Practice Husband

Bill stared thoughtfully in the direction Addy had gone. “I don’t know about that, but she sure turned out spectacularly.”

A shaft of anger lanced through Joe at Bill’s bemused expression.

“Leave her alone!” Joe’s harsh command surprised them both. He hadn’t meant to say it. He’d thought it, but he hadn’t meant to say it.

“I’m trying to negotiate with her for her land,” Joe added, to rationalize his order. “I don’t need any complications from you chasing her.”

“It’s only a complication if I catch her.” Bill chuckled and then hastily sobered at Joe’s scowl.

Bill held up his hand in a gesture of surrender. “Sorry. I won’t make one move until after you’ve finished the negotiations. What about your phone call?”

“Dammit! I left him hanging when she bolted.” Joe hurried over to the phone. Addy was still the most aggravating woman he’d ever met.

“Barrington here,” he said.

“Good morning, Mr. Barrington. This is Sean Hodkins. You asked me to let you know when the bank reached a decision on the loan David Edwards applied for?”

You mean I bribed you to let me know, Joe thought cynically. “I take it you have news?”

“Yes, the bank turned him down. The loan committee felt that his company was already badly overextended, and that young Mr. Edwards didn’t have a viable plan for turning his family’s company around.”

Joe bit down on the sense of exultation that filled him. At long last, after years of waiting and planning, he was finally going to be able to exact revenge on the Edwards family for what they had done.

“You did as I asked?” Joe kept his voice level with an effort.

“Yes, sir. Exactly as you said. When Mr. Edwards came out, I offered him your business card and told him that your company was looking to invest excess profits and preferred to do it locally. I suggested he contact you.”

“What did he say?”

“He said he was glad someone was able to make a profit in business because he sure didn’t seem to have the knack.”

“Did he take the card?” Joe demanded.

“Yes, although he didn’t look at it. He just stuffed it into his pocket. Poor man, I’m afraid the committee’s rejection was a real blow to him.”

If so, it was one of the few blows that had ever landed in David Edwards’s charmed life, Joe thought grimly. But that was about to change. He was about to experience how the rest of the world lived.

“Wait until tomorrow and then give him a call and remind him of what you said,” Joe ordered. “By then he should be more receptive to the idea.”

“Oh, I will,” Hodkins said earnestly. “It would be a shame if the Edwards Corporation were to fold. Why, that plant’s been here since my great-grandfather’s time. And young Mr. Edwards seems like such a nice man.”

“Give me a call if you hear anything else.” Joe cut him off. He didn’t want to hear David Edwards’s praises sung. He knew better.

Joe hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair as a sense of satisfaction filled him. It had taken him his entire life to reach this point, but he was finally here. Within months, sooner if he were lucky, the Edwards Corporation would belong to him. His mouth tightened. As it should have all along.

And with Addy’s land... An unconscious smile curved his lips as he thought of her. Who would have ever thought that she would turn out as she had? Once in a while over the years he’d caught sight of a redhead in a crowd and he’d thought of her, wondering where she was and what she was doing. But never in his wildest flights of imagination had he ever thought that she’d look so infinitely alluring.

What would it be like to take her in his arms? he wondered. To kiss the soft lusciousness of her full mouth. To nuzzle her neck and to cup the weight of her breast in his hand. To...

No! With a monumental effort, he clamped down on the erotic images his mind insisted on playing. Addy was strictly out of bounds, he told himself. Anyone who had spent the last four years of her life helping out a group of nuns was not the type of woman who would be interested in an affair.

Addy was the type who would expect a declaration of undying love, followed by a marriage proposal. Something he had no intention of offering, because no matter how wild the sex was in the beginning, it invariably cooled, leaving a man trapped in a stale, boring relationship.

Far better to keep Addy as a friend. And she was his friend. The thought brought a feeling of pleasure in its wake. They might not have seen each other in years, but they shared a history that went back to grade school. Not only was she his friend, but he trusted her. In fact, she was one of the few people in the world that he did trust.

No, he repeated, Addy was his friend and sex would screw that up. Sex was easy to come by if that was all a man wanted. Friends were a lot more precious. He reached for the pile of papers he’d been working on with a feeling of anticipation that hadn’t been there before Addy’s reentry into his life.

“Addy?” A short woman in her early thirties peered out through her screen door. “Is that really you?”

Addy chuckled at Kathy’s incredulous tone. “Yes, so open the door and let me in.”

Kathy hurriedly shoved open the screen. “Sorry, I was kind of... How on earth did you lose all that weight?” she blurted out.

“It just kind of happened,” Addy said, as disconcerted by the sight of Kathy as her friend apparently was by her. Kathy had always been impeccably turned out in an appropriate outfit, whatever the occasion. Yet now she was wearing a pair of jeans that were frayed around the legs and a sweatshirt that looked as if it had been caught in the middle of a food fight.

Curious, Addy followed Kathy through the littered hallway into a bright, sunny kitchen. The source of the food splotches on Kathy’s clothes was immediately apparent. A toddler was sitting in a high chair, happily smearing what looked like applesauce into his brown hair.

Addy chuckled at his beatific expression. “That, I take it, is Jimmy?”

“The one and only, and don’t encourage him. His father already spoils him rotten. Have a seat.” Kathy shoved a pile of dirty laundry off a chair onto the floor.

Addy sat down.

“When did you get back?” Kathy demanded.

“Last night. Hi, Jimmy.” Addy smiled at the little boy. To her delight, he smiled back and tossed her a spoonful of applesauce. Fortunately, his aim wasn’t very good and it hit the table instead.

“You always did have a way with kids,” Kathy said. “Remember when our mothers would volunteer us to baby-sit in the church nursery? You could always get the screamers to shut up. Want some coffee?”

“No, I want some information.”

Kathy ducked as Jimmy again flung applesauce in her direction. “How about motherhood isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?”

Addy laughed. “Few things are.”

“Marriage is.” Kathy’s face took on a dreamy cast. “Jim is a fantastic husband. Now that you’re home, we’ve got to find you one.”

“I’m willing to consider any and all offers.”

Kathy blinked. “What?”

“I said that I would like to get married, and I’m willing to consider all options.”

Kathy stared at Addy in suspicion. “Are you making fun of my match-making tendencies?”

“No, I’m hoping to use them. I’d like to have some kids of my own.”

Kathy glanced around the disheveled kitchen and shuddered. “On your head be it. How can I help?”

“Do you know any eligible bachelors?”

Kathy pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Let’s see. There’s Bart Dandridge, but I think we’d best stay away from him.”

“Why?” Addy asked curiously.

“One of the partners in Jim’s law firm handled his divorce and, according to him, Bart’s wife claimed he beat her up a couple of times. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but...”

“I’ll pass on Bart,” Addy agreed.

“There’s Tom, who’s a bachelor friend of Jim’s,” Kathy said slowly. “He’s pretty nice, but he does tend to drink a little too much. Jim had to represent him in a drunk-driving charge last month.”

“Forget Tom. I don’t expect perfection in a husband, but I do want sobriety.”

Kathy sighed. “Addy, you’ve left it till very late. The good ones have long since been snapped up. Although...” Kathy’s admiring gaze ran down the length of Addy’s trim figure. “You look a lot better than any wife I know. Including myself.”

“Thanks,” Addy muttered, squelching her instinctive urge to make a self-deprecating response.

“Tell you what, I’ll ask Jim when he gets home from work tonight. Maybe he can think of someone I can introduce you to.”

Jimmy suddenly tossed his bowl on the floor and started to howl.

“Be quiet, brat.” Kathy’s loving tone belied her words as she took a wet cloth and scrubbed the applesauce off him. When he was reasonably clean, she set him on the floor and turned back to Addy.

“It might help if I knew what you are looking for in a husband.”

Addy blinked as an image of Joe’s features floated through her mind No. She purposefully banished them. Joe was not husband material. At least, not for someone as inexperienced as she was. She ignored the irrational sense of loss that filled her.

“Well... He has to be willing to work and to like kids and to be clean. And a nonsmoker.”

“You forgot a good lover,” Kathy said. “Believe me, great sex can cover a multitude of other deficiencies.”

What kind of lover would Joe be? Addy wondered, and then flushed when she realized where her thoughts were headed.

“I wouldn’t know,” Addy said primly.

Kathy stared at her friend in shock. “Don’t tell me you’re still a virgin!”

“I’m never going to tell you anything about my sex life, because it’s none of your business.”

Kathy chuckled. “Ah, hit a nerve there, did I? Tell me, do you still know anyone from around here?”

“Just Joe.”

Kathy frowned. “Joe? Joe who?”

“Joe Barrington.”

Kathy’s mouth dropped open. “Just Joe! Are you out of your tiny little mind, woman? That man isn’t just anything. How on earth did you ever meet the town’s most eligible bachelor?”

“Is he?” Addy asked curiously.

“Is he what?”

“A bachelor?”

“Yup. No woman has ever managed to tie him down. And believe me, it hasn’t been for lack of trying. Now, spill it. How did you meet him?”

“He rescued my favorite doll.”

“What?”

Addy laughed at Kathy’s confused expression. “I was in the second grade, and he must have been in about the fifth. It seems like I’ve known him forever.”

“Yeah, but that was then. This is now. Now, he moves in entirely different economic circles from the likes of you and me. His last girlfriend was some model who was regularly decorating the pages of Vogue.”

“What’s his present girlfriend do?” Addy tried to make the question sound casual.

Kathy shrugged. “According to local gossip he hasn’t replaced her yet. Of course I can’t guarantee it. Joe is not a man who socializes much. In fact, he doesn’t socialize with anyone around here at all. You might find that he doesn’t even remember who you are.”

“He remembered.” Addy felt a great deal of satisfaction at the words.

“You’ve seen him already?” Kathy asked avidly.

“That’s where I just came from. His company wants to buy my parents’ property.”

“Oh, so that’s it. I heard talk that he might be planning to expand. Are you going to sell to him, Addy?” Kathy suddenly looked serious. “The town could sure use the jobs. Too many young couples have to move away because there’s no work for them here. I...” she broke off as Jimmy toddled back into the room holding a can of soda that he was dribbling down the front of him.

“Blast his father!” Kathy muttered. “If I’ve told Jim once, I’ve told him a hundred times, not to leave half-empty cans of soda sitting around. Now I’ll have to give the little monster a bath.”

Addy got to her feet. “I’ll leave you to it.”

“You don’t have to go,” Kathy said. “It won’t take me long.”

“Thanks, but I still need to check with the realty company that handled the lease on the house for me while I was gone. I just wanted to touch base with you first.”

Kathy gave her a warm smile. “I’m glad you did, and I’m even more glad that you’re thinking about marrying and staying this time. I’ll give you a call later.”

“Thanks.” Addy picked up her purse and let herself out.

With a last wave at Kathy, Addy climbed into her car and headed toward the realty office, her mind full of what Kathy had said. So Joe was a bachelor, apparently one of the very few around. A sense of discouragement filled her, but she refused to allow it to grow. She’d known from the first that her goal wouldn’t be easily reached. Addy pulled into the turn lane and waited for the traffic to clear.

If only she had a little more experience at interacting socially with men. But wishing couldn’t change the facts. Her mirror might tell her that she was slender, but in her mind she still felt fat. Fat and unattractive. When a man tried to make small talk with her, she froze. She mumbled awkward comments at random and the man invariably drifted away to find someone easier to talk to.

But how was she supposed to go about getting experience talking to men? she wondered in despair. Most women learned the skill in junior high school. She turned left as the light changed.

What she really needed was a brother who could give her good advice on what men liked and didn’t like. But she didn’t have a brother. Or even a cousin. But there was Joe, she thought, as the memory of his championship of her during their school years came to mind. He had been very kind to her back then. But was he still kind? Kindness and big business seemed an unlikely combination.

Besides, he was a very busy man. That much had been obvious from her brief visit this morning. Why should he take the time to help her learn how to relate to men?

Because he wanted to buy her property! The need wasn’t all on her side. Joe wanted something too. He wanted her land and, while she really didn’t want to sell, Kathy was right. It was selfish of her to hang on to the past when so many people could benefit by her letting go.

She could offer to sell him the house if he would help her learn the skills necessary to get a husband. If Joe agreed... A surge of excitement filled her. It was certainly worth a try. After all, the worst thing that could happen would be that he’d say no.

Two

“Do you have a reservation, sir?” The hostess eyed Joe as if he were a particularly appetizing entrée.

“Yes. Barrington.” Joe glanced around the crowded restaurant looking for Addy, oblivious of the hostess’s interest. “I’m meeting a Miss Edson.”

“She hasn’t arrived yet.” The hostess became businesslike at the mention of another woman. “Should I show you to your table now or would you prefer to wait in the bar?”

“The table, please.” Joe followed the woman through the busy restaurant to a secluded table for two in one corner.

“Thank you.” Joe sat down facing the doorway and checked his watch. Addy had said she’d meet him here at eight, and it was just after that now. So where was she? Could she have changed her mind? He certainly hoped not. He needed her property, and he needed it now. But then his need had never been in question. Only her willingness to sell.

So what inducement could he offer her to part with it? He didn’t have a clue. Everyone else he knew responded to money. Offer them enough cash, and they caved in and did exactly what you wanted.

But Addy didn’t fit the normal mold. Money didn’t appear to hold the slightest fascination for her. According to what Hodkins over at the bank had told him, she hadn’t even touched the substantial amount that her parents had left her. Not even the interest on it. And her rushing off to Africa to do good works was further proof that she simply wasn’t motivated by conventional things. The women he knew were totally preoccupied with their own interests, not those of starving kids half a world away. No, Addy was definitely different.

He absently drummed his fingers on the pristine white tablecloth as he considered the situation. But that didn’t mean that there wasn’t something that she wanted. It simply meant that it would be harder to figure out.

Unconsciously, his lips lifted in a reminiscent smile as the memory of her clutching a doll to her pudgy chest and smiling at him through her tears when he’d routed her tormentors all those years ago flickered through his mind. Poor Addy. She may have had loving parents, but in a lot of respects her childhood hadn’t been much happier than his.

She’d borne the brunt of her peers’ teasing because her body hadn’t conformed to what society said it should, while he’d been tarnished by his mother’s drinking. Not that it was his mother’s fault. Joe’s features momentarily hardened. It had been her lover’s fault. But the day of reckoning was coming, he promised himself. Very soon.

His eyes narrowed as a redheaded woman entered the restaurant, and Joe felt a curious sense of pride twist through him when he recognized Addy. Pride that Addy had turned out so well. So very well. The silky, emerald material of her dress clung lovingly to her slender curves, hinting at what it covered. His eyes lingered on the tantalizing swell of her breasts.

It was strange that she could look so overwhelmingly sexy without really revealing anything. Her neckline didn’t expose her breasts, nor was her skirt short. And yet, despite the lack of specifics, he could feel himself getting hard just looking at her.

With a monumental effort, he blocked out his response as he got to his feet. Addy was a friend, he reminded himself.

Addy felt herself tense as she noticed Joe’s expression. Was he annoyed that she’d asked him to meet her here for dinner? Had he had other plans that her request had interfered with? Such as a previous date? But if that had been the case, he probably would have said so, she decided. Joe had never been the least bit reticent about saying what he thought before.

“Good evening, Addy.” He held a chair for her, and she sank down into it.

“May I get you a drink?” the waitress offered.

“Addy?” Joe asked.

“A glass of iced tea,” she said, wanting to keep her wits about her. She was nervous enough about what she was going to ask Joe. It wouldn’t help anything if she were to muddle up her thoughts with alcohol.

Joe’s dark eyebrows shot up at her choice, but to her relief he didn’t say anything. He merely ordered Scotch and water.

When the waitress left, he turned to Addy and said, “The message you left said that you wanted to discuss my offer?”

Addy gave him a rueful grin. Whoever had said that nothing ever changed must have had Joe in mind. He was exactly the same as he always had been. No small talk. Just go right to the heart of the matter. Would he make love like that? The unexpected thought popped full-blown into her mind. Would he be a physical lover without spending a lot of time on talk? Would he...

Stop it! She hauled her imagination up short. It was no business of hers what kind of lover Joe was. And she didn’t want it to be, she assured herself. She had no desire to engage in casual sex and, while she was certain that sex with Joe wouldn’t be the least bit casual, it would be a disaster. At least for her. She hadn’t really needed Kathy to tell her that Joe was not a man who was interested in marriage. It was written all over him. Even someone as inexperienced as she was could tell that Business was Joe’s love. A woman would come in a poor second.

“Here you are.” The cheerful voice of the waitress as she delivered their drinks interrupted Addy’s thoughts, and she let them fade away.

“Well, you were saying?” Joe persisted when the waitress left.

“I wasn’t saying anything. You were demanding.”

“You were the one who asked me to meet you here. Why?”

Addy took a deep breath and mentally scrambled to marshal her thoughts. She was pretty certain that his first reaction was going to be negative. Nervously, she studied the firm line of his dean-shaven jaw. Very negative. Which was why she had asked him to meet her here. She’d figured that no matter how negative Joe felt about her proposal, he wouldn’t yell at her in a public place. Nor was he likely to get up and leave. Here, she at least had a chance of getting him to consider her proposal seriously instead of automatically rejecting it.

Joe studied the curious play of emotions flitting across her face. She was very nervous about something, which probably meant that he should be nervous, too.

“Just spit it out,” he ordered.

“It isn’t that simple.”

“Negotiations rarely are. But we’re never going to get anywhere if you can’t bring yourself to make me a counteroffer.”

“I need to explain something to you first.” Addy groped for words, wanting him to understand what she felt in the hope that he’d be more sympathetic to what she wanted.

Joe took a long swallow of his Scotch, studying her over the rim of the glass. “About what?” he finally asked.

“About why I came back from Africa. You see, my Aunt Margaret asked me if I wanted to be a nun.”

A nun! No! His mind totally repudiated the idea. Not his Addy.

Addy chuckled at his expression. “That was kind of my reaction, too. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a nun, it’s just that it isn’t right for me.”

Joe felt some of his tenseness dissolve at her reassuring words.

“But the question did make me examine what it was that I wanted to do with my life,” Addy continued. “Something I’ve never done before. I’ve simply sort of gone with the flow.”

“Like most people,” he said cautiously, wondering where this was leading.

“Yes.” She nodded in agreement. “Anyway, when I thought about it, I realized that it wasn’t really a what I wanted so much as a who. Or several whos.”

Addy leaned forward in her eagerness to explain, and Joe’s eyes were drawn to the neckline of her dress, which at that angle was giving him a tantalizing glimpse of the swell of her breasts. He swallowed and forced his eyes up to her earnest face.

“What whos?” he asked.

“A husband and kids,” she blurted out.

Joe’s eyes widened as the impact of what she was saying hit him with the force of a blow. She couldn’t mean that she wanted him to marry her, could she? A confusing swirl of emotions tore through him, the overriding one being panic.

“But I have a problem,” she continued. “Actually, I have several.”

“Such as?” he asked cautiously.

Addy absently tucked a wayward strand of hair that had escaped from her chignon behind her ear and said, “First of all, the small size of the pool.”

“The pool?” Joe tore his gaze away from the way the dark red curl was snuggled against her slim neck. What she was saying was difficult enough to follow without his getting sidetracked.

“Of eligible men to marry,” she explained patiently. “Most of the good ones are already taken. And I don’t have the—” she gestured ineffectually “—the ability to attract the few who are available.”

Joe allowed his eyes to roam down the length of her body. “I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” he murmured.

Addy swallowed, trying to ignore the way her skin prickled under his stare. “I’m not talking about grabbing their attention. I’m talking about maintaining it long enough for a relationship to develop. The plain truth is that eligible men make me tongue-tied. I know I’m not overweight anymore on the outside, but inside I still feel awkward and unattractive.”

Joe studied her, surprised by her admission, although he could certainly relate to it. He had more money than anyone in this damn town and yet he still felt socially inferior at any gathering.

“I have no experience with making small talk with men,” she plowed on when he didn’t say anything. “With the kind of sexual banter that every other woman I know seems to have learned in grade school. I don’t know what men like or how they think or what they expect from a date....”