Summer Desserts

I’ve needed to for a long time now.”
    She drew her hand from his and nervously picked up her glass again. “I’ve always thought that words are the first thing that can damage a relationship.”
    “When they’re not said,” Blake countered. “It’s a lack ofwords, a lack of meaning, that damages a relationship. This one isn’t a word I use casually.”
    “No.” She could believe that. It might have been the belief that had the fear growing stronger. Love, when it was given demanded some kind of return. She wasn’t ready—she was sure she wasn’t ready. “I think it’s best, if we want things to go on as they are, that we—”
    “I don’t want things to go on as they are,” he interrupted. He’d rather have felt annoyance than this panic that was sneaking in. He took a moment, trying to alleviate both. “I want you to marry me.”
    “No.” Summer’s own panic became full-blown. She stood quickly, as if that would erase the words, put back the distance. “No, that’s impossible.”
    “It’s very possible.” He rose too, unwilling to have her draw away from him. “I want you to share my life, my name. I want to share children with you and all the years it takes to watch them grow.”
    “Stop.” She threw up her hand, desperate to halt the words. They were moving her, and she knew it would be too easy to say yes and make that ultimate mistake.
    “Why?” Before she could prevent it, he’d taken her face in his hands. The touch was gentle, though there was steel beneath. “Because you’re afraid to admit it’s something you want, too?”
    “No, it’s not something I want—it’s not something I believe in. Marriage—it’s a license that costs a few dollars. A piece of paper. For a few thousand dollars more, you can get a divorce decree. Another piece of paper.”
    He could feel her trembling and cursed himself for not knowing how to get through. “You know better than that. Marriage is two people who make promises to each other, and who make the effort to keep them. A divorce is giving up.”
    “I’m not interested in promises.” Desperate, she pushed his hands from her face and stepped back. “I don’t want any made to me, and I don’t want to make any. I’m happy with my life just as it is. I have my career to think of.”
    “That’s not enough for you, and we both know it. You can’t tell me you don’t feel for me. I can see it. Every time I’m with you it shows in your eyes, more each time.” He was handling it badly, but saw no other course open but straight ahead. The closer he came, the further away she drew. “Damn it, Summer, I’ve waited long enough. If my timing’s not as perfect as I wanted it to be, it can’t be helped.”
    “Timing?” She dragged a hand through her hair. “What are you talking about? You’ve waited?” Dropping her hands, she began to pace the room. “Has this been one of your long-term plans, all neatly thought out, all meticulously outlined? Oh, I can see it.” She let out a trembling breath and whirled back to him. It no longer made any difference to her if she were unreasonable. “Did you sit in your office and go over your strategy point by point? Was this the setting up, the looking for flaws, the following through?”
    “Don’t be ridiculous—”
    “Ridiculous?” she tossed back. “No, I think not. You’d play the game well—disarming, confusing, charming, supportive. Patience, you’d have a lot of that. Did you wait until you thought I was at my most vulnerable?” Her breath was heaving now, and the words were tumbling out on each one. “Let metell you something, Blake, I’m not a hotel chain you can acquire by waiting until the market’s ripe.”
    In a slanted way she’d been killingly accurate. And the accuracy put him on the defensive. “Damn it, Summer, I want to marry you, not acquire you.”
    “The words are often one and the same, to my way of thinking. Your plan’s a little off the mark this time, Blake. No deal. Now, I want you to leave me alone.”
    “We have a hell of a lot of talking to do.”
    “No, we have no talking to do, not about this. I work for you, for the term of the contract. That’s all.”
    “Damn the contract.” He took her by the shoulders, shaking her once in frustration. “And damn you for being so stubborn. I love you. That’s not something you can brush aside as if it doesn’t exist.”
    To their mutual surprise, her eyes filled abruptly, poignantly. “Leave