by Sara Orwig
“Whoa,” Matt said, thinking about how annoyed she got with anyone taking charge for her.
I feel like I’m in good ol’ boy land. He remembered the sparks in her blue eyes as she faced him across the table and made that announcement. Well, she was and she might as well get used to it while she was here. Moving to Texas wasn’t going to take her out of it, either.
He grinned, thinking about their tiny arguments over whether or not he could help her do something. They were fire and ice together. Some of the time. Some of the time they were just pure fire.
He drew a deep breath and thought about her kisses and how she had melted into his arms and put her whole self into kissing him. In minutes he was aroused, sitting up in bed and knowing that sleep might elude him this entire night, thanks to a lady who was in his bed only a few yards away down the hall.
That thought didn’t help any as visions of her in his bed came blazing into his mind.
“Just leave her alone,” he said aloud, making resolutions to keep his distance. She didn’t want this attraction and he didn’t want it. Soon they would part and his world could never under any conditions be part of her world. He wasn’t the kind of man for her, and he had never had a serious commitment in his life and he didn’t want one now. In the morning—in another hour probably, he would get coffee and then he would get out of the house and not even see Vivian. Lita would be in about eight, but the two of them could get acquainted on their own. Just get out, stay out, stay away and stop getting involved, he thought.
He stretched out again and tried to think about what he had to do tomorrow and what he would do if it turned out to be her husband here looking for her.
The next thing Matt knew he woke and dawn spilled light into the room. He got up, pulled on clean clothes, combed his hair and headed toward the kitchen. He brewed a pot of coffee and poured orange juice.
“Good morning,” Vivian said from the doorway.
He turned and his resolutions to avoid her smashed into oblivion. She was barefoot, her hair twisted and looped on top of her head in that casual manner she had with tendrils escaping and trailing down beside her face. She wore a red T-shirt and red shorts, and his first judgment about her legs being long, shapely, fabulous, had been right.
“Wow! You look good,” he said, unable to stop staring at her and knowing he better say something or get his wits about him or look away.
His gaze traveled up to amusement dancing in her blue eyes. “Thank you. That’s very, very nice to hear after the past nine months. Very nice,” Vivian replied.
His gaze drifted down again. Her T-shirt clung as nothing she had worn before did and outlined high, full breasts, and he could imagine their soft weight in his hands. Realizing what he was doing, he looked up. “You like red.”
She laughed. “Yes, but the reason I’m wearing so much of it is the way I packed. I didn’t pack carefully. I was in a hurry and it seems I have mostly red clothes.”
“I like them. Want orange juice?”
“Yes, please. I brought some of Mary Catherine’s books and if you’ll sit down with me a few minutes, I’ll tell you about each story.”
His pulse jumped while he fought a small inner war with himself as he thought about all his midnight resolutions to keep his distance from her. If he sat down next to her like he did last night, the same thing would probably result.
“You sit here and I’ll sit there,” she said as if she could read his thoughts. She pulled out two chairs on opposite sides of the table. She sat down and placed a book in front of the chair she had pulled out for him.
He knew he should walk right out the door, but he wasn’t going to disappoint Mary Catherine again, so he sat down where Vivian had indicated he should.
He picked up the little book and looked at pictures of bunnies and then looked over it at Vivian.
“It’s the story of Peter Rabbit.” She proceeded to tell him the story and he half listened. As she talked, she turned the pages while Matt watched her. He couldn’t get enough of looking at her. He was like a fifteen-year-old kid with raging hormones.
She closed the book and picked up another one and started to tell him the story of Little Red Riding Hood. After a moment she stopped. “What is it? I don’t have egg on my face because I haven’t eaten, but you are staring.”
His gaze met hers and he felt knotted inside. He wanted to reach for her even more than he had wanted to last night. “You look gorgeous,” he said in a husky voice.
She inhaled, making the T-shirt draw tight across her breasts, outlining them fully. Her blue eyes widened; she licked her lips while her face flushed.
“Matt, we said last night we shouldn’t—” she said, her voice changing, lowering a notch and becoming breathless. “Thank you for the compliment. I have to admit, I liked hearing it. Too much. Do you want to hear these stories or should I stop?”
“Don’t think about stopping,” he said in a thick voice, because she was responding to him with that heated intensity that set him ablaze. “I’ll pay attention to the books.”
Oh, yeah, a cynical voice within him echoed. Pay attention to her. He looked at the book in her long, slender fingers and tried to think about Little Red Riding Hood and the bad wolf, but it was difficult to keep his mind on a child’s story. Without looking at her, he was aware of Vivian. He wanted to go around the table and pull her up into his arms and kiss her.
Instead he sat stone-faced through three more stories and then he shoved back his chair and strode to the door. He picked up his pager, and standing in the doorway, he waved it at her. “I have my pager if you need me. Lita will be here soon. Thanks for telling me those stories. Tell Mary Catherine I’ll tell her one tonight.” He turned and left, striding from the house as swiftly as Vivian had rushed from the kitchen last night.
Vivian got up and crossed the room to the door to watch him climb into his pickup and drive around the barn out of sight. Her pulse was pounding, and even though they hadn’t touched this morning, there had been sparks dancing between them and things happening that they didn’t have to talk about.
You look gorgeous. His words floated in her mind. How wonderful to hear after nine months of pregnancy! There had been no doubting his sincerity. He looked as if he could have eaten her for his breakfast. For a taciturn, solitary cowboy, he had his moments when he was anything but.
Vivian turned back to the kitchen, looking at the little books on the table. If nothing else, she should try to help Matt with his reading while she was here. He was intelligent, and it shouldn’t take much to help him be able to sound out words and figure out words for himself.
Less than two minutes later, she heard a motor and looked out to see him heading back toward the house in his pickup. Her pulse jumped and she dried her hands, going to the door to see why he was returning. When he stopped at the gate, a short, dark-haired, very pregnant woman dressed in jeans and a big, loose T-shirt climbed out of his truck. Matt touched the brim of his hat with his finger in salute to Vivian, then turned around and drove back the way he had come.
“Hi, I’m Vivian Ashland,” she said to the young woman approaching the kitchen.
“I’m Lita Hobart.”
“Matt told me you would be here today.”
Lita stepped inside the kitchen, her dark eyes sparkling. “I can’t wait to see your baby. I heard that Matt delivered her and now I’m not so scared in case I can’t get back to Enid.”
“He was great.”
As if Julia knew she was wanted, her cries floated down the hall. “She’s awake. Come see Julia and meet Mary Catherine.”
In the bedroom Mary Catherine sat in the big bed and was using the remote control to change channels on Matt’s large television. Vivian introduced Lita and let her hold Julia until she took the baby back to change her.
“Pete said you’re divorced.”
“Yes, I am,” Vivian replied, leaning over Julia, who was waving her fists and feet in the air and blowing bubbles.
“Did you want to be?” Vivian asked.
“My ex-boyfriend wants to see me again, but he left the state when he found out I was pregnant. He doesn’t want a baby. Are you sorry you got a divorce?”
“Not ever.”
“Matt told me to page him if any man shows up here looking for you.”
Startled, Vivian paused. “Matt told you to page him?”
“Yes. Pete said they’re all keeping a watch for any strangers.”
Exasperated with decisions Matt had made without mentioning them to her, Vivian stared at Lita. “Well, if my ex-husband shows up here, you don’t have to page Matt. The man isn’t dangerous. He’s an ordinary businessman, for heaven’s sake!”
Lita shrugged. “That’s what Matt said to do.”
Vivian wondered what else Matt had taken it upon himself to do. She picked up Julia to rock and feed her.
Later that day as Vivian combed Mary Catherine’s hair and Lita put away towels, Vivian turned to her. “I wanted to see if you could come on the days you don’t work for Matt and work for me while I’m here.”
“I would like that.”
“I need some help with the baby. It’ll only be until my car is fixed, but if you’re here to watch Mary Catherine and Julia, I can catch up on work.”
“I’d like to,” Lita said with a broad smile. “I’m saving all my money for the baby. Pete’s paying my hospital expenses and Matt said he is getting the doctor’s bill.”
“That’s nice of them.”
“It’s more than nice. It’s a lifesaver for me and a blessing I’ll never forget, and I hope I can work and repay them every cent. They’re good men.”
“Matt is. I barely know Pete,” Vivian said, thinking about what Lita just told her. For a solitary, taciturn man, Matt was good to others, so in spite of being a loner, he cared about other people. Her insurance would pay her bills, but Matt had helped in so many other ways.
Vivian knew Matt was kind and generous or he wouldn’t have taken her in, but to a certain extent because of the storm, she had been forced upon him. No one was forcing him to help Lita, so helpfulness was just inherent in his nature.
“When’s your baby due?”
“About five more weeks, so that’s why I’m glad to know Matt delivered your baby and someone here knows what to do. Actually, the doctor suggested I quit this job because of the long drive from town, but I need the work badly. And I like seeing Pete,” she added shyly.
Julia’s cries summoned Vivian. “I need to bathe and feed Julia.”
“May I watch? I know very little about babies. I’ll learn soon,” Lita said with a broad smile.
“Do you have family here?”
“My mother lives in Alaska with my stepfather. My brother is in Brazil with an oil company, so I don’t have any family here. My mother wants me to come to Alaska, but I can’t see moving with a new baby. So Matt and Pete are my family.”
“How long have you known Matt?” Vivian asked as she filled the tiny tub she had brought for Julia’s bath.
“Just two years now. Pete’s worked for him since he bought this land.”
Vivian listened to Lita talk as she bathed Julia, but her thoughts kept returning to Matt and this facet she had learned about him.
He called three times during the day, but he was late getting in, and Vivian didn’t see him again that day or the next until evening. When Mary Catherine was in bed and she had fed Julia, she gave Julia to Matt to hold while she got out the little books and continued the phonics lesson. With Julia in his arms and the table between them, she figured they would keep a distance between them and she knew it was better that way. Yet it was disconcerting to sit only a few feet from him, and as she pronounced letters have him look at her mouth as if the only thoughts in his head were erotic ones.
He was learning to sound out letters and delight filled her when he sounded out a few simple words in one of Mary Catherine’s I Can Read It Myself books.
The next morning when they ate breakfast outside, she was aware of Matt’s constant attention, the approval and desire that burned in his dark eyes when he looked at her. She wore her red shorts and a white cotton shirt and more than once she caught him studying her legs. As they moved around the kitchen, he constantly touched her lightly, his hand on her arm, his fingers brushing hers when he handed her something.
There were no more kisses, but that crackling tension was building, and she was more aware of it each time she was with him.
Jake Claiborne called to tell her that her car was going to take longer to repair than he had expected. Deep down, excitement surged that she would get to stay longer with Matt.
The next week they followed the same routine, and Vivian found she was looking forward more each day to the time for Matt to return home. And she looked forward to his calls, which now were twice a day.
Friday afternoon Matt called Jake Claiborne to check on Vivian’s car and learned it would be ready to pick up late Saturday afternoon. He switched off the cellular phone and put it in the seat of the pickup, picking up a chain saw and striding toward the creek. In last week’s storm a large cottonwood had been uprooted and had fallen across the creek. damming it up. The creek had gone down and Matt wanted to get the tree out of the creek bed and clear the stream so it could flow into his pond again.
The saw roared, shattering the quiet. As he began to saw, he thought about Vivian. Walt Bently had said to try to get her to stay until her six-week checkup. That was four more weeks.
He wanted her to stay and he was going to try to talk her into it. Four weeks would fly by. How quiet his house would be then! He was becoming adjusted to Mary Catherine’s laughter and chatter. He had even adjusted to Julia’s crying and he looked forward each day to going home and seeing all three females. They had transformed his house and it no longer was empty, quiet or solitary. Not his house, not his life.
How strong did his feelings run for Vivian? Too damn strong, he knew. Yet there was no future for them. Commitment wasn’t his deal, and Vivian would never give up her city life for country living. Four more weeks of her company was all he was asking, yet he suspected he would have to do some convincing to get her to agree to stay that much longer.
Maybe he could tell her he needed the reading lessons to go on longer. He laughed at himself. The damn reading lessons—he was learning to read and it made him feel good, but he was paying a price, sitting across from her and looking at her delectable mouth, having her only a few feet away, yet knowing he shouldn’t touch her. It was like putting a kid in a candy store for thirty minutes every night and telling him to look but not touch. Only she was a hell of a lot more tempting than candy.
Matt straightened, put the saw in the bed of the pickup and went back to wade into the creek and pick up a thick log. He would take the big logs up to the house for firewood this winter.
Winter. This would probably be a damned lonely winter after having the Ashlands fill his house this summer.
“Vivian, I want you to stay,” he said aloud. “You’ve got to be more convincing than that,” he told himself. Yet if the lady had decided she wanted to go, he knew he could never convince her otherwise. He knew she would stick to her convictions.
He was late getting home again and decided he would unload the logs from the pickup in the morning. He strode toward the house, his pulse jumping in anticipation of seeing Vivian and her girls. He found them in the yard and looked at Vivian playing with Mary Catherine. Vivian’s long brown hair was tied behind her head with a blue ribbon. She wore cutoffs and a T-shirt and she had gotten her figure back swiftly. She looked cool, beautiful, enticing.
“Hi,” he said, stepping through the gate.
“Matt!” Mary Catherine exclaimed, spotting him for the first time as his gaze met Vivian’s and his pulse jumped.
To his amazement, Mary Catherine
ran to him with outstretched arms. Laughing, he dropped the T-shirt he was carrying and scooped her up to swing her high and then set her on her feet. She threw her arms around his legs and hugged him.
“Mary Catherine, you’ll get all dusty and muddy,” Matt said.
“Don’t care,” she said, and he bent down to pick her up again.
Holding Julia, Vivian waited under the shade of an oak. He picked up his shirt, then carried Mary Catherine as he crossed the yard to Vivian where he set Mary Catherine on her feet. “Is this where I’m supposed to say ‘Hi, honey, I’m home’?”
She smiled. “Lita just left. Supper tonight is cold chicken salad and fruit.”
“Anything cold sounds good. I’ll go wash up. See you ladies shortly.”
Later that night after she had bathed Mary Catherine, Vivian went to the den to find Mary Catherine in Matt’s lap, one of her books in his large hands as he slowly read to her. Vivian carried Julia to sit down in the rocker with her. She was gratified that Matt had progressed enough to read to Mary Catherine, knowing what a triumph reading was for him.
Matt had one foot propped on his knee while he held Mary Catherine in the crook of his arm. She was snuggled up against him, and Vivian thought again how grateful she was to him for erasing Mary Catherine’s fear of men. She knew Mary Catherine would still be shy around strangers, and that was fine, but she no longer had a fear of all males the way she’d had when they arrived.
Matt glanced up at Vivian and then back to the book, just one of his dark, enigmatic stares that always tripped her pulse. He ran his finger along the words as he read. If Mary Catherine noticed that he read slowly, it made no difference to her. The minute he finished, she pulled up another book. “Read this one.”
“It’s bedtime,” Vivian interrupted. “Since we’ve been at Matt’s, you’ve been staying up later than usual and tonight’s been no exception. Now, off to bed.”
