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Lougenia banged on an aluminum cook pot with a wooden spoon. “Come on, ever’body. Food’s getting cold. Grab a plate and fill it, then find a spot to set.”
Edd stepped up to the table and reached for a plate, but Lougenia smacked her brother-in-law’s hand with her wooden spoon. “Hold on, bubba. Where are your manners? Let’s let the birthday boy and the guest of honor go first.”
Edd backed up, looking duly chastened, but his hangdog look soon turned to a grin. “Better get up there, boy. They’s hungry people waiting.”
Bill blushed, and Darcy couldn’t help liking the man more. He took her by the hand and stepped forward, and as a shock of warmth ran up her arm, Darcy couldn’t help thinking she liked that, too. It was a good thing that Bill was going back to his base soon. If she wasn’t careful, she would be wanting to make this engagement real.
And the last thing she needed right now was another man in her life.
Bill handed Darcy a plate, a chipped piece of bone china in a beautiful old pattern that must have been in his family for years. “Better eat up,” he said low, under his breath. “We don’t skimp on food around here.”
Darcy looked around the room at the well-fed group, and could see that that statement was true. Maybe too true. But that was a crusade she’d fight later. She hadn’t done a cardiology rotation for nothing.
Lucy Carterette, the minister’s wife, Darcy thought, stepped into line behind her as she debated the merits of deviled eggs versus carrot sticks. The eggs won. She could do an extra mile the next time she ran. She smiled at the woman and helped herself to an egg.
“It’s so nice that Billy has found someone,” Mrs. Carterette said as she, too, selected an egg. “How did you and Billy meet?”
“Darcy’s car broke down, and I gave her a lift,” Bill interjected. They’d decided to stick as close to the truth as possible without filling in too many details that could get them into trouble later.
“Isn’t that sweet!” another woman, whose connection Darcy couldn’t quite figure, cooed.
“Yes, ma’am. I was quite worried. I had just set out to walk when Bill drove up and rescued me.” That much was true. She’d managed to keep her story straight, so far. Maybe, if people were busy eating, she wouldn’t have to answer so many questions.
She filled her plate and followed Bill to a spot on the floor by the fireplace.
Bill held out his hand and took her plate while Darcy settled, cross-legged, next to him. They left the sofa and chairs for the older, less nimble people.
Chrissie squealed as Little Edd swiped a carrot stick from her. She shoved her plate at her mother and dashed across the floor and tackled the boy in a play that would have made any football coach proud.
Big Edd got up, crossed the room in two long strides, grabbed both kids by the shoulders and pulled them apart. “Go set with your momma,” he told Chrissie sternly. Then he looked at Little Edd. “What do you mean, picking on your sister like that? You know we didn’t bring you up to steal from girls.”
The boy, head hanging dejectedly, dragged back to his spot on the other side of his mother.
“And you watch about letting people tackle you like ‘at. It ain’t no way to get to the University of Alabama if you gonna let a girl get the better of you.”
Little Edd looked up quickly, then swallowed. “Yes, sir,” he said. “I know I shoulda been watching my flank.” He picked up his abandoned plate and sat down.
“Starting a little early, aren’t they?” Darcy murmured as she tried to hide a smile.
Bill looked at her. “Around here, one of the few ways a poor kid can get to college is to do good on the football field.”
“A football scholarship’s the only hope they have?” Darcy concluded.
“Got that in one,” Bill answered grimly, then dug into a mound of potato salad with black olives and pickles. “That and joining the service.”
Earline looked over the heads of her children, still giving each other dirty looks. “Momma said you just graduated from nursing school.”
Darcy nodded.
“I got my LPN at John Patterson Technical College. Where’d you go?”
“Duke.”
“Where’s that?” Earline asked, her mouth full.
“North Carolina.”
Earline swallowed. “If it’s in North Carolina, how’d you meet Billy when he’s in Florida?”
Now it was Darcy’s turn to swallow. She swallowed again, but before she could answer, Bill came to her rescue.
“I went to jump school, at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.”
“Oh. Lucky you.”
Darcy didn’t know whether Earline was referring to Bill or to her, but considering the good save, she answered, “Yes, it was lucky. If Bill hadn’t come along when he did, I don’t know what I would have done.”
“That’s enough poking your nose into Darcy’s business, Earline,” Bill said. “Let her eat.”
“Well, I was just interested,” Earline protested. “She is going to be a member of the family. I would like to know a little something about her.”
Bill shot his sister a look, and she drew in a deep, aggravated breath and turned her attention back to her plate.
“Thank you, Bill,” Darcy murmured under her breath. “It seems like you’re always saving me.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Bill said.
Darcy wondered what Bill meant by that, but she didn’t make an issue of it. It was good enough that the questions had stopped, for now, and she could eat in peace.
BILL WOULD HAVE LOVED to have everybody leave so he could take a long nap after all the food he’d eaten, but he figured there were a good couple of hours before people headed home. At least he and Darcy hadn’t been bothered too much since Earline’s earlier inquisition. People had gathered into quiet clumps and the kids were outside chasing fireflies.
He turned to Darcy. “How you holding up?”
She shrugged. “Okay, I guess. I like your family and friends, but I feel funny about lying to them.”
Bill let out a long breath. “I know that, but remember it’s for Momma. And so far, we haven’t really lied. We’ve just sort of left out a few details.”
“What’s the difference?” Darcy said, setting her empty plate on the floor beside her. “They all think we’re engaged,” she said in low tones.
“But we didn’t tell them that. That’s the difference.”
“And we didn’t correct them when they made the assumption,” Darcy persisted.
Bill set his plate on top of Darcy’s. “It’s too late to do anything about it now. We’re just going to have to stick with the plan.”
“Easy for you to say. You get to go back to Hurlburt and business as usual.” Darcy sighed.
“What you two lovebirds doing with your heads together like that? Making wedding plans?”
Bill and Darcy sprang apart, and Bill looked up to where Lougenia was standing at the plundered dining-room table, a cake knife in hand.
“It’s time to honor the birthday boy and to cut the cake.” Lougenia motioned toward Bill. “Come on up to the table, and bring the lovely Darcy up with you.”
“They just want me to blow out the candles,” Bill said, offering Darcy his hand. “And everybody wants to get a good look at you.”
Bill loved the way her small, warm hand seemed to fit in his. He helped her to her feet. “Here goes nothing,” he said as he led Darcy across the room.
Lougenia lit the candles and beckoned him forward. “All right, Billy. Stand here,” she directed.
Bill had barely settled into position when everyone broke out in a chorus of “Happy Birthday.” By the end of the song, even Darcy had joined in.
“Now, make a wish and blow out the candles.”
Playing along, Bill closed his eyes and pretended deep concentration while he thought about his wish. Then, drawing a deep breath, he reared back and blew all the candles out at once.
“Yesss! That means you get your wish,” Darcy said, falling into the spirit of the situation.
“What did you wish for?” Chrissie asked.
“It won’t come true if I tell, sugar pumpkin,” Bill said ruffling the girl’s hair.
“I bet I know what he wushed for,” Little Edd said, his voice dripping with disdain. “I bet he wushed we would all go home so he could make kissy face with Miss Darcy.”
Darcy blushed, and Bill didn’t know what to say.
“Well, brother dear, if that’s your wish, I hereby grant it,” Lougenia said. “Have at it.”
Bill looked at Darcy, who was exhibiting nothing short of sheer panic.
“Kiss her,” somebody said.
“Give her a good one,” someone else chimed in.
“Kiss. Kiss. Kiss.” Pretty soon the room echoed with the chant.
“Do you mind?” Bill said quietly, looking into Darcy’s brown eyes. “I think that’s the only way they’ll quit.”
Darcy drew in a short, quick breath and swallowed. “Okay,” she said reluctantly. “If that’ll be the end of it.”
“Go on, Billy. It ain’t no big deal.”
Bill looked around the room. The noisy chant dwindled as the party guests saw that he was accepting the challenge.
“I don’t usually do this in front of an audience,” he murmured, more for Darcy’s sake than for the people watching. In fact, it had been so long since he’d done it at all that kissing Darcy was a very big deal.
He swallowed and wiped his palms, suddenly sweaty, on his jeans. Then he drew Darcy into his arms, situated her in front of him, and lowered his mouth toward hers.
Chapter Four
Darcy’s breath caught in her throat. She hadn’t bargained for this. This was only supposed to be a pretend engagement, but the handsome man leaning in to kiss her was all too real. Yet, curiosity and more than a little desire had her closing her eyes and moistening her lips as Bill’s face drew closer to hers.
His lips touched her mouth, landing feather-soft at first, like a butterfly lighting on a flower.
She should have let him lift off and be done and that would have been that, but Darcy couldn’t. She wanted to know what it would be like to kiss this man standing so close to her, so steady, so real. She kissed him back.
Bill uttered a soft moan that only she could hear, or had she only felt it? Then he pulled her closer to him, pressing her against his hard, strong chest. Darcy’s eyes fluttered open for a moment, but only a moment, then drifted shut again as she sank into the delicious sensation of being thoroughly kissed by a real man.
Her lips parted, and Bill accepted the invitation, plunging deep within her recesses. As he probed and tasted her, Darcy felt almost as if she had been well and thoroughly loved.
How would it be if they weren’t pretending?
But this kiss felt too good to be pretense. And Darcy longed to satisfy her body’s desire for more. For him. All of him. She heard herself whimper with need.
If Dick had kissed her like this just once, maybe she wouldn’t have left him in the chapel.
“Come on you two. Get a room,” Edd said from somewhere out in the real world.
Edd’s comment and that brief reminder of Dick was all it took to break the spell. And that’s what Darcy had to convince herself it was, a spell. An enchantment. There was no way she could have responded to this man she hardly knew if she hadn’t been bewitched in some way.
She jerked away, fighting the urge to touch her tingling and sensitive lips. She felt unwanted heat rising to her cheeks, then willed her face to cool.
“Now that’s enough, Edd. Leave those kids be. They don’t need you teasing and taunting them,” Nettie Hays said to her son-in-law from her throne-like position across the room.
“Yes, ma’am,” Edd said. “Let’s leave them to make out without a audience.”
“Just thought we could give you a few lessons,” Bill fired back over his shoulder as he loosened his grip on Darcy’s arms. He turned back to her. “Do you want me to send everyone home?” he asked in an undertone.
Darcy glanced behind Bill to where Nettie seemed to be enjoying her company. “No, not yet. Nettie’s having a good time, but if she begins to look tired, we should tell them that the party’s over.”
“Thank you,” Bill whispered. “I owe you.” Then he turned and grinned at his mother.
No, thank you, Darcy couldn’t help thinking. Bill had shown her more about love today than she had seen in her entire life. She drew in a deep breath, pasted on a smile, and prepared to face the guests and the rest of the party.
IN SPITE OF the crush of guests around him, the only thing Bill could think of was that kiss. That wonderful, breathtaking, unexpected kiss. Maybe he should have anticipated the possibility—hell, probability—of kissing Darcy, but he hadn’t. And now that he had kissed Darcy, he wanted to keep on doing it. But he knew he couldn’t.
It wouldn’t be fair.
Not to him, not to Darcy, not even to his mother, for that matter.
He and Darcy had to figure out a way to make this engagement look good for now and then make it come to an end without hurting anybody. Talk about an impossible task!
He wasn’t used to lying. Pretending to be engaged to Darcy was a lie, even if he wouldn’t mind if it were true.
Bill looked across the room to where Momma seemed to be sinking lower into her chair. He saw that she was tired. Excitement had been replaced by dark smudges beneath her eyes. He wondered how to ask the guests to leave.
“Hey, little brother, I’ve got one sleepy little quarterback here,” Earline said, drawing Bill out of his thoughts and saving him from having to come up with an excuse. She guided a drowsy Little Edd toward the door while Big Edd followed with Chrissie in his arms. Leah, their oldest, brought up the rear.
“Hey, Uncle Bill, I like Miss Darcy. You got a real keeper,” Leah said. She turned toward Darcy. “Can I be in your wedding? I’m the only girl in my class who hasn’t been a bridesmaid yet.”
Darcy looked startled, but she recovered quickly enough. “We’ll have to see, sweetie. We haven’t started to make plans,” she finally said.
It seemed to satisfy Leah, and she left happily enough. Too bad they wouldn’t be able to follow through.
Lougenia, announcing that Momma was tired, followed Earline and her family out. Soon the rest of the guests took the hint, leaving Bill and Darcy alone with Momma.
“I’ll just take my bedtime pills and then leave you two alone,” Momma said. “I’d love to help you clean up, but I just don’t seem to have the energy anymore,” she said as she shuffled into the kitchen for a glass of water.
“That’s all right, Nettie. We can handle it,” Darcy called after her. “You go ahead and get your rest.” She started clearing the dining-room table while they waited for Momma to finish in the kitchen.
“I’m sorry Leah put you on the spot like that,” Bill said as he watched Darcy stacking plates from the ravaged dining-room table.
“Me, too. I hate to disappoint her,” Darcy said, piling flatware on top of the plates. “She’s a nice girl.”
“No nicer than you,” Bill told her.
After Momma went up to bed, he followed Darcy into the kitchen and watched as she deposited the plates on the sideboard and filled the sink with sudsy water. “I’ll dry if you wash,” he suggested, hoping for a way to be close to her without crowding. He knew that Darcy had been just as uneasy about the kiss they’d been forced into as he had, but they’d had to do something or they wouldn’t have made their fake engagement look real.
Or ever heard the end of it.
“You’re on. Though, I’d rather you’d wash and I dry,” she said as she lowered the first glass into the water.
“I don’t expect we ought to risk that slippery, wet china with these big mitts,” he said, holding up his hands.
Darcy tossed a dish towel at Bill which he deftly caught. “Remind me to pick up some rubber gloves in town,” Darcy said. “Or maybe a dishwasher,” she mumbled just low enough that Bill had to strain to hear.
Bill chuckled. “We’ve tried for years to get Momma to let us give her one, but she wouldn’t have a thing to do with it. Said she’d raised five kids without having one, so why’d she need one now?” He thought for a minute. “Now that it looks like there’s gonna be a new Mrs. Hays, maybe we can swing one.”
Darcy dipped a soapy glass under the running water. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “I won’t be here that long, and it’s a big expense. I can make do. After all, you don’t have twenty people over for dinner most of the time.” Darcy looked up at him, her eyes wide. “This isn’t a regular thing, is it?”
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