“You never should’ve said anything about us marrying.”
“Well, Princess, the way I figured it, he was going to pop the question, anyway. Besides, I don’t want Charles leading you on, or hurting you again.”
“Dad, you’ve made it nearly impossible for me now and—”
“Let me finish, because there’s more to tell you.” But after silencing her, he went strangely quiet himself.
“Go on,” she urged, clenching her jaw.
“I’m just trying to think of a way to tell you this without annoying you even more. I told Charles something you didn’t want me to tell him.”
“The dream?” The question came out a whisper. “But you said you hadn’t told Charles anything I wouldn’t want you to. And before—you promised you wouldn’t mention marriage!”
“No, Princess, I never did promise. I took it under consideration, but not once did I actually say I wouldn’t discuss this with Charles. Now don’t look so worried. I didn’t tell him a thing about talking to your mother or about the three precious children the two of you are going to have someday.”
“What did Charles say? No,” she amended quickly, “tell me exactly what you said first.”
“Well, like I already told you, we were chatting—”
“Get to the part where you brought up marriage.”
“All right, all right. But I want you to know I didn’t say anything about the dream. Not because you didn’t want me to, but because when it came right down to it, I didn’t think he’d believe me. You three girls are having trouble enough, so I can hardly expect someone outside the family to listen.”
“You told Colby about it.”
“Of course I did. He’s my doctor. He had a right to know.”
“Great. In other words you blurted out that you expected Charles to marry me—because you didn’t want him trifling with my heart?” Spoken aloud, it sounded so ludicrous. Not to mention insulting. No wonder Charles was cool toward her.
“Not exactly. I asked his intentions. He said that was between the two of you. As I already explained.”
“Good.” Steffie relaxed a little. “And that was the end of it?” she murmured hopefully.
“Not entirely.”
“What else is there?”
“I told him you were anticipating a proposal of marriage, and for that matter so was I.”
Steffie ground her teeth to keep from screaming. It was worse than she’d feared. Sagging against the pillar, she covered her face with both hands. It would’ve been far better had he told Charles about the dream. That way, Charles might have understood that she’d had nothing to do with this. Instead, her father had made everything ten times worse by not mentioning it.
Charles was angry with her; that was obvious from their telephone conversation. He’d refused to discuss it in any detail, just repeating that he was “disappointed.” He seemed to believe she’d manipulated her father into approaching him with this marriage business. He wasn’t likely to change his mind unless she could convince him of the truth.
“Where are you going?” her father asked when she left him and returned a moment later with her purse and a sweater.
“To talk to Charles—to explain things, if I can.”
“Good.” David’s grin was full. “All that boy needs is a bit of prompting. You’ll see. Once you get back, you’ll thank me for taking matters into my own hands. There’s something about making a commitment to the right woman that fixes everything.”
Steffie was drained from the emotion. She found she couldn’t remain angry with her father. He’d talked to Charles with the best of motives. And he didn’t know what had gone on between her and Charles in the past—the tricks she’d played. So he couldn’t possibly understand why Charles would react with such anger to being pressed on the issue of marriage.
“I’ll wait up for you and when you get home we’ll celebrate together,” he suggested.
Steffie grinned weakly and nodded, but she doubted there’d be anything to celebrate.
She took her time driving into town, using those minutes to organize her thoughts. She hoped Charles would be open-minded enough to accept her explanation. Mostly, she wanted to reassure him that she hadn’t talked her father into interrogating him about marriage. They’d come so far in the past few weeks, she and Charles, and Steffie didn’t want anything to spoil that.
Charles was waiting for her, or he seemed to be. She’d barely rung his doorbell when he answered.
“Hello.” His immediate appearance took her by surprise. “I—I thought it might be a good idea if the two of us sat down and talked.”
“Fine.” He didn’t smile, didn’t show any sign of pleasure at seeing her.
“Dad told me he talked to you about…the two of us marrying.” The words felt awkward on her tongue.
“He did mention something along those lines,” Charles returned stiffly.
He hadn’t asked her to make herself comfortable or invited her to sit down. It didn’t matter, though, since she couldn’t stand still, anyway. She paced from one side of his living room to the other. She felt strangely chilled, despite the warm spring weather.
“You think I put Dad up to it, don’t you?”
“Yes,” he said frankly.
He stood rooted to the same spot while she drifted, apparently aimlessly, around the room. His look, everything about him, wasn’t encouraging. Perhaps she should have delayed this, let them both sleep on it, instead of forcing the issue. Perhaps she should’ve dropped the whole thing, and let this misunderstanding sort itself out. Perhaps she should go home now before the situation got even worse.
“I didn’t ask Dad to say anything to you,” she told him simply.
“I wish I could believe that.”
“Why can’t you? This is ridiculous! If you intend to drag the past into every disagreement, punish me for something that happened three years ago, then—”
“I’m not talking about three years ago. I’m talking about here and now.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ll say this for you, Steffie, you’ve gotten a lot more subtle.”
“How…do you mean?”
“First, you park in front of the newspaper office just as I happen to—”
“When?”
“Last week. I was talking to Wendy, and when I looked up, I saw you sitting in your car, staring at us. Just how long had you been there?”
“I…don’t know.”
“Now that I think about it, I realize what a fool I’ve been. You’ve been spying on me for weeks, haven’t you?”
The idea was so outlandish that Steffie found herself laughing incredulously. Nothing she said would make any difference, not if he believed what he was saying. Because if he did, there was nothing of their relationship left to salvage.
“There’s no fooling you, is there?” she threw out sarcastically. “You’re much too smart for me, Charles. I’ve been hiding around town for days, following you with binoculars, charting your activities. It’s amazing you didn’t catch on sooner.”
He ignored her scornful remarks. “Very convenient the way you twisted your ankle the other day, too, wasn’t it? Somehow you managed to fall directly into my arms.”
“The timing was perfect, wasn’t it?” she said with a short, humorless laugh. “You’re right, I couldn’t have planned that any better.”
He frowned. “Then there was the dinner waiting for me at the house the other night. Italian, too, just the way my grandmother used to make it.”
“Interesting how I knew that, huh?”
“All of this adds up to one thing.”
“And what might that be?” she asked scathingly, folding her arms. She’d assumed far too much in this relationship. She’d lowered her guard and actually believed Charles loved her, because she loved him so deeply. Now she understood how wrong she’d been.
“It adds up to the fact that you’re playing games again.”
“Don’t forget the moonlight the evening we were at Multnomah Falls. I arranged that, too. I have to admit it took some doing.”
“There’s no need to be sarcastic.”
“I don’t agree,” she returned defiantly.
Charles frowned and muttered something she couldn’t hear.
“I must say I’m surprised you caught on so quickly, what with me being so subtle and all.”
“Let’s clear the air once and—”
“But the air is clear,” she said, waving her arms wildly. She knew she was going too far with this, but the momentum was building and she couldn’t seem to stop. “I’ve been found out, and now it’s all over.”
“Over?”
“Of course. There’s no need to pretend anymore.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Revenge. It’s supposed to be sweet, and it would’ve been if you hadn’t caught on when you did.”
“Just what did you intend to do?” he demanded.
“You mean you don’t have that figured out, as well?”
“Tell me, Stephanie.” His voice was hard as ice and just as cold.
“Fine, if you must know. Once I got you to the point of proposing—” she paused dramatically “—I was going to laugh and reject you. It seems only fair after the way you humiliated me. You laughed at me, Charles, and it was going to be my turn to laugh at you. Only you found me out first….”
His frown deepened into a scowl. “Your father—”
“Oh, don’t worry, he didn’t know anything about that part. Getting him to shame you into a marriage proposal was tricky, but I managed it by telling him I was afraid you were…trifling with my affections.” She gave a deep exaggerated sigh, astonished that he seemed to believe all this.
“I see.”
“Oh, you’re too clever for me, Charles. What can I possibly say?”
“Perhaps it would be best if you left now.”
“I think you’re right. Well, at least you know what it feels like to have someone laugh at you.”
Charles walked to his front door and held it open for her. With a jaunty step, Steffie walked out of his house. “Well, I’ll see you around, but you don’t need to worry—I won’t be spying on you anymore.”
His jaw was clamped tightly shut, and Steffie realized she’d succeeded beyond all her expectations. Charles was disgusted with her. And furious. So furious that he couldn’t get her out of his home fast enough.
“You can’t blame a girl for trying,” she said with a shrug once she’d slipped past him.
In response, Charles slammed his door.
By the time Steffie was inside the car, she was shaking so badly that she could hardly insert the key into the ignition. Her breath seemed to be trapped in her chest, creating a painful need to exhale.