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“Pale pink with what?” Elise asked.
“White?” said Daisy. “No, too boring. How about three colors? Pale pink with black and white?”
“Black? At a wedding?” Elise groaned.
“Let’s go try on dresses and figure out what colors look good on us,” Phoebe said. “That way Daisy and I can buy something we might actually wear again.”
“What if chartreuse looks good on you?” grumped their friend. “Oh, good, here comes big brother. Let’s see what he thinks.”
To her horror Daisy spotted an all-too-familiar figure strolling from the lobby into the courtyard. It had been sheer coincidence that had kept her from meeting Chance before that ill-fated night of the engagement party. Why couldn’t she have the same luck now?
Frantically she gazed around for somewhere to hide. Giving up, she sucked in her breath and sank under the water.
Chapter Two
Chance smiled when he glimpsed his sister and her two friends lolling in the pool. He liked women and enjoyed their company, which was a good thing, since he had seven younger sisters.
He’d scarcely cleared the lobby, however, when a strange-looking woman, standing ankle deep in cats on her patio, regarded him sharply. Her name, he recalled from a previous visit, was Frannie.
“Be careful around those girls,” she said. “Two of them are engaged and the other one’s peculiar.”
“Peculiar?” He wondered what had provoked this unsolicited observation. On the other hand, he had to admit that Elise’s disappearing friend Daisy did seem a bit odd. In the few seconds he’d been distracted by the cat lady, the woman he guessed was Daisy had vanished again as if by magic.
He’d glimpsed her once in hair curlers and a globby green face mask, and another time, from the back, in a flimsy bathrobe. Both times she’d fled from Elise’s place to her next-door unit without acknowledging him.
“She’s an artist,” said the woman. “You never see her out painting anything, though. Peculiar, if you ask me. I’d stay clear, if I were you.”
“Thanks.” He was about to turn away when he caught Frannie’s wink. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Just wanted to see how much you’d believe!” She chuckled. “You’re Elise’s brother, aren’t you?”
“That’s right. And you really had me going.” The lady was quite a character, Chance thought in amusement.
Resuming his approach to the pool, he tried vainly to figure out how Daisy could have disappeared so quickly. “Where’s your other friend?” he called to Elise.
She pointed into the water. “Drowning.” She didn’t sound concerned, so he assumed she was kidding. “We need your advice.”
“I get paid for my advice.” Chance paused a few feet away. “Since you’re my sister, I’ll work on contingency.”
“Don’t you think yellow looks horrible on blondes?” said Phoebe. The blond woman was stunning, he noted for the umpteenth time. There’d never been any chemistry between them, though, just friendly banter.
“I refuse to incriminate myself,” he said.
“Spoken like a lawyer,” said his sister.
“And deep-rose would look simply horrible with…that. Agreed?” Phoebe indicated some reddish brown hair floating on the water, obviously attached to their pal Daisy’s head.
“I plead the fifth amendment,” Chance said. “Don’t you think she’s been under there a long time?”
“She’s a good swimmer,” said Elise. “Well, a good dog paddler, anyway.”
“She isn’t swimming, she’s floating,” he pointed out.
“We absolutely have to pick the wedding colors,” Phoebe said.
“You mean, I have to pick them!” said his sister.
“I’m getting a little concerned about your friend.” Chance didn’t want to overdramatize the situation by plunging into the pool fully clothed, but the woman’s lungs must be near bursting.
“She’s fine,” Elise said. “Her hands are moving under the water. If she’d lost consciousness, she couldn’t maintain a vertical position.”
Chase knelt at the edge of the pool. The hair bobbed upward, then lowered again. The woman was deliberately staying down there, all right, but why was she behaving so bizarrely?
Phoebe joined Chance at the side of the pool. She was focused on Daisy, looking concerned. “Is she on medication?” he asked.
“Maybe hormones. I think she has what they used to call a female condition,” said Phoebe, her face suddenly turning red. “Maybe I shouldn’t have shared that with you. It just slipped out in my worry.”
“Hormones don’t make a person act like a lunatic. At least, I don’t think so.” Chance’s own lungs were aching in sympathy. Unable to stand the suspense, he reached into the pool and grasped the woman’s shoulders, getting his jacket cuffs and watch soaked in the process.
She had smooth shoulders, he noticed distractedly. Touching her bare skin gave him a slight tingle.
When he pulled, she shot to the surface, gasping and sputtering. Waterlogged hair clung to her cheeks, and for a disconnected moment he thought he was imagining the resemblance.
But it was her. Deirdre.
Daisy, he thought in confusion. Deirdre was Daisy. But why on earth had his sister’s friend run away from him?
DAISY HADN’T MEANT to stay under the water so long. She’d gone down on an impulse and then, hearing the blurred echo of Chance’s voice, had clung to her sanctuary single-mindedly.
She was glad he’d pulled her up. And humiliated at being discovered. If she hadn’t been coughing so hard, she would have raced for the building before anyone could start asking questions, but her own frailty trapped her.
Clinging to Chance’s strong arms, she leaned against the edge of the pool and sucked in deep, agonizing lungfuls of air. Only gradually did she realize the man’s sleeves were drenched, not to mention that was obviously a very expensive watch.
Embarrassed, she eased her grip and moved away. “I’m sorry.”
“Are you all right?” His deep tones echoed through her.
She nodded, keeping her eyes averted. Her friends were studying her with varying degrees of puzzlement.
“Is it the hormones?” Elise asked. “Are you having hot flashes?”
“No, of course not!” Could this get any more awkward? Daisy wondered.
The last thing she wanted was for Chance to hear about her medical condition. A guy like him would probably be repelled by the mention of endometriosis.
In fact, a playboy like him would head for the hills if he found out how badly she wanted a child. Especially if he learned that she needed to get pregnant soon to ease her condition and help prevent future infertility.
Daisy longed to hold a baby in her arms. It scared her that already there was a chance she couldn’t conceive.
The gentle, understanding man that she dreamed of marrying would accept her without hesitation and stand by her no matter what. A man like Chance, on the other hand, was likely to wrinkle his nose and hightail it in pursuit of a woman with no imperfections attached.
Did he have to look so gorgeous, with the late-afternoon light bringing out the strength of his face and the deceptive sensitivity of his gray gaze? she wondered. It would have been hard to keep her distance, except for the fact that she could barely move.
“You wouldn’t happen to be in need of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, would you?” he teased, seeming unaware of the breeze that fluttered engagingly through his soft hair. Even the elements conspired on Chance’s behalf.
“I’m a little cold.” Getting out of the pool would feel even colder, but Daisy needed to escape the curious stares of her friends. Not to mention the ever-inquisitive Frannie Fitzgerald, who stood on her patio with hands on hips, watching them with interest.
“Which towel’s yours?” When she pointed, Chance brought it from a nearby bench.
As she climbed from the water, he wrapped it around her, his hands lingering longer than strictly necessary. Despite her better judgment, she didn’t mind.
“Honestly, we didn’t realize anything was wrong,” Phoebe said. “Should I call a doctor?”
“Nothing is wrong.” Daisy wished her teeth would stop chattering. “It’s my own stupid fault. I had this impulse to see how long I could stay underwater.”
“Why?” asked her friend.
“Because I’m an idiot,” she said.
“You look kind of blue,” Elise said. “I don’t care for that shade. We can scratch it off our list for the wedding.”
Daisy couldn’t help chuckling at her friend’s nonsense. Chance circled his arm more closely around her. He didn’t seem to notice the water dripping onto his suit and shoes.
“I repeat, we need to try on dresses before we make a decision,” said Phoebe.
“There is no ‘we’ making this decision,” Elise said. “I’m consulting you two out of the goodness of my heart.”
“Saturday,” Phoebe said. “I’m free to shop in the afternoon.”
Elise shrugged. “Okay by me.” When Daisy coughed, her friend said, “I’ll answer for her. She’s taking a few hours off to join us.”
“But I have a show opening that night.”
“That’s why you hired that assistant. Right?”
There was no denying it. “Right.”
“I’m taking Daisy inside to dry off,” Chance told them.
“I can go alone.”
“No,” he replied firmly. “You need me to look after you.”
Daisy’s heart twisted in a funny, scary, delicious way. She knew it was just Chance’s suave charm coming into play, but she wished so hard that he meant it.
“Before you go,” his sister said, “was there a reason you wanted to see me, big bro?”
“Nothing urgent. I’ll catch you later,” he said.
Daisy knew she shouldn’t let him walk her to her condo. If she did, he might come inside. And if that happened, she might not be able to resist him any more than she had two months ago.
What power did this man have over her? Sternly she reminded herself that he possessed no power that she didn’t grant him.
Yet, despite her resolve to the contrary, she let him escort her all the way to unit 2E.
AFTER SEEING SO MANY devastated marriages, Chance had set very high standards for the woman he would someday wed, and, since college, no one had come close to meeting them. Certainly he was better off not getting involved with someone as unpredictable as Deirdre.
Yet his feelings refused to yield to logic. Her mercurial quality made her all the more fascinating, and the way she nestled within the circle of his arm inspired a longing to protect her.
From his greater height, he studied Daisy’s well-defined nose and thick lashes. Were her eyes really as green as he remembered? When she opened her condo and turned toward him, he saw that they were.
“Thanks,” she said.
“That’s it?” He couldn’t believe she meant to leave him standing there.
“You want to dry your watch and make sure it works?” she asked.
“Of course it works. It’s water resistant,” he said. “That isn’t the point. Either you’re trying to duck the issue or you want to have a highly personal conversation right here in the hallway. Given the nosiness of your neighbors, I would advise against it.”
A panicky expression crossed her face. It made Chance feel like an ogre for twisting her arm, but darn it, he wasn’t going to let Deirdre escape again. Whatever she was hiding needed to come out in the open.
At least now he knew she wasn’t married. Or an escaped felon. Or any of the other unlikely possibilities that had occurred to him.
“Come on.” He made the decision for her, escorting her inside and closing the door behind them. “Let’s get this over with.”
“That sounds…threatening.”
“Absolutely not,” he said. “I just want to clear the air.”
She took a deep breath. “Okay,” she said, then hesitated, as if thinking things over.
The condo surprised him, when Chance allowed himself to look around. Subconsciously he’d expected to find it flowery and old-fashioned, with a few stuffed animals or dolls tucked among ruffled pillows.
Instead it was subtle with a couple of key focal points. His attention fixed first on a red, orange and pink blanket woven in a jagged design, draped across the back of the off-white couch. Then he noticed, in an opposing corner, a large ceramic planter with a band of molten red against a multitextured blue-gray surface.
Everything else in the room flowed in muted colors and shapes. Chairs, lamps, draperies, all had been selected with a discerning taste.
“Who did your decorating?” He wouldn’t mind hiring the same designer to complete the interior of his house.
“I did.” Nibbling at her lower lip, Daisy edged toward the kitchen. “Would you like coffee?”
“No, but help yourself, if it’ll warm you,” he said. “Better yet, get dressed.”
“I’m not cold.”
“I insist.”
“Are you going to supervise to make sure I put on something warm enough?” Dismay at the implication made her eyes fly open. Definitely green.
