Sgt. Billy's Bride. Bonnie Gardner
Earline,” Bill said. “Let her eat.”
“Well, I was just interested,” Earline protested. “She is going to be a member of the family. I would like to know a little something about her.”
Bill shot his sister a look, and she drew in a deep, aggravated breath and turned her attention back to her plate.
“Thank you, Bill,” Darcy murmured under her breath. “It seems like you’re always saving me.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Bill said.
Darcy wondered what Bill meant by that, but she didn’t make an issue of it. It was good enough that the questions had stopped, for now, and she could eat in peace.
BILL WOULD HAVE LOVED to have everybody leave so he could take a long nap after all the food he’d eaten, but he figured there were a good couple of hours before people headed home. At least he and Darcy hadn’t been bothered too much since Earline’s earlier inquisition. People had gathered into quiet clumps and the kids were outside chasing fireflies.
He turned to Darcy. “How you holding up?”
She shrugged. “Okay, I guess. I like your family and friends, but I feel funny about lying to them.”
Bill let out a long breath. “I know that, but remember it’s for Momma. And so far, we haven’t really lied. We’ve just sort of left out a few details.”
“What’s the difference?” Darcy said, setting her empty plate on the floor beside her. “They all think we’re engaged,” she said in low tones.
“But we didn’t tell them that. That’s the difference.”
“And we didn’t correct them when they made the assumption,” Darcy persisted.
Bill set his plate on top of Darcy’s. “It’s too late to do anything about it now. We’re just going to have to stick with the plan.”
“Easy for you to say. You get to go back to Hurlburt and business as usual.” Darcy sighed.
“What you two lovebirds doing with your heads together like that? Making wedding plans?”
Bill and Darcy sprang apart, and Bill looked up to where Lougenia was standing at the plundered dining-room table, a cake knife in hand.
“It’s time to honor the birthday boy and to cut the cake.” Lougenia motioned toward Bill. “Come on up to the table, and bring the lovely Darcy up with you.”
“They just want me to blow out the candles,” Bill said, offering Darcy his hand. “And everybody wants to get a good look at you.”
Bill loved the way her small, warm hand seemed to fit in his. He helped her to her feet. “Here goes nothing,” he said as he led Darcy across the room.
Lougenia lit the candles and beckoned him forward. “All right, Billy. Stand here,” she directed.
Bill had barely settled into position when everyone broke out in a chorus of “Happy Birthday.” By the end of the song, even Darcy had joined in.
“Now, make a wish and blow out the candles.”
Playing along, Bill closed his eyes and pretended deep concentration while he thought about his wish. Then, drawing a deep breath, he reared back and blew all the candles out at once.
“Yesss! That means you get your wish,” Darcy said, falling into the spirit of the situation.
“What did you wish for?” Chrissie asked.
“It won’t come true if I tell, sugar pumpkin,” Bill said ruffling the girl’s hair.
“I bet I know what he wushed for,” Little Edd said, his voice dripping with disdain. “I bet he wushed we would all go home so he could make kissy face with Miss Darcy.”
Darcy blushed, and Bill didn’t know what to say.
“Well, brother dear, if that’s your wish, I hereby grant it,” Lougenia said. “Have at it.”
Bill looked at Darcy, who was exhibiting nothing short of sheer panic.
“Kiss her,” somebody said.
“Give her a good one,” someone else chimed in.
“Kiss. Kiss. Kiss.” Pretty soon the room echoed with the chant.
“Do you mind?” Bill said quietly, looking into Darcy’s brown eyes. “I think that’s the only way they’ll quit.”
Darcy drew in a short, quick breath and swallowed. “Okay,” she said reluctantly. “If that’ll be the end of it.”
“Go on, Billy. It ain’t no big deal.”
Bill looked around the room. The noisy chant dwindled as the party guests saw that he was accepting the challenge.
“I don’t usually do this in front of an audience,” he murmured, more for Darcy’s sake than for the people watching. In fact, it had been so long since he’d done it at all that kissing Darcy was a very big deal.
He swallowed and wiped his palms, suddenly sweaty, on his jeans. Then he drew Darcy into his arms, situated her in front of him, and lowered his mouth toward hers.
Chapter Four
Darcy’s breath caught in her throat. She hadn’t bargained for this. This was only supposed to be a pretend engagement, but the handsome man leaning in to kiss her was all too real. Yet, curiosity and more than a little desire had her closing her eyes and moistening her lips as Bill’s face drew closer to hers.
His lips touched her mouth, landing feather-soft at first, like a butterfly lighting on a flower.
She should have let him lift off and be done and that would have been that, but Darcy couldn’t. She wanted to know what it would be like to kiss this man standing so close to her, so steady, so real. She kissed him back.
Bill uttered a soft moan that only she could hear, or had she only felt it? Then he pulled her closer to him, pressing her against his hard, strong chest. Darcy’s eyes fluttered open for a moment, but only a moment, then drifted shut again as she sank into the delicious sensation of being thoroughly kissed by a real man.
Her lips parted, and Bill accepted the invitation, plunging deep within her recesses. As he probed and tasted her, Darcy felt almost as if she had been well and thoroughly loved.
How would it be if they weren’t pretending?
But this kiss felt too good to be pretense. And Darcy longed to satisfy her body’s desire for more. For him. All of him. She heard herself whimper with need.
If Dick had kissed her like this just once, maybe she wouldn’t have left him in the chapel.
“Come on you two. Get a room,” Edd said from somewhere out in the real world.
Edd’s comment and that brief reminder of Dick was all it took to break the spell. And that’s what Darcy had to convince herself it was, a spell. An enchantment. There was no way she could have responded to this man she hardly knew if she hadn’t been bewitched in some way.
She jerked away, fighting the urge to touch her tingling and sensitive lips. She felt unwanted heat rising to her cheeks, then willed her face to cool.
“Now that’s enough, Edd. Leave those kids be. They don’t need you teasing and taunting them,” Nettie Hays said to her son-in-law from her throne-like position across the room.
“Yes, ma’am,” Edd said. “Let’s leave them to make out without a audience.”
“Just thought we could give you a few lessons,” Bill fired back over his shoulder as he loosened his grip on Darcy’s arms. He turned back to her. “Do you want me to send everyone home?” he asked in an undertone.
Darcy