Dancing Tides

by Vickie McKeehan

  As he pulled out of the parking lot, he decided he’d try the damn pills mainly because he wanted to get better. He didn’t want to be depressed anymore. He wanted to do everything he could to feel normal again.

  So he’d take the damn Zoloft and see what happened on that score because he wanted to beat this thing.

  As he headed back to Pelican Pointe, he thought of spending another evening with Keegan. And he couldn’t hold back the wide curve of his grin.

  He hit the gas in anticipation.

  Just as labor was unpredictable for most expectant mothers, so it went with pregnant sea otters. Around one-thirty that afternoon, surrounded by a group of first graders peering into the tide pool from the upper deck, Minnie darted back and forth in the water acting more energetic than usual.

  Noting the change in behavior, Keegan alerted the crew via walkie-talkie and her entire staff gathered to watch Minnie as she darted around the water several times preparing to give birth.

  Sure enough, a quick twenty minutes later, the baby popped out to plenty of oohs and aahs from the kids. They watched in fascination as Minnie nestled the little guy on her belly and immediately began to lick and clean her newborn pup.

  The children were all full of questions and curiosity.

  “Is it a boy or a girl baby?” asked a little brown-haired moppet, clearly awed by the experience.

  “My mom had a baby last Christmas and she weighed, um, eight pounds. How much does this baby weigh?”

  “Right now, about two pounds, but before long she or he, will grow big and strong.”

  Another little girl wanted to know, “Will they get to go back to the ocean?”

  “That’s the goal, to release them back into the water. Before that though, we’ll tag them with microchips so we can keep track of them.”

  “Will it hurt?” asked a little boy.

  “Only for a second. Do you have a dog?” His head bobbed up and down in reply.

  “Does he have a microchip so that when he gets lost you’ll be able to find him?”

  He rubbed his nose in an upward swipe with his hand and said, “Yep, my mom says we gotta make sure if Sebastian gets lost we can find him again.”

  “Exactly. It’s like that with otters.”

  They were all clearly disappointed when the teachers, with help from a couple of volunteer moms, started trying to round up the kids and get them back on the bus.

  “I’m always glad when that’s over,” Russell snarled as he watched them tromp through the tunnel and away from the tide pool back to the bus.

  “Why?” Keegan asked.

  “Because you never know what the little rug rats will do from one minute to the next.”

  “Not kid-friendly, huh Russ?” Keegan asked because she knew Russ. The man might’ve been rough around the edges, but he had a solid heart inside when it came to the animals. Russ couldn’t stand to see one suffer.

  “Friendly enough. One or two is fine but I don’t like it when there’s a passel to keep up with, like today. You miss one, and who knows where it might be heading for trouble.”

  “These were pretty well-behaved. We gave them quite a show today, one they won’t forget.”

  Russ eyed his boss. “Here tell about town you’ve got yourself a boyfriend. That nutcase that runs Taggert Farms sent you flowers.”

  Keegan put her hands on her hips and pointed to Russ’s chest. “You, do not repeat gossip around me. And from here on out, you do not get to call Cord Bennett a nutcase!”

  “Crazy in the head is what he is. You be careful, Keegan, never know what that kind will do.”

  “Stop it! I don’t believe you. Gossip is all it is. Are you aware he survived a spree shooting? Have a little compassion for chrissakes. Cord Bennett is in a bad place right now and I won’t stand here and listen to you calling him crazy.” Having made her thoughts known, she stormed off.

  Russ and Pete exchanged looks. “Testing the waters there, Pete, I’d say she’s more than smitten.”

  “Yeah,” Pete agreed, rubbing his chin, considering the situation. “That’s what I was afraid of.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Around seven, Cord heard his own truck rumbling up the long stretch of paved road that led to the house. He could tell it was his by the hum of the engine. A little nervous, he threw down the dish towel he’d been using to wipe up the mess he’d made on the counter and hurried to the front door to flip on the front porch light.

  By the time he stood on his planked wooden portico, he got to watch her crawl out of his truck, walk around the hood with a wide grin on her face. She’d taken the time to put on makeup, even eye shadow. She wore a dark green sweater dress—over black leggings—and looked like a fashion model walking the runway instead of tromping over a gravel driveway.

  Her long legs ate up the distance fast. She planted a quick kiss on his mouth. He stood there speechless until he finally managed, “Wow! You look—wow!”

  “You’re such a sweet-talker, Cord.” She sniffed the air. “What are you cooking? Whatever it is smells delicious. I’m starving.”

  She might look like a model but she ate like a regular person who didn’t obsess with calorie intake or ration her food.

  “Jordan dropped off a pot roast.” He quickly held up his hands. “I know. But when I told her you were a vegetarian, she brought over a casserole about thirty minutes ago. Something she called paella primavera. I’m keeping the thing warm. It has rice and tomatoes and a bunch of other veggies. I told her it sounded like it was right up your alley.”

  “I could’ve made do with a salad and some soup. Jordan shouldn’t have gone to so much trouble. She’s pregnant.”

  “And loves to cook,” he added. “Jordan insisted, Keegan. She says she’s used to preparing vegetarian dishes for her guests who don’t eat red meat.”

  “Well it sounds yummy. Anything I can do to help?” she asked as she took in the room. The walls were paneled, which dated the entire place. It looked like something out of the’70s. A green-and-tan striped sofa dominated what could only be described as a purely male environment. A well-worn recliner sported a piece of duct tape proudly worn on one arm as if covering up a war wound to the leather. There were sports magazines stacked neatly on a coffee table that reminded her of a doctor’s waiting room. If not for the 55-inch flat-screen TV and the laptop computer sitting on the ottoman, she might’ve thought she’d gone back in time to Archie Bunker’s living room.

  But the area was tidy as a nun’s convent.

  Cord waved his arm in a backhand motion and said, “Don’t judge me by the décor. Every item is a leftover except for the flat-screen, courtesy of the man who lived here.”

  “Taggert.” She didn’t feel the need to tell him the man had also died in this very room so she started moving into the dining room.

  But Cord had other ideas. He nipped her around the waist and brought her up against his chest. He sniffed her neck. “You smell great by the way.”

  “I know. I took a shower and everything.” Amusement danced in her eyes. “For once I tried to smell like a female and not the animals I work around.”

  He couldn’t help it, he laughed. He cocked his head, swung her out giving her a long look. “You’re a lot taller tonight. You almost come up to my shoulders. Almost.”

  “It’s the boots.”

  “They make your legs look longer.”

  “I’m no fashionista but I’m pretty sure that’s the idea.”

  “Hmm. You are the most unpretentious woman I’ve ever met.”

  Her eyes went wide. Those blue spheres speared straight into warm brown. “Really? Why do you say that?”

  “Because you’re gorgeous—and yet—you don’t act like it.” It hit him then. Maybe it was her smalltown upbringing but Keegan and Cassie were polar opposites. Why should that appeal to him? Shouldn’t he be looking for a replacement for Cassie on all levels?

  He shook himself out of his funk and noticed she was frowning. Wha
t was wrong with him anyway? Here he had a hot female standing in his house and he was back in the past.

  Keegan’s mind had been trying to figure out what kind of women he’d known before if he thought she was unpretentious. She didn’t dare bring up Cassie though. For one, it seemed rude, and the other, she really didn’t want to make him sad tonight.

  He looked almost cheerful. Because of that, she went another way. “We had a baby today.”

  “Minnie? Aw, I wish I’d known. Why didn’t you text me?”

  She shrugged. “You had a full day what with going to Santa Cruz. How’d it go with the shrink anyway?”

  “It took me awhile to open up. He turns out is a she in her mid-forties, Italian. She seems like a decent person. She had pictures of her kids hanging on her walls. I liked that about her.”

  He kept her hand in his as he tugged her along into the kitchen.

  “Once you opened up, did you feel better?”

  “Some. She got me to realize there’s nothing I could’ve done to stop Robby Mack that day. But—”

  Keegan held a finger up to his lips. “When you stop beating yourself up, maybe you’ll understand there’s nothing you could’ve done to stop him that day from doing what he did.”

  “I know.” He picked up the dish towel, used it as a potholder to take the roast out of the oven. He lowered the temp and slid in the pan to warm the rolls.

  “Are you sure you won’t be upset if I eat the roast? It has baby carrots and potatoes.”

  She laughed. “I could eat the veggies, Cord. But it’s entirely up to you what you put in your body. It’s a personal preference for me. I won’t eat animal meat.” She glanced around the kitchen. “What can I do to help out?”

  “Got everything covered. Jordan even brought over some iced tea.”

  “Then point me to the right cabinet and I’ll get the glasses.”

  “The one over the coffeemaker.”

  “Got it.” She scanned the counter, took in all the food, enough to feed ten people. “Looks like Jordan thought of everything. Are we expecting a crowd?”

  He grinned. “She did kinda get carried away. But who am I to complain? She put this all together for me today after I mentioned it to her on Saturday, knowing I wanted you to come for dinner.”

  “Saturday? But how did you know we’d—click—like we did Saturday night.”

  He reached over and ran his fingers through that red, silky mane of hers. “I don’t know, a feeling I guess. Friday night I looked up into your face, saw those eyes, your drenched hair and—I wanted to get to know you. I haven’t wanted to get to know anyone, Keegan, not for a very long time.”

  She stepped into his space, reached up, brought his head down.

  His arms encircled her. He took his time nibbling on her jaw and ear before working his way to her mouth. He tasted. He savored. “We get started, I won’t want to stop.”

  Her breath backed up in her chest. The man knew how to make her heart race. “I better get the ice.”

  He chuckled. “Like that’s going to put out the fire.”

  “I’d say we both need to bank the heat—for now anyway.”

  After Keegan filled up the glasses, she turned and watched as he took the rolls from the oven. She crossed the space and went over to help stack the bread in a basket. When their fingers touched, she could almost swear a lightning bolt vibrated between them. It was all she could do to make it to the dining room.

  He took down candles from a buffet, set them on the table and lit them to flame. He hit the lights and shadows danced along the wall.

  They sat down to dinner with the unmistakable hint of desire hovering on the fringes.

  But over the meal, his pot roast, her rice dish, they tried small talk to cut the sexual tension.

  Once he went into the details about his visit with Dr. Pontadera, the lust ebbed. Nothing like talking about your psych problems to kill the mood, he thought. But after about five minutes of sharing, he divulged, “She prescribed me Zoloft.”

  Keegan’s brows arched up in surprise. “Really? Did you take one?”

  “Yeah. And it’s one of the reasons I’m nervous and my head is pounding. This after taking only one pill, Keegan. It kicked in about an hour before you got here. Right now, I feel like I want to jump through the plate glass door.”

  She reached over and put her hand on top of his. “It’ll take some time for your brain to adjust to the chemical.”

  “It has a long list of side effects.” He ticked off all of them except for the libido issue. The drug certainly didn’t make him want Keegan any less. At least not yet it didn’t.

  “There has to be another antidepressant that doesn’t have you wanting to jump through the plate glass.”

  “God, I hope so.”

  With that, Keegan switched gears. “As always, Jordan’s food is in a class by itself, culinary genius.”

  “There’s apple pie for dessert.”

  Keegan patted her stomach. “Maybe later. Right now, I couldn’t eat another bite.” Cord tugged on Keegan’s hand, placed a kiss on her palm, moved to her lips. “I’m seriously considering having you for dessert.”

  Her breath hitched.

  He liked seeing that nervous flicker in her eyes, got a kick out of feeling her pulse jump at the prospect of going to bed with him.

  “Tell you what, why don’t we take a walk. I’ll take you on a tour of the farm. I know it’s already dark outside but—”

  “Sounds like a great idea,” she agreed, almost too quickly.

  He chuckled. “Honey, you look like you’d’ve agreed to meet the devil himself instead of that progressing into the bedroom.”

  Her heart skidded in her chest. She had to reel in her emotions because she knew Cord was nowhere near ready for a relationship. Sex, Lord, yes, but he wasn’t ready for anything else. And that prompted the question. Was she ready for the “just sex” scenario? “Now you’re reading my mind?”

  He felt her bristle and added, “I’m reading your body language. Come on.” He urged her up and out of the chair. “You like animals so we’ll start in the barn.”

  “You nibble on my lips, get me all worked up, and now, just like that, you want to show me cows?”

  He grinned as he grabbed a flashlight from the kitchen drawer. “What I’d like to show you neither one of us is ready for so we need to find something else to do.” He brought her hand up to his lips again, placed a kiss there. “The last thing I want, Keegan, is to get you mixed up in my problems.”

  She ran her hand down his cheek. “How’d you get so understanding? Most men would be pushing me.”

  “Maybe I’m not most men.”

  She was beginning to consider that possibility.

  Once outside on the pathway, he told her, “And I don’t want to mess this up.”

  “Why?”

  He tilted her chin up and covered her mouth. The kiss played out until he said, “Let me ask you something. Are you willing to go back inside right now and spend the night with me?”

  Exasperated, she rolled her eyes. “You aren’t ready.”

  “That’s what I thought. If I touch you again like I did in there, we might not be so sensible. When it comes to getting you into my bed, I want no second thoughts on either side.”

  “Maybe I’ll be the one to get you into bed. What about that?”

  “You might as well know now, I’m highly susceptible to sweet-talk and the lure of a beautiful woman.”

  Even in the dark, he could see she rolled her eyes. He let out a laugh and yanked her up against him. They walked like that hugged up to each other until they got to the barn. He swung the huge door back and let her lead the way inside. He hit the lights and the huge space lit up revealing rows and rows of stalls on either side, each containing various sizes of stock.

  “Evening ladies,” Cord said in his most charming voice. “I brought you a visitor tonight.” He went to the sound system on the wall and turned down the steady str
eam of music. Tonight it was Journey. Steve Perry’s tenor serenaded them with Open Arms.

  Keegan sent out a giggle at the music. “Journey? That’s so—”

  “Eighties? Yeah, I know. I started out by reading Hayden’s notes from the previous manager and wondering how the hell cows could like listening to this stuff. But I hate to admit it, Air Supply and Journey really gets us more milk.”

  “The right kind of music increases milk production twofold. I read about that,” Keegan commented, all the while appreciating the fact he talked to the animals as if they mattered, just as she did.

  She walked down the aisle until she got to a very pregnant heifer. “She looks like she’s due any day now.”

  He went over to the cow and rubbed its ears and head. “I’d say another two weeks. Huh, Priss? And before you ask that’s short for Priscilla.”

  That prompted Keegan to go into a detailed account of Minnie’s new baby, and how Minnie had delivered the little guy in front of a bunch of curious school kids.

  “And?”

  “And what?”

  “What’d you name him?”

  “Oh. Bumper.” Because she saw that questioning look form on his face, she added, “The little guy likes to bump the edge of the pool with his head. It’s like he’s already showing off.”

  All at once, Cord spotted Scott hanging out at the other end of the barn door. It pissed him off.

  And when Keegan saw him look over as if he were startled at something, then annoyed, she followed his gaze. When he continued to stare in that direction, she noted his face had completely changed.

  He had such a caught-off-guard, irritated look in his eyes she finally asked, “What’s wrong?”

  “In a million years you’d never believe me.”

  “Try me.”

  Cord stuffed his hands in his pockets and leaned his boot on the rail of one of the stalls as if thinking, deciding whether or not to confess.

  “Come on,” Keegan prodded. “What’s wrong? The way you’re acting is only making me more curious.”