Читать книгу The Rancher's Family Thanksgiving - Cathy Thacker Gillen - Страница 6

Chapter Two

Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye….

Susie couldn’t believe she was standing there, blubbering in the parking lot.

She could believe Tyler was right there to fold her into his big strong arms and hold her close as the emotion poured out of her in great, galvanizing waves.

It wasn’t the first time she had turned to him this way. Although she was beginning to think maybe it should be the last.

It wasn’t fair of her, dumping all this on him when all he had done was care about her and stand by her. The two of them were crisis-buddies, nothing more, even if they had fallen into bed together, at last count, four highly memorable times.

Even if he was the only man she had ever made love with. Or even wanted to make love with… Never mind dared get that close.

She had to get a grip. He wasn’t her pillow.

Although right now with her drenching his shirt, that must be what he felt like.

She pulled away from him, wiping her eyes, and voiced the first excuse that came to mind that wouldn’t lead to questions. “I’m premenstrual,” she sniffed.

He chucked her beneath her chin. She should have known he wouldn’t let her off easy.

“Since when?” he teased.

In an effort to shield her eyes from his probing gaze, Susie let her forehead rest against his chest. “Since… forever,” she mumbled. A fresh flood of tears pressed hotly behind her eyes.

As if knowing the storm wasn’t over yet, Tyler tucked her into the curve of his arm and drew her back, to lean against the passenger side of his pickup truck. “There must be something more,” he murmured against the top of her head, one hand stroking down her back in long soothing strokes. “’Cause you rarely ever cry.” His warm breath touched her ear. He brought her closer yet. “Not like that.”

She had gotten pretty good at blinking back—or all-out hiding—discreet tears, when she was in public. It didn’t mean she didn’t feel incredible, overwhelming sadness sometimes.

And it didn’t mean Tyler didn’t pick up on the slightest change in her mood or demeanor. If she didn’t tell him now, he would just keep pestering her, keep digging, keep searching out the truth.

Finally, she shrugged.

She took the folded tissue he pressed into her hand.

Wiped her eyes. Blew her nose. And still couldn’t look him in the eye. “It’s everything,” she said finally.

Tyler brought her back into the curve of his strong arms. His touch was more brotherly than anything else, despite their passionate past. “I’m listening,” he told her in a low, gravelly voice.

Susie took another halting breath as she struggled to get her emotions under control. “If you must know, it’s Rebecca and Trevor. Seeing them together tonight, just back from their honeymoon. They looked so incredibly happy together. And I’m glad for them, I really am.” More than she had words to say. “But…”

Trevor nodded, even as his grip on her tightened protectively. “I felt a stab of envy, too,” he admitted in a low, understanding voice.

Susie pressed on the bridge of her nose to keep more tears from falling. “Which is stupid,” she continued, making no effort to hide her aggravation with herself, “because marriage has never been something I wanted.”

Trevor exhaled. His big body began to relax. “Me, either.”

The tears she had been doing everything to stop flowed anyway. “And yet…”

“Looking at the two of them—” Tyler picked up where she left off, as intuitive as ever where Susie was concerned “—I couldn’t help but feel I was missing out on something pretty spectacular.”

“Yeah.” Susie forced a watery smile. She dabbed at her eyes and took in a deep breath. “Although if we see them again in a month, they’ll probably be fighting over who leaves the toothpaste cap on and who leaves it off.”

Tyler ruffled the hair on the top of her head playfully. He drew back, smiling now. “And even that will be spectacular.”

Susie warmed at his attentiveness, even as she cautioned herself not to get used to it. Due to their busy schedules, there were times when the two of them went months without seeing each other, except for the occasional accidental meeting.

A couple other vehicles left the hospital parking lot. But Tyler seemed in no hurry to depart.

Nor was she.

She needed to talk to him tonight. She needed the special brand of comfort only he could give.

“So what else is on your mind?” he prodded.

Susie leaned against the side of the pickup truck, the cold metal a contrast with the warmth of Tyler’s tall frame. She folded her arms in front of her and looked up at the crescent moon, peeking out from behind the clouds. “I realized tonight I probably shouldn’t have agreed to my mom and dad’s plan to match me up with someone.”

Tyler shrugged, unconcerned. He turned so he was standing with one shoulder braced against the truck, facing her. He reached over and brushed a strand of hair from her cheek and tucked it behind her ear. “So tell ’em you’ve changed your mind.”

Susie studied the strong column of his throat, visible in the open neck of his shirt. “I made a deal. Besides—” she paused, bit her lip “—this is the only way I know to get them to back off for now.”

“So you’re assuming this won’t work?” Tyler didn’t look unhappy about that.

Nor, Susie realized, was she.

Finally, she felt herself begin to relax. And smile. “Well, duh, of course not,” she said wryly. She paused to look deep into his hazel eyes, noticing all over again what a ruggedly handsome man he was. And it was more than just the symmetry of his features. It was his kindness and compassion. The humor he exhibited. The way he picked up on a person’s slightest change in mood, the way he could always make a person feel better, with an offhand comment or smile.

Tyler McCabe was one man who was beautiful inside and out.

A man who revered family and friends.

A man who should not be going through life alone.

Aware he was waiting for her to continue unburdening herself, she said, “Fix-ups never work.”

He squinted as if doing some inner calculations, then finally allowed in a matter-of-fact tone, “Statistically, there’s probably a slight chance.”

Susie blew out an exasperated breath and shifted, her knee nudging his leg slightly in the process. “Not chance enough,” she muttered. The idea of living some real-life fairy tale occasionally dredged up romantic dreams she’d had about her future. But inevitably reality intervened and hit her with a terrible illness, disabusing her of any notion that she lived in a bubble, protected from all the worst things in life. Others might lead a charmed existence. Not her.

Never her.

“Some of us aren’t cut out for marriage,” Susie said firmly.

“I hear you.”

She smiled. “So don’t look for me to have an engagement ring on my finger, because it’s just not going to happen.”

Was that her imagination or was that a distinctly male satisfaction gleaming in his eyes, before concern took over once again.

Tyler studied her with his usual intuitiveness. “So what else is dragging you down?”

Susie knew there was something more, too, but she couldn’t figure out what.

She just knew, after she had talked to Tyler today, out at Healing Meadow, that she’d felt depressed. And her low mood had continued through the evening, only abating slightly when she had asked Tyler to go to the hospital with her.

Tyler’s voice turned husky. His hand cupped her shoulder, transmitting warmth and comfort through the cloth. “Is it about Emmaline?” He paused. “Did Whit Jenkins tell you something tonight before you went to see her that you’ve yet to share with me?”

Susie shook her head, still holding his eyes. “It’s not that. Whit told me Emmaline’s prognosis was good, that they are expecting her to make a full recovery as soon as she finishes the current course of chemo. Emmaline’s just depressed from the stress of treatment, and needed someone in her life who could relate. Since the hospital doesn’t have a support group for teens—currently she is their only oncology patient in that age group—and she refuses to go to the regular group, he thought—hoped—I would step in to be there for Emmaline.”

Tyler frowned, all protective male again. “Having no idea how hard that was going to be for you.”

Susie gave Tyler a look that let the handsome rancher know he did not have to go after Whit. “I’ve visited with adults who were sick and struggling with the disease. I’ve never talked to kids who were the age I was when I got diagnosed. I guess I just wasn’t prepared for how swiftly it would take me back to that place.”

A place she never wanted to visit again.

Suddenly aware how cold and damp the evening had become, how thin her sweater was, Susie shivered and wrapped her arms more tightly in front of her. “Or how overly emotional it would make me feel,” she finished, teeth chattering slightly.

Tyler scowled, abruptly looking like a knight charged with protecting his queen. “I know you want to help Emmaline. She obviously needs comforting from someone who can relate to her. But it doesn’t have to be you,” Tyler instructed her firmly.

He opened the door to her truck, and guided her inside, his hand lingering on her waist until he was sure she was settled behind the wheel. “I can go see Emmaline, in your place. I can take my aunt Kate. You know she does counseling here. She deals with stuff like this all the time.”

Susie appreciated Tyler’s desire to shield her from hurt, as always. This time she couldn’t let him shoulder the burden. She was strong now, as capable of helping others as he was. And it was time Tyler realized that.

Susie fit her truck keys into the ignition. “Kate is wonderful. I’m sure Emmaline would appreciate seeing both of you.”

Tyler rested a hand on the back of her seat and propped one boot on the running board. Elbow resting on his thigh, he studied her expression and guessed, “But you can’t duck out on her.”

Not and live with myself, I can’t.

Susie bolstered her courage even as she turned the key. “I made a promise to her tonight, Tyler.” She waited until he had closed the door for her, then put down her window and stated, just as firmly, “It’s a commitment I intend to keep.”

THE FOLLOWING MORNING, Tyler dropped by the Carrigans to see Susie’s parents. A Saturday, both Meg and Luke were working outside in the yard, raking leaves and weeding flower beds. As Tyler approached, he thought about how respected both were in the community. Meg was director of nursing at Laramie Community Hospital. Luke ran the family practice program that had recruited both Tyler’s cousin Riley, and their son, Jeremy Carrigan, to be on the hospital staff. They were good parents and they loved all four of their children dearly.

But they were making a mistake and it was up to Tyler to help them see it.

Hoping his meddling wouldn’t be taken the wrong way, Tyler headed up the walk. The last thing he wanted to do was make Susie’s life more difficult than it already was.

“Hi, Dr. Carrigan.”

“Tyler.” Luke put down his edger and ran a hand through his silver-blond hair.

Tyler nodded at Susie’s mother. “Mrs. Carrigan.”

Meg left her spade in the dirt and rose from her place beside the flower beds. Her auburn hair was mussed from the breeze stirring the fall air. Dirt and grass stained the knees of her coveralls. She smiled at Tyler, inching off her work gloves.

“Mind if I have a word with you?” Tyler asked.

“Of course not.” Meg motioned him to the screened-in back porch at the rear of the large turn-of-the-century Cape Cod.

Unlike the evening before, the afternoon was pleasantly warm.

She slipped into the house and came back with three glasses of mint iced tea.

“What’s up?” Luke Carrigan always got straight to the point.

Tyler sat in a cushioned wicker chair, opposite the long-married couple. “I want to talk to you about this plan to fix up Susie with four more guys.”

Brows lifted. Meg and Luke exchanged the kind of husband and wife glances that brimmed with understanding but required no words. “She told you,” Meg said finally.

Tyler nodded. “The first introduction didn’t go so well.”

“Yes, we know,” Luke said.

“Whit called this morning to say he and Susie were destined to be friends. The chemistry just wasn’t there.” Meg made no effort to hide her disappointment.

The next was a little harder to broach. Tyler frowned. “She’s upset you paired her with an oncologist.”

Meg and Luke clearly did not agree with Tyler’s opinion that it had been a stupid thing to do.

Giving Tyler the kind of man-to-man look that held nothing back, Luke replied, “Who better, if it had worked out?”

Me, Tyler wanted to say, though he had no idea where that thought had come from. He and Susie were not—had never been—a couple. They were crisis buddies, pure and simple.

Most of the time they were busy living their own lives. But right now Susie needed his help in the worst way.

Tyler approached her parents with the same mixture of tempered caution and compassion he used on his patients’ owners.

“Susie is trying to put the disease in her past.”

Meg’s expression clouded with remorse. It was clear she was reacting as much as a medical professional now, as a mother.

“That’s not possible, Tyler,” Meg said.

Luke added, with empathy, “None of us can ever forget what Susie went through to regain her good health.” He paused, looked Tyler straight in the eye, his aggravation plain. “I would think you would understand that better than anyone, given how much time you spent with Susie during her treatment.”

“And every time since, when she has encountered some sort of difficulty,” Meg added, with a look at her husband.

It hadn’t mattered what kind of problem Susie’d had, Tyler thought. Business, personal, whatever. If she needed a shoulder to lean on, he was there. And when she no longer needed him, he just as conveniently disappeared. That way, they could maintain the status quo. It was very important to Tyler to maintain their relationship just as it was. To not do anything that would risk what he hoped would be a life-long connection.

“And we appreciate all that you’ve done for her, thus far, more than we can say,” Luke continued.

Not about to be cast in the role of hero now, as he had been by the Carrigans back then, Tyler shrugged. As much as he pretended Susie was just another friend, deep inside, he knew that was not the case. Susie and he shared an intimacy, an ability to tell each other anything, he had with no one else, and that included his two triplet-brothers. Tyler sensed that for Susie, as close as she was to her family, she felt the same way about him. She could unburden herself to him in a way she could not confide in anyone else.

It had been that way from his very first visit to her hospital room. It was that way now, and always would be, he figured, no matter who else came and went in their lives. And if the past was any indication, other people would always come and go, since neither he nor Susie had the desire to marry and settle down.

Aware the Carrigans were waiting for him to continue explaining why he felt the need to butt into a family matter that was clearly none of his business, or should not have been, anyway, Tyler said, “I’m glad you appreciate what I’ve done for your daughter, but it’s a two-way street. Susie has been there for me, too, when I’ve needed her.”

Luke drained his tea. His expression shifted into Overprotective Father mode. “Unfortunately,” Luke stated evenly, “we also know Susie needs a lot more in her life than you can give her as a go-to friend.”

Meg held up a hand before Tyler could comment.

“Getting Susie to admit that, however, has proved difficult,” Meg concurred with Luke, like a mama bear protecting her cub. “Which is why her father and I have taken matters into our own hands and given her the nudge she needs to get out there and really start living her life again. Not just day to day, the way she has been, Tyler, but with a real eye toward the future and all she has left to experience.”

“I HEARD YOU STOPPED BY my folks’ this morning on your way to the clinic.”

Tyler looked up to see Susie framed in the doorway of his office.

He pushed back from the endless paperwork that occupied him the first and third Saturday afternoon of every month. He had hoped she wouldn’t find out about his visit.

“Can’t keep anything from you, can I?” he teased.

As expected, Susie refused to let his cajoling get him off the hook.

She sauntered in, looking beautiful in jeans and a white V-neck T-shirt. Four oddly shaped pearls hung pendant style around her neck from a thin piece of brown leather necklace, two more adorned her ear. Tyler smiled. Susie liked to accessorize, and her tastes ran to the unusual.

“They thought your interference was sweet but ill-advised.”

Tyler noted her wavy blond hair had been drawn into a low ponytail at the nape of her neck. He knew Susie only put it back like that when the length and weight of her glossy mane was bothering her. “I take it that means there is a Bachelor Number Two on the schedule?”

She lounged next to his desk, engulfing him in her sexy flowers and citrus perfume. “Gary Hecht. A statistician. I’m meeting him for a half an hour at the driving range this evening.”

With effort, Tyler shifted his gaze from the subtle curve of her hip, to her face. He tossed his pen down on his desk, rocked back in his chair. “I didn’t know you golfed.”

Susie made a face. “I don’t. But he does.” Humor glittered in her amber eyes as she acknowledged with a toss of her head, “I figured that would keep his attention focused on something other than me and make the thirty minutes go a heck of a lot quicker.”

“Glad to hear you’re really getting into the spirit of things,” Tyler drawled.

Susie hopped up on the edge of his desk. She put her hands on either side of her, kept one foot on the floor, and swung the other leg back and forth.

“Which is where you come in,” Susie said.

Tyler’s hand dropped to her fingertips, curled over the edge of his desk. As always he marveled at the feminine sight. Given how much time she spent rooting around in the soil, he would have figured her hands would show the wear and tear. True, her nails were neat and short. And she almost never wore any jewelry on her hands. But her palms were every bit as silky smooth as the rest of her.

Struggling to keep his attention focused on the conversation, Tyler returned, “Oh, yeah?”

Susie nodded agreeably. Devilry colored her low tone. “I want you to accidentally on purpose show up there about the time I am supposed to leave to facilitate my exit, if things get sticky. They may not, but better safe than sorry.”

The idea of rescuing her yet again was not unappealing, although Tyler pretended it was.

Watching how the autumn sunlight streaming through the open blinds brought out the honey-gold in her hair, he regarded her with mock exasperation. “And what do I get for this?”

Susie tapped the pad of her index finger against her chin in a parody of thoughtfulness. “Uh…fresh flowers for the reception desk?”

Tyler rocked back in his chair and clasped his fingers together behind his head. As far as interruptions went, this was the most pleasurable one he’d had in quite a while.

He feigned a disagreeable attitude. “You know I could care less about anything floral.”

Unless it’s a fragrance, adorning your skin.

Tyler didn’t know why, her particular pheromones, maybe, but Susie made perfume—any perfume—smell incredible.

She squinting at him playfully and finally offered up a new bargain. “How about…hmm…I iron some of your shirts?”

His preference for unstarched cotton was a running joke between them. He fingered the pine-green oxford he was wearing. “I like ’em rumpled.”

Susie swung her leg back and forth. “I’ll plant a tree in front of your ranch house.”

“It would just get in the way of my tractor when I mow.”

Trevor wanted his off time and the chores he had to do around his Healing Meadow ranch to be as easy as possible.

“Okay, then—” she batted her eyelashes at him flirtatiously “—I’ll pay for dinner.”

“Now you’re talking.”

She held up a cautioning finger. “But it can’t be here in town. It wouldn’t be sensitive to ditch one date and then publicly go right out and eat a meal with another.”

Tyler tried and failed to keep an amused grin off his face. “But it would be okay to do it behind Bachelor Number Two’s back?”

Susie huffed and hopped off his desk. She strode back and forth restlessly. “Whose side are you on?”

As if she even had to ask. “Yours. Definitely.”

“All right.” Susie paused and circled her waist with her hands. She tilted her head at him thoughtfully. “So where do you want to eat?”

Tyler shrugged. “You know the area every bit as well as I do. Surprise me.”

GARY HECHT TURNED OUT to be shorter than Susie by a good inch and a half, and movie-star handsome, Susie noted. He also had a great golf swing.

“I gather my parents told you I had leukemia when I was a teenager,” Susie picked a spot near the end of the Armadillo Acres driving range, and set her bucket of balls down on the grass.

“Yes, they did and I immediately ran the statistics.” Gary set his bucket down to the left of hers and plucked a custom club from his golf bag.

He removed the cover and ran his hand lovingly over the stem of the stick, and onto the wood head of the club, his fingers tracing the loft, as if to ensure it were still in perfect shape.

He regarded Susie with scientific enthusiasm. “Do you know that you have a greater chance of getting in a fatal car accident or contracting a deadly form of pneumonia than you do of getting cancer again?”

“No. I can’t say I did,” Susie said drily.

Her attempt at humor was lost on the insurance company actuary. This could be a long thirty minutes.

She loathed being stuck with a humorless companion. Being on a date with one was even worse.

Gary caught her dissatisfied look. “Illness doesn’t scare me, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Satisfied all was in order with his driver, Gary placed a golf ball on the tee and paused to line up his first shot. “And if most people looked at the numbers, I don’t think it would scare them nearly as much, either. Modern medicine has done great things when it comes to improving life expectancy. Thanks to all the research being done, and new protocols developed, the odds of living a long, healthy life are getting better all the time.”

Susie supposed she was living proof of that.

Now, if someone could just convince Emmaline Clark the odds were on her side, too.

“Do you talk to all your dates about this?” Susie lined up her shot, too. She swung as hard as she could. The ball went a measly twenty-five yards.

“Oh. Definitely,” Gary said. A look of pure bliss crossed his features. “I love numbers.”

Susie nodded. “I can see that you do.” She watched Gary make a perfect line drive.

It looked as if he loved golf, too.

Gary nodded in greeting as another customer made his way past them to take up a position on the other side of Susie.

Susie started to nod, too, when she caught a whiff of man and cologne that was all too familiar. She took a good look at the cowboy ambling by, in a striped golf shirt she could swear she had never seen before, his usual denim jeans, and what looked like a pair of bowling shoes.

He kept his eyes on the green.

Gary frowned at the way Susie’s mouth was hanging open. “You know him?” Gary inclined his head at Tyler McCabe.

“I know everyone around here.” Susie flashed Tyler a tight, officious smile.

This hadn’t been their deal.

Tyler had been supposed to show up at seven-thirty, at the end of her “date” with Bachelor Number Two.

Instead, Tyler had showed up at the beginning and positioned himself in perfect eavesdropping position.

How was she supposed to concentrate on giving Gary Hecht the attention he deserved with Tyler right beside her? It was like going on a date with her parents!

Not to mention, Tyler’s golf shot was worse than hers and he kept getting his balls in her lane.

Turning her back to Tyler, Susie looked at Gary. “Tell me more about your job,” she said.

Another thing Gary loved to do was talk about his life.

For the next forty minutes, she could hardly get a word in edgewise. Finally, both their buckets were empty. “Want to get more balls?” Gary asked.

“Actually, I think I’m going to have to call it an evening,” Susie said. They gathered up their gear. “But there is something I’d like to talk to you about—in private.” She flashed her most persuasive smile at her companion—the kind she saved for very special and or important occasions—and walked off.

TYLER COULDN’T BELIEVE IT. Susie’s date had been one of the most self-absorbed men he had ever had the chance to come across, yet Susie was acting as if Gary were heaven’s gift as she sauntered off with him, arm in arm.

He quickly emptied his bucket, picked up the clubs he’d borrowed from one of his cousins, and headed back to the window.

“Nice outfit, Doc.” The girl behind the counter winked.

Tyler grinned. The shirt had cost him all of five bucks at the thrift shop. “You like it?”

“It’s real eye-catching.” The teenage clerk popped her gum. “Real, uh, orange. And green. And white. And striped.” She looked down at his two-tone footwear, so different from the boots he usually wore. “I like the shoes, though.” She gave the brown-and-beige leather a thumbs-up.

Funny, Tyler thought they were the ugliest things he had ever seen. They felt unsubstantial, too.

With his bagful of borrowed clubs slung over his shoulder, he headed for the parking lot. Susie was standing next to Gary Hecht’s white sedan, writing what appeared to be her phone number on a piece of paper.

“Call me,” he heard her say as he passed by. “And we’ll set something up as soon as possible.”

“Okay. I will.” Gary smiled and leaned forward to brush his lips against her cheek in a standard Southern goodbye.

It was the kind of casual kiss a neighbor gave a friend. But it burned him up.

Almost as much as the sight of Susie hopping in the cab of her pickup truck and driving off without so much as a glance in his direction.

What the…

Tyler jumped in his pickup truck and drove after her. He’d expected her to laugh at his getup. Much as the teenage clerk had.

Susie had a great sense of humor and right about now Tyler felt she needed a little extra laughter in her life.

Unfortunately, his choice of clothing had apparently done little to amuse her because she did not stop until she reached the small shotgun-style house tucked away behind the landscape center she owned.

Rectangular in shape, the one-story, century-old residence was located behind three large greenhouses and the rows of trees and saplings for sale, and was hence, well separated from Carrigan Landscape Center and Design.

Her business closed at six o’clock on Saturdays. The parking lot was deserted. The two of them were very much alone, which suited Tyler just fine. He didn’t want anyone else overhearing what he had to say to Susie.

Tyler got out of his truck and followed her up onto the porch.

She whirled to face him. Twin spots of pink color emphasized the elegant bones of her cheeks.

“Are you mad at me?”

Susie snorted in contempt. Lifted a brow. “Gee. You think?”

Tyler exhaled in exasperation. “Why?”

Susie set her chin. “I asked you to give me an out if I needed one.” She stepped nearer. “Not chaperone the entire outing!”

Her stormy attitude added fuel to the fire of resentment burning within him. Tyler looked her up and down in a manner meant to irritate her, lingering on the curves of her breasts beneath the white T-shirt, the wide leather belt cinched around her slender waist, and the trim fit of her bootleg jeans, before returning his gaze, ever so slowly, ever so deliberately, to her flashing amber eyes. “You act like I interrupted something.”

Susie’s lids narrowed. She glared at him through a fringe of thick honey blond lashes. “As it happens, you were!”

“You like that guy?” Tyler still couldn’t believe she was giving the self-absorbed statistician a second chance to call her or go out with her or whatever.

“Of course I did.” A fresh wave of color came into her face. “He was nice!”

“I mean as a boyfriend,” Tyler clarified.

She lifted her shoulders in a stubborn little shrug. “What if I did?”

Tyler stepped nearer. “Then I’d have to say I severely misjudged you because I never envisioned you spending time with the most anal, numbers-driven guy I’ve ever come across in my life.”

He’d never really expected her to give any guy—except him—the time of day, given the solitary way she had been living her life.

“Gary Hecht is an actuary. What did you expect?”

“I don’t know,” Tyler said drily. He paused to look deep into Susie’s eyes. “At the very least, I figured there would have been some conversation about the great November weather.”

“Well, now that would have been thrilling,” Susie sassed back, mocking Tyler’s sober tone.

“Certainly,” Tyler continued critically, trying to impress upon Susie the need to raise her standards. “It would have been laudable if there had been a lot less talk about Gary Hecht and his interests and more focus on you.”

Susie shook her head at Tyler as if she could not believe his stupidity. She stepped nearer, not stopping until they stood toe-to-toe and nose to nose. “Did it ever occur to you that I did not want Gary Hecht to focus on me?”

That had certainly been his wish, Tyler thought. It should not have been Susie’s. “Exchanging information—one’s likes and dislikes—is part of dating, Suze.”

Susie’s expression turned smug. “It wasn’t dating,” she informed him sweetly, batting her eyelashes Texas-belle style once again. “It was an introduction.”

Tyler didn’t know whether to be relieved nothing of any import had happened between Susie and Gary Hecht after all, or ticked off that Susie was goading him deliberately, trying to get a rise out of him. Or that it was working.

“Same thing, from the looks of it,” Tyler muttered back.

“No,” Susie countered patiently. “It wasn’t.” She paused a moment to let her words sink in. “I went tonight to pacify my parents. And because I wanted him to do a favor for me. Which, by the way, no thanks to you and your distracting presence, Gary readily agreed to do!”

Tyler tried not to be too thrilled that he had disrupted her powers of concentration as much as she had disrupted his this evening. “What kind of favor?” he asked.

Susie huffed, becoming difficult once again. “I’m not telling.”

Tyler thought of all the ways he could force the information out of her. Kissing her, being the prime one.

“Is that so?” he countered back, his temper inching ever higher.

Amber eyes flashed. “You better believe it is.”

Ignoring her sarcasm, he continued searching her face. “Don’t you think you are being a little bit childish?”

She glared at him in resentment and splayed a hand across his chest. “You’re one to talk! This whole discussion is absolutely stupid and juvenile and pointless and—”

Tyler had heard enough. Doing what he had wanted to do from the first moment he had laid eyes on her at the driving range this evening, he wrapped his arms around her, brought her close, lowered his head, and fastened his lips over hers. It had been an eternity since he had kissed her. Too long. All he knew was that in this moment she was everything he had ever wanted, everything he had never had. Not in any way that counted, since the two of them had made sure that every previous clinch they had shared in the last twenty-four hours had gone absolutely nowhere….

Whereas this kiss…this kiss felt as if it was going somewhere. And it was more than just the softness of her lips, or the peppermint taste of her mouth, the softness of her breasts molding against his chest, or the feel of her hands clasping the back of his neck. It was the way she was kissing him back. As if there was no tomorrow. As if there had never been a yesterday. As if this moment was all that counted, or would ever matter.

As Tyler brought Susie closer still, he knew she was right.

Tonight was all that mattered.

In so many ways, Susie was all that mattered.

Which was why he knew he had to honor their previous promise to each other and stop now, before this went any further, and the two of them ended up in bed together, again.

Calling upon every ounce of gentlemanly restraint he possessed, Tyler let the kiss come to a halt. Slowly, he lifted his head and looked into her eyes.

And even more reluctantly, let her go.

They drew apart, much more slowly than they had ever come together. Susie had that dazed look in her eyes that was at once both deeply satisfied and yearning for more. It destroyed him every time. Tonight was no exception. He wanted her more than ever, even as he knew full well all the reasons why they should never ever be more than crisis buddies.

To do otherwise, to pretend he would always be there for her…in the way that she needed…to pretend they could ever be as emotionally close as she needed her potential soul mate to be…was pure fallacy.

Tyler knew his shortcomings.

He was not going to inflict them on Susie.

He was not ever going to put her in a position where he would hurt her, the way she had once been hurt before.

The kiss…well, the kiss had been a way to end the argument before it went too far, and either of them said or did anything they would later regret, Tyler reasoned, even as guilt washed over him, anew.

Susie stepped back, and shoved her hands through her silky blond hair.

Having recovered completely from the unexpected intimacy of the moment, she stomped her foot. “Now why did you go and do a darn fool thing like that?”

Tyler shrugged.

“Because I wanted to end the argument and that was the fastest way I knew how.”

Susie’s eyes took on a turbulent sheen. Her lower lip slid out into a delicious pout. “I thought we agreed…”

Tyler’s gut tightened. “We wouldn’t fall into bed again.”

She nodded, her expression as solemn—and worried—as her mood. “It could ruin our whole crisis management system, Tyler.”

A system, Tyler knew, Susie depended upon. The truth was, there had been times when Tyler really needed Susie, too. Times when she had come to his rescue.

Been there. Done what needed to be done, said what needed to be said. And then left, as soon as he was on an even keel again. Had it not been for her…

He doubted he would have survived those dark times as well as he had.

“You know I’m right,” Susie persisted, her voice taking on a more normal sound.

That was the hell of it. On some level, Tyler did know.

On another…

“We set those boundaries with each other for a reason,” Susie continued firmly.

Boundaries Tyler now wished—as he did every time he ended up kissing Susie—that they could take down.

“Well?” Susie prodded with a discreet lift of her brow.

A discreet lift that said she was much more relaxed about what had just happened between the two of them than he was.

She waited for his response.

Before Tyler could reply the pager at his waist went off.

He looked at the number flashing across the screen, frowned.

Susie sighed and guessed, “Emergency?”

“I hope not,” Tyler groused, shoving a hand through his hair. “I don’t want anything ruining our dinner plans.”

He didn’t want their evening ending with Susie still in a mood to regret—or was it simply dismiss—their impetuous and forbidden kiss.

Eyes locked with hers, he answered the call. Listened intently. “No problem,” Tyler said when the caller had finished. “I’ll be right there.”

“So much for brisket, I guess,” Susie lamented as he shut off the phone and put it back on his belt.

Tyler scoffed as he headed back to his truck. He reached into the compartment behind the seat, and pulled out a rumpled tan chambray shirt from the pile of clean laundry there.

He stripped off the ugly green-white-and-orange striped golf shirt, then stood there a minute, naked from the waist up, as he put the shirt that was inside out to rights.

“I was really looking forward to treating us both to some fine Texas barbecue. Another time then, I guess.”

Tyler grinned. “Are you kidding me?” Pulse racing, he shoved his arms through the sleeves of the shirt and buttoned the soft rumpled cotton cloth from the bottom up. “You’re not getting off the hook that easily, missy.” Now that he had her full attention, he let his gaze meet and hold hers. “You’re going on this vet call with me.”