pushing and prodding me into marrying Harlan Patrick and working out the details of our living arrangements later? I guess it’s a whole lot easier to dole out advice than it is to take it.”
“That was different,” Val insisted, not rising to the bait. “You two were wild about each other. You had been practically forever. The details were just that—details. Love—or the lack of it—is the core issue between Slade and me. He claims he doesn’t believe in it. He says we’re compatible enough and I’ll be good for Annie. That’s it.”
“Forget what he says,” Laurie declared impatiently. “You should know by now that actions speak louder. From where I sit, and believe me, I’ve been on the sidelines through most of this, I say the man loves you. I’ve watched him these past few months, Val. He never takes his eyes off of you.”
“Probably because he’s trying to figure out where I’ll pop up next so he can avoid being there,” she grumbled. “I don’t want to spend a lifetime with a man who’s not totally committed from the outset. Things get complicated enough during a marriage even when there is a strong basis of love to start with.”
“Val,” Laurie chided. “I have never known you to resist a challenge. How can you walk away from one that’s this important to your whole future?”
Val didn’t have an answer for her.
Laurie regarded her with quiet intensity, then asked, “Or have you decided that Slade Sutton is just not worth it?”
* * *
Laurie’s words echoed in Val’s head for days to come, along with Annie’s pleas to stop by for another cooking lesson. In fact, both Annie and Laurie seemed to be scheming to throw Val and Slade together as often as possible. Val was having a hard time avoiding all the traps they laid. Even Harlan Adams seemed to be getting in on the act, which terrified her. She knew precisely how relentless he could be when he’d deemed a match to be suitable.
She stubbornly resisted all their efforts. She didn’t want to discuss Slade, didn’t want to discuss her own cowardice. In fact, she didn’t want to do much of anything except stay in her room and mope. That pretty much kept her out of Slade’s path as well, which she was convinced was the only way to make him entirely happy.
She was surprised, therefore, when he turned up at Harlan Patrick and Laurie’s one night wearing a suit and carrying a bouquet of flowers.
“What are you doing here?” she asked suspiciously, as Laurie and her husband hovered in the background, unrepentantly eavesdropping.
“I’ve come courting.” His expression practically dared her to make something of that.
Her pulse leaped despite her very recent determination to put this man entirely out of her life. “Why?”
He grinned at that. “The usual reasons. You know, man meets woman, man’s hormones kick in and the next thing he knows he’s doing things that are totally out of character, like dressing up on a week night and buying posies.” He held them out to her, looking awkward as a schoolboy on a first date.
“I see,” she said, reluctantly accepting the bouquet, which was fragrant with roses from Janet’s garden. “You must have missed the all-important lesson about calling and asking for a date.”
“Nope,” he said without the slightest hint of apology. “I deliberately skipped right on over that part. I figured you might turn me down. Annie says the unexpected could work to my advantage.”
Val held back a chuckle. “You’re taking courting advice from a ten-year-old?”
He ran a finger inside his collar, as if it were suddenly too tight. Patches of red stained his cheeks. “She seems to have a better grasp of this stuff than I do. It’s been a long time since I’ve played the game. Haven’t much wanted to until now.”
For some reason—his words, that uncharacteristic blush, something—she was suddenly filled with renewed optimism.
“It’s actually not so hard, if you listen to your heart,” she suggested quietly.
To her astonishment, Slade tucked a finger under her chin and tilted her head up, then met her lips with his own. Oblivious to the fascinated onlookers, he kissed her silly. When they were both gasping for breath, he eased away.
“Thanks to you, darlin’, I just discovered I have one.”
Fourteen
The prospect of being officially courted made Val’s palms sweat. It looked as if all her efforts were finally paying off. Rather than filling her with triumph, the outcome panicked her.