“All right, all right. I’ll call you when I get in,” Gina agreed with a sigh of exasperation.
“Thank you,” Tanner replied, and kissed her on her forehead. He cast one final look at Colette, wondering how he was going to spend the hours of Gina’s date and why he wished he could spend them on the sofa with her roommate.
Chapter Four
It was after eleven when Colette got out of bed for a drink of water and thought she heard something, or someone, just outside her apartment door.
At first she thought it might be Danny and Gina arriving home from their date. She looked out the peephole and spied a very tiny Tanner leaning against the wall opposite her apartment door.
What on earth was he doing out there? In an instant the answer sprang to her mind. Dear God, the man was waiting for Gina to get home from her date.
Gina would be positively horrified when she arrived back at the apartment with Danny and discovered big brother lurking in the hallway.
She went back into her bedroom and pulled on a floor-length cotton robe, then went back to the front door and opened it.
“Tanner? Please don’t tell me you’re here for the reason I think you’re here.”
“Okay. Why do you think I’m here?”
“I think you’re here to spy on your sister.”
He grinned, obviously undaunted by her accusation. “Not spy,” he protested. “I just figured I’d see for myself that she got home safe and sound.”
Colette shook her head with a rueful smile. “I can’t believe you. At least come inside and wait for her. She’ll never forgive you if she comes home and finds you lurking in the hallway.”
He hesitated. “Are you sure? I mean, it is rather late and I don’t want to bother you.”
“I’m already bothered with a case of insomnia. Come on in and I’ll fix us some coffee.” As usual, she was intensely aware of him as he followed her through the living room and into the kitchen.
She motioned him to the kitchen table, unable to help but notice that his big, bold presence seemed to overwhelm the glass-and-brass dinette set.
“Excuse me if it’s none of my business,” she began as she quickly got the coffeemaker prepared. “But hasn’t Gina gone on dates before tonight?”
“Of course,” he exclaimed. “She started dating when she was about seventeen.”
“Then what are you so nervous about?”
As the coffee began to gurgle into the glass container, she turned back to face him, although she didn’t move to join him at the table.
“The guys Gina was dating back home I knew. I’d watched them grow up, I knew their families,” he explained. “And they knew me and knew that if they stepped out of line with her, they’d have to answer to me.”
“And that was a daunting prospect?” she asked teasingly.
He grinned, that sexy slow curve of his lips that sent a starburst of heat exploding in the pit of her stomach. “That’s what I’ve been told.”
She turned toward the cabinets and took down two mugs, grateful for the physical activity to take her mind off that smile of his. “Cream or sugar?” she asked.
“Just black is fine.”
She poured them each a cup of the fresh brew, then turned back to face him. The thought of sitting next to him at the table suddenly seemed overwhelming. The table was too small. Heck, the entire kitchen was too small. “Why don’t we take this back into the living room?” she suggested.
“Okay.” He stood and walked over to her. He stood so close to her she could feel his body heat, smell the scent of him that caused a crazy tickling in her tummy. “Why don’t you let me carry those?” He gestured to the mugs in her hands.
“No, that’s fine. I’ve got them.” She stepped away and headed into the living room, intensely aware of him just behind her. She set one of the mugs on the coffee table, then carried the other one to the chair and sat.
Tanner eased down onto the sofa and wrapped his big hands around the mug. “So what do you think about this Danny that Gina is out with?”
Colette smiled. “I really don’t think you have anything to be worried about. He seems to be a very nice kid. He and Gina started making eyes at each other the first day she started work for me and he made a delivery. Then, about a week and a half ago he started showing up to walk her home from work. It’s been rather sweet to watch a bit of romance blooming between them.”
He frowned and took a sip of his coffee. “Gina is too young to get involved with any man.”
Colette hesitated a moment, then nodded. “I agree that I’d hate to see her get real serious about somebody at this age. I think it’s important that women establish themselves and their independence before deciding to get into a serious relationship with a man.”
One of his dark eyebrows lifted. “Is that what you’re doing? Waiting until you have firmly established your independence before getting into a relationship with a man?”
“I’ve been independent for a very long time,” she replied. “And I really have no desire, no need, for a man in my life. I like depending only on myself.”
“That can get pretty lonely,” he observed.
She thought of the baby she might be carrying. She wouldn’t be lonely ever again if she had a child. “I don’t have time to get lonely.”
“Back home in Foxrun, you’d be considered real unnatural.”
Colette eyed him in surprise. “Unnatural? My goodness, why?”
He grinned. “Most of the single women in Foxrun want only one thing—to find a good man. They don’t care about independence. They want to be half of a couple.”
She laughed. “Then as far as I’m concerned, they are misguided souls.”
“You mentioned before that you’d been on your own since you were eighteen. That’s pretty young.” He took another sip of his coffee.
She smiled. “If Lillian had had her way, I’d have been out on my own when I was six.”
“Lillian?”
“My mother,” she explained.
He leaned back against the cushions, the beige sofa a perfect foil for his dark handsomeness. “You call your mother by her first name?”
She nodded. “When I was ten my mother insisted I stop calling her ‘mother’ and start calling her Lillian. She didn’t want people to know that she was old enough to have a daughter my age.”
“So, basically you lost your mother when you were ten years old, just like Gina did.”
She looked at him in surprise. “I never really thought about it like that before.”
“What about your father? Has he passed on?”
“Who knows. I never knew him. He and my mother were never married, and he left her when I was about six months old. I was raised with a succession of ‘uncles.’ My mother is one of those women who can’t seem to be alone.”
Tanner finished his coffee, then looked at his watch and frowned. “It’s after midnight. What could they be doing?” He stood and walked over to the window and stared out.
“Tanner, Danny didn’t pick her up until almost nine. By the time they get something to eat and see a movie it will probably be close to one before they get back here.”
He turned from the window and raked a hand through his hair. “Did you know Gina only had one more year of college left, then she would have her teaching degree?”
“No, I didn’t know that. I always wished I’d had a chance to go to college and get a degree.” She frowned thoughtfully, again wondering if Gina really knew what she was turning her back on in her bid to gain some freedom. She stood and gestured to his coffee cup. “Would you like some more?”
“No, thanks.” He picked up his cup and followed her into the kitchen. He leaned against the counter as she turned off the coffeepot and placed their mugs into the dishwasher.
When she turned back to face him, there was a glow in his eyes that set her on edge, a sexy look that made her heart step up its rhythm.
“You’re staring at me,” she said with a breathless, embarras
sed laugh.
“Sorry.” He took a step closer to her. “I was just thinking about why I was so worried about Gina being out on a date.”
“And why is that?” She wanted him to step back. She wanted him to step closer. There was an energy in the air between them, an energy that sparkled and snapped with electric currents.
“Because I know what goes through guys’ minds when they are with a pretty woman. Because those kinds of things are going through my mind right now.”
Colette’s heart thrummed frantically as he reached up and touched the side of her face with his index finger. “And what kinds of things are those?” she asked, her voice even more breathless than before.
His finger moved from her cheek and skimmed across her lower lip. Colette felt as if her knees might buckle at any moment. “What’s going through my mind right now is that I’m wondering if the area just behind your ear is sensitive.”
His breath was a warm caress on her face as he took a step closer to her. “I’m wondering if your skin is soft to the touch and if your lips will taste as sweet as they look.”
“I guess there’s only one way to find out,” she said, surprising herself with her own boldness.
His eyes glowed more brightly as he recognized her words as an invitation. He wasted no time but dipped his head to claim her lips with his own.
Instantly Colette realized not only was this man devastatingly handsome and sexy, but he was a master at kissing, as well. His mouth was soft, gentle at first. Then his arms wrapped around her and he pulled her against him, deepening the kiss by touching his tongue to hers.
The sensations that coursed through her were breath stealing. His mouth was a volcano of heat, his chest a solid wall of rock-hard muscle against the press of her breasts.
She lost all sense of herself as his mouth continued to ply hers with heat and their tongues swirled erotically against one another.
His arms wrapped her tight, and for a brief, crazy moment she felt more safe than she ever had in her life. His mouth left her lips and sought the sensitive skin just behind her ear. A shiver of delight raced through her at the erotic touch of his tongue and his warm breath in her ear.
“Colette?” Gina’s voice rang out from the living room. Tanner and Colette flew apart just as she walked into the kitchen.
“Tanner…what are you doing here?” She looked from Tanner to Colette, then back again at her brother.
“Tanner came by to see if you were home yet, and we just had a cup of coffee and chatted a bit. There’s some coffee left if you’d like a cup. I only shut it off a minute ago. It should still be warm.” Colette knew she was rambling, and she hoped her lips didn’t look as swollen as they felt, hoped that Gina had no clue that what they’d been doing was indulging in a mind-blowing kiss that had swept all sense from Colette’s head.
“No, no coffee for me,” Gina said, and stifled a yawn with the back of her hand. “You see, I’m home safe and sound, so you can go back to your hotel now,” Gina said to Tanner. “I’m going to bed. I’ll talk to you both in the morning.” She left them standing in the kitchen.
“I told you she’d be fine,” Colette said as she belted her robe more tightly around her waist. “And now I need to get some sleep, as well.” She needed him to leave, needed to get away from him.
Her mouth still tingled with the imprint of his, and there was nothing she wanted to do more than repeat their kiss. And that frightened her.
“Then I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said as they walked from the kitchen to the front door.
“I guess so,” she agreed, slightly embarrassed now that the mood of moments before had passed.
He hesitated at the door and she could tell by his expression that he wanted to say something more. “Good night, Tanner,” she said to preempt anything he might want to say. She opened the door, her gaze not meeting his.
“Good night, Colette.” He looked at her another long moment, then turned and left.
She closed the door after him, then locked it and leaned against it. She had to stay away from Tanner Rothman. He was a definite threat to all that she had worked so hard to achieve, all the personal strength she had gained as an adult.
For just a moment, as he’d held her in his arms and kissed her so sweetly, so deeply, she’d felt weak and incredibly needy. For that reason alone he was to be avoided at all costs.
Tanner stepped out into the late-night air and drew a deep breath. Colette. Her scent clung to his skin, and the taste of her mouth still filled his.
Kissing her had been a big mistake, for in doing so he’d awakened hormones that had lain dormant for a long time. It had also confirmed his suspicions—her lips were just as soft and sweet as he’d suspected.
What he hadn’t expected was the all-consuming heat that had filled him as he’d held her in his arms, as he’d kissed her lips.
He frowned thoughtfully as he walked back to his hotel. Colette Carson stood for everything he didn’t want in a woman.
She was obviously intensely independent, didn’t have a clue what it was like to be part of a real family and was subtly encouraging his sister to be just like her.
Yet even recognizing all that, he wanted to hold her again. He wanted to kiss her again.
He was still feeling the same conflicting emotions the next afternoon when he arrived at the Little Bit Baby Boutique. He’d specifically waited until after noon to arrive, knowing that by then Gina would be there.
After all, his reason for being in Kansas City had nothing to do with the lovely Colette Carson and everything to do with his sister. He needed to focus his energies on getting Gina back to the ranch, not on figuring out how soon he could kiss Colette again.
Almost the minute he walked into the shop, Colette excused herself and headed out to lunch. He fought the impulse to invite himself along, realizing the time alone with Gina would be a perfect opportunity to step up his campaign to get her home.
“I didn’t get a chance to ask you last night. How was your big date?” he asked when Colette was gone and it was just he and Gina in the store. They were seated side by side on chairs just behind the cash register counter.
“Oh, it was wonderful,” Gina exclaimed. “We went and saw the new Jackie Chan movie, and it was so funny we laughed until we were in tears. That man is so talented and he has a face that just makes you smile when you look at him.”
“I’m less interested in how you feel about Jackie Chan than in how you feel about Danny,” Tanner said dryly.
Gina smiled. “Danny is sweet and fun and I like him a lot,” she replied.
“I hope you don’t like him too much,” Tanner replied, an edge of worry rising up inside him. Eventually he wanted to see Gina happily married and with a family of her own. But he didn’t want her to hurry things. “Gina…we never really talked about men and women and stuff.” He struggled to find the right words to tell her what he felt needed to be said.
“Oh, Tanner…please. Don’t tell me you’re going to try to have that talk with me now.”
“That talk?”
“You know…the birds and the bees talk.” A slight stain of color reddened Gina’s cheeks.
Embarrassment stole through Tanner, as well. “I probably should have had that talk with you a while ago,” he began.
“Yeah, like in seventh grade. It’s a little late now, Tanner. I learned everything I needed to know from Maggie Christian’s mom.”
“You did?”
Although her cheeks remained pink, Gina smiled at her brother. “Tanner, I know all about sexually transmitted diseases. I know what makes babies and how to prevent both diseases and pregnancy.”
“That’s not all I worry about,” Tanner replied. “I mean, I’d hate for you to get too serious too fast,” he added.
She looked at him in surprise. “Is that what you’re worried about? That I’ll fall in love with Danny and get married right away?” She laughed and shook her head ruefully. “Oh, Tanner. You don’
t have to worry about that. Apparently Colette was worried about the same thing, and she and I had a long talk last night.”
Tanner relaxed, hoping his little discussion with Colette had prompted her to talk some sense into his baby sister.
“Trust me, I’m in no hurry to get married. In fact, I’m not sure I’ll ever want to get married,” she added with a airy wave of her hands.
Tanner stared at her in horror. “What do you mean you might not get married?” What in the hell had Colette told Gina? “Well, of course you’ll eventually want to get married,” he said. “That’s what every woman wants—a husband, a home and a family of her own.”
“Don’t be so old-fashioned,” Gina scoffed. “Nowadays women have the freedom to pursue so many choices that the automatic choice doesn’t have to be to become a wife.”
Was she parroting some sort of crazy feminist beliefs that Colette had fed her the night before? Tanner wasn’t sure whose neck he wanted to wring…Gina’s for believing that feminist hogwash or Colette’s for encouraging Gina to think that way.
Before he could say anything else, a customer walked through the front door, and Gina hurried to assist her. The store was so busy that Tanner had no opportunity to talk to Colette about what she’d said to Gina the night before.
It seemed as if every pregnant woman in a four-state area decided to shop in the boutique that day. Even when there was a brief lull in customer traffic, Colette seemed to find things to do that would take her to the opposite side of the store from where Tanner was.
If he hadn’t known better, he would suspect she was avoiding him. Maybe she felt guilty about whatever nonsense she’d fed Gina the night before.
At about three a man entered the store wearing blue jeans, a work shirt and a tool belt. “Hey, Colette.” He smiled warmly at her.
“Hi, Mike,” she said, returning the warm smile.
“Figured I’d get in a couple of hours of work this afternoon if it’s all right with you.”
“It’s more than all right with me,” she replied.
Tanner watched as the two of them walked toward the back of the store. A moment later he heard Colette’s laughter ringing out, and a tiny swell of irrational jealousy swirled through him.
What If I'm Pregnant...? Page 5