Rainier Drive (Cedar Cove #6)(74)

Bobby ignored that. “Sit.” He gestured to a swivel chair covered in soft white leather. He handed Teri a tissue, which she gladly accepted. She blew her nose and thought it sounded like a trumpet call. She wasn’t one of those women who could weep elegantly.

“Why won’t you marry me?” he asked. He looked puzzled again, as if he’d done something wrong.

“Don’t you see?” she cried. “I don’t want to love you, but I do.”

“I know.”

“It’s your fault,” she cried.

“Maybe,” he said. “I worked hard so you’d love me. You’re funny and wise and beautiful.”

“You don’t think I’m fat?” she asked him.

“Well…a little. It doesn’t matter, though. I like you the way you are. Can we get married now?”

“Bobby,” she said, recovering quickly. “No. I’m sorry, no.”

He frowned, then got down on one knee in front of her. “I told you I’m not good with emotion. I think too much, but when I’m with you I don’t want to think, I want to feel and I like that. That’s never happened before. When I’m with you, I want to do…things that don’t involve chess.”

“What sort of things?” she asked, growing suspicious.

His eyes were so honest and full of love that she couldn’t have looked away for anything. He kissed her. She enjoyed Bobby’s kisses because they were different from those she generally received. With other men, there was a hot urgency. But Bobby’s kisses were gentle and lingering, as if he savored her. She craved his touch. His kisses were unselfish and they made her feel as if she’d never been kissed before. Ironically, she was the one with the sexual experience, not Bobby.

She needed every ounce of strength she possessed to break off his kiss.

“Will you marry me now?” he asked. With childlike innocence, his eyes implored her.

Teri swallowed back tears and shook her head. The things he hadn’t heard about her yet—and there were a lot—would change his mind fast enough, and sooner or later he’d find it all out. “You don’t know me.”

Instead of arguing, he kissed the side of her neck. Teri thought she’d dissolve into a puddle at his feet. The only sure way to end this was to enlighten him with the truth. “I’ve…there’ve been lots of other men.”

“Yes, I know. From now on there will be only me.”

She gripped his shoulders and pushed him away. “You know?”

He nodded.

She swallowed and in a small voice asked, “Everything?”

He nodded again.

The thought of Bobby learning about the litany of stupid, lethal relationships she’d stumbled into and out of mortified her.

“How?” Her eyes narrowed.

“Can I kiss you again?”

“No. Answer the question.”

“If I answer the question, can I kiss you?”

She sighed and nodded. She didn’t have the strength of will to refuse him.

She’d meant he could kiss her after he’d answered, but he didn’t wait. He gave her a long, loving kiss that made her go weak inside.

“All right,” she said, her eyes still closed as he ended the kiss. “What do you know about me?”

“Dwight Connell.” The jerk who’d emptied her bank account. “Ray Hawkins.” The guy she’d had to throw out of her apartment with the sheriff’s help. “Carl Jackson.” Her first boyfriend, now in jail. “Randy—”

“All right, all right. How did you learn all that?”

“It wasn’t hard.” He paused. “My job is to play chess and yours is to cut hair. There are people whose job it is to find things out, and I asked one of them.”

“Oh.” She didn’t have the energy to feel offended. She would’ve told him all of that, anyway.

He pulled the ring out of his pocket and took her hand. The diamond glided onto her finger as if that was where it belonged.

She couldn’t stop staring as Bobby pushed the same button he had earlier. The door opened and the stairs descended. Two uniformed men boarded the plane, followed by James, and walked past Teri into the cockpit, each murmuring a polite “Hello.”

Within minutes, the plane was at the end of the runway. “Where are we going?” she asked Bobby.

He seemed surprised by the question. “Las Vegas.”

Teri was speechless. How had this happened? Thirty minutes ago, she’d categorically refused to see this man again. Ten minutes ago, she’d still felt that way—and now all of a sudden she was flying to Vegas to marry Bobby Polgar, a man she’d seen a grand total of three times in her life. She hadn’t even slept with him, and she was about to marry him.

“Did I agree to this?” she asked tentatively.

“You want to marry me and I want to marry you.” Apparently that seemed an unquestionable fact to him, so he’d taken the next logical step—they were on their way to Vegas.

“I…I didn’t bring any clothes with me.”

Bobby smiled. “You won’t need clothes.”

Teri giggled, suddenly so happy she wanted to sing—and she had a terrible voice. Whenever she broke into song, the dogs in the neighborhood joined in. Using a special phone Bobby handed her, she called Rachel and asked if she’d cover for her the next few days and promised to keep in touch.