Читать книгу The Cowgirl & The Unexpected Wedding - Sherryl Woods - Страница 11

A man could only mend the same fence so many times without looking like a darned fool, Hank thought as the sun beat down on his bare back. Cody Adams had passed by twice the day before just to get in a few taunts about the obviousness of his activity and to keep him updated on Lizzy’s whereabouts.

Even if Cody hadn’t told him, though, Hank was pretty sure he would have known the precise instant Lizzy was back at White Pines. He could feel her presence. The air seemed to crackle with the electricity of it. And that old familiar ache in the region of his heart started up again.

“Just come to dinner at White Pines tonight,” Cody had suggested. “You know you’d be welcome. The whole family will be there.”

“I know that.” Hank said.

He liked the whole Adams clan, from Harlan on down. They’d always made him feel like one of them. The littlest rascals in the family were so used to his presence, they had even taken to calling him Uncle Hank. He’d liked the feeling of belonging and he’d enjoyed spending many an evening with them since buying his ranch, but this was different This time Lizzy would be there, and he didn’t know what kind of welcome to predict from her, not when they’d parted on such uneasy terms.

“Another time,” he said, covering his regret.

“She won’t be here forever,” Cody had reminded him. “And we have a bet.”

“It’s her first day home. There will be time for me to make good on that ridiculous bet.”

Call it masculine pride or sheer muleheadedness, but what he didn’t say was that he wanted Lizzy to come to him, that he wanted to know that she’d missed him at least enough to finally seek him out.

Oh, he knew as sure as shooting that she’d been avoiding him all these years. He’d seen the flush of embarrassment in her cheeks after she’d kissed him on the eve of her departure for college. He’d also seen the quick rise of anger and pride when he hadn’t tried to stop her from leaving. She’d been so sure he would, so confident that that kiss would make a difference. He’d seen that, too.

Little did she know what letting her go had cost him. That unexpected kiss had turned him inside out No woman had ever made him want so much. And no woman had ever been so far out of reach. The distance was far greater than the miles between Los Piños and Austin or even the miles between home and Miami. They were separated by their dreams.

His were simple. He wanted a wife and children and a small ranching operation that he could take pride in having built from the ground up. The Triple Bar was his. There was no history or conditions tied to it, the way there would have been if he’d stayed at his daddy’s place. In that, he was a whole lot like Luke Adams, the oldest of Harlan’s sons.

Lizzy’s hopes and ambitions were more complex and all-encompassing. Harlan Adams had laid the world at the feet of his baby daughter, and she had embraced it all. Hank wasn’t sure she could ever be happy with a life as quiet and self-contained as the one he could offer.

He knew—he had always known—that he wanted more from her than a brief, passionate fling. And for that, she had to come to him in her own time, on her own terms. He’d long ago accepted the fact that she might never come at all.

Knowing that, he’d turned Cody’s invitation down, then spent a miserable night back at his own ranch, cursing the day he’d ever met the pretty little sixteen-year-old who’d gone and grown up into a beautiful, willful woman who’d twisted his heart into knots. No man should have to contend with loving a woman like that and watching her walk away.

Today he was back in the same pasture, doing the same work all over again, hoping to catch at least a glimpse of her. What kind of fool did that make him? He’d been asking himself that since sunup and he didn’t like the answer any better now than he had hours ago.

Hopefully, Cody wasn’t spreading the word about what a pitiful spectacle Hank was making of himself. When he glanced up a few moments later, he thought he was seeing things. There was Lizzy Adams strolling across his pasture looking very much at home and pretty as a picture in her snug jeans and bright red shirt, her black hair streaming down her back under a big black Stetson. Right at this second, with that long, athletic stride of hers, she was a cowgirl through and through. He could almost make himself believe she hadn’t changed at all.

Nor, unfortunately, had his reaction to her. His blood heated as if she’d done a whole lot more than offer him a smile and a wave. He was glad then that he’d waited to see her, glad that this first meeting wasn’t taking place in front of all those prying, hopeful Adams eyes.

She looked confident and sassy and so damned tempting that Hank clutched the posthole digger a little tighter to keep from dragging her straight into his arms and giving her a proper—well, improper, actually—welcome.

Lizzy didn’t seem inclined to show the same restraint. Her pace never even slowed as she sashayed toward him, lifted her hands to his cheeks, gazed straight into his eyes and planted a kiss on him guaranteed to fell a saint. The woman never had hesitated to take what she wanted. Her daddy had always led her to believe that it was her due.

There was hunger and passion and maybe even a little greedy desperation in that kiss on his part and hers. She smelled of sunshine and some kind of exotic flower and she tasted just the way he’d remembered with a hint of mint on her breath. They were both trembling and breathless by the time she pulled away.

“Damn,” she murmured, her expression shaken.

Hank grinned. He knew precisely how she felt, as if the ground had shifted under their feet when everyone had declared the earthquake safely past He dredged up his sense of humor to keep from revealing how shaken he, too, had been, how eager he was for more.

“Was it everything you remembered?” he taunted.

She scowled up at him. “Oh, go to hell.”

“Now, that’s a fine way to greet an old neighbor.”

“The kiss was the greeting. The rest was regrets.”

He laughed at that. “I know exactly what you mean.”

She regarded him suspiciously. “You do?”

“I was kinda hoping I’d gotten it all wrong, too. Care to try again, just in case the first time was an accident?” The question had nothing to do with his bet with Cody and everything to do with his longing for further experimentation. He’d spent too many restless nights dreaming of having this woman back in his arms. The discovery that she still fit him like the other half of a carved piece of wood was too tempting to resist.

Lizzy shook her head as if to clear it. “No, please. Once was enough to prove the point.”

“Coward.”

“Me?” she protested. “If you thought the last kiss was all that great, where have you been for the past five years?”

He liked the disgruntled attitude and decided to spur it on. “Comparison shopping,” he said.

She frowned at that.

Hank clung to the tiny hint of jealousy. “According to your family, you haven’t exactly been living in a cocoon,” he accused, immediately proving that he was just as capable of envy. Every mention of a man in Lizzy’s life had set acid to churning in his gut, though until now he’d been good at hiding it.

“True.”

He studied her speculatively. “So, Miss Lizzy, what do we do now? Wait another five years before we try it again?”

She considered that, her expression thoughtful as her gaze locked with his. Heat sizzled in the air. Finally she shook her head. “Pick me up at six.”

Hank’s pulse kicked up like an unbroken horse at the touch of a saddle. “For?”

“I wish I knew,” she said with a sigh. “Trouble, more than likely.”

“Now, Miss Lizzy, I do like the sound of that,” he retorted.

“Don’t go getting any wild ideas, cowboy,” she said, and started to clamber back over the fence.

Hank wasn’t ready to see her go. Not yet, not even with the promise of a whole evening ahead of him. “Lizzy?”

“Yes?”

“If you’re not busy,” he said oh so casually, “why don’t you stick around?”

“Why?” she asked bluntly. “You need some help with this fence? Word is it was just fine before you started tampering with it.”

He winced at the direct hit, but pressed on. “Actually, I was hoping you’d join me for lunch. I brought a couple of extra sandwiches, just in case you happened by.”

Her expression brightened. “Ham and cheese?” she asked, eyeing his saddlebags with a gleam in her eyes.

“On Mrs. Wyndham’s home-baked pumpernickel bread,” he said, knowing she would find that—if not him—irresistible.

“Did you bring pickles, too?”

“A whole jar.”

She was pawing through the saddlebags in an instant. When she’d plucked the thick, foil-wrapped sandwiches from them, her face lit up.

“I’ve dreamed of Mrs. Wyndham’s sandwiches,” she admitted as she moved to a spot in the shade of a huge old cottonwood. “I’ve been in a lot of delis the past few years, but none of them has gotten it quite right. Your housekeeper ought to be declared a national treasure.”

“It’s the bread,” Hank said, taking a spot beside her and stretching his legs out in front of him. “I don’t know what she puts in it, but the taste can’t be matched.”

“How’d you remember that I loved these so much?”

If only she knew how many times he’d sifted through the memories of every moment they’d ever shared. After all, she’d trailed after him for years, pestering him with questions and as time passed and she grew into a woman, blistering him with looks hot enough to sizzle steak.

“I remember a lot of things,” he said quietly, his hat low so she couldn’t read his expression.

“Such as?”

He could pretend, as he had done so many times in the past, treat the question dismissively, or he could tell the truth. Maybe it was time for a little straightforward honesty between them.

“For one thing, the way your eyes light up with golden sparks when you take the first bite,” he said, tilting the hat back and keeping his gaze on her steady. “The way your tongue darts out to lick the mustard from your lips. The way you always save one bite as if you can’t quite bear to finish.”

She blinked and swallowed hard, but it was Hank who looked away first. If he started cataloging all the rest of the things he remembered about Lizzy, they’d waste the whole afternoon and his blood would be in a heated frenzy.

“How’s med school?” he asked, forcing a neutral tone into his voice. This was safer ground, turf that would remind him of all that stood between them still.

“Okay.”

“Still getting straight As?”

“Not this quarter,” she said.

He heard the rare insecurity in her voice and wondered at it. “How come? Is it tougher than you expected?”

Even as he asked it, he wondered if he wanted the answer to be yes, wanted med school to be so tough that she’d give up on it and come home. But of course, Lizzy was no quitter and coming home a failure wouldn’t sit well with her. That was no way to get what he wanted, and he knew it.

“Not so tough. I just haven’t been able to keep my mind on my studies the way I should the past few weeks.”

“Since Harlan’s heart attack?” he guessed, knowing how mat would have thrown her. He’d almost called her then to offer support or sympathy or, just as likely, to finally hear the sound of her voice again. That was what had held him back. He hadn’t fully understood his own motives, and that was dangerous with a woman like Lizzy.

She nodded, then faced him, her green eyes with those daggling flecks of gold now clouded with worry. “Do you know how he is?” she asked. “I keep getting the feeling that nobody’s telling me the whole truth.”

He wanted to smooth away her frown, but settled for a teasing comment intended to do the same job. “Hey, you’re the budding doctor. Couldn’t you tell by looking at him that he’s doing okay?”

“He looks good,” she admitted. “But he wouldn’t let me examine him.”

Hank chuckled at her disgruntled tone. “I’m surprised you didn’t wrestle him down and do it anyway.”

“Believe me, I was tempted.” She regarded him thoughtfully. “And you haven’t answered my question, either. How is he?”

“What did your mother say?”

“Hank, you’re being as evasive as the rest of them,” she accused.

“I’m just saying if you want answers, the best people to ask are those around him, not me. Your mother doesn’t lie to you, does she?”

“No, but—”

“No buts. What does she say?”

“That he’s recuperating nicely and he’ll be fine if he takes it easy.”

“Well, then, that’s your answer.”

“No,” she said, clearly unconvinced. “He should be up and about by now. You know Daddy. He never was one for sitting still for more than a minute.”

“Maybe he’s just hoping to get a little sympathy from his baby girl.”

“Maybe.”

He could tell that she still wasn’t reassured. “You’re really worried, aren’t you?”

“Not worried,” she said slowly, lifting her gaze to his. “Scared.”

He saw now what he should have seen all along. “You’re scared of losing him?”

Tears welled up in her eyes and came close to breaking his heart. She nodded.

“The others have all had him for a long time,” she said in a choked voice. “Not me. Twenty-four years isn’t nearly long enough.”

Hank reached out and brushed away the tear that was tracking down her cheek, barely resisting the temptation to pull her into his embrace and comfort her. “Something tells me Harlan will be around a long time yet.”

“Is that guesswork or wishful thinking?”

“Oh, I don’t think he’s going anywhere until he’s had a chance to dance at your wedding. It wouldn’t be like him to give up before getting his way.”

A smile trembled on her lips. “He does seem to be fixated on getting me married off and pregnant. You’d think all those grandbabies and great-grandbabies already overrunning the place would be enough to suit him.”

“But none of them belong to his precious baby girl,” Hank countered. “You were the surprise and the blessing of his life. Naturally, he wants to see you settled.”

“Whose side are you on?”

“Yours, of course. Always have been.”

She regarded him with an unblinking gaze. “You have, haven’t you? Even when you thought I’d lost my mind for running off and getting on the rodeo circuit.”

“Now, that one did take a few years off my life,” he said, recalling the heart-in-his-throat moments she’d put him through every time she’d climbed onto a bucking horse. “But nobody’s ever been able to change your mind once you got something into your head. I figured it made more sense to make sure you could stay on a horse than to fight you.”

“If it had been up to Cody, Jordan and Luke, they would have locked me in my room until I came to my senses,” she recalled, grinning. “You and Daddy were the only ones who didn’t try to stop me.”

“What would have been the point? You’d have climbed out the window.”

She leaned back against the trunk of the tree and gazed around, then sighed. “Do you have any idea how much I’ve missed all of this?”

“Not enough to come home for more than a minute at a time the last five years,” he retorted.

Her gaze locked with his. “You noticed? I’d wondered if you had.”

“I noticed,” he said.

“You didn’t exactly burn up the phone lines between here and Austin or here and Miami.”

“Did you want me to? I thought the whole point of going away was so you could try your wings away from all the overprotectiveness around here, mine included.”

“Maybe it was, at the beginning,” she conceded. “Rebellion seems to be one of those Adams traits.” Her lips curved. “But I missed this. I missed—”

Hank held his breath.

“—you,” she said softly, as if she were testing it. “I missed you.”

Damn, but it was good to finally hear her say the words. But missing wasn’t loving. It wasn’t saying that this time she’d stay and make a life with him. He couldn’t put his heart on the line for that. “I missed you, too, kid.”

She glared at him, just as he’d known she would.

“Kid?”

Hank winked. “You’re still younger than me.”

“Oh, yeah. What are you now? Pushing sixty, right?”

“Not even half that, smart aleck.”

“Twenty-nine isn’t all that old, Hank.” She looked him over with a deliberately provocative gleam in her eyes. “Looks as if you have a few good years left in you, if you’d work a little to get yourself in shape.”

“What’s wrong with the shape I’m in?” he demanded. “It can’t be all that bad. You’ve been ogling me since you came out here.”

“Have not.”

“Have, too.”

She chuckled. “Listen to us. We’re back to bickering the way we used to.”

“Some things never change.”

“I wish nothing had to change,” she said with a sigh.

He sensed the shift in mood went beyond the bickering of two old friends. “You’re thinking of your father again, aren’t you?”

She nodded, then forced a smile. “But all the worrying and wishing in the world won’t change things.”

“Have you talked to his doctor?”

“Not yet.”

“Then go. Do that this afternoon. Maybe it’ll put your mind at ease.” He touched a finger to her cheek, watched the color bloom at the light caress. For an instant, her gaze clashed with his and he thought for sure she was going to turn her face ever so slightly and press a kiss to his palm.

But she drew in a deep breath and shot to her feet instead. “I think I will go see the doctor.”

“Still want me to pick you up at six?”

She gave him a sassy grin. “Unless you’re having second thoughts.”

“Oh, no, darlin’. Where you’re concerned, I’ve always had a one-track mind.”

* * *

Hank’s words lingered in Lizzy’s head for the rest of the afternoon. There’d been a challenge there, no doubt about it The man had actually been flirting with her, which had to be a first She couldn’t help wondering whether that was because he’d finally seen that she was all grown up or whether something else was going on. living with a houseful of manipulators had made her wary of sudden shifts in attitude.

Of course, wariness wasn’t enough to keep her home. She was curious to see just where this brand-new attitude would lead them. In fact, now that she’d been reassured by her father’s doctor that his heart had suffered no permanent damage, she could devote all of her attention to Hank and figuring out just how much he really mattered to her.

Cody wandered in as she was pacing in the living room, awaiting Hank’s arrival.

“Going someplace?” he asked, looking her over, then scowling at the short skirt she’d chosen.

“I have a date.”

“With?”

“Hank.”

His gaze narrowed. “Is that right?”

“Do you disapprove?”

“Of Hank? Of course not. But you might want to consider adding a couple of more inches to that skirt before you walk out the door.”

Lizzy glanced down. “Why? Don’t you think he’ll like it?”

“Oh, he’ll like it. A little too much would be my guess.”

She grinned. “Then I got it just right, I think.”

Her brother studied her worriedly. “Lizzy, what are you up to?”

“Up to?” she repeated innocently. “I have no idea what you mean.”

“Oh, yes, you do. You’ve got that sneaky-female look in your eyes.”

Lizzy laughed. “And what would you know about sneaky-female looks?”

“I’m married, aren’t I? Melissa always gets a look just like that in her eyes right before she pulls the rug out from under me. I’ve watched my own daughter use it on every man she’s ever dated, too. Now that Sharon Lynn’s engaged, poor old Kyle Mason spends most of his life looking thoroughly bewildered by her. I actually feel sorry for him.”

Lizzy gave a little nod of satisfaction. “Then I suppose I’ve finally got that right, too.”

Something that might have been panic flared in her brother’s eyes. “Lizzy, I will not have you going out with Hank and doing something you’re going to regret.”

“Regrets are for people who never took any risks,” she retorted.

“Risks?” Cody demanded, his voice escalating. “Just what risks are you intending to take?”

Lizzy heard Hank’s car outside and decided Cody had had about all he could take of her teasing. She reached up and patted his cheek. “Don’t worry about a thing, big brother. I’ve got everything under control.”

Cody moaned.

Lizzy walked out on him before he could get it into his head to try to run Hank off the property. That was not the sort of trouble she’d intended when she’d made this date. No, if there was going to be trouble tonight, it was going to be between her and Hank Robbins.

She could hardly wait.