“No water,” he said. “In fact, I don’t think water has ever been turned on up here. Looks to me like the Fitzgeralds had plans for a large family. Since they never had kids, I assume they shut this area off since it wasn’t needed.”
“Think you can just turn on the water and everything will work?”
“If only,” he said with a laugh. “No, I think I’d better get a real plumber out here to check everything before we do that. Could be a broken pipe in the wall or something. What a mess that’d be.”
“True,” she answered, her eyes wide with realization. “I didn’t think about that when I turned everything back on. Crap. That could have been a disaster.”
“I think Travis and Caroline have been keeping an eye on things, but as long as I’m bringing in a plumber anyway, I’ll have him check out the downstairs. To be honest, that half-bath in the back bedroom has a toilet leak that’ll have to be fixed. The floor’s a little rotten around the ring.”
She followed him back into the open area. “Are you going to be using the other bedrooms?”
He shrugged. “Don’t know. Haven’t thought that far.”
Glancing down at her watch, she swore. “I’ve got to go. My last night of work at Leo’s starts in thirty minutes.” She hurried toward the stairs. “Good luck with the cleaning,” she tossed over her shoulder.
He crossed his arms over his chest. “What? You aren’t going to help me?”
“Nope.” Her answer floated up from the bottom of the stairs. “You’re on your own with that.” She produced a fake sneeze. “Dust allergy, remember?”
“Bull,” he yelled back. Her answering laugh made him smile.
He didn’t deserve her friendliness. He’d treated her horribly. He knew it. Hell, he’d known back then that he was a shit but he hadn’t been ready for someone like her in his life.
And now here she was…the right age, the right maturity, the right everything, except this time, he was nothing but a damaged cowboy who had nothing to offer someone like her. She deserved better than him.
After her car crunched down the gravel drive, he headed downstairs to look for cleaning supplies, which he located under the kitchen sink. A new-looking vacuum stood in the hall closet, but he thought a rag with soap and water might do as well.
With no water available, he had to trudge up the steps carrying a three-gallon bucket of soapy water with a stack of cleaning cloths under his arm. Starting in his bedroom, he made a long swipe with a wet cloth down the wall. Years of grime coated his towel.
Maybe he should have hired a cleaning service instead.
Except he needed the exercise. He had to get this done before he could move in here. Once he got finished today, he’d head out for the whiskey he really wanted. Sort of payment for a job well done. Nothing wrong with that.
Two hours later, his left leg was on fire. His back cramped like he’d been on a bull for an hour. Sweat dripped down his face and stung his eyes. But his bedroom was clean.
He stood back, propped his hands on his hips and admired his work. The oak floor gleamed. The glass in the window sparkled. Even the overhead light seemed brighter.
Bending over at his waist, he stretched his hands toward the floor, straightening his back muscles, relieving a little of the pain. His leg still protested bearing his weight for the extended time, but the fire in his thigh had abated a little.
He debated stopping versus moving on to the bathroom and ultimately moved on. If he quit now, he might never get going again.
But, damn, he wanted a beer. Or whiskey. Or a shot of whiskey dropped in a beer.
The bathroom cleaning seemed to go faster. Either because it hadn’t collected as much dust over the years—which he doubted—or because he had his cleaning routine down to a fine art—which was where he laid his money. A mere ninety minutes in that room and he was done.
Still, the three-and-a-half hours of cleaning had taken almost five hours when he factored in dumping the dirty water and getting fresh every thirty minutes or so.
He thought about tackling the other rooms, but his phone rang as soon as he picked up his pail of dirty water. Setting it back down, he pulled his phone out of his front pocket.
“Hello?”
“Hi, honey,” his mother said. “How are you?”
His knees practically groaned in relief when he sat on the top step to take the call. “I’m good, Mom. What’s up?”
“Are you sure you don’t want to come stay with us? We loved having you and Noah here the other night.”
“I know. But I just…well…”
“Need to do this yourself, right?”
Thankful he’d been given a great set of parents, he smiled. “Something like that.”
“The reason I’m calling is that Caroline is coming home from the hospital today or tomorrow. Olivia and I are taking dinner over Sunday. Enough for a family meal. We want you there.”
“Are Travis and Caroline aware the entire clan will be invading their house? I mean, they will be just getting home.”
“It’s Caroline’s idea. She wants the babies to meet their family before the rest of the world.”
He laughed softly. “Travis picked a winner, didn’t he?”
“He did. And so will you some day.”
Cash didn’t say anything. His mother meant well, he knew that, but she still thought of him as a teenager, not a grown man and especially not as a grown man with no real future.
“You still there, honey?”
“Yes. I’ll come. What time?”
“Six would be good. And feel free to bring that girl you’re living with.”
Wow. News spread in his family like water running downhill. Time to squash his mother’s matchmaking. While she might have played around in Olivia and Travis’s love lives, he didn’t need her help with his.
“Mom. You do realize that Paige and I aren’t a couple, right? We’re just sharing a house for a short time.”
“Of course, honey. I just thought it’d be nice if I got to know her a little better.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t expect her to come tomorrow night.”
His mother sighed. “I just want you to be happy.”
“I know, Mom, and I love you for that. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
Paige woke early on Sunday morning, surprised since she’d worked until midnight. She hadn’t seen Cash back in Leo’s bar since Travis had led him out three days ago, but she suspected he’d simply taken his drinking elsewhere. He’d been asleep or passed out in his room when she’d gotten home a little after one. The door to his downstairs bedroom was open. A quick peek had revealed Cash lying on top of his covers still fully dressed, snoring like a buzz saw. She’d fought against her desire to remove his boots, maybe even his jeans, and throw a blanket over him. But that wasn’t how he needed to be handled. He had to find his own strength again.
She’d shut the door and gone to her room.
As coffee brewed, she read through her list of household projects that needed to be done. Granted, this was a rental, but she’d tripped four times on that wonky back step. Today was the day it was going to be hammered into place.
When Angus Fitzgerald died and Caroline opted to leave everything in the house, that included a limited set of tools. Paige had found them in a shed out back. As soon as she finished breakfast, she got dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and headed out to find a hammer and hopefully some nails.
She crossed her fingers her plan would work.
She aligned the hole in the board with the hole in the wooden tread where the previous nail had been, deciding that might work. But she found it hard to hold the board in place, the nail upright and then strike it with the hammer.
Bam! Bam!
“Shit,” she muttered as the nail bent sideways.
She tapped the side of the
nail a couple of times to make it sort of straight again. Lining up the hammer with the nail, she pounded.
Bam! Bam!
The nail bent again.
“Shit.” She hit the nail to straighten it.
She lifted the hammer again, but before she could swing it down, the back door flew open.
“What the hell is going on out here?”
Paige lowered the hammer and looked up. The first thing in her vision was two bare feet. The worn hem of a pair of washed-out jeans brushed the tops of the toes. She allowed her gaze to feast on the legs filling out those jeans until she reached a partially closed zipper and an unbuttoned waistband. The dance of a billion butterflies took off in her gut. She swallowed hard while her gaze mentally licked the valleys and swales of a sculpted abdomen. When she finally coasted up his chest and across his muscular crossed arms, she stared into a set of sky-blue eyes. A deep-set frown wrinkled Cash’s brow.
“What are you doing?” His voice sounded tired and frustrated.
“Sorry. Did I wake you up? I was trying to fix this step. I tripped over it again last night.” She wiggled the board. “It’s a little loose.”
He studied her and then the board. “It’s not loose. It’s rotten.” He held out his hand. “Give me that hammer.”
“But…”
He sighed. “Don’t argue. Hand it over.”
She did.
“Now go do something else. I’ll fix this,” he said.
Standing, she brushed the dirt off the knees of her jeans. “Fine. I think I’ll go to church.”
“Sounds a like an excellent idea.”
When she got to the door, she thought he’d step away so she could enter. He didn’t. She had enough room to squeeze through into the kitchen, but it required rubbing against him as she passed. Touching him—even through her clothes—made the area between her thighs heat.
She walked away, a grin twitching at her lips. Devious, yes, but—she glanced over her shoulder long enough to see Cash studying the steps—he was up and he had something to do.
Coddling wasn’t what he needed. He needed tough love and something to occupy his time.
Once she’d finished dressing for church, she headed to the kitchen to retrieve her purse and keys. She found Cash sitting at the small dining table, his hands wrapped around a cup of coffee.
“Well, I’m off. Not sure when I’ll be back,” she said.
He grunted his response…whatever it was.
“Later.”
“Uh-huh,” he said, lifting his coffee.
Cash’s family took up the majority of two pews at church. Between the husbands and wives and now growing children, it wouldn’t be long before they would spill onto a third pew in the small Methodist church.
Paige found a seat a few rows behind them and slid in. She could see where Cash got his physique and coloring. His father, Lane, was tall and muscular. Obviously a man who did physical labor and, by the deep tan on his neck, did it outdoors. His hair was silver and she wondered if Cash’s blond locks would someday look like his father’s.
His mother, Jackie, was a tall, striking woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. Her laugh was loud and infectious. It was rare to not see a smile on Jackie Montgomery’s face.
His sister, Olivia, was here with her husband, Mitch, and their two kids. Adam, the oldest, had wiggled in to sit between Lane and Jackie and Paige suspected the kid had both his grandparents wrapped around his little finger. When Jackie pulled a coloring book and pack of crayons from her purse and handed them to Adam, Paige couldn’t suppress the smile. She didn’t know Olivia and her family well, having only interacted in passing, but Olivia never failed to be warm and gracious.
Cash’s brother, Jason, sat with his fiancée, Dr. Lydia Henson. Paige knew Lydia better than she knew Jason. Since Paige had settled in Whispering Springs following her parents’ deaths, she’d gotten to know Lydia through her friendship with Caroline Graham, Lydia’s medical-practice partner. As of tomorrow, Paige would be employed by Whispering Springs Medical Clinic so she was sure she’d get to know Lydia much better.
Paige’s insides clenched at the thought of work tomorrow. She was excited and scared to death. Caroline was so positive Paige would be an excellent addition to the clinic staff. She hoped—prayed—she didn’t let Caroline down.
Caroline and Travis weren’t in attendance today. But then, delivering twins only a couple of days prior would make any couple want to sleep in on a Sunday morning. She wondered when Caroline and the babies would be coming home. When she’d visited at the hospital, both the newborns and Caroline appeared to be doing well.
Paige thought of her own dwindling family. Only Leo and Uncle James remained, and while James had recently married after being a widower for fourteen years, he and his new wife were past the baby-making stage. If her family lineage was to continue, it was up to Leo and her. And knowing her brother, it was up to her.
Her gaze swept across the entire Montgomery family filling the pews. Did Cash have any idea how cool it was to have such a large family? And not only a large family, but one that actually liked each other? She didn’t think so. If he did, she’d never seen evidence of it. In all the years she’d known him, he’d never spoken about his family to her. Of course, she’d been a child during most of that time and he’d treated her as such.
Or at least he had until she’d turned eighteen. She put that memory out of her head for now. Wrong place. Wrong time.
When the service was over and she was sitting in her car, she considered going home. But the memory of her night with Cash assailed her again and she wasn’t sure she wanted to face him just yet. In some ways, she was embarrassed at how she’d basically insisted on dragging him from a bar to her bed. In other ways, she was still hurt at his reaction the next day.
She started her car and pulled from the lot. As though her engine had a mind of its own, the hood turned toward Dallas and the school she was scheduled to start in the fall. She had some career decisions she needed to make—like did she really want to get a nurse practitioner degree? It’d be another year of school. And a grueling year at that. But at least she’d have better job options.
Her bachelor degree in psychology had been fun and interesting while she’d earned it, but it’d left her with very limited career options. All that education in psychology had come in handy while pursuing her bachelor in nursing, but she wanted more out of life than being an office nurse or a psychiatric nurse. Getting licensure as a nurse practitioner could open up new career paths.
On the other hand, growing up she’d always thought she might follow in her father’s footsteps and go to veterinary school. She could revisit that idea.
Or she could do neither and go back to work at Leo’s bar. But there was no future there for sure.
All those thoughts and arguments rattled through her brain and gave her a headache. She didn’t want to think about all that today. Instead, her mind dropped into the most memorable night of her life…painful but unforgettable.
It was her eighteenth birthday. Since most of their immediate friends would be riding in a rodeo early that evening, her parents had thrown a big brunch and invited everybody in their rodeo world. Hamburgers, hot dogs, pancakes, omelets, breakfast meats of all kinds, biscuits and, of course, the requisite huge cake with eighteen candles.
The minute Cash Montgomery walked around the front end of her parents’ motorhome and smiled, she forgot anyone else was there. He hugged her. Wished her a happy birthday. Winked as he told her that when he won the silver buckle tonight, it was hers. She squealed with delight and then winced at how juvenile it had sounded.
Then he gave her a short, sweet kiss. She wanted more. Wanted to throw her arms around his neck and pull him into a duel of tongues and a mashing of lips.
But her parents were standing there and, as it was her party, the at
tention was on her. Still, she doubted anyone realized her legs were melting from that chaste kiss or were aware of the lovesick cow eyes she was sure she wore.
Just as he’d promised, Cash won that night. After the rodeo, the cowboys and their women headed to a bar to celebrate Cash’s win, with him being the biggest celebrator. She was too young to get in, but that didn’t stop her. Well-applied make-up, cowboy boots, a short mini-skirt and a low-cut top, combined with a truly awesome fake driver’s license, and she was through the door. She wasn’t interested in the alcohol. It was the music and the dancing, not to mention a long-legged, shaggy-haired bull rider who could toss back a whiskey like no one she’d ever seen.
She finagled her way through the crowd until she wedged herself into his group and next to him. Either the others standing there didn’t recognize her with the excessive make-up she wore or they didn’t care. Focused on their own partying, they paid her little attention. When he finally asked her to dance, she was delirious with teenage glee. She maintained enough composure to just nod and not throw herself at him as an answer.
It was a slow dance…a really slow, really long dance. She was positive he could feel her heart kicking like a bronco against his chest when he held her close. She pressed against his hard body…all her soft places seeming to fit perfectly with his hard ones. His thick thighs rubbed hers, almost sending her to her knees.
Her mouth fit just below his ear. She licked his ear lobe and followed that by nuzzling her nose against his neck and moving her mouth back to his ear.
“Know what I want for my birthday, cowboy?” she whispered.
He chuckled, his warm breath blowing in her ear and down her neck. “Yes, I know.”
Shivering in response, she pulled her arm from around his neck and slipped it between their bodies. There she tugged on his new silver buckle. His lips curled upward on the skin of her neck, followed by a sigh.
“I know. My buckle.”
“Then you’d be wrong. It’s not the buckle I want. It’s what below.”
Texas Twist (Texas Montgomery Mavericks) Page 6
