Free Suddenly a Bride by Kasey Michaels Page B

hands-free cell phone to call his cousin. She answered after five rings, her voice sounding as if he’d woken her up. Good.
    “Chessie, this isn’t going to work.”
    “Wha…who—Will? What time is it?”
    He shot a look at the dashboard clock. “Not quitemidnight. And I mean it, Chessie. This isn’t going to work. I’m going to call it off.”
    “You’re going to call what off? For God’s sake, Will, it’s midnight. Just because you can operate on less than eight hours’ sleep doesn’t mean the rest of us can. Call me back in the morn—Oh, wait. Um…does this have anything to do with Elizabeth? I thought you told me you were just taking the three of them to a ball game. Ah, man, Will, what did you do?”
    “Nothing,” he told her, looking to his left before pulling out onto the highway. “I did nothing, I should do nothing, I am doing nothing. It was a stupid idea, Chessie. She’s not my type.”
    “If you mean she isn’t cold and ambitious and only out for herself, then no, she isn’t.”
    “Leave Kay out of this,” Will told her, concentrating more on his driving than he was on what Chessie was saying. Always a mistake.
    “Aha! So you knew just who I meant, didn’t you?”
    “Never mind that. I’m just telling you—”
    “Never mind that? You wake me up in the middle of the night, and then don’t even give me a moment to gloat when I score a major hit? Hi, Will, this is Chessie—remember me? I gloat. I live to gloat.”
    “Yeah, yeah, score one for Chessie. Can we get back to the reason I called, please? Because your plan is full of holes, Chess. There’s no such thing as just waking someone up. You have to figure out what to do with them once they’re awake.”
    “You could be nice and hang up and call them againin the morning,” his cousin said. She then added quickly, “Okay, okay, I know you’re not talking about me. You’re talking about Elizabeth. What did you do, Will? Turn on all your boyish charm in one go?”
    “This has nothing to do with me. I’m only saying that Elizabeth…that she’s…” How about that? Him, the silver-tongued lawyer, at a loss for words. “She could get hurt.”
    He could hear Chessie getting out of bed. Well, either she’d thrown back the covers and gotten out of bed, or she had just levitated a good three feet above the mattress. “William Hollingswood…what…did…you…do?”
    “ Nothing. I didn’t do a single thing. All right, almost. I was going to kiss her good-night. Hell, it’s the natural end to an evening. But I didn’t. Chessie, I don’t think the woman’s been out on a date since her husband died. How do I say this and not have you crawl through the phone and murder me? Okay, I can’t. She’s ripe, Chess. Ripe for the plucking.”
    “But you won’t…pluck. Right?”
    Will closed his eyes for a moment. “No, I won’t. But she knew I wanted to. She’s a nice woman, Chess. A lady, a mom, for crying out loud.”
    “Not your type.”
    “God, no.”
    “Did you want to kiss her? Or was this one of those, ‘oh, hell, we’re here, why not’ deals?”
    “I don’t know,” Will said honestly. “What I do know is that Elizabeth is the forever type, and I’m not. On myown I never would have asked her out. So, since you’re the one who got me into this, how do I shut this thing down without hurting her?”
    His cousin was silent for a few moments, and then surprised him. “There’s a thing? Really? You know, Will, it could just be that Elizabeth doesn’t find you all that captivating. Did you think about that one? Okay, so you took her out. One time. Do you really think you’ve now ruined her for all other men or something? God, that’s arrogant.”
    “You’re right.” Will pulled into his own driveway and cut the engine. “It was one date. And not even a date, since we had the twins with us. It was just a friendly evening. I’m overreacting,” he said, sitting back in the bucket seat. “Of course I am.