LITMIR.BIZ

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in the cooking process, all the while keeping one eye on the lucky woman he’d chosen to ease his misery tonight. “Anything I can do, cousin?”

      “Hand me that platter. This batch is done.”

      Holden snagged the platter and held it obediently as Matthew began piling ribs on it. The smell was heavenly. But Holden was more interested in watching the two women—Claudia, Matthew’s wife, and that hot little number she was talking to. She’d turned a little as he’d come out. He still couldn’t get a good look at her face. The platter grew heavier in his hand. “So, Claudia, where’s the guest of honor? Not sleeping through his own party, is he?”

      Claudia glanced his way with a smile. She and Matthew had never seemed happier. His cousin had something—something Holden would never have. A wife who adored him. A family. A future. Holden felt a flash of envy and a hint of self-pity. He squelched both.

      “That’s exactly what he’s doing,” Claudia said. “All the excitement of the christening wore him right out.”

      The darker one looked his way. He caught her eye, but she quickly averted her face. There was something familiar about her. “You…haven’t introduced me to your friend.”

      Matthew suppressed a chuckle. Claudia just shook her head. “Oh, come on, Holden. You know Lucinda.” At Holden’s blank look she went on. “Lucinda Brightwater? From high school?”

      And then, even as he blinked in shock, the woman spoke.

      “I’m afraid I never made that much of an impression on your cousin, Claudia,” she said, her voice slightly chilly. Yet deep and rich, like warmed honey. At last, she faced him.

      Holden caught his breath. But this knockout couldn’t possibly be that untouchable, pristine, painfully shy girl he remembered. “Lucy Brightwater?” he asked, failing to hide his surprise.

      She lifted her dark brows. “The one and only.” She started to turn away. “I think I see someone I know. If you’ll excuse me.”

      “Hold on a minute!” Holden automatically moved closer, gripping her arm lightly. “Hey, it’s been years. Give a guy a break, huh?”

      She looked at him, her gaze icy, before it dipped to his hand on her arm. Her message was clear.

      He let go immediately. And the beautiful woman walked away. Lowering his chin, Holden sighed. “She sure grew up touchy. Gorgeous, though.”

      “She’s not your type,” Claudia said. “As I recall, you made that fact painfully obvious to her back in school.”

      He knew she was right, but he’d be damned if he’d admit it. “Shoot, if she’d looked like that back in school—”

      “I think that’s the point, cousin,” Matthew volunteered. “You’re tipping the platter.”

      Holden straightened the platter and a rib fell off. Shaking her head, Claudia came forward and took the dish from him. Holden eyed her. “Besides, I don’t remember being nasty to her in high school. At least, not enough to merit that icy reception.” Anyway, he’d had his reasons for steering clear of Lucy back then. Reasons…that all still existed. So why didn’t he just drop it? Why was he still watching her weave her way through the crowded great room? Why was he still running off at the mouth? “I always admired her. She…reminded me of Mom in some odd way.”

      “She had a huge crush on you back then, Holden.”

      “That’s right… That’s right. I used to see her hanging around at practice sometimes, watching me.” He remembered more than that, too. He remembered that he’d decided she was far too good for the likes of him. She probably still was.

      “I suppose thoroughly ignoring a girl who’s not up to your standards is something you do so often you’re barely conscious of it anymore,” Claudia said.

      Ignoring her, Holden stared across the crowded room to where Lucy Brightwater was now chatting with Ryan and Lily. She looked a bit like Lily. Same dark coloring, same dramatic black eyes. Damn, no wonder Ryan had been in love with Lily for thirty-some-odd years. A woman like that…

      “I’m sure as hell not ignoring her now,” he heard himself mutter.

      “Well, you sure as hell ought to be,” Claudia snapped. “Leave her alone, Holden. She’s not a one-night-stand kind of woman.”

      “No. No, I remember that about her. She was always pretty…” He shook his head. “Man, she sure grew into her looks.”

      “There’s a lot more to Lucinda Brightwater than the way she looks. As there is with most women, not that you’ve ever bothered to look any deeper than the surface.”

      Holden shrugged. “Fine. You want to start listing her stellar qualities, go ahead. I’m listening.” And interested, he thought. In fact, he was dying to know what Lucinda in the Sky Brightwater had been up to all these years.

      Claudia narrowed her eyes at him, then shrugged. “Fine, I will. Lucinda is kind, compassionate and caring. She’s intelligent and accomplished and sensitive, and a casual fling with a man like you could do a lot of damage to a woman like her. Leave her alone, Holden.”

      As she turned and strode away to set the heaping platter on a table, Holden sent a confused glance at his cousin. “You’d think I was the devil himself, the way she acts.”

      “Some might say you are,” Matthew said. “Claudia’s a little protective of Lucinda. They got pretty close during the pregnancy and all.”

      Holden tilted his head, lifted a brow.

      “Lucinda is Claudia’s doctor. Works over at Red Rock General.”

      Holden blinked. “She’s a doctor?” He looked her way once more. Damn, she didn’t look like any doctor he’d ever seen. “Maybe it’s time I make an appointment. I must be overdue for a physical…or something.” He was only half kidding.

      “Hey, I’m offended! I thought I was your favorite doctor. Besides, you’d never get in to see Lucinda…you don’t have the right equipment.” Matthew grinned at Holden’s puzzled expression. “She’s an OB-GYN.” Matthew said. “She delivered Bryan. And she and Claudia sort of…bonded.”

      “That’s the Dr. Brightwater Claudia was always talking about,” Holden said as a lightbulb finally flashed on in his mind. He hadn’t made the connection until now.

      “The one and only,” Matthew said, echoing Lucinda’s earlier words. “And she’s not the kind of woman who would enjoy being judged on the basis of her looks.”

      “Then she shouldn’t go around looking like that,” Holden said.

      “Give it up, cousin. You don’t stand a chance with her. Go find some bimbo to charm into your love nest. That woman is out of your league.”

      Holden finished his drink in a gulp and set down the empty glass. “Yeah. That’s pretty much what I always thought, too. But that doesn’t mean I can’t talk to her, does it?”

      Mistake, his mind cautioned him. Big, big mistake.

      “I’m sorry, Claudia.” Lucinda Brightwater was still a bit shaky. She hadn’t wanted to come to this party. No, that wasn’t true. She had wanted to come. For Claudia and Matthew. For little Bryan. What she hadn’t wanted was to run into Holden Fortune. The man who had taken her virginity one drunken night so long ago she should have been over it long before now. A night that had meant everything to her. A night with repercussions that were still resonating through her life.

      A night that had obviously meant less than nothing to him.

      She was not an awkward teenager anymore. She was not the too smart, too tall, too skinny girl who didn’t quite fit in. And she certainly wasn’t the same girl who’d been heart-and-soul in love with the most popular boy in school. A boy who hadn’t so much as returned her shy hello when they’d passed in the halls.

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