“No. It would ruin the look of the door. Besides, in the daytime I can pretty well guess who’s out there by looking through the glass. It’s only at night that I can’t see as well.”
Travis blew out a breath. “Then wait a sec.” He walked into the parlor on the left, where he moved the curtain aside to check the porch. “It’s Donna. Go ahead and let her in.”
Donna. Donna sure as hell wasn’t paying her a visit, Gwen thought. They were only passing acquaintances. No doubt Travis’s truck parked outside had caught the woman’s attention. Gwen wondered if the kindergarten teacher had received a dozen kiss-off roses, and if Donna was still in Travis’s heart. Chances were good that Donna had once been in Travis’s bed, and the thought made Gwen clench her teeth.
She opened the door. “Donna! What a surprise.” She stepped back from the doorway. “Come in.”
“Excuse me for bothering you, Gwen.”
As Donna stepped into the entry, Gwen thought how petite and doll-like she looked. But she also had generous breasts, so the doll she most resembled was Barbie. Maybe gym-teacher Barbie, considering Donna’s short, practical haircut.
“No bother.” Gwen closed the door.
“I noticed Travis’s truck out front and wondered if he happened to be here. I need to talk with him about something and this would save me a trip out to the ranch.”
And the woman had apparently forgotten how to dial a phone, Gwen thought.
Travis walked out of the parlor. “What can I do for you, Donna?”
Gwen glanced at him. Bad choice of words, cowboy.
“Oh, well, hello, Travis.” Donna’s cheeks turned pink. Then her gaze dropped to his sock-covered feet and her cheeks were even pinker when she looked up. She shot a furtive glance at Gwen. “I, uh, hope I wasn’t interrupting anything.”
“Not a thing,” Travis said. “I took off my boots so I wouldn’t clomp around and wake up Lizzie. She’s asleep upstairs.”
“Let me take your coat, Donna,” Gwen said. When Donna handed it to her, she hooked it on the brass coat tree in the entry. “I have some fresh-baked cinnamon rolls, if you’d like one. And I think there’s some coffee left from dinner.”
Donna glanced from Gwen to Travis. “You and the baby are staying here?”
“At least for tonight. Lizzie’s sick.”
“Oh, no.”
“’Fraid so. I wanted to be close to Doc Harrison in case we needed him. Gwen was nice enough to let us use a couple of her guest rooms and feed me some dinner.”
He seemed awfully eager to clarify that he wasn’t sharing a bedroom with his hostess, Gwen thought with some irritation. And he had said he had a rule about being faithful to someone until he moved on. Maybe now that she’d made her position clear, he’d decided to reconnect with Donna.
Well, that was fine with her. Donna could make a fool of herself if she wanted to, but Gwen wasn’t planning on it. “Why don’t you two go on in the parlor and I’ll bring in coffee and cinnamon rolls?” she said.
“That would be very nice.” Donna smiled and walked into the parlor. No offer of help, no suggestion that they could all gather in the kitchen. Donna seemed happy to put Gwen in the role of obliging servant and get her out of the way.
“I’ll help you,” Travis said.
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Gwen gave him a scorching look. “Go entertain your guest, Travis.”
He lifted his eyebrows, then shrugged and turned to follow Donna into the parlor.
Normally Gwen loved serving people. She drew great satisfaction from arranging a tray with her silver coffeepot, her china sugar and creamer and her antique cups and saucers. Ordinarily serving in the parlor called for lace-trimmed napkins and dainty silver napkin rings. This time she came close to slapping some discount paper napkins on the tray along with the carton of creamer and some old sugar packets from the last time she’d bought take-out coffee at the Huerfano Shop ’n Go.
But she had her pride.
She arranged the tray with more care than usual, in fact. She took time to warm the cinnamon rolls and place them in a linen-draped basket that had an oven-hot stone at the bottom to keep the rolls warm. Fresh coffee, not the leftovers from dinner, went into the silver pot, and she rubbed a spot of tarnish from the handle before she picked up the loaded tray and walked down the hall to the parlor.
She suspected Donna had relished every minute alone with Travis, but if the two of them had had the bad manners to make out on Gwen’s fainting couch, she’d order them both out of the house. A person could only be expected to put up with so much.
Bracing herself for a cozy scene, she walked into the parlor and found Travis sitting on the Victorian velvet sofa alone. “Is Donna in the bathroom?” Gwen asked as she set the tray on the table in front of the sofa.
“No, she went home.”
Gwen’s head came up. “Home? Already?”
“She didn’t get the answer she wanted, so she left.” He leaned forward. “That smells great. You must have warmed up the rolls.”
“Yeah, I did,” Gwen said, still perplexed as she glanced at the front door, half-expecting Donna to reappear. “She really went home?”
“She really did. Can I pour this coffee?”
“Sure.” Gwen looked at him. “I thought I’d come in here and find the two of you acting very friendly.”
He poured the coffee without spilling a drop. “Goes to show what you know. Should I pour you some?”
“Okay.” She was dying to know what he’d said that had caused Donna to leave.
He glanced at her. “Are you going to come and sit down or drink it standing up?”
“I’ll sit down.” She walked around the low table and sat next to him on the crushed velvet as she tried to solve the mystery of Donna’s quick exit without having to ask. She had a suspicion the answer had to do with her, which made her heart beat a little faster. It was almost as if Travis wanted to continue to be alone with her.
He poured a dollop of cream into her coffee, gave it a quick stir and put the spoon into his own cup before handing over hers.
“How did you know how I like it?” Her hands weren’t entirely steady as she took the coffee.
“I’ve watched you.” He added cream to his cup.
“When?”
“Lots of times.” He stirred his coffee with deliberation. “At the wedding reception. Tonight at dinner. You always take it like that.” He tapped his spoon on the rim of the cup and laid it in the saucer before smiling at her. “Right?”
“Right.” She shouldn’t be impressed with the fact that he’d taken the time to notice a small detail like how she liked her coffee. But she was. “It isn’t fair that you’re so darned charming.”
He lifted the linen covering on the basket of rolls. “Donna didn’t think I was so darned charming when I told her I couldn’t spend next weekend with her at her parents’ cabin. Oh, God, these smell incredible.”
Gwen’s insides wouldn’t settle down. So Donna had been here to stake a claim. “I’m sure you could get away. Matty and Sebastian will be back, and—”
“Oh, I can get away.” He paused in the act of taking a cinnamon roll from the basket and looked up at her. “But I’m not going to. In spite of all the rotten things you think about me, I don’t use people. Right now there’s only one woman I’m interested in spending the weekend with.”
At the look in his eyes, the jumpiness in her stomach grew worse. “Travis, I—”
“And just because you won’t give me the time of day doesn’t mean I’ll grab a good person like Donna and use her as a substitute. Even when she says she doesn’t mind.” He cupped the roll in his hand and leaned over the basket to take a bite. “Mmm,” he murmured. “Mm-mmm.”
Gwen gasped. “You told her you were interested in me?”
He swallowed. “Only when she wouldn’t back off.” He winked at her. “You might want to avoid her for a while. I don’t think you’re her favorite person at the moment.”
Gwen set her cup and saucer down so she wouldn’t drop it. Then she stood and began to pace. “Well, that’s it. Now people will assume we’re lovers.”
“No, they won’t. I told Donna you don’t think much of me.”
“And she told you I was crazy, right?”
“Pretty much.” He polished off the cinnamon roll and licked his fingers. “Damn, but those are good. Do you think you could bring some out to the Rocking D once in a while this summer?”
She thought of the tortuous pleasure she would get from doing exactly that—staying for coffee and watching him eat those rolls with his usual gusto. The sensual side of Travis called to her so strongly that she wondered how she’d ever keep him at bay, although she had to. She really had to.
But she couldn’t stop seeing Matty and Sebastian because Travis would be there at the ranch. And a gift of cinnamon rolls would be a nice thing to do for the newlyweds.
She threw up her hands. “I might as well. Everyone will expect me to spend a lot of time out there now, chasing after you. I’ll be labeled as your summer romance.”
“I don’t see how you figure that.” He picked up his cup and took a swallow of coffee. “Unless you’ve decided to be my summer romance when I wasn’t paying attention.”
“You still don’t get it, do you? You told Donna you were interested in me. You are staying overnight in my house. No woman in this town will believe that I can resist Travis Evans under those circumstances. Everyone will assume that before the sun comes up, you will have won me over, whether it’s true or not.”
He gazed at her, a smile lurking in his eyes. “Are you saying I’ve ruined your reputation?”
“Are you kidding? Women would kill to be in my predicament. I’ll bet some would rank spending the night with you above winning the lottery. You haven’t ruined my reputation, you’ve made it. I’ll be the envy of every single woman in Fremont County.”
“Yeah?” He looked exceedingly pleased with himself. “I’ll be damned.”
“But before you get too puffed up, let me warn you despite all that, maybe even because of it, I’m not going to bed with you. People can think whatever they want, but when everyone “expects” me to do something, I tend to do the opposite. And you can check with my parents on that one.”
He set his cup back in his saucer with a soft little click. “Okay. You’ve made yourself very plain.” He fixed her with a long, penetrating look. “But let’s make sure I’ve got the message. I turn you on, but you don’t like the conditions I put on making love, so you’ll take a pass. Does that about sum it up?”
She wrapped her arms around her body to keep it still. When he looked at her like that, she had no more willpower than a mushroom. “That pretty much says it all.”
He leaned forward, rested his elbows on his knees and wove his fingers together. “Then I get it.”
His fingers were so supple and sexy that she couldn’t help looking at them with longing. She wouldn’t ever know what those fingers could do to her body. But that was for the best.
He gazed at her steadily. “When you told me no at the wedding, I didn’t believe you. When you told me no on the phone, I still didn’t believe you. But you win, Gwen. I finally believe you. I won’t try anything, tonight or anytime. You’re safe from me. So you can relax on that score.”
Relax? Her stomach was in knots as she struggled with regret. “Good,” she said.
“Oh, it could have been.” He sounded as sad as she felt. “It really could have been, Gwen.”
Didn’t she know it. Fairness prompted her to say one more thing. “Maybe you’d…want to call Donna tonight. About next weekend.”
He smiled gently and shook his head. “I already explained that thing about substitutes.”
“But—”
“I guess you still think I can switch myself from one woman to the next with no problem at all, but—surprise—I can’t. Just because I don’t plan to try and seduce you anymore doesn’t mean I won’t want to. It only means I’ll control myself. I don’t know how long I’ll go on wanting you, but however long that is, I won’t be dating anyone else. It wouldn’t be fair to them.”
“I…I see.” And she did. Far too much. She saw that Travis had more moral fiber than she’d ever given him credit for. Maybe he didn’t play by her rules, but he stuck by his own. That made him more honorable than most men she’d known.
He’d mentioned taking time to get over her before he dated someone else. She wondered if she’d ever get over him.
AS TRAVIS HELPED Gwen with the dishes, he did his damnedest to shut down his response to her. It was one of the toughest assignments he’d ever given himself.
He thought about retreating to his bedroom, but that seemed like the coward’s way out and he’d never considered himself a coward. After the dishes were done, he borrowed a paperback mystery from her bookshelf. Now he was attempting to concentrate on the plot while sitting on her crushed-velvet sofa in the parlor while not five feet away she worked on her loom. She’d built a little fire in the small fireplace to take the chill off the room, so she said.
In his estimation, there was no chill in the room. Heat sizzled across the five feet separating them, and he was aware of every movement she made at the loom. He’d watched Matty weave a few times and knew the process had a steady rhythm to it. He hadn’t realized that rhythm could be sexy.
As Gwen worked the treadles with her feet, his attention got snagged on the flex of her ankles, the bend in her knees, the subtle motion of her thighs…. He thought of nestling between those soft thighs and his mouth went dry. And each colorful thread was snugged into place with a soft thumping sound that made him think of…well, never mind what it made him think of.
It occurred to him that he’d never spent this kind of leisure time with a woman his own age since he hit puberty. Lovemaking, or leading up to it, or recovering from it had always been the primary activity connected with a lady friend.
Except for the heavy sexual tension in the room, he might have enjoyed the chance to be with Gwen on this quiet evening, each doing something different, yet sharing the same space. The idea intrigued him, except he was too aroused to know if he liked the concept. All he could think of was dragging Gwen off that stool and tearing her clothes off—starting his own kind of rhythm, weaving his own brand of excitement.
Whenever the pressure to do that became too intense, he went upstairs to check on Lizzie. He made quite a few trips upstairs.
He’d started up for maybe the sixth or seventh time when Lizzie started coughing. And this cough sounded different from the way she’d coughed during the day. There was a barking quality to it that he didn’t like at all. He called to Gwen as he took the stairs two at a time.
She arrived in the room right after he did, which told him she’d been on her feet before he’d called her.
He scooped Lizzie up and turned to Gwen. “She’s worse.”
“She does sound a little croupy,” Gwen admitted. “That can happen at night.”
Travis fought panic. If anything happened to this kid, his life would be over. “Let’s take her to the doc.”
“We can do that,” Gwen said, “but it’s started raining out there.”
“Raining?” He hadn’t even noticed. That’s how completely he’d been focusing on Gwen.
“It’s getting sort of nasty. Could turn to sleet, I think. Let’s try something before we take her out in a cold rain,” Gwen said.
Travis thanked his lucky stars he wasn’t out at the ranch alone with Lizzie. “What?”
“One of my guests had a kid with a cough like that. They turned on the hot water in the shower and closed themselves in there with the baby. The bathroom was almost like a sauna. It didn’t do much for my wallpaper, but it worked wonders on that cough.”
“Let’s do it. I’ll get you new wallpaper.” He could feel Lizzie’s cough vibrating through her little body. She was coughing so hard, he was afraid she’d shake something l
oose inside.
“I’ll start the shower,” Gwen said. Then she turned back to him. “It’ll be hot and humid in there. You might want to strip her down to her diaper and take off your shirt.”
“Got it.” He laid Lizzie back in the crib and pulled off his shirt so fast the snaps popped like buckshot. If he hadn’t been so worried, he’d have laughed. Gwen had just ordered him to take off his shirt. He’d been hoping for such a request for hours.
In seconds he had Lizzie undressed, and he carried her toward the bathroom.
Gwen came out and closed the door behind her. Her hair was damp and her blouse clung to her breasts. “It’s steaming up pretty good in there. Go on in and I’ll get some apple juice she can drink when you bring her out again.”
“And if it doesn’t help?”
“Then we’ll bundle her up as best we can and go over to Doc Harrison’s house. But I think this might work.”
Travis looked into her eyes and drew confidence from her. “I don’t want to take any chances.”
“Don’t worry. We won’t.”
His panic eased. He didn’t put his trust in a lot of people, but putting his trust in Gwen felt good and right. Something shifted in the region of his heart, as if a barricade had toppled.
He gave her a swift kiss on the mouth. “That didn’t count as a pass,” he said. “It’s just my way of saying thank you.” Then he carried a coughing Lizzie into the steam-filled bathroom and closed the door.
9
ALL THE WAY DOWNSTAIRS and into the kitchen, Gwen savored Travis’s “thank-you” kiss. No matter how much her mouth tingled, she now believed him to be a man of his word, and she didn’t think the kiss had been any kind of seductive gesture.
He’d simply been grateful for her presence and her suggestion of the steam bath for Elizabeth’s cough. It would be entirely in character for a man like him to show his gratitude with a kiss. But Travis, being Travis, couldn’t give a woman a brotherly peck. He only had one mode—full out.
Two in the Saddle Page 9
