“It’s love,” Ashley said, her own gaze still on the doorway through which her husband had disappeared. “I recognize the symptoms.”
“Could you forget Dillon for just a minute?” Sara said impatiently. “Dani needs us.” She looked at Dani. “You do need us, don’t you?”
“Though it pains me greatly to admit it, I do,” Dani confirmed. “I need you to tell me how to convince a man that he can’t live without me.”
They didn’t seem especially surprised by the request.
“Slade, I presume,” Sara said.
“Who else? Have you seen any other candidates around town?” Ashley commented. “So, where do things stand between the two of you now?”
Dani described exactly what had transpired the night before. Actually, she stuck pretty much to the conversation she and Slade had had. There was no point in telling her sisters that it had followed a seduction that had finally, at long last, ended what she’d been convinced was the longest virginity on record. If they knew about that, they’d chase Slade down with a shotgun and the whole marriage thing would be out of her hands. She wanted him, but on her own terms.
Instead of solid, reliable advice, though, her description of her dilemma drew hoots of laughter. She regarded the pair of them with indignation.
“A fine lot of help you are,” she muttered.
“But, Dani, you can’t be serious,” Sara protested. “You can’t mean to just walk up to a man you’ve barely met and propose.”
“That would be so–” Ashley began.
Dani cut her off. She didn’t need a lecture. She needed help.
“Weren’t either of you listening? I’ve already done that. It’s a fait accompli,” she reminded them. “All I want from the two of you is advice on how to get him to accept.”
“You’ve asked Slade Watkins to marry you,” Ashley said, her expression incredulous.
“Isn’t that what I just said?” Dani snapped impatiently.
“A man you barely know,” Ashley said, echoing Sara.
“I’ve known him for weeks now,” Dani protested.
Sara looked equally as dazed as her younger sister. “I don’t believe this.”
“I have,” Dani replied with a defiant lift of her chin. “Now, would you tell me why that’s one bit different from anything you two would do under the same circumstances?” She scowled at Sara. “Weren’t you the one who suggested I just find some candidate for fatherhood and get pregnant without even bothering with a wedding? Is this any worse than that?”
“But how could you?” Sara asked, ignoring Dani’s question. “It sounds so…so desperate.”
Tears stung Dani’s eyes. They didn’t get it. She hadn’t expected this kind of reaction from her sisters, of all people. They, more than anyone, knew how important having a family of her own was to her. Turning to Ashley, who had grown quiet, she thought she detected a stirring of sympathy. With a familiar flash of temper, Ashley, too, scowled at Sara.
“And you weren’t desperate when you proposed that bull-riding contest to Jake?” she demanded of Sara. “Let’s give Dani a break here. Obviously this is important to her.” Turning back to Dani, she asked, “What did he say?”
“He said maybe,” Dani said, unable to keep just a hint of triumph out of her voice. “I need to turn that into a yes, preferably in a hurry.”
Sara looked more dismayed than ever. “You aren’t pregnant, are you?”
“Oh, good grief,” Dani muttered.
“Well, the question is not that outrageous,” Sara said defensively. “You said you wanted to get married in a hurry.”
“I’m thirty, for goodness sakes. It’s time, if I ever expect to have any babies of my own.”
Ashley turned a quizzical expression on Dani. “Do you love him?”
“I don’t know exactly what I feel,” she admitted, keeping to herself the tingly way she felt in his presence, the warmth that spread through her when she so much as thought of Slade or his boys. Those feelings deepened with each moment she spent in their presence. Was that love? Or just the start of it?
Then, of course, there was the magical way she felt in his arms. For now, though, that was private. It was going to stay that way, if she had anything to say about it. Based on Ashley’s and Sara’s initial reactions to what she had told them, some secrets were definitely better kept even from a woman’s closest confidantes.
“Then why would you do this, if not for love?” Ashley asked reasonably. “I don’t get it. Thirty is not that old. You can have babies for ages yet. You can adopt more. You can fill the whole house with babies, if that’s what really matters here.”
“Whether she’ll admit it or not, she wants a husband, too, and she’s doing it because she’s convinced Slade is her last chance,” Sara commented. “I told you she’s desperate.”
Dani was beginning to regret opening up this entire can of worms. She also bitterly resented being labeled as desperate. She viewed her actions in a far more positive light.
“I’m just going after my dream,” she snapped. “Both of you should know all about that. I didn’t make fun of you when you fought tooth and nail to get the ranch, Sara.”
“No, you didn’t laugh. But you sure as heck tried to talk me out of that bronc-riding contest.”
“Because you could have been killed,” Dani explained for the millionth time. “This is different.” She frowned at Ashley. “I supported you when you wanted to run off to New York to become a model.”
Ashley sighed. “That’s true.”
“You say you tried to stop me from being hurt, but you could be hurt, too,” Sara protested.
“It’s not the same,” Dani argued. “The only thing I’m likely to bruise is my pride, and even that won’t happen if you two will stop making judgments and just help me.”
Whatever her own misgivings, Ashley shot a quelling look at Sara. “I say we do it, right, Sara?”
Though her expression was still as skeptical as ever, Sara nodded slowly. “Well, of course,” she said. “I never said I wouldn’t help. I just said the whole idea is–”
“Sara!” Ashley and Dani warned together.
Sara grinned. “Okay, okay. Preposterous or not, if you want Slade Watkins, we’ll show you how to get him. The man won’t know what hit him.”
* * *
There was something different about Dani. Slade noticed it the minute he strolled into the kitchen where she was dishing up a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies for his two eager sons.
After what had happened between them Saturday night, Slade hadn’t been especially eager to stop by on Monday. In fact, he’d actually dropped the boys off first thing in the morning without so much as tooting the car’s horn by way of a friendly greeting.
He’d spent the rest of the day telling himself that he was a cowardly fool. One part of him might be totally terrified of seeing her again, but another part was as anxious as a teenager caught up in the wonder of hormonal overdrive.
He struggled with his conscience–which was screaming loudly for him to get out before somebody got hurt–and his libido, which was demanding he find out if Saturday night had been some sort of lust-driven fluke.
Ignoring her was no solution at all. She was there in his head, anyway, plaguing him with that damned marriage proposal. It was the thought of the probable hurt in those huge brown eyes if he were to suddenly change his daily pattern of visiting that eventually drew him inside.
He hadn’t known exactly what sort of reaction to expect from her. Certainly it had not been her casual, friendly greeting that was no different from the way she’d greeted him on any other occasion. She acted as if she’d never uttered that impetuous, potentially life-altering proposition.
But there was something different about her. He could feel it, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He checked out the obvious–her hairstyle, her makeup, her clothes–and still couldn’t account for it. He looked for more subtle changes in mood or attitude, but thos
e eluded him, as well. Obviously he wasn’t nearly as perceptive as he’d wanted to credit himself with being.
He perched on a kitchen chair, distractedly accepted the warm cookie she offered, and prepared to conduct a more thorough survey.
“Dad, why are you staring at Dani?” Kevin asked. “Staring’s not polite.”
It wasn’t getting him the answers he wanted, either, Slade decided ruefully. He shot a look at his son and wondered what perversity caused Kevin to recall such admonitions only when he could use them to embarrass his father.
“No, it is not polite,” he conceded. “I’m glad you remember that.”
“So, why are you?” Kevin persisted.
Slade glanced at Dani and noticed that she, too, seemed fascinated with Kevin’s query or, more likely, with his yet-to-be-spoken reply. He could see he wasn’t likely to wriggle off the hook on this one.
“Okay, here’s the truth,” he said. “When I walked in, it seemed to me there was something different about Dani. I couldn’t put my finger on it.”
He deliberately winked at her, throwing her composure into a bit of a tailspin. It was no fair that he was the only one feeling so totally off-kilter here. She blushed prettily.
Satisfied, he added, “Now, you can’t very well compliment a lady without being specific, can you? She’ll think you’re just trying to flatter her.”
With the color still high in her cheeks, she grinned. “Let me see if I get this. Compliments are good. Flattery is bad. Is that your code?”
He nodded. “Pretty much.”
Timmy had taken in the conversation thus far in silence, but now he shook his head in disgust. “Grown-ups,” he muttered. He grabbed a fistful of cookies and headed for the back door. “Come on, Kevin. Let’s go play.”
“Can we, Dad? We aren’t going to leave right away, are we?”
Slade couldn’t have left now if he’d wanted to. He was too intrigued with what had gone on here since he’d left late Saturday night.
“Don’t go far,” he warned the boys. “And come when I call you.”
“We will,” Timmy promised. “Let’s go, squirt.”
When the boys were gone, Slade linked his hands behind his head and tilted his chair back on two legs, prepared to do another, even more thorough survey. Dani allowed the scrutiny without comment.
Thoroughly disgruntled that he couldn’t put his finger on the change, he finally demanded, “So, what is it? Your hair?”
“Same as always,” she replied, fluffing out the soft, chin-length curls.
“New makeup?”
“Same old blush and lipstick.”
“New blouse?”
Amusement danced in her eyes. “Nope. Had it for years.”
“You aren’t going to help me out here, are you?”
“Afraid not.”
Slade gathered that was her last word on the subject. It didn’t stop him, though, from spending the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening studying her intently. If his thorough survey disconcerted her in the slightest, she never let on.
Nor did she try to rush him out the door or beg him to stay. She seemed perfectly content to let him make his own choices. In fact, she just went about her merry business, chopping and stirring and tasting some savory-smelling concoction until he was ready to go crazy.
He told himself that it was the aroma of the dinner she was preparing that had him hinting around for an invitation to stay, but the truth was far more complicated than that. He didn’t like not being able to figure out the solution to any puzzle. Until he understood what had changed with Dani, it would torment him.
Another couple of hours and a good dinner and he was sure he’d be able to pinpoint the difference. She looked confident, but then she always did. She looked at home, but this kitchen was her territory. It was where she made culinary magic every day.
He watched her hands as she briskly kneaded dough for biscuits, then cut them out with deft precision and put them into the oven.
“That’s a lot of biscuits for just one person,” he observed.
She smiled. “I assumed you and the boys were staying. Was I wrong?”
Slade sighed. “We’re staying.”
“You don’t have to look so enthusiastic about it. If you’d rather go home and pop a couple of frozen dinners in the oven, I won’t be offended.”
“Nothing much offends you, does it?” he inquired, not entirely sure why he found that so blasted annoying.
“Sure,” she said at once. “Cruelty, for one thing. Not being thankful for the blessings we’ve been given. Actually, the list goes on and on.”
“You know what I meant.”
“Oh, you were referring to the sort of things you do?” she said blithely. “Such as staring.”
“For starters.”
“I can’t imagine any woman who’d mind having you take so much interest in them.”
“What about the fact that I haven’t so much as mentioned what went on here Saturday night?”
He thought he detected a certain tension in her shoulders, but she faced him squarely.
“Oh?” she said, looking innocent. “Did you want to dissect it? I’d heard most men preferred not to talk things like that to death.”
“And most women do not propose marriage the first time they hop into the sack with a man,” he snapped right back. “You are not most women and I am not most men. What the hell is going on with you?”
She ignored his testiness and offered up that same exasperating, knowing smile. “Not a thing,” she assured him. “Cross my heart.”
“Dani, this isn’t natural,” Slade protested, feeling thoroughly out of his depth. “You can’t just throw an important question like that onto the table and then act as if nothing happened.”
“Sure I can,” she said blithely. “You said your answer was maybe, and I accepted that. You’ll tell me when you’ve decided one way or the other. Or would you prefer that I nag you to death until you give me a yes or no?”
He stared at her in disbelief. “So until then you’ll just let things go on as they were before?”
“Do I have a choice? Will you make your decision any more quickly if I pester you about it?”
“No.”
“Well, then, there’s no point in my trying, is there?” she asked reasonably.
Slade wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her complacent little body until her head rattled. He settled for hauling her into his arms and delivering a bruising kiss that snagged their breath and left them both weak-kneed and trembling. It might not have answered any of the questions he’d been asking, but it did clarify one thing. The attraction that had swept them both away on Saturday was as powerful as ever.
“Oh, my,” she murmured, still clinging to his shoulders, her eyes a little dazed.
At least she wasn’t looking so damned complacent anymore, he decided with satisfaction.
Unfortunately, the only thing that kiss had done for him was to stir his hormones into a frenzy. He wanted her with a ferocity that scared the daylights out of him. No woman had ever mixed him up so badly. No woman had ever tempted him beyond endurance.
And no woman had ever walked out of his arms and calmly checked on a tray of biscuits as if nothing of consequence had just gone on.
Pride or desperation or just plain desire kicked in and had him reaching for her again. This time the heat in the kitchen had nothing at all to do with the oven and everything to do with the way their bodies melted together to create a steamy union that might have gotten totally, thoroughly out of control had it not been for the thunder of two pairs of sneakers pounding onto the back porch. Slade wasn’t quite quick enough to release Dani.
“Oh, jeez,” Timmy muttered, skidding to a halt just inside the screen door. “That is absolutely gross.”
“What?” Kevin demanded from behind him. “I can’t see.”
Slade touched a finger to Dani’s kiss-swollen lips and smiled. Whatever was different about
Dani no longer seemed quite so important. One thing was clearly the same. She wanted him just as desperately as he wanted her.
Unfortunately, at the moment there wasn’t a darned thing either one of them could do about it.
“Are you going to kiss her again?” Timmy demanded. “If you are, I’m going back outside.”
“Dad kissed Dani?” Kevin whispered. “Wow!”
Wow, indeed, Slade thought, but said only, “You might as well stay. Dinner is almost ready.”
“We’re staying? All right!” Kevin said enthusiastically.
“Wash your hands,” Dani told the boys.
Kevin ran off at once, but to Slade’s astonishment, Timmy just glared at her. “You’re not our mother. You can’t tell us what to do,” he practically shouted, then tore back outside. Pirate chased after him, barking furiously.
Dani stared after him, frozen. She looked so hurt that Slade could have paddled his son on the spot.
“Go and find him,” she whispered. “He needs you.”
“So do you,” Slade told her. “What he said was rude and cruel. He didn’t really mean it.”
“Yes,” she said softly. “I think he did. And it’s understandable, too. I’m not his mother.”
“That’s not the point,” Slade argued.
“To him it is. Please, Slade. Go talk to him. He’s hurting.”
Only because he sensed that she would run after Timmy herself and risk more hurt, he left her and went in search of his son. He found him halfway home, plodding along as if he felt totally and completely alone. Pirate was right at his heels, head hanging dejectedly.
Fighting his own annoyance with Timmy’s behavior, Slade fell into step beside him and forced himself to try to understand what had brought on his son’s outburst.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Do you even care?”
Shocked, Slade just stared at him. “Of course I care. How could you even ask such a thing?”
“Because you’re going to ruin everything.”
Bemused, Slade tried to figure out what Timmy meant, but it eluded him. “Ruin what?”
“Dani is our friend, Kevin’s and mine. You’re going to spoil it.”
The Bridal Path: Danielle Page 11
