A Cold Creek Reunion (10 page)

He loved these kids already. How had that happened? Alex, with his million questions, Maya with her loving spirit and eager smile. Somehow when he wasn’t looking, they had tiptoed straight into his heart and he had a powerful feeling he wasn’t going to be able to shoo them out again anytime soon.

He wanted more afternoons like this one, full of fun and laughter and this sense of belonging. Hell, he wasn’t picky. He would take mornings or evenings or any time he could have with Laura and her kids.

Yet Laura seemed quite determined to keep adding bricks to the wall between them. Every time he felt as if he was maybe making a little progress, she built up another layer and he didn’t know what the hell to do about it.

“Here’s the plan,” he said when she trailed reluctantly inside after him. “You get the kids out of their wet clothes and wrapped in warm blankets. We’ve got a gas fireplace in the TV room that will warm you up in a second. Meanwhile, I’ll see what I can do about finding something for you to wear.”

“This is ridiculous. Honestly, Taft, we can be home and changed into our own clothes in the time it’s going to take you to find something here.”

He aimed a stern look at her. “Forget it. I’m not letting you leave this ranch until you’re dry, and that’s the end of it. I’m a paramedic, trained in public safety. How would it look if the Pine Gulch fire chief stood around twiddling his thumbs while his town’s newest citizens got hypothermia?”

“Oh, stop exaggerating. We’re not going to get hypothermia,” she muttered, but she still followed him to the media room of the ranch house, a big, comfortable space with multiple sofas and recliners.

This happened to be one of his favorite rooms at River Bow Ranch, a place where he and his brothers often gathered to watch college football and NBA basketball.

He flipped the switch for the fireplace. The blower immediately came on, throwing welcome heat into the room while he grabbed a couple of blankets from behind one of the leather sofas for the kids.

“Here you go. You guys shuck your duds and wrap up in these blankets.”

“Really?” Alex looked wide-eyed. “Can we, Mama?”

“Just for a few minutes, while we throw our clothes in the dryer.”

“I’ll be back in a second with something of Caidy’s for you,” he told her.

He headed into his sister’s room and quickly found a pair of sweats and a hooded sweatshirt in the immaculately organized walk-in closet.

By the time he returned to the TV room, the children were bundled in blankets and cuddled up on the couch. He set the small pile of clothes on the edge of the sofa.

“Here you go. I know Caidy won’t mind if you borrow them. The only thing in this situation that would make her angry would be if I
didn’t
give you dry clothes.”

Even though her mouth tightened as if she wanted to argue, she only nodded. The wet locks of hair hanging loosely around her face somehow made her even more beautiful to him. She seemed delicate and vulnerable here in the flickering firelight, and he wanted to tuck her up against him and keep her safe forever.

Yeah, he probably should keep that particular desire to himself for the moment.

“Give me a few minutes to take care of the horses and then I can throw your clothes in the dryer.”

“I think I can probably manage to find the laundry room by myself,” she murmured. “I’ll just toss everything in there together after I change.”

“Okay. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Caring for the horses took longer than he’d hoped. He was out of practice, he guessed, plus he had three horses to unsaddle.

When he finally finished up in the barn about half an hour later, the rain was still pouring in sheets that slanted sideways from the wind. Harsh, punishing drops cut into him as he headed back up the porch steps and into the entryway.

Caidy wouldn’t be happy about him dripping all over her floor but she would probably forgive him, especially because he had done his best to take good care of the horses—and her guests. That would go a long way toward keeping him out of the doghouse.

He headed into Ridge’s room to swipe a dry pair of jeans and a soft green henley. After quickly changing, he walked through the house in his bare feet to the TV room to check on Laura and her kids.

When he opened the door, she pressed a finger to her mouth and gestured to one of the sofas. He followed her gaze and found both Alex and Maya asleep, wrapped in blankets and nestled together like Caidy’s puppies while a cartoon on the television murmured softly in the background.

“Wow, that was fast,” he whispered. “How did
that
happen?”

She rose with a sidelong look at her sleeping children and led the way back into the hall. She had changed into Caidy’s clothes, he could see, and pulled her damp hair back into a ponytail. In the too-big hoodie, she looked young and sweet and very much like the girl he had fallen in love with.

“It’s been a big afternoon for them, full of much more excitement than they’re used to, and Maya, at least, missed her nap. Of course, Alex insists he’s too old for a nap, but every once in a while he still falls asleep in front of the TV.”

“Yeah, I have that problem, too, sometimes.”

“Really? With all that company I’ve heard you keep? That must be so disappointing for them.”

He frowned. “I don’t know what you’ve heard, but the rumors about my social life are greatly exaggerated.”

“Are they?”

He didn’t want to talk about this now. What he wanted to do was wrap his arms around her, press her up against that wall and kiss her for the next five or six hours. Because he couldn’t do that, he figured he should at least try to set the record straight.

“After you broke things off and left for Spain, I…went a little crazy, I’ll admit.” He had mostly been trying to forget her and the aching emptiness she left behind, but he wasn’t quite ready to confess that much to her. A few years later when he found out she had married another man in Madrid and was expecting a baby, he hadn’t seen any reason for restraint.

“I did a lot more drinking and partying than I should have. I’m not particularly proud of who I was back then. The thing is, a guy gets a reputation around Pine Gulch and that’s how people tend to see him forever. I haven’t been that wild in a long time.”

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me, Taft,” she said, rather stiffly.

“I don’t want you to think I’m the Cold Creek Casanova people seem to think.”

“What does it matter what I think?”

“It matters,” he said simply and couldn’t resist taking her hand. Her fingers were still cold and he wrapped his bigger hands around hers. “Brrr. Let me warm up your hands. I’m sorry I didn’t keep a better eye on the weather. I should have at least provided gloves for you.”

“It’s fine. I’m not really cold anymore.” She met his gaze, then quickly looked away, and her fingers trembled slightly inside his. “Anyway, I don’t think the children minded the rain that much. To them, it was all part of the adventure. Alex already told me he pretended he was a Texas marshal trying to track a bad guy. Rain and all, the whole day will be a cherished memory for them both.”

Tenderness for this woman—and her children—washed through him just like that rain, carving rivulets and channels through all the places inside him that had been parched for far too long. “You’re amazing at that.”

A faint blush soaked her cheeks. “At what?”

“Finding the good in every situation. You always used to do that. Somehow I’d forgotten it. If you had a flat tire, you would say you appreciated the chance to slow down for a minute and enjoy your surroundings. If you broke a nail, you would just say you now had a good excuse to give yourself a manicure.”

“Annoying, isn’t it? How do people stand me?”

Her laugh sounded embarrassed and she tried to tug her hands away, but he held them fast, squeezing her fingers.

“No, I think it’s wonderful. I didn’t realize until right this moment how much I’ve missed that about you.”

She gazed up at him, her eyes that lovely columbine-blue and her mouth slightly parted. Her fingers trembled again in his and he was aware of the scent of her, flowery and sweet, and of the sudden tension tightening between them.

He wanted to kiss her as he couldn’t remember wanting anything in his life, except maybe the first time he had kissed her on the mountainside so many years ago.

If he followed through on the fierce hunger curling through him, she would just think he was being the player the whole town seemed to think he was, taking advantage of a situation just because he could.

Right now she didn’t even like him very much. Better to just bide his time, give her a chance to come to know him again and trust him.

Yeah, that would be the wise, cautious thing to do. But as her hands trembled in his, he knew with a grim sort of resignation that he couldn’t be wise or cautious. Not when it came to Laura.

As everything inside him tightened with anticipation, he tugged her toward him and lowered his mouth to hers.

Magic. Simply delicious. She had the softest, sweetest mouth and he couldn’t believe he had forgotten how perfectly she fit against him.

Oh, he had missed her, missed this.

For about ten seconds, she didn’t move anything except her fingers, now curled in his, while his mouth touched and tasted hers. For those ten seconds, he waited for her to push him away. She remained still except for her hands, and then, as if she had come to some internal decision—or maybe just resisted as long as she could—she returned the kiss, her mouth warm and soft and willing.

That was all the signal he needed to deepen the kiss. In an instant, need thundered through him and he released her hands and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer, intoxicated by her body pressed against him.

She felt wonderfully familiar but not quite the same, perhaps a little curvier than she’d been back when she had been his. He supposed two children and a decade could do that. He tightened his arms around her, very much appreciating the difference as her curves brushed against his chest.

She made a low sound in her throat and her arms slipped around his neck and he did what he had imagined earlier, pressed her back against the wall.

She kissed him back and he knew he didn’t imagine the hitch in her breathing, the rapid heartbeat he could feel beneath his fingers.

This. This was what he wanted. Laura, right here.

All the aimless wandering of the past ten years had finally found a purpose, here in the arms of this woman. He wanted her and her children in his life. No, it was more than just a whim. He
needed
them. He pictured laughter and joy, rides into the mountains, winter nights spent cuddling by the fireplace of the log home he was building.

For her. He was building it for her and he had never realized it until this moment. Every fixture, every detail had been aimed at creating the home they had always talked about building together.

That didn’t make sense. It was completely crazy. Yeah, he’d heard her husband died some months back and had grieved for the pain she must have been feeling, but he hadn’t even known she was coming home until he showed up to fight the fire at the inn and found her there.

He had thought he was just building the house he wanted, but now he could see just how perfectly she and her children would fit there.

Okay, slow down, Bowman,
he told himself. One kiss did not equal happy ever after. He had hurt her deeply by pushing her away so readily after his parents died and it was going take more than just a few heated embraces to work past that.

He didn’t care. He had always craved a challenge, whether that was climbing a mountain, kayaking rapids or conquering an out-of-control wildfire. He had been stupid enough to let her go once. He damn well wasn’t going to do it again.

She made another low sound in her throat and he remembered how very sexy he used to find those little noises she made. Her tongue slid along his, erotic and inviting, and heat scorched through him, raw and hungry.

He was just trying to figure out how to move this somewhere a little more comfortable than against the wall of the hallway when the sound of the door opening suddenly pierced his subconscious.

A moment later, he heard his sister’s voice from the entry at the other side of the house.

“We’ve got to go look for them.” Caidy sounded stressed and almost frantic. “I can’t believe Taft didn’t make it back before the rain hit. What if something’s happened to them?”

“He’ll take care of them. Don’t worry about it,” Ridge replied in that calm way of his.

They would be here any second, he realized. Even though it was just about the toughest thing he’d ever done—besides standing by and letting her walk out of his life ten years ago—he eased away from her.

She looked flustered, pink, aroused. Beautiful.

He cleared his throat. “Laura,” he started to say, but whatever thoughts jumbled around in his head didn’t make it to words before his siblings walked down the hall and the moment was gone.

“Oh!” Caidy pedaled to a stop when she saw them. Her gaze swiveled between him and Laura and then back to him. Her eyes narrowed and he squirmed at the accusatory look in them, as if he was some sort of feudal lord having his way with the prettiest peasant. Yeah, he had kissed her, but she hadn’t exactly put up any objections.