Kate couldn’t stop her shoulders from sinking. She understood. He was a man of honor. His principles trumped his passion.
“Still, I cannot ignore my body or my heart.”
Her breath caught in her throat. “Your heart?”
“
Si,
my heart. I care for you,
bruja
. No matter what lies down the road, I will always care for you.”
She didn’t speak, only watched him. She didn’t believe in love, but at that moment, she so wanted to think it could happen to her.
“You’re like that candy, Kate. The memory of you will be as sweet.”
The way he spoke told her he’d given the subject great thought. He’d weighed it in his mind. This was no rash decision. “I can promise you nothing but myself for the next six days.”
“That’s all I ask.” He took her hand into his and brought her to him.
Kate kissed him, brushing her lips over his. Her heart swelled as she thought about how much he wanted her, how much he cared for her. She was humbled by this man. She turned her head and rested it upon his chest. “You are no longer the man you once were. There is nothing selfish about you, Rick. I’ve never met a man like you.”
He lifted her face to him and placed his lips on hers once again, nibbling before demanding more. He broke the kiss and whispered against her lips. “Thank you.”
Her answer was to brush her lips against his. He tasted good, like all things spicy and forbidden. His tongue darted out to trace her bottom lip ever so slowly, a dance of seduction that took her breath away.
Then sped it up.
He slid his hands down her sides then around her hips, clasping her bottom and tugging her against him. He fit her like a tailored suit. Every seam met where intended. Perfect length, perfect cut. Rick had been designed for loving her.
He groaned against her mouth and took their kiss deeper. She could feel him losing control and thrilled in it. This man did not lose himself often. She would enjoy every minute of watching him surrender to desire.
“Let’s go,” he whispered, all the while letting his hands wander up her back then down again to her bottom.
She sighed against his mouth before trailing her lips down the side of his neck.
“Kate, we’ve got to get to my house. Fast.”
“Yes, we do.” She laughed huskily against his collarbone, before dotting teasing kisses along the hard ridge of his shoulder.
He lifted her up and tossed her over his shoulder.
“Rick!” she squealed.
He slapped her on the butt. “I don’t like to be teased.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Okay, I do.” His laughter floated on the crisp breeze. Her cheek bumped against the hardness of his back. She smiled. She felt so different, so not like herself. Three weeks ago she would have thought it uncool to have a guy tote her over his shoulder. So silly to giggle. To be happy. When had her world grown so narrow that she’d given up wanting to feel the way she did now?
And more important, what had changed?
She wasn’t certain, but she knew at that moment she was the happiest she’d been in a long time. Rick was hers for a whole week. The possibilities seemed endless. Exciting.
“Hey, put me down.” She slapped his bottom. “Though I must say, the view is nice.”
“I’ll put you down on my bed.”
“Okay. That’ll work.”
He called her
bruja
as a joke, but it was no laughing matter. Kate had bewitched him body and soul.
And that had made him think. About his vow and why he still clung to it. Was he the same punk-ass banger he’d been when he’d made that decision? No. The vow had been fulfilled. He was not the man he used to be. In fact, he’d gotten so far away from that man that he couldn’t relate to the guys at the center. No, Rick Mendez had been different for a long time.
So he made the conscious decision to let the vow go.
To take the days he had left with Kate and enjoy them rather than suppress every impulse he had to grab hold of her and make her his.
Kate took his hand and smiled at him. She was so damn pretty. So vibrant. So much a part of his life already.
They walked to where his car was parked.
“Rick!” The door flew open and Vera’s voice cracked the night. “Rick!”
He dropped Kate’s hand and broke into a run toward Vera. Her voice told the story. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
“Oh, Rick, help! Something’s wrong with Justus. I can’t wake him!”
Wicked thoughts vanished as fear struck him. Justus had been upset at dinner. His color had been off. Why hadn’t Rick seen what was right before him? Of course, he knew the answer. He hadn’t been thinking with his head. He’d been thinking with a part much lower.
Vera grabbed his arm as he reached the porch and pulled him inside. “Oh, God, Rick. I think it’s another stroke. He’s unresponsive. He won’t talk to me.”
He pushed past Vera, and before rounding the corner, he turned to Kate. “Call for help and stay with Vera.”
He left both women and pounded up the stairs, wary of what he might find.
“Sit down and get hold of yourself, Vera.”
The woman merely cried harder.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. You’re a strong Southern woman. Start acting like it. Justus doesn’t need you falling apart on him, so snap out of it, sister.”
Kate slid her cell phone from her pocket and dialed 911. She gave the dispatcher as much information as she could before hanging up. She sat with Vera as the woman tried to reign in her emotions.
Finally, she wiped her eyes and straightened. “I’m strong.”
“That a girl,” Kate said, patting her stepmother’s leg before jogging to the front door. It was a long jog. The house was too damned big. She yelled up the curved stairway, “I called 911. They’ll be here soon.”
Rick’s head emerged. “Thanks. I’m bringing him down. Meet me at the elevator.”
Kate glanced at the drive and saw the pulse of the ambulance lights in the distance. The low keen of the siren told her they were still on the county highway but getting closer.
The elevator car clanged into place, chiming as the doors slid open. Rick rolled the chair forward, carefully keeping one hand on Justus’s shoulder as if he were comforting the man.
Her father looked horrible. His skin was pasty, making the partial paralysis of his face look more pronounced. A line of drool had formed a path from his mouth to the rigid collar of his pearl snap cowboy shirt. At that moment, pity and shame tumbled loose, smacking into her like a rock slide.
Had she been the cause of this?
Had her harsh words at the dinner table pushed him over the edge? The past week had been more than stressful. He’d gotten his wish—Kate had stayed at Cottonwood—but she hadn’t made the stay easy. She’d been stubborn and testy at every turn, and though she’d made progress with Vera and had gotten to know her late half brother, she’d turned her back on any opportunity to interact with the man who’d fathered her.
Guilt pooled in her stomach, rising up, threatening to choke her.
Shit. She shouldn’t have been so darned hard on him.
“Okay, Justus. Hold tight. The ambulance just pulled into the drive. I can see the lights from here,” Rick said, maneuvering the chair Justus usually operated with his left hand.
To prove his point, the doorbell sounded.
“I’ll get it,” Kate called, leaping into action and skidding toward the front door, nearly crashing into the Remington sculpture planted right in the middle of the foyer.
She threw the door open. “In here. Hurry.”
The paramedics bustled inside toting a bright yellow gurney and several medical canvas bags no doubt full of lifesaving paraphernalia. She hung back as one para-medic whipped out a clipboard and started asking Rick questions. The other bent over Justus and started taking his vitals. Kate clung to the doorknob, glad she had something to hold on to.
Vera appeared at Justus’s side. The woman had run a comb through her hair, swiped a dash of lipstick across her lips and pulled on a velour jacket. Her expression was determined as she nudged Rick back and took her place beside her husband. The dampness in her eyes had disappeared, replaced with the starch of a true Southern belle.
Kate watched the paramedics lift Justus onto the gurney as carefully as if they balanced a serving tray of the finest crystal. After securing him, they rolled her way.
Kate caught Justus’s eyes as he went past. Those eyes, so like her own, reflected sheer terror. He tried to say something as they lifted the gurney to clear the jamb. She stood stock-still, watching as they rolled the only blood relative she had from the mansion.
Justus struggled to speak again. “Ahhh…m…sah. Ahhhm sa…wee.”
Kate pressed her hand to her mouth.
Dear God. Her heart squeezed so tight and hard that she could physically feel the intensity of it. She dropped her hand to her chest and tried not to cry.
Vera passed her, not looking her way at all. Did the woman blame her? Was she angry over Kate’s reaction in the kitchen? Or was her mind wrapped around the fact that her husband might be dying?
Kate didn’t know. Didn’t have time enough to think about what needed to be said or done. Before she could move, the paramedics had loaded Justus into the ambulance and sped down the long drive.
I’m sorry.
Justus’s words echoed and her head dropped forward as Rick’s well-worn sneakers came into view.
“Kate?” His voice was soft, almost tentative. Not like him. But he seemed to know the emotion rollicking in her belly.
“What?”
“This isn’t your fault.” He placed his hands on her shoulders before sliding them down to cup her upper arms.
A single tear fell upon the mottled marble below. “I know.”
He folded her into his arms. “No, you don’t.”
“I’ve screwed up, Rick. I messed this whole thing up. I so suck.” She whispered this into the softness of his T-shirt. It was a muddy brown color and washed into softness. The front read Turkey Trot 2008. It was an absurd name for a five-k run. She didn’t know why he wore it, other than it looked amazing stretched across his wide torso.
“You don’t suck,” he murmured against her curls, stroking her back. “This whole thing has gotten out of control. Justus, Vera, you and me.”
Kate was silent, allowing Rick to shelter her in his arms. There was nothing left to say, no easy fix. “I should go to the hospital.”
“Of course.”
She looked at him. He seemed so grave. “I’m sorry about…you know…the other thing. About not going to your house.”
He tried to smile. “Maybe it’s best this way.”
Pain zapped her right in the gut. She didn’t want him to say they would have been a mistake, even if it were true. It hurt. She’d wanted to have that part of him, to gather together the memory of his taste, smell, touch—things to treasure in the empty days ahead of her. That was how she now saw her life in Vegas—empty. Nothing was supposed to change. This two-week pause had pivoted her into a new direction, one that had her looking hard at her old lifestyle and wondering what was so terrific about it.
How had everything changed in only days?
But she had changed, and part of her was angry as hell that coming to Oak Stand had caused it.
“Yes, you’re right, of course.” Her words were hollow. She didn’t believe them.
“Okay, let’s get to the hospital.”
Kate nodded and pulled herself from the sanctuary of his arms. Life wasn’t fair sometimes. And Kate was getting rather tired of coming out on the short end of the stick.
“He’s stable,” Rick answered, something Kate didn’t appreciate. She didn’t need a man to speak for her or call her best friend, as if Kate couldn’t handle herself. “but they’re worried about further damage to his organs. Seems they don’t always know the severity of the stroke until several hours pass. Right now his body is still engaging in small strokes, though they’ve given him medication to prevent that. He’s having tests as we speak.”
Kate looked at her friend. “Yeah, what he said.”
Nellie’s green eyes glinted. Even in such a grave situation, she knew Kate, and she knew Kate hated to be grandstanded by a man.
Rick issued a clipped “Sorry,” before heading to triage where Vera had left her jacket. He obviously figured out that she was aggravated. He was intuitive that way.
Nellie and Kate stood alone.
“Are you okay?” Nellie asked, tugging her away from the curtained bay where Vera sat waiting for the staff to bring Justus from the CAT scan.
“Yeah.” Kate shrugged. “Sure. I’m dandy. The man I decide to blackmail just had a heart attack or stroke or something, and I’m fit as a filly.”
“Come on, Kate,” Nellie said, easing her friend into a plastic bucket chair. “You know this has nothing to do with you.”
Kate shrugged. “God, Nell, everything is so screwed up. What am I doing?”
Her friend smiled. “I’ve asked myself that question about you for most of my life. Never could answer it.”
Kate gave a harsh laugh. “I can’t keep anything under control—my finances, my personal life, nothing. I can’t even believe I’m admitting to being weak, but, shit, I am. Me. I’m falling apart. That’s not supposed to happen.”
“It happens to the best of us, Kate. You opened a can of worms when you wrote that letter demanding money. That gets icky.”
She looked at Nellie. “No, shit.”
“But the upside is that you’re finally dealing with your past. You’ve needed to do that for a long time.”
“Why?” Kate stomped her foot like a petulant child. “A month ago everything was good. I was an almost-successful business owner whose only sin was dressing too outlandishly, spending too much money and killing the occasional houseplant. My life was platinum. Now it’s, like, crappy tin or something.”
Nellie laughed but still shook her head. “Maybe, but you’ve been avoiding dealing with yourself for a long time. Coming home is about more than Justus. Or Rick.”
Kate’s head snapped up on its own volition. “Rick?”
“I’m no dummy. I have eyes. And this guy is different from any of the others. You’re not keeping him at arm’s length.”
“He doesn’t seem to let me. He’s always there whether I need him or not,” she groused, rubbing at a pull in her sweater. “And for some reason I don’t want to keep him away.”
Nellie smiled.
“Don’t do that.”
“Sorry, but you’ve always had a bad attitude about falling in love. Almost as bad as the attitude you have about Oak Stand,” Nellie said. Her green eyes shot to Rick as he stepped into the bay where Vera sat waiting for word on Justus.
“Well, yeah. Every time I come back I’m reminded of who I am. Or more like who I’m not. I’m no founding father’s great-great-granddaughter. I’m trailer trash, remember?”
“Oh, please. This again? Let me get out my hammer so I can hack away at that enormous chip on your shoulder. Screw that, I need a jackhammer.”
“Easy for you to say, Nell. You weren’t the resident charity case.” Kate felt her ire grow. It was bad enough she sat in a cracked hospital chair wearing a cheap sweater while lusting after the only man who made her so crazy she’d thrown herself at him to no avail. It was bad enough she’d blackmailed her biological father into another stroke and made Vera cry so many tears she’d needed a hydration IV, but Nellie had to lump in her dissatisfaction with Oak Stand, too.
Give a girl a break.
“You weren’t charity, Kate. The people in this town loved you. Why can’t you see that?”
She blinked at Nellie. “Did you swipe pills from behind the nurses’ desk? Are you hallucinating? People in this town don’t think much of me. Get real.”
“You are so full of crap, Kate Newman. This town loved you. Still loves you. Did you think people took care of you and your grandmother because they didn’t care? Don’t you think they knew your mother had left you to go off with some other man? And that the man who’d fathered you had turned his back on you?”
“Exactly. Charity.”
Nellie shook her head, her disgust obvious. “You look at it from your point of view, not from the people who loved you. Listen. Do you really think the dress that fit you perfectly showed up in the thrift shop two weeks before prom by accident?”
“Huh?”
“Betty Monk ordered that for you based on the one you circled in that damn teen prom magazine. Think she did that because she didn’t like you?”
Kate felt her heart tighten. “What?”
“And remember that trip we took with the church? The one where they suddenly had a spot open? You think that wasn’t planned by the Ladies Auxiliary for months? And that time you got sick and had to go to the hospital? Dr. Grabel helped pay the bill. He gave you more than suckers, Kate. Left and right, the people of Oak Stand loved you, even when you acted like a bitch.”
Nellie rose, pulling her purse onto her arm. “I swear, if I didn’t love you so much and if you weren’t in this mess, I’d kick your butt up between your shoulder blades.”
“Nell—”
Her friend lifted a hand. “Don’t. Just know this. Betty Monk used to always say ‘It takes a town to raise a child.’ And she said that long before Hillary Clinton did. And she meant you.”
Nellie didn’t wait for Kate to reply, she stomped down the hall, never looking back.
At that moment, Kate hated Nellie. Hated her friend for being so damned brutally honest at a time she needed someone to lie to her. She needed someone to tell her everything was going to be okay.
The curtain to the bay opened and Rick stuck his head out. He was checking on her.
Kate bowed her head into her hands.