by Mary Brady
He draped his arms over the back of the couch. “I wasn’t in the mood for sex anyway.”
She squirmed against him. “Yeah, right. Me, either.”
He grabbed her and pulled her against him to try to stop the wiggling. “You have a very mean streak, Abby. So how trustworthy are we? We don’t have to need condoms.”
“I’ve always been told I’m good at adapting to difficult circumstances.” She lifted her brows a bit and pursed her lips.
“So you’re good when things get hard?”
“I am.” She reached between his thighs and let her fingers be good with the hard thing she found between his legs.
He grabbed her around the waist and lifted her so she could no longer reach him. “There’s a bed here in a room with a door.”
“Good, because not everybody around here waits to be asked in after they knock, or even knocks for that matter.”
He snapped his gaze toward the front door. Without a curtain, anyone on the landing could see what was happening in the living room.
So not at all like his condo in Chicago.
He lifted her to her feet and let her pull him up. As they stood toe to toe, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her mouth, her neck, and nipped her nipple through her shirt and bra. All the time she pressed him toward the bedroom until they were inside and then she closed the door with the backward kick of her foot.
“I’ve never explored my landlady before,” he said as he stepped toward her.
“I’ve only ever had one tenant before and the thought of exploring with him never occurred to me.” She laughed as she kicked off her sandals and reached for the tail of her shirt. “Unless a virtual smack on the nose with a newspaper from time to time counts.”
“It does not. Stop.” He held up a hand and then sat down on the edge of the bed where he could get a better view. “Okay, continue.”
She lifted her shirt until her face was momentarily hidden. A navel stud. There was so much of Abby Fair banks to explore. She slowly tugged the shirt the rest of the way over her head, then she wiggled her jeans down and stepped out of them, a delectable pink bra dropped onto her clothes pile with a delicate plop. Freed, her full breasts swayed and her dark pink nipples turned upward beckoning him.
She stood in front of him dressed in only her panties and waited. He took the hint immediately and stripped to his boxers. It took about two point three seconds.
She smiled slowly. Then she placed her palms on her stomach and slid them lazily around to her hips and under the waistband of the panties.
“Wait.”
“Again?” Her tone teased but she stopped.
“I want to unwrap that part myself.”
He positioned her between his spread legs and she put her hands on his shoulders. When he lowered the back of her panties by sliding his hands down the soft, warm curve of her butt, she squeezed his shoulders and sighed.
This was wildly, insanely amazing and if it wasn’t the mountain air it was the mountain woman driving him to a madness he didn’t think he had in him.
After he had her panties off, he repositioned her so one of his thighs was between her legs. Then he reached around inside her thighs and slid his hands up to the treasure he had opened. He massaged her with his thumbs and her sighs turned to soft moans.
“Reed, I don’t know if I can do this.” She pushed her upper body back a little to look at him.
“You already are.”
“I mean, I want you inside me so bad, I might just try to take what I want.”
“Warning received, but let’s see if we can do something about that.” He leaned back and brought them down on the bed.
“Aunt Abby.” Kyle’s call came from far away, but not far enough.
“Where are you, Aunt Abby?”
She sat up. “They’re here. Kyle and my mother.”
“Maybe they’ll go away.”
“They’ll search for me until they find me is what they’ll do. In a few minutes he’ll walk right in the apartment and into this room. Jesse used to let Kyle come and go anytime he wanted, so don’t even expect a knock. Not that I didn’t try to teach him to knock anyway.”
“Jesse was never good with manners.”
“I meant Kyle.” She laughed and gave him a light fist to the chin. “But you knew that.”
“We could put the dresser in front of the door.”
“AAAbbeee.” The sound came closer this time.
She laughed as she leaped up and started putting on her clothes. “Hurry. We have to get dressed.”
He lay on the bed wearing only his boxers, his tented boxers.
“I’m afraid putting clothes on it isn’t going to help much, at least not immediately. Unless you have a muumuu I could borrow.”
She looked at him and said very seriously, “It would have to be a very large muumuu.”
He got up and lifted her hair out of the neck of her shirt and then pulled her against him. “You go and I’ll be along in a few minutes. Tell your mother I’m nearly naked. She’ll understand.”
“She’ll cheer. Now let me go before Kyle gets a lesson he’s way too young for.”
He relaxed his arms, but instead of stepping away, she kissed him until he was ready to move furniture and to hell with the circumstances.
Too soon, she pushed away again to snap her jeans and slip on her sandals.
“MOTHER, I WAS JUST ABOUT to have dinner.” Abby stood in the middle of her kitchen with her hands on her hips.
“Best news I’ve heard in years.” Delanna’s usually neat red hair flew about her shoulders. Having a five-year-old around you all day could do that.
“Bake a pizza and—”
“I can’t find my pj’s, Aunt Abby,” Kyle called from upstairs.
“In your dresser,” Abby called back and then addressed her mother. “And watch a movie.”
“Get hot and make a movie. Better and better.”
“Watch a movie, by myself.”
“You do have to break my heart. You don’t have to marry the guy. So why were you coming down from Reed’s place?”
“He and I were having a conversation if you must know. Jesse was officially declared missing today.” She recounted what the sheriff had told her. With every telling she realized not much had changed. She had already feared the worst for Jesse.
“You know I love Jesse as much as the next person,” her mother said, “but the boy is a worry carrier. I decided that the first time I met him and then decided to love him when I could see him and the rest of the time, wish him well.”
“You’re a wise woman, Mother.”
“So listen to your wise mother. What could be better in this valley than a piece of Reed Maxwell?”
“Okay. All right. Reed Maxwell is hot and if I were going to have sex with anyone tonight, it would be him.”
Her mother slapped her on the back. “That’s my girl.”
“I said if.”
“Well, I say go do it.”
Her mother flicked something off Abby’s shoulder and then pounded her hands flat on the table. “Kyle Fair banks, I’m coming up there to get you in two seconds,” she shouted.
Kyle laughed and then his footsteps pounded on the stairs. “I got Legos, too, Gramma.”
ABBY SAT AT HER OWN KITCHEN table with her chin in her hands, elbows on the table.
The whirlwind Kyle had collected his pajamas and clean underwear, although he wasn’t sure why he needed the clean underwear. He was only going to be gone for “a couple’a days, Aunt Aaaabby.” Then grandmother and grandson left with as many Legos as they could carry.
Part of her wanted to go get Reed and take up where they’d left off. The sensible part wanted to give herself a “what were you thinking” swat on the back of the head. The kind her mother used to give Lena or her—see, her mother did punish her—when they had done something not really bad, but definitely out of line.
Was she out of line? Was she playing with something th
at could hurt them all? She could break her own heart and know she could mend it. She’d done it before, a couple times. Could she live with upsetting the status quo of Kyle’s life?
Thank you, thank you, she said to herself, so glad there had been no condoms. Things could have become way too complicated for extraction without harm if they had. As it was they nearly…
Suddenly, it occurred to her she no longer thought of Reed as the interloper, the bad guy, the enemy. There must be some rational explanation for the private investigator in Denver, maybe Jesse. With a sinking feeling she knew it was time she told Reed her suspicions about Kyle and Jesse.
She got up and went to the back door.
As if she conjured him by thinking about him, Reed came down the wooden steps from the apartment. Now, why was her heart thudding madly as he strode across the lawn drawing closer to her with every step? Closer and closer and she got hotter and hotter. She held the door open, hoping she wouldn’t scorch anyone or any thing. Oh, Emma Harvey, did you start all this or just fan the flames?
“So how gone is the mood?” he asked as he entered.
“Too much thinking under this bridge,” she lied blatantly.
He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, lingering a little longer than he needed to for a peck on the cheek.
“Yeah, it’s gone, and I’m hungry. Got any food?”
He didn’t lie any better than she did.
“I have hot dogs and marshmallows.” But she’d rather have him. Thank you. Thank you. She couldn’t have him without paying a price she wasn’t willing to pay.
“Hot dogs and marshmallows together?”
“No, silly. I had planned on bribing Kyle with a cook-out over an open fire if I didn’t have the courage to let him go to my mother’s.”
“Is your mother a big scary ogre?”
“That would be me when it comes to Kyle. I can’t seem to loosen my grip on him.”
“Well, I’d like to be bribed with hot dogs and marshmallows.” He ran a fingertip lightly along the edge of her jaw. “As long as there is ketchup. I can’t eat hot dogs without ketchup.”
His trailing finger moved down to her chest and before it could manage dangerous territory, she stepped away.
“I knew you liked ketchup. You were wearing it the first time we met.”
He laughed. “No wonder I couldn’t get you to take me seriously.”
“Gourmet fare it is, then, with ketchup.” She turned away and retrieved a long-stemmed butane lighter from an upper shelf.
“Take this.” She handed him the lighter. “There is a fire already laid in the pit.”
When he grabbed the lighter, he also grabbed her hand and it was all she could do to wiggle free and not accept the invitation.
“So you think I can light a fire, or are you trying to get rid of me?”
The fire he lit earlier had been fully stoked and was about to consume her. She quickly stepped farther away before he could touch her again.
“Go.” She pointed at the door.
She put the food and the roasting forks, along with the fixings on a tray and was about to take them outside. In stead she stopped in the doorway and watched Reed. He stood in the light shed by the fire. The flames reflected off his dark hair and created dancing shadows across his face. He looked pensive. Fires could do that—cause thoughtfulness, and so could worry about his brother. And so could wondering if he had a nephew.
She pushed the door open with her elbow and strode across the grass to where she set the tray on the table positioned with two chairs near the small fire, and then faced Reed.
“There is still something I need to tell you.”
He looked at her for a long moment. The reflection of flames danced in his eyes and the firelight cast a glow on his skin that had her clenching her fingers into fists so they would not reach out of their own accord and stroke where the flames cast magic.
“I don’t need to hear it right now. How’s that?”
“You do.” Oh, courage don’t fail me, don’t fail me.
“Maybe, but right now I want to watch the stars and cook wieners over an open fire and burn marshmallows into little crunchy black puffs filled with goo.”
“But it’s important.”
“That’s why I don’t want to hear it. Hot dogs and marshmallows and open fires are serious enough business.”
She wanted to just blurt it out, but she also wanted to roast wieners and watch the stars with him. She looked up. “No stars, just clouds.”
“Okay, then I just want to roast.”
She was roasted, all the way through. Now that she had made the decision to tell him her suspicions, she just wanted to get it over with, cast away the pall the thoughts gave her. Cast the pall—on to him?
Let him have this night, uncomplicated and easy. How many did anybody ever get in their life?
He sat down in one webbed lawn chair and pulled her down into the other. When he held a long fork out to her loaded with a hot dog, she took it, vowing not to let the decision fester inside her, but equally determined to let Reed have his evening of leisure. They weren’t going anywhere. Kyle wasn’t going anywhere and if Jesse was gone, things were likely to get a lot more complicated, and quickly.
They cooked and ate until they were both full. Then they relaxed in their chairs and watched the fire. The talk eventually came around to Jesse, about how they would each miss him if he were truly gone and it surprised them to find many of their reasons were the same. For instance, no matter what you did, Jesse always forgave you and never stopped loving you in his own way.
Reed reached out and stirred the flames. “That’s the interesting thing about Jesse’s carefree lifestyle. After a while, it sort of numbs those around him into a state of low-level worry.”
They stared into the fire some more until Reed said into the quiet of the night, “We’re a lot alike, you and me.”
She gave him a “you’ve got two heads” look. “Yeah, you and me. Alike.”
“Okay, set the dollar amounts aside. We’re both the responsible parties. Change the names. Change the location. You feel it’s up to you to make sure the world around you is in order, and to see that everyone is safe. I’m here in Montana trying to set my family’s world in order, make sure everyone is safe. You’re doing the same.”
“I guess that’s true and does make us a bit alike.”
“You do go a step further than I do, though. You want everyone to be happy. I settle for safe and secure.”
She laughed, but what he said was fair. There really wasn’t a time when she remembered that she did not somehow feel responsible for her family, her mother and sister, even Kyle. She dragged an unwilling Lena to prenatal visits and made sure she took her vitamins and ate properly.
“I even felt it was my fault for my father leaving. He got mad at mom for buying an expensive Christmas gift for me when I was six and when she told him he was being selfish, he yelled at me and walked out the door. I never saw him again.”
“We differ there. I always knew my father was never going to think of anyone except himself and it took you at least six years to find out.”
“I’m afraid it took me a lot longer than that. I might still feel a little responsible.”
“Families are tough.” He reached out and ran a hand up her forearm to the pushed-up sleeve of the jacket she had put on over the light top. “So how else are we alike?”
“I think we—” The clouds chose that moment to let loose large, cold raindrops.
“Yeow!” she cried when a big fat one landed on her neck just above the jacket collar and slid down her back.
“Run.” She dumped the bucket of water she had kept nearby onto the fire while Reed grabbed the tray of dinner leavings. She made a mad dash toward the house. Reed lagged behind. She reached the porch overhang and turned as the sky opened and doused Reed when he was still a few yards out.
He ran, but too late.
Drenched and chuckling, he stepped
up onto the porch.
“You coulda warned me.”
“I thought ‘run’ meant the same thing in Chicago as it does here.”
She held the door open for him to carry the tray inside. The bowl she had put the marshmallows in had a pool of whitish water in the bottom.
She thought to chide him for making marshmallow soup, but when she looked at him and the water dripping from his hair down onto his face, all she could do was laugh.
He looked steadily deadpan at her. “You do so laugh at things I do not think are funny.”
“Don’t make snap judgments about things you can’t see,” she said and laughed harder. Then she grabbed a towel from a nearby drawer, lofting it to him as he returned her laughter with a grin and began to dry his face and then his hair. “Hot chocolate?”
He lifted one elbow to look at her as he continued to scrub his hair dry.
She pointed to the bowl of wet marshmallows. “Because that’s all those puppies are going to be good for.”
“Thanks.” The single word sounded more like a growl.
She was sure, this time, his dark eyes actually sparkled with amusement.
“Thanks and yes to the hot chocolate or thanks for pointing out that a city guy doesn’t know what ‘run’ means?”
“I’ll pass on the chocolate.”
“So it’s the run thing, huh?”
“Does your mother control the rain?”
“My mother. What’s my mother got to do with the rain?”
He pointed to her mother walking toward the house and apparently not a drop of rain was falling outside now. It was then she realized the pounding of the rain on the porch roof had stopped.
“I wonder what she wants.” And where’s Kyle? She started for the door.
He laid a hand on her shoulder. “Relax. She doesn’t look troubled.”
“Just determined.”
Reed lowered his hand and stepped away to put the kitchen table between them. Abby felt the loss of his touch, but at the same time, glad her mother would not see them so close. She’d heard more than enough over the years. “Find a man, Abby. Stop using your life up on other people, Abby. Loosen up, Abby. Have a little sex once in a while.” Her mother would exasperate and prod her—and prod.