Marriage by Mistake (7 page)

"One thing, Troy. I asked you to do one
thing."

The other man's nonchalance dimmed. "Don't
blame me. Kid's a regular escape artist."

"You said he was dogging your steps."

"He was." Troy's gaze flitted to Kelly.
"Which is how he must have heard you were on your way home
   with wife, after all."

Dean didn't glance around, which told Kelly
he'd been aware of her behind him the whole time. "I told him that
it wasn't his fault."

Troy swished his drink. "Guess he didn't
believe you."

"Who?" Kelly had the temerity to ask yet
again. "Who is missing?"

"Robby," Troy said. "Didn't Dean warn you
about his little demon?"

"Yours?" Kelly's eyes widened as she turned
to Dean. "You have a son?" Not even
her
Dean had told her
that!

Dean's gaze flicked to Kelly. "Not my son. My
brother. Half-brother, actually."

"Oh." But her Dean hadn't told her
that
, either. "How old is he?"

"Nine." Dean pressed his lips together.

"Nine." Kelly knew her eyes were widening
again. "And you're how    ?"

"Credit a very active, very healthy sire,"
Dean said dryly. "Too active and too healthy, in fact, to come home
and deal with his troublesome progeny." Turning back to Troy, Dean
sighed. "If you've already tried all the usual places, then we'll
have to try some unusual ones."

Troy set down his highball. "Whatever you
say. I'm ready to call the cops."

"I doubt that will be necessary." As Dean
spoke, he went toward a set of French doors and opened them wide. A
lot of trees were revealed. "Robby never goes all that far."

Kelly wasn't officially invited on the
expedition that then charged into the woods, but she went anyway. A
nine-year-old boy was missing. And besides, she was curious about
Dean, watching him as they tramped over the pine carpet floor of
the forest that grew behind his house.

Just exactly who was he? For all they'd
shared during their two-day courtship, he'd not told her anything
substantial about his life. She hadn't heard about the building
with his name on it, the huge house, his trouble-making cousin
   and certainly not a word about a nine-year-old
half-brother. It all seemed to confirm her hypothesis. This was not
the man she'd married.

But at the same time...he was no longer the
block of stone she'd been sitting next to on the airplane. He
stalked through the forest with his brows drawn in real concern.
There was an outside chance he might be human.

Sunlight filtered through the branches
overhead and rustling noises sounded in the undergrowth. Kelly
heard the gentle burbling of a brook. "Some backyard," she
muttered. Huge, like everything else about the place, though she
had to admit the hugeness of the outdoors was beautiful, a tamed
slice of nature.

They'd gone quite a ways before Kelly saw the
tree house. A platform of plywood supported scrappy two-by-fours. A
dingy canvas stretched above this collection as a roof.

"What the    ?" Troy stuttered.
"Where did that come from?"

"Robby made it last summer," Dean replied.
"He thinks no one knows about it."

But Dean had known, Kelly thought, and
glanced toward him.

Dean came to a stop at the foot of the tree.
"Robby! If you're up there, come out!"

The canvas roof flapped in a passing breeze.
Dean's gaze concentrated on the makeshift structure. Kelly's gaze
concentrated on Dean. He was looking more and more human with each
passing minute; concerned and frustrated. He shrugged out of one
sleeve of his suit jacket. "I'm going up to take a look."

Troy's mouth twisted. "Of course you
are."

Dean peeled out of the rest of his jacket and
tossed it to Troy, who caught it with a sigh. Loosening his tie,
Dean stalked toward the pegged-in ladder nailed to the tree
trunk.

Kelly bit her lower lip. Mr. Chill and
Correct had taken off his jacket. He was going to
climb a
tree
. Who
was
he?

With spare efficiency, Dean climbed the
ladder. At the platform, he lifted the dingy canvas and crawled
in.

Down beside Kelly, Troy released another
sigh. "Trumped again."

Kelly switched her gaze to Troy. "Excuse
me?"

Troy nodded toward the tree house. "I've been
looking for Robby for hours, but it took
Dean
to find him.
Yup, saving failed corporations, finding lost kids. Whatever the
task, old Dean-o can do it."

Kelly frowned. "But we don't even know if
Robby is up there."

"He is. Dean never makes mistakes. Ah
   " Troy glanced at her. "Present company excepted."

Kelly blinked. "Present comp    But
I'm
your
mistake."

"Mine?" Troy looked genuinely baffled.

Kelly was getting baffled, herself. "Yes, you
were the one who gave Dean the 'amusing suggestions.'"

Troy regarded her through narrowing eyes. His
mouth opened, but before he could say a word, the flap of the
canvas lifted. Dean emerged, looking disgusted.

"He's not there," Kelly guessed.

"Oh, he's here." Dean dusted his hands, then
reached for the tree-trunk ladder. "But he won't come down."

Kelly's lips parted. Troy had been right.
Dean
had
known where to find Robby.

"Oh, come on," Troy expostulated. "He won't
come down?"

Dean spoke toward the tree trunk as he
descended the ladder. "Claims he wants to talk to Kelly first."

Kelly choked. "Me?"

"You." Dean turned at the base of the tree
and reached for the suit jacket Troy was handing him.

Kelly opened and closed her mouth. "But
   Robby doesn't even know me."

"I know." Dean shook out his jacket. "And I'm
sure you have no intention of climbing any trees. I told him that.
Never mind. He'll come down when he's hungry enough."

"It has nothing to do with climbing the tree.
I just don't understand what I have to do with it."

"Nothing." Dean shoved an arm into his
jacket. "Don't worry about it."

She wasn't supposed to worry about it? He
could find lost kids and, reportedly, save failing corporations,
but
she
wasn't supposed to 'worry about it?' "All right,"
Kelly proclaimed. "Robby wants to talk to me, he can talk to
me."

Dean froze with his jacket hunched over his
neck. "What?"

Kelly marched toward the tree. Noting the
well-worn polish on the pegged-in ladder, she kicked off her
sandals and began to climb.

"Miss Williams    !"

She paid no heed. In fact, Kelly enjoyed the
note of panic in Dean's voice. She wasn't supposed to
worry
about it
. At the top of the ladder, she stepped onto the
platform and shoved inside the canvas door. In the sudden dimness,
she squinted.

"Oh, God," a small voice breathed.

It took a few seconds for Kelly's eyes to
adjust enough to spot him, a pudgy boy sitting cross-legged at the
far end of the platform. His brown hair was uncombed and his
clothes were dirty. With a pug nose and freckles, he looked like
every misfit, un-cool kid she'd ever taught in her father's Sunday
school. Kelly's heart immediately melted.

"Hey." She lowered to sit on her heels.
"Heard you wanted to talk to me."

Maybe he had once, but he didn't look like he
wanted anything of the sort now. "You're
her
," he
breathed.

"Um, if you mean your brother's wife, well
then yes, I'm the one. Kelly Williams    er, well yeah,
Williams    at your service." Kelly smiled and held out
her hand.

The boy didn't make a move toward it. "Troy
was right," he said hoarsely. "You are a dish."

Kelly kept on smiling, though she wondered
where Troy could have gotten such an idea.

The boy swallowed. "So, what are you going to
do to me?"

"
Do
to you?" Kelly lowered her
outstretched hand.

"You're really mad, aren't you?"

"Mad?" Kelly blinked. "At you?"

Solemn, the child nodded.

"But why would I be mad at you?" Kelly hadn't
even known he existed half an hour ago.

"You know. The hypnosis. Because of the
hypnosis." Robby's gaze went from vulnerable to suspicious.

Kelly stared. "What?"

Robby spoke clearly. "Because I hypnotized
Dean."

Feeling like an idiot, Kelly closed her
hung-open jaw. "You," she said. "You did it. I    I
thought it was Troy."

"Oh, no. Troy just gave Dean a suggestion,
once he'd gone under.
I
was the one who hypnotized him."
Robby sounded, briefly, proud. Then his eyes narrowed. "Didn't you
know?"

Kelly shook her head.

"Oh, great." Robby slapped his forehead. "She
didn't even know, and I had to go and tell her."

"It's all right. I'm not mad at you, even
so," Kelly rushed to say. But she was floored. Dean had been
hypnotized    by a nine-year-old boy?

One look at this nine-year-old boy, however,
and Kelly knew she couldn't ask how he'd managed it. He needed
reassurance, not interrogating.

"Why should I be mad?" She lifted a shoulder.
"It wasn't your fault Dean married me. The hypnosis couldn't force
him to do anything he didn't want to do." Hadn't Dean spouted such
a sentiment to her the day before?

But the boy looked unconvinced by the
argument. "He's still mad about it," he claimed.

"Yes, but not at you. I think...he's made at
himself."

"Huh. That doesn't make any sense."

It did, but Kelly didn't belabor the point.
"The thing is
I'm
not made at you," she told him, and waved
a hand. "Anyway, the whole thing was just an accident."

It was another limp contention of Dean's from
the day before, but this one put a light of hope into Robby's soft
eyes. He shifted weight. "Really?"

"Really." Kelly paused a beat, then gestured
toward the canvas flap door. "It must be breakfast time, or past
it. I'm pretty hungry, and I don't even know where the kitchen is
in that great, big house. How about you? Wanna come down and
eat?"

He hesitated, searching her face for
sincerity.

Kelly made sure to relax her expression,
letting it show what she was truly feeling: liking, interest, the
desire to make a connection. She'd grown up learning that every
human being had something unique and worthwhile to offer. She had a
feeling Robby hadn't discovered this was true of himself yet.

But he did appear to conclude she wasn't
angry at him. "Oh, we don't eat in the kitchen," he said.

"No?"

"There should be a meal laid out in the
morning room." Robby started on all fours toward her. "I'll show
you."

Feeling awfully pleased with the situation,
Kelly moved aside for the boy, but Robby waited for her to precede
him down the ladder. High-bred manners. And breakfast in the
'morning room.' Excuse me. She smiled to herself as she moved out
the canvas door.

Dean's eyes hit her as she emerged first.
They narrowed. Then he saw Robby come out of the tree house behind
her. He couldn't hide his surprise. Surprise and, Kelly saw,
relief.

But of course he was relieved. He'd been
worried. He cared.

He was human.

She felt a little light-headed as she hopped
to the ground. This was stupid. So, Dean was human. Most people
were. Nothing to get excited about. Then she turned and found him
looking straight at her.

"Thank you," he said.

That was when, for an instant, just a
split-second, Kelly saw something she'd never expected to see.

Her
Dean.

As if alarmed he could have been anything of
the sort, he threw the mask back up. Abruptly, he turned to Robby.
Scanning the boy, and apparently finding him undamaged, he
declared, "You're filthy."

"I'm hungry," was Robby's retort.

Kelly started shivering.
Her
Dean! Not
any more, but he
had
been there; in the eyes, the tone of
voice...the vulnerability.

"You'll bathe before you get anything to
eat," Dean told his half-brother sternly. "And then we'll talk
about this habit of running away."

Robby's brown-eyed gaze went to Kelly. "I
promised her I'd show her where the morning room is. I have to do
that first."

Dean stilled. He seemed transfixed by
something Robby had just done. Kelly, meanwhile, was transfixed by
a startling, new idea. Had her husband been telling the truth back
in that conference room in Las Vegas?
Was
at least a part of
him 'her' Dean?

Could it be
true
?

"Ahem, well." Dean seemed to come out of his
brief distraction. He went stern again. "Fine. If you promised,
then you have to fulfill your word. But then you bathe." Dean made
this very clear. "No eating anything yourself until you're
presentable."

"Okay." Robby sounded like he would have
agreed to anything right then. Completely trusting now, he grabbed
Kelly's hand. "Come on, this way."

"Wait. My shoes." Kelly leaned the other way
to slip into her sandals. Furtively, she glanced toward Dean as
Robby pulled her in the other direction.

Dean was not furtive at all about the way he
was looking at Kelly. He wasn't a rock now, but a glacier, cold
enough to freeze lava. His eyes focused on her like twin lasers of
ice. If Kelly hadn't just retrieved Robby for him    and
he hadn't admitted gratitude    she'd have said he was
angry.

Enraged, even.

"Enjoy your meal," he told Kelly, in tones of
frost. Before she could reply, he turned and stalked swiftly
away.

"Well, I'll be a monkey's..." Kelly murmured.
It was as if that other man, the human one, had never been.

CHAPTER FIVE

Dean swept through the open French doors and
into his study. He paced the Aubusson rug, his hands clenched into
fists. If only an expenditure of energy would release some of the
fury he felt.