He wanted to argue, but now wasn’t the time or place. But there would be a right time and place. He retreated but stopped at the bedroom door to take one more look at Evan, his son. The enormity of that relationship threatened to fell him. He felt like a different man when he thought of himself as a father. He knew, in his bones, he’d be a good one—if Grace would only let him.
Or if he took matters into his own hands.
He left the two of them alone and headed outside, but he didn’t leave. He crossed the space between Grace’s cabin and a gap in the trees that afforded a view of the main part of the ranch. This late, all he saw were the lights burning in his parents’ living room, near the corrals and over the entrance to the barn.
He parked himself atop a picnic table next to the cabin’s outdoor grill so he could think about what to do next. He could fight her for Evan, but that didn’t feel right. Plus, she’d evidently taken very good care of Evan and the boy loved his mother. Nathan wasn’t going to be the bad guy here, but he wasn’t going to just roll over, either. He still felt winning Grace over was the best plan, but he wasn’t ruling out legal options if it came to that.
Enough time passed that he wondered if Grace had gone to bed, as well. Or maybe she was simply avoiding him. But no sooner had that thought formed than he heard the front door open then close with a soft click. He didn’t speak as she approached, didn’t voice his suspicions.
“I think he’s out for the night,” Grace said as she came closer. “I haven’t seen him sleep that deeply in a long time.”
Don’t be confrontational. Play it cool.
“Long day of cowboying and dancing will do that to a guy.”
She didn’t turn toward him, but he detected her smile as she pulled herself up on the table. Not too close, but near enough that it brought back all the attraction he’d felt toward her earlier in the evening. An attraction that made the entire situation all the more confusing. If it weren’t for the little fact she’d hidden his son from him, he thought he might welcome her back into his life, see where this attraction went. Was that possible?
“I’d forgotten how quiet it can be out here,” she said.
“Yeah, still a few places in the world where you can hear your thoughts.”
She glanced toward him. “Not a fan of cities, huh?”
“They’re nice enough to visit.” When she didn’t say anything, he asked, “Do you like it?”
She nodded. “I have friends there, my business.”
“How did you get into that?”
“Interior design?”
“Yeah.” Despite everything, he found her easy to talk to. Now that he thought about it, she’d been that way in high school, too, even if she’d been shy then.
She seemed to think for a minute, maybe searching for the moment she’d made the decision. “I went into college undeclared, just glad to be there. I didn’t know what I wanted to be, hadn’t even allowed myself to think about the future beyond taking care of Evan in a long time.” She shook her head slowly. “I didn’t even really know who I was. It was actually my friend Emily, who’s my business partner now, who suggested interior design. I had this knack for decorating our dump of an apartment on next to nothing.”
“Design on a Dime?”
She shot him a look of surprise.
He shrugged. “Mom watches a lot of HGTV.”
Grace laughed. “Sure.”
“She does.”
Grace’s smile took his breath away.
“I know. She told me that on the first day.”
“So you just like to tease me?”
“It has its moments.” She shifted her attention to the slice of moon visible through the tops of the pines. “I always liked pretty things—clothes, furnishings, didn’t matter—but my parents were adamant that it was sinful to want anything that wasn’t a necessity to live. I guess somewhere along the way some part of me decided I wanted to make the world beautiful for other people.”
Before he thought about it, Nathan reached over and took her hand. He told himself that it was just part of his plan to gain her trust, so why did touching her feel so good? Grace surprised him by not pulling away.
“I’m glad you have those pretty things in your life now.” He found truth in those words. She’d had enough of the ugly side of life at the hands of her parents.
She returned the gentle pressure where their hands touched. “Thank you.”
Several moments passed in which the only sounds were a gentle breeze whistling through the pines and a motor going up the drive to the main house, his parents coming home from the music hall.
Suddenly, Grace pointed toward the sky. “Did you see that?”
He looked up but only saw the moon and a sprinkling of stars. “What?”
“A shooting star,” she said with undisguised wonder in her voice. He doubted she even realized it. How often had she seen them as a child and wished for a different life?
“Guess you better make a wish.”
“If only it were that simple.”
“Can’t hurt.” He looked up at the sky again. “What would you wish for?”
A couple of seconds ticked by, enough time that it seemed Grace had considered more than one answer before speaking. “That Evan would have a long and healthy life.”
It sounded like the wish of a loving mother, an appropriate wish, but something about it seemed off and he couldn’t figure out why.
Grace pulled her hand away from his and slid off the table. “I think the day is catching up with me, too. I need to hit the hay.”
He walked with her back to the front of the cabin, but when she turned for the front steps he reached out and grasped her hand again. An unfamiliar, jittery feeling accompanied the thought that he didn’t want the night to end.
“I had a nice time tonight,” he said when her gaze met his.
Her lips curved into a small smile. Nothing too committal but not too closed off, either. “I did, too.”
The silence stretched between them. He knew she would pull away again, and the image of her dancing with Barrett Farnsley, of them laughing together, slammed into him. A crazy, wild, out-of-nowhere desperation seized him. What was going on?
“Well, I better go—”
Nathan closed the distance between them and turned her face up. He registered her wide eyes a moment before he kissed her.
NATHAN’S LIPS AGAINST hers catapulted Grace back in time, to that night when he’d been the first boy to ever kiss her. The first one to make her heart beat so impossibly fast. As it was doing now. Some remnant of sanity told her to pull away, but she didn’t. She wanted this, had wanted it since the first moment she’d set eyes on him again. It’d been so long since she’d allowed herself to want something this much, just for herself.
So she kissed him back with all the feeling she’d been too young and inexperienced to show him before. He tasted of coffee and something sweet. His arms went around her, pulling her closer. He deepened the kiss, drugging her mind and body with a combustible desire.
She feared she could have stayed there kissing him all night if it wasn’t for the sound of a car engine approaching. Grace stepped quickly away, but she couldn’t look at him. What had she done? Now he knew just how he affected her, and that gave him too much power.
“Good night, Nathan.” She hurried into the cabin just as headlights illuminated the porch. Even the shut and locked door behind her back didn’t make her feel safe. She stood leaning against the door, her heart beating so fast and hard she could barely hear above the rushing of her pulse. Her skin flushed at the memory of his hands on her, his lips dueling with her own.
Grace lifted her fingertips to her lips, relived those delicious kisses once again. Then she closed her eyes a
nd leaned her head back against the door.
What had she done?
SHE COULDN’T FACE him.
That was the first thought Grace had when she awoke the next morning after pitifully little sleep. And she had the perfect excuse. Two, actually.
When she heard Laney and Cheyenne come outside next door, she hurried Evan onto the porch.
“Laney?”
Her friend turned and waved. Grace urged Evan forward, but he was dragging his feet. She suspected it had something to do with the big smile Cheyenne was aiming toward him. He seemed to be in the same conflicted-feelings boat about Cheyenne as Grace was about Nathan.
“I thought you were already gone,” Laney said when they drew near.
“My car wouldn’t start last night. It’s going into the shop this morning.”
“So Nathan gave you a ride back?”
Grace stopped in her tracks and met Laney’s all-too-knowing gaze.
“I saw him leaving as we pulled in.”
“Uh, yeah, I didn’t want to pull you all away from the dance early, and he was nice enough to give us a lift.”
“Hmm.” There was a lot of meaning in that hmm that thankfully went over the kids’ heads.
“I was wondering if Evan could ride down with you. I’ve actually got to get some work done today, especially since I’m evidently going to have unexpected car repairs.”
“Sure.”
“Thanks.”
“Okay, go on, you two,” Laney said. “In the back you go.”
As the kids climbed into opposite sides of the SUV, Laney sidled up next to Grace. “I do feel like I’m missing some juicy details.” She made a teasing, tutting sound. “However will we cure that?”
“I’m convinced you and Emily were separated at birth.” With that, Grace turned and headed back toward the cabin, the sound of Laney’s laughter following her.
Grace tried to work, really she did. After a check-in call with Emily, she parked herself at the desk next to the window and sketched some ideas for an attorney’s second home in the Ozarks. By the time she’d wadded up and discarded half a dozen failed attempts, she closed her sketchbook and walked to the kitchen to get a drink of water. She downed an entire glass as she watched a black-and-yellow oriole survey his surroundings from his perch atop the picnic table.
She paced across the cabin, considered walking down to the main part of the ranch to see what Nathan had the kids doing today. At some point, she’d known each day’s schedule, but her brain had ceased to function properly the moment Nathan had kissed her last night.
What had she been thinking, kissing him? She’d asked herself that same question at least a dozen times but had yet to come up with an answer that didn’t involve her taking a complete and utter leave of her senses.
The warmth and rush of desire she’d experienced the night before sluiced through her again. She had to get out of the cabin, do something to rid herself of the anxious energy that wouldn’t let her concentrate on anything but replaying those kisses over and over until she was on the verge of hunting down Nathan and dragging him off to the nearest private spot.
She headed out the door, not even sure where she was going. The ranch had several walking trails, and she remembered passing the trailhead for one on her way up to the cabins. The trail wound through stands of live oaks, their curling limbs as intriguing as they’d ever been when she’d been a girl. She used to daydream about building her own little house high up in the tallest live oak she could find, up where no one would ever find her.
The higher the trail climbed, the better she felt. With each step, the tension eased and she breathed more deeply of the fresh Hill Country air. This part of Texas really was a beautiful place, if only there weren’t so many bad memories attached to it. The trees began to grow fewer in number. She should probably turn back, but she couldn’t force herself to do it, couldn’t stand the idea of sitting in that claustrophobic cabin or, worse, facing Nathan without any idea how she was going to react.
She had to let him know that what had happened between them didn’t change anything. The life she’d built for Evan and herself was still back in Arkansas. She’d worked too hard to throw all that accomplishment, all that safety away just because Nathan Teague could still make her pulse race.
Grace rounded a curve in the trail and found herself on the edge of a meadow filled to bursting with bluebonnets. She gasped at the unparalleled beauty, like a great blue sea, and carefully walked forward.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
Grace jumped at the out-of-place sound of another person’s voice. She spun and found herself staring at Merline, who sat higher up at the back edge of the meadow. She appeared to be facing a canvas and held a paintbrush in her hand. A wide, straw hat shaded her face from the bright sun.
“It is.” Grace let her gaze wander over the blue-tinged meadow again. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more beautiful spot.”
“It’s my favorite part of the ranch. Hank brought me here when we were dating, about this time of year. I knew I either had to marry him or convince him to sell me the ranch.” Merline chuckled at the memory. “I’m surprised to see you up here though. You don’t leave Evan’s side much.”
Grace shifted, uncomfortable talking to Merline about Evan when there was no one else around as a buffer, afraid the older woman might finally tell her exactly what she thought of Grace and her decision to keep Evan away from not only Nathan but the rest of the Teagues, as well. The ones who’d done her no harm.
The guilt ate at her until it burst out in the form of an apology. “I’m sorry.”
“For what, dear?” Why did Merline have to be so nice? It made everything harder.
“For…” She choked, finding it difficult to push the words she needed to say past the growing lump in her throat. “For not telling you all about Evan.”
Merline didn’t immediately respond, seeming to take a few moments to collect her thoughts. Maybe she was as surprised to hear the apology as Grace was at offering it.
“I won’t lie and say I wasn’t upset when I found out. We all were. This may come as a surprise to you, but part of me understands, too.”
“How could you?”
“I always figure people have reasons for doing what they do, and I try to put myself in their shoes to see what things look like from that perspective.”
Grace looked at the other woman, liking her even more and feeling worse about keeping her grandson from her. “That’s a rare quality.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“It was.”
Merline redirected her gaze out across the field of wildflowers. “Sometimes we do things we think are right at the time that may prove not to be later. But none of us can see the future, so we just do the best we can.”
“I never meant to hurt anyone. It’s just that…” Grace swallowed against that damn lump again, feeling as if she was losing her grasp on the control she so desperately needed.
“You don’t have to explain. That’s for you and Nathan to discuss. But I knew your parents. They are hard people, and they’ve done you wrong more than once. That said, I hope you can get past the fear they caused you. We all want Evan in our lives. You, too.”
Tears pooled in Grace’s eyes and she had to look away. She focused on a single bluebonnet, trying to keep the tears from breaking free.
“Well, I suspect you went for a walk to have some alone time. This is a good place to sort out thoughts. I’ve done that myself many times. I’ll go and give you some privacy.” Merline stood and started assembling her supplies.
Even though the thought of sitting in this spot of ultimate peace alone was exactly what Grace wanted, she didn’t feel right about interrupting Merline. Especially when the othe
r woman had a lot on her mind, too. “No, you were here first.” Desperate for something else to say, anything not related to Evan, she nodded toward the canvas. “I didn’t know you painted.”
“I dabble. Used to paint more when I was young. Then I got busy raising boys and working. You know how it is. I picked it back up a couple of years ago when I was cleaning out the attic and found some of my old paints.”
“Mind if I see?”
“Of course not. Don’t expect Monet or O’Keefe though.”
Grace approached the canvas, but she wasn’t prepared for the image that greeted her. The shades of blue in the painting were every bit as vibrant and lifelike as their real-life models.
“Merline, this is gorgeous.”
“Aw, that’s a nice thing to say.”
“No, I’m not just saying it. It’s wonderful, exhibit quality. Have you ever shown your work at a gallery?”
Merline waved away the idea. “Heavens, no. I’ve never shown them to anyone.”
“You’re kidding me.”
Merline shook her head. “Not even Hank.”
“Well, then that’s a crime. You really ought to show this off. I bet the shops in town would go crazy for them.”
“Now I’m sure you’re overstating things.”
Grace took Merline’s hand and pulled the older woman to her side. She pointed toward the drying painting. “Look at that and tell me it doesn’t take your breath away.”
Merline stared at her work, her “dabbling.”
“You really think it’s good?”
“Yes. I buy art for clients all the time. I know what I’m talking about. You should have your own gallery when you get enough pieces.”
Merline laughed. “Honey, I have an attic full of paintings. Would you like to see them?”
Grace hesitated, not wanting to venture so close to Nathan yet, but her eye for beautiful things and her curiosity demanded she see more.
“If you don’t mind me traipsing through your attic.”
Luck was smiling at her this morning. When they reached Merline and Hank’s house, Nathan was occupied inside the barn with the kids. She followed Merline past the dining room table where Grace had helped Nathan grasp enough algebra to scrape by with a C. They took a set of stairs she’d never seen at the back of the house that led to not exactly an attic but to a small, finished bonus room. Merline hadn’t been lying. Canvases of various sizes leaned against every wall.
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