“My grandfather taught me,” he told her. “But whether he learned it from a Ute or a white man, I have no idea.” He motioned toward the back of the truck. “Get some cups.”
She fished two old melamine cups from the portable cupboard and turned back around to the fire. Daniel had squatted on his heels and had taken the lid off the coffeepot. She watched him place a small branch over the opening.
“This is what you do to keep the pot from boiling over,” he told her.
Maggie laughed at the simple directive. “I don’t believe it. A twig from a tree can’t stop the coffee from spilling over the sides.”
He cast her a smug smile. “Next time I’ll make the coffee and show you.”
In other words, he could back up his promises. Maggie wasn’t sure if that announcement relieved her or not. Especially when she looked into his eyes and saw promises of kisses like the one he’d given her in the barn.
If only she could forget those few minutes. But she couldn’t. Even now, after days had passed, the taste, the feel of him was still with her.
“Okay, I believe you.” Close to his side, she crouched down on her heels and held the cups out to him. “Would you pour?”
His eyes lifted to hers and she watched, her heart pounding, as his nostrils flared and his fingers reached out and softly touched her cheek.
“You look at home out here in the wilderness,” he said slowly, “with the sky behind you and the breeze blowing your hair. So very beautiful, Maggie.”
Warm color filled her cheeks, and she looked down at the ground as reckless, forbidden sensations swarmed her whole body.
“Daniel, this time isn’t for you and me,” she felt the need to remind him.
“No. This trip is for Aaron. But that doesn’t stop me from wanting you.”
She had never met a man who said what he was thinking in such a straightforward manner. It shook her deeply to hear Daniel speak his mind. Especially when she was feeling the same way.
Maggie was still trying to think of the best way to reply when he leaned forward and closed the few inches between their lips. Shock and then intense pleasure flooded her senses as he kissed her with a yearning so soft, so sweet, it touched every part of her body.
Without even realizing it, she dropped the cups, and her hands clutched the folds at the front of his shirt. He moaned deep in his throat and brought his arms around her shoulders.
“Mom! Mom! Come look! I caught a fish. A big one!”
Aaron’s excited shouts caused them both to jerk back as though each of them were touching fire.
Breathlessly, Maggie caught his gaze, and a tremor raced down her spine as she saw the smoldering desire in his brown eyes.
“I…think we’d better go see if your son has caught our dinner for tonight,” he said huskily.
All Maggie could manage to do was nod, and he rose to his feet and offered a hand down to her. She took it, and the warm strength of his fingers enclosing hers was almost as intimate as the touch of his lips.
As they walked across the beach to where Aaron was fishing, Daniel continued to hold her hand. Splinters of pleasure dashed up her arm and danced a silly dance right between her breasts. In her head a joyous voice was shouting that she was wanted, that Daniel wanted to be connected to her. Not in a lecherous way, but in the basic way a man needs a woman.
Aaron looked away from his fishing line and over his shoulder long enough to see the two of them approaching and he began to shout all over again.
“Look behind me, Mom. It’s a trout! A big trout! And I think I have another one on the line!” Twisting back around, her son began to reel in his line at a furious pace. “Oh boy, oh boy. This is great!”
Maggie was amazed to see that the trout Aaron had caught weighed at least three pounds. He’d simply allowed the fish to fall on the sand, so Daniel strung the trout on a stringer and staked it out in the cool water of the lake.
Maggie hugged Aaron’s shoulders and praised him for his good fishing. “Skinny must have done a good job teaching you how to fish. I didn’t know you were so good at it.”
“I didn’t, either,” Aaron exclaimed.
Maggie and Daniel both laughed at his honesty and then Daniel said, “Skinny is the ranch hand. The old one. He taught Aaron about fishing?”
Maggie said, “Yes. I never knew anything about the sport. I was a horse girl. So I couldn’t teach Aaron the first thing about a rod and reel or how to cast. Ross and Linc have fished, and both of them promised to take Aaron to the creek that runs through T Bar K property, but they never seem to have the time to do anything other than work the ranch.”
“And now Ross has a wife,” Daniel added. “That must take up even more of his time.”
She smiled wryly. “Believe me, that’s time Ross considers well spent.”
“I’m sure,” Daniel murmured.
Maggie glanced up at him and noticed his mouth was set in a grim line, which surprised her. Ross and Bella were perfect for each other. Their marriage was rock solid. Why would Daniel not be happy about that, she wondered. Or was it just the idea of marriage in general that put a sour look on his face?
Thankfully, she didn’t have long to mull over the questions. Aaron pulled another trout from the water and was jumping up and down with excitement as Daniel took the fish off the hook.
“You’d better get your rod and reel and start fishing, too,” Aaron said to Daniel. “They’re really starting to bite!”
Daniel cast Maggie a fleeting smile before he walked over to the willow and picked up the fishing gear he’d stowed beside the tree.
Sighing, Maggie told herself it was a good thing that Aaron was dominating Daniel’s attention. That kiss they’d shared by the fire was too deep to dismiss, and she could no longer pretend indifference. Not when her body was aching for him to hold her and make love to her.
Shaken by her thoughts, she headed back to the camp to fetch the coffee and try to collect her runaway senses.
Later that evening, Daniel built up the fire so there would be good coals to cook with. After that he cleaned the stringer of trout while Aaron tried his best to help.
Once the fish were ready to cook, he brought them over to the makeshift kitchen on the back of the truck and placed the trout on a large sheet of aluminum foil. Maggie stood by his side and watched him spread a layer of onion and lemon slices over the fish. After a hefty sprinkle of salt and pepper, he sealed up the foil and carried the shiny package over to the fire.
“Now whatcha goin’ to do with the fish?” Aaron asked, who was sitting crossed legged on the ground, soaking up the warmth of the fire.
“Just watch,” Daniel instructed.
With a small shovel, he raked the burning wood to one side to expose a bed of red-hot coals, then he placed the rack back over the fire and the package of fish on the rack.
“They’ll have to cook about thirty or forty-five minutes before they’ll be ready to eat,” Daniel announced.
“Will it taste good?” Aaron wanted to know. “Mom fixes broiled salmon, but I don’t like that stuff too much.”
He made a face and shivered with distaste. Daniel laughed. “I promise you’ll like this. I’m a good cook.”
“Hmm, I’ll be the judge of that, once this meal is over,” Maggie teased.
He looked at her and she had the feeling that the faint smile she read on his face had nothing to do with cooking.
“I didn’t say I was better at it than you,” Daniel told her.
Maggie cleared her throat and looked at the odds and ends scattered across the tailgate. “Is there something I can do to help you?”
He walked back over to where she stood and picked up a can of pork and beans.
“Yeah. You can open these.”
It wasn’t much of a task, but Maggie was glad to do anything. If she didn’t find something to keep her hands occupied, she was halfway afraid she was going to put them on him.
In the next half hour Daniel slice
d peeled potatoes into a skillet filled with a small amount of oil, and fried them to a golden brown. She emptied the beans into a saucepan and placed them on the fire. Daniel spooned a heavy dose of chili powder into them and grinned at her.
“I like things spicy,” he explained.
Maggie was beginning to see that. And she was also beginning to see that she shouldn’t have come on this trip. She should have known that spending time with Daniel in a quiet family setting was the last thing she needed to do. It was making her crazy to touch him, be close to him. Even worse, it was making her think things that she had no right to think. Like how it might be if the three of them could always be together as they were at this moment.
Daniel’s dinner was the most delicious meal Maggie could ever remember eating. The fish were succulent, the potatoes crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Even the beans were tasty, and she ate until she was stuffed.
As for Aaron, he also made a pig of himself and he kept proudly reminding the two adults that he was the one who’d supplied the fish for their dinner. As Maggie watched her son stretch out by the warm fire, she could see he was in little-boy heaven. Daniel had made his dream come true and she would always be grateful to him for going to such lengths for Aaron’s sake.
Once the sun slid behind the bank of rocks to the west, the night air began to cool dramatically. Maggie insisted that Aaron pull on a sweatshirt, and she covered her arms with a red corduroy shirt. Daniel built up the fire, and the three of them scooted closer to the flames.
“I brought a bag of marshmallows if anyone would like some,” Maggie suggested.
“Too full,” Daniel replied.
“I could eat some,” Aaron spoke up. “I like to roast them until they’re black.”
Maggie got the marshmallows for her son. Earlier in the evening Daniel had cut a few willow sticks and sharpened the ends to use for roasting sticks. She gave one to Aaron and ordered him not to get up without laying the stick down first.
From the corner of her eye, she caught Daniel winking at her son and she looked at him with pursed lips.
“What’s the matter? You think I’m being overprotective again?”
Daniel cast her a completely innocent look. “No. It’s good for Aaron to know he has to be careful with a sharp object,” he agreed. “Some parents just teach in a different way.”
“Mom won’t let me have a pocketknife either,” Aaron mumbled as he shoved marshmallows on the end of the stick. “She says I might fall on it and jab it in me. Pooh. I’m smart enough to know I have to close it and keep it in my pocket while I’m running and playing.”
“You might be smart enough,” Maggie spoke up, “but you’re not old enough. Not in my opinion.”
Aaron didn’t argue out loud. Instead he tried another tactic.
“You have a knife, don’t you, Daniel?” Aaron questioned.
Maggie looked over as Daniel reached to a sheath on his belt and pulled out a long, shiny hunting knife.
“I have many knives,” he said. “This hunting knife is the one I like to take camping. You can do lots of things with it—like clean trout.”
“I’ll bet your mother let you have a knife when you were littler than me,” Aaron said with a careful eye toward Maggie.
“She didn’t. But my grandfather, Joe SilverBear, gave me one and taught me how to use it. He also showed me how to catch fish with a bow and arrow.”
Aaron forgot about his melting marshmallows. “Really? How old were you?”
Daniel shrugged. “Maybe ten. I can’t remember exactly.”
Aaron was suddenly a picture of attention. “What else did he teach you? How to hunt deer and elk with a bow and arrow?”
Daniel had a sip of coffee. “I was fortunate that I had my grandfather to teach me the old ways of our people. And hunting is one of the things a young Ute learns at an early age. With a bow and arrow and a rifle.”
“Girls, too?” Aaron asked with disbelief.
Daniel grinned at his assumption. “No. Only the boys hunted for wild game. The girls learned to grow crops and make a shelter to live in.”
“Sounds like you men couldn’t have made it without the women,” Maggie teased. “Grew the food, built the houses.”
He looked at her, and in the flickering light of the fire, she could see his gaze was focused on her lips. Maggie took a deep breath and glanced away before he had a chance to see the longing that had been building inside her since early morning.
“We couldn’t have made it,” he admitted. “Not back before modern times. Today is different. Otherwise, I’d be in big trouble.”
A mocking groan very nearly escaped Maggie’s lips. If Daniel Redwing needed a woman to survive, he wouldn’t be in the least bit of trouble. He was the strong, steady sort of man that drew women to him like the ocean to the shore. Knowing that, it was hard to understand why he wasn’t married. Why had he never taken a wife, she wondered. Did he just not want to be around a woman for a permanent length of time? Or had he already been burned in love?
Maggie told herself that whatever was in Daniel’s heart had nothing to do with her. Yet whenever he looked into her eyes and kissed her, Maggie wished she knew exactly what the man was thinking.
Chapter Seven
For the next half hour Daniel told Aaron several stories about some of the hunting trips that he and his grandfather, Joe SilverBear, had taken through the years.
Daniel also went on to explain how for over thirty years on the Ute Reservation, Joe had worked as a tribal policeman. Eventually he’d retired from the force, and his dedication to keeping law and order had inspired Daniel to be a lawman, too.
As Maggie listened to the stories Daniel told of his grandfather, she could see how much he adored and respected the old man. She also noticed the blatant absence of any words about his father. He’d told her his father had been killed, but surely he had his memories, she thought.
Just as Maggie was wondering about Daniel’s father, Aaron spoke up and put her thoughts into a question of his own.
“What about your dad, Daniel? What did he teach you?”
Maggie watched in total dismay as Daniel’s face suddenly went flat and devoid of emotion.
“My father taught me nothing,” Daniel answered.
“How come?” Aaron prodded. “Was he dumb?”
Maggie gasped. “Aaron! That’s an awful thing to say! Apologize immediately to Daniel or you’re going to bed this instant!” she ordered hotly.
Ducking his head with shame, Aaron mumbled. “I’m sorry, Daniel. I didn’t mean to say something bad about your daddy.”
Without glancing at either of them, Daniel wiped a hand over his face and stared into the flames of the fire. “Forget it, Aaron, you didn’t say anything bad, you were just asking a simple question.” He glanced over at him. “Remember I told you that I didn’t have a dad, either. He was killed in an accident, and before that happened, I wasn’t around him much.”
“Oh.” Aaron looked contrite. “Well, you were lucky cause you had a good grandpa. I don’t have any of those, either. They’re both dead.”
Daniel let out a sigh edged with regret, and Maggie wondered if the melancholy sound was due to Aaron’s loss or his own.
“Yes, Joe SilverBear is someone I love a lot. He took me to my first bear dance,” Daniel stated. “And I still try to attend the festival whenever I have the chance.”
Intrigued, Maggie asked, “What is a bear dance? You wrestle bears or something?”
To her relief the somber look on Daniel’s face lifted and he chuckled aloud while across the way Aaron let out an embarrassed groan.
“Aw, Mom, you know Daniel is smart enough to know not to wrestle a bear. He’d get killed!”
Still chuckling, Daniel said, “Thanks for your confidence in my intelligence, Aaron.”
“Girls!” Aaron said with disdain. “They’re not too brainy about some things. Did you know that, Daniel? There’s a girl who sits behind me in
school and she’s always popping me in the head with her pencil. She thinks it’s funny.”
“She’s only doing that because she likes you and wants you to say something to her,” Daniel told him. “And you’d better remember that your mother is a very smart woman. You should always respect her intelligence.”
Aaron crammed the blackened marshmallows into his mouth and spoke around them. “Mom is the greatest. She knows that.”
Maggie rolled her eyes and smiled at her son’s buttery comment. To Daniel she said, “So tell us about the bear dance. What is it? A ritual of the Utes?”
Nodding, Daniel leaned forward and picked up a nearby stick. As he poked the fire, he said, “It happens every spring because everyone is glad that winter is finally over. The men and women gather for a four-day festival. A corral is built, and inside the corral they all sing and dance in honor of the bear.”
Aaron scooted around the fire and rested his chin on Daniel’s knee. “Why do they do that?” he asked. “Bears are killers.”
“Yes. But they are also smart survivors. And there is a story as to why the Utes do the bear dance every year. Do you want to hear it?”
“Tell us! Tell us!” Aaron urged.
Daniel gently stroked his hand over Aaron’s brown hair, and as Maggie looked on, her heart squeezed with bittersweet emotions. For years she’d wished that Aaron could have a father, a man who would love and guide him as his own. But to give her son that gift would mean she would have to marry again. So far she’d refused to even consider the idea. But Daniel was making her think of the prospect more and more. Was he making her crazy? Daniel was a confirmed bachelor, and she was a widow. There could never be anything permanent between them.
“Well…many, many years ago,” Daniel began, “two Ute brothers went out hunting in the mountains. And they hunted until they were very tired, so they decided to lie down to rest. While they were resting, one of the brothers noticed a bear standing upright by a tree. He was dancing on his hind legs and making a noise as he clawed at the tree.
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