Chapter Four #3
“We lost him only last year. A fine long life he had. I think that was when Paddy decided it was time for him to go home again. He’s there by now, and I know what he sees when he stands out in front of the house, and that’s a comfort. As you’ve been just now, Brian. Thank you.”
“I didn’t do anything. I fumble with tears.”
“You listened.” She handed him back his bandanna.
“Mostly because tears render me speechless. You’ve a bit of garden dirt here.”
Keeley came down the path just in time to see Brian gently wipe her mother’s face with a blue bandanna. The tearstains had her leaping forward like a mama bear to her threatened cub.
“What is it? What did you do?” Hissing at Brian, she wrapped an arm around Adelia’s shoulders.
“Nothing. I just knocked your mother down and kicked her a few times.”
“Keeley.” With a surprised laugh, Adelia patted her daughter’s hand. “Brian’s done nothing but lend me his hankie and his shoulder while I had a little cry over Uncle Paddy.”
“Oh, Mama.” Keeley pressed her cheek to Adelia’s, rubbed. “Don’t be sad.”
“I have to be, a little. But I’m better now.” She leaned over, surprising Brian with a kiss on the cheek. “You’re a nice young man, and a patient one.”
He got to his feet to help her up. “I don’t have much of a reputation for either, Mrs. Grant.”
“That’s because not everyone looks close enough. You should be able to call me Dee easy enough now that I’ve cried on you. I’m going down to the stables, do some work.”
“She never cries,” Keeley murmured when her mother walked away. “Not unless she’s very happy or very sad. I’m sorry I jumped at you that way, but when I saw she’d been crying, I stopped thinking.”
“Tears affect me much the same way, so we’ll let it be.”
She nodded, then cast around for something to say that would help relieve the awkwardness. She’d been so sure she’d be controlled and composed when she saw him again. “So, I heard you did well at Hialeah.”
“We did. Your Hero runs particularly well in a crowd.”
“Yes, I’ve seen him. He lives to run.” She noted the bag Brian had set down. “And here you are not even really back yet, and you’ve had one woman crying on your shoulder and another swiping at you. I really am sorry.”
“Sorry enough to make me some tea while I clean up?”
“I... all right, but I’ve got less than an hour.”
“Takes a good deal less to brew a pot of tea.” Satisfied, he started up the steps. “You’ve a class this afternoon then?”
“Yes.” Trapped, Keeley shrugged and followed him up and inside. He’d been kind to her mother, she reminded herself. She was obliged to repay that. “At three-thirty. I have some things to do before the students arrive.”
“Well, I won’t be long. You know where the kitchen is, I expect.”
She frowned after him as he strolled off into the bedroom.
Making him cozy pots of tea wasn’t how she’d expected to handle the situation, she thought.
She’d given it a great deal of consideration and had decided the best thing all around would be to maintain a polite, marginally friendly distance.
That business the other night had been nothing but a moment’s foolishness. Harmless.
Incredible.
She gave herself a shake and got down the old teapot Paddy had favored.
No, it was nothing to worry about. In fact, on one level she really should be grateful to Brian.
He’d shown her she wasn’t as indifferent to men as she’d believed.
It had bothered her a little that she’d never felt that spark so many of her friends had spoken of.
Well, she’d certainly felt a whole firestorm of sparks when he’d put his hands on her. And that was good, that was healthy. Someone had finally caught her at the right time and the right place and the right mood. If it could happen once, it could happen again.
With someone else, of course. When she decided it was time.
She set the tea aside to steep, then opening a cupboard stretched high for a cup.
“I’ll get that.” He moved in behind her, handily trapping her between his body and the counter. Closed his hand over hers on the cup.
She could smell the shower on him, feel the heat of it. And her mouth went dry.
“I decided I don’t care to forget it.”
She had to concentrate on regulating her breathing. “I beg your pardon?”
“And that I’m not going to let you forget it, either.”
She needed to swallow, but her throat wouldn’t cooperate. “We agreed—”
“No, we didn’t.” He brought the cup down, set it aside. “We agreed we didn’t want this.” The ponytail she wore left a lovely curve of her neck bare. He nuzzled there. “And I’d say there’s been an unspoken agreement that despite that, we want each other.”
The firestorm was back, a burst at the base of her neck that showered heat down her spine. “We don’t know each other.”
“I know how you taste.” He nipped lightly at flesh. “And feel, and smell. I see your face in my mind whether I want to or not.” He spun her around, and his eyes were dark and restless. “Why should you have a choice when I don’t?”
His mouth crushed down on hers, a hot and dangerous thrill. With his hands gripped in her hair, he pressed his body to hers.
And this time she felt as much anger as passion in the embrace. Now, wrapped around the thrill, was a thin snake of fear. The combination was unbearably exciting.
“I’m not ready for this.” She struggled back. “I’m not ready for this. Can you understand?”
“No.” But he understood what he saw in her eyes.
He’d frightened her, and he’d no right to do so.
“But then again, I don’t want to.” So he backed away.
“Your mother said I was a patient man. I can be, under some circumstances. I’ll wait, because you’ll come to me.
There’s something alive between us, so when you’re ready, you’ll come to me. ”
“There’s a thin line between confidence and arrogance, Brian. Watch your step,” she suggested as she started for the door.
“I missed you.”
Her hand closed over the knob, but she couldn’t turn it. “You know all the angles,” she murmured.
“That may be true. But still I missed you. Thanks for the tea.”
She sighed. “You’re welcome,” she said, and left him.