“Oh, my God!” she said, like she’d just woken up from a nightmare.
He took her carefully by the arms, to steady her and nothing more, not because he just needed to have his hands on her. “It’s okay,” he promised quietly, then turned and addressed the crowd. “Everybody’s fine here. Just a slight misunderstanding. Let’s all move along now. Nothing to see.”
Jane’s mouth fell open, and for a moment, it looked like she was going to hide her face against Wyatt’s chest to keep from having to see anyone. Not that he had any objections.
He had the feeling Jane Carlton very seldom, if ever, let herself really lose it like that, and while he wasn’t a man to condone violence, he had to admit, if any man could push a woman over the edge, it would be one of the Gray men. Leo probably deserved to be whacked with much more than the briefcase.
His mouth twitched. He was aching to grin, but tried to maintain his stern facade as Leo came cautiously closer. Wyatt eased Jane’s face against him in a loose embrace, while she hid for a moment.
Over the top of her head, he mouthed to Leo, “What the hell did you do now?”
Leo shook his head, pretending an innocence Wyatt was sure was completely fake.
“Get out of here,” he mouthed.
Before he turned Jane loose on the man.
Wyatt waited until Leo was far enough away. He felt fairly certain Jane wouldn’t chase after him, if she saw him, and then reluctantly stepped away from her.
She was shaking and felt so tiny in his arms. “You okay now?” he asked.
When she finally lifted her head, she looked a bit dazed and still horrified. “I can’t believe I did that.”
Again, Wyatt had to fight not to grin, because she looked like she was confessing to mass murder.
“Leo’s fine,” he said. “Not a scratch on him.”
“I almost hit another person!” she cried. “An old man!”
“Now that would offend him terribly. Calling him an old man and thinking he was too frail to take you on in a fight.”
“I don’t fight!” Jane cried. “I can’t. I would never. I’ve always been devoted to nonviolent ways of settling disagreements. I abhor violence in any form.”
“An admirable principle,” Wyatt assured her.
“But I could have really hurt him. I mean, I take kickboxing and self-defense classes.”
Wyatt couldn’t help it. He chuckled at that.
Jane, kickboxing? It was laughable, given her size. If her little suits weren’t so severely cut, he’d swear she had to shop in the girl’s department.
“I could have hurt him,” she insisted. “I’ve had abused women go through my seminars. And every now and then, a man gets mad at the things I’ve taught a woman and shows up at the office. I thought it was important to learn to protect myself, that every woman should.”
“Of course,” Wyatt agreed. Mad men came looking for her? Pint-size Jane? He didn’t like the sound of that at all.
“But I never believed I could resort to anything like that myself. Wyatt, this is horrible. This is completely unacceptable. One minute, I was fine, and the next, I just saw red, literally, and I was taking a swing at him.”
“Jane, I’ve nearly decked him a time or two myself, and I assure you that I too abhor violence. I’ve had abused women in my office, as well, trying to work up the courage to divorce their abusers.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said, still aghast at her own behavior, standing on the walkway at the retirement park, looking around like she’d just found herself on another planet.
“It’s all right. I promise. And I’m sorry I grabbed you like that. I was just trying to keep you from hitting him.”
“And I’m so glad you did.”
“What did he do to make you so mad?”
“I went to talk to Gladdy about him, and I caught them necking in her room! And he was so awful! He called me names and said I just needed to learn to have some fun. Fun! He’s going to hurt my grandmother and Gladdy’s feelings terribly, and he thinks it’s fun!”
Jane realized she’d said it like fun was a dirty word, which she didn’t believe, and she wasn’t really a prude, was she?
“But I wasn’t really going to hit him, Wyatt, I swear! I changed my mind. Midway through that swing, I realized what I was doing and changed my mind. I just wasn’t sure if I could stop in time. My briefcase was already headed for him, and I just…I don’t…This is sooo awful!”
“Jane, it’s fine. Everyone’s fine.”
“And then you grabbed me, and I didn’t know it was you, and I—”
“I know. I didn’t mean to manhandle you. I just had to act fast, and…well, I’m sorry.”
And then she looked horrified again, raised her hand to the side of his face and said, “I hit you!”
His right eye throbbed a bit. “It’s nothing,” he insisted.
“No. It’s turning red and a little puffy.” She touched it, with her fingertips, featherlight, trying to find the extent of the blow. “Oh, my God, Wyatt! I could have put your eye out!”
“I seriously doubt that.”
“No, I’ve been trained to do that.” She seemed absolutely convinced that she could. “A man attacks you, you go for the eyes. It’s one of the most vulnerable spots on the body. Eyes, nose with the heel of your hand, groin—”
“Okay, thankfully, I came out of this unscathed.”
“No, we have to get something on that eye. Ohhh,” she fretted. “I feel awful about this. You have to let me help you.”
“Well, if you insist,” he said, turning himself over to her tender care.
Gladdy, Leo and Kathleen watched from the cover of the rhododendrons fifteen feet away.
“Ladies, I’m afraid I overplayed the scene,” Leo said.
“Nonsense. Jane overreacted,” Gram stated. “Gladdy and I should have warned you about that. Poor Jane does tend to overreact.”
“She’s got some fire in her, all right. I like that in a woman,” Leo admitted. “Couldn’t believe she actually took a swing at me. Didn’t think she had it in her.”
“It was the ‘girly’ remark,” Gladdy said. “And I may have overplayed things a bit myself with her.”
“Of course not. It worked perfectly,” Kathleen insisted. “Look at them. Jane feels terrible about what she did and Wyatt’s comforting her. It’s so sweet. They’ve known each other for less than three days and there they are. I’d say our plan to get them together is a rousing success.”
“Well, in that case, ladies,” Leo said, “would you care to join me for a celebratory drink? I have champagne chilling in the minifridge in my room. We can decide on our next move and commemorate the success of this one.”
Wyatt took Jane back to his apartment, which was a mere four blocks away—a sleek, shiny, modern, expensive loft in a high-rise on the edge of town.
Jane taking charge was something to behold. She pushed him down to sit in the middle of the big, cushy sofa the minute they had walked in the door, and told him not to move. He complied.
She got ice from the kitchen, lectured him mildly about the need to take care of himself properly once she found out he didn’t even have an ice pack, explained that one