Waiting for You (11 page)

He parked the truck in front of her little cottage and turned to her. “I had a lot of fun tonight. Thanks for staying.”

“Me, too,” Karise admitted, feeling like she should go but not quite
ready to end the night. Aidan hopped out of the truck and walked
around to get her door. They walked down the short path, hands not
quite
touching. After a
polite
g
oodnigh
t, he left. Alone inside, she leaned
against her door, wondering why he hadn’t kissed her. Sure, she’d told
him repeatedly she wasn’t interested, but maybe she’d been wrong.

A knock at the door interrupted her worried train of thought. She
opened it to find Aidan with a preoccupied look on his face.

“I forgot something,” he offered by way of explanation before pulling
her into his arms. He kissed her without hesitation. She met his touch
eagerly, every hour of unrequited longing driving her need. He kissed
her until she was dizzy and then kissed her once more, this time with
tender reverence, before bidding her goodnight. This time when she
leaned against her door all alone, an entirely different train of thought
filled her mind.

KARISE HOPED SHE DIDN’T
look like a walking picnic basket.
She’d picked the red checked shirt up in a thrift store thinking it was
cute. Now she felt like, well, a walking picnic basket. She’d nearly
changed
her shirt three different times, but something had distracted
her each and every time. First it was Kate, calling to get the scoop on the
rest of the evening. Then it was a small explosion of coffee, announcing
the final demise of the hated coffee maker. The third interruption was
the door.

Aidan’s grin was too amused when he greeted her.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing.” He held up his hands in a show of innocence. “Why do you assume I did something?”

“Okay, what stupid thing have I done?”

“Nothing.”

“Is it the shirt? Does it look like a picnic basket?”

Aidan guffawed. “If you’re going to make references to your shirt
containing edible delicacies, then you really should button it. Otherwise
it’s just over the top.”

Karise wanted to die. She told the Creator of all things that if he
had an ounce of pity in him, he’d take her then and there. She pulled the shirt together, too flustered to manage actually maneuvering the buttons. “You said I hadn’t done anything stupid.”

“On the contrary, I found it quite delightful.”

Karise was tempted to call him an ass, but she was afraid she’d
just sound petulant so she let it go. She was beginning to question the
intelligence of even considering working for this man. On the other
hand, avoiding him had only made her want him more. Maybe spending
more time with him would be just the thing to get over her little
infatuation. Or maybe that’s just what she was telling herself because she wanted to spend more time with him.

“Karise?”

“Hmm?”

“Did you blow up the coffee maker?” He nodded toward the mess
on the counter.

“I didn’t do it. It just happened.”

His expression said he didn’t believe her. “Hey Karise…”

“Yes?”

“You really need to button that shirt before I unbutton it the rest of the way.”

“Dang it.” Realizing there really was no coming back from this one,
she decided to have a little fun with it. When it came to her skill at the
art of seduction, it was about the same as juggling – marginal at best.
So though she felt ridiculous doing it, Karise buttoned each button slowly
and with purpose in the hopes that it caused at least some measure of discomfort. His expression pleased her, as did the fact that she had to
remind him to breathe.

Her little victory put a touch of sass in her step as she finished
getting ready. The ride back to his house was smattered with small talk,
but mostly each took in the morning in silence. This time, when they pulled down his driveway, the fields were dotted with little goats in
every imaginable coat and pattern. Tiny babies ran and leapt and
played as their mothers ignored them in favor of grazing for breakfast.
Before the truck even came in view of the house, it was met by the two
mammoth beasts that had been locked up the night before.

The white dog ran gracefully ahead of them, occasionally bouncing
back their direction like an oversized puppy. The black one lumbered
along beside them, his pace much more in line with his extreme size.

“Let me get out of the truck first,” Aidan warned.

“Will your dogs eat me if I don’t?”

“Possibly.”

Karise nodded, absorbing the information. “They look too sweet to eat anyone.”

“That changes pretty quick if you’re a stranger here uninvited.”

“Don’t you worry they’ll hurt Zoe?”

“If you saw them with her, you’d know the answer. With these dogs,
you fall into one of three categories: family to be protected, stranger to
keep out, or stranger to be tolerated because your pack leader said so.”

“Where I come from, most of the dogs were mangy strays.”

“I can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t have at least one dog.” He put the truck in park and hopped out to be greeted by
the pair who’d escorted them down the drive. The animals writhed with such excitement Karise would have thought he’d been gone for more than thirty minutes. Aidan came around the front of the truck to open her door, offering a hand in true gentlemanly fashion.

Karise accepted his hand, not at all unhappy when he didn’t let go. His dogs moved in, curious about the new girl. She instinctively
held a hand out to them, which they both sniffed, looking to Aidan for
direction. He smiled at them and their tails wagged in response. They
were such intrinsically happy creatures Karise couldn’t help smiling in response.

“Karise, meet Bonnie and Clyde.”

“Cute.” Karise knelt to greet each dog. Bonnie looked white from
a distance, but closer inspection showed her coloring was actually more
butter-cream. There was something distinctly feminine and graceful about her despite the fact that her head was so massive it wouldn’t
fit in both of Karise’s hands. Her fur, though short, was thick and soft.

“Bonnie is an Anatolian Shepherd. That’s a Livestock Guardian breed
from Turkey. Most Anatolians live entirely with their herd or flock, but Bonnie is more of an all-around farm dog here.”

Karise nodded with interest. The entire concept was foreign to her. “
What about Clyde?”

“He’s a Newfoundland. If it wasn’t for Bonnie keeping him on his t
oes, he’d be quite content to live his life imitating a bear skin rug.”

Karise thought Clyde looked like a mountain of shiny black fur with a pink tongue that didn’t fit in his mouth. There was something
about him that made her itch to hug him, though. “I bet he’s a good
snuggler. A girl could get herself a dog like that and never need a man.”

Clyde responded by kissing her hand.

“Clyde, buddy, not cool moving in on my girl.”Aidan ruffled the dog’s fur.

Karise tried not to fixate on the fact that he’d called her his girl.

“Have you had breakfast?” He led her to the house, the dogs
following happily behind.

“You saw my failed attempt at coffee. That was as close as I got.”

“I can fix that.” He set about pouring her a cup of coffee as soon
as they were inside. It wasn’t long before he had a spread of fresh fruit
set out to go with their coffee. He offered her something more
substantia
l,
but she was still fairly stuffed from the night before.

“Not to talk myself out of a job,” Karise started, looking around
the little kitchen, “but I can’t believe you want to add on to this place.
It has an amazing feel to it. I’m hesitant to disrupt that.”

“You are a terrible salesperson,” he informed her.

“Probably not the best trait for someone who wants to be their
own boss, huh?”

“Probably not.” He followed her gaze around the room. “I do love this place, but I also really do need room to entertain. And if it’s
ever more than just me and Zoe, there’s no way we’d fit. Not without
moving Bonnie and Clyde outside, that is.”

Karise allowed herself a moment to imagine what it would be like
to be part of the “more than me and Zoe” he’d mentioned. She shoved the
pretty picture aside and focused on the job at hand. “Okay, so add space
without losing the vibe. Gotcha. What time frame are you looking at?”

“Whatever works for you. Well, I mean, sometime within the next
year or so.”

Karise laughed. “I think I can pencil you in. My schedule’s pretty packed, but you’re worth moving a few things around.”

“I’m honored.”

“You totally should be.”

After breakfast, he took her on the grand tour. As charming as she
found the place, it was apparent why he wanted to expand. In her home village, this would have been a mansion. By American standards,
it was cozy at best. She took notes about what he liked and what he didn’t,
snapping pictures as they went along to jog her memory when she
would go over her scribbles later.

After they’d finished looking over the house, they moved on to the barn. Karise had no idea so much went into milking goats.

“When we first started, the girls all had to be milked by hand. Now
that we have 20 or more in milk at any given time, we use the machine,”
he explained.

“Somehow, I can’t picture you milking a goat.”

“I can’t either. That’s Grandpa Joe’s job – I just fill in as needed.”

“Grandpa Joe?”

“He
manages
the farm side of things. Since Zoe was still a baby when
I hired him, she just kind of grew up calling him Grandpa Joe. He and
his wife live in a cabin at the east end of the property. Laura oversees the kitchen. Everything I know about cheese, I learned from her.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what it is about the whole thing, but I’m
completely fascinated. What made you decide to give up being an artist
in a band to raise goats and make cheese?”

Aidan
shrugged
self-consciously
as he sat on one of the goat milking
stands. “I found myself all alone with a baby to raise and no clue what
I was going to do about that. I’d never even babysat before. I didn’t know
how to change a diaper. I had no clue what kids liked. I was totally and
completely lost.”

Karise sat beside him on the stand, listening quietly and still unsure
that she followed the logic.

“Kate and Gavin took us in, gave me a place to be while I thought
about what was next. I had some savings thanks to a few fluke painting
sales
, but I
didn’t
want to
trust
Zoe’s future to something so…
intermittent
.”

“Kate and Gavin really are good people, aren’t they?”

“The best.” Aidan smiled. “Spending all that time hanging out at their winery, I began to realize there was a niche market out there for
specialty cheeses. I liked the idea of raising Zoe on a farm with animals,
too. So I did some research and put together a business plan. When this
place went up for auction, I was able to get a loan to cover what my
savings wouldn’t. Things just fell together from there. I found Joe and
Laura—they go to church with Elsie, whom I met at Kate’s. They lost their farm when the mortgage bubble burst. It worked out for all of
us for them to move onto the place to help me run it. They were willing
to accept a roof and a percent of profits in lieu of a paycheck, which was
good,
becaus
e
getting
the place up and running pretty well w
iped
me out.”

“And you did all of this with an infant?” Karise was incredulous.

“I had help. I definitely couldn’t have done it without my friends.
And Zoe, well, you’ve met Zoe. She’s amazing, and she loves this life.
It suits her to a T. She even pitches in and helps milk goats when the machines are down.”

“So, it’s going well? Business is good?”

Aidan nodded slowly, considering his answer. “Pretty good, yeah.
We have to be careful, but we pay the bills. We’ve built a fairly solid customer base here in California, but if we want to do more than pay the bills, we’re going to have to expand our territory. I was in Boston to chase down a lead with a grocery chain out there.”

“Did it pan out?”

“I met you.” His gaze was serious.

“Did it pan out in any way that’s productive?” She tried rephrasing
the question.

“I’ll let you know when I find out.”

Karise thought about it for a moment, not sure if she should give
voice to the idea that popped into her head. “You know, I could ask Devon
to make a few calls. I bet he could set up some meetings that might help.”