“So you and Ben are banging heads again,” she told him, crossing her arms at her chest. She wanted to sound aloof and uncaring, but her curiosity kept getting in the way. “I don’t get it, Luke. Just how do you expect me to help you?”
His expression eased a bit, as if he’d sensed a crack in her resistance and meant to bulldoze his way through the opening. “Way I see it,” he said carefully, “is that the man will keep wheedling and coaxing and bullying me straight through to doomsday if I don’t soon take action. I need to make myself so undesirable, he’d rather have Bozo the Clown run the business. And that, darlin’, is where you come in.”
“Well, thank you. Do I have to wear the orange wig and oversize shoes?”
“Not exactly.” A tiny grin played at his mouth. “I don’t want a clown. I was thinking more along the line of Jezebel.”
She froze, wary about where he seemed to be going with this. “Forget it, Luke. I’ve got better things to do than play your girlfriend so you can annoy your father.”
“I’m not asking you play my girlfriend,” he said, the grin vanishing. “No indeed, Callie, I’m asking you to be my wife.”
Chapter Three
“No!” Staring at him in absolute astonishment, Callie felt as if he’d knocked the stuffings right out of her. Of all the idiotic things Luke could have suggested, marriage had to top the list.
“It’s the only solution,” he said firmly, as if neither of them had a choice. “It’s the one sure way to get Ben off my back.”
She wanted to make more of a protest, but, reeling from Luke’s unconventional proposal, she could barely process the words. The doctors must have slipped him some hallucinatory drug for his injured arm, she decided. It was the only explanation for such a preposterous suggestion. She and Luke Parker, husband and wife? Oh, granted, there had been a time when she’d have gladly died for this moment, but she’d come a long way from the dewy-eyed schoolgirl she’d been then.
“You’re out of your mind,” she told him, shaking her head in disbelief. “Can you truly be so vain, you actually thought I’d jump at your offer?”
If so, she’d apparently yet to convince him otherwise. “Hear me out,” he said, taking her hands in his own. “You might actually find this to your benefit.”
“Right.” She yanked her hands free, remembering only too well what his touch could do to her resolutions. “Me and mine always get the better end of any deal with you Parkers.”
She expected him to argue, but he merely nodded. “No one will be getting the best of anyone. I’m not pretending I’m Santa Claus. I stand to gain from this, too. As I said, it’s a business proposition.”
“Funny way to do business. Taking on a wife and another man’s son—tell me, who’s getting back at who? Wouldn’t it be simpler just to tell your father no?”
“Ben Parker?” He looked disappointed in her. “You, of all people, should know he’ll never take no for an answer.”
“Must be a family trait.”
He shook his head as if exasperated, but he didn’t back down. “Look, I’m in a real bind here. If you can think of another way to make Ben lay off, I’m eager to hear it, but presenting Zeke Magruder’s granddaughter as my wife will do the job clean and quick. No offense intended, but you know how Ben feels about you and your family. If he has to worry about a Magruder whispering in my ear at nights, he won’t let me within fifty miles of his precious company.”
He was right about that much. Ben Parker had no more love for her than she had for him. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder why Luke would so adamantly pursue this course. Marriage was such a major—not to mention permanent—solution.
“Your stint up north must have robbed you of what little good sense you had,” she told him. “We tried a relationship, remember? It barely lasted five weeks.”
He stared at her, his blue eyes probing into her. “We weren’t really trying for a relationship, Callie. I told you up-front that all I wanted was a friend.”
So he had. At least, those were the words coming out of his mouth. The way he’d acted, the way he’d held her and made her feel was another story altogether. “And now all you want is a wife,” she countered, getting angrier by the moment. “I guess what I want never factors into the equation.”
“What do you want, Cal?”
The question caught her so off guard, she nearly blinked. If she were to say the first thing in her head, it would be that she wanted him to stop stirring up all these unwanted memories and emotions.
“I don’t want anything from you, Luke Parker,” she told him defiantly.
He ignored her. “People always want money. Help me out, Cal, and I’ll take care of you financially. You can quit your job—”
“I’m not quitting my job.” Working for Mamie might be a far cry from what she wanted to do in life, but she could take pride in making the ladies of Latour look prettier, and in the fact that she was earning her own way. “And I refuse to take one cent of Ben Parker’s money.”
He looked almost insulted. “We’re in total agreement then. I wasn’t exactly a bum up in New York, Cal. Trust me, I have more than enough money of my own. Money I’ve learned to put to good use, so I know what’s a good investment.” He glanced over his shoulder at the salon. “You don’t belong at Mamie’s, and we both know it. Keep the job, if it’s that important to you, but you belong in college. That’s why, along with the legal documents making sure you and your son will be well provided for, I’m including a trust fund to finance your education.”
She could feel herself bristling. Magruders didn’t take handouts, especially from a Parker. “I can pay my own way through college, thank you all the same.”
“I know that.” The concession, coupled with his solemn nod, unruffled a few of her feathers. “But in a way,” he went on smoothly, “what I’m offering is a job. This will be part of your salary. And I’m not just talking about your schooling. I’m offering to finance your son’s education, as well.”
Trust Luke to find her Achilles’ heel. Robbie meant everything to her; she’d do just about anything to make his life better.
“And as proof of my good faith,” Luke went on, “I’ll talk to the doctors at the hospital, get them to release your grandfather to our care. If we can keep him from badgering my father any further, I’m sure there’s no need to keep him confined in a strange place.”
With a sudden, painful lump in her throat, Callie remembered the desperation in her grandfather’s eyes, his steely grip on her wrist as he pleaded with her to get him out of that awful institution. She’d felt so helpless, uttering hollow reassurances about trying her best. Sad fact was, her best hadn’t been good enough. She’d exhausted what little savings she’d had, filing appeals and hounding the parish welfare system, only to discover that nobody cared about the Zeke Magruders of this world. Money, that’s what did the talking, and having so darned much of it, Ben Parker talked louder than most.
“You’re too late,” she said, swallowing the lump to make sure her voice sounded even. “Gramps died last winter.”
“Ah, Callie, I’m sorry. I know how much he meant to you.”
Yes, he did, and Luke’s sympathy was almost her undoing. All that grief, so close to the surface, had her saying far more than was wise. “They said it was old age, that they couldn’t find a more specific cause, but up until your father had him committed to that terrible place, Gramps stayed as young as you or I. I know it was wrong, the way he kept harassing