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“Even so, most men want to do what’s right.”
“Most boys don’t,” she replied automatically, then felt a twinge of guilt. “It was complicated.”
“Does he see Josh often?” Luke asked, and Katie’s heart hitched painfully.
“No.” She considered telling Luke the truth; after all, he’d known Dave, but what good would come of it? First she had to talk to Josh, then the Sorensons. And then, her family.
Luke, as i
f sensing the subject was too tender to discuss, asked, “Can’t you stick around a few more minutes? Since you’re already here, I thought you might want to see the rest of the place.”
“I would. Very much,” she admitted boldly as the offer, softly seductive, hung in the air between them. It was true. Katie was tempted; she’d enjoy nothing better than to get to know Luke Gates with his slow, sexy drawl, bedroom eyes and past that had yet to be unraveled. She thought of their one shared moment of passion, that unguarded instant in time when she’d felt his lips on hers, tasted the salt on his skin, experienced his flesh pressing hot against her own. “But I’d better take a rain check.” Her gaze held his, and she saw in his blue eyes a flicker of something darkly dangerous and ultimately erotic.
“I’ll hold ya to it,” he said, and her insides turned to jelly. He was too close, too unclothed, and too damned male. But she couldn’t just let sleeping dogs lie.
“I really do have to go pick up Josh right now, but maybe I’ll see ya around. At Tiffany’s. Or Bliss’s wedding reception.”
“I don’t think so.” But he hesitated.
“Well, I’ll look for you anyway,” she said, surprised that she was intentionally flirting with him. Hadn’t she told herself a thousand times over to avoid him, that he was all wrong for her, that there was something about him no sane woman would trust?
“I don’t think I’ll show.”
“Your loss.” Somehow she managed to turn on her heel and walk to the Jeep without feeling like she was fleeing. But her fingers were shaking and her palms sweating as she jabbed her key into the ignition. “You’re an idiot,” she told herself not for the first time, as the engine fired and she twisted the steering wheel. With what she hoped looked like a carefree wave out the window, she was off in a cloud of dust and exhaust. “Stay away from him, Katie! For once in your life, be smart!” She glanced in the rearview mirror and along with a vision of her worried eyes she saw him standing watching her, his feet apart, his long, jeans-clad legs stiff as they met at his slim hips. His arms were folded over his bare chest, and his jeans hung low enough to show off the bend at his waist.
Katie’s throat went dry, and she knew right then and there that she was in trouble. Deep, deep trouble.
CHAPTER SIX
Every muscle in Luke’s body ached. He’d spent ten hours setting fence posts and cleaning out the stables. He smelled bad and probably looked worse, though the woman behind the convenience-store counter hadn’t appeared to notice as she’d counted out his change when he’d stopped to buy a six-pack of beer, a bag of chips and a copy of the local paper.
He pulled into the driveway of the carriage house and parked near the garage. As he grabbed his copy of the Review and his sack from the store, the Santini family, dressed to the nines, emerged from the back door of the main house.
Tiffany had her purse in one hand and her other was wrapped around Christina’s wrist. Wearing a long, shimmering blue dress, she was giving orders to her family, commands Luke heard through the open windows of his pickup. “Now, listen, I don’t want any more fights,” Tiffany said, leveling her gaze at her son as her small family gathered on the back porch. “You’re a lot older than Christina, and fighting with her is ridiculous.”
The little girl, pleased with the turn of the conversation, smiled broadly, then, behind her mother’s back, stuck out her tongue at her brother.
Stephen yanked at his tie, looked about to say something but just rolled his eyes instead.
If Tiffany noticed any part of the exchange she ignored it as J.D. locked the back door. “Now, come on, I just talked to Aunt Katie. She and Josh need a ride.”
“Still no car?” J.D. asked. He seemed every bit the lawyer in what looked to be an expensive suit and neat tie.
“Not for a few more days. If I were her, I’d go out of my mind. The good news is that Josh is off crutches and that the phone calls he was getting have stopped.”
“What phone calls?”
“Oh, some kind of prank, I think. He’d answer, and no one was there.”
“Probably kids.” J.D. shook his head but every overworked muscle in Luke’s body tightened. He hadn’t seen Katie in a couple of days, not since she’d been out to the ranch.
Tiffany had shepherded the family down the back steps and onto the dry grass of the lawn when she spied Luke climbing out of his truck. “Oh, hi!” The worried knot between her eyebrows disappeared as both kids dashed for J.D.’s Jeep. “It’s a madhouse as usual around here. If we make it to the wedding on time it’ll be a miracle,” she said with a laugh. Her eyes skated down his dusty, sweat-stained T-shirt and worn jeans. “I thought—I mean, didn’t Katie say that you were going to Bliss’s…” She blushed, and he figured out the rest for himself.
“I think she expects me to show up at the reception.”
“You should!” Tiffany enthused.
“I told Bliss I’d think about it.”
