“I agree,” he replied, trying and failing to reach her level of haughtiness. “Communication is the key to any successful partnership, partner.”
The smile that bloomed on her face jettisoned his heart into his throat. Either he needed to kill his mother for putting him in this situation, or kiss her for getting Magda back in his life. He just wasn’t sure yet.
“We do need to talk about the propane and the heat,” he said.
“Agreed. Looks like the wood pile is good for a while. I didn’t check the propane gauge because, frankly, I have no idea where it is.”
“No problem. I’ll head out in a minute and check it. Darren was supposed to have it refilled for the winter, but for the life of me, I cannot remember if it was done or not. Knowing my brother, it was on his to-do list that he never got around to doing.”
“Yup. I know what you mean. I adore your brother, but Lordy, the man has a memory like a sieve.”
Reno laughed, feeling foolish that he was pleased she didn’t try to defend Darren.
“I can’t see the fireplace heating this whole house. I mean, it’s small but…”
He nodded. “Agreed. We have to have access to downstairs so it makes sense to keep whatever heat we have confined here. I’ll get some Visqueen from the barn and tack it over the upstairs opening. That should help keep the heat from rising.”
“Sounds good.”
“You do realize this means I will have to sleep downstairs?” He found himself holding his breath. He didn’t think she’d realized the full implication. Sharing a tight space. Sharing a bathroom. Sharing sleeping quarters?
She gave a nonplussed shrug. “No problem. Just don’t pee on the toilet seat, and whatever you do, please put the seat down.”
Apparently, he’d been wrong. She had given this some thought, but was that good or bad?
That didn’t matter right now. They were losing daylight and there was a lot to do before lights out.
When he went to the barn for the plastic sheathing, he brought in the horses for the night. While the horses would have been fine in the weather, they’d lost a few cattle, and Darren had thought he’d seen big cat tracks, so bringing the horses in was more about safety than warmth. There was plenty of fresh air that leaked in the cracks.
Hanging the plastic barrier was a horrible job that Reno ended up tackling at the end of a very long and exhausting day. When he dropped onto the sofa long after the last rays of daylight had faded, Magda set a tray on the coffee table between him and the fireplace.
“Leftovers,” she said. “Once we’ve gone through what we’ve got in the fridge, I’ll worry about cooking again.”
She’d found a plethora of candles, various sizes and shapes. The entire living room was bathed in light from the candles and the fireplace. In any other situation, this would be so fucking romantic and his odds of scoring would have been about ninety-nine-point-nine percent. Tonight, he figured the odds were closer to zero and he’d be bugged by that if he weren’t so damned worn out.
He moved the tray to his lap. “Meatloaf? How did you heat this? Surely you didn’t turn on the oven.”
“If you didn’t look like a dog on its last legs, I’d slap your head. Of course I didn’t turn on the oven. I put it in an iron skillet in the fireplace.”
“So, I’m eating fried meatloaf?”
She chuckled. “Something like that.”
He chewed silently for a few minutes and then said, “Either this is the best meatloaf I’ve ever eaten or I was starved.”
“I’m going with starved.” She walked over to the window and stared outside. “It’s really black out there. All cloudy. No stars even. More snow tonight, I’m thinking.” She turned around. “I talked to Zeb briefly today to let him know I’m okay. He said you’d called Olivia and Mitch. He’s worried about us being out here alone. Together.”
Reno set the tray back on the coffee table and wiped his mouth on a paper towel. “Why would he be worried about us being alone? He knows me. He knows I would never do anything to you.”
The laugh she gave was choked. “He thinks he knows why I left last summer. He doesn’t,” she hurried on to say. “But he has his suspicions about you and me.”
He leaned back into the cushions and draped his arm along the back. “If Zeb knows or understands why you flew out of town like an escaped prisoner, then he knows more than I do. Are you ready to talk about it? Why you left?”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t think so. Hell, Reno…” She dragged her fingers through her hair. “I don’t know if I can even explain it.”
“Try.”
She continued to shake her head. “Maybe someday, but not tonight. We’re both exhausted. The day has been, well, stressful to say the least. Are you done with your dinner? I’ll take the tray back into the kitchen.”
When she reached for the tray, he wrapped his hands around both of her wrists. “First, you don’t have to wait on me. I can carry my dishes back. And second, I want—no, I deserve to know what happened. Why you left. Why you wouldn’t take my calls.”
Her head hung down, her gaze not meeting his. “I’ll take your tray tonight. In the future, you can carry your own damn dishes to the kitchen.” She lifted her head and their gazes met. “Maybe someday I’ll be able to explain. Now please unwrap your hands from my wrists.” When he did, she lifted the tray and walked into the kitchen.
Four hours later, Reno was still trying to get to sleep. He punched the pillow a few times. Straightened the blankets. Changed positions. But he had to face it. Sleeping on the couch was not going to work. His days were too long and too full to start them already exhausted. Tomorrow, he’d break the news to Magda that she would be sharing a bed with him. And he’d have to find a way to do it so she didn’t think he was just trying to get in her pants…not that he would mind that. No, not at all. But then would she run again?
Even under two blankets and a quilt, Magda’s teeth chattered. She was pretty sure her nose would freeze and fall off at some point tonight. Sticking her head under the blanket wouldn’t work either. She’d tried that but she couldn’t breathe.
The blankets and quilt covering her were heavy. Turning over was a challenge. It felt like she had to lift a ton of weight off her just to move.
Long term, this just wasn’t going to work. She envied Reno being in the living room with all the heat. She bet he was sprawled out on the couch snoring like a buzz saw. In the morning, he’d look great, a twinkle in his eyes and not a bag under either eye. She, on the other hand, would look like she’d been rode hard and put up wet…not a good mental picture.
What she was going to have to do was convince him to let her stay in the living room with him without him thinking she was trying to get in his pants.
This time of the year, the day usually started before the sun. Now, in the dark without a clock to check the time, she didn’t know if it was the middle of the night or early in the morning. Finally, she decided she’d been in bed long enough. She had to have been tossing and turning for hours. She dug out the warmest pants and shirt she had. With those, she added double socks and her fluffy slippers to keep her toes from breaking off in little chunks of ice when she walked.
The house was dark when she opened her door. Her penlight made just enough faint light that she could find the bathroom and then the kitchen. Once she was done in the bathroom, she began to quietly make her way to the kitchen.
“What are you doing?” Reno’s voice from the couch startled the living daylights out of her.
She jumped and let out a little girlie scream.
“Don’t do that,” she admonished. “You scared the crap out of me.”
She flashed her light toward him. He squinted and threw his hand up and over his eyes.
“Ow. My eyes.”
“Oops. Sorry.” She lowered the light toward the floo
r. “I thought I’d get the morning coffee going. I’m not sure what time it is.”
“Magda. It’s only midnight.” Reno’s watch’s luminescent face glowed in the dark room.
“Really?” She sighed. “Sorry, again.”
He sat up on the sofa, pulling his blanket up to his waist. Shadows from the fireplace flames danced over the hills and valleys of his chest, much as her tongue wanted to.
“Come on over here,” he said. “What’s going on?”
“I’m freezing in there. It’s like meat-locker cold. I mean, I have the blankets and all, but you know those leaded aprons the dentist puts over you for X-rays? All that bed cover felt like I was sleeping under about four of those lead aprons piled on me.” She sat on the couch. “The fire feels so good,” she said, holding out her hands and then rubbing them together.
“You left your bedroom door open,” Reno said after glancing over his shoulder.
“How did you know?”
“We’re losing heat.”
She jumped up. “Sorry.” With her flashlight beam leading the way, she found her way back to her bedroom and shut the door firmly. On her way back to the couch, she stopped long enough to add a log to the fire. “There. Door closed and another log on the fire. I’m a happy camper now.”
He laughed. “I doubt it. This old house has its fair share of drafts. Never been a real problem until this year. I called KC today just to check in. She said local news is saying this is a hundred-year freeze.”
“Yay us,” she said, a definite sarcastic tone to her words. “We get to experience it firsthand.” She rubbed her arms for warmth.
“Well, it’s obvious that you can’t sleep in the bedroom, at least not tonight. Come on. Give me a hand.” He stood and for the briefest of seconds, she hoped he wasn’t wearing anything under that blanket, or at worst, a pair of briefs. She was disappointed to discover his lower half was clothed in a pair of tie lounging pants.
“What are we doing?”
“Lighting some candles and then rearranging furniture. Grab the end of the couch and help me move it to the left and against the far wall.”
She did, not sure what was running through Reno’s mind.
“Okay, follow me.”
He led her to her bedroom. First, he tossed layer after layer of bed coverings over the chair. Then he said, “Grab the handles at the side. We’re moving this mattress to the living room in front of the fire.”
After some grunting—on her part—and some swearing—on his part—they maneuvered the bulky queen-size mattress into the living room and onto the floor.
“Whew,” she said, falling butt-first on the mattress. “Now I’m not cold anymore.”
He went back into the bedroom and came back with a couple of blankets. “This should be enough for tonight.”
“Where are you going to sleep?”
“Here. Right now. The couch is too short for me.”
“But—”
“But nothing. Scoot over. Keep your hands to yourself and we’ll be fine.”
A smile tickled her lips. Keep her hands to herself?
She flopped onto her back and shook a blanket over her. “I will have no problems keeping my hands to myself,” she said with a prim and proper sniff. “I could say the same to you.”
“Not to worry,” he said with a yawn. “Good night.” He rolled to his side, giving her his back.
Not to worry? What was that supposed to mean?
Chapter Eleven
Sleeping with Magda, knowing he could not touch her, was the hardest thing Reno had done in a long time. It was especially difficult when he found her draped over him when he woke up a few hours later. He was sweating from the combined body heat.
Still, he didn’t move. He lay there enjoying the sensation of Magda in his arms. He’d missed her, he bet more than she realized. Not for one minute did he buy her explanation that she’d left because she’d needed breathing room. He’d given her plenty of space. He’d never tried to pressure her to commit. Had never asked for a commitment. While they’d been together, she’d been the one in control.
Maybe it was because they’d been friends long before they’d become lovers, but the months she’d been gone had been some of the roughest of his adult life. He could talk with her about things he wouldn’t with anyone else, not even his siblings. So many days he’d wanted to call her, tell her what happened, or hear her laugh at a funny joke he’d heard, but he hadn’t. Leaving like she had had sent the clear message that they were over. But were they?
He had a long day ahead of him and the last thing he wanted was to come home to a pissed-off woman. He gently moved away until he could stand.
“Hey, Sleeping Beauty,” he chided. “How about some coffee?”
“I’d love some,” she muttered. “Thanks.”
He laughed. “Time to rise and shine.”
She stretched and yawned. “I’m rising, but there won’t be any shining until much later.”
“Sleep okay?”
“So much better. I was almost hot. How ’bout you?”
And while she didn’t mean she was hot in a sexual way, Reno thought she was the hottest thing ever. “Great. Thanks for sharing.”
“Not a problem. Listen, I think we should probably leave this here until we get power back. No sense putting it up and pulling it out again every night.”
“Yup. I think so too. I’m going to brave a cold bathroom if you’ll get the coffee going.”
“Yes, boss. I’m moving.” Magda stretched once more, which again pulled the tank top she’d ended up sleeping in tight across her breasts.
Reno took a good look and headed off, his cock liking the vision. What they’d had had been hot, their lovemaking explosive. Their connection had been like nothing he’d had with a woman before. And there hadn’t been another since Magda. He hadn’t wanted any other, and that scared him. He had his life plan, and marriage at this age wasn’t a part of it. So why was it that most days he craved her like an alcoholic craved his next drink?
The weather warmed up to thirty-three, which melted some of the snow. However, by that afternoon, the falling temperature was freezing the melted snow into solid sheets of slick ice. Reno had one last chore to do before he could head home. Even knowing it would refreeze tonight, he had to chop the ice on the pond so the cattle would have water for now.
Since the ground had been frozen this morning, had thawed through the day and was refreezing as each hour passed, he elected to use the old, and barely reliable, four-wheeler Darren had picked up for a song. For once in its stubborn life, the machine started with only three tries and the usual litany of swearing.
But—and he would never admit this to anyone—he enjoyed riding around on the four-wheeler getting muddy and nasty. The machine’s back end would slip and slide sideways and send a jolt of adrenaline chugging through his system, which would make him laugh. Of course, he could never let Darren know this since his brother believed it was some type of punishment to send Reno on a four-wheeler errand.
He carried the long-handled axe strapped to the ATV as he made his way across the fields to the large water supply. The middle of the pond looked like it only had a thin coating of ice. Around the edges and out a ways, the water had frozen solid. He didn’t want the cattle walking on the ice to get to the water…a sure recipe for disaster.
If Magda’s breasts hadn’t distracted him this morning, he’d have remembered to wear his winter boots. Instead, he was in his usual mud-laden riding boots, which provided no traction on ice. Still, once this was done, he could head to the house and die in front of the nice fire he was sure Magda had going.
Placing one boot on the ice, he tested it. It held firm and still held firm when he tried his entire weight. He eased toward the thinner middle, the plan being to work backwards to hack the ice. He swung the ax
e up and over his shoulder and then down to break the ice. One more blow and he would take a step back.
The crack came as a surprise, as did the sudden opening beneath his feet. He went through the drop-door the ice had formed into the deathly cold water.
Magda lit a couple of candles she’d put in the kitchen. Daylight was fading fast and she wondered where Reno had gotten off to. He’d stopped by after he’d gotten the axe saying he’d be right back, but that’d been at least an hour ago. While she reheated some chili, she looked out the window to see if the four-wheeler had been returned, but its spot in the open shed was empty. She chewed on a cracker, wondering if she needed to take her motorcycle and go check on him.
No, she couldn’t. First, Reno would think she was being silly for worrying. He would call her a worrywart for days. Second, riding a bike in these weather conditions was nuts.
What surprised her the most was that she actually cared about Reno’s opinion of her. She tapped her fingernail on her front tooth, debating what to do, if anything.
After turning off the flame under the chili, she dressed for the weather and headed out to see if she could at least see him. Her first step outside made her question her sanity. The wind was bitterly cold, biting any inch of flesh she had exposed.
She pulled her scarf higher up on her face and raised the binoculars she’d found to her eyes. After adjusting the sight, she searched in the field where the biggest pond was located. In the rapidly fading light, it was almost impossible to see anything. On her last sweep with the field glasses before she quit, she found his four-wheeler on a very distant knoll, but no cowboy close by. She watched for a while, never seeing any movement. Finally, there simply wasn’t enough light to see.
Damn it. He’d be laughing at her for days, but she was going to find out what was going on. His truck keys were on the key rack, so she snatched them and headed out. Opening and closing the gates to get to him was going to be a pain in the ass, but whatever.
Texas Bossa Nova (Texas Montgomery Mavericks Book 5) Page 10
