“I know,” he said to Sawyer, “that yesterday, during the meeting, you brought up how we treated Lia when she first showed up here pregnant. You both know I regret how I responded.”
“Me, too.” Sawyer slid a glance to Lia. She was half grinning, as if proud of Shane for cooling off and sorting through his emotions about Jeanne.
Shane sat back in his chair. “You were right in comparing how I treated Lia to how I should be handling Jeanne Marie.”
Sawyer imagined how happy Jeanne would be if she was here to listen in.
“All she wants,” he said, “is to make her case to every one of us—and it’s not because she’s some kind of masterful con artist who has a silver tongue. We’ve got cousins, Shane, and another uncle—Jeanne Marie’s husband. We’ve got a whole other family that we never knew about.”
“Okay.” Shane connected gazes with Lia, who looked very pleased. “I’ll meet with her.”
“You might even end up calling her Aunt Jeanne by the time you’re done,” Sawyer said.
As Shane chuckled wryly, Lia got up from the table, her smile at full force now as she held her plate and headed for the kitchen. “I’ll leave you to tease each other.”
“You just want to see what’s for dessert,” Shane said as they touched hands while she passed by, then disappeared into the kitchen with a yeah-you’re-right laugh.
“Who knew?” Shane said. “Her appetite has grown tenfold this past week alone. I’m marrying an Olympic-caliber eater, Sawyer.”
“Just one more thing to adore about her, right?”
Shane got a curious gleam in his eye, and Sawyer knew where this discussion was leading.
“Now that we got business out of the way...” Shane said. “We were talking about you and Laurel...?”
Sawyer couldn’t fight the grin.
“Ha!” Shane pointed at him. “See—you’ve been zapped right in the butt by the Red Rock Plague, as you call it.”
“I’m not...” He’d been about to say “in love with Laurel.”
But what did love feel like? And how was he supposed to know when it really was love?
“This is so Shakespeare,” Shane said. “Did you ever read The Taming of the Shrew in school?”
“That play about the guy who has to court the nasty-tongued woman so he can get her dowry? Tell me you’re not comparing Laurel to a shrew.”
“You have to admit that she has a bit of a reputation. But you’re right—as I sit here looking at you, I wonder if you tamed her or if she tamed you.”
“That’s hilarious, Shane.”
But he turned over the comparison in his head as his brother cleared his plate and got up to join Lia in the kitchen.
He was right. Just who was being tamed here?
Sawyer watched Shane go, and a faint, familiar feeling of being left behind dogged him. He would rather have died than ever admit it to his siblings, but throughout his life, he’d always been the one who trailed the others. The pattern had even repeated itself here in Red Rock, where Shane, Asher and Wyatt had discovered who they were and found the women of their dreams in quick succession.
Was it possible that what Sawyer was feeling for Laurel wasn’t...well, real? Was he still playing catch-up with his brothers in a way?
Was that the reason these emotions for Laurel had come upon him so rapidly, so strongly? Because he wanted them to?
With that on his mind, he ate the rest of his lunch alone, missing Laurel.
Wanting to see her just as soon as he could, no matter what the reason might be.
* * *
When Laurel’s phone rang that evening and she glimpsed Sawyer’s name on the ID screen, her body felt such a mighty shock that she thought she’d accidentally tripped over a live wire.
More, she thought, the word encompassing everything her body was feeling. More ramped-up hormones, more high-flying sex.
But along with the joy of knowing he was on the other end of the line, scary words attacked her, too. Words like commitment, betrayal, trust.
Where did one end and where did another begin?
Her body won out, and she found herself answering, keeping her tone level as she sat on her sofa.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Laur.” He sounded confident, as if he hadn’t noticed that she’d gone nutso on him this morning. “I thought I’d call to see what you’re doing.”
It wasn’t hard to figure out what he was actually saying: I know you can’t stop thinking of me.
But he’d been thinking of her, too, right?
“I’m off work now,” she said. “It was another long day.”
“You hungry?”
Always—whether it was for birthday cake or him. But she merely said, “I had a late lunch.”
“That’s fine, because they’re trying out a new tapas menu at Red.”
Tapas. She was a sucker for the small Spanish plates, mostly because they allowed you to sample a bunch of food during one meal, and you didn’t have to order a gargantuan serving if you weren’t that hungry.
But she’d hesitated in answering, and Sawyer picked up on it. “You have to eat sometime.”
It wasn’t eating she was worried about. Yet she wanted to go. She couldn’t deny it.
Then the voice of reason smoothed over her, assuring her that her hormones were only on overdrive. Last night had been their first night together, and there was bound to be a burst of happy adrenaline that she’d misconstrued to be something...else.
Wasn’t this a chance to prove those hormones wrong by going with him tonight?
“What time?” she asked.
She could tell he was smiling. “I can pick you up in twenty.”
Make him work. “How about forty?”
He laughed. “Forty it is. See you soon.”
She hung up, her pulse nattering away, like little gossips gathered in her veins, talking at her.
You’ve done it now. Good luck avoiding his bedroom eyes. Ready to be crushed again?
But even above those sounds, she felt rather than heard. And the urges were giddy and addictive.
She wouldn’t have to give in to anything more than those temporary urges.
It’s just dinner, she thought. That was all it’d be.
She dressed as if she could care less what Sawyer would think—a yellow cotton shirt stitched with a border of beads around the dipped collar, nice jeans, boots. She swept her hair up in a barrette, leaving careless spiky strands above the twist. A swipe of lip balm and she was ready.
Then she sat in front of the TV. Nothing seemed to be on, even though she had a hundred or so channels to choose from.
Why had she told him forty minutes again?
Oh, yeah—to make him wait.
Since when did Laurel Redmond play games like this?
She knew since when, and she didn’t like the answer. Long ago she’d promised herself that she would never change for any man. She would live on her terms.
And she wasn’t liking these terms.
When Sawyer rang her doorbell, she jumped off the sofa, then chilled herself out, forcing herself to walk slowly to the door. She opened it and tried not to blush when he gave her a lazy, appreciative look, just like last night.
But this wouldn’t be another last night.
She smiled. They were going to have fun. Nothing else involved.
“Ready?” she asked, starting out the door before he could answer.
“Ready,” he said.
His legs were so long that he didn’t have any problem getting to his Jag before she did, and he opened her door for her. She slid inside, efficiently doing up her seat belt.
Act normal. Act fun. “Did you know that tapas came about because of a king?”
Small talk. It definitely put her back on track with Sawyer.
He started the engine, then backed out of the parking spot. “Is this another of your random travel facts? Like the one you told me about Cologne, Germany?”
“I�
�m full of them.” And she was far more comfortable now.
“Then give it to me. What’s a king have to do with tapas?”
“They say that Alfonso the Tenth of Castile was getting over a sickness by drinking wine and eating small dishes between every meal.”
“Sounds like a king.”
“Always indulging, right? And after he got better, he commanded that the taverns couldn’t serve wine unless there were snacks that came with it. A ‘tapa.’”
“Did you get ahold of that trivia before or after you were in Spain?”
They were cruising the road now, the top down, the breeze soothing her.
“I was actually in Spain when I heard it. You’ve been there?”
“Just once.”
“It has a different kind of social life, doesn’t it? Things don’t get lively until around midnight, but you’re ready for it because you sleep in the afternoon during siesta, when just about everything shuts down.”
“Which cities did you visit?”
“Seville, Barcelona, Madrid. The basics. But someday...”
“You’d like to go back. Me, too.”
Before he could do something romantic like invite her to take off with him in a jet, she changed the subject.
Surprise! But as she babbled about the kinds of flowers and trees they were seeing on the side of the road, he went with it once again.
Easygoing Sawyer, she thought, her heart thudding. She liked that about him.
Liked it...a lot.
By the time they arrived at the restaurant, it was dinnertime and Red was crowded to the brim. Evidently Sawyer had called ahead, because they were whisked through the main room, with its Southwestern-style antiques and blankets covering the walls. A converted hacienda that had historically been owned by a high-class Spanish family, Red was the restaurant of choice in town, as the hustle and bustle attested to.
The hostess seated them in the courtyard, near the splashing tiled fountain and under the Mexican fan trees, and she left them with the tapas menu.
The waiter came to them soon afterward, greeting Sawyer first.
“Mr. Fortune, so good to see you again.”
“Thanks, Abel. Do you know Laurel?”
Abel, who was dark-haired and brown-eyed and had a bright smile, turned to Laurel.
“I haven’t had the pleasure. May I get you a wine list?”
Laurel demurred, and Sawyer ordered a beer. But before Abel left, he gave Laurel and Sawyer a...well, all Laurel could call it was a look.
Like they were together.
Nerves flung themselves against Laurel’s skin. They were together, but that didn’t mean a serious kind of together. Why couldn’t she just get that through her head and enjoy it?
Because you’re setting yourself up, she thought. And you’re walking into this trap as if you want the pain that you know will come.
But she didn’t want to listen to all that negativity anymore, not when Sawyer’s eyes were sparkling as he combed over the tapas menu in anticipation of sharing something with her.
Not when she wanted so badly to be here with him, no matter the consequences.
Chapter Ten
By the time Sawyer brought Laurel back to his convertible in Red’s parking lot, night had veiled the sky.
She sat in the seat, holding her stomach. “I just knew I was going to eat too much.”
“They didn’t exactly have a shortage of great dishes on the menu. I have a feeling it’ll take another trip or two to try everything we wanted.”
“Ugh. Maybe we shouldn’t talk about eating.”
She smiled at him, her head back against the seat. All night he’d been hungering to reach over, undo her barrette and let her hair fall down her back.
But she still seemed a little distant, as if she was here with him, having a great time, but...
She was cautious.
Since he knew about her past with that Steve idiot and her father, Sawyer wasn’t all that stunned. Plus, he could work with cautious. He didn’t have to rush right into bed with her again. Maybe a night of pure and simple romance, of being with her just for the hell of it, would put them back to normal again.
Leaning an arm on the steering wheel, he returned her smile. “Once, a wise woman told me that she knew what I needed. And I think I know what she could use right about now.”
There went that wary gaze of hers again.
“Don’t worry, Laur,” he said. “I’ll be a good boy.”
After he started the engine and drove, he could feel her watching him out of the corner of her eye, probably wondering what he had in mind.
He headed in the direction of New Fortunes Ranch, then passed the entrance by about a mile or so. When he slowed down, it finally became possible for him to hear her over the wind.
“I’m assuming you know where you’re going?” she asked loudly.
“Somewhere down property.” He pulled into a turnoff at the side of the road. It was shaded by pines, marked by the sound of owls.
He shut the engine down, and they both got out. After he went to his trunk to get a flashlight, he led her toward the entrance to a trail.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“I found it one day when I was scouting out the area. It’s a rough hiking trail, and I think it’s just what you need to walk off some of those tapas.”
“Just look at you, Sawyer Fortune. You can be a wise person yourself.”
If she was surprised that he hadn’t urged her straight into bed, she didn’t show it. But that cautious vibe still lingered.
Was she actually relieved to stay away from intimacy tonight?
Patience, Sawyer told himself. She was worth his time.
He turned on the flashlight, the beam dancing over the rough evergreen trunks and rocks. Some hiker had been kind enough to mark the trail by piling stones as landmarks.
“We won’t go too far in,” Sawyer said.
She laughed. “Are you afraid we’ll get lost?”
“I’m a careful man.”
“You do know you’re with someone who’s gone through all sorts of survival scenarios. I never saw as much trouble as Tanner did overseas, but I had occasion to use my skills. I learned everything I ever needed during all my military training.”
He ran the light over her as they walked. Athletic, graceful, a lady who could kick butt at a moment’s notice. Was there anything she couldn’t do?
“Is boot camp as hard as they say?” he asked.
“It’s where the studs are separated from the duds, if you know what I mean. I went to officer’s training instead of regular boot camp, but either way, you get used to what’s required of you each day. And if you don’t?” She made a neck-cutting motion, along with the sound effect, then grinned at him.
“What do you do during all that training?”
“At first, you wake up, do PT—physical training—eat, train, eat, learn things like military history and more in a classroom, eat, prepare for the next day, then sleep...and that’s just in general.”
This woman put him and his gym workouts to shame. As smart as she was—and as good as she was at seemingly everything—why was she hanging out with him?
He couldn’t help feeling kind of proud that he’d passed her standards.
But how long would that last?
A tiny piece of hope inside of him piped up. Could it last?
They weren’t too far down the trail when he found what he’d ultimately wanted to show her out here.
He combed the light over what looked to be the limestone foundation of a small house that had been destroyed.
Laurel was immediately enthralled, and she hotfooted it over to the empty square of stone.
“Please tell me you know the story that goes along with this,” she said.
“I might know a little something.” When he’d first found the ruins, he’d done a bit of online research. “There was a couple who supposedly settled here around the 1850s. You probably know
that there used to be stagecoach routes that ran out of San Antonio.”
“Yup.” She’d gone past the barrier of limestone and was inside the abandoned square now.
“I guess there was a bachelor who got off at the nearest stop and decided he liked the looks of things, so he stayed. He fell for the daughter of the innkeeper where he was staying and built her this place. But they say that one day the two of them just up and disappeared, their house gutted. No one knows what really happened to them.”
Laurel had bent down to investigate the remnants of a fireplace mantel, and sent him a slow look over her shoulder. “Are you trying to scare me with a ghost story?”
Sawyer had a good laugh at that. “I think it’d take a full-scale War of the Worlds alien invasion to scare you.” He rethought that. “I take that back. You’d be the rebel leader who storms the mother ship.”
They laughed together, and he joined her inside the square of rock. Then she stood and put her hands on her hips, as if she was imagining the room with chairs, people, life. He saw how she approached every new experience, with wonderment and total immersion.
“I swear, Sawyer, I have no idea what to make of you sometimes.”
Join the club. “What do you mean?”
“You brought me out here for an entirely different reason than I thought.”
“And what did you think?”
“That you found some amazing make-out spot and you were going to...”
“Seduce you?” He hooked his free thumb in a belt loop. “Come on, Laurel. Don’t you know that I think there’s more to you than what we did last night? You’re different from any other woman I’ve met, and if you haven’t guessed it by now, I kind of like that about you.”
The atmosphere had gone serious, and he was pretty sure she was assessing him. But since the trees were hiding the moon and he couldn’t very well shine the flashlight on her face to see her expression, he wasn’t sure what she was thinking.
He decided to throw a bit of levity into the situation. “Besides, I thought it’d just plain be a good time to show you this place. I’m afraid there’s not going to be a hell of a lot of opportunity for traipsing around the woods during the next couple of weeks, what with my brothers’ wedding preparations and all.”
A CHANGE OF FORTUNE Page 13
