AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Coming, Ben,” he cried, embarrassed when his voice cracked. Lucy’s smile was knowing and he kissed it, fevered and tortured. “Meet me back at the hotel,” he whispered. “Tonight. Please—”
Abruptly, her body stilled, filled with a sort of explosive tension and he held his breath, wondering if he’d messed this up again.
When she stepped back, her face utterly composed, his heart sank. Blown it didn’t seem a strong enough term.
“Go,” she said. “Ben is waiting.”
18
Lucy waited until she was sure Jeremiah wouldn’t look back before leaning forward and resting her head against the wall of the barn. The rough wood hurt her forehead and pulled at her hair, but still she set it there.
Because you are a glutton for punishment. Standing in line for more misery.
It would have been so easy to go to that hotel.
Damn right, her body cried, still angry with her decision not to. Instead of having wild, dirty sex with a hot man—for whom she felt far more than she should—she’d chosen to stay home on Friday night and watch her mother knit. Maybe make a few more little leather bracelets. Waiting for her supplies to come in, and Jeremiah to move out of her thought patterns.
But he wasn’t going to move out of her thought patterns.
She loved him.
You’re an idiot, she thought, rolling her head against the wood. I love him. I love his mess and his heart and his body and his mind. His past and his damage and his efforts to take care of those boys. His charm and grin and the way he was trying so hard to be the man he needed to be. The way he couldn’t see the forest through his own trees, but managed to call her on her own bullshit even when it made him uncomfortable.
The way he needed to be loved and helped and cared for, even while he fought against it.
She loved all of that about him.
He will never love you, she told herself. Not like you love him.
It was surprisingly easy to shrug off that thought. She’d never needed anyone’s permission before. She’d never waited for someone’s approval on her feelings.
Though none of that changed the reality of his feelings for her. Conflicted seemed about the best way to describe him.
But maybe, she thought, maybe he just needed to be shown the way clear. Maybe he just needed to realize she wasn’t a distraction. She wasn’t leaving. She could help, share his life. The boys and the ranch.
It wasn’t either/or. It could be both. Granted, it would be unorthodox with her. She wasn’t going to give up her career to fold laundry and freeze casseroles. But they could make it work.
She hoped they could make it work.
“I am going to get my heart broken,” she said out loud in the hope that it might scare her off this ridiculous plan she had forming in her head. “Smashed into pieces,” she told herself. “Like, obliterated.”
Amazing, but she wasn’t even nudged from her plan.
“You’re a fool,” she said, just to make it clear.
Yep, a fool in love and with a plan.
Heaven help them all.
“Aaron! Answer the door!” Jeremiah cried, trying to keep Casey from burning himself on the ancient waffle iron on Sunday morning. “Great, Ben, that’s perfect,” he said, as Ben poured the green waffle batter they’d made using a crusty bottle of food coloring he’d found in the cupboard.
They were all in danger of botulism, but it would almost be worth it—the boys were acting like it was Christmas morning. Even Ben was in the spirit, standing on a chair, pouring ladle after ladle of green goop on the black patchwork griddle.
“Casey, watch this,” Ben said, lifting the ladle high and dripping it over the hot metal.
On Ben’s wrist gleamed a leather and silver bracelet Lucy had made for him. It was simple in the coolest way and would no doubt make him the hippest boy in third grade.
Casey and Aaron wanted them, too.
So did he. He wasn’t a jewelry man at all; he just wanted a small piece of her to wear on his body.
“These are going to be the best waffles EVER!” Casey screamed, and the batter on his mixing spoon splattered the kitchen wall. “Oops.”
“Yeah, oops.” Jeremiah laughed and swiped at the spots with a towel. The doorbell rang again.
“Aaron!”
“Yeah, I’m getting it.”
He heard the door open.
“Lucy!” Aaron cried, and Jeremiah immediately dropped Casey back onto the ground. “Keep an eye on that,” he said to Ben and pointed to the waffle maker.
He stepped into the living room, half hoping he was imagining things. But there was Lucy, gorgeous in that yellow sundress with the cowboy boots. The same Lucy he’d left infuriated in the barn two days ago.
“Look, Uncle J!” Aaron cried.
“I see,” he murmured, feeling like the luckiest man on Earth. “It’s Lucy.”
