Return to You (10 page)

Not anymore.

Chapter Thirteen

Lainie gripped her blouse closed. "I don't
know if this is a good idea."

"It's a great idea." Olivia nodded. "Even if
I do say so myself."

"But—"

"There is no but." Olivia pushed her hands
aside. "You want to attract Everett Parker, and this is the only
way to make it happen. I explained it to you before. You need to
pique his curiosity. If he thinks he can't figure you out, it'll
drive him crazy."

"Or cost me my job," Lainie mumbled, but she
let Olivia unbutton the rest of her blouse.

"Now put this on." Olivia shoved a bra into
her hand and walked out of the dressing room.

Lainie looked at it and
sighed. It
was
very
pretty. And white—she could handle white, even if the lace was
barely there.

She wondered why Olivia didn't make her put
on that red bra from the first time she walked into Romantic
Notions. Olivia probably knew red would have been too
intimidating.

She took off the practical cotton she always
wore, folded it, and placed it on top of her blouse on the chair.
With a shake of her head, she hooked the bra up behind her and
snaked her arms through the straps.

"Are you decent?"

Before she could answer, Olivia burst into
the room. She froze in the doorway, her eyes wide. "You're
gorgeous. I can't believe you hide yourself under those boring
clothes."

"They're serviceable, not boring."

"You could have any man you want. Why you
want Parker, God knows." Olivia shook her head, her long hair
swishing around her shoulders.

Lainie scowled. "Don't talk about your
father that way."

Olivia grinned. "You sound like a stepmother
already. I draw the line at sweeping out the chimney though."

She felt a violent blush creep up her chest
to her ears. "Olivia, I—"

"I'm just teasing, Lainie." Olivia took her
hand and turned her around to face the mirror. "Now, let's give
your confidence a boost."

Lainie said the first thing that came to her
mind. "What have you done to me?"

The smile dissolved from Olivia's lips. "You
don't like it?"

She stepped closer to the
mirror. It was too much to hope for that
she
looked like that. The woman in the
mirror looked luscious.

"Listen, this was just an idea. If you don't
like it—"

"Not like it?" Lainie touched the pink bow
between the lacy cups. "What are you taking about?"

"You
do
like it." Olivia frowned. So much
it frightens you. That's the problem, isn't it? That you're
scared?"

"I love my job. This is a gamble. A big one.
If I make a move and fail, I'll lose the one thing the gives my
life meaning. But if I don't try, I'll be alone forever. Of course
I'm scared."

Olivia took her hand and held it tightly.
"If he can't see how wonderful you are, he doesn't deserve you, you
know."

Lainie looked up at Olivia. "You think
so?"

"I may not have known you long, but I'm
never wrong about these things." She patted Lainie's shoulder.
"Now, stop worrying. We have a seduction to plot."

Lainie smiled. "I don't know what I did to
earn your friendship but, no matter what happens, you can count on
me forever."

She looked away, her eyes suspiciously
bright. Then she cleared her throat and held the blouse out. "So we
want to be subtle, remember? A sudden metamorphosis will be too
blatant to attract a man like Everett Parker. So we need to take
small steps—a change here, a change there." Olivia gave her a
Machiavellian grin. "It'll drive him crazy. He'll wonder if he
never noticed you before, and that'll drive him even more insane,
because my father doesn't miss anything."

Lainie nodded as she slipped back into her
blouse. "I don't understand how new underwear is going to make a
difference if he's not going to see it."

"Oh, but he
is
going to see
it."

"I don't understand. You just said I had to
be subtle. Undressing for him hardly seems subtle."

"Let me explain." Olivia pushed away her
hands and buttoned up the blouse herself. She turned Lainie around
to face the mirror again. "There."

Lainie blushed. "I look—"

"Like a sex kitten librarian." Olivia
grinned. "Men love that."

Olivia was right. Lainie usually buttoned
her blouses all the way to the top, but now the collar fell open,
but not revealing but hinting at a whole lot. She could see the
lace of the bra through the white silk of the shirt. She squinted.
Was that a hint of nipple?

"This is the first stage of the plan,"
Olivia said. "You'll tease him for a few days like this. Wear your
little suit coats, but leave them unbuttoned. In a few days, we'll
tackle your makeup, and then later we'll soften your hairstyle a
little. If you don't have him on his knees in a couple weeks, the
man is more machine than flesh."

"You really think this will work?" Lainie
asked, staring at herself in the mirror.

"Yes."

Lainie turned and grinned. "I think you may
be right."

His stare was hot and heavy, and it took all
her willpower not to fidget under it. Lainie kept her head lowered
to the laptop in front of her, but her attention was completely on
the man sitting across the table.

She asked Everett to meet at Grounds for
Thought today, Eve's cafe, partly because she loved Eve's cafe and
wanted to support her and partly because the thought of being alone
with him unnerved her. If she was a wreck, she'd never pull this
scheme off.

She sighed silently and nudged her glasses
up. She didn't have to look up to know Everett's gaze on her
sharpened. She could feel it piercing through her.

Why wasn't he talking?

Panic clawed at her. What if Olivia's subtle
makeover didn't work? What if she was just making a fool of
herself? How would she ever be able to face him again if she threw
herself at him and he politely declined. Or worse—laughed.

Of all the people she had to fall in love
with, why did it have to be her boss? She was such a cliche. She
could have been original and fallen for a gaffer.

"For God's sake, Elaine. What's the
matter?"

"Excuse me?"

He gestured in her general direction. "You
can barely keep still."

"I'm perfectly fine," she said in her cool,
work voice.

"Hmm."

"I was going over the budget and it seems
like we're overspending in a couple areas."

"Hmm."
His pale green eyes never wavered. One long hand curled around
the handle of a coffee mug, the other tapped the tabletop in an
insistent, almost impatient rhythm.

Impatient? Everett
was
never
impatient. He could be thinking about any number of things.
Just because he was restless didn't mean it had anything to do
with
her
presence.
For all she knew, it was the movie, not her choice in
underwear.

She needed a test.

Taking a deep breath, she shrugged out of
her coat as casually as she could. Draping it on the bench next to
her, she pretended to resume working but really peeked at him
through her lashes.

He scowled at her.

This had been a bad idea. She reached for
her coat to put it back on, but something made her stop and
actually look at him.

His eyes were trained on her—right at chest
level. Under his tan, he was flushed.

Which made her
flushed.
The more he stared, the more she
swore it felt like a large, tapered hand caressed her. Her breasts
grew heavy and taut, which made her more conscious of the
unfamiliar feel of lace rubbing her sensitive skin.

Everett mumbled something that sounded
suspiciously like a curse.

"What was that?" Lainie asked.

He pushed away from the table. "Pick up a
bottle of scotch for me."

"Yes, sir." She opened the
Tasks feature on her laptop and typed in
Macallan fifty year
. "Anything
else?"

He looked as if he was about to say
something, but he just shook his head. She admired his powerful
gait as he left the cafe.

The second door swung shut behind him,
Lainie smiled slowly. Maybe Olivia was right. She couldn't wait to
launch the next attack.

Chapter Fourteen

"Remind me again when you're going to give
me grandchildren."

Olivia rolled her eyes.
"
I'm
your
grandchild, Gran."

Gran glanced up from the potato she was
cutting and gave her a look.

Well, it was true. "I don't understand this
crusade you've been on for the past six months."

"No crusade." She swept the carrots into the
stew pot. "It's just time."

What it was time for was a change in
subject. "I don't understand why you have to feed them every night.
How much are they paying you to stay here?" She opened the fridge
and pulled out salad ingredients.

"It's not work if you're doing it for
family."

"Lainie's not family," she pointed out.

"Then why're you helping her?"

Hands on hips, she faced her grandmother.
"How do you know about that?"

Gran shot her a disbelieving look.

"Silly me." Olivia wisely shut up and peeled
a cucumber.

"It's a good thing you're doing."

Olivia looked up from the cucumber.
"What?"

"For Lainie." Gran took a small sheath of
dried herbs hanging above the counter, sniffed it, and put it back,
shaking her head. She picked another one. That one must have been
right, because she plucked some leaves and crumbled them into her
pot. "Not every daughter would be so understanding to want to see
her daddy happy."

"This had nothing to do with him and whether
he's happy. Lainie asked for help, and I took pity on her."

Gran harrumphed.

"It's true." She set a carrot on the cutting
board and whacked the knife down on it so hard the ends flew off
the counter.

"You're more like him than you like to
admit. You'll see," Gran predicted. "One day soon, you'll see."

Olivia picked up a head of lettuce. "Okay.
Next topic please."

"You've been seeing an awful lot of
Michael."

"I have not." She tore the leaves off the
lettuce so savagely she could almost hear them scream.

"Not what I've heard."

She sighed in resignation. "Okay, Gran, you
got me. What have you heard?"

"That Michael visited your store several
times." Gran glanced at her. "And the general opinion is he's not
buying merchandise for himself."

"He could be buying stuff for a
girlfriend."

Gran snorted.

"For all you know, he could have a dozen
women waiting for him in LA."

"Could be, but I doubt it. Most people
believe his girlfriend is you, since you're always with him."

That wasn't true. She
hadn't seen him since he'd apologized to her. "I am
not
with him."

A throat cleared from the doorway. Olivia
looked over her shoulder to find Lainie standing there, looking
like she didn't want to intrude.

"Come, Elaine." Gran waved her in. "We could
use another pair of hands."

"What can I do to help, Ms. Pembroke?"

Gran pointed at the cupboard. "Set the
table, dear."

Ducking her head over the bowl as she tossed
the salad, Olivia kept quiet. Maybe if she didn't make a sound,
Gran would forget about her. She didn't need any more talk about
Michael. Especially not before dinner. It made indigestion a sure
bet.

"Is Everett still working?" Gran asked.

Lainie nodded as she pulled out four plates.
"He had to go to the shed for some reason."

Maybe he'll miss dinner, Olivia thought
hopefully.

Though having her father here wasn't so bad.
She'd been consoling herself with the fact that at least Michael
wasn't staying at the farm. Thank God Michael's mother still lived
close. Otherwise, she was sure Gran would have invited him to stay
too. Of course, if he were staying here, she would have had to be
admitted into the state mental facility, so it was a moot
point.

Olivia set the salad bowl on the table.

Lainie glanced at her as she arranged the
silverware. "I hope I didn't interrupt anything."

"Not at all, dear," Gran assured her without
turning around. "Olivia was setting me straight on the rumors going
around about her relationship with Michael."

Olivia gritted her teeth. "Gran, there is no
relationship."

Gran cast a sly glance over her shoulder.
"Awfully strong protests for someone who doesn't care."

"Gran, face it. Michael and I were over
eleven years ago. Even if he wanted to start something up
again—and, trust me, he doesn't—I'm not interested."

Gran turned around with her hands propped on
her hips. "Do you think I don't know you've done your best to avoid
him, just like you have your father? If you weren't interested, it
wouldn't matter he was back, would it?"

Olivia started to make a comeback, only
there wasn't anything she could say, so she shut her mouth and
glared.

Shaking her finger, Gran said, "I know that
mulish look, and I don't like it. If you really want to be free of
Michael, you forgive him."

"How can you suggest that? You saw how he
left me."

"I'm not saying it was right, but you've
convicted him of more than just leaving you and you know it." Gran
gazed at her steadily.

Olivia looked away. She'd never told anyone
about the baby—not until she told Eve. Gran couldn't know.