The Cinderella Deal - Jennifer Crusie [37]
“Pumpkin cake.” Linc stood, bumping her off his shoulder, and went to make the reservations.
They survived dinner.
On the bad side, Chickie got drunk, as usual, and Crawford made a pass at Pansy, and Gertrude left before dessert to go back to her room and sleep.
On the good side, nobody insulted anyone blatantly, Pansy thought Linc was wonderful, and Gertrude didn’t pull her son aside and tell him to get rid of the crazy brunette.
All in all, Daisy thought as she sat in bed making a list of things to do for the wedding, they’d gotten through it. Now only two more days until the wedding, and all these people would go home.
Linc came into the bedroom wearing sweatpants and nothing else and Daisy lost her breath. He had a beautiful body, firm and muscled without being muscle bound. I want to draw him, Daisy thought. I want to paint him. The hell with that, I want to—
“Where’d we get those lamps?” Linc pointed to the ginger jars on each side of his high-tech chrome bed frame.
Daisy found her voice. “Chickie’s wedding present.”
“They’re yellow.”
Right. He didn’t like color. Her lust faded a little. “I don’t think ginger jars come in black leather. I’ll move them when my furniture comes.”
He got into bed beside her. “Yellow.” He opened his book.
Daisy looked at his shoulders. Say something, she told herself. Say something fast before you lean over and bite him. “My mother loves you.”
“I know,” he said, reading. “She told me.”
“Aren’t you glad?”
“Yes,” he said from his book. “My mother likes you too.”
Gertrude? “How can you tell?”
“She spoke to you.”
He was so close and he wasn’t paying any attention to her and it was all she could do to breathe. Daisy put her hand on his book, and he looked up.
“I’m glad she likes me. She’s really very nice. She bought me long underwear today because she said it gets cold in Ohio in the winter. She bought you some too.”
Linc’s face was blank. “Long underwear.”
“It’s really sweet, Linc. She wanted us to be warm.”
“You’re warm enough for both of us.” Linc went back to his book. “I like it better cold.”
Well, that was in character. Daisy sighed and gave up and went back to her list.
“Did you get the rings?”
“What rings?”
“Wedding bands.”
“Oh.” Linc frowned. “Why don’t you go get one that will go with your ring? You can get the right size that way too.”
“What about yours?”
“Mine?”
Daisy looked at him, exasperated. “Not planning on wearing a ring?” she said, and for some reason Caroline sprang into her mind.
“Well, no.”
“It’s traditional,” she said, investing the words with enough weight so that he could translate them into You’d better.
Linc did what he’d been trying to avoid doing ever since he’d walked into the bedroom: he looked at Daisy, propped on the pillows beside him. The thin cotton T-shirt was pulled over her breasts by the weight of the covers, and her curls gleamed in the lamplight and her eyes were huge, and he clenched his hands into fists on his book to keep from reaching for her.
That’s not all that’s traditional, he thought. If I wear a wedding ring, do I get a wedding night?
Then another thought chased that one away: Are you out of your mind?
“Maybe I’ll sleep on the couch.” He got out of bed. Make a note to stay out of beds with Daisy, he told himself. A big note.
“What did I say?” Daisy asked.
“Nothing. We’ll go get rings tomorrow. I’ll pick you up at eleven again. Good night.” He gave himself one more glance at her where she sat warm and round and glowing in the lamplight and then he bolted from the room.
Daisy spent Tuesday trying to organize a wedding with the three witches helping. Chickie and the mothers fought over napkins, centerpieces, vows, showers, favors, appetizers, the bar, the music, and the judge. The only thing they agreed on was that Linc and Daisy should get married, and Daisy wasn’t sure Gertrude was behind that one hundred percent.
Tuesday night they had another dinner from hell.
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