To Make a Marriage(2)

       
           



       

He grinned, warm pale grey eyes surrounded by long dark lashes. 'I was  just passing, and wondered if you would care to join me for lunch?'

She raised blonde brows. 'Isn't eleven-thirty in the morning a little early for lunch?' she queried.

He shrugged, making himself comfortable on the edge of her desk,  disturbing several of the photographs that lay there in the process.  'Not when you haven't had any breakfast yet, no,' he observed pointedly.

Andie gave a wry smile, shaking her head. 'Hectic night again, hmm,  Adam?' she taunted, moving back behind the desk to look up at him with  mocking green eyes.

'Not particularly,' he replied dryly. 'I don't seem to be sleeping too well at the moment.'

'You-'

'Alone, that is,' he put in before she could complete her comment.

Andie chuckled. 'Maybe that's your problem; you obviously aren't used to it!'

'Very funny.' He scowled. 'The problem with you Summer sisters is that you have no respect for your elders!'

Andie held back her smile this time, although it lurked in the  brightness of her eyes and the slight curve of her lips. 'Have Harrie  and Danie been casting aspersions too?' She referred to her two older,  now married, sisters.

Adam gave a grimace. 'When haven't the three of you teased me unmercifully?'

It was true, of course. But Andie and her sisters had known Adam, almost  as an honorary uncle, for twenty years, and the fact that most women  fell over themselves to meet him had been a constant source of amusement  to the three of them as they'd been growing up. School friends, and  then university friends, and eventually work friends, had constantly  sought invitations to their father's home in the hope that Adam might be  a guest at the same time.

'You know you love it, Adam,' she said.

'What I would love is some lunch.' He stood up. 'Going to keep me company?' He quirked blonde brows enquiringly.

'I'm very busy, Adam.' She gave a weary look at the layout on her desk.

'You still have to eat,' he persisted.

'Not at eleven-thirty in the morning, I don't!' she rejoined.

Adam gave an impatient sigh. 'I don't usually have this much trouble getting a woman to have lunch with me!'

Andie laughed throatily. 'A little denial is good for the soul!'

'It's my soul,' he returned. 'Please allow me to know what is and isn't  good for it-and almost having to beg you to have lunch with me is not  good for it!' he assured her scathingly.

If he weren't a mature self-assured man of almost forty, Andie would  have said he had the look of a petulant little boy at that moment-one  that couldn't get his own way!

She shook her head. 'You aren't begging, Adam. And I wouldn't allow you  to, either,' she added seriously. 'But I'm not being deliberately  difficult; I really am extremely busy.' She indicated the photographs  scattered over her desk-top.

'Rome is of the opinion that you work too hard-and I have to agree with  him when you can't even take the customary hour for lunch,' Adam told  her, eyes narrowed on the slenderness of her frame in the silky  plum-coloured trouser suit and pale cream blouse.

She had lost weight the last few months, Andie inwardly acknowledged.  But she also knew it was a weight she would shortly regain. And more!

That thought sobered her somewhat, and looking up at Adam, 'Just when  did you and my father have this cosy discussion concerning the amount of  work I do or don't do?' she prompted.

'At Danie's wedding on Saturday,' Adam drawled challengingly. 'And there  was nothing cosy-or underhand-about it; I merely remarked that you were  looking at little pale, and Rome said that you're working too hard.  That was the extent of our conversation concerning you,' he finished  decisively.

'So you thought you would take pity on me today and invite me out to  lunch.' Andie nodded, green eyes sparkling with anger now. 'It's very  kind of you, Adam-'

'Don't get all polite on me, young lady,' he came back.

'For one thing-I wouldn't recognise you if you did! And for another-I'm not being in the least polite.'

'You just hate to eat alone,' she guessed.

Adam gave a reluctant smile, shaking his head as he raised his gaze  exasperatedly to the ceiling. 'Either this used to be easier, or I'm  just getting old!'

It wasn't either of those things, but she was busy-and, more to the  point, she did not want to go out to lunch with Adam. Her life was  complicated enough already at the moment, without that!                       
       
           



       

'It was a lovely wedding on Saturday, wasn't it?' She changed the  subject-to one she knew he would find distasteful. Weddings and Adam  Munroe just did not mix!

'Lovely,' he echoed with predictable sarcasm. 'First Harrie took the  plunge, and then Danie on Saturday; I expect it will be your turn next!'  he added disgustedly.

Andie looked down at her ringless left hand-knowing it would remain that way too. The man she loved, she just couldn't have …

'I doubt that very much,' she answered gruffly, blinking back sudden,  unaccustomed tears. She had become so emotional lately! Definitely one  of the symptoms of her condition that she wasn't too happy about. 'I'm  destined to be an old maid, I'm afraid,' she explained self-derisively.

'Hey, I was only teasing.' Adam seemed to have seen that glitter of  tears in her eyes, coming around the desk to put his arm about her  narrow shoulders. 'There's plenty of time yet for you to fall in love  and get married; you're only twenty-five, Andie-'

'Twenty-six in a couple of months' time,' she put in huskily, knowing he  had completely misunderstood the reason for her emotion. It wasn't a  question of falling in love and getting married; if she couldn't have  the man she loved-which she most certainly couldn't!-then she wouldn't  marry at all. Ever.

'That old, hmm?' Adam murmured softly, raising her chin to look into her face. 'Almost ancient, in fact.'

Andie shook her head, straightening away from him. 'You misunderstood  the reason for my-emotion, I'm afraid, Adam,' she spoke firmly. 'I just  find it very odd to realise that Harrie and Danie are no longer just my  sisters, but are now Quinn and Jonas's wives.'

And she did find it strange. Three months ago none of the sisters had  shown signs of marrying anyone, the three of them extremely close, so  much so that they had never particularly needed other friends. And now  to share not one of her sisters with a husband, but both of them, within  the space of two months, was a little hard to take. Especially now …

Adam looked sympathetic. 'Harrie's the wife of a banker. And  Danie-madcap Danie-' he shook his head a little dazedly 'is now the wife  of a doctor. Amazing!'

It did take some adjusting to, Andie agreed. But there would be a lot  more adjusting for Andie to do in her own life in the near future, than  just to that of her sisters' marriages …

'Andie, come and have lunch with me?' Adam cajolled.

'If for no other reason than it will do wonders for my reputation to be  seen with a very beautiful young woman!' he added encouragingly.

Andie looked sceptical. 'Another one?' she parried, knowing Adam had a succession of beautiful young women in his life.

He gave an irritated sigh, moving back impatiently. 'You know, I think  Rome should have smacked your backside more when you were young enough  to take notice!' He stood up.

'Mummy would never have let him.' Andie spoke confidently on behalf of her gentle-natured mother.

Adam sobered. 'True,' he agreed distractedly.

Andie knew the reason for that distraction. Had known it for some time. Adam had been in love with her mother …

He had been around a lot when Andie and her sisters had been children,  appearing at the estate most weekends. Despite a dislike of the  countryside and all things connected to it …  It had only been as Andie  had grown older that she'd realised the reason Adam had put aside his  aversion and visited them anyway. Ten years ago her mother had died, and  if the three sisters and their father had been heartbroken at the loss,  then Adam had been inconsolable.

Because he had been in love with Barbara … !

Andie had been stunned by the realisation at the time, although it  hadn't been a realisation she'd shared with her sisters, somehow finding  the subject too difficult to discuss with her already distressed  siblings. But she had wondered how her father would react, knowing Rome  couldn't help but see the younger man's emotional state. Strangely  enough Rome had seemed to draw comfort from the fact that Adam had loved  Barbara too, an unbreakable bond developing between the two men, and  now, ten years later, their friendship was stronger than ever.

Andie shot Adam a questioning look. 'Does this mean you've withdrawn your invitation to lunch?'

Adam looked crossly at her. 'No, it doesn't,' he snapped. 'And I'm no  longer asking-I'm telling! Whatever that stuff is-' he waved an  uninterested hand over the fashion layout she had been working on  '-you'll deal with it much more efficiently once you've had something to  eat.'