Trust Me on This - Jennifer Crusie [64]
He turned and looked directly into her cleavage. “I thought I saw somebody I knew,” he said, his eyes moving from Dennie’s breasts to Sherée’s retreat and back to Dennie’s breasts again.
Oh, hell, Dennie thought, and drew in as deep a breath as she could, filling her lungs all the way to her toes. The fourth button popped, and she said, “Whoops,” and shoved the pen in Bond’s hand. “Sign it, honey.”
He signed.
“From now on, you wear turtlenecks,” Alec said.
An hour later, Dennie’s life was a little simpler. Bond had been taken downtown for further questioning—“Like the next fifteen years,” Alec said—and Sherée had finished explaining her bolt—“I was so nervous, I just needed some fresh air”—and Donald was making his move on Victoria once more, which was vaguely amusing since this time it wasn’t Dennie’s trauma.
“How clever of you to trick this Bond fellow,” Donald was saying to Victoria. “Although you really should have told me. I could have been a geat help.”
“You were a great help, Donald,” Victoria said, looking around for someone. “I’m going to miss you.”
“Nonsense,” Donald said. “I realize now that the argument we had in the elevator was because you were distracted by all of this. You’ll marry me yet, you’ll see.”
“Actually, she probably won’t,” Alec said, coming to stand beside Dennie. “Aunt Vic is married to her career. Nice try, though, Mr. Compton. Best of luck in the future.”
Dennie leaned against him a little, and his arm went around her. He’d rescued her, he’d been there when she’d fallen, just as he’d promised.
For some reason, Dennie wasn’t as grateful about that as she thought she’d be.
“Nonsense,” Donald was saying. “A woman like Victoria should be married.”
“That’s what I thought,” Harry growled from behind him. “That’s why I asked her.”
Dennie felt Alec’s arm drop away from her.
“Harry?” he said.
“If you think I’m going to ask for her hand in marriage from you,” Harry snarled at him, “you’re nuts.”
“Let me get this straight.” Alec looked from Harry to Vic and back again. “You weren’t around for the arrest this morning, which is unheard of, and now you’re marrying my aunt and moving to Columbus?”
“No,” Harry said. “I’m marrying your aunt and going God knows where. Chicago is yours. I quit.”
“You quit.” Alec swallowed, and then he looked at Victoria. “You’re going to take Harry onto a college campus with you.”
“No, I quit too,” Victoria said.
Dennie patted his shoulder. “Hang in there. Change is good for you.”
“I thought that was trauma,” Alec said.
“That too,” Dennie said. “Say congratulations to your nice aunt and new uncle.”
“Uncle Harry?” Alec said, and Harry said, “Oh, hell.”
* * *
Another hour later and the lobby had emptied, Harry and Vic gone to catch a plane and Donald off to console himself with a drink and a sympathetic Sherée, who promised to tell him everything she’d done to save him when she’d turned state’s evidence against Bond.
Alec was never happier to see people go in his life.
“I don’t want another morning like this one,” he said, putting his arm around Dennie and trying to steer her toward the elevators. “I think we should go upstairs to bed and start this day over.”
“I can’t.” Dennie stood still, and Alec had to stop or lose her.
“Is this the Janice Meredith thing?” he asked. “Because I can fix that.”
“I don’t want you to fix it,” Dennie said. “Remember that thing you said about catching me until I was ninety-six?”
“Yes,” Alec said. “And I will.”
“I don’t want you to,” Dennie said. “I want to catch myself. I need to know I can make it myself. Alone.”
Alec felt cold. “I was with you until you got to the last word.”
“Listen, all my life Patience was there for me.” Dennie came closer to him until she was almost touching him, her eyes directly on his. “And then today you were there. But there was a tiny moment, only a couple of minutes, where I had to fight my own battle. And I liked it. I just never got a chance to finish it.” She bit her lip. “I love you, Alec, but I have to do this first. I need to be on my own.”
“How