by Janet Dailey
As she carried the tray full of water to the refrigerator, she heard car doors slamming outside. Her heart seemed to leap at the sound. In her excitement, Eve forgot about the tray in her hands and started to turn. Water spilled over the sides and onto the floor.
“Damn,” she swore softly at her carelessness, and set the tray on the counter.
Hurriedly Eve tore some paper towels off the roll and bent down to sop up the mess, Her pulse raced with the sound of footsteps approaching the cottage. Her haste just seemed to make it take longer to wipe up the spilled water.
A knock rattled the screen door in its frame. She carried the water-soaked wad of paper towels to the sink, a hand cupped under them to catch any drips.
“I’m coming!” Eve called anxiously, and dropped the mess in the sink.
Her glance darted to the screen door and the familiar outline of Luck’s build darkened by the wire mesh. She paused long enough to dry her hands on a terry towel and run smoothing fingers over her gleaming brown hair.
There was a wild run of pleasure through her veins as she hurried toward the door. Reflex action adjusted the knitted waistband of her carnation-red top around her snug-fitting jeans.
Eve didn’t notice the shorter form standing next to Luck until she was nearly to the door, and realized he’d brought Toby with him. Not that she minded; it was just that Luck had indicated he wanted to talk to her privately. Toby’s presence negated that opportunity. And there was the embarrassing matter of last night’s scene. She was naturally modest, so there was a sense of discomfort in meeting Toby today.
“Hello.” She greeted them through the screen and unlatched the door to open it. There was a nervous edge to her smile until she met the dancing warmth of Luck’s blue eyes. It eased almost immediately as a little glow started to build strength. “Sorry it took so long, but I had to mop up some water I spilled.”
“That’s all right. We didn’t wait that long,” Luck assured her. The admiring run of his gaze over her face and figure seemed to give her confidence. She could tell he liked what he saw, even if she wasn’t the type to turn heads.
“Hello, Toby.” Eve was able to smile at the young boy without any strain as he entered the cottage at his father’s side.
“Hi.” His response seemed a little more subdued than normal, as if his mind were preoccupied with other matters, but his bright eyes were just as alert as they always were.
“Come in,” Eve invited. “I just fixed myself a glass of iced tea. Would you two like some?”
Refusal formed on Luck’s mouth, but Toby was quicker with his acceptance. “Yeah, I’d like a glass.”
“And some cookies, too?” Eve guessed.
“Chocolate chip?” he asked hopefully, and she nodded affirmatively. “I sure would.”
“What do you say?” Luck prompted his son to show some manners.
“Thank you.” Toby inserted, then frowned. “Or was it supposed to be ‘please’?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Eve assured him with a faint smile. “You’ve got the idea.” Her glance lifted to the boy’s father. “Did you want a glass of tea and some cookies?”
“I’ll settle for the tea,” he replied, changing his mind in the face of his son’s acceptance.
The pair followed her into the small kitchen. Toby crowded close to the counter to watch her while Luck stayed out of her way, leaning a hip against a counter top and lighting a cigarette. Eve never lost her awareness of his lean masculinity, even though he wasn’t in her line of vision. Her body’s finely tuned radar was aware of his presence.
She fixed two more glasses of tea without any mishap and even managed to put the ice-cube tray filled with water in the refrigerator’s freezer section without spilling any. Lifting the lid of the cookie jar, Eve took out three chocolate chip cookies and placed them on a paper napkin for Toby.
“Here you go, Toby” She turned to give them to him.
“Wait a minute,” Luck stated, and laid a hand on his son’s shoulder to stop him from taking them. “Before any refreshments are passed around, there’s something Toby wants to say to you, Eve. Isn’t there, Toby?” There was a prodding tone in his voice when he addressed his son.
A big sigh came from Toby as he lowered the hand that had reached for the cookies. “Yes,” he admitted, and turned his round blue gaze on Eve. “I’m sorry for embarrassing you last night. I didn’t mean to.”
“I know you didn’t.” She colored slightly at the reference to the incident.
“Dad explained about respecting other people’s privacy,” he said. “I was wrong to stay without you knowing I was there. I’m really and truly sorry, Eve. All I wanted to do was find out what was going on. I never meant to embarrass you.”
Toby possessed more than his share of natural curiosity. She had known all along that he hadn’t meant any harm. It was obvious he wasn’t shocked by what he’d seen, which allowed her to feel that the scene between herself and
Luck had been natural and right.
“It’s all right, Toby,” Eve promised him. “You’re forgiven, so we can all forget about it.”
His blue eyes widened in a hopeful look. “Then you aren’t mad or upset about it?”
“No, not at all,” she replied with a shake of her head.
Tipping his head back, Toby turned it to look up at his father. “See?” he challenged. “I told you she wouldn’t be.”
“I know you did,” Luck admitted. “But she deserved an apology just the same.”
“Now will you ask her to marry you instead of — ” Toby didn’t get the question finished before Luck clamped a hand over his mouth to muffle the rest of it.
An electric shock went through Eve as her gaze flew to Luck’s face. Her own complexion had gone pale at Toby’s suggestion. His ruggedly virile features held grim impatience and displeasure in their expression, and Eve knew she had been right to doubt that Toby knew what he was talking about. It seemed she had been catapulted from one awkward situation into another.
“Toby, I could throttle you,” Luck muttered angrily, and took his hand from the boy’s mouth. “Don’t you dare say another word.”
“But — ” Toby frowned his lack of understanding.
“I mean it,” Luck cut across his voice with stern reproval. “Get your cookies and iced tea and go outside,” he ordered. “I don’t want to hear so much as a peep out of you.”
“Okay,” Toby grumbled, and moved to the counter to take the napkin of cookies and a glass of iced tea. Eve was too frozen to help him.
“You stay outside and don’t come walking back in,” Luck warned. “Remember what you promised me about that.”
“Yes, dad,” he nodded, and trudged toward the screen door.
Eve continued to stare at Luck as he snubbed the cigarette butt in an ashtray on the counter. There was regret in the hard line of his mouth and a grim apology in his eyes when he finally looked at her. She heard the door bang shut behind the departing Toby.
“I’m afraid my son has a big mouth,” Luck said.
A terrible pain wrenched at her heart. She turned away to hide it, clasping the edge of the counter with both hands. Dredging deep into the well of her reserve strength, she found a little piece of composure.
“Don’t worry about it,” Eve declared with forced lightness. “I’m not going to hold you to Toby’s suggestion, so no marriage proposal is expected.”
Her pulse raced as Luck moved to stand behind her. His hands settled lightly on the rounded points of her shoulders. At the moment she wasn’t up to resisting his touch. A tremor of longing quivered through her senses.
“Why not?” he murmured, very close to her.
She pretended not to understand. “Why not what?” Her voice wavered.
“Since Toby has already let the cat out of the bag, I might as well ask you to marry me now, instead of waiting,” Luck replied.
She half turned to look at him over her shoulder. He couldn’t possibly be serious, but hi
s steady gaze seemed to imply that he was. She was afraid to believe it. She loved him so much that it didn’t seem possible her wildest dream might come true.
“Luck, you don’t have to do this.” She gave him a chance to retract his semi-proposal.
That lazy half smile lifted a corner of his mouth, potent in its male charm. “I know I don’t,” he agreed.
“Then…” Eve continued to hesitate.
“I want you to be my wife,” Luck said in an effort to make it clear to her that he was serious. It wasn’t any kind of cruel joke. “And Toby wants you to be his mother — although I wouldn’t blame you if you have second thoughts about taking on that role. He talks when he shouldn’t — he sees things he shouldn’t — and he knows things he shouldn’t. It isn’t going to be any bed of roses.”
“I don’t mind.” She breathed the reply because she was beginning to believe that he meant all this.
“You’d better be sure about that.” He turned her around to face him and let his hands slide down her back to gather her closer to him. “We haven’t known each other long. I don’t want to rush you into something. If you want to think it over, I’ll wait for your answer.”
Spreading her hands across the front of his shirt, Eve could feel his body warmth through the material. The steady beat of his heart assured her that this was all real. It wasn’t a dream.
“It isn’t that.” Eve hadn’t realized that she hadn’t got around to accepting his proposal until that minute. “I’d like to marry you.”
Luck tipped his head toward her. “Did I hear a but at the end of that?” he questioned.
“No.” She hadn’t said it, not in so many words; yet it was there — silently. “It’s just so sudden. I can’t think why you’d want to marry me,” she admitted at last.
“I want to marry you for the usual reason.” A warm dryness rustled his voice. “I love you, Eve.”
The breath she drew in became lodged in her throat. She hadn’t realized what beautiful words they were until Luck uttered them. An incredulous joy misted her eyes.
“I love you, too,” she declared in a voice choked with emotion.
His mouth closed on hers and there was no more need for words. Her hands slid around his neck and into the thickness of his dark hair as his molding arms crushed her to his length. Eve reeled under the hard possession of his kiss, still dazed that he actually wanted her. But he seemed determined to prove it with action as well as words.
When her parted lips were at last convinced, Luck showered her face with rough kisses. Her eyes, her brows, her cheeks, her nose, her chin, her jaw — no part of her was exempted from his hungry foray. It left her so weak she could hardly breathe. Her racing heart threatened to burst from the love swelling within her.
The searing pleasure of it all was a sweet ache that throbbed through her limbs. His hands leisurely roamed her shoulders, back and hips to caress and arouse her flesh to a fever pitch of delight. For Eve there was no holding back. She gave him her heart and soul in return, and anything else he wanted — her pride, her dignity, her self-respect. It was all his.
A faint tremor went through him when Luck lifted his head an inch or so from hers to study her with a heavy-lidded look of desire. “I thought it would take more convincing than this to persuade you to marry me,” he admitted huskily.
“Hardly.” Eve smiled at that, knowing she had been his for the taking a long time now.
He withdrew a hand from her back to cup her upturned face. She turned into its largeness and pressed a kiss in its palm. His fingers began a tactile examination of her features from the curve of her cheekbone to the outline of her lips.
“That night I bumped into you outside the tavern, I knew I didn’t want to let you go,” Luck murmured. “But I didn’t dream that I’d eventually marry you.”
Even though theft first meeting was a special and vivid memory, Eve wished he hadn’t mentioned it. She didn’t want to remember that he had regarded her as a brown mouse. She closed her eyes to shut it out.
“I thought you were a figment of my imagination,” he went on, and slid his hand to her neck, where his thumb stroked the curve of her throat. “Until I finally recognized you that rainy afternoon you came to help Toby bake cookies. And there you were, right in my own home.”
“I remember,” Eve admitted softly, but she wasn’t enthused about the subject.
Luck drank in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Before I met you, I was beginning to think I wasn’t capable of caring for another woman.”
There was an instantaneous image in her mind of the photograph of his first wife. A painful sweep of jealousy washed over her because she would never be first in his life. She loved him so much that she was willing to settle for being second as long as it meant she could spend her life with him.
“Toby has been wanting me to get married for sometime,” Luck told her. “He even chose you before I did. I have to admit my son has very good taste.”
Eve smiled faintly. “He’s still outside — and probably dying of curiosity.”
“Let him.” His arm tightened fractionally around her waist. “It’s what he deserves.” Then Luck sighed reluctantly. “I suppose we should let him in on the news, although he was positive you’d agree to marry me.”
“He was right.” She basked in the blue light of his unswerving gaze.
“He’s never going to let us hear the end of it. You know that, don’t you?” he mocked lightly.
“Probably not,” Eve agreed with a widening smile.
“We might as well go tell him,” Luck finally agreed with her suggestion.
As he turned to guide her out of the kitchen, he kept his arm curved tightly around her and her body pressed close to his side. It was a very possessive gesture and it thrilled Eve.
When they walked outside, they found Toby sitting on the porch steps waiting patiently — or perhaps impatiently, judging by how quickly he bounded to his feet to greet them. His bright glance darted eagerly from one to the other.
“Did she say yes?” he asked Luck with bated breath.
“What makes you think I asked her?” Luck challenged.
He cast an anxious look at Eve, who was trying not to smile. “You did, didn’t you?” Again the question was addressed to his father.
“I did.” Luck didn’t keep him in the dark any longer. “And Eve agreed to be my wife.”
“Whooppee!” Toby shouted with glee and practically jumped in the air. “I knew she would,” he rubbed it in to his father. “I told you that you didn’t have to wait until tonight, didn’t I?”
Luck glanced at Eve to explain. “I was going to do it up right. I had it all planned — to take you out to dinner, ply you with champagne, sway you with candlelight and flowers. Then I was going to propose. Unfortunately, blabbermouth jumped the gun.”
“Now you don’t have to do that,” Toby inserted. “And I don’t have to stay with Mrs. Jackson. Eve can come over to our place tonight and we’ll all have dinner together.”
“No, she can’t,” Luck stated, shaking his head.
Toby frowned. “Why can’t she come?”
“Because I’m taking her out to dinner just the way I planned,” he said. “And Mrs. Jackson is coming over to stay with you just as we arranged it.”
“Dad,” he protested.
“I’m going to have to share her with you a lot of evenings in the future, but on the first night of our engagement, I’m going to have her all to myself,” Luck declared.
“I’d stay in my room,” Toby promised.
“That isn’t the same,” he insisted, and looked again at Eve. “You will have dinner with me tonight if I promise you you won’t have to cook it?”
“Yes.” Even if she had to cook it, she would have agreed.
“I’ll come over early, around seven, so I can talk to your parents.” Luck smiled as he realized, “I haven’t asked you how soon you’d like the wedding to be?”
His phrasing of the q
uestion — not “when” but “how soon” — nearly took her breath away. For a second she could only look at him, a wealth of love shining in her eyes.
“The sooner the better, don’t you think?” she suggested, a little tentatively.
“Absolutely.” His answer was very definite as he bent his head to claim her lips once more.
What started out as a brief kiss lingered into something longer. Eve leaned more heavily against him, letting his strength support her. Before passion could flare, they were reminded that they weren’t alone.
“I have a question,” Toby said, interrupting their embrace.
“What is it?” But Luck was more than a little preoccupied with his study of her soft lips.
“Am I supposed to leave you two alone every time you start kissing?” he asked.
“Not necessarily every time. Why?” Luck dragged his gaze from her face to glance curiously at his son.
“If I did, it just seems to me that I might be spending an awful lot of time by myself,” Toby sighed, “And I’d really kind a hoped the three of us could be together like a family.”
“We will be a family,” Eve assured him. “And you won’t be spending much time alone.”
“Eve’s right.” Luck reached out to curve an arm around his son’s shoulders and draw him into their circle. “Part of the plan was for you to have a mother, wasn’t it?”
“Yep.” Toby smiled widely.
Ten
* * *
The three of them spent the afternoon together, partly to allay Toby’s concern about his position in the new family unit and partly because Luck and Eve enjoyed Toby’s company and shared a mutual desire to include him. Eve knew she was just imagining it, but the sun seemed to shine brighter and the air smelled fresher than it ever had before.
Her parents hadn’t returned from their boat ride by the time Luck and Toby left to go home. Eve had some time alone to think over the unexpected proposal and all that had been said. She finally came out of the wonderful daze that had numbed her to a few home truths.
Luck had asked her to marry him for many reasons. He had said that he loved her, and she didn’t doubt that in his own way he did. But she realized he didn’t love her as much as she loved him. Another factor was Toby: he had needed and wanted a mother, and he had liked her. He’d undoubtedly had a lot of influence on Luck’s decision. That was only natural.