by Peggy Bird
“As if you could.” He dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “Why don’t you stay here for the rest of the week until the boys come home? And maybe drive to Portland with me to pick them up.”
“I can’t stay here all week. I’m working the breakfast shift at the resort Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The ranch is far enough away from the reservation that I’d have to get up even earlier than you do to get there by six forty-five.”
“All right. Then, how about we plan things so I’ll see you every day. Tuesday and Thursday you’ll be here and can stay for dinner with me. What do you want to do on the other days?”
“I still think you are trying to fatten me up.”
“If you don’t want to have dinner, what would you like to do?”
“A movie at the theater at the resort? Maybe another horseback ride? What do you like to do for fun?”
“Right now, reading a book when the kids are in bed or watching some mindless TV show is as exciting as it gets. I’m a real ball of fire.”
“Actually, a quiet evening reading a good book would be a treat for me, too. Most of what I read is for class.”
“I don’t think I know the answer to this—are you taking a class now?”
“No. I took the summer off. I’ll make up for it with two classes fall term.”
“So all I have to compete with is your other job. If you won’t stay, can I at least see you every day? In addition to work, I mean.”
“I guess we can make that happen.” She hoped her grin told him it was more than a guess.
“Then you can drive to Portland with me to get the boys. On the way back, we can tell them about us and ...”
“No! We can’t.”
“Why not? Are you saying after next weekend we’ll go back to our old relationship, and I’ll only see you in passing when you’re here to work?”
“Yes. I mean, no. I didn’t mean we’d go back to the way things were before this week.” She took his hand. “Look, Jack, we don’t know what this last week has been about, do we? It could just be a fling or ...”
“I don’t do flings.”
“Okay, but you’re missing the point.” She put her hand up to wave off what she was sure was about to be another objection. “What would we tell them? How would we describe it? We’re sleeping together? We’re friends with benefits? What?”
“Why can’t we say we’re dating?”
“It could upset them.”
“Or they could love it.”
“Which might be even worse. We don’t know where this is going. The boys could have expectations that could mess up my relationship with them.”
“I don’t like lying to my sons.”
“You’re not lying. You’re omitting a few details about what you did while they were gone.”
“So, a sin of omission rather than commission? That’s not much better. And what about when they’re back home and I want to see you? Or are you saying we won’t be with each other after this week? Other than while you’re working, I mean.”
“No, we’ll have to figure it out. Find a way. I’m not suggesting it’ll be easy.” She squeezed his hand. “You know I’m right about not telling them now. You don’t want them confused or upset, do you? I sure don’t. I care for them too much.”
He sighed. “I hate it. But I guess you’re right.” He brought their entwined hands up to his lips and kissed her fingertips. “Which makes it even more important for us to be together any bit of time we can this week. So, I’ll amend my original question—why don’t you stay tonight?”
“I’d love to.”
• • •
“Good morning, beautiful.”
Jack had watched Quanna sleep for more than an hour after he woke on Sunday morning, feeling the warmth of her body close to him, hearing the regularity of her measured, sleep-shallow breathing. She was as lovely asleep as she was awake. After a while, he couldn’t resist touching her, stroking her shoulder, enjoying the softness of her skin. Which had led to a definite increase in the hardness of his erection.
He wasn’t sure if he moved or made a sound. Maybe she sensed his arousal. Whatever it was, she stirred, yawned, and stretched. “Mmm. What time is it?”
“It’s a little past six.”
“And you’re still in bed? How come?”
“Either I didn’t want to panic you two days in a row about where I was or you look less like a sage grouse today. You pick.”
She linked her arms around his neck. “That’s not the way to get lucky before breakfast, Jack.”
“Then let’s try this.” He kissed his way from her ear to her neck while he caressed her breast. Turned out, that was the way.
An hour later, both had showered and Jack had gone downstairs to put coffee on, wearing only a pair of jeans. Because he’d insisted on washing her hair, mostly so he had an excuse to play with it, Quanna stayed upstairs to get it dried.
He had the coffee dripping and was examining the contents of the refrigerator to see what he wanted to make for their breakfast when he heard the front door open and a familiar woman’s voice call out. “Jack? Are you in the kitchen?”
It was his sister Barbara.
“There you are,” she said as she kissed his cheek. “I’m glad I caught you. I was afraid you’d be off someplace already. But obviously you haven’t eaten yet. And you’re humming. Must be a good morning.”
Damn. He hadn’t realized he was making any noise at all, let alone humming. “What’re you doing out so early on a Sunday morning, Barb?” If she noticed his furtive look over her shoulder, hoping he wouldn’t see Quanna coming downstairs, she didn’t act like it. The conversation with Quanna about figuring out what was going on between them before they tried to explain it to other people now made sense. How the hell would he explain his nanny being there to his sister?
“I decided to drop in on my big brother because he’s been all alone for a week and I was afraid he might be getting lonely. And I know how early you get up. So, here I am at the crack of dawn. At least it is for me.” She settled herself at the end of the breakfast bar. “How about pouring me a cup of that coffee I smell. Then you can tell me how you got on this week all by your lonesome.”
He filled a mug for her. “I’m fine. Got a lot done. After two weeks with four boys here, I had a bunch to catch up on.”
“I’m glad you restarted the tradition with Sam’s boys. They loved being here. I sure enjoyed having them over at our place. Though when all of our kids are together, they’re a handful. Thank heaven for Quanna. She’s amazing. You were lucky to find her.”
“Yeah, I know.” You have no idea how lucky.
“When are you retrieving them? When they get back, I’d like to squeeze in one more camping trip if we can before school starts.”
“I drive over next Sunday, come home on Monday. Another campout would be fine, but we start harvest as soon as I’m back and ...”
Paying attention to his conversation with his sister, he missed the fact that Quanna had come downstairs. He only heard her when she was two steps away from walking into the kitchen. She was barefoot, dressed in his shirt with God-knows-what underneath, and her unbraided hair looked slightly damp. She might as well have had a sign around her neck saying, “I spent the night.”
He didn’t have a chance to warn her before she saw who was sitting at the island and screeched to a halt in the doorway. “Oh. Ah ... hi, Barbara. I didn’t know you were here,” she said, her voice squeaking a bit at the end of the sentence.
Barbara raised an eyebrow at Jack before she said, “Hello, Quanna. I didn’t know you were here either.”
“I’m ... ah ... I was just ... ah ... I mean ... I came to get coffee, and then I’ll ... I guess I’ll go finish what I was doing upstairs.” She dropped her gaze, scurried to the coffeepot, filled a mug, and looked like she was about to head for the stairs.
As his mother used to say, might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb. He put his arm around h
er shoulder, kissed the top of her head, and said, “I’ll join you in a few minutes. Barb isn’t staying long.”
He watched his sister’s face as Quanna blushed and almost ran out of the room.
“Well,” Barbara said after a few moments of awkward silence. “At least now I understand the humming.”
“Look, Barb ...”
She waved off his attempt to explain. “I don’t need an explanation. But I will ask if you’re sure you know what you’re doing.”
His younger siblings had never questioned his judgment. Not about how he chose to keep the family together after their parents’ death. Or what he did to keep the ranch from bankruptcy soon after. Not his choice of crops, cattle breeds, or the color of the paint on the walls of the house that belonged to all three of them. It stung to hear his sister start now.
Which was probably the reason his voice had an edge to it when he answered her question. “I know exactly what I’m doing. Something I haven’t done for a long time—living a little bit for myself. Everyone, you included, told me I needed to get back to enjoying life, and I’m finally taking your advice. Not only is Quanna the first woman I’ve been attracted to in years, but for some odd reason, she returns the feeling. I’ll be damned if I’m going to let this chance pass me by.”
“Don’t be so defensive. I wasn’t being critical. It’s a bit complicated, don’t you think, with her being your nanny and all? I mean, she’s young. She’s vulnerable. She’s your employee. I don’t want to see you hurt her.”
“You don’t have to protect ... wait, you don’t want to see her hurt?”
“Right. Pain from you is the last thing she deserves. Considering how much she’s come to mean to my nephews, I don’t want to see their relationship screwed up because you two get involved only to have it go sour.”
“We’ve talked about all that. We’re not going to tell anyone, especially the boys, what’s going on until we figure it out ourselves. Which won’t be easy to do once Daniel and Lucas are home. But I want to try. I care about her. A lot. I want this to work.”
Barbara finished off her coffee. “Then I guess I better leave you alone. You only have the week ahead before you have to begin to juggle your kids with your love life—or is it your sex life?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but like I said, we’re trying to figure it out ourselves.”
She slipped off the stool and came around to where her brother stood. “Seriously, Jack, I’m glad you’re finally doing something for yourself. And if I can help, let me know. I can always entertain your sons if you want to slip away for dinner or a movie.” She patted him on the shoulder. “I apologize for breaking into your weekend. I promise I won’t use my key to come in unannounced again.”
He leaned down and kissed his sister’s forehead. “You’re a good sister. I don’t care what Sam says.”
She swatted him on the arm. “Funny, he says the same thing only with you as the one who badmouths me. Now, walk me to my car.”
She’d started the engine when Jack threw out the question he was almost afraid to ask. “Barb, it doesn’t bother you because she’s Indian, does it?”
“Now, why the devil would you think it would?”
“Quanna’s had nasty comments about her parentage from her neighbor and a few other people, and she’s sensitive about it. I told her it wouldn’t matter to anyone I knew, but I thought I’d check.”
“Of course it doesn’t matter.” She put the car in gear and started to back out. Then stopped and stuck her head out the window. “Now ask me if I’m concerned because she’s a lot younger than you are.”
“Okay. Are you?”
“Other than not wanting to see you be the butt of jokes about middle-aged men who fall for younger women, not really. I’ll merely say, be prepared for it.”
Chapter 14
When he came back into the house, Quanna was sitting on the couch in the living room fully dressed. If her bleak expression was anything like the one she’d seen on his face the morning before, it was no wonder she’d been convinced he was having second thoughts. He hoped to hell she wasn’t going to run off at this first glitch in their plan to keep things under wraps.
“She’s mad, isn’t she, about us being together?”
“No, she isn’t. She apologized for breaking into our weekend.” He sat next to her and drew her into an embrace. She was trembling. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I told her we want to keep things quiet for a while. She won’t say anything until we tell her it’s okay.”
“She didn’t warn you away from me?”
“We-e-e-l-l.” He dragged out the word hoping to lighten the conversation. It didn’t. “She did warn me about one thing. She told me not to hurt you. Didn’t quite threaten me, but came close.”
“Oh. Why would she do that?”
“She likes you. She also likes the relationship you have with her nephews. She says I’m lucky to have found you.” He kissed her forehead. “She’s right.”
“She didn’t try to convince you people will talk because ...”
“Because I’m a middle-aged man and you’re a sweet, young thing? Yeah, she mentioned it. But she said she was willing to let it go as long as I was prepared for the gossip.”
“I’m not a sweet, young thing, and that’s not what I meant. You know what I meant.”
“Quanna, sweetheart, I keep telling you, none of my family or friends would ever think your being part Indian would make a difference. It isn’t who they are.”
“And you’ve discussed this, have you, with your family and friends?”
“No, not in so many words. But I know them. That kind of prejudice is in the past.”
“I wish you were right. You’d be surprised where it comes out, Jack.”
After another quick kiss, he stood up. “I guess I’ll just have to wait for you to see I know what I’m talking about when we tell people about us. For now, can we please eat? I’m starving. I was about to start breakfast when Barb arrived.”
“If you’re sure she’s not angry about you hooking up with me.”
She started to hop up off the couch, but he caught her by the arm. “Don’t say that. This wasn’t hooking up.”
“I’m sorry. I know this isn’t a hookup. I don’t do hookups.”
“So, at least we know two things about what’s going on: it’s not a fling because I don’t do flings. And it’s not a hookup because you don’t do hookups. If Sherlock’s right, all we have to do is eliminate all the wrong answers and whatever we’re left with is the truth.”
This time, she did laugh. “Makes as much sense as anything does.” She caught him by the belt loop on his jeans as he started back to the kitchen. “Let me cook this morning. You put some music on.”
• • •
As she cracked eggs and chopped veggies for omelets, the sound of piano music drifted in from the living room. She thought she’d heard the piece before, but she couldn’t put a title to it.
She was still trying to figure out if she knew what the music was when the pianist hit the wrong key. It seemed odd such a mistake made it to a recording. She stopped to listen more closely and heard a second discordant note.
Curious, she returned to the living room where she saw Jack at the piano. He was playing for her.
“I think I’ve heard that music before, but I don’t know the name of it,” she said as he made room for her to join him on the piano bench.
“It’s Beethoven. ‘Fur Elise.’ Piano student standard. But I’m having trouble remembering it. Or maybe, more accurately, playing it.” He started to put the cover back over the keyboard.
“Don’t. Please keep going. Unless playing brings back bad memories.”
“No, only good ones. We each practiced with my mother for half an hour after school every day. I wasn’t crazy about it at the time, but now I realize how much it meant to me to have her undivided attention for that half hour.”
“It meant a lot to her, too, I imagin
e.”
“She was headed for a career as a concert pianist when she came to Oregon to visit an uncle, met my dad, fell in love, and stayed. She never regretted her decision, she said. But sometimes I wonder. She would have loved knowing how much Paula played, even as an adult. No one’s touched the damn piano since she died.”
“You haven’t arranged lessons for the boys, have you? Both your mother and theirs would want them to learn, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, they would.” He noodled around, playing several scale progressions.
“Maybe once school starts, I can find someone ... we can find ... uh, you can find someone to teach them. I’d be glad to ferry them to lessons, if that’s what it takes.”
He slid closer to her on the piano bench and crooked his index finger under her chin. “I like the way it sounds when you say ‘we’ can do something with the boys.”
“I don’t mean to try to tell you how to raise your sons.”
“You’re not. You’re helping raise them.” He kissed her. “We better get breakfast going before I start to get ideas about what can be done on a piano bench other than play the piano.”
• • •
In spite of Quanna’s shifts at the restaurant, Jack’s long days in the fields, and her determination to make her time at the ranch only work, they found time to fit in a movie, a couple dinners, and another horseback ride during the following week. They spent a few more nights together, made love when the mood hit them, which it did with some frequency, and began to learn about each other in ways more intimate than just boss and kid wrangler.
Quanna reminded herself at least once a day it might not last forever. And warned herself that if it didn’t, she might not be able to work for him. At least, she didn’t think she could. But if she had to leave the Richardson Ranch, she’d be right back where she’d been in the spring trying to find enough money to meet her obligation to her family, finish college, and pay her rent. Then there was the other problem, the one Jack didn’t like to talk about. In spite of what he thought, she was sure he’d have family or friends who would never accept her as worthy of him. Being with her could hurt his reputation or give bullies an excuse to harass the boys. She couldn’t let that happen.
