Wild Mustang Man (16 page)

“I looked rusty? We’ll see who looks rusty,” he said with a menacing glare.

“Besides, this is touch football, isn’t it? And I come from a long line of fast runners. Have I told you how my father ran the San Francisco Marathon when he was eighty?”

“Talk about resting on your laurels. I’d advise you to rest on your own laurels, if you have any, rather than on your father’s. When was the last time you ran the marathon, by the way?”

“Well...”

“No further questions,” he said, reaching across the line of scrimmage to tousle her hair.

Josh was so wrapped up watching the fringe on her shirt sway back and forth, giving him tantalizing glimpses of her lace bra and enjoying bantering with her, he forgot about the game. Good thing this wasn’t a conference game. He could see the headlines now in the Harmony Times. “Quarterback blows it. Can’t keep mind on game. More interested in scoring with opposition than against it”

Before he knew it, someone had handed the ball to Bridget and shoved her across the line of scrimmage toward the goal. She zigged around Josh, she zagged around his buddy Dave and took off like a deer, her teammates screaming encouragement. He had to admit, she did run fast, but not as fast as he did. He’d teach her not to brag. He’d almost caught her when a guy named Pete reached her first, tagged her so hard she fell flat on the ground, tripping the woman next to her who tumbled on top of Suzy who was on top of Pete who was on top of Bridget.

Josh couldn’t breathe. He wasn’t going to breathe again until he got Bridget out from under all those bodies. He hadn’t fallen, he hadn’t stumbled, but he felt like he’d been tackled by a 240-pound linebacker and had the breath knocked out of him. Frantically he pulled people off the pile. She couldn’t be hurt. She had to be all right. It was just a game. While everyone else was laughing and groaning as they staggered to their feet she was still lying there. His throat ached too much to even speak her name. His heart pounded as he knelt at her side.

Josh exchanged a relieved look with Suzy, who said, “I told you, she’s got guts, that girl. Glad she didn’t lose them on the field in the line of duty. Time for dessert, everybody,” she said, deliberately drawing the attention away from Bridget as Josh lifted her in his arms and carried her to a shady spot under a tree.

“That’s not funny. I was worried about you,” he said. Worried wasn’t the word. He was scared out of his mind when he saw her lying motionless on the ground. He couldn’t take any more accidents or illnesses. Not from those he loved.

There he went again, thinking he loved Bridget, when he couldn’t possibly love her. He couldn’t, and he wouldn’t. It was bad enough he had to worry about Max getting sick or in an accident. He was not going to worry about Bridget, too. But damn it, it was too late. This afternoon he’d almost had a heart attack seeing those bodies pile up on top of her.

“Stay there,” he said, and he went to the house to get something chocolate and some coffee with an extra helping of common sense before he lost his head completely. There was little or no common sense to be found in Suzy’s little kitchen, where a dozen or so of his old classmates were crowded together laughing and reminiscing about old times.

“I don’t blame her,” Suzy said, cutting the large chocolate cake into squares. “It’s a great idea, and having Josh for the Wild Mustang Man is nothing short of brilliant Where is she, anyway? Is she okay?”

“Outside,” Josh said, gesturing toward the lawn. “I’m taking her a piece of cake.”

“I’ll take it” Suzy said, grabbing a plate and heading out the back door.

Josh followed her but was waylaid by Jed and Tally. Though the fellow classmates had married only recently, he hadn’t gone to their wedding. Hell, he hadn’t gone anywhere for the past two years. Now that he was here, among old friends, and it felt so comfortable and natural, he wondered why.

“It’s good to see you again, Josh,” Tally said, settling on a picnic bench as the late-afternoon shadows fell over Suzy’s lawn.

Her husband set his coffee cup next to Jed’s and sat down next to him. “Congratulations on your marriage, you two.”

The way they looked at each other, eyes brimming with love, filled Josh with painful jealousy. “I have to say I was surprised,” Josh said. “I mean, after all these years.”

“What do you mean, surprised?” Jed said, reaching for Tally’s hand across the table. “You were there that night after the prom. You heard me promise to marry Tally if she wasn’t married by our fifteenth reunion.”

“Yes, but—”

“But you never thought he’d do it,” Tally said. “Neither did I.”

“We were crazy kids,” Jed said with a smile. “Wishing on a star like that I must say I was skeptical. But it worked.” He caught himself. “Oh, God, Josh, I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right I got my wish. I married Molly. The only girl I ever loved.”

“But not the only girl you ever will love,” Tally said softly. “Is she?” Josh’s eyes strayed across the yard to where Bridget was sitting with Suzy, and he knew what Tally was thinking. The same thing everyone else was thinking. He clenched his jaw. Not this again. Not someone else telling him to take another chance on love. With Bridget. A woman who didn’t belong in Harmony. Who, when she realized how dull life in Harmony was, would be back in San Francisco so fast she’d barely have a chance to say goodbye.

“Those wishes we made that night those promises, you took them seriously,” Josh said to Jed. “You must have, or you wouldn’t have come back fifteen years later to make good on them. I feel the same. Finding someone else, loving someone else, especially someone who doesn’t belong here, it’s not in the cards for me.”

“But...” Tally said.

“Leave it” her husband said, putting his hand on her arm. “Josh is doing what he has to do.”

“I know,” Tally said. “It’s just that I can’t help thinking how young we were then, how naive. What I’m trying to say is that if I die first I want you to marry again, Jed. I thought I was happy all those years I was single, but now that I’m married...” She gave Jed a blissful, intimate smile that made Josh ache inside. “I wouldn’t wish the single state on anyone. Not that you should marry just anyone,” she added hastily.

Josh didn’t know if she was talking to him or her husband. He took a deep breath, hoping to quash this marriage business once and for all. “If you’re thinking of Bridget,” he said to Tally.

“Who, me?” she asked with mock innocence.

“Bridget is a career girl,” Josh explained. “She’s very dedicated and focused on making a success in advertising. She has her own company, this is her first big account and for her it’s just the beginning of a lucrative career. I’m sure you wouldn’t want her to throw it all over for.. .for a boring life in a small town.” The more he said, the more he convinced himself Bridget would be a fool to give up a brilliant career in a sophisticated big city for a humdrum life on a ranch. Taking care of one five-year-old and an overgrown vegetable garden and a house designed by and for someone else? Why would she? She wouldn’t. By the time he’d finished his coffee he was thoroughly depressed. Jed and Tally went to help clean up the kitchen, leaving Josh to stare across the yard at Bridget and ponder the situation.

Yet Bridget had seemed happy whenever she was at his ranch. She looked happy, whether she was sitting across the kitchen table from him, eating soup, or making figures out of play dough with Max. But that’s because the ranch was a novelty to her. So was he. Once she got back to the city she would realize just how boring life in Harmony was. She’d thank her lucky stars she hadn’t made the mistake of staying there. What was wrong with him? He was talking like that was an option. It wasn’t

Dusk was falling. People were leaving. Bridget was standing, saying goodbye to his former classmates. He crossed the yard in a few wide strides. “Are you leaving?” he asked her. “Need a ride?”

“I guess I am.” He suddenly remembered why he’d come to the party in the first place. It was to prove to himself that Bridget wasn’t the only woman in the world. That she didn’t stand out from the crowd like a long-stemmed rose in a petunia patch. So much for that plan. The only thing he’d proven today was that he cared more about Bridget than he’d imagined possible. That he worried about her, thought about her, and didn’t want to let her out of his sight. He hated to think what it all added up to.

“So you were president of your class as well as a football star,” she said with a sidelong glance at him.

“It’s been downhill ever since,” he said with a wry smile. “Until now. I feel better than I have in years. I didn’t realize it, but I’d missed the old gang. I’d buried myself in my work.”

“Since Molly died?” she asked.

“Even before. We got all wound up in our own projects, Molly in her good works, I with the horses. I thought I wanted it that way. Now I see there was something missing. I care about these people.”

“They certainly care about you,” she said.

“Seems they care about you, too,” he said.

“Right,” she said. “That’s why they tackled me, threw me to the ground and piled on top of me. I’d hate to see what would have happened if they didn’t care about me.”

“I thought you didn’t get hurt.”

“I didn’t. I’m fine. It was more fun than I’ve had in years.”

“Was it fun to lie on the ground pretending to be unconscious? I didn’t need that kind of scare.” He pulled up in front of the shuttered shoe repair shop and turned off the engine.

“I’m sorry,” she said turning in her seat to face him. “I didn’t know touch football could be so rough. Next time I’ll stick to the sack races.”

He ran his hand around the steering wheel. Anything to keep from grabbing her by the shoulders and kissing her until he heard her moan with ecstasy, until she returned his kisses, each one hotter and more insistent than the last. Or taking the fringe on her shirt and rubbing it between his fingers, grazing her breasts softly but deliberately until she begged him to go beyond the fringe. Then he’d unbutton her shirt, watching her eyes widen and soften, until he’d tossed it into the back seat.

Next to go would be the white lacy bra he would unhook to let her creamy breasts swell and fill his hands. Oh, Lord, what was wrong with him, letting his imagination run wild like this. The cab of his truck had become unbearably warm, as if he’d left the heater on. He rolled his window down to let the evening air cool his fevered brow and still his pounding pulse. He racked his brain to try to remember what they were talking about. Something about her having hope. Hope of getting married. She couldn’t, she wouldn’t marry someone else.