Sugar Springs (25 page)

“Your dad’s car just pulled up,” Lee Ann yelled up the staircase to Candy as she lowered the load of laundry to the bottom step.

Within seconds, her daughter hurried down the stairs. “Is he coming in?”

“I don’t know. Let’s go see.”

She and Candy had enjoyed a fun afternoon. After leaving the salon they’d gone to Candy’s favorite restaurant before stopping for ice cream. Though Candy had enjoyed herself, Lee Ann had been aware she wished she’d stayed with her dad, even if he and her sister had been doing only what Kendra liked.

They stepped to the door and watched as Cody turned around at the end of the dead-end street, then pulled to a stop in front of the house.

“You know that just because they did Kendra’s thing this afternoon, doesn’t mean he didn’t want you around, right?” Lee Ann dropped one arm around her daughter’s waist.

“Yeah, I know. I just wanted to do something else. All they do is talk about animals.”

“It’s hard not to talk about things you love, sweetheart. Especially if you’re around someone who loves the same.” But she would make sure he remembered to do something just for Candy in the future.

“I know,” Candy said. Her voice grew even fainter as they watched Kendra jump from the SUV and wave, before the car sped off. “He didn’t even say hi to me.”

Nor me.
“He probably didn’t see us standing here.”

Stepping onto the porch, Lee Ann reached back to keep the screen door from slamming but was shocked to find it slowly closing.

“Cody did that this afternoon,” Candy informed her.

“Really?”

She gave a short nod. “Yeah. He also painted Ms. Grayson’s porch rails yesterday afternoon. Kids were talking about it at school today. I think he’s getting bored.”

No. He fixed things that needed to be fixed. That was one of the qualities she’d always admired most about him.

Lee Ann hugged Kendra as she came up the steps. “Have a good time?”

Her daughter’s face glowed. “The best! We ended up getting takeout and going back to the clinic. I looked after the animals that had to stay there overnight, then helped Dad prep for another procedure he’s doing tomorrow.”

“Wow, that’s pretty exciting. You’re going to know everything about being a veterinarian before you go to school for it.”

“I know.” She practically swooned with happiness. The excitement on Kendra’s face thrilled Lee Ann as much as the dejected look on Candy’s hurt her. She definitely had to talk to Cody. He may not have been excluding Candy intentionally,
but he had to understand how bad it could get if he wasn’t careful. Hurting even one of his kids was not allowed.

The sound of the V-8 filled Cody’s head as he sped away. Everything had been going along perfectly the last few days, and he’d just had one of the more fun evenings of his life...until he’d seen Lee Ann and Candy standing in the doorway. He needed to deal with issues with both of them but had no idea how to go about it.

The last thing he’d intended to do was hurt Candy’s feelings, but he’d been able to tell by the way she’d run to her mother’s side that that was exactly what he’d done. It had never occurred to him she wouldn’t want to go to the office. Kendra had asked questions nonstop about the place since he’d met her. Since they were twins, he’d just assumed they would both be interested.

One hard lesson learned. Next time he would do something special for Candy.

He smiled as he passed his apartment and the office beneath. A week ago he couldn’t have begun to imagine the pride he’d felt tonight as he’d watched Kendra studiously helping him out. The girl was going to make a fine veterinarian someday. And he’d be right there rooting her on.

The smile left his face as Lee Ann floated back to mind. She would let him in the girls’ lives as much as he wanted, he was sure of that. He was equally positive he could convince her that it would be in their best interests to travel with him throughout parts of the year. But the thought of leaving Lee Ann here by herself left a strange feeling in his gut.

It would give her more time to pursue her photography the way she should have been allowed to do years ago. That could be good. Yet he couldn’t imagine driving away and leaving her here alone. Not for any length of time. The girls were as much a part of her as was her constant need to structure the world around her.

He also didn’t know if he could do anything else. First thing he had to figure out, though, was if what was going on between them was lust or something else.

Lust he could deal with. He suspected she could as well. They could sneak off for a few hours, get it out of their system and move on. But it could be more.

And if it was, he needed to know. Then he would figure out what to do about it.

He checked for oncoming cars and shot out onto the open road, glancing in his rearview mirror to make sure there was no sign of cops. He didn’t need Barney Fife pulling him over tonight. He just needed to get out and go. Although he’d found Sugar Springs to be more tolerable than he remembered, he was not a small-town guy at heart. He needed to feel like himself again.

The needle inched close to eighty before he let off the pedal. A large part of him would always be the guy who didn’t form attachments. To people or places. He liked to go. He’d been doing it since he’d been a kid. But what he’d discovered as he’d sat in the car pretending not to see Lee Ann and Candy was that there was currently only one place he cared to be. And one woman he cared to be with.

And that concerned him.

“I’m going to be a few minutes late this morning, Holly,” Lee Ann said into her cell phone as her mom came in through the back door. She came over on school mornings to see the girls off, since Lee Ann had to be at the diner when it opened. Tossing out a little wave to her mom, she returned to her task of filling her Crock-Pot for the evening’s dinner.

“Only ten minutes,” she added. “I’ll still be there before we open.”

She listened to Holly tell her to take her time, then said good-bye and disconnected. She’d come up with a plan after leaving the salon the night before, and she needed to talk to Cody to make sure he agreed. If he did, it would go a long way toward making Candy feel special. And the best time to catch him without the girls around was right after his morning run.

Since she routinely caught sight of him and Boss on her early morning walks to the restaurant, and since everyone made a habit of talking about how he finished his run at the same time every morning—which happened to be within minutes of her passing by his place—she’d decided to delay for a few minutes so she could catch him as soon as he finished.

“What’s going on?” her mom asked. She moved to the counter and peered into the ceramic bowl to look at the potatoes and carrots Lee Ann had dumped in. “Beef stew?”

“Yeah. The temperature is dropping again, feeling more like it should be, so it’ll be a nice night for it.”

She was going to suggest Cody spend more time with the girls this week—just him and them—thus the stew. She would not be there for dinner, also ensuring the two of them wouldn’t end up outside with a fire, darkness, and the setting for a mood that she did not want to feel.

Opening the door to the freezer, she studied the bread she’d prepared a few weeks back. It would be perfect with the stew, but Cody probably wouldn’t want to mess with it.

“Looks like you’re about finished,” her mom said, not offering to help, but then she never had been much of a cook. “You’re running late today.”

She eyed her mother over her shoulder, hearing the question behind the words. If she told her she was stopping to talk to Cody, the whole town would know about it before she even got there. But then, if Ms. Grayson reported this one in before her mother did, that would also look bad for her mom. She did a mental eye roll, unable to believe that she was playing into the game.

“I need to talk to Cody without the girls around. Going to suggest he take Candy shopping for a birthday gift for her sister. I also plan to see if he’ll watch them the next few evenings. Go through the daily routine with them. That’ll give me some time to get up into the mountains before sunset and see if I can catch any good shots this week to go with the winter series I started last year. It snowed a bit on the higher elevations already.”

It had been a while since she’d had any time just for herself.

“You’re also thinking it’ll give him a taste of fatherhood, I suspect.” Her mother tapped the list Lee Ann had stuck to the refrigerator door. It contained the afternoon schedule for dinner, homework, and chores, along with the rules about what the girls were and were not allowed to do on a school night.

And yes, she wanted Cody to see that fatherhood was more than just handing over a check and showing up to play. Not that he’d given the impression he thought that, but so far it was all he’d had to do.

She nodded. “Something like that.”

Her mom studied her, more serious than she normally was. “It’ll also let you avoid being around him, I suspect.”

Yeah, there was that, too.

The questions were definitely moving into gossip territory, so she put the lid on the stew, picked up her purse, and kissed her mom on the cheek. “There’s no reason I’d want that, Mom. I’m perfectly fine being around him. Quit trying to make something more out of it than it is.”

She headed out the door and up the street, then finally let herself breathe normally again.

Of course she wanted to distance herself from the man. His mere presence had become the only thing she could think about. Whether he was there in front of her or off doing who knew what, she couldn’t stop thinking about the near kiss on her patio, nor about the fact she wondered what that kiss would have been like probably as much as he did.

As she neared his place, she slowed, suddenly nervous. He didn’t know she was coming. She checked her watch. If she’d timed things correctly, he should have returned less than two
minutes before. Hopefully she’d catch him before he hit the shower.

She climbed the stairs and rudely peeked through the storm door before knocking. He hadn’t pushed the main door closed, and from where she stood, she could see Boss in the corner of the living room. He lifted his tail briefly and looked at her but didn’t get up. Then she caught sight of Cody.

And her mouth turned as dry as the grass in a long, hot summer. With no rain.

He was in the middle of the living room floor, earbuds in place, no shirt on, and doing push-ups. Wow.

She couldn’t help but watch. The man was a work of art. He also had a work of art. The tattoo scrolled over his upper arm that had been tempting her since he’d first shown up stretched and moved with each up and down motion.

Oh, God. She shouldn’t have shown up there unannounced. She should leave.

Or she could watch just a tad more.

No...leave. She gave a short nod. Definitely leave.

Before she could force herself to turn to go, his gaze shifted and snagged with hers, and she was stuck. He didn’t stop with his push-ups. And she didn’t stop watching.

The man’s body should be illegal.

Ten more and he shoved to his feet in one powerful move, never taking his gaze from hers. He removed the earbuds and wrapped the cord to dangle around his neck.

“You do know I’m currently Ms. G’s favorite pastime, right?” He gave a nod to the door, and she realized what he meant. She was standing outside his apartment, peering in like a stalker. And Ms. Grayson was no doubt watching.

With quick moves, she opened the door, entered, then closed not only the storm door but also the wood one behind her. The instant she stilled, she felt like she’d just walked into a trap, yet she wasn’t at all sure how to get out of it. Or if she wanted to.

Cody picked up a towel and studied her as he crossed the room, his jaw-dropping body moving with an easy grace she wasn’t sure she had completely appreciated before. He stopped directly in front of her.

“Morning, Lee,” he said, his voice rich and thick and tickling all her girl parts. “What are you doing at my house?”

She gulped. That tattoo caught her attention again. It was one of the tribal type that had been popular a decade or so before. She squinted, trying to make out the design in the middle. It was also done in the tribal markings but was something more than a mere pattern. She tilted her head and leaned forward. An animal maybe?