Tucked Away

by Jennie Marts

  As if he could read her mind, he squeezed her against him, then leaned down to cover her mouth with his. His kiss was gentle, his lips soft against hers.

  She pressed herself against him, wrapping her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. The soft curls of his hair brushed the edges of her fingers, but the rest of his body was hard and toned. The feel of his hands as they slid down her waist and cupped her bottom had her inner minx yawning and stretching as she got ready to come out to play.

  Zack pulled back, inhaling a ragged breath, and looked down at her. “Geez, woman. You’re making me crazy. If we don’t stop, I’m gonna have to press you against that tree and take you right here.”

  Charlie considered herself a modern woman, but hearing him say he wanted to press her against a tree and take her right here awakened something primal inside of her. She wound her fingers through his hair and pulled him down into another kiss, this time with her controlling the intensity.

  She feasted on his mouth, seeking his tongue with hers and nipping at his bottom lip. He moaned against her mouth, and she thrilled to feel such carnal power over a man.

  Where did that come from? She was used to Stuart’s concise style, performing sex as if it were a business transaction, one more task that he needed to check off in his day. Two minutes of foreplay, check. Orgasm, check. Fall asleep immediately after, check.

  Was there something in the Montana air that was turning her into a creature of lust? To even consider being taken against a tree was an idea so foreign to her. And to consider enjoying it—that was even more outlandish. But something about Zack had the carnal side of her coming to life, and she wanted this man.

  Her body sizzled with desire, and she felt a vibration move through her hips as they pressed against his. Wait. That was an actual vibration.

  Zack pulled back and extracted his cell phone from his front pocket. She looked at him, raising her eyebrows in question if he was going to stop and take the call.

  He gave her a sheepish grin and shrugged his shoulders. “Sorry, I’m a doctor and it’s the clinic. They might need me.”

  Arrgh. I need you. She wiggled her hips against him, squirming against the part of him that evidently needed her back.

  He grinned, grabbed a handful of her butt and held her tight against him as he pushed the button and held the phone to his ear. “This is Dr. Cooper.”

  A smile spread across her face as she listened to Zack explain, “No, I’m fine. I’m just out of breath because I was running for the phone.”

  After a few seconds of listening and a promise to be right there, he hung up the phone and pulled her tighter against him. He nuzzled her neck, then spoke against her ear. “You are going to get me into serious trouble, woman.”

  She threw back her head, laughing at his playfulness and offering up more of her neck to nestle into. “Good.”

  He grazed his lips up her neck, then took her mouth in a deep, sensual kiss filled with lust and a promise of more pleasure to come.

  Breaking the kiss, he stepped back and adjusted his jeans. “I’ve got to go. But we are leaving this at a ‘to be continued…’ spot.”

  You bet your snug Wranglers we are, mister. She bit her bottom lip, loving the groan of frustration she earned from him. “I understand. Go take care of some animals. Call me later.”

  “You know I will.” He nodded toward the farmhouse. “You need me to walk you back?”

  “No, I’m good. I can use the fresh air to cool down before I face my mother again.”

  He laughed. “Hey, before I forget, this weekend is Sophie’s birthday, and I wondered if you wanted to go with us Saturday to pick up her present.”

  She caught her breath, and her heart did a little flip. “You want me to come with you? With Sophie? I don’t want to intrude on your family time.”

  He pulled her in close to him, wrapping one arm around her waist and tipping her chin up to his face. “Charlie, I’m not fooling around here. I like you. I want you to be part of my life. Part of our lives.”

  “But it seems so sudden.” How could she think straight when his eyes held such sincerity, and he was offering something she had only dreamed of?

  He leaned in and gave her a gentle kiss. “Do you remember the first time you had an amazing piece of chocolate cake? You didn’t have to stop and think about if you ever wanted to have some of that chocolate cake again. You just thought about when you were going to get to taste it again and that you could eat that chocolate cake every day for the rest of your life.”

  He laid another kiss against the dip under her earlobe before speaking softly into her ear. “You are the most delicious chocolate cake I have ever tasted.”

  Oh boy. For her, Zack Cooper was chocolate cake, with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge oozing off it. And sprinkles. And whipped cream with a cherry on top. “You are pretty delicious yourself.”

  “Then you’ll come with us?”

  “Yes, of course. I wouldn’t miss it.”

  “Great. We’ll pick you up around eleven. We can get lunch then head over to pick up Sophie’s gift. It’ll take up most of the afternoon, and then Cash mentioned something about grilling steaks at Gigi’s for everybody that evening. Will that work for you?”

  “Sounds good.” She gave him a naughty grin. “And I will even make a chocolate cake for dessert.”

  …

  What was happening to her reality? Charlie had practically floated home in a bubble of happiness, trying not to skip as she crossed the pasture after leaving Zack. Opening the front door, she was met with a sight completely out of her realm of understanding.

  She now stood, open-mouthed, in the entryway of Gigi’s house, trying to blend the scene in front of her with her actual knowledge.

  Elizabeth Ryan, whom Charlie now knew also went by the more affectionately used Lizzie Jean, stood in the kitchen, a mixer in one hand and a spatula of cookie dough in the other. A smudge of flour dusted her cheek, and an apron covered in dancing cows wrapped around her middle, protecting her perfectly pressed slacks. The sleeves of her silk blouse were rolled up, and the glint of her customary pearl necklace was visible at her neckline.

  “Mother?” was all she could find to say.

  “Oh hi, Charlie.” Her mom waved the cookie dough-laden spatula in her direction, beckoning her into the kitchen. “Come on in, we’re having so much fun.”

  “What are you doing?”

  “Close your mouth, dear. You’ll catch flies that way. Especially out here in the country.” She pointed to the mixing bowl. “What does it look like we’re doing? We’re baking cookies.”

  “First of all, when have you ever baked anything in your life? You have the phone number of every take-out restaurant that delivers within a five-mile radius of our apartment memorized.”

  “I will have you know, I have baked plenty of things in my life. As a matter of fact, I am quite a good cook. I spent a lifetime cooking every meal for my father. After we moved to New York, I simply chose not to cook anymore.”

  Quite a good cook? Every meal for her father? Who is this woman? This was probably the most accurate information she’d heard about the background of her mother in years.

  It’s not that Elizabeth never spoke of her childhood, she just dropped bread crumbs of information that Charlie always felt were more of a childhood that her mother had wanted than what she had actually lived. And she had always made it seem that she’d grown up in the city. She tried to arrange this new information into some sort of scenario that made sense.

  “Mom, did you really grow up here in Montana? Did you know Gigi?”

  Elizabeth sighed. “Yes, I did. I was raised about two miles from here in a crappy little farmhouse that had walls as thin as cardboard. It was so cold in the winter, you could see your breath moving in front of you when you got up in the morning, and you had to thaw out milk on the stove because it had usually frozen solid while sitting on the porch.” The earlier joy in her face slid away, replaced by the pa
inful memories of her childhood.

  “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

  “Why would I? My daddy was a terrible man. He raised me on his own, with the strap of a belt and his misguided version of the Bible as his only aids. The memories I have of my childhood are not ones I would ever want to share with my precious little girl.”

  “But it was your life.”

  “It wasn’t my life. It was a terrible cliché, and I escaped it as often as I could. When I found Gigi and your father, I thought they would save me. I thought I’d found a real family and witnessed what happiness could really be like. But, unfortunately, your father turned out to be like every other man in my life, and I got out of this town as fast as I could and never looked back.”

  She was shocked to hear the raw emotion evident in her mother’s voice. “Mom? Are you okay?”

  Elizabeth waved the spatula, sending a fleck of cookie dough through the air. “Of course I’m all right. That was a long time ago, and I made a new life for us. A beautiful life in the city.” She smoothed her apron and forced a smile. “Now, we don’t need to talk about this anymore. We were having a lovely time making cookies, so you can either come over and help or go back outside.”

  “Who’s we?”

  Charlie’s question was answered by a voice coming down the stairwell. “She moved them again, but I found ’em in the guest room under the bed.”

  Sophie appeared in the doorway of the stairs, her arms laden down with Bonnie’s three kittens, each trying to escape. Her face lit up when she saw her. “Hi, Charlie. I was just showing your mom the kittens. We’ve been having the best time making cookies. Did you try one yet?”

  Charlie moved to her aid, pulling the little gray kitten from Sophie’s shoulder and dislodging its tiny claws from where it had been clinging to her braid.

  She reached for the black one as it squeezed through the gap of Sophie’s elbow, but her mother beat her to it, grabbing the kitten and cuddling it to her cheek. “Oh, they’re so cute.”

  Charlie gazed in shock as her mother nuzzled the kitten, cooing little sounds of adoration. “You are killing me here, Mother. First, you’re cooking, and now you like animals?”

  “Get a grip, Charlie. It’s a kitten.”

  “But you never let me have a pet. Not even a goldfish.”

  “Up until this moment, I hadn’t realized it was that important to you. Besides, we lived in an apartment. And pets are a lot of work.”

  Why was her mother talking to her like she was nine years old again? “I get that, Mom. I am an adult now. I understand the logistics of not having a pet in an apartment. But I always thought you just didn’t like animals that much.”

  Liz rubbed the kitten’s fur against her cheek. “I am not a fan of pet hair on my clothes or furniture, but I’m not adverse to animals as a whole. Besides, this is a kitten. Who doesn’t love a kitten?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t even know who you are anymore.”

  The insistent beeping of the timer went off, and Sophie dumped the last kitten into Charlie’s arms. “That’s the cookies. I’ll get ’em.”

  Mother and daughter followed Sophie into the kitchen, Charlie juggling the kittens as they tried to crawl up her neck and burrow into her hair. “I suppose now you’re going to tell me that you love chocolate chip cookies, too.”

  “What is the matter with you, Charlie?” Her mother—the woman who knew, to the ounce, exactly where her weight was on any given day, the woman whose pant size hadn’t changed in ten years, the woman who sent carrot sticks and broccoli to school with Charlie as her first grade snack—now looked at her as if she were the strange one. “Of course I love chocolate chip cookies. Who doesn’t love cookies?”

  “My mother, or so I thought.” She watched Elizabeth take a cookie from Sophie and stuff it in her mouth, a look of bliss crossing her face. “But apparently the alien who has taken over her body seems to love them.”

  Balancing a kitten on her shoulder, Charlie took the cookie Sophie held out to her and crammed it in her mouth. It was a really good cookie.

  Sophie shooed them out of the kitchen. “Go. Sit on the sofa. Play with the kittens. Let me get one more pan in, then I’ll bring over milk and more cookies.” Her voice held the authoritative tone of a kindergarten teacher, and both Charlie and her mother obeyed. They sat on either end of the couch, plunking the three kittens on the cushion between them.

  The teenager busied herself in the kitchen, humming a tune as she stuck two more sheets of dough in the oven. After pouring three glasses of milk and filling a plate with warm cookies, she carried the treats to the coffee table with the expertise of an experienced waitress.

  “These cookies are amazing,” Charlie said, around a mouthful of chocolate, starting to suspect who the real cookie baker was.

  Sophie nodded as she reached for another cookie. “Your mom showed me a new trick. She’s a really good cook.”

  Hmmm. Had she walked into upside-down land? None of the things Charlie knew about her mother seemed to be true anymore. It was like stepping over the Montana line had transported her into another world where it was normal for moms to bake cookies and dead grandmas to come back as ghosts and hot veterinarians to be really good kissers. Okay, that last part was definitely on the plus side of the Montana tallies.

  Charlie grabbed for a kitten that was trying to escape the sofa cushion. “Apparently my mom has quite a few new tricks she’s showing off today.”

  “Enough about me and my new tricks,” Elizabeth said. “Let’s talk about something more fun. Like clothes or boys.”

  Sophie clapped her hands with her usual enthusiasm when the subject of boys came up. “Yes, let’s talk about boys.”

  Elizabeth dangled the tie of her apron in front of the gray kitten. “Charlie, why don’t you tell us about this new man that you snuck off to see this afternoon? Did I hear Cash say he’s a veterinarian?”

  Her laughter died on her lips as Charlie looked up at Sophie. “Sophie, oh my gosh, I was going to talk to you about this when we had more time.”

  Elizabeth raised her eyebrows at the cross look that Charlie gave her. “What did I say? Is he not a veterinarian?”

  “He is a veterinarian,” Sophie explained, reaching for another cookie. “And he’s also my dad.”

  “Oops. Sorry, honey. Guess I stuck my foot in it this time.”

  What else is new? Her mother always had one foot in it. Charlie wasn’t sure who Elizabeth was apologizing to. Her generic “honey” could have gone either way. “Look, Sophie, I just found out he was your dad.”

  “I know. It’s okay, Charlie. I knew that you didn’t know he was my dad.”

  “You did? Why didn’t you say anything?”

  Sophie took a drink of milk, leaving a white mustache across her top lip. “I’m not a kid, you know.” She wiped the back of her hand across her mouth. “I realize that my dad is fairly good-looking. Lots of women are interested in him. He’s always bringing home casseroles and desserts that women have made him and dropped off at the vet clinic as an excuse to talk to him.”

  “Well, they’re not from me. I couldn’t make a casserole if I tried.” She was surprised at the spark of jealousy that fired up when Sophie explained how many other women were interested in Zack.

  “I know. This has been happening for years. And there have always been those women who try to get to my dad through taking me shopping or out for lunch. And you know that I’m not one to turn down a milkshake or a free outfit.”

  Charlie smiled at the girl’s honesty.

  “But it was different with you. You were my friend before you even met my dad. I just didn’t want you to start treating me all fakey once you figured out whose daughter I was and try to use me to get closer to him.”

  “Oh, Sophie. Of course I wouldn’t do that. I care about you.” Her heart broke for the teenager who’d been used before by catty women trying to get their nasty claws into Zack. Although, it sounded like Sophie held
her own, acquiring free lunches and new clothes.

  “I know. I just wanted you to myself for a little longer. Once he started talking about you and asking me questions about us hanging out, I knew that he liked you.”

  “What kind of questions?” Charlie heard her mother tsk in disapproval. “I mean, I didn’t realize you knew that we were interested in each other.”

  “I knew that he was in to you, but I didn’t hear you talk about him much. I know he can be kind of a dork sometimes, so I also didn’t want to admit that he was my dad because I was afraid that if you didn’t like him, you might not want to hang out with me anymore, either.”

  Charlie laughed at the description of Zack as a “dork”. That was not a term she would have ever used to describe him. “My hanging out with you has nothing to do with your dad. I like you just for you. But, for the record, I do not think he’s a dork. In fact, I do like him. I actually like him quite a lot. Is that okay with you?”

  Sophie grinned and pushed her glasses up her nose. “Yes, that is more than okay with me.”

  Elizabeth let out an exaggerated breath. “Whew. Well, I’m glad we got that out of the way.” She popped the last bite in her mouth and spoke around the cookie. “But I do have one other thing I need to say.”

  Oh boy.

  Her mother took a dainty sip of milk then looked right at her. “I owe you an apology.”

  What? Charlie almost fell off the sofa.

  “I was wrong in telling you before you left New York to give Stuart another chance. You were right. He’s an asshole.”

  Did Elizabeth Ryan just admit to being wrong? Who was this woman?

  “And I’m glad that you found Zack. I see something different in you now that you’re with him. You seem happier. More at ease with yourself. More confident, I guess. And honestly, I don’t know if that’s all from Zack, or from this farm and its effect on you.”