Unless he had no other choice.
If Angus cut Connor off, even what she earned from National Geographic wasn’t going to be enough to make up for the lost income from his trust fund. And he was every bit as passionate about what he was trying to accomplish at Safe Haven as she was about saving wild mustangs from slaughter.
Eve stared at Connor’s back as he chatted with the social worker, wondering if her happily ever after was about to be ended, not by a wicked old witch, but by a wicked old man.
“The judge authorized supervision for six months,” Mrs. Stack was explaining to Connor, “or for a shorter period if I’m satisfied that the children are in a safe, happy home.” Mrs. Stack glanced from Connor to Eve and said, “I’m willing to give the two of you the benefit of the doubt. Of course, I have the option to revisit my decision if circumstances change.”
Eve’s heart sank. She met Connor’s gaze and saw the concern there. He wasn’t out of the woods yet.
“Those pancakes are burning,” Mrs. Stack said.
Connor pulled the pan off the fire and dumped the burned pancakes in the sink. “I’ve got plenty of batter,” he said with a hard-won smile. “I’ll have another batch ready in a jiffy.”
“With blueberries?” Brooke asked.
“Yep,” Connor replied.
Eve had shopped for blueberries before they returned from town yesterday, along with eggs and milk and enough fruits and vegetables to satisfy someone as particular as Mrs. Stack, while Connor ran some errands.
“Will you be staying for breakfast?” Eve asked.
As Mrs. Stack stood, Eve took Sawyer from the social worker, setting him on her hip.
“I’ve got to get back to town,” Mrs. Stack said. “You folks enjoy your breakfast.”
A moment later she was gone. Eve joined Connor at the stove. She looked into his troubled eyes and said quietly enough so the children wouldn’t hear, “What’s she going to think about me leaving to work in Nevada?”
“We’ll deal with that when the time comes.”
Eve took a deep breath and asked, “What are you going to do about the ultimatum from your father?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? Aren’t you worried that he’ll rescind your trust fund?”
“My father can do what he wants. I’m not going to let him dictate my life. We’re going to have breakfast, and then, if it’s all right with you, we can take the kids for a horseback ride and enjoy a picnic lunch. We’re entitled to a honeymoon. I say we enjoy it.”
Eve couldn’t believe Connor was so nonchalant about the potential calamity he faced if his father took away the funds he needed to support Safe Haven. But he knew Angus better than she did. Maybe when push came to shove, Angus wouldn’t—couldn’t—hurt his son like that. Or maybe Connor had some other source of income she didn’t know about.
“A horseback ride and picnic sound wonderful,” she said.
Brooke could ride by herself, and Sawyer was completely comfortable on horseback in the lap of an adult. Then it dawned on her that she and Connor were taking two little kids on their “honeymoon” picnic. And that she was looking forward to it.
The reality of life with Connor and the children was turning out to be every bit as wonderful as she’d imagined. There were a few glitches, of course. Like needing to leave her new husband and family so soon to pursue a professional dream come true. And Connor perhaps ending up broke.
Eve was doing her best not to wallow in guilt about getting what she’d always coveted. But she wondered if the sudden obstacles to her fairy-tale ending meant that she didn’t deserve what she was getting, and that, in fact, she might not, after all, live so happily ever after.
Like most women she knew, Eve wanted it all: to be a superb wife and mother and have a satisfying professional life. She was discovering that the balancing act required wasn’t easy. And that there were no simple answers.
All she could do was live each day as it came and make the choice at each turning point that seemed most likely to make her happy. Right now, nothing could make her happier than spending the day with Connor and the children, especially since she could take along her camera.
Eve grinned. It seemed like a good omen that for today, at least, she could have her cake and eat it, too.
“What has you grinning like the Cheshire cat?” Connor asked.
Eve shook her head, unwilling to explain that, in a life that had become very complicated, all her choices this morning had been easy. Instead she said, “I’m just happy.”
Within the hour, they’d packed a lunch and saddled the horses, Eve had collected the black canvas bag that contained all her camera equipment, and they were on their way.
“Where are we going?” Eve asked as they mounted up at the stable, Sawyer settled in Connor’s lap.
“Before I bought the ranch I rode most of the trails. One of them leads to a mountain meadow, which ought to be filled with wildflowers about now.”
It was a perfect Wyoming spring day, the sun warm and the wind absent. Eve had her camera slung around her neck so she could easily take pictures. She looped her knotted reins around the saddle horn so she would have both hands free to take a photograph of Connor and his son.
Sawyer was leaning back against Connor’s chest looking up at his father, while Connor’s head was bent to answer whatever question his son was asking.
Click.
Connor looked up at the sound and smiled self-consciously.
“Don’t mind me,” Eve said, giving her horse a nudge with her heels to keep him moving along with the other animals.
“Take my picture, Aunt Eve,” Brooke said.
“Ride up beside your father,” Eve encouraged the little girl.
“Here I come.” Brooke smiled for the camera and dug her heels into her pony’s side, prodding him to a trot.
Click.
The three of them stopped to wait for Eve to catch up, and Sawyer leaned way over to pat the neck of Brooke’s pony.
Click.
“Look!” As Connor pointed, Sawyer sat upright and both children lifted their eyes skyward. Brooke shaded her eyes with her hand to observe the eagle soaring overhead.
Click.
Connor turned around in the saddle and said, “Are you coming, Eve?”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll catch up.”
Connor took her at her word and kicked his horse into a slow trot. Eve let them get a little farther ahead, angling her horse to the side so she could get a shot of the riders on horseback with the unending green forest and cloudless blue sky in the distance.
Click.
Holding the camera in one hand and the reins in the other, she urged her horse into a lope to catch up to them.
“I figured you brought your camera along to take pictures of wildlife, not pictures of us,” Connor said.
“You’re a different kind of wildlife,” Eve teased. “Besides, I’ve got an eagle in one of those shots, not to mention a couple of horses.”
Connor laughed. “Touché. Click away.”
Eve did exactly that, saving moments of love and laughter along the trail that she and Connor could enjoy long after the children were grown. Eve realized that she didn’t want this fairy tale to end. There had to be a way, there just had to be a way, to make it all work out—the job and the kids and the husband and the unborn babies they would have someday in the future. But how?
After two hours on the trail, they emerged from the forest onto a grassy meadow filled with colorful wildflowers, hundreds of yellow butterflies flittering and fluttering among them.
Eve gasped. “Oh, Connor. How lovely!”
“I’m glad you like it,” he said as he lowered Sawyer to the ground, then dismounted himself. The little boy took off at a run following his sister, who’d slid off her pony the moment they reached the meadow, chasing after butterflies.
“Stay where I can see you,” he called to the two children. “We’ll be eating lunch soon.”
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“Okay,” Brooke called back without stopping.
Eve untied the blanket behind her saddle and loosened the cinch, staking her horse, along with Brooke’s, on a long line so they could munch on the mountain grass and not stray. Connor did the same with his horse before retrieving the saddlebags that contained their picnic lunch.
Connor set the saddlebags on a rock outcropping, then took the blanket from Eve and flung it open so it settled on a level spot in the grass. She straightened the edges before dropping to her knees on the blanket. Connor transferred the saddlebags onto the blanket and joined her there.
From the corner of her eye, Eve had been keeping track of the children. “They’re going to be exhausted if they keep running around like that.”
“Good. Maybe they’ll take a nap after lunch.”
Eve felt her face flush when she met Connor’s gaze. It was perfectly clear what he would like to do to her after lunch.
“Brooke! Sawyer!” he called. “Time to eat.”
The children must have been hungry, because they came running. By the time they reached the blanket, Eve had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and apple slices set out on paper plates and small juice boxes affixed with straws. The kids arrived breathless and plopped onto the blanket.
“Here, Aunt Eve,” Brooke said, handing Eve a bunch of wildflowers she’d picked. “These are for you.”
“Here, Aunt Eve,” Sawyer said, dropping a handful of flowers without stems into her lap. “For you.”
Eve felt tears sting her eyes. “They’re beautiful. Thank you both.” She gave each child a kiss to show her gratitude, but they were more interested in the plates of food, digging in as though they hadn’t finished breakfast a mere three hours ago.
Eve suddenly realized that the children had given all the flowers to her, rather than sharing them with their father. “You deserve a few of these,” she said to Connor, holding out the bouquet Brooke had handed to her.
He plucked one of the flowers from her hand and sniffed it, then looked into her eyes and said, “I’d rather enjoy the sight of you holding them.”
Was he flirting with her?
Connor got distracted when Sawyer dripped jelly onto his shirt. He grabbed a napkin and swiped up the blob, then unwrapped his own sandwich and began eating.
Eve was still staring at him, enjoying the thrill of being admired by a man who’d married her for practical reasons that had nothing to do with admiration.
“Here,” he said, tossing her a sandwich in a completely unloverlike way. “Better hurry up and eat. I have a feeling that when they’re done we’ll all be chasing butterflies. Personally, I’d rather be picking flowers.”
He shot her a mischievous look, and Eve felt a frisson of excitement race down her spine. Picking flowers? Or did he mean plucking buds of an entirely different sort?
When they were done eating, the kids were still bouncing with energy, so Eve suggested a game of tag.
“That’s a great idea,” Connor said. “You’re it!”
Eve decided to tag Brooke and raced after the laughing girl. Brooke was so agile, and made such quick stops and starts and turns, it took Eve several breathless minutes to catch up to her. “Tag!” she shouted when she finally tapped Brooke’s shoulder. “You’re it.”
Eve turned and ran to escape before she could be tagged back, and Brooke looked for Sawyer, who would be an easy target. Unfortunately for her, Connor had picked up the little boy and was running with him in his arms. Sawyer giggled as Connor weaved back and forth to avoid his daughter, and Eve joined in as she dodged and darted to stay out of Brooke’s way.
Eve was surprised when Connor didn’t slow down to let the little girl catch him. She was equally surprised when Brooke didn’t give up, just kept pursuing Connor until he tripped in a gopher hole and almost fell, going down on one knee to be sure Sawyer didn’t take a tumble.
“Tag!” Brooke said triumphantly as she touched his arm. “You’re it.”
Connor set Sawyer on his feet, then held out his curved hands like some clawed monster and said, “Watch out, everybody. Here I come!”
Brooke and Sawyer turned, laughing and shrieking, and ran full tilt in opposite directions.
Eve figured Connor would chase after the kids, making sure he didn’t catch them too soon. To her astonishment, he headed straight for her.
Eve turned and bolted, laughing and shrieking as loudly as the kids, zigzagging to keep from getting caught.
But catch her he did. By then, they’d reached the tree line on the opposite side of the meadow from the kids. “Tag!” he shouted. “You’re it.”
But instead of merely touching her arm, he pressed her back against the closest pine so they were aligned, body to body. Her heart was pounding from all the running and she was laughing, having enjoyed the game. Hidden from the children, his hands came up to caress her breasts. Eve trembled with excitement, her body instantly aroused and ready.
“What are you doing?” she asked breathlessly. “The kids—”
“Will be here any second. Until then, I want to touch you.”
Eve could feel the hard length of him between her thighs. His hot breath fanned her cheek, and she angled her head so their lips could meet.
He claimed her mouth as though he might never have another chance, the kiss almost savage, then let her go abruptly and stepped back.
He met her gaze, his eyes clouded with pain, then turned his face sharply away.
“Are you all right?” she asked. “Is something wrong?”
She heard him swallow hard before he said, “Nothing’s wrong. I just wish…”
Eve finished the sentence for herself. Molly were here. Jealousy ran through her veins like molten lava. Molly’s dead. It’s my turn!
Eve’s whole body flamed with red-hot rage. She’d always been jealous of Molly, but she’d kept that jealousy under tight control. Now, when it seemed Connor might be hers at last, it seemed her best friend was still holding the man Eve loved in thrall. She struggled, without success, to control the green-eyed monster that had reared its ugly head. She felt her hands curl into fighting claws. But how did you fight a ghost?
When is it my turn, Molly? Let him go, so he can love me.
“Wish what, Connor?” she said, her throat so swollen with emotion that she thought she might choke. “That Molly were here instead of me?”
He shook his head as he whirled to face her, his blue eyes dark and bleak. “No! I wish Molly and I had spent more time doing things like this together when she was alive.” He grimaced. “But she wasn’t big on picnics. And I wasn’t around to go on one anyway. The truth is, I’d never have played tag with the kids if it weren’t for you.”
Eve was thrown for a loop. Connor wasn’t wishing for Molly? Connor was giving her credit for making the day special?
He took a step to close the distance between them and drew her into his embrace again. Eve felt the adrenaline draining from her body, leaving her totally enervated. She put her arms around Connor’s neck and clung to him to keep from falling down.
“I’m glad you’re a part of our lives,” he whispered in her ear.
“Me, too,” Eve said.
A moment later he separated them again, setting her a short distance away. “Before those two imps show up I have something to give you.”
He reached into his jeans pocket and came out with a ring. “I searched every store in town yesterday while you were shopping for groceries and found this.”
Eve stared at the simple gold band with a tiny diamond leaf embedded in it. She felt the tears coming and couldn’t keep them from falling. “Oh, Connor.”
“Don’t cry,” he said, with a lopsided smile. “Give me your hand.”
Both hands were covering her mouth as she tried to keep from sobbing, but she let him have the left one, which shook as he slipped the ring on her finger.
“It’s beautiful.”
“So are you,” he said.
“H
ey!” Brooke said, arriving breathlessly at Eve’s side. “Are we gonna play some more?”
“I think you and Sawyer need to rest for a little while,” Connor said.
“I’m not tired!” Brooke protested.
“Five minutes,” Connor said.
He took Eve’s hand, the one with the wedding band on it, as Brooke reached for Eve’s other hand, and the three of them headed back toward where they’d left the horses. They met Sawyer on the way, and Connor picked up the exhausted toddler and carried him back to the blanket, where he set him down beside Brooke.
“Close your eyes, and I’ll tell you a story,” Eve said, as she dropped onto the blanket beside the children.
“This I’ve got to hear,” Connor said as he settled across from her.
“Once upon a time,” Eve began, “there was a beautiful princess.” Before long, both children were sound asleep.
“Good story,” Connor said.
Eve stretched her legs out so she could lie on her side.
“Would you like me to tell you how it ends?” she asked coyly.
Connor chuckled. “I think I know how it ends.” He lay down facing her, his head supported on his hand. “The jealous witch—”
Eve sat up abruptly. That word, jealous, brought back all those ugly feelings she’d experienced, and which she never wanted to experience again. “I have something I need to say.”
Connor sat up across from her, a concerned look on his face.
Eve had no idea where to start, so she simply dove in. “I’m jealous of Molly.”
Connor looked confused. “What?”
“I know it’s silly. I know she’s gone. But I used to have a crush on you in high school, and I guess I never got over losing you to my best friend.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but she kept on talking, certain that if she stopped, she’d never get started again.
“I know you miss Molly. I miss her too. But I can’t help wanting you to want me instead of her. So when you start a sentence with ‘I wish Molly’ it makes me a little crazy.” She swallowed over the knot in her throat and added, “Jealous, I mean.”
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