“Your younger brothers always were a handful.” Cat grinned as if thinking about memories of the McBride brothers when they were young. “But no more than you.”
“You’ve got that right.” Blake shook his head at the thought of some of the mischief and trouble that he and his four brothers had gotten into over the years. He opened his menu. “Hungry?”
“Very.” Cat opened hers and it was quiet for a moment.
He watched her over the top of his menu and she raised her gaze and their eyes met for a long moment. Her cheeks turned pink and she looked back at her menu. She was so damned cute.
Blake scanned the specials. “What do you think of the fondue for two?”
When he met her gaze again she was smiling. “I’m all for it.”
“Then, fondue it is.” They set their menus aside as a server stopped by their table.
The young woman looked first at Blake. “How are you doing, Mr. McBride?”
“Very good, Penny.” Amused, Blake said, “You know I prefer that you call me Blake.”
Penny gave him an impish look. “I knew you far too long as Mr. McBride before I was old enough to call you Blake.”
He grinned and gestured to Cat. “Penny, this is Cat Hayden.”
“Hi.” Penny smiled at Cat. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Just don’t call me ma’am,” Cat said with a laugh.
Penny gave a quick grin. “Never.” She glanced at Blake then Cat again. “What would you two like tonight to drink?”
Cat selected a chardonnay while Blake went with a Blue Moon and they ordered the four-course fondue for two.
It wasn’t long before a server brought Cat’s wine and Blake’s beer. He took a swig from his bottle and she sipped from her glass.
He leaned back in his chair and studied her. She returned his gaze, the nervousness seemingly gone from her features.
“I don’t even know where to start, KitCat.” The name came out easily, as if no time had passed at all since he’d called her that so many years ago. “Maybe we should start with, when did you come back to Prescott?”
“Three months ago,” she said.
He raised a brow. “And you didn’t call me in all that time?”
She shrugged. “I wanted to, but I didn’t know how.”
He gave her an amused look. “It’s called picking up a phone and dialing.”
A smile tipped the corners of her mouth and then she sobered. “I didn’t know how you’d feel about me contacting you out of the blue.”
“Never wonder, Cat,” he said softly. “Even before we were more, we were friends. You can always call me.”
She looked at him with something like surprise. Her lips parted like she was going to say something but then she didn’t. Their gazes met for a long moment and held.
“Here’s your fondue appetizer.” Penny’s voice cut through the moment. “This is Jacob who will be helping me take care of you tonight.”
Blake took his gaze from Cat and he nodded to the waitress who stepped aside as a young man put a fondue pot at the center of their table. A candle warmed the bottom of the pot. Jacob stepped back and Penny set a plate with cubes of three different kinds of bread beside the warmer.
“This fondue is made from a trio of cheeses along with scallions, sherry, and white wine,” Penny said and gave them each a plate and a fondue fork.
“Looks good, Pen.” Blake gave the cute young waitress a smile.
Penny glanced at his beer and Cat’s wine. “Ready for another?”
“I will be in a few moments,” Cat said as she picked up her glass for another sip.
“I’ll be right back with more for each of you,” Penny said. “Enjoy the fondue,” she added before she left with Jacob.
For a few moments they concentrated on using the fondue forks to stab cubes of bread and swirl them in the fondue before attempting to eat the piece without it dropping off the fork.
Cat giggled as her first cheese-dipped cube tumbled off her fork and landed on the tablecloth. “I think I need some more practice.”
He liked the sound of her giggle, it made him smile.
“This is terrific,” Cat said after she finished eating a piece and ran her tongue along her lower lip to get at some of the sauce there.
Blake watched her tongue dart out and felt a stirring in his gut at the sight.
“It’s pretty damned good,” he said after chewing and swallowing his first bite.
She smiled and slipped another cheesy bread cube into her mouth.
They laughed and smiled, as not all of their attempts were successful and sometimes the bread cubes would fall back into the cheese fondue or onto their plates. Blake was just thankful he didn’t have one roll down the front of his shirt and land in his lap.
The fondue pot and empty bread plate were taken away as the second course was served, a house salad with bleu cheese dressing.
Cat stayed on safe subjects, asking about his brothers and his parents along with several of his cousins.
“My family always loved you.” The words came to him without reservation. “They’ll be glad to see you again.”
She was quiet for a moment. “Even after the way I left?”
He nodded. “They’ll always care about you. They always have.”
She took another drink from her second glass of wine then lowered her glass. “Your family is one of the things I missed about Prescott.”
“And?” he said, laying out the question.
She seemed to blush. “Yes, I missed you, too.”
He gave her a grin. “Of course you did.”
She rolled her eyes. “Still as confident as ever.”
A low chuckle rose up inside him. He put down his salad fork as their dinner fondue arrived. Jacob took away their salad plates then set the next fondue pot in front of them.
“This is our burgundy wine infused with fresh herbs and spices,” Penny said as she put plates in front of them with pieces of raw shrimp, filet mignon, and chicken. She explained how long each would need to be cooked in the wine at the end of the fondue forks. The server also set different sauces in sectioned-off plates in front of each of them and explained which sauce was for each type of meat.
As they ate, they didn’t lack for conversation. It felt easy and natural and he felt the old Cat coming round, the one who laughed and smiled easily as opposed to the more quiet and reserved Cat that she’d been since he’d first seen her at Folsom Ranch.
After she finished eating the entrée, she patted her belly. “I’m so full. I don’t know if I can take in the fourth course, dessert.”
“Do you mind talking about the horse that attacked you?” he asked.
She paused a moment and a shadow passed over her features. He almost wished he hadn’t brought it up, but they needed to talk about it and get it out into the open.
With a shake of her head, she said, “I don’t mind.”
“How did it happen?” he asked.
She pushed her hair out of her face, slid her plate to the side and relaxed in her seat. Even though she looked different, her mannerisms and the way she spoke were the same. He’d always loved the sound of her voice.
A server cleared away the fondue pot and dishes.
When the server left, Cat took a deep breath. “When I left…”
“With Toby Jennings,” Blake said evenly.
She nodded, looking a little embarrassed. “Toby and I went to Tucson. I found a job rehabilitating horses with the owner of some stables on the east side of town. The owner’s name was Woody.” She tucked hair behind her ear again in a heart-wrenchingly familiar gesture. “Woody had a new gelding come in, Firestorm, and I took him out of his stall to start working with him. My biggest mistake was not waiting for Woody.”
Blake watched Cat steadily as he waited for her to go on.
Her throat worked as she swallowed and it seemed that a shiver traveled over her skin. “The next thing I knew, Firestorm had knocked me down.
He started stomping on me and shattered bones in my face and all over my body. I screamed and Woody heard and got the horse off of me before he managed to kill me.” She shook her head. “I don’t remember much after that.”
“Damn.” The horror of what Cat had been through swept over him. “I’m sorry, honey.”
“It changed my life, that’s for sure.” She sighed. “Toby couldn’t cope with it, especially the differences in my looks and the brain trauma. He couldn’t handle all of the slow progress with this therapy and that. He took off for Wyoming last I heard.”
“That sonofabitch,” Blake growled.
She shrugged. “That was a long time ago.”
“You suffered brain trauma?” he said.
She touched the side of her head and gave a crooked smile. “I can show you the scars. Brain surgery and everything.”
“Do you have any problems left over from the trauma?” he asked.
“Other than the occasional nightmare or migraine, no,” she said. “Although I do get a few aches and pains during rainy weather and my joints creak.”
“Hell, my joints creak sometimes,” he said with a grin. “Just don’t tell my brothers or they’re going to start calling me old man.”
She returned his grin. “Can’t imagine anyone calling you old man.” She looked at the power in his body, his muscular frame. “You work out a lot, don’t you?”
He nodded. “I run the hills around here and I have a weight set in a back room at the ranch. I started running and lifting when you left—it was a way to work out my frustrations. Eventually it became a way to relieve everyday stress.”
The thought that he’d started lifting and running because of her made her wonder if that had been a good thing. The results had certainly been rewarding.
Their dessert arrived—a big fondue pot of pure dark chocolate along with plates of sliced fresh fruit that included strawberries, banana, and pineapple. There were also cubed pieces of brownies and golden pound cake.
“Oh, my.” Cat closed her eyes and her chest rose as she inhaled and gave a happy sigh as she opened her eyes. “Smells heavenly and looks so good.” She stabbed a strawberry with her fondue fork and twirled it in the chocolate.
“Sure does,” Blake agreed, holding back his amusement at the enthusiastic way she greeted the dessert. He pierced a chunk of brownie with his own fork.
She drew her strawberry out of the chocolate fondue then plucked it off with her fingers. She closed her eyes again as she bit into the chocolate dipped strawberry. “Mmmmm…” She sounded and looked slightly orgasmic as she ate it.
His jaw tensed, an ache suddenly tightening his groin. Damn, that was hot.
She opened her eyes and caught him watching her. “What? Do I have chocolate on my face?”
He couldn’t help a quick grin. “You look cute eating chocolate fondue.”
She looked a little embarrassed and maybe a little shy. “Aren’t you going to have some?”
“You bet.” He dipped the brownie cube into the fondue then brought it out and popped it into his mouth. He chewed and swallowed then said, “That is good.”
With a smile, she said, “This was a great idea.”
He nodded. “We’ll have to thank Tess.”
Despite saying she was full earlier, she ate every piece of fruit, brownie, and cake on her plate and he did the same.
“That was so very good,” she said and smiled as the server took the dessert fondue away.
Moments later, cups of coffee were brought to them to finish off their evening.
Blake set aside the last bottle of beer and took a drink of his coffee then set the cup down. He looked at her a long moment before he said, “Nineteen years ago the last thing I heard was that you were leaving town with Toby.”
Cat looked down at her coffee cup and wouldn’t meet his gaze for a long moment. When she finally looked at him again, she said, “It was probably the second biggest mistake of my life.”
“What was the first?” Blake asked.
Her cheeks flushed. “The night we broke up… That was the worst night of my life and my biggest mistake.”
A feeling of surprise caught him off guard and he had to ask his next question. “Why did you leave with him?”
Her throat worked as she swallowed. “You know why, Blake. It was the reason we broke up. I had to get away from Prescott and my father. I—I just couldn’t live here anymore. You wouldn’t leave this place behind because you wanted the land and your family more than you wanted me.”
“You know that’s not fair, Cat.” He frowned. “I had a hell of a lot of responsibility here. And if you want to look at it that way, you wouldn’t stay here for me.”
She shrugged. “No one is to blame. At that time in our lives we each wanted different things.”
“Sometimes I blame myself, though.” His own admission surprised him. “If I had tried harder to keep you here, if I hadn’t let us break up the way we did—”
“You couldn’t have stopped me, Blake. I had to get away.” Cat shook her head. “My father… Things just weren’t good.”
Blake clenched his jaw, remembering the things Cat had told him about her father. “I should have beat the shit out of him then.”
Cat leaned forward. “No. Walking away was the right thing to do. I know you wanted to protect me, but by then I was with my grandmother and he couldn’t hurt me anymore.” She closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again. “I just couldn’t stay in the same town as him. Not then.”
“He died sixteen years ago,” Blake said. “Why didn’t you come back?”
She sighed and sat back in her chair. “It wasn’t that easy. I was still suffering some trauma from the ordeal with the horse and had to continue going through physical therapy.” She smoothed her hair back from her face. “There were other changes in my life,” she said, but didn’t elaborate. “And maybe I was a little afraid,” she added.
He frowned. “Afraid of what?”
She looked away from him for a long moment before meeting his gaze again. She touched the scar along her cheek. “Afraid of what the people I knew would think when they saw me like this.”
“Like what?” He leaned forward and caught her hand on the tabletop. “What are you talking about?”
Her eyes narrowed into a confused frown. “There’s no sense in dancing around it. I may have been pretty but that was a very long time ago. All of these years have passed and I’m scarred in more than one way.”
Now, Blake was frowning. He clasped her hand in both of his and it felt small and warm in his grip. “You may look a little different, but you’re still a beautiful woman. Who you are inside radiates out of you like it always did and that makes you one of the most gorgeous women I have ever known.”
Tears glittered in her eyes. She put her free hand up to her mouth as if holding back a sob.
“You know I don’t lie and I don’t bullshit.” He studied her and she nodded, slowly. “Take what I said and accept it as fact. Got that?”
She nodded again and moved her hand away from her mouth. “Yes,” she said, her voice almost a whisper.
He took in the pain in her expression and could read everything she’d gone through over the years. It made him want to take her in his arms and protect her from anything ever happening to her again. He wanted to kiss her.
To make love to her.
Ah, hell. He dragged his hand down his face. He was in deep shit.
Again.
As they started to leave the Hummingbird, Blake put his hand at the base of her spine, escorting her out of the restaurant. He stopped to tell Tess they’d enjoyed dinner and Cat had echoed him with compliments of her own.
On the short drive back to her house, they talked about a few of the changes in the town since she’d left.
When they reached her home, Blake parked and walked her to her front door. The soft glow of the porch light illuminated her.
She unlocked the door then paused t
o meet his gaze. She sounded nervous again as she said, “Would you like to come in?”
He studied her for a long moment. “I’d better not.”
A look passed over her features that he couldn’t identify. Disappointment? Relief? Something else?
“Thank you for a wonderful evening out.” She gave a soft smile. “I had a great time.”
An urge came over him that he couldn’t control. Didn’t want to control. He cupped her face in his hands and lowered his mouth to hers, not giving her a chance to react.
Her lips parted in surprise beneath his and he nipped at her bottom lip. She sucked in her breath and he kissed her harder. He wanted to take control of her, to possess her. He wanted her back so damned bad. The power of the feeling set him off balance.
She kissed him back. At first her kiss was tentative but then it grew in strength and matched the power of his own. Her familiar scent filled him as he inhaled and her taste brought back memories of the many kisses they had shared in the past.
Soft moans rose up from her and she gripped his shirtfront in her fists. His groin ached and he knew he was dangerously close to sweeping her up in his arms and taking her into her house and straight to bed.
He drew away, breaking the kiss. He found his breathing was hard as desire raged through him. He studied her expression and saw her eyes still wide with shock and her wet lips glistening in the porch light.
“I’m sorry.” He swallowed. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
“Why not?” She looked puzzled at first then bit her lower lip and looked away from him.
He touched her chin and brought her back to look at him again. “You don’t know how badly I want you right now. But we have too many things between us. Too much to work through.”
She nodded. “We do.”
He traced her lower lip with his thumb. “You’d better get inside while my willpower is intact.”
She looked at him for one more long moment then drew back. “Good night, Blake.” She turned and walked through her door and closed it behind her. He heard the bolt lock slide into place.
He shook his head as he looked up at the moon. “Damned fool,” he muttered before heading down the stairs and back to his truck.
Roping Your Heart Page 5