Diana Palmer Man of the Hour

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standard of living and children on just his salary, as good as it was. And what if he became disabled? If
Kirry couldn't work, how would she support herself and their family if something happened to him?
"It's not such a bad thing, a woman being independent," she said gently.
"My mother certainly was," he said.
He turned into the parking lot of the building where they lived, closemouthed and quiet. Old memories
were hurting him. He didn't like remembering his mother and her single-minded devotion to the almighty
job. His father worked as a laborer at a feed mill. He didn't make a lot of money and he worked long
hours, so he wasn't home when Bob and Lang got home from school.
Their mother could have had time for them if she'd wanted to. She was pretty much self-employed. Her
job schedule could have been rearranged. But she was always gone. And when she was home, she
expected Lang and Bob to have the housework done and wait on her because she was tired.
Their father had done his best to accommodate her, and that had made Lang and Bob resentful and
angry at the way she used him. When she died in the plane crash, their standard of living dropped
radically. But Lang hadn't cried. Neither had Bob. Their father had tried to explain it once, to make them
understand that she'd loved them, in her way, but she hadn't wanted to get married in the first place. He'd
compromised her, and they'd had to, for her parents' sake. In those days, in a small Texas town,
church-going girls didn't have babies out of wedlock.
"My parents had to get married," Lang muttered, staring into the past.
"I'm sorry."
He cut off the engine and turned to her. "Why were you having chills?" he demanded. "Could Connie
have been right with that shot in the dark?"
"We used something," she said weakly.
"And nothing is foolproof." He looked haunted. "Tell me!"
"I can't tell you what I don't know, Lang," she replied very quietly. "It's way too soon to even guess yet."
He relented. His hand ruffled his own hair as he leaned back in the seat. "I don't want you to be
pregnant, Kirry," he said.
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She felt her body stiffen. That was blunt enough. "You can't forgive your mother, so I'm to be punished
for her sins, is that it?"
He looked puzzled. "That has nothing to do with it."
"Sure." She opened the car door and got out. Her legs felt shaky. Her self-confidence was on the blink
entirely.
He got out, too, and followed her into the building and the elevator. He rammed his hands into his
pockets and stared at her broodingly as they went up.
"Don't pretend that you'd be thrilled about it any more than I would," he persisted.
She didn't look at him or answer him.
They got off on their floor and she paused at the door of her apartment. "Lorna said that you didn't want
to live here anymore.You denied it, but was it true?"
He frowned as he studied her. Lorna's threat came back full force. She was a vindictive woman, and
Lang knew from the past that she didn't bluff.
"What if you lost your job, Kirry?"
"I'd find another," she said. "I'm not hopelessly untalented."
"If you left under a cloud, it might be difficult to find something else as good."
"I'm not going to be fired," she said heavily. "Lorna may not like me, but Mack does, and he can clear
me with the Lancasters. It isn't as if I've done something unforgivable."
He looked worried and couldn't hide it. His dark eyes searched her green ones quietly. She didn't know
what Lorna had threatened. He couldn't tell her, either.
"Are you sure that there won't be any consequences from what we did?" he asked heavilv.
"You're worrying it to death because of one idle remark Connie made! Lang, I'm not pregnant, all right?"
"All right." He laughed at his own concern. He was overreacting. "Then if you're that sure, maybe it
would be better if we let the engagement fade away."
Her eyes narrowed. "That's what Lorna wants, I gather?"
He hesitated."Yes," he said. "That's what she wants." He didn't add why.
She searched his face as if she were saying goodbye. In fact, she was. "Then give her what she wants,"
she replied. "I don't want to sacrifice my future to your conscience. The only reason you wanted the
engagement in the first place was because you felt guilty that we slept together. That's a bad reason to
marry someone, especially when there is no possibility of any consequences," she added firmly.
Women were supposed to know if they were pregnant, he assured himself. She sounded confident.
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Right now, getting Lorna out of the picture before she could damage Kirry's future was the most
important thing. Let her think she'd won. Yes.
"Consider the engagement off, then, if that's what you want," he said.
She managed a smile, but it was strained. "It's what you want," she said, pointedly. "You can't let go of
the past, can you? I never knew why you really wanted out. You never told me anything about your life,
and I didn't even realize it.You wanted me. That's all it ever was."
He didn't denv it, but his face was taut and his eves unread-able.
She turned away. "That's what I thought" she said quietly, as she unlocked her door.
Lang watched her hungrily, averting his eyes when she looked back at him.
"I'll still be around," he reminded her. "Don't let your guard down where Erikson's concerned. And if
you'd rather not keep the lessons going with me, I'll have one of my advanced students work with you. It
would be a shame to stop now."
"Whatever you think," she agreed complacently.
His eyes were weary. "Maybe I am living in the past," he said then. "The fact is, I don't want children
and I can't settle for half a marriage. I'm sorry. Sex isn't enough."
She knew her face had gone pale, but she smiled like a trooper. "No, it isn't," she agreed. "See you
around, Lang."
He nodded. He couldn't trust himself to speak.
She closed the door with a firm click and Lang stood staring at it with his heart in his eyes for a long
moment before he turned and went back to his own apartment. It had never seemed as empty in the past.
Kirry lay awake most of the night, thinking about Lang's comments. Somehow she couldn't equate the
man who'd said sex wasn't enough with the incredibly tender lover of the other night. It had been much,
much more than physical lust. But he wouldn't acknowledge it. And he'd seemed withdrawn the night
before, especially when she'd mentioned Lorna. She didn't know what was going on, but it had to have
something to do with her job. Was she going to be fired? Did he know something she didn't?
Perhaps he'd made that suggestion about an alternate campaign for a purpose. When she got up the next
day, it was with a new resolve. She wasn't going to hang around and wait to be bumped from the
company roster. She had some good ideas. Lorna might not appreciate them, but she knew someone
who would. She put in her notice that very morning, cautioning Mack not to share it with the Lancasters
just yet. He agreed, feeling personally that Kirry had been deliberately dealt a bad hand through Lorna's
catty remarks to her friend, Mrs. Lancaster.
Kirry went to see Reflections, Inc., on her lunch hour. It was a new public relations firm, and the owner
had a lean and hungry look. He hired Kirry on the spot when he heard some of her ideas, even going so
far as to offer her a percentage of the business as well as a salary if she pulled in new business for them.
Her feet hardly left the pavement on the way back to work. Marrying Lang would have made her float
twice as high, but now the job would have to be her satisfaction. If she allowed herself to think about
losing Lang again, she'd go mad.
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By the time she got ready to leave the office, much later than she'd planned to, she'd forgotten all about [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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