She returned to the bar and began clearing the dishes. "I thought that after a while, if I continued simply to hang up, he would get discouraged and stop calling."
"Apparently not."
"No, apparently not." She set a stack of dirty dishes on the countertop and turned on the hot-water faucet. "You never got your cookies.
Help yourself."
"I don't want any cookies," he said irritably.
For reasons he couldn't explain, he was angry with her for so blithely dismissing her obscene caller.
"Then why don't you make a pot of coffee
while I'm putting these dishes in the dishwasher?" she suggested. "I keep the coffee in the freezer and the coffeemaker is right there."
She nodded toward the corner of the cabinetry.
Chase recognized her suggestion for what it was—a conclusion to their discussion about her caller.
Obviously she didn't want to talk about it anymore. Either she was too afraid to or too embarrassed to, or hell, maybe she got her kicks by listening to smut over the telephone.
She was, after all, a woman living alone, with no boyfriend on the scene. At least none he'd heard about or seen evidence of. The only man she had mentioned was the ex-fiance in Houston. Maybe the caller was her no-hassle, non binding way of getting turned on.
If so, why the hell was he worrying about it?
He started the coffee. It was ready by the time she had finished clearing the dishes. Loading a tray with fresh cups of coffee and a plate of chocolate chip cookies, she asked him to carry it into the living room.
They resumed their original places near the fire, which Chase stoked before eating two cookies and washing them down with coffee.
"How are things at Tyler Drilling?"
He glanced across at her. "You're a savvy businesswoman, Marcie. You probably know more about the financial climate in this town than anybody else. Is that your tactful way of asking me how much longer we can hang on before declaring bankruptcy?"
"I wasn't prying. Honestly."
"It doesn't matter," he said with a philosophic shrug. "It's too late for pride. Before long, our financial status will be a matter of public record."
"It's that critical?"
"I'm afraid so." He gazed into the fire as he thoughtlessly poked another cookie into his mouth. "We're getting no new business. The bank has become impatient for us to pay back money we borrowed years ago when the market first started going sour. They've been generous to let it go this long, but our time has finally run out.
"Lucky has done the best he could, with no help from me," he added bitterly. "A couple of years ago we started trying to think of a way to diversify until the oil business picked up, but we never came up with any workable ideas. Then Tanya died and…" He shrugged again. The rest didn't need clarification.
"Chase." He raised his head and looked at her. She was running her fingertip around the rim of her coffee cup. When she felt his gaze, she looked up at him. "Let me put some money into your company."
He stared at her blankly for a moment, then gave a harsh, mirthless laugh. "I thought you were a shrewd businesswoman. Why would you want to do a damn fool thing like that?"
"Because I believe in you and Lucky. You're resourceful, bright, diligent. You'll eventually think of something to revive the business.
When you do, I'll reap a tremendous profit on my investment."
Before she had finished, he was adamantly shaking his head. "I couldn't let you do it, Marcie. It would be like taking charity, and we haven't stooped that low yet. At this point we can retain a little pride.
"Besides, if we had wanted a partner, we would have considered that option a long time ago. We've even had offers, but always turned them down.
"My grandfather started this business during the thirties boom. My dad continued it.
We're third generation. Tyler Drilling Company is a family operation, and we mean to keep it that way."
"I see," she said quietly.
"I appreciate your offer, but there's just no way I can accept it."
"There is one way." Her steady blue gaze locked with his. "You could marry me."
Lucky replaced the telephone receiver and to his wife said, "He still doesn't answer."
From the doorway that connected their bedroom with the bath, Devon tried to reassure him.
"That doesn't mean he's vanished again."
"But it might mean he's out getting blitzed."
"Not necessarily."
"Not necessarily, but probably."
"You're not showing much confidence in your older brother," she gently rebuked him.
"Well, in the past two years, name one thing he's done to inspire my confidence."
Devon turned on her bare heels and stamped into the bathroom, closing the door behind her so swiftly that it almost caught the hem of her peignoir.
Lucky went storming after her and threw open the door. Rather than finding her confrontational, she was seated at the dressing table, calmly pulling a hairbrush through her dark-auburn hair. Her loveliness squelched his anger.
She was an expert at igniting and defusing his temper and could do both instantly and effectively. Her reversals always came unexpectedly.
That spontaneity made his life interesting and was one of the reasons he had fallen in love with her.
Devon's unpredictability appealed to his own volatile nature.
He loved her madly, but hated when she was right. In this instance she was.
"That was a rotten thing for me to say, wasn't it?
"Hmm," she replied. That was another thing he liked about her—she never rubbed it in when she'd been right. "He did come home,
Lucky."
"Under duress."
"But it couldn't have been easy for him."
"He wasn't exactly dragging his tail between his legs."
"Wasn't he? I believe all his mumbling and grumbling was to cover up how embarrassed he was to show how glad he was to be home, surrounded by people who love him."
"Maybe," Lucky conceded.
"He went to the office today and showed an interest in the business."
"Which might be only a token interest."
"It might be. But I don't think so." She set her hairbrush aside and uncapped a jar of night cream.
Extending her arm, she began spreading on the scented cream. "I think we should give Chase the benefit of the doubt.
Maybe he's finally beginning to heal."
"I hope so."
Lucky took the jar of cream from her, scooped some out with his fingers, and began smoothing it on where she had left off. He pushed her robe off her shoulders, slipped down the straps of her nightgown, and massaged the cream into skin so smooth it really didn't need extra emollients.
"Well, Laurie is encouraged by his coming home. That in itself makes me glad he's back."
Devon bowed her head and moved aside her hair so he could rub her neck.
"But Mother doesn't know that he's out carousing tonight."
"Neither do you. He could be anywhere."
"It's not exactly a good night to take a drive."
"Even if he is out carousing, he's a grown man and accountable only to himself."
She looked up at him through her lashes, speaking to his reflection in the mirror. "Just like you used to be."
"Humph," he grunted.
Lucky's attention had been diverted to his wife's alluring image in the mirror. The neck line of her nightgown had caught on the tips of her breasts. A single motion of his hand left the nightgown pooled in her lap, her breasts completely bare.
Both hands reached around to caress her.
He watched his hands reshape, lift, stroke, and massage her breasts. When his touch began to have an effect, his own veins expanded with desire. "What did the doctor say today?" he asked in a soft voice.
"Baby and I are doing well," she told him, her lips curving into a madonna's sweet smile.
"I'm a full five months."
"How long do you think we can keep it a secret?" His hands smoothed over the convex curve of her abdomen.
"Not much longer. If Laurie hadn't been so preoccupied with Chase, she probably would have noticed my thickening waistline."
"She and Sage are going to be mad as hell that we didn't tell them as soon as we found out."
"Probably. But I still think doing it this way was better. In case something happened."
"Thank God nothing has." He bent his head and kissed her shoulder.
"I don't believe Laurie could have withstood the loss of another grandchild. It was better that we not tell her we were expecting until I was out of the dangerous first trimester."
"But now you're into the second and the doctor doesn't expect any complications." He met her eyes in the mirror and smiled as he splayed his hand over her lower body. "I want to announce to the world that I'm going to be a daddy."