by Sharon Swan
Dev tried not to dwell on the notion that she might prefer he didn’t come home before midnight. “Well, whenever we eat, Caleb won’t complain if carrots aren’t on the menu,” he said, referring to the fact that the five-year-old had expressed clear misgivings about anything in the vegetable department when they’d all sat down for their first dinner together that evening.
She lifted a brow. “He ate them, though, didn’t he?”
He ran his tongue around his teeth. “That’s because you can be a tough big sister when you need to be.”
“Hmm. After you left, Patrick wasn’t too thrilled, either, to learn that I expected him to take a bath every night and do a good job of washing behind his ears.”
That had him grinning. “Sorry I missed the show. They sure were all smiling up a storm when Mabel brought over more brownies for dessert.”
“All except Liza,” she reminded him with a fleeting frown.
“True enough.” Although the oldest Bradley kid had been quietly polite, even the grandmotherly Mabel hadn’t been able to win herself more than the slightest of smiles from the girl.
“I’ve been doing my best not to worry about her,” Amanda said with a short sigh.
“No reason you should yet,” he replied. “Now, I’m going to get myself a beer. You want something?”
She shook her head. “No thanks.”
“Okay. Be right back.”
Amanda stared after him as he left the room, thinking that she could hardly head upstairs before he returned. Not that she didn’t want to, but she simply couldn’t be that rude, even if she’d never expected him to start coming home earlier. Certainly if she’d had any inkling, she wouldn’t be sitting down here dressed for bed. While her robe covered her decently enough, she supposed, somehow that was little comfort.
Well, you’ll just have to be sociable for a while, she told herself.
With that in mind, she set the mystery she’d been reading down on the end table next to the sofa and listened to another soulful ballad. It wasn’t the best choice of music, she realized. Somehow it made the setting seem…intimate. And anything intimate was something she could have done without at the moment.
By the time Dev returned, he’d rolled up his shirt-sleeves to reveal strong forearms dotted with small swirls of crisp hair—another sight she could have done without, since it only emphasized the differences between them. Male. Female. Man. Woman. Not good.
“Feel free to turn on the television,” she said.
“Actually, the music’s not bad.”
He walked over to the fireplace and set his bottle down on the mantel. It didn’t take him long to have flames leaping to cast a soft glow over the room. That project completed, he settled into a tan leather recliner and took a long swallow of his beer.
“Maybe it will be easier for Liza to cope with all the changes once I get her started at Jester Public School tomorrow,” she offered by way of conversation. “At least it will give her the chance to make friends with some second-graders in her age group.”
“That could be a plus,” he agreed. “Caleb’s old enough to go to kindergarten, too, right?”
“Yes. After you went back to the Heartbreaker tonight, Mabel and I came up with a plan. Once breakfast is over and she gets here in the mornings, I’ll walk Liza and Caleb to school before I open the Ex-Libris. Mabel will fix lunch for Patrick and Betsy and take them with her to pick up Caleb and Liza in the afternoons, then she’ll head home when I get back.”
He dipped his head in a nod. “Sounds like it’ll work.”
“Then I’ll have plenty of time to make dinner. Will it be okay with you if we eat around six o’clock most days? I’d like to get the children on a regular schedule.”
“No problem,” he assured her. “I’ll be here.”
“And Sundays, when both our businesses are closed, would be the perfect time for you to make something on the grill.”
One corner of his mouth slid up. “Didn’t forget about that, did you?”
“Not on your life. I’d say we could go out to eat, too, but nothing much in Jester is open on Sundays and I’d rather not take the children back to Pine Run right now.”
“Too many memories,” he summed up.
“Yes.”
“Okay, I’ll step up to the plate and burn something on the grill.”
Amanda crossed one leg over the other. After making sure her robe was firmly closed, she swung a foot clad in a matching satin slipper. “You’re being good about this. And I have to say thank you.” She could hardly say anything else, she recognized. Heaven only knew where her sisters and brothers would be at this moment if it weren’t for Dev Devlin. Certainly they wouldn’t be safely sleeping in their beds upstairs.
“No thanks necessary,” he told her. “Although,” he added as his eyes met hers across the room, “there is something, ah, in particular you could do for me…provided you’re so inclined.”
Something she could do for him? Amanda brought her foot to a quick halt. Vivid visions of two tangled bodies danced in her head for a second before she wiped them out. If that’s what he had in mind, she was by no means so inclined. Or at least most of her wasn’t. If she wanted to be strictly honest with herself, she had to concede to feeling the pull of this man’s gaze as it remained locked on her.
“And what would that be?” she asked at last in a cautious tone.
“You could classy up the Heartbreaker.”
Amanda blinked. Whatever she’d been expecting, it certainly wasn’t that. “What do you mean by ‘classy up’?”
He shrugged. “Make it a place that might hold more appeal to a wider range of customers, I guess. I’ve been tinkering with the idea of sprucing up the saloon for a while, and now that I’ve moved out of the room behind the bar, I thought that maybe I could set it up as a spot to fix enough food so I could serve a few things along with the usual drinks.”
She mulled that over for a moment. “I imagine, if you’re serious about this, you could section off a separate dining area from the main room where people could eat.”
“Yeah, that was my take on it, too. But I’m a long way from certain on how to make the whole thing look good. And since you did such a bang-up job here…”
Her eyes narrowed as he left that sentence hanging. “Now that you mention it, I’m not really sure how I wound up doing anything.”
He lifted a shoulder in another shrug, suddenly looking a little too pleased with himself. “However it happened, you can’t argue with success. All I’m asking is that you take a look at the bar and offer some suggestions.”
Why did she have the feeling that if she agreed, she’d be up to her ears in another decorating project? Then again, how could she turn him down when he’d already done so much for her and her family?
“All right,” she said, “I’ll take a look at it.”
And that was her cue to leave, she thought, before she found herself agreeing to do who knows what. She retrieved her book and rose to her feet. “I’m heading upstairs.”
Then, because something told her that her reluctant concession had him even more pleased with himself, she added, “By the way, I don’t think your feline friend will be sharing your room tonight.”
That statement put a puzzled frown on his forehead. “What you do mean?”
She couldn’t help but be glad she’d thrown him off balance, at least a bit. “Rufus and Liza took a liking to each other when he finally ventured out for another look at the children. In fact, he followed her right into her room when the kids retired for the night and curled up at the foot of her bed.”
Dev shook his head. “Deserted by a cat for a pretty face.” He put his bottle down and got up to poke at the fire, sending banked flames leaping again. “And now I have to sleep alone.”
“It won’t hurt you,” Amanda informed him, beginning to enjoy herself.
“Humph.”
“You sound like a boy who lost his favorite toy and needs a kiss to ma
ke it all better.” The words were out before she realized how they could be taken. And how he indeed took them, she saw by the way he gradually straightened to his full height and looked at her.
“You may be on to something there,” he murmured after a long moment. He hesitated for another second, then started toward her with measured steps.
“I was only joking,” she hastened to assure him.
But he kept coming, and her pride wouldn’t let her step back. She’d stood up to him too many times to turn and take off like a startled rabbit now. So she remained where she was, even when he closed the final gap, until there was nothing between them but the book she held clasped to her breasts. They both knew what was about to happen. She saw it in his eyes, those blue eyes that had taken on a determined gleam.
“This is a bad idea,” she managed to get out as he lowered his head.
“Probably,” he agreed.
Then he was kissing her, slowly and thoroughly, and before long she was kissing him back. Not good…not good. The words repeated in her mind even as other parts of her, suddenly needy parts of her, rose to silence them. How can anything that feels so good not be good? they asked. Caught between reason on one side and need on the other, she let need have its way.
But not for long, she promised herself as large hands—her husband’s hands—caught her around the hips and gently pressed her closer, then closer still, until their lower bodies were all but fused together, reminding her in no uncertain terms of another vital difference between them. And all the while they kept on kissing each other as though there were no tomorrow, or yesterday. No future to concern them, and no past to rehash. Only now.
Only pleasure to take, and give. Only soft moans to join with low groans as tongues met and mouths slanted for a better fit. Only him. Only her. As if no one else in the world existed…only them.
Amanda wasn’t sure who ended it first. One second their lips were locked, and the next they were standing stock-still and staring while their breaths came fast and hard. In the background, Rod Stewart sang about tonight being the night in his throaty voice, but she didn’t believe that for a minute. Making tonight the night would be beyond foolish, she knew, now that her more practical parts were reasserting themselves.
The man still clutching her to him might have seen that in her gaze. Either that or he was speaking for himself when he released her and said in his own suddenly husky voice, “You’re right, it was a bad idea.”
Amanda swallowed, sure she could hear her heart continuing to hammer in her chest. “Yes, well, I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” she said in as calm a tone as she could muster. And with that, she finally whirled around and left the room.
It was Dev’s turn to look after her as she departed. And to think about how her gently curved hips, covered only by a length of silky fabric, had felt under his rough-skinned palms. He was going to have one hell of a time forgetting it, he knew.
And he had to forget it. He’d never get a wink of sleep if he didn’t. Before he’d seen that silent no forming in her eyes, forces below his belt had almost had him pulling her down to the rug where he could take things to their natural conclusion. Right now, his hormones were still so riled up, they were bound to take a while to settle down. Even a cold shower wouldn’t do the trick, he more than suspected.
Blowing out a gust of air, he sprawled on the recliner and picked up his bottle for another long swallow. Get a grip, Devlin, he ordered himself as the cold liquid flowed down his too-tight throat. There was no point in thinking about what would have happened—what would be happening right this minute—if she’d said yes. No point at all.
And for all his current frustration, he reflected, he now had the answer to something he’d been wondering about since not long after he’d been pronounced a husband. That earlier kiss in the judge’s chambers had been no accident. For a second time, after just one taste he’d been ready to gobble her up. For a second time, her soft-skinned mouth had proved to pack a potent punch. And maybe this time, it wasn’t just basic hormones in action, either.
Hell, why deny it? He was actually getting to like Amanda Bradley Devlin.
Watching her with the kids was at least a part of it, he had to figure. After just one day, he had little doubt that she’d succeed in the role of substitute mother. She’d obviously taken to it like a duck to water.
He also had few doubts about the fact that she didn’t see him as a substitute father. That seemed plain enough by the way she’d joined forces with Mabel to put together a schedule that left him by and large free of day-to-day responsibility for the kids. According to her, he’d didn’t have to change his own schedule a bit.
So why had he decided to make some changes at the Heartbreaker in order to give himself more options? He didn’t have to hire another bartender, but he had…because, dammit, he did want to come home sooner now that he had what he’d never had before—a place he could look forward to coming home to.
Dev lifted a hand and raked it through his hair. All right, so he didn’t know much about being a parent—a good one, at any rate. Certainly Jed and Gloria Devlin had never provided a prime example of parenthood for him or his brother, Jed Jr., to follow. No one who’d been around in Jester while they were growing up would probably argue on that score.
“Cripes, it was just the opposite,” he muttered to himself, remembering times when the young boy he’d been had wished he was anywhere but where he was, stuck with two people who didn’t even seem to care a great deal about themselves, considering the way they were actually content to live in a ramshackle place, much less about their kids.
But, for all the things he’d never learned about being a father, a real father, Dev knew down deep in his gut that his determination to keep the four children now sleeping under his roof safe had only been reinforced by meeting them today.
“As long as they’re under my protection, I’ll do my best by them,” he vowed, staring into the slowly fading flames across the room.
And, though it was as clear as the cloudless skies in some of the high mountain and lush meadow scenes now decorating the walls around his house that Amanda considered herself one self-sufficient person, he’d protect his wife, too.
That last thought had a smile tugging at his lips despite the fact that his body was still churned up enough to practically guarantee him some tossing and turning. Lord knows, the woman he’d married could be stubborn. But so could he.
If she needed any help from him, he’d see she got it—whether she liked it or not.
Chapter Seven
Amanda woke up to the sound of a small voice babbling a string of words, most of which she couldn’t make out. Maybe because sleep had eluded her much too long the night before, she mused as she burrowed her head into the pillow. Her brain was still fuzzy.
Even so, she had little trouble recalling what had kept her awake. No, it would be far harder to forget last night’s kiss, and most especially how she’d participated to the hilt in that enthusiastic meetings of mouths. Oh, yes, she had.
She knew it. And he knew it.
There was no getting around the truth of what had happened, and it might be wildly optimistic to so much as imagine she would be able to wipe out all traces of the memory of that kiss. Still, she could only conclude that it would be wise to try to put it behind her and go on from here. As both parties had agreed, it had been a bad idea and—
“Mandeee!” With that soft shout, the small voice in the background made itself known in no uncertain terms.
It was her wake-up call, Amanda realized as her eyes popped open. Even with the emerald brocade drapes she’d chosen for the master bedroom closed, thin rays of light filtered through. A glance at the clock on the pine nightstand confirmed that dawn had already put in an appearance. A few more minutes and the alarm would have gone off.
Amanda stifled a yawn as she got up, sending the hem of her long satin nightgown tumbling to her ankles. She shrugged into the matching robe, belted it, and
walked across the room to open the side door she’d left partly ajar in order to keep an ear out for Betsy. It wouldn’t have come as much of a surprise if the little girl had had problems sleeping in a new environment. As it had turned out, though, Betsy had enjoyed a far more restful night than her big sister.
“Mandeee!” Betsy called again from where she stood at the side of her crib, her tiny eyes widening at the sight of Amanda. “Up!”
“Good morning to you, too.” Amanda found herself smiling despite the lack of sleep. She did as the little girl had commanded and hoisted Betsy into her arms. Nuzzling her nose in a riot of blond curls, she carried her burden over to the padded-top dresser. “Let’s deal with your diaper, honey. Then we’ll get some breakfast.”
Betsy smacked her little lips.
“Okay, I get the message. You’re hungry.”
Fortunately Mabel, with thousands of diaper changes behind her, had offered to demonstrate how to get the job done with minimum trouble. Amanda had fumbled a bit on her first few tries the day before, but this morning all went well, and the row of snaps on the legs of Betsy’s stretchy pink pajamas were soon refastened.
“A thousand more diapers and I may be as quick as Mabel,” Amanda told her companion. “Want to take a toy with you downstairs?” Goodness knows, she thought, there were plenty to choose from.
“Ted-bear,” Betsy decided with a grin that seemed to come naturally to her sunny nature.
And so, after poking her head into three doors as she made her way down the hall to tell the other children that breakfast would soon be served, Amanda headed down to the kitchen carrying both Betsy and a fluffy brown teddy bear with beady dark eyes and a red felt tongue.
She’d learned at dinner the evening before that Betsy did a fairly good job of eating on her own, and by the time the rest of the pajama-clad children trooped in and took their places at the table, the littlest Bradley was perched in a snowy white high chair, making inroads on a bowl of warm cereal. Her small spoon held in one fist, she managed not to drop too much of her breakfast on its journey from bowl to mouth while the bear wedged in beside her looked on.
