by B. J Daniels
“I could never pass up anything you baked,” he said as he removed his Stetson. “You sure I shouldn’t help your top assistant?”
“Trust me, she has everything under control. I don’t know what I’d do without her.” Poppy stepped to the counter, took down a knife and began to cut the still-warm field berry pie. Behind her, she heard the scrape of a chair on the floor as Will took a seat at the small kitchen table. Her heart was pounding so hard she thought it might burst from her chest. She had to steady her hand to cut the pie and put a piece on each of the two plates she pulled down from the cupboard.
“So business has been good?” he asked.
“It’s been crazy,” she said. “But good.” She turned with the two plates and forks and carried the pie over to the table to join him. “Kara is full-time now. When I started I’d hoped I could give her more than part-time.” She smiled. “So it’s worked out.”
“I’m glad,” he said as he looked down at the pie. When he looked up, his gaze locked with hers. “I had no doubt that you would succeed.”
She drew away first. What had she seen in those warm brown eyes? Whatever it was it had her heart doing the jitterbug. “But it pales in comparison to those days I spent cooking at your guest ranch.”
“I’ll bet,” he said with a laugh. “None of your clients have tried to kill you?”
“Not yet,” she said and swallowed the lump in her throat as she picked up her fork and cut a bite of her pie. Not even field berry pie could tempt her right now. She doubted she could even taste it—let alone swallow it.
Will hadn’t taken a bite of his pie. He picked up his fork, but then put it down again. “I feel like we left some things unfinished.”
She glanced up in surprise, wondering if he was thinking the same thing she was, and realized as he reached into his pocket they weren’t.
“Things got so crazy that I didn’t even pay you.”
“I never told you what my going rate was,” she said, trying to hide her disappointment.
“I could have called and asked, but I decided to pay you based on the joy you brought to the ranch—plus a bonus, of course,” he said with a small laugh. “Actually, there is no amount that could cover what I think you’re worth.”
He slid the check over to her.
She stared in disbelief. “Will, this is way too much.”
“I don’t think so.”
Poppy stared at the check, fighting tears of anger, disappointment, frustration. She wanted to rip it up in front of him. Didn’t he realize after everything they’d been through that she hadn’t done it for the money? She couldn’t even look at him for fear what she might say. Or worse, do.
* * *
WILL MENTALLY BOOTED himself in the butt. This wasn’t going anything like he’d planned. He thought she’d be happy about the check. Clearly she was not. He could see her fighting some strong emotions.
He rushed on before she threw him out. “Poppy, that’s not the only reason I’m here,” he said and cleared his throat. “I need your help.”
She bit her lower lip as she looked up at him. Those green eyes were more like lasers than warm, calm tropical seas. “My help?”
“After what happened up at the guest ranch, I was going to quit.” He saw her surprise. “I just didn’t want to do it anymore for so many reasons. I wanted something...more. My brothers and I talked about selling it. I had even talked to a real estate agent. But when I went back up there, I realized that it wasn’t the guest ranch that was the problem.” He met her green gaze and held it. “It was you.”
It took her a moment. “You realized I was the problem?” she asked, disbelieving.
He nodded. “You were what made me want more.” Poppy looked confused. He couldn’t blame her. “You changed everything. I thought I was happy. Well, at least content. But then, you... I’m not saying this very well.”
“Oh, I think you’re doing a fine job,” she said sarcastically. “I came into your life—”
“With a plan to break my heart.”
“But instead—”
“Oh, you did a number on my heart, as well,” he interrupted.
She stared at him. Those green eyes weren’t quite as laser hot now. “What are you saying, Will?”
“Something I’ve never told another woman,” he said and cleared his voice. It had taken him weeks to come here. He couldn’t do what he was about to do unless he was more than just sure of his feelings. So he’d waited, fighting his need to see her, to tell her.
“Poppy, you stole my heart. My whole heart. And not just for the few days you spent at the guest ranch. It started long before that. I have so many memories of you that first summer we met. I know I was acting like none of it mattered when I was fifteen, but, Poppy, I have never forgotten anything about that summer or you.” He raked a hand through his hair. “What I’m trying to say is...” He met her gaze and plunged in. “I love you.”
* * *
POPPY BLINKED. She wanted to pinch herself. Was this really happening? After all this time, Will Sterling had finally said the words she’d longed to hear.
“Will,” she said, feeling as if the earth under her was finally solid.
He stood up and came around the table to pull her to her feet. Her legs felt rubbery, but in Will’s strong arms, she never felt more safe. “I love you, Poppy Carmichael.”
His kiss was pure sugar. She melted into it. Nothing she’d ever baked had tasted so sweet.
As he drew back, he looked into her eyes. “I can’t tell you how scared I was coming here today. I thought you might throw me out, rip up my check, laugh in my face.”
“I did almost rip up your check,” she said, making him laugh.
“Yes, I saw that look in your eye and thought for sure that I’d blown it with you again. Poppy, I have no idea what our lives look like from here on out. I just know I want to spend it with you.” He waited. “This is where you break my heart or—”
“Or tell you that I’ve loved you since I was twelve?” She laughed. “It feels like it’s been that long. But all it took were a few days with you at the guest ranch and it was as if those years in between never happened. I couldn’t forget you. I love you, Will Sterling, with all my heart, and I always will. I don’t want to break your heart. I want to steal it.”
“You already have.” He laughed as he picked her up and spun her around, before setting her down and dropping to one knee. All around them was the smell of freshly baked pies. “Marry me?”
She looked into his warm-as-molasses brown eyes. Had she really wanted to break this man’s big heart? “There is nothing I would love more.”
He reached into his pocket and took out a small velvet box.
Her pulse took off like Lightning, the wild horse she’d tried to ride at twelve, as she looked down at the most exquisite emerald engagement ring she’d ever seen. The beautifully cut stone was surrounded by diamonds that shimmered.
“Oh, Will, it’s beautiful.”
“The stone is the color of your eyes. The moment I saw it, I knew I had to give it to you.” He slipped it on her finger. “It fits perfectly.” He seemed to be relieved.
“How did you know what size?” she asked, looking up at him in surprise as he got to his feet.
“Kara. I’d seen you take off that ring you wore when you were making rolls at the ranch. I asked for her help.”
“Kara?” she asked in surprise. No wonder her friend had taken off like a shot when Will had arrived. “So you’ve been planning this for a while, have you?”
He nodded and smiled. “Not as long as you’d been planning to break my heart with your cooking, I would wager.”
She studied him, her handsome cowboy. “You wouldn’t be interested in seeing my apartment upstairs, would you?”
* * *
WILL LOOKED INTO the amazing sea
-green eyes of his fiancée. He loved the sound of that word. He loved this woman. What she was suggesting made him ache with desire. She’d tantalized him with her cooking and her incredible body, starting a fire in him that nothing on this earth could put out but her.
“I suppose you have a bed?” he asked.
“Would it matter?”
He laughed. “Not in the least.”
Sweeping her up in his arms, he carried her upstairs. The apartment was small and cute, the furnishings an extension of the woman he’d fallen in love with. Not that he’d taken the time to check the place out.
It took them a while to make it to the bed. The moment the apartment door closed behind them, he pulled her to him and kissed her. He loved her mouth, relishing in it, telling himself he planned to kiss this woman every day for the rest of his life.
As Poppy drew back, she looked into his eyes as if she still couldn’t believe this was happening. He couldn’t, either, but his thoughts went elsewhere as she slowly began to unbutton his shirt to place her warm palms against his chest. She bent to kiss his nipple. Desire rocketed through him.
After that, their clothes came off much faster. He drew her T-shirt over her head in anxious expectation of freeing her beautiful breasts. She was working at the buttons on his jeans as they began to stumble toward the bedroom. He couldn’t wait to get this woman naked.
* * *
POPPY WOULD HAVE said their lovemaking was a heated blur of hands and mouths and whispered words of affection and appreciation. But in truth she remembered every touch, every kiss, every sweet, sweet breath of it.
By the time they reached the bed, Will had stripped her naked. He threw her on the bed, then just stood over her, looking, taking her in with his eyes in a way that made her already hard nipples ache.
He climbed onto the bed, leaning over to kiss that spot on her throat that made her moan with pleasure. His lips trailed down to her eagerly awaiting breasts where he suckled and nipped and licked until she felt a release deep inside her as he pulled her into his arms.
She wanted to touch him, but he whispered, “Not yet,” as he waited for her to come down from the high where he’d taken her as he slowly explored every inch of her, building that growing need again with his lips, his tongue, his fingers. She arched against him, thinking she couldn’t stand it a moment longer, when she cried out, her legs going weak with pleasure.
Finally, Will let her touch him, taking him in her hand, guiding him into her. He plunged into her depths and she clung to him, holding her breath for a moment, before he slowly began to move.
She thought he couldn’t take her any higher. She thought she had no more response to the pleasures he was offering her.
But she was wrong. This cowboy knew his way around her body as if he’d been waiting to get her naked for a long time.
This time, when the release came, Will was right there with her. Wrapped in each other’s arms they both cried out as they reached new heights locked together.
Breathless, Poppy lay back on the bed, Will’s hand resting on her bare thigh, and tried to catch her breath. Had she ever in her life felt like this? Never.
She glanced over at Will. He had a look on his face as if he felt the same way. “Wow,” she said.
“My sentiments exactly.” He rolled onto his side to look at her. “Poppy, I never thought I could love you more. I feel like you and I could do anything together.”
She knew the feeling. “Will, you aren’t really going to sell the guest ranch, are you?”
* * *
WILL DIDN’T TELL her what he’d seen after they’d made love. But he’d seen Poppy pregnant with their first child, her stomach round and hard, her breasts full to aching, her face glowing. He’d seen them with children and a dog and a house. He’d seen them curled up in bed together, content and happy and full of life and love in their old age.
He’d seen it all in that moment. He’d wanted to share it with her, but he felt like he would be spoiling the ending, like a book she hadn’t read yet. So he’d only smiled over at her and said, “I have no idea what I’m going to do. I was hoping you might have some ideas.”
Poppy, being Poppy, said, “Oh, I have lots of ideas,” and turned on her side to kiss him. “I wish we’d brought the pie upstairs.”
He laughed and pulled her to him, hugging her. He could feel the steady beat of her heart against his. “Stay here,” he said and got up to pull on his jeans before going downstairs. He returned with the two pieces of pie, which they ate in the bed.
“Do you want a big wedding?” Will asked after he returned from taking their pie plates back downstairs.
She shook her head. “My father is out in Oregon. But other than him, I don’t have any family I need to invite. Just a few friends.”
“So it wouldn’t take that long for you to plan a wedding.”
Poppy grinned at him. “Are you getting at what I think you are?”
He laughed. “I think we should get married soon. I don’t want to spend any more time than I have to away from you.”
She nodded and kissed him. He tasted the tang of blackberries, the sweetness of strawberries, and caught the scent of apple from their pie. As he lost himself in the kiss, he had a feeling that this woman would always taste like something delectable. He looked forward to watching her cook, knowing it would always seem sensual to him. He chuckled to himself. He could watch this woman melt butter the rest of his life, knowing he would never go hungry for anything or anyone else.
* * *
NEWS OF THE wedding of Will Sterling and Poppy Carmichael spread like wildfire through the county. Poppy couldn’t believe all the people she ran into in downtown Whitefish who would stop her and offer her best wishes.
“Some of them don’t seem sincere,” she admitted to Kara one day in her catering kitchen.
Her friend laughed. “A woman Will apparently dated a few times stopped in the other day asking for our prices for a little get-together she was thinking about having. She seemed disappointed to realize that you weren’t here. I know she just wanted to check you out, see what you have that she didn’t.”
Poppy had stopped what she was doing. “That’s just it. What do I have that made him fall in love with me?”
“Who cares? He did.”
“I’m serious. The woman who came in looking for me, she was beautiful, wasn’t she?”
“Gorgeous. Do you really not know how beautiful you are?” Kara demanded. “You’re beautiful from the inside out. And you can cook.”
Poppy laughed but thanked her. “I feel bad about dumping all of this on you,” she said with a wave of her hand that took in the entire kitchen as well as the catering business.
“Seriously? You offered me a chance to be my own boss, make good money and do what I love. Yes, it’s a terrible imposition.”
She smiled at her friend, remembering Kara and Dorothea standing up with her at the wedding. It had been one of those amazing Montana spring days. They’d chosen to get married outside at the guest ranch with only a few friends and family and hadn’t waited long after the engagement announcement.
She’d loved the expression on Dorothea’s face when she’d asked her to be her bridesmaid. The woman had been surprised and then touched. Dorothea had actually cried.
Poppy looked around the kitchen, thinking of all the catering jobs that continued to come in the door. “You’re going to need help. And soon.”
“I put an ad in the local shopper. With luck, I’ll find someone who loves to cook like we do. Don’t worry about me. Enjoy your honeymoon. Are you packed?”
She nodded. “Three swimsuits.” Poppy grinned. “What else could I possibly need in Hawaii?”
“Sunscreen,” Kara said. “How are the renovations on the house coming along?”
Poppy thought of the large log cabin—her first home in Mont
ana and soon to be her forever home. “It is so beautiful. What’s amazing is that Will and I never discussed furnishings, design, anything, but we love the same things. The renovations have made the place even more warm and cozy. But wait until you see the new kitchen.”
“I can’t wait. But what about the guest ranch? Will you be cooking for guests?”
She didn’t know and said as much. “We’re talking about our future. For right now, Garrett is overseeing the reconstruction of the barn and cabin that burned down. The guest ranch couldn’t open this coming summer, anyway. So we’ll see how Will feels after that. It’s giving us time to make the old forest service cabin our home. It will be close to finished when we get back from our honeymoon. We’re both so excited.”
“I’d be excited, too. Hawaii this time of year should be wonderful,” Kara said. “Which reminds me, I’ve been thinking of making this pineapple-coconut cake I found a recipe for.”
Poppy laughed as her friend went to get the recipe to show her. “We are such gastronomists,” she said with a shake of her head.
Kara lifted her nose in the air. “Epicureans, that’s us.”
A young woman no more than eighteen or nineteen with dyed pink hair appeared in the kitchen doorway holding a copy of the shopper. “I thought this job was about cooking,” she said, frowning at them.
Poppy and Kara burst out laughing.
Kara stepped to her and introduced herself, then handed her the recipe for the pineapple-coconut cake. “Could you make this?”
The young woman, who’d introduced herself as Molly Stevens, glanced at the recipe. “Sure, but I would use coconut cream instead of coconut milk to make the cake more moist.” She shrugged. “I like moist cakes so I always use butter.”
Kara smiled and said, “Molly, when can you start work?”
EPILOGUE
POPPY STOOD AT the window, looking out at the deer getting a drink from the creek in front of the log cabin. Afternoon shadows played over the clear water as the waning sun still coated the surface with gold. A breeze stirred the pines.