by Day Leclaire
“Leave it until you see what sort of job you pick up next week.”
She could hear an undercurrent of determination in his voice and sighed. “You’re still resolved to help me, aren’t you?”
“Yup.”
“Any point in my refusing?”
“Nope. Since I’m partially responsible for your losing your job, I should help you find another.”
“Partially?”
“Well... I didn’t drop lunch on the guy, but I suspect I was the cause.” He leaned down so his mouth came dangerously close to the side of her face. “If you hadn’t been busy looking at me, you might have paid more attention to that tray.”
“I—”
“Now don’t go forgetting our agreement.”
She frowned in confusion. “What agreement?”
“To be truthful with each other.”
Her mouth snapped shut. Dam it all! How did he know she’d been about to fib? “All right, fine. You distracted me.”
“The feeling’s mutual, sweetheart.”
Rattled, she buried her nose in the application. “Where were we?”
“Running away?”
“Yes.”
“Go right ahead. I’ll catch up soon enough.”
That’s what she was afraid of. She scanned the next page, her attention snagging on one of the answers. “Now where did he come up with this one?”
“Which?”
She pointed. “Ideal partner. Why would he think I’d want to date a cowboy?”
“I believe Hutch said that was the only type you hadn’t tried before,” Ty replied in neutral tones.
“What?”
He lifted an eyebrow. “A small misunderstanding?”
“To put it mildly. Oh!” She began to laugh. “Oh, dear. I think I see.”
“Care to clue me in?”
“It’s Hutch’s dad. Lonnie was something of an expert at trying out different fields of endeavor. I believe at the time of our divorce the only type of employment he hadn’t tried was wrangling.”
Ty’s mouth curved upward—a most attractive sight. “Got it.”
She glanced at the sheet again and promptly choked. “Pet peeves...April Mae. I swear I’m going to kill that kid.”
“Would you care to change it?”
“Yes! Where’d that pen go?” He recovered it from his shirt pocket and handed it over. “Turn around.” Using his broad back as a table, she took perverse pleasure in scratching out April Mae’s name and scribbling in “liars”.
“Hey, easy. You already ruined one shirt today.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“Done?”
She forced herself to step away, fighting the temptation to linger over the broad, sweeping planes of his back and all those lovely, irresistible ripples. Yum. “Okay. I’m through.”
He twisted around. “I think the rest of the questions were ones you answered on the phone. But you might want to give them a quick check, just to be sure.”
She scanned the last few pages. “Looks fine to me.”
“In that case, I’ll give Willie the changes and let her run it again.”
“Is that it, then?”
“Not quite. There’s one more detail we still need to check out.”
“What?”
“This.”
She should have seen the kiss coming. Or perhaps she had and pretended otherwise. So much for absolute honesty. Just as before, she dove into the kiss with an enthusiasm he couldn’t mistake. With a soft groan, he responded with equal zeal. Why did this keep happening? Cassidy wondered helplessly. She should be shoving him away, not clinging like moss to a rock.
The image seemed appropriate, though—soft on hard, flourishing in a place no life should be possible. Ty offered her heat where for so long she’d only known cold. He gave freely of himself rather than doling out affection in grudging nuggets. He’d never shown annoyance with her clumsiness or accused her of gracelessness. He hadn’t even thought it. If he had, she’d have heard it rumble through his dark voice or seen it slip across his expression. She’d have sensed his impatience or distaste.
Instead, all he’d ever betrayed had been a stark desire, followed by an immutable determination to put his stamp on her, to claim her as his. She’d never experienced that before. And despite herself, she found it all too compelling. She wanted to be loved to the exclusion of every other woman, just as she wanted to love as completely in return.
Love.
She ripped her mouth from Ty’s, fighting for breath. Where the heck had that word come from? “I can’t do this,” she whispered, escaping from his arms in a whirlwind of hands, elbows and knees.
For a large man, he moved with amazing agility, escaping serious injury thanks to hair-trigger reflexes. “Easy, sweetheart, easy,” he soothed. “It was just a kiss.”
“If that’s all it was, I wouldn’t be overreacting like this,” she argued, despising the small quiver fluttering through her voice. It made her sound unbearably vulnerable.
Gentle laughter glittered in his pale eyes. “Then you admit it was more than a simple kiss?”
She scowled. Somehow he’d tricked her. She wasn’t quite sure how, but retreat seemed the best option. “I’d like to go home now, if you don’t mind.”
“Fine,” he readily agreed, which only ticked her off all the more. No doubt he felt he’d won a major victory in their dating war. She wished he didn’t appear so smug about it. Or so incredibly enticing.
Put a damper on it, girl!
And she tried. She sincerely tried the entire way home. But she fast came to the conclusion that the only thing guaranteed to ease her hunger would be to leave the feast. And that meant leaving Ty. The instant they reached her apartment complex, Cassidy jumped from the pickup, only to be brought up short at the steps to her building. Hutch sat on the stoop, a scruffy mop resting in a tangled heap beside him.
“I blew it, Mom,” he began.
With a muffled groan, she turned to face Ty, not in the least surprised to find he’d followed her. “Looks like we’re going to have to change that application form again,” she warned.
“Really?” His calm reaction washed over her like a balm. “Why’s that?”
She pressed her lips together to keep them from trembling. “We’ve just been evicted.”
Progress Report
I told Mrs. Welch she didn’t have to watch me after all. I wanted to get everything done without her figuring out what I was up to. I have to shut the computer down for a day or two, so I’m making a few last notes until I’m on-line again. Plan B has been set in motion and everything’s proceeding right on schedule. Mom’s due home any minute, so I have to get going. Want to be downstairs when she arrives. I wrote up my plan for Experiment #2, just in case this all works out. I know it’s a bit premature, but—
Oops. The landlady’s banging on the door. Gotta go.
CHAPTER FIVE
Experiment #2: Relocation
Goal: Okay, this is gonna be tricky. If Ty’s protective instincts check out, he’ll take care of Mom when she loses the apartment. I’m hoping he’ll take us home with him. Of course, Mom is gonna say no. So I’ll just have to find a way of making her agree without her realizing I’m behind it.
Procedure: Limit Mom’s options so she has to let Ty help whether she likes it or not!
EVICTED. Cassidy didn’t wrap it up in pretty words, Ty noted. Although how pretty she could have wrapped an eviction notice he couldn’t quite imagine. His brows drew together as he considered her situation. What sort of sorry SOB would toss a helpless woman and child out on the streets in the middle of the night?
“You’ve been evicted?” Ty demanded of Hutch. “You sure?”
At the boy’s confirming nod, Cassidy’s shoulders slumped for a fraction of a second. Then she stiffened her spine and set her jaw. “Okay. We can deal with this.”
“So that’s where he gets it,” Ty murmured.
She turned dark eyes in his
direction. “Pardon me?”
He made a fist and lightly tapped her rounded chin. “Hutch always sticks his out, too. I gather it’s a family trait.” He’d knocked her off balance with his comment, which gave him a chance to address Hutch. “What happened?”
“Our landlady, Mrs. Walters, saw me with Miz Mopsey.”
“Who?”
At the sound of her name, the mop beside Hutch shifted ever so slightly so that the tangle of off-white strings poofed out as if they’d been zapped with an electric charge. The dog offered a halfhearted, guilty-sounding bark. Hutch patted what might have been the head. “Animals aren’t allowed here, so we’ve been keeping her secret.”
Ty lifted an eyebrow. “Jeez, it’s a dog. Who’d have guessed.”
Hutch scuffed his toe. “I’m sorry, Mom. Mrs. Walters caught me sneaking the mop out for a walk and made me pack everything up. We have to leave now.”
“She can’t do that. It’s illegal,” Ty stated. “Why don’t I talk to her?”
“No!” Hutch erupted off the step. “She...she was mean. I don’t want to live here anymore. She wouldn’t let Miz Mopsey stay inside even for one night: So we don’t have any choice. We have to leave. Right away.”
Right away, huh? Interesting. Ty folded his arms across his chest and did some jaw-setting of his own. “Trust me. I can change her mind.”
Beside him, Cassidy stirred. “Thanks all the same, but this isn’t your problem. It’s mine. And it isn’t just Miz Mopsey. We’re also behind on the rent.”
“I suspect that’s my fault, too,” he retorted, all the while keeping his gaze fixed on a red-faced Hutch. “You couldn’t have earned much tip money today, thanks to me.”
“No, I didn’t,” she conceded. “But it wouldn’t have made that much difference. I had some unexpected car expenses this month, too. It put us behind.”
“Still... The woman shouldn’t have made Hutch sit out here on the stoop.”
“To be honest,” Hutch began—a first since they’d arrived, Ty was willing to bet, “it’s Miz Mopsey who has to stay on the stoop. Not me. I was afraid to leave her alone, so I decided to sit with her until you got back.”
“What about Mrs. Welch? Why isn’t she still watching you?” Cassidy asked.
“I...uh...told her you’d just pulled up.”
“You know better than that,” she scolded, though clearly, her heart wasn’t in the reprimand. “I’ll go in and start packing.”
“No need. I took care of everything.” Hutch smiled angelically. “I didn’t want you to have any more hassles after what you’ve been through today. So I packed everything up and stashed it right inside the door.”
She leaned down and ruffled his hair, offering a tremulous smile. “Thanks, sweetpea. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“I could make a wild guess,” Ty muttered.
She swiveled to frown at him. “What did you say?”
He attempted to match Hutch’s innocent smile. “I said, I’d like to have you as my guests.” He wasn’t the least surprised when she shook her head.
“Thanks, but that’s not necessary.” Her tone was adamant. “We’ll stay in a motel for a night or two while I look for a new place.”
He could press the issue but suspected it wouldn’t get him anywhere. Cassidy Lonigan might have a voice like sweet syrup, but it covered an indomitable will. Backing her in a corner would only force her to fight all the harder for her freedom. She didn’t wait for his reply but opened the door to the apartment building and picked up the first of the boxes stacked inside. Clumping down the steps, she tripped along the sidewalk toward a rusted-out rattletrap. Watching her, Ty didn’t know whether to laugh or pack the woman up in one of her own boxes and dump her in his truck. Following her example seemed the smartest choice for now. He climbed the steps and selected the largest of the cartons stacked by the door. Passing Hutch, he surprised a scowl on the boy’s face.
“What’s with you, kid?”
“Nothin’.”
Yeah, right. It didn’t take more than half a brain cell to figure out what was bothering the boy. “You don’t know your mother real well, do you?”
That got a reaction. “Course I do! She’s my mom.”
“Then you ought to know what would happen if I insisted the two of you come home with me. Now get your butt off that stoop and grab a box.”
By the time he and Hutch had reached Cassidy’s bucket of bolts, she was on her way back for a second load. “She’d keep sayin’ no,” the boy said as they stowed the boxes in the car.
Ty suppressed a grin. So the kid had been paying attention. “And if I kept pushing her?”
“She’d tell you no, come hell or high water.”
“Watch your mouth, boy.”
“Yes, sir. Sorry.”
Seeing that at least Hutch’s contrition was sincere—if little else—Ty relented. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned about your mother, it’s that she’s prideful and as self-sufficient as they come. I might not like the decisions those traits cause her to make, but I respect your mother too much to try to impose my will on her. It’s her choice or no choice. So until we find a way to coax her down our pathway while keeping her pride and independence intact, we back off. Let her check out all the other available trails first. With luck, she’ll eventually see things our way.”
Hutch beamed. “No problem. I think I can get her on the right path.”
“Now why doesn’t that surprise me?” Ty muttered.
“Because you know I’m smart. Scary smart.” The boy adjusted his glasses and fixed Ty with serious blue eyes. “And that doesn’t bother you, right?”
Ty snorted. “Not hardly.”
Something akin to relief crept into the boy’s gaze. “Just checking. You could have changed your mind since earlier.”
“I haven’t and I won’t. Now, do we have that settled once and for all?”
“Yeah.”
Ty jerked his head toward Cassidy, who was lugging two scraggly potted rosebushes—nary a leaf or bud in sight—down the sidewalk. “Then shake a leg. We can’t let your mom do all the work.”
It didn’t take long to load the boxes that contained the sum total of the Lonigans’ meager possessions. With the exception of the computer, which had been carefully stashed by Hutch on the back seat, it was a pitiful collection. Even so, one large box didn’t fit, no matter how many times Cassidy tried to force it.
“It’s the books,” she said to Hutch. “Maybe we should leave them for Mrs. Walters to donate to the library.”
Ty folded his arms across his chest. “Or you could ask me to hold on to them until you’re settled into your new place.”
“I really don’t want to impose...” she began, then ground to a halt. Something in his expression must have given a hint to the anger smoldering inside. With a quiet word of thanks, she turned the carton over to him. “I’ll let you know where we end up.”
“No need. I’ll follow you to the motel.”
“That’s not necessary...” She released a gusty sigh. “You’re going to pull the man thing, aren’t you?”
“If you mean, am I going to make sure you get to a motel safely, then yes, I’m pulling the man thing.” He eyed her vehicle in disgust. “Considering your car—and I use that term loosely—is held together by rust and sheer faith, it’s the least I can do. And, no doubt, the least you’ll allow me to do.”
To his intense satisfaction, her expression revealed a hint of consternation. “Thank you,” she murmured again. “I owe you. Come on, Hutch. Climb in.”
To Ty’s amusement, the boy didn’t utter a single word of protest. Nor did he offer any words of farewell. Interesting. Sudden suspicion held Ty in place. Sure enough, when Cassidy turned the key in the ignition, nothing happened. Not a cough. Not a whimper. Not even a bellow of smoke and gasping death rattle.
“Gosh, Mom,” he heard Hutch exclaim. “What’s wrong?”
“I...I don’t know.”
“Well, pop the hood and let me take a look.”
Burying his amusement, Ty braced his shoulder against a convenient tree trunk and waited. Hutch climbed out, Miz Mopsey in tow. Cassidy joined them at the front of the car. She opened the hood and locked it in place while her son climbed onto the fender and peered into the greasy mass of wires and steel. Ty bit back a shout of laughter as the dog wriggled her way up beside the boy, snuffling beneath the hood as though offering her opinion on the matter.
“Need help?” he called, knowing before he even spoke what the answer would be.
“No, thanks,” Hutch hastened to reply. “I see what it is.” He glanced over his shoulder at his mother. “It’s the caliper switch. Burned clean out.”
She sighed. “Crud. Can it be fixed?”
“Not tonight.”
Ty strolled over for a peek. Never having heard of a caliper switch, he was curious to see what the kid had done to the car. It only took a second to discover that the battery had been disconnected. He slanted a glance at Cassidy. She was totally oblivious. No question, mechanics weren’t one of her strong points. Fortunately, mind-blowing kisses were.
“Sure you don’t want some help?” he offered casually.
“Oh, no. Hutch can deal with it,” Cassidy insisted.
Ty shrugged. “Okay by me.” Hell if he’d argue. If she’d asked, he’d have told her the truth about the battery. But since she chose to be stubborn, she could suffer the consequences—especially since those consequences worked to his advantage.
“Well, dam.” She ran a hand through her hair, turning the straight, dark sheet into an attractive tumble. “I wonder how expensive caliper switches are?”
That brought him up short. “I don’t expect the repairs will cost you much at all,” he hastened to reassure her. He’d be damned if he’d let the kid add to her financial worries.
“Really?” Relief surged through her voice.
“At the risk of stepping on your independent nature, could I offer you a place to stay tonight?” He strove for humble and came within spitting distance of it. “I have a cabin between the main house and the bunkhouse that’s not in use.”