by Jane Porter
“Let’s not go there yet,” she breathed. “Let’s just take it one weekend at a time. Right now, I’m just really looking forward to the next date. So Saturday?”
“You don’t want to have dinner Friday?”
Taylor smiled slowly. “I’d love dinner Friday. Saturday, too, but I know you have other commitments and people you need to see in Marietta besides me.”
“But there’s no one I want to see more.”
Chapter Thirteen
‡
Just as he’d promised, Troy flew back from California to Montana every Friday from February to March. He was there in Marietta when his father died mid March, and he remained for a week after, helping Dillon with arrangements and then staying for the family only graveside services.
But after the service was over, Harley Sheenan, Brock’s new wife had all the Sheenans to Copper Mountain Ranch for a big meal and Troy invited Taylor to join him, but she declined, thinking it wasn’t the best time to meet everyone and she wasn’t sure if she offended Troy or it was just the timing of everything, but when he returned to San Francisco the next day, he didn’t come back to Marietta the following weekend, or the weekend after, and even though they talked on the phone daily, Taylor was uneasy.
She wanted to tell him she hadn’t declined the invitation to hurt him, but to protect his family and respect their need to grieve without a stranger there.
Several times she opened her mouth, the words right there on the tip of her tongue, but for some reason she couldn’t bring it up.
But if he didn’t come home this next weekend, she didn’t know what to think.
For a month he’d been there every weekend, and she’d gotten used to seeing him every five days, and it had been so nice when he was in Crawford County the week following his dad’s death because they’d seen each other every day.
It’d felt right to see him daily…lunches, dinners, and then the one night when Kara told her she’d keep an eye on Doug if Taylor wanted to stay overnight with Troy at the hotel.
Taylor did stay, and she and Troy had finally made love. They’d waited a month from the ball and she was glad they’d waited. It had been better than good. It had been amazing. Not just physically, but emotionally. If Taylor hadn’t fallen in love with Troy before, making love cemented it. She was crazy about him. Head over heels. And yet now that she wanted him and needed him he was far away, staying away.
It was getting to her, too. Making her feel panicked and anxious and pessimistic…
Had he only wanted to sleep with her? Or had she been a disaster in bed? Was he disappointed?
He’d said she was wonderful and a good lover but he might have said that just to keep her from getting all emotional on him…
Maybe she needed to get a book on lovemaking tips. There were plenty out there. The library even had a few. There were old ones—Kama Sutra kind of things—but surely she could pick up a few pointers.
Taylor brought the Kama Sutra book home with her from work on Wednesday, intending to read it after dinner. But first, she needed to get dinner going.
She prepared the small roast and put it in the oven and then started some laundry and then returned to peel and chop potatoes and tear lettuce for a salad.
The potatoes were cooking nicely when Doug entered the kitchen. “Do you have a second?” he asked.
She’d just opened the oven door to check the roast. “Yes, of course.”
She closed the oven and straightened. He looked wary which made her wary. “Everything okay?”
“Yes.”
“What’s up?”
“I have a job,” he said gruffly.
Taylor pulled off the oven mitts. “What?”
“A job,” he repeated, smiling crookedly.
“Doug, that’s good.” She hugged him. “That’s great!”
“Tay, but wait. It means I wouldn’t live here anymore—”
“No. Doug. No.” She stepped back, squeezed his arms. “You can’t move. You have to live with me. It’s part of your probation. After the end of May you can do anything, but right now, no.”
“Give me a chance to explain.”
“There’s nothing to explain.” She stepped back and crossed her arms over her chest to hide that her hands were shaking. She was so upset. So upset. How could he not understand the seriousness of this? “You don’t want to end back up at Hogue. You don’t want to lose everything you’ve gained. So many people have gone out of their way to help you—”
“Troy, you mean,” he interrupted.
“Yes, Troy!” Her voice broke. “And I’m not trying to rub your nose in it but—”
“Then don’t, and there’s no reason to be angry.” He paced away from her, and then paced back, dragging his hand through his hair, rifling it. “If you’d just listen to me, Tay. Listen. Okay? You’re getting all cray-cray.”
“I just don’t want you back where we were a few months ago.”
“We won’t be. I won’t be.” He drew a deep breath. “I’d still be in the area and it’s okay. Judge McCorkle has said it’s okay. He approves the job, and best of all, I’ll be making some money. Not a lot, but enough to make it easier on you. You won’t have to pay for everything from now on. I’ll be able to take care of myself.”
He was smiling at her, his expression earnest and hopeful and it made her feel so many different emotions. “What are you going to do?” she asked.
“I’m going to be working at the Copper Mountain Ranch. Working for Brock Sheenan. I’ll live in the bunkhouse and I’ll get paid twice a month, just like he pays all his other hands. It’s not much more than minimum wage but Brock said if I prove myself, then he can bump it up a bit.”
He was talking quickly. He was happy, and proud and so very excited, which made her hopeful, and proud, too. “This is great news, Doug.”
“I know. And I want you to know that I didn’t ask Troy to get me a job, just to introduce me to a few people, if he didn’t mind, and he didn’t. He made some calls and told me to use him as a reference and then when no one had an immediate opening anywhere, he put me in touch with Brock. And now I have a job, and a place to live, and I’m not going to screw this up, I promise, Tay.”
Taylor’s heart thudded harder. She didn’t quite know what to make of the mention of Troy, but she wasn’t surprised. Troy had a way of working quietly behind the scenes, moving mountains, shifting paradigms…
“I know you’ll do your best,” she said huskily. “And that’s all I’ve ever asked. Just do your best, and if you need help, let people know. Give people a chance to help you, when you need a hand, because you don’t have to do it all on your own—”
“That’s exactly what Troy said. About you.” Doug grinned. “That you’re pretty much perfect except for being stubborn and not good about asking for help. He said it’s not a weakness to accept help now and then. If anything, it’s a strength, to know your limitations.” Doug made a face. “Or something like that.”
“How often do you talk to Troy?”
“We don’t really talk. We just text.”
“You do?”
He nodded. “A couple times each week, or whenever something comes up.”
“I didn’t know.”
Doug hesitated, suddenly troubled. “You don’t mind, do you?”
“No.”
“He’s really nice, Tay. And not condescending nice. Just…cool.”
“That’s good.”
He nodded. “You can tell he has brothers. That’s kind of how he treats me. Like a younger brother.”
She went to the stove, turned down the heat beneath the boiling potatoes. “And you like that?” she asked, trying to hide the tears filling her eyes.
“Yeah. Sounds kind of corny but it makes me feel good, knowing he cares. Knowing I can ask him things, especially since I can’t ask Dad and you’re a woman. Not that it’s bad to be a woman but you know…you’re not a man.”
She couldn’t hold the tears back.
They were falling, spilling onto the lid covering the potatoes, and then onto her hand. “No offense taken,” she said, trying to stop the tears but it was a futile task.
Doug approached her, and patted her back awkwardly. “Tay, don’t cry. Please, don’t.”
She just shook her head.
“But why are you crying?” he persisted. “What did I do? What did I say wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Then what’s going on?”
She turned around and hugged him, hard. “I love you, Doug. And I’m happy you’re happy.”
“That’s why you’re crying?”
Taylor struggled to catch her breath. “Yes.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Then maybe you might want to stop crying because it’s kind of embarrassing, especially with Troy here. I don’t know how he feels about tears but in general, guys find it a little weird.”
Taylor jerked her head up and yes, there Troy was, standing in the kitchen door, his coat unbuttoned over a suit, a little bit of scruff on his handsome jaw.
She pulled back and scrubbed at her cheeks. “When did you arrive?”
“Just a second ago.” Troy glanced from Taylor to Doug and back again. “Everything okay?”
“Yes.” Taylor just stared at him, drinking him in. “Yes. If we’re okay.”
Doug ducked out of the kitchen, leaving them alone.
“Taylor, I love you. We better be okay.”
Some of the problems at work eased, and for the next month Troy was able to return to Marietta every weekend. It wasn’t always easy for him to get away. Sometimes he spent the full day each weekend in Marietta tackling business headaches, but at least he was home for the weekend and he could take Taylor out to dinner, and back to the hotel.
He’d just arrived back in Montana late this afternoon and he and Taylor had picked up Doug from Copper Mountain Ranch and had taken him to dinner at a little barbecue place in Emigrant Gulch.
But it was close to ten now, and Doug was back at the bunkhouse and Troy and Taylor had arrived at the Graff. Troy handed the car and keys over to valet, and he and Taylor crossed the lobby, hand in hand.
“You’re quiet,” Taylor said, shooting him a swift glance. “Tired?”
“A little,” he said, flashing her a smile. He was more than a little tired but he wasn’t going to complain. He was a lucky man, and he knew it.
“Busy week?” she asked, wrapping her arms around him as they waited for the elevator.
“It was.” He kissed her, and then again, suddenly hungry for her, and the quiet of his suite. Sometimes the only thing that got him through a grueling week where he was on and off planes, in and out of meetings, sleeping at a different hotel every night, was knowing that on Friday he’d be on a flight, heading east to see her.
As they walked down the hall to the suite, she gave his fingers a squeeze. “We don’t have to go to the Spring Gala at Emerson’s tomorrow night. We can just stay in, relax.”
“You’ve been looking forward to the barn dance for weeks,” he said, opening the door to his suite and turning on lights.
“There will be other dances.”
“Not for the Great Wedding Giveaway.” He tossed his outer coat onto the kitchen island and then drew off his blazer and unbuttoned the top three buttons on his shirt.
She went to him and helped him unbutton the rest of his shirt. “I’d rather be with you.”
He smiled. “You will be with me. Dancing in a barn.”
She laughed and he scooped her up into his arms and carried her into the bedroom. They kissed for what seemed like hours and then made love, a hot fierce coming together that left them sated and sleepy.
Taylor snuggled against Troy, so relaxed, perfectly content. “Amazing,” she whispered.
He wrapped his arm around her, holding her to him. “Who would have ever thought that Marietta’s new librarian was such a wild thing in bed?”
She gurgled a laugh. “I don’t know how wild I am. You’re the one with all the moves, and oh do you have some moves.”
“I dig your body. But then, I’m pretty crazy about you.”
And then they were kissing again, and loving again, because the weekends were always too short and Troy was always arriving just to say goodbye again.
It was early in the morning when Taylor opened her eyes. She felt deliciously warm, and loved. Cherished.
Troy was so good at making her feel secure, and safe.
He was so good at making sure she knew she mattered.
She looked up at him and discovered he was also awake and he was watching her. “Hey,” she whispered.
“Hey, baby.”
She stretched to press a kiss to his lips. “I love you.”
She saw a flicker in his eyes and then his lips slowly curved. It was the first time she’d told him. She’d wanted to tell him. But it had never seemed right. It was right now. He should know. He ought to know. He’d changed her world, changed her.
“I just love you,” she repeated. “That’s all.”
Much later that morning, after room service had delivered a delicious brunch with champagne right to their room, they ate their feast in bed and toasted the weekend—and each other—with the flutes of champagne.
“This is pretty decadent,” Taylor said, grinning.
“In San Francisco everyone goes out on the weekend for brunch,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s the weather, or just a West Coast thing, but brunch is big.”
“I had no idea.”
“I’d love for you to come to San Francisco for a week. It’s a great city. We could drive to Napa or head down the coast to Monterey and Carmel.”
“When?”
“Sunday night when I return. Come for the week. We can fly out together, spend the week in the Bay Area, and then have you back the following Sunday in time for work Monday.”
“I wish I could.”
“Why can’t you?”
“Doug.”
He leaned forward, kissed her. It was meant to be a quick reassuring kiss, but the moment her lips touched his, he just wanted more. That was the thing about her. It didn’t matter how much he had of her, it was never enough.
When the kiss finally ended, he stroked her flushed cheek. “What about Doug?”
“I worry about him.”
“I know you do, but Taylor, he’s a young man—” Troy saw her lips part in protest and he added firmly, “—on his way to becoming a mature man and he can handle you being gone for a week. It’s good for both of you to have some independence, and you can rest easy knowing he’s at Brock’s and nothing’s going to happen to him there. Everybody in the bunkhouse will keep an eye out for him, and there’s no one more maternal than Harley. She’s one of five kids herself. She’ll take good care of Doug. You know that.”
“I do,” she said in a small voice.
But she was still resistant. Still worried. “What else?” he asked.
“My job.”
“Will be waiting. No one’s going to fire you over taking a few days off, and good grief, wouldn’t it be nice to miss one week of that horrible Tuesday Night Book Group?”
Taylor giggled and then her giggle turned to a heavy sigh. “But Maureen will talk. The gossip.”
“And if it’s not Maureen, then it will be Carol Bingley, who used to gossip about all us Sheenan boys. But what I’ve learned is that even if you don’t go, or do anything bad, those same folks will talk anyway. It’s not personal. It’s just what they do.”
She stifled another sigh. “True.”
He smoothed her long dark hair back from her face, kissed her bare shoulder. He’d loved it when she’d giggled a moment ago. She sounded so young and carefree and it made his heart lift, happy. He’d never met anyone he’d wanted to make laugh the way he wanted to make Taylor laugh. He’d never met anyone he’d wanted to love the way he wanted to love her.
Taylor Harris deserved the sun an
d the moon.
And Troy Sheenan was damned determined to give her the sun and the moon and all the stars in the sky, too.
“I love you, Taylor.” He kissed her again. “And if you’re not ready to leave Marietta yet, that’s okay. San Francisco will always be there. You come see my world there when you’re ready.”
She was silent a long moment. “Is that where you’d want to raise your kids… in the city?”
An interesting question, one he hadn’t asked himself before but now that she’d put it to him… no.
He didn’t want to raise his kids in a big city. He’d want to raise them here, in Marietta. “I think my kids would have to be raised in Montana. With you here, it once again feels like home.”
She sat up, pulling the sheet with her. “You’d live on the Sheenan Ranch?”
“No. We’d find our own place.” He saw her eyes widen at the use of we. “Preferably a big house on Bramble Lane,” he added, tugging on a long strand of her dark silky hair. “That way during the summer our kids could walk to the library to see their mom.”
Taylor blinked hard, her eyes turning liquid. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“I want to marry you, Taylor.” He hesitated a moment, and smiled crookedly. “I couldn’t imagine any woman more perfect for me.”
She knocked away the tears. “And you wouldn’t mind if I wanted to work after we got married and had kids?”
“Of course not. You’re my book girl. How could I take you away from what you love most?”
“But maybe I love you most,” she said softly.
“That’s a good answer.” Smiling, he reached out to catch the next tears before they could fall. “But there is no reason you can’t have a family and do the work you love. I believe in you, Taylor. I believe you should be who you want to be. If you want to continue at the library, I’m one hundred percent behind you. If you want to work part-time, then that’s what you should do. And if you want to stay home, I’m good with that, too. But I love you too much, and respect you too much, to make life decisions for you.”