by Jillian Hart
What if he knew how she felt, what she was thinking? What if he knew she was no virgin? That she'd given more than her heart and her vows to a man who'd left her for another? Shocking behavior for the eighteen sixties. But the hot stroke of this kiss, of his mouth, lush and bliss on hers drained every thought from her brain, every argument from her tongue and softened the bones holding her up.
Good thing his strong, brawny arms had wrapped around hers, holding her steady as the tip of his tongue laved the seam of her lips and before she could open to him, he drew back, stopping the kiss, but not breaking the spell of him, of what he had over her. She blinked and could not stop her entire body, her entire being, from pulsing, squeezing, aching for him, right there, where he was made to be between her thighs, beneath her womb, wrapped in her arms.
She blinked, dazed, opening her eyes and staring up at him. Wow, she wanted to say, but why give him that advantage? The compliment would just make him think she wanted more.
Of course she did. But was it wise? That was a different question. Yes, her libido said, right along with her head, But her common sense said no so she took a step back. "You're looking awfully proud of yourself."
"Yep. See, look around. No witnesses. So that kiss is as good as if it never happened."
"Not entirely. It's something my mouth might never forget."
"Or mine."
That left them both smiling.
He leaned around her and opened the door. "I'll be seeing you around."
"Is that a promise or a threat?"
"Both. Depends on if you want another kiss or not." His good humor brightened the stars above as he handed her the desserts all packaged up. He wisely took a step back out of the reach of lamplight falling around the door frame and onto the boardwalk, where he became full shadow and then nothing at all.
Thud, went her pulse, aching because of him. Her heart filled with a powerful force.
"Hey, you're back!" Mindy's voice surprised her as she pushed the door shut and flipped the bolt into place. "How did it go?"
Footsteps tapped closer, Stella's gait lively. "Judging by the looks of her, it went great."
"She's glowing!"
"Ooh, did he kiss you?" Stella wanted to know, rushing up to check on Frisco's progress down the street, but there was no sign of him. He'd gone from view, cutting across the vacant lot and road, going back the way they'd came.
"I'm betting he did," Mindy speculated. "A real big kiss. Just look at her, she's dazed. And blushing."
"The right kiss will do that." Stella let the drapes fall back into place. "Come on upstairs, tell us all about it."
"Yeah, tell us everything. Every detail."
"Did the boys bring an amphibian into the dining room again?"
"N-no." Jada managed to find her voice and set down the food package carefully. "It was a bird this time."
"I adore those boys." Stella grabbed one hand and Magnolia the other. "Remember how much trouble we got into when we were young?"
"We still do." With a chuckle, Jada found herself being tugged forward up the steps. "I did let him kiss me."
"You are misbehaving something terrible," Mindy teased. "We definitely want to hear all about it. I'll pour some tea."
"Don't go to the trouble, I think there's a crock of hot chocolate in here," Jada said, holding up the paper-wrapped bundle.
"Great. "I'll get the cups," Stella said, and so the merriment began.
* * *
"Psst! Pa!" Aiden tipped his head back all the way and lifted the lantern he held, hoping to get a better view. "Have you fallen down yet?"
"No, and you boys are not to climb up these rocks ever again. Do you understand me?" Frisco tightened his grip on the outcropping of granite boulder to the right of his head and hauled himself upward. The chick buttoned safely in his shirt pocket squirmed, perhaps eager to be closer to home. "Hold on, little fella. I don't want either of us to fall."
"Pa?"
It was Austin this time. Frisco found a place for his left foot and heaved up another few inches. "What's on your mind, kid?"
"Grandmama said we're in big trouble." Austin's heavy sigh carried, despite the warm wind, all the way up to him.
Hard to ignore that. He kept climbing, a bit winded. How had the boys done this earlier? He was exhausted already! But not too tired to joke. "She's not wrong! You boys may never live long enough to escape the trouble you're in now."
"I knew it." Austin sighed.
Aiden groaned. "Are we gonna be grounded that long?"
"Probably. You'll never be able to get married, neither one of you, because you'll have to tell your wives-to-be that you're grounded still. They won't be able to come over with cookies and cakes so you can court them anymore."
"Pa? I don't wanna get married. Girls are nice, but we'd rather have fun with our pony."
"It's true, Pa. By the way, do you know how to steer Chester?"
"Of course I do. I'm a horseman. I train horses. You boys haven't figured out that you don't buy a horse no one can give away yet, huh?"
"He's a pony, Pa."
"That's even worse. I promised you boys a foal each on your next birthday. That's when your uncle and I both got ours, and each of us did a good job raising and training our geldings. That's what I want for you boys."
"But we want to ride now, and Chester just sort of happened. I don't want his feelings to be hurt with getting a real horse. We couldn't disappoint him like that."
"Or not have him not be loved the best anymore," Aiden finished.
"Many a smart person would say that." Frisco rolled his eyes, knowing he'd done something right with his sons. He took a moment to glance down at the two little boys, ringed by lantern light, otherwise alone in the dark front yard. Such sweetness, such good-hearted sons. He knew what mattered in life. "You boys were only joking, weren't you, when you mentioned saving for another pony?"
"Not at all."
"We are dead serious."
"Serious as a hanging judge on Sunday."
"Chester needs a friend, then he'll behave."
Frisco ducked just in time to miss the talons of the father falcon dive-bombing him. The winged papa swung out from the outcropping, sailing in an arc away from the rocks and the nest not far away. "That pony needs training. Then he'll behave."
"Nah, he just needed us."
"But Aiden, that didn't help. He still doesn't behave."
"He will." Aiden nodded with great serious certainty.
"He will, Pa," Austin called out, now that they were both sure.
And wrong. Amused, Frisco reached into his pocket, ducked just in time to lose his hat to the mother falcon, who flew away with it and a bit of his forehead. A drop of blood landed on his cheekbone, but he ignored it, upended the chick into the nest, where his brother squawked at him and his father returned to dig his talon into the back of Frisco's shirt. The fabric tore and hardly took any skin with it. What luck.
He wasted no time sliding down as fast and far as he could go without falling, glad the falcons were more preoccupied with their missing chick returned to them than with the human who was too close to their nest, even if he was rather saving the day.
He rolled his eyes and his boot slipped off the rock, and he hung there, searching with his booted toe for a place of stability. Finding one, he eased down, feeling bright inside, where he'd been dark for so long.
What a night. The boys, the dinner date, the walk alone with her. The kiss. Yeah, he'd kissed her twice. Heat still beat within him. That was never gonna leave, that hunger he felt for her, that driving hot reaction to her. He craved her like air to breathe, like sustenance, like life. Jada was everything he'd ever wanted.
How much would his past matter to her? Then again, didn't everybody know it? Romancing a woman wasn't easy. Hearts could get broken that way. Maybe it was better to take a step back to slow down, gain some control over this, when his libido wanted him to go forward, because Jada truly was quality. All the wa
y. Top drawer.
"Pa?" Aiden asked. "Are you okay?"
"You're bleeding, Pa." Austin's voice went shaky.
"I'm fine, just a little blood. What matters is the chick is back in his nest. Next time, say something before you pluck him off the ground and hide him under your hat."
"I promised not to hide anyone in my pocket, Pa," Austin explained.
"Yeah, the pocket." Aiden nodded.
"We had to save his life." Austin bit his bottom lip.
"Well done." His feet landed safely on the good green earth, and he brushed off bits of grass, dirt and bits of rockery. "Let's go in and get you boys some chocolate. I sent the dessert bundle home with Jada."
But she stayed on his mind. The happiness he'd felt with her this evening lingered like a gift that would never be forgotten. So, how was he going to distance himself from that? How was he going to save his heart now?
Still thinking of her, he smiled and didn't stop.
23
"Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you face to face, Jada." Heather Pratt stood straight and proper in the doorway of the sun-swept store with the busy morning street behind her and one patron who looked hungrily over her shoulder at the bakery display counter and cases and held up his hands helplessly. The barber frowned from his front door all the way down the block.
Jada ignored the stabs of uncertainty knifing into her stomach because of the intimidating woman in the doorway and motioned her aside toward one of the big easy, overstuffed chairs on the sewing side of the shop. Relieved, the patron trotted in and headed straight to Stella at the counter. "One Butterhorn please, pretty miss."
Charmed, Stella grabbed a paper sack and slid the pastry into it. Another customer satisfied and happy.
It was a good feeling. Jada hid her smile, closed the shop's front door and followed Miss Heather Pratt into the sitting area, bracing herself for whatever unpleasantness was to come. "What did you need to see me about, Miss Pratt?"
"Something dire." The woman made an odious face, as if the worst and most disagreeable thing had happened. Then again, this was not an unusual expression for the woman. "Something very severe indeed."
"I'm sorry to hear that. Our rent is paid. Since the debacle with the Hayden twin's pony, I've not allowed any other runaway pony into my store accidentally or intentionally. No wildlife of any kind, no domesticated animal and had no kerfuffle that would interfere with business being conducted in any way, just as our lease states and I've agreed to. So, what could it be?" She eased into the other chair facing Miss Pratt's.
"You know perfectly fine and well what I mean." Heather's frown grew harder. Dislike flashed in her narrowed eyes.
Now what? Jada gave a sigh, resolved to solve whatever trouble this was and gave a sincere nod. "Not many landlords would be so vague, but I can see you are sincere and this, whatever it is, has upset you. What has gone wrong that I don't know about and how can I fix it? My sisters and I would like to stay in business."
"You have a very important morals clause in your contract. Do you know what this might be about now?"
Jada hung her head. "Mindy was not to blame. Bernard was on the premises after hours and at night in the dark and alone, unchaperoned, but she was helping him. He needed to borrow tea for his elderly grandfather. He's not well."
"That's not the issue I'm talking about, but I am very disturbed to hear of it and to learn that you entertain men, for whatever reason, after hours in the dark and all who do usually get paid for it."
"How dare you insinuate such a thing! This is too far, Miss Pratt. You know for a fact it is not true."
"Yes, but I know for a fact that you violated the terms of your lease. I will expect you to vacate immediately." Heather Pratt pushed out of the arm chair and rose to her feet with an angry frown. "I told you that your kind wouldn't amount to much. And I was not wrong."
"But you are. Allowing Bernard to borrow tea is not a violation of anything."
"No, but kissing a man in public is. A man you are not married to. You are not engaged to, and a man who is a despicable example of the virtue of fatherhood and manhood."
"I disagree very strongly about that!" The bell above the door jangled and the hinges whispered open with a slight creak. The warm morning air breezed in, a welcome change from the storm and snow that could happen anytime in these high foothill mountains near the Rockies. A clop-clop on the floor had Jada's heart pumping with adrenaline, instantly knowing something was wrong and instantly what that was.
Miss Pratt screamed. "Get that thing out of here!"
"Chester is not a thing, you mean lady." The truth tumbled off her tongue, and she felt too incensed to hold it back or even attempt to. She'd been polite, she'd been professional and that was over.
If the lease was broken and she could not change the Pratt woman's mind, then they were out of an apartment and out of business, right when they were starting to get a steady and reliable stream of customers coming through and they were breaking even, maybe even making a little profit to add to their savings accounts. Finally!
Jada marched over to the halter-less and without-a-stitch-of-leather-on-him pony and shook her head. "Chester, what are you doing here? And did you open the door all by yourself? However did you manage to do that?"
He grabbed hold of her skirts with his lips and nibbled the fabric delicately. Whatever his answer was, it was not an unkind one. The poor fellow. She couldn't help the swift tug of caring gripping her heart. "Never you mind, no one is upset but the landlord and she's just leaving. Let's step forward and give her room to exit the shop. We rather prefer you to her. Good day, Miss Pratt."
"Well, I've never, never! Never have I heard of such a thing. No one has ever treated me the bad way you have. You will pay for that, dearie!" Miss Pratt was wise enough to dash out the door, narrowly missing Chester's raised rear hoof.
Unable to kick her, now that she'd departed so fervently, Chester lowered his foot and gave an out-blow of breath blow of air, a beloved horse sound that made her and her sisters smile despite the circumstance, although her throat ached watching their landlady through the window as she pounded across the street, angry steps flaring out her fashionable dress.
I should have bit my tongue, but now there is no way to repair this. She hung her head for a moment, wishing the consequences were not so dire, but she'd done the right thing defending the pony. Their business enterprise was over, and here, but she had bigger hopes for work now if it panned out. And worse, a different question troubled her. Who else knew she'd kissed Frisco?
"Come along, Chester, let's get you home." Her heart gave a little thrill at the thought of seeing the man again.
The door flew open with a bang! The bell overheard rang loud, an alarming sound that made Chester lift his tail as if ready to do the very worst for her shop, but before she could move, two blurs dashed into the store.
"No, Chester! No!" they chorused. Aiden huffed to a stop. "You do that outside. We're sorry, Jada, he's not house broken."
"Chester!" Austin implored, giving the pony a push back on the shoulder. "You wait until you're outside."
"Back up," Aiden pleaded with all his might.
Chester's tail arched higher. What sound was emitted was unfit for description in polite company but the next thing that happened would be worse.
"Go backward, please, Chester?" Austin begged, shoving on the pony's shoulder.
"Right now, Chester! Back up! Oh, please back up," Aiden gave the other shoulder a push. "Please, please, please, please, please?"
Since the situation was dire, Jada did what any normal, sane and horse-admiring person would do. "Chester, go forward, please."
The pony reared his head, gave her a surprised look but one full of challenge, and backed up.
"Good boy," she told him. "Forward, please."
He took another backward step and lowered his tail. It was a false alarm, after all. Whew.
"Back again, Chester?" Joel from next door s
imply shook his head. With a needle and thread in one hand, he'd obviously been interrupted in the middle of his work to come out and see what the commotion was. "Does the newspaper know about this?"
Jada shrugged, her gaze zipping straight to the small crowd gathering on the boardwalk and street. Gus, the teamster, drew his horses to a halt in the middle of the way just to get a good look. He shook his head, laughed, tipped his hat and urged his team onward.
"Of course the newspaper knows about this." Jonathan strode forward with a small notebook in hand and a camera man following his trail. "Go ahead and set up for your shot. Boys, turn this way for me and give your best smile. You've made the front page."
"My pa doesn't know we left the house," Aiden confessed.
"Or the barn," Austin added.
"Or the property." Aiden bit his bottom lip. "But we couldn't let Chester be out and about town on his own."
"I forgot the halter," Austin confessed.
"Worry about getting in trouble later, boys," Jonathan advised. "You are fine by me."
"You're a good man, Jonathan. Maybe you can put in the article how we didn't plan on causing trouble."
"We never do," Austin confessed while the pony nibbled his hat brim and then the other boy's. "It just happens."
"Happens and happens," Aiden explained.
"Good, now don't move boys, and Jada, I'm going to interview you and your sisters." Jonathan, strapping and kind, paced over with his long-legged stride and friendly kindness that made her relax, and she laughed.
"An interview? Why, you're too generous you've given us enough free advertising. Why don't we do something for you? Stella, Mindy, do you see what I mean?"
"We'll just do it," Stella promised, gave Mindy a light, playful push and the two disappeared into the kitchen for just a moment while a customer squeezed past.
"Are you still selling pastries? I have a craving for something chocolate covered."
"I'll help you right over here." Jada gestured toward the baked goods counter. "Jonathan, would you like to take a break? Feel free to relax in one of the chairs over there."
"No, I'm happy standing here. This is a fine display. My stomach is rumbling. My mouth is watering. Do I smell fresh coffee?"
