Maggie slid into her little blue Ford, frowning at the warm chills prickling her forearms, the airy tug behind her navel. Okay, she’d managed to get through the picnic without throwing herself into his arms and making a complete fool of herself. Now she could go home and put this nerve-wracking afternoon behind her.
Actually, getting reacquainted with Ross had served a useful purpose. During her involvement with Todd, she’d wondered if something was wrong with her. She’d felt an attraction to him, but it was nothing like the mind-scrambling heat that flooded her veins when Ross was around. So did she have a working libido? Yes, she did. And it was working so well that it was very close to getting her into trouble. Thank heaven there was no reason to see him again.
But her relief only lasted until she returned home, opened her trunk and saw his soft Indian blanket folded beside her wicker basket.
On Monday, Ross reined his horse to a stop beside Jess’s bay gelding and followed his brother’s stare past the herd below to a structure some distance away. Nearing completion, Ross’s newly varnished log home gleamed in the mid-afternoon sun, surrounded by pines and aspens. Its wide creek-stone chimney stretched up one side of the house, and a portion of the wraparound porch railing became visible when the wind blew leafy saplings aside.
“It’s coming along,” Jess said.
“Yeah, it is. I finished putting on the first coat of varnish last night, so tonight I’ll start setting the windows. I figure I’ll be in by the end of July.”
“Great. Then, as Casey says, all you need is a wife.”
Ross couldn’t hold back a grin. “Tell Casey she’s dreaming. I’m one of those Hopalong Cassidy types who only loves his horse.”
Chuckling, Jess nudged the bay’s ribs and walked him slowly down the hill toward the grazing cattle and the water trough. “If that’s why you put in that big loft bedroom, people are going to talk.”
“People talking about me? Wow, that’d be big news, wouldn’t it?”
“According to Aunt Ruby, you gave them plenty to talk about at the church auction yesterday. Fifty bucks for a lunch?”
“Yeah, well, Bessie Holsopple’s went for a hundred. I figured Maggie’s should bring at least half.”
Jess guided his horse to the trough, stroking the animal’s sleek neck as he drank. “So now what? Are you planning to see her again?”
“That’s up to her,” Ross said offhandedly, letting his horse drink, too. But beneath his disinterested reply, his eager mind was making plans.
He knew that he’d be seeing her again. By now, she’d have opened her trunk and seen his blanket in there. She’d feel obligated to return it. When she did, he’d swear that it was an oversight. She’d fuss and bluster that it was deliberate. He’d apologize and confess that she was right. Then they’d shrug the matter off and continue tiptoeing through the mounting attraction between them. Manipulative? Yep. But without that blanket as an excuse, she’d never be able to come to him—never maintain the skimpy thread of a relationship they had going.
Ross knew that she wanted to. He also knew that she was wary of the attraction she was feeling—something Ross had never encountered before. Most of the women he’d dated were in it for the thrills and chills—no rings, no promises. Not that he expected to make a convert of Maggie overnight, but he was willing to spend the time trying. Because when she finally did come around...they’d be great together.
“Wake up.”
Ross jerked his attention back to the amused eyes beneath Jess’s black Stetson. “What?”
“I asked if you wanted some help tonight after supper.”
“With what?”
“Putting in your windows.”
Ross laughed. “Anxious to get me out of the homestead so you and Casey can run around in your birthday suits?”
“No, anxious to see you settled and raising a playmate for Lexi. Maybe Maggie’s the one.”
Laughing again, Ross reined his horse away from the trough. “Don’t let her hear you say that. When she gets her blood up—Well, she’s nothing like any minister’s daughter I’ve ever known.”
“How many ministers’ daughters have you known?”
“One. But if I didn’t know she belonged to Tom Bristol, I’d swear her dad was a drill sergeant. I’ve never met a woman who was so ready to go to war—at least with me.”
Jess grinned as they walked their horses into the herd to cut out the steers they’d chosen for auction. “Sounds like she’s exactly what you need.”
Casey Dalton was playing in the grass with her daughter when Maggie drove in on Tuesday evening and parked her car in the driveway. Rising and dusting off the seat of her jeans, Casey walked down to meet her—Lexi tagging behind and trying valiantly to blow the stubborn fuzz off the dandelion that she held.
“You’re Maggie,” Casey said with a smile as Maggie got out.
“And you’re Casey. Hi.”
“Hi.”
Maggie’s glance dipped to the tiny, silky-haired brunette in the pink-and-white Minnie Mouse shorts set. “And I’ll bet you’re Lexi,” she said.
Lexi hid behind her mother’s leg, and laughing, Casey scooped up her daughter for a kiss and a squeeze. “I’m such a wuss. I can’t pick her up without kissing her.”
“Nothing wrong with that,” Maggie said, liking the picture the two of them made. They were as different as night and day, with Casey’s almost-Scandinavian coloring a stark contrast to Lexi’s dark, glossy hair and big brown eyes. “She’s darling.”
“Thanks, we think so.”
After a pause, Maggie drew a breath, then said as matter-of- factly as she could, “Is Ross at home?”
“Well... yes, and no.” Casey laughed, intercepting the dandelion stem that was on its way to her daughter’s mouth. She tossed it back in the grass. “He’s not here, but he is at his own house.”
This was a surprise. When he’d found her cutting through the pasture two weeks ago, he’d implied that he still resided at the homestead.
“Ross’s home won’t be finished for a few weeks yet,” Casey continued, “so technically, he still lives here. Actually, we were just going out to the house to pick up Daddy—” she smiled at Lexi “—weren’t we, sweetie?”
Lexi grinned shyly, then ground her face into her mother’s shoulder.
“Don’t mind Lex,” Casey said, rocking her close. “It takes her a while to warm up to people—but then, look out.” She paused. “Why don’t you ride out to the house with us? It’s not that far—only about a quarter of a mile from the hot spring, if you know where that is.”
Oh, yes, she knew. “I don’t think—”
“I just made a huge thermos of lemonade,” Casey added. “All I have to do is grab it and get a sweater for Lex.”
“Thanks, but I just stopped by to return Ross’s blanket. It ended up in my trunk by mistake.” Maggie flushed at the implication of her words and hurriedly explained. “There was a box social at the church this past Sunday and—”
“Yes, I know. Ross bought your picnic lunch. Did you have fun?”
Maggie hesitated, feeling a bit awkward. She didn’t know what Ross had said about her, and she didn’t want to give anyone a false impression. “Yes. I had a good time.”
“Great. I think Ross did, too.” Casey sent her an engaging smile. “Come on, change your mind about riding out to see his house. He’d love a chance to show off for someone besides family.”
“He built it himself?”
“From top to bottom—with a little help from Jess and an electrician. He even did his own plumbing.” She laughed. “Boggles the mind, doesn’t it?” Casey’s smile faded a little. “Too many people have a dated opinion of Ross. They can’t imagine that he’s anything more than what he shows them on the surface. But they’re wrong.” She paused thoughtfully, then said, “If you ride along with us, I’ll tell you a story. You might find it interesting.”
Even though the heat of the day still held, chills chased up Magg
ie’s arms. Lord help her, she wanted to run to her car, gun the engine and drive away—and at the same time, she wanted desperately to stay. She didn’t want to be drawn any further into Ross’s life than she already was—yet she couldn’t say no to Casey’s intriguing invitation. Why, she wondered, hadn’t she just followed her first impulse and mailed the blanket back to him?
“All right,” Maggie agreed. “Just let me get the blanket from my back seat, and—”
“Actually, you’d be better off leaving the blanket here.” Casey motioned for Maggie to follow as she bounced her giggling daughter on her hip and walked toward the house. “All of Ross’s things are still here, and he’d just have to cart it back again. You can give it to him later.”
Okay, that made sense. Swallowing, Maggie followed Casey through the screen door and into the cheery kitchen.
What didn’t make sense, she thought, was agreeing to tour the home of a man whose sexy smiles and rangy good looks kept testing her conservative upbringing.
Chapter 5
The house was a two-story architectural dream with a broad porch, high peaked roofs, and gleaming log walls—all tucked into a sheltering grove of pines, cottonwoods and aspens.
Casey carried Lexi up the porch steps and through an open, unfinished wooden door to the spacious living room. Maggie followed with the pump canister of lemonade and paper cups. The smells of new wood and varnish tinged the air, but the multipaned wood windows were open, letting in the constant Montana breeze as well as the pinkening hues of sundown. Soft male voices burred from a room down the hallway.
A massive, polished creek-stone fireplace stretched up an outside wall, and halfway across the smooth plank floor a gleaming staircase with a narrow log handrail led to a loft.
Maggie glanced upstairs at the smooth, varnished twig fencing that ran the width of the loft. Yes, Maggie, murmured that patronizing little voice that she’d come to loathe, that’s probably where his bedroom will be.
“Okay,” Casey said in a conspiratorial whisper as she put Lexi down. “Now, scoot into the kitchen and tell Daddy and Uncle Ross that the juice ladies are here. Can you do that for Mommy?”
Lexi nodded enthusiastically, then streaked into the hallway, her high-pitched baby voice squeaking, “The juicy ladies are here!”
Deep, hollow laughter rang through the house, raising gooseflesh on Maggie’s arms. Casey rolled her eyes. “Well, she tried.”
A moment later, Jess, then Ross walked into the great room, Lexi clinging to her daddy’s hand and bouncing up and down at his side.
Jess Dalton was lean, tanned, good-looking and shirtless—and it didn’t faze Maggie a bit.
Ross was, too. And Maggie felt the warm attraction right down to the soles of her feet.
Late at night when her restless mind refused to find something safe to focus on, Maggie had imagined him as he was now: tanned, broad-shouldered and rawly male—not a spare ounce of fat anywhere. Sweat glistened in the curly brown hair covering his chest, the gradually tapering V pattern trailing downward and disappearing into the waistband of his jeans. The faint scar Casey had mentioned on the drive here showed on his left side, just below his rib cage.
Ross smiled, and devastating blue eyes and perfect white teeth made her nerves vibrate and her stomach go weak.
“Hi. This is a surprise.”
“Hi,” Maggie said, glad that she had the thermos to hang on to. “I just stopped by the ranch to drop off your blanket, and Casey persuaded me to come with her and Lexi to see your house.”
“And it wasn’t easy to convince her,” Casey scolded, “so behave yourself.” Her words were for Ross, but her smiling eyes feasted on Jess. It didn’t take a mind reader to know her thoughts had taken the same route as had Maggie’s. But Casey had the luxury of openly drinking in her husband; Maggie was asking for a peck of trouble if she looked at Ross that way.
“Juice, Daddy?”
Chuckling, breaking eye contact with his wife, Jess scooped up his daughter and kissed her nose. “Not right now, baby. Daddy needs to talk to Mommy. Can you and Uncle Ross play a game for a minute?”
Lexi bobbed her head “yes.” “Bunny hop game?”
“Maybe. You’ll have to ask Uncle Ross.” Jess sent Maggie a grin. “Hi. I guess you’re Maggie. Nice to see you.”
“Same here.”
“Back in a minute,” Casey called, laughing. Then Jess tugged his grinning wife across the floor and deep into the hallway. Without rugs, furniture or drapes to absorb them, the sounds of low chuckles and kissing filtered out to the great room.
“Bunny hop game, Uncle Woss?”
“Okeydoke, sweetie pie.”
Giggling, Lexi latched on to Ross’s thick index fingers, and he stretched her arms high. Then he lifted her off the floor and bounced her, again and again, in a silly zigzagging route to Maggie. Lowering his voice, he cast an amused glance into the hall. “I’m always amazed that I don’t have at least one more niece or nephew.”
Maggie thought the closeness Jess and Casey shared was special, and she said so.
“Yes, it is,” Ross agreed. “What they have is great. For them.”
“But not for you?”
“What do you think?”
She thought a deeply committed relationship was the last thing on earth he wanted, but she didn’t say so. For some reason she didn’t want to say so. “How long have they been married?”
“Three years in August, and I don’t think they’ve regretted a day of it.” He nodded at the thermos and cups that she held. “If you carry those over to my fancy dining-room table, I’ll buy you girls a drink.”
His “dining-room table” was two wide boards stretched across a pair of sawbucks. A heavy circular saw sat atop the makeshift tabletop; after ordering Lexi to stand her ground, Ross unplugged the saw and moved it to the floor. He brushed some sawdust off the planks, and Maggie put down the canister.
“Okay, Lex,” Ross said, opening his arms. And Lexi ran to be lifted high again. After hugging her close, he tipped her back. “Tell Maggie, honey. Do you ever touch Uncle Ross’s tools?”
“No,” the child murmured seriously, her little brow furrowing behind wispy black bangs.
“Why not?”
“Get hurt.”
“That’s right. Good girl.” The skin beside his deep blue eyes crinkled as he brought the two-year-old close to his face. “Now can I have a kiss for doing the bunny hop game?”
Lexi giggled and pulled on his cheeks, stretching them like rubber. “Yes.”
“How many can I have today?”
“Five!”
And Maggie’s heart flooded with warmth as, between the two of them chanting out numbers, Lexi smacked five noisy kisses on Ross’s lips.
Ross put her down and spoke to Maggie. “Better fill all five cups. I have a feeling when Jess and Casey come up for air, they’ll want to drink fast and run.”
Maggie slid the first cup under the canister’s spout and pushed the pump, hiding her disappointment. She wasn’t ready to go just yet. “Then I’d better drink fast, too. My car’s at the ranch.”
He ambled a little closer to her, and Maggie picked up the musky scents of warm man and hard work—not at all unpleasant.
“You haven’t had the tour yet.”
“Yes, I know.”
“If you want, I can drive you back.”
Not looking at him, Maggie bent to give Lexi the first cup of lemonade, her pulse racing. “Sure,” she said with feigned indifference. “As long as I’m here, I might as well look around. What I’ve seen is beautiful. Although—”
Lexi reached for the cup with both hands, and Ross said, “Tell Maggie ‘thank you.’”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, sweetheart,” Maggie said.
“Although, what?” Ross prompted, pulling their conversation back a few sentences.
“Although...they could stay.”
“Oh, they’ll leave,” Ross said quietly, an
d a rush of anticipation warmed Maggie’s limbs.
Ross was right.
A moment after he’d made the statement, Casey and Jess came out of the hallway, drank their “juice,” and announced that it was getting late, that Lexi hadn’t had her bedtime bath yet.
Now, keeping her distance from the bare-chested man showing her around, Maggie was glad Jess and Casey had gone. She knew that she was flirting with disaster, but the feelings she’d been battling since she’d seen Ross again were too exciting to keep tamping down. She’d only had one serious relationship in her life, and none of the emotional chaos she felt with Ross had ever been present with Todd. Her father had always said that life was a gift to be cherished and celebrated. And tonight, that’s what Maggie intended to do—celebrate. At least a little.
They went from room to room, and Maggie was aware of his pride as he showed her the things he’d done with his own hands—and pointed out the things others had done for him. The polished fireplace with its smooth gray, rose, and beige creek stones had been well beyond his talents, and Ross had found someone to build it for him. But every shiny, dovetailed hemlock log in the structure had been placed by Ross and Jess.
“It’s taken me nearly two-and-a-half years and most of my spare time,” he said. “But in a few weeks I’ll have a roof over my head.” He paused and said with emphasis, “My own roof.”
When they went upstairs to the loft and looked out the window, Maggie couldn’t imagine a lovelier setting. The same high, snow-capped mountain peaks she saw from her bedroom at her uncle’s home were shown against the sky, dark pines creeping up the lower ridges to timberline. Nearer, there was a mixed stand of trees, and blue columbine and pink timothy dotted the wispy grasses below the window. Maggie thought she saw a ribbon of water winking in the fading light of the sun. “It’s breathtaking, Ross. All of it.”
“Thanks,” he said with a pleased smile. He came up behind her, and Maggie’s senses sharpened. Though there were several inches between them, she could feel his heat against her back, feel his breath fanning the hair at her temple. “The sun’s going down. If I’m going to wash up before I take you back, I’d better do it now.” Taking her hand in his larger callused one, he led her downstairs. Maggie didn’t pull her hand away.
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