by Karen Rock
Daniel was quiet for so long, his face frozen, that she wondered if he’d heard her until he asked, “And you believe this is the only way to help Tyler?”
She nodded. “Sue’s wonderful. But these are experts with proved results to help him fully regain his speech.”
Daniel rubbed his jaw and eyed her. “Help Tyler or help you?”
Her stomach contracted as though she’d been sucker punched. “What?” Had she been wrong to let down her guard?
“Jodi, Tyler is fine whatever he does or doesn’t do. You’re the one who’s not okay with it.”
Breath rushed out of her. “Of course I’m not okay with it. I’m his mother and he needs to be—”
“The amazing person he is,” Daniel interrupted her, then gathered her back in his arms. “Like his mother.”
Could it be true? Something about Daniel’s tone made her want to believe, but she needed time to process.
“Daniel?” she said on a half breath, just before he lowered his mouth to kiss her. His lips whispered against hers but she put her hand against his drumming heart and pushed. “No.”
Abruptly he let her go and she backed away from him. He leaned against the lighthouse, the mist making his handsome face glisten. She stared, her breath coming in fits and starts.
“It’s not that I don’t have feelings for you,” she admitted, and Daniel’s eyes lit up. “But I don’t see how this—” she gestured between the farm and them “—could work.”
“It can.” He looked at his watch. “I’ve got to find some gas so I can get home for chores. Will you meet me tonight and we’ll talk about it?”
“I have Tyler.”
“I’ll come to you.”
Her heart tumbled at his determined tone. After all this, he still wanted her. It made her head swim.
He gathered her to him again. “Ten o’clock.”
Her cheek slid against his, their hearts pounding together as she nodded. “Ten o’clock.”
Though her words were light, there was something in her that was not. She moved to the door as if in a semitrance. When Daniel guided her down the stairs, she lifted her fingers to her mouth and held them there, imagining how his kiss would have felt.
* * *
JODI PACED ALONG the stripes of moonlight filtering through her blinds, both wishing and dreading ten o’clock. What would she say to Daniel when she hadn’t sorted out her own feelings?
Her bare feet slid across her aunt’s oak flooring, her mind and heart torn. Daniel’s acceptance of her confession made her care for, no—she’d admit it now—love him more than she ever had. But the thought scared her. This could only be a summer romance with a painful ending...again. Could she subject them to that for the sake of a few stolen weeks of happiness?
Her pulse leaped at the base of her throat and she clutched her locket, the cool metal a reminder that she needed to consider Tyler. She couldn’t let him get attached to Daniel, see him as a father figure. If she did, he’d feel abandoned again when they returned to Chicago. And after her painful phone conversation with Peter, that was more of a must than ever.
When she hadn’t responded to his lawyer’s letters, he’d called her himself tonight, his news a shock. He couldn’t help with Wonders Primary, was suing to lower his child support, because he’d lost his job and had been ashamed to admit it. In fact, his wedding was also off since his fiancée couldn’t handle his financial issues. Oh, how she’d felt the irony of that.
Yet despite his treatment of their son, she’d heard him out and agreed that, until he found employment, he could stop the payments. But that made her need for the promotion greater than ever. And Daniel, and now Brady, stood in her way. Did she dare give in to personal feelings when she so desperately needed to keep her focus on Tyler?
Then again, hadn’t Daniel shown her that she deserved happiness, too? She remembered the feel of his arms around her and hugged herself as she peered at the clock. Nine forty-five. He’d be here in fifteen minutes, but suddenly that seemed much too long.
A pebble pinged against her screen and she grinned, her heart galloping too fast for her breath to keep up. Daniel. Like always, their feelings were in sync. Was he as conflicted as she, or did he have a clear picture of how this—how they—could work?
She flung open the sash and leaned out. Below her stood Daniel, his eyes so full of delight she couldn’t help but smile back, despite her nerves.
“You’re early,” she whispered sternly, her expression anything but.
The corners of his mouth lifted, his dimples deepening as he laughed at himself. “I’ve been out here since nine.” His face sobered. “I was worried you might have changed your mind.”
“Only about a hundred times,” she admitted, relieved he’d been as uncertain as she. These were tricky waters to navigate. They might not find their way to each other. “Give me a minute and I’ll meet you by the dock.”
She watched as he strode away and the ache of him leaving made her call out. He turned at his name, his eyes lit with a hope she felt, too. “I’m not dreaming this, am I?” Although she meant it as a joke, deep down, she struggled to believe that this beautiful moment was real.
He returned and pressed a kiss to the hand she dangled from the ledge. “If you are, don’t wake either of us. Now hurry, sweetheart.”
Sweetheart. Her heart pounded and swelled with a surge of hope that she feared more than anything. The blinds fell to the window ledge and she grabbed Tyler’s monitor, placed it in her aunt’s room as they’d arranged and raced to Tyler’s room.
He slept curled on his side, Ollie tucked beneath his arms, his eyeglasses on the table beside him. His cheeks were flushed and his mouth moved, the sight striking a poignant chord in her heart. Her sleeping prince spoke in his dreams. She put a hand to her face and was surprised to find it damp; she’d been crying without knowing it.
But they were happy tears, and she dashed outside in such a hurry that it wasn’t until she felt a splinter that she realized she’d run all the way to the dock without shoes.
At the end of the pier sat Daniel, his broad back tapering to his lean waist. Beyond him, the full moon’s reflection danced on the glasslike surface of the lake. Their stormy afternoon had blown away, leaving a still, fresh summer night pregnant with possibilities.
The evening could go in many different directions, though her heart sank when she considered that the summer could end with only one: her leaving. The thought was so painful even her teeth ached at it.
As she tiptoed toward Daniel, she watched the reflection of the stars pull into long, dancing streaks on the moving surface of the water. The scope of that glittering sky had a way of making her problems seem smaller, more manageable, and she relished the feeling that perhaps she could control her destiny.
Was it wrong to want this night with Daniel? To talk and see if they could figure out a way to be together? And if they did, to have the affections of such a good man, one who lifted her up, supported her, cared for her son? If they were clear about managing their expectations, and she kept Tyler from getting too attached, then perhaps she could have this summer of love. Without Tisdale’s farm in her pocket, she’d need to acquire several smaller properties, which would give her more time with Daniel. It would last her through the winter of the rest of her life.
“Daniel?” Jodi called, and he whirled, his face alight.
He shot to his feet but kept his arms at his sides. She respected his restraint when she longed to fling herself at him, to trace the muscular curves, to feel the beat of his heart beneath her cheek as she had at the lighthouse.
But with so much still to say, she held herself back. Instead of rushing to him, she admired how handsome he looked in a T-shirt that fit his lithe form and shorts that revealed his strong thighs and calves. It was hard not to stare as she sl
owly closed the distance between them.
When she reached him, his smile broadened. “I’m glad we’re going to talk.”
She nodded. “I’m glad, too. It’s beautiful out here,” she said lightly over the pounding pulse in her ears.
“Yes, it is,” he said, but kept his eyes on her.
She cuffed his shoulder and laughed. “We’re supposed to be talking about the night.”
“I’d rather talk about us.”
She nodded, her smile fading. Truth time. Would he accept what she had to say? “Let’s take the rowboat out, watch the stars from the water.”
At least, stuck out in the middle of the lake, he couldn’t walk away if he didn’t like what she proposed. A summer-only romance. It was that or nothing, and she hoped, with all her heart, that he’d agree. Her life was in Chicago and his was in Cedar Bay. Though their feelings had changed, those facts had not.
His eyes were more brilliant than the stars when he smiled. “Okay.”
He stepped into the small red boat tied to the edge of the dock, balanced himself as it rocked beneath his feet then helped her on board. After untying them, he pushed off and rowed them a ways offshore.
Her pulse raced along with the boat. A pair of ducks started as they cleaved the water and took off with a squawk, their feet skimming the surface, wings beating until they were airborne.
Finally he stopped and watched her, his eyes intent. The passion she glimpsed made her lose her nerve. She peered down at the water, making out the black shapes of tiny darting fish moving just beneath the surface in the bright starlight.
“Jodi.” The way he said her name, soft and tender, made it feel like a kiss. She looked up and met his gaze. “If you’re not ready to talk, we don’t have to.”
Everything froze. The blood stopped flowing in her veins. Her breath quit coming. For a moment, even the sound of the water lapping against the boat and the rustling of the trees along the shore fell away. She had to speak now or she might lose him. Lose this chance.
“I care for you, Daniel,” she said slowly, each word feeling like a step toward the edge of a cliff.
His smile faded but his eyes stayed bright. “Why do I hear a ‘but’ in there?”
She laughed, disarmed by his humor as always. Even in the most difficult situations, he knew how to put her at ease.
“But we have to agree that we can only be together—” she swallowed over what felt like shards of glass in her throat “—until I go home.”
“But you are home, Jodi Lynn,” he murmured, his voice tender and serious.
She thought of how much she’d love to live in Cedar Bay again, marveling at how foreign that idea would have felt before she’d left Chicago. “I can’t sacrifice Tyler’s future for my own. Plus, my job is there.”
Daniel was quiet for a long time as he gazed at the shadowed outline of New York’s Adirondack Mountains. In the silence, her heart counted out each second that passed.
“Let’s lie in the bottom of the boat,” he said at last. “Stargaze.”
“Is that what they call it these days?” She couldn’t resist lightening the moment as she slid off her seat and curled up on her side in the bottom of the boat, facing him.
“I forgot how beautiful a star-filled sky looks,” she said quietly. “We can’t see the stars in Chicago.”
With care, Daniel settled in next to her and put an arm around her shoulders, the feel of his skin electric. “When do you think you’ll go back?” She could hear a forlorn note in his voice and second-guessed herself. Was she right to propose this temporary arrangement? Give in to feelings that would be hard to end?
When she looked at him, their noses touched. “As soon as I reach my acreage quota.”
Daniel caressed her cheek, his calloused touch making her squirm and forget her misgivings. “Sue’s new advisor gave her the go-ahead to present her dissertation.”
She inhaled sharply. “That’s wonderful. She’s helped Tyler, Daniel. You have to know how much I appreciate that.”
“Enough for you to let her keep working with him?” His expression looked wistful.
“As long as I’m here.” She snuggled against him, loving the feel of his hard chest beneath her cheek.
“So forever, then.”
She gave a half laugh. He was incorrigible. A stubborn optimist.
“I’m going to make you change your mind, Jodi.” The confident ring in his voice seemed to echo around the still water.
“Oh, Daniel,” she sighed, and brought her hand up to his smooth cheek. “I don’t want anyone to be hurt.”
He pressed her palm to his face, then kissed it. “Let’s not borrow tomorrow’s trouble. We’ll take it day by day.”
“How many clichés did you just fit into that sentence?”
He chuckled, the deep rumble vibrating against her ear. “I mean them, though. I’m not going to ask anything more than you can give.”
She felt her joints loosen and she relaxed against him. “So you’re okay with us being together just for this summer?”
He tucked a curl behind her ear, and the feel of his touch made her shiver. It was so quiet, she could hear every breath he took, felt it vibrate through him in the cramped bottom of the boat.
“Let’s enjoy every moment together until it’s our last.”
“But that moment isn’t today,” she said, so grateful that he’d agreed. She wanted to be with him until she couldn’t. It was that simple.
His hand smoothed the length of her hair as he gazed into her eyes, his expression tender and full of longing. “No. It’s not.” The words sounded so reverent they could have been a prayer.
His fingers trailed down her cheek to her lips, outlining the shape of her mouth. He bent down, his lips against her cheek, brushing it lightly. Shivers ran through her whole body, making her tremble. He brushed his mouth against the hollow of her temple, then traced the line of her jawbone.
The aching anticipation for his kiss was suddenly too much and she reached up and pulled his mouth to hers. He kissed her gently, carefully, but it wasn’t gentleness she wanted, not when time was fleeting. She knotted her fists in his shirt and pulled him closer. He groaned softly, low in his throat, and then his arms circled her, gathering her against him as the boat rocked beneath them. The small possibility of falling into the water vanished as soon as it occurred to her.
All that existed was Daniel. She could feel his warmth burning through his clothes and hers. She ran her fingers along his arm—soft skin over lean muscle, a scar like a thin wire on his biceps. It was an imperfection that made him seem even more perfect. He fumbled as he pushed her heavy hair aside to kiss her ear. She didn’t think she’d ever seen his hands unsteady before.
She trailed her nose across his jaw, inhaling the clean smell of summer countryside, of him. He released a pent-up breath, the sound like music. Her pulse tapped a fast beat and her breath quickened with it. She stroked his cheek and kissed every inch of his neck until he moaned again. Or maybe she’d made the sound; they seemed to share each breath, each heartbeat. It felt as if the universe disappeared and all that remained was the two of them, holding each other close.
“I forgot it was like this,” she said when Daniel pulled back and looked down at her. It seemed as if the stars hurtled down around her head like a rain of silver tinsel.
“It wasn’t.” He kissed her nose, then traced the line of her cheek with his fingertip, a dreamlike intensity in his gaze. “This is better.”
And she never wanted it to end. She felt feverishly alive, every nerve ending jangling as they watched the sky, enjoying the private moment.
“I agree,” she sighed, nestling against his side. “I wish we could stay like this forever.” When he toyed with her earlobe, she tried, unsuccessfully, to settle her heart b
ack in her body. She watched the stars shimmer above and it also felt as though they were celebrating.
“Me, too,” he said softly in her ear. He captured her lips in a kiss so fierce and full of longing that it felt like a love song.
A few minutes later she pulled away and squeezed his hand. “I should go back and make sure Aunt Grace and Tyler are still asleep.”
He tipped an imaginary hat, then pressed a quick kiss to her nose before reseating himself. “Happy to oblige.” He gripped the sides of the boat, holding it steady as she did the same.
“Home, ma’am?” Daniel dipped the oars into the satin water and they slid forward. She hated to end the night, but hopefully it’d be the first of several before she’d have to leave. The thought filled her with a strange mixture of excitement and sorrow.
She leaned back on her hands and studied the stars again.
“I’m not even sure where that is anymore.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“SUE SENT HER apologies, Jodi,” Daniel said, not feeling sorry about the situation at all, as he drove them toward a Midland-operated farm a week later. “Her professors had a department meeting yesterday afternoon and they agreed to hear her present first thing this morning. She flew to New Jersey last night.”
After adjusting her elastic bandage, Jodi smiled at him. “It’s okay. It turns out ‘wunderkind’ Brady isn’t so wonderful in Cedar Bay. Since he hasn’t made any sales, I’m still ahead. And after hearing from Mr. Tisdale that he’ll be gone for a month on his Alaskan cruise, I’ll need lots more acquisitions to get the acreage I need. It’s too bad he’d mixed up the appointment dates, but at least it gives us more time here. Tyler and I might as well take a day off together.”
Her golden hair gleamed in the midmorning light when she twisted around. “Right, Tyler?”
Tyler’s thumping feet signaled that he agreed and Daniel grinned as he checked the tyke in his rearview mirror. The boy had a way of communicating that cut right to the chase.