Sugar Springs (29 page)

She nodded, jumping off the ledge in a giant leap of faith.

“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes.” She then reached up and kissed the man, who now had complete power to break her heart into a million shattered pieces.

Cody climbed the steps to Lee Ann’s house early the next morning with two bags in hand and knocked on the door. She wasn’t expecting him until after he got off work at noon, but he’d been unable to wait. They were going to tell the girls that they were dating. And then he had to actually wrangle a promise of a date out of her. He wanted to get her alone. The sooner the better.

When she didn’t answer, he pounded on the door again and glanced at his watch. It was only six thirty in the morning, but as she was someone who was at work by six every day during the week, he’d expected her to be up. It had never occurred to him that her schedule would allow her to sleep in on a weekend morning.

When there was still no answer, he dug out the key he’d been using during the week, knowing it would tick her off when she found him inside her house, then quietly let himself in.

All was still, with filtered light just barely starting to make it through the windows into the rooms. He held the door and let Boss in, then pointed him to a spot by the couch and told him to stay. No need to wake anyone just yet. He’d get breakfast set out and then call them.

As he passed through the living room and turned left to head to the kitchen, he couldn’t help but look back over his shoulder, hoping to catch sight of Lee Ann in her bed, rumpled in sleep. Instead he found the bedroom door open to a perfectly made bed, and no one in sight.

Well, dang.

He set the diner bags on the kitchen counter and went back to peek into her room. The adjoining bathroom was just as empty and spotless as the bedroom. He retreated and glanced up the stairs. The kids’ bedrooms were up there, but would Lee Ann have also slept upstairs for some reason?

And then it occurred to him where she would be.

Of course she wouldn’t have slept in. He’d known that wasn’t like her. She would be in her darkroom, and chances were good she’d been there for a couple hours.

Breakfast could wait. They used to have some good times in her darkroom. He wanted to see if that option was still open to him today. Making his way back through the living room, he closed and locked the front door, then went into her studio. Sure enough, the lights were on, and the darkroom was locked tight. He rapped softly on the door and waited. If she was in the middle of something, she wouldn’t be able to let him in, but he had to at least try.

“I’ll open the door in a just a minute” came through the door. “Is something wrong?”

Only that he wanted to put his hands on her and get a few more minutes like they’d had the night before on the porch.

“Can I come in?” he asked.

There was a charged pause from the other side, and then a slight noise as if she’d put her hand to the door. “Cody?”

“Uh-huh. Let me in. I want to give you a ‘Good morning’ kiss.”

The thought was almost enough to make him forget breakfast. If he’d been thinking straight, he would have known this was where he’d find her early on a Saturday morning. He would have skipped the food altogether and come down solely to “help her out.”

“I can’t until I pull this last picture out. Did you use your key and let yourself into my house?”

And here it came. “I did.” He paused. “But I brought you breakfast. Should I turn around and leave?”

He could hear her breathing. He couldn’t help wondering if she was having the same illicit thoughts as he.

“Are you okay in there?” he asked. “You sound a little...winded. Not thinking naughty thoughts are you, Lee?”

Light laughter filtered through the door, and his shoulders relaxed. She wasn’t going to send him packing just yet. “What makes you think I’d be doing any such thing?” she asked.

He pressed the side of his face against the door and imagined her on the other side doing the same. He needed to touch her. “I saw the way you watched me in my apartment the other day, babe. I know exactly what kind of naughty thoughts run through your head these days.”

Her laughter sounded again, but this time it came out tight. “Give me a few seconds and I’ll be right out.”

“I’ll be here.”

While waiting, he shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it over the seat at her desk, and the photo on her computer screen caught his eye.

“Wow,” he murmured to himself. He stepped behind her desk to get a better look as she came out of the adjoining
room. He glanced up at her and pointed to the monitor. “This is amazing.”

She stood beside him. “Thank you.”

It was a shot of a mother dog licking the head of a newborn while at the same time eyeing the camera. Lee Ann had captured the pure exhaustion of the dog, along with the maternal instinct most females seemed born with. No one had better come near her puppies. “I want that.”

“What?” Her eyes widened with surprise but then she shrugged. “Okay. I’ll give you a copy.”

He turned to look at her then and like always, she took his breath away. With one long step, he closed the distance between them and slid a hand along each side of her face. He leaned down and gave her a proper hello. Loving the fact she didn’t discourage the kiss, he took more, roaming slowly over her lips until both of them were more out of breath than two people with kids in the house should have been.

“Good morning, babe.” His voice was husky and that made him chuckle. He liked what she did to him. He’d forgotten how much fun it was to get up every morning knowing he had the right to hold her in his arms. “I missed you.”

Rosy-kissed lips smiled back at him. “You were only here last night.”

“Yes, but you kicked me out too early.” He pressed another quick kiss to her mouth, fighting the urge to linger. “So I came back.”

“I noticed.” She giggled, then turned a serious eye on him. “Though I’m pretty sure you can guess that I didn’t give you that key to let yourself in while I’m at home.”

He held his breath, praying they weren’t about to argue. It was too good a day to do anything but enjoy being with her.
Seeing her before he had to go to work was the way it should be. “I did knock first,” he said. “A lot.”

After several long seconds and another squinty-eyed look, her face cleared and a smile bloomed across it. She was beautiful. “I’m glad you came on in.”

She rose up on tiptoes, her mouth seeking out his, and he kissed her again. He could do that all day. When she pulled back—far too soon for his taste—he remembered what he’d been looking at and pointed to the screen.

“Seriously, this is amazing, Lee. Why aren’t you out there selling these?” And then he remembered the site he’d perused before coming back to town. “Or do you? Was there a page on your website where you have photos up for sale?”

“I have some old ones up. I haven’t had the time to really pursue selling anything but portraits over the last few years.” She leaned down and pulled the computer mouse to her. “I’ll print you a copy.”

“No.” He reached to stop her, resting his hand atop hers. “Get me an eighteen by twenty framed and let me know what I owe you. I want to put it in Dr. Wright’s office.”

She frowned up at him. “I imagine Keri already has all the art she needs in the office.”

“She’ll love this,” he stressed. His thumb caressed the soft skin covering the back of her fingers, and he wondered if she realized just how talented she was. She was a smart girl, so how could she not know? Or was it merely, like she said, a lack of time? Possibly a lack of connections. “I have a friend in Nashville who owns a studio,” he told her. “I’ve no doubt she’d be interested in taking a look at your work.”

She pulled her hand out from under his and stood up straight. “I’m not your charity case, Cody. I’ll get you a copy
made, but other than that, let’s drop it, okay? Someday when I have more time, I’ll do more with these photos.”

“But I want you to do more now,” he insisted. He grabbed her hand as she headed back to the darkroom and gave it a little squeeze. “You can do it now.”

She turned to him, then lowered her gaze to his mouth. “Are you about finished lecturing me? I have a couple more photos I want to finish this morning. You can either come in while I finish or go away.”

He wasn’t going away.

Lee Ann didn’t wait for Cody to follow but knew he would. They’d shared good times in this room. She flipped on the red light and went back to the chemicals with which she’d been working before he arrived.

“This used to be one of the places I could always find you. Either here or on the softball field.”

He moved to stand beside her, and she caught his eye in the darkened room. She pictured the younger version of him watching her third-base plays from the fence. He’d rarely joined the others on the bleachers. “Not much has changed, though in the summer instead of softball I can now be found watching a mean game of street hockey.”

Shock registered on his face and then he laughed out loud. “My girls are tough, aren’t they?”

“That they are.” She grinned at him, happy he’d shown up at her house that morning. She had missed him last night, too. He’d stayed for dinner, watched a movie with all three of them and then lingered only long enough to sneak in a quick kiss before he’d left.

Though she’d agreed to let the kids in on the fact they were going to give this a try, she’d been wary to do it last night, so had kept him at a distance. But she had agreed that they would have the discussion today. And then they were going to spend some time together, just the two of them. She wanted to get her hands on him. In a very bad way.

It hadn’t occurred to her until she’d seen his handsome face on the other side of her door that they could sneak into the darkroom any time they wanted. Though Candy sometimes came in with her, it was mostly her sanctuary.

Before she went after what she
really
wanted for breakfast, though, she did have a few prints she needed to finish. She nudged him in the stomach to move him out of the way. “Scoot. I need to finish.”

He took a step to his right, but not before Lee Ann acknowledged to herself how the light touch of him burned through her sleeve. Oh, she had it bad.

“Knocking you off schedule, am I?” he teased.

She gave him a smirk. “There is nothing wrong with adhering to a plan.”

Though she was learning that she did like him occasionally messing with her schedule. Like this morning. It brought a feeling of excitement to her life that she hadn’t experienced in a long time.

She went back to work. Cody scooted in beside her to watch as she dipped a picture in the chemicals. It was one she’d taken of the girls, their faces turned up and laughing while Cody had proudly held up one hand indicating where a fake bird should have been. He’d been telling them a story about his short foray into the world of magic.

“You took that at the mall.”

“Yes.” She’d taken many more with her digital camera, but had hoped these black and whites would turn out well.

“It’s great.” He reached toward the picture as she moved it to the next tray, but stopped. It couldn’t be touched until washed. “Roy taught me that trick my senior year.”

His foster parents had been some of the best people Lee Ann had ever met. The way Cody had left town had hurt them as much as it did her. She dipped another picture. When she had the photo hung, she said softly, “They were hurt, you know. When you left town.”

“Nah.” His tone was easy and casual, but Lee Ann saw the tightness in his expression from the corner of her eye. “They might have missed me working on the farm, but they were happier to see me go than to have to worry about me sticking around after graduation.”

She turned to him then, and propped her hands on her hips. She waited until he squared up with her. “You do not believe that for one second. They were the sweetest people I’ve ever met.”

He started to look away, but she reached up and put a hand to his jaw. The movement was enough to keep him in place. “They worked me like a slave,” he said, sounding a bit childish.

“You tried to pretend that’s all it was then, too, but even as a dumb kid you didn’t believe it.” She smoothed her hand over his jaw, loving the strength she found there. “They worked you to give you a sense of responsibility. And to keep you out of trouble.” She lowered her voice until she was almost whispering. “And you were a jerk for leaving and never even saying good-bye.”