Three
“I thought we’d go to Salt Water Park,”
Cliff said, his gaze holding Diana’s.
He resisted the urge to lift his hand, touch her cheek and tell her she’d been on his mind from the minute he’d left her.
After their dinner date he’d instinctively realized that if he were to ask her out again, she’d refuse.
The only way he could get her to agree to see him again would be to involve her daughters.
“Can we have Kentucky Fried Chicken?”
Katie asked, jumping up and down excitedly.
“Katie!”
Diana cried. That girl worried far too much about her stomach.
“As a matter of fact,”
Cliff answered, “I’ve got a bucket in the car now.”
“Mother,”
Katie pleaded, her eyes growing more round by the second. “KFC!”
“I’ll get a blanket,”
Joan said, rushing through the living room and down the hall to the linen closet.
“I’ve got to change shoes,”
Katie added, and zoomed after her sister, leaving Diana and Cliff standing alone.
“I take it this means you’re going?”
Diana decided his smile was far too sexy for his own good, or for hers. “I don’t appear to have much of a choice. If I refuse now, I’m likely to have a mutiny on my hands.”
Cliff grinned; his plan had worked well.
A streak of dried dirt was smeared across her chin, and her blond hair was gathered at the base of her neck with a tie.
Her washed-out jeans had holes in the knees.
Funny, but he couldn’t remember the last time a woman looked more appealing to him.
She was everything he’d built up in his mind this past week, and more.
What he’d told her that night was true—he’d never had a woman respond to his kisses with tears.
Unfortunately, what Diana didn’t know was that he’d been equally shaken by those moments in the moonlight.
He’d been attracted to her from the minute she’d stared up at him from beneath her kitchen sink and described a plumber’s wrench.
She’d amused him, challenged his intelligence, charmed him, but what had attracted him most was her complete lack of pretense.
This wasn’t a woman whose life centered around three-inch long fingernails.
She was gutsy and authentic.
Over dinner, he’d discovered her wit and humor.
On social issues she was opinionated but not dogmatic, concerned but not fanatical.
She was unafraid of emotion and possessed a deep inner strength.
All along he’d known how much he wanted to kiss her.
What he hadn’t anticipated was the effect it would have on them both.
A single kiss had never touched his heart more.
Diana had been trembling so badly, she hadn’t noticed that he was shaking like a leaf himself.
He experienced such a gentleness for her, a craving to protect and comfort her. He felt like a callow youth, unpracticed and green. Thrown off balance, he hadn’t enjoyed the feeling.
On the way home from the marina, they’d barely talked.
By then Cliff was confident he wouldn’t be seeing her again.
That decided, a calmness had come over him.
A widow with children was no woman to get involved with, and Diana was the take-home-to-mother type he generally avoided.
Picturing himself as a husband was difficult enough, but as a father .
.
.
well, that was stretching things.
He’d always enjoyed children and looked forward to having his own someday; he just hadn’t planned on starting with a houseful.
He did like Joan and Katie—they were cute kids.
But they were kids.
He hardly knew how to act around them.
Then why had he gone back to Diana’s? Cliff had asked himself that same question twenty times in as many minutes.
He’d been out a couple of times that week, but neither woman had stimulated him the way those few hours with Diana had.
He heard her laugh at the most ridiculous times.
A newscast had left him wondering what her opinion was on an important local issue.
He’d waited a couple of days for her to contact him.
Women usually did.
But not Diana.
Interrupting his thoughts, Joan returned to the living room, dragging a blanket with her.
The eleven-year-old was quickly followed by a grinning, happy Katie.
“You ready?”
Cliff asked.
“We won’t all fit in your sports car,”
Diana said, fighting the natural desire to be with Cliff and angry with herself for wanting it so much. She’d changed clothes and washed her face, but she still felt like Cinderella two nights after the ball.
“We can take two cars,”
Joan suggested, obviously not wanting anything to ruin this outing.
Palm up, Cliff gestured toward her elder daughter. “Excellent idea.”
Joan positively glowed. “Can I ride with Cliff?”
Diana’s brows involuntarily furrowed in concern.
“I . . . ah.”
“It’s fine with me,”
Cliff told her, and noticed that Katie looked disappointed. “Then Katie can ride with me on the way home.”
“Okay,”
Diana agreed reluctantly.
Diana followed Cliff toSaltwater State Park, which was less than ten minutes from the house.
She’d taken Joan and Katie there often and enjoyed the lush Puget Sound beachfront.
On their last visit, the girls had watched several sea lions laze in the sun not more than twenty feet off the shore on a platform buoy.
When Cliff turned off the road and into the park entrance, Diana saw him throw back his head and laugh at something Joan had said.
A chill went up Diana’s back at the thought of what her daughter could be telling him.
That girl had few scruples when it came to attractive men.
But Diana was concerned for another reason.
Both her girls liked Cliff, which was unusual, and although she’d dated a number of men during the past few years, rarely had she included the children in an outing.
As much as possible, she tried to keep her social life separate from her family.
Cliff pulled into a space in the parking lot, and Diana eased the SUV into the spot beside him.
Even though it was a school night, there seemed to be several families out enjoying the warm spring evening.
Both Joan and Katie climbed out of the respective cars and rushed across the thick grass.
Within seconds they returned to inform Cliff that there was an unused picnic table close to the beach.
Diana waited while Cliff took the bag of food from the trunk of his car.
She felt awkward in her sweatshirt and wished she’d taken the time to change into a new pair of shorts.
Had she known she was going on a picnic with Cliff, she would have washed her hair that afternoon and tried to do something different with it.
That would have pleased Joan.
Suddenly her thoughts came to an abrupt halt.
She was traipsing on dangerously thin ice with this playboy.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you what kind of car this is?”
she asked as he closed the trunk.
“A Lamborghini.”
“Oh.”
She didn’t know a lot about sports cars, but this one had a name that sounded expensive.
The girls were waiting at the table for them when Diana and Cliff arrived. Joan had unfolded the blanket and spread it out beneath a tall fir tree.
“Can we go looking for seashells?”
Joan asked.
“I want to eat first,”
Katie complained. “I’m hungry.”
“I bought plenty of food.”
Cliff said, opening the sack and setting out four individual boxes. Each one contained a complete meal.
“What’s for dessert?”
Already Katie had ripped open the top of her box, and a chicken leg was poised in front of her mouth.
“Ice cream cones, but only if you’re good,”
Cliff answered.
“What he means by ‘good,’”
Joan explained in a hushed voice, “is giving him plenty of time alone with Mom. They need to talk.”
Diana’s eyes flared with indignation. “Did you tell her that?”
she demanded in a low whisper.
Cliff looked astonished enough for her to believe in his innocence. “Not me.”
From the corner of her eye, Diana saw him give Joan a conspiratorial wink, and was all the more upset.
Rather than argue with him in front of the children, Diana decided to wait.
However, maintaining her anger with Cliff was impossible.
He shared the picnic table bench with Katie and sat across from Diana.
He was so charming that he had all three females under his spell within minutes.
Diana found it only a little short of amazing the way he talked to the girls.
He didn’t talk down to Joan and Katie, but treated them as miniature adults, and they adored him for it.
From Diana’s point of view, this man could do with fewer worshiping females.
The girls finished their meal in record time and were off to explore. While Diana tossed their garbage into the proper receptacle, she shouted out instructions.
“Don’t you dare come back here wet!”
she cried, and doubted that they’d heard her.
“Wet?”
Cliff asked.
“Leave it to them to decide to go swimming.”
“Once they find out how cold the water is, they’ll change their minds,”
he said confidently.
Cliff had moved from the picnic table to the blanket and sat with his back propped against the tree, watching Diana as she made busywork at the picnic table.
“I’m sure the birds will appreciate your dumping those crumbs on the ground,”
he said, and patted the area beside him. “Come and sit down.”
Unwillingly Diana did as he asked, but sat on the edge of the blanket.
It was too dangerous to get close to Cliff; such raw masculinity unnerved her.
She’d been three years without a man, and this one made her feel things she would have preferred to forget.
“I wish you hadn’t done this,”
she said in a small, quiet voice.
“What?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Cliff Howard. You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
“Why are you sitting so far away from me?”
“Because it’s safe here.”
“I don’t bite.”
His mouth curved up in a sensual smile that did uncanny things to Diana’s equilibrium.
“Maybe not, but you kiss,”
she told him irritably.
His eyes held hers. “It was good, wasn’t it?”
She nodded. “Too good.”
His smile was lazy. “Nothing can be too good.”
Diana couldn’t find it within herself to disagree, although she knew she should. “What’s this about your suggesting to Joan that they give us time together alone?”
His mouth broadened into a deeper grin. “Actually, that was her idea.”
Diana rolled her eyes heavenward. That sounded exactly like something Joan would suggest.
“I like your girls, Diana,”
he said gently. “You’ve done a good job raising them.”
“They’re not raised yet—besides, you’re seeing their good side. Just wait until they start fighting. There are days when I think they’re going to seriously injure each other.”
“My brother and I were like that. We’re close now, although he’s living in California.”
Cliff paused and told her a couple of stories from his youth that produced a smile and caused her to relax. “Rich and I talk at least once a week now. Joan and Katie will probably do the same once they leave home.”
Bringing her legs up, Diana rested her chin on top of her knees. One hand lazily picked up a long blade of grass. It felt right to be with Cliff. Right and wrong.
“Why haven’t you married?”
The question was abrupt and tactless, slipping out before she could temper the words.
Cliff shrugged, and then his answer was as direct as her question. “I haven’t found the right woman. Besides, I’m having too much fun to settle down.”
“Usually, when a man’s over thirty there’s a reason . . . I mean . . . some men can’t make a commitment, you know.”
Oh, heavens, she was making this worse every minute.
“To be honest, I’ve never considered marriage.”
There hadn’t been any reason to. That wasn’t to say he hadn’t been in love any number of times, but generally the emotion was fleeting and within a few weeks another woman would capture his attention. Once he’d had a girl move in with him, but those had been the most miserable months of his life, and the experience had taught him valuable lessons. Expensive ones. He would never again accept that kind of arrangement.
“Shirley mentioned a Becky somebody.”
Bless Shirley’s black heart, Cliff mused. “She lived with me for three months.”
“You didn’t want to marry her?”
“Good grief, no. I was never so glad to get rid of anyone in my life.”
Diana frowned. The knowledge that Cliff had lived with a woman proved that he was a swinging single, as she’d suspected. That he’d want to spend time with her was only a little short of amazing. Perplexed, she wrapped her arms around her legs and briefly pressed her forehead to her knees.
“You don’t approve of a man and woman living together?”
The troubled look that clouded her eyes made her opinion all the more evident.
Diana lifted her head and her eyes held his. “It isn’t for me to approve or disapprove. What other people do is their own business as long as it doesn’t affect me or my children.”
“But it’s something you’d never do?”
Her hesitation was only slight. “I couldn’t. I have Joan and Katie to consider. But as I said, it’s not up to me to judge what someone else does.”
Her answer pleased him. Diana was too intelligent to get caught in a dead-end relationship that would only end up ripping apart her heart.
Unfortunately Cliff had been forced to learn his lessons the hard way.
“You were on my mind every day, all day, all week,”
he said softly, enticingly. “I thought about you getting up and taking the girls to school. Later, I remembered you telling me you wanted to plant marigolds. That’s what you did today, isn’t it?”
Diana nodded and closed her eyes. “I had a crummy week.”
She didn’t want Cliff to court her. Her attraction to him was powerful enough without his telling her he hadn’t been able to get her off his mind.
“The fact is, I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” he added.
“I filled out an application for a job with the school district this morning,”
she told him brightly. She was desperate for him to stop leading her on. She didn’t need for him to say the things a woman wants to hear. They weren’t necessary; she had been fascinated from the moment he’d walked into her house. “There’s a good chance they’ll be able to hire for September.”
“When I wasn’t thinking about you,”
he continued, undaunted, “I was remembering our kisses and wondering how long it would be before I could kiss you again.”
Her fingers coiled into hard fists. “I’ll probably be working as a teacher’s aide,”
she said, doing her utmost to ignore him.
“Don’t make me wait too long to kiss you again, Diana.”
Her hands were so tightly bunched that her fingers ached. She forced herself to ignore him, to pretend she hadn’t heard what he was saying. Closing her eyes helped to blot out his image, but when she opened them again, he had moved and was sitting beside her.
“How long are you going to make me wait?”
he asked again, in a voice that would melt concrete.
His eyes rested on her mouth. Diana tried to look away, but he wouldn’t let her. Even when he raised his hand and turned her face back to him, his gaze didn’t stray from her lips. He pressed his index finger over her mouth and slid it from one corner of her lips to the other. Diana couldn’t have moved to save her life.
“You don’t need to tell me anything. I know what you’re thinking and that you weren’t able to get me off your mind, either. I know you want this.”
One of his hands cupped the side of her face, and her eyes fluttered closed. His other hand slipped around her waist as he brought her into his arms. In that moment Diana couldn’t have resisted him to save the world. He knew her, knew that he’d been on her mind all week, knew how much she regretted that things couldn’t be different for them.
Cliff lowered his head and pressed his lips over hers. The kiss was gentle and so good, that Diana felt her heart would burst. Emotionally rocked, she trembled as though trapped in the aftermath of an earthquake.
Slowly his mouth worked its way over hers, and she opened her lips to him in silent invitation, the way a flower does to the noonday sun, seeking its warmth, blossoming. Diana groaned, and her arms curled around his torso until her hands met at his spine. Before she was aware of how it had happened, Cliff placed his hands on her shoulders and pressed her backward, anchoring her to the blanket. He raised his head, and his eyes delved into hers.
Diana sank her fingers into the dark hair at his temples and smiled tentatively. It was the sweetest, most tender expression Cliff had ever seen, filled with such gentle goodness that he felt his heart throb with naked desire. He longed to press her body under his.
“Do you feel it, too?”
he asked, needing to hear her say the words.
Diana nodded. “I wish I didn’t.”
“No, you don’t,”
he returned with supreme confidence. A surge of undiluted power gripped him.
“I think he kissed her.”
A girlish giggle followed the announcement.
“Katie?”
Cliff asked Diana.
She nodded.
Cliff levered himself off Diana and helped her into a sitting position. Self-conscious in front of her children, Diana ran her fingers through her hair, lifting it away from her face.
“We found a starfish,”
Joan said, delivering it to her mother and sitting on the blanket.
Diana didn’t notice the proud find as much as the fact that her daughter’s shoes were missing and the bottoms of her jeans were sopping wet. Chastising Joan in front of Cliff would embarrass the eleven-year-old, and Diana resisted the urge.
“Isn’t he gorgeous?”
Katie demanded.
“Who?”
Diana blinked, thinking her daughter could be talking about Cliff.
“The starfish!”
Both girls gave her a funny look.
“Yes, he’s perfectly wonderful. Now take him back to the water or he’ll die.”
“Ah, Mom . . .”
“You heard me.”
She brooked no argument.
Joan picked up the echinoderm and rushed back to the beach. Katie lingered behind, her head cocked at an angle as she studied Cliff.
“Do you like to kiss my mother?”
she asked curiously.
Cliff nodded. “Yes. Does that bother you?”
Katie paused to give some consideration to the question. “No, not really, as long as she likes it, too.”
“She likes it, and so do I.”
Katie’s pert nose wrinkled. “Does she taste good?”
“Real good.”
“Gary Hidenlighter offered me a baseball card if I’d let him kiss me. I told him no.”
She wrapped her hands around her neck, then, graphically pretending to strangle herself. “Yuck.”
“It matters who you’re kissing, sweetheart,”
Diana explained. A fetching pink highlighted her cheekbones at her daughter and Cliff talking about something so personal.
Having satisfied her curiosity, Katie ran toward the pathway that led to the beach and to her elder sister.
“I have the feeling that if Gary Hidenlighter had offered her Kentucky Fried Chicken, she would have gone for it.”
Cliff chuckled, his eyes warm. “What do I need to trade to gain your heart, Diana Collins?”
Ignoring the question, Diana picked up the blanket and took care to fold it with crisp corners. She held the quilt to her stomach as a protective barrier when she finished.
“I asked you something.”
“I have no intention of answering such a leading question.”
In nervous agitation she flipped a stray strand of hair around her ear.
“Can I see you again tomorrow?”
he asked. “Dinner, a show, anything you want.”
Diana’s heart constricted with dread. Now that she was faced with the decision of whether to see him again, the answer was all too clear.
“Listen,”
she murmured, wrapping her arms around the blanket to ward off a chill, “we need to talk about this first.”
“I asked you to go to a movie with me.”
“That’s what I want to talk about.”
“Is it that difficult to decide?”
“Yes,”
she whispered.
Cliff stood and leaned against the tree, bracing one foot against the trunk. “All right, when?”
Diana was uncertain. “Anytime the girls aren’t around.”
“Later tonight?”
She’d never felt more unsure about a man in her life. The sooner they talked, the better. “Tonight will be fine.”
“Don’t look so bleak. It can’t be that bad.”
It was worse than bad. Shirley’s warnings echoed in her ears, reminding her that she’d be a fool to date a prominent womanizer who was said to have little conscience and few scruples. Diana’s insides were shaking and her nerves were shot. She was a mature woman! She should be capable of handling this situation with far more finesse than she was exhibiting.
“I—I wish you hadn’t come back.”
Her emotions were so close to the surface that she tossed the blanket on the picnic table and stalked away, upset with both Cliff and herself.
For half a minute, Cliff was too stunned to react. This woman never ceased to astonish him. She’d wept in his arms when he’d kissed her, and when he’d told her how attracted he was to her and asked her out again, she’d stormed away as though he’d insulted her.
Driven by instinct, Cliff raced after her, his quick stride catching up with her a few feet later.
“Maybe we should talk now,”
he suggested softly, gesturing toward a park bench. “We can see the girls from here. If there’s a problem, I don’t want it hanging over our heads. Now tell me what’s got you so upset.”
She gaped at him. He honestly didn’t know what was wrong. He was driving her crazy, and he seemed completely oblivious to the fact. Gathering her composure, Diana nodded in silent agreement and sat down.
Cliff joined her. “Okay, what’s on your mind?”
You! she wanted to scream, but he wouldn’t understand her anger any more than she did. “First of all, let me tell you that I am very flattered at the attention you’ve given me. Considering the women you usually date, it’s done worlds of good for my ego.”
A frown marred his brow. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, come on, Cliff,”
she said in an effort to be flippant. “Surely you realize that you’re ‘hot stuff.’”
“So they tell me.”
She expelled her breath slowly, impatiently. “A date with you would quicken any female’s heart.”
“I’m flattered you think so.”
“Cliff, don’t be cute, please—this is difficult enough.”
He paused, leaned forward and clasped his hands. “I don’t understand what any of this has to do with a picnic supper. I like you. So what? I think your daughters are wonderful. Where does that create a problem?”
“It just does.”
She felt like shouting at him.
“How?”
he pressed. Women generally went out of their way to attract his attention. He found it an ironic twist that the one woman who had dominated his thoughts for an entire week would be so eager to be rid of him. Her defiance pricked his ego. “All right, let’s hear it,”
he said, his voice low and serious.
Still, he wouldn’t look at her, which was just as well for Diana, since this was difficult enough.
“I don’t want to see you again,”
she said forcefully, although her voice shook. There—it was out. Considering the way she responded to his kisses, she must be out of her mind. Although she had to admit she didn’t feel especially pleased to decline his invitation, it was for the best.
Cliff was silent. The thing was he knew she was right, but he felt he was on the brink of some major discovery about himself. Ego aside, he realized he could have just about any woman he wanted, except Diana Collins.
“I suppose Shirley told you I have the reputation of being some heartless playboy. Diana, it’s not true.”
Diana paused to take in several deep breaths. She’d hoped that he’d spare her this. “I think you’re wonderful . . . .”
“If you honestly felt that way, you wouldn’t be so eager to be rid of me.”
“Don’t, Cliff,”
she pleaded. She wasn’t going to be able to explain a thing with his interrupting every five seconds.
“What I can’t understand,”
he said, shaking his head, “is why you’re making it out to be some great tragedy that I find you attractive.”
“But I’m not your . . . type,”
she declared for lack of a better description. “And if we continue to see each other, it will only lead to problems for us both.”
“It seems to me that you’re jumping to conclusions.”
“I’m not,”
she stated calmly.
Cliff was losing his temper now. “And as for your not being my type, don’t you think I should be the one to decide that?”
“No,”
she argued. Diana could hardly believe she was telling the most devastating man she’d ever known that it would be better for them not to see each other again.
“Why not?”
he shot back.
“Because.”
“That doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
Diana clamped her mouth closed. It wasn’t going to do any good to try to reason with him. He probably was so accustomed to women falling into his arms that he wasn’t sure how to react when one resisted. A few years earlier she would have been like all the others, she noted mentally.
“Diana,”
he said after a calming minute. “I don’t know what’s going on in that twisted mind of yours, but I do think you’re being completely unreasonable. I like you, you like me . . .”
“The girls . . .”
“Are terrific.”
“But, Cliff, you drive a Lamborghini.”
The car bothered her! “What’s that got to do with anything?”
Diana wasn’t sure she could explain. “It makes a statement.”
“So does your Ford SUV.”
“Exactly! What I can’t understand is why a man who drives an expensive sports car is interested in seeing a thirty-year-old widow who plows through traffic in a ten-year-old bomber.”
“Bomber?”
Diana’s grin was fleeting. “That’s what the girls call the Ford.”
Cliff’s gaze drifted to the two youngsters running along the rolling surf. Their bare feet popped foam bubbles with such mindless glee that he found himself smiling at their antics.
Diana’s gaze followed his and her thoughts sobered.
“This doesn’t really have anything to do with what cars we drive, does it?”
“No,”
Diana admitted softly. “Shirley warned me about you.”
“I’m not going to lie,”
Cliff murmured. “Everything she said is probably true. But of all the women I’ve met, I would have thought you were one to form your own opinions.”
“If it were just me, I’d be accepting your offer so fast it would make your head spin,”
she answered honestly. “But the girls think you’re the neatest thing since microwave popcorn and they’re at a vulnerable age.”
“Somehow I get the feeling that what’s bothering you isn’t any of these things. Not the car, not the girls, not the other women I date.”
He read her thoughts so well it frightened her. She clenched her hands together and nodded. “I can’t be the woman you want.”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I haven’t got the body of a centerfold or the looks of a beauty queen. I’ve had children.”
“Hey, I’m not complaining. I like what I see.”
“You might not be so sure if you saw more of me.”
“Is that an offer?”
Color bloomed full force in her cheeks. “It most certainly was not.”
“More’s the pity.”
“That’s another thing. I’m . . . not easy.”
“You’re telling me. I’ve spent the past fifteen minutes trying to talk you into a movie. After all this I certainly hope you don’t intend to turn me down.”
She laughed then, because refusing him was impossible. He was right; she was the type of person to make up her own mind. Shirley would have her hide, but, then, her neighbor hadn’t been the sole subject of his considerable charm.
“You will go with me, won’t you?”
“Where?”
Katie cried, running up from behind them.
“Cliff wants to take me to a movie.”
Katie clapped her hands. “Oh, good. Can Joan and I go, too?”