Twice the Trouble

by Sandra Dailey

  ****

  Alex woke on Lacey’s sofa with the sun streaming through the lace curtains. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d slept so soundly. He supposed it was due to the fresh country air. He’d get plenty of that today. There was a lot that needed to be done, good old-fashioned physical labor.

  Alex was no stranger to the gym. He worked out twice a week. Also, he ran at least four mornings a week, depending on his schedule. But it would feel good to actually work with his hands again. Fixing the front porch the week before had whetted his appetite for physical, constructive, outdoor activity. Besides that, he was tired of Jerrod’s implications that he couldn’t handle real work. It was time to show the boy what a man could do.

  As he staggered to the bathroom, he caught the aroma of fresh brewed coffee. He desperately wanted a cup of that coffee.

  Alex brushed his teeth and shaped his beard. He changed out of the running shorts and T-shirt he’d slept in. He didn’t own a pair of pajamas, but it wouldn’t do to sleep in the buff on the family’s sofa.

  He thought about Lacey. He hoped he’d have a few minutes alone with her before the kids got up. For as long as he’d known her, he’d never seen her first thing in the morning. He had a theory that you could tell the most about a woman by what she was like when she woke. A woman tended to lower her guard after a cozy night between the sheets. Would she be soft and drowsy, or coarse and grumpy? Did she wear frilly nightgowns or warm pajamas? There was a lot he wanted to learn about Lacey Carlyle, only in order to break through her barriers, of course.

  Alex was still a few feet from the kitchen door when he realized Lacey wasn’t alone and hadn’t just woken up. Dammit, it was early Saturday morning. Didn’t kids sleep in on the weekends? Despite the allure of the coffee, Alex hung back a moment to listen.

  “Are you sure everything is finished?” Lacey asked.

  “Yes, ma’am. All four legged creatures are feeling fat and happy.” Jerrod seemed to be in a better mood this morning.

  “The two legged ones should be feeling about the same.” Lacey chuckled. “You two have put away more biscuits and gravy than any two truck drivers I know.”

  “We’ve probably put in more work than most truck drivers,” Jerrod replied. “And, we still have a lot left to do. When is that lazy friend of yours going to haul his butt off the sofa?”

  “Jerrod!”

  That’s when Alex decided to make his presence known. He lightly stepped backward down the hall and began whistling as he approached the kitchen a second time. “Morning everybody! I can’t believe I didn’t hear you get up. I’m usually a light sleeper, but all this fresh country air must have really put me under. What smells so good?”

  “Mom made sausage gravy and biscuits this morning.” Jenna jumped out of her chair. “Can I make you a plate?”

  “I don’t usually eat right away, but I’d love a cup of coffee,” Alex said. “Can you make me a cup with three sugars and no cream? I need a strong jolt to get me started in the morning.”

  Lacey and Jenna looked at each other with surprise and then laughed. Jenna clued him in to the joke. “Jerrod takes his coffee the same way. At least the two of you have one thing in common.”

  “We’ll have plenty of time to compare notes,” Alex informed her. “I’ve got the whole weekend off. And, since Jerrod has a bad leg, I’m going to help him with his chores.”

  Jenna pushed her bottom lip out in a pout. “I’ll be stuck in the house all day, cleaning and doing laundry. I wish I could get some help, and then I could go outside with you guys.”

  “Sorry.” Jerrod snatched an apple and bit into it. With his mouth full, he added, “Daylight’s burning and if we helped you we wouldn’t get everything done.”

  Alex turned to Jerrod. “By the way, how’s that leg feeling?”

  “It’s a little stiff, but I’ll live. When you work on a farm, you can’t let a thing like that keep you down. We can’t afford time off, like soft desk jockeys from the city.”

  The day was harder to get through than Alex expected. It wasn’t because of the work, although the work seemed to never end. They’d painted the porch and shutters, hoed a two-acre garden, and cleaned the carburetor on a small tractor that Alex guessed was about as old as he was.

  They only took a break long enough to eat lunch. Jerrod had packed cheese sandwiches and bottled water. Alex knew the boy was trying to make him miserable, but it would take a lot more than a cheese sandwich. He also knew Jerrod wanted to keep him away from Lacey. That wasn’t working either. They could see the horse pens from everywhere they went. The pens were located between the house and barn, and in front of the garden.

  Watching her was the hard part; or rather the way Lacey distracted him. Seeing her work with her horses was a thing of beauty. She exercised each one and only saddled the boarded horses. Seeing her straddle the bare backs of the sleek powerful animals, her bottom bouncing, her skin glowing with perspiration, gave him ideas he didn’t need right then. Several times, while racing them back and forth between barrels, she’d come so close to the ground his heart nearly stopped. His stomach leapt into his throat every time she flew over an obstacle. He had to keep reminding himself that she knew what she was doing. This was her job. She didn’t need him. It was a relief when she’d finished grooming the horses and returned them to their stalls.

  ****

  Lacey had worked the horses harder than she needed to. She’d used them to pull herself away from the gravitational draw to Alex. Every time she’d looked up he’d been watching with lust filled eyes. The distraction made her work twice as hard in order to concentrate. Now that she could slow down, she felt boneless with fatigue.

  Alex and Jerrod must have worn themselves out as well. They’d fallen asleep in front of the television as soon as supper was over.

  She’d sent Jerrod to his room and Jenna followed soon after. Now she was spending the best part of a second night soothing away Alex’s nightmares.

  She wondered if this was a problem for him all the time or if it had been brought on by the past coming back to haunt him. If she wasn’t losing so much sleep caring for him, she might be having nightmares as well. No, her dreams would probably be just the opposite. They’d probably be more of the erotic variety. Alex was proving hard to resist. She just couldn’t decide why she was resisting. She knew they’d be explosive together. Maybe it was the fear of him leaving again.

  Chapter Nine

  Lacey and Alex followed the kids as far as the front porch. When an old white church bus pulled to a stop in the drive and beeped its horn, Jenna gave her mom a quick hug, and then hugged Alex as well. Jerrod didn’t say good-bye at all. He shouted to a couple of friends he saw through the windows of the bus and ran to join them.

  “I hope I didn’t keep you from attending services.” Alex returned the wave Jenna sent from her window.

  “No, I don’t usually go,” Lacey informed him. “Indian Lake society and I don’t mix well.”

  “I guess we have the house to ourselves for a while.” Alex placed his hands on Lacey’s waist and pulled her against him.

  Lacey pushed away. She didn’t look him in the eye when she spoke. “Alex, I’m not in the habit of falling into bed with men at the drop of a hat. I know we have a history, but that was a long time ago. Besides that, things have changed. I can’t see you holding me to your ridiculous agreement, now that you know I have children.”

  Alex was stunned by Lacey’s coolness. He thought he was making headway with her. Was it the kids or something else? His intentions hadn’t had anything to do with their agreement or the kids, but if that was the game she wanted to play he could be just as cool.

  “So, you’re just going to give up? Just because you’re a mother doesn’t mean you have to act like my mother. What about your farm? You’re willing to just walk away from it to save your virtue? You’ve already lost that battle. Virtue goes hand-in-hand with truth and honor. We both know you don’t have any of those
things. I should have known you wouldn’t follow through with our agreement. Hell, you even hid the fact that you have kids.”

  “Truth…honor…what would you know about either of those things? We don’t have an agreement. You’re holding the deed to my land over my head. Furthermore, my kids aren’t any of your business.”

  “If you’ll recall, this land belongs to me. I haven’t pretended things were anything but what they are. I made you an offer. When you accepted it, I thought you’d at least try to make it work. Furthermore, that acceptance put me smack in the middle of your little family and made the kids my business.”

  Alex paced to the end of the porch and back. “I don’t have a problem with a woman saying no. I’ve never forced myself on anyone. But tell me, is there any limit to your manipulation and deceit? Is that why the kid’s father took off on you? Was he smarter than me? Did he figure out he was being used?”

  “I’m not going to discuss my past with you, not when you can’t be reasonable.” Lacey crossed her arms and turned away. “I’ve already told you that I never received a single letter from you. If you don’t believe that, then you have a problem.”

  “So you don’t deny I wrote to you.” Alex felt smug satisfaction until he realized that she really may not have gotten his letters. Damn, this was complicated. “What’s happening between us, Lacey?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe I was letting a fantasy play out. I don’t have much excitement in my life anymore. Being alone with you, the reality crashed down on me and I got scared. It was a stupid thing to do and I’m sorry. Give me a little time to break it to the kids and we’ll start packing.”

  “Dammit, Lacey, I don’t want it to end like this.” Alex ran his fingers through his hair. He didn’t want to act like such a prick to her. He was playing this all wrong. He leaned against the railing to look down at a patch of Mexican heather. “I guess I let my own mind fantasize a little. I thought there might be a chance for us to put the pieces together again.”

  “You can see now how impossible that is, can’t you?” Lacey asked. “You’re not ready to be a family man. You’d always resent me for the past. I can’t live like that.”

  “Nobody said it would be easy. There is one thing you have to be honest with me about, though. I have to know about the kids…”

  Suddenly a terrible racket stole their attention. Two dogs barked excitedly as they raced back and forth between the porch steps and the east side of the barn. So far, the pigs had barely been noticeable, but now they were squealing loudly. Lacey jumped from the porch and ran toward the pigpen. Alex followed close behind.

  Two boards had been broken on the side of the pen. A huge hog’s head was pressed through the opening as he tried to escape. A smaller pig streaked across the lawn toward the garden.

  Lacey placed her back against the broken boards to try to hold the larger hog inside. “Get some wood from the pile by the porch. We have to keep the others from getting loose!”

  Alex changed direction. In less than a minute he came back with the hammer, box of nails, and two of the stronger boards he’d removed from the porch the week before. He patched the hole in record time, and then stood back to admire his handiwork.

  “My garden!” Lacey cried.

  The escaped pig was helping himself to a section of turnip greens at the edge of the garden. Alex and Lacey approached him from different directions. The pig ran toward the center of the lawn with the dogs flanking him on either side, biting at his legs. With a surge of speed, Alex caught up to the pig and threw himself down on top of it.

  “One of us has to get inside while the other lifts him over,” she said.

  Alex thought about his expensive sneakers, but Lacey was wearing strappy little sandals that left her feet exposed. He gritted his teeth as he stepped over the side of the pen.

  The pig had exhausted himself and was calmer as Lacey picked him up and hefted him into Alex’s arms. However, as soon as he realized he was being returned to his prison, the pig proceeded to buck, twist, and scream. Alex was in a fight for his life with a fifty-pound, stinking to high heaven, whirling dervish.

  Alex found himself flat on his back in black muck. One large hog snout was pressed to his neck and another to his crotch.

  Alex sat up flapping the slime from his arms and yelling for the hogs to get away. Lacey was laughing hysterically.

  “I’d give anything for a camera.” Lacey could hardly catch her breath. “I’d love for your employees and clients to see you now.” The madder Alex looked, the more she laughed. “You’re not coming into my house like that, you know.”

  She walked to the side of the barn, picked up the nozzle of a garden hose and turned it on.

  Alex fought through the spray until he could wrap his grimy arms around her in a bear hug.

  Minutes later they both lay in the grass, wet and giggling like a couple of kids. Seeing the thin cotton shirt molded against Lacey’s curves, his mind went back to when they were kids. She’d looked just like this when she’d come out of the lake: wet, wild, and breathless. His body had the same reaction it did then; raging need, blinding want. The way she gazed at him with half closed eyes, the way she ran the tip of her tongue over her bottom lip, he knew she was feeling it too.

  Alex took her breast in his hand, fuller and softer than he remembered. As he lowered his hand to the hem of her white shirt, a streak of grime left a trail. Dammit!

  ****

  Lacey waited for the shower to stop running before she started the washing machine. Alex had told her that he only had a pair of clean boxers and an undershirt left in his bag. He’d need more than that to wear before the kids returned. There’d be no stopping Jerrod from grabbing that twenty-two if he found her alone with Alex in his skivvies. Of course, Jenna would be ready to plan a wedding.

  Alex had generously let her shower first. Then she’d chosen a sundress to wear. She was feeling particularly feminine now, probably because she hadn’t had male attention in a long time.

  It had shocked her when he’d admitted that he hoped they could put the pieces of their former relationship back together. She supposed he’d said it because of her admission that she’d fantasized too. Fantasy was probably a bad choice of words, but that’s what had slipped from her lips. At least she hadn’t blurted the nature of the other fantasies she’d had during the night. After all, attention from a man wasn’t the only thing that had been missing from her life.

  Would she feel so shy of his advances if she hadn’t aged thirteen years and given birth to twins? Probably not, but the last time they’d seen each other she’d been a sweet and innocent seventeen-year-old. Now, gravity was beginning to be her enemy and there were little stretch marks on her body here and there. She still weighed the same, but it had redistributed a little. To put it simply, her size three jeans were only a memory.

  It had been so long since she’d felt his touch. His hand on her today had nearly sent her into ecstasy. And then he’d stopped so suddenly. She must not have felt like the girl he’d known before. She had certainly felt the same. No, better, stronger, more sensual, if only for a moment.

  She warmed a cup of coffee and a plate of pancakes from breakfast. They were waiting on the table when Alex came in wearing a white T-shirt and a pair of pale blue boxers. Wow! Forget blue jeans vs. business suit, this was his best look yet. Even his feet were sexy, strong and masculine, and yet smooth with nicely trimmed nails.

  “Is it okay that I’m barefoot?”

  Lacey realized she was still staring at his feet. Since when had she developed a fetish for men’s feet?

  “Oh, yes, yes they’re perfect, I mean it’s perfect…ly fine, perfectly fine.” Lacey groaned. Could she sound any more like a moron? The wide smile that spread across Alex’s face told her, no. When his eyes landed on the plate of food, they widened as well.

  “Is this for me, I hope?” Not waiting for an answer, he slid the cup and plate to the other side of the table and sa
t.

  “Is there a reason you need to put your back to the wall?” Lacey asked. “Are we expecting gangsters with machineguns? Are you wanted by the cops? Should I grab my shotgun and keep you covered?”

  “It’s just a habit.” Alex tucked his left hand under the table and picked up his fork with the right.

  Lacey watched him eat for a few minutes. She was at a loss for words. His insecurity regarding his scarred arm wasn’t necessary. Maybe it was time to point out the elephant in the room. She gathered her courage. “It must be exhausting to always hide your arm that way. Why do you bother? If people can’t accept you the way you are, to hell with them.”

  Alex froze with the last bite of his food halfway to his mouth. He sat his fork down and looked at her with narrowed eyes. Maybe she’d made a mistake.

  “Have you ever had a date leave in the middle of dinner because your sleeve drew up? Have you ever had kids whisper behind your back and the only words you could make out were gross, and monster, and Freddy Kruger?”

  A hot flush crept up her neck, not from embarrassment, but from anger. Was he accusing her of being like that? He was the one who’d cut their interlude short.

  “Women like me don’t get asked out on dates. We get plenty of other offers, but not for anything that can be done in public. And yes, people whisper behind my back, but they’re not kids. The words I can usually make out are whore, and slut. Oh, I’m sorry, was I supposed to feel sorry for you?”

  Alex was shocked. “Is that why you don’t go to church with the kids?”

  “What do you think?” she answered. “I want my kids to be able to hang out with their friends and be a part of the community without having to hear what the gossips have to say about their mother. For some reason, it’s only a problem when I’m there.”

  Alex wondered if that was true, or if that’s what the kids led her to believe. One thing he was certain of, no one would talk about her like that in his presence. He took her hand. “Those are just a few small minded old biddies. No one that matters would say something like that about you.”