by Diana Layne
“Take out your tonsils? Ouch.”
The baby stirred. Both froze.
“Shh, you don’t want to wake the kid,” Ben said in a tone that indicated he’d had enough experience with Angelina crying.
She smiled at the look on Ben’s face. Glancing next to her, Angel still slept.
“As for what I’m doing, don’t be dense. Can you put her in the crib?”
Angel lay on the big bed with the crib pulled up to the side as a makeshift bed rail. “I’m not being dense. I think you ought to consider whether I want the same thing you want.”
“You don’t? You saying once was enough?”
“I think once was too much.”
“Really?” He leaned closer, so close his nose touched hers, his lips were moving on top of hers. “You really think that?”
He smelled so great she had to restrain herself from pulling him near. She couldn’t meet his gaze, and his smile stretched against her lips.
Be practical, she told herself. “We’re in your parents’ house.”
“And there’s a baby in our bed.”
“Our bed?”
“Okay, my bed.”
MJ stiffened. “Excuse me? This doesn’t look like a guy’s room.”
“It used to be my room.” His baritone voice held laughter as she processed where she was.
“Still,” she faltered, scrambling for a comeback. “I don’t see you sleeping in this room.”
“When I visit, I stay somewhere else on the ranch. I’ll show you later. But for now, the kid . . . ?”
“Your parents?”
“Their room is on the other side of the house.”
“I can’t move her without waking her.”
“Okay, have it your way.”
She felt his weight lift off the bed, and she barely had time to feel disappointed, when he jerked the comforter off the bed, and tossed it on the floor.
“What?”
She didn’t have time to finish her sentence because he was lifting her off the bed, and putting her on top of the comforter on the floor.
“What are you doing?” She tried to scramble up, but he pressed against her. The weight and feel of him sent her senses into overdrive.
“Yes?”
She stopped and stared at him.
“No answer? No reason to justify why you’re fighting it?”
No, not a single reason she could think of, damn it. “Shut up.”
“I won’t gloat.” He brushed a kiss on her lips. “Much.”
“Angel might fall off the bed.” She used the excuse as a half-hearted warning, irritated with herself how easily she was giving into temptation.
He reached up, grabbed the pillows on the bed and lined them against the side. “There. Now if she gets over those pillows, she’ll fall on us. Is that good enough?”
“I guess I could put her in the crib. . .”
“Don’t even think about moving.” He settled his weight more firmly on top of her. Pressed his lips to hers.
“Okay, then,” she said before she couldn’t talk anymore.
* * *
Ben left her room before morning, and when she awoke she was still lying on the floor, naked and covered with the comforter. She noticed he didn’t leave her car keys behind either. Deliberate? Regardless, it wasn’t like she was going to sneak off and leave him behind, even if she’d been known to do that once or twice. She tamped down a little feeling of guilt.
It wasn’t like she needed to leave anyway since she had no job to return to at the moment. It would make more sense to stay close to the hospital and visit Tasha. MJ remembered how lonely it was being injured and trapped in a hospital bed with nothing but strangers around.
But one thing was for sure, she couldn’t stay here and keep imposing on Ben’s family. She’d get her car and head for a hotel later this morning.
By the time MJ had jumped in the shower and dressed, Angel was awake. With the toddler plopped on her hip, MJ made her way to the kitchen, following the smell of food. Abby stood in front of the stove flipping pancakes. If Tex kept the shop closed down for too long, maybe MJ would go back home and learn to cook breakfast herself.
Ben sat at the table, already eating. MJ managed to casually meet his gaze without blushing. After all, she was an adult, and she could pretend the guilt she felt for having sex under his parents’ roof didn’t exist.
She realized then, that she should probably act as if she hadn’t known he was here. “You better not have gotten a scratch on my car.”
“You’re welcome.”
“How’d you get Lauryn to turn over the keys?”
“I’m a charming person.”
“Ben, you shouldn’t tell lies so early in the morning,” Abby said. “How would you like your eggs, MJ?”
Ben shook his head. “I never get a fair shake. Always too many women around ganging up on me.”
“Do what your dad does, get up early and go out to work before anyone else is around to gang up on you.”
“And miss all this fun?”
“He just likes being contrary,” Abby informed MJ.
She grinned. “I learned that early on.”
“Here, I’ll feed Angelina, and you eat,” Ben said, “then I’ll take you on a tour of the ranch.”
“You’ll feed . . . ?”
“I have experience,” he said and held out his hands to the baby, who went willingly enough to his arms.
“Traitor,” MJ said to her daughter.
“Smart women can’t resist me,” Ben said.
Abby coughed, MJ said “hmph.”
“You saying your daughter isn’t smart?”
Well, she couldn’t very well deny it, could she? Angel sat happily on his lap letting him feed her a breakfast of scrambled eggs and pancakes.
After breakfast, he pulled on Angelina’s jacket. “Grab her car seat, we’re going in my truck.”
His truck was prehistoric. Early to mid-60s Chevrolet. Close to the same age as her Mustang, maybe a little older.
“1965?”
“’66.”
“There wasn’t a lot of difference in the two. The year after, 1967, they changed the look.”
“You just a car enthusiast or what?”
“In a small town where I live, a lot of people are thrifty and drive their trucks a long time. I’m not going to believe you’ve been driving this truck since 1966 though.”
“No, given I wasn’t even a gleam in my father’s eye then. It was my dad’s first truck, and it was his dad’s first new truck.”
“This truck has been in your family all these years?”
Ben nodded.
“I guess you understand thrifty then.”
“I do like what you did with your Mustang, maybe you can do that with this truck one day.”
She wasn’t sure how to answer, was there a double meaning behind his words, or just a genuine interest in her rebuilding the truck?
She chose not to answer. “Why are we going on a tour?”
“I thought you might like to look around. I figured the sooner, the better, since you’ll no doubt be heading back to Texas soon.”
“I’m in no rush. I thought I’d stay around and visit Tasha until she’s better.”
“What about your job?”
“Tex closed the shop.”
“What?”
“Temporarily. Dottie’s pretty shook up about losing Angel.”
“Sorry about that. If I’d had any other choice . . .”
“I know.”
“So you have some time?”
“I won’t be staying with your mom.”
“Why not? You’re a girl. She likes girls.”
“I don’t want to impose.”
“You–”
“And if I stayed, you’d be sneaking into my room, and I’m really uncomfortable having sex in your family home.”
“I understand. We can have sex in my home.”
“You live . . .” she frowne
d. “I thought you lived in DC.”
“My home here.”
“You have a separate home from your family?”
“It used to be a ranch hand’s house. I had to get away from so many women. They really do gang up on me, you know.”
He drove along, turned on a dirt road that was little more than a path.
A dozen cows roamed out in the pasture. They drove until they came to a big barn. Ben stopped the truck, and opened his door. “Hop out.”
“This is your house?” Please, no.
“This is a barn. I know you’re from a big city, but I figured you’d lived in a small town long enough to know the difference between a barn and a house.”
MJ took Angel out of the car seat and held her propped on her hip. “You deserve having your sisters gang up on you. Some barns have living quarters in them.”
“Not this one. Even if it did, I don’t have a fondness for barns. I spent too many hours mucking them out.”
“I never mucked one out, but barns don’t hold fond memories for me either. Too many rats.”
“Don’t like rats?”
“I like them just fine if I have a big gun.”
“I see what you mean.”
“Are we agreeing?”
“Careful there, we might be in danger of actually getting along.” He leaned close, his breath warm against her cheek.
“Not a chance.” MJ held on while Angelina squirmed to get down.
“We get along well in bed.”
“That’s because you’re not talking.”
Ben kissed her, not a quick peck, but a genuine spine-tingling kiss. She was awed at how he worked it while she was holding a squirming toddler.
“Yeah, why waste time talking when there’s much better things to do with your lips,” he teased.
“Ben, not in front . . .”
“Shh.” He placed a finger on her lips.
Of the baby, she’d meant to say, but Angelina said instead, “Momma.” She squirmed harder.
“Let her down to run.”
“What?”
“So by the time we get to my place, she’ll be ready for a nap.”
“Do you understand what no means?”
“Haven’t heard you say it.”
“Oh.” He was right, damn it.
“Are you going to say it?”
She pinched her lips together and huffed through her nose.
“I thought not,” he gloated.
His house was a small wood frame ranch house that she’d guess predated his classic truck. But it was in good repair, the paint new and the yard well kept. Inside, the floors were hardwood, sanded smooth and varnished, and the walls were painted white with a few framed photographs—shots of the ranch, his family, his horse, a dog who was the great grandfather of those puppies playing with Cy, and a few family portraits as well.
It was very tidy and dust free, considering he lived in another state. “When’s the last time you’ve been here?”
“Other than last night when I was here cleaning?”
“That would explain the lack of dust.” She turned and studied him. “You know how to clean too.”
“I’m handy to have around.”
“Maybe . . .”
“Sounds like you need some more persuading . . .”
In spite of Ben’s persuasive techniques, and another round of good sex on his comfy full-sized bed while Angelina napped on a makeshift pallet of blankets on the floor of his bedroom, MJ and Angelina checked into a hotel later that night.
She visited Tasha in the mornings and in the evenings. Three days later, Tasha moved to a real room and MJ could spend more time at the hospital since there always seemed to be someone willing to watch Angel, including Ben.
One afternoon, though, Tex called, and his news sent MJ into a downward spiral.
Ben noticed that evening as they lay together naked in one bed, while Angel slept in the crib the hotel supplied.
“What’s up?”
“Why do you ask?”
“You seem pensive. Anxious to get back?”
“I need to go back, yes. Earlier than I might want.”
“Does that mean you’ve been enjoying yourself here?”
“Yes.”
“So why do you have to rush off? Is Tex opening back up and there’s a backlog of work?”
“Actually, Tex is selling the business, and he wants to give me first choice to buy it.”
“What?”
“Dottie was too traumatized, she wants Tex to retire and move out to the country.”
“Move away from the town?”
“Yep. Not too far out, but Tex doesn’t feel he can abandon her. They’re ready to retire.”
“Will you buy it?”
“I don’t want that kind of responsibility. And yet I need a job, at least until the adoption is finalized.”
“So does it have to be that job, in that town?”
“I have a life established there.”
“And nowhere else?”
“It’s just easier, and where else? It’s not like I have family or roots anywhere else.”
“What about here?”
“What’s here for me?”
She stared. He kept quiet.
“Not you!”
“I thought you rather liked me.”
“You don’t live here.”
“That could change.”
“Just because we’re great together in the sack, that’s no reason to change your whole life.”
“My life is ready to be changed. You think I could go back to working for Jeff, knowing what I know.”
“Ben, I don’t think I could make that kind of commitment.”
“Am I asking you for commitment?”
“What would you do if you moved back here?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” He smoothed her hair back and smiled. “Ranching?”
“Thought you didn’t like mucking out barns.”
“Well . . . I have a couple of contacts in the Tulsa police department.”
“A cop? After working for Vista outside the law?”
“PI? Bounty hunting?”
“And what am I supposed to do if I move here?”
“We have repair shops here.”
“But there’s no Dottie for Angelina . . . .”
“There’s no Dottie, no. Of course from what you’ve said, there’s no Dottie for Angel back in Texas either unless you’re going to drive to the country every day. My mom or some nice church lady she could find is here. Hey, I know, we can open a repair shop together.”
“If I’m gonna own a repair shop, I might as well buy the one in Texas. It already has a good business.”
“So you’re just going to walk away?”
“Walk away from what? Good sex?”
Ben blew out a breath. “It’s more than that, and you know it.”
“No, I don’t.”
“If that’s true, then good sex is a great place to start.”
“Start what?”
“A relationship.”
“Are you crazy?” She rolled her eyes to make him believe he was definitely on the wrong path. “Haven’t you suffered enough?”
“Life comes with pain. Without the bad, how can you appreciate the good?”
She didn’t want to admit he had a point. Despair, hope, betrayal, love, and any other number of emotions ran in a confusing loop through her mind. “Now, you’re a philosopher?”
He held her gaze, and she felt herself drowning in his liquid chocolate gaze.
“I’m only speaking the truth.”
What he said made some sort of weird sense, and she had to look away to break the spell he was creating. “I have to talk to Tex.”
“When?”
MJ took a deep breath and considered. Of course she’d rather stay, but there was no need to linger. And Tex needed an answer. “I’ll leave in the morning. I’ll go by and see Tasha first, then head back. I have to see if I can talk hi
m out of selling, at least a little longer.”
“What does time have to do with it?”
“I need a job until the adoption is final.”
“And then?”
“Then . . . ?” She shrugged. “After the adoption? I don’t know. I’d been considering staying in Whiddon.”
“Then why not buy the business yourself?”
“That’s a lot of responsibility.”
“So is raising a baby.”
“Yeah, and instead of one thing to be responsible for, that’s two.”
“But one will provide for the other,” Ben pointed out in a practical way.
Why did it suddenly seem as if everything he was saying sounded logical? “I suppose. . .”
“Or you can come back here.”
“I don’t see that as an option really. I don’t know anyone here.”
“You know me. Quite well,” he added with a grin.
“I know parts of you quite well.”
“Conceded. But you could get to know the rest of me. It’s all good.”
She snorted. “That’s quite conceited. You want me to pack up, move up here, look for a new job, just to get to know you better?”
“Sounds good to me. What else do you have?”
“A life back in Texas.”
“Too much to start another one?”
She took a breath, held it, considered. “Possibly. I feel secure there. I know the people.”
“Yeah, Cindy at Lamplighter, and Julie the realtor.”
She was surprised he’d remembered. “Don’t forget Paula at the café.”
“Ah, who could forget Paula? I can’t believe you sent me there. That woman is non-stop talk.”
MJ laughed, taking a perverse satisfaction at setting him up. “But the chicken fried steak is great.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “That steak alone is probably worth going back for.”
She smiled. “So then I better go.”
He kissed her. This time his lips didn’t linger, but they still held the promise of more to come at a later date. “Think about coming back.”
Her lips tingled, but strangely enough so did her heart. “I will.”
And she actually would consider it, she realized.
Chapter 31
MJ took the leisurely route home, so Angelina and Cy could get out and play every couple of hours. MJ brought Tasha’s dog back with her, although Ben’s mother had offered to keep him until Tasha checked out of the hospital. But MJ knew her sister would rather her dog be with family.