Kaleb (5 page)

“Kaleb.”
She called out, drying the last dish before sitting it in the dish drainer.

“Damn
boy.” Carl grunted and Zoey smiled.

She
knew why he was there, which was the only reason she wasn’t sneaking out the
back door. Kaleb wasn’t there to see her, but rather her father. According to
Carl, Kaleb had stopped by twice during the week to speak with him and yet
again, he was giving poor Kaleb the runaround. Her father didn’t tell her that
last part, but Zoey knew him all too well.

A
gentle knock sounded on the side door, the main entrance everyone used when
they stopped by. In the last few months, it had been Grand Central Station at
the Stranford house, what with the various Walker men coming and going to talk
to her father.

“Come
in.” Zoey called out, drying her hands on a dish towel. “What brings you by?”
She asked, pretending there wasn’t some weird nervous tension between them
after the last time they saw one another.

 “Is
your dad here?” Kaleb asked now standing just inside the doorway in the
oversized kitchen. His deep, rich baritone sent a chill racing down her spine,
and she ignored it.
Or tried to anyway.

“In the living room.”
She said, tilting her head in that direction. “Go on in.”

The
smile Kaleb shot back at her was pure sin and Zoey had to turn away just to
keep her reaction to herself.

At
twenty nine years old, one would think she’d figured out how to control her
overheated libido, but, unfortunately for her, that had never happened when it
came to Kaleb; no matter how much she pretended otherwise. Good thing he never
seemed to notice, or he just didn’t care.

“Hey.”
Kaleb called to her, forcing her to turn his way again. “Don’t run off. I want
to talk to you when I’m done here.”

“Umm...
ok.”

Talk to
her
?
Zoey watched as Kaleb disappeared into the living room and for a brief moment,
she considered disappearing. If her damn curiosity hadn’t won out, she would
have too. Instead, she busied herself with the laundry she had put off for the
last two days.

It
had been a busy week for her and Vanessa, having acquired two new clients whose
houses were almost as big as the Wilson’s and had just as many kids to boot.
Her little cleaning company was growing, and she and Vanessa were beginning to
feel the pain of working so many hours just to get it all done. Not for the
first time, she wondered whether she should hire a few more people to help make
it easier.

Admittedly,
she had a hard time committing to sharing her business with anyone else except
for V. It had been a long road to get to this point in her life, and the
independence she’d established had come at a high price. Even if she was living
at home, Zoey knew she was making it on her own. And she knew the hard work
wasn’t going to kill her.

Ever
since her mom had passed away, almost four years before, Zoey had returned home
to live with her father. It was actually a series of events that played out
during that time which convinced her to stay, but she hated to think about the
rest, so she did what she did best. She ignored it.

Initially,
she hadn’t planned to move back home, just wanted to stay for a little while to
make sure her father was taken care of, considering he was getting up there in
age. Her mother hadn’t been young when she finally conceived Zoey, and her
father was a good decade and a half older than her mother. That put him just a
few months shy of eighty, and he was showing every single minute.

Which
meant Zoey was back home full time, living in the guest house and trying to
help out with the remedial chores. After the first couple of weeks of being
back at home, finding
herself
divorced, and just a
little distraught, Zoey had come up with a plan. Instead of moping around the
house, because that definitely wasn’t in her nature, she had decided to clean
houses for a living.

Her
father found the decision amusing considering she’d gone to college and all,
but Zoey had been going through a period where she didn’t want to be around
people. Ok, so yes, she’d been moping.

It
didn’t take long for her to establish a regular clientele and found herself
with more work than she could handle, which was when she turned to Vanessa
Carmichael, her best friend since grade school and now her one and only full
time employee. Since that day, they hadn’t slowed down. Not that Zoey was
complaining – work was good. Especially in the small ranching community they
lived in.

When
Zoey sought V to help her, she’d been working as a dog groomer and decided what
the hell – Zoey still laughed at the idea because V was certainly not the kind
to get dirty, especially cleaning other people’s messes. But, the two of them
worked like clockwork and V had the same strong work ethic as Zoey, so it all
worked out.

Now
she struggled to find the time to clean her father’s house on a weekly basis,
hence the reason she was there on a Friday afternoon folding laundry and doing
dishes when she would much rather
be
out with Vanessa
or Kaleb. Well, maybe not Kaleb, but that was only because she was still
freaked out by whatever chemistry had sparked between them the week before. She
still wasn’t completely sure she hadn’t imagined it.

Standing
in the laundry room, Zoey heard Kaleb’s booming voice as he talked to her
father, having to talk louder than normal due to Carl’s hearing loss – and the
volume of the television. Come to think of it, Zoey had to wonder how he knew
every time someone pulled down the main drive to the house.

Filling
a plastic basket with towels, she went to work folding them quickly, before
moving on to toss another load of clothes in the washer. There always seemed to
be extras to wash thanks to the rags they used to clean houses. Today was no
exception.

“Hey.”

Zoey
jumped at the sound, turning and nearly stumbling head first into Kaleb who was
standing only a foot or so behind her. Putting her hands out to stop herself,
she ended up damn near face planting into his chest.

“I’m
so sorry.” She whispered; her hands suddenly glued to his massive chest. God he
smelled good - something woodsy and fresh and far too appealing. And why the
hell were her hands still on his chest because
holy shit
, no matter how
many years she’d seen him without a shirt on, Zoey had never expected him to
feel quite as hard as he looked.

“No.
I’m
sorry.” Kaleb stated, putting one large hand over hers which were,
yes, still planted on his chest.

The
warmth of his callused fingers as they brushed against the back of her hand had
her nearly stumbling yet again. For all the time she had known the man, never
once did his touch have the impact it did right then.

Looking
up into those intense blue gray eyes, Zoey felt more than saw the heat
reflected there. Taking a quick step back, she pulled her hands from underneath
his and shoved them into the pockets of her jeans. “What’s up?” She asked,
going for unaffected, but probably sounding like an idiot.

“Can
we take a walk?” Kaleb asked, glancing back toward the living room where her
father sat watching television.

“Sure.”
Zoey didn’t know why she was committing herself to this endeavor because, after
that little electric jolt, she wasn’t so sure her legs would hold her up.

Being
close to Kaleb was doing strange things to her insides.

♂♀

Kaleb
wasn’t sure what the hell had just happened, but he was certain that whatever
it was that sparked between him and Zoey, she had felt it too. From the second
her hands touched him, an electric current jarred his entire body to attention.
This wasn’t necessarily a good thing right now.

He
had asked Zoey to go for a walk with him, only now he had a fucking hard on
that was making it damned difficult to stand, much less move. That single touch
had his cock raring to go, harder than granite and throbbing like a mother
fucker.

Letting
her walk in front of him, he attempted to situate himself so that he didn’t do
any damage because his jeans were suddenly way too tight. Stepping out into the
bright Texas sunshine, the warm August breeze wasn’t helping cool him down
either.

“What
did you want to talk about?” She asked, stopping suddenly and turning to look
at him.

Kaleb
nearly skidded to a stop, wary of touching her again because he wasn’t sure
he’d be able to keep from pulling her against him the next time. And he was
fairly certain there would be a next time. That was exactly the reason he was
there, he just hadn’t intended it to be this soon.

Ever
since that night at the diner, Kaleb hadn’t been able to think of much else
other than the way Zoey had reacted to him.

Since
he fully intended to take advantage of the opportunity, he’d decided to pursue
her, rather than to sit back and wait. Zoey was stubborn, and if he had to wait
around for her, well, hell, he might be waiting forever.

“Let’s
walk.” With a tilt of his head, he directed her toward the tree line separating
the Stranford land from the Walker’s.

“Have
you talked to your dad today?
He doing
ok?” He just
spoke to Carl, but today seemed worse than the last time he stopped by just a
couple of days before. His memory seemed to be failing him. Either that or the
man was pretending with the best of them. Kaleb didn’t quite believe that
though.

“He
seems fine to me.
Most of the time.”
Zoey said, not
looking at him. “I asked him about the land.”

Kaleb
contemplated what to say next. That was only part of his reason for coming over
today, or maybe it had just been his excuse. Either way, he was still
interested in purchasing the land and anything that would help get Travis off
his ass would be worth it.
“And?”

“I
think he’s interested.” She admitted, stopping just short of the tall oak trees
and turning to look up at him. “I think you were right. I think he’s leery of
letting go of this land because it’s been in our family for so long.”

It
was a valid concern. From where Kaleb stood if the shoe had been on the other
foot, he wasn’t so sure his family would be able to part with what had become
part of their heritage, even if it meant they might lose it all.

He
just happened to believe that buying the land would help alleviate some of the
financial strain on Carl and Zoey. Telling her that might just get him in a
world of hurt, because if Zoey was anything, she was independent, and knowing
others were aware of her financial struggles wouldn’t sit well with her.

“Scared, maybe.”
Kaleb said, looking down at Zoey standing only a few inches away from him. He
wasn’t sure if she realized how close they were to one another but he damn sure
did.
“Ornery, definitely.”

The
way she stared at him, as though she expected him to pounce on her at the first
chance he got was somewhat amusing. If she only knew how long he’d been
fighting this attraction, and how many times he considered pulling her close
and kissing her until neither of them knew their own names.

Standing
next to her now, Kaleb again felt the significant difference in their height
and their size. Zoey was a petite little thing, proven when he’d been able to
cover both of her small hands with just one of his. But her size didn’t fool
him. Small in stature, big in spirit, Zoey was.

“You’re
still coming to the party tomorrow, right?” Ok, so that was his other reason
for coming over.

Zoey
looked down at the ground before turning her beautiful blue eyes back on him.
She didn’t look nearly as confident as she normally did.

“I
don’t know.” If he didn’t know her better, Kaleb might’ve been worried about
her answer, but the look in her eyes told him everything he needed to know.
Zoey could never hide anything from him, not even when she tried.

His
brain was suddenly sidetracked, his eyes riveted on her mouth and the way she
chewed her bottom lip. He wanted to lick her lips, to taste her sweetness, to
hold her in his arms and show her exactly what he’d been holding back for more
years than he cared to think about.

So
what was holding him back?

When
her tongue slid out, running over her bottom lip, he barely restrained a groan.
She was killing him here, and a quick look into her eyes said she knew it.

“You
owe me, remember?” She didn’t owe him a damned thing, but if she was going to
tease him like this, even if she wasn’t aware she was doing it, he wasn’t
responsible for what might happen next.

“So
are you asking me to go to the party as your friend?” Zoey asked; those intense
eyes boring a hole into hi
m
.

“Yes.
No. Fuck.” He was back to watching her mouth, desperate to touch her, taste
her. “What would you say if I said that I wanted you to go with me as more than
friends?”

Zoey
looked like he just spoke in a foreign language and she was trying to
translate, but he could see a glimmer of interest in her eyes. He just wanted
her to say yes, and at this point, he was ready to kiss the answer out of her.