Читать книгу Redwing's Lady - Stella Bagwell - Страница 11

“Mom! Where are you?”

“I’m coming.” Tossing down the towel, Maggie drew in a deep breath and hurried out to the kitchen.

When she entered the room, Aaron was pouring himself a glass of milk, and thankfully, as he chugged it down, he seemed not to notice that there was anything amiss about his mother.

“It’s so late that supper will have to be soup and a sandwich,” she told him as she began to pull plates and bowls from the cabinet.

“Okay. Can I have bologna and mustard?”

“You may.”

By the time she’d gathered the dishes together, she’d managed to focus her attention on the task of preparing a light supper. But before she started, she walked over to where her son was standing by the cabinet counter and put her forefinger beneath his chin.

Tilting his face upward for inspection, she examined his spiky, wet hair, his neck and ears and finally the bramble scratch on his arm.

Aaron began to squirm impatiently. “I’m clean, Mom. And I’m okay.”

“You have a bruise on your cheek and a scratch on your arm. We’ll deal with the scratch after you eat,” she promised, then with a weary sigh she patted his wet head. “We’re lucky that’s the only thing that happened to you.”

Satisfied that her son was clean and all in one piece, she opened the pantry and took two cans of vegetable soup from a shelf. As she emptied the contents into the saucepan, Aaron plopped down in a chair at the breakfast table and thoughtfully watched his mother’s jerky movements.

“Are you really, really mad at me?” he asked in a cowed voice.

She glanced at her son as she stirred water into the soup. Since Aaron had never done anything nearly as serious as running away, she really didn’t have a clue as to how she would punish him. And right now, dealing with his misbehavior was only a part of her problems.

“I’m not sure what I am, Aaron. I was very scared when I couldn’t find you.”

His expression was remorseful, but not nearly enough to suit Maggie.

“Well, Mom, you should have known I wouldn’t get hurt,” he said with just enough cockiness to warrant a glare from his mother.

“How did I know that, young man?”

“Well, you know that I can ride Rusty better than anybody on the ranch. Even Skinny,” he boasted.

“Is that why you fell off?” Maggie asked as she placed the pan of soup onto the gas burner.

Clearly insulted, Aaron exclaimed, “Aw, Mom! I—”

Before he could finish, a knock sounded on the kitchen door. Maggie opened her mouth to tell Aaron to answer it, but she was wasting her time. Aaron shot out of the chair like a bullet and raced to the door.

“Mom! It’s Daniel!” he shouted as though she were deaf.

“Don’t just stand there looking at him. Let him in,” she instructed her son.

Aaron flung the door wide. “You can come in, Daniel.”

“Thank you, Aaron.” With his hat in his hand, he stepped into the kitchen and glanced toward the other side of the room, where Maggie was stirring something on the gas range.

“Mom’s fixing soup,” Aaron explained. “You can stay and eat, too. If you’d like. We have plenty of bologna.”

“Aaron! Please!” Maggie scolded softly.

Aaron shot his mother a perplexed look. “Well, he can, can’t he? I thought we’re always supposed to share with company.”

Turning away from the stove, she glanced at her son before turning a strained smile on Daniel. “Sorry,” she apologized. “He doesn’t understand that bologna isn’t something you offer a guest.”

As Daniel looked at her, one corner of his mouth lifted into a faint grin, and Maggie felt her heart skip into a rapid dance against her rib cage. It wasn’t right that the man looked so good to her—too good, in fact.

“I don’t know why not,” Daniel told her. “I think it’s pretty tasty stuff.”

Maggie released a breath of air she hadn’t realized she was holding. “Then why don’t you wash your hands here at the sink and I’ll have everything on the table in just a few minutes.”

He moved farther into the room with Aaron glued to his side.

“I wasn’t hinting to be fed supper,” he said, unable to pull his eyes away from her.

Jolted by the fact that he was so near to her again, she turned back to the soup. “I know you weren’t. But you’re welcome to join us. Offering you a sandwich is the least I can do after all you’ve done for me and Aaron.”

Staring at her for a few more moments, Daniel wondered why she didn’t want to look at him, why she had run from him after kissing him so deeply, so sweetly. It didn’t make sense to him. But then, Daniel didn’t know much about the way a woman’s mind worked.

Even though he’d often dreamed of how it might be to have a family, a real family that stayed together and loved each other through thick and thin, he’d never actually pictured himself in the role of husband or father. A man had to know about a thing before he could be good at it, and Daniel had been taught very little about love. Especially from a father who’d lacked any sort of morals, decency or human kindness.

“Come on, Daniel.” Aaron grabbed his forearm and urged him toward an open doorway to their right. “I’ll show you where the mudroom is. It’s easier to wash your hands in there.”

The two males entered the small utility area and as Daniel washed his hands at a deep galvanized sink, Aaron sidled up to him and said, “I’m worried about Mom. She’s acting strange. Like she’s sick or something. Do you think me running off has made her sick?”

Daniel glanced through the open doorway of the mudroom. From this position, he could see Maggie standing at the gas range. Her shoulders were slumped, her head slightly bent. She had to be exhausted, he thought. He was certainly feeling the long ride and he was accustomed to straddling a horse. Yet he figured her quietness had nothing to do with her fatigue. She was upset with him because he’d kissed her. And probably even with herself because she’d kissed him back.

Glancing down at the boy’s troubled face, he said gently, “No. I don’t believe your mother is ill. I think she’s very tired. You put her through the wringer, you know. You should be a little ashamed of yourself.”

Grimacing, Aaron hung his head. “Yeah. I guess I am,” he mumbled contritely, then suddenly his head jerked up and he shot Daniel a bright smile. “But I’ll make it up to her. I’ll do all sorts of chores and she won’t even have to ask me! Just watch!”

Aaron dashed out of the mudroom and over to his mother. By the time Daniel joined them, the boy was busy placing plates and utensils on the table.

“Is there something I can do?” Daniel offered as he stood beside her at the range.

Maggie darted a glance up at him, then quickly turned her attention back to the boiling soup. His nearness made her tremble as though there were an earthquake inside her, and she deeply resented the fact that he had such a powerful effect on her. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. She wasn’t supposed to be feeling anything for this man.

“No. I think everything is ready. Go ahead and take a seat.”

He put his hand on her shoulder. “Are you all right?” he asked in a low voice.

Without looking at him, she said stiffly, “Yes. Yes, I’m fine.”

Daniel glanced around to see that Aaron was still at the table and out of earshot. “Maggie, about that kiss—”

“I’m not going to talk about that!” she interrupted in a rushed hush. “Not here! Not now!”

Frowning thoughtfully, Daniel studied her bent head. “When?”

Her head jerked up, and she stared at him in dazed wonder. “Never! That’s over—and it won’t happen again!”

She reached up and switched off the burner beneath the pan of soup. Daniel dropped his hand, but he didn’t move away.

“Never say never, Maggie Ketchum.”

Something like fear filled her blue eyes. “It’s time to eat,” she said hoarsely.

Picking up the soup, she carried the pot over to the table and began to fill the three bowls that Aaron had set out. The boy was obviously thrilled to have Daniel share the simple meal with them and he made a big issue of showing Daniel where to sit and fetching him a cold soda from the refrigerator.

Once they were eating, Aaron dominated the conversation and Maggie was relieved. She didn’t want Daniel to have a chance to turn his attention to her. It was hard enough on her nerves just having him sit across the table from her, much less having him talk to her. Especially when he’d already said more to her than he should have. And done more than he should have, she thought wretchedly.

Halfway through the meal, the telephone rang and Maggie went to answer the portable instrument sitting on the end of the cabinet. The caller was her sister-in-law, Victoria. While she assured Aaron’s aunt that her nephew was safe and sound except for a scratch and a bruise, she covertly watched her son and Daniel at the kitchen table. The two of them were talking with easy familiarity as though they were old buddies or even relatives. The notion was unsettling. It wouldn’t do for her son to get close to this man. Not when she planned on making a swift and permanent break with him after tonight.

“That was your aunt Victoria,” Maggie said to Aaron, once she returned to the table. “She was getting ready to come over here to check you out, but I told her you only had a scratch and a bruise.”

Aaron swallowed down a mouthful of potato chips before he said to Daniel, “Aunt Victoria is a doctor. She’s just had a baby. He’s a boy, but he’s too little to play with. He still drinks from a bottle and he wets his pants. Ugh!”

Daniel smiled fondly. “Yes, I’ve met little Samuel.”

Aaron looked at him with surprise, then dawning. “Oh, I forgot. You work with Uncle Jess.”

“That’s right.”

“See, Mom, Daniel has a badge just like Uncle Jess’s.” The boy reached over and nearly touched the shiny, oval emblem pinned to Daniel’s khaki uniform. “It says San Juan County, New Mexico, on it. That’s where we live. And Daniel is the law all over this land.”

“Daniel isn’t the law, he enforces the law,” Maggie corrected him.

Aaron scowled at his mother. “I know that. He can put handcuffs on people and take them to jail.”

And that ability was obviously impressive to a nine-year-old boy, Maggie realized.

“He has a Colt .45, too,” Aaron went on with enthusiasm. “That’s the kind of pistol he likes to carry—just like in the Old West—like Blackjack Ketchum toted. And he was our kin!”

Maggie stared at her son, unwilling to believe the stuff that was rolling out of his mouth. “Aaron! You have no idea what sort of gun Blackjack Ketchum used! And he certainly wasn’t our relative! Where did you hear such a thing?” she demanded.

“Well, Skinny told me about the gun. And the kids at school tell me all the time that Blackjack was my kinfolk. And he might be, Mom. You don’t know,” he argued.

Daniel chuckled, and Maggie lifted a helpless gaze toward the ceiling.

“Eat your sandwich,” she ordered Aaron, then seeing Daniel had finished the food on his plate, Maggie asked, “Would you care for coffee and a piece of pound cake?”

Daniel figured she was more than ready for him to leave, but he was going to deliberately ignore her wishes. After tonight he probably wouldn’t get the opportunity to share this sort of time with her or Aaron. He had to make the most of these moments.

“Sounds good.”

“What about me?” Aaron chimed in. “Can’t I have cake, too?”

“Cake, but no coffee,” Maggie told him as she rose from the table. “And then you’re going straight to bed.”

Aaron’s freckled nose wrinkled up with disappointment. “Aw, heck, I want to talk to Daniel some more.”

“I’m sure Daniel is all talked out by you.”

Daniel glanced over to where Maggie stood at the cabinet, but she had her gaze focused on the long loaf of cake she was slicing.

“Aaron hasn’t talked me out. But I do have to be leaving soon,” he announced.

“How come?” Aaron asked with frank innocence. “Don’t you want to stay and talk to Mom a little more?”

“Aaron!” Maggie sternly warned.

Daniel could hardly keep from flashing a grin at his new little buddy. “I can’t think of anything I’d like to do better. But I have work to finish tonight. Maybe I’ll get to talk to her another time,” he said just as she was placing the plate of cake in front of him.

Pausing at his shoulder, Maggie looked down at him. The warm suggestive signals in his brown eyes seemed to arc straight into her, flooding her limbs with heat and her cheeks with color.

Nervously she wiped her sweaty palms down the front of her thighs. “Uh…do you want cream with your coffee?”

“No. Black is fine.”

She served Aaron his dessert, then went back to her seat and tried to pour all of her attention into the piece of cake in front of her. But she could hardly choke down more than two bites. She wanted—no, she needed for the meal to be over and for Deputy Daniel Redwing to be gone. Otherwise, she would be unable to keep her eyes from straying to his lips and her senses from remembering every reckless second she’d spent in his arms.

Glancing down the table, she noticed Aaron’s eyelids were beginning to droop and the movement of his fork was growing slower and slower. The long, traumatic day was catching up to him, and now he was about to fall asleep right in his plate.

“Aaron, I really think you’re too sleepy to finish your cake. Why don’t you say good-night to Daniel and go to bed,” she gently suggested.

His mother’s voice stirred Aaron from his sleepy stupor and he lay down his fork and climbed out of his chair.