Читать книгу Sisters Found - Joan Johnston - Страница 11

AMANDA WAS STILL IN BED LONG past the time when she normally would have been up and busy. She’d tossed and turned all night, feeling guilty over her treatment of Rabb. She wouldn’t blame him if he never came back to fix her gazebo. He probably thought she was crazy. She certainly had no rational explanation for her behavior.

She sat bolt upright at the first sound of hammering, then threw off the covers and scrambled out of bed, heading for the window. She turned and hopped right back into bed when her feet hit the frigid wooden floor. She reached down under the bed, found her bunny slippers and put them on, then trotted to the window. Well, the summer temperatures were gone.

She could see Rabb was putting up new lattice, but he was wearing a shearling coat and leather gloves. She shoved the window up and yelled down at him, “What are you doing?”

He smiled and waved and said, “Good morning, Mandy,” as though the events of the previous afternoon had never happened.

Well, if he wanted to pretend things were fine, she was happy to forget the way she’d acted.

“I could use a cup of coffee,” he said. “When you’re up.”

“I’m up now,” she said, shivering as a blast of cold air hit her face.

“You’re still in your pajamas,” he countered. “But I like them. You look cute.”

Amanda glanced down at the baby doll pajamas she’d slept in. They were impractical in a way none of her everyday clothes were. Skimpy and sexy and very…pink. No one had ever seen them but her. And no one was supposed to see them.

“I’ll be down in a minute,” she said, slamming the window and yanking down the shade.

He thought she looked cute. She ran and stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. Cute was a word for teenagers. Thirty-two-year-old women were never cute. She looked…ridiculous. She ought to be wearing something more appropriate for her age.

But she’d had to be up several times at night with her mother during those years when she could have worn silly, flighty, fun clothes to bed, so she’d made up for it once her mother passed away by buying things like the girlish baby doll pajamas she wore now.

She ruthlessly yanked them off, washed her face, brushed her teeth and put on the clothes she wore on cold days. Slacks, loafers with socks, an Oxford cloth shirt and a pullover crew-necked sweater. She shoved a brush through her short hair, slicked on some lipstick and headed downstairs.

No sense pretending she was anything she wasn’t. Forget being cute. She kept her hair cut short because it was easy to take care of and, except for her pajamas, bought practical clothes that would last.

She boiled a cup of water in the microwave and added a teaspoon of instant coffee. No coffeemaker for her. Speed was of the essence. Time was something she never seemed to have enough of. Or at least, that was the way it had been for eleven years. It had been difficult to readjust her mindset in the years since her mother had passed away. All right, impossible. She had the feeling she could never catch up, never get back those years she’d lost.

She stuck her head out the screen door and said, “Cream and sugar?”

“Lots of both,” he shouted back.

Jake liked his coffee black. Another little difference.

She preferred just about anything hot to drink except coffee, but she didn’t feel like making either tea or cocoa right now. She wanted to get outside and apologize to Rabb.

She’d learned not to put off unpleasant business. Better to get it over with. She put on her goose-down vest and headed outside with Rabb’s coffee.

He stuck the hammer in his tool belt when he saw her coming and turned to reach for the coffee mug. “Aren’t you having any?”

“I don’t drink coffee,” she said. “I only came out here to say I’m sorry for yesterday.” There, it was done.

He sipped at the coffee, winced, then blew on it. “Uh-huh,” he said. He looked at her and waited.

She stuck her hands in her vest pockets, because it was colder outside than she’d expected it would be. Her breath plumed in the air. “Guess a norther came in overnight,” she said.

“Uh-huh,” he said. And nothing more.

“I’m sorry now I didn’t take advantage of your offer to go riding yesterday. That was probably the end of the warm weather.”

“Uh-huh,” he said and sipped again at his coffee.

“I know I was rude,” she said, agitated at his lack of speech. “But I…” How was she supposed to explain how she’d felt? What she’d feared?

“But you’re not used to having fun,” he said.

She frowned. “That’s not true.”

“Prove it,” he said. “Come riding with me today.”

She shivered and scoffed, “It’s freezing!”

“It’s refreshingly cool,” he countered with a smile.

She found herself smiling back at him. And sobered when she realized what she was doing. “I have things to do to get ready for the wedding.”

“Oh, yeah. Let’s see, the flowers. And the dress. And…What was the other thing?”

“The cake.”

“Right. Which one needs doing today?”

“The fitting for the dress, I suppose.”

“Okay. We’ll do that and then go riding,” he said.

She pursed her lips and wrinkled her forehead. “You don’t want to watch me try on my wedding dress.”

“Sure I do,” he said. “So long as you agree to come riding with me afterward.”

“How much more work had you planned to do on the gazebo?” she asked.

He looked at the gazebo, which had one of the two naked sides covered once more in lattice and said, “That’s plenty for today. I’m ready when you are.”

She shook her head and laughed again. It must be nice to be able to stop in the middle of a project, to simply walk away and come back later when you felt like it. Her life hadn’t allowed her that sort of freedom. She felt a little reckless at the thought of taking off on horseback in weather cold enough to turn her nose red as a berry.

“All right,” she said. “You asked for it. Let me get my boots and we’ll go.”

Rabb was standing in her kitchen when she came down, the coffee cup rinsed and sitting in the sink. She was thinking what a great husband he would make some woman when he said, “I don’t see any breakfast dishes. Did you eat?”

“I usually skip breakfast. I’m in too much of a hurry,” she admitted.

“You need to eat.”

While she stood gawking, he opened a series of cupboards until he found some Cheerios, then a cereal bowl and finally a spoon. “This won’t take long,” he said, “and you’ll need the energy when we go riding.”

Before she quite knew what was happening, Amanda was sitting at the kitchen table, Rabb in a chair across from her.

“You need to take better care of yourself,” he said.

She felt self-conscious eating with someone watching her, especially when he wasn’t eating anything. When she tried to hurry he said, “Take your time. We’ve got all day.”

She raised a brow and asked, “Don’t you have to work?”

“I’m taking a holiday. Except for fixing your gazebo, I’m footloose for the next couple of weeks.”

Amanda couldn’t imagine Jake being able to take off like that. His ranch kept him busy from dawn to dusk, and it was a job that had to be done 365 days a year. He’d had little time off to spend with her, which had worked out well, because she’d been busy herself with all sorts of projects at school. However, during summers and spring vacation she’d wished he was around more. She’d felt…lonely.

She looked down at her empty bowl, gave a chagrined smile, and said, “I didn’t realize I was that hungry.”

Rabb was up and rinsing her bowl before she could stop him. “Ready to go?” he asked.

“We’ll take my car, if that’s all right,” she said.

Jake always preferred driving. Rabb just said, “Let’s do it.”

She waited for Rabb to complain about her driving. It was as conservative as every other aspect of her life. She watched the speed limit and came to a full stop at every sign. But he said nothing.

“One of the teachers has an aunt who’s a seamstress,” Amanda said to fill the silence. “Mrs. Caruso is amazing. She’s making my wedding gown from a picture I found in Modern Brides magazine.”

“Sewing is a real talent,” Rabb agreed.

Amanda resisted the urge to describe the dress. She’d fallen in love with it and couldn’t wait to see Jake’s face when he saw her walking down the aisle.

Because it was a winter wedding, she’d decided she needed long, fitted sleeves. The bodice was cut into a heart shape, then covered modestly with tulle, and the A-line skirt had a short train that began at her waist and flared four feet behind her.

As Amanda rang the doorbell at Mrs. Caruso’s home, she could feel Rabb breathing down her neck. Well, not literally. But she was aware of him standing in her space. His shoulder actually brushed hers. When she saw how close Rabb stayed, she suddenly realized that Jake always kept a few inches between their bodies.