The Marrying Man (8 page)

Jack peeked up at him. Riley winked. The boy giggled, then buried his face back in the pillow.

"Progress," Riley said to Cat.

"Come on, Jack," she said, laying her hand on her son's shoulder. "It's time for lights out. Do you want to ask Mr.McKendrick your question tonight or can it wait until breakfast?"

"Tonight!" The boy sat up straight and met Riley's eyes. "Are you really a cowboy?"

"Sure am," Riley said, hiking up his pants leg so Jack could see his well-worn leather boots. "Born and raised in western Nevada."

The boy's dark eyes shone with wonder. "Did you have your own horse?"

Riley met Cat's eyes and grinned. "I had lots of horses but I guess my favorite was a mare named Fred."

"A mare named Fred?" Cat asked.

Jack frowned. "What's a mare?"

"A mare is a female horse," Riley said.

"You can't name a girl Fred," Jack told him sternly. "Girls have girl names."

"That's what Fred said too but nobody listened to her."

Jack had a score of questions but his mother had other ideas. "Those questions can wait until tomorrow, sweetie. It's time you got some sleep."

Jack ignored his mother. "You'll be here tomorrow?" he asked Riley.

"I'll be here."

Cat brushed a lock of hair from the boy's forehead with a tender gesture then frowned. "Oh, Jack..." Her voice trailed off and she placed the palm of her hand flat against his forehead. "I think you're coming down with something."

"He looks fine to me," said Riley.

She shook her head. "I know the signs. There's a twenty-four hour bug going around town. Jenny had it last week. I was wondering when it would hit someone else."

"You can tell all that by touching his forehead?"

"I'm his mother," she said by way of explanation. "Of course I can."

Another example of all Riley would never understand about the mysteries of family life.

"You're good with kids," Cat said a few minutes later after she'd settled the boy down for the night.

"All I did was answer his question."

"You'd be surprised how few adults pay attention."

"He seems like a good kid."

"They all are. I've been lucky."

There wasn't much he could say to that. The woman lived in the middle of insanity and she felt lucky. And what scared him the most was that he understood why. All evening he'd been trying to quantify the way he was feeling, to find a name for it, some way to identify and catalog the odd rush of sensation he experienced every time he looked at her, but the words were just beyond reach.

He hoped they stayed there.

"This isn't the most masculine room in town," Cat said, as she showed him to a room at the opposite end of the hallway, "but we weren't expecting a cowboy."

"Long as it's got a bed," Riley said with confidence. "Flowered wallpaper doesn't bother me."

"Well," said Cat , cautiously, "it's a bit more than flowers on the wallpaper."

She flung open the door and switched on the light.

"Hell, no!" Riley stepped back. "No way."

"I decorated this during my retro Laura Ashley phase," she said. "I admit I might have gone a tad overboard."

"Overboard?" He stared at the profusion of deep pink roses on the bedspread, the walls, at the windows, strewn across the chaise longue, and massed in pots on every available flat surface. "Lady, this is one for Ripley's Believe It or Not."

She lifted her chin and he admired the stubborn set of her jaw. "I never claimed to have good taste. When I like something, I like it all the way."

He peered cautiously into the room. "You like roses."

"Very perceptive," she said, that stubborn jaw softening. "I love roses."

He stepped into the room and tossed his bags down on the bed. "Good thing I don't have allergies. The power of suggestion could put you in the hospital."

"You'll find both the closet and the bathroom through that door," she said, pointing.

"More roses?" he asked, hoping against hope.

"More roses." A wicked smile played at the corners of her mouth. "Don't worry, McKendrick. I don't think Laura Ashley wallpaper has a negative effect on a man's testosterone level."

"Feel like putting that in writing?"

Their eyes met and to Riley's surprise they both started to laugh. She had a great laugh, not one of those polite exhalations of breath, but a full-bodied, lusty laugh that made him wonder if she laughed like that in bed.

"It's this or the family room sofa," she said. "Your choice."

He unzipped his duffel. "I'll manage."

She backed toward the door. "I'll get you an extra blanket."

"Don't bother."

"It's no bother. This is an old house and it gets very cold at night."

"I'm hot-blooded," he said. "The cold doesn't bother me."

"Lucky you," she said after a moment. "If you need anything, I'm next door."

"I'll remember that." His blood shifted. He wouldn't be able to forget that if he tried.

She made to leave then turned back toward him. "We get up early around here. I hope the noise doesn't--"

"It won't. I get up at five."

Her eyes widened. "Every day?"

"I run."

"You really
are
organized, aren't you?"

"You've got to practice what you preach."

"You might have met your match in the Zaslow household."

"I don't think so."

"You're outnumbered," she pointed out.

"By this time tomorrow that won't matter."

"You think a lot of yourself, don't you, cowboy?"

"I know what I can do."

"We're a rowdy bunch."

"I've seen worse."

She grinned. "By this time tomorrow that won't matter."

"You'll thank me, Zaslow. In two days I'll have your life on the right track and you'll wonder how you ever managed without me."

She knew a challenge when she heard one. Her eyes flashed fire but the fire was tempered by a sense of humor that was obviously as much a part of her as her long legs and high cheekbones. "Cowboy, I'll--"

"Mommy!"

They both started at the sound of the little girl's voice from the hallway behind Cat.

Cat swung the Sarah up into her arms. "What's the matter, honey? Bad dream?"

The child shook her head. Her eyes, as blue as Cat's, were fixed on Riley. "Go home," she said, then buried her face in Cat's shoulder.

"That isn't nice, Sarah." Cat's voice was firm. "Mr. McKendrick is our guest. What did I tell you about we're supposed to treat guests?"

The little girl mumbled something but Riley couldn't understand a word of it.

"She said, 'Be polite,'" Cat explained, reading his mind.

Riley wanted to tell the child not to worry about it but he knew he was out of his depth. This was definitely Cat Zaslow's territory.

Cat kissed her daughter's chubby hand. "Don't you have something to say to Mr. McKendrick?"

The child burrowed her face deeper into Cat's shoulder.

"Sarah." Cat's voice was firm but still loving. He wondered how she managed to do that. It was a sound he'd longed for as a child. It must come with childbirth or something.

Sarah turned her head slightly until he could just make out her delicate features. "I'm sorry. You don't have to go home."

"Thank you," he managed. The lump in his throat made it hard to say much more.

Cat smiled at him and for the first time in his life he wanted the one thing he knew he could never have.

A home.

A family.

A woman like Catherine O'Leary Zaslow.

Chapter Five

"Jenny!" Cat stepped in front of her friend and folded her arms across her chest. "Please, I'm begging you. You're not going to leave me alone with him, are you? I thought we were in this together."

"I don't know about you, my friend, but Dawn and I are off to Disney World." Jenny balanced her eighteen month old daughter against her right hip and rummaged through the diaper bag. "I know those plane tickets are in here some place."

"You don't keep your plane tickets in there, do you?" Cat was sloppy but even she had her limits.

"Of course I do." Jenny withdrew the ticket envelope from the zippered compartment. "Except for Dawn, the diaper bag is the one thing I know I won't forget."

Cat couldn't argue with logic like that. No mother could. "Please tell me you got your dates wrong. You leave next Friday, right?"

Jenny met her eyes. "Today, Cat." She waved the tickets at her friend.

"I could've sworn it was next weekend."

"Why would I go next weekend? The crowds are there this weekend."

"Jenny, people don't usually want to go to Disney World when it's crowded."

"It's Dawn's first time. I want her to have the whole Disney experience."

"I'll give you a raise," Cat pleaded, her level of desperation rising. "I'll double your vacation days."

"Throw in Alec Baldwin and you might have yourself a deal."

"Doesn't our friendship count for anything? How can you abandon me in my hour of need?"

Jenny--the wretch--laughed at her pain. "We both know what you need, Cat, and he's waiting for you in the living room even as we speak."

Violent heat flooded Cat's body. "Jenny! What kind of thing is that to say?"

"It's the truth. If I could've captured the sparks flying between the two of you I'd put the electric company out of business."

"I take it back," Cat said. "Go to Disney World. It's obvious you need the rest."

"Opportunities like our cowboy friend don't show up every day, Cat. If you don't rope him in, someone else will."

"Someone else is welcome to him," Cat declared in no uncertain terms. "The only reason he's here is because I intend to prove a point."

Jenny--the wretch--threw back her head and laughed loud and long. "And if you believe that, honey, you're even better at fiction than I thought."

***

Riley ducked back into the hallway.

"Damn," he muttered under his breath. He'd always wondered what women said about men when they were together but he never thought he'd find out quite this way.