Here to Stay
Page 41
Chase pushed to his feet, drawn toward the creek by the sounds of laughter. With one hand pressed over his side, he moved slowly through the sun-dappled woods. Taking care where he placed his booted feet, he finally reached the river rock that bordered Shallows Creek.
Heading toward the voices, Chase rounded a bend in the stream. Expecting to see his tawny-haired sister, he was surprised to see a petite blonde instead. If she was from Wolf’s Landing, Chase had never met her. She was as pretty as a picture, not the kind a man with eyes was likely to forget. He leaned a shoulder against an oak, happy to stay hidden so he could enjoy the view.
Stripped down to her camisole and bloomers, the young woman was cavorting in the water with Chase’s four-year-old nephew, Hunter. The drenched muslin of her undergarments was nearly transparent with wetness and clung to her body like the skin on an onion. The rosy nipples of her small breasts were taut with cold and thrust against the cloth in impertinent little peaks.
Content to stay right where he was, Chase lowered himself carefully to the ground and draped his arms over his bent knees. On a hot day like today, it’d be downright unchivalrous to show himself and spoil her swim. He was nothing if not thoughtful.
Apparently she was in competition with his nephew to catch salamanders, commonly known in these parts as water dogs.
Whoever she was, she looked like an angel. A shaft of sunlight ignited her golden hair, turning it to a halo around the crown of her head. She had petal-white skin, as flawless as ivory in contrast to his Indian darkness.
His gaze dropped to her waist and lower as she slogged through the shallows and pounced to catch a water dog. With little-boy enthusiasm, Hunter dived to reach their quarry before she did and sent up a spray. She shrieked and staggered, laughing as she rubbed the water from her eyes.
“Dibs!” Hunter cried.
“My foot! I saw it first!”
Hunter shot triumphantly to his feet, his small brown hands curled into tight fists around his slippery catch. “I’m up to—” He broke off and frowned. “How many do I got?”
“Three,” she said with an impish giggle.
“No, sir! You’re cheatin’!”
“Pay attention to your ma during lessons so you learn to count, and I won’t be able to cheat.”
Holding the water dog threateningly aloft, Hunter lunged at her. With another shriek, she sloshed through the water to get away from him, her laughter chiming like crystal. “Don’t you dare, you little rascal! You stick that thing in my drawers, and I’ll drown you!”
“Hunter Chase Rand!” Indigo called from somewhere out of Chase’s sight. “You drop that water dog down her bloomers, and I’ll tell your pa. You mind your manners.”
Unintimidated, Hunter made a grab. The blonde clutched the waist of her underwear and fled a bit farther to get safely beyond his reach. She had a perfect little ass with plump cheeks that jiggled just enough to kindle a man’s imagination and make him wonder how soft she’d feel pressed against him.
Too late, Chase began to wonder if sitting here was such a champion idea. It had been a spell since he’d had a woman, and suddenly his jeans felt about a half-size too small at the inseam.
With the short attention span typical of a four-year-old, Hunter spotted another water dog and went chasing upstream after it. The angel with the turned-up nose went unnaturally still. Chase dragged his gaze upward from her breasts and found himself staring into the biggest, most startled-looking green eyes he’d ever seen.
She gasped and cupped her hands over her breasts. The next instant, she knelt in the water to hide her nether regions. Chase stared, unable to think of anything to say.
He settled for, “It sure is a hot one, isn’t it?”
She jerked at the sound of his voice, and her small face flushed.
“Chase Kelly? Is that you?”
Indigo stepped out from behind a stand of brush, her sleeping daughter, Amelia Rose, cradled in her arms. Her big blue eyes flashed with silver fire.
“Chase Kelly Wolf, for shame! What’re you doing, hiding up there? Spying on us? Didn’t Ma ever teach you any manners?”
“I was bored,” he admitted. “When I heard y’all down here, I didn’t figure you’d mind if I joined you.”
“Which we wouldn’t. If you had joined us.” Indigo came striding up the bank, her graceful legs flexing under her bloomers. She handed Chase his sleeping niece. “Make yourself useful while I find Franny’s clothes.” As she scampered back down the bank, she cried, “For shame, for shame. I beg his pardon, Franny. To say he’s an ape-brain would be a compliment.”
An ape-brain? Leave it to a sister to keep a man humble. It had been a while since anyone had dared to call Chase names.
“Hi, Uncle Chase!” Hunter came slogging from the water, his skinny little body glistening like wet bronze in the sunshine. “You wanna catch water dogs?”
Chase looked over the child’s bobbing head to see Franny, the green-eyed angel, trying to wade from the creek without showing off any of her charms. “I’m too stoved up with these ribs for water dog chasing, Hunter. Maybe another time.”
Keeping his gaze politely averted from the women, Chase watched Hunter return to the creek. Within seconds, the boy recovered from his disappointment and dove for another water dog. When Chase chanced another look in the women’s direction, Franny stood on the bank wearing a white choker-collared, long-sleeved blouse and a blue flared skirt, both of which clung to her wet body.
“Franny, I’d like you to meet my brother, Chase Kelly Wolf,” Indigo said sharply. “As I’m sure you recall, I told you the other day that he was home recuperating from a logging accident.”
“Pleased to meet you, Franny.” He thought “Fanny” would suit her better. “I apologize for interrupting your swim.”
Her face flooded with color again. “That’s quite all right,” she said in so low a voice he had difficulty catching the words. She swatted at her skirt and avoided his gaze. “Well, Indigo, I think I’ll be getting along.”
With that, she nodded in Chase’s direction, still not looking at him. Then she jerked on a bonnet with wide ruching that concealed her face. Even shadowed by the bonnet ruching, those eyes of hers packed a wallop. Chase gave her a lazy smile. “No need to hurry off, Franny.”
The tip of her turned-up nose pulsed scarlet. “I really must.”
Her eyes met his, and for an instant, Chase felt as if he had once again been sandwiched between two logs. Talk about pretty—this young woman gave a whole new definition to the word.
Not wishing to startle her, he tempered his voice and said, “I hope you’ll come again, Franny. Maybe next time you’ll stop by the house afterward and have some of Ma’s lemonade. It’s the best in Wolf’s Landing.”
For a moment, she froze there and stared at him, for all the world as if she couldn’t credit her ears. Then her face flushed crimson again. Without a word, she swept on by and disappeared into the trees, never looking back.
“That wasn’t very nice,” Indigo said in a quavery voice. “How could you, Chase? I didn’t think you had it in you to be so mean.”
Chase’s bemused smile disappeared and he turned to regard his sister, who stood near the water, hands on her hips, her tawny head tipped angrily to one side.
“It was mean to invite her for lemonade?”
“You know very well she’d never impose on Ma. Not to say Ma wouldn’t welcome her, and our father, too. But Franny’s too sweet to put them on the spot that way. You know how all the holier-than-thou people in this town are. Tongues’d buzz for a week if a woman of Franny’s occupation was to call on anybody.”
Chase digested that. “Did I miss something? The way you talk, you’d think she was the local whore.”
Indigo’s eyes went wide. “Surely you can think of a politer word than that, and it isn’t funny, you acting as if you don’t know. I swear, working with those rough-talking loggers has ruined you for respectable company.”
; A vision of Franny’s sweet face swept through Chase’s head. With those gigantic, innocent eyes of hers, she couldn’t be a—No, it was impossible.
“Indigo, are you trying to tell me Franny’s a whore?”
She made a frustrated sound. “Don’t call her that, I said. What she is is my best friend, and I won’t have you saying mean things about her. If you’ve got to call her something, call her an unfortunate.”
Chase stared at his sister. She was dead serious. He shot a glance up the bank at the spot where Franny, the angel, had disappeared. Then he looked back at his sister, still unable to believe what he was hearing.
Franny, the blushing, green-eyed angel, was a prostitute?
OTHER NOVELS BY CATHERINE ANDERSON
The Comanche Series
Comanche Moon
Comanche Heart
Indigo Blue
Harrigan Family Novels
Morning Light
Star Bright
Here to Stay
Coulter Family Contemporary Novels
Phantom Waltz
Sweet Nothings
Blue Skies
Bright Eyes
My Sunshine
Sun Kissed
Coulter Family Historical Novels
Summer Breeze
Early Dawn
Other Signet Books
Always in My Heart
Only by Your Touch
Sun Kissed Bonus Book
Table of Contents
Praise
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Epilogue
Special Note to My Readers
Teaser chapter