Free All That Matters by Loralee Lillibridge Page A

surface of her skin. “You need special attention, Faith. Let me take care of you.”
    She clung to the side of the bed to keep from dissolving into a puddle of adoration for this man and his tenderness.   Darn it. That was all it took to convince her that this was turning out to be a whole lot more than she’d bargained for. Why hadn’t she ever noticed his feelings before? Now it was too late to acknowledge them. Her plans for the future didn’t include a permanent husband. But how was she going to explain that without hurting him?
    “Maybe we’d better wait until later to talk about stuff,” he said, moving away from the bed to stand by the window.
    “Stuff?”
    He rubbed the back of his neck and turned to her. “Look, Faith, we can’t keep ignoring the situation. When we get back home, people will have questions. Lots of them, I imagine. I don’t have any answers. We need to get our stories straight.”
    She sat up in bed, and he was relieved to see color back in her cheeks. In fact, she was glowing—as in sunburned.   Well, what next? He didn’t even want to guess.
    “Everyone knows we were friends in school. We’ll just let them think we were seeing each other in Granite City,” she said.
    “Doesn’t say much for your relationship with Royce the past year.   Makes it look like you were two-timing him.” And makes me look pretty damn sleazy.
    Faith sighed. “I know it’s awful, but if we say it happened three months ago, Royce and I weren’t engaged then. Most people in town still consider me irresponsible anyway.”
    “Yeah, and guess what they think of me,” he muttered. “Boyd’s boy making trouble, just like his old man.”
    “You didn’t make the trouble, Buddy Lee. I did.”
    She eased her legs over the side of the bed and slowly made her way across the room. The flimsy blue thing she wore just about covered her fanny. Aw, man, what was she trying to do to him? He turned to face the window before he gave in and kissed her again.
    Behind him, she slipped her arm around his waist and his whole body stiffened. If she didn’t knock that off, there was going to be more than trouble made. Right here, right now.
    He swiveled, scooped her up and carried her back to the bed.   That tantalizing, king-sized, made-for- lovin ’ waterbed.
    “ Wha ....” Faith sputtered.
    “Don’t start, Faith Nicole. I mean it.” He sat right down next to her and captured both her hands in his. “We’re gonna talk. Now. We’ve been married since yesterday, and nothing’s settled yet. You have to quit pretending. This is real life and, like it or not, we’ve got a helluva mess going here.” He shook his head.   "I don’t even know why I let you talk me into coming down here. We should be back home, finding you a doctor and dealing with your parents. Instead, here we are in who-knows-where-the-hell Mexico, and you’ve got morning sickness in the afternoon, not to mention a deluxe sunburn that needs attention.”
    He brought her fingertips to his lips, kissed them one by one. “ Darlin ’, what am I gonna do with you?”
    Unfortunately, what he wanted to do with her wasn’t even an option, he thought, and went to answer the knock on the door.
    “Couldn’t we eat on the balcony?” Faith asked after the waiter had brought their dinner tray into the room. “I feel much better now. Honest.” The sunset was spectacular, and she didn’t want to miss a single minute of it.
    The cautious look in Buddy Lee’s eyes filled her with remorse. She didn’t blame him for not trusting her. All she wanted to do was have these few days to pretend she’d done something right, something normal like everyone else. So far, he was the only normality in her life.
    She knew he’d agreed to this unconventional situation only because of the kind of man he was—decent and caring. There wasn’t another person in the whole town of Liberty who would’ve put her welfare above his own. Not one. She squeezed back the