Burn For You

37

I folded my arms over my chest and stood with my legs braced apart, like I was preparing for a group of suits from the bank to knock down the front door and I’d have to fight them to the death for possession of the house. “Maybe not, but you know as well as I do that I’m never going back to Kentucky.”

Rayford smiled. It looked a little mysterious. “So that leaves marriage. Who’s the lucky girl?”

I wanted to tear out my hair. Instead I took up pacing again. “Gimme a break, Rayford! Even if I wanted to get married—which I don’t—I couldn’t find a wife in thirty days! I haven’t even been on a date in four years! There’s not a sane woman in the entire state who’d agree to marry a complete stranger and stay married to him for half a decade!”

“So find an insane one. Seems to me there’s lots of ’em.”

“Jesus Christ. You’re no help at all.”

Rayford made a noncommittal noise that was neither agreement nor disagreement, then crossed his legs. His gaze still on the paper, he mused, “Funny, I thought I was plenty helpful the other night.”

I stopped pacing and stared at him. “Please don’t be cryptic. I can’t handle cryptic right now.”

Rayford looked up at me. His mysterious little smile grew wider. “When I was nowhere to be found at the end of the night of the charity event and you had to drive Miss Bianca Hardwick home.”

For a minute I was speechless. “You’re kidding me. You did that on purpose?”

Now his smile positively beamed. “Lovely girl, isn’t she? Lots of moxie, as my mama used to say. And speakin’ of mamas, did I overhear her tell you her own mama was havin’ some troubles? Somethin’ about it bein’ a rough couple of weeks?”

My eyebrows flew up my forehead. “Were you eavesdropping on us?”

He shrugged. “Just passin’ by the kitchen. I’ve got a pair of workin’ ears, no need to get all excited.”

I said sternly, “Rayford.”

He said, “You know she likes you, don’t you?”

After I came back to my senses, I decided my legs weren’t feeling quite normal and sat back down in my chair. I cleared my throat, buying time to let the frog jump out of it before I had to speak again. “What makes you say that?”

Rayford ruefully shook his head. “If I might be so bold, sir, for a smart man you can sometimes be awful stupid.”

Then he folded the newspaper in half and turned the side he’d been reading toward me.

CHARITY BENEFIT RAISES MILLIONS FOR WOUNDED VETS, the headline read. Directly beneath it was a large, color photo of Bianca and me onstage. She was tucked tight under my arm, smiling up at me like an angel.

I said, “I told her to smile at me. She was just following orders.”

Rayford rolled his eyes. “No woman smiles at a man like that because of an order.” He tapped his finger on Bianca’s face, inviting me to look closer.

I opened my mouth to protest but closed it again.

Because he was right. Bianca’s smile wasn’t only on her mouth. It was in her eyes, in her face, in her entire body. She was leaning into me, her arm around my waist, staring up at me like the sun was shining out of the top of my head.

She looked . . . bedazzled.

I was looking at her the exact same way. In fact, if I’d seen this picture anywhere else and I didn’t know the people, I’d have assumed it was an engagement announcement.

I sat back against the chair. A breath left my chest in a noisy rush.

“Mm-hmm,” said Rayford, full of himself. “So there you go.”

“There I go what?”

“Lord, do I have to do all the heavy lifting?” he muttered. Then he waggled the paper impatiently at me. “Hello, future Mrs. Jackson Walker Boudreaux?”

I blanched. “You’re . . . that’s . . .”

Rayford said, “You already know each other, it’s clear that she likes you and you like her—”

“I never said I liked her.”

“Oh, be quiet, now you’re just talkin’ trash,” said Rayford, then continued on with his ridiculous explanation. “And there’s a very good chance that if you sweeten the deal a little bit, she’d say yes.”

I was starting to get a bad feeling about this. “Sweeten the deal?”

Rayford sat back in the sofa and crossed his legs again. Smoothing a hand down the lapel of his suit jacket, he carefully said, “Everybody’s got a price. You didn’t know that last time you got engaged, but now you do.”

I said quietly, “Ouch.”

“I know. I’m sorry. But it seems to me that if you go into it with your eyes open, with all your cards on the table, it might work out for both of you.”

He let me process that, then added, “She doesn’t even own a car.”

I closed my eyes and rested my head on the back of the chair. “I can’t believe we’re having this conversation.”

Rayford said, “You told me Cody likes her.”

I groaned.

“She’s smart, she’s got her feet on the ground, and she comes from good stock.”

“Rayford! What century is this? We’re talking about a woman, not a cow!”

“And she isn’t too hard on the eyes, either.”

That made me pause. I had a vivid, fleeting image of Bianca prancing naked around my bedroom and had to shake my head to clear it.