Lust and Lies 04 - Pretty Maids in a Row

easy to me. Between being a paperboy for ten years and maintaining a straight 'A' average through high school, I won the Newsboy Scholarship. Since I couldn't afford room and board, I chose George Washington University, not far from where we lived. You'll never guess what I majored in."
    "Girls?"
    "Smartass. Look, the traffic's finally let up a little. Why don't you use the bathroom while we're still parked? It takes a little improvising to get around in there anyway, but I bet it's damn near impossible when we're moving."
    He saw the flush on Holly's cheeks as she tried to get out of her seat. His arm instantly formed a barricade across the space in front of her.
    "Do you always embarrass so easily?"
    She sighed loudly and glared at his hand. "No. I don't."
    He raised his arm and smiled at her back as she moved away. It didn't make sense, but the realization that he could so easily fracture her composure and she knew it, made him feel rather cocky.
    He had hoped his sad but true tale would put another crack in her barrier, and it looked like he'd accomplished that much. But it had also served the purpose of reminding him of his vows where women were concerned. Vows that Holly could make him forget for a few hours if he let her.
    Women had their perks and he enjoyed them whenever the opportunity arose. But developing feelings for them, forming relationships, even friendships, were completely out of the question. No woman would ever have the chance to do to him what his mother had done to his old man. No woman would ever leave him with a broken heart and a brood of children. He'd take what they had to offer and go on to the next one when they got too possessive.
    As soon as she was buckled back into her seat, he eased the motorhome onto the highway again.
    Holly thought they had been making some progress toward friendship but now she wasn't so sure.
    Something had changed in the minutes she had been away and she wanted to quickly recapture whatever ground had been lost. "Are you and your family still close?"
    He seemed surprised that she wanted to know more about him, but he replied without hesitation. "Not in real miles. We're spread all over the country now... but inside"—he paused to tap his temple—"that won't ever change. There was this one time, a dress-up high school dance. My two older sisters were certain they would die if they couldn't attend. Dad and I pooled our money. We only had enough for one dress. Now you know, most girls would have fought tooth and nail to be the one to get a new dress. Not my two. Nancy wore the dress for the first half of the dance, then turned it over to Patty for the second half. That way they both had a night to remember.
    "The only problem was, Patty was about four inches shorter and ten pounds heavier than Nancy, so we got a dress size in between. It didn't fit either one of them perfectly, but the rest of us convinced them they both looked like movie stars. Luckily, everyone at the dance was too preoccupied with their own appearance to notice the switch, or at least they had the decency not to mention it."
    He related a few more family stories and moved on to anecdotes about Harry Abbott, the sports writer who had taken him under his wing, until he had her laughing along with him. When she accused him of making them up, the tales became even more outrageous.
    When was the last time she had laughed so much? Jerry. The answer sobered her slightly but she didn't let the realization ruin the fun she was having.
    There were similarities between the two. They were both extremely handsome, self-centered men who went through women faster than toilet tissue, they both teased mercilessly and made her laugh, and they could both kiss like the devil. Only this one couldn't take her to hell, because she no longer had childish fantasies about falling in love.
    There were also great differences. Where Jerry cared about no one but himself, David obviously loved his family and his friend, Harry. Jerry never had to work to get what he wanted. David had known hard times and had struggled to overcome the odds without feeling sorry for himself. Where Jerry had carried out an elaborate farce for his own pleasure, David had been blunt about his intentions and brutally honest about his subsequent disinterest.
    And thank heaven for that fact. The way she had responded to his kiss was not only mindless but dangerous. She would never be able to keep him at arm's length as she did Philip. With David,