She’d heard the same conversation, or variations of it, throughout her years of running the bar.
After lunch, the adults led the children to the barn to visit the animals.
Once inside, Tori stared at Maddy’s sandals then threw herself against Cole’s leg and said, “Maddy needs cowboy boots.”
“Does she?” Cole’s eyebrows shot up comically. “I had no idea.”
He picked up Madeline by her arms and held her nose to nose. “You want cowboy boots?”
She nodded.
“Then you shall have a pair, my princess.”
Madeline hid her face against his shoulder, but Honey saw the tiny smile.
She whispered in his ear.
“You want pink boots like Tori’s? Okay.”
He settled her onto his forearm. “You want cowboy boots, too, Evan?”
“Yeah.”
“Pink?”
“Uncle Co-ole.”
He laughed. “Okay. No pink.”
They approached one of the horses in the stable.
“This here’s Dusty.”
Madeline clung to Cole’s shoulders and whispered in his ear.
“Yes, he is big, but he’s a good boy. He won’t hurt you.”
“Here.” Travis’s big hand appeared in front of Cole, holding a carrot. Dusty perked up and tried to snatch it.
Travis jerked it out of his way. “Hold on.”
He handed it to Cole.
“Let’s hold it together, okay?” Cole said to Madeline.
She wrapped her small fingers around the carrot below Cole’s.
“Easy,” Travis murmured, and Dusty took it gently, sensing Madeline’s fear.
“See?” Cole said. “He’s as gentle as a newborn lamb.”
Travis laughed. “Not always, but I trust him with the children, as long as there’s an adult present.”
Madeline whispered in Cole’s ear again.
“Yes, he does chew loudly. He needs to improve his table manners.”
Again, she hid her face against his shoulder. For the briefest moment, Cole rested his head on her hair, both pain and pleasure flitting across his features.
The moment too intimate, something she felt she should not be witness to, Honey turned away.
Cole did the same with Evan and Honey appreciated his efforts to be fair with both children.
They stepped outside into blazing sunshine.
“Let’s have our dessert down by the stream,” Rachel said. “I’ll go make a couple of thermoses of tea and lemonade. Travis, will you get blankets and fill a basket with the cookies Tori and I made for dessert? Let’s bring the grapes and cheese cubes from the fridge, too.”
In the kitchen, the children jockeyed for the best view of what went into the baskets.
“You kids can’t possibly be hungry,” Honey exclaimed. “You just ate.”
“But there’s cheese, Honey,” Evan said. “It’s my favorite.”
“Is it? I’ll make sure to buy some for you and keep it on hand.” She talked as though she planned to have them over often after today—absurd. But they’d rapidly blazed a trail straight to her heart. “What kind do you like?”
“Uncle Cole, what kind of cheese do I like?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, Ev, but knowing your mom it was probably something like brie or camembert.”
“I know that word brie! It’s round, right?”
Cole nodded.
“Okay,” Honey said. “That’s what I’ll pick up.”
Evan shot her a huge grin and her heart melted yet again.
Every adult carrying a little something, and Rachel bringing up the rear with Beth in her arms, they walked to the stream—not, as it turned out, a short walk.
Brilliant, Honey thought. Rachel knows how to wear out children.
The kids threw stones and trailed twigs and small branches in the water. Cole and Travis watched to make sure no one fell in. It might be the end of June, but there was still a breeze and it was too cool for the children to get wet, despite the beauty of the day.
In the shade, Rachel sat with Beth, who watched the children’s antics.
Honey joined the kids at the stream, naming the leaves of different trees as they floated by.
Evan raced to and fro for more stones to toss into the stream.
“You keep doing that,” Cole said, “and you’ll build a dam. The stream won’t be able to keep flowing.”
Evan laughed. Honey grasped his hands and spun him around.
Then everything turned into a slow-motion movie reel as Honey stepped too close to the edge and the ground gave out beneath her feet.
Travis lunged and caught Evan before he hit the water.
Cole rushed to catch Honey.
He lost his footing on muddy ground, slipped and they both landed in the stream, Honey on top of Cole.
Cole said, “Oof!” and Honey squealed, “Cold!”
Cole stood, taking Honey with him. “Water’s definitely still cold.”
On the bank, Honey shivered, even with Cole’s arms still wrapped around her.
He carried her to the grass beside the picnic blankets. The two stood dripping on dry ground.
Honey caught Cole staring at her. She glanced down at herself. Her pink cotton blouse clung to her, turned see-through by the water, showing her white lace demi-bra in detail.
“Honey,” Tori squealed. “I can see your underwear top. It’s prettier than Mommy’s.”
Rachel laughed and tossed Honey a dish towel from one of the baskets. “Cover up with this.”
Honey tucked it into the front of the blouse’s neckline and felt better.
Not one to flaunt her body, her clothes were pretty but not alluring. Apparently, that all changed once they got wet. Vy said her feminine clothing contrasted with her take-charge personality. Honey didn’t think about it much, but she wondered if that was part of the appeal of pretty clothes. They contrasted her job and the no-nonsense way in which she had to handle sometimes rowdy customers.
Cole sat on the blanket and the children sat near him. In time, Evan fell asleep and Madeline’s lids drooped.
Honey wrung water from her skirt.
Rachel quietly packed the baskets. “Why don’t you and Cole stay here with the children? Don’t disturb them. They’re exhausted and need their sleep, but this is a longer picnic than I’d planned and I need to put Beth down for her nap and do some laundry.”
“That’s fine, Rachel. We’ll head home after the kids wake up. Thanks for having us over.”
“Here, Honey,” Tori said. “Take this home for Maddy and Evan. They like unicorns.”
She handed Honey the sticker book.
Travis packed the cards and toys they’d brought. He shook out the blanket that was no longer occupied and carried it over to Honey.
Quietly, he said, “Wrap this around yourself.”
Rachel cleared the baskets from the other blanket and Travis covered Evan and now sleeping Madeline with it. Cole tucked it all around them.
Rachel, Travis and Tori left Cole and Honey sitting on the blanket bookending the sleeping children.
They sat quietly with nothing to say.
A chain of ants walked across the farthest corner of the blanket.
A bird whistled in a branch above Honey’s head.
The breeze ruffled still-new green leaves of the tree above them, mild but cool wherever Honey’s clothing was still wet.
She curled forward and leaned her head onto her knees to keep her body heat contained.
Eventually, she nodded off.
She awoke slowly, by increments, not wanting to stir because she felt so good. Warm. Safe.
She burrowed against the source of the heat, wrapping her arms around it.
A voice murmured nearby, rumbling against her cheek.
A hand brushed across her hair.
What?
Her eyes sprang open. She came fully awake to find herself nestled onto Cole’s lap, in his arms.
Pushing against the chest she’d been leaning on, she stared at him.
This close, his eyes dark in the shade, almost navy, he looked less intimidating. Warmer.
She sat across his lap with her legs drawn up to her chest. His arms circled her and his knees at her back protected her from the breeze.
“You were shivering,” he said, again with that voice that rumbled through her.
She stared.
“I couldn’t leave you cold.”
He started to lift her from his lap. Too soon. She held on.
“Are you still cold?” he asked.
“Yes.”
He didn’t seem upset about having to hold her to keep her warm. His big hand reached for the back of her head and urged her back against his chest.
“Breeze is a little cool.” He sounded perfectly normal, as though he did this every day. As though it was normal for him to offer a woman warmth by holding her on his lap and wrapping hard, truly comforting arms around her.
Honey hadn’t felt so...so...taken care of in ages. In years.
She relaxed against him, the more to enjoy this rare event, the likes of which probably wouldn’t happen again for years.
She led an active and full life...during opening hours, that is.
This summer would be brutally busy until August, when she and the other organizers would put on the first reincarnation of the fair and rodeo in fifteen years. After that, her free time would be hers again. Maybe too much free time. Wrapped in Cole’s arms, she could acknowledge to herself that sometimes she got lonely.
Cole smelled good, like soap and fresh air and heat.
The hair on his forearm beneath her hand abraded her palm, but softly. She rubbed it, slowly moving her hand along his arm, shaping her fingers around the long muscles.
She couldn’t see his hand where it curled around her calf, but behind her closed eyelids, she could imagine it. She knew it was a strong square hand. The rare times that he had to fight in her bar, she knew he made a strong square fist.
Funny. Why had she noticed that detail and why would she remember it?
Her hand, with a mind of its own, eased up to his bicep, where it cradled the full, magnificent strength of him.
His chest rose and fell, the motion taking her head with it. The pulse beneath her ear quickened and began to pound. The muscles in his thighs beneath her tensed.
Her fingers caressed his bicep through the fabric of his denim shirt. She wished it were bare, like his forearms, where the cuffs of his sleeves were rolled back, the skin there so warm.
How warm would it be closer to his source, his heart? If she could touch his naked chest—
“Honey?”
His voice startled her out of her thoroughly inappropriate thoughts of the town sheriff.
“Yes?” She held her breath.
“Maybe you should stop touching me.”
To her horror, she realized her hand had indeed moved to his chest. Her forefinger had slipped into the open vee of his shirt, where the skin really was warmer.
The world spun when he set her on the blanket, surged to his feet and stalked to the edge of the stream.
Honey straightened herself. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me.” Her voice squeaked out of her on a weak breath. So unlike her.
“Just...” He cleared his throat. “Just perfectly normal attraction between a man and a woman. That’s all.”
Evan sat up, breaking the tension between them. “Where is everyone?” He rubbed his eyes.
Cole came back to the blanket. He looked like himself again, in control. Calm.
Honey, often the master of control, still had a drumming pulse and a racing heart.
Madeline came awake. Cole picked her up and said, “We’d better head back.”
Honey busied herself with folding blankets and making sure they had everything, but her hands shook.
How thoroughly embarrassing. She never lost control.
Evan ran ahead, Cole carrying Madeline and walking with long strides, as though he couldn’t wait to get away from Honey. And why not?
Pulling up the rear, Honey berated herself for her behavior. Cole needed help with the children. He didn’t need a woman coming on to him just because he had generously offered his body for warmth.
She trudged behind them, wondering what on earth had come over her.
Men made passes at Honey all the time. She knew she was an attractive woman. But she didn’t let it go to her head. As a businesswoman, in particular as a bar owner, she protected her reputation.
Would Cole brag to the men in town that Honey Armstrong had come on to him?
She studied Cole’s strong, straight back.
The answer hit her with resounding confidence. No. Cole would never do that.
She knew in her bones that he was an honorable man.
Cole Payette was a gentleman through and through.
* * *
COLE WISHED HE hadn’t been raised as a gentleman, with old-fashioned values like honor and decency, and respect for women.
What he really wanted to do was to find a babysitter, drop off the children and drag Honey to her lacy bedroom, where he would spend hours worshipping her perfect body.
His hands shook with his need.
On the long walk back to the truck, while he buckled the children into their seats and while he drove back to Honey’s Place, his hands shook with a fine tremor that seemed to run through every inch of his body.
He wondered if it showed.
He hoped not.
A man who prided himself on his self-control, Cole had been brought to the edge this afternoon by Honey.
His impulse to hold her, to warm her, had been pure. She’d been shivering in her sleep. He had felt the chill of being wet in the June breeze.
So small compared to him, her body would have been far colder.
She hadn’t awakened when he’d picked her up and settled her onto his lap. She’d snoozed while he wrapped his arms and thighs up around her to keep her warm, secretly enjoying a few moments of forbidden pleasure just holding her.
Then she’d come out of her doze and had wreaked havoc with his equilibrium.
That one wandering hand, so small but so lethal, had aroused him beyond bearing.
He wondered that she hadn’t run screaming from him when she’d realized. He’d always been careful that his attraction to her didn’t show and that he didn’t touch her.
This was why.
He wanted her.
Horrified that his two children slept a foot away while he dreamed about doing everything he’d ever wanted to do with Honey, he’d dropped her like a burning coal and had stalked to the stream.
If it could have helped, he would have walked straight into the cool soothing water.
Used to being in control, he’d brought himself in line so he could get all of them home, but still he thought about that hand on his body, and that one finger tucked against the bare skin of his chest.
Honey Armstrong exerted a powerful force over him.
She’d brought her fall into the stream on herself by dancing with Evan. She should have known the edge of the stream might not be secure.
Or was he being overly critical? Was he trying to find fault with her for the sake of his equilibrium?
Back in her apartment, he said, “Can you watch the children for a few minutes? I need to change.” The seams of his denim jeans were still damp and uncomfortable.
Honey nodded. “I’ll call Chet and tell him we’re home. He’ll make us supper downstairs.
”
“Okay.” Cole practically ran out of the apartment.
Honey still had that ridiculous tea towel tucked into her blouse. Even so, she looked like an angel. Her hair had dried to a curly halo.
As he strode across the road to his apartment, one image shimmered in his memory: Honey’s pale pink blouse plastered to her body, showing her bra holding breasts that were about as perfect as anything Cole had ever seen in his life.
Somehow, somehow he had to get past his attraction to her. He had two children to take care of, both of whom had grown attached to Honey already. He couldn’t just walk away from her.
He wouldn’t be able to avoid Honey.
For the first time since coming home to Rodeo after the funeral, he cursed his impulse to go to Honey for help.
Until today, he’d not questioned why. There were dozens of caring people in Rodeo who would have stepped up to help.
But he had wanted Honey. For the entire trip home after the funeral, drowning in grief with two children who were suddenly his, and with his world shattered, one thought had run through his mind: if he could only get home to Honey, all would be well.
Look how that was turning out.
Yes, he was home with Honey. Yes, Madeline and Evan responded to her.
But so did Cole—too much—with all of his wild, crazy longings for her pushing him to do things they’d both regret.
At that moment, he liked her take-charge attitude that helped him to cope with this new life. He even liked how the children responded to the childlike, whimsical, too fun-loving carefree side that bothered him so much and reminded him too much of Shiloh.
Cole, you are one sick guy.
With the force of his will, he built the walls around his heart that he needed to get through the near future...and beyond. For the rest of his life in Rodeo.
* * *
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, Honey said, “You have to contact Maria Tripoli. You know you won’t find anyone more perfect in Rodeo.”
Cole sighed. “Yeah. I know. I’ll call her today.”
“The children can stay here until about three when I go down to the bar, then you need to get them back to your place and used to spending time with Maria. Maybe you and Maria can take them to the playground again. They liked it there.”
Cole nodded with resignation.
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