A Wife for a Westmoreland by Brenda Jackson Page A

Saturday night?”
    A lump formed in Lucia’s throat with Chloe’s question. It was Friday night, late afternoon, and she sat curled on her sofa. Although she really hadn’t expected Derringer to seek her out again, the notion that he didn’t still bothered her, especially because she thought they’d had such a good time. At least she knew for a fact she had, and he’d seemed to enjoy himself as well. But she figured when you were Derringer Westmoreland, you could have a different girl every day.
    When he had brought her home Saturday night, she had expected him to accept her invitation to come inside for coffee, although she would be the first to admit they had drunk plenty of the stuff at Torie’s. He had declined her offer and given her a chaste kiss on the lips then left.
    “No, I haven’t heard anything, but that’s okay. I was able to write in my diary that I had a date with him and that’s good.”
    “One date isn’t good when there can be others, Lu. You do know that women don’t have to wait for the man to call for a date, we have that right as well.”
    Yes, but Lucia knew she couldn’t be that forward with a man. “I know, but—”
    There was a knock at her door. “Someone’s at the door, Chloe. It’s probably Mrs. Noel from across the street. She bakes on Fridays and uses me as her guinea pig, but I have no complaints. I’ll call you back later.”
    When the knock sounded again, she called out after hanging up the phone. “I’m coming.”
    She eased off the sofa and headed to the door, thinking she would chow down on Mrs. Noel’s sweets and get her romance groove on by watching a romantic movie on Lifetime. If you couldn’t have the real thing in your life then she figured a movie was second best.
    She nearly choked when she glanced out her peephole. Her caller wasn’t her neighbor. It was Derringer. She suddenly felt hot when she realized he was staring at the peephole in the door as if he knew she was watching him. She closed her eyes trying to slow down the beating of her heart. He was the last person she expected to see tonight. In fact, she’d figured he wouldn’t appear on her doorstep any time soon, or ever again. She assumed they would get back into the routine of running into each other whenever she visited Chloe, Ramsey and the baby.
    Forcing her brain cells to stop scrambling, she turned the doorknob to open the door and there he stood in a pair of jeans, a sweater, a leather jacket and boots. He looked good, but then he always did. He was leaning against a post on her porch with his hands in his pockets.
    She cleared her throat. “Derringer, what are you doing here?”
    He held her gaze. “I know I should have called first.”
    She stopped herself from saying that he could appear on her doorstep anytime. The last thing a woman should do is let a man assume she was pining for him…even if she was. “Yes, you should have called first. Is anything wrong?”
    “No, I just needed to see you.”
    She tried to ignore how low his voice had dropped and how he was looking at her. Instead, she tried to focus on what he’d said. He just needed to see her .
    Yeah, right. She thought he could really do better than that, especially since he hadn’t done so much as picked up a phone to call her since their date on Saturday night. Was she to believe needing to see her had brought him to her door? She wondered if his date tonight had canceled and she had been his backup plan. Curious about that possibility, she decided to ask him.
    Crossing her arms over her chest, she said. “Um, let me guess, your date stood you up and I was next on the list.” After saying the words, she realized her mistake. First, she doubted very seriously that any woman stood him up and she really thought a lot of herself to even assume she was on any list he had.
    He tilted his head as if he needed to see her more clearly. “Is that what you think?”
    She shook her head. “To be honest with you, Derringer,