Chapter 8Peggy Warner
Chapter 8
Wide Awake
Saturday
Peggy Warner
A crow cried overhead, startling Peggy awake. For a moment she didn’t want to open her eyes. She let the warm sun lay over her like a blanket. The wind whispered through her hair and she could hear the oak tree’s branches dancing above her.
Then a hand moved along her arm. “Sleep,” a deep, low voice whispered in her ear. “I’ll watch over you. That seems my new job.”
Peggy opened one eye and found Duke Evans smiling at her. His gray eyes melted into her with what looked like real affection. As she rose to her elbows, she realized she’d been using his knee for a pillow and his hand rested on her shoulder.
No one but her kin had ever touched her, but with him it felt natural. Safe. Sweet.
“I’m sorry.” She sat up, regretting the loss of his touch. “I didn’t sleep much last night.”
“Don’t apologize; I liked watching you sleep. You are a real-life sleeping beauty.” He moved her sunshine hair behind her ear, his fingers brushing her face. “Strange, I think I feel all is calm in the world when I’m near you. Would you mind if I claim that kiss you promised? Once you find out I ate both donuts you might be mad.”
She couldn’t think of what to say. She just laughed.
Her cowboy leaned closer to her and the breath caught in her throat.
Looking into his gray eyes, she wanted to tell him how long she’d waited to be kissed. She instead heard herself whisper, “I’ve been waiting for you.”
Duke’s eyes widened in surprise and then melted into something sweeter. Maybe he’d had his share of almosts too?
He lifted her head in his hand and slowly leaned down to meet her. His lips touched hers lightly and her heart fluttered. As he straightened, the corner of his mouth shifted to a soft smile.
It wasn’t enough. For the first time in her life, Peggy knew what she wanted and she asked for it. “More, please.”
Duke laughed and lifted her into his lap, pulling her against his chest. This time she met him in the middle, touching her lips to his as heat washed through her. The second kiss came daring. His hand cupped the back of her head, his fingers twisting in her hair as if he’d waited for this as long as she had.
Then he pulled away as if he’d been too bold.
As she caught her breath, she saw a question in his eyes. It seemed neither one of them had a roadmap on this new journey, but he continued to hold her close. And she loved the feel of his arms wrapped around her.
Duke might be unsure, but for once Peggy knew exactly what she wanted. She wouldn’t back away from this adventure.
Her hand shook as she raised it to cup his cheek. “More, please,” she whispered again.
He laughed. His third kiss came tender and longer. Their mouths moved together in a sweet dance as he taught her to kiss and showed her how much he felt.
She didn’t know how much time had passed. It could have been hours or mere minutes. But, when they finally broke apart, he kept her on his knee and held her close against him. It was exactly where Peggy wanted to be.
He kissed her head, then spoke low as if afraid to disturb those laid to rest. “I’ve been wanting to kiss you since you left yesterday. I’m sorry I couldn’t get here on time, but I loved seeing you wait for me. I wanted to wake you but I couldn’t. We were alone. No one else around. You looked so beautiful. A perfect moment.”
One tear drifted down her cheek to land on his blue checkered shirt. He must count in moments as she sometimes did. Not minutes or hours but only moments. They both were still, fearing if they moved, the magic would disappear.
Peggy leaned back, his arms still circling her waist, and put her hands on either side of his face. She kissed him lightly. “I feel like I’ve known you forever.”
He held her so close their breathing joined. “I have the same feeling. It’s going to be grand knowing you.”
She shifted to the picnic blanket and passed him the lunch she’d packed. They laughed as they ate and told stories about growing up. Duke kept his hand on her knee and never stopped touching her. He wasn’t bold, but gentle.
As the sun drifted behind the clouds, he stood and offered his hand. They walked down to the edge of the graves, then they ran down the hill to the rapids. By the time they reached the bottom, they were both laughing and gasping for air.
“I feel like a kid again.” He picked up a rock and skipped it, as if proving his point.
“Me too. We’re stealing time. I’ll never forget this day.”
“Me either. If I have this one afternoon with you or hundreds, I’ll tuck each one deep inside me to keep forever. I’ll always have this memory of a pretty girl walking with me to the water’s edge.”
They strolled hand in hand along the river, trading stories about childhood and dreams they thought were long gone.
“Tell me something you’ve never told anyone,” Duke said. “I want to know everything about you.”
She didn’t know where to start, so she just said the first thing that popped into her head. She tiptoed near the splashing water. “If I ever killed myself, I’d jump in the rapids because I can’t swim. I’d be gobbled up. But at least I would die with water singing to me.”
He told her that when he saw his first colt born, he went behind the barn and threw up. “The other hands laughed at me and I started swinging. I hit a few, but not hard. They kept laughing and I kept swinging until Mr. Kirkland stepped into the fight and swung once. I tumbled like a tree falling in the woods, but I heard J.R. say, ‘No fighting during work.’
“When my black eye finally opened, I asked the old man why he hit me. Kirkland said he wanted me to remember the rule.”
She laughed, then covered her mouth.
With a big hand he gently pulled away her fingers. “Don’t hide your laughter. It’s perfect.” Then he opened her hand and kissed her palm. “Keep this kiss to take home.”
She let herself smile. She couldn’t stop it from spreading across her face anyway. No one had encouraged her to laugh before. She closed her fist, wishing she could put the kiss in her pocket to keep forever.
They stood by the water, both sharing things they’d never told anyone. Then when both were silent, the river swallowed their secrets.
The wind brushed against her and she shivered. Without a word he put his arm around her and pulled her close under his coat. As his heart beat against her cheek, she felt as if her luck had just changed. She would never forget this day. Or this man. Or his kiss. If she never had another date, she’d cherish this time forever.
As he pulled her closer, she saw the same joy in his eyes that she felt. Some girls might think he was too tall, too thin, too plain, too shy, but to her he was perfect. He was kind and thoughtful. He saw her as no one ever had. And she saw him.
He thought she was someone to cherish. When he kissed her nose she giggled, and Peggy swore so did the rapids. She didn’t say a word because his lips were moving to her mouth.
Her heart raced as the kiss grew deeper. She circled his neck with her arms as she realized a new dream. She wanted him close. Always.
She broke the kiss and whispered, “I think you’re mine.”
“No,” he said. “You are mine. Maybe I’ve been trying to find you all my life.”
“I don’t think it happens so fast.”
He lifted her off the ground and said, “What if it did? I think we’ve been waiting long enough, Peggy. Don’t you?”
Before she could answer, he continued in a rush, “I know there is so much you don’t know about me. I spent a night in jail once for being drunk. I own a truck outright, but I don’t own a car. I work for the Kirklands, and Jake, the foreman, says I know enough to hire on as a foreman on any spread around.”
“Is that what you want to do?” she asked as she grinned, because that was more words than he’d ever said before all at once.
“Maybe. Someday I’d like to go back to my folks’ place. It’s small but it’s quiet. My dad used to play around making belts and chaps. He was good at making them but he never got into selling them. Gave most of them away.” He smiled down at her. “I guess it’s not much of a dream.”
“I think it’s grand.”
“Well, now I got a problem. Since I found you in a grave I started on another goal.”
“What’s that?”
“Kissing you every time I see you. One kiss today and I’m addicted.”
Before she could answer, he kissed her again. Hard this time, and long.
Then suddenly he pulled away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to kiss you full out.”
She fisted her hands in his shirt, looked right at him and said, “Again. We’ve waited long enough, remember?”
His words were brushing her lips. “I’ll never hesitate with that order. Will you let me take you out? I don’t care where we go, as long as you’re with me.”
“Oh,” she said, taken aback. “I don’t know.” She took a step away. They were no longer touching and she was surprised how much she felt his absence. “I can’t really go out with you. I’d like to but I can’t. I . . .”
He hesitated, his expression becoming guarded. He crossed his arms over his chest. “You got a husband somewhere? One no one knows about?”
How could she tell him that she had no time for herself? That she wasn’t really her own person. Suddenly she remembered she didn’t have a job, or education . . . or a life of her own. She’d basically had to sneak away to meet him today.
Yesterday had never happened before. She didn’t know what to do next. Or how to do it.
Duke straightened and seemed to turn into stone. No smile. His lips a thin, hard line. “I get it that you don’t want to go in public with me. I know I’m worth nothing. It’s fine.”
He turned toward his horse. “I like you, Peggy. A lot. But I can’t be with someone who’s too embarrassed to be seen with me.”
She didn’t know what was happening. Her cowboy was walking away.
How to explain her almost-life to him? That she still lived over her parents’ garage and did everything the family asked her to?
She swiped at the tears filling her eyes. “Why are you leaving?”
“I don’t own a ranch or drive a nice car, I’m not asking you to marry me. I just wanted to go out sometime.”
He grabbed his reins again. Ready to bolt.
She knew in a second, he’d be gone. For once in her life, she had to talk before it was too late. She had to say what she really meant, not just what others wanted to hear. “I’ve never had a real date. I don’t know how to do this. I’ve never lived completely alone or with a roommate. I’ve never left home. I’ve always been in my mother’s shadow. I’ve never had time for my own life. Or done what I wanted.”
He looked like he didn’t believe her. Her face was probably pale. She couldn’t tell if she was going to faint or run. “I don’t know how to do this.”
For a moment it seemed the world stopped moving. She didn’t speak. She’d said all she could.
Duke moved away from the horse and approached her. The anger was gone, but he didn’t look happy.
“Never?” he said so low she barely heard him.
She hung her head as embarrassment swept over her. “I’m twenty-seven. There was one guy that kept touching on me but that wasn’t a date. That was a setup. In five minutes I knew I didn’t want to talk to him, but he kept talking to me and touching me.” She chanced a glance at him. “I wanted to date but the time wasn’t right, or he wasn’t right. I’m shy and it’s not always easy for me to talk to people outside of my kin.”
“You didn’t seem so shy yesterday. You told me I had to kiss you if I came back.”
She met his stare. “You were different. We talked and you were nice. I wasn’t sure you would kiss me but I hoped.”
“I still want to,” he said. “It may have been a short while but I wanted to kiss you the moment I saw you.”
“We needed to talk. I had to see the good in you first.” She paused and looked down at her hands. “And I did.”
He placed his finger under her chin and lifted her face to meet his. “I’m too tall for pretty much any woman. Most of the time ladies take one look and turn away. I don’t have much money but I’ve got the best horse in the county. I worked hard until I met a beauty asleep in a grave. But she doesn’t want to go out with me. And I don’t know what to do about that.”
Duke took a deep breath as Peggy held hers.
He suddenly looked very serious. “You’ve got to tell me the truth. Is there a husband hanging around? Or a boyfriend somewhere?”
She laughed. “No. Nowhere. I told you I’ve barely had a date.” She grabbed his hand. “I’d like to go out with you, but I can’t. I barely ever have time to myself. And if my family found out about you, they wouldn’t like it—they’d start interfering.”
After a long moment, he said, “If there is no husband and you won’t go out with me, is there any chance you’ll meet me here again? Or maybe kiss me again, lady?”
Peggy’s yes came out as a whisper.
Duke suddenly seemed to understand. He lifted her off the ground. She kissed him several times. “I’ve figured it out. I’m afraid of everyone in the world but you. I hope you can handle my family.” Feeling brave, she kissed him hard. “You better be a good man, Duke.”
He laughed. “If you want to have our dates out here for the rest of our lives, I’ll be fine. The kids can just run around and be wild.”
Peggy smiled up at him, thinking about her new dream. Two lonely people had found each other, and two was more than enough.