He laughed again, more softly. “Yeah. Which reminds me, I never did thank you for English and biology. I won’t say I’d have flunked those classes in senior year, but you sure helped keep my grade point average from crashing.”
“You’re welcome. And I never thanked you for...”
“For what?”
She took a deep breath and let it out again. “This wouldn’t be the place to discuss it.”
The place and the time might never be right for some conversations.
He thought about what she had said to him earlier.
Maybe I’ve always let you read only what I want you to know.
He didn’t like the statement then and he liked it even less now. He also didn’t like her blank expression or the feeling of her shutting him out.
“Speaking of high school...” He rubbed his hand across the back of his neck and said sheepishly, “I probably acted like an ass a lot back then.”
“‘Probably acted like?’ Mr. Franklin would have given you a solid D for a sentence like that one.”
He shot a glance at her. Quiet little Tina didn’t look at him, but he saw the tiny smile curving the corners of her full lips. “All right, then. I behaved like an utter jackass. Is that better?”
“It’s a start.”
“Anything else I need to brush up on besides grammar?”
She wrapped her arms around her knees and stared at the fire. “You could practice your storytelling skills,” she said finally. “You could tell me why you left Cowboy Creek.”
Now he took a turn staring off somewhere else.
Near the picnic table, Jane and the boys were skewering marshmallows. The fire still crackled. The singalong had mellowed to a ballad. One of the couples staying at the hotel waved as they walked past. He nodded back, then linked his fingers together and stared down at them.
He could never give Tina what she wanted, could never offer her a future together. But that didn’t mean he shouldn’t make up for the past. Or try to. He owed her an apology just as much as he owed his debt to Jed.
“This is going to take some time,” he said. “To give you an explanation, I have to go back to a while before I left town.”
“I think we’ve got the time.”
She glanced over at the boys and evidently considered them in good hands, because she settled herself more comfortably on the log beside him. Again, her hip brushed his, and again, he felt a lot of things...
No, he’d go for an A grade on this one.
He felt a spark as hot as the blazing fire and a damned foolish desire to tell Tina anything she wanted to know.
* * *
“WANT ANOTHER HEADER on that?”
Cole placed his hand over his coffee mug and shook his head. He and Jed were alone in the hotel kitchen. “No, I think I’ve had enough. As it is, I’ll be up half the night.”
Up and stimulated from caffeine and restless energy and thoughts of bumping hips with Tina.
He hadn’t told his story, after all. Robbie and Scott had come over, wanting to go back home. While she and the other women had brought the kids back here to the hotel, he and Jed had stayed to help the cowhands douse the fire and clean up the campsite. Then they’d taken a slow ride home in one of the ranch’s SUVs.
“You won’t be the only one awake,” Jed said.
“You, too, huh?”
He laughed. “No, I sleep like a log.”
The word log made him think again of sitting beside Tina. He shifted in his seat.
Jed turned off the teakettle on the back burner and poured water into a mug beside the stove.
Cole frowned. “You mean the boys are still up?” That morning, Layne had given the okay for Scott to stay overnight. The three boys, armed with Robbie’s sleeping bag and some extra blankets, had taken over Andi’s hotel room floor.
“The kids are okay. I checked in with Andi when we got back. I meant Tina.”
He recalled what she had told him about having her room in the family wing off the kitchen. His ears had been half tuned for her footsteps since they’d returned to the hotel, but he hadn’t heard a thing. “I thought she and Paz had gone to bed already.”
“Paz, yeah, she’s not much of a night owl. Not like Tina. The light was on in the attic when we drove in, and she hasn’t passed by here. That means she’s in her room up there, probably with her nose in a book.”
“She’s still a big reader?”
“When she has some spare time to sit in one place. We keep her moving around here. I don’t know what I’d do without that girl.”
“Yeah. This project for the hotel has her hopping, doesn’t it?”
Jed nodded. “Sure does.” He began puttering around the kitchen.
Cole took another mouthful of coffee. It was too soon to say anything to Jed about his plan to offer financial assistance for the renovation, but he ought to have the deal firmed up soon.
He hadn’t had the opportunity to mention it to Tina.
He had more important things to talk to her about.
“Well, I think I’m turning in,” Jed said. “Want to do an old man a favor and save him another trip upstairs?”
“Sure. I’m headed up there, anyway. Do you want me to look in on the kids?”
“Nah, they’ll be fine. Andi knows where to find us if she needs us.” He held up the insulated mug, now covered with a lid. “I usually run this up to Tina when I know she’s going to be reading late. But I’ll tell you, I don’t think my legs can make it. Playing horseshoes tonight wore me out. You could drop this off with her.”
Cole hesitated, then shrugged. “Sure.” He got up to rinse his coffee mug and leave it in the sink.
Jed turned off the light, and they parted ways in the hallway. The old man shambled toward the family wing.
Cole watched him go. Jed had been doing a masterful job of pushing Tina at him.
How would she feel about Jed trying to get them together, if she knew about it? Would she go for the idea?
More likely, it would have been another item on her list of worries. Though the thought bothered him, it might also explain why he had been dragging his heels about conversations they should be having. He didn’t want to add to her stress.
He wished he hadn’t been a jackass in high school.
And for the first time in his life, he wondered whether he should have stayed in Cowboy Creek all along.
Chapter Fifteen
As Tina turned another page in the book she hadn’t been able to focus on, she heard boot steps on the stairs leading up to her attic room. They weren’t Jed’s slow, measured steps but another lighter tread that had become just as familiar to her.
As she rested the book in her lap and focused on the open door, her heart suddenly felt a bit lighter, too.
Cole came to a stop in the doorway.
“Well, hello,” she said in a hushed voice. She rose from the couch. “Are you lost?”
“Almost. You sure didn’t bother to leave any bread crumbs.” His voice, lowered, too, sounded deeper and even sexier than usual.
When he lifted her tea mug, she smiled and crossed the room to take it from him. “Jed?”
“Yeah. He said this has become part of his nightly ritual when he knows you’re up here.”
“He’s too good to me.”
“From what I’ve seen, you’re good to him, too.”
“Thanks.”
“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow.” He began to turn away.
She held the mug in both hands, cradling its slight warmth against her, as if it could banish the chill she felt at the thought of his leaving. “Cole.”
He stopped and looked back at her.
At the campsite, the boys had run up to them just as he had been close to confiding why he had left town. “You never told me your story earlier. Now would be a good time.”
“Now?”
“Well...yes. If you don’t have anything else planned.”
He didn’t move, and she cou
ld see the indecision in his face. His gaze went to the doorway, and for an agonizing moment she thought he would go without answering.
Then he looked past her into the room.
Odd. She hadn’t cared a bit what Andi and Jane saw when they looked at her accumulated jumble of furniture and books and knickknacks and school mementos. She had wanted only to get her cousins out of her private room.
Now, though, she felt intensely interested in knowing what Cole thought of everything. And she wanted him in her sanctuary, becoming a part of it, sharing her space.
Hadn’t she always wanted that?
He stepped into the room, and she suddenly had the irrational feeling she couldn’t breathe because he had taken up all the extra space. And maybe the oxygen, too.
Very irrational.
He gestured toward the door. “If we’re going to talk, we should close this.”
“We should.”
She led the way back to the couch, where she curled her feet beneath her and took a bracing sip of hot tea.
Cole wandered around the room, looking from the upholstered couch on one wall to the floor-to-ceiling bookcases on the other and the glass-topped coffee table in between. He stopped here and there to inspect her accounting textbooks and the curio cabinet with her collection of porcelain butterflies.
When he came to take a seat beside her, he looked her over from head to toe. “You’re an interesting mix,” he said. “Brains and beauty.”
“Are you going for the playboy role again?” she asked, fighting the pang of disappointment shooting through her. “If so, please don’t bother. But I thought you had a story to tell.”
He picked up the novel she had left on the couch and riffled through the pages. “I do, but it may not be as interesting as your book.”
“Try me.”
She listened, not moving a muscle except to take a sip of tea from time to time, as he told her about what had happened five years ago. About his father dying and then his mom following not long after, and about his struggle—while he was still a teen himself—to provide for his younger sister.
To her, the simply told story was more heart-wrenching than any book she had in this room.
Then he told her about needing money for Layne’s birthday gift and, more important, to buy groceries for them both.
Her breath caught as she thought about how hard it must have been for him. And for Layne.
“That first day I came back to the hotel, when Jed and I went to talk in his den, I reminded him how he had advanced my pay. Twice. And he wanted to know why I hadn’t asked again.” After a long pause, he said, “I couldn’t ask him for more money. I already felt I’d let him and Layne down, that I should have done a better job managing what I had.” He gave her a lopsided smile. “I never was the math whiz you are.”
“And I never had parents or brothers and sisters, but I always had Abuela and Jed. Living here in the hotel, I’ve never in my life gone hungry. You did what you thought you had to do, the best way you could.”
His eyes gleamed. He reached up to touch her cheek. “Sweet Tina. I should have known you wouldn’t judge. I didn’t like borrowing, but yeah, at the time I couldn’t think of an alternative.”
“I’m sure Jed’s forgiven you. He doesn’t hold a grudge. But...you still haven’t told me why you left.”
He shrugged. “I’d always planned to get out of Cowboy Creek. Soon after our mama died, Layne wanted to marry her boyfriend. She wasn’t old enough yet, but since I was her legal guardian, I had the right to approve or refuse to sign the papers.” Not meeting her eyes, he riffled through the pages of her book again. “She begged and begged, and I didn’t know what the hell to do. I wanted to see her happy. So even though she intended to marry the guy who had just broken her heart, I gave the okay. I thought it was the right decision. And it opened the jail cell door and set me free. But just a few months later, she was pregnant and divorced.”
He sounded so devastated, her own heart broke for him. She put her hand on his arm. “It was the right thing for her, at the time.”
“Not the way things turned out.”
“You couldn’t know that.”
“Maybe not.”
He gave her another lopsided smile, then covered her hand with his. Surprise and pleasure made her tighten her fingers on his arm.
“I’ve never told anyone that story before.”
“I’m glad I’m the first.”
“I didn’t mean to go on for so long.”
“I’m glad for that, too. I wasn’t doing anything up here except reading.”
“And how’s the book?”
She laughed lightly. “Not as interesting as talking to you.” Or other things we could be doing. She felt her cheeks flame.
She knew he saw the color in her face and had more than likely read her mind. Smiling, he lifted her hand and kissed the backs of her fingers, his mouth warm against her skin. When he looked up, his face was close to hers, his eyes shining from the reflected glow of her reading lamp.
She held her breath, waiting.
“Being shy, quiet Tina again?” he asked.
“Thinking to heck with shy and quiet.” It had never gotten her what she wanted before. She leaned forward to kiss him chastely.
He slipped his arms around her and held her close. “That was a surprise.”
“You handled it well.”
“Let’s see how you do.”
But his kiss was nothing like hers. In seconds, it went from chaste to enticing and his hands went from her waist to her hips.
She pressed her mouth more firmly against his and threaded her fingers through his hair.
“My turn?” he asked, running his hand down the length of her braid.
She nodded, suddenly nervous but not willing to back down. Ready to say to heck with everything.
For a moment, he fumbled with the elastic tie. She watched his eyes gleam and his lips curve into a smile as he unraveled the braid until her hair hung loose and flowing around her. He ran his fingers down the wavy lengths, letting his fingertips skim her body, making her shiver.
She had always wondered how she would feel if she let him touch her like this.
And now she knew.
Like this made her feel pleasured and possessed and more excited than she had ever imagined.
Like this reinforced what she had always known.
She loved him.
And they belonged together.
* * *
AT THE DRESSER in his room, Cole ran his comb through his wet hair.
Suddenly, he envisioned himself sliding his palms down Tina’s never-ending waves. Shaking his head, he yanked the towel from around his waist and tossed it onto the bed.
Damn.
So much for the cold shower, his second since last night.
Just thinking about her had him hard all over again...and he hadn’t gone beyond anything besides hot kisses, soft curves and touching that unbelievably sexy curtain of hair.
He swore under his breath and thanked his lucky stars he’d found the restraint to get up from her couch. But he hadn’t rushed away.
Remembering how he had treated her in high school, he took his time saying his farewells. He had stood with her at the door for a while as they talked, their voices hushed. Had left her smiling as he walked away.
He hadn’t had any other option.
He wasn’t a high-school kid pushed to the breaking point and desperate enough to make unwise choices.
No matter how much he wanted Tina, giving in to lust for a temporary fling would only lead to regrets for them both. He would be doing her a favor by keeping his distance.
A knock sounded on his door. He looked at the clock near the bed. Five a.m. on a Sunday. If he hadn’t needed the cold shower, he wouldn’t have been up yet, since he didn’t have to go to work. So who would come to his room at this hour?
It could be Andi having trouble with Scott. Or Jed needing help with an emergency on the ran
ch.
“Be right there,” he called.
He retrieved the towel and knotted it around his hips. As he strode to the door, he slid his arms into last night’s shirt. He would be presentable enough while he found out who had knocked and what they needed from him.
To his surprise, Tina stood in the dimly lit hallway. “You’re awake early,” he said warily.
“Not really. I’m usually helping in the kitchen around this time.” Her gaze drifted downward, then bounced back up to his face again. “Mind if I chat with you for a minute?”
He hesitated, then stepped back. “If you don’t think you’ll be compromising yourself, come on in.”
“Maybe I’d like to be compromised,” she said with a laugh.
“I meant if someone found you here.” Frowning, he closed the door behind her. “You’ve changed.”
“So have you. Five years ago, I don’t think you’d have thought twice about what would compromise a woman.”
“Maybe you’re right.”
She perched on the foot of his rumpled bed. It wouldn’t take much for him to cross the room and tumble her back against the covers.
Instantly, his body reacted to the image. He clutched his fresh shirt in front of him firmly enough to create permanent wrinkles in the fabric. “Well.” He cleared his throat. “Everything okay? Something going on with the kids? Or Jed?”
“No, everybody’s fine.”
“Good.” Then why are you in my room at five in the morning?
And did he want to know?
Reminding himself he had made up his mind to keep his distance, he turned to the dresser. He stripped off the old shirt and replaced it with the fresh one. As he stood adjusting the collar, her eyes met his in the dresser mirror.
She smiled. “I thought it would be nice if we offered to take Andi and Jane to the airport.”
“We?”
She nodded. “We could borrow Pete’s van. It’s big enough to fit everyone and handle the car seats. And then on the way back, we could stop for breakfast.”
We.
“Thanks, but I need to get over to Layne’s.”
“Oh. Then...dinner out tonight? Just the two of us—finally.” She smiled again.
“I don’t think that will work, either. Too much to do at the apartment.” He grabbed a comb to run through his hair. In the mirror, he saw her reflection. Her eyes were cast down, her expression thoughtful.
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