“I try to be,” he told her just before he kissed her again.
April felt herself sinking as his lips covered hers. Sinking dangerously far into the mouth of a volcano. Fire leaped up in her veins, its flames licking at her from all directions. Consuming her.
Pulling her in closer.
Without thinking, she found herself rising to her knees, drawn by the intensity of her desire and the passion she tasted on his lips. For an insane second she considered doing just what he’d suggested. What she knew they both wanted.
To make love with each other.
Somehow, on this bank, in this place where her father had promised his heart to her mother, it seemed like a natural progression of things.
But the promise had been false.
Her father hadn’t given her mother his heart the way he’d professed. All he had given her were promises that were eventually broken and even though there were no promises between her and Jimmy, other than the promise of an incredible interlude, April didn’t want them to make love here, where the ghosts of heartbreak haunted anything new and fresh.
It would tarnish the moment as quickly as it happened.
Hands on his forearms, she pulled her head back. The breath that she took into her lungs was shaky.
He looked at her, surprised and more than a little disoriented. He’d lost his bearings for a moment. Kissing April had set off a volley of feelings through him, like a succession of Fourth of July firecrackers all going off one after another, the sound and sparkle growing greater and greater each time. There was an urgency throbbing through him that he rarely experienced. He knew himself very well and knew that while he could walk away from some women, this was not one of them.
There was something within him that yearned to discover what it felt like to make love with her. To have her body pulsating with excitement, moving beneath his. To feel himself quickening within her and have her legs wrapped around him as the escalating throes of ecstasy took them further and further up the summit.
He studied her face for a moment, trying to understand and failing.
“Apparently I’m not as good at mind reading as I thought.”
Just for now, she wanted distance between them. Both physical and emotional. Until she could get her bearings. That they would make love almost seemed inevitable to her now. And it was something she would look forward to. But not here.
“It’s too chilly here,” she told him flippantly, retreating to her corner of the checkered tablecloth. She drained the remainder of her wine and set the glass aside. Tilting, it fell over onto its side, unnoticed by her.
But not by him. She seemed uneasy about something, but what? Not him, he was willing to bet. He was as unthreatening as they came. Leaning forward, he ran his fingertips along the back of her neck and watched with pleasure as she shivered in response.
“We can make our own fire.”
She pulled back a little more, trying not to appear as if she did so for her own safety. Right now, she didn’t trust herself around him.
“I thought you said you never did anything a lady didn’t want to do.”
He looked into her eyes and had his answer. She wanted it as much as he. And they would make love. Perhaps not now, but soon. He could wait.
“I don’t.”
She pushed the foil-wrapped piece toward him. “Chicken?”
The smile that took his lips captive was wide and reflected the amusement in his eyes. “I wouldn’t use that word.”
“I meant do you want any to eat?”
He grinned. “Sure, why not?” Putting the piece of chicken on his paper plate, he pretended that it took his complete attention. “Let’s see if Jean-Luc’s as good a cook as he thinks he is.”
“So? How did it go?” Coming into the kitchen, Alison practically pounced on her brother. She’d gone looking for him the moment she entered the house, anxious to know how the afternoon picnic had fared.
Part of her was surprised to actually find him here. Alison had half expected her lady-killer-with-a-stethoscope-brother to still be with April even though he’d left for the picnic hours ago.
He’d been back for only a short while. But long enough to acknowledge that he was hungry again. He’d started rummaging through the large walk-in refrigerator that Jean-Luc maintained when Alison walked in.
“It went,” Jimmy replied glibly, letting the refrigerator door close. “You married one hell of a good cook.”
“Yes, I know.” She turned just as Luc entered the kitchen behind her. Slipping her arms through his, she smiled up at her husband, remembering their rocky beginning, which had all been her fault. Not a day went by that she wasn’t grateful that Luc had stuck it out with her. That he hadn’t thrown up his hands in frustration and annoyance and just walked away. “I also married a kind and decent man with infinite patience.”
A smile played on Jimmy’s lips as he looked from his sister to his brother-in-law. “He’d have to be, to stay married to you.”
Luc glanced at the empty basket on the kitchen table. “Picnic go okay?” he asked.
Jimmy nodded, pretending to look at the basket himself. He and April had gone on to do a little sight-seeing at his insistence, and then she had begged off for the remainder of the afternoon, saying she had to get back to look in on her grandmother. She’d turned down his offer to come with her and do the same. Since he was a doctor, her refusal baffled him.
“Food was great.”
Luc slipped his arm around Alison’s shoulders. “That’s not quite what I asked.”
“I know.” It wasn’t like him to be cagey, not with family. Pulling up a chair, Jimmy straddled it and looked up at his sister’s husband. “Luc, how much do you know about April?”
“I grew up with her.” Luc took a chair himself. “There’s not much the people of Hades don’t know about each other, why?”
“Just curious.” He didn’t want to use the word “interested,” knowing that Alison would immediately zero in on it. Since she had gotten married, she was looking to pair all of them off, him and Kevin and Lily, believing that the married state was the only state to be in. Not realizing, he mused, that it was also the best state to garner disappointment from.
“April was like Junie, she couldn’t wait to leave Hades.”
Jimmy thought for a moment, trying to remember who Junie was. “I thought her sister loved it here.”
Luc realized his mistake. “No, not June, Junie—Juneau, Ike’s sister.”
Taking a seat beside him, Alison looked at her husband. “I didn’t know Ike has a sister.”
“Had,” Luc corrected. He thought of his cousin, so young, so eager to be on her own. It had been such a waste when she died. “She left with some guy who promised her the moon, then left her when she got pregnant. Ike’s daughter is actually his niece. He adopted her when Junie died.”
“She died?” Jimmy echoed. “How?”
“Complications after childbirth.” Luc covered Alison’s hand with his own. “That’s why it’s so important to have medical help close by. Anyway,” he interrupted his own musings, “you were asking about April. She couldn’t wait to get out of here, but I think her father had a great deal to do with that. I had the impression she went looking for him.”
Jimmy recalled their conversation and the expression on April’s face when he had asked her about that. “She says she didn’t.”
“What she says and what she might have done are two different things,” Luc pointed out. “When her father took off, her mother went completely to pieces. She had enough presence of mind to move back in with Ursula instead of where they were staying—a rundown shack—but after that, Rose Yearling was in her own little world. Stayed there until the day she died. Pined away, actually.
“I think April vacillated between hating her father and missing him. It kind of tore her up. Ursula did her best to make it up to her, but April was always the independent one. She was the oldest and closest to her father, so it’s onl
y natural that she’d take his leaving as a personal slam.” Tilting his head, he studied his brother-in-law. “Why, are you interested?”
Jimmy could almost feel Alison’s antenna go up. “What, me? No, maybe just as a doctor. She has this pain in her eyes, even when she’s laughing. Like there are two things going on at the same time.”
Rising from his chair, Jean-Luc laughed softly to himself. “You’ll find that the people of Hades are deeper than you think.”
“All except my little sister.” Rising himself, Jimmy paused to rub the top of her head the way he used to when she was small.
Alison jerked her head away. “You’d be surprised, Dr. Jimmy,” she told him, getting to her feet. “You’d be surprised.”
The two men exchanged quizzical glances as Alison walked off without saying another word.
Chapter Nine
The sign was missing from the window. The fact registered belatedly in her brain as April drove past the front of the post office sometime later. After she’d dropped Jimmy off, she’d impulsively gone on a drive to visit the house where she’d lived when things had been happier for her family.
The house, little more than a shack really, had looked so forlorn, so sad. She couldn’t make herself go in.
Served her right for thinking she could recapture a glimmer of the past.
Throwing the car into reverse rather than parking it in the garage, April slowly backed up until she was level with the post office window again. The sign was gone, all right, and there was someone inside.
She didn’t have to bother to try to make out the figure to know who it was.
“Damn it, Gran, why are you trying to turn my hair white before yours?”
Blowing out a breath, April had gotten her temper under fair control by the time she’d parked the all-terrain vehicle and walked into the post office. Framing a lecture, both about her grandmother’s impromptu “sleepover” last night and about her being down here this afternoon, April didn’t get a chance to get the first word out as she walked in.
Ursula turned away from the desk, a wide smile on her face. “So, you like this one, don’t you?”
The question halted her in her tracks and effectively turned the tables, at least for the moment. She was suddenly seventeen again, coming home from a date with some boy or other and being subjected to her grandmother’s eager questions, all underlined with the basic hope that she’d fallen in love with someone and would remain in Hades. It never happened.
April frowned, tossing her worn purse on the counter. “You make him sound like a dress or a pair of shoes.”
Ursula’s smile grew wider, recognizing the tan, suede purse as the one she’d given her years ago. “Well, I certainly wouldn’t mind wearing—”
“Gran!” Had she always been like this, or had her grandmother just gotten more spirited and lusty since April’d moved away?
Ursula patted her hair, her eyes twinkling in unabashed amusement. It was as if their roles had suddenly reversed and she was the modern granddaughter while April was the stodgy grandmother. She sincerely hoped that April wasn’t stodgy. She wanted great-grandchildren and April’s time to settle down had come.
“I’m not dead yet, darlin’.”
April’s frown deepened, even though she felt affection tugging at her heart. How could someone who was so vital ever fade from her life?
“Keep this up and you will be.” She did her best to look stern. “Speaking of which, what are you doing down here and why is the post office open again? I locked up for the day.”
“And I unlocked it. You can’t lock up the post office in the middle of the day unless it’s a national holiday or we’re at war—maybe not even then,” Ursula added. “You wanted to go out and I think that’s wonderful, but we can’t have the post office locked up like that, it’s just not right.”
She did her best to make Gran see reason, though part of her knew she was defeated even before she began. “Gran, I did all the mail, delivered what absolutely had to be delivered, sorted and processed the rest and—” She could see that her words were just washing over her grandmother’s crisp curls. She’d done her hair since waking up, April thought. She hoped that that didn’t mean that another visit from Yuri was the reason behind the sudden change in hair-style. “There is no arguing with you, is there?”
Rising from her chair, Ursula lifted her chin proudly. “Taught you well, didn’t I?”
Because her grandmother had turned away, April quickly shifted so that she was in front of the woman again. “What you taught me was not to give up—ever. Now I want you in bed, young lady.”
Ursula laughed. “Funny, that’s just what Yuri said to me last night.” Aware that her granddaughter was rolling her eyes, Ursula sighed, thrilling at the feeling that wafted through her. If anyone had asked, she would have said she felt sixteen again. And falling in love for the first time. Or possibility the second. “Oh, April, there’s nothing like it in the world.”
April pressed her lips together, not quite sure whether she should be appalled or envious. At least Gran was able to enjoy relationships without qualms or inhibitions, which was far more than she could say. “I’ll save us both some embarrassment and won’t ask you what ‘it’ is.”
“Love, darling.” Ursula sighed dramatically. “Love.”
April was happy that her grandmother was enjoying herself, she really was, but that didn’t negate the fact that she was still worried about the older woman. A great deal.
“Can’t you sigh about it upstairs while resting?”
Ursula bent to pick up the now empty mail pouch and waved a dismissive hand at the suggestion. “I’ve all of eternity to rest. I’m not content to watch life go by my window.” She fixed April with a meaningful look. “Like someone.”
She didn’t have the patience for a go-round this afternoon, April thought. It wasn’t as if this was new. “I’ve been all over the country, Gran,” she reminded the older woman. “I wouldn’t say that was exactly letting life go by.”
Feeling suddenly drained, Ursula still wasn’t about to concede the point. “You’ve been running all over the country,” she corrected her granddaughter, sitting again. “There’s a difference.”
This was all a smoke screen, April realized, to keep her from focusing on what was going on. “Gran, let me get the doctor. You look pale.”
“Of course I look pale,” Ursula said with a dismissive sniff. “You don’t let me go outside—” April’s words suddenly replayed themselves in her head. “Doctor? You mean the one you went out with today?”
She wasn’t thinking of Jimmy. It was Shayne she intended to bring back with her. Drag back if she had to. After all, he was Gran’s doctor, not Jimmy. “It was a tour, Gran, don’t make it sound as if it was a date.”
“It was a date, April, don’t make it sound as if it was nothing.”
Not about to be put off, April stooped beside her grandmother until she was on the same eye level. She took the older woman’s hand in hers, placing a finger against her pulse. She didn’t like what she was feeling. “Your pulse is racing.”
Like a queen, Ursula pulled her hand away. “I’m thinking of Yuri.”
April rose to her feet, making a decision. “Okay, enough. I’m getting the doctor.” And then she hesitated, torn. “Will you be all right if I go out and leave you alone for a few minutes?”
“I was all right while you went out for six years,” Ursula reminded her.
No, she wasn’t about to get sucked back into a discussion about that, not this time. “Sit right there,” April instructed, “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
With that, she spun on her heel and sailed out the front door. And ran right into Jimmy. The impact was so sudden and so hard, April lost her balance and probably would have fallen if he hadn’t grabbed her by her arms and pulled her up against him to steady her.
Looking up into his eyes, she felt far from steady. It took her a beat to get her orientation back and remem
ber why she was racing out of the post office in the first place. It gave him the opportunity to speak first.
“What’s the matter?”
There was concern in his voice. April didn’t think to ask him what he was doing here after she’d just seen him less than an hour ago. She could only think that she was glad he’d come.
“It’s Gran—”
His lips peeled back into a grin that was tinged with admiration. “Gave you the slip again, did she?”
“No, she’s—” Instead of taking the time to explain anything, April grabbed his hand and pulled Jimmy into the store.
“Hello, Mrs. Hatcher—” Jimmy began.
And then he got a good look at Gran. The woman looked as if she was on the verge of wilting and trying very hard to not show it. His light, bantering demeanor faded. Momentarily forgetting about April, he crossed to the older woman’s side and took her hand in his.
His voice was gentle, kind. “Tell me what you’re feeling, Mrs. Hatcher.”
Ursula tossed her head proudly. “Light-headed now that you’re looking at me with those big blue eyes of yours.”
She was a character, all right, and he could see why April would have her hands full. He wondered if right now this was all for show, to mask how she really felt. One of the indignities of aging was knowing that you needed someone else’s help to continue. It was a bitter pill for some to swallow. He sympathized, but that didn’t mean he was about to back away.
“What did you feel before you looked into my eyes?” When she didn’t answer, he prodded, “When you first decided you needed to sit down.”
Ursula did her best to shrug off the question and its implications. “My heart’s a little jumpy, but that’s nothing unusual. After beating faithfully for sixty-nine years, it does that occasionally. I just wait it out.” She leaned forward a little and lowered her voice. “And after last night—”
He could see it was an effort for her to maintain the bantering countenance. For dignity’s sake, he came to her rescue.
“See what you can do about reining in that zest for life of yours, Mrs. Hatcher.” He patted her hand gently. “You don’t want to make Yuri feel guilty, do you?”
The M.D. Meets His Match Page 10
