by Julie
When he gave a low, drawn-out whistle, she blushed like a schoolgirl.
"You could enter any beauty pageant and win," he said, meaning it.
In her hand she held something she called a scrunchie. Now she used the white elastic to tie her long hair in a ponytail as she responded, "I think you need a pair of sunglasses. This glare must be distorting your vision."
"There's nothing distorting my vision. You turned my head the first day I saw you and you can still do it now."
She appeared genuinely surprised as she came down the steps into the pool. "I don't think you ever told me that."
"Why do you think I asked you out to dinner that night?"
She shrugged. "While you were waiting for your appointment with Tom Seymore, we started talking about the new movie theater going up and the latest Mel Gibson movie."
"You think I wanted to ask you out because of your taste in movies?" He was genuinely amused by that, and she must have seen it.
"From movies we moved on to restaurants, and we both seemed to have a penchant for Chinese. I thought that's why you asked me to dinner."
Wading into the water slowly, she got used to the cool temperature.
"When I laid eyes on you, my adrenaline rushed so fast I couldn't catch my breath. That's why I asked you out."
"Is that another way of saying you wanted to get me into bed?" she teased.
"It's another way of saying that I was interested on more than one level."
Finally, she sank into the water and swam over to him. "This does feel nice."
"We should take time to swim more often." One look in her eyes, and he knew what she was thinking. He was too busy to swim. Had she really turned to catering because she was lonely?
Resting her arm on the side of the pool, she asked, "How did you really like Tokyo?"
"It was all right. But I was working most of the time."
"You said you were in the shopping district. I heard you can buy beautiful jade there. Is that true?"
He didn't even know she liked jade. He hated shopping. Instead of sending that damn letter to the Red Rock Gazette, he should have gone into a shop and bought her a piece of jewelry. He'd never brought her a token back from any of his trips. Because he was so work absorbed when he was gone? Because he didn't want to take the time? Because he didn't think it was necessary?
"There was jade," he admitted, "but I didn't pay much attention to it." Suddenly he needed to get away from this subject he'd have to examine more closely later. "Do you want to race?" he asked. They'd done that a few times after they'd bought the house.
"Sure," she agreed with a smile. "But I don't think you'll have any trouble winning. This time of day -" She abruptly stopped.
"What about this time of day?"
"Oh, nothing. I was up early this morning and had breakfast with Dad before he did rounds at the hospital."
"Does your mother still make him a full breakfast at 5:00 a.m.?"
"Yes, she does. I think she considers it her duty. I offered to cook this morning so she could sleep. But she said after all these years she was awake, so she might as well get up."
Laura's gaze seemed to be fixed to his chest. After she moistened her lips, she brought her eyes back to his. "Tony asked me this morning if you're still coming to his graduation."
Her appraisal of him seemed to make the hot day hotter. "Of course I am. Why would he ask that?" Gareth was fond of Tony and had always felt like an older brother to him.
"Because I'm living there and you're living here."
"My friendship with your brother is separate from our marriage, but I guess I'll have to tell him that. Come on, let's push off from the steps. I'll give you a head start."
"You will not. We start at the same time, from the same spot."
The look in Laura's eyes told him that wherever their marriage was headed, they'd be relating to each other as equals. So be it.
They raced back and forth three times. The first two, Gareth won. On their third attempt, however, he slowed, and Laura's hand touched the edge of the pool before his. But she didn't look happy when he came up for air and dragged his hand over his face to wipe away the water.
"You let me win," she accused him.
"Is that so bad?" he asked with a grin.
"When I win, I want to win fair and square."
"There's more than one way to win," he decided, zeroing in on her lips, wanting to scoop her up onto the side of the pool and make love to her right there.
"Don't look at me like that," she murmured breathlessly.
"Like what?"
Her gaze left his, roamed over his shoulders then his chest again.
"Like," she drawled, and then began splashing him, "like you need to be cooled off."
The water hit him full in the face, and when it did, his first thought was retribution. Splashing water back at her, when she turned away he dived underwater, came up beside her and scooped her into his arms.
"Don't dunk me," she yelled. "I hate to be dunked."
"Dunking is not what I have in mind."
A second later, his lips were on hers. It was a short, deep, thoroughly wet kiss.
After he ended it, he strode into the shallow end and set her down. "When you're sleeping at your mother's tonight, you remember that first day we met. You remember our first kiss, and also remember every night I made love to you."
Then frustrated with himself, as well as with her and the whole situation, he mounted the steps and picked up the towel he'd laid on a lounge chair. "I'll take a shower in the guest bedroom. The master suite is yours."
Before she got a glimpse of how very much he wanted her, he wrapped the towel around his waist, opened the gate and went inside the house.
As Laura showered and dressed in the master bedroom, she thought about Gareth's words. She did remember their first kiss. She also remembered the first night they'd spent in this bedroom - on the floor because their furniture hadn't been delivered. It had been fun and exciting and they'd laughed as they'd made love, tossed and turned on the hard floor, then made love again. But that was the problem. The fun and the excitement had seeped away.
Until today.
She flashed back to Gareth coming after her when she'd splashed him. That playfulness had been missing for a long time. That was the side of Gareth she wanted their child to know.
As Laura rounded the corner from the bedroom suite into the hall, she heard voices. At first she thought Gareth might be on the phone, but then she realized there was a male voice and a female voice.
When she entered the family room, she frowned. Nancy Caldwell was sitting in Laura's favorite glider rocker. Gareth had hired Nancy when Laura had stopped working with him. She'd had no say in the decision, and she had to admit, she didn't like the redhead.
Nancy was in her mid-twenties and dressed professionally. But her skirt was always a couple of inches shorter than the standard, her blouse usually had one too many buttons unbuttoned. If she wore a jacket it was never boxy, but always fitted closely to her figure. And she had a svelte one. Today she was wearing a red skirt and a white silky short-sleeved blouse. Laura supposed the suit jacket was probably in her car.
Redheads shouldn't wear red, she thought as Gareth saw her and held up the manila folder in his hand. "Nancy thought I'd forgotten these figures, so she dropped them off on her way home."
"You're working tonight?" Laura asked.
"I have notes from a new account to go over. It's great to have a dependable office manager who sometimes manages to read my mind." He smiled at Nancy and she smiled back.
She'd always believed Gareth to be trustworthy. But now she wondered again about all the late nights he worked, the evening meetings, the long hours. It was imperative that she know something.
Forcing a smile, she said, "It's great you make Gareth's life easier. Did you go along to Tokyo?"
Standing then, Nancy shook her head. "No. I
offered, but Gareth said he could handle the meetings on his own. I was typing up his notes today." Then she focused a full-blown smile on Gareth. "If you have any pictures of your trip, I'd love to see them. Tokyo is a city I'd like to visit someday."
"Sorry. No pictures. I didn't do the sightseeing tourist routine. But I do have a magazine I picked up over there. If you'd like to see it, I'll bring it to the office tomorrow."
Laura could read nothing from Gareth's expression or body language to tell her if he was attracted to Nancy, but any man would be. At least to the outside package. She wondered if Nancy knew of her separation from Gareth. And if she did, had she been hoping to catch him alone?
Gareth was wearing a pair of black shorts but was still shirtless. Nancy's gaze wandered to his chest more than once, and Laura felt her stomach tighten. This woman was attracted to her husband. Considering she and Gareth had been apart for six weeks, she was terrifically uncomfortable with that realization.
"Would you like something to drink?" Gareth asked Nancy, acting the perfect host.
After a glance at Laura, Nancy responded by checking her watch. "No, I'd better be getting home."
"Thanks for staying late and getting a head start on my findings in Tokyo."
"I should finish them tomorrow, then you can make a formal report to the CEO." She stood and headed for the front door.
Laura said woodenly, "Have a good evening."
Nancy tossed her a perfunctory, "I will."
After Gareth followed his office manager into the foyer, Laura went to the kitchen, telling herself it simply didn't matter how long their goodbye took.
When Gareth entered the kitchen, he laid the folder on the counter. "Do you have plans tonight?"
"I told Mom I'd go along with her and Tony to buy him a new shirt and tie for graduation."
"What about tomorrow night?"
"I'm catering a baby shower."
"Then I guess I won't see you again until graduation on Friday evening." His voice was even, but there was a frustrated edge to it.
She took a step closer to him. "I'll be working here again tomorrow. I have to make salads and bake and decorate the cake."
"Did I hear you say you're going into San Antonio for supplies, too? That's an awful lot in a day."
"I'll get an early start. I might be here before you leave for work."
Although she'd moved toward him, he didn't move toward her. He didn't tell her what plans he might have had for them if she hadn't been busy. She felt as if she was stepping in quicksand any time she was around Gareth now, and a misstep could be dangerous.
Quickly she put away the cookie sheets and other pans she had washed while Gareth watched her. His gaze never left her.
Finally he pushed away from the counter. "I'll be in my office. Give a yell before you leave." Then he walked away without looking back, and Laura had never felt more distance between them.
The following morning, Gareth was gone when Laura arrived at the house. She'd stopped at a local market that opened at 7:00 a.m. to buy fresh meat and bread. She was going to make her own chicken and ham salads, as well as a spinach dip she'd serve with a loaf of sourdough bread. As she put the ham in the oven to bake and the chicken in a pot on top of the stove to boil, she thought about Gareth and their swim, and his office manager's visit. All of it had kept her awake most of the night. Hopefully, she'd get some time to rest after she picked up the supplies in San Antonio this afternoon. She really should stop in at the garage and have the mechanic check her van. It was running rough. But she simply didn't have time for that today.
Gareth hadn't been happy when she'd brought home the eight-year-old refrigerated van. He'd warned her that if it hadn't had problems yet, it was going to have them soon. But she'd ignored his dire predictions. She'd wanted to buy a vehicle with the money she'd made. That had been important to her. The man she'd purchased it from was closing his delicatessen business, and she'd thought she'd made a good deal.
But Gareth hadn't praised her negotiation skills. He'd just told her to keep the van on the left side of the three-car garage.
Around lunchtime, Laura craved peanut butter. The cravings she'd had thus far were odd - pancakes at midnight, tapioca pudding, cranberry-orange relish. Weird. She didn't always give in to them, but now, wanting to keep working, she found a jar of peanut butter, slathered some on a piece of bread and munched on it while she cooked eggs to use in the chicken salad. The trouble was, after she ate the peanut-butter bread, it felt like a lead weight in her stomach. Just because she craved something didn't mean she felt good on it.
Hoping the indigestion would wear off, she kept up a steady pace and was putting the finishing touches on the cake for the baby shower, when she heard Gareth's car in the driveway. Checking the clock above the sink, she saw it was 3:00 p.m.
"What are you doing home?" she asked Gareth as he came into the kitchen.
"I thought I'd go with you since Corri ne can't. It sounds as if you're picking up quite a few supplies."
"You took off work to help me pick up supplies?"
He looked chagrined for a moment, then he approached her slowly. With each step he took toward her, Laura's heart raced faster. She loved the smell of his cologne. She was excited by the look in his eyes. She could practically feel his body heat from the warm Texas day. When he settled his hands on her shoulders and ran his thumb up and down her neck, her whole body trembled.
"Isn't that what you want? More time together?"
Could things change between them? Was Gareth really going to make an effort to be more available? Was this an overture to show her their lives could change? Or was he simply doing what he thought she wanted in order to get her to move back in again?
She had to give them both the benefit of the doubt.
"It's going to be a quick trip." Her voice was a bit shaky as the attraction between them surged through her. "I need to be at the baby shower by six-thirty to set up."
"You should be able to load supplies faster if I'm along," he suggested with a crooked grin.
Gareth was a swimmer and a runner. His body was muscled and well toned, and there was no doubt he'd be an asset in lifting boxes into the van. He'd taken off his suit jacket, and she longed to run her hands from his shoulders to his elbows, then put her hands all over his body. But she wasn't going to be a tease. If and when they made love again, she wanted to know in her soul that their marriage was going to survive.
"Are you going to change clothes? I'll be ready to go as soon as I box the cake." It was so hard to talk about mundane things when his fingers on her skin made her want to tumble into bed with him.
He dropped his hands to his sides. "By the time you have the cake boxed, I'll be in the van."
His expression was unreadable again, and she could feel his sexual hunger as much as she could feel her own. But sex wasn't the solution. For the past year it had been a Band-Aid that had held their marriage together. She didn't want to use something so precious for that purpose anymore.
Twenty minutes later, as Gareth drove to San Antonio, he asked her about future catering events. They also talked about the odd happenings at the Red Rock Commerce Bank. She'd heard the sirens the other day. Then when she'd read the write-up in the paper, she'd learned Dirk Jenkins, who had apparently been sweet on one of the bank tellers, held up the bank with a squirt gun!
"For some irrational reason," Gareth explained, "Dirk thought he was rescuing Annie Grant. From what I understand, Officer Flynn saved the day."
"Dirk Jenkins was quoted as saying he did it for love."
Gareth glanced at Laura. She sounded so sad. She seemed to want something intangible from him, and he didn't know how to give it to her. But she'd seemed pleased he was going with her, and maybe that would be a start.
They were stopped at a light on the outskirts of San Antonio when the van coughed and ran rough. Gareth had heard and felt the congested hiccups it had given while he
was driving. Now he knew it was going to stall out.
When it did, he tried starting it. It backfired and shook. "Have you been having trouble with this?" He tried the ignition again.
"Only since Corrine drove it last week."
"Did she mention a problem?"
"She said after she filled the tank with gas, it started giving her trouble. But it didn't stop or anything like that."
He wondered if Corrine had put the wrong-octane gas in the tank or if the gas had been dirty.
On the third try, the engine caught and grumbled to life again. The light had turned green and now he put his foot on the accelerator, hoping the van wouldn't stall out again.
When they arrived at the food warehouse where Laura bought supplies, he parked the van at the loading dock, waiting while Laura went inside. Soon the garage door at the dock opened. Her order was apparently ready, stacked on two skids that he and someone from the warehouse packed into the van. Nothing they loaded up was perishable, so Laura didn't have the refrigeration unit in the van running.
Fifteen minutes later, they were headed back to Red Rock. The van started right up this time, and they sailed through lights and San Antonio without a hitch. But when they reached the stretch of road between San Antonio and Red Rock, the van began coughing and running rough again. The whole vehicle seemed to tremble, and then it quit.
Gareth swore, using the vehicle's momentum to guide it to the shoulder of the road.
Laura checked her watch. "I don't have time for this. I have to get the van unloaded and everything packed up before I head out for the shower."
"Let me take a look at it. I have a feeling your problem is the gas Corrine put in it. If that's the case, the van will probably have to be towed."
Laura's face had a drawn look now, and she pushed her hair back with one hand, lowering her window.
She didn't say anything else as he watched for traffic, opened his door and went around front to the hood. At least the road had a wide shoulder and they didn't have to worry about another car hitting them. Raising the hood, he checked the battery terminals, the cables, even the oil. But he couldn't find a problem, and he wasn't going to waste time that Laura needed.