Will stepped back so that both his parents could get a better view of their dinner guests. "Mom, Dad, I"d like you to meet Tate Cavanaugh, his daughter, Denise, and her daughter, Audra." Will inclined his head toward his family. "Tate, Denise, these are my parents, Zoe and Jake Cutler."
Kent cleared his throat, stepping forward. "Aren"t you forgetting someone?"
Kent smiled more readily these days, Will noticed. That would be Brianne"s handiwork. Will grinned at his brother.
"I try, little brother, I surely do try, but you just won"t go away." He looked at the man and woman he"d driven over. "This is my brother, Kent. He"s the one who never left home."
Jake intervened before his two sons decided to go at it, kidding or not. He thrust his wide hand toward Denise. "What he means is that Kent runs the ranch for us." He winked at Tate, one father to another. "After more than thirty years, I"ve decided to become a gentleman rancher and let someone else handle the headaches."
Zoe exchanged glances with Will. Only she knew just how hard turning over the reins had actually been for Jake. It had only happened at all because he"d suffered a heart attack. The doctor had ordered complete rest. Rather than let them sell the ranch, Kent had taken over running it. Kent had always been the one who loved the ranch the most, who saw himself as a rancher even as his brothers and sister sought careers in other directions. It seemed only natural that he be the one to take over.
Zoe shook their hands one at a time, smiling warmly. "Welcome to our home, Mr. Cavanaugh, Denise."
"Tate, please," Tate insisted, instantly feeling at home. You could always tell a lot, he judged, by the way a person welcomed you into their home. These were good people. Just the kind of parents he figured someone like Will would have.
"How about me? I"m down here, too," Audra piped up. She held her hand up in the air, offering it to the adults at large. She wanted someone to shake it, too.
The next minute, she squealed as Will picked her up in his arms.
"You sure are, Audra." He winked at her, making her giggle. "Didn"t you know that people always save the best for last?"
"I"m the best?" Audra"s eyes shone as she looked at the man she had already decided she was in love with.
Will pretended to look around the room. "Don"t see anyone here who would argue that," he told her, then looked at Kent. "Do you?"
Kent shook his head. "Nope." He put his hands out to take Audra from his brother. "Come here and sit by me."
Watching her daughter brought a smile to Denise"s lips. Audra was eating up the attention. For a second the little girl seemed to debate between the two men, then in true steadfast fashion, Audra made up her mind to remain with the man who had brought her. "I want to sit next to Will."
Kent nudged Will for Audra"s benefit. "Seems to me you"ve got an admirer, brother."
Will grinned. He couldn"t help glancing at Denise. "One out of two isn"t bad."
If she wasn"t careful, this man could easily slip under her guard. Squaring her shoulders, Denise sniffed. "She"s too young to know better."
Suddenly realizing she might very well have insulted Will"s mother, Denise quickly glanced in the woman"s direction. Instead of a frown, she saw a very enigmatic smile on the woman"s lips. Denise didn"t know whether to be relieved or puzzled.
The one thing she knew was that she was welcomed. The Cutlers went out of their way to make them all feel right at home. Even so, Denise was astounded at the ease with which all the Cutlers, particularly Zoe and Jake, navigated the waters of neighborliness.
Before dinner and then throughout the meal, Zoe chatted with her as if they were old friends while Kent and Will took turns entertaining a very pleasedlooking Audra. And it seemed to Denise that absolutely no time went by before her father and Jake were talking as if they"d spent their entire lives in close proximity.
Taking a breath, Denise mentally stepped back for a moment to absorb what was going on around her. Sometimes, when she grew restless, when their time on the road seemed endless and things were going badly, this was the kind of life she envisioned for the three of them. Sitting at a table, talking to friends, not having to worry about keeping on schedule, or about equipment that needed renovation. Or, in the early days, worrying about the weather robbing them of their income because it suddenly turned inclement and no one came to the carnival or to the fair.
Denise pressed her lips together. She"d always loved the smell of the open road, but this, she had to admit, was nice.
Very nice.
Stuffed to the proverbial gills, Tate sat back in his chair and sighed contentedly. He couldn"t eat another bite, even though the strawberry shortcake Zoe had brought out-after the apple pie and homemade ice cream-was out of this world. He smiled at his hostess.
"I don"t know when I"ve ever had better, Zoe. My ex-wife, bless her, couldn"t cook up anything but mischief. She pa.s.sed her talent down to Denny there." He saw the warning look in Denise"s eyes. Denny, he knew, hated to be talked about, especially in front of strangers. But he didn"t feel as if these people were strangers. Not from the first moment he met them. He grinned at her. "She"s the greatest daughter in the whole world, but the only business she has in the kitchen is getting a gla.s.s of water."
Zoe had seen the look pa.s.s between father and daughter. She knew embarra.s.sment when she saw it. "I"m sure she has a lot of other fine attributes."
"That she does," Tate quickly agreed. "She takes care of the whole crew, and I don"t mind saying that she"s the glue that keeps us all together."
Denise flushed, looking away. She wished her father wouldn"t go on like this. She did what had to be done, nothing more. She"d been doing it for so long, she couldn"t picture hanging back, not taking charge. It was who she was. Or who her family and friends needed her to be.
Will found himself thinking that he had never seen glue kept in such a tempting container. But right now, that glue looked as if she would rather be somewhere else. He was happy to oblige.
He moved his chair back. "Want to get some air?" he suggested. Then, leaning closer to her ear, he confided in a stage whisper. "If you don"t leave the table now, my mother is just going to keep on putting out desserts in front of you and expecting you to eat them until you explode."
A smear of strawberry running along her cheek, Audra"s eyes grew brighter still. "More dessert?"
There was no mistaking the hope in her voice. Desserts were a luxury that were few and far between when they were on the road. Her mother had a strict policy about the amount of sugar she could eat. Tonight was like a huge party to her.
"Audra, it"s not polite to ask," Denise chided. The little girl was already too energetic. By the time they left here, Audra would be bouncing off any surface they found.
Zoe looked as if she had stepped into heaven. It had been a long time since she"d had a child to fuss over and she meant to enjoy herself.
"It"s not only polite here," Zoe countered, "It"s downright welcomed." Rising, she extended her hand to the little girl. "Come with me, Audra, you can have your pick."
"Uh-oh, get the stomach pump." Jake laughed. "Your granddaughter"s going to feel as if she"s died and gone to heaven," he a.s.sured Tate. If memory served, there were three other desserts left over in the refrigerator. "She definitely isn"t going to know what to eat first"
Denise caught her lower lip between her teeth dubiously.
It didn"t take much for Will to read the look in her eyes.
"It"s okay," he a.s.sured her. "She"s a mother first and a mad hostess second. My mother won"t let Audra get sick."
Getting up, he looked at Denise expectantly. She made no move to join him. A smile quirked at the corners of his mouth.
"We don"t have to go out," he whispered, his breath slipping sensually along her cheek, "if you"re afraid to be alone with me."
Her chin shot up. She was on her feet in an instant Will suppressed his smile. He knew that would get to her. Pleased, he extended his hand to Denise. She ignored it and went ahead of him to the door.
Covertly taking in the scene, Jake smiled at Tate as their children walked out. "I think we may have something going on here, Tate."
Tate rubbed his chest, trying to rub the ache away. It would go soon, just as it had all the other times. He"d eaten too much, that was all.
He"d seen the same spark, the same light pa.s.sing between them that Jake had. Tate had his fingers crossed for all the reasons he"d given Denise. "I surely do hope so, Jake. I surely do hope so."
Walking onto the porch, Will closed the door behind them, shutting out the sounds from within. There were two rockers directly by the door, but he saw that she ignored them. Probably too domestic for her to sit on a porch and rock, he guessed.
The moonlight greeted Denise as if it were an old friend, its long, silvery fingers caressing her skin with reserved affection. It made her look so beautiful that Will could feel the ache in his gut, twisting there like a knife.
So this was how it felt to really want someone, he thought He wasn"t certain he actually liked the feeling. There was a frustration woven through it he wasn"t sure how to handle.
Nerves danced through her, bringing every fiber in her to attention. She felt as if she was waiting...antic.i.p.ating...
She didn"t want to be.
Denise moved her shoulders restlessly, as if trying to shrug off the feeling. She shouldn"t have come out here with him this way, even if part of her had wanted to.
Wanting to only made it worse.
Desperate, she looked for something to say, something to cut into the sultry silence that hung around them. She chose the obvious. And the inane. At least it was something.
"Dinner was wonderful."
She"d get no argument from him on that score. Will was proud of his mother"s abilities. More than that, he was proud of his mother. h.e.l.l, he thought, he was proud of the whole lot of them.
"My mother could make a feast out of a picture of a chicken." A smile played on his lips as he remembered. "There were times when I was growing up that she almost had to."
The remark took Denise by surprise. She"d had the impression that they had always lived here, on this vast, beautiful ranch, in this fine house. She regarded him closely, wondering if he was just making this up. "You were poor?"
There"d been times when they were certain they"d lose the ranch, lose everything. But each time, they managed to somehow pull together and pull through. That was what made the Shady Lady so precious to each of them-and what made him so proud of all of them.
"Only as far as money went," he told her. "We"ve always been rich in determination." Will leaned back against the railing, looking at her rather than the sprinkling of stars that were out She shone more brightly than they did when she smiled. "We got that from both parents, just the way I imagine you got your determined streak from yours."
She shrugged indifferently. The plural term didn"t apply. "The only thing my mother was ever determined about was leaving the carnival and my father. Which she did. As quickly as she could." Without realizing it, she ran her hands along her arms, as if to ward off the feeling of being dismissed by a parent who has never lived up to the full responsibility the word required. "I was five years old at the time."
He moved closer to her, slipping his arm around her shoulders. "I"m sorry. Must have been rough on you."
She began to shrug him off, then didn"t. She let herself absorb the sensation, if only for a moment. "We managed."
But not without scars, he thought. "Is that why you"re so tough-skinned? Because your mother hurt you so badly when she left?"
Denise took offense at the label. "My mother didn"t hurt me-badly or otherwise-when she left. I couldn"t have cared less. We never got along, even then." Her eyes narrowed as she looked up at him. "And I am not tough-skinned," she insisted. "I"m sensible, remember?"
Will inclined his head, far more intent on watching the way the moonlight shimmered on her lips than on winning any point of contention between them. "If you say so."
Denise was standing toe-to-toe with him, her chin raised. Her mouth less than six inches from his. "I say so."
The angle made the target far too tempting to resist. He would have been more than human if he could have and Will had always said that he was only a mere mortal man. And mortal men had their limits.
Will was face-to-face with his.
Without consciously being aware of doing it, Will threaded his fingers through her hair, cupping the back of her head. Ever so slowly, he tilted it back even more, bringing his lips closer to hers. He thought he could detect the erratic beating of her heart, but that could have just been his imagination.
Or maybe the sound of his own heart.
"How sensible?" The question whispered along the outline of her mouth.
The words felt as if they were all sticking inside her throat. "Very."
"Oh?"
Denise thought she nodded, but she wasn"t sure. She couldn"t seem to tear her eyes away from his. Couldn"t move from the spot even though she knew she should.
"Too sensible to let you kiss me."
The smile was in his eyes instead of on his lips. "Mind if I put that theory to the test?"
Before she could answer, he brought his mouth down to hers.
Will felt his pulse quicken immediately on contact Kissing her was everything he"d thought it would be. And maybe a little more.
She tasted not of the strawberries that his mother had laced all over her cake, but of something far more exotic, far more stirring. Trying to place the flavor, he deepened the kiss.
Within seconds, the quest to label the elusive taste was abandoned. A second more and he couldn"t even remember wanting to know.
Or his own name, for that matter.
What throbbed foremost in his mind was that he"d been waiting all his life to feel this way.
Disoriented and wild about the feeling.
He pulled her closer to him, sampling more, wanting more.
Wanting her.
Denise"s head swam, spinning almost out of control, like the center of the whirling dervish ride that Audra loved so much. Her arms around his neck, she clung to Will for support and because it felt so good to feel his body against hers.
The sensation began to set off alarms. The last time she"d felt this way, she"d had a baby to show for it nine months later. A baby and a broken heart.
History was not going to repeat itself.
With a strangled cry, she pulled her head back. "No," she cried hoa.r.s.ely. "No."
5.
Feeling every inch an intruder, Kent cleared his throat loudly, warning his brother and the woman Will was holding that they were not alone.
Talk about rotten timing, Kent thought disparagingly.
Startled, Will and Denise jumped apart like two people on the wrong end of a cattle prod.
Kent shifted uncomfortably in the doorway when they looked in his direction. "Look, I wouldn"t for the world bother you right now, but I think you two better come inside." He nodded toward the house behind him.
The moment and the shock of realizing that she was every bit as vulnerable as she"d once been, that every precaution she"d so painstakingly put into place was now lying shredded on the ground, null and void, were instantly shoved to the background. The somber look on Kent"s face drove a sharp stake of fear straight through Denise"s heart.
It didn"t do much less for Will. More stoic than emotional, Kent wasn"t the type to dramatize anything. Or to just wander in where he undoubtedly knew he wasn"t wanted. Will raised a silent, questioning brow as he looked at his brother.