Like now.
Too bad she hadn’t put something in that theoretical note that would let him know just how she felt about him leaving. How she felt about him.
Of course, Claire wouldn’t have done that because she wouldn’t have wanted to say or do anything that would make him feel guilty about going. Again, that was Claire. Always thinking about others’ feelings.
Even though the minutes were ticking off, Riley kept looking at that check mark. Maybe that was her version of a note. Her way of saying something she didn’t really need to say.
Because it was all there.
In those pictures. The way she had been looking at him. Hell. The way she still looked at him.
Claire was in love with him.
Oh, man. That hit him like a punch to the gut. How could he have missed it all this time?
And better yet—what was he going to do about it?
* * *
“RILEY PEE-PEE,” Ethan said.
That got Claire’s attention, and she hurried to the living room where Ethan was playing to make sure he wasn’t trying to get outside to pee again. But he wasn’t at the door but rather the window, and he was pointing at something.
“Riley pee-pee,” he repeated.
She couldn’t imagine what had prompted Ethan to say that, but she sincerely hoped no one was outside peeing.
Claire rushed to the window, nearly tripping over Gogh and the car menagerie on the floor, and she saw something she darn sure hadn’t expected to see.
A man carrying a toilet.
And he was walking toward her house.
She couldn’t see the man’s face because of the way he was holding the toilet, but at first she thought it might be Lucky. But not Lucky.
Riley.
Why was he here? They’d already said their goodbyes. But it was indeed Riley, wearing a blue uniform, and he was apparently bringing her a toilet.
Maybe it was some kind of weird goodbye gift, but if so she wasn’t sure she was up to the gift or another goodbye. The last one had left her wrung out, and the crying jag afterward had only made it worse. Besides, she didn’t want Riley to see her with her face all puffy and red like this.
Ethan tried to open the door, and Claire helped, though she did wonder if Riley had intended just to leave the “gift”—hopefully, with a note explaining why he’d chosen it—and then he could have just taken off. Again. After all, the minutes to his twenty-four-hour deadline were ticking away.
Keep it light, Claire.
But she wasn’t sure she could deal with ripping open wounds that hadn’t even had a chance to heal.
“I took a chance you’d be home,” Riley said, smiling. He made it sound as if that explained everything. It didn’t.
“And you walked here with that?” She tipped her head to the toilet.
“It wouldn’t fit in the car. It’s for Ethan.”
That obviously wasn’t enough explanation, either. Well, it wasn’t until Riley set it down in the foyer for her to see inside the toilet bowl.
There was a painted tree inside. Similar to the peeing tree in the backyard at Riley’s house.
Ethan giggled, clapped his hands and would have dropped his pants and peed in it right then, right there if Claire hadn’t stopped him. Clearly, he’d picked up on the abstract concept right away. But Claire was still dealing with her own abstract concept of why Riley had brought it over. And why he wasn’t at the base.
“When I found out she was an art student, I hired Summer Starkley to do it,” Riley added. “She was supposed to bring it by, but she got sick, and I decided to do it.”
So it was a goodbye gift. An amazing one. “Ethan loves it. So do I. The neighbors, too, I’m sure. It’ll stop him from peeing on the tree out back and Livvy’s fake plants.”
“Then it’s well timed.” He took out a piece of paper from his pocket. “When you want it installed, just call that number and make an appointment with the plumber. It’s already paid for. All you have to do is let him know a good time for you.”
She nodded, tried to think of something clever and funny to say. She failed.
Claire burst out crying.
Ethan looked stunned. Riley, even more stunned. Claire was mortified.
This was the last thing she wanted. Heck, she would have taken Ethan peeing in the unconnected toilet over this. And the sudden unstoppable string of words that started coming out of her mouth.
“I used artificial insemination to get pregnant with Ethan. And the reason he looks so much like you is because I chose a donor who looks like you.” God, she couldn’t stop. It was like a seizure or something. “Your hair, eye color, height, weight. I saw a picture of him, and he even had your smile.”
Even though there was no way Ethan could have understood that, he continued to look stunned. Riley continued to look even more stunned. And the mortification on her part went up a huge notch.
And the blasted verbal lava flow just kept on coming. “I just thought you should know that I’ve never believed you were ordinary, and I wanted my son to look, and be, just like you.”
Mission accomplished. Seeing them side by side, gaping at her, Ethan was a little version of Riley.
But that wasn’t the end of her word eruption. “I kept it a secret because I didn’t want you to know. Because I thought maybe it would make you feel...I don’t know...obligated or responsible or something. You might have also thought I was obsessed with you.”
Riley finally did something to stop the babbling. He kissed her. Probably just to shut her up, but it worked.
“Are you...obsessed with me?” he asked.
There was no smart answer to this. If she said yes, it might cause him to say that goodbye even faster. Of course, the same could happen if she said no. So, for the first time in the past two minutes, she went silent.
Ethan broke that silence. “Pee-pee now?” he asked, and he was dancing around while holding his crotch.
Since that was his way of letting her know he had to go potty, Claire scooped him up and hurried toward the bathroom. It wasn’t a tree-toilet, but he lifted the plain white lid, shoved down his jeans and pull-up, and took care of business.
“Good boy,” she praised, but her attention was on Riley. This was hardly the moment or the situation for her to answer his question, but Riley was apparently waiting for an answer.
Claire went with a question of her own. “How much time do you have?” she asked. “When do you have to leave for the base?”
Riley walked closer, took her hand. “I asked first.”
Indeed he had, and even though she’d had a couple of long moments and a potty break to give her time to come up with an answer, Claire still didn’t know what to say. She decided to go with another lava approach. She opened her mouth and waited to see what would come out.
“Yes,” she admitted. Oh, no. Now, she had to explain. Or else she could just get angry with herself for the confession. She went with the second option. “I am obsessed with you. There. Satisfied?”
Riley frowned. “Well, I was until you got pissed. Angry,” he corrected for Ethan’s ears. But Ethan wasn’t listening. Triumphant from his accomplishment, he hurried back into the living room, not washing his hands and also leaving the toilet lid up.
That was clearly something they’d have to work on.
But Riley was working on something, too. He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. Paper that she recognized.
The letter.
“I didn’t want you to see that until after you were gone,” she reminded him.
“Yeah. And I’m guessing that’s because you didn’t want to discuss it with me. Well, we’re discussing it.”
He unfolded the letter, pointed to the box at the bottom. “If you don’t mind and if
you think Claire would like that, I want her to be part of my family,” he read. “You checked yes. Did you mean it?”
Well, that wasn’t a question she’d seen coming. “Uh, of course. Your parents treated me like I was one of their own kids.”
“No. Did you mean it?” he repeated.
Claire studied his expression, trying to figure out what was going on here, but she was either dense or Riley was. “Of course?” she repeated, this time adding a different inflection. “What’s this all about, Riley?”
He certainly didn’t develop a case of verbal lava. Riley stood there, staring, breathing too fast and generally looking as if he might lose his lunch instead of his mind.
“Because I want you to be part of my family,” he finally said.
“All right. It won’t be much of a stretch. I’m over there a lot so Ethan can play with Crazy Dog, and Lucky drops by whenever he’s in town—”
That obviously wasn’t the right answer because Riley took hold of her, snapped her to him and kissed her. This wasn’t one of those goodbye pecks he’d given her earlier in the kitchen. This was the real deal. The kind of kiss that would have made her think about carting him off to bed if Ethan hadn’t been in the house.
The kiss went on for a while. Too long and too short at the same time, and when he finally let go of her, Claire immediately felt the loss, or something. It was as if she was in the wrong place with him standing there and not touching or kissing her.
“I’m not leaving,” Riley said.
Claire nodded, figuring he meant he was staying until they talked this out. Whatever it was they had to talk out. But it was obvious that Riley had something on his mind.
“I mean, I’m not leaving,” he repeated.
Maybe it was the look in his eyes or the addition of his own inflection, but Claire thought she knew what he meant. But he couldn’t mean that.
Could he?
“You’re not leaving?” she clarified. “But what about being in the Air Force? What about being ordinary?”
He shrugged. “I’m leaving the service. I’m staying here in Spring Hill.”
She checked his eyes to make sure he meant it. He did. But she shook her head. “I don’t want you doing this for me.”
“Nope. I’m doing it for me. My mind’s already made up.”
“Are you sure? What about—”
“You said you never believed I was ordinary,” he interrupted. “And that you believed that so much that you wanted Ethan to look and be just like me. Was that true?”
“Absolutely.” She couldn’t say it quickly enough.
Riley gave a crisp nod. “Along with that checked box on the letter, there’s only one thing missing.”
Since he kissed her after that, Claire couldn’t imagine anything was missing. Until Riley spoke again.
“I’m in love with you,” he said.
There it was. Magic words indeed. Words that she had held in her heart for so long that they slipped right out of her mouth.
Claire gave those right back to Riley. And ditto for the kiss.
* * * * *
Look for more books in
USA TODAY bestselling author Delores Fossen’s THE MCCORD BROTHERS
when LONE STAR NIGHTS goes on sale in June 2016.
And be sure to check out her Harlequin Intrigue books.
TROUBLE WITH A BADGE goes on sale in April 2016
and is available wherever books
and ebooks are sold!
WHAT HAPPENS
ON THE RANCH
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
Chapter One
ANNA MCCORD FIGURED she had committed a couple of sins, maybe even broken a few laws, just by looking at the guy in the bed. He was naked, so it was hard not to have dirty thoughts about him.
Drool, too.
Mercy, he was hot.
Thick blond hair all tousled and bedroomy. Lean and muscled. At least what she could see of him was muscled anyway. He was sprawled out on his stomach, his face cocooned in the fluffy feather pillows of the guest bed. He reminded her of a Viking just back from a good pillaging, minus the bed and feather pillows, of course.
But who was he?
Even though she should have bolted out of there the moment she opened the guest room door and saw a partially exposed butt cheek, Anna stayed put. Someone had obviously glued her feet to the floor. Glued her eyeballs to the hot guy, too.
She glanced around the room and spotted a clue as to who he was. There was a military uniform draped over the back of a chair and a duffel bag on the floor near the bed.
Anna didn’t actually need more clues to know he was an Air Force officer and likely a friend that her brother Riley had brought home. But she also saw the dog tags. The ball chain holding them was still around the hot guy’s neck, but the tags themselves were lying askew on the bed like smashed nickels.
Maybe he sensed she was there, because he opened an eye, and the seconds trickled by before it must have registered in his mind that he had a woman ogling him.
He made a grunting sound mixed with some profanity and rolled over, no doubt because that was the fastest way he could reach the sheet to cover himself. However, the rolling over gave her a view of his front side.
Definitely more dirty thoughts.
“Sorry, I didn’t know anyone was in here,” Anna said, as if that explained the gawking. The drool. The long, heated look that she was giving him.
But both the heated stuff and the drool came to a quick halt when Anna got a better look at his face. “Heath?”
He blinked. “Anna?”
Good gravy. It was Heath Moore, all right. Well, a grown-up Heath anyway. The last time she’d seen him had been nine and a half years ago when he was barely eighteen, but he had filled out a lot since then.
Oh, the memories she had of him came flooding back.
He’d been naked then, too—for part of those memories anyway, since she’d lost her virginity to him. Though she certainly hadn’t seen as much of him during that encounter in the hayloft as she’d just witnessed. He had filled out everywhere.
He sat up, dragging the sheet over his filled-out parts, and still blinking, he yawned and scrubbed his hand over his face. More memories came. Of his memorable mouth. The equally memorable way he’d kissed her.
She fanned herself like a menopausal woman with hot flashes.
“Why are you here?” she asked at the same moment that Heath asked, “Why are you here?”
Anna figured he was going to have a lot better explanation than she did. “I thought I might have left a book in here,” she told him.
A total lie. She had been in search of a book that the housekeeper, Della, had said she’d left in her room on the nightstand. But when Anna had seen the guest room door slightly ajar, she’d opened it and had a look.
She made a show of glancing around for a book that had zero chance of being there since it was all the way at the end of the hall.
“This is your room now?” Heath asked.
“No. But I come in here sometimes. For the view.” Anna motioned to the massive bay window. She wouldn’t mention that every bedroom on the second floor had similar windows, similar views. As did her own room on the first floor.
Heath glanced in the direction of the bay window as if he might get up to sample that view, but his next glance was at his body. Considering he was naked under the sheet, he probably didn’t want to get up until she’d left, and that was her cue to leave. First though, she wanted an answer to her question.
“Why are you h
ere?” she repeated.
“Riley. He saw me at the base in San Antonio and said I needed some...R & R before I left on assignment. He was headed back here to the ranch to finish out his leave, and he asked me to come.”
All of that made sense because Riley, too, was an Air Force officer and had indeed been at the base the day before. Yes, it made sense except for Heath’s hesitation before R & R.
“You weren’t here last night when I went to bed.” She would have noticed Heath, that’s for sure.
“We stopped for a bite to eat, then to visit some mutual friends, and we didn’t get in until late. We didn’t want to wake anyone up so Riley just sent me here to the guest room.” Heath paused. “Riley’s my boss.”
Uh-oh. That wouldn’t play well with Riley if he found out about her lustful thoughts over his subordinate. It wouldn’t play well with Heath, either, since he probably didn’t want to do or think anything—or have her do or think anything—that would cause his boss to hit him upside the head with a shovel.
A threat that Riley had first rattled off nine and a half years ago when he thought a romance was brewing between Heath and her.
If Riley had known what had gone on in the hayloft, he might not have actually carried through on the shovel threat, but Anna would have never heard the end of it.
And there was that whole underage-sex thing.
When Heath had first started working at the ranch, he’d been eighteen. But she’d been only seventeen. Riley and her other brothers had made a big deal about the attraction they’d sensed going on between Heath and her.
The term jail bait had been thrown around.
Since Heath had been making a big deal of his own about going into the military, it was an issue. Heath wanted to go into special ops, which would have required a lengthy background check for a top-secret clearance, and Riley had brought up her age for the sole purpose of scaring Heath into keeping his jeans zipped.
It had worked. Until the day Anna turned eighteen, that is. After that, she’d made the trip to the hayloft with Heath, and she had the memories of the orgasm to prove it.
Texas on My Mind Page 27
