Just a Memory (22 page)

Smiling broadly, she brushed away the tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand. She struggled to calm all the excited nerve endings in her body. Mac pulled the shirt on over his head and she watched the interplay of muscles as he moved.

"Hey, I was going to meet Hines for pizza. If you've finished work already, why don't you join us?"

"Hines!" She slapped her forehead with the palm of her hand. "I forgot why I'm here. I came down here steaming mad at you to give you a piece of my mind."

"I love the way you show it," he said in a sexy voice. "What's Hines done now?"

"Hines? It wasn't him. It's you. He said you sent him to baby-sit me."

"He told you that?"

"That's what it amounted to with him slouched down in a car opposite my shop–in a fire hydrant zone, no less."

Mac hooted. "You caught him in the act? Wait until I get to Mama's. He's not going to live this one down. I send him on his first undercover assignment in Lakehaven and his complete cover is blown. And in record time."

"When I went to the front door to lock it tonight, I saw him sitting in a car across the street. I couldn't miss him." She shook her head, laughing with him. "You should have seen him stammer his way out of it when I walked up and knocked on his car window. He jumped a foot."

Mac tucked his shirt in and fastened his jeans. He faced her and held her shoulders, his gaze locked on hers. "Honey, Mavis Ashton has been complaining about a strange car parked around there, and I sent Hines out to check on it. Every time we get near there, it's long gone. If she wasn't so adamant, we'd think she was seeing things, or just looking for attention."

He kissed her forehead. "Hines wasn't watching you, exactly, but I am guilty of sending him because the mystery car was so close to your shop and I knew you were going to work late." He dropped his hands to his sides. "I'm guilty of wanting nothing to happen to you. Now is that a crime?"

Carolyn didn't think so. She shook her head. Earlier she had wanted to tell him to buzz off; now she felt all warm and fuzzy inside. She rose on her toes and kissed his chin lightly. "No crime at all, Chief."

She turned from his arms and went to the door. "You go on to Mama's. Hines is with Terri. He'll be along shortly, once I get back there."

Mac grabbed his jacket and put it on before he unlocked the street door. "How about an escort home later?"

"Babysitting again?" She tried to look angry.

"Nope. Just trying to sneak another good night kiss."

"You mean you're not getting tired of spending so much time with me?" Carolyn hoped she sounded like she was jesting, but deep down she wasn't. "I'm sure I'm not anything like other women you know."

"No to both questions. No way am I tired of being with you and no, thank God, you're nothing like the women I've known before."

After looking at him a moment and deciding she liked his answer, she just said "Good," and headed for her car with a wave. She drove up the hill to her shop while Mac headed toward Mama's.

Harry kept his sedan parked on the delivery ramp beside the bakery for several minutes and then turned to follow Mac. He laughed, as Mac and Carolyn had been doing, but his laugh wasn't a pleasant sound.

Damn, he wished Mac didn't know him on sight. He was hungry for pizza.

"It's hard to believe that just a few weeks ago these lush maple trees were dressed in beautiful fall colors," Carolyn said, looking out Mac's passenger side window.

"That would sure beat the winter brown and bare branches," he replied.

Despite the drab decor on the hills around the lake, Carolyn had jumped at a chance to go, the following Saturday, for another drive with Mac. Driving in a car was a safe place to be with him–as long as they stayed away from
Lovers Lane
. This time they had a purpose other than Mac wanting to learn the country roads. They were out to buy apples from a farm store that specialized in them.

Taking an afternoon drive to pick out apples wasn't exciting enough for Terri. She'd voted to stay with Christie despite her having stayed overnight with Terri the night before. Each was an only child and only too happy to spend time with the other. Carolyn had already promised Terri could sleep over at Christie's house tonight. The girls were planning to surprise Christie's Mom and Dad by making them a pancake breakfast Sunday morning.

Carolyn sighed. She probably shouldn't have agreed to sending Terri there again. Carolyn already owed Judy big time for all the babysitting she'd done lately while Carolyn was out with Mac. Judy never complained and seemed to be genuinely happy that Carolyn was dating.

On the way home with the apples, Carolyn remembered a beautiful spot she had yet to show to Mac. After following her directions, they found themselves at an observation point where they had an unobstructed view of a broad waterfall bouncing down over boulders worn smooth over time. They climbed out and walked closer for a better view. The spray mist of water reached them even at the safe observation spot, lightly chilling them with dampness. Mac pulled Carolyn back. No sense in catching pneumonia.

"Wait until you see it in the spring," she suggested. "It's breathtaking when all the trees are green again. And in the heat of the summer, that cool mist feels downright refreshing."

He nodded and headed them back toward the car. The temperature had continued to drop and soon the mist reaching the parking area of the observation point would be frozen solid.

Breathing deeply in the wintry air, Carolyn announced, "It smells like snow. It's a good thing we're not far out of town."

"Wait a minute. It
smells
like snow?"

"Sure. Didn't you ever smell snow coming in the city?"

Mac snorted. "You don't want to know all the things you can smell in the city. I can tell you this, though, snow isn't one of them."

"Well, inhale deeply, Mac. Smell the snow. It won't be long before–"

Snow began to fall then as if on cue. They both burst out laughing.

"Does it snow every weekend in Lakehaven?" Mac asked.

"It just might. For a while this past summer, it rained every weekend."

The flakes were giant-sized by the time they headed back toward Carolyn's house. Entering the Lakehaven village limits, Mac skidded a little when he braked at a stop sign.

"You know, I've seen places I didn't know existed around here, despite having lived here most of my adult life, but I'm glad we're heading home now. I hate these hills in the winter. They get slippery too fast."

"You got that in one, but the snow on these hills must be great for sledding. The little hill in the park near where we lived when I was a kid was no good. It wasn't steep enough. You couldn't get going very fast on it."

"You wanted to live dangerously even as a kid?"

Mac smiled but kept his attention on the road. The snow was coming down so hard now that he turned the windshield wipers on the fastest speed. Even that was not enough to clear his vision of the wet snow.

It was a relief when Mac finally pulled into her driveway and slowed to a stop. "Home again, home again."

"Jiggity-jig," she finished. Carolyn made no move to exit the car. "I've got some homemade vegetable soup simmering in the slow cooker, and French bread for supper. We could add an apple salad with these beauties we bought," she said, motioning to the bags of apples in the back seat. "Would you like to join me?"

"You should know by now that I can't say no to you," he said softly as he leaned over and kissed her.

"I can see I'll have to be very careful what questions I ask you then," she told him.

"Are you
sure
you want me to come in?"

She nodded without hesitation.

They grabbed a couple of bags of apples and climbed out of the car. Mac immediately slipped, nearly falling backwards onto the icy driveway. "Damn! You're sure right about the slick ice. Is it always like that?"

"Yeah. It is. Be careful."

He gingerly rounded the front end of the car, took a secure hold of her elbow and carefully walked with her to the house. "You understand, don't you?" he asked, his other arm holding the bag of apples out for balance. "I'm not helping you because you might fall. I'm hanging on so I won't."

Carolyn laughed as they stopped by the side door to the garage. "I know. Why don't you pull your car into the empty half of the garage so the windshield won't be coated with ice and snow. Here, let me push the button to raise the big door for you."

She unlocked the garage and opened the overhead door so Mac could drive in. He locked the garage again and caught up to her as she was entering the house. He set the apples on the kitchen counter and then hung his coat in the entry closet.

They hadn't known each other more than several weeks, and yet she felt as if she'd known him all her life. She wondered if he felt the same way. Surely with his muscular good looks he wouldn't have trouble gaining any woman's attention–women a lot younger and more attractive. She remembered the conversation she'd overhead in the ladies' room at the retirement dinner and tried to dismiss that line of thinking.

Somehow she didn't like to stay in the hall and watch while he took off his shoulder holster and put that and his gun on the closet shelf. He explained the first time he came over for dinner that he wore it almost all the time. Like a doctor, he was always on call and had to be prepared. They agreed early on not to let Terri know about where he put it. Terri couldn't come close to reaching the closet shelf even standing on a chair, so Carolyn felt it was a safe hideaway. She'd cleared a space on the shelf for him to use and nothing more was said. She didn't like the idea of her child being anywhere near a gun, and she didn't want to be, either, but it was as much a part of Mac's job as his uniform.

Carolyn stared out the kitchen window at the snow. She wasn't aware of Mac in the kitchen doorway watching her until he spoke. "Penny for your thoughts."

He startled her enough to make her laugh. "No way. They're worth a great deal more than that."

He stepped over to grab hold of her arm and stop her flight to check on the slow cooker. "Carolyn, you were looking right through to outer space. Who were you seeing?"

There was only honesty in Carolyn. She dropped the hot pad on the counter behind him and caressed his cheek with her hand. "You're the only one I want to see, Mac." With a boldness she hadn't previously possessed, she rose up on her toes and kissed him firmly on the mouth.

"Carolyn, I've waited so long for you to come into my life." His arms went around her, capturing her tight against him between his veed legs as he had when they'd shared their first kiss. Now he extended the kiss into several more with a hungry insistence. His hands circled her back and hips as if he were trying to caress all of her at the same time. He settled one hand on her head and one on the small of her back.

When they parted to breathe more deeply, he pressed kisses into her hair. Carolyn's arms stayed wound around his waist as they clung together. She tried to speak but could not. She could do little else but feel.

He nuzzled her hair and laid a trail of kisses to her temple and then her cheek. When he raised his head and their gazes met, Carolyn felt overwhelmed both by what she saw in the depths of his eyes and by the heat she felt pooling in the core of her femininity. His eyes were the color of charcoal, with raw desire written plainly there. She knew he would kiss her again, and she knew that would be only the beginning.

Suddenly Carolyn was gripped by panic. She worried whether she was woman enough to satisfy him. She felt like a country mouse up against what she imagined was his experienced city-cat image.