Read Online Whirlwind by Nancy Martin - Free Book Online Page B

my food. Are you too old for that yet? Hot food, I mean?”
    Cliff stopped working and simply looked at her for a moment. “Can I ask you a question?”
    Liza swallowed an enormous mouthful. “As long as I can have something to drink before I answer. Got any wine? Or a cold cola, maybe?”
    Cliff closed his eyes as though asking a higher power to give him enough strength to keep going. Liza hid her grin as he crossed to the ancient refrigerator, opened it and took inventory. “I have milk or orange juice. Or water.”
    â€œNo booze? Not even beer?”
    â€œYes, there’s beer.”
    â€œLight, I hope?”
    â€œJust plain beer. Nothing fancy or imported, just ordinary American beer.”
    â€œI’ll have one anyway.”
    He brought two to the counter and twisted the cap off one bottle before passing it to Liza. “You’re old enough to drink this, right?”
    She took the beer and gave him a sardonic look, absurdly pleased that he could still razz her despite his anger. “Is that the question you were going to ask me?”
    â€œNo. I was going to ask how you managed to grow up in the Baron family and turn out to be so unlike the rest of the clan.”
    She took a swig of beer and asked, “Who says you have to be like everybody else?”
    â€œBut you’re practically from another planet compared to the rest of them.”
    Slamming the bottle down on the counter, Liza exploded, “Why is everybody so obsessed about that? I’m my own person, for God’s sake! I don’t have to be as prissy as my mother or as smart as my sister or as brilliant as my noble brother or—or... Why are you smiling?”
    He was! Cliff bent over his sandwich to cut it into two, but his slight grin was unmistakable. It made him look much younger, too, a detail that pleased Liza. She hadn’t realized until that moment how pale he looked, but twin splotches of color began to darken his cheekbones—another good sign.
    Accusingly, she said, “You just said that to get me going, didn’t you? Just to make me mad.”
    He managed to control his smile again and said mildly, “I’d rather have you on the defensive than hammering at me all the time, I guess. See you later.”
    â€œWhere are you going?”
    He’d picked up his sandwich and bottle of beer and was heading for the door. “To eat my dinner.”
    â€œLet me come, too,” Liza cried, hopping off the counter, grabbing her meal and tailing Cliff into the hallway. Now that she had his attention, she wanted to keep it. Exploring Cliff Forrester’s personality was even more fun than planning the redecoration of the lodge. “Wait for me!”
    â€œThere’s no need to keep me company,” he said over his shoulder.
    â€œI’m lonesome! Besides, a stimulating dinner conversation is good for the digestion. It’s a proven fact. Where are you going? The old dining room? The lounge? Or how about a picnic by the boathouse?”
    â€œReally, Miss Baron, this lodge is a very big place. You said so yourself. There’s no reason why two people can’tstay here for a short while without bumping into each other all the time.”
    â€œWhat’s the matter? Don’t you like my company?”
    â€œI don’t like anybody’s company, as a matter of fact. That’s why I came here in the first place.”
    â€œWhy are you so dead set on being alone?”
    â€œThat’s the way I like it.”
    â€œMy granddad says you were in Vietnam. What’s the matter? You have a rough time over there or something?”
    Cliff turned in the hallway then, and for a sizzling moment, he said nothing. Liza couldn’t see his face, for evening had fallen and the light wasn’t on. But she could feel her heartbeat skip, and she realized she had gone too far.
    Coldly quiet, Cliff said, “What do you think you know about