Lost and Found Groom by McLinn, Patricia (most difficult books to read .TXT) 📗

were up all night. You can get some sleep before your meeting.”

“Daniel?”

“What?” He braced for more arguing.

“Thank you.”

“I’m glad you called me,” he said gruffly.

*

“So, Daniel’s taking care of Matthew,” said Marti, not for the first time. “Getting easier and easier to rely on him, isn’t it?”

“I’d be a fool to get too deeply involved with him.”

It was more a reminder to herself that she was a fool than an answer. Kendra did rely on him more and more, and that was a form of involvement.

As soon as he’d shown up, he’d hustled her off to her room with orders to sleep. And she had. Matthew’s crying had awakened her once, but she’d recognized it as the sound of frustration rather than pain, and she’d fallen back asleep. Only when she was showering and dressing for the trip to Sheridan with Marti had she recognized that she’d trusted Daniel to deal with their son.

She added aloud now, as she drove up the ranch road on their return home, “He’s going to be leaving soon.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

Kendra turned from watching storm clouds bubbling over the mountains. “What do you mean? Do you know something, Marti?”

“Can’t say I know anything.”

“Marti,” she warned.

“Look at that,” Marti interrupted as she turned into the road to Kendra’s house. “Somebody lost a hubcap.”

Although Kendra spotted the shiny object in the ditch beside the road, she ignored the red herring. “You haven’t said anything about going flying the other day. Did Daniel tell you something?”

“I decided you’re right. I shouldn’t be quizzing you about the boy, so I’m keeping my thoughts about the flying to myself.”

Kendra had never said anything of the sort–thought it, yes, but hadn’t said it. They’d reached her door, so there wasn’t time to argue. Besides, arguing might sound as if she welcomed Marti’s comments on her situation with Daniel or wanted to know what her aunt and he had talked about while they were encased in that tiny airplane.

Neither, of course, was true.

Marti pointed toward Daniel’s parked car. “Must be his hubcap.”

“I’ll tell him. Thanks for the ride, Marti.”

The only sound in the house was a faint murmur from the back of the house. She hung up the red wool jacket she’d worn over a princess-seamed denim dress and followed the sound. She stopped in the doorway to Matthew’s room.

Daniel sat in the rocking chair, with Matthew across his lap, the child’s head cushioned against his father’s arm and a blanket wrapped around him. In a low, soft voice, with his eyes closed, Daniel sang one of the soothing songs she remembered from Santa Estella. Matthew was sound asleep.

She’d thought so many times that for Matthew’s sake she would never keep father and son apart. Now she saw it was also for Daniel’s sake.

She stepped back, retracing her steps soundlessly, not sure if she meant to give Daniel privacy or protect herself from having to acknowledge what she’d seen. And felt.

In the kitchen, she clattered dishes in starting a pot of coffee. She was looking out the kitchen window at the patch of clouds now nearly on top of them when Daniel came around the corner.

“Hi. How’d the meeting go?”

“Fine. Marti would like to see my cousin Grif more involved, but. . .” She shrugged. “How’s Matthew?”

“Fine now. I gave him more of that medicine at two like you said. That seemed to help. He’s sleeping.”

“Good. Thanks. Oh, you tossed a hubcap turning into the drive. Marti spotted it. One of the hazards of ranch roads. And you never know when you might need a hubcap to hold a fire.”

If she could have snatched the words out of the air she would have. What was she thinking, reminding him of their refuge from Aretha? It gave him the perfect opening to bring up their past, when she’d been working so hard to avoid that.

But he said only, “I thought I heard something. I’ll get it after a cup of that coffee you’re making.”

“You better go now. Storm’s coming.”

He looked toward the back door, which showed only blue sky in its window. “I’ve got time.”

She raised her eyebrows, but didn’t argue. He’d learn about Wyoming storms. She got out the last of the oatmeal raisin cookies Marti had brought over, and poured Daniel his coffee.

The conversation about her meeting was easy and casual. He’d finished his coffee and four cookies when he got up.

“Guess I’ll get that hubcap now.”

“Okay.” She took the dishes to the sink to hide her smile.

As soon as he was out the door, though, she followed, watching him saunter down the driveway. Sure enough, he was about two yards from the hubcap when she heard the first, fat drops hit the roof. Daniel lifted his face to the sky, as if he’d been hit, too, but picked up his speed only a little. He had bent over to retrieve the piece of metal when the skies opened.

She was laughing hard by the time he reached the door she held open for him. He was soaked–dripping, sopping wet. He swore in a mixture of English and Spanish as he dropped the freshly washed hubcap on the porch.

“I tried to tell you. No–stay there, I’ll get a towel.”

“You didn’t try very hard,” he called after her as she went around the corner to the laundry area. “And there’s still blue sky.”

“There’s so much sky here, that most of it can look clear, but if you’re under the clouds, you’ll get it.”

She rounded the corner with the towel and stopped. One minute she was laughing, and then she wasn’t. The storm had dimmed the small back hall. The rain had plastered his shirt and jeans to his body, and he’d combed back his wet hair with his fingers.

She would have liked to have been able to say the change in atmosphere started from him, but that wasn’t the truth. He looked up, reaching for the towel, then stopped as their eyes met.

She took the final step forward.

His lips were cool and wet, then hot