Michaela looked over at the long buffet table. She shook her head. “There’s no way the people running these dances are making any money.”
“I don’t think making money is the point,” Randy said.
“No, it’s probably not.” No one had said anything, but Michaela had the impression that several members of the families in Lusty were very well heeled.
She hadn’t ever met anyone who was really rich, but she’d taken a few meetings, when she worked in graphic design, with business owners who thought themselves above everyone else. She guessed if she thought about it, that was how she’d expect really rich people to behave.
But maybe they didn’t all behave that way.
Good food and good conversation. Michaela couldn’t remember the last time she’d enjoyed herself so much at what essentially was a community event. When the band announced their final set, Lewis and Randy each took one of her hands.
“So, the big question. Do we split the dancing, or will you take us both on at the same time?” Lewis asked.
She looked around the room. Once more the lights had been dimmed, and people were dancing. A few couples, but several triads, and even a quad or two.
She turned back to the guys. “I’m here with you both. So why shouldn’t I dance with you both? I thought it would be weird. But it wasn’t weird.”
“No,” Randy said. “It wasn’t.”
Michaela sighed, and even when the group began to sing Luke Bryan’s “Knocking Boots,” she found that the rhythm and the coordination were just right. The next few songs passed far too quickly. Then the lights came up, and she knew the evening was over.
“We’ll walk you out.”
Michaela found herself wishing she hadn’t made such a big fuss about arriving on her own. She nearly changed her mind.
If you let them come home with you, they won’t leave till morning. That was true, and while she was nearly certain they were headed to that destination sooner rather than later anyway, it didn’t have to be tonight.
She said goodnight to her friends and then walked between Lewis and Randy, each of them holding one of her hands, toward her car.
“What shift are you on tomorrow?” Lewis asked.
“The later one. I have a bit of work I want to do finish off at the house, first thing. I’m nearly done the porch, and I have one piece to fix on the inside front door frame. I’d like to get that out of the way before I head to work.”
“Busy woman.”
“I want to get the place fixed up,” Michaela said. “I kind of feel like I owe it to my great-greats. And to me. I owe it to me.”
Lewis and Randy traded a look. They moved, just a little, and warmth filled her. Somehow, they’d cocooned her between them, and she liked that feeling—a lot.
“We can understand that, baby girl.” Lewis reached out and stroked the side of her face with one finger. A shiver coursed through her. Then he used that finger to lift her chin.
“This was just our first date. There’ll be more. But right now, we’re going to kiss you goodnight.”
“Oh, goody.”
Lewis smiled and laid that smile right on hers, and it was a perfect fit.
Michaela felt as if Lewis’s smile melted into hers. His tongue stroked, and she opened, and the flavor, the taste of him, flooded her, body and soul. They drank from each other, sipping, lapping, a sweet and yet sexy-as-hell little dance that felt so good, so right, she wondered how she’d been able to exist up until now.
A sound emerged that came from some place deep down, a place that, until now, had been hidden away, languishing. Her arms rose on their own whim. Her hands slid along his arms to his shoulders as her arms wrapped around his neck. The heat of his body and the press of his erection slayed any doubt she might have had this was mutual. She burned, but he burned right along with her.
Lewis raised his head, but before Michaela could protest, she was turned and tucked into Randy’s body.
He didn’t bother with a finger. He just dipped his head and covered her mouth with his own. Warm, wet, and wonderful, his flavor blended with Lewis’s on her tongue, and she tasted heaven. Then he plundered, using lips and tongue to treat her to a deep, soulful seduction. She felt every bone in her body begin to melt. She clung to him, and when Lewis, as if sensing her moment of surrender, braced her back, she whimpered and began to seriously fall for them both.
“God Almighty.” Randy’s hoarse, heart-felt whisper brushed her very moist and very sensitive lips.
“Yeah.” Lewis’s agreement bolstered her. “We’ll see you at the roadhouse tomorrow. Save us a few minutes of your break so we can set up our next date.”
“I will.” They held her a moment longer, their embrace a step back from steamy. The sound of footsteps approaching should have acted like a bucket of ice water.
There was enough light in the parking lot to let her see their faces. These men who’d just shown her that she’d never been kissed until tonight looked at her with tenderness—and yes, lust.
But it was the tenderness that stayed with her as she drove, with Shar beside her and Jesse and Barry following behind, back to her house.
And it was the tenderness that, half an hour later, wrapped around her and followed her into sleep.
Chapter Six
“Are you going to drop in for supper later, Tammy?” Michaela held her cell phone to her ear as she stood back and examined the entire front porch. She’d just nailed in her last boards, and the structure was ready for stain.
That would make it look better, because there was a difference in the shades of wood now. She’d been told that the right stain would make all the difference.
“Not today. Charlie and I are working a double. That’s not as bad as it sounds. It just means we’re bunking here at the firehouse overnight. Sundays are generally quiet, anyway.”
“I bet they are. Still, I think it’s a comfort to everyone in town and surrounding areas to know that there are paramedics on duty, twenty-four-seven.”
“I hope so. It sometimes doesn’t seem as if there’s enough work for all four of us, but then we have days like the fire day last month. And on those days, I totally get it.”
There’d been a bad grass fire that had hit a few miles south of town near the end of May. Fire crews from other parts of Benedict County as well as a few from Hamilton County had answered the call. Some of the firefighters had needed medical care. On that day, all of Lusty’s paramedics had worked, and worked hard.
“I don’t think you need to worry about your job, Tammy.”
Michaela grinned, and she guessed her friend could hear her smile in her words when she chuckled.
“Not unless I make a play for a couple of wranglers someone else is interested in.”
Michaela wanted to chuckle but couldn’t. “Interested is a good word. Let’s just keep it at that for now.”
“You’ve got it. Anyway, don’t feel sorry for me. Charlie’s cooking supper tonight, so that’s a bonus. I’ll chat with you later. Work safe.”
“I always do.”
She slipped her cell phone into her pocket then nodded at the porch. The stain would come after the house had been painted. That way, if she made a complete mess with the paint, she could sand it off the porch and then stain it.
Michaela had another couple of hours before she needed to be at the roadhouse, so she went inside the house to attack the final repair for the day. Somehow, a piece of the doorframe on the front door had been damaged and needed to be replaced. The damage wasn’t extensive, so the piece she’d need to replace it with wasn’t very big.
As she’d done for the porch repairs, Michaela had scanned a few YouTube videos, to see how to do the job that needed doing. She considered herself fortunate that the piece of the frame that was broken wasn’t on the hinge side of the structure. In her estimation, that made it less tricky and less heavy lifting, as the door didn’t need to be taken off its hinges.
There were a few things s
he’d need to hire a professional for. But she wanted to do as much of the work as she could, first, on her own. When she hired a professional, she would have an accumulated list for him—or her—to tackle.
Michaela used a ruler and a pencil to mark the piece she would cut out. It didn’t take her long to use her oscillating tool to cut above and below the damage so she could remove it. She measured the size of the hole that was left so she’d know the size to cut to fill it. Then she headed out to the barn to cut the piece of wood she’d need.
The heat of the day was rising, but for the most part, Michaela enjoyed the heat. The house had a few window air conditioners, and that was certainly a blessing. Eventually, she’d install the central air.
As she measured the piece of one-by-six she was going to cut for the doorframe, her gaze slid over to the pair of gloves Lewis and Randy had given her. She’d used them, but as she’d promised, she’d gotten her own pair, among other things. And Trace had been right. Her hands might be sweaty, but the gloves allowed for a good grip of whatever tool she was using.
She clamped the board on her worktable and measured it again. Satisfied that her marks were true, she slipped her safety glasses into place and then proceeded to cut the piece she needed. Since this was the last time that she’d use the saw today, she unplugged it, set it on the shelf, and then carried her twelve-and-a-half-inch long piece of board back to the house.
She’d already brought the nail gun and small compressor inside after she’d finished the porch. The gun lay on one of her father’s old-style TV tables that she was using as a tool rest. Now, she set the freshly cut wood down beside it. Since this was a new task, she headed over to the dining room table, where she’d left her laptop, to review the video once more.
The videographer mentioned something she’d forgotten. “Wood filler. I’ll have to head to the hardware store in Gatesville and get some of that.” Confident that she knew what she was doing next, she picked up her piece of wood and headed to the doorframe of the house’s front door. She was able to slide the piece of wood into place. If wood filler succeeded in filling the cracks, then she’d be fine. There was a slight bit of room at the edges—not too much, but enough so that was easily able to set the piece of wood in place.
Gloves on, Michaela turned on the compressor, and picked up the nail gun. She adjusted the new wood, grateful it was going in at about eye level. She had a ladder but preferred solid ground under her feet when using the nail gun.
One nail above and then one below. She knew where the stud was and had the freshly cut wood lined up perfectly.
She placed the nose of the gun above her hand, exactly where she needed the nail to go, and pulled the trigger.
Time slowed. For the first time ever, the gun jumped in her hand, leaving the surface of the wood, just like the recoil in a real gun before slamming back again, but not quite to the spot it had been. Michaela blinked, and then she screamed.
* * * *
Randy was enjoying himself, and he could see that Lewis was, too. They hadn’t expected an invitation to brunch at Ari, Cord, and Jackson’s, because he knew their cousins were visiting with Uncle George. But when the call came, of course, they went.
Being with family helped him keep his mind off sexy Michaela. Of course, he also thought of her as sweet Michaela and smart Michaela. He just thought of her and the power she had over him, to draw him to her without even trying. He had no defenses against her. They’d only had one date, but he wanted her so badly he didn’t know how long he could play it cool. He truly liked everything about her—not just her appearance, which had been the first pull. But her sense of humor and her sense of duty both called to him. And holding her in his arms, dancing with her? She’d melted into him, and he’d hardened. They hadn’t spoken about that, but they’d shared a few looks that told him all he needed to know. It was hard not to pine for the next date with her.
The best thing of all was that he knew Lewis was smitten just as much as he was. That woman is the answer to my prayers.
Family chatting all around him helped him to tuck Michaela—well, thoughts of her—into a corner of his mind.
Cord, Jesse, and one of Addison’s husbands, Mike, had done a lot of the cooking. Ari and Shar—who had announced she was expecting her second child, due sometime in the middle of January about a week before Patrick’s second birthday—had been allowed to do a bit of the prep work, but the men kept close tabs on them both.
Ari shook her head at the way her husbands craftily, in Randy’s opinion, managed to keep her from doing much of anything.
“I had the babies in March. This is July. I am fully recovered.”
“Of course you are, Red,” Cord said.
“We just like to take care of you, Tinkerbell.” Jackson said. The men grinned at her and continued on doing what they were doing, which was, Randy mused, most definitely the Benedict way.
George shook his head at the by-play between his oldest sons and the daughter-in-law he clearly adored. “I didn’t tell any of you, but I guess I should have. I hired a live-in housekeeper.”
His uncle’s announcement surprised him, because Benedict men tended to be hardheaded and not admit when they needed help. Looking around the table, he could see that the announcement had surprised his sons and his daughter, Addison, too.
“When was this?” Jesse asked.
“Shortly after the last court date,” George said. “I can manage the work of the ranch with the couple of hands I’ve hired, but the house? I’m getting too old to do it all. Anyway, her name is Carolyn Newsome, and she’s a widowed mother with a twelve-year-old son. Her husband was a Special Forces member who died in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan four years ago.”
“How’s she working out?” Addison asked.
“She’s a good cook, she keeps the place spotless, and she’s got her son, John, doing odd jobs around the house, too. So far, it’s working out well.”
“Maybe you can make a ranch hand out of the boy,” Ari said.
“We’ve talked about it, some. Carolyn said that he’d been flirting with trouble in the form of the wrong crowd in Billings the last couple of years. That’s why she took the job with me. Room and board are part of the deal, and we’re pretty isolated—at least for a twelve-year-old. She thought an environment without the temptations of the city would be the best thing for him right now.”
“Aw, he’s probably missing his dad, as well,” Shar said.
“I was going to talk to you about that, sweetheart. That’s what I figured too,” Uncle George said. “I wouldn’t mind a few pointers. He’s a good kid, and I like him. I want to be someone who can be there for him, but I don’t want to mess it up or over step.”
“Sure, we can talk after we’re done here, Dad.” She looked at her sisters-in-law. Randy wasn’t ashamed to admit, if only to himself, he had no idea what their sly looks were about.
Women, he’d decided long ago, were complicated.
The Sunday lunch served had been delicious. Randy approved of the way the guys pitched in and that babies were passed around to be held or played with. George currently held one of the twins, and Randy couldn’t ever remember his uncle looking happier.
The man was headed to Divine the next day to stay for a bit with Veronica and her husbands, one of whom was the sheriff there. Jackson got up to organize the beginning of the cleanup. He and Lewis pitched in, carrying empty serving dishes and plates into the kitchen, and bringing a fresh pot of coffee as well as a platter of banana bread and cookies back to the table.
Once they were all sitting back down again, Uncle George turned his attention on them. “You boys haven’t had any luck yet, finding a place?”
“No, sir, not yet,” Randy said.
“We’ve gone to inspect a few ranches that looked good online,” Lewis said. “But so far we haven’t had much luck.”
“We’ve got a few more feelers out. We’re planning to go next weekend down to San Marcos, have a look at a
couple of places near there.” Randy shrugged. “We’ll find it. In the meantime, we like being able to help out around here.”
“We like that too,” Cord said. “We’d like it better if you’d let us pay you.”
“You just fed us, didn’t you?” Lewis asked.
“And we’re staying with Parker and Dale, so that’s room and board.”
“Stubborn, that’s what you are,” Jackson said.
“What they are,” Addison said, “is typical Benedict males.”
That got a bit of a chuckle even out of Uncle George. Addison, who was holding one of Ari’s twins, Jameson David, who everyone called Jamie, just grinned.
“At first, I couldn’t understand why all of my kids decided to stay down here.” George cradled little Tony, whose full name was Anthony George. Then he looked over at Ari, and then Shar, and finally his sons-in-law, Mike and Terry.
Randy saw genuine affection between all of them. It put a lump in his throat. He missed his mom more than his dad, but he hoped that one day he’d know a moment like that with both of his folks.
“But now I believe this is the place they’re meant to be,” Uncle George said. He turned his gaze on Randy and Lewis. “So you two keep on looking for the place that’s meant to be yours. The one that feels like it’s where you belong. You’ll find it.” He huffed out a bit of a laugh. “In the years to come, if my brothers say a word about any of their kids deserting them, I’ll remind them of the bad decisions they’ve made. Folks won’t stay if you make them feel unwanted—and that damn well includes offspring.”
Jackson’s cell phone chimed, and he picked it up and looked at the call display. He smiled and took the call.
“Hey, Grandma Kate. How are you?” He listened and then said, “Yes, they’re both here.”
A chill traveled down his spine when Jackson met his gaze. “Thanks for calling. I’ll tell them.”
He set the phone down. “Grandma wanted you to know that the paramedics are taking Michaela to the clinic. She’s had an accident at her ranch.”
Love Under Two Mavericks Page 6
