Married By Mistake

arms. “I’m not a pushover anymore.”
    For a long moment, he stared at her. Then he grasped her by the shoulders, planted a swift, hard kiss on her mouth. “I’ll wait.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN
    “Y OU KNOW , MY DEAR , I had quite given up on Adam marrying until you came along.” Eloise stirred sugar into her coffee, then tossed the spoon with practiced ease across the kitchen to land in the sink.
    When she’d first tried that maneuver a couple of weeks earlier, the spoon had hit the window behind the sink and cracked it. Since then, she’d taken to calling in on Casey most days, and now, by the start of the fourth week of their friendship, her aim had improved remarkably.
    Casey smiled, managing not to cringe at the reference to marriage, and continued preparing the seafood salad. It was the housekeeper’s day off. Adam had suggested they dine out, but Casey had declined. He hadn’t called it a date, but she suspected it was part of his campaign to get her into bed. As far as she was concerned, all dates were off. As extra insurance against temptation, she’d invited Eloise for dinner on several occasions, tonight included.
    “Now, Eloise,” she chided the older woman. “You hadn’t given up at all. I know all about your bridefest.”
    Eloise chortled. “Adam used that awful word just to annoy me.”
    “Are you saying you weren’t trying to find him a wife?”
    Eloise almost succeeded in looking insulted. “Not at all.” At Casey’s snort she added, “All right, I introduced him to various young women I thought I could tolerate as a daughter-in-law. I just wanted him to know the happiness I once did. But I knew it would take a miracle.” Her eyes misted. “And then you came along.”
    Uncomfortable, Casey turned the conversation back to Eloise. “Were you very much in love with Adam’s father?”
    The older woman’s face lit up. “Oh, yes. I miss James every day, but I thank God for the time we had. We’d only been married six years when he had that heart attack, and then a stroke right after.” She shuddered. “We were in bed—just reading, my dear,” she assured Casey, who really didn’t want to know.
    “Next minute, I was dialing 911, and the ambulance crew was saying I was lucky I hadn’t lost him already.”
    “So he died that night?” Casey asked.
    Eloise shook her head. “He recovered, quite well. The stroke slowed his speech, and he couldn’t move his right side much, but they ran all kinds of scans and tests, which showed no damage to anything that mattered. I thought I’d be taking him home with me in a few days’ time.”
    “Then what?” Casey asked, though the weight of grief in Eloise’s voice gave her the answer.
    “A week later, he had another heart attack.” Eloise dabbed a handkerchief to her eyes. “We only had those few years together, but, my, they were wonderful. Every one of them was worth a decade with an ordinary man.”
    “Do you think you’ll ever marry again?” Casey asked. If Sam could only stop making a fool of himself every time he got near Eloise, he might be a good match for her, with his old-world manners and his obvious desire to cherish her.
    Eloise shook her head. “I was forty-two when I married James, a spinster and perfectly happy that way. I don’t believe the man exists who could measure up to him, and I’m not prepared to settle for less.”
    “Good for you.” Casey meant it. She could learn something from Eloise about not settling. Still, she decided to have one last try at advancing Sam’s cause. “Eloise, I know you have lots of friends and you’re busy. But sometimes I catch something in your face.... You look lonely.”
    Eloise read Casey’s concern, and it warmed her. Her daughter-in-law was such a sweet thing—Eloise hoped Adam knew how lucky he was. She suspected he didn’t. Not yet. Whatever the truth behind Casey’s and Adam’s marriage, it wasn’t what the world saw. But a boy as smart as Adam would eventually realize he’d chosen the right bride, and would do what he needed to make the marriage work.
    “I won’t say I don’t get lonely,” she told Casey. “Of course I do. But what I had with James... I can’t replace that.”
    “Was he the possessive type?”
    Eloise shook her head. “He didn’t need to be. I never had eyes for anyone else.”
    “I wondered,” Casey said, “if you thought maybe he wouldn’t want you to find someone else.”
    “My dear, it’s not him, it’s me,” Eloise