A Minute to Smile (16 page)

“Alexander, this is Esther. I hope I didn’t wake you.”

“No. I was gardening. Is anything wrong?” She bit her lip. “Nothing at all. I know it’s short notice, but I’m calling to invite you to come with us to the mountains. We’re going to have breakfast, then hike up into the meadows and have lunch.” Before he could reply one way or the other, she added, “It would mean leaving within the hour, if you’d like to go.”

“That sounds wonderful.” There was no mistaking the hearty approval in his tone. “I’m already dressed, so I’ll just walk over. Do you need anything?”

Her spirits soared, the anticipatory pleasure she had already been feeling jumping a hundred points. “I have enough food for an army. Just bring yourself.”

“All right then. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

They drove Esther’s economy-model station wagon into the foothills and she parked in a broad graveled area. The morning sun had just begun to penetrate the quiet stands of trees as Esther adeptly lit a fire in a grate provided for picnickers, then started the bacon frying in a skillet. The boys wanted bread and she gave it to them. “Remember, you have to be calm about it.”

“What are they doing?” Alexander asked as he peeled an orange.

She pointed with a spatula to a broad sandstone wall covered with holes ranging from the size of a quarter to the size of a bowling ball. “Chipmunk condominiums,” she said with a grin. “It’s amazing.”

“You would think the number of people who come here would chase them away.”

Esther flipped the bacon. “Are you kidding? They probably eat better than any other clan in a tri-state area. The little scoundrels have made an art form of begging.” Hearing Jeremy giggle, she looked up and pointed. “See?”

The boys sprawled on their knees in a small hollow, tossing bits of food toward three little chipmunks who chattered and scolded among themselves, their bushy tails flicking.

Alexander chewed an orange section. “Cute little devils, aren’t they?”

“Adorable.”

“Not quite as adorable as you are, however.” He leisurely eyed her legs. “I’ve never seen you in anything but a skirt.”

“Well, you’ll have to suffer through.” She lifted a slice of browned meat from the pan. “Not even I am comfortable in the mountains in a skirt.”

“I’ll suffer, all right.” The turquoise glow in his eyes promised it was not quite the way she had intended. A shout from the boys drew his attention.

“Look!” squeaked Daniel. “Babies!”

Alexander popped another slice of orange into his mouth and ambled over to investigate. Esther watched him squat with the children, giving them each a slice of orange to toss bit by bit to the chipmunk babies. He looked utterly at home.

He always did, she thought. It was one of the things she liked about him—his ability to be comfortable in any circumstance. She grinned to herself. Somehow, he always managed to
look
exactly right, as well: in the classroom, where he wore the crisp professorial clothes that gave him such an air of distinction, in the dojo where his bare feet and gi lent him a mysterious aura. In her backyard in jeans, playing with the children, he gave the impression of being an energetic and cheerful father. And now, in well-worn shorts and a T-shirt that advertised an Irish pub, with a wine-colored chamois shirt thrown over the top for warmth, he looked like a man who belonged in these mountains.

Which, no doubt, he did. He seemed to do everything well. He knew wines and history and legends; how to send a man to his knees with the mysterious power of
chi
and how to tease small children to make them laugh. He could dance and laugh and kiss with equal fervor.

What would it be like to make love with him?

The thought sent a wave of heat through her middle. Hastily, she pulled the rest of the bacon out of the grease. His rich laugh floated into the still mountain morning, reedy and robust. She looked back, and her gaze lit upon his long legs, feeling her palm itch with the urge to explore the sleek, muscled length. Sun-bleached hair dusted the tanned flesh, promising an intriguing mixture of textures. She wondered how those legs would feel against her own…

At that instant, she looked at his face and found him watching her, a gleam of laughter and desire mingling upon the bold features. He winked, as if in promise.

Wiping the itching palm against her hip, she cracked eggs. Get ahold of yourself, she thought, a little annoyed.

They ate breakfast on a blanket spread under the trees, then stowed the pans and extras needed only for the early meal into the car. Esther spread an herbal mixture over the boys’ arms and legs to repel ticks, and coated her own legs with sunscreen. Neither of them had inherited her fair skin, but Esther had worn a long-sleeved blouse and before they started out, put a straw hat on her head.

Alexander cheerfully shouldered the heaviest of the two grown-up backpacks and the boys each carried a change of clothes in their smaller ones. Thus fortified and prepared, they started up the long path.

It took almost two hours to hike the twisting, steadily rising trail to the summit. Because of the children, they stopped often for long sips of water from canteens they each carried. Along the path, sometimes dipping out of view, sometimes running right alongside, was a cold bubbling stream, and it attracted a wide variety of animal life. Jeremy, ever fascinated by birds, found feathers of all kinds to tuck away into the pocket of his pack, while Daniel simply dreamed along, absorbing the smells and sounds of the scene. Alexander hiked easily, sometimes taking the hand of a child or squatting with one of them to admire a rock encrusted with mica or a beautiful leaf.

Esther simply walked from one moment to the next. She’d always loved the mountains. The fine light air was perfumed with the spicy scent of pines and sun-warmed earth and composting needles. Aspens fluttered shiny, coin-shaped green leaves against the breeze. Spruce and fir trees swayed graceful arms toward earth, stretching their necks toward a sky so crackling blue it seemed unreal.

By the time they reached the high meadows, they were all a little worn and ready for a snack. Esther spread a blanket amid the wildflowers close to the stream and opened the pack with the food. The boys each grabbed a banana and a handful of cookies, then shed their packs and went to wade in the shallow stream. “Don’t get out of sight!” she warned.

“We won’t!”

“And Jeremy, that especially means you.”

Alexander dropped down beside her on the blanket, helping himself to a brownie and a half-thawed bottle of orange juice. “Not even Jeremy can drown in three inches of water.”

“You’d be surprised.” She peeled a banana and looked at him. “Your nose gets sunburned easily,” she commented with a smile.

He touched it. “Red so soon?”

“Not terribly, but I can see that it will be. Do you want some of my sunscreen?”

“Sissy stuff.” He fell back on his elbows. “When you’ve lived with it as many years as I have, you get used to it.”

She grinned. His nose was bold and straight and perfectly suited to his face. “You’d look silly with a teeny little nose.”

His eyes, almost as blue as the Colorado sky, twinkled. “I suppose I would.” He brushed the back of his hand against her thigh. “Just as you would look silly with bird-stick legs.”

“Don’t tease me about my thighs,” she said lightly, tugging on the hem of her shorts. “Especially when I have expressly come to the mountains to pig out.”

“I wouldn’t dream of teasing you about something so delectable.” His voice had dropped a hair, and with a wicked gleam in his eye, he brushed his knuckles over the side of her leg again. “In fact, I feel distinctly vampirish at the sight of that tender flesh.”

“Vampires are interested in necks.” She glanced toward the children to avoid his eyes.

“I feel sure that any vampire worth his salt might give consideration to this thigh,” he returned.

She slapped his hand. “Quit.” But she was unable to quell a chuckle.

He leaned on one elbow and stretched his hand out to circle her foot with his fingers. “You do have lovely ankles, too, you know.” He winked. “The sign of a lady—trim ankles.”

“Is that so?”

“Mmm.” He sat up to shrug out of his chamois shirt, then reached for the hem of his black T-shirt and before Esther could blink, had shed it as well. Then as calmly as if he’d just passed out a syllabus, he stretched out on the blanket, closing his eyes.

Esther was riveted once again by his magnificent body. His arms were flung over his eyes and one knee was cocked. Her eyes wandered over his bronzed shoulders and the tight muscles of his chest, across the taut stomach, then over his worn shorts to his thighs.

Stop it.
Disconcerted, she focused on the peeled banana in her hand and had to choke back laughter at the symbolism of the silly thing.

But her eyes were drawn back to Alexander, to his beard with its silver strands, and to his unruly mahogany hair and back to the powerful chest. Everything about him invited tactile exploration—and promised satisfaction.

She ate the banana without tasting it, and reached for a cookie automatically. She caught herself and sighed. It wasn’t cookies she was hungry for. Rather than make a glutton of herself, she stripped off her shoes and socks and went to wade in the brook with the children, leaving Alexander to doze.

* * *

He didn’t know when she got up and left exactly; he’d been drifting in the lazy warmth of the sun, his body pleasantly spent by the hike.

But he opened his eyes and she was gone. He rolled to his side and saw her playing in the creek with her boys, her discarded socks and shoes in a heap near the edge of the blanket.

Over a haze of blue and white columbines, he watched her wade upstream to a boulder in the sun. Her hair, so neatly braided this morning, had come loose. Tendrils clung to her neck and floated around her face. She brushed them away carelessly, bending to splash Jeremy lightly. The loose, gauzy blouse fell forward, affording Alexander a tantalizing glimpse of the smooth white flesh of her breasts. He shifted, feeling a sharp, familiar stir in his loins.

How long had she sat there, raking him with her eyes? For the first few moments, he’d been amused—because although he’d considered a number of other ways he might lure her into his bed, using his own rather ordinary body had not been among them. He’d pulled off his shirt because he was hot.

Esther’s soft gasp came as he stretched out. Covering his eyes in feigned drowsiness, he had watched her gaze trail over his body, feeling the path she followed almost as clearly as if she had lightly combed her fingers over him. That heated somnolence had entered her eyes, a rich, sleepy seductiveness that was almost unbearably ripe.

It had pleased him deeply to be admired that way, but it was almost more than he could manage. To avoid embarrassing himself, he’d closed his eyes honestly and blocked the almost palpable feel of her gaze running over him.

He shifted again now, uncomfortably aroused. And yet, he didn’t look away from her. He couldn’t. Every one of her gestures, no matter how innocent, aroused him further. The throaty sound of her laughter settled in his belly. Her dancing movements through the water rippled in his chest. The glitter of sunshine in her hair made him think of the pale red mass spread over a white pillow as she beckoned him closer. The thighs she hated so desperately were firm and strong and glistened with silvery water, and he wanted to feel them strapped hard around him.

She climbed to the rounded hump of another boulder and leaned back on her arms, tipping her face toward the sun for a moment in the pure enjoyment that was so typical for her. One leg dangled gracefully over the edge of the rock and Alexander slowly followed the smooth length upward, over the hem of her loose khaki walking shorts. At her blouse, he paused. Sunlight filtered through the thin white fabric, putting her figure in acute, beautiful silhouette.

Ah, Esther,
he thought, admiring her. A painfully swollen and conscienceless portion of his anatomy urged him to cross the wildflowers and pull her from her perch and drag her back to this soft blanket in the middle of a mountain field. Here, beneath the sweet heat of the sun, he would disrobe that glorious body and worship it properly, with his hands and his mouth and his tongue, until she ached the way he now did.

Somehow, he knew he would emerge a changed man, that she would flow through him like some gilded nectar, right into the marrow of his bones and the shrunken fabric of soul.

But there were, in this moment, other considerations. Soon, he promised himself. Soon.

In the meantime, a dip in a cool brook certainly couldn’t hurt. With effort, he willed his body into submission, and he ambled through the ankle-high grass to the stream.

“Decided to join us?” Esther said from her perch. Alexander touched Daniel’s head. “Who can resist wading?”

“Look, Alexander.” Daniel pulled his hands from the water. They were red to the wrists from the cold. In his palms were several rocks, threaded with shiny veins. “Is it gold, d’you think?”

“It could be.” He glanced at Esther, who smiled. “It isn’t mica.”

Daniel tucked them away in the pocket of his shorts. “I’ll take them to the ranch with me. My grampa’ll know.”

“Does he know a lot about gold?”

“Yep.” The boy peered into the water. “He used to be a miner before he bought his ranch.”

“My father was a miner,” Alexander offered and plunged a hand below the current to snag a rosy piece of quartz.

“Did he mine gold?”

“No, I don’t think so.” He frowned at the rock, then looked at Daniel. “I didn’t really know him, you see.”

Solemn blue eyes met Alexander’s. “Did he die?”

“Oh, no. He and my mother were divorced, like yours.”

“I know my daddy, though. He’s going to take us to grandpa’s ranch for a whole month.”

The sound of energetic wading alerted Alexander to Jeremy’s approach, but not quite fast enough. A furious spray of water splashed over him as Jeremy sat down in the shallow stream and kicked vigorously. He quit only because he was giggling too hard to stop—a heart-warming, deep little giggle that tightened the brown tummy and crinkled his eyes. Alexander splashed him back, gently, then more vigorously as he saw that’s what Jeremy wanted. Daniel ran away to the bank in protest.