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."Annabelle gazed up at him."I understand about the phone part, but what's that other thingshe's saying?"Heath gritted his teeth."Prince.That's me."Annabelle grinned and hugged the little troublemaker, who launched into a monologue abouthow Daphne the Bunny used to come into her bedroom and play but wouldn't come anymorebecause Pippi was too big.As Annabelle tilted her head to listen, her hair brushed his thigh,and he nearly jumped out of his chair.Pippi finally ran off to join her father and demand he go in the water with her.He wasagreeable, although they had a small dispute about the boots, which he eventually won."I love that kid." Annabelle's expression held a trace of longing."She's got a lot of spirit.""Which is bound to get her into trouble when she's incarcerated."file:///C|/Downloads/Susan%20Elizabeth%20Phillips%20-%20Match%20Me%20If%20You%20Can%20(v1.0).html (177 of 329)10/12/2005 17:39:42SEp Match me if you can"Will you stop it?"Her hair brushed his thigh again.He could only handle so much stimulation, and he shot up."I'm going swimming.Want to join me?"She sent a longing glance toward the lake."I think I'll stay here.""Come on, girly-girl." He grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet."Unless you're afraid toget your hair wet?"Quick as a flash, she jerked free and raced for the water."Last one to the raft is an obsessive-compulsive fathead." She plunged in and set off.He was right after her.Although she was agood swimmer, he had her on endurance.Still, he made himself back off when they got closeso she could win.As she touched the ladder, she rewarded him with one of those Annabelle grins that took overher whole face."Sissy boy got beat."That was too much, and he dunked her.They horsed around like that for a while, climbing up on the raft, diving in, and attacking eachother.Growing up with older brothers had taught her more than a few dirty tricks, and herexpression of glee when she got the best of him was priceless.Once again, she tried to makehim tell her what the D in his middle name stood for.He refused and got a face full of water.The horseplay gave him a good excuse to get his hands on her, but he finally lingered too long,and she pulled back."I've had enough.I'm going back to the cottage to rest up before dinner.""I understand.You're not as young as you used to be."But he couldn't bait her, and she swam away.He watched as she waded toward the beach.Herbathing suit rode up, revealing two round, water-slicked cheeks.She reached around andslipped her finger under the leg openings to tug it back into place.He groaned and dove under,but the water wasn't nearly cold enough, and it took awhile before he settled down.When he got back to the beach, he spent some time shooting the bull with Charmaine andDarnell, but all the while he was conscious of Phoebe lazing on a chaise a few yards away.She wore a big straw hat, a low-cut one-piece black suit with a tropical print sarong wrappedaround her waist, and an invisible do not disturb sign.He decided it was time to make hismove and excused himself from the Pruitts to wander over."Mind if I pull up some sand so wefile:///C|/Downloads/Susan%20Elizabeth%20Phillips%20-%20Match%20Me%20If%20You%20Can%20(v1.0).html (178 of 329)10/12/2005 17:39:42SEp Match me if you cancan talk?"Her lids dropped behind a pair of sunglasses with pink lenses."And my day was going so welluntil now.""All good things have to come to an end." Instead of taking the empty chaise next to her, hegave her the advantage of the superior position and sat on an abandoned towel in the sand."I've been curious about something ever since that party for the kids.""Oh?""How did a dragon lady like you end up with a sweetheart like Hannah?"For once, she laughed."Dan's gene pool.""Did you hear Hannah talking to the girls about the balloons?"She finally looked at him."I guess I missed that conversation.""She said that if their balloons broke, they could cry if they really wanted to, but all it meantwas that a grumpy fairy had stuck a pin in them.Where does she come up with stuff like that?"She smiled."Hannah has quite an imagination.""I'll say.She's a special kid."Even the toughest moguls were pushovers when it came to their children, and the ice cracked alittle more."We worry about her more than the others.She's so sensitive.""Considering who her parents are, I'm guessing she's a lot tougher than you think." He shouldhave been ashamed of himself for laying it on so thick, but Hannah really was a great kid, andhe didn't feel too bad about it."I don't know.She feels things pretty deeply.""What you call sensitive, I call having people smarts.Once she graduates from ninth grade,send her to me and I'll give herra job.I need somebody to put me in touch with my feminine side."Phoebe laughed, a sound of genuine amusement."I'll think about it.Might be useful to have aspy in the enemy camp.""Come on, Phoebe.I was a cocky kid trying to show everybody how tough I was.I blew it,file:///C|/Downloads/Susan%20Elizabeth%20Phillips%20-%20Match%20Me%20If%20You%20Can%20(v1.0).html (179 of 329)10/12/2005 17:39:42SEp Match me if you canand we both know it.But I haven't screwed you over once since then."A shadow fell over her face."Now, you've moved on to Annabelle."Just like that, their fragile camaraderie evaporated.He spoke carefully."Is that what you thinkI'm doing?""You're using her to get to me, and I don't like it.""It's hard to use Annabelle.She's pretty sharp."Phoebe shot him her no-nonsense look."She's special, Heath, and she's my friend.Perfect forYou means everything to her.You're making things messy."A fairly accurate assessment, but a knot of anger still formed under his breastbone."You don'tgive her enough credit.""She doesn't give herself enough credit.That's what makes her vulnerable.Her family'sconvinced her she's a failure because she's not earning six figures.She needs to beconcentrating on making her business work, and I'm getting the feeling you deliberately turnedyourself into a bad distraction."He forgot that he never let himself get defensive."Exactly what do you mean by that?""I saw how you were looking at her last night."The insinuation that he might deliberately hurt Annabelle stuck in his craw.He wasn't hisfather.He didn't use women, and he especially didn't use a woman he liked.But he wasdealing with Phoebe Calebow, and he couldn't afford to lose his temper, so he dug into hisalways reliable supply of self-control& and came up empty."Annabelle's my friend, and Idon't make it a habit of hurting my friends." He pushed to his feet."But then you don't knowme well enough to figure that out, do you?"As he stalked away, he called himself every name in the book.He never lost it.He absolutelynever fucking lost it.Yet he'd basically just told Phoebe Calebow to go to hell.And for what?Because enough truth lurked in what she'd said to hurt [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]