Sugar Springs (22 page)

The thought gave him pause, but he realized it was the truth. He wanted to make her laugh on a regular basis. That meant he wanted to be around her the same.

She tilted up her beer instead of answering. After taking several long pulls, she remained silent.

“Did I do something else wrong?” he asked. “Just tell me and I’ll try to fix it. I swear, girls should come with owner’s manuals.”

One more long drink and she turned to him, her face mere inches away. “They think we want some alone time,” she stated blandly.

Oh.
He had smart kids. “They might be right.”

She shook her head, the movement a bit off, and he realized it didn’t take much to make her tipsy. “No, they aren’t right. You’re here only for them.” She took another drink. “In fact, since they’ve gone in, you should probably go, too.”

“And what if I don’t want to go?” he asked. He lifted a hand and touched the backs of his fingers to the soft underside of her chin. Her face tilted up. “What if I want more than to be here only for them?”

God, he wanted to kiss her. He’d wanted to since the moment he’d seen her glaring at him from behind the diner’s grill. The desire was only getting worse. He just wasn’t sure if he would be able to stop with a kiss.

Her head shook back and forth with the slightest movement. “You’ve got to stop the full-court press, Cody. It’s not going anywhere.”

A ringing phone broke through the night, but it stopped almost as suddenly as it had started. All he could think as he sat there looking at her was that he could not make it through another night if he didn’t get his lips on her in some fashion.

He tilted his head and leaned in closer, within striking distance of the curve of her neck. “If our daughters are playing matchmaker now, you know that means I’m not the only one
who sees it. There’s something burning here, Lee. Something strong.”

Whatever it was, it sucked him in like a magnet every time he got near her. And she was probably right. Maybe it shouldn’t go anywhere. They had the kids to think about after all. But how was he supposed to not poke at it and see what it was? This was Lee Ann after all.

She shook her head again, but didn’t pull away.

“You do realize,” she started, then waved one hand out toward her mother’s house, “that my mother is probably watching us right now, and if that wasn’t her calling back over to report that you’re out here trying to put the moves on me, then it was likely someone else she’s already called now calling here to try to find out what’s going on.”

The words stood a very good chance of being fact. And though the gossiping should have bothered him, it didn’t nearly as much as it once would have. Most likely because he was a mere breath away from finally touching her.

“You’re trying to scare me away.” He pressed forward another inch before he could change his mind, and his lips grazed her neck. She trembled, and he was pretty sure she moaned, but the sound from his own throat overshadowed it. That brief touch had done more for him than any touch had in years.

“Cody.” The word barely made it out into the night.

It was time to head higher. As he inched his way nearer her ear, never fully landing in any one spot, she groaned and leaned toward him.

With his last sane thought being that this could only go so far with kids in the house, he nipped just below her ear, as he gripped one thigh and pulled her closer into the vee of his legs.

“Mom!” The back door slammed open.

He jumped away, embarrassment heating his face. He only hoped that in the low light no one could tell. He was supposed to be there to see the girls, and they’d just caught him in a near crawl into their mother’s lap.

Lee Ann snatched up the beer she’d set down at some point and turned her back to him. “Yes?”

Candy gaped, her eyes shifting from Cody back to Lee Ann. “Never mind,” she mumbled and edged toward the door.

Kendra remained where she stood, wearing a wide grin. “Were you two kissing?”

“No!” Lee Ann gasped. “Of course not. Now, what did you want?”

Kendra eyed them both for another few seconds before finally answering, “I forgot to tell you that Sadie asked if we could spend the night.” She held up the cordless phone. “Her mom is on her way to pick us up.”

“Right now?”

“You always let us spend the night on the weekends,” Candy replied. “We thought it would be okay.”

Lee Ann sat there and blinked at them as if not fully registering the question yet. Cody would have given an answer himself but suspected that wouldn’t be wise when he’d already overstepped what he suspected she would deem “his bounds.” It probably hadn’t been right to take advantage of her relaxed state and push for more, but he couldn’t regret what he’d done. A few seconds longer and he would have made it to her mouth.

“So is it okay?”

Kendra’s repeated question reminded him that Lee Ann hadn’t answered. He glanced at her and saw the worry in her eyes and suspected it wasn’t worry over the girls spending the
night with their friend. It was over the fact that the two of them would be alone together after they left.

Lee Ann’s throat moved with her gulp, and she plastered on a fake smile. “Of course.”

A horn beeped, and the girls quickly hurried into the house to grab their bags. On their way back out, they gave Lee Ann a hug before turning to him and doing the same. His mouth dried with the action. He hugged them both, then waved as they hurried around the side of the house. He and Lee Ann followed, him holding Boss to his side even though the dog whined, wanting to go with his newest friends.

As the car pulled away, Cody decided he would at least get Lee Ann to admit she still felt something for him before he left for the night. How could she refuse to after the moment they’d just had? He turned to head around to the back of the house without waiting for her, hoping to pick up where they’d left off, but she remained where she stood.

“It’s time for you to go, too,” she said, immediately shutting down his fantasies of a lengthy good-night kiss. He rotated back in her direction.

“I thought I’d stay a while.” He studied her unreadable eyes. “Discuss a couple things.”

She shook her head and pointed up the road toward his apartment. She wore a too-polite smile. “The girls are gone, so there’s no reason for you to stick around any longer. And they’ll be at Sadie’s most of tomorrow. They go to church with her family when they spend the night. Why don’t we all take a day off tomorrow? Having a little break would be good for everyone. The girls need time to adjust to all these changes.”

Anger unexpectedly tickled his vision with her prattled-off words. The girls, from what he could tell, were adjusting just
fine, but she was tossing him out on his rear because she was afraid to admit that she still felt something for him.

“We should talk about this, Lee.”

She shook her head, her expression locked down tight. “Nothing to discuss. Thank you for dinner.”

She turned away before he could say anything else, and frustration made him do the same. If she could continue pretending there was nothing there, he could go along with it, too. Who needed a woman so damn frustrating, anyway? He had the kids to get to know. He would do best to keep that goal in mind. It was the important one.

With a low growl, he started off up the road, glancing at the red curtains in Reba’s windows as he went past.

They were swinging again.

Great. The whole town would know within seconds that he’d struck out with Lee Ann, the woman who had “hard to get” down to an art form.

Cody moved the gearshift into park, then slumped down in his seat, exhaustion filling him through and through. He looked over at Boss, who sat beside him, as worn out as he. They’d gotten up early that morning and driven into the mountains for their daily run. After leaving Lee Ann’s the night before, he’d been too wired, his mind going in too many directions of “What if?” to get a decent night’s sleep. Seemed like wearing himself out on the hills would be a good idea.

Only...the arduous run had settled nothing. All it had accomplished had been to exhaust both him and his dog.

He reached over and patted Boss on the head. “Hang on, bud. This won’t take long. Then we’ll get you home and you’ll be able to take your morning nap. A good long one today. I might even take one with you.”

Seemed a good thing to do on a Sunday when you had nothing else going on. Which he apparently didn’t. He clenched his jaw at the memory of how the night before had ended. Didn’t do to dwell on things he couldn’t change, though.

His stomach rumbled, and he rubbed a hand over his damp tee. He’d called in breakfast as he’d headed back to town, not in the mood for company, but definitely ready for a meal. But now, looking down at himself, sweaty and ripe, he wished he’d taken the time to run by the apartment and grab a quick shower before running in to grab his food.

If he were to believe Ms. G, people were beginning to come around to the thought of him not being so bad. Apparently word had gotten around that he hadn’t been a brute at Lee Ann’s over Thanksgiving, and for some reason, it seemed to be a positive that he was the girls’ father. Whenever he ventured out, he now got words of encouragement and small talk about the kids, as opposed to the snide comments he’d gotten used to overhearing as people passed. It was...odd. Yet strangely comforting.

He also found himself wondering what the Monroes would have thought about it all. Swiping a hand down his face, he pushed that thought from his mind. He would never know. He also would never be able to apologize to their faces for the way he’d left. That was tough to take, especially when he hadn’t realized he’d wanted to apologize until Sam had told him they were gone. Again, nothing he could do about that now. No need to dwell.

He opened the door and stepped from the car. Showing up in public looking like the derelict he’d been when he’d first left probably wasn’t the best idea in the world, but that was just going to have to be too bad today. He was starving, and people would have to get over it.

Before he could grab for the restaurant door and go in, it swung out toward him and Holly stood there. Tight skirt, makeup too much for a Sunday morning in the Bible Belt, and pink high-top Chucks, which once again seemed to have nothing whatsoever to do with the outfit.

She held a bag of food out to him. “Here’s your breakfast.”

Before he could reply, she disappeared back behind the door, then reemerged seconds later with two covered trays of food.

“Carry these and I’ll get the rest,” she said as she thrust them into his arms.

“What’s going on?” But he was once again talking to a closed door.

The third time she emerged, she held a gallon of tea in one hand and a bulging bag in the other. “Let’s go.”

Cody turned with her toward his car before he realized what he was doing. He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. “What are you doing, Holly? What is all this?”

She stopped by his passenger door and sighed when she found the door locked. “I can’t believe you lock your car here. What do you think someone’s going to take? Your dog?”

“They’d better not,” he muttered. Unsure what else to do, he set the food on the hood and reached into his pocket for his key fob. He pressed a button and the locks flipped. “What’s all this food? And where do you think I’m taking you?”

She opened his passenger door, scratched Boss between the ears, and the traitor got up and climbed over the seat to
give her his spot. “It’s food for Keri. She came home from the hospital this morning, so I want to take this over.”

He remained standing by the hood. “Then take it.”

“I am,” she said. She reached over and opened his door. “Get in. People are staring.”

Setting his jaw, he tried giving her the look that normally got people to back off. She merely ignored him and turned to love on his dog some more.

“I’m serious,” he said, though he hadn’t yet told her what he was serious about. “I can’t take you this morning. You’ll have to find someone else.”

“Come on,” she begged. “My car is in for maintenance, and they didn’t get it back to me yesterday. I need to get this stuff to Keri so she can concentrate on the baby and not have to worry about anything else.”

“Holly,” he said, dragging the word out. He moved to stand in his open door, and put the food down on his seat. “Look at me. I’m covered in sweat, and you can probably smell me fifty feet away. Plus, Boss wants a nap. I promised him we were going home.”

She merely gave him a look before scooping the trays off his seat and holding them in her lap. “Fine. We’ll run by your house. Boss can sleep, you can take a five-minute shower, and then we’ll be off. No biggie. Now, let’s go. I have a breakfast casserole in here getting cold.”

“Don’t you have to work?” he asked, but found himself climbing behind the wheel anyway. He had to get to that shower or he soon wouldn’t be able to stand being around himself.

“I’m not needed back until the churches let out. But I want to hold that new baby for a few minutes, so quit wasting time and let’s go.”

With a final look at the woman who’d planted herself in his dog’s spot in the car, he shook his head and headed off down the street. How was it that he kept getting pulled into things he didn’t want to be a part of?