“I wasn’t doubting that. I can see how much she loves you and it’s obvious you worship her. She is so uninhibited, so free. Her laughter just rolls out and her eyes sparkle.” She was remembering her own childhood. Rules, regulations…love but cool, cool love.
“At first a lot of people were critical of my insisting on keeping her. Mother’s love and all that. My parents raised me and I like the way they care for her. She’s happy.” He scowled into the darkness.
“Don’t be so defensive, Wes. Anyone can see she is. I think it’s wonderful. So many times the children are deprived of a father’s love and believe me I know it’s as important as a mother’s. Sharing is a wonderful answer. How long have you and Katie been back at the ranch?”
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“Six months. The divorce was final over a year ago. Her mother doesn’t come by nearly enough. Katie doesn’t understand.”
In the darkness of the cab of the pickup truck, Victoria reached over and put her hand on his arm.
“Someday she will. And maybe someday your wife will realize what she’s throwing away. A child couldn’t wish for a better environment. Bring her to work with you sometimes. I’ll keep her company for a while.”
He braked for a stop light and turned in his seat. “I’d like that. She needs…my mother isn’t able to get out and play ball or run around in the fields…but you could.”
“Green light,” she told him, because she was very close to leaning closer and kissing that very kissable mouth. He knew loneliness, too. She saw it in his eyes if only for a fleeting second.
Wes turned his attention back to driving. She sat back, keeping her eyes on him. “Watching and being around your Katie gives me a chance to feel things I’ve never felt before…do things that were forbidden, like sitting in a white dress in the dirt and digging with a spoon without fear of punishment. My mother loved me, too, but she had very odd ideas about raising a child. It would be good for me. I had a very stiff and stuffy upbringing. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“A sister. She used to be a real pest, but now she’s married, living in California with her husband and five kids. A brother. Career military. He should be home for a visit soon.”
“I wish I’d had at least one. Pest or not.”
“I’m glad you’ve decided to lighten up. You sure had no use for me when I first arrived. I understood it, but it still bothered me. Buck has been a good friend for a long time. He asked me to…offered me this job at a time when I needed
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something nontaxing. Right now I’m unsettled. I just need space for a while. I need to think about my goals and directions.”
“Did something specific happen to cause you to put your life on hold?”
He shifted in the seat as if he was fast becoming uncomfortable.
They were driving across the field and coming to a halt in front of the hotel.
After he turned the ignition off and pushed the lights in, they were both enveloped in shadowy darkness. He put his arm across the back of the seat and looked, unseeingly, through the dirtied windshield into the night.
“I think it must be a combination of things. I watch my daughter grow and as she does I realize that life is passing me by. My job wasn’t holding my attention. I felt Katie was losing something being at the sitter’s all the time and then being alone with me in that small house in town. She needed a woman to braid her hair and get the rubber bands to stay in. She needed the smell of just-baked chocolate cookies fresh from the oven that she could help make. The police force needed a cop who could devote his attention to the job. I realized I wasn’t that man the day we had some drug runners cornered down in Redwood. We were exchanging gunfire and I found myself daydreaming and thinking about Katie ending up without a father as well as a mother…so.”
“So you quit your job and moved back home with your daughter and you feel guilty about it.”
“I quit before I became too bitter and hardened. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t trust women. I haven’t met one since my divorce who didn’t have something already on her mind, an idea already formed of who her next man was to be, except maybe you. I always felt like a fly caught in a web with the big spider using a magnifying glass to see every hair on my leg. I had to make a change. And yes, I feel guilty about leaving a job I was good at just because I couldn’t balance everything. I should have been able to.”
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“Maybe you ask too much of yourself. And then I pitched a fit when Buck hired you. It wasn’t you, personally. I just wanted to show him I could do something beneficial for Glory Town by making a good selection on my own.
Like it or not, he has to realize I’m here to stay.”
“You have a real problem with proving yourself. No one is really doubting you but you. Buck is old and set in his ways, and where he comes from, a woman’s place is in the kitchen…pregnant. Give him some time. That’s all it’s going to take is time. He’ll come around.” He watched her carefully, seeing a tiny little bit of apprehension.
He tucked a curl behind her ear. His touch jerked her from her calm reverie and reminded her how close she was to him. He seemed to fill the cab of the truck as he slid around on the seat and looked at her. “Personally, I’m glad you’re staying. Your exuberance is catching. The men respect you. Nick worships you. Buck will stop being a threat. He’s an old-timer. A dinosaur. He’ll just be slow about it and never admit it out loud.”
“You like him a lot, don’t you?”
“Never met a simpler, kinder man. He and my dad go back a long way.”
“I like him, too, but I also will never say it out loud. I don’t think he could handle it. He’s real. He never once tried to hide the fact that he wasn’t happy with my decision to live here. We’ll work it out.”
He leaned forward, laying his warm mouth on hers. “Maybe a lot of things can be worked out.”
Each time he had kissed her, it had been gentle and quick. It wasn’t enough.
She wanted to throw her arms around his neck and pull him to her and keep him there. Never had she been around a man who caused her blood to thunder through her veins or spin tornadoes full of butterflies into her stomach. She wondered, only briefly, how emotions could change so quickly. She wanted, just
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once, to sit back and just simply see how things would turn out if she jumped in without testing the water. But she wasn’t quite ready yet.
He felt his gut contract as his mouth came down on hers.
A mere touch of her mouth had him wanting and needing more. He drew his arms in, pulling her close. He knew that all this was a purely biological reaction…but his heart, the one that was thudding soundly against his rib cage, was sending new, untried emotions through him. He had vowed to find a way around becoming involved with a woman again, but she was different from any he’d ever known before.
Beneath her resentful, prideful facade, he sensed a very warm, giving, and trusting lady. He’d gotten peeks of it at different times and been enthralled. But trusting
that was going to be a hurdle to get over. And when she found out, would she ever trust him again? He deepened the kiss, teasing her tongue with his own.
She changed the angle of the kiss, knowing she should stop. Her heart cried out for more while her brain denied the wisdom of it. Her bones melted. She wondered if she would ever stand again. Wes pulled her across his lap to cradle her head in his arms. She could feel the rough brush of his jeans against the soft cotton of her dress. She felt the hard push of his belt buckle against her stomach.
He broke the kiss, only to trail his lips down her cheek, her jaw, and to taste the pulse point at her throat.
Her hands dived into his hair, knocking his hat back. She pushed at it until it rolled across them to land on the floor. His fingers were at the neckline of her dress, brushing fiery points of light against her skin. She wanted this to go on forever. David had touched her. They had made love. But nothing, nothing had ever been like this. Almost unable to breathe, she pulled away from him. But he 94
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wouldn’t let her sit up. Instead he clamped her tightly against him and just watched her.
His eyes were darkened by passion. His mouth was wet from hers. Hair, usually trapped beneath a Stetson, fell across his forehead. His chest rose and fell quickly, proving his restraint. Beneath her hands she could feel the quickened thud of his heart. She idly hoped he couldn’t hear hers, but it sounded so loud in her ears.
“This is more than we know it is. It’s not just chemistry at work here. The first time I saw you, I felt something. I couldn’t have known what it was. I’ve never felt it before.”
Caught up by the swirl of her blood and the drowsy, expectant state of her mind and body, she continued to feast her eyes on him.
He moved his mouth to the sensitive place below her ear, coming back to her mouth to taste again and reveling in the confusion that danced around in her eyes. “We’ll take some time to get to know each other if it puts you at ease. But we’re going to be together, lady.”
When she thought she knew what he was going to say, she was taken aback when she heard his whispered words.
“A family. You and me and Katie. And don’t think I’ve been on a hunt to find her a mother,” he said, although the doubt still niggled him a bit. “It’s something else. Just something I know. I can’t wait too long for you to recognize what there is between us. Don’t
make
me wait too long.” He crushed her mouth under his.
His last words seemed almost like a threat and Victoria wasn’t at all sure she liked it. Pushing against his hard shoulders, Victoria righted herself and pushed her hair back from her shoulder.
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Wes shoved the door open. Damn. So he wasn’t good with words. Some things couldn’t be changed. Walking around the truck, he lifted her down when she would obviously just as soon have climbed down herself. The smile was gone from her face, and he didn’t like knowing he had put the frown there.
He tilted her face so he could see her better in the moonlight. “Nothing could be as bad or as threatening as that look on your face. We had a good time together. You like me to kiss you. That’s all. The rest will come.”
He brushed his mouth across her lips and turned to walk in the hotel with her.
She wished that was all. She still felt unsteady from being in his arms, from having his mouth draw feelings to the surface that she hadn’t even known existed. She let him take her hand. It fit well, seemed to belong. But once upon a time, what seemed a long time ago, her hand seemed to belong in David’s. The churning in her stomach and the heat at her core were new and frightening. The anticipation, the wondering what it would be like to be in his arms, in his bed…
Nick had watched the truck pull onto the lot. He had remained in the shadows as he took in every movement of the passengers. His breath became ragged as he watched Wes kiss her. Now, when Wes took Victoria into the hotel, hand in hand, Nick felt sweat pop out on his forehead. He had a nasty headache.
Pressing his fingers to his temples, he turned to go back to his trailer. His head threatened to split. His chest muscles tightened. Casting one more look toward the hotel, he muttered under his breath and began his long, lonely walk back to his empty trailer. Back to sleepless nights and dreams of a beautiful woman who treated him so nice. And smelled so nice, and was so soft to touch. And was in love with him. He was sure of it. If only Wes would stay out of the way.
Wes led her through the darkened lobby and up the stairs, patting the banister on his way. Victoria laughed and shook her head no.
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Nick’s head came up. Out of the way. Sure that was it. All he had to do was fix it so Wes wasn’t here anymore. His handsome face was transformed as his lips curled back in an ugly sneer. Yes. All was not lost to him again. He would have her. And he would have her soon. He would get rid of Wes, and then she would come to him. She would be wearing a white gown, flowing to the ground, and he would open his arms. She would lean against him and he would tuck her head beneath his chin with his hand and stroke her hair.
He heard her laughter from inside the hotel. Coming back to the here and now from wherever it was he went was always painful, but tonight it was so much worse.
He shook his head to clear it.
“Why am I here?” he tested himself, and as it all became too clear, he wheeled and continued his trudge home, alone.
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Chapter Six
“Pull!” Thwang! Two bright orange targets took flight. They hovered on the same path for
a few seconds before the discs separated and soared.
The gunfire spent the air, shattering first one target and then the other.
Eyes wide, Wes slapped his hat across his thigh. “Lady, when you say you shoot trap, you mean it. Nice smoke job. And doubles. That was good,” he praised, “but can you do it again?”
“Load them up and see,” she challenged.
Victoria reloaded three shells into her Ithaca SKB 700, with gold-plated game images and trigger flashing in the sunlight, and set it back against her shoulder.
“Pull!”
Thinking he would be cagey, Wes cranked the target release upward, sending the orange cylinders higher and in different directions.
Once again the peacefulness of the countryside reverberated under the thunder of the shotgun.
He shook his head and smiled. “That’s a nice shotgun.”
She patted the butt end and beamed proudly. “Algerian walnut.”
Manning the target release, Victoria cranked it downward and, watching Wes, pulled the string as soon as he got the shotgun to his shoulder.