Read Online Kisses in the Rain by Pamela Browning - Free Book Online Page A

Certainly no man had ever had this effect on her.
    "Would you like to go somewhere tonight after the party? I don't have to be home early." He held his breath. He was certain that, because he had once turned her down, she would want to get even with him by refusing his impromptu invitation.
    "I'm the guest of honor. My obligations—"
    He caught one of her hands between his and held it still. "I've always been sorry I couldn't take you up on your invitation to meet you after work that day. My previous engagement was important or I wouldn't have said no. Now I want to make up for it. Is it too late?" His eyes darkened. She would have died before she'd have disappointed him. She would have died before she'd have disappointed herself.
    Convinced that he could hear her answer pounding in her blood and singing in her heart before she even gave it, she paused for a respectable moment and said, "Yes! I'd love to go somewhere with you!" all in a rush. Then, embarrassed, she laughed up at him.
    Nick was so relieved that she'd accepted that he had the almost uncontrollable urge to call her "darling" and then to go on to tell her how happy he was. But the word darling was not one that had ever sprung to his lips before, and he did not say it now. In fact, he was totally astounded to find such a word rattling around in his brain in the presence of a woman whom he barely knew. He had called women "dearie" from time to time, meaning nothing in particular. He had occasionally addressed his high school sweetheart as "sweetie," but that was because that was what she called him. But—"darling"?
    As she looked up at him, her cheeks rosy, her eyes sparkling, her irises the exact shade of Mooseleg Bay on a day when the sun was on the verge of peeping through the clouds, Martha Rose did bring the endearment "darling" to mind. Thank goodness he hadn't said it. Thank goodness he wasn't that open with women when he was beginning to get to know them. No telling what a woman like Martha would infer from being called "darling." She might think it meant more than it did. All it meant, his wanting to call her that, was that she looked, to his eyes, darling at this moment.
    So all he said was, "Later we'll figure out where and when. Tomorrow's Sunday. Do you have to work?"
    "No," she said.
    "We can go out late then tonight, if the party ends late?"
    "I suppose so," she said, not at all reluctantly.
    "Unless you'd rather wait until tomorrow night," he amended, hoping that she wouldn't prefer that.
    "No!" Martha exclaimed.
    "You're already telling Nick Novak no, and you've only been here for a couple of hours? Nick, I do believe you've met your match in this young woman," Faye said.
    Nick was glad he'd already completed his arrangements with Martha. If the truth were told, he'd always been shy.
    "Now, Nick," Faye went on, "you've been monopolizing Martha all evening, and I want her to meet some other people. That's why I'm having this party, after all, so people can mingle. Mingle, mingle! You just go over and chat with Lynore Parham. She wants to tell you all about her trip to the Lower Forty-eight. Go on, Nick." She gave him a little shove in the direction of a round-shouldered, lackluster loner who looked like a misfit in this congenial group.
    "I hope you don't mind," Faye whispered. "Lynore's so depressing that hardly anyone wants to talk to her. I'm afraid it was Nick's turn to be bored next. Aren't you lucky, Martha, that you don't have that problem? Everyone here just loves you to pieces already. Here's Perry Thompson. Perry, this is Martha." And Faye left her to talk with Perry, who played up to her unashamedly even though her attention kept wandering to Nick, who was gallantly doing his best to hold up his end of the conversation with Lynore.
    Martha didn't get a chance to see Nick throughout the rest of the party. It wasn't, however, for lack of trying. In between mingling, she kept working her way to the fringes of the group, easing her way