Page 51 of The Playboy and the Widow
“Another time,” Joan said, and winked coyly at her mother.
Clearing her throat, Diana lifted the telephone receiver to her ear. “Hello.”
“Diana? What’s this about you leaving for Wichita?”
“Yes, well, I thought I mentioned it.”
A short silence followed. “How long are you going to be gone?”
“Two weeks.”
Her answer was followed by his partially muffled swearing. “Listen, would it be all right if I came over right away?”
Ten
Cliff pulled his sports car into Diana’s driveway and turned off the engine. For a long moment he kept his hands on the steering wheel, his thoughts heavy. Maybe Diana had told him about this trip to Wichita, but if she had, he sure didn’t remember it. He’d reached a decision about himself and his relationship with Diana and her girls. The process had been painful, but now that he knew his mind, he wasn’t going to let a planned two-week vacation stand in his way.
Determined, he climbed out of his car, slammed the door and headed for the house.
Diana met him on the front porch, and once again Cliff was struck by her simple beauty. Her dark eyes with their long, thick lashes searched his face. Her lips were slightly parted, and a familiar ache tightened Cliff’s midsection. If everything blew up in his face today, if worse came to worse and he never saw Diana Collins again, he’d always remember her and her kisses. They’d haunt him.
“Hello, Cliff.” Diana was amazed how cool and unemotional she sounded. She wasn’t feeling the least bit controlled. From the minute they’d finished their telephone conversation, she’d been pacing the upstairs, wandering from room to room in a mindless search for serenity. She’d never heard Cliff sound quite so serious. Now that he’d arrived, she noted that his piercing blue eyes revealed an unfamiliar intensity.
“Hello, Diana.”
She opened the screen door for him.
“Where are the girls?” he asked once he was inside the house. He kept his hands in his pockets for fear he’d do something crazy, like reach for her and kiss her senseless. He’d been thinking about exactly that for four long days. Being with her only increased his need to taste her again.
“Joan and Katie are saying goodbye to all their friends in the neighborhood. You’d think we were going to be gone two years instead of two weeks.” Actually, this time alone with Cliff had been Joan’s doing. Her elder daughter hadn’t been the least bit subtle about suggesting to Katie that perhaps they should take this opportunity to bid their friends a fond au revoir. Katie, however, had been far more interested in seeing Cliff. Diana estimated they’d have fifteen minutes at the most, before Katie blasted into the house.
Cliff jerked a hand out of his pocket and splayed his fingers through his hair. Now that he was here, he found he was tongue-tied. He’d practiced everything he wanted to say and now he didn’t know where to start.
“Would you like some coffee?”
“No, thanks, I came to talk.” That sounded good.
“Okay.” Diana moved into the living room. Whatever was on Cliff’s mind was important. He hadn’t so much as cracked a smile. She imagined his behavior was similar when he stood in the courtroom before the jury box. Each move would be calculated, every word planned for the maximum effect.
Diana lowered herself into the overstuffed chair, and Cliff took a seat directly across from her on the sofa. He sat on the edge of the cushion, his elbows resting on his thighs, and clenched his hands into tight fists.
“How’s Katie?”
Diana’s smile came from her heart. “She’s doing great. After the first day she didn’t even need the pain medication.”
“And you?”
Without his having to explain, Diana understood. “Much better, I... I’m not exactly sure I know what happened that day in the hospital, but emotionally I crumbled into a thousand pieces. I was about as close to being a basket case as I can remember. I’ll always be grateful you were there for Katie and me.”
“Her accident taught us both several valuable lessons.”
“It did?” Diana swallowed around the uncomfortable tightness in her throat. She hardly recognized the Cliff who sat across from her; he was so grim-faced and unreadable.
Cliff seemed unable to take his eyes off her. There was so much he longed to tell her, and he’d never felt more uncertain about how to express himself. Knowing she would be leaving for her parents’ had thrown him an unexpected curveball. He wished he could have taken her to an expensive restaurant and explained everything on neutral ground. Now he felt pressured to clear the air between them before she left for Wichita.
“Until Katie broke her arm,” he went on to say, “I’d more or less decided, after our late-night conversation, that you were right and it was best for us not to see each other again.” He sat stiffly, feeling ill at ease. “It didn’t take you long to see through me—I’m definitely not the marrying kind, and you knew it. You appealed to my baser instincts and I appealed to yours, but anything more than that between us was doomed. Am I right?”
Out of nervous agitation, Diana reached for the pillow with the cross-stitch pattern and fluffed it up in her lap. “Yes... I suppose so.”
