Head Over Heels

by Susan Andersen

  He couldn’t believe he felt this much anticipation at the prospect of attending a small-town winter festival—with two women and three kids, no less. For the space of about ten seconds, he tried to tell himself that his response was simply the pleasure of having his first Saturday night off since rolling into town.

  Then he gave it up as a lost cause. Watching Veronica’s neat little butt as she hustled in the wake of the kids, he admitted what he’d been trying to deny for the past few days. His contentment, this feeling of anticipation—everything revolved around Ronnie. He didn’t give a rat’s ass about the festival. It was attending it with her that stoked his anticipation.

  He had it bad, and it was long past time he quit dancing around the fact. He’d had sex with a number of women in his life, but they’d simply come and gone—no pun intended—without making so much as a ripple in his routine. And that had been fine with him. A few laughs, some mutually satisfying sex, that’s the most he’d ever wanted. Then either the woman had headed down the road or he had.

  He’d never burned to know what made a woman tick, much less cared what she thought about…until now. And as for intimacy, until recently he’d never actually believed there was a difference between having sex and making love.

  He’d been wrong. And the past few nights, he’d pulled out all the stops. He’d used every trick he’d ever learned and a few he’d invented on the spot when he’d made love to her…all of which had been geared toward getting her to say, “I love you, Cooper,” again.

  It was pitiful.

  Not to mention unsuccessful. The words hadn’t passed her lips since she’d let them slip Thursday morning. He hated admitting the possibility it might have been merely sex talk.

  Especially when he had a feeling it was turning out to be the real deal for him. And what was worse, he didn’t even have the good sense to feel uneasy about it. Hell of a note for a guy whose survival instincts were generally honed to a razor-fine edge.

  She turned back suddenly and caught him looking at her butt. Giving it a subtle wiggle, she flashed him a grin. “Get a move on, Blackstock! You don’t wanna get separated.” She did a Groucho Marx wag of her eyebrows. “Dire things can happen to you.”

  “Yeah, the word is out.” Letting go of everything but the prospect of spending an evening with her, he caught up. The crowd began to thicken as it funneled toward the main gate, and Coop used the concealment of the sudden press of bodies to hook his arm around Ronnie’s waist and pull her back against him. Lowering his head, he growled in her ear, “I hear tell I’ll have to pay my own admittance fee out of my ‘fun’ money if I don’t stay with the group.”

  She shivered, but gave him the elbow to gain her release. She fussed for a moment with the fuzzy green scarf wound around her neck, then turned around to walk backward in front of him. Her cute little fleece hat had a brim that was turned back and pinned in place with a cocky little brooch. With mock gravity she said, “That’s right. We moms, whether natural-made or newly elected, gotta impose order.”

  “Or what? Chaos will reign?”

  She gave him the million-dollar smile again and added a friendly little tap on his chest. “Exactly.”

  “Aunt Ronnie, Uncle Coop, will you guys come on?”

  Coop laughed and picked up his pace. Beating Veronica to the ticket booth, he pulled out his wallet and bought tickets for everyone, then shepherded his little group through the turnstile.

  The kids took off like a shot and raced right past the closest exhibition hall. Amused at their single-minded drive to reach their destination, Coop said dryly, “Something’s clearly got a bigger draw than whatever’s in that building.”

  “The ice rink,” Marissa agreed. “Hall A is mostly craft stuff, which the kids don’t have heaps of interest in. Although Riley will want to participate in the Cake Walk later on. He never misses an opportunity to score dessert.” She displayed a wan imitation of her usual smile, her dimples nowhere in sight.

  He’d heard through the Tonk grapevine last night that she and Kody had broken up, and he saw Ronnie give her a concerned once-over. Marissa was clearly attempting to put a good face on things, but it wasn’t difficult to see she was desperately unhappy.

  He reached over to touch the sleeve of her royal purple boiled wool jacket. “Kody’s an idiot, if you ask me.”

  Agony flashed across her face for a moment, and he wished to hell he’d kept his big mouth shut. She was clearly taking the breakup hard, and cluing her to the fact that everyone was discussing it wasn’t the brightest thing he’d done today.

  But then her chin rose to a regal angle. “Fossil being Fossil, and the Tonk being the Tonk, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised the news has already made the rounds.” Resolution fired her eyes and squared her shoulders. “But I appreciate the sentiment, Coop. Kody’s idiocy is exactly the reason I had to send him packing.”

  Well, hell, Veronica thought. Wanting to smack herself in the forehead, she sighed in resignation instead. Please—it wasn’t temptation enough that Cooper had a razor-sharp mind and was a treat in bed? How was she supposed to keep her heart from melting into a great big puddle at his feet when he turned out to be sensitive to her best friend’s pain, too?

  She’d all but ground her molars into dust the past couple of nights, trying to keep from blurting I love you over and over again while they’d made love. During the day, she could almost talk herself into thinking that what she felt for him was merely lust. But inevitably night came, Cooper crawled into her bed, and all her defenses began to crumble. It was during the quiet aftermath, when all the heat had died down and still she harbored this aching need to simply lie quietly with him, that she began to seriously suspect she was fooling herself. Sex wasn’t the only draw. Clearly her heart was very much engaged.

  Not that she hadn’t continued to fight the good fight. She’d managed to keep the words clamoring for release under lock and key. Now, however, watching the effect of Coop’s championing on Marissa, she would’ve said them out loud without a second’s hesitation. Luckily for her, the three of them emerged from the path between Hall A and Hall B just then and came upon Wonderland.

  “Oh, my God, Rissa,” she breathed. “This turned out spectacular.”

  “I simply stole your idea.” Marissa’s shrug lacked so much as a vestige of her earlier enthusiasm for the project, and it broke Veronica’s heart. Her friend had been so upset Thursday morning that she’d hardly been able to talk. All she would say about her breakup was that Kody didn’t want to be involved with a woman with children.

  It made Veronica see red. How dare he go out with Marissa in the first place if that was his attitude? She’d really, really like to get her hands on that man. It would be a pleasure to wring his neck.

  But she merely said, “I disagree. What I gave you was the bare bones of an idea. You expanded it into this.” She waved a hand to encompass Marissa’s handiwork. “This is like a fairy world.”

  Fairground personnel had constructed the annual skating rink in the field where the carnival midway was set up every summer, between the exhibitions halls and the rodeo arena. Benches sat around it, and the decorations committee had ringed everything with a score of realistic-looking papier-mâché trees. Hundreds of tiny white lights shimmered from the bare branches to glitter off the ice, dancing across rosy-cheeked skaters as they circled the rink. Steam rose from two vendors’ carts and scented the crisp, cold air with hot dogs, cocoa, and hot cinnamon-laced cider.

  The ice rink was a popular attraction, and the degree of skill ran the gamut from a young woman in the center who spun like a seasoned member of the Ice Capades, to a child barely past toddler age whose every wobbly step seemed to land her on her well-padded little bottom. But the level of ability didn’t appear to have any bearing on anyone’s enjoyment. Veronica recognized the mayor ice-waltzing with his wife. And Eddie’s lawyer Neil Peavy sat on the same bench as Darlene Starkey—although they were probably not together. An old schoolmate of V
eronica’s laughed with her children as they untied their rental skates just one bench over from where Lizzy, Dess, and Riley were donning theirs.

  Coop bought her a cup of hot chocolate topped with whipped cream and garnished with a candy cane, and she divided her time between smiling at the tortoise-like caution with which Lizzy circled the rink and watching the rowdy teams over by the arena as they worked to convert huge blocks of ice set on nests of hay into recognizable shapes for the ice-sculpting contest. From the raucous laughter that drifted across the field, she suspected their cardboard cups contained something other than hot cider.

  “Veronica?”

  She turned at the questioning voice and saw the classmate she’d noticed standing next to her. “Deb?”

  “Yes.” The woman laughed. “Oh, good, I was afraid I’d get one of those blank, who-the-heck-are-you looks, since we didn’t know each other particularly well in high school. I just wanted to stop by to say welcome back.”

  Veronica smiled. “Why, thank you.”

  “These are my daughters, Megan and Rachel.” After greetings were exchanged, Deb said, “Megan’s in Lizzy’s class. We’ll probably be running into each other at school events, and I wondered if you’d like to get together to have a cup of coffee some afternoon. If you’re not too busy.”

  “I’d like that very much. Thanks.” They traded phone numbers and warmth stole through Ronnie as she watched the other woman walk away with her daughters. She turned her attention back to the rink, but couldn’t help but smile at the unexpected feeling of acceptance Deb’s gesture gave her.

  She jumped when Coop suddenly murmured in her ear, “That Lizzy, she’s a speed demon.” A cold breeze blew up her back as her jacket and the hem of the sweater beneath it were suddenly displaced. Then the draft was plugged, and warmth radiated out from the point where Coop’s hand spread against the bare skin of her back. “Good thing it’ll be years before anyone has to worry about her getting behind the wheel of a car.”

  He stood behind her and a little to one side, and Veronica knew he probably wore that neutral expression he so often assumed. She tilted her chin up to catch a glimpse of him from the corner of her eye and discovered that, to the contrary, he was smiling fondly at Lizzy as she skated at a snail’s pace around the periphery of the rink.

  Veronica looked front and center again in time to see Riley zoom past like Harry Potter after the Golden Snitch, and assured herself that the casual observer would never guess Coop’s long fingers were stroking heat down the shallow groove of her spine.

  Left up to him, he’d no doubt touch her openly and not care who saw them. He certainly wouldn’t give a flying flick about the gossip. But because it mattered to her, he remained the soul of discretion.

  And suddenly, she was filled to the brim with a love so fierce and all-consuming it should have frightened her straight into an early grave.

  He was so much more than a man with a way about him in bed. Though he looked like the kind of guy who could break a person’s neck with a single wrench of his strong hands, he’d been unfailingly gentle with her and Lizzy. He had a good heart. She cranked her head around fully this time and smiled up at him. “I love you,” she murmured when she caught his eye, and smiled when his body stilled and his eyes went hot. She marvelled that saying the words aloud didn’t frighten her a bit. The futility of a lasting relationship would probably hit her all over again tomorrow, but for tonight she’d go with the flow.

  Because emotions like this didn’t come along every day of the week. And for this one evening, at least, she was going to simply luxuriate in feeling so wonderful.

  Except for that black period right after Denny died, Marissa couldn’t recall a time in her life when she’d felt so awful. She was trying hard to act normal—for the kids’ sake and for Ronnie and Coop—but it was tough.

  God, it was tough. All she really wanted to do was beat her breast and howl.

  She’d been looking forward to this night ever since Ronnie had pointed her in the right direction and the decorations had finally begun to take shape. She’d daydreamed about it, anticipated the triumph of seeing all her hard work pay off. Now she wanted only to go home, crawl into bed, and pull the covers up over her head.

  For the children’s sake, she was determined to get through the evening without falling apart. She could do that later, once they were in bed and she was alone.

  Again.

  That thought straightened her backbone faster than ten strong, self-issued lectures ever would. The man who could turn Marissa Travits into a self-pitying whiner had yet to be born. She firmed up her chin and turned to Coop and Veronica. “Are you two getting as cold as I am just standing around here?”

  “Colder,” Ronnie said. “I quit feeling my feet about five minutes ago.”

  As they called the kids off the ice, Marissa noticed a hint of movement from the corner of her eye and caught Cooper sliding his hand out the back of Veronica’s coat. Well, well. When had this recommenced? And here she’d thought Ronnie was being civil to him tonight strictly for Lizzy’s sake.

  There was no opportunity to get the true scoop, however. The kids had no sooner tumbled off the ice, changed out of their skates, and bolted into Hall A than they immediately fell to wrangling. Or at least hers did.

  “Mom, me ’n’ Lizzy wanna go see the Rebecca Circle booth,” Dessa said, her cheeks flushed scarlet from the sudden warmth. Her blond curls floated around her head in a static-charged nimbus as she danced anxiously in place. “They’re s’posta have doll clothes—Susie Posser said so, and her mama’s in the circle, so she oughtta know. Lets go find it, ’kay?”

  “No way!” Riley said. “Doll clothes are for sucks.”

  “Are not!”

  “Are so! Let’s go see the pie-eating contest. How come you didn’t enter me in that, Mom? I bet I coulda won that easy.” When his sister stuck out her tongue, he gave her a shove, and being her mother’s daughter she immediately shoved back. Marissa’s head began to pound. She gazed at Lizzy, standing just beyond the battling Travitses, making no demands, and wondered why she couldn’t have had at least one nice, quiet kid.

  Then Coop stepped in. “Tell you what,” he said, easily extracting Riley out of reach of his sister. “Why don’t Riley and I go check out the pie eaters, and you ladies go do the doll clothes thing? Then we’ll all meet back where they’re raffling those quilts over there in—what?—half an hour?”

  Marissa agreed with unseemly speed and watched as Coop slung an arm around Riley’s shoulders.

  “Come on, sport,” he said. “Let’s go see who eats the most pies.”

  “Bet I could,” Riley said as they walked away. The last thing Marissa saw before the crowd swallowed them up was Riley beaming up at Cooper as if the man walked on water. It killed her to know that could just as easily have been Kody—except he’d sooner gnaw off his own arm than get to know her kids.

  “You okay?” Veronica asked in a low voice a few moments later while the girls poured over the hand-made creations at the Rebecca Circle booth. “You’re looking pretty pale.”

  “Love isn’t supposed to hurt like this, Ronnie. I sure don’t remember hitting lows like this with Denny.”

  “You knew Denny all your life, and he was the original Mr. Mellow. It was probably a quieter love. But were the highs as high?”

  “No.” And the sex hadn’t been as hot, either. But acknowledging that filled her with guilt, and she promptly changed the subject. “So you and Blackstock are an item again?”

  Veronica gave a sheepish nod. “I can’t seem to make up my mind if it’s a match made in heaven—or Ma and Pa Davis revisited.”

  “I like him, Ronnie. He strikes me as a good man.”

  “Yeah. I was just thinking the same thing.”

  “But when did this all happen? Last I knew, you were refusing to give him the time of day. And why on earth didn’t you tell me?”

  “He’s been…courting me since I found out about Eddie
.” She gave a brief rundown of the middle-of-the-night gifts outside her door. “It paid off Wednesday night…or I guess I should say early Thursday morning, if you want to be literal.”

  “Oh.” Marissa felt her heart squeeze—that was the same night she and Kody had been breaking up. “I guess that answers my second question, then.”

  “You were pretty upset when we talked,” Veronica agreed. “I wasn’t about to say, Well, sure, but enough about your night—let me tell you about the great sex I had.”

  Marissa would have sworn laughter was impossible, but that managed to surprise a genuine belly laugh out of her. Bless the irreverent humor of a best friend. Hooking her arm around Ronnie’s shoulders, she reeled her in for a hug. “Thanks, pal. I love you.”

  “I love you, too. And I promise you’re gonna get through this.”

  “Yes. I am.” Eventually, she thought, but decided that was okay. It might take a while, but wonder of wonders, she actually did believe that in due time, she would come through it okay.

  Or at least she did until she glanced a few booths down the row, and looked straight into Kody’s eyes.

  She was laughing. How the hell could she laugh? Kody felt as if his heart had been chopped right out of his chest—he’d been walking around without it since Wednesday night. He stared at Marissa across the few crowd-packed yards that separated them and didn’t see past his own pain to the paleness of her complexion or the unhappiness in her eyes. He saw only the sweet line of her lips curving up.

  The moment she spotted him, however, the smile dropped away from her face. Worse, she deliberately lifted her chin and turned away. But not before her eyes went blank, as if she didn’t even know him.

  Kody couldn’t believe it. Ever since she’d slammed the door in his face, he’d been worried sick about her state of mind. Haunted by the hurt in her eyes, he’d played and replayed their last conversation in his mind a hundred times, held imaginary chats in which he’d made her understand his point of view.