Judith McNaught (86 page)

"As soon as possible. A couple weeks from now at the most. I'll talk to Julie."

* * *

"No dear. You children stay in the living room and have a nice talk. It's so good to see all three of you so happy."

Julie was almost more nervous than she was happy.

Glancing at the closed door of her father's study, she looked at Ted and Katherine who were seated together on the sofa, teasing her warmly about Zack's

speech in the gymnasium. "What on earth is going on in there?" she asked.

Ted grinned and glanced at his watch. "You know what's going on. Dad's giving one of his famous premarital lectures to the prospective groom."

"Zack hasn't actually asked me to marry him again."

Katherine looked at her in disbelief. "After the beautiful things he said to you in front of half the town

tonight, do you have any doubt he wants to?"

"No, not really. But Dad's taking too long in there for one of his normal lectures."

"This one's taking longer," Ted said with unhidden enjoyment, "because Dad felt a paternal need to tear a strip off Zack first for kidnapping you and all that."

"Zack has already suffered more than enough for anything he did to me," Julie said feelingly.

Katherine swallowed a giggle and her Coke. "He's going to suffer a whole lot more if he takes the bait
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and agrees to the usual bargain."

"What bargain?" Julie asked.

"You know, the 'tradition-means-everything, no-sex-before-the-wedding, long-engagements-are-best'

bargain Dad tries to extract from every prospective bridegroom."

Julie laughed. "Oh that. Zack will never agree to that. He's older, wiser, and more sophisticated than most of the men Dad deals with."

"He'll agree," Ted said with a laugh. "What choice does he have? Dad is not only clever or merely the minister who'll perform the wedding ceremony, he also happens to be your father. Zack knows he already has three strikes against him in Dad's book.

He'll agree for your sake and for the sake of familial harmony."

"You mean you
hope
he does," Katherine teased,

"because you did."

Ted leaned over and playfully nipped her ear. "Stop it, you're embarrassing Julie."

"Julie is laughing. You're the one who's blushing."

"I'm blushing, my talkative wife, because I'm remembering what was the longest, most painful month of

my life and at the memory of what our wedding night was like as a result of one month's abstinence."

Katherine looked at him, Julie's presence momentarily forgotten. "It was beautiful," she argued.

"Special—like the very first time for both of us. I think that's your father's whole purpose in asking people

to agree to wait until the wedding night to make love, even if they've already been doing it."

"Does anyone care that I'm listening to this," Julie joked shakily.

The door to the study opened, and they all turned.

Reverend Mathison looked pleased, Zack looked dazed and annoyed, and Ted's shoulders began to shake with laughter. "He went for it!" he choked.

"He

has that stunned, angry look they all have. My movie hero," he said, shaking his head. "All those posters of him that I used to have in my room, and he turned out to be a mere mortal after all, another piece of unsuspecting putty in Dad's hands. Prison couldn't break him, but Dad did."

Zack threw a speculative glance at the mirthful group in the living room as he walked forward, but Mrs.

Mathison delayed him with an invitation to come into the dining room for cookies and he turned. "No, thank you, Mrs. Mathison," he said, glancing at his watch. "It's late. I need to find a hotel and check in."

She tossed a questioning glance at her husband, who smiled and nodded slowly, then she said, "We'd like very much for you to stay with us."

Zack considered the number of phone calls he would receive and make while he stayed in Keaton and the disruption he was likely to cause to their household, and he shook his head. "Thank you, but I think it

would be better if I stayed in a hotel. I brought work with me, and I'll have more sent down here and probably some business meetings too," he threw in when she looked genuinely disappointed. "I think a suite in a hotel would be better."

He missed the odd, uneasy look Julie gave him at the mention of a suite, but he was anxious to leave, to order champagne sent up from room service, and then to take her in his arms and ask her to marry him
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with appropriate ceremony and atmosphere. "Would you mind taking me to the hotel?" he asked her.

"
T
his is it," Julie said a half hour later when they pulled up before Keaton's only motel. "Keaton's best motel." Ted and Katherine had dropped them off at her house and they'd gotten Zack's suitcase and briefcases and Julie's car.

Zack looked in disbelief at the long ramshackle building with black doors at twelve-foot intervals that

somehow reminded him of rotted teeth, and the empty swimming pool that practically sat on the shoulder

of the highway, then he raised his gaze to the flashing neon sign above it and read it aloud: "The Rest

Your Bones Motel," he repeated in disbelief. "There has to be another motel around here."

"I wish there was," she said on a suffocated laugh.

An old man with a Stetson and a cheek full of chewing tobacco was sitting in front of the office on a

metal chair, enjoying the balmy evening when they pulled up to register. He stood up as Zack got out of the car. "Howdy, Julie," he called, identifying her with a brief glance through the windshield.

Zack abandoned all hope of a nice, anonymous trysting place and stalked into the office, his mood going

from fair to poor.

"Mind if I keep this for a souvenir?" the manager asked when Zack scribbled his name on the registration

form and shoved it across the desk.

"No."

"Zack Benedict," the manager uttered reverently, picking up the form and studying the signature.

"Zack

Benedict, right here, stayin' at my motel. Who would've guessed it could happen?"

"Not me," Zack said flatly. "I don't suppose you have a suite?"

"We got a bridal suite."

"You're kidding," Zack said, glancing over his shoulder at the uninviting building, and then he saw Julie

leaning against the office door, her feet crossed at the ankles, her face aglow with mischievous laughter,

and his spirits lifted crazily.

"The bridal suite's got a kitchenette," the manager added.

"How romantic. I'll take it," Zack said, and he heard the magic of Julie's muffled laughter. It made him smile.

"Let's go," he said, escorting her out of the office and toward his room while the manager followed them out and stood beneath the overhang. "Am I imagining it," he asked dryly as he opened the door to the

bridal suite and stepped aside for her to proceed him,

"or is that guy watching to see if you go in here."

"He's watching to see whether I go in here, whether or not we close the door, and how long I stay. By
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tomorrow, the whole town will know the answers to all three of these questions."

Zack turned on the wall switch, took one look at the suite, and quickly turned the lights back off. "How much time can we spend at your house without causing a lot of gossip?"

Julie hesitated, wishing he'd tell her he loved her again and what he wanted to do about it. "That depends

on your intentions."

"I have very honorable intentions but they'll have to wait until tomorrow. I refuse to discuss them in a room with a red velvet heart-shaped bed and purple chairs."

Julie's relief came out in an explosion of musical mirth and Zack dragged her into his arms. Groping in the

dark for her face, he cradled it between his hands, laughing while he kissed her, and then slowly, the laughter faded as she held him to her and kissed him back. "I love you," he whispered. "You make me so damned happy. You made hiding out in Colorado seem like fun. You make this suite from hell feel like a

bridal bower. Even in prison, when I hated you, I'd dream of the way you dragged me home, half-frozen,

and the way you danced with me and made love to me, and I'd wake up wanting you."

She brushed her fingertips over his lips and rubbed her cheek against his chest. "Someday soon, would you take me to South America, so we can stay on your boat? I dreamed of being there with you."

"It wasn't much of a boat. I used to have a large yacht. I'll buy another one for you and we'll take a cruise on it."

She shook her head. "I'd like to stay with you on the boat in South America, just the way we planned, even if it's only for a week."

"We'll do both."

Reluctantly, he let her go and steered her out the open door. "It's two hours earlier in California, and I have some phone calls and arrangements to make.

When can I see you again?"

"Tomorrow?"

"Naturally," he said dryly. "How early?"

"As early as you'd like. It's a county holiday. There's a big parade, a carnival, picnic, the works, for the bicentennial celebration. It will go on all week."

"That sounds like fun," he said and was surprised because he rather meant it. "Pick me up at nine, and I'll

buy you breakfast."

"I know just the place—best food in town."

"Really, where?"

"McDonald's," she teased, laughing at his appalled look, then she pressed a kiss to his cheek and left.

Still grinning, Zack closed the door and turned on the lights, then he walked over to the bed and reluctantly put his briefcase on it. Taking out his cellular phone, he made his first call to the Farrells, who

he knew would be anxious to discover the outcome of his trip. He held on while Joe O'Hara went
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outside to get Matt and Meredith from among the party guests.

"Well?" Matt Farrell's voice was filled with expectation, "Meredith is here, and you're on the speaker

phone. How's Julie?"

"Julie's wonderful."

"Are you married yet?"

"No," Zack said, thinking irritably of the agreement Julie's father foisted on him, "we're going steady."

"You're what?" Meredith sputtered. "I mean, we thought you'd be in Tahoe by now."

"I'm still in Keaton."

"Oh."

"At the Rest Your Bones Motel."

He heard Meredith's muffled laughter.

"In the bridal suite."

She laughed harder.

"It has a kitchenette."

She shrieked with mirth.

"Your pilot must be stuck here, too, poor devil. I should invite him over for poker."

"Watch out if you do," Matt warned dryly. "He'll walk away with most of your money."

"He won't even be able to see his cards in here. He'll be blinded by the red velvet heart-shaped bed and purple lounge chairs. How's the party?"

"I made a polite announcement that you were called away on urgent business. Meredith stepped in to oversee the staff and play hostess. Everything's fine."

Zack hesitated, thinking of the engagement ring he needed and of the superb jewels Bancroft & Company was famous for carrying in their exclusive stores. "Meredith, could I ask a favor?"

"Anything," she said with quiet sincerity.

"I need an engagement ring right away—tomorrow morning if possible. I know what I want, but I won't find it here, and if I show my face in Dallas, I'll be recognized. I don't want the press following me and descending on this town until the last possible minute."

She understood at once. "Tell me what you have in mind. Tomorrow morning, when our Dallas store opens, I'll phone the head of the Fine Jewelry Department and have her select several rings. Steve can

pick them up by ten-fifteen and bring them to you."

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"You're an angel. Here's what I want—"

The celebration of a bicentennial in a small Texas town, Zack realized the next day, was an elaborate affair, with a kickoff speech from the mayor and a week-long schedule of events that included parades down the main street, sports events, livestock shows, and a variety of entertainments.

"That's Mayor Addelson," Julie told him as they arrived at the park in the middle of town and stopped at

the edge where they'd be seen by the fewest people.

She nodded toward the tall man in his late forties who was walking briskly onto the pavilion, which was appropriately decked out in red, white, and blue bunting. "And that's his wife, Marian, in the yellow linen dress," she added, indicating a pretty woman in a

chic dress and hat who was sitting among the honored guests on a specially erected grandstand at the

side of the pavilion, watching her husband prepare to begin. "Mayor Addelson was widowed a long time ago," Julie provided informatively. "Marian was an interior designer in Dallas when he met her there two

years ago. He brought her back here, and Daddy married them. They have a wonderful ranch outside of

town and they're building a new house up on the hill.

They're very nice."

Zack slid his arm around her from behind, pulling her trim buttocks against him, and smiled into her hair.

"You
feel
very nice."

She leaned lightly against him, and he felt his body surge and harden.

"So do you."

Swallowing, Zack diverted himself by concentrating on Mayor Addelson. Addelson's thick hair was the strange grayish yellow blond that seemed more common in Texas than anywhere Zack had ever been,

but the mayor obviously shared every politician's love of pomp and speech making, because he talked for

almost a half hour about the grand battle once fought on Keaton's soil and about the history of the town, beginning with its founders. Zack was mentally comparing the individual merits, or lack thereof, of the

movie scripts he'd read last week, when he realized the mayor's speech was over and he was talking about Zack: