The Bridal Path: Danielle (7 page)

“Who’s Matilda Fawcett?”

Delighted to focus on somebody else’s love life, Dani elaborated on her father’s current flirtation. “Matilda Fawcett is the retired algebra teacher from Riverton High. Much to our amazement, my sisters and I have recently discovered that she and Daddy very nearly had a fling thirty-some years ago, even though she was his teacher at the time. All indications are that they are about to take up where they left off.”

She sighed heavily. “I was so hoping he would. Or if not Matilda Fawcett, then maybe Annie, our housekeeper. Not that she’d have him. She knows him too well.”

“In other words, you were hoping he’d be so busy he’d back off and leave you alone?”

“Precisely. You have no idea what it’s like to have a father who’s a control freak.”

Slade’s expression darkened. “I think I do,” he said.

Something in his voice and the suddenly harsh lines of his face suggested that Dani had inadvertently wandered onto dangerous turf. “You, too?” she asked cautiously.

“Let’s just say my father makes yours seem like a disinterested third party.”

Dani’s eyes widened. “Oh, my. I didn’t know it was possible to be any worse than Daddy.”

“That’s because you haven’t met Duke Watkins.”

Still treading carefully because the subject obviously made him uncomfortable, she said, “You two don’t get along?”

“Like oil and water.” He shrugged. “Actually, it’s not so bad anymore.”

“Maturity set in?”

“No. I just haven’t been anywhere near Texas for the past fifteen years.”

Dani couldn’t hide her shock. As aggravating as her father could be, she couldn’t imagine him not being smack in the middle of her life. When he’d run off to Arizona a year or so before to kick up his heels, as he put it, she’d missed his drop-in visits and even his meddling more than she could say. One of the things she loved most about Riverton was that her family was all practically within shouting distance. Maybe they did make nuisances of themselves from time to time. It was a small price to pay for that sense of connection.

“You haven’t seen your family in all that time?” she asked, thoroughly dismayed by the idea, even though Slade was clearly content with the arrangement.

“My mother came to visit once when Timmy was born, but after that she concluded the visits weren’t worth the grief she took from my father.”

Slade apparently caught her distraught expression, because he forced a smile. “Hey, don’t look so sad. It’s for the best. There’s no point in spending time with folks if all you’re going to do is butt heads and shout.”

“But the boys don’t even know their grandparents,” she said impulsively. “That’s the kind of relationship that gives kids a sense of continuity, of their place in the universe.”

“I can’t argue with that,” Slade agreed. “But the situation my kids face is more the norm than not these days, what with the way people move around and divorce.”

“I still think it’s a shame, especially when it could so easily be changed,” she said.

Before she could say more, Slade regarded her wryly and asked, “Now who’s meddling?”

Dani was about to protest when she realized he was exactly right. She was meddling in something that was none of her business. It was just that she was already coming to think of Timmy and Kevin as an important part of her life. She had their best interests at heart. How awful that they had grandparents they’d never even met and undoubtedly knew very little about, judging from Slade’s reticence on the subject.

It was awful for Slade, as well. Cutting ties with his family had to hurt more than he cared to admit. She resolved to see what she could do about getting him to mend fences. But not today. His forbidding expression warned her she would get nowhere.

She held up her hands. “I surrender.”

An odd light flared in his eyes at her choice of words, then faded so quickly she was certain she must have imagined it. He looked as if he were preparing to bolt, so she quickly improvised an invitation that would assure them of spending some time together soon.

“I was thinking of taking the boys out to the ranch day after tomorrow, if that’s okay with you.”

“I suppose,” he said after a very long hesitation.

Puzzled by his reaction, she asked, “Would you like to come along?”

“No,” he said so sharply that Dani simply stared.

“Slade?” she said quizzically.

He stood up. “I’m sorry. It’s time I got the boys home, or we’ll never get dinner on the table.”

Dani resisted the desire to suggest they stay and eat with her. She might want Slade Watkins and his boys to become her family, but it was far too soon for Slade himself to become aware of that. It would probably scare him to death or worse, cause him to view her as desperate and pitiful. No, now was not the time to press the issue.

“I baked an extra apple pie today. Would you like to take it home for dessert?”

At last his expression softened. “Now, you know perfectly well I can’t say no to that. The boys would never forgive me. It’ll probably be the only edible thing on the table.”

She hesitated to bring it up again, since the last mention had nearly brought about an explosion of temper, but she wanted to be absolutely clear about what Slade’s terse reply had meant.

“Are you sure you don’t mind if the boys go to the ranch without you? I think they’ll really enjoy it. They can learn to ride. Jake and Sara will both be around. So will Daddy, no doubt. They won’t get hurt.”

He looked torn, but he finally relented. “If they want to go, it’s fine with me. Just don’t expect me to come along.”

Dani knew there was a story behind that, but she wisely refrained from pressing the issue. For the moment she had his commitment to let the boys go, and that would have to do.

* * *

The next afternoon she was still puzzling over Slade’s odd reaction to the idea of visiting Three-Stars when she looked up and saw him heading toward the house with a bagful of lemons.

“A peace offering,” he said as he handed it to her. “I know I was curt with you yesterday.”

Dani smiled and gestured toward the lemons. “So you brought along a tart reminder?”

He grinned. “Something like that. How are the cupcakes coming for Saturday’s garage sale?”

“Baked and iced and in the freezer. Two dozen of them. We had to make them today since we’ll be so busy tomorrow.”

“Am I too late to help with the lemonade?”

“Absolutely not,” she said, getting several pitchers out of the cupboard.

When she handed him an old-fashioned hand juicer, he simply stared. “Where’s the fancy electric one?”

“I’m sure you can handle this one,” she assured him. “It’s simple and effective. Life did go on quite nicely before all the modern conveniences were invented.” She handed him a knife. “Go for it.”

He studied the pile of lemons, the glass juicer and the knife as if they were alien objects. Dani hid a grin at his fierce look of concentration as he began to squeeze the juice from the first lemon. He stared hard at the minuscule amount that wound up in the tray, then looked up at her.

“It’s going to be a long afternoon, isn’t it?”

She chuckled. “But I promise great rewards for your efforts.”

His gaze clashed with hers and held. He rose slowly. “I can only think of one reward that will be worth all this work.”

Dani got the distinct impression from that glint in his eye that he was not referring to a pitcher of homemade lemonade.

“And I don’t think I’m willing to wait for it,” he added, stepping closer.

Before she realized fully what he intended, he lowered his head and grazed her lips with a tender kiss. Dani blinked and stared into Slade’s deep blue eyes. He looked a little dazed, but as quickly as that reaction registered in her brain, his bafflement changed to desire and his mouth recaptured hers.

Tenderness rapidly gave way to something far more tempestuous. Dani’s pulse quickened, then raced as his arms slid around her waist. Their bodies fit together as perfectly, as intimately as if they’d been carved for mating.

Wild, unexpected sensations rampaged through her, stealing breath and rational thought. All that mattered was that deep, memorable kiss, the skim of flesh against flesh, the taunting rub of fabric over sensitized nipples, the stunning press of masculine arousal.

And the heat. Oh, my, the incomparable heat. Dani thought she had never experienced anything quite like it. She felt it everywhere, warm and liquid where their tongues met, blazing over her skin where his caresses lingered, and raging like a wildfire in her veins.

The kiss lasted forever…and not nearly long enough. When they finally broke apart, both of them breathless and shaken, Dani was speechless. So, it seemed, was Slade. In fact, he looked as if he’d been poleaxed.

She was surprised to see that his hands shook as he turned away and deliberately reached for another lemon. Surely this wasn’t half as shocking to him as it had been to her, she thought as she sank back onto a chair and clutched the edge of the table for some sort of link to reality. Surely he’d experienced a zillion kisses just as devastating.

That dazed look in his eyes, however, said otherwise. And it was enough–more than enough, in fact–to give Dani the courage to move on with her plan to capture Slade Watkins’s heart and his boys for her own.

Chapter Five

“A
nd there were horses and cows and real live cowboys,” Kevin told Slade exuberantly over supper the next night. “Jake Dawson used to ride bulls in the rodeo. He was a champion. Sara even rode on a bucking bronco in a contest.” His eyes were wide with the wonder of it all. “I want to grow up and live on a ranch just like Three-Stars.”

Slade winced. His son could have done exactly that had Slade made peace with Kevin and Timmy’s grandfather. He tried to imagine what his son would think of him if he knew Slade had walked away from such an opportunity, if he guessed that his father had shunned the very life-style that had so entranced Kevin on their outing with Dani to her family’s ranch. This was precisely the outcome he had feared when she had first suggested the visit.

Slade glanced at Timmy, who was curiously silent. “What about you? Did you have a good time?”

“It was okay, I guess,” Timmy said.

The lack of enthusiasm was such a contrast to Kevin’s delight, so at odds with Timmy’s usual exuberance, that Slade was instantly on the alert. Something had clearly happened to his older son on that visit to the ranch.

“Did you go for a horseback ride?” he asked, trying to tread carefully on tender young male pride as he sought answers.

“Yeah.”

“It was awesome,” Kevin chimed in. “I rode this palomino pony named Buttercup. It’s a sissy name, but she was a great horse.”

“And you, Timmy?”

The question was greeted by absolute silence, until Kevin finally ventured, “Timmy fell off his horse.”

Timmy’s face contorted with anger. “You weren’t supposed to tell,” he shouted at Kevin as he shoved back his chair and ran from the room.

Guilty tears welled up in Kevin’s eyes. “I promised I wouldn’t tell,” he admitted to Slade, “but he didn’t have to go and get all crazy. He didn’t get hurt or anything. It’s not like you’re going to say we can never go again, right?” Worry creased his brow. “You won’t, will you?”

“Of course not,” Slade said at once. “But I’d better go talk to him. Finish your dinner, okay?”

Kevin stood up, too. “Maybe I’d better go and tell him I’m sorry,” he said stoically.

Slade scooped up his youngest and hugged him. For all of the boyish squabbling in which he and Timmy engaged, they were fiercely loyal. Of the two, Kevin was by far the most compassionate. Guilt radiated from every pore over hurting his much-idolized big brother’s feelings.

“You can apologize later,” Slade told him. “Let me see him alone for a bit. I’ll bet I can get him back in here in time for dessert.”

Kevin’s expression brightened. “Is it one of Dani’s pies?”

“The rest of the apple pie,” Slade confirmed. “Now eat your vegetables.”

Kevin’s eyes narrowed. “Will Timmy have to eat his, too?”

“Yes, Timmy will have to eat his, too, if he wants dessert.”

With Kevin grudgingly forcing down the cooked peas and carrots, Slade took his time climbing the stairs. He could just imagine Timmy’s humiliation at having fallen from the horse in front of Dani. His pride would be in tatters.

With the injury to Timmy’s ego so fresh, Slade doubted anything he could say at this point would make a difference, but he had to find some way to convince Timmy that falling from a horse wasn’t the end of the world. He had to do a far better job than his own father had done at explaining that not everyone was suited for ranch life.

He knocked softly on Timmy’s bedroom door. He could hear muffled sobs inside. Doubting that Timmy would willingly admit him, Slade opened the door, crossed the room and stood over the huddled figure of his boy.

“You okay?”

“I’m going to kill the squirt,” Timmy managed to choke out between sobs.

Slade held back a smile, then sat on the edge of the bed. Timmy instinctively scooted closer without looking up at him.

“I don’t think killing him will be necessary,” Slade told him. “Kevin feels really bad that he tattled on you, but he was right to do it this one time, you know.”

Timmy lifted his tear-streaked face and stared with openmouthed astonishment. “You said tattling on people is practically a sin.”

“Sometimes, when you care a lot about someone and you can’t help them, you need to let someone who can help know what’s going on.”

“It was just a fall off a stupid horse,” Timmy countered. “It’s not like I broke my arm or committed a crime or something.”

“Was Dani there when you fell?” Slade asked, trying to get to the heart of his son’s dismay.

His son bobbed his head once as his cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

“That must have felt pretty awful,” Slade suggested, aching for his son and recalling all too vividly his own humiliation under similar circumstances.

Timmy nodded again.

“Did you get back on?”

Timmy’s chin quivered as he shook his head. “I couldn’t, Dad. I just couldn’t. I ran away. Dani had to come and find me. She told me I shouldn’t feel bad, but I did. I felt dumb. We weren’t even out of the paddock or anything. Even Kevin stayed on, and he’s just a baby.”