by Tina Leonard
“Mason,” Mimi said impatiently. “Don’t make me repeat it.”
He shook his head. “But you said it past tense.”
She looked at him. “Past tense?”
“You said you’d loved me.”
“Oh.” Mimi blushed a becoming pink that went nicely with her blond hair and delicate features. “Well, it was a long time ago.”
“I see,” Mason said, somewhat deflated. Gathering his pride, he nodded. “Thank you for your honesty. It makes having to live under the same roof easier.”
Mimi turned to go. Mason felt as if he needed to say something to make her stay. “For what’s it’s worth, I never stopped thinking about that night.”
She slowly turned to look at him.
“And I mean, I guess I could say that I knew she was my daughter, that there was this instant connection. But I thought that connection was because I helped you deliver her. Nanette was just this writhing, wailing bundle of baby, and I never doubted she was Brian’s. So you’re right. I wasn’t ready to be a father. I’m sure I wasn’t. I’d been avoiding it too long, because I’d already raised eleven brothers.”
“So try to forgive me,” Mimi said. “I’m certainly going to try to forgive you.”
He straightened, all his good intentions flying away. “Forgive me? For what?”
“All the times you were a donkey’s butt. When you never noticed me. When you didn’t notice that I was desperately in love with you. I forgive you for not noticing that I wanted to be more than a friend to you, more than a sister. And I forgive you for not psychically knowing that Nanette was yours so I wouldn’t have to make such a difficult confession.”
“So okay, I forgive you for not psychically knowing that you should have told me sooner! Mimi Cannady, you waited too long to tell me!” he thundered. Then he took a deep breath. “Let’s just stick to the basics. We tell Nanette together and otherwise peaceably coexist.”
“Thank you,” Mimi said, in that snippy tone he knew too well, “that was all I wanted.” She turned to leave again, opening the door, but by now, his emotions had the best of him.
“Well, it’s not all I want,” he said, closing the door and picking her up. He carried her up the stairs, ignoring her wriggling. “First, I’m going to give you what you deserve.”
“You’re going to do no such thing!”
Mimi bit his arm lightly, but he ignored that, too. He’d been through a lot of pain in his life, and a little nip didn’t bother him. “I believe I overheard you tell Helga you were worried that Nanette would be lonely out here on the ranch, so let’s just see what we can do about that, shall we?”
He laid her gently on his bed. “You’re beautiful,” he said. “Stubborn, but beautiful.”
She tried to sit up. He sat next to her, kissing her the way he’d wanted to the night they were together. “I never forgot that night,” he said, his throat husky. “I always wanted to be with you again.”
His words melted her resistance. She lay back down, pulling him with her. “Come on, cowboy. Keep talking sweet. I’ve waited years to hear you romance me.” She pulled off his shirt and unzipped his jeans.
“It’s only fair to tell you that I don’t have marriage on my mind,” he said, yanking off her shirt and pulling her jeans down.
She laughed. “I don’t recall proposing to you.”
He hesitated. “I’m supposed to do the proposing.”
Her smile was seductive. “Mason, you worry too much about being the boss. If you want to be a man, take my panties off.”
“Mason!” he heard bellowed up the stairwell. “Mason, are you home?”
He got into bed next to Mimi and pulled the covers up over both of them. “It’s Calhoun,” he said. “Don’t say a word. Probably wants me to help fix his windmill. Or corral Gypsy. Or watch the kids. If we lie here, he’ll go away.”
Mimi giggled. The door echoed with pounding, and then it swung open.
“Ya napping, Mason?” Calhoun asked, peering around the door. “I need…oh.” His gaze widened at the sight of Mimi and Mason propped against the pillows, sheets up to their armpits. “I beg your pardon.”
“It’s worse than it looks,” Mason said with a sigh.
“Actually, it looks good to me,” Calhoun said. “I’ll be going now.”
“Is it an emergency?” Mason asked.
“No. Kenny and Minnie want to play with Nanette, so I was going to help you fix the dock so they could swim. But it can wait. Bye, Mimi. Good to see you finally caught the old cuss.” Calhoun slammed the door.
Mason rolled his eyes, preparing to strip his jeans and make sweet afternoon delight with Mimi, but she jumped from the bed and began dressing as fast as she could.
“Hey!” he exclaimed. “Get back in my bed!”
“No,” Mimi said, going to the door so he couldn’t haul her back in. “Do you know, I forgot about Minnie and Kenny?”
“What the hell do they have to do with this?” Mason asked, pointing to the bed.
“Nanette won’t be lonely. We don’t need to have more children. In fact, we shouldn’t have more children. We don’t even know if we work together. As we are, that is,” Mimi said. “It could be awkward, you know. Both of us under the same roof. Parenting together. Et cetera.”
“It’s already awkward,” Mason grumbled, feeling as if the tent in his jeans was pressing the breath out of him. “Mimi, let’s continue our discussion.”
“Not a good idea, and we’ve been frugal with good ideas our whole friendship,” Mimi said, hurrying out the door. “We should be frugal with the bad ones, as well. Bye, Mason!”
Mason could hear her feet tripping lightly down the stairs. Sighing, he knew full well he’d missed a prime opportunity to get on top in their relationship.
And it wasn’t just sex he was worried about.
He picked up her bra off the floor and smiled. Oh, he would get on top—and it would be sooner rather than later, he vowed. Mimi Cannady was going to learn that he was a man to be reckoned with, and if she thought he was going to chase her, she was quite mistaken. Mimi was going to do all the chasing, until she understood that not only had she loved him, she still did.
He was the only man she would ever love, no matter how much she wanted to believe otherwise.
Then it hit him: Mimi had turned the tables on him. She had tricked him into wanting her. Despite his best promises to himself, he had fallen into her charming net, happily and gladly.
Now that he’d kissed her again, and tasted her, it might even be an irrevocable fall—which was exactly what he’d been avoiding for years.
He didn’t want to fall mindlessly as his brothers had. He’d seen what that had done to their lives. While the end results might be happy and beneficial for them, getting there looked messy and torturous.
He’d had enough of that.
She’s right. No more bad ideas. No more Mimi, he told himself for the thousandth time.
The problem was, as wonderful as it had been to make love to the girl she’d been, the woman she was now would be far more satisfying. His soul ached to its very core that he must deny himself that sweetness. But he had to, or he would be lost—like Maverick, the father who had eventually succumbed to his broken heart.
Chapter Five
Word of the afternoon she hadn’t really spent with Mason somehow got around like cookies at a bridal shower. Mimi couldn’t understand how so many people seemed to think that she and Mason were now destined for the altar. The knowing winks and happy smiles and the well-meaning question Where is Sheriff Jefferson this afternoon? were all somewhat embarrassing.
Darn Calhoun and his big Jefferson mouth.
“He means well,” the stylists at the Union Junction Salon agreed once they heard her story. All the girls were there, including Valentine, who had closed up at the bakery. Everyone gathered to sit out on the lawn, enjoy some lemonade and a gossip among girls. Sighing, Mimi recognized how much these special times among her “si
sters” meant to her.
“Calhoun might have meant well, but what he thought happened, didn’t. The truth is that Mason and I are farther apart than ever. I don’t even know why I say ‘Mason and I’ in the same breath. Separate is what we have to be.”
The women looked at her. There were nineteen stylists who’d come to Union Junction several years ago and stayed through the night of the big storm that had nearly leveled the town. They’d worked for a while in Lonely Hearts Station before Last’s girlfriend, Valentine, accidentally burned down the salon. Now they were all back here. The only missing “sister” was Annabelle Turnberry Jefferson, who lived in a different city with her husband, Frisco Joe. Over the years, all the women had grown close, a family who had learned to be strong despite whatever bad circumstance had originally brought them here.
Mimi felt certain she shouldn’t complain about her life, when it was as wonderful as it was, but one too many people had asked about Mason. Mimi had replied that she wasn’t in charge of his social calendar, which had gotten the girls to gossiping.
“You can’t give up on him,” Marni said. “He’s the father of your child.”
“You know how those Jeffersons are,” Lily said. “Irresistible. Though I love my Sam.”
Mimi shook her head. “I’ve known the Jeffersons all my life. They are not irresistible.”
“You told us they were,” Valentine said with a laugh. “Remember?”
“I didn’t want to burst your bubbles. Yours or Olivia’s or anybody else’s who chose to marry one.”
“You love Mason,” Daisy said. She grinned. “And you protest too much.”
“Loving someone doesn’t mean you’re right for each other,” Mimi said primly. “Mason and I aren’t a good match.”
The ladies smiled.
“You want him to chase you,” someone suggested. “You want to know that he wants you and not just because you had a child with him.”
Mimi thought about that for a minute. Her pride pricked her far too much to allow herself to admit that perhaps she felt just that way. “We just wouldn’t work. We’ve been friends too long.”
“Then how’d you end up in bed together naked?” Shasta asked. “Which, by the way, sounds like a great way to spend an afternoon.”
Mimi blushed. “Momentary insanity.”
“And the fact that he’s gorgeous doesn’t hurt,” someone said.
“Nor does it hurt that he’s the sheriff. Mason looks great in a hat and badge.”
“But he looked great in nothing but his hat, huh, Mimi?”
Everyone laughed except Mimi. She stared at the ladies, stricken, and then sighed.
“We’re not trying to hurt your feelings,” Shasta said, going over to hug her. “We’re just trying to help you sort it out. It sure sounds like you like him, and we think you still love him, and we want to help.”
“You can’t,” Mimi said. “He’s an ape.”
“But a hot ape,” Dixie said. “All men are stubborn in some way.”
“Yes,” Mimi said, “but the moment was gone for me after my divorce was final, and before he found out about Nanette. I knew that if he loved me, he would speed to my side in hot pursuit. After all, I was free. And I’d been waiting for him forever. But no,” Mimi said, shaking her head, “it was the same as it’s always been. Just friends.”
“Ew,” Gretchen said, “the kiss of death for relationships.”
“Thank you,” Tisha replied. “That helped a lot.”
“She’s right,” Mimi said. “I knew it was time to face that fact myself.”
The phone rang, and Violet picked it up. Mimi barely listened as her name was called. “It’s Julia Finehurst, Mimi.”
Julia was her best friend, and Julia’s Honey-Do Agency was very successful. She crowed pretty often about sorting out the troubles at Malfunction Junction. Julia and her agency had accidentally sent the stylists to town several years ago, in response to Mimi’s request for a housekeeper for Mason. It wasn’t until Julia’s second try at solving the housekeeping problem that Mason hired Helga. Unfortunately, there were some troubles that not even a best friend could sort out.
“I haven’t been able to get you in days,” Julia complained. “Your dad says you’re staying at Malfunction Junction for a while. Are you trying to catch the last bachelor out there?”
Mimi winced. “Not exactly.”
“Oh. I thought maybe if you were staying out there, that you and Mason—”
“No. Mason has other plans, and they don’t really include me.”
“Mason’s always included you in all his plans,” Julia said reasonably. “You’re usually the one making his plans for him.”
“They’re not all so easy to make,” Mimi said, aware that the ladies were listening, though they tried to appear as if they weren’t. “I told him that he was Nanette’s father, and he moved Nanette to the ranch. I had no choice but to follow.”
“Oh. So, being one big happy family is difficult?” Julia asked.
“I’ll say.”
“Hmm. Mimi, he’s a man. He can be caught.”
Mimi blinked. “I don’t know much about catching anything, really.”
“Well,” Julia said, “you’re just going to have to make him love you. For Nanette’s sake. It’s the kindest thing for him, Mimi. Once he’s dragged down the aisle, he’ll appreciate it.”
“I’ll see you this weekend,” Mimi said softly, knowing that none of what Julia was saying applied to Mason. He was much too contrary for any plan to work with him.
“You remember what I said,” Julia said. “He’s a man. Just set out the right bait, and you’ll catch him. If you don’t have the right bait, I can send you some.”
“No, thank you,” Mimi said. “I already tried bait and ended up married to someone else.” She hung up, and looked at the ladies who were now staring at her openly. “Julia thinks I’m not using the right lure.”
“But you said you didn’t want to catch him,” Beatrice said. “We think you want him to catch you.”
“I want it not to be this hard,” Mimi said crossly. “Love should be simple. The recipe is that I fall in love with a man, and he falls in love with me, and we live happily ever after.”
“Someone read you Grimm’s fairy-tale cookbook,” Remy said. “No one I know has that kind of marriage.”
“Well, they should,” Mimi insisted. “I’ve waited all my life to be loved by the right man. I’ve had my father as a role model, and I know that waiting on the right love is the only way to go. Mason isn’t that man. At least not for me.”
She looked around at her friends from the Union Junction Salon and Lonely Hearts Salon—this group of women had been through a lot, and they’d adopted her as one of them from the beginning. She could tell them anything. “My father says Mason needs some space,” Mimi confided.
“Space!” The ladies chuckled. “Honey, if you give a man too much space, he gets lost,” Jessica said.
“Maybe he just needs some time to sort things out,” Mimi said. “I did drop a very big piece of news into his world. He’s adjusting to being a father.” She took a breath. “I always loved Mason, and I always hoped he’d see me as someone he was in love with. Then we…were together—” She knew guilt flashed over her face. “We just lost our minds that night. I know it sounds cliché, but you know what? That’s what I want to happen again,” she said softly.
“Ohhhh,” they all said.
“You want him wild for you,” Daisy said.
“I want to know that we can both find our way back together after everything we’ve been through. And that the magic we felt that night is still there.”
“Maybe Mason’s suppressing it,” Lily suggested. “Men suppress a lot of things.”
Through the window they saw Crockett walk onto the lawn across the street and go straight to Valentine, giving her a big kiss on the lips. Everyone went mmm, though Valentine suddenly looked as if she was wearing blush.
That is what I want, Mimi thought. I want Mason to want me that much, and not be afraid to show it.
The chance of that happening at this point, she supposed, was next to nothing. Though they had nearly wound up making a dreadful mistake in his bedroom yesterday, the real problem was that Mason was not crazy about her.
It took crazy to make a marriage work.
“What are you doing here, Crockett?” someone called out the open door, “besides bussing Valentine?”
“Picking up my daughter,” he replied. “She’s been with Momma long enough,” he said with a wink to Valentine. “Besides, Mason wants her to come out to the ranch to play with Nanette.”
Mimi’s eyes went wide. Mason was making a play date for Nanette? He didn’t think he needed to consult her?
Obviously, Mason thought he was in charge. Of the town, his brothers, his daughter. Mimi’s head spun. She wanted him to ask her opinion about what made Nanette happy. Of course, he’d known Nanette for so long that he already knew what made her happy.
Mimi sighed. This living together was going to be tough. He wasn’t going to be the kind of housemate who made lots of mutual decisions.
“So what are you girls doing?” Crockett asked with a lazy grin for the gathering. “Hen talking?”
“We’re trying to figure out how to catch a cowboy,” someone said brightly.
He shrugged with a devilish twinkle in his eyes. “All the good ones are taken.”
“Except Mason,” Kiki boldly said.
“Well, yes,” Crockett said with a fast glance at Mimi, “though I believe his daughter has stolen his heart.”
Mimi looked toward Kiki, astonished by her comment and wondering what the woman was up to.
“Say someone wanted to catch Mason,” another girl said. “What would be the ideal way to his heart?”
“Oh, no,” Crockett said, shaking his head. “You’re not getting me into that trap. I know what you ladies are up to. Matchmaking. And if you think that getting Mason and Mimi together is just a simple matter of striking a match, you haven’t realized the toughness of the tinder. Mason is not a fire easily lit.”