’s about time someone reminded her about her manners,” Mardie said. “So are you dating the doc since the Bachelor Auction?”

“No, we’re just good friends. I don’t have time to date.”

“But if you did, would you date her?” the prep boy asked.

Ryan smiled. “That’s for me to know and everyone else to guess. You lot don’t give Reese a hard time about his love life, do you?”

“We wouldn’t dare,” Mardie said.

He laughed. “Maybe I should wave my kitchen knife about a bit more and look tough.”

Mardie laughed back. “Ry, a man who makes desserts that have women moaning in bliss isn’t a fighter, he’s a lover.”

Moaning in bliss.

He really wished Mardie hadn’t said that.

Because all he could think of after that was the way that Rachel had moaned in bliss when she’d fallen apart under his tongue. That tiny little cry. The way her eyes had gone wide when she’d come.

And he really, really wanted that to happen all over again.

So did she – or she wouldn’t have agreed to his suggestion about going to Bozeman for supplies.

It took a lot of effort – and a cut to his thumb – for Ryan to make himself concentrate on his job instead of thinking about Rachel, and he was glad that his shift was busy – even if he did have a stream of customers sending in orders “with a side of good manners”.

“This is getting old,” he grumbled when Mardie came in with the fifteenth such order.

“They’ll get bored soon enough,” Mardie said with a smile. “And they’re on your side, Ry. Someone needed to call Carol Bingley on her behavior.”

“I guess.”

All the same, Ryan was glad to escape from Grey’s at the end of his shift. He drove straight to Bozeman, parked outside the first supermarket he saw and bought condoms. It was a real relief that the girl on the checkout didn’t know him and wouldn’t be gossiping about him or Rachel. And then he drove back to Marietta to pick up his grandmother from day care.

How was this going to work out?

A lot depended on Rachel’s schedule. He knew she worked part time as a family doctor – and that everyone was expecting her to take on the practice full time when Dr. Majors retired later in the year – but not when her shifts were. If her free time was the same as his, it would be fine. If not… then he was going to have to put some of his principles aside and ask someone to sit with Gram for a few hours during the week. Though it felt utterly wrong to ask other people to shoulder his responsibilities just so he could warm Rachel’s bed.

He just hoped that this could be uncomplicated. For both of them.

He waited until his grandmother had gone to bed that evening before he texted Rachel.
Hey, I’ve been to Bozeman.

Glad to hear it :)
was the reply.

So she hadn’t changed her mind about them? It made him feel warm all over.
I’ve been thinking about you all day.
Time to bite the bullet.
I’m free from five until six, Monday through Thursday. How does that fit with your hours?

I work ten till half-past four Monday through Friday.

Meaning they were both available during his one free hour from Monday to Thursday. So this was doable. Anticipation sizzled through him.
I was thinking about where to meet
. He had to be honest with her.
Though it wouldn’t feel right, meeting at Gram’s place.

I live on my own
, she pointed out,
or is my apartment a problem?

No. It just feels a bit selfish, making you always be the host.

You’re not selfish, Ry.

That wasn’t what Lucille had said.

“You’re so selfish, Ryan. You’re putting other people’s needs before mine.”

Technically, that was true. Except how could he have deserted his grandmother when she needed him? And, if he had let his grandmother down, how would he have been able to live with that decision?

“I’ve spent months sorting everything out. Finding premises, interviewing staff. And now you’re leaving me in the lurch.”

“I’m just suggesting that we open the restaurant in Marietta rather than Bozeman.”

“They don’t give Michelin stars to restaurants in tiny country towns!” Lucille had stamped her foot.

“We don’t have to open the restaurant right now. We can wait a few more months. Gram isn’t going to be around forever.”

“She could go on until she’s ninety. And then where will we be? Stuck in a hick town.” She shook her head. “No way. We agreed. We’re opening a restaurant in Bozeman. We’ll be the first restaurant in Montana to get a Michelin star, and then we’ll expand into a chain. Right the way from LA to New York.”

Ryan was ambitious, but not if it came at the expense of his last remaining family. That was a price he absolutely wasn’t prepared to pay. So he didn’t mind putting his plans on hold for a while. Unfortunately, Lucille had minded hugely and she hadn’t been prepared to compromise.

“I don’t believe you, Ryan Henderson! How can you be so
selfish
?” And she’d raged for a week, making the staff in the restaurant where they both worked cower in fear of getting on her bad side.

His phone beeped again with another message from Rachel.
You OK? Rough day?

Not as rough as those last days in Bozeman. He typed back,
Fair bit of teasing. Customers all wanted a side of “good manners”.

Think they might’ve been asking Carol for the same.

How did she know that? He gave in to the impulse to call her.

“Hey, Ry,” she said when she picked up the phone.

He loved the sweetness of her voice. “So how did you know that about Carol? Were they talking about it over at the medical center?”

“No. I ran an errand for my neighbor after work and picked up her prescription.”

She’d actually faced Carol again in the pharmacy? “Did she say anything to you? Carol, I mean?”

“No. She was fine. She looked as if she was sucking a lemon, though.”

“Just as long as she didn’t make one of her spiteful comments.”

“It’s fine,” she said softly. “And I’m a big girl, Ry. I can handle it.”

“Yeah. I’m hardly a knight in shining armor.”

“I don’t know. Take your pans and your knives to a blacksmith, and I reckon they could make them into a suit of armor and a sword.”

He loved her sense of humor. “I think I’ll stick to cooking.”

“Food that’s better than sex.” She gave a small, shocked gasp. “Whoops. I didn’t mean to say that.”

“I’m glad you did, because now I know it’s not just me feeling this way.”

“It’s not just you. I’ve been thinking about it all day – you and me, I mean.”

“Good.” Honesty compelled him to add, “Me, too.”

“When do we get to see each other?”

Right now.
No. Apart from the fact it wasn’t possible, it made him sound too desperate. Too needy. Too
selfish
. Lucille’s words echoed in his head, and he clenched his fists. No. This thing between him and Rachel was just between them. No promises, no secret agendas, and nobody was getting hurt. “Thursday?” he asked. Otherwise it would be next week, and he wasn’t sure he could wait that long.

“Thursday will be just fine. Come over as soon as you’ve finished work?”

“Sounds perfect,” he said. “See you then.”

He anticipated it all through Wednesday. What it would be like to kiss Rachel again. To touch her. Explore her. For her to touch him.

And, even though they’d agreed it was just a fling and they weren’t getting emotionally involved, he couldn’t resist the urge to buy her some flowers. Not from the florist on the next block to Grey’s, right in view of the pharmacy, because he knew that would be leaving Rachel vulnerable to speculation; instead, he drove out to the strip mall just before he picked his grandmother up on Wednesday evening and bought an armful of red tulips, some for Gram and some for Rachel.

His grandmother was delighted by the flowers when he brought them in. “They’re so pretty, Ry.” But the look on her face told him that she was worrying about something.

“What is it, Gram?” he asked gently.

“Is it my birthday?” Her voice was slightly quavery with anxiety – clearly she was aware that she’d become more and more forgetful and was worrying that she’d forgotten the occasion.

“No, Gram, and anyway it doesn’t need to be your birthday for me to buy you flowers. You’re my grandmother, and I love you,” he said with a smile. And at the same time he felt guilty because he knew he’d bought them as a kind of cover for buying flowers for Rachel. That really wasn’t fair of him. And he’d made his grandmother anxious. Ah, crap. Maybe he was as selfish as Lucille thought he was. He should’ve thought this through.

“Your grandfather used to buy me flowers every Friday night,” Phyllis said. “‘Just because,’ he always said.”

“I remember,” Ryan said softly, and made a mental note to buy his grandmother flowers more often.

On the Thursday, even though it was one of the busier days of the week he found the day dragging. To his relief, the gossip had moved away from whether he was or wasn’t dating the woman he’d kissed in the middle of the pharmacy.

But all the same he couldn’t wait for the moment that he saw Rachel again.

He’d left the flowers in the trunk of his car, hoping that the cool weather would stop them from wilting; thankfully, even though it was snowing again, the car had insulated the tulips enough that they hadn’t frozen, either.

Her eyes filmed with unshed tears when he gave her the flowers. “Ry, they’re lovely. Thank you. I wasn’t expecting that.”

“I hoped you’d like them.” Then a nasty thought struck him. “I haven’t just given you the kind of flowers your ex used to buy you or anything, I hope.”

She shook her head. “I’m just being wet because it’s been a while since someone other than my sister or my girlfriends bought me flowers. I’ll put them in water and make us some coffee.”

“Let’s take a rain check on the coffee,” he said, following her into the kitchen, “because right now what I really want to do more than anything else is to kiss you.”

And he did. Slow and easy at first, brushing his mouth against hers until his skin was tingling, then nibbling at her lower lip until she opened her mouth and let him deepen the kiss.

Her arms wound round his neck and her fingers slid into his hair, urging him on.

Unable to resist, he undid the buttons of her shirt and traced the edge of her bra with the tip of his finger.

And then he was aware that her body had gone tense. Her fingertips had stopped moving against his scalp, and he could feel the rigidity in her frame.

“Rachel? What’s wrong?” he asked softly.

She bit her lip and looked away. “Ignore me. I’m being stupid.”

“Tell me anyway,” he said, gently cupping her chin in one hand and turning her face to him again.

“I…”

“I’m not going to laugh at you, Rach.” Just to prove his sincerity, he brushed his mouth briefly against hers and then wrapped his arms round her. “I need to know what I did wrong, so I don’t do it again and I don’t hurt you.”

“It wasn’t you. It was my ex.” She swallowed hard. “I told you that he cheated on me.”

Ryan just about managed to stop his hands curling into fists. Whatever Mardie said about him being a lover rather than a fighter, right now Ryan wanted to punch Rachel’s ex on the nose. Hard enough to break it. “And you already know I think he’s an idiot,” he said.