“But what if that’s not enough, Luz?” Aaron reached out again, this time catching both her hands, his eyes intent. “What if we want more?”
For a crazy moment, she wanted to close the distance to him, press her lips to his, and let him know that she did want more. But then the sound of the clock ticking loudly penetrated. In her bedroom, Chloe coughed softly, and Aaron tilted his head, listening.
Luz gently pulled away. “I’ll go as far as friends,” she said. “But that’s all.” She retrieved her purse and headed for the door, then paused, as one of Esmeralda’s barbs came back to her. “Esme says you’re interviewing the two of us,” she told him.
“Interviewing you?” He sounded puzzled. “For?”
“The position of Chloe’s mother.”
He didn’t say anything for a minute. Then he moved toward the door and opened it. “If I were, would you be interested?” he asked.
She hadn’t expected the blunt question, and when she said nothing, he shrugged and watched her walk through the door. “Just for the record—seems to me that would be an honor, not an insult. Goodnight, Luz.”
She almost turned to tell him she wouldn’t be insulted, but the door closed. Slowly she walked down the steps to her old truck. Alone, and noticing it.
• • •
Luz straightened up and leaned on the shovel for a moment. Her hands were full of blisters, and she could only be thankful her mother and father had decent soil, not as rocky or hard as it could have been. Wetness trickled down her cheek, and she swiped a hand over it. Sweat; the tears had come and gone quickly, stolen away by burning anger.
The mound of dirt in front of her covered the savaged remains of a dog that had been discarded along her fence line. The dog clearly had been killed in a fight, and she’d bet money it hadn’t been a street fight, but one of those clandestine monstrosities held in some secretive place, in front of a crowd of drunk, cheering bastards. She couldn’t think of a stronger word, or one that could express her contempt.
She threw the shovel aside. She’d called the sheriff’s office when she’d seen the dog’s lifeless body near her mailbox. A deputy had come out, made notes, and said he suspected someone from San Antonio or its outskirts was merely using isolated patches of road to dispose of evidence. He’d been polite, but dismissive. He didn’t think it was happening here, and he’d keep an eye out, but he doubted she’d have a problem again.
She fished in her pocket remembering she actually had tucked a handkerchief in this morning and dried her face more thoroughly, ignoring the salt sting of her perspiration on her palms, then picked up the shovel and headed back to the barn. She’d turned the ponies out, since no one came on weekdays to ride anyway, and Rumbles nickered her unique greeting.
“Do you miss Chloe, girl?” she asked. She couldn’t help wondering what had happened. Surely Aaron wasn’t so thin-skinned that he’d decided not to let her come again, could he? But Chloe hadn’t been out all week, and Aaron hadn’t called.
Hadn’t she told him she didn’t want a relationship? Maybe Esmeralda had cornered him. She toyed with buying feed a day or two before she needed it, because if there were gossip, she’d hear it within minutes of going anywhere in town. She cast that idea aside as she put up the shovel, and leaned down to run gentle fingers over the kitten with no name.
Her phone went off, sending the kitten fleeing in a frantic escape, and she laughed and fished it out, clicking it on and checking the number.
“Hello, Eden Acres.”
There was a long pause before a voice spoke. “Hi, baby. How have you been?”
Brian? The phone fell into the straw on the barn floor.
“Baby? Luz?”
Her heart slamming her chest, she reached down, picked up the phone, disconnected the call, and blocked the number.
• • •
“So, you think there’s dog fighting around here?” Ann leaned against the counter, considering Luz’s concerns. She smiled at a departing customer who was holding her Chihuahua close as she left. The little dog climbed up on its owner’s shoulder and barked a final time at Luz. The one dog in town, Luz decided, that actively disliked her.
“I think so,” she answered, turning back to face her friend. “First someone left Princess for dead. Then that poor dog this morning. It wasn’t even a pit bull! Must not have had a chance in the world. And there were others, but not as near my property. That worries me, too, Ann,” she admitted. “Why are they suddenly along my fence line where I have to find them, when before they just turned up randomly?”
“And you called the sheriff?”
“The deputy came. Doesn’t think it’s local.”
Ann tapped a pencil on the countertop, glanced out at the empty parking lot, and sighed. “Looks like I don’t have anyone trying to beat the clock. Wanna get the blinds, Luz?” She put a folder away. “You know, I think the deputy’s probably right, because in this town—I don’t think even something as sick as dog fights could stay secret.”
“I guess. What happened to Teri?”
“Poor kid was stressing out over a test this afternoon. I told her to stay home and study.”
“Think she’ll hang on and make it?”
“She’d better!” Ann grinned. “I’ll need help one of these days.”
Luz nodded agreement. “You could have used it yesterday, I imagine.”
“Ram’s talking babies again,” she admitted. “He’s always busy and so am I, but…”
“But?”
“I want kids, Luz. Job, craziness, I don’t care.”
“You’ll be a great mom, Ann.” Luz paused a minute, smiling at the image of a baby Dr. Ann. “Bet your first born is a girl and she’s doctoring as soon as she walks.”
“Lord help us,” Ann retorted, but smiling. “Changing the subject—have you thought any more about finding out what you’d have to do to start a formal shelter? Folks already just discard animals on your place. If you’re really not going back to teaching—”
“Haven’t checked into it yet, but I will.”
“Well, I have a proposition. Since you board horses and all.”
“A proposition?”
“Let me set up a holding pen with a stall on your property. I have trouble when I need to remove a horse from a property—can’t really treat them here in the back. I’ll pay rent, and you’ll have a little more income. Win win.”
“Except that I’d have to deal with sick, mistreated animals, which is a bummer.”
“You already do,” Ann pointed out. “No sympathy from me, but if you don’t want to—”
“Tell me what you need and be sure we don’t need building permits.”
“Knew you’d help me!” Ann came around the counter and gave Luz an enthusiastic hug. “Now, since Aaron’s back—”
“Back?”
“Where have you been? You didn’t know he’d gone back to Alabaster?”
“No.”
Ann shook her head. “Nose in your own business—what kind of a freak are you?” She laughed. “Not sure you belong in Rose Creek, woman. You’re not nosy enough.”
“So, he and Chloe weren’t here—”
“He left Chloe with Mrs. Baker. Didn’t want to interrupt her schooling, Mrs. Baker told me. I know she’ll be happy he’s back.”
“Yes, she’ll be delighted,” Luz said as she pocketed the receipt Ann had given her and pulled the door open.
“You’re probably happy, too, huh?”
“Bye, Ann!”
She heard her friend laugh as the lock clicked behind her and she frowned. The vet could be downright annoying when she tried. But more than annoyance, she realized, she felt relief that Aaron apparently hadn’t been avoiding her after all. And Chloe might come to ride, maybe even in a couple of hours. Smiling, she hurried to the truck to finish her chores and get back home.
• • •
Aaron looked around the living room critically, thinking how Spartan the decor was. The
trip to Alabaster had been painful, but he’d signed the papers, and the house he and Stella had owned was gone. Not the memories, though. He shouldn’t have expected them to be.
He glanced at his watch. “Almost ready, Chloe?”
His daughter popped out of her room in her boots, jeans, and the sweater he’d brought her. “Ready!” she answered, and before he could ask she said, “Yes, my homework is done.”
He smiled and handed her a baseball cap. “You look so grown up.”
“I’m still only six,” she pointed out, and grabbed his hand to tug him impatiently toward the door. “Be seven soon, though. I’m getting old already, right?”
She had no clue about his turmoil, the doubts he still had about whether Rose Creek was a vibrant enough environment to raise a child in. The lack of adornment in this house could be fixed. Or he could look for a different house. And he supposed the trappings weren’t all that important in the long run.
A beautiful house hadn’t kept his marriage alive—or Stella, or an innocent five-year-old.
“Daddy, what’s wrong?” Chloe had stopped to peer into his face, and her own happiness seemed to fade in front of him. That he wouldn’t allow.
He laughed and scooped her up, then sprinted toward the SUV. “Nothing’s wrong!” he said in her ear. “I’m just old and slow.”
She hugged him fiercely. “Don’t ever be old and slow,” she pleaded.
He kissed her head and loaded her into the car, regretting his comeback. He only hoped she’d see him grow old and slow. Breathing a prayer as he went around to get into his own seat, he knew old and slow had become a luxury in their lives.
Chapter Nine
Might as well be in high school. Luz propped herself against the barn wall and waited while Chloe saddled Rumbles, but her eyes never left Aaron, standing across the corridor kidding Chloe about being too tall to ride a pony any longer.
“Guess we’ll just have to go home,” he told her, heaving a pretend sigh.
And while father and daughter joked, Luz just kept thinking, over and over, that Aaron looked good.
She kicked the sand with the toe of a boot. The man hadn’t been here in what, five days? She hadn’t really expected him to look any different, had she?
Aaron stepped up to tug on the girth, then gave Chloe a thumbs up and nodded. “Guess you can go on out,” he told her. “But if you race off—”
Chloe sniffed. “Everyone knows you have to warm your horse up first.”
“That sorry thing’s a horse?” he teased, and they both laughed when Rumbles snorted.
“Better quit talking bad about her,” Chloe warned, and then led her toward the door, leaving Aaron and Luz alone.
Luz’s smile slipped. She wasn’t ready to face this man alone.
He smiled and closed the distance between them. “I’m surprised to hear myself say it, but I’m glad to be back in Rose Creek.”
“I’m surprised to hear you say it, too,” she admitted. “Thought you might be planning on taking Chloe back home.”
“There is no back home. Not anymore.” Strain tightened his face, but he wiped it away with a hand. “You look good, Luz. Chloe and I missed you.”
She shrugged. “Can’t say I did. I didn’t even know you’d gone until you were back.”
“I had to leave quickly to tie up some business there. I’m not really sure why I didn’t call you, except that it was late when I found out—”
“And you were angry at me because I asked if you were interviewing,” she interjected, not wanting to leave it unresolved.
“Angry is too strong a word.” He thought for a moment before finishing. “Hurt. Hurt is a better word.” He paused briefly, considering. “You were wrong, though. When—if—I have a real relationship again, yes, that woman would have to be able to love Chloe. But I’m not interviewing. And if I were…”
He reached out and grasped her shoulders, easing her to him. “I’d be interviewing for a lover, not a mother for my daughter.” His lips brushed hers.
Her breath caught, and she reached up to clasp his face, leaning toward him, into him. He urged her closer, his desire raging as fiercely as hers, his breath growing as ragged as hers as the kiss deepened.
“Uh—oh!”
The voice behind them ended in an embarrassed cough, and Luz turned to find Ross Thurmond standing in the corridor, holding his ball cap in one hand and a bag in the other.
Aaron turned too, but unlike Luz, he didn’t turn beet red and flounder for words.
“What the hell are you doing here, Thurmond? This is private property.”
“For your information, Estes, Miss Luz and her momma always had an open house here for folks with business, and I got business. Not funny business, either.” Thurmond leered, and Aaron’s hand curled into a fist.
Luz stepped away from both men, not really wanting to be the subject of a schoolyard fight between two apparently stupid men, neither of whom had a claim on her.
“What brought you here, Ross?”
He held up the bag. “Dr. Ann sent you some samples from a feed company she had no use for. I was coming out this way anyway, and she asked me to drop it off.” He surrendered the bag to her and glowered at Aaron. “I never expected…well, you know.”
“Come to the house and let me give you a glass of tea and gas money,” Luz offered, ignoring the “well, you know.”
“No need making Ross walk up to the house,” Aaron protested, reaching for his wallet. “Let me give you the gas money. Anyway, Luz and I need to get outside with Chloe.”
Ross seldom took the money Luz offered, but although he looked furious, he reached over and took the twenty Aaron held out.
Luz gasped unintentionally as she noticed Ross’s hand. “What in the world bit you?”
Ross glanced emotionlessly at his hand. “Dog,” he said shortly. “Over at Crawford’s ranch—don’t know why he thinks those big dogs are good for anything.”
Luz barely knew the Crawfords, but remembered that Ann claimed to have fallen in love with the bull mastiffs that protected their flock of angora goats from coyotes—and apparently from Ross Thurmond.
“Didn’t know y’all were…busy, or I would have honked,” Ross added, shuffling his feet.
Luz managed a smile. “Thanks for bringing this out. I’ll call Ann and let her know I got them. If you’re sure you don’t want something to drink—”
Aaron’s forced smile turned down at the corners.
Luz wanted to smack them both. Why was Ross acting like he was jealous? He had no interest in her, and she wouldn’t allow herself to dwell on what his feelings toward her mother had been.
And Aaron—yes, he’d kissed her. Caught her close, so close that she could still feel the hard wall of his body, so close that her skin still burned and remembering made her breath catch, keeping her from speaking. Yes, he’d kissed her, and she’d wanted so much more. The thought flooded her with new longing. But if Ross hadn’t walked in at just that moment, Chloe might have. Cheeks burning, Luz turned away from them both. How stupid could one woman be? How could she have risked Chloe being the one to interrupt?
“Dr. Ann wanted me to tell you something else,” Ross said.
Reluctantly, she stopped and looked over her shoulder. “Yes, Ross?”
“Said to tell you Hermie Clark bought a horse.”
The words were innocent enough that Aaron looked puzzled. He hadn’t been around the last time the warped loner bought a horse. She thought of Chloe, and of her father’s fears for her, and breathed a prayer that Ross wouldn’t say anything else.
“Thanks for letting me know,” she answered dismissively, and the handyman tugged at his hat in a gesture more routine than respectful.
“Be seein’ y’all.”
“Uh huh.” She made herself walk out the barn door with him, and watched until he climbed in his truck and drove away.
“What the hell just happened?” Aaron came up beside her, after glancing to whe
re Rumbles and Chloe were trotting over the logs in the arena that probably looked like real jumps to the child and pony.
Frustrated and a little bewildered, she buried both hands in her hair and massaged her scalp, sending her hair into absolute disarray. She’d done that occasionally when she taught, as a stress reliever, and because first graders howled with amusement when she warned them she might pull her hair out if they didn’t settle down.
“Need help?” he asked softly, and pushed her hands away to rub his own through her hair, his fingers easing away tensions—and igniting sparks all over again.
She stepped away. “I’m fine. Anyway, Chloe—”
“Has no idea we’re here.” He sighed, though, and dropped his hands, trailing them down the sides of her neck and moving away. “Let’s go lean on the fence and watch my girl ride.”
She followed without comment, smiling a little at how naturally he hoisted a foot to the bottom rail and stretched his arms along the top, moving them until he found the perfect position.
He might have the makings of a country boy after all.
“What’s funny?” he asked.
She mimicked his position on the rail and just grinned again. “Nothing.”
From the ring, Chloe waved, and they waved back.
“So…”
Aaron’s tone made her teeth clench.
“Yes?”
“Does Ann tell you every time someone in Rose Creek buys a horse, or was that some weird kind of code or—”
She blew out her breath and wondered if she sounded like one of the horses. The idea amused her, and she laughed.
“You’re just strange,” he muttered, without condemnation. “So what’s the joke?”
“Don’t worry. I’m making fun of myself.” Her laughter faded, though, as she realized they were standing like Ross Thurmond’s horses, one foot up, butts stuck out…she didn’t want to think about Ross Thurmond. She also didn’t want to tell Aaron why Ann had sent her word about Hermie Clark. He’d probably snatch Chloe from the pony and head out of town.
Then again, she really didn’t want to lie to the man. She thought of Brian’s unexpected attempt to contact her, and of flinging her phone away in contempt and loathing. His lies had destroyed her life. She wouldn’t do that to someone else.
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