Her Favorite Maverick Read online

  But oh, it did feel serious. And, well, she loved how serious it felt. She didn’t really know what to do about that. Maybe they actually could have forever together.

  Or maybe, once again, she was making plans for a future that would never come true.

  What she needed was not to get all tied up in knots over her own current happiness with Logan. He was a good man and she would enjoy every moment they had together, with no expectations as to what might happen next.

  “And Chicago?” asked her dad.

  She shook herself and focused on the subject at hand. “No. I don’t want to go back, I really don’t. I’m staying here.”

  “Sweetheart...” Her mom jumped off the desk and held out her arms.

  Sarah rose. Her dad got up and joined them in a family hug. It was so bizarre, group-hugging with her parents, of all people. It made her feel loved and cherished—and lonely already that they would be leaving.

  “When will you go?” she asked as they stepped apart.

  “It’s a process,” said Mack.

  “We’re eager to get started.” Her mom looked downright starry-eyed. “We want to get moving on it right away.”

  “I completely understand.”

  “We’re going to sign over the business and the properties and give you the money we talked about,” Flo announced. “We were hoping we could all three go together to see Ben as soon as possible.” Ben Dalton was the family’s attorney. He had an office right in town. “We want to get everything in your name so you can start the transition—hire your office manager, whom I will be happy to train, and get you ready to run the business on your own. And then we’re buying a motor home.”

  “We’re flexible,” her dad insisted. “We’ll be here for you for as long as you need us.”

  Her mom practically glowed in her excitement—to be on the way south, to start living their great adventure. “However long it takes to get everything worked out, that’s fine with us. The truth is you’re carrying most of the workload here already. Falls Mountain Accounting should be yours, anyway.”

  “You’re ten times the accountant I ever was,” her dad said wryly. “You’ve been here a couple of months and you’ve already enlarged our client list, streamlined the office procedures and bolstered the bottom line.”

  “There will be our house to deal with, packing stuff up, clearing it out a little,” her mom chattered on. “You might want to move to the bigger place and sell the cottage. Or rent it. Or sell the house and—”

  “Flo.” Mack wrapped an arm around her. When she glanced up at him, he brushed a kiss on her forehead. “None of that has to be decided today.”

  Her mom gazed at him adoringly. “Of course, darling. You’re right.” She gave Sarah a rueful glance. “Sorry, honey. I got carried away.”

  “No problem.” Except for how much she would miss them and how sad and lost she felt at the prospect of them living so far away. “I promise to consider all the options carefully.”

  “We know you will, sweetheart. And as for your father and me, if possible, we’re hoping to be on our way south sometime in August.”

  * * *

  Quietly, Logan shut the door to Sophia’s room.

  In two steps, he reached the arch that led into the dining room. At the sight of Sarah, he hung back to enjoy the view. She sat on the sofa with Opal in her lap. Even all the way across the room, he could hear that kitten purring.

  Sarah scratched Opal’s chin and the purring got louder. “What are you looking at?” she asked without glancing up.

  “A pretty woman and a dinky white motorboat of a cat.”

  That got him a grin. “She’s a happy baby.”

  He wanted to linger there, leaning on the door frame, just looking at her. And he also had the urge to go and get the spiral notebook from the kitchen. He wanted to capture the way her slim, pretty hands stroked Opal’s soft, white fur.

  Most of all, he wanted to go to her, sit beside her, put his arm around her and steal a kiss.

  The prospect of getting close won out. He crossed the room, sat down next to her and drew her nice and snug against his side.

  When she glanced up, he took her mouth.

  It never got old, kissing Sarah. She smelled like heaven and she tasted even better. He nipped at her upper lip. She let out a sigh and he deepened the kiss—for a moment.

  Not too long. If he kept kissing her, he would want more than kisses.

  But a little later for that.

  He lifted away and gazed down at her. “Something on your mind?”

  A tiny frown marred the smooth skin of her forehead. She confessed, “Got some big news from the parents today. They’re leaving everything—this house, their house, the business—to me and moving to the Gulf of Mexico.”

  “Wow.”

  A chuckle escaped her. It wasn’t a very happy sound. “No kidding.”

  “When?”

  “As soon as possible. A month or so.”

  He ran a finger down the side of her throat and then couldn’t resist bending close again, sticking out his tongue, tasting her there. She tasted so good, like everything he wanted, like hope and forever. “You don’t want them to go.” He breathed the words against her silky, fragrant skin.

  She caught his face between her hands and pushed away enough that she could look in his eyes. “How did you know that?”

  “Easy. You didn’t tell me they were leaving until I asked. If you weren’t conflicted about them going, you would have said something earlier.”

  She searched his face. “You’re way too observant.”

  “I get a big thrill out of observing you.” He moved in close again and kissed her soft cheek. “Did you ask them to consider staying here in town?”

  “No. And I’m not going to, either.” She idly stroked the hair at his temple with the tips of her fingers. He loved the feel of her hands on him. “They can’t wait to be on their way. And I want them to have what they want. They did everything they were supposed to do for years. It’s time they got their chance to be free.”

  “But what about you?”

  “I’ll get over myself, believe me. Sophia and I will be fine.”

  Sophia and I. He wasn’t included. She and Sophia were a family of two.

  He wanted his chance to hear her say that the three of them would be fine, to consider them a unit. A family. Together. And he intended to make his chance. The sooner the better. “Let’s go out.”

  She shook her head, laughing. “Sophia’s already in bed in case you didn’t notice when you put her there.”

  “I mean tomorrow night or the next one. I’ll bet Lily would watch her, or your mom.”

  She skated a finger along the line of his jaw and he realized he was happy in the best kind of way, all easy and comfortable inside his own skin, just to be sitting here on the sofa with Sarah, Opal purring away on her lap.

  “I’ll try my mom first,” she said. “She loves looking after Sophia and she mentioned today that she hoped to get more time with her before she and my dad ride off into the sunset in the fancy new Winnebago they’re planning on buying.”

  “So that’s a yes?”

  “Mmm-hmm. I’ll check with her, find out which evening’s best.”

  “It’s not even eight. There’s still time to call. Do it now so I can make the reservation.”

  “Let me guess.” Those golden-brown eyes twinkled at him. “You know this great little restaurant in Kalispell...”

  “That’s right.” He leaned in close again to nip his way up the side of her neck and then nibble her earlobe for good measure. “Dinner at Giordano’s because it’s our place, our Italian restaurant.”

  “‘Our place’ that we’ve never been to together,” she teased.

  “A mere oversight which we are about to remedy. And we’ll go dan
cing afterward, though I’ll admit I’m not sure where to go for dancing around here.”

  “Well, I know where to go. The Ace in the Hole.”

  He scoffed at that. “From what I’ve heard, the Ace is a cowboy bar with peanut shells on the floor and country-western on the jukebox.”

  “That’s right,” she said. “When I was a little girl, I always wanted to go to the Ace. You know, have a burger, beg quarters from my parents and play the jukebox. But my parents never went out anywhere—not even for a burger at the Ace.”

  “You were deprived of an important cultural experience. Is that what you’re telling me?”

  “That’s it exactly. And for some reason I still don’t really understand, as I got a little older, I didn’t just go there myself or drag Lily there. I was like that as a kid, serious and quiet. I had trouble getting out there and doing the things I longed to do. I kind of lived in the future, planning for college and my life in the big city where I would make everything come together, make all of my dreams finally come true.” She looked so sad then. But before he could figure out what to do about that, she brightened. “But then it happened. I did get my chance.”

  “For a burger at the Ace?”

  “That’s right.” She laughed, a low, husky sound, and her eyes turned more golden than brown as she explained, “I was seventeen, in my senior year of high school and one of the Dalton boys invited me to go.”

  He wasn’t sure he liked that faraway look she had. “Should I be jealous? Which Dalton boy?”

  “No, you shouldn’t. And which one doesn’t matter. He never asked me out again.”

  “Good,” he said gruffly, followed up with a muttered, “What an idiot.”

  “My point, Logan, is that I loved it. Loved the Ace. It was noisy and there was lots of laughter. Music was playing and everyone was talking too loud. A couple of drunk cowboys even got in a fight, so there was excitement, too. There was everything I never had at home. I remember sitting there across from the Dalton boy whose first name you don’t need to know and thinking that the Ace was the best and I wanted to come back every chance I got.”

  “And did you?”

  She shook her head. “It just never happened. And then I left for Illinois in the fall.”

  “You haven’t been there since that one date when you were seventeen, you mean?”

  “That’s right.”

  He captured her hand and kissed the tips of her fingers. “I’ll take you.”

  She put her lips to his ear and whispered, “It can be our honky-tonk saloon where we make all our most precious romantic memories as we’re two-stepping to country standards, peanut shells crunching underfoot. I take it you haven’t been there even once yet?”

  “Nope.”

  “Well, then, we’re going to remedy that oversight after dinner at Giordano’s.”

  “You’re on.” He tugged on her ponytail. “Are all accountants as romantic as you?”

  “Nope.” She kissed him, a quick press of her soft lips to his. “I’m special.”

  “Oh, yes, you are.” He pulled her close and claimed a deeper, longer kiss, gathering her so tightly to him that Opal let out a tiny meow of annoyance at being jostled. The kitten jumped to the floor. When he lifted his head, Sarah’s golden eyes were low and lazy, full of promise and desire. “Call your mom,” he ordered gruffly. “Do it now.”

  * * *

  Logan made the Giordano’s reservation for seven Wednesday night. They got a quiet corner table, as he’d requested. He ordered a bottle of wine to go with the meal and the food was amazing as always. Even on a Wednesday night, most of the tables were full.

  He hardly noticed the other customers, though. All his attention was on the beautiful bean counter across from him.

  She wore a sleeveless turquoise dress, the sexy kind, with spaghetti straps. The dress clung to her curves on top. It had a flirty layered skirt that was going to swing out like the petals of a blooming flower later at the Ace when they danced together. Her gold-streaked brown hair was loose and wavy on her shapely bare shoulders.

  He wanted to sketch her in that dress. And he would later, back at her cottage, when they were alone. If he got too eager to get her out of that dress, well, he would sketch it from memory as soon as he had the chance.

  More than once during dinner, he almost made his move. But the moment just never seemed quite right. They joked about which Rust Creek Falls bachelorette Viv Dalton had most recently set up with which of his brothers. They spoke of the new office manager she and her mom had just hired. Flo had started training the new employee that morning. They laughed about how the work out at the Ambling A seemed downright endless. The barn needed more repairs and the fence-building went on and on.

  For dessert, they had the chocolate semifreddo again, same as that first night when he’d had their meal catered at her house. She joked that it was “their dessert” and now he could never have it with anyone else but her.

  He raised his coffee cup to her. “You. Me. Semifreddo. Forever.”

  She gazed at him across the small table, her eyes so soft, her skin like cream, her lush mouth begging for his kiss.

  It was the exact right moment.

  But he decided to wait.

  Was he maybe a little freaked out about how to do what he planned—and when? Was he putting way too much emphasis on finding just the right moment?

  Maybe.

  But he wanted it to be perfect. In future years, he wanted her to remember the moment with joy and admiration for how he’d picked just the right time.

  It was almost nine when they left Giordano’s. They got in his crew cab and he leaned across the console for a kiss.

  And wouldn’t you know? One kiss was never enough.

  They ended up canoodling like a couple of sex-starved kids for the next half hour or so, steaming up the windows, hands all over each other. Like they didn’t have a comfortable bed to go to in the privacy of her cottage.

  She’d unbuttoned his shirt and he’d pulled the top of that pretty dress down and bared her gorgeous breasts before they stopped—and that was only because he whacked his elbow on the steering wheel and they both started laughing at the craziness of them going at it right there in his truck at the curb in front of Giordano’s. Anybody might see what they were up to.

  Probably some innocent passerby had seen.

  He buttoned and tucked in his shirt and she pulled her dress back up, after which she flipped down the visor and combed her hair in the mirror on the back. She looked so tempting, tipping her head this way and that, smoothing the unruly strands. He couldn’t stop himself from reaching for her again.

  She allowed him one long, hot kiss—and then she put her hands on his chest and pushed enough to break the connection. “The Ace,” she instructed sternly. And then a giggle escaped her, which kind of ruined the effect. “We need to get going. Now.”

  * * *

  The Ace in the Hole was a rambling wooden structure on Sawmill Street with a big dirt parking lot behind it and a wide front porch where cowboys gathered to drink their beer away from the music, to talk about horses and spot the pretty women as they came up the steps to go in.

  Beyond the double doors, there was the long bar, a row of booths, a stage and a dance floor surrounded by smaller tables.

  Sarah gazed out across the dance floor. “So romantic.” She leaned close and brushed a kiss against his cheek. “Thanks for bringing me.” The way she looked at him right then, her big eyes gleaming, mouth soft with a tender smile—made him feel about ten feet tall.

  He got them each a beer and they took a booth. Tonight, a local band had the stage. They played cover versions of familiar country songs.

  “Let’s dance,” she said, smiling, a little flushed, her eyes full of stars to be here at this cowboy bar where she hadn’t been since she was seventeen.
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  They danced every song—fast ones and slow ones, never once returning to the booth.

  The whole time, he was waiting as he’d been waiting all evening—for just the right moment. He might have done it there, on the dance floor of the cowboy bar she’d found so thrilling when she was a kid.

  But no.

  Private was better, he decided at last. He would wait until they got back to the cottage.

  Around eleven, as they swayed together, their arms around each other, to Brad Paisley’s “We Danced,” she lifted her head from his shoulder and let out a giggle. She seemed thoroughly pleased with herself.

  “What?” he demanded.

  “Nothing—except it’s official. I’ve danced at the Ace with the hottest guy in town. I never thought it would happen, but look at me now.”

  “You are so beautiful.” Words did not do her justice. He dipped his head and kissed her, one of those kisses that starts out gentle and worshipful, but then kind of spins out of control.

  She was the one who pulled away. “I’m thinking we probably ought to go soon,” she whispered, sweetly breathless.

  “I’m thinking you’re right.”

  They left when the song ended.

  At the cottage, Flo reported that Sophia had been an angel. “She had her bottle and ate her mashed peas and then some applesauce and went down at eight thirty. I haven’t heard a peep from her since.” They thanked her for babysitting.

  Flo kissed Sarah’s cheek. “Anytime,” she said as she went out the door.

  And finally, it was just Logan and Sarah, with the baby sound asleep. She scooped the snoozing Opal off the sofa and put her in her bed in the laundry room.

  When she came back, he did what came naturally, pulling her into his arms and lowering his mouth to hers, walking her backward slowly as he kissed her.

  In the bedroom, he almost guided her down to the bed.

  But no. It was time.

  Past time—to make his move. Say his piece. Ask her the most important question of all.

  She gazed up at him, kind of bemused. Wondering. “What is it? There’s something on your mind.”