The phone finally stopped ringing, only to start up again just seconds later.
“Can you see who that is, please?” Millie called out to him.
Joe had nothing better to do since he obviously sucked at fence repairs today. He went to the porch and glanced at the screen. “It’s Monte.”
“Crud,” Millie muttered. “Could you answer it? There might be a problem at the shop.”
Apparently, there was a camaraderie between Millie and him, as well. Then again, the kiss at her shop had jetted them past that stage and had now moved on to him being obsessed with the way her butt looked in her jeans and answering her phone.
“It’s Joe McCann,” he said right off. “Millie asked me to take the call.”
“Oh.” Monte stretched that out a few syllables, and Joe didn’t think the man’s imagination was stretching, too. Millie’s clerk obviously thought there was some hanky-panky going on between Joe and her.
“The message is kind of urgent,” Monte said, “in a business urgent kind of way. For the past couple of months, Millie’s been in negotiations to buy a pair of small mantel clocks that were made by Hezzie Parkman’s first husband. Anyway, the owner just called and said she could have them for six grand if she’ll pick them up this afternoon.”
“Six grand,” Joe muttered, shaking his head. A lot of money.
“I got the feeling the seller needed the money fast so that means Millie needs to get over there ASAP,” Monte added. “There are a couple of Hezzie’s heirs who are interested in buying them, and he says he’ll call them if Millie doesn’t show.”
“All right. I’ll tell her right away. Does she have the seller’s name and contact info?”
“It’s Lou Stinson, and she’s got his number and address. He lives out on Old Sawmill Trail.”
Yeah, Joe knew where he lived, and just hearing the name gave him one of those jolts down memory lane. A bad memory lane.
“Any idea if Millie would plan to go out there by herself?” Joe asked.
“Probably. I’m here in the shop until closing, and it’s been a steady stream of customers for that shipment of fairy balls we got in.”
Even though Joe had plenty of concerns about the trip to get the clock, he couldn’t help but latch on to what Monte had just said. “Fairies have balls?”
“Not those kinds of balls.” Monte chuckled. “They’re the blown glass kind that people hang in their houses. Sort of like suncatchers. Anyway, it’s Haylee’s day off so that’s why she can’t go get the clocks.” He paused. “Have you got some concerns about Millie going out there?”
“Some,” he admitted. But he wasn’t going to spell them out to Monte. “I’ll ride out there with her.” It wouldn’t be an especially fun trip for Joe, but no way was he going to let Millie walk into that alone.
He ended the call and turned to relay the news to Millie, but she was already off the mare. Dara was leading the horse back to the barn, no doubt to brush her down, and Millie was heading toward him.
And she was smiling.
That particular expression always had a way of reminding him that she was attractive. And that he was a man who was attracted to her.
“Your daughter’s a great teacher,” Millie exclaimed, still beaming.
Of course, some of the beam was probably the fine mist of sweat on her face. It wasn’t blistering hot today, thanks to plenty of thick gray clouds, but it was still in the low eighties. The heat and humidity had done a number on her makeup, and he could see the freckles popping through. For some damn reason, he found that attractive, as well. At this point though, pretty much everything about her was going to interest pretty much every part of him.
Joe handed her the phone. “Monte said Lou Stinson is willing to sell you the clocks for 6K if you get out to his place fast.”
That upped her beaming even more, and she clapped her hands in victory. She apparently wasn’t experiencing any sticker shock about the price. “I’ve been negotiating with that old goat for months.”
Old goat was a kind name for the man. Joe thought that old sonofabitching bastard suited him better.
“Good thing I have a checkbook for the shop with me so I can go out there right now before he changes his mind,” she added.
“You’ve been out to his place before?” Joe asked.
She shook her head, pulling off the cowboy hat she’d worn to stave off the sun. “We’ve only talked over the phone. I’ve never met him.” Millie stopped, combed her gaze over him. “Have you?”
“Yeah.” And Joe left it at that. “I’ll ride out there with you.”
“Oh, but I’m sure you have work to do. It’s not necessary—”
“It is,” Joe insisted, leaving her a little dumbfounded when he went closer to the barn and called out to Dara. “Millie and I have got to do a quick errand. Will you be okay for about an hour?”
As he’d expected, that got Dara sticking her head out of the barn. Once she got past a little shock, she gave a sly smile. Hell. Dara probably thought he was taking Millie away for a make-out session.
“Sure. I’ve got some homework to do,” Dara said, still smiling. “So, I’ll be busy.”
That was code for Take your time, do something stupid. With Millie. His daughter had turned into a matchmaker.
Joe just sighed. “If you get hungry before we get back, the Last Ride Society dropped off more food, and I put it in the fridge.”
Dara brightened even more. “Fried chicken?”
He nodded. “Along with a couple of twice baked potatoes and some chocolate chip cookies.”
Dara made a yum sound and went back into the barn.
“You get fried chicken and cookies?” Millie protested. “I get low calorie dishes with salads.”
Joe frowned at her menu. Apparently, Alma and the other society members had decided not to focus on comfort food choices when it came to Millie.
“You’re welcome to eat some of the latest delivery,” he said without really thinking it through. He was inviting her to dinner, and if she was smart, she would say a fast no.
She didn’t.
“Thanks,” she said. “I’d like that.”
Hell. He’d like it, too. So would Dara. That didn’t mean it was the right thing to do.
“Could I use your bathroom to freshen up, and then we can go get the clocks?” she asked, picking up her purse.
Joe nodded and led her into the house. Which was spotless. Dara had done a more than thorough cleaning job before Millie had arrived for her riding lesson.
“We should use my truck,” he said, showing her to the hall powder room. “It’s going to rain, and Lou lives on a dirt road. Your car could get stuck in the mud.” Joe didn’t want to do anything to prolong this drive, and he especially didn’t want to do anything to prolong their being at Lou’s place.
Millie thanked him before she went into the powder room. Joe headed to the master suite to do his own cleaning up. He washed up and opened the old-style medicine cabinet for his deodorant.
And he saw the box of condoms.
Ones left over from when Ella had still been alive. Great. It was a visual cue he sure as hell didn’t need, and he closed the cabinet door but not before he caught a glimpse of the expiration date on the box. They still had another year on them. Yet something else he didn’t need to know.
He grabbed a clean T-shirt as he headed to the door, and he was still in the process of putting it on when he stepped into the hall.
And saw Millie.
She had just come out of the powder room and froze when she looked at him. Except her eyes didn’t freeze. Her gaze slid, slowly, from his face, which no doubt had a startled guilty-of-something expression, to his chest. That particular part of him was bare since he’d only managed to get the shirt over his head.
Joe went still, too. Something
that often happened when he was around Millie. But he had no trouble following the little trip her eyes were making from his chest. To his stomach. To the zipper of his jeans where there was indeed some stirring going on.
She fluttered her fingers toward nothing in particular and made a sound, also of nothing in particular. She was obviously trying to blow this off as nothing, just a hallway encounter between two people who didn’t have the hots for each other.
“Son of a monkey,” she finally grumbled, and the slight smile she managed was laced with frustration and need. Not a good combination.
Joe got his arms working, and he yanked down the shirt to cover himself.
“There,” Millie said, lifting her shirt to reveal her bare stomach. “We’re even.”
No, hell no, they weren’t. This tit for tat was nowhere near even. He caught a glimpse of the bottom of her bra. Peach lace. The glimpsing didn’t stop there, either. Nope. Because her jeans rode low on her hips, he had no trouble seeing her navel.
And the little gold hoop she had there.
The surprise and curiosity must have shown in his eyes because her gaze flew down to her stomach. “Oh.” She pulled her shirt back in place. “Frankie did that for me. To cheer me up. Long story,” she added, dismissing it with a wave of her hand.
“We’ve got about a fifteen-minute drive to Lou’s,” he pointed out. “Is that time enough for a long story?”
Obviously, he needed a good knock on the head. No way should he be pushing for that kind of information. No way should he be smiling, either, but that’s sure as hell what he was doing.
Millie smiled, too, and hers was a lot more potent than his. “I feel like we just played doctor,” she muttered as they headed for the front door.
Yeah, he did, too. Doctor with a side dose of need that made him want to tongue kiss her navel and that little ring. Actually, there were a lot of places on her he wouldn’t mind tongue kissing. Including her mouth.
“A little less than a year ago,” Millie started after they’d gotten in his truck, “I went by Frankie’s shop to pick up Little T so he could have a sleepover at my house. Tanner was dropping him off there, but he was running late. It was a tough day for me. The anniversary,” she added in a mumble.
Joe was so sorry he’d brought this up because he knew exactly what she meant. It’d been the one-year anniversary of the car wreck. He was betting it’d been a whole lot more than just a tough day.
“I shouldn’t have brought this up,” Joe said, cursing himself as he pulled out of his driveway.
“No, it’s okay,” Millie assured him. “It has sort of a happy ending. Frankie was blue, too, because it was the anniversary of her divorce so we did an impulsive thing and both got our belly buttons pierced. It hurt,” she emphasized. “But the pain and the wine chaser we had to numb the pain got our minds off the other stuff.”
Frankie had never mentioned any of this. Not even the part about her being down over her divorce from Tanner.
“I should have done more stuff like that with Frankie,” Millie went on, looking out the window. It was basically pastures with livestock, woods and the occasional creek or pond, but it all came together for some great scenery. “I’ve always liked her.”
He heard the undercurrents in that. “You like Frankie, but you didn’t want to have to deal with the blowback from Laurie Jean.”
“Yes,” she readily admitted. Her sigh was long and weary, and he hated he’d broken her light mood. “A lot of things I’ve done in my life have been to avoid blowback. I’m thinking that should change though. I’m not ready to dance naked in the streets, but I want to make some changes.”
Joe couldn’t stop himself from smiling again. His mouth was apparently being as stupid as his dick. “You’re sure you shouldn’t start with dancing naked in the streets? Or maybe just in that peach lace bra you’re wearing.”
She smiled, too. “I hadn’t meant to hike up my top that high. And I don’t usually wear stuff like that. It’s something I bought when I was shopping with Dara.”
Well, that cooled him down, and he hoped his daughter wouldn’t give any boy a peek of her Sassy Silk purchase.
“Wait, stop,” Millie called out.
That got his attention off Dara, bras and Millie’s naked dancing, and Joe hit the brakes. Considering her reaction, he expected to see a dead animal, someone hurt or, heck, even a UFO. But when he followed her pointing finger, he saw the old drive-in theater. Well, what was left of it, anyway. The huge white screen was torn in places, but it was still standing. Ditto for the speaker poles and the concession stands, but the tall fence that had once been around it was long gone. Not a surprise since the place had shut down when he’d been a teenager.
“This is from the painting,” Millie said, and she reached to open the door.
“Hold on a second,” he told her, and he pulled the truck onto the shoulder. Thankfully, there weren’t likely to be any other vehicles on the road. “What painting?”
“The one on the La La Land site I told you about.” Millie barreled out of the truck so she didn’t hear Joe’s muttered profanity. He dragged in a hard breath and got out.
“I didn’t see a painting like this in your shop,” he pointed out.
“No. It was on the website, but I didn’t get a chance to buy it. I did screenshots of the paintings before the site went away, and I remember this one. It was one of my favorites.”
His, too. And yeah, he remembered it all right. It was one Ella had given to Dara so she could hang it in her bedroom.
“This looks just like the painting,” she said, clicking a picture of it with her phone. She was smiling again, obviously taking it all in, and she walked closer to metal posts where some speakers still dangled from coils. “I really hope I can find the artist one day.”
Joe followed her, focusing on her voice, that smile and the sound of the wind whistling through the holes in the screen. But there was another sound, too. The low rumbling of thunder.
“We should probably go,” he said.
“Yes. Just give me a minute.” It was as if she was drinking it all in.
It probably wasn’t the perfect moment to spill the truth about Ella’s paintings, but that’s exactly what Joe was about to do when Millie turned to him. Their eyes met, and he caught just a glimpse of the heat. Suddenly she was moving toward him, and using both her hands, she took hold of his face, pulling him down to her.
Kissing him.
This wasn’t some “testing the waters” kiss, either. It was the full-blown variety. Hunger and hot. She was drinking him in just as she’d done to the scenery. Except this time she was touching. She kept her hands in place, anchoring him as if she wanted to make sure he wouldn’t pull away. But Joe couldn’t have done that even if he’d wanted to. Nope. He was staying put, along with kissing her right back.
He got to live out some of his recent fantasies about Millie when he used his tongue on her mouth. She responded with a throaty sound of pleasure that gave him an instant erection. Man, he wanted her, and the kiss had just unlocked the restraint he’d been fighting to keep in place.
His restraint got another test when her breasts pressed against his chest. He thought of the peach lace bra. Of that little gold ring on her navel. And the heat for her turned into an insistent, aching need.
Joe hooked his arm around her, dragging her even harder against him. More pressure. More contact. And with it, he upped the need. This sure wasn’t doing anything to cool him down.
But something did.
Joe felt the cool splats on his head and face, and even with the rumble of thunder, it took him a moment to realize it was raining. Pouring, actually. The sky unzipped, and Mother Nature hosed them down.
Obviously becoming aware they were being drenched, Millie pulled back and looked up at him. She blinked. Then laughed. She took hold of his hand a
nd started running back to his truck. Joe wasn’t laughing. Because of his erection, he was having a tough time keeping up with her.
With Millie still laughing, they practically dived into his truck, and she leaned over and kissed him again. Nothing deep this time that involved open mouths. It seemed to be a period at the end of this particular sentence.
He looked at her. No choice to do otherwise. At the way the raindrops were sliding down her face. At her damp hair. And clothes. Her shirt was clinging to her now, and he could see the outline of her erect nipples. Apparently, lace didn’t do a good job concealing such things.
“Don’t regret that, please,” she said. Her voice was a breathy whisper, and in her eyes now was a plea for him not to feel the guilt that he was already starting to feel.
Hell’s bells.
He wasn’t married. He wasn’t cheating on Ella. He had a right to kiss a willing woman who wanted to kiss him back. But still the guilt came. Worse, he didn’t know what to say to Millie. He couldn’t muster up any reassurance that they’d done the right thing by acting on the heat. Couldn’t console her though he thought she might be on the guilt train right along with him.
“I don’t have a towel, but there are some tissues in the glove compartment,” he finally said, starting up the truck.
She stared at him. Long, quiet moments. And Joe thought she might take a poke at the barrier he’d just put up between them. She didn’t though. Millie opened the glove compartment, pulled out a box of tissues.
And the wedding rings.
They slid out with the box, landing on the inside of the glove box door. His plain gold one and Ella’s engagement diamond solitaire and her wedding band.
“Oh, sorry,” she muttered. Millie didn’t touch them. She just left them lying where they were.
“I put them there a while back,” Joe explained.
But he felt he owed her more of an explanation than that. And he blamed that “owing her” feeling on the kiss. Oh, yeah. It’d knocked a crater-sized hole in his own personal wall.
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