Sugar Springs

by Kim Law

  He checked for oncoming cars and shot out onto the open road, glancing in his rearview mirror to make sure there was no sign of cops. He didn’t need Barney Fife pulling him over tonight. He just needed to get out and go. Although he’d found Sugar Springs to be more tolerable than he remembered, he was not a small-town guy at heart. He needed to feel like himself again.

  The needle inched close to eighty before he let off the pedal. A large part of him would always be the guy who didn’t form attachments. To people or places. He liked to go. He’d been doing it since he’d been a kid. But what he’d discovered as he’d sat in the car pretending not to see Lee Ann and Candy was that there was currently only one place he cared to be. And one woman he cared to be with.

  And that concerned him.

  “I’m going to be a few minutes late this morning, Holly,” Lee Ann said into her cell phone as her mom came in through the back door. She came over on school mornings to see the girls off, since Lee Ann had to be at the diner when it opened. Tossing out a little wave to her mom, she returned to her task of filling her Crock-Pot for the evening’s dinner.

  “Only ten minutes,” she added. “I’ll still be there before we open.”

  She listened to Holly tell her to take her time, then said good-bye and disconnected. She’d come up with a plan after leaving the salon the night before, and she needed to talk to Cody to make sure he agreed. If he did, it would go a long way toward making Candy feel special. And the best time to catch him without the girls around was right after his morning run.

  Since she routinely caught sight of him and Boss on her early morning walks to the restaurant, and since everyone made a habit of talking about how he finished his run at the same time every morning—which happened to be within minutes of her passing by his place—she’d decided to delay for a few minutes so she could catch him as soon as he finished.

  “What’s going on?” her mom asked. She moved to the counter and peered into the ceramic bowl to look at the potatoes and carrots Lee Ann had dumped in. “Beef stew?”

  “Yeah. The temperature is dropping again, feeling more like it should be, so it’ll be a nice night for it.”

  She was going to suggest Cody spend more time with the girls this week—just him and them—thus the stew. She would not be there for dinner, also ensuring the two of them wouldn’t end up outside with a fire, darkness, and the setting for a mood that she did not want to feel.

  Opening the door to the freezer, she studied the bread she’d prepared a few weeks back. It would be perfect with the stew, but Cody probably wouldn’t want to mess with it.

  “Looks like you’re about finished,” her mom said, not offering to help, but then she never had been much of a cook. “You’re running late today.”

  She eyed her mother over her shoulder, hearing the question behind the words. If she told her she was stopping to talk to Cody, the whole town would know about it before she even got there. But then, if Ms. Grayson reported this one in before her mother did, that would also look bad for her mom. She did a mental eye roll, unable to believe that she was playing into the game.

  “I need to talk to Cody without the girls around. Going to suggest he take Candy shopping for a birthday gift for her sister. I also plan to see if he’ll watch them the next few evenings. Go through the daily routine with them. That’ll give me some time to get up into the mountains before sunset and see if I can catch any good shots this week to go with the winter series I started last year. It snowed a bit on the higher elevations already.”

  It had been a while since she’d had any time just for herself.

  “You’re also thinking it’ll give him a taste of fatherhood, I suspect.” Her mother tapped the list Lee Ann had stuck to the refrigerator door. It contained the afternoon schedule for dinner, homework, and chores, along with the rules about what the girls were and were not allowed to do on a school night.

  And yes, she wanted Cody to see that fatherhood was more than just handing over a check and showing up to play. Not that he’d given the impression he thought that, but so far it was all he’d had to do.

  She nodded. “Something like that.”

  Her mom studied her, more serious than she normally was. “It’ll also let you avoid being around him, I suspect.”

  Yeah, there was that, too.

  The questions were definitely moving into gossip territory, so she put the lid on the stew, picked up her purse, and kissed her mom on the cheek. “There’s no reason I’d want that, Mom. I’m perfectly fine being around him. Quit trying to make something more out of it than it is.”

  She headed out the door and up the street, then finally let herself breathe normally again.

  Of course she wanted to distance herself from the man. His mere presence had become the only thing she could think about. Whether he was there in front of her or off doing who knew what, she couldn’t stop thinking about the near kiss on her patio, nor about the fact she wondered what that kiss would have been like probably as much as he did.

  As she neared his place, she slowed, suddenly nervous. He didn’t know she was coming. She checked her watch. If she’d timed things correctly, he should have returned less than two minutes before. Hopefully she’d catch him before he hit the shower.

  She climbed the stairs and rudely peeked through the storm door before knocking. He hadn’t pushed the main door closed, and from where she stood, she could see Boss in the corner of the living room. He lifted his tail briefly and looked at her but didn’t get up. Then she caught sight of Cody.

  And her mouth turned as dry as the grass in a long, hot summer. With no rain.

  He was in the middle of the living room floor, earbuds in place, no shirt on, and doing push-ups. Wow.

  She couldn’t help but watch. The man was a work of art. He also had a work of art. The tattoo scrolled over his upper arm that had been tempting her since he’d first shown up stretched and moved with each up and down motion.

  Oh, God. She shouldn’t have shown up there unannounced. She should leave.

  Or she could watch just a tad more.

  No...leave. She gave a short nod. Definitely leave.

  Before she could force herself to turn to go, his gaze shifted and snagged with hers, and she was stuck. He didn’t stop with his push-ups. And she didn’t stop watching.

  The man’s body should be illegal.

  Ten more and he shoved to his feet in one powerful move, never taking his gaze from hers. He removed the earbuds and wrapped the cord to dangle around his neck.

  “You do know I’m currently Ms. G’s favorite pastime, right?” He gave a nod to the door, and she realized what he meant. She was standing outside his apartment, peering in like a stalker. And Ms. Grayson was no doubt watching.

  With quick moves, she opened the door, entered, then closed not only the storm door but also the wood one behind her. The instant she stilled, she felt like she’d just walked into a trap, yet she wasn’t at all sure how to get out of it. Or if she wanted to.

  Cody picked up a towel and studied her as he crossed the room, his jaw-dropping body moving with an easy grace she wasn’t sure she had completely appreciated before. He stopped directly in front of her.

  “Morning, Lee,” he said, his voice rich and thick and tickling all her girl parts. “What are you doing at my house?”

  She gulped. That tattoo caught her attention again. It was one of the tribal type that had been popular a decade or so before. She squinted, trying to make out the design in the middle. It was also done in the tribal markings but was something more than a mere pattern. She tilted her head and leaned forward. An animal maybe?

  “Lee?”

  “Oh.” She jerked back and looked up at him. She’d forgotten to reply. “I needed to talk to you,” she blurted out.

  His bicep flexed and her thighs grew warm. He finally made use of the towel, but the slow swipes across his chest and shoulders only managed to capture her attention again.

  What had she wanted
to talk to him about?

  Before she could do anything about remembering, she found herself pressed against the door, up on her tiptoes, with his mouth melded to hers. It was hot and gentle and feral and delicious all at the same time, and her heart pounded in her ears and her blood roared through her veins and every tiny last speck of her insides heated as if set to a torch.

  He tasted like man, toothpaste, and a hard workout. He tasted like heaven.

  Too soon, he pulled back, and she stood there winded. Instead of speaking, he merely gave a jerky nod. His jaw twitched. Then she clued into the fact that her arms had wound their way around his neck. She was clinging to him as if she would sink to the floor without his support.

  With less than stellar grace, she lowered her arms to her sides and attempted to put a look on her face that didn’t show everything she was feeling.

  “What was that for?” she asked, the lack of strength in her voice giving away how much the kiss had affected her. She had yet to figure out whether she liked that he’d taken a kiss, but she was not unsure as to whether she had liked it. The man did know what to do with his mouth.

  He tossed the towel toward a chair and grabbed a crumpled T-shirt off the floor. It was damp when he pulled it over his head—clearly the one he’d discarded immediately after his run—and it didn’t help the matter of her still-discombobulated brain that it clung to every dip and valley across the broad expanse of his chest.

  “For two reasons,” he answered. It amazed her how steady his voice was, but she did pick up on the undertones of heat. If she had to guess, he had liked that kiss as much as she. “One, it was time. We both knew it was coming, so I figured we needed to get it out of the way.”

  His pause had her clueing into the fact that he was waiting on a response from her. She nodded, agreeing. When his eyes twinkled and his mouth quirked up, she realized that she’d just agreed that yes, they would have kissed eventually.

  She narrowed her gaze. Did he have to be so smug? “Hope you got it out of your system.”

  He winked. “The first one, yes. But back to the reasons for it. Two, I figured that since we’ll be the hot topic of the day anyway, I should at least get a taste of what we’ll be accused of doing.”

  “What?” This finally broke her mind free of his way-too-impressive body, which was still standing in front of her...and that insane kiss. “What do you mean?”

  His brown eyes smiled. “You came in and closed the door, babe. What do you suppose Ms. G thinks is going on?”

  “Oh!” She jumped, stepping farther into the room and glancing at the door as if it had done her wrong. With a quick jerk, she opened it. “I didn’t think about that.”

  He smiled again. “Then what were you thinking about, Lee?”

  He was evil—there was no other word for it. Let a man kiss you until your toes pop and he thinks he’s a God.

  Of course, her behavior wasn’t helping any—standing there gaping and tongue-tied. Forcing her mind to clear, she decided to forget about the kiss for the moment—and the fact he’d implied there would be more—and bring up the topic she’d come to discuss. It was much safer. Plus, she still wasn’t sure what she thought about the kiss. Or the thought of future ones. She needed to think about both of those things more when she was alone and didn’t have the distraction of him around.

  She took a small step away, unsure if he’d gotten closer or if she’d done it herself. Either way, she needed distance.

  “I wanted to talk to you about Candy.”

  This made him step back, and his shoulders drooped. Not a lot but enough to notice. “I did not mean to make her feel excluded, I swear,” he said. “I had no idea. I thought she’d like coming to the clinic as much as Kendra.”

  “They’re two different people, Cody. You have to remember that.”

  “I know,” he responded quickly. “I know. I swear. I just...” He shook his head. “It didn’t occur to me she’d hate it that much.”

  She wanted to reach out and squeeze his hand to offer comfort, but touching him at the moment seemed like it would be a bad idea. Instead she relied on her softened tone to give the same message. “She didn’t hate it. She was merely tired of listening to you two talk about animals. It seems to be the main topic of conversation with you and Kendra most of the time.”

  He nodded, moving to the other side of the table and pulling down an oversized coffee mug. He held it up to her in question.

  “No thanks. I’ll get some at the diner.” Which reminded her that she needed to hurry. Kissing hadn’t been in her ten-minute schedule. “I had an idea last night that I thought might help with Candy.”

  “I had one, too,” he said and put the cup under the one-cup coffeemaker, then pushed a button. It started dripping almost immediately. “While I was out running this morning.”

  She was impressed he’d already been thinking about it. “Yeah?”

  “I’m going to call a concrete company and have a slab poured in the corner of your yard. For basketball.”

  Her eyes widened. “You’re going to what? I don’t want concrete in my yard.”

  But why she’d never thought to get a basketball goal put down in the driveway she didn’t know. Candy always just went up to the school to play. “You can get her a goal if you want,” she said. “We can put it in the back drive.”

  “That won’t work unless we concrete the drive, too. Or put down blacktop.”

  She shook her head. “That’s too expensive. I can’t afford it, but the goal alone will be fine. And she’ll love it.”

  “No it won’t, Lee. It needs to be done right or not at all.” His tone was belligerent, and she could see he had no intention of backing down. “If you insist it be in the driveway, then I’ll pay to have it paved.”

  Irritation swelled in her. He didn’t have the right to make decisions like that. It was her yard.

  Trying to stave off an argument, she went with her plan. “How about we do something else, instead? She loves to shop for gifts for others, and with their birthday coming up she needs something for Kendra. I thought you could take her. There are several stores in town she could find something nice in.”

  She nodded her head encouragingly and smiled as she finished, trying to sell him on the idea, but he only sipped the coffee he’d pulled from the machine and eyed her over the top of the steam. Finally, he put the cup down and leaned back against the counter. He crossed his arms over his chest, drawing her attention to it again.

  “You think shopping for one afternoon, something she’ll be doing anyway even if it’s not with me, is better than a basketball goal?”

  “Well it’s better than pouring concrete in my yard.”

  “For who?”

  “For everyone.”

  He lifted a brow, and she was smart enough to know when she’d lost an argument. Candy would love a basketball goal, and she would also love for it to be done right. She took several deep breaths as she watched him. He returned to drinking his coffee, highly unconcerned, as if he already knew he’d won.

  She let out an unladylike noise. “You’re not paying to pave my drive.”

  Another brow lift.

  “Fine!” she shot out, flinging her arms in the air. “Pour it in the yard. But you make sure they don’t tear up any more than is absolutely necessary.”

  He nodded, his mouth remaining neutral, but she saw that the laughter had returned to his eyes. “Will do, babe.”

  “And quit calling me ‘babe.’ Why’d you start that anyway?”

  He put the cup down and pushed off from the counter, and she began edging away. Her pulse took off at a run as he crossed the room and stopped in front of her. She didn’t want to look up at him, but if she didn’t she’d be standing there staring at his still-damp chest.

  She lifted her gaze.

  “Because you showed up at my apartment,” he started, his dark eyes intense as they bored into hers. “And looked me over like you wanted to have me for breakfast.”r />
  He slid his fingers into her hand, which hung loosely by her side, and brushed his fingertips over the center of her palm. Her fingers curled inward, and her traitorous body shook.

  “It’s always on the menu, babe.” He winked. “All you have to do is place an order.”

  She could not believe the audacity of the man. And she couldn’t believe she actually gave brief consideration to the idea. It’s not like them getting together in that way would really hurt anything. Just two people with some unfinished business they were working through.

  Only, everyone in town would figure it out.

  And she wouldn’t be able to simply do it and move on if everyone was constantly looking at her as if they thought she wanted more. Because that’s exactly what they’d do.

  Stupid idea, anyway. She shot him a hard look.

  “I am not hungry,” she said, a little too emphatically. She decided it best to put the idea of the two of them naked together out of her mind and finish what she’d come for. If she didn’t, she might find herself agreeing to a tasty meal as easily as her arms had twined themselves around his neck.

  “I also thought it would be good for you to hang out with the girls after they get home the next few days. By yourself.” She dug into her coat pocket and pulled out a house key. “I have dinner in the Crock-Pot and a list on the fridge of their evening schedule. I’ll be home before they go to bed.”

  A small smile played with his mouth, but he didn’t say anything. He simply reached for the key and plucked it out of her hand.

  When it disappeared behind his fingers, she almost reached out to snatch it back. He wouldn’t use it inappropriately—she wasn’t worried about that—but knowing he could walk into her house at any moment made something inside her feel oozy and warm. And totally exhilarated.

  Cody directed the workers to the area where he wanted the concrete poured, then moved back to the patio as they began marking off and preparing the spot. He’d been lucky to find a crew that morning, after he’d gotten Lee Ann’s approval, and to get them to her house before the girls got home from practice. The company had also agreed, for a small sum, to stay late and get the area prepped tonight.