by Cathie Linz
“What’s going on here?” Wanda demanded.
“I thought you might like to go for a ride,” Patrick said.
“No way!” Steve said before his grandmother could speak. “She’s much too old to ride on a Harley.”
There was a moment of stunned silence.
Then Chloe said, “Uh-oh.” And shook her head.
“What?” Steve demanded.
Chloe sighed. “You’ve done it now.”
“Done what?” he said.
“Too old, huh?” Wanda came right up to him, all four feet eleven inches of her, and poked her finger in the middle of his chest with such force that he winced.
“I just meant that—”
Wanda cut him off with a wave of her hand. “Not another word. I do not need you telling me how to live my life.”
Steve almost said, “Why not, you tell me how to live my life all the time,” but a warning look from Chloe told him to stay silent.
“I will do as I please.” Wanda jabbed his chest again. “I have earned the right.”
“Fine. I was just concerned about your safety. The back of a motorcycle is no place for my grandmother.”
Wanda narrowed her eyes at him before marching right over to Patrick. “How do I get on this contraption?”
“Busha!”
Chloe took hold of Steve’s arm to prevent him from marching after his grandmother. “You’re just making things worse.”
Steve did notice how surprisingly quick and agile Wanda was at following Patrick’s directions and mounting the Harley, but that didn’t make him feel any better.
Taking pity on him, Patrick told Steve, “We’re just going to the pancake house down the street a few blocks.”
“Then why don’t you both walk there instead?” Steve demanded.
“We left our walkers at home,” Wanda retorted. “Come on, Patrick. Step on it. Let’s blow this pop stand!”
Chapter Nine
“I can’t believe she did that.” Steve stood in the street, staring at the quickly retreating back of his grandmother aboard Patrick’s borrowed Harley.
“You dared her into it,” Chloe retorted.
“Me? I’m the one who told her not to go!”
“No, you’re the one who told her she was too old to go. Big difference.”
“Well, she is too old.”
“Apparently she’s not. She seemed pretty spry to me as she hopped onto that Harley.”
Steve turned to her, his exasperation apparent. “You were supposed to be helping me talk her out of it, not just standing there.”
“Far be it from me to try and change your grandmother’s mind once she’s had it made up. You’re the one who told me that she could be stubborn that way.”
“Yeah, but she’s never gone off the deep end like this before.”
“Well, she’s probably never had one of her grandsons tell her she’s too old to do something before.”
“She should have listened to me.”
“Of course.” Chloe nodded solemnly. “You’re a Marine. Everyone should listen to you, right?”
“At least in the Marine Corps everyone follows a certain code of behavior.”
“Unlike us rowdy civilians, you mean?”
Steve was a proud officer in the nation’s oldest and proudest branch of all the armed services. You didn’t join the Marine Corps because it was easy. Yet here he was, unable to get his own grandmother to obey his simple request.
Was this leave making him soft? His leadership skills had never been called into question before. But now Steve could feel this situation slipping out of his control and he didn’t like it.
Time to call in reinforcements.
“Now what are you doing?” Chloe asked him.
“Calling my dad to tell him what his mother has done.”
She looked at him skeptically. “Do you really think that’s the right thing to do? Wanda certainly won’t appreciate it.”
“She butts into my life, I don’t see why I can’t butt into hers.”
“Is that what this is all about? Payback?”
“No, it’s about me being concerned about her.” Steve turned away to concentrate on the phone call. “Dad, it’s Steve. Your mother has gone off the deep end. She’s just taken off on the back of a Harley with that guy who refused to give her the blue ribbon for her kolachkis. Remember, we talked about him when you came for dinner? Yeah, that’s right.” Steve nodded. “His name is Patrick. They went to the local pancake house…. What do you mean, that doesn’t sound too bad? She was on the back of a motorcycle…. I did try to stop her, she wouldn’t listen to me. So what are you going to do about it? Nothing?…You’ve never been able to control what she does? Yeah, but she’s older now…. Yeah, I told her that…. What do you mean uh-oh?…Okay, okay, so it might not have been the most politically correct thing to say….” Steve paused to listen to whatever his dad had to say. “Okay, fine. If you don’t think there’s anything to be worried about, it’s your call. I just hope you’re right.” He disconnected the call.
By now, Steve was aggravated enough to chomp boulders. Which wasn’t like him. While his brothers tended to get all riled up, he was the one who kept his head. The even-Steven one in the family, fair-minded and even-tempered. Sure, he might be adventurous, but that didn’t mean he was a hothead.
So why was he getting so angry about this situation?
And why was he suddenly analyzing himself so much? He was a guy. He wasn’t into studying his emotions like this.
Maybe he’d been hanging out with females too much lately by living at his grandmother’s house. Which returned to his earlier concern that he was getting soft. Not physically. He began his day with fifty one-armed push-ups. But this emotional stuff…
Well, he’d be back on duty soon. Things would be back to normal then. He could always depend on the Marine Corps to keep the same reliable rock-solid values.
“So your father was okay with Wanda going off with Patrick?” Chloe asked him.
“He said there was nothing he could do at this point. That doesn’t sound like my dad. He’s always been a man of action. Maybe being retired has made him soft.” There was that phrase again. “Driving around in an RV like a tourist.”
“He didn’t appear to be soft to me when I met him.”
“You don’t know what he was like before,” Steve retorted.
“Wasn’t he gone a lot before? On deployments?”
“Affirmative.”
“You’re so cute when you’re serious.” Chloe couldn’t resist teasing Steve.
“Very funny.”
“What do you want to do now?”
Looking at Chloe, standing beside him in her jeans and Radical Librarian sweatshirt, made him suddenly want to yank her into his arms and kiss her until neither one of them could think straight. He wanted to sweep her up into his arms and take her into her house and make love to her, touching every inch of her body, revealing all her secrets, discovering what made her moan with pleasure.
She touched his arm. “Steve?”
He blinked. “Yeah?”
“Did you want to cancel our plans to go to Galena for the day? We can wait until Wanda gets back if you’d rather.”
“I have no idea how long she’ll be gone.”
“I don’t mind waiting.”
Steve shook his head, as much to get those earlier erotic images of him and Chloe out of his mind as to indicate that he didn’t want to hang around here. “I’m not her keeper, as my father pointed out. Although she could certainly use one.”
“I think it’s sweet that you’re so concerned about her.”
Steve grimaced. “Sweet?”
“That’s a good thing. You said your Harley was sweet.”
“But not nice sweet. You meant nice sweet.” Now he was really disgruntled.
“Sorry. Not the right image for a tough Marine like you, hmmm?”
“You’ve got that right.”
“How ab
out I think it’s honorable of you to be concerned about Wanda?”
“That sounds better.”
Steve’s irritation was improved by the sound of the Harley’s state-of-the-art machine as he revved the engine. Chloe climbed aboard with ease, slinging her sexy denim-clad leg over the motorcycle like a pro. How different from the mousy librarian who’d come to his grandmother’s back door over two weeks ago.
He had yet to decide which was the real Chloe. There were so many sides to her. He got such a kick out of her willingness to try new things and her excitement at new experiences. She’d been a gung ho teammate, embracing his suggestions for new adventures with an open mind and a cute grin.
Even her glasses were cute, although they had kind of gotten in the way the last two times he’d kissed her.
Not that they’d slowed him down, however. Had he ever kissed a female who wore glasses? Yeah, but not since the tenth grade.
He felt Chloe cuddling closer. He wasn’t sure if she knew she was cuddling. Cuddling. Another soft word. But he didn’t know how else to describe what she was doing. Whatever it was, it felt good.
They headed west, past houses with pumpkins on the porches and paper witches taped to the windows. Halloween was still three weeks away. By then he’d be back at Camp Pendleton in California.
Here the days were getting shorter and the weather played that roulette game—coming up summer like last weekend or cooler like today. But in California the days were pretty much the same. He never realized he missed the four seasons. Well, maybe not the snow so much.
They continued out of the city, heading across the state, past open farmland toward the Mississippi River and the town of Galena.
The open road had always given him a sense of peace that he’d never felt anyplace else. His twin brother Tom felt the same way.
Not that they were mind readers or anything. As kids they’d practiced playing poker, trying to read the hand the other one held. It hadn’t worked worth diddly-squat.
Steve grinned at the memory.
He needed to e-mail Tom again. With his brother being posted in the Mid-East, they had to depend on occasional e-mails to keep in touch.
He wondered what Tom would think of Chloe. Like him, Tom had run into trouble with a female and his inheritance. Sure, Chloe knew about the money, but she also knew that this wasn’t a romantic relationship.
So why did you want to grab her in your arms? an inner voice mocked him.
Doesn’t sound real platonic to me.
No, his relationship with Chloe wasn’t merely friendly. There was something else going on. There was definitely a male-female chemistry at work here.
Which was fine. They were both enjoying their time together. No strings. No regrets. No commitments. Just having fun.
So why did his heart give a stupid jump when she snuggled closer against him?
“I think I’ve died and gone to heaven,” Chloe murmured.
Steve sat across the table from her at one of Galena’s best restaurants and stared at her in amazement. “Had I known that feeding you chocolate would have this effect on you, I’d have done it sooner.”
“This isn’t just any chocolate. This is the best. It’s orgasmic chocolate.”
Steve almost choked on his coffee.
Studying her face as she slipped another spoonful into her mouth confirmed her words.
There was something erotically sensual about the way she closed her lips around the spoon, the way she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. Her throaty mmmm was making him hot. And making his jeans uncomfortably tight.
Steve shifted in his seat. Who knew that eating dessert could be such a turn-on? Or more specifically, that watching Chloe eat dessert could be such a turn-on.
Chloe’s tongue darted out to lick a dab of chocolate from her full lower lip.
Why hadn’t he noticed how sexy that bottom lip of hers was before? It required all his willpower not to lean over and nibble on that lip. That wickedly sexy lower lip.
What was wrong with him? Since when did he notice a woman’s bottom lip? He’d never been into details like that before.
So what was it about this female that made him notice stuff like that?
“Mmmmmm.” She slipped more chocolate into her mouth.
Ohhh, man. This was getting tough. He couldn’t look away.
Was she deliberately trying to drive him crazy?
Steve frowned at the possibility. It was certainly something Gina would have done.
But Chloe wasn’t like Gina, was she?
No way.
The vibration of his cell phone was a welcome diversion. A quick check of the caller ID told him that the call was from his grandmother. She still sounded irritated. “For your information, I got home just fine, so there was no need for you to worry.”
“Thanks for reporting in.”
“I don’t report to you.” She was getting all riled up again. “You’d do well to focus on your own life.”
How could he do that when his focus remained fixated on Chloe and her orgasmic chocolate? Luckily Wanda hung up before he could say anything else that would set her off.
“That was my grandmother,” Steve told Chloe. “She got home okay.”
“I’m glad. Do you feel better now?”
Better? Now that Chloe had gotten him all wound up and ready to hit the sheets? Not really.
“I still think it’s sweet…I mean honorable,” she quickly corrected herself, “that you’re worried about your grandmother. Especially given the fact that you’re a lean, mean fighting machine, right?”
“Affirmative.”
“Sometimes it’s hard for me to remember you’re a Marine,” she murmured.
He wasn’t pleased by her words.
“I didn’t mean that as an insult in any way. It’s just that with you being on leave and all, I’m not seeing the Marine side of you.”
“I left my dress-blues uniform back at Camp Pendleton.”
“It’s not just the uniform. And maybe I didn’t say that right. There are things about you that indicate your military background.”
“The haircut.”
She nodded. “And the way you carry yourself. The erect posture, the presence you project. You’re obviously a man accustomed to giving orders and having them obeyed. A man used to leading others. I noticed that about you right away. But I’ve also seen you relaxed, having fun.”
“You don’t think Marines relax or have fun?”
“It’s not the first image that comes to mind.”
“It would be if you met all my brothers.”
“They all like to have fun?”
“Affirmative. Tommy is probably the most fun-loving. But he’s also the youngest.”
“I thought he was only two minutes younger than you are?”
“One minute, but that still makes him the youngest.”
“And you never let him forget it, do you?”
Steve grinned. “Not for one second.”
“It must be nice being part of a large and loving family like yours.”
“It has its moments.”
“I’m sure it does.” And being with Steve had its moments as well. He’d done so much more than just take her out on adventures and show her how to have fun. He’d made her remember the girl she’d been before her parents’ death.
Janis had drilled it into Chloe’s head that she shouldn’t take stupid risks like her parents had by getting into that private plane for a ride that had ended up killing them. She’d trained Chloe to be quiet and not make any waves.
When she’d struck out on her own, those negative nuggets had remained buried deep in Chloe’s consciousness, still guiding her behavior. Until now. Until Steve.
There was no changing her past but what about her future? Did she want to have a large family, like Steve’s, with five children? She and Brad hadn’t talked much about children, except in the broadest of terms, something along the lines of, “Someday, when it’s convenie
nt.”
Life wasn’t convenient. And if you were waiting for it to become that way, you’d wait in vain. Something else Steve had taught her. And Sweetie, who never cared whether it was convenient or not, if it was two in the morning or not. If she was lonely and wanted petting, she let Chloe know. She made waves. And she got results.
Maybe Chloe needed to take a page out of her kitten’s book. But for now, she’d just focus on enjoying her day and be grateful that Wanda had said she’d look in on Sweetie while Chloe was with Steve. At least Wanda had said that before she’d taken off on Patrick’s Harley. Steve had said Wanda was back home now, and she was a very reliable person. If she said she’d look in on Sweetie, she would.
Steve was also reliable. As he’d told her earlier, he did seem to mean what he said. She was tempted to tell him how sweet that was, just for the pleasure of pushing his buttons the way he so often pushed hers. She’d never realized how much fun could be had from teasing someone.
After leaving the restaurant, they walked along Galena’s Main Street, a charming historic-preservation area where the nineteenth-century brick buildings created a uniformity, making it feel as if they’d stepped back in time.
When Chloe paused to look at one of the shop windows, Steve said, “Did you want to go in?”
“Do you mind?”
“No. I’m not one of those guys who’s afraid of a little shopping. It takes more than that to scare me.”
“Great!”
He may have spoken too soon. They went from there to a bookstore to an antique store to a linen store. That last one got him thinking how Chloe would look in any of the various beds on display. One was all girlie with flowers and ruffles, while another was black-and-white minimal. Steve liked minimal, especially if it applied to Chloe’s night wear.
“Pretty impressive, huh?”
Steve nodded, having just caught sight of a red negligee tossed across the black satin sheets on the bed.
“They say that a bedroom should be your sanctuary, the place where you can rest and be at peace.”
He would neither rest nor be at peace if Chloe were wearing that negligee, on those black satin sheets. He had to look away before he made an idiot of himself.
And he had to say something. What had she just said? Something about a sanctuary? “A rack is just a place to grab some shut-eye.”
