Rebecca Winters - Manhattan Merger

The grand plan was to help her walk again. Since their engagement he’d been working toward that goal with a single-mindedness he wouldn’t allow anything to overshadow, especially not Diane’s defeatist attitude.

What he hadn’t counted on was Rainey Bennett entering his life.

“Are you sure everything’s all right?” Diane asked when he straightened.

After pushing her wheelchair back to the table, Payne sat down next to her and reached for her hand.

“As I told you on the phone last evening, you don’t need to worry anymore. To prove it, I’ve invited someone to dinner who will put any fears you have to rest.”

Her face closed up. “You brought company here?”

“Yes. Catherine will be out with her in a minute. Her name is Lorraine Bennett. She’s a freelance artist from Grand Junction, Colorado, who designs greeting cards and does paintings that appear on some of the covers for Red Rose Romance. She’s the one who painted me.”

“She confessed to it in court?”

“Yes. But when you hear the whole story, you’ll understand it was an honest mistake.”

Her eyes flashed in anger. “How could it be an honest mistake when she did it without your permission?”

“It’s complicated. You’ll just have to trust me.”

Diane’s hand clutched his. “I wish you’d asked me before you issued your invitation.”

“It’s because of your reaction right now that I didn’t,” Payne explained in a calm voice. “When the hearing started, I felt exactly like you. I was convinced someone would be arrested by the end of the day. We can thank God the reverse was true.”

Her lips tightened. “For once I think you used the wrong judgment by bringing her here.”

Payne happened to agree with her, but not for the same reasons she was thinking.

“I had another motive in mind, aside from the hope that meeting her would help you and Catherine to forget this incident.”

“What motive?”

“Ms. Bennett feels terrible for what happened. It might help her to recover faster if she can see we bear no malice.”

“She should feel terrible.”

Payne knew it was her helplessness that made her less forgiving than she would otherwise be.

“Try to put yourself in her place, Diane. Throughout the hearing she felt the burden of being the one who not only implicated herself, but the author and the whole company.”

She let go of his hand. “Why don’t you find out what’s keeping them? The sooner dinner is over, the sooner she’ll be gone and we can be alone. I need to talk to you about our honeymoon. I’ve decided where I want to go and it’s not Switzerland.”

“Let’s discuss this later.”

“It’ll be a waste of time, Payne.”

He grimaced. “Until we’ve done every earthly thing possible to help you, you don’t have the right to say that. I’ll be back in a minute.” In a few swift strides he left the patio.

“Payne-”

He could hear her calling him back, but for once he refused to give in to her tears.

WHEN Rainey saw Payne in the kitchen doorway, his whole expression had undergone a change. He was gripped by some dark, powerful emotion held barely in check.

The difference in him was so startling, she almost dropped the plates of freshly cut fruits and vegetables she was holding.

“What’s going on in here?”

Catherine must have noticed the difference in him too, but all she said was, “We’re bringing the food right now, Uncle Payne. I was just introducing Rainey to Nyla. She’s going to eat with us so she can hear everything that happened in court.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.”

Payne’s comment provoked a laugh from his niece who carried the platter of hamburgers out of the kitchen. But Rainey had an idea Catherine wasn’t fooled by his sudden playfulness. Neither was Rainey.

She followed them to the patio. Nyla brought up the rear with the salad she’d taken from the fridge.

If Rainey hadn’t already been to Payne’s home, she would have thought the Boyce’s house and view of the ocean was the most beautiful sight she’d ever seen.

Everything was picture perfect against the twilight backstop.

Payne took his place behind his fiancée.

That one defining gesture set the boundaries in concrete for Rainey. What had transpired before this moment was history. Whatever happened from here on out belonged to someone else’s future. Rainey was simply a spectator passing through.

“Rainey Bennett? May I present my fiancée, Diane Wylie.”

“How do you do, Ms. Bennett.”

The other woman spoke first and held out her hand. Rainey moved around the table to shake it.

She and Diane were probably the same age. The attractive brunette had that girl-next-door look. To Rainey’s eye she seemed the type her brother might date rather than-

Rainey forced herself to stop with the speculation. Payne Sterling meant nothing to her. He couldn’t!

“I’m so thankful for this opportunity to meet you, Ms. Wylie. You’ll never know how sorry I am for putting all of you through more anguish.”

Payne’s fiancée studied Rainey out of intelligent brown eyes before letting go of her hand. “Payne said it was an honest mistake, so it’s best forgotten. I’m afraid his concern over my welfare has caused him to impose on your time.”

“It’s not an imposition!” Rainey blurted. “We’ve just come from his office. I almost had a heart attack when I saw how similar everything was to my painting. Anyone would be suspicious.

“After what you’ve suffered, I wanted to meet you in person and assure you I meant no harm. I hope in time you can forget it.”

“Rainey? Do you want to come and sit between Nyla and me?”

Rainey could have hugged Catherine for smoothing a difficult moment for her. She took her place, determined to avoid any eye contact with her host.

No more thinking about him.

“The hamburgers and potato salad are the best, sweetheart,” he said after all of them had settled down to eat.

“Thanks. There’s more in the kitchen.”

“Everything’s delicious,” Rainey declared. Since meeting Diane Wylie, she’d lost her appetite but forced herself to eat in order not to hurt Catherine’s feelings.

The dog brushed against Rainey’s leg.

“Is it against the rules to give Lady a nibble? She’s looking up at me with soulful eyes.”

The teenager smiled. “You can feed her some strawberries.”

“Oh good.” Rainey let one drop. Lady snatched it before it reached the ground. She dropped a couple more. “Winston likes these too, but he hates grapes.”

“Lady hates limes.”

“I should think so.” She chuckled.

“Why don’t you tell us how you happened to paint my fiancé?”

Rainey had been waiting for that question. Before she could say anything, Payne rose to his feet.

“Just a minute, Rainey,” he said, moving to the door. “First I want to get your brother’s photograph and your artwork.” Seconds later he returned and propped the fourteen-by-twenty inch paintings on some of the extra chairs.

Nyla and Catherine got up to study them. “I didn’t know you did full-size paintings like these for the covers,” the maid exclaimed. “They must take a long time.”

“A lot of work goes into them because I do sketches first until I know exactly what I want the finished product to look like.”

Nyla turned an animated face to Rainey. “It’s exciting to have you here. To think you’ve done all those wonderful paintings. You’re a fabulous artist.”

“You are!” Catherine cried.

“Thank you.”

“Nyla? Will you hand me the one of Payne in his office, please?”

“Here you go.” The maid removed the dishes and placed the painting in front of Diane.

She examined it for a minute, then lifted her head to scrutinize Rainey. “Did you get permission to paint this woman?”

Payne’s attorney was the person Rainey had expected to be adversarial, not his fiancée. But then Mr. Wallace wasn’t the wheelchair-bound woman desperately in love with his client.

Rainey took a steadying breath. “Yes. She’s a licensed model I’ve used in several covers. But sometimes I paint from memory. That’s how I happened to draw Mr. Sterling.”

Without preamble she spent the next ten minutes telling the same story she’d related in the courtroom. Combined with Payne’s explanations regarding Bonnie Wrigley’s testimony, they covered all the essentials.

Rainey let her see the photo of Winston. Between that picture, her brother’s photograph and Payne’s assertion that Rainey’s apartment contained a serigraph of the Nantucket Lighthouse, she hoped Catherine and Diane were satisfied.

“Because of this experience, the judge ordered that all the artists at Red Rose Romance work with licensed models from now on.”

“I should think so,” Diane muttered.

“I’m fairly certain they do anyway.”

“Why not you?”

“Because there are times when I can’t find the right model for what I want to convey. As I explained, sometimes a face in the crowd or a picture jumps out at me. I don’t even know it’s happening.”

“You mean like my fiancé’s.”

“Yes,” Rainey answered honestly.

Old fears had been put to rest. Now there was a new one.

The other woman believed Rainey was interested in Payne.

What better way to expose Rainey than force a confrontation which would embarrass her in front of him and his niece?

Little did Diane know she had nothing to fear from Rainey. Now was the time to prove it.

“Because I’m an artist, I can’t help looking at every face a little differently than most people do. Mr. Sterling is handsome in a rugged sort of way, but so are a lot of men. Some of the male models are breathtaking.”

Nyla nodded. “You can say that again!”

Bless you, Nyla.

“It’s what I read in a person’s face that makes it memorable. Mr. Sterling’s exudes character, confidence, hard work, struggle, determination, a passion for life. All those qualities combine to make him stand out as a heroic figure, artistically speaking.”

“Whoa! Uncle Payne-” Catherine smiled at him. “Did you hear all that?”

“I did,” his voice grated.

Ignoring him, Rainey put Craig’s photograph in front of Diane again. “Take another look at your fiancé.”

Now Rainey was the one forcing his fiancée to cooperate when it was the last thing Diane wanted to do.

“See the way he’s staring at the formations above the river? His eyes appear to be looking beyond them at something else the rest of us can’t see. You can tell his mind is caught up in an inner vision. That’s what makes him an arresting figure.

“That’s why I suddenly found myself sketching him weeks later. He seemed perfect for certain novels I was sent. When Manhattan Merger came along, it was almost a spiritual mating of man and story.”

The other woman’s dark brows puckered. “When you’re such a fine artist, why do you go to so much trouble for an inconsequential romance?”

Rainey had been waiting for a comment like that to surface. It was only natural for a woman like Diane. She’d never read a paperback romance and dismissed them as so much drivel.

“Millions of women will tell you they find them irresistible. Therefore it matters to the publishing company that their vast readership keeps coming back for more.

“Speaking from a personal note, it means everything to the author that the hero and heroine on the cover do justice to her superbly crafted relationship novel.

“That’s my job.

“If I’ve done it right, the romance reader escapes even further into the story.”

“I can vouch for that,” Nyla piped up. “I still read the book if the cover’s bad, but when it’s a good one, it makes it even more exciting.”

“Especially like that novel with Uncle Payne as a Viking! It was such a good story I checked out some books at the library about the Norsemen.”

Rainey nodded. “It was written by a male author who’s a Scandinavian history buff. I did the same thing as you, Catherine, and went to the library before I started to paint.

“You’ll never know how much fun I had with that cover because the author had based Roald on a true historical figure. The clothes I put on him were the same ones on display at a museum in Norway.”

“It was thrilling all right,” Nyla murmured, “but I think I liked your cover of Mr. Sterling on The Baby Doctor’s Baby the best.”

“Oh, Uncle Payne-the little baby you were holding was so sweet.”

“Is that right,” he drawled.

Rainey forgot the promise she’d made not to look at him. Their eyes met. His were smiling. They filled her with warmth. She hurriedly glanced at Catherine.

“That was Matt, my best friend’s baby boy.”