Black Ties and Lullabyes (19 page)

She shrugged nonchalantly. “Just someone I’m spending the evening with.”

“I didn’t know you were seeing someone.”

“Actual y, I’ve been seeing Dave quite a lot lately.” She looked at her watch. “And look at that. I’m late, and he’s waiting for me.” She nodded across the garden. “And Madeline is waiting for you.” Jeremy glanced over his shoulder to see Madeline pretending to look at one of the godawful sculptures even though she was clearly watching him and Bernie.

“Uh… yeah,” Jeremy said. “I guess I’d better go, too.”

With a tiny wave of her fingertips, Bernie started back down the flagstone path to the gate. As she walked away, he noticed—maybe for the first time ever—what a truly nice ass she had, fil ing out her jeans in a way that would get the attention of just about any man alive.

Jeremy frowned. It had obviously gotten
Dave’s
attention, anyway. He’d never even met the man, and already he didn’t like him.

He watched as Bernie went through the gate and out to the parking lot. He watched as she flicked open her car door with her remote. He watched as she got inside. He watched as she started the car. He watched as she—

“Jeremy?”

He spun around to find Madeline behind him.

“Do you know her?” Madeline said.

“Uh… yeah.”

“From where?” Madeline said, as if she wasn’t quite believing him.

“She used to be my bodyguard.” Which was the only relationship to Bernie he cared to mention to Madeline.

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope.”

“Hmm,” Madeline said as she watched Bernie drive away, “now that you mention it, she does seem a little rough around the edges.”

“Rough around the edges?”

“You know. As if a day at Elizabeth Arden would benefit her greatly.”

For some reason, that irritated the hel out of Jeremy. He had a better idea. Maybe a day at boot camp would benefit
Madeline
greatly.

She sidled up next to him with a seductive smile.

“Are you ready to go?”

A few months ago, he wouldn’t have hesitated a single second. But now, as he looked at her, al he could think about was Bernie.

“Something’s come up,” he said suddenly.

Madeline drew back. “Excuse me?”

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to take a rain check for tonight.”

Madeline looked positively astonished. She was clearly a woman who wasn’t used to fighting for a man’s attention. Jeremy sensed her weighing her options, trying to decide if risking a little humiliation was worth it.

“Of course,” she said cool y.

Evidently it wasn’t.

“Maybe we can get together another time,” Jeremy said.

Madeline’s eyes swept over him slowly, and she raised her nose a notch. “If I’m free in the next week or two, maybe I’l give you a cal .”

“That’d be great. Thanks, Madeline. It was very nice to meet you.”

Evidently that was an even quicker dismissal than she’d expected. Astonishment flashed across her face, but she erased it as soon as it appeared. With a dismissive look, she simply turned around and walked away. Jeremy knew he was going to catch hel from Alexis for this, but he’d cross that bridge when he came to it.

A few minutes later, he and Max were in the limo, and Carlos was driving them back to his house. For once, Jeremy didn’t mind that Max was mute. His thoughts were so consumed with Bernie’s apparent plans for the evening that he wouldn’t have been able to carry on a conversation with anyone. He sat back in the seat, his arms crossed, irritation eating away at him.

Dave? Who the hel was Dave?

That question loomed larger in his mind with every moment that passed. Also looming was the image of another man touching Bernie at that very moment.

Logical y, there was nothing wrong with that. He had no hold on her. This was a new century. That a couple had a baby together didn’t mean they had say-so over each other’s lives.

So why was it driving him straight up the wal ?

He tried to get a grip. Tried to tel himself that he had no business getting in the middle of Bernie’s relationships. Then again, didn’t he have a right to know who she was dating? What if she hooked up with some guy who would be a bad influence on his children?

Once they were born, anyway.

And they grew up enough to be influenced.

But the day would come when it would be critical y important that she associate with the right men. The more he thought about that, the more he decided that he was wel within his rights to ensure that the mother of his children wasn’t roped in by a guy who might not be good for her or the babies. He definitely needed to find out more about him.

“Max?” he said.

“Yes, sir?”

“Does Bernie know anybody named Dave?” Max paused, presumably thinking about it. Jeremy hoped he hadn’t suddenly forgotten how to speak altogether.

“Not to my knowledge, sir.”

There it was. Proof positive that whoever this guy was, he wasn’t somebody who’d been in Bernie’s life for very long. Which meant that she’d probably just met him, which meant she was in that danger zone where a guy could be Mr. Perfect or Mr. Serial Kil er or a hundred questionable things in between, and there was no way to know which one. Under normal circumstances, Bernie could take out any guy who might be a problem, but she was pregnant.

Sometimes she didn’t feel wel . And the more the babies grew, the more off-balance she was going to be. As he’d told her once, pregnant women made excel ent targets.

This could be a very serious situation in the making.

A few minutes later, they pul ed up to his house.

Carlos and Max left, and Jeremy went inside, grabbing his phone from his pocket and dialing Bernie’s number. For a moment he thought she wasn’t going to pick up, but after six rings, he final y heard her voice.

“Bridges? What do you want?”

She sounded a little snippy, which meant he’d definitely interrupted something. Evidently she and
Dave
were already in the middle of… wel , whatever they’d planned to be in the middle of.

Don’t think about that. Just make sure it comes to
a halt.
“We have some business to discuss.”

“Business?” Bernie said disbelievingly. “What kind of business?”

“The kind we need to talk about right now. Can you come to my house?”

“Now?
Tonight?
”

“Yes.”

“Aren’t you with Madeline?”

“No.”

“She’s not there?”

“No.”

“I thought she went home with you.”

“I told you something came up,” Jeremy snapped.

“And I need to talk to you.”

“No way. I’m right in the middle of something.” No. She wasn’t in the middle of some
thing
. She was in the middle of some
one
. “I know. You have a date. But—”

“Why don’t you just tel me what this is al about?”

“I can’t discuss it over the phone.”

“I told you I’m
busy
.”

Jeremy didn’t like the way that sounded. “But you have to come over right now,” he said. “This concerns…” What the hel did it concern?

“Creekwood Apartments.”

“Creekwood?” When the pitch of her voice went up a couple of octaves, he knew he had her attention. “Is something wrong?”

“Wil you just come over here so we can talk about it?”

“Bridges?” she said, skepticism creeping into her voice. “What’s going on?”

“I’l tel you everything when you get here.”

“Can’t this wait until tomorrow?”

“I’m sorry to break up your date, Bernie. But I wouldn’t ask you to do this if it weren’t important.” He heard her let out a heavy sigh. “Okay. I’l be there in about fifteen minutes.”

Jeremy felt a flood of relief.
Take that, Dave.

Then he heard something in the background. A man’s voice? Yes. That was exactly what it was. Wel , it didn’t matter now. Bernie was coming to his house, which meant that for this evening, anyway, the owner of that voice was out of luck.

As Bernie hung up, at first Jeremy felt victorious.

Then a little underhanded.

Then a little clueless.

He needed some reason for dragging her over here. Something to talk to her about. Then he could work in questions about this guy she was seeing who had come out of nowhere who was only going to make her miserable.

He only wished he knew what that something was going to be.

Bernie held out her phone, staring at it with confusion.

Jeremy wasn’t with Madeline after al ? That made no sense. Anytime a tal , incredibly gorgeous blond popped up on his radar, he always went in for the kil .

And given the way Madeline had been hanging al over him at that event, the two of them getting horizontal together should have been a foregone conclusion.

“Hey, lady!”

Bernie spun around, suddenly realizing that as she’d been talking to Jeremy, the man at the drive-thru window had been trying to get her attention.

“That’l be seven eighty-five,” he said.

Bernie tossed her phone aside and dug through her purse to come up with a ten. She handed it to the man. He gave her change, then passed her the sack through the window.

“Thanks for coming to Dave’s,” he said with a smile. “Have a nice evening.”

Bernie put the sack in the seat beside her and drove away from the window, feeling dumber than she ever had in her life. The green neon “Dave’s Hamburgers” sign reflected off the hood of her car, taunting her with just how ridiculous she’d sounded when she’d talked to Jeremy at the museum. A date with Dave? Had she actual y told him that? Just the thought of it made her want to hide her head in shame.

She didn’t know why she’d done it. She only knew that the moment she saw Jeremy with Madeline, she quit being rational. She imagined going home alone, right after stopping to pick up her favorite comfort food for the evening. Ever since her morning sickness had subsided, she’d had the appetite of a nutritional y chal enged lumberjack, which meant that while Jeremy was making love to Madeline, Bernie would be making love to a double burger with cheese, an order of tater tots, and a chocolate shake.

Good Lord. How pitiful was that?

But now, it appeared, he wasn’t with Madeline after al .

She swung back onto Park Boulevard and headed for Jeremy’s house, feeling pretty good about that.

Then again, if he wasn’t with Madeline tonight, there was always tomorrow night. And if not Madeline, there was always some other woman. Jeremy would spend the rest of his life in the arms of one beautiful blond after another, and what would Bernie have?

Endless lonely evenings with nothing but fast food to keep her warm.

Ten minutes later, she was knocking on Jeremy’s door. He answered quickly and motioned for her to come into his living room, talking as they walked.

“I’m sorry to interrupt your evening with… what was his name again?”

“Dave,” Bernie said, and swore she felt her nose grow.

“What did you say his last name was?”

“I didn’t say.”

“What is it?”

“What is it? It’s, uh… Berger. Dave Berger.” And just like that, her nose grew another inch and her pants caught fire. She was definitely going to hel for lying.

“Where did you meet him?” Jeremy asked, motioning her to the sofa.

She sat down, wishing he’d shut the hel up about it.

“At a restaurant.”

“How long have you known him?”

“Not long.”

“What does he do for a living?”

“Wil you knock off the dumb questions and tel me why you cal ed me here?”

“Oh. Yes, of course.” He pul ed a stack of papers from his briefcase and sat down beside her. “I have six candidates for the manager’s job at Creekwood. I need your input on which ones to interview.” For a moment, Bernie was absolutely certain she’d heard him wrong. “What did you say?”

“There are some good resumes here, but I want to be very careful about whom I hire.”

“Hold on,” Bernie said, holding up her palm. “Let me get this straight. You interrupted my date and cal ed me over here at eight o’clock at night to see what I think of a bunch of
job candidates
?”

“You said I needed to find exactly the right person, so I thought I’d get your opinion.”

He handed her the papers. She flipped through them. As impossible as it was to believe, he real y had handed her a stack of resumes.

“Is this some kind of a joke?” she said.

“Joke?”

“There’s nothing here we can’t talk about tomorrow.”

“But you of al people should know how important that job is. Charmin terrorized those tenants for years.

I need to find somebody who can undo al the damage she did and move forward from there.”

“Yes, you do,” Bernie said, trying to keep from shouting.
“Tomorrow.”

“If you’l take a look at the one on top, you’l see—” Bernie stood up suddenly. “I’m going home.”

“Hey! I thought you cared about the people at Creekwood.”

“Oh, come on! It doesn’t change anything for the residents if I read these tonight or in the morning. It is, however, starting to make me think you’ve completely lost your marbles.”

She tossed the resumes onto the coffee table and headed for the door.

“Bernie! Wait!” He jumped up off the sofa and came after her. “You’re here now, aren’t you? Why can’t we just get the job done tonight?”

“Because I have a
date
, that’s why!” She yanked open the front door and trotted down the steps with Jeremy in close pursuit.

“Bernie, wait.”

She reached her car and grabbed her driver’s door handle, but before she could open it, he put his hand against it the door.

“Wil you
wait
?”

She spun around to face him. “You’re doing it again. You’re just so damned sure that whatever you want to do is way more important than what anybody else wants to do, and the moment you snap your fingers, they’re supposed to jump. Wel , I’m getting pretty damned tired of it.”

“Hey, I was wil ing to give up my date. Why can’t you do the same?”

“You dumped Madeline so you could stay home and read a bunch of resumes? What’s
wrong
with you?”

“Nothing’s wrong with me. It’s just business.”

“Business. Right.” She shook her head with disgust and yanked open her car door. She slid into the driver’s seat, but he grabbed the door before she could close it.

“Bernie, wait.”

“Let go of the door.”

“You’re not leaving. Not yet.”

“I don’t believe this,” Bernie said. “I had a date with a great guy, and you screwed it up for me? How rotten is that?”

“I didn’t mean to screw it up!”

“Yeah? Wel , what did you think would happen if you insisted I drop everything and rush over here?”

“Okay,” he said with irritation, “so I meant to screw it up. But only because I was worried about you.”

“Worried?”

“You’ve never talked about this guy before. How am I supposed to know if he’s on the up and up?”

“Okay,” Bernie said, looking up at him, “before I completely blow my stack, I’l give you about ten seconds to explain why you think you’re entitled to know anything about the men I date.”

“Because those are my babies you’re carrying.”

“
Your
babies? My God. Could you
get
any more prehistoric?” She yanked her keys out of her purse.

“I’m leaving now. And as soon as I’m out of here, I’m cal ing Dave to apologize for leaving him high and dry.

With luck, he’l forgive me. But if he doesn’t, it’s
your
fault!”

“Bernie?”

She stopped short. “What?”

Jeremy tilted his head. “What’s that?”

“What’s what?”

He looked past her, pointing to the passenger seat of her car.
“That.”

Bernie whipped around. And the moment she was reminded of what was sitting there, she knew she was screwed: the fast food sack with “Dave’s Hamburgers” emblazoned on its side in huge, cherry-red letters.

She looked back at Jeremy, hoping he wasn’t putting two and two together, but judging from the look on his face, math was clearly his strong suit.

He reached into the car and plucked her keys from her hand.

“Hey!” she said. “What are you doing?” Jeremy circled around the car and yanked open the passenger door. She grabbed the sack, but as he slid into the seat, he managed to snatch it away from her.

“Wel , look at this,” he said, his voice laced with sarcasm. “You’re dating a hamburger.” Bernie’s cheeks heated up with embarrassment.

She opened her mouth, praying words of explanation would miraculously materialize. They didn’t.

“Do you two see each other often?” Jeremy asked.

Bernie had never felt so humiliated in her life. She had a fleeting thought that maybe Jeremy would believe she was dating the
owner
of Dave’s Hamburgers, but she’d already put so many lies out there tonight that she wasn’t sure she could sel one more.

“I can’t believe this,” he said, dropping the sack on the floorboard. “You laid a guilt trip on me for making you miss your date with a man who doesn’t even exist?”

“But you didn’t know he didn’t exist!”

“That’s not the point. You’re the one who started al this by lying to me in the first place!”

“And you would have never known I lied if you hadn’t tried to get in the middle of things!”

“Your fictitious boyfriend was obviously for my benefit,” Jeremy said, “so what were you trying to do?

Make me jealous?”

“If I was trying to make you jealous, then why did I tel you I thought Madeline was perfect for you?

Wouldn’t I want you
not
to leave with her?”

“Reverse psychology,” he said, tapping his temple.

“You know I always do exactly the opposite of what you tel me to.”

She snorted. “Wel ,
that’s
certainly the truth.”

“I stil don’t have an answer. Why did you make up a boyfriend?”

Bernie hated the knot that formed in her throat when she tried to come up with a response. But even more, she hated that the only thing left to tel him was the truth.

“Fine,” she said. “I’l tel you why. Because you were going home with a gorgeous woman, and I was going home with a sack of fast food.” She paused, her voice dropping into the humiliation zone. “I didn’t want you know just how pathetic I am.”

“Pathetic? You’re not pathetic.”

“Knock it off, wil you? I’m only a few years from forty and pregnant with twins. What man is going to want to buy into that?”

“Is your self-image real y that crappy?”

“I’m just being realistic. Even before I got pregnant, men weren’t exactly standing in line, waiting to ask me out.”

“Maybe that’s because you intimidate the hel out of them. It’s hard for the average man to get up close and personal with a woman when he knows she can dismember him with her bare hands.”

“I don’t intimidate you.”

He smiled. “That’s because I’m above average.”

“And so humble, too.”

“Frankly, Bernie, you’re pretty above average yourself. And I’l admit it. When I thought you were with another man, I got just a little bit jealous.” Bernie was astonished. Jeremy Bridges, a man who could have any woman on the planet, was tel ing her he was jealous of her seeing another man? She basked in the thought of that for a whole five seconds.

Then the truth of the matter struck her right between the eyes, making her feel even more pitiful than before.

“You’re such a liar,” she said, turning away. “You’re just saying that because you feel sorry for me.”

“Feel
sorry
for you?” He actual y laughed a little.

“Uh… no. I’m afraid I’m not the pitying kind.”

“You dragging me over here has nothing to do with jealousy. It has to do with your stupid control ing nature. You’re every bit as possessive of me as you are of these babies. And, for that matter, everything else within range of your voice. You need to work on that, Bridges. It’s a real character flaw.”

“One vice at a time,” he said. “Let’s deal with my jealousy issues first.” He came forward, resting his forearm on the console between them. “Come closer.” She looked at him skeptical y. “Why?”

“I want to make sure you hear every word I’m going to say so you don’t jump to any more dumb conclusions.”

The intensity of his gaze drew her in, enticing her to lean toward him.

“Closer,” he said.

When she didn’t move, he took hold of her arm and pul ed her forward until their lips were only inches apart. Suddenly in his space, she felt every bit of the magnetism he held for the women of the world and realized she wasn’t immune to it. She’d never be immune to it. No matter how maddening his arrogance could be, no matter now much she protested to the contrary, she’d be drawn to this man until her dying breath.

“Listen up, Bernie,” he said softly. “Are you listening?”

He was so close now that she could feel his breath as he spoke. In the darkness of the car, each second seemed to drag on endlessly. The August heat, even after dark, permeated the car, adding to the feeling that everything was moving in slow motion. Everything except her heart, of course, which was fluttering like a pair of hummingbird wings.

“I’m listening,” she said.

“I told you the truth. I was jealous. Don’t ask me why, because I’m stil not completely sure myself. Al I know is that by time I left that museum, I’d already decided that if any man was going to touch you tonight…” His voice dropped to a near whisper. “It was going to be me.”

Very slowly, very deliberately, he leaned in, closing the gap between them, until his lips fel against hers.

His hand was warm on her shoulder, and she leaned into him, letting the heat of his kiss wash over her. He was strong and solid and confident and most of al , he wanted her, and, God, how she wanted him, so much that her breath deserted her. Al she’d been able to think about al night was Jeremy, and the thought of him being with Madeline was just about the most painful thing imaginable. But now, unbelievable as it was, he was here with her. With
her
.

Her hand found its way around his neck, and she threaded it through his hair to pul him closer, her whole body tightening with desire, every cel aching for him. His hand seared a path along her arm, then moved to her thigh, his fingers grasping, releasing, at the same time his lips moved across her cheek and down her throat. She tilted her head back, asking for more, and he kissed her again and again, then dragged his lips back up until she felt his breath hot against her ear.