Lighthouse Road (Cedar Cove #1)(77)

It wasn’t only the reunion that was getting her down. Seth was on her mind constantly, although she hadn’t heard from him since the night Warren proposed. Not one word. For a man who claimed to be so crazy about her, he did damn little to show it.

She’d thought…She’d hoped…The hell of it was, Justine didn’t know what she thought anymore. Not about Seth and certainly not about Warren.

She and Warren weren’t getting along, either. It’d serve Seth right if she did accept Warren’s proposal. Even as that idea went through her mind, she knew it was the worst thing she could possibly do.

“Looks like you’ve got company,” Christy Palmer whispered as she walked past Justine’s desk.

Seth. It had to be Seth. Her head shot up with a smile she couldn’t restrain.

Only it wasn’t Seth who strolled into the bank, but Warren. He carried a huge bouquet of fresh flowers in a glass vase. Every eye in the room turned to him as he headed directly for her office.

If Justine could have slid out of her chair and hidden beneath her desk, she would have. She’d promised an answer to his proposal, and the deadline had come and gone, and still she didn’t know what to do.

“Hello, baby.” Warren greeted her loudly enough to ensure that everyone in the bank heard him.

“Hi, Warren,” she returned without emotion.

“I came to invite you to lunch.”

“Sorry,” she said, fighting the urge to be flippant, “but I have a noon meeting.” That was true enough, but she didn’t mention it was a meeting with one of the tellers and would take all of five minutes. If that.

Warren sighed. “I’m still waiting, you know.”

“For what?” She closed the file she was working on.

“You still haven’t given me your decision.”

“I told you,” Justine said impatiently, lowering her voice, “that if you pressure me, the answer is no.”

“Hell, I figure we might as well get married, seeing that all we’ve done lately is argue. Is that what you want? What’s happened, baby? We used to be close and now all of a sudden, it’s like I’m not good enough for you.”

“That’s not it.” How could she explain something she didn’t fully understand herself?

“It’s that high-school reunion of yours, isn’t it?”

Justine didn’t know how many times she’d had to tell him otherwise.

“If that’s not it, then it has to be that old boyfriend you met up with.”

Seth wasn’t an old boyfriend. “I never went out with him.”

“But you wanted to.”

“No.” Not when she was in high school, at any rate. The problem was a more recent one.

“We need to talk,” Warren said urgently.

“Warren,” she began, doing her best not to show her frustration, “I can’t just take off in the middle of the day because you want to chitchat.”

“You could if you married me—you wouldn’t have to work.”

Justine narrowed her eyes. “Don’t say another word.”

“All right, all right.” He held up one hand, smiling. “Come on, this’ll only take a moment.” He set the flowers on the corner of her desk and pleaded with his eyes.

It wasn’t like Warren to be humble. She realized this must be important, at least to him. Normally he went out of his way to act arrogant.

“Fine,” she said, motioning for him to sit down.

“I’d rather do it someplace more private,” he whispered, glancing over his shoulder.

Justine darted a look at her watch. “Listen, I have an appointment in ten minutes. I can leave after that. Would you like to meet outside? We could talk there.”

“All right.”

Justine thought he seemed relieved.

Sure enough, Warren was waiting for her when she left the bank. He was leaning against his car and straightened when she stepped outside. Hurrying around to the passenger side of the car, he held the door and Justine climbed inside. He didn’t need to tell her that the engagement ring was stored in the glove box.

“I only have a few minutes,” she reminded him when he slid into the seat beside her. “I’ve got meetings all afternoon.” A slight exaggeration, but in a good cause.

“You sure you can’t get away for lunch?”

She answered him with a hard look.

He shrugged. “Just asking.”

“What’s all this about?”

Warren gazed out the side window. “I wanted to talk to you about us getting married.”

“Warren!”

“I think I know the reason you can’t make up your mind.”

Great. If he had any insight into that, she’d gladly listen.

“You’ve got the hots for Seth Gunderson.”

For one moment she was too breathless to respond. Breathless with embarassment—and chagrin. “I most certainly do not! That you’d even say such a thing—”

“Now, don’t get mad. The least you can do is hear me out before you get all riled up.” He clenched the steering wheel with both hands—the only outward evidence of tension.

“Fine,” she said curtly. This was what got her about Warren. As insensitive and blind as he could sometimes be, every now and then he had the uncanny ability to know her better than she did herself.