Gus’s scowl said exactly what he thought of the idea of corralling that loco horse for Rafe’s purposes. “Against my better judgment.”
“Good. I’ll start with him tomorrow in the breaking corral.”
“I reckon there’s nothing I can say to talk you out of this.”
“Nope.”
Gus made a sound of annoyance between his teeth and looked away.
Rafe pushed away from the fence. “I think I’ll drive into town. Tell Carly I’ll be back late.”
“Rafe,” Gus said, stopping him with a hand on his arm, “I don’t know what happened between you two, and it’s probably...”
“Definitely—”
“...none of my business,” Gus finished, ignoring him. “But she’s in there moonin’ over somethin’, same as you, and tryin’ her darnedest to cook you a fancy meal. Now, if I don’t miss my guess, that’s her way of trying to make up for whatever it is that’s set you off like a wounded grizzly the past few days.”
Rafe narrowed his eyes. “She’s supposed to be resting. She shouldn’t be cooking.” Accusingly he looked at Gus. “I thought you were cooking.”
Gus pinched a space between his thick fingers. “It took her about this long to decide it was in all our best interests to do it herself, I reckon. And it smells pretty dang good, too. So why don’t you get your butt in there and tell her you’re lookin’ forward to tasting it?”
“Stay out of it, Gus.”
Gus propped his hands on his skinny hips and shook his head in disgust. “Yer just bound and determined to make things hard, ain’t ya? To do it alone.”
Rafe turned and started walking. He hated it when Gus got up on his soapbox.
“Well, why the hell did ya bring her here in the first place?”
Rafe whirled on the older man, his mouth curled in an angry scowl. “Because—”
“Because?”
“Because I had to, that’s all. Dammit, Gus, I need to put her behind me once and for all.”
Gus waited a beat, then followed Rafe as he stomped off toward the truck in the gathering darkness. “Maybe you don’t want her behind you. Ever think of that?”
“Maybe that’s not an option.”
“Tell that to her. She’s the one in there cookin’ you a meal like her life depends on it.”
“Because I put a roof over her and her son’s head. Because she’s grateful. That’s all it is, and all it’ll ever be.”
“Well, I reckon if ya ignore her long enough, she’s bound to get the message loud and clear that she ain’t wanted here,” Gus said tightly, stopping where he was.
Rafe slowed to a stop in the dusky yard, only feet from escape. Tilting his head back, he stared up at the half-moon rising in the east.
Dammit!
Was that what he’d been doing? Punishing her? For what? Kissing him back?
With a silent curse, he shook his head. Now that was irrational.
He hated it when Gus was right. “Okay,” he said, turning back to Gus. “So...are you trying to tell me I’m being a jerk?”
Gus raised a hairy eyebrow. “Well, if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...”
Just what he needed. Dime-store philosophy. “Old man, you’re a pain in the butt, you know that?”
“That’s why you keep me around.” His droopy mustache lifted in a grin.
“Yeah, it is,” Rafe admitted, punching the old man in the shoulder as he headed back toward the barn.
“Ow,” Gus complained, rubbing his shoulder. “And ya got no respect fer yer elders, neither. Where ya goin’?”
“Don’t get your panties in a ruffle. I’m stayin’ for dinner. But I’m gonna check on Annie one more time,” he said, referring to the very pregnant mare in the box stall in the barn. “If that’s okay with you?”
Gus grinned. “Okay by me.” Watching Rafe go, Gus stuck his hands into his pockets and sauntered toward the pens, whistling.
Chapter 6
Carly sat at the rustic table in the shadow-dappled kitchen, snapping fresh string beans. They gave a satisfying crunch between her fingers. The mindless work suited her mood. Anything more taxing, and she’d have to think. And if she thought, she’d remind herself that Rafe had spent the past three days avoiding her like the plague. And that thought would lead, inevitably, to the next.
The Kiss.
Carly slammed her eyes shut. There she went, thinking again. She tossed half a string bean in the bowl, popped the other in her mouth and sighed. Trying not to think of something was a bit of a catch-22. One had to first think of it in order to not think of it. Besides, it did no good. The kiss had happened, and now it lay like a barricade between them.
She told herself that it had been a momentary lapse in control. Hers—definitely! His—? Well, the jury was still out on that one. He’d seemed pretty darned in control to her. If anything, it had been a lapse in common sense on his part. They’d acted like a couple of teenagers who’d found themselves in the back seat of a car.
Was it only lust? Or something more?
The truth was, that kiss had laid bare something between them that had lived just under the surface all these years. Despite their best efforts to forget, apparently neither one of them had. Perhaps Rafe regretted bringing them here at all. Clearly, he wanted to avoid entanglements at all costs.
That thought led inevitably to the next: Evan. Would Rafe react the same way when she told him the truth? Would he avoid the entanglement a child brings?
She snapped another green bean and tossed it in the bowl, a little more forcefully than necessary.
Possibly. Probably. How could she know for certain?
Worse, how could she let her son lose yet another father?
Yet...watching them together gave her hope. Rafe had devoted countless hours to teaching Evan to use a rope, when he could easily have buried himself under the ranch work she knew he must have.
And Evan was crazy about him. Was it too much to hope that maybe Rafe’s tendencies to run from intimacy were limited only to her?
“Yoo-hoo! Anybody home?”
Carly looked up from the colander full of snap beans, toward the sound of the feminine voice. Evening shadows striped the porch and effectively disguised the features of the woman who stood there.
“Oh!” the woman said as she pulled the door open a crack. Her arms were full of grocery bags. “Hi. You must be Carly.”
For a moment, Carly simply stared, thinking Demi Moore must have gotten lost on her way to the studio and somehow stumbled onto Rafe’s back porch.
“I’m Laurie,” the woman said. “Laurie Anders? Gus’s daughter?”
She remembered to close her mouth. This, Carly thought with a sinking feeling, was Laurie? The photograph upstairs had been an unfortunate understatement.
Belatedly Carly lurched to her feet, knocking over the glass of water by her elbow. She chased the glass as it skidded across the table and caught it inches ahead of disaster. Red-faced, she looked up at Laurie and laughed. “Wait, I think I can do that a little more clumsily. I’m sorry. Please, come in.”
Water dripped off the edge of the table in a steady stream onto the hardwood floor. Laurie smiled back as she let herself in. She grabbed the hand towel that hung near the door, as if she did it all the time.
“Here, let me get that. Oh, your poor leg! Don’t worry, I’m used to this. If it’s not me, it’s one of my boys. Ask Rafe. I’m the queen of spill-mopping.”
Strange, Carly thought, how something so simple as knowing exactly where things were in Rafe’s kitchen could seem so intimate.
At that very moment, two boys, one about Evan’s age and the other a towhead a couple of years older, came crashing through the door behind her.
“Did not!”
“Did too!”
“Says you!”
“Mom!” complained the youngest.
Laurie sent them a patient look as she wrung out the wet cloth in the sink. “Yes, dearlings?” she said
sweetly.
“Jake shoved me.”
“Did not,” Jake retorted, glaring at his brother.
“Did so. ‘Cause I was beatin’ him to the paddock. He says just ’cause I promised to clean his room...”
“And didn’t,” Jake pointed out smugly.
“...that he was gonna feed Tampico an’ I couldn’t do anything.”
Laurie’s look passed mildly between her two sons. “You promised to clean his room? Was there blackmail involved?”
The boys exchanged looks, then went conspicuously silent. Laurie turned to Carly with an amused smile. “Carly, I’d like you to meet my sons, Jake and Jordan. My two lovely sons who only minutes ago swore an oath to be on their best behavior tonight.” She raised one eyebrow at the suddenly contrite look on the boys’ faces.
Jake wiped his hand off on his blue jeans and offered it to Carly. “Nice to meetcha, ma’am.”
“Me too. Ma’am,” piped in Jordan, trying hard not to stare at the bruise on Carly’s cheek. He leaned closer to his mother and whispered, “Hey, Mom, her shiner’s better than mine was.”
Laurie smiled abashedly at Carly, who was laughing, just as Evan barreled through the door, rope in hand.
“Mom! Mom! Look what Rafe showed me!” He skidded to a halt at the sight of the other boys.
“Oh, Ev—This is my son Evan,” she told the boys. “This is Jake and Jordan Anders and their mom, Mrs. Anders.”
“Laurie,” she corrected with a welcoming smile, extending a formal hand to Evan. “We’ve heard so much about you. Gus is Jake and Jordan’s grandpa.”
The boys made tentative introductions, and Jake spied Evan’s rope. “Know how to throw it?”
Evan shook his head. “Not yet. Rafe just showed me how to twirl it.” He couldn’t hide his excitement as he glanced at Carly.
She winked at him and gave him a squeeze.
“Can you?” Evan asked Jake. “Throw it, I mean?”
Jake shrugged casually. “Yeah. I’ll show ya if ya want.”
“Okay,” Evan said.
Jake grinned. “C’mon. Jordan’s just learning, too.”
The boys headed toward the door without a look back at the adults. “Wanna hear somethin’?” she heard Jordan ask Evan as they disappeared out the door. A loud, prolonged belching sound drifted in their wake, followed by boyish laughter.
Laurie turned back to Carly and shook her head. “Boys. They’re aliens.”
The two women laughed together like two old friends. Relief poured through Carly. She found herself liking the woman—despite the resemblance to Demi.
Laurie caught the redolent scent of pot roast cooking.
“It smells wonderful! But you shouldn’t be cooking. You’re recuperating. You should be eating bonbons by the fire. Watching soap operas and drooling over the diet-soda man in that commercial.”
Carly laughed. “The truth is, someone will have to be dabbing the drool from my chin if I have to spend one more day in this house doing nothing, because I’ll be a babbling idiot.”
“Cabin fever?” Laurie asked in a sympathetic voice.
“Raging,” Carly admitted. “I’m not used to staying still for long.”
“Rafe know you’re pulling your hair out?”
“He’s been busy,” she said in quick defense of him.
“Humph,” Laurie sniffed. “Men are oblivious. How are you feeling?” She glanced at the discoloration on Carly’s cheek. “Rafe told me you took a pretty nasty hit.”
“Better. Grateful,” she added. “I don’t want to think what would have happened if Rafe hadn’t come.”
Laurie smiled as she emptied out a grocery sack into the fridge. “Small chance of that. The way I heard it, the phone was still buzzing when he got on that plane. There aren’t a lot of women he’d do that for.”
Carly suddenly felt quite certain that Laurie could count herself among them. She searched the other woman’s face for signs of jealousy, and found none.
Laurie started on the second grocery bag. “Look, I didn’t mean to barge in on you with the thundering horde. I’ll just put these things away and—”
“No,” Carly insisted. “Stay. Please. You must stay for dinner. There’s plenty.”
“You sure?”
“Positive. Besides, I could use some company.”
Laurie took the colander full of beans and smiled. “Then we’d be glad to. But only on the condition you let me help.”
They worked side by side, sharing small talk, tearing lettuce and dancing around the most obvious subject—Carly and Rafe. Laurie talked about her burgeoning catering business, and the mischief her two boys seemed to home in on like a radar beam. They swapped stories, and even touched on the fact that they were both widows—a common bond Carly shared with no other women her age.
“I miss him terribly sometimes,” Laurie admitted. “When Jack died, it almost killed me too.” The knife she was using on the tomato stilled, and Laurie stared out the window. “Rafe and Jack were best friends. Like brothers. Rafe was there for me, for us, anytime we needed him. He’s the best. When he had his accident, I was able to return the favor.”
“I’m glad he had you,” Carly said, and she meant it.
Laurie dumped the tomatoes in the salad, then regarded her with a tilt of her head. “So...you’re the Carly he never got over, aren’t you?”
Carly’s face flattened with surprise. “Excuse me?”
Gently Laurie said, “Forgive me. I’ve known Rafe for so long...I guess I’m a little protective. And a little curious. It’s just that he talked about you once—in the hospital after his accident. The only time,” she added with a smile, “you’ll catch Rafe vulnerable enough to admit anything. Actually, he wouldn’t have admitted it to me then, except that when he was out of his mind with fever, he called for you.”
Shock filtered through her. Her mouth fell open.
“Surprised?”
Beyond words. “You sure he wasn’t cursing me?”
Laurie laughed. “Quite sure.”
“What did he tell you?” Carly asked evasively. “About us, I mean.”
Laurie shrugged. “That it had been serious. That you two were from different worlds, and when things didn’t work out, you’d left to pursue a career in law. He said it was for the best, but I saw in his eyes that he’d never really convinced himself of it.”
“It happened a long time ago, Laurie. We were both so young.”
Laurie nodded with a sigh. “The best and worst time to fall in love. The best because it’s usually the first time, and the most...electric. The worst because if it was good, nothing else ever quite measures up.”
The truth of her words hit close to home. “Was Jack your first love?”
“High school sweethearts,” Laurie admitted with a wistful smile. “He was something. Lived, breathed and ate the rodeo. And he was good. Almost as good as Rafe. You would have thought that might have come between them, but it never did. Rafe pushed him constantly, and Jack loved the competition. They were amazing together.”
“They must have met soon after I left,” Carly said softly. “I wish I could have known him.”
“Me too.” Laurie’s expression was bright, but her eyes glimmered.
At that moment, the kitchen door opened and the horde descended. The boys played musical chairs at the table, lobbying for best seat, as Gus and Rafe followed them in.
Rafe’s eyes lit up when he caught sight of Laurie. “Hey, you,” he said kissing her on the cheek with an intimate casualness Carly had trouble imagining. “Didn’t expect you guys out here tonight.”
“Well, a girl could starve waiting for an invitation,” she teased. “So I just decided to barge in and introduce myself to Carly.”
Rafe’s gaze slid to her with a wary So-you-two-have-met? look.
Laurie waved away his ignorance with a wink at Carly. “Now, we’re way past introductions, aren’t we, Carly?”
“Oh...yeah,” she said. “We
’re on to favorite designers, classic movies...ya know...the solutions for world peace.”
“World peace, huh?” Rafe said. “Jeez, Gus, and here we were tinkering with a pathetic little generator, hoping it would keep the electricity running in the barn. Gosh,” he said, hitching up his shoulders in his best Bogie imitation, “I guess the problems of two little people don’t really amount to a hill of beans....”
“Casablanca...” Laurie sighed. “I love that movie.”
Impressed, Carly laughed. “A hidden talent, Rafe. Bogart impressions!”
“He’s got a million of ’em,” Gus put in with a grin.
Rafe actually blushed, and glanced at Carly. “Don’t believe a word of it.”
But somehow she did. This side of him was one she hadn’t seen since the early days of their relationship, when laughter came easily and she didn’t have to work to coax a smile from him. Laurie seemed to bring it out in him. Carly wasn’t sure whether to be glad or jealous of that. She opted for glad, because it was such a relief from the intensity of the past few days.
Dinner was a noisy affair. Above the teasing banter between Rafe, Gus and Laurie, the boys talked a mile a minute, hatching a scheme for a sleepover together.
With all the subtlety of a jackhammer, Laurie suggested to Rafe that he take Carly and Evan on a tour of the ranch by truck tomorrow, before Carly started to redecorate his house out of sheer boredom. The suggestion took him by surprise, but he quickly agreed to it.
Several times during the meal, Carly caught Rafe watching her, but he would just smile and avert his gaze somewhere else when caught. He told bad knock-knock jokes that made the boys groan with laughter. The food all but vanished, and the brownies Laurie had brought crowned a meal that had been a smashing success with all concerned.
Jake and Jordan obviously adored Rafe, who seemed oblivious to his apparent natural talent at enthralling kids. Even Evan, her shy son, discarded caution when Rafe was around. His affection for him was unabashed. Complete.
Carly watched the dynamics with a mixture of trepidation and relief. It was, after all, Rafe who had convinced himself years ago that fathering wasn’t in his blood. How wrong he’d been. She wondered if he had any idea what a wonderful one he’d make. Then again, playing favorite uncle had the added benefit of no responsibility. Therein lay the rub.
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