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“Thank you. Good night, Lily.”
He shut the door and stepped back, waiting until she drove away before she watched him go inside from the rearview mirror. She drove home wondering if she would have held onto her marriage for so long if Reed had exhibited such dominant doting back then. The fact he was the opposite of John when it came to crossing boundaries with someone in a committed relationship was another trait that helped knock down her defenses.
Lily breathed a sigh of relief when she pulled into her driveway and saw the lights glowing. Between the emotional roller-coaster ride she couldn’t seem to get off of and her unappeased lust, she assumed sleep would elude her, but, thankfully, she dropped off without a problem.
****
I’m not crazy.
That’s what Lily told herself the next morning as she stood with her hands on her hips, eyeing the shelves bracketing the fireplace. She was darn proud of her first attempt to build anything with her own two hands, all by herself, despite the unevenness of the individual shelves. Levi had grinned without commenting, and Vickie’d laughed.
She checked the titles on her mystery movie collection again and shook her head. For sure,Murder on the Orient ExpressandCluehad somehow gotten switched around, and they weren’t the only ones. As anal as she was when it came to keeping the eighty-plus DVDs in alphabetical order to enable easy finding when the mood for a certain title struck, she couldn’t imagine making such a mistake. If Levi had been here recently, she would blame him. He loved to tease her, especially about her obsession with mystery movies and books. But everything had been in proper order when Reed was here the other night, so this had happened sometime between then and now.
Lily grew uneasy, casting a look around the room for any other anomalies but found none. That reassurance didn’t stop the jitters crawling under her skin. Checking the time, she muttered, “A puzzle to be solved later.” She mulled over Reed’s invitation for next weekend as she put the misplaced DVDs back in their proper places. Excitement hummed inside her at the thought of staying the night with him, replacing her jumpy nerves and giving her something else to think about. No doubt about it, Reed Kincaid was a pleasant distraction from unexplainable incidents, one she could get used to if she was brave enough to let it go that far. Something else to ponder later when she wasn’t pressed for time.
She padded into the bedroom and dressed in a pair of navy-blue spandex capris with a pink stripe down the sides and a bright pink collared tunic shirt. The mid-seventies forecast would make the afternoon perfect for shorts and yard work when she finished at the shelter, she thought, planning to change when she got home.
Her phone rang as she walked out of the house, double checking the lock, and she answered Ina Henderson’s call, curious why the proprietor would contact her. “Hello,” she said, opening the car door.
“Lily, dear, it’s Ina. Would you happen to be going in to the shelter this morning?”
She wondered who’d mentioned her volunteer work to Ina. “Yes, I’m leaving now. How did you hear about my involvement, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Not at all,” she returned with a chuckle. “Reed said something, oh, I don’t remember when. It’s been a while. If you have time to swing by and pick it up, we’d like to donate some leftover food we made last night. We usually don’t have extra on weekends, just sometimes during the week, which we drop off. We’re swamped this morning, or I’d run it in myself.”
“No problem, Ina,” she replied, realizing the restaurant was a regular donor like a few others in Casper. “Thank you. I’m on my way if you can bring it out to me in about ten minutes.”
“Can do. I’ll watch for you.”
Ina carried out three large foil pans when Lily parked in front of the restaurant. Hopping out, she opened the back door, saying, “That’s a lot of leftovers. I’m guessing you made extra. Everyone will be thrilled with whatever smells so good.”
“Giving back to the community that has supported us for so long is the least we can do. No one should go hungry in this day and age.” Ina placed the food on the seat then faced her with a wide smile. “Hear you’re Reed’s date for next weekend. ’Bout time that boy found a nice girl like you.”
Lily shook her head ruefully at the quick spread of a simple invitation. “How did you hear that? He just mentioned it last night.”
Ina patted her arm in a motherly fashion, blue eyes twinkling behind wire-framed glasses. “Small town gossip. Gotta love it. One of my early morning customers was at Casey’s last night and somehow got wind of Reed’s interest in you and invitation. His mother is one of my dearest friends, so Howard and I will see you there.”
Lily would decide later if she agreed with Ina and liked the fast spread of gossip now that she lived in Eagle’s Nest. “I’m looking forward to it. Thanks again.”
Ina wasn’t the only one who seemed happy about Reed asking her out. The next day at work, Trina threw her arms around her in a spontaneous hug that made Lily laugh. Delia called to ask about getting together and responded with an enthusiastic “you go, girl” after hearing her plans. When Saturday rolled around and Reed arrived to pick her up, she figured everyone within a fifty-mile radius had heard Reed Kincaid was seeing his former partner’s widow. A tight cramp formed in her stomach when she imagined not seeing him again, which ought to decide for her how she felt about that. Instead, she kept wobbling back and forth, still undecided if she had it in her to give a serious, committed relationship another try.
Glancing out the front window, she saw him get out of his truck, her pulse leaping despite having seen him on Wednesday when he’d taken her to lunch and talking to him on the phone every day this week. His lowered Stetson shielded his potent gray-green gaze, but that chiseled jaw, firm mouth, and loose-limbed stride in snug denim were enough to dampen her palms and reawaken the need she seemed to have developed for him, and only him.
Lily rubbed her palms down her jean-clad thighs before greeting him on the porch. “Good morning. It’s a beautiful day for your surprise party.”
“And we’ll take advantage of the nice weather. It’s perfect for riding.” He nodded toward the row of colorful perennials she’d finished planting along the driveway. “Nice choice of colors.”
She smiled, proud of the new garden. “I had help picking them out at the nursery. Do you know what they have planned today?”
“I’m sure Brett and Slade will cook out. We’ll have time for that ride I mentioned before I make my mother happy and act surprised by her efforts.” He took her hand and pulled her in for a kiss, a hello she doubted she would ever tire of. She struggled to get her libido under control as he led her to his truck and opened the door. To distract her from the heat his simple kiss had generated, she settled on the seat, reminding him, “You do recall I told you it’s been years since I rode a horse, right before my parents died? I was eleven.”
“No problem. You’ll ride with me.”
Reed shut the door, and Lily watched him stroll around to the driver’s side, her heart thudding with anticipation for the close press against his body as they rode. She’d been looking forward to his party until he said that; now she wished they could spend the day alone so she wouldn’t have to wait until tonight to appease her lust.
“We’ll go straight to the stables,” Reed said, turning off the highway to enter the Kincaid Ranch between two open gates. “Slade told me to make myself scarce until noon after I told both him and Brett I was aware of Mom’s plans.”
Lily laughed. “Your invite last week hit the gossip circuit in Eagle’s Nest the next morning. I imagine you and your brothers bear the brunt of your father’s colorful lifestyle, even if you haven’t followed in his footsteps.”
