She fished her phone out of her hip pocket when it rang. “It’s Dillon. He calls when he starts down the lane.”
She answered, “Hello. Yes, I’m ready. Meet you on the front porch.”
She popped up off the bed in one swift movement, talking the whole time. “We’re going horseback riding this afternoon and then swimming and he’s staying for supper and then we’re going to work on algebra. God, I hate math but I promise I’ll keep a B in it if I can wear that dress and look like you did. Did you ever notice that we look enough alike we could be cousins? Who knows, maybe I’ll even get some boobs by next year. Gotta run, but you got to tell me more about that spa thing later.”
She’d barely made it out the door when the ringtone on Laura’s phone let her know that her sister was calling.
“Hello,” she said.
“Good God! I couldn’t believe that was you in the picture you took in the bathroom mirror. You looked fabulous! Are you wearing that to the dance next weekend? If you are, I’ll look like a poor stepsister.”
Laura held the phone out from her ear. Janet got loud when she was excited. She couldn’t imagine what happened in the casino when her sister hit a jackpot.
“I’m not wearing that to the dance. I bought a decent pair of jeans and shirt at Ross’s. That’s what I’m wearing that night,” she said.
“Okay, now tell me about the spa and the dance.”
Laura spent the next hour talking to her sister about the weekend. When the conversation wound down, Janet asked bluntly, “Did you sleep with him?”
“I don’t kiss and tell,” Laura told her.
“Which means that you did. Be careful. It would be easy to fall for that kind of security,” Janet said. “See you Friday night. My flight gets in at seven so I should be there about dark.”
Laura changed into a pair of shorts, flip-flops, and a faded baggy T-shirt and headed to her flower beds. With her hands in the dirt, she could solve any problem—personal, global, or even spiritual. She pulled weeds while the soil was damp from the rain, but when she went inside she’d added more problems to the list without solving a single one.
Supper was leftovers from dinner and set up on the buffet. Roxie and Dillon were making ham sandwiches when Laura came in through the kitchen door and washed her hands at the sink. Roxie kept stealing so many glances at Dillon that it was no wonder she couldn’t get the algebra formulas set in her head.
“Colton said to tell you that he and Andy are going over some finances and he’ll catch up to you later. He made sandwiches and took them to the office,” Roxie said. “You want to take your plate to the porch with us?”
Laura shook her head. “I think I’ll take mine to my apartment and have a nice long bath after I eat. I’ve got a big thick romance book I’m reading.”
“Can I borrow it when you are finished with it? I don’t care if it’s contemporary or historical. I just love happy endings,” Roxie said.
“Sure, you can. I brought a whole suitcase of books with me. Come on up and get any that you want, but only after your homework is done,” Laura answered.
“Thanks a lot, Laura.” Roxie’s grin lit up the room.
It was after ten when someone knocked softly on Laura’s door. Thinking it was Roxie coming after a book, she slung it open without stopping to put a robe over her tank top and underpants. Colton leaned on the doorjamb. He looked like he’d combed his hair with his fingers right after a shower and he smelled like soap and Stetson cologne.
“I came to tell you good night, Laura. I know this weekend was kind of surreal and we were both out of our element. In a very different world, I went to bed with a princess and you kind of went to bed with a prince. But if you ever want to sleep with a plain old cowboy, my bedroom door is open. I’ll never pressure you, but I’m the door at the end of the landing.”
He slipped an arm around her waist, drew her to his chest, tipped up her chin with his knuckles, and kissed her hard. “Good night, Miz Cinderella.”
He turned and walked down the steps leaving her standing there with her fingers on her lips. Prince, her ass! He was the king when it came to setting a woman on fire with his kisses.
On Monday Laura spent the whole day at the dining room table with Maudie. Between them, they called several caterers in Sherman, a couple in Denison, and one in Bonham before they found one who was free to work all day on such short notice. They’d barely gotten their notebooks off the table when Andy Joe, Rusty, and Colton came in for dinner.
Chester had made lasagna that beat anything Laura had ever had before. Not even the Italian restaurants in Amarillo could produce anything that would touch it. He’d put together slabs of Italian bread smeared with red sauce, topped with grated mozzarella cheese and diced tomatoes, along with herbs that he grew in pots on the windowsill. And there was tiramisu for dessert.
The guys talked about the new crop of alfalfa they’d put in and how that if the summer wasn’t too hot they might get at least two more cuttings of hay. Thank God! Because the previous summer had been so miserable hot that they’d had a poor crop and had to buy hay before the winter was out.
“Y’all gettin’ the party ready?” Colton asked as they all three pushed back their chairs.
“We’ve got the caterer. Now we’ll call the folks who bring the tables and dishes,” Maudie answered.
“You get the wheelbarrows ordered?”
“It’s on my list.”
“Wheelbarrows?” Laura asked.
He kissed her on top of the head as he left. “For the games. See y’all at supper. Save me some time this evening. We’ll go get a snow cone.”
She meant to ask about the games, but she got so busy helping Maudie that she forgot until midafternoon when Janet called.
Laura filled her in on the day and said, “And there’s games that will be played from noon until suppertime. You got someone in particular you want to get paired up with?”
“Got any more billionaires floatin’ around?” Janet asked.
“Not that I know of, but Roxie is in charge of fixing up the partners and she wants to borrow my dress for next year’s prom so I reckon I could fix you up with a good-lookin’ cowboy.”
“I’ve had it with good-lookin’. I want someone who’ll walk a mile barefoot in crushed glass just to get to kiss my ass,” Janet said.
“I might be able to arrange that.” Laura laughed.
She had barely hung up the phone when she got a text from Colton saying that he and the guys would be working until midnight in the hay fields. Would she take a rain check on the snow cone date?
Date!
The word sent her into such a tailspin that her thumbs shook as she sent back a text saying that was fine. She was still trying to wrap her mind around him saying they were going on a date when Roxie knocked on the office door.
“Come in,” she yelled.
The girl looked like she was going to burst into tears any minute.
“What’s going on? Please don’t tell me Rosalee has made another voodoo doll,” Laura said.
Roxie threw a spiral notebook on Laura’s desk. “I’m having trouble with this blasted game thing. I thought it would be so much fun but it is giving me a headache. I don’t like playing matchmaker and I’m never doing it again, even if I did make over a hundred dollars off Rusty and Andy.”
It took them thirty minutes to arrange the partners and when she left she was giggling. Rusty now was hooked up with Laura’s sister. Cynthia had the preacher, and the married men who worked on the ranch would work with their wives. Of course, Roxie was with Dillon and Laura was with Colton.
The rest of the day went by in a blur. She and Andy had a whole new program to install and get set up before the fiscal year started. After supper, she excused herself and dragged her tired body up the stairs. She should have spent two hours in the flower beds, but she was brain-dead, which was every bit as exhausting as being weary of body. She took a long, hot bath, picked up a book, and was well into a juicy sex scene when someone knocked on her apartment door.
Roxie must be having trouble with the game pairing again. She swung open the door to find Colton leaning against the doorjamb, for the second night in a row.
“I missed you today. I know we go our separate ways until supper, but I missed that little bit of time with you.”
“Colton, are you romancing me?” she asked bluntly.
His arms drew her close to his chest. “I’m just statin’ facts and gettin’ my good-night kiss. You take it anyway you want to.”
She rolled up on her toes and met him halfway for the kiss that sent basketball-sized sparks bouncing all the way to the full moon.
“See you tomorrow, Laura.” He whistled all the way across the backyard, leaving her standing on her tiptoes and wishing she could follow him.
***
On Tuesday, Maudie had the notebooks on the table at breakfast when Laura arrived. Andy shoved back his plate and informed her that she’d be helping with party arrangements that day so she wouldn’t be in the office at all.
“What color scheme do you think? We did green last year but I’m thinking something brighter this time,” Maudie asked.
“Red, white, and blue. The party is just two days after July Fourth. We could hit the fireworks stands the day after the real holiday and buy up their leftovers at a good price and have a fireworks show at midnight,” Laura said.
Maudie tilted her head to one side and looked at her notes. “Now why didn’t I think of that? It’s a wonderful idea. And you can wear the red dress you bought for the Dallas party and didn’t use.”
“I thought I’d just wear jeans like everyone else.” That prickly feeling on the back of her neck returned. What did these people have up their sleeves now?
“You are the girlfriend. You should stand out, and besides, there will be photographers here to take pictures for the area newspapers. It will be great. We’ll drape the walls in navy blue. That will be a better background for your blond hair. We’ll use white tablecloths and get the florist in Sherman to put together red, white, and blue carnation bouquets.”
“In mason jars,” Laura added.
“Oh, I like that better than vases. And maybe instead of drippy candles we’ll use oil lamps. I bet the catering service can come up with those.” Maudie made notes in her book. “I’ll tell the caterers to wear red bow ties and the bartenders to wear red vests. This is going to be the best party ever.”
At noon they finished the last of the arrangements and Laura was free to go back to the office, but Andy said that he had things under control.
“You might ask Colton if he’s got a tractor that needs a driver this afternoon,” Andy said.
She felt like a bird set free from a cage when she hopped up into the tractor’s seat. She turned the switch and the hum of the motor turning over was music to her ears. She pulled the lever to drop the disc that would turn over the rich black soil and slipped a Blake Shelton CD into the player before she shifted into gear.
Life was good again. She liked driving and being outside. That’s why she’d stayed in the greenhouse business so long. After her vo-tech classes in high school, she could have easily gotten a job as a data entry processer in the computer department of a large firm. But she loved the smell of dirt and new plants. She liked watching something grow from a seed and selling lovely plants to the customers.
She had thought that maybe Aunt Dotty would leave the little ranch she owned to her and Janet when she passed. But she’d left a will saying that it was to be sold and all the proceeds given to her church. Apparently, raising the two girls was enough inheritance.
Blake sang the same song that she and Colton had danced to on Saturday night and she thought about turning the tables. Who was he when she wasn’t looking? She’d had sex with him, danced with him, and even slept with him, but something said that she hadn’t tasted all his cookin’ yet, either.
“Do you listen to your music loud or soft and do you think of me when you hear this song?” she asked when Blake asked similar questions in the lyrics.
Nothing had prepared her for the upheaval that had shaken her world apart the past month. She thought back on that day when her last resort was to call Andy. She and Janet were across from each other in the booth. She’d figured Janet needed rent money or maybe fifty dollars to tide her over until payday, but she’d never thought of her needing ten thousand dollars.
The news had been delivered and Janet had fled the scene. The only person she could think of was Andy. They’d been to the family reunion back in April and he’d told her over a couple of cold beers that he was still working for a rich cowboy who had been his best friend forever. He’d laid down the conditions for the loan and offered her a job to pay it back all in one breath. It was fate and even though it could be a bitch at times, it had saved her sister’s hide that day.
It had brought Laura to the Circle 6 two days later.
Was it going to be a fickle bitch and break her heart?
***
Daisy curled up in Laura’s lap on the front porch after supper and a big white duck waddled up the steps to rest beside her chair. It had to be the duck she’d heard about. He seemed docile enough and acted like he owned the place—a whole lot like Daisy did.
It was therapy to watch the sun go down, rub the cat’s yellow fur, and listen to purring while the duck put in his opinion with an occasional quack. She wished that was all it took to solve her trust and commitment issues, but like Aunt Dotty used to say, “If wishes and buts were candy and nuts, you’d all have a Merry Christmas.”
“Whatever that means,” she told the animals.
Daisy purred a little louder.
Donald gave his biggest quack of the night.
The front door swung open and Colton sat down in the rocker beside her. “I guess Daisy told Donald about you and he’s come to see if she’s right. I think he might like you.”
“Why wouldn’t he like me? I don’t kick animals,” she said.
“No, you just throw them out into the hay when they put a half-dead mouse on your bare leg.”
She smiled. “Well, there is that. But I forgave her because I’m a sucker for cats.”
“Think you’d hurt her feelings if you shoved her off your lap and came out to the gym with me? I need a spotter. Andy is knee-deep in figures and Rusty has gone into town for the wheelbarrows and stuff for the games. I need to work the tension out of my muscles tonight.”
She set the cat to one side. “I could use a good run on the treadmill. Let me get my shoes.”
“I’ll wait right here.”
Twenty minutes later she was standing over him while he raised the weights up and down in ten unit reps before putting them back in the rack. On the tenth time she thought she’d have to help him but he managed without her. He sat up on the bench, wiped his face with a towel, and nodded toward the machinery.
He picked up a bottle of water from the cooler in the corner and drank the whole thing. “I’m going to ride the bike a few miles while you run.”
She stepped onto the treadmill, set it to a nice comfortable trot to warm up, and after five minutes hit it to speed up to five miles an hour. Five more minutes and she poked the buttons to do six miles an hour. That wasn’t as fast as she could run, but it got a good heavy heartbeat going.
When she’d run thirty minutes at that rate she slowed the speed twice back to a jog and then turned it off. While he finished his bike run, she used the Gazelle, a ski-type machine that exercised the arms and upper body as well as her legs.
They were both panting at the end of the session and with a wave of the hand he said, “Might as well do ten minutes in the sauna to burn the soreness out. Grab a bottle of water and I’ll meet you there.”
“Want me to bring one for you?”
“No, I just drank a whole one. My stomach won’t hold anymore now.”
She set her water on a small table right inside the door and stripped out of her clothing, leaving it all lying on the floor. She grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her body and stepped into the steamy room. Wide benches against the walls circled the room. The floor was tile and cool on her feet.
“That doesn’t make a bit of sense,” she said.
His voice came through a fog of steam as he entered the room. “What? The cold floor?”
“Yes,” she answered.
“I’m not sure how they did it but I didn’t want the tile to be hot on my bare feet so I told them to make it cool. It’s got something to do with a system up under the floor. They had to build it up in order to put it under there.”
She sat down on a bench and he joined her. Moisture rolled off his body worse than when he was lifting weights. She tried to listen to what he was saying but he was so damned sexy sitting there all wet and silky looking. There was nothing but a towel between what she wanted to touch and her fingers. Temptation in a sauna with a sweaty cowboy—lord, she did not have a halo or wings. It wasn’t a bit fair.
“I want to kiss you so bad I can taste it,” Colton said abruptly.
“And?” she whispered.
“I’m dripping sweat.”
She padded over to the door and pushed the button to lock it. She threw one leg over his and eased down on his lap, being very careful that she didn’t slip off to either side.
Cupping his face in her hands, she brought his mouth to hers. His hands reached out to touch her cheeks and his tongue teased her wet lips open.
“I want you,” he said.
“In here?” she asked.
“On the cool floor with the steam all around us. I’ve wanted you ever since we got home from Dallas.”
Her pulse raced. “Sounds kinky.”
“I don’t do kinky, darlin’. Plain old mind-boggling sex like we had in Dallas is fine with me.”
He slid onto the floor carefully, keeping her on his lap and leaned back against the bench. “Feels pretty good on a naked butt as well as on the feet.”
She slipped off his lap and sat down on the cool floor. The sensation was unreal. Cold tile, hot steam.
He tugged at her towel, rolled it up into a pillow, and gently laid her on the floor, placing the towel under her head. “You are addictive, Laura Baker.”
He snuggled up next to her and traced her lips with his fingertip.
“You look like a Greek god with dark hair and green eyes.” She brushed his hair back away from his sweaty forehead.
He kissed the tip of her nose. “Your hands anywhere on my body make me so damned hot it’s unbearable.” He moved down and kissed each breast.