Hunter's Bride and A Mother's Wish: Hunter's Bride / A Mother's Wish

Trying to avoid her father’s gaze, she whisked herself off to the kitchen. Daddy knew his children only too well. He’d always been harder to fool than her mother—not that she’d spent a lot of time trying to fool either of them, even as a child. But she’d seen the twins try, and fail, too many times. This cozy little trip together was not a good idea.

And what had given Daddy the idea? He didn’t take the morning off just to—The thought struck her with a certainty she couldn’t deny.

Gran and her matchmaking.

She pressed her palms to overheated cheeks. She could just imagine the conversation.

All Chloe’s young man needs is a little push to propose, Gran would say. It’s up to us to see he gets it. Chloe will be the next Caldwell bride.

Now what was she going to do about that?

She still didn’t have an answer an hour later, when she stood on the dock handing a picnic basket to Luke. He’d already been on the boat with her father when she’d come down. What had they been talking about? She tried to think of one single thing they had in common, and couldn’t. Except, possibly, her.

She gave Luke a sharp look as she accepted the hand he held out, and climbed onto the Spyhop. “Are you sure you want to do this?” She spoke under the noise of the motor. “Daddy would understand if we begged off.”

Luke looked at her questioningly. “Don’t you trust me around your father, Chloe?”

She definitely should have laid down the law to Luke about her father, as she had about Theo. “It’s not that.” Since she didn’t believe herself, she felt quite sure he didn’t believe her, either. “I just thought this wouldn’t be much fun for you. The water might be rougher out on the sound today.”

“Then, I’ll have to depend on you to keep me safe, won’t I?”

His low voice teased her, and she felt a little ripple of…what? Longing for a relationship with him in which teasing spoke of affection? That was a dangerous way to think.

Luke turned away to help her mother on board, drawing her gaze. Had he borrowed the jeans and T-shirt from one of her brothers? It certainly wasn’t his usual garb. Before this trip, she’d have said he wouldn’t look at ease in anything but a business suit. But he seemed perfectly at ease now, with the T-shirt stretching across broad shoulders and looking even whiter against his tanned arms.

She shouldn’t be noticing that, she told herself firmly, bending to stow the hamper in the locker and taking the jug of sweet tea her mother handed her. She should imagine Luke right back into one of his expensive suits. Maybe then she’d be able to get through this trip.

She started forward, but her mother caught her arm.

“I’ll go up front with your daddy, honey.” She nudged her toward Luke, smiling. “You sit back here and keep Luke company.”

Matchmaking, she thought despairingly. Oh, Gran.

Before she could come up with a really good reason to sit forward, her father was asking Luke to cast off the lines. When she made a move to do it, Luke edged past her and leaned across to the dock.

“I’ve got it.” He nodded toward the seat. “You sit down and be a lady of leisure this trip.”

He must have watched her handle the lines the last time, because he did it perfectly, with not the slightest hesitation to show how much he disliked leaning out over the water. He even coiled the lines the way she had.

“Very nice,” she murmured, when he sat down next to her. “You must have been taking lessons.”

“Somebody talked me into it.” He smiled, then draped his arm casually across her shoulders. “Don’t forget, you have to hold on to me if I get nervous.”

“Aren’t you afraid I’ll push you in, instead?” She wouldn’t turn her head to look at him. His face was too close to hers, and she was already too aware of the weight of his arm against her.

He squeezed her shoulders. “Not a chance,” he said softly in her ear. “I trust you, Chloe. You’d never let me down.”

She tried not to respond to that, tried not to think that he meant anything by it. He trusted her as his assistant—that was all.

The Spyhop rounded the curve of the island, passing the yacht club dock. The sound stretched in front of them, waves glistening in the sunlight. A laughing gull, squawking, flew overhead, probably hoping they’d give him something for his lunch. On the horizon the islands beckoned, lush and mysterious.

She felt Luke’s movement as he inhaled deeply, tilting his head back as if to take it all in.

“Beautiful,” he murmured.

He turned toward her, so that she felt his breath against her cheek.

“It’s really beautiful, Chloe. Thank you for bringing me here.”

He hugged her, his cheek warm against hers as if they really were the couple her family believed them to be.

Chloe smelled like sunshine. Funny that he’d never noticed that before. Luke held her protectively, feeling her slim figure sway against him as her father sent the boat in a wide arc toward the island. He was enjoying this, maybe a little too much.

Enjoyment had been the last thing on his mind when her father had invited them to go along today. It had been on the tip of his tongue to say no, but Clayton Caldwell’s shrewd gaze had suggested he wouldn’t buy an easy excuse. And then Luke had thought of Chloe and the concerns she’d brought up the day before.

He’d been angry at first over her attitude toward his talk with her brother. After all, he hadn’t approached Theo. Theo had come to him.

But he couldn’t help being impressed by how much she cared about her family. Her passionate defense of them was outside his experience, and he didn’t really understand it. The only thing he had to compare was his friendship with Reverend Tom and the debt he owed to the man who’d taken him off the streets and given him a future.

Well, he was determined to try his best to fit in here, for Chloe’s sake. This trip gave him an excuse to look over the area and make Chloe’s parents happy. Unfortunately, Chloe didn’t seem to be reacting quite the way he’d hoped. She sat stiffly within the circle of his arm, as if she’d pull away at the first excuse.

He squeezed her shoulder. “Come on, Chloe.” He spoke softly under the noise of the motor. “Lighten up. You’re not on your way to the guillotine.”

That startled her into meeting his eyes. “I’m not acting as if I am.”

“Sure you are.” He moved his hand, brushing her hair. It flowed like silk over his fingers. “I know you don’t like the pretense, but can’t we at least be friends?”

Her mouth tightened, and her eyes were very bright. “Friends, or boss and assistant?”

“Friends,” he said firmly.

“Maybe being friends isn’t such a good idea. When we go back to Chicago…” She stopped, and her gaze eluded his. “Well, it might cause problems.”

That unsettled him. He hadn’t really considered what their relationship was going to be like when they went back to the city, back to their relative positions in the company. He’d only thought about that corner office, with the vice-president title on the door.

“Don’t be ridiculous.” It came out more sharply than he intended. “We’ve always worked well together, and we always will. Nothing will change between us.”

“Maybe,” she said softly, looking away. “Maybe you’re right.”

Annoyance shot through him. All right, he hadn’t thought through that part of it very well. So he couldn’t go back to looking at Chloe as if she were nothing more than an efficient assistant. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but Chloe looked as if it were the end of the world.

He opened his mouth to tell her so, but the motor suddenly throttled back and their privacy vanished. Chloe slid to the edge of the seat, putting several inches between them.

“There it is—Angel Isle.” She pointed.

“Looks pretty good, doesn’t it, Chloe-girl?” Her father swung the boat toward a dock, cutting the motor so that they drifted in.

“Looks great to me.” Chloe scrambled to fasten the lines. “Not a thing has changed.”