Four
“I hope you know what you’re getting yourself into,”
Diana’s neighbor muttered, her brow puckered. She paused and stared at the bottom of her empty coffee cup. “George told me he’s seen Cliff Howard bring lesser women to their knees.”
“Listen, Shirley, I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”
Shirley snickered softly. “The last time you told me that was when you decided to figure your own income tax, and we both know what happened.”
Diana cringed at the memory.
In an effort to save a few dollars a couple of years back, she’d gone over her financial records and filled out her own tax forms.
It hadn’t appeared so difficult, and to be truthful, she’d been rather proud of herself.
That was until she’d been summoned for an audit by an IRS agent who had all the compassion and understanding of a grizzly bear.
It had turned out that she owed the government several hundred dollars and they weren’t willing to take Mastercard.
They were, however, amicable to confiscating her home and children if she didn’t come up with the five-hundred-dollar discrepancy.
Scraping the money together on her fixed income had made the weeks following the audit some of the most unpleasant since her husband’s death.
“I just don’t want to see you get hurt,”
Shirley added in thoughtful tones. “And I’m afraid Cliff Howard’s just the man to do it.”
“What I want to know is why I’ve never seen Cliff before now?”
Diana asked in an effort to change the subject. “You know so much about him, like he was a longtime family friend. I didn’t even know he existed.”
“George plays golf with him a couple of times a month. They meet at the country club. Until the other night, Cliff had only been to our house once.”
Her mouth tightened. “I should have known something like this would happen.”
“Like what?”
“You falling head over heels for him.”
Diana laughed outright at that. “Rest assured, I am not in love with Cliff Howard.”
“But you will be,”
Shirley said confidently. “Every woman falls for him eventually. Some of the stories going around the clubhouse about him would shock you.”
“Well, you needn’t worry. I’m not going to fall for him.”
“That’s what they all say,”
Shirley told her knowingly.
Diana avoided her friend’s gaze.
Her neighbor wasn’t saying anything she hadn’t already suspected.
She liked Cliff, was strongly attracted to him, but she wasn’t going to fall for him.
She was too intelligent to allow herself to be taken in by a notorious playboy.
But, no matter what her feelings, Diana couldn’t completely discredit Shirley’s advice.
Her neighbor could very well be right, and Diana could be headed down the slick path to heartache and moral decay.
She paused and cupped her hands around her coffee mug. “He’s been wonderful with the girls,”
she said, hoping that alone was excuse enough to date Cliff.
“I know,”
Shirley answered softly, shaking her head. “That confuses me, too. I never thought Cliff Howard would like children.”
“Mikey thinks he’s great.”
“Yeah, but Cliff won him over early by bringing him an autographed baseball.”
Shirley had a point there. Besides, Mikey was the friendly sort and not easily offended. “Joan and Katie are crazy about him.”
Shirley’s eyes narrowed. “Just don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re different from all the other women who have wandered in and out of his life.”
Diana pondered her friend’s words. Shirley had gone to great lengths to describe Cliff’s “women.”
To hear her neighbor tell it, Cliff Howard hadn’t so much as looked at a woman over thirty, much less shown an interest in dating one.
It went without saying that he usually avoided women with children.
Cliff had told her himself that she was the first widow he’d taken out.
Diana didn’t know what was different about her, wasn’t sure she wanted to know. He seemed to honestly enjoy being with her and the girls, and for now that was enough.
“What makes you think you’ll be different?”
Shirley pressed.
“But I am different. You said so yourself,”
Diana answered after a lengthy pause, holding her neighbor’s concerned gaze.
“I don’t mean it like that.”
An exasperated sigh followed. “Just keep reminding yourself that Cliff could well be another Casanova.”
Diana laughed outright. “Unfortunately he’s got his good looks.”
“You’re about as likely to have a lasting relationship with Cliff as you are with Casanova, so keep that in mind.”
“Yes, Mother,”
Diana teased softly. She found Shirley’s concern more touching than irritating.
“Just don’t make me say ‘I told you so,’”
her neighbor returned, and the doubt rang clear in her voice.
Diana mused over their conversation for most of the day.
Shirley wasn’t telling her anything she hadn’t already considered herself.
She’d been playing with fire from the minute she’d agreed to that first dinner date with Cliff, and she knew it, but the flickering flames had never been more attractive.
She was thirty, and it was time to let her hair down and kick up her heels a little.
For his part, Cliff wasn’t stupid, Diana realized.
He knew what kind of physical response he drew from her, knew she had been teetering with indecision when he had suggested they see each other again.
So when Katie had piped in and asked to go to the movies with them, Cliff had jumped on the idea.
By including the girls, he’d known she wouldn’t refuse.
How could she, with Joan and Katie doing flips over the idea? The man was a successful attorney and he’d read her ambivalence with the ease of a first grade primer.
Although she’d been determined to put an end to this silliness, her well-constructed defenses had tumbled with astonishing unconcern and she was as eager for the drive-in as the girls.
It was one of the last left in the country and in South King Country, in the countryside.
“Mom,”
Katie cried as she rushed into the kitchen the minute the school bus dropped her off. “Can Mikey go to the drive-in movie with us?”
Diana hedged. “I don’t know, honey. Cliff has to agree.”
“He won’t care. I know he won’t, and besides, he knows Mikey and Mikey’s parents know Cliff.”
She slapped her hands against her side as though that fact alone were enough for anyone to come to the same decision, then grinned beguilingly.
Arguing with such logic seemed fruitless. “Let’s wait and talk to Cliff once he arrives.”
“Okay.”
Diana watched in amazement as Katie grabbed an apple from the fruit basket and dashed out the front door to join her friends.
Usually Diana was subjected to a long series of arguments whenever the girls were after something, and Katie’s easy acceptance pulled her up short.
“Well, all right,”
she muttered after her daughter, still bemused.
By the time Cliff arrived, Diana was convinced that half the neighborhood was waiting.
He parked his sports car in the driveway, and was instantly besieged by a breathless, excited Joan and two or three of Joan’s friends.
Katie and Mikey followed a second later.
Both Diana’s girls grabbed for Cliff’s hand, one trying to outdo the other. With a patience that pleased and surprised Diana, Cliff stopped their excited chatter. He directed his first question to Joan.
Watching the humorous scene from the front porch, Diana saw her elder daughter issue an urgent plea for Cliff to allow her to invite their very best friends in all the world to the drive-in with them.
Katie started in next. Cliff’s gaze went from the girls to a series of neighborhood kids who stood in the background, awaiting his reply.
From her position, Diana could clearly see Cliff’s confusion. He’d asked for this, she mused, having trouble holding in her laughter.
“Hi,”
she greeted him, coming down the steps.
“Hi.”
His bewildered gaze sought hers as he motioned toward Joan and Katie and the accumulated friends. “What do you think?”
“It’s up to you.”
“Please, Cliff,”
Katie cried, her hands folded as if praying.
Cliff glanced down on Diana’s daughter and released a long, frustrated sigh.
He’d thought about this evening all day, and planned—or at least hoped—the drive-in movie would quickly put the girls to sleep so he could kiss Diana.
Once again he’d discovered she’d dominated his thoughts most of the afternoon. His plans certainly hadn’t included dragging half the neighborhood to the drive-in with him.
“I thought of a way it could work,”
Diana told him. “Come inside, and we’ll talk about it.”
Her compromise wasn’t half bad, Cliff mused an hour later as he parked his sports car beside the SUV full of kids at the drive-in.
They’d agreed earlier to take Diana’s vehicle simply because his car wouldn’t hold everyone.
Diana had suggested they drive both cars and park next to each other.
That way the adults could maintain their privacy and still manage to keep an eye on the kids, who were feeling very mature to have their own car.
Now that he thought about it, Diana’s idea had been just short of brilliant.
“How does everyone feel about popcorn?”
Cliff asked once they’d situated the cars halfway between the screen and the snack bar.
“I already popped some,”
Diana informed him, climbing out of the driver’s seat. Joan eagerly replaced her, draping her wrist over the steering wheel and looking as though she were Jeff Gordon ready for the Indy 500.
Diana sorted through something in the rear of the SUV and returned with her arms full. She handed each child his own bag of popcorn and a can of soda. “Don’t eat any until the movie starts,”
she instructed, and was greeted by a series of harmonizing moans. “That goes for you, too,”
she told Cliff, her eyes twinkling.
He grumbled for show and shared a conspiratorial wink with Joan, who, he could see, had already managed to sample her goodies.
He held his car door open for Diana before walking around the front and joining her in the close confines of his Lamborghini.
Diana scooted down low enough in the seat to rest her head against the back of the thick leather cushion.
The contrast between them had never been more striking.
She wore Levi’s and a pink sweatshirt, while Cliff was fashionably dressed in slacks and a thick crewneck sweater.
Diana sincerely doubted that any of his other dates had ever dressed so casually.
Nor did she believe other women had six kids tagging along. Knowing Cliff’s game, Diana considered the neighborhood tribe poetic justice.
“This is turning into a great idea,”
he said, wondering how much longer it would take before it got dark.
Before Diana could answer, a Road Runner cartoon appeared on the huge white screen. The kids in the car next to them cheered with excitement, and even from her position in Cliff’s sports car, she could hear them rip into their bags of popcorn.
“You’re a good sport,”
Diana said, feeling self-conscious all of a sudden. “I mean about the kids and everything.”
“Hey, no problem.”
“How’d work go?”
She felt obligated to make small talk, certain he wouldn’t possibly be interested in the cartoon.
“Good. How about your day?”
“Fine.”
She clenched her hands together so hard her fingers ached. “Joan went to the orthodontist.”
Now that made for brilliant conversation! She’d bore him to death before the end of the previews.
“So she’s going into braces?”
Diana nodded and reached for her bag of popcorn so she’d have something to do with her hands. “I told her she’s enough of a live wire as it is.”
Cliff chuckled. “I’m glad to hear she’s going straight.”
Now it was Diana’s turn to laugh.
What had seemed the perfect solution an hour before now had the feel of a disaster in the making.
Alone with Cliff, she’d seldom been more uncertain about anything.
Joan and Katie had been her shield, protecting her from the wealth of emotion Cliff was capable of raising within her.
She sat beside him, quivering inside, never having felt more vulnerable.
He could make cornmeal mush of her life if he chose to, and like a fool, she’d all but issued the invitation for him to do so.
Shirley’s warnings sounded in her ears like sonic booms, and for an instant, Diana had the sinking feeling that one of Custer’s men must have experienced the same sensation as he rode into battle, wondering what he was doing there.
Diana wondered, too.
Oh, man, did she wonder.
The credits for the Lucas film rolled onto the huge screen, but Diana’s thoughts weren’t on the highly rated movie.
The open bag of popcorn rested on her lap, but she dared not eat any, sure the popcorn would stick halfway down her desert-dry throat.
“Diana?”
She jumped halfway out of her seat. “Yes?”
Cliff’s smile was lazy and gentle and understanding. “Relax, will you? I’m not going to leap on you.”
If there’d been a hole to crawl into, Diana would have gladly jumped inside. “I know that.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
There didn’t seem to be enough words to explain.
She was a mature, capable woman, but when she was around him, all her hard-earned independence evaporated into thin air like an ice chip on an Arizona sidewalk.
He brought back feelings she preferred to keep buried, churning emotions that reminded her she was still a young, healthy woman.
When she was with Cliff, she was a red-blooded woman, and her body felt obliged to remind her of the needs she didn’t want to remember.
With Cliff so close beside her, the last thing on her mind was motherhood and apple pie.
His proximity caused her to quiver from the inside out.
She wanted him to kiss her, longed for his touch. And it scared her to death.
“Diana?”
Slowly she turned to look at him.
Her face felt hot against the crisp evening air, and Cliff’s look brushed lightly over her features.
He was kissing her with his eyes, and she was burning up with fever.
Suddenly the interior of the car made her feel claustrophobic.
She set the popcorn aside and reached for the door handle.
His hand stopped her.
“You’re beautiful.”
He whispered the words with such intensity that Diana felt them melt in the air like cotton candy against her tongue.
She wanted to shout at him not to say such things to her, that it wasn’t necessary.
She didn’t need to hear them, didn’t want him to say them.
But the protest died a speedy death as he reached for her shoulders.
His gaze held her prisoner for what seemed an eternity as he slowly slid his hand from the curve of her shoulder upward, until he found her warm nape.
He didn’t move, hardly breathed, anticipating her reaction.
When he could wait no longer for an invitation, he wove his fingers into her hair and directed her mouth toward his.
Cliff’s lips claimed hers in a fury of desire.
His mouth slanted against hers in a full, lush kiss that spoke of fervor and timeless longing.
The shaking inside Diana increased and she raised her hands to grip his shoulders just to maintain her equilibrium.
Her skin was hot and cold at the same time.
Suddenly it all seemed too much.
Using her arms as leverage, Diana abruptly broke away.
Head bowed, she drew in ragged breaths.
“Cliff, I . . .”
He wouldn’t allow her to speak and gently directed her mouth back to his.
All the resolve she could muster, which wasn’t much, had gone into breaking off the kiss.
When he reached for her again, unwilling to listen to any argument, there was nothing left with which to refuse him.
His mouth opened wider, deepening the kiss, and Diana let him.
Folding her arms around his neck, she leaned into his strength.
He brought her against him possessively until her ribs ached and the heat of his torso burned its way down the length of her own.
Cliff felt her body’s natural response to him and he groaned.
At this moment he’d give anything to be anyplace besides a drive-in.
He wanted to lift the sweatshirt over her head and toss it aside.
The pain of denial was strong and sharp as he buried his face in the sloped curve of her neck.
With even, steady breaths, he tried to force his pulse to a slow, rhythmical beat as he struggled within himself.
It had been a long time since he’d experienced such an intensity of need.
The battle that waged inside Diana was fierce.
She wanted to push herself away from him and scream that she wasn’t like his other women.
There’d been only one lover in her life, and she wasn’t going to become his next conquest simply because her hormones behaved like jumping beans whenever he touched her.
But the words that crossed her mind didn’t make it to her lips.
“Diana . . .”
Cliff spoke first, his voice filled with gruff emotion. “Listen, I know what you’re thinking.”
“Don’t, Cliff, please don’t.”
She twisted her face away from him, unable to form words to explain all that she was thinking and feeling. She felt both tormented and compelled by what was happening to them.
Cliff tensed, and his fingers dug into her shoulders.
“What’s wrong?”
She lifted her head and bravely raised her gaze to meet his own.
“Don’t look now, but we’ve got an audience.”
“Joan?”
“And . . . others.”
“How many others?”
“Five.”
“All six of the kids are staring at us?”
The hot flush that had stained her neck raced toward her cheeks and into the roots of her hair. She’d assured all the neighborhood parents that the drive-in movie was rated PG, and here she was giving them an R-rated sideshow.
“Six noses are pressed against the window, and six pairs of eyes are glued on us,”
Cliff interjected with little humor.
“Oh, no,”
Diana groaned, hanging her head in abject misery.
“Joan’s giving me the thumbs-up sign, Katie looks shocked and Mikey’s obviously thoroughly disgusted. He’s decided to cover his eyes.”
“What should we do?”
Diana asked next, horribly embarrassed.
“Good grief, why ask me? I don’t know a thing about kids.”
His hold was tight enough to cause her shoulders to ache, but Diana didn’t complain. She was as much at a loss about what to do as Cliff was. “I think we should smile and wave, and then casually go back to watching the movie.”
“This isn’t the time to be cute.”
“I wasn’t trying to be funny. That was my idea.”
“If that’s the best you can come up with, then I suggest you turn in your Mother of the Year Award.”
“What?”
Diana cried.
“We could be warping young minds here, and all you’re doing is coming up with jokes.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, I think it’s safe to assume they’ve seen people kiss before now,”
Diana said, growing more amused by the moment.
“Hey, Mom.”
Joan’s shout interrupted their discussion. Forcing herself to appear calm and collected, Diana twisted around, painted a silly smile on her face and rolled down the window. “Yes, sweetheart?”
she answered in a perfectly controlled voice. She was actually proud of herself for maintaining her cool. She prayed her expression gave away none of the naked desire she’d been feeling only moments before.
“Why are you arguing with Cliff?”
“What makes you ask that?”
“You weren’t fighting a minute ago.”
“You were kissing him real hard,”
Katie popped in. She was leaning from the back seat into the front and sticking her head out the side window next to her sister. “Judy Gilmore’s boyfriend kissed her like that the time she baby-sat for us. Remember?”
“Say, aren’t you kids supposed to be watching the movie?”
Cliff asked, having trouble disguising his chagrin.
“It’s more fun looking at you,”
Joan answered for the group.
“Mom, I’ve got to go to the bathroom.”
“Me, too.”
Three other voices chimed in from behind Katie.
“I’ll take you.”
Diana couldn’t get out of the car fast enough. Rarely had she been more grateful for the call of nature.
By the time Diana returned, Cliff’s mood had improved considerably. He was munching on popcorn and staring at the screen. When she eased into the seat beside him, he glanced in her direction and grinned. “The movie’s actually pretty good.”
Diana suspected it wasn’t half as amusing as they’d been. She had to give Cliff credit—he really was a good sport.
By the time the second feature had started, Joan, Katie and their friends were sound asleep.
“I should have waited until now to kiss you,”
Cliff joked, staring across at the car filled with snoozing youngsters. “Problem was, I was too eager.”
That had been Diana’s trouble, as well. From the minute she’d sat beside him and they’d been alone, she’d known what was bound to happen. She’d wanted it too much.
Cliff looped his arm around her shoulder and brought her head down to his hard chest. “Now that we haven’t got a crowd cheering us on, do you want to try it again?”
He gave her a self-effacing, enticing half smile.
Diana laughed, and although the console prevented her from cuddling up close to his side, she adjusted herself as best she could. “When I was a teenager, we used to call the drive-in the ‘passion pit.’”
“Hey, I’m game. I don’t know if you recognize it or not, but there’s chemistry between us.”
He brushed the hair from her brow and pressed his lips there.
“I noticed it all right.”
His kiss just then was like adding water to hot grease. “It’s more potent than I care to dwell on.”
“I’ll say.”
He did kiss her again during the second movie, but more for experimentation than anything.
His fingers, tucked under her chin, turned her mouth to his as his warm lips touched, stroked and brushed hers.
Temporarily satisfied, Cliff settled back and watched the movie for a few minutes more.
He reached for her again later and nibbled along her neck.
He refused to hold her tight, as aware of the danger as she of these explosive fireworks between them.
A drive-in movie with a carload of kids parked in the next space was not the place to get overly romantic.
The second movie over, Cliff met her back at the house after Diana had dropped off Joan and Katie’s friends.
Both girls were more interested in sleeping than climbing out of the car.
Finally Cliff lifted the sleeping Katie into his arms and carried her inside and up the stairs.
A dreamy-eyed Joan followed behind, yawning as she went.
Diana tucked the blankets around her elder daughter.
Joan planted her hands beneath her pillow and rolled onto her side. “Mom?”
“Yes, honey.”
“Thank Cliff for me, okay?”
“Will do.”
Joan forced one eye open. “Are you going to see him again?”
“I . . . don’t know, honey. He hasn’t asked me out.”
“You should invite him to dinner. You make great spaghetti.”
“Honey, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“I happen to love good spaghetti,”
Cliff answered.
Diana turned and found him standing in the doorway of Joan’s bedroom. “Why don’t you make up a batch and bring it sailing?”
“Sailing?”
“You and the girls.”
Having heard Diana’s hesitation, he resigned himself to including her daughters in every outing until she learned to trust him. “We’ll make a day of it.”
“When?”
Cliff thought about waiting another week to see Diana again, and knew that was much too long.
His schedule for the next week was hectic and he’d be lucky to find the time to spend more than an hour or two with her.
He had two cases going to trial and a backlog of work awaiting his attention. “Tomorrow,”
he suggested.
Joan bolted upright. “Hey, that sounds great. Count me in.”
Irritated, Diana glared down at her daughter. “Cliff, I don’t know. I’d think you’d have had your fill of me and the girls for one weekend.”
“Let me be the judge of that.”
“I’ve never been sailing before,”
Joan reminded Diana, her two round eyes gazing up at her pleadingly. “And you know how Katie loves anything that has to do with the water.”
“We’ll talk about it later,”
Diana told her firmly, and walked out of the bedroom. Cliff followed her down the stairs.
“Well, what do you say about tomorrow?”
he asked, standing in front of the door.
“I’m . . . not sure.”
She remained on the bottom step, so that when he walked over to her, their eyes were level.
He smiled at her then and slipped one arm around her waist to pull her against him. In an effort to escape, Diana pried his arm loose and climbed one stair up so she rose a head above him.
If she thought he was going to let her go so easily, Cliff mused, then Diana Collins had a great deal to learn about him.
He brought her into his arms and kissed her until everything went still as hot, tingling shivers raced through Diana. She closed her eyes and stopped breathing.
“Tomorrow,”
she said in a tight, strained whisper. “What time?”
“Noon,”
Cliff mumbled, and dropped his hands.
Diana gripped the banister until her nails threatened to bend. “Thank you for tonight.”
It was all Cliff could do to nod. He backed away from her as though she held a torch that was blazing out of control. Already he was singed, and all he could think about was coming back for more.