He had no false hope that they were simply backing off and leaving Anne to settle into life with him while her memory would gradually return. He envisioned the Harrisons coming to Anne in friendship and coaxing her away, a short visit so her grandmother could see her and Joey, they'd explain, and so she could get to know the family again, nothing threatening. But once there, she'd find everyone welcoming her with open arms, but the visit would stretch into days, and weeks, and while there Anne would have no memory of why she should return to a man she had no past with, at least not in her conscious mind.
Yet, he couldn't set aside another image, one of seeing her nursing Joey that morning. Her reaction gave him hope that the intimate side of their relationship was starting to surface. It happened just before dawn, when he saw a light under the door to her bedroom and knew she was awake. After knocking, he announced from behind the closed door that he was leaving and wouldn’t be back till late, but that Momma was expecting her at the house for meals. To his surprise, Anne came to the door in her pajamas, with Joey in her arms, and said, "That's real nice of your mother. She makes me feel like family."
"That's because you are." He took Joey from her, and holding him in the crook of his arm, said to him, "In about eight years you'll be roundin' up cattle with me, Tee Joe." He gave Joey a kiss on his forehead, then pulled Anne to him and kissed her a little more soundly than he intended, and when she kissed him back he felt certain that before long she'd be thinking in terms of marriage once again.
Returning Joey to her, he grabbed his hat, shoved it on his head, gave Anne a quick peck on the lips and left. On his way to the barn he realized he'd forgotten his cell phone, which he and his brothers used for communicating during drives, but when he returned to the house to get it he was startled to walk in and find Anne sitting on the couch, nursing Joey.
For a few moments he stood staring at a breast he'd once caressed, but then he caught himself looking, and adjusting his gaze, he said, "Sorry to bust in like this but I forgot my cell phone, and I thought you'd be in your bedroom."
"It's okay," Anne replied. "I suppose we should get used to me nursing Joey since it happens several times a day." She arranged Joey's blanket to cover herself, but the sparks of excitement in her eyes told him she was aroused by his presence, which sent his testosterone skyrocketing, along with his will to keep some distance between them and let things take a natural course.
Pike, who was riding beside him, cut into his thoughts, saying, "I hope we won't have the same problem we had with the last upland cattle we moved to the marshland. Daddy warned us, and here we go at it again."
"Except the cattle we just moved are already used to swampland, so foraging knee-deep in marshland won't be such a change," Joe replied.
"Even if they've been foragin' in swamps, they'll still want to get back to familiar grounds," Pike said. "The last time we moved cattle that hadn't been raised around here, half the herd jumped the fence to get back to where they'd come from and the other half stood at the fence bawlin' the whole time and refusin' to eat. Who's goin' out there tomorrow to check on them?"
Ace, who was riding on the other side of Joe, said, "Alex and I are entered in bronc ridin' and we'll be headin' for the rodeo, so we're out."
Joe glanced around at Hank, who shrugged, and said, "I can't either because I'm helpin' Daddy jack up the front corner of the barn so we can replace the old footings with dry rot."
"Then it'll have to be you, Gator," Joe said to their 17-year old kid brother.
Gator looked askance at him. "I can't. I'm goin' to watch an alligator-wrestlin' match with Bobby Landry."
"Sorry, kid, but you'll have to skip it. You've been cuttin' out on half the work around here and you don't have a choice."
"What about you?"
"I can't because I don’t dare leave Anne that long or the Harrisons could come and take her and Joey away."
Pike eyed Joe with skepticism. "Do you plan to spend the rest of your life guarding her?"
"No, but until her memory comes back she's at risk. If the Harrisons came by and convinced her to leave for a short visit, they could distort things and confuse her and even talk her into staying with them, for the good of her son would be their justification."
Ace looked annoyed. "I like Anne, but I don't understand how you got involved with a Harrison in the first place. You should've known you'd be walkin' into a snake pit."
Joe couldn't argue that. Even Anne's sisters tried to talk her into leaving him. He heard the exchange when the women were in the bedroom with Anne, and he was masking the floor moldings for painting the room. As for getting involved with Anne, he had no choice. By the end of the first fais do-do she attended, and after dancing with her all evening, he hadn't looked at another girl. "When you meet the right woman you'll understand," he said.
Pike gave a snort of disgust. "Yeah, but meet the wrong one and you'll get screwed out of your savings. You might give Anne a head's up. If Kate comes around here to see her she might find her husband headin' for jail unless I get my money back."
Joe said nothing. He knew Pike was still as mad as a hornet over the way Kate dumped him, but he also suspected he still loved Kate.
"I'll tell you one thing," Ace said. "It'll be a cold day in hell before I so much as look at a Harrison woman. Anne might be the only woman for you, but she comes with a family, and you haven't seen the last of them."
"I know, and that's what's worryin' me," Joe said, a gut feeling telling him to get on home. He also knew he'd fight the Harrisons to the bitter end to have Anne as his wife and Joey as his full-time son. He refused to share either with another man, the kind of man Anne's folks would certify as marriageable for their daughter.
***
Anne returned to the house after having supper with Joe's family. It was her third meal with his folks that day, and each time she was with them she felt more a part of the family, like being absorbed the way Joe described. The odd thing was, she'd spent time with Joe's brothers at a few meals, and even though each was handsome in his own way, on looking at them she felt no spark, not a flicker, but looking at Joe was like watching a beautiful sunrise. It filled her with joy.
For supper though, there had been six empty chairs at a table where Joe and his brothers would have sat if not for moving cattle that day, and she felt the vacancy of at least one of those chairs. But after spending time with Joe's family and getting to know them better, she left with new names on her lips: Mamere, Pépère, Momma and Daddy. Figuring she'd be marrying Joe soon, Marcelite Broussard, mother of the brood, welcomed Anne into the family by asking her to call them by the names their children used.
They also spent time holding Joey and talking to him, Joe's grandparents in their Cajun French, which was basically English with a smattering of French, Joe's sister, Mary, chuckling and talking about getting him his first ugly stick crappie spinning reel and fishing rod combo, and Joe's parents just spending time with their first grandchild, who was wide awake and smiling and cooing at everyone. It was as Joe said though. Already he was Tee Joe, and that's the way it would be, which she thought was cute and kind of quaint.
Figuring Joe would want to go right to the house to get cleaned up after the cattle drive, Momma walked Anne home while carrying a half a loaf of crusty French bread and a pot of chicken fricassee to be reheated for Joe's dinner, and when Momma stepped into the house, she was pleasantly surprised. "Mais la! Joe's been doin' some fixin' up here," she said, while gazing around a newly-painted living room with scrubbed and waxed floors.
Anne looked around the room while feeling a swell of pride in Joe. "It'll be real nice when he finishes the kitchen. He's fixing to take up the old vinyl flooring and put down new, and he also plans to replace the old cabinets with new ones." She hadn't expected him to go to all that work, and told him the old cabinets would be fine once they'd been repaired and refinished, but Joe insisted on giving her a new kitchen. It bothered her that he seemed focused on trying to impress
her parents when she didn't care what they thought.
"The boys'll help," Momma said. "Joe's a happy man, him, so things'll be gettin' done here and you'll have the kinda house Joe wants you to have before long, I reckon."
Anne loved Momma's enthusiasm. "It's already what I want, and when the bedrooms and hallway are painted it'll be perfect." With her words came an image of the house jacked up on blocks on a lot somewhere away from there, but before she could sharpen the scene, it vanished.
After Momma left, Anne glanced out the front window, restless for Joe's return, and saw no activity at the barn.
That morning, when Joe pulled her against him while holding Joey in the crook of his other arm and kissed her long and hard, she knew it would be an endless day, and she was right. Time seemed to be creeping by in slow motion, and she was impatient for Joe's return.
Things would be different now. Not only had she kissed him in a way that told him she was beginning to love him again, but when he walked in and found her nursing Joey, and saw the direction of his gaze, she felt a surge of sexual awareness that came with the flash of an image of being in bed with him, of bare flesh against bare flesh, and his big bear paws moving over her. It was only a brief image, but it was in her memory bank now, even if her mind was still holding back the bulk of their past together.
After bathing Joey and dressing him in his night diapers and a stretchie, she nursed him. She'd planned on bringing him into the living room so Joe could hold him and talk to him, but by the time she'd finished nursing, Joey had fallen sound asleep, so she placed him in his infant carrier and quietly left the room.
Again she looked out the window, and what she saw had her heart tripping. The men were back, dismounting. They'd still have to take care of their horses and turn them out, so she decided to use the time to set the table and heat up the chicken fricassee.
She'd just finished warming the rice in the microwave when she heard heavy footsteps on the front porch, no doubt Joe removing his boots and rain slicker, and a couple of minutes later he opened the front door and stepped inside.
When he spotted her, he grinned, like he was glad to see her. His face was splattered with mud, as were his hands and jeans, except where his rubber boots had come up to his knees. He'd been wearing a rain slicker, so the only clean part of him was his shirt. Scanning him from head to toe and back again, it came to her that even in his muddy state, his wide white grin was inviting in a way she hadn't expected. She wanted to kiss him.
"You can if you want," he said.
"I can what?"
"Kiss me. I've been chewin' alligator jerky."
Anne found herself grinning. "I might just do that." Feeling an unexpected wave of boldness, she walked up to him, and placing her hands on his chest, kissed him on the lips, allowing her tongue to toy with his long enough to taste a hint of smokiness. "It's nice to have you home, but is this the way you usually look when you're done for the day."
Joe laughed. "No, darlin', I'm a lot muddier when we have to pull cows out of bogs. I guess when you get right down to it, my brothers and I are just a bunch of overgrown boys who still like playin' around in the mud. And were you serious?"
"About what?"
"Bein' glad I'm home?"
"Yes, it gives me an adult to talk to. Tee Joe's vocabulary's a little hard to understand."
"Sugah, you're teasin' me but I need to hear the truth. Are you glad I'm home?"
Anne looked into serious eyes in a mud-splattered face and saw the grin was gone. Knowing he needed the truth, she said, "Yes, I'm glad you're home, mud and all, but maybe you could clean up before eating. I have chicken fricassee heating on the stove. Momma brought it over."
The grin came back. "Darlin' that's the sweetest sound I've heard, Momma havin' you call her Momma. Well, maybe it's not the sweetest. You used to call me honey, and that was even sweeter."
"I guess… maybe you were… before," Anne said.
"It's okay, sugah. It'll come back. For now I'm happy you're happy I'm home, and I'll go scrub off the mud so I can get a proper hug and kiss. I've been waiting all day for both."
"Waiting how?"
"Chewin alligator jerky to make sure that big kiss I'm gonna give you after I shower'll have you wantin' more." His grin was even wider than before. Giving her a peck on the lips, he headed down the hallway, and a few minutes later she heard the shower come on, along with a deep male voice belting out the words to a snappy song:
Goodbye Joe, me gotta go, me oh my oh,
Me gotta go pole the pirogue down the bayou,
My Yvonne, the sweetest one, me oh my oh,
Son of a gun we'll have big fun on the bayou.
Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and a filé gumbo…
Anne couldn't help grinning. She had a happy man. A man worth loving.
After some time, the shower shut off, and while Joe dried and dressed, Anne set a bowl of chicken fricassee over rice on the table, along with a couple of thick slices of warm French bread, well buttered. Shortly after, Joe returned to the living room, barefoot and wearing only jeans, drawing Anne's attention to his muscular male torso with a light dusting of dark hair on his chest, and solid arms with well-formed biceps and corded veins.
Finding her breath quickening, she had to part her lips and suck in air to calm the heavy beating of her heart. She'd barely processed the sight of him when he pulled her into his arms and kissed her, his lips moving on hers then parting so she could explore, and when their tongues entwined, she let out a little moan of pleasure. She was also aware of the warm firm flesh of his bare back beneath her palms, and the low guttural sounds coming from deep in his chest stirred her. She'd loved this man before, and she knew she loved him still, even if she didn't quite know him, but her desire for him was slowly coming back.
When the kiss finally ended, Joe said, "Darlin', I've been in hell for six months. I never thought I'd be able to hold you like this again. I hope you won't keep me waitin' too long for the rest. I'm needing you again, not just the way a man needs a woman, but the way I need you. You're not just any woman to me. You're the only woman I want to marry, the only one I'll ever love, and I'll take those words to my grave." He kissed her again, more lightly this time, and said, "I guess I'd better eat before I get too carried away."
He released her, and dragging a chair from the table, started to sit down, but before he did, Anne said, "Honey, you need to wear a shirt to the table." She didn't know where the endearment came from, or the ultimatum that he not sit bare-chested at the table, maybe from her proper upbringing, but there had to be some rules for Joey to live by.
Joe grinned. "If I'm your honey again I'll go to the ends of the earth for you." He turned and went down the hallway and came back a few moments later while shrugging into a clean but faded denim shirt. After snapping it closed, he pulled Anne into his arms and kissed her lightly, and said, "I love you, sugah, and now that you're the woman of the house, you get to set the rules here and at your table. That's the way it is with Momma, and Daddy and the rest of us never cross her lines." He sat down, said a little silent prayer, crossed himself, and started eating.
And Anne realized that would be a part of their lives from now on. She was okay with it because it was something she could do for Joe, be his partner in love, marriage, raising Joey, and following his spiritual need.
She sat across the table so she could look at him, and after giving him a chance to eat a few bites of fricassee, she said, "You have a nice singing voice. Has anyone ever told you that?"
Joe eyed her with amusement. "Father Thomas did. He wanted me to sing in the boys' choir, but I opted to sing in the band with Daddy and my brothers instead."
"Then you speak French like Pike?"
Joe laughed. "Pike doesn't speak French. He sings in French. All the songs we sing are in French. It's a Cajun tradition."
"Then you sing with the band sometimes?" Anne asked.
"I did until a pretty woman came into my life who I'd
rather be dancin' with instead of singin' with the band, which is why Pike stepped in and took my place at the baptism celebration. But you used to sing with me too."
"Me, in a Cajun band?" Anne asked, baffled. Nothing about that scenario rang true.
Joe chuckled. "No, darlin.' You once sang with me in the shower."
Anne looked at a wide white grin and into a pair of eyes alive with devilment.
"I… uh… really don't remember that," she said, finding her face growing hot because there was something niggling her that did remember, not an image, but a feeling of slippery wet flesh against slippery wet flesh while accompanied by their combined voices reverberating a lively rendition of… "Jambalaya."
"You remember?"
"I don’t know. Maybe. It's the only Cajun song I know." An image of her soapy hands following the contours of Joe's muscular male body emerged. It wasn't a memory though, but a fabrication in her mind of how it could be.
Joe shoved his chair back and came around the table, all humor gone. "Sugah, come here."
Anne stood and turned into his arms, and when he kissed her, she was filled with passion, and need, and as the kiss deepened, she tasted chicken fricassee, and Cajun spices, and a little smokiness, and other delicious flavors. The flavors of Joe, along with the warm slipperiness of his tongue, like two bodies moving against each other in a shower, bringing to mind the curves of her body moving against the solid muscles of his.
"Darlin', come to bed with me," Joe said in a raspy voice. "You're the mother of my son, the woman I intend to marry if you'll still have me. For six months I felt like only half a man, like half my soul and half my body was missing. You filled those vacancies. I want you to fill them again."
It was like Joe's words mirrored her own feelings during those six confusing months, like she'd been only half a woman, not just because she was pregnant by a man she couldn't recall, but because she had a big void inside, a void Joe's presence, and only Joe's could fill.
Tall Dark Stranger (Cajun Cowboys Book 1) Page 10
