AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, I know I’m all trussed up in this dress, but I’m the director of a school for special-needs kids and, up until twenty-six years ago, I was a member of the Dominican Order and known as Sister Mary Hyacinth. I no more suit a dashing millionaire than a donkey suits a knight.”
A nun?
Mary Paige studied Judy. “I think he’s a billionaire.”
Judy’s smile faltered. “That much? Well, I know I look incredible in this getup, but Malcolm took me to see his friend Gigi, who did a makeover on me. The woman even threw my good black sweater set in the trash can!”
Mary Paige laughed. “She threw it away?”
“Yes, and implied I still wore a habit.”
Mary Paige pressed her lips together and tried not to laugh again because Judy looked really upset about the sweater, but a giggle slipped out. And that made Judy laugh. They stood in front of the gilded mirror in the bathroom of a pavilion designed to look like an orangery dressed in their finest, giggling like schoolgirls. It was a perfect moment.
“Now I actually feel better about having to deal with Oscar the Grouch out there,” Mary Paige said when she finally composed herself.
“Well, I’m glad something good can come from that woman throwing a perfectly good sweater away. Now, let’s go out. Malcolm will be starting the silent auction and introducing those boys. You know the one you danced with has a full academic scholarship to Tulane next year?”
“Darian?”
“See? Can’t judge a book by its cover. So maybe it wouldn’t hurt to thumb through Brennan’s pages.” Judy sounded like someone who often dealt with difficult people.
Mary Paige didn’t respond because her mind contemplated those very words…and the words Brennan had tossed at her before she fled to the bathroom. Maybe she should dismount from the high horse and stop making assumptions abouthim.
She didn’t have to agree with him to respect he thought differently than she did.
She didn’t have to like everything about him to appreciate his good points.
And she didn’t have to love him to…
That’s where her thoughts betrayed her because she’d been about to finish withsleep with him.
Mary Paige had no business going there, did she? No matter how much she wanted to, no matter how tempted she was to throw caution to the wind, Brennan was not for her. She only had to consider the seemingly callous way he’d treated Creighton to know that she didn’t stand a chance against him. There would be no way Mary Paige could protect herself from either his charm or being cast aside. And she would be cast aside once his interest in her was done.
So even if she wanted to read those particular pages in the book that was Brennan Henry, it needed to remainonthe shelf.
13
BRENNANSTOODINthe shadows as his grandfather spoke about Malcolm’s Kids and the new partnership with the Hope and Grace Home for Boys. Usually, he stood beside his grandfather when he made these sorts of announcements, as a united front from the Henry family. But tonight he’d ducked away when his grandfather looked for him.
And he didn’t know why.
Maybe because Mary Paige had chastised him, made him feel bad about being a realist. Made him feel like an ass for saying what others were thinking. Made him not want to get onstage and smile at Alvin and those boys he’d misjudged. He was thoroughly shamed at his thoughts.
“Hey,” Mary Paige said quietly, sneaking up on him.
He looked at the woman who poked him with sticks and made him see the world around him in a different shade. “Hey.”
“I shouldn’t have—”
“I’m sorry—”
They both whispered at once before closing their mouths and exchanging glances.
He shook his head. “My fault, Mary Paige. I was wrong.”
Her eyes reflected a mixture of pleasure and hope, and something felt weird in his chest—sort of warm and slightly painful, making him feel as though he couldn’t take a good breath.
“But not absolutely wrong,” she whispered.
