“Hey.” She went up on tiptoe to give him a brief hug. On the way down, paused to admire his sport coat and tie. “You look nice.”
His gaze drifted over her, taking in her figure-hugging pine-green sheath dress, black tights and favorite suede flats. “So do you, sweetheart.”
Like they were going on a real date.
Albeit a very well-chaperoned one.
Mitzy rushed to the coat closet and brought out a coordinating glen plaid scarf and knee-length black winter coat. She handed him the coat, while she doubled the strip of cashmere, drew the ends through the knot and looped it around her throat. Then she dashed to the hall mirror to make sure the neckwear was centered properly.
She caught his eyes in the mirror. “I can’t believe I forgot the first annual Choral Extravaganza was this evening!”
It had been on her big list of proposed yuletide activities. Smiling, he held out her coat for her. Waiting as she slipped her arms through. “I wasn’t going to let you forget.”
She turned to him, mischief sparkling in her eyes. “Actually, cowboy,” she murmured playfully in a low, hushed tone, “you don’t let me forget a lot of things.”
Like what a good time they could still have together, with and without her four boys, and how much they enjoyed making love.
“Here they are, all ready to go!” Two volunteer helpers wheeled the four infants into the foyer. The boys were strapped into a quad stroller that featured two adjustable reclining seats in front, and two in a row behind them that sat slightly higher.
Chase’s heart expanded at the winsome sight. “Hey, little guys.” Chase knelt down to greet them. Clad in red velvet fleece outerwear, knit Santa hats, with white blankets tucked around their waists, they were beyond adorable. Joe cooed. Zach smiled. Alexander banged a fist against the stroller tray. And Gabe regarded Chase as if he had come to expect seeing him in his life.
A sentiment that went both ways.
Mitzy regarded him happily. “I figured it would be easier if we walked there.”
“I agree.” Chase nodded at the ladies.
Lockhart Foundation receptionist Darcy Dunlop promised, “We’ll tidy up before we leave.”
“Are you going to need us later?” local Realtor Marcy Lyon asked.
“Thanks.” Mitzy held the front door while Chase pushed the stroller across the threshold. “Chase and I’ve got it.”
Together, they lifted the stroller down the four steps to the sidewalk and set off, companionably enjoying the winter evening. Every house had a wreath or lights strung across the porch or both. Some had yuletide lawn displays. A half-moon and a sprinkling of stars shone in the velvety black sky above. The brisk winter air was scented with wood smoke.
The boys were entranced by it all.
And Chase was captivated by the woman strolling along beside him. He’d expected her to be distraught after her visit to MCS that day, but she hadn’t even brought the matter up.
He couldn’t help wondering why.
“So how did it go today at the saddle company?” he asked.
Mitzy fiddled with her scarf as she stepped to the side of the stroller and let him continue to push. “I learned a lot.” Briefly, she focused her attention on a yard display of Santa and his sleigh, then shifted her gaze straight ahead again. In a matter-of-fact voice she told him about the various comments she had received.
She shook her head, finally looking as stressed as he had expected her to be. “The worst thing is that I had no idea that no bonuses had been paid last year.” She pressed her lips together then straightened her spine with calm deliberation. “I feel really bad about it, but I’m hoping to make it up to all the workers this year, once we figure out what our profit margin is and what we can afford. Which,” she added hopefully, “should happen by the beginning of next week.”
Wondering how she was going to react if his instincts were right and there was no extra money to be had in the budget this year, Chase asked casually, “Did you get all the bank statements?”
Once again, Mitzy kept her physical distance and avoided looking at him directly. “The CPA firm that’s helped us out in the past is going to pick them up from the bank and prepare the balance sheet and profit and loss statements for us. That’s why I’m running so late. I had to go over there and talk to them before I went home.”
Chase paused as her words sunk in.
Initially, Mitzy had said she wanted him to do that for her. What had happened to change that? Had she somehow learned about the promise he had made to Gus? Found some other reason to mistrust him? Other than what had happened in the past?
With a sudden smile, Mitzy cocked her ear. “Do you hear that?” she said as the faint strains of “O Come, All Ye Faithful” wafted toward them. “Isn’t it incredible?”
It was. She picked up her steps. Figuring talk about business could wait, he kept pace. A block and a half later, they reached the park.
It seemed like most of the town had turned out and a good deal of the rural county, as well. It was easy to see why. Every school and church choir in the area was represented. Gathered around the huge Christmas tree in the center of Town Square Park, from the smallest child to the most senior adult, their voices raised in perfect harmony.
Tearing up at the sheer magic of the moment, Mitzy knelt down to face her four baby boys. “Hear that, fellas?” she said. “That’s the sound of Christmas in our hometown!”
“How about a picture to remember it by?” Chase got out his phone. He snapped several of the five of them.
Lulu walked up to join them, ebullient as ever. “How about a picture of all of you?”
Chase looked at Mitzy. To his disappointment, saw the briefest hesitation before she nodded and flashed a consenting smile. “Absolutely! Thanks, Lulu!”
Chase and Mitzy knelt and took up stations on either side of the quad stroller and moved in close. Lulu snapped several photos on his phone. Then a few more on Mitzy’s cell, too.
As they scanned the results, Chase had a glimpse of what it would be like if he and Mitzy and her boys were officially a family. He’d seen so much of them lately. They’d become such a huge part of his life. He wanted that to continue, more with each passing day. He sensed, if Mitzy would let her guard down completely, she’d want more than just his business advice and help with her babies, and friendship and occasional sex, too.
“Looks good,” Mitzy said, content.
Now, Chase thought, if only Mitzy would tell him what had happened to create this new tension between them, they could continue making inroads to a reconciliation. And then maybe move on to the future they always should have had.
* * *
Mitzy knew she was being a little standoffish, to say the least. She couldn’t help it, now that business had come up again, in a divisive way she hadn’t expected.
Worse, Chase seemed to intuit she was holding a fair amount back from him. And that wedged even more emotional distance between them.
With a sigh of frustration, Mitzy rose. She swung toward him, her body nudging his in the process. He studied the conflicted look on her face.
As much a Texas gentleman as ever, he inclined his head at the food stands set up at the perimeter. “Want some hot cocoa?” he offered, his low masculine voice sending a new thrill through her. “Peppermint ice cream?”
Determined to keep him at arm’s length, until she could figure out how to handle this new glitch between them, she backed up as much as she could without bumping into another concertgoer, which turned out to be about half a step. “How about both?” she asked, pretending she couldn’t feel the sizzle of awareness between them. “I think I forgot to have dinner, I was so busy getting ready to go tonight.”
His chuckle was warm and seductive. He turned to his sister. “Anything?”
Lulu shook her head. “No. I’m good.”
Looking more enamored of her than ever, Chase turned back to Mitzy and touched her shoulder protectively. “Stay right here.” Uncaring of the many witnesses around them, Chase brushed his lips across Mitzy’s temple and gave her elbow a little squeeze. “I’ll be right back.”
With a restive sigh, Mitzy watched him go. His tall handsome body disappearing in the crowd.
Chase’s sister slanted her a knowing glance. “You know he’s never gotten over you, don’t you?” Lulu said.
I’ve never gotten over him, either, Mitzy thought.
Which made the disloyal feelings Buck Phillips had sparked within her today even worse. The part of Mitzy that had fallen hopelessly in love with Chase, and been planning a future with him, knew he would never hurt her. However, the part of her that had broken up with him knew, when it came to business, that he still might.
Lulu gave Mitzy an empathetic look. “I really hope you two give each other another chance.”
The wildly romantic side of Mitzy hoped so, too.
But the realist in her...coupled with the remembered pain of a turbulent childhood, and the experience of having vastly different divorced parents...left her unsure of what to hope for.
What should take precedence in her life? she wondered.
Finding a loving husband for herself and a daddy for her four boys?
Or should she forget all that for now and concentrate on fulfilling the promise she had made to her late father regarding his legacy?
The truth was, she wanted to do both. Simultaneously. But what if that wasn’t possible? What if, she mused uncomfortably, she had to choose?
Mitzy had no answers, and she was still feeling conflicted when Chase returned, an incredible-smelling smoked turkey barbecue sandwich in one hand, a tray bearing the aforementioned peppermint ice cream and two cups of hot cocoa in the other.
“Looks like I wasn’t the only one who was hungry,” she noted wryly, wishing she’d thought to ask him for something healthier and more substantial, too.
As usual, he was one step ahead of her. He flashed a sexy grin. “I’m only drinking the hot chocolate. The rest, sweetheart, is for you.”
Mitzy’s stomach growled hungrily in response.
Chase chuckled appreciatively.
Lulu, who’d been focused on the beautiful music, rolled her eyes. “Okay, I’m going to leave you two lovebirds alone. Call me on my cell if you need anything.” She disappeared through the crowd.
Chase leaned down to whisper in Mitzy’s ear. “Want to find a quieter spot?”
Mitzy noted her babies were getting sleepy.
“Yes,” she said, grateful as ever for Chase’s thoughtfulness. “I’d like that.”
With the music still soaring in the background, infusing everyone with the Christmas spirit, they made their way through the crowds to the edge of the park and found a bench. By the time they actually sat down, the quads were dozing.
As Mitzy looked over at Chase’s handsome profile, guilt swept through her.
She couldn’t help but feel wrong for doubting him.
Or going behind his back to get the rest of the business financials done in a way that didn’t involve him. When he’d already put so much of the information together for her.
But because Buck Phillips had persisted that an outside firm was the only way to go, if she really wanted to trust the final numbers, she had relented.
And caused a tiny rift, or maybe even downright insulted, Chase in the process.
She struggled against the dawning realization that she might not be cut out to handle the complex requirements of running a business and simultaneously having a satisfying personal life. She tried to concentrate on the meal he’d brought her instead. “You didn’t have to do all this,” Mitzy said with an easy smile, though she was so hungry she was incredibly grateful he had.
“Yeah, I do,” Chase retorted, letting out a low laugh. “You’re my woman.” He wrapped a strong arm around her shoulders, squeezed them briefly, then let her go so she could tend to her meal unencumbered. “And that’s what a man does for his woman,” he told her cheerfully. “He takes care of her.”
“Okay, well, then,” Mitzy drawled back, mimicking his casually affectionate tone. Trying to demonstrate how unaffected she was, she broke her luscious sandwich in two. “Now we’re going to have to split this sandwich,” she declared saucily, “because if I’m your woman, you’re my man and—” her voice clogged unexpectedly at the memory of all they had once had and lost “—a woman takes care of her man.”
Tears stung her eyes.
What was it, she wondered, about the holidays that made her so overly emotional? So prone to acting on impulse? Letting down her guard and doing really, really crazy things like making love to him, picking up where they had left off and acting like they had never spent the last decade apart?
She was a veteran social worker, dammit. She knew from experience how badly these things usually ended.
“Hey.” Chase took her chin in his hand, his concern for her evident. A staggeringly uncomfortable silence fell. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
Mitzy put the sandwich down. Wiped her hands on a napkin and then blotted the moisture on her face with a Kleenex she fished from her pocket. “These are happy tears, Chase.”
And confused ones, too.
His eyes were dark and unwavering on hers.
“And maybe a little bit of a sugar low,” she fibbed, “from inadvertently going so long between meals.”
Which was also unusual. She generally took a lot better care of herself.
Rubbing his thumb across her lower lip, he regarded her with a mixture of skepticism and sympathy.
“Really.” She felt compelled to insist.
He tracked the warmth seeping into her cheeks. “Then eat,” he said gruffly.
Again, Mitzy offered him half.
He refused. Which was good because once she started, she was so ravenous she could not stop. Five minutes later, she had downed the whole sandwich and the ice cream, too, while he looked on approvingly.
Appreciating his protectiveness, even if she didn’t need it, she dabbed the corners of her lips. “Well, that wasn’t very ladylike of me,” she admitted self-consciously.
He grinned and palmed his chest. “Hey. I like a woman with a healthy appetite.”
The warmth within her intensified, only now it was a different kind of heat and tension. The kind that usually preceded their lovemaking. She shot him a droll look. “You always have to bring it back around to sex.”
He tugged playfully on a lock of her hair and grinned again as if liking what he saw. “I didn’t mention romance,” he claimed with way too much innocence. But a wave of heat flooded through her as his knee bumped up against her thigh, and he waggled his brows, as if he were thinking about putting the moves on her again.
“We were talking about food,” he said.
She studied him from beneath her lashes. “Sex and romance aren’t the same thing.”
Much as I might sometimes wish.
Although “just sex” with Chase was pretty darn amazing, too.
He met her gaze, clear now. “True.”
They got up, dispensed with the trash and began strolling the quads, who were starting to be a little restless, around the perimeter of the park.
“For most people,” Chase delineated further. “But,” he said huskily, tucking his hands in hers, drawing her close and bending his head, “in our case, they are.”
Their kiss was a melding of heat and need, love and tenderness. His lips were cold, in contrast to the heat of his tongue. He tasted like the hot chocolate they had been drinking, and Mitzy felt herself surge to life.
So what if their lives were way too complicated now?
There was nothing but pleasure in this.
Nothing but the gift of finding each other again after all this time. Nothing but the hope of second chances...
Yearning spiraled through her.
Along with the sharper sense of frustration that they were in a public place.
Mitzy tore her lips from his, and still holding his face in her hands, whispered, “What am I going to do with you, cowboy?”
His eyes glowing a sensual, determined light, he leaned down and kissed her again, even more thoroughly this time.
“Just give me a chance,” he said gruffly when they came up for air. She breathed in the masculine fragrance unique to him. “That’s all I ask, Mitzy. Give me a chance to make everything right.”
* * *
To Chase’s satisfaction, the shared kisses did a lot to set things right between them once again, and the music and decorations were so festive they ended up staying another hour. By the time they walked home at ten, the babies were waking.
Mitzy warmed the bottles while Chase changed the diapers. They sat side by side on the sofa, propping the babies up on the nursing pillows, feeding then burping them two at a time.
By the time the boys were ready to be put down for the night, Mitzy looked ready to collapse. “How about I get them all settled in their cribs while you get ready for bed?” Chase offered.
Mitzy hesitated in the doorway of the nursery, appearing to think she would be neglecting her maternal duty if she handed the chore over to solely him. Chase knew she usually stayed with them, soothing and giving out pacifiers, if need be, but tonight was an exception.
“I promise, I’ll come and get you right away if there are any problems.”
Mitzy stifled a yawn. “Okay. I’m too beat to argue with you.” With one last poignant look at Chase and her boys, she headed off in the direction of her bedroom. The upstairs grew quiet. One by one, the babies drifted off to sleep. Chase made sure the monitor was on, then walked soundlessly down the hall. A glance inside the master bedroom showed why Mitzy hadn’t come back.
The Texas Cowboy's Quadruplets Page 10
