Sugar Springs (26 page)

“Lee?”

“Oh.” She jerked back and looked up at him. She’d forgotten to reply. “I needed to talk to you,” she blurted out.

His bicep flexed and her thighs grew warm. He finally made use of the towel, but the slow swipes across his chest and shoulders only managed to capture her attention again.

What had she wanted to talk to him about?

Before she could do anything about remembering, she found herself pressed against the door, up on her tiptoes, with his mouth melded to hers. It was hot and gentle and feral and delicious all at the same time, and her heart pounded in her ears and her blood roared through her veins and every tiny last speck of her insides heated as if set to a torch.

He tasted like man, toothpaste, and a hard workout. He tasted like heaven.

Too soon, he pulled back, and she stood there winded. Instead of speaking, he merely gave a jerky nod. His jaw twitched. Then she clued into the fact that her arms had wound their way around his neck. She was clinging to him as if she would sink to the floor without his support.

With less than stellar grace, she lowered her arms to her sides and attempted to put a look on her face that didn’t show everything she was feeling.

“What was that for?” she asked, the lack of strength in her voice giving away how much the kiss had affected her. She had yet to figure out whether she liked that he’d taken a kiss, but she was not unsure as to whether she had liked it. The man did know what to do with his mouth.

He tossed the towel toward a chair and grabbed a crumpled T-shirt off the floor. It was damp when he pulled it over his head—clearly the one he’d discarded immediately after his run—and it didn’t help the matter of her still-discombobulated brain that it clung to every dip and valley across the broad expanse of his chest.

“For two reasons,” he answered. It amazed her how steady his voice was, but she did pick up on the undertones of heat. If she had to guess, he had liked that kiss as much as she. “One, it was time. We both knew it was coming, so I figured we needed to get it out of the way.”

His pause had her clueing into the fact that he was waiting on a response from her. She nodded, agreeing. When his eyes twinkled and his mouth quirked up, she realized that she’d just agreed that yes, they would have kissed eventually.

She narrowed her gaze. Did he have to be so smug? “Hope you got it out of your system.”

He winked. “The first one, yes. But back to the reasons for it. Two, I figured that since we’ll be the hot topic of the day anyway, I should at least get a taste of what we’ll be accused of doing.”

“What?” This finally broke her mind free of his way-too-impressive body, which was still standing in front of her...and that insane kiss. “What do you mean?”

His brown eyes smiled. “You came in and closed the door, babe. What do you suppose Ms. G thinks is going on?”

“Oh!” She jumped, stepping farther into the room and glancing at the door as if it had done her wrong. With a quick jerk, she opened it. “I didn’t think about that.”

He smiled again. “Then what
were
you thinking about, Lee?”

He was evil—there was no other word for it. Let a man kiss you until your toes pop and he thinks he’s a God.

Of course, her behavior wasn’t helping any—standing there gaping and tongue-tied. Forcing her mind to clear, she decided to forget about the kiss for the moment—and the fact he’d implied there would be more—and bring up the topic she’d come to discuss. It was much safer. Plus, she still wasn’t sure what she thought about the kiss. Or the thought of future ones. She needed to think about both of those things more when she was alone and didn’t have the distraction of him around.

She took a small step away, unsure if he’d gotten closer or if she’d done it herself. Either way, she needed distance.

“I wanted to talk to you about Candy.”

This made
him
step back, and his shoulders drooped. Not a lot but enough to notice. “I did not mean to make her feel excluded, I swear,” he said. “I had no idea. I thought she’d like coming to the clinic as much as Kendra.”

“They’re two different people, Cody. You have to remember that.”

“I know,” he responded quickly. “I know. I swear. I just...” He shook his head. “It didn’t occur to me she’d hate it that much.”

She wanted to reach out and squeeze his hand to offer comfort, but touching him at the moment seemed like it would be a bad idea. Instead she relied on her softened tone to give the same message. “She didn’t hate it. She was merely tired of listening to you two talk about animals. It seems to be the main topic of conversation with you and Kendra most of the time.”

He nodded, moving to the other side of the table and pulling down an oversized coffee mug. He held it up to her in question.

“No thanks. I’ll get some at the diner.” Which reminded her that she needed to hurry. Kissing hadn’t been in her ten-minute schedule. “I had an idea last night that I thought might help with Candy.”

“I had one, too,” he said and put the cup under the one-cup coffeemaker, then pushed a button. It started dripping almost immediately. “While I was out running this morning.”

She was impressed he’d already been thinking about it. “Yeah?”

“I’m going to call a concrete company and have a slab poured in the corner of your yard. For basketball.”

Her eyes widened. “You’re going to what? I don’t want concrete in my yard.”

But why she’d never thought to get a basketball goal put down in the driveway she didn’t know. Candy always just went up to the school to play. “You can get her a goal if you want,” she said. “We can put it in the back drive.”

“That won’t work unless we concrete the drive, too. Or put down blacktop.”

She shook her head. “That’s too expensive. I can’t afford it, but the goal alone will be fine. And she’ll love it.”

“No it won’t, Lee. It needs to be done right or not at all.” His tone was belligerent, and she could see he had no intention of backing down. “If you insist it be in the driveway, then I’ll pay to have it paved.”

Irritation swelled in her. He didn’t have the right to make decisions like that. It was her yard.

Trying to stave off an argument, she went with her plan. “How about we do something else, instead? She loves to shop for gifts for others, and with their birthday coming up she needs something for Kendra. I thought you could take her. There are several stores in town she could find something nice in.”

She nodded her head encouragingly and smiled as she finished, trying to sell him on the idea, but he only sipped the coffee he’d pulled from the machine and eyed her over the top of the steam. Finally, he put the cup down and leaned back against the counter. He crossed his arms over his chest, drawing her attention to it again.

“You think shopping for one afternoon, something she’ll be doing anyway even if it’s not with me, is better than a basketball goal?”

“Well it’s better than pouring concrete in my yard.”

“For who?”

“For everyone.”

He lifted a brow, and she was smart enough to know when she’d lost an argument. Candy would
love
a basketball goal, and she would also love for it to be done right. She took several
deep breaths as she watched him. He returned to drinking his coffee, highly unconcerned, as if he already knew he’d won.

She let out an unladylike noise. “You’re not paying to pave my drive.”

Another brow lift.

“Fine!” she shot out, flinging her arms in the air. “Pour it in the yard. But you make sure they don’t tear up any more than is absolutely necessary.”

He nodded, his mouth remaining neutral, but she saw that the laughter had returned to his eyes. “Will do, babe.”

“And quit calling me ‘babe.’ Why’d you start that anyway?”

He put the cup down and pushed off from the counter, and she began edging away. Her pulse took off at a run as he crossed the room and stopped in front of her. She didn’t want to look up at him, but if she didn’t she’d be standing there staring at his still-damp chest.

She lifted her gaze.

“Because you showed up at my apartment,” he started, his dark eyes intense as they bored into hers. “And looked me over like you wanted to have me for breakfast.”

He slid his fingers into her hand, which hung loosely by her side, and brushed his fingertips over the center of her palm. Her fingers curled inward, and her traitorous body shook.

“It’s always on the menu, babe.” He winked. “All you have to do is place an order.”

She could not believe the audacity of the man. And she couldn’t believe she actually gave brief consideration to the idea. It’s not like them getting together in that way would really hurt anything. Just two people with some unfinished business they were working through.

Only, everyone in town would figure it out.

And she wouldn’t be able to simply do it and move on if everyone was constantly looking at her as if they thought she wanted more. Because that’s exactly what they’d do.

Stupid idea, anyway. She shot him a hard look.

“I am not hungry,” she said, a little too emphatically. She decided it best to put the idea of the two of them naked together out of her mind and finish what she’d come for. If she didn’t, she might find herself agreeing to a tasty meal as easily as her arms had twined themselves around his neck.

“I also thought it would be good for you to hang out with the girls after they get home the next few days. By yourself.” She dug into her coat pocket and pulled out a house key. “I have dinner in the Crock-Pot and a list on the fridge of their evening schedule. I’ll be home before they go to bed.”

A small smile played with his mouth, but he didn’t say anything. He simply reached for the key and plucked it out of her hand.

When it disappeared behind his fingers, she almost reached out to snatch it back. He wouldn’t use it inappropriately—she wasn’t worried about that—but knowing he could walk into her house at any moment made something inside her feel oozy and warm. And totally exhilarated.

Cody directed the workers to the area where he wanted the concrete poured, then moved back to the patio as they began marking off and preparing the spot. He’d been lucky to find a crew that morning, after he’d gotten Lee Ann’s approval, and to get them to her house before the girls got home from
practice. The company had also agreed, for a small sum, to stay late and get the area prepped tonight.

Tomorrow they would pour, and then Friday Candy could play on it. He was almost as nervous for her to see what he was doing as he had been when he’d first met them. He might be completely wrong in his assessment, but he felt like this was spot-on what he needed to do to start winning her over.

And he had to win her over. He couldn’t have one daughter thinking he liked the other better.

“What about this?” one of the workers called out. “You want to save it or just rip it out?”

It was a bush, and not a very pretty one at that. He started to tell the man to toss it, but then thought about the fact it was Lee Ann they were talking about. Likely the bush had a purpose. A reason she’d put it in the yard.

“You’d better save it, I suppose.”

He glanced around the nearby area, trying to figure out where she might want it replanted, and caught sight of the Christmas lights and decorations that had been strung up along the front porch. He’d noticed them the afternoon before, along with a tree sitting inside the wide front window, and his first reaction had been annoyance that the three of them hadn’t asked him to help. They’d apparently done the decorating when he hadn’t been around on Sunday.

But then it had occurred to him that his coming back had been a lot of change for Lee Ann in a very short amount of time as well. She might have needed to have her normal traditions just to feel like she wasn’t completely losing control. He could give her that. For now.

All in all, she’d been a trouper with the changes, letting him tag along and be a part of so much, so—yeah—he could
give her the lights. Things would be different, though, next year. He wasn’t sure quite how yet, but he did know he wouldn’t be as easily pushed aside.

Reba came out of her house and crossed the yard. She wore boots up to her knees and a skirt that looked like a patchwork quilt, and he couldn’t help but smile at the picture she made. He was never let down with her attire.

“Afternoon, Cody,” she greeted him. “You’ve got quite the project going on here.”

He gave a quick nod. “It’s for Candy.”

A curve lit her lips, and he couldn’t help thinking that Lee Ann would age well. She and her mother were both beautiful women.

“Candy will love it.” She motioned to the shallow, square hole the men were digging. “Sure hope you talked about this with my daughter first, though it would be highly fun to watch if you didn’t.”

Laughter rolled from his gut. “Yes, Ma’am. Talked to her just this morning. It was either this or pave her drive. The woman’s too stubborn to let me pay for that, though.”

“That sounds about right.”

They stood in companionable silence for a moment before he pointed to the ugly bush the man had just carefully pulled from the ground. “You know anything about that?”