Читать книгу Mummy and the Maverick - Meg Maxwell - Страница 10

Chapter Three

“Kaylee, no!” Marissa called, but it was too late. Her three-year-old had pushed her little doll stroller, with a yellow rabbit tucked safely inside, into a huge display of cereal boxes in Crawford’s General Store. They came tumbling down, narrowly missing her.

“Oopsies,” Kaylee said, her face crumbling. “Sorry.” The girl hung her head, tears dripping down her cheeks.

Oh God, Marissa thought, shaking her head. After waking up twice during the night to comfort Kaylee, who had a tooth coming in, she’d had a crazed morning looking for Kiera’s other red light-up sneaker and then Abby’s favorite shirt, which had “disappeared” from the folded-laundry basket—it turned out it was never put in the hamper. That was followed by a three-hour shift at the reception desk of the sheriff’s office, ending with getting yelled at by Anne Lattimore’s neighbor for not sending an officer to deal with the dog-being-allowed-to-walk-on-the-edge-of-my-lawn-issue. Marissa didn’t need one more thing. But here it was. And it was only eleven in the morning.

“Kaylee, it’s—”

She swallowed her okay as the girl ran sobbing down the aisle, running so fast that Marissa had to abandon her cart and leap over the boxes of Oat Yummies littering the floor.

“Ah!” Kaylee said. “A giant!”

Marissa dodged a few more cereal boxes and glanced up into the amazing blue eyes of Autry Jones.

The man she’d been unable to stop thinking about. After soothing Kaylee back to sleep last night, Marissa had been so tired she’d squeezed beside her on the toddler bed, imagining Autry’s long, lean, muscular physique beside her before she’d finally drifted off to sleep.

“Oh, thank God,” Marissa said. “She sure is fast. A human roadblock was just what was needed.”

Autry laughed. “Should we find the runaway train’s mother before another display of cereal boxes comes tumbling down, this time on top of us?”

Marissa tilted her head. Was it strange that he didn’t assume the little getaway artist was hers? “You’re looking at her. She pushed her doll stroller a smidge too far and that was that. This is Kaylee. She’s three going on ready for the Olympics.”

Kaylee continued to stare up at “the giant.” Marissa was five feet six and a huge supporter of comfy flat shoes, and Autry towered over her at at least six foot two, so she could understand why Kaylee thought she was dealing with a fairy-tale giant. He was much better looking than giants usually were, though.

“Yours?” Autry said, staring at Marissa.

“Are you a giant?” Kaylee asked, craning her neck.

Autry knelt down in front of the girl. “Nope. I’m an Autry. Autry Jones. And it’s very nice to meet you, Kaylee. You know, when I was a kid, I would race my brothers up and down the aisles of supermarkets until the manager marched over to yell at us.”

Kaylee tilted her head, understanding only about half of that. “Did you win?”

“I won every now and then,” Autry said. “But with four brothers and me right in the middle, there was always one bigger and faster or lighter and faster.”

“No fair,” Kaylee said. “Guess where we’re going now.”

“Grocery shopping?” Autry asked.

“But guess why we’re here,” she said.

“To buy groceries?” Autry suggested, covering his mouth so he wouldn’t laugh.

“We’re getting picnic stuff,” Kaylee said. “Sandwiches and fruit and cookies. You can come, too.”

Marissa watched Autry stiffen. Yup, there it was. He now knew she was a mother, likely figured she was divorced or widowed and so had taken a literal and figurative step back.

“Sweetie,” she said to her daughter, “Autry is in town to visit his family and I’m sure he has plans for the day.” Marissa waited for him to jump on the out she’d just given him.

“What kind of sandwiches?” he asked Kaylee, still kneeling beside her.

“Peanut butter and jelly—my favorite,” the girl said.

Autry smiled. “That’s my favorite, too. I’d love to come. I have two hours before I have to meet my brothers at my hotel.”

Marissa stared at the man. Did he just say he’d love to come? That peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were his favorite?

Huh.

“Yay!” Kaylee said.

A millionaire executive cowboy was coming to their picnic. Why did Marissa have the feeling this would not be the first time Autry Jones would surprise her?

* * *

Whoa boy. What the hell was he doing? When Marissa had told him the cute little girl was hers, for a split second Autry had almost gone running out of the grocery store. No single mothers. That was his rule. And he didn’t have many rules. But instead of racing out the door, he’d said yes to going on a family outing. And that was after Marissa had given him a perfect and easy out.

So why hadn’t he taken it?

Because he’d been unable to stop thinking about Marissa Fuller since he’d first laid eyes on her yesterday at the Ace in the Hole. He’d been hoping to talk to her after The Great Roundup ended, but by the time he’d woven his way through the crowd, she was gone. He and his brothers had met up at his hotel and they’d talked for a while over good scotch in the lobby bar. He’d wanted to ask Walker and Hudson if they knew Marissa, and surely they did, since Rust Creek Falls was such a small town. But Autry realized he didn’t want to hear anything about her secondhand; he wanted to get to know her himself.

You can still run, he told himself as he carried the grocery bags containing their picnic and walked alongside Marissa, who held her little girl’s hand. They were on their way to a park Marissa had mentioned that was just a bit farther down Cedar Street. He could make up a forgotten appointment. Someone to see. And book the hell away.

But he kept walking, charmed—against his will—by cute Kaylee’s light-up sneakers and the way she talked about the puppy that stole her sandwich the last time she went on a picnic with her mom.

“Well, this time, I’ll guard your sandwich from every puppy in the park,” Autry said.

He felt Marissa’s eyes on him. Assessing him? Wondering if he was father material? He wasn’t. He was in town temporarily, end of story. As long as he kept his guard up, his wits about him and his eye on the prize, which was to drink in the loveliness of Marissa Fuller for a few weeks, he’d be A-OK.

He glanced at Marissa, surprised again at how damned alluring she was. The woman wore jean shorts, a short-sleeve blue-and-yellow-plaid button-down shirt and orange flip-flops decorated with seashells. Her toenails were each polished a different sparkly color, and something told him she’d let Kaylee give her the pedicure. She wasn’t wearing a stitch of makeup, and her wavy, long dark hair fell past her shoulders. She was as opposite the usual woman who caught his eye as possible. Autry met most of the women he dated in airport VIP lounges, alerted to their presence by their click of polished high heels on the floor and the smell of expensive perfume.

“Guess how many sisters I have?” Kaylee asked him, holding her free hand behind her back.

Autry froze. There were more?

“One?” he asked, trying not to visibly swallow.

Kaylee shook her head and giggled.

She let go of Marissa and held out both hands, palms facing him. Ten? She had ten sisters? He was going on a picnic with a mother of eleven?

Earth to Autry, he ordered himself. The girl is three. Calm down.

Kaylee giggled again and held up two fingers like a peace sign.

There was nothing peaceful about this. He might not be dating a mother of eleven, but he was dating a mother of three. Not that an impromptu picnic counted as a date. This was just a friendly little picnic. After all, three-year-olds didn’t accompany their mothers on first dates.

Autry felt better. Not a date. Just a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some fruit.

Still, he pulled at the collar of his polo shirt. It was strangling him. And granted, it was August, but was it a thousand degrees suddenly?

“There’s the park,” Marissa said, pointing down North Buckskin Road.

Autry glanced at the sign as they passed it. Rust Creek Falls Park. He didn’t spend a lot of time in parks or going on picnics. But it was eighty-one degrees and sunny, with a delicious breeze that every now and then blew back Marissa’s wavy hair, exposing her enticing neck. Perfect park weather. And it wasn’t very crowded. A few people walked dogs, a couple joggers ran on the path and a group of teenagers were sunbathing and giggling in the distance.

“Here’s a perfect spot,” Marissa said. “Right under a shade tree.”

“Hi, Mr. Autry,” Kaylee said, for absolutely no reason as she stared up at him. Gulp. She was looking at him with pure adoration in her twinkly brown eyes. She slipped her little hand into his.

Oh God. He wasn’t supposed to be charming the three-year-old! It was the elder Fuller he wanted to have looking at him that way. Instead, Marissa was focused on laying out the blanket she’d brought.

“Hi,” Kaylee said again. “Hi.” She rested her head against his hip.

“Hi,” he said, forcing a smile.

Yes. He had definitely entered another dimension of time and space. Where Autry Jones was in a park with a single mother and her three-year-old, about to eat sticky peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which, granted, were his favorite.

Make your escape. Any ole excuse will do. Bolt, man! Bolt.

But Autry’s feet stayed right where they were, his gaze transfixed on Marissa’s lovely eyes and a beauty mark near her mouth. Now he was staring at her lips. Wanting to reach out and—

“Mr. Autry, you’re lucky,” Kaylee said, snagging his attention as she sat down.

“Because I’m here with you guys?” he asked, tapping the adorable little girl on the nose as he sat at a reasonable distance. Did she have to be so stinking cute?

She tilted her head as though that was a dumb answer. “Because you get to eat dessert first if you want. You’re a grown-up.”

“Ah,” Autry said, smiling at Marissa. “But I always eat my healthy sandwich first. Then dessert.”

Kaylee shrugged, turning to look in the bags. Marissa pulled out a jar of peanut butter, strawberry jam and a loaf of bread, then some paper plates and plastic utensils.

“Allow me,” he said, taking the knife and peanut butter.

She raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, Autry, but you really don’t strike me as a man who eats a lot of PB and J.”

“You’ve never seen me at midnight, hungry for a snack while going over fiscal projections.”

Her cheeks grew pink. Hmm. That could mean only one thing. That she was imagining him at midnight, naked, eating peanut butter in his kitchen. Not that that was remotely sexy. Maybe she was just imagining him at midnight. Naked or not. She still wasn’t giving him any signals either way. She didn’t flirt. She didn’t laugh at every little thing he said, funny or not. She didn’t brush up against him to try to turn him on. He really had no idea if Marissa Fuller, mother of three, was interested in him in the slightest.

They ate. They had sandwiches. They had oranges. They had chocolate chip cookies. By the time Autry almost finished his sparkling water, Kaylee had fallen fast asleep on the blanket, using her little monkey backpack as a pillow.

“Three kids, huh?” he said. “That can’t be easy.”

Marissa took a sip of her water. “It’s not. But loving them is. Plus we live with my parents. In the house I grew up in. So I have backup 24/7.”

He noticed she kept her gaze on him, as if waiting to be judged.

“You’re the lucky one,” Autry said. “If you live with your parents, you must be close with them. And your kids and folks must be close. That’s gold, Marissa.”

She tilted her head. “I guess I’ve never really thought of it that way. But you’re right, we are close. Maybe too close!” She smiled. “Not you and your family?”

He looked up at an airplane high in the sky, watching it jet over the clouds. “No. We were never a close family. The Joneses were about business. Everything is about Jones Holdings, Inc. Interestingly, not even that managed to bring us closer. But I was never close with my brothers growing up. And there are five of us.”

“But you’re here,” she said. “Visiting Walker and Hudson.”

“I’m trying,” he said. “My father, the imperious Walker Jones the Second, feels like his namesake eldest son defected. Walker moved here. Opened a Jones Holdings office here. Is doing what he wants—here. And Hudson always marched to his own drum, which never involved the family business.”

“And you?” she asked. For a moment he was captivated by how the sun lit up her dark hair.

“All about business. But I try very hard not to be a workaholic. I never want to be like my father, who put the company above everything—family, birthdays, special occasions. He missed everything and still believes business comes first.”

“You just said you’re all about business,” Marissa pointed out.

“Because I don’t have other commitments or responsibilities. For a reason. No wife. No kids. When I work around the clock or fly off to Dubai for a month, I’m not hurting anyone. In fact, I’m making someone happy—my father.”

“But surely you want a family someday,” she said, popping a green grape into her mouth.

He reached for his water and took a long sip. Did he? If he were really honest, he didn’t know. He’d had his heart smashed, his trust broken, and all his tender feelings for that sweet baby he’d come to think of as his own had hardened like steel.

“So you’re divorced?” he asked, glad to change the subject. He wanted to know everything about Marissa Fuller.

“Widowed,” she said, taking a container of strawberries from the bag. “Two years ago in a car accident. My five-year-old, Kiera, has very little memory of her father. Kaylee here has none at all.”

“And the third daughter?”

“Abby. She’s nine.”

Nine? Marissa couldn’t be older than twenty-seven, maybe twenty-eight. She’d been a mother a long time, practically all her adult life.

He watched her bite her lip, seeming lost in thought. “Abby was seven when her dad died and remembers him very well. A few times a week, when Abby is saying her good-nights to her little sisters, I’ll overhear her telling them about their daddy.”

Marissa’s life was very different from his. What she’d been through. What she did on a daily basis.

“She sounds like a great kid,” he said.

Marissa nodded. “And one who had to grow up too fast. She mothers her little sisters all the time. Sometimes I even forget that life before their dad died wasn’t quite like the paradise Abby paints for her sisters.”

Her cheeks turned red, as though she hadn’t meant to say that aloud. She held out the container of strawberries and he took one.

“Well, I might not be married,” Autry said, “but I have no doubt that marriage is hard and takes work. And you clearly got married very young.”

“I got pregnant on prom night. Married and a mother at eighteen. Four years later, Kiera came along. And Kaylee was a surprise—a nice surprise, but maybe not the boy Mike ho—” She turned away. “I guess sometimes I start talking about all this and end up saying too much.”

He reached out and moved a strand of hair from her face, the slightest touch against her cheek, and yet he felt it everywhere. “Best way to get to know someone is to listen to them talk when they’re not guarded.”

She smiled. “You’re trying to get to know me?”

“Well, I only have three weeks in Rust Creek Falls, but yes. I want to know you, Marissa Fuller.”

“Marissa Fuller, mother of three. With baggage. With live-in parents. With a really busy schedule.”

“I’d like to steal up your free time,” he said.

She laughed. “Do I have free time? If I ever have time to myself, I always think I should spend it one-on-one with one of the girls. Or I should scrub the bathroom tub before my mother does, and she always gets to it before I can. My life isn’t exactly Italian restaurants and dancing and walks in big-sky country.”

He moved a bit closer to her. “But maybe you’d like to go to dinner at an Italian restaurant. Go dancing. Take a walk in big-sky country.”

“I’d love all that, Autry. But I’ve got responsibilities. Three young kids.”

He nodded. “Of course. But do you know who you sound a little bit like? My dad. He never felt comfortable taking a day off. He never relaxed or had fun. The business was everything, just like your home life is. As it should be, Marissa. Home and family—that’s everything. But you need some time to yourself, too. To recharge.”

“I wish,” she said. “But I’ve been doing this since I was eighteen, Autry. You’re what? Thirty-two? Thirty-three? I can’t even relate to that kind of freedom. I hear you jet all over the world for Jones Holdings.”

“Thirty-three and, yes, I do. Our corporate headquarters are in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I grew up. I live in a skyscraper on the twenty-fifth floor. But I’m never there. I have a whole atlas of destinations in mind to build our corporate profile and assets.”

“And no woman has ever tempted you to settle down? Like your brothers?”

He frowned and turned away, hoping his expression didn’t match what he was thinking. He didn’t want to talk about Karinna or Lulu. “I don’t have the luxury of that,” he said. “Not if I want to keep Jones Holdings expanding globally. Just like you don’t have the luxury of going to a movie whenever you feel like it. In three weeks, I’ll be in Paris, likely for a year.” He paused and looked directly at her. “Maybe until I leave, we can keep each other company.”

“Exsqueeze me?”

He laughed. “I don’t mean in bed. I mean I’d like to spend time with you.”

“I’m a package deal, Autry. Even for three weeks in August.”

“Kaylee likes me,” he said. “I’ve already passed the Fuller daughter test.”

Marissa smiled. “I suppose you have. She’s not easy to charm.” She took a long sip of water. “Look, Autry. You’re tempting. Very tempting. But my life isn’t about fantasy or what I think about before I drift off to sleep.”

“Doesn’t mean you can’t have a little romance in your life.”

“Romance? I think I’m done with that, Autry.”

“Marissa—”

She took a deep breath. “My marriage wasn’t perfect. Many nights, Mike and I went to bed angry. It wasn’t easy for me to juggle working full-time with having three little kids and trying to take care of a home, so I became a stay-at-home mom. Money was tight, and Mike worked longer hours at the office to secure a promotion and a raise. We argued at times, the stress made it impossible not to, but we both agreed the sacrifices were worth it. Thing was, with so many added responsibilities, romance went out the window. That’s just the way it was and I wasn’t about to complain. I knew I had a blessed life. A home, a good husband, three healthy children. Till that one day when a drunk driver took Mike away.”

“I’m so sorry.”

She nodded. “I was so overwhelmed by grief and panic. I wasn’t really sure how I’d keep things going, but I just kept putting one foot in front of the other for the kids. The meager life insurance policy that Mike had helped for a while, but I worried about money constantly. So when my parents suggested we move in, I said yes. Ralph and Roberta Rafferty are wonderful grandparents, but I’m a twenty-seven-year-old woman living at home with Mom and Dad.”

“I admire you, Marissa. You did what you had to do at every step.”

He thought about how tough her life was—rewarding and full of love, yes, but tough. He didn’t date single mothers, but if he couldn’t break his own rule, what good was it? For the three weeks he had in Rust Creek Falls he wanted to give her the world. Her and her kids. It wasn’t like he’d fall in love. Marissa was a single mother of three. There was already a great barrier built right in.

“Well, I’d like to get to know you while I’m here,” he said. “I’d like to treat you and your daughters to a little fun. Good clean fun like this picnic. Hot-air balloon rides. Baseball games. You name it.” He paused. “But clearly, I’m very attracted to you, Marissa. I think you’re drop-dead gorgeous. I like spending time with you. I like you. So romance is definitely on my mind. I just want to put that out there.”

He’d enjoy his time with Marissa, cement a bond with his brothers, repair things with them and his dad, then he’d jet off to Paris—no heartache for either of them.

She stared at him with those brown eyes, and again he could see her thinking. Assessing. Considering. “You’re not looking for commitment and I’m not, either,” Marissa finally said. “So...friends. No strings attached.”

“No strings,” he repeated.

But their agreement left him a bit uneasy. It was one thing to say no strings and another to really mean it. And hurting Marissa—or her kids—was unacceptable.