Echo Falls, Texas Boxed Set

by Patti Ann Colt

  “Are you a teacher?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “We go to school in one more year. Mommy says she can hardly wait.”

  Meg grinned. “I’ll bet.” She took the girls’ hands and started through the pumpkin patch.

  Chad watched as the three chattered their way past one pumpkin after another, incorporating Meg’s search with their own. He loaded the girls’ pumpkins into the truck so they wouldn’t get bumped around. Lindy calling him Daddy Chad about dropped him to his knees. God knew they both needed a daddy and he was a perfect candidate. He needed to be careful to protect the girls from hurt. He loved them both and was falling hard for their mother. Still, she could decide she wanted nothing to do with him and walk right out of his life, taking the girls with her. If she did that, he didn’t know what he’d do.

  “Chad.”

  Meg’s call brought him out of his reverie.

  “We found them. Bring your knife.”

  Weaving around the rows of pumpkins, he made his way their direction.

  “Lookie, Mr. Chad! Meg says she’s going to paint a goofy face on this one.” Lindy danced around the pumpkin.

  Chad bent and cut the pumpkin from the vine. “Where’s the one for Mommy?”

  “Over here.” Boo grabbed his hand and pulled him two more pumpkins over. Meg and Lindy followed.

  The pumpkin they had picked for Robin was petite in comparison, but well rounded, with no flat sides.

  “Why this one?” Chad asked.

  “Because it’s perfect and sweet and that’s what Mommy is.” Lindy twisted her hands behind her, swaying.

  Chad remembered how sweet Robin had tasted when he kissed her and couldn’t have agreed more. Pressured by the need to do it again, Chad swiftly cut the vine and lifted the pumpkin.

  “I can handle that one, if you’ll grab mine.” Meg’s eyes danced, matching her knowing grin.

  Chad picked up her pumpkin up from the ground and put it in the back of the truck.

  Meg whispered so the girls couldn’t hear her. “So she’s sweet and perfect, huh? I have to meet this woman.”

  Chad blushed, but held his ground. Calling to the girls to get into the truck, Chad slammed the tailgate. “She’s at the house. Stop in and meet her.”

  “Can’t. I’ve got a date. And I still have to stop at the school to make sure my fourth period class didn’t kill their substitute and hide the body. Saturday, though. Count on it.”

  “Okay.”

  “Did you load my pumpkin, Mr. Chad?”

  “Yep, I’ve got Mr. Top Hat right here beside Toothless and Sweet Pea.”

  Lindy grinned at the names and crawled into the truck beside Boo.

  “I’d forgotten that you used to name your pumpkins.” Meg laughed. “Doesn’t that get hard with the five jillion you grow?”

  “Shut up, Meg.” Chad slipped into the truck and started the engine.

  “What? Aren’t you going to name mine?” Meg slammed the door on the other side and helped the girls snuggle in between the two of them. Chad put the truck in gear and executed a quick three-point turn.

  “Last year your classroom pumpkin ended up S-M-A-S-H-E-D during a physical altercation in your classroom. I don’t name pumpkins I know will be DOA.”

  Meg stuck her tongue out at Chad, making the girls giggle.

  “Brothers.” Meg rolled her eyes for the girls benefit and the rest of the trip back to the market was made in laughter.

  Ten days later, Robin sat at the kitchen table. She was on Chad’s laptop computer, searching for the value of the china in the dining room buffet.

  Stitches out of her hands, the exercises Doc Garrison assigned her were easing the stiffness in her fingers, but her palms were still tender and sensitive. At least she was back to being able to do things for herself.

  When Olivia wasn’t at the market working with Trudy, she had been around to lend a hand. Robin, Olivia and the girls had gone shopping to pick out the girls’ Halloween costumes and had taken the animals to the vet. Robin took the opportunity to talk with Dr. Rucker about a job. He promised to consider adding her to his hospital staff, giving her hope for future employment. Olivia had helped her clean one of the bedrooms so the girls would have a place to sleep. Chad had been sleeping on the sofa and wouldn’t hear of trading with her for his big bed.

  Robin couldn’t grip her steering wheel, so Olivia had taken over the chore of dropping the girls at preschool on their regular schedule, had done her banking and driven her to see Doc to get her stitches removed. Olivia had also been present for the official pumpkin carving event. Mr. Top Hat, Toothless and Sweet Pea now sat on the front porch and every evening at dusk Chad made a real event out of lighting their candles.

  Every conversation she’d had with Olivia led to talking about Chad. She tried not to, but to be truthful she wanted to know everything about him and hadn’t stopped Olivia from talking. Nerves had kept her in the house last Saturday when half of Chad’s family had been helping at the market. She was terribly afraid she was falling for him. Meeting the rest of his family smacked of something permanent and that scared her to death.

  Chad came through the back door and put two sacks on the counter. “Clem’s Restaurant is cooking tonight.” The aroma of fried chicken, spicy baked beans and fresh biscuits filled the kitchen.

  Bemused, she studied Chad’s face, dirt creased in his grin. His cheeks were sunburned and chapped, but despite the layer of fatigue, his eyes sparkled. He stepped to the sink and washed off the layers of dirt on his hands. He’d been working long hours trying to keep up with the demand from the grocery store and his own market. He’d also been up early to meet two semi-trucks that had arrived this morning taking part of his harvest to the processing plant to be made into pumpkin pie filling. Even dirty and tired he looked good enough to roll across a mattress with.

  Robin squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. “Earth to Robin.” Chad waved a clean hand in front of her face.”

  “What?” Robin’s eyes snapped back open.

  “Where are you?”

  “Is it true your girlfriend married your best friend?” Robin snapped her mouth shut. “I’m sorry. That’s none of my business.”

  Chad handed her the bag with biscuits and potato salad, then carefully removed the hot chicken and baked beans from the other. “Guess Grandma’s been talking, huh?”

  At Robin’s nod, Chad continued. “They’d been dating off and on since high school. I think she used me to make him jealous.”

  “That’s awful.” He sounded matter-of-fact, but Robin could sense the hurt.

  “At the time, I agreed.” He looked at her for a long moment, his eyes intense. “But now I think she did me a favor.”

  Robin squirmed in her chair and rearranged the food on the table.

  “Mommy, we’re done!” The girls’ voices drifted down the hall.

  “Where are they?” Chad moved so close to her she could smell the earth, the sweat and the spice of his body.

  “Bathtub,” she croaked.

  “I’ll get them.”

  “My hands are fine. I can do it.”

  Picking up her hands, Chad examined the angry red scars, then lifted them to his mouth and lightly kissed each palm. She’d never thought of her hands as an erogenous zone, but the zing that shot up her hands and into her breasts took her breath away.

  “Mommy!” The girls’ yells broke the spell and saved Robin from turning into a puddle on the floor.

  Chad released her hands and left to help the girls. Robin let him go. She took a few deep breaths to steady herself. Her girls’ excited shrieks when they saw Chad warmed her heart. Confused, she pushed the cartons of food into a random arrangement.

  She was supposed to be strong. She’d planned to take care of herself and her kids alone. But, God, it felt so good to have someone else to depend on. Someone else who brought dinner, who got the girls out of the bathtub, who kissed her just because she hurt. If she wasn’t caref
ul, she was going to tumble so hard for Chad she’d never be able to pick herself up.

  She’d fallen hard for Lloyd. She’d expected him to cherish her, to be a father to her babies and had been devastated when he’d left. Her feelings for Chad were much more complex and deep. What would happen when this peaceful interlude came to an end? Would she be able to go back to her old life?

  A deep ache settled in her stomach. Sometime in the near future, she’d be finished with this job and they would have to go back to the way it was. The girls would be very upset. So would she.

  Rubbing a hand across her stomach, Robin rose for plates and silverware and got the milk from the refrigerator. Uneasiness rode with her through dinner.

  The Parent Trap twins were discovering they were sisters when Robin glanced over and found her girls asleep. Snuggled in their sleeping bags, they were spread on the floor in front of the television. Chad rummaged around in the kitchen and then the smell of rich buttered popcorn wafted into the room. It made her mouth water. She should turn the movie off, carry the girls to bed and take herself to the bedroom before she gave in to temptation.

  Before she could follow through on that thought, Chad eased down next to her on the sofa, setting the popcorn on the coffee table. His thigh rubbed against hers. Robin jerked away as a rush of sensation flew up her leg and settled between her thighs.

  “Easy, honey. I don’t bite.”

  Upon seeing the humor in Chad’s eyes, she lectured herself. Her mind knew this couldn’t work, but her body didn’t want to listen. Any time he was in the room, her insides melted like butter in the microwave. Making a grab for some popcorn, Robin searched for something to say since neither was watching the movie.

  “How’s the pumpkin harvest going?” There. That was a safe enough topic.

  “If we keep up this pace, we’ll have the storage sheds full by the weekend with just the few acres around the market still in the fields. I don’t like the looks of the weather, though. Seven-day forecast is calling for days of heavy rain and much cooler weather. I can’t believe it. We don’t usually make the switch to that kind of weather until after Thanksgiving.”

  Chad had leaned his head back against the sofa and closed his eyes before he finished the last sentence. Some of his exhaustion seemed to have eased since dinner.

  “You like what you do, don’t you?” Robin carefully scooted a few inches away from him.

  Opening one eye, he searched her face before answering. “When I was little, my mom used to take all of us to the grocery store to buy the Halloween pumpkin. She always swore she was only buying one. It used to be my favorite thing to do above anything else. Bubblegum, Saturday morning cartoons, everything. I’d to start begging her in September, right around county fair time.”

  Chad ate some popcorn and then held out the bowl to Robin. “She’d usually stall me because she knew I’d never be satisfied with one. Every year, she always ended up buying me one every time we went to the store. One year we had twenty-five on the front porch. I can visualize whether they need a face or whether they’re intended for pumpkin pie. I don’t think growing them ever occurred to me until I stumbled into a few agriculture courses. It was an easy decision after that to get my degree from Texas A&M. And then I saw this farm for sale. It sort of came together. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

  “I never had a pumpkin at Halloween. At least, not until after I was on my own and had the girls.” Robin nearly bit her tongue off trying to take back the words. She generally didn’t elaborate on her background, because most people either didn’t understand or pitied her. She didn’t want Chad’s pity.

  “What about when you were little?” Chad put an arm around her shoulder.

  “I don’t remember ever having a pumpkin before my mom left. I wore costumes to school after that, but my dad couldn’t manage to get home from the bar, let alone buy a pumpkin. I was fifteen when I went to live with Doc Potter and his wife. Church and work were the norm. Halloween wasn’t a celebrated holiday with them. I was too old by then anyway.” Peeking up at him, Robin didn’t expect to find the warm concern she saw. His gaze was a soft caress that started Robin’s pulse beating faster.

  “You’re never too old for Halloween.” Chad pulled her against his him and tucked her head under his chin. He felt warm, solid and the hand softly stroking her hair was both comforting and arousing.

  She had no recollection of ever being held like this. Her mother had been strangely aloof and Robin suspected that she hadn’t been wanted. What she remembered of her parents were the fights, not being held. She’d been a housekeeper for her father, not a daughter deserving of affection. Even Doc Potter and his wife hadn’t been demonstrative. Lloyd had never wanted to cuddle like this. He’d always gone right to the sex and hadn’t needed any encouragement to get turned on. Why in the world hadn’t she seen that before? How could she help but respond to Chad’s gentleness?

  “Why didn’t you go to veterinary school?”

  The shift in topic made her pause. “My grades weren’t good enough for a scholarship. Doc Potter promised to send me, but then he died and Mrs. Potter felt she couldn’t afford it. She went to live with her sister and I got a job at the truck stop. I lost touch with her. Then, I got pregnant. Wasn’t an option after that.”

  Chad nodded. The movie played on while Robin basked in the closeness, arguing with her fears, convincing herself she would enjoy this for awhile and not let it go too far.

  Chad breathed quietly through his nose trying to calm his body, acutely aware of Robin’s ample breasts pressed against his side. As the movie faded, he struggled to stay motionless, except for stroking her silky hair.

  Afraid to breathe, he sat still while she toyed with the buttons on his shirt. Her knee crept over his lap and rubbed his thigh. He wanted to touch her, sift his hands through the heavy silk of her shoulder-length hair, sample the texture of the skin across her lightly flushed cheeks, down her slender neck, to her well-rounded breasts and long legs and everything in between.

  When Robin lifted her chin, he basked in her sultry brown eyes—anticipation clung to the air suspended like that moment just before sunset. Unable to stand the separation any longer, Chad settled his lips against hers. He slipped his hand into her hair and down to the nape of her neck, pulling her closer. He breathed in the soft scent of baby powder. Her mouth clung to his lingering, savoring. Swallowing her aroused moan, he deepened the kiss further, sliding his tongue across her bottom lip.

  Wildfire spread through him when she opened her mouth and let his tongue slip inside and one kiss became many. Robin’s hands slid over his shoulders, her touch setting off a fierce need to settle her closer against him. With his hands on her waist, he lifted her up to straddle his lap, savoring her weight against his erection. He skimmed his mouth down the lean cords of her neck and slid his hands under her shirt, caressing the warm skin of her back.

  Robin shuddered against him, forcing his mouth back to hers. Her tongue stroked his with greedy hunger. He was fast losing control and was damned if he cared. Massaging the soft skin of her back, he unfastened her bra and ran his palms across the supple skin to cup the mounds of her breasts, groaning aloud when the weight of them settled into his hands.

  “Oh, God! What am I doing?” Robin’s whispered panic froze him. His hands and lap were empty before he could get his brain to re-engage. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to lead you on.” She fumbled, adjusting her bra and shirt.

  He ran a hand over his face. “You didn’t lead me on Robbie. I thought the feelings were mutual.”

  “I don’t even know what my feelings are. But the last time I gave into something like this, I ended up with them.” She gestured to the twins sleeping in front of the television. Her face paled. “Oh my God! I was making out with my daughters in the room! What kind of mother am I?”

  Robin’s fierce whisper echoed through the room. She tried to skirt around the end of the sofa, but Chad moved quickly, grabbed her arms
and pulled her to a stop.

  “You are a great mom, so don’t even think that. This is my fault. I’ve been wanting to kiss you again and I wasn’t thinking.”

  “You scare me.”

  “What?” She tried to pull from his grasp, but Chad hung on.

  “I’d never hurt you, Robin. Never force you into something you didn’t want.”

  “I don’t know what I want.” Robin bit her lip. “Why aren’t you like all the others?”

  A fist full of emotion punched him in the gut. “What others?”

  “The others…” Robin stared at him. “The men who consider women fair game. Who grope and think they have a right to touch whenever and whatever they want. The only kind of men I seem to attract. My last boss, the truckers from the restaurant, even Lloyd. But I don’t know what to do with you. You kiss me like you mean it. Maybe you do, right this moment. But you scare the living daylights out of me. It would be so easy to fall in love with you and I know you won’t stay. No one ever does.”

  “Robbie—”

  “No. I’m going to bed. Please don’t follow me. Please.”

  Chad dropped his hands and released her, not wanting to be in the category of man that would touch her without permission.

  “This isn’t finished Robbie.” Her only response was the resounding snap of his bedroom door shutting. Chad slumped onto the sofa and stared at the two fairy munchkins who slept unaware.

  In the pre-dawn darkness, Robin packed the rest of their things into a suitcase she’d found in one of the bedrooms. Today was Sunday, a non- working day. She and the twins needed to go home. It was time to stop playing house, time to stop pretending. She needed to re-establish the employee-employer status that had been lost during her stay here. Her hands, while still sore, could be flexed and used. During her long sleepless night, she’d come to one conclusion—no matter how good he kissed or how wonderful his hands felt on her skin, her luck would not change. He would not stay. This was not real.

  Cinderella was the only one who got Prince Charming.