by Lisa Jackson
His knees parted her legs, and he looked one last time into her eyes before he thrust into her as if he’d wanted to make love to her all his life. She gasped as he entered her, holding tightly to the arms planted on either side of her head, and as he withdrew and entered again, rose to meet him. She held his gaze as their bodies joined, moved her hips to his rhythm, felt the sing of anticipation in her bloodstream. All her doubts fled, all her worries disappeared, and she was lost in the single purpose of loving this lone, tough man.
Faster and faster he moved, and she could scarcely breathe, gasping in short, sharp bursts that matched the crazy beating of her heart.
“Katie,” he cried, throwing back his head as he spilled himself into her. “Katie!”
She clung to him, her body convulsing, her universe shattering deep in her soul. He fell against her, breathing hard and holding her close as he rolled to the side.
Tears welled deep in her eyes, and he leaned over and kissed each eyelid. “Regrets?” he asked, his expression clouding.
“Relief.”
“Good.” He held her close, in strong arms that made her feel safe and secure, and she closed her eyes, knowing that the moment would soon end, but making it last for as long as she could. He sighed across her hair, and she snuggled close. She wouldn’t believe that making love to Luke Gates was anything but wonderful.
* * *
A few days later Katie was still thinking about making love to Luke, wondering if it would ever happen again as she carried a box of pots and pans on to the back porch. She stacked the box on top of the growing pile of assorted crates and cartons that waited for Jarrod, Nathan and Trevor on the back porch of her little cottage. Sweat drizzled down her nape and forehead. She mopped her brow, then swiped at a cobweb that dangled from the rafters of the roof. The rainstorm of a few nights before was long gone, and the temperature had soared into the nineties again, proof that summer wasn’t ready to give up its searing hold on the Rogue River Valley.
The yard was patchy and yellow, the leaves on the trees just starting to turn gold with the promise of autumn. She’d miss this place, she thought, as she squinted against the sun and watched Blue sniff in the shrubbery for a squirrel or bird hidden deep in the foliage. The old dog moved his head to look at her, wagged his tail, then turned back to smelling the underbrush.
But it was time to move, she decided. Things were changing. Josh, on the threshold of adolescence, was dealing with the new changes in his life—about his father’s death and accepting a grandfather he hadn’t known. Brynnie had gotten through to him. Within a few more years he’d slowly be pulling away from his mother.
Katie had already run an advertisement in the “For Rent” column of the Review’s Classified section. It was time to move on in many ways.
She went inside her sweltering kitchen, turned on the tap and, holding her hair away from her face, drank from the faucet. She swiped the back of her hand over her mouth, then walked to Josh’s room. With a rap of her fingers, she called through the door. “Need any help in there?”
There was a pause. Her hand was on the doorknob when he answered. “Nope.”
“Jarrod and the twins will be here soon.”
“I know.”
She wanted to reprimand him, to tell him to try and stop punishing her; but she bit her tongue and decided to give him some space. For the past few days—ever since Katie had told him about his father—Josh had been upset and sullen, offering her the juvenile equivalent to the cold shoulder.
Katie had tried to broach the subject of Dave several times since she’d first told her son about his father, but Josh had retreated into disgusted silence and had spent his time either at school or with his friends. When he was at home, he kept to his room, watching the small television, playing video games and generally indulging his bad mood. But, the good news was that he was off crutches for good; the doctor had called the Monday after Bliss’s wedding with a report that the specialists who had read his X-ray had found no indication of fracture in his ankle and physically he was solid again.
And today was different. They were moving, and she’d forced Josh into a halfway-decent mood. He’d even offered to help her pack up her desk. A small olive branch, but one that she’d quickly accepted.
Their lives were changing in other ways. As of this day, Katie would live next door to Luke.
Which was another problem.
She’d seen Luke several times since the late afternoon when they’d made love. Each time, he’d been cordial and warm, a sexy, affectionate smile creasing his jaw whenever they’d run into each other. But he hadn’t called and hadn’t so much as touched her again.
It was almost as if something had come between them, an invisible barrier she didn’t understand. She filled another cardboard box with memorabilia from her kitchen, piling in knickknacks and pictures, cookbooks and a few pot holders.
She heard the truck before she saw its rear end back into the drive. As it slowed and parked several feet away from the garage, she heard her half brothers’ shouts.
“Start with the big things—washer and dryer,” Jarrod ordered as he climbed out of the cab. “And don’t forget the refrigerator.”
“As if I’d let them forget anything.” Katie stepped onto the back porch as her twin brothers leaped past the two steps and barreled into the kitchen. “But don’t worry about the refrigerator. It stays with the place.”
“Good. Just point us in the right direction,” Nathan told her. His hair was a dark brown, stick straight and flopped over a high forehead beneath which intense hazel eyes bored into her.
She followed her brothers inside and, from the archway in the kitchen, looked down the hallway to where Trevor was already unhooking the hoses to the washing machine that was wedged into what was euphemistically called a “laundry closet.”
Jarrod pushed open the screen door and frowned at the torn, jagged mesh. “I think I made some wild promise about fixing this,” he said, sticking a finger through the hole.
“That you did.” She winked at him. “And just because I’m moving doesn’t let you off the hook, you know. This is still my house, and you made a promise.”
“Consider it done.”
“Oh, sure. Promises, promises,” she quipped blithely.
“Hey, are we gonna get some help in here?” Trevor, the more hotheaded of the twins, yelled.
“Duty calls.” Jarrod was already halfway there. “Hey, kid. How about giving your uncles a hand?”
Josh, hearing the commotion, had poked his head out of his room. Upon spying Katie’s half brothers, he joined in and forgot to cast his mother a disparaging glance before he helped unhook the dryer. Katie mentally crossed her fingers that he’d forgive her.
As the men handled the bigger items—the beds, couches, tables and chairs—Katie kept filling boxes from the few cupboards that she hadn’t already cleared out.
“I can’t believe how much junk you’ve got,” Trevor observed on one trip to the truck. “Can’t you get rid of half of it?”
“Didn’t have time for a garage sale.” She carried a kitchen chair to the loading area at the rear of the big truck. “Besides, I don’t like living as spartan as you.”
“Easier that way.”
Nathan laughed. He handed an end table to Jarrod who was standing inside the truck. “Yeah. Trevor thinks that a person can get by with a bedroll, a mess kit and a television.”
“Don’t need much more,” Trevor said, his hawkish features identical to his brother’s. The difference in the twins was in their temperament. Nathan was steadier and levelheaded while Trevor was the hothead, always ready for a fight.
They finished loading, and the house was nearly empty. Jarrod, Nathan and Josh rode over to the new place in the truck while Katie, with Trevor in the passenger seat and Blue in the back, followed in the Jeep.
“This is gonna be weird,” Josh said, once they’d parked and everyone began unloading the furniture. Josh commandeered Stephen
’s old room while Katie set up her home office in Christina’s bedroom.
Josh was right; it felt strange to see her bed and bureau in Tiffany’s old room and stranger still to look out the window at the carriage house where Luke Gates lived. As she instructed her brothers on the placement of chairs, tables and lamps in the parlor, she noticed the ashes in the grate, testament to her afternoon of lovemaking with Luke. Their two empty wineglasses stood next to the once-full bottle of Merlot on the hearth.
Images of making love with Luke, of his corded muscles gleaming in the firelight, shot through her mind.
“Looks like someone had themselves a private party,” Trevor observed as he and Nathan carried in a bookcase.
“That it does.” Quickly Katie reached down, picked up the goblets and bottle, and hoped the back of her neck didn’t look as warm as it felt.
Trevor didn’t let up. “I wonder who—”
“Hey, pay attention!” Nathan, who was holding one end of the bookcase, wasn’t in the mood for conjecture.
“Just put it there, to the side of the window,” Katie said, and silently counted her lucky stars that the conversation was dropped. She carried the evidence of her evening with Luke into the kitchen and hoped Trevor’s curiosity was sated. She didn’t want to think about Luke and what had happened between them. Not now. Nor did she want to explain it to anyone. Especially her half brothers.
She had too much to do.
An installer from the phone company came and hooked up the telephone and fax line while she was organizing the kitchen. In the midst of the pure chaos of wadded newspapers on the counters and floors, dishes in every available space and cupboards half filled, the easygoing man worked on the outlets, kept up a steady stream of conversation about his grandchildren and managed to install three phones.
Once they were installed, she found her courage along with Ralph Sorenson’s phone number, and she dialed. One ring, two, three and so on. No answer. No answering machine. She hung up disappointed, but told herself she’d try again.
A few minutes later Tiffany and J.D. came over, and they, along with Katie’s half brothers, finished putting things in order. Christina was confused but contented herself in chasing a nervous Blue through the house, and Stephen and Josh holed up in Josh’s new room. Though Stephen was three years older and in high school, he didn’t seem to mind hanging out with his younger half cousin when they weren’t in school.
“It looks different,” Tiffany said as she eyed the parlor and foyer. “And yet the same.”
“It’ll take some getting used to.”
“For all of us.” Tiffany showed Katie a file she’d left in the front-hall closet. Inside was information on the house, rental agreements, application forms and extra sets of keys. “I’ll get you started and show you how this works,” she said, “but it’s not all that tough once you get the hang of it, and you can always call me.
“Hey, now that the phones are hooked up, how about ordering pizza?” Trevor called down from the second floor.
Katie grinned. “You think you deserve to be fed?”
“At least. It wouldn’t hurt if you stocked the refrigerator with some beer, too.”
“Okay, okay. You guys are in charge of the kids. Come on, Tiffany, let’s run down to Papa Luigi’s and figure out what we need for this crowd.”
“Pepperoni!” Josh yelled.
“With double cheese,” Jarrod added.
“Naw, get the all-meat special.” Trevor was reaching for his wallet. “An extra large and—”
“I’ll take care of it,” Katie said. “It’s on me.” She ignored Trevor’s offer of money and found her purse wedged between half-filled boxes on the kitchen counter. As she and Tiffany headed outside, Katie glanced up at the upper story of the carriage house, the place Luke temporarily called home. How would it be to live so close to him, to know that he was only a few short footsteps away? She thought again for a second about making love to him on the parlor floor and decided she couldn’t dwell on the future or what, if any, kind of relationship she had with him. Only time would tell.
* * *
“I was wondering when I’d hear from you again. How’s it going out there?” Ralph Sorenson’s voice was loud and filled with anticipation.
Luke had steeled himself for this phone call—a call he hadn’t wanted to make. “It’s going,” he replied, hedging. “Renovations on the ranch house have started, and I should be moving out to the spread in a month or two.”
“So, what about the other? Have you found out if Dave had a kid like he hinted at?”
Luke heard the note of eager enthusiasm in the older man’s voice, could almost see Ralph’s aging fingers curl, white-knuckled around the receiver. “I’m not certain yet,” Luke admitted, “but I’ve got a couple of leads. Good ones. As soon as I know for sure, I’ll let you know.”
“It means a lot to me,” Ralph said. “It’s all I have left of my boy.”
“I know. I’m working on it. Trust me.” Luke heard the old man sigh and felt like a heel. How had he gotten himself roped into this mess? He turned the conversation to the weather, the price of feed, a new virus that was infecting cattle herds in west Texas—anything but the topic of David Sorenson’s child. Stretching the telephone cord so that he could look out the window to where Josh Kinkaid and Stephen Santini were playing one-on-one at a basketball hoop hung on the garage, he leaned his shoulder against the window.
The older kid was winning by a lot, but Josh, even though he still hobbled a little, wasn’t a slouch. Luke hated the thought, but he would bet dollars to doughnuts that the kid was Dave’s. His age was perfect, and Katie acted so oddly—like she couldn’t wait to change the subject—whenever the question of Josh’s paternity came up. She’d also been blown away when she’d learned about Dave’s death—had turned white as a sheet. Hell, what a mess.
But he couldn’t prove it. He suspected only one person knew the truth.
“I’ll call in a couple of days,” he promised and hung up. It was time for a showdown with Ms. Kinkaid. As soon as her half brothers and the Santini clan cleared out, Luke would have to confront her.
For a second the image of her lying beneath him, her eyes wide and verdant green in anticipation, her lips parted in passion as he made love to her, flashed through his mind.
His gut knotted.
He’d never felt so completely satisfied in his life as he had with her; and he’d never felt so guilty for seducing someone. Katie Kinkaid was different from any of the other women he’d had in his lifetime. Very different. And that was a problem. A big problem.
CHAPTER NINE
That night, after most of the stuff had been packed away, Katie opened the door to Josh’s room and smiled as she saw him spread-eagled across the bed, snoring softly, dead to the world. Her heart swelled as she brushed a wayward lock of hair from his forehead, leaned down and kissed his smooth brow. He had been warmer to her today, as if he was getting over the shock of realizing that she had lied to him, as if he were finally forgiving her. Thank goodness. She didn’t know how much more of the cold shoulder she could take. As she left the room she snapped off the TV and lights, then softly closed the door behind her.
In the next room over, her new office, she rearranged some files on her computer, edited an article on the new Santini winery and vineyards, and went through her notes on Isaac Wells. It had been over a week since she’d received the letter, and she’d never been contacted again. The police had told her nothing, and she was starting to believe she’d been the target of some kind of hoax, though she couldn’t begin to think why. “Live and learn,” she said, frowning and catching a glimpse of her pale reflection, blurred over the words of her article in her computer monitor.
A truck roared into the drive, and Katie’s heart jumped. The engine died as she opened the blinds and peered through. Luke’s truck was parked near the garage, the glow of a security lamp reflecting on its hood. Stretching as he climbed from the cab, he stro
de across the backyard. His expression was stern, his demeanor that of a man with a mission. Her pulse jumped of its own accord.
He cast a quick look at the house and upstairs to the lighted window. Katie’s throat caught. She couldn’t look away. He didn’t so much as smile and quickly disappeared from view beneath the roof of the porch. Her porch. Oh, God, he was coming to see her.
Katie was down the stairs in a flash, her bare feet skimming the wooden steps and hallway into the kitchen. She opened the door and found him in the shadows, as taciturn and unfriendly as she’d ever seen him. “Something’s wrong,” she guessed.
“You could say that.”
Her heart went wild. “Come in, come in. What is it?”
Once inside, he grabbed one of the chairs positioned around the table and straddled it. Folding his arms over the back, he stared up at her. Dread did a slow crawl up her spine. In a moment of intuitive divination she knew what this was about.
“I want to talk about Josh’s father.”
“I figured as much.” Her voice sounded strangled, even to her own ears. “Why?”
“It’s time.”
She wanted to argue, to tell him it was none of his business, but the truth of the matter was out. Now that Josh knew his parentage, there seemed no reason to lie. “I don’t see why it could possibly matter to you,” she began, rubbing at a spot on the counter with one finger, “but you may as well know that Josh was Dave Sorenson’s son. We…we knew each other in high school, got involved, and then, just before he left, I got pregnant.” Her cheeks burned, and for a second she thought she might break down altogether, but she managed to keep her voice steady and look Luke in the eye.
“You never told him that he had a son.”
“Nope.” She shook her head and couldn’t hide the regret in her voice. It seemed Luke was determined that she face all her demons. Tonight. “I should have. For Dave. For Josh. I…I was young and stupid and naive and hurt. I had explained to Dave before he moved away that there was a chance that I was pregnant, but he didn’t seem concerned, and then, when I knew for sure, I found out that he’d already hooked up with another girl in Texas. I guess I had too much pride to run after him and give him the news he didn’t want to hear—that he was going to be a father.” She drew in a long, shaky breath. “So the only person I confided in was my mom. No one else knew, and she kept my secret. I didn’t even tell Jarrod who Josh’s dad was, and I felt badly about it, because Jarrod saw me through some pretty dark hours. Stood by me and didn’t ask any questions or give me any lectures.”