Jennifer Crusie Bundle Read online

  She surrendered and moved toward the door. “All right, you’re terrific. I’m sorry I’m being bitchy. I’m nervous about this weekend. I don’t want to let you down.”

  “You won’t,” Nick said.

  Tess shook her head. “I’m not good at lying. Or at being submissive. And I think Norbert Welch is an obnoxious cynic who relieves his insecurities by deliberately annoying everyone with his smug novels. I probably shouldn’t mention that this weekend, though.”

  “Probably not,” Nick said. “But you probably will, anyway.” He sounded resigned, but not glum. In fact, he seemed pretty buoyant.

  “You’re really optimistic about this, aren’t you?”

  Tess said, smiling because he seemed so genuinely happy. “You really think this is going to work.”

  “I’m just glad to be with you again. I missed you.”

  Tess stopped smiling. “Oh.”

  “I know.” Nick leaned against the wall, the suitcase dangling from one hand. “Don’t say it. You’ve been doing perfectly well without me.”

  “No, I’ve missed you, too,” Tess admitted. “I hate it, but I have.”

  “I know you have,” Nick said. “I am amazed you admit it, though.”

  “I’m trying to remember whether it was your confidence or your politics that annoyed me more,” Tess said.

  “Forget that,” Nick said. “Concentrate on what drew you to me.”

  Tess picked up the hanger that held her plastic-wrapped dress and walked past him to the door. “That would be your companionship, which gave me the ability to do my laundry in the basement without being mugged.”

  “Resist all you want,” Nick said, following her out. “It’s not going to do you any good. You’re with the best, babe.”

  He grinned when she snorted in mock disgust and locked the door behind them.

  Four

  The ride to Kentucky in the late September afternoon was lovely, and Tess let her mind wander, lulled by the warm sunlight that was slowly changing to cool dusk outside her window. Nick’s car, a black BMW, was too expensive and too ostentatious, but it rode like a dream, and she snuggled deeper into the seat, loving the comfort of the butter-soft leather.

  “I love this car,” she said finally.

  Nick looked at her in surprise. “Really? This grossly expensive symbol of conspicuous consumption? I don’t believe it.”

  “Well, it is that. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t sweet.” She turned her head to look at him. “I like being with you, too, you know. When you’re like this. I could ride this way forever.”

  “I knew you’d be putty in my hands,” Nick said. “Play your cards right, sweetheart, and I’ll give you a ride home, too.”

  “You do the worst Bogart in the world.”

  “Yeah, but I’m getting better.”

  “Yeah, but it’s still the worst.”

  Nick grinned over at her, and Tess felt her heart lurch a little. Stop that, she told herself.

  “This idea you have of working at Decker is great,” Nick said, as he swung onto the bridge at the Ohio River. “It would be a good career move for you.”

  “It’s not a career move,” Tess said, craning her neck like a little kid to look out at the water. “I just need to support myself so I can work at the Foundation.”

  “You know, I don’t understand that,” Nick said. “Teaching is teaching. The only difference between the Foundation and Decker is that at Decker you’ll get paid a decent salary and—here’s a bonus—you won’t get mugged.”

  “No,” Tess said. “The difference is that the kids at the Foundation need me more than the kids at Decker. But they’re all kids, so it’ll be all right. I like kids.” She frowned down at the river. “I think I’d like to live on a houseboat.”

  “And Decker is a big step up,” Nick went on. “If Sigler likes you, you could easily move into administration—”

  “I’d die first,” Tess said. “How do houseboats work exactly? I mean, the plumbing.”

  “—and with your brains and focus you could be running the place in a year,” Nick finished. “I think this is just what you needed to get your life together.”

  “What?” Tess said. “Running what place?”

  “You, in administration at Decker,” Nick repeated. “Great idea.”

  Tess shook her head in disbelief. “Let me out of this car.”

  “What?” Nick said, startled. “What’s wrong now?”

  “Listen to me, very carefully,” Tess said. “I do not want to run the Decker Academy. I want to teach at the Foundation where I make a difference. To do that, I will do almost anything, but I will not, under any circumstances, become an administrator and stand around in a suit. Suits make me itch. Is that clear?”

  Nick shrugged. “Sure. It was just a thought.”

  “You have terrible thoughts,” Tess said. “Keep them to yourself. Now about my houseboat…”

  “You have a houseboat?” Nick said. “Since when do you have a houseboat? What are you talking about?”

  “And they say communication is the foundation of a good marriage,” Tess said sadly. “We’re doomed. Of course, I knew that. The apron was a big tip-off.”

  “I don’t get the apron thing, either,” Nick said. “Is this some Betty Crocker fantasy?”

  “I was thinking about baking pie and then making love on the kitchen table.”

  “You can bake pie?” Nick asked, incredulous.

  “No,” Tess said. “I told you, it was a fantasy.”

  “Right,” Nick said. “But you can make love on a kitchen table. I think that needs more discussion. Like later, in my kitchen.”

  “I can make love in the front seat of a car, too,” Tess said. “Not that you’ll ever know, Mr. Conservative.”

  “Speaking of conservative,” Nick said, hastily changing the subject, “thanks for getting Park a date.”

  “Oh,” Tess said innocently. “Did you talk to him? What did he say about her?”

  “Nothing.” Nick cast a suspicious glance at her. “What did you do? Who is this woman?”

  “Oh, don’t worry,” Tess said. “This is a woman who can handle any situation. She’ll be whatever Park needs her to be.” She stopped at the idea. “Within reason. Park wouldn’t make a pass on a first date, would he?”

  Nick’s expression said “Sure, he would” but he said, “Of course not. Stop worrying.”

  “Tell me about this partnership deal,” Tess said before he could ask any more questions, and Nick smiled and began to discuss the implications of getting his name on the door.

  TWO HOURS LATER, dusk had settled over Kentucky, and they were at Welch’s country place, a gem of a white house ringed by rolling hills and white fences and so many beautiful horses that Tess fully expected to see the young Liz Taylor sobbing into a mane at any minute.

  “It looks like a movie set,” Tess said as Nick pulled the car into the long lane.

  “The Long Hot Summer,” Nick said. “Great movie.”

  “With Welch as Will Varner?” Tess considered it. “Could work.”

  “Sure,” Nick said. “And I’ll do the Paul Newman part and you can do Joanne Woodward’s.”

  “That works,” Tess said. “As I recall, they didn’t sleep together in that movie. Just a lot of sexual tension.”

  “They were going to at the end,” Nick said. “They were in the bedroom, laughing.”

  “They were getting married,” Tess pointed out.

  Nick parked the car beside Park’s at the end of the lane. “Could work.”

  “What?”

  Nick got out of the car and walked around to open her door, but she was already tripping out onto the gravel.

  “I said, ‘Could work,”’ Nick repeated as he caught her upright.

  “Getting married? Us? Are you nuts?”

  “Yes,” Nick said. “But it’s situational madness. When I’m not around you, I’m a fully functioning adult. Don’t worry. The urge will go aw