Solution: Marriage

Not that Luke seemed aware of his effect on her. “Just hear me out,” he said, his tone betraying a tension of his own, maybe even impatience. “I’ll make it worth your while, I swear it. What I’m offering is, well, let’s just call it a business proposition.”

She didn’t bother to hide her skepticism. “A Parker, playing fair with a Magruder? Now why do I find that so hard to believe?”

Releasing her wrist, he didn’t answer, letting the silence stretch between them as he ushered her along the path. Stiff and withdrawn, he acted as if he were the one with the right to be angry. As if it were her family that had tormented his.

“What are you doing cutting hair at Mamie’s?” he asked suddenly, the change in subject catching her off guard. “Last I heard, you were aiming to be a nurse practitioner. What happened to going to college?”

“Life happened. Like you said, it rarely lives up to our expectations.” She took in a breath, then let it slowly out, determined not to reveal any more to this man. Not that she felt any compunction about burdening him with her troubles; it was more a matter of salvaging her ego. Pride might be a useless commodity in most respects, but when it came to dealing with the Parkers, it was pretty much all she had left.

“I’ve got a kid now,” she said on a higher note, letting every bit of the proud mother shine through in her tone. “A boy, named Robbie.”

That said, Callie watched him carefully. He still wouldn’t look at her.

“Yeah, I heard you married Reb Jenkins.” His distant gaze implied indifference to the topic, but she nonetheless sensed a continued rigidity about him. “Talk about your spur-of-the-moment decision,” he added with the same studied nonchalance. “You were what, three months out of high school?”

And there it was, the zinger she’d been dreading, hitting too close to the bone. “We were in love.” She meant to sound firm, but her tone bordered on defensive. She tried again, determined to keep it calm and logical and free of buried emotions. “At least, we thought we were. When we realized…well, we tried to make the best of things.”

“You mean, you tried and Reb took advantage.”

Of course he’d view it that way. Luke and Reb had never gotten along. They’d always competed for the same things—girls, grades, football scholarships—with Luke generally walking off with the prize.

“Reb and me, we were the proverbial oil and water,” she said, glossing over the uglier truths. Actually, they’d made each other miserable. “We lasted barely a year before he lit off downriver to New Orleans. That’s where he filed the divorce papers, so I’m supposing that’s where he went.”

“You didn’t nail him for desertion?”

And who are you to pass judgment? she wanted to ask him, but it sounded like a woman scorned, and she sure didn’t want him thinking that. He was watching her far too intently as it was. “You can’t milk a stone,” she said, trying to sound offhand. “Besides, who needs Reb? Me and Robbie are doing fine without him.”

“Oh, yes, Robbie. Your son. He must be what now, nine? Ten?”

Underneath the seemingly casual question lay a good dozen emotional land mines, all waiting to blow up in her face. “Robbie just turned nine,” she said, hoping to defuse them. “Me and Reb had him right off. He didn’t want to wait to start a family.”

“Good old Reb,” he said angrily, his gaze burning into her. “Always great at starting things, never there to finish them.”

Callie had her own edge. “Yeah, well, you know what they say. Only the innocent get to throw stones.”

“Biblical references, Cal?” he said, his tone betraying his annoyance. “Now you sound like my old man.”

“Don’t you ever compare me to Ben Parker.” Callie had reached her limit. She’d never claimed to be perfect, but putting that snake’s name and hers in the same sentence went beyond what she could accept. “Let’s get to the point, shall we? Just why did you drag me out here, Luke?”

He seemed startled by her bluntness, but he recovered quickly, his gaze narrowing considerably. “Okay. You once said that if I ever needed a favor, I simply had to ask.”

“Well, you have some nerve, Luke Parker.” She knew she should keep her mouth shut, but the words came bursting from her like the kernels in a microwave bag of popcorn. “One minute you’re insulting me by likening me to Ben, and in the next breath, as casual as you please, you call me in on a long-ago favor?”

He looked past her, his jaw going tight. “Ben is set on me taking over the family business.”

She didn’t need to hear the steel in his tone to know his take on that. Years ago something bad must have happened between father and son, something Luke never talked about, but which had left him vehemently determined to do nothing to increase Ben’s fortune. Back in high school, spending his father’s money never seemed to pose a problem, but for as long as she’d known him, Luke had refused to lift a finger to keep Parker Industries alive and thriving.

“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—”