The Right Twin For Him (O'Rourke Family 2) Page 3

  Boy, was she a dope.

  “I’m through with men. That’s all,” she said hastily, trying to send her thoughts in another direction.

  Patrick seemed like a good guy, but it didn’t change anything. She was through with both men and romance. She’d feel melancholy for a while, which was natural, then she’d get back to normal.

  Beth opened her mouth, but whatever she’d planned to say was lost when the door of the shop opened and a woman walked inside, wrestling a baby carriage ahead of her. With an apologetic glance, Beth went to assist the customer, who was casting curious looks from Beth to Maddie and back again.

  More customers came into the store, and Beth rushed over to Maddie. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I’ll put the Closed sign out and get rid of everyone.”

  “No.” Maddie was secretly grateful for the interruption. Finding a sister was the last thing she’d thought would happen when she left New Mexico—not that it was certain they were sisters, she reminded herself. “Don’t do that. I’ll come back tomorrow…or call. I’m staying at the Puget Bed and Breakfast Inn just outside of town.”

  “You could stay with us. We’ve bought a wonderful old house and it’s huge. We’re remodeling so it’s a little dusty, but we’ve got lots of space.”

  Maddie shifted uncomfortably. Beth might well be her sister, but she didn’t know the O’Rourkes or what they expected of her. What she did know was how difficult it would be to stay in the same house with two newlyweds who couldn’t keep their hands off each other. Being a third wheel—on what should have been her own honeymoon—didn’t sound like fun.

  Besides, Beth would undoubtedly want to know more about her almost-a-wedding. She would ask with the best of intentions, but it was too humiliating.

  No.

  She couldn’t talk about Ted and the way he’d cheated on her. Not with Beth. It would be easier confessing to Patrick than tell a woman whose husband obviously thought the sun rose and set in her eyes. Maybe Patrick could help her understand men better, because right now she didn’t have a clue about the opposite sex.

  Oh, yeah, that was a great idea.

  Maybe she could ask his opinion about her less-than-generous bustline. He could tell her if it was really inadequate or just sort of inadequate. Heat crawled up Maddie’s face at the thought. She was losing her mind—totally bonkers.

  “Take it easy,” Patrick murmured in her ear.

  Maddie realized she was gripping his fingers with the fierce hold of a drowning woman. With an effort she let go and shook her head.

  “That’s kind of you, but I can’t,” she said to Beth. “Uh, stay with you. But thanks. I’ll call tomorrow.”

  Beth’s face fell with disappointment, Kane seemed thoughtful, and Maddie deliberately didn’t look at Patrick. She backed out of the shop and hurried up the street, her only thought to get away.

  This just wasn’t her week.

  Patrick looked at his sister-in-law’s upset face and his brother’s worried eyes, and sighed.

  He was going to get in deeper with Maddie, he just knew it. Beth was ready to welcome her with open arms, while Kane was concerned about his pregnant wife getting upset. Somebody would have to run interference.

  That would teach him to take the afternoon off. Officially he worked Monday through Friday, but lately he’d been at the station seven days a week. Right now he was researching radio transmitters, trying to determine the best way to double KLMS’s receiving area. It was a big investment, but it would pay off if he planned right.

  “I’ll go talk to her,” he said, trying not to sound reluctant. He liked Maddie, but getting messed up with her would play hell with his peace of mind.

  The reward for his offer was a kiss on the cheek from Beth and an approving nod from his brother.

  Well…maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

  After all the times Patrick had screwed up, it felt good to be the one helping out.

  Maddie’s rental was parked at the curb, which meant she was on foot. He spotted a flash of turquoise and scarlet down the street. She hadn’t been wearing her jacket and the temperature was dropping, so he checked the rental. Sure enough, it wasn’t locked. She’d probably tell him that nobody locked their cars in Slapshot and be surprised to hear she ought to do it here in Washington.

  Slapshot.

  Who ever heard of a town being called Slapshot? There was a story behind that name, which he’d undoubtedly hear if he spent enough time with Maddie. Deep down Patrick thought the way her tongue ran away with itself was charming. Most of the women he knew were trying so hard to be sophisticated you couldn’t tell what they were really thinking.

  Patrick pulled a jacket from the front seat. A faint scent of sage rose from the garment, mixed with a sweet fragrance that had to be Maddie’s own perfume. He draped the jacket over his arm and headed for her with a long stride.

  “Hey, Maddie,” he murmured when he’d gotten close enough. “We have to stop meeting like this.”

  She regarded him gravely, without the slightest suggestion of a smile at his weak joke. “Do you really think Beth is my sister?” she asked.

  “Maybe.” Actually, he thought it was likely, but since Maddie seemed ambivalent on the subject, he didn’t say so.

  “She seems nice.”

  “She is.”

  “And your brother is really in love with her.”

  It was the second time she’d said something about love, and Patrick felt as if a lightbulb had gone on over his head. That was the problem. Maddie’s heart had been broken. Now she’d met a possible sister who was happily married and newly pregnant. No wonder she didn’t want to stay with Kane and Beth.

  “Tell you what,” he murmured, abandoning his resolve not to have anything to do with Maddie’s obviously troubled love life. “If you show me the low-down louse that made you cry, I’ll beat him up.”

  “You…” Maddie stopped and actually smiled. “Would you do that?”

  “In a cold second.”

  Patrick meant it, too. His best defense was to think of Maddie like another sister, and he’d defend his sisters with the last breath in his body. All his brothers felt the same; guys learned not to mess with the O’Rourke women if they had any brains in their heads. Of course, their sisters didn’t seem to appreciate the effort and complained every chance they got about them being overprotective Neanderthals.

  “Here, it’s getting cold.” He dropped her jacket around her shoulders.

  “Thanks.” Maddie caught the lapels together.

  “Do you want to get some lunch?”

  She shook her head. “Thanks, but not today.”

  “Come on, Maddie,” he wheedled. “It’s been hours since breakfast, and I hate eating alone.”

  Maddie doubted it. Patrick O’Rourke seemed comfortable with himself, though he was hardly a lone-wolf sort of guy. He could probably have all the feminine companionship he wanted, so she ought to be flattered he wanted her companionship. But since she was through with men and romance, she wasn’t the least bit flattered.

  Well, maybe a little.

  And her ego was certainly bruised enough to crave some bolstering.

  Only, she couldn’t. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings or anything, but she wasn’t…all at once her heart fell to a new low, along with her bruised ego. The invitation didn’t have anything to do with her, just the fact she might be related to his sister-in-law.

  “Men,” she muttered.

  “Excuse me?” Patrick said, astonished.

  “You’re just being nice because I might be Beth’s sister.”

  “Is there anything wrong with that?”

  “Well…no, but…no. It’s just that things are a little mixed up right now, and I shouldn’t be here at all.” Maddie sniffed. She wanted to be strong and independent, but a strong and independent person would be home now, dealing with the aftermath of her ruined wedding. At the very least she should have helped her mom put all that food away instead of flying
halfway across the country.

  “You’re not going to cry again, are you?” Patrick asked suspiciously. “Tears make me nervous.”

  “No kidding.”

  If there was anything Maddie did know about men, it was that they didn’t like to see a woman crying. Her father was a terrible softy when it came to a wobbly mouth and tears, and her mother had explained at an early age that it wasn’t right to get things just because she cried.

  Problem was, Maddie cried at the drop of a hat. It snowed and she cried, because it was so pretty. A baby kitten standing on unsteady feet turned the waterworks on big time. And she went through boxes of Kleenex at Christmas and Easter.

  “I’ll try not to upset you any more than necessary,” she assured him. “Which won’t be a problem at all, because it’s not like we’re friends, or anything, though you did kiss me. And even if Beth is my sister, I’m not sure that makes you family. I mean, it would in Slapshot because family is family, but I don’t know about Washington.”

  Patrick groaned.

  He’d never met a woman whose emotions were so close to the surface. She blurted out every thought that came into her head, and everything she felt flitted uncensored across her face. Now he felt like a jerk for acting as if her tears were an imposition.

  “Don’t worry about it. Why shouldn’t you be here?” he asked, figuring he should make up for his big mouth, though it probably meant hearing things he’d rather not know about.

  “Oh.” Maddie looked unhappy again. “It’s just that I left Mom and Dad to take care of everything. I should have stuck around for a while, then left.”

  He shouldn’t ask, but he couldn’t help himself. “Take care of what?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “Two hundred pounds of coleslaw, potato and macaroni salad. Three hundred pounds of cheese, ham, turkey and beef. Over a thousand of those dumb little crusty rolls. Gallons of mayonnaise, fancy mustards and a bunch of other stuff.”

  “Really?” Patrick didn’t have the slightest idea what she was talking about.

  “Some of the ‘other’ stuff was a four-tier wedding cake,” Maddie added, then bit her lip as if she regretted saying anything at all.

  He whistled beneath his breath. He’d guessed she was recovering from a bad romance, but he’d never expected something so dramatic. Something had happened on her wedding day? Once again he decided he should keep his mouth shut, but his vocal cords were having a day of glorious freedom.

  “What happened?”

  “I caught my fiancé kissing the woman we hired to serve the punch.”

  Patrick winced. Still, it could have been a misunderstanding. “Maybe—”

  “Maybe nothing.” Maddie scowled and stuck her chin out. “He had her blouse off, and her D-cup bra was hanging from his pocket. What is it with men, anyway? Breasts are breasts. Why does size matter so much?”

  Patrick gulped.

  He liked women’s breasts—big ones, little ones, they were all terrific in his opinion. But it was hardly a discussion they should be having on a public street. At the same time a surge of anger swept over him, anger at the unknown man who’d callously cheated on his bride-to-be. How could that guy take advantage of an innocent like Maddie and still look himself in the mirror? At his worst he’d never taken advantage of a woman, and he certainly wouldn’t cheat on his bride-to-be.

  “I think your fiancé has the brains of a squirrel,” Patrick said. “I could say something about another part of his pea-size anatomy, but I won’t since I’m in mixed company.”

  Maddie giggled, though a bright pink flooded her cheeks. “I’m sorry about that ‘men’ comment. You really are nice.”

  Nice?

  Patrick gave her a measured look. Having watched four sisters go through some unhappy romances, he knew women were vulnerable when their hearts were broken. His sisters always talked about meeting a “nice” man after breaking up with a boyfriend.

  If things were different he’d enjoy getting to know Maddie intimately, as long as she understood it wasn’t going to last. But that didn’t make him “nice,” at least according to the female definition of the word.

  “Don’t get the wrong idea about me,” he said carefully. “I’m not that nice.”

  Maddie sobered instantly, recognizing a warning when she heard it. Her chin lifted. “Don’t worry, I’m not getting any ideas.”

  “I just don’t—”

  “I said not to worry.” She gave him a tight smile. “But you’re right about it getting cold. I think I’ll go back to my room at the inn.”

  Patrick groaned. Oh, yeah, he’d handled that really well.

  Chapter Three

  “Maddie, wait.” Patrick caught her arm and swung her around. “I’m sorry.”

  She gave him an innocent look. “About what?”

  Hell, he was going to pay big-time for his big mouth. “About being a jerk, all right? I’ve got four sisters and I’ve seen them get hurt even more when they’re…well…”

  “On the rebound,” she finished, her mouth turned down. “I hate that word, it sounds like something out of a basketball game. But you seem to have forgotten that you’re the one who keeps following me. So even if I did have ‘ideas,’ which I don’t, it wouldn’t be my fault.”

  “You’re right.” Patrick held up his hands in surrender. He must have sounded incredibly arrogant, but he’d hate to see a sweet kid like Maddie get hurt again, and he’d hate it worse if he was the one responsible. “If I abjectly apologize and say I was out of my mind, will you forgive me?”

  Maddie sighed. She wanted to be furious, but maybe she’d sounded wistful, or admiring, or had indicated in some way to Patrick that she was getting starry-eyed over him. He probably had women falling all over themselves to catch his attention, and she had gotten tingles and a racing pulse over him. It didn’t mean anything. He was a gorgeous hunk with a body chemistry that could make any woman weak in the knees.

  “Maddie?” Patrick prompted.

  “It’s okay.”

  It wasn’t, but she didn’t want to admit it was her ego on the rebound, not her heart. When she’d been growing up, her mother and father had always made her feel beautiful, but now she was left wondering what she actually had to offer a man. Did big breasts really matter that much? Maddie glanced down at her not-so-generous bustline and sighed again.

  Maybe Ted would have found a kinder way to tell her he didn’t want to get married if she hadn’t surprised him with the punch girl. He wasn’t mean. And if she’d been able to tell him first that she was having second thoughts, they probably would have laughed about it, bypassed the church and had a great party with all that food and cake.

  “You don’t look okay. You still look upset,” Patrick murmured. His eyes were more serious than she’d seen them since they’d met. He put on a good show of being easygoing, but she suspected there was a whole lot more going on beneath his nonchalant exterior than even he wanted to admit.

  Maddie summoned a smile. “I’ve had quite a few shocks over the past couple days. I have a reason to be upset. But don’t worry about the other thing. I overreacted, that’s all.”

  “About the ‘other thing,’ I should explain,” he said, a determined expression creeping into his face. “You’re so trusting and everything, I didn’t want you to start thinking I was some nice guy without ulterior motives. I’m a guy—of course I have ulterior motives. I’m loaded with them. Hell, I didn’t put in all that time as a rebellious teenage tough for nothing.”

  “Oh, sure, you were a teenage tough. I believe that.” She made a disbelieving gesture.

  “Take my word for it, I was one of the worst.”

  Maddie still didn’t seem convinced, and Patrick thought about rolling up his sleeve and showing her the gang tattoo he sported on his upper arm. Oh, he’d gotten out of it quickly enough—thanks to a tough old coot whose car he’d tried to steal—but not so fast he didn’t have some scars and a broken nose from fighting. Not even his family knew ev
erything about his escapades.

  God, he’d been so angry after his father’s accident it was a miracle he hadn’t gotten himself killed.

  But it wasn’t any wonder Maddie didn’t believe him. The closest thing to a gang in her hometown was probably the crew down at the local hamburger stand. He’d driven through some of the small, off-the-beaten-track towns in New Mexico. They were terrific…and about a million miles from the city.

  Oh, but she did have a very sweet mouth.

  Reaching out, he traced his forefinger across the fullness of Maddie’s bottom lip. Her breath caught and her golden-brown eyes widened, the pupils expanding until nearly all the gold specks disappeared, leaving a ring of velvet brown.

  “I’m not nice,” Patrick whispered. “If I was, I wouldn’t be having so many notions about nibbling on parts of you. But I’m decent enough not to get involved with a woman who wants different things than I do.” He dropped his hand before he could be tempted to demonstrate exactly how much touching her appealed to him.

  Maddie flicked her tongue against the spot he’d just caressed. He was certain it was an unconscious reaction. Any flirting on her part was almost certainly unintentional: she didn’t seem to have a clue about the usual games between a man and woman.

  “Different things?”

  “Marriage, family, permanence. That isn’t me, Maddie.”

  “It isn’t me, either. After what happened with Ted and the punch girl I’m never getting married,” she said immediately.

  It was Patrick’s turn to be skeptical, but he wisely kept from smiling. Maddie might say that now, but she’d change her mind quickly enough. She would meet the right man and forget all about Ted and the punch girl.

  A small twinge of pain went through him at the thought. It was the same sort of feeling he’d had watching her at the cemetery, her face turned to the sky. Hell, he’d thought Beth was an innocent, but compared to Maddie, his sister-in-law was a sophisticate. Patrick had never realized it before, but innocence could be very appealing.