Paging Dr. Right- Stella Bagwell (August 2007)l - الصفحة 2

23-10-07, 06:24 AM

المشاركة رقم: 6

المعلومات
الكاتب:	darla
اللقب:	سندريلا ليلاس

البيانات
التسجيل:	Aug 2006
العضوية:	11023
المشاركات:	5,556
الجنس	أنثى
معدل التقييم:
نقاط التقييم:	758

االدولة

مدونتي

الإتصالات
الحالة:
وسائل الإتصال:

كاتب الموضوع : darla المنتدى : الارشيف

Chapter 3

Mia wasn’t at all sure why she’d bothered going out to eat this evening, especially at the Gallatin Room. Before she’d found Janelle, Mia had never been inside a restaurant where the tables were covered with fine linen and the food was served on fragile china. After her father, Will Hanover, had died of a lung disease, she and her mother had been lucky to splurge on burgers and fries at the local fast-food joint. The sort of life she was experiencing here at Thunder Canyon Resort was the sort she could only dream about back then.
Today at the Clip ‘N’ Curl, her brief visit with Marti Newmar had reminded her even more of how simple and precious those years on the farm had been with her adoptive parents. Maybe she’d not had much in the way of material things, but she’d been wrapped in the security of her family’s loving arms. Mia had learned
at an early age that she was adopted; yet that hadn’t mattered. She’d been a happy girl until her father had died. And then things had gotten tough and she’d made all sorts of wrong choices. She’d begun to believe that money was all it would take to fix everything wrong in her life. Well, now she had it, but she was far from happy.
With a wistful sigh, she realized the Gallatin Room was the sort of restaurant that a woman should visit with her husband or lover. The small table where Mia sat near a wall of plate glass gave a magnificent view of the riding stables and several corrals of beautiful horses. Far beyond, near the valley floor, a river glistened like a ribbon of silver in the moonlight. Yet the pleasant sights couldn’t hold Mia’s attention. Instead she was imagining what it would be like if the handsome Dr. Cates was sitting opposite her, reaching across the fine white linen and clasping her fingers with his.
“Ms. Smith, your steak will be ready in a few minutes. Would you like more wine?”
Mia looked around to see a young waiter hovering at her elbow, willing to jump through hoops, if necessary, to please her. After the first few days at Thunder Canyon Resort, Mia had become aware that some of the male staff seemed to bend over backward in an effort to make her happy. She’d not been fooled into thinking they were at her beck and call because they liked their job. No doubt they’d heard gossip or simply assumed that she was rich. The fact that she was rich, only made her resent their behavior even more.
“Yes, I will take more wine, thank you,” she told him.
The young man filled Mia’s goblet with the dark, fruity wine she’d selected, then eased back from the table. As he moved from her sight, Mia got a glimpse of movement from the corner of her eye. Turning her head slightly to the right, she was shocked to see the handsome doctor and a sexy redhead taking their seats several tables over from hers.
Mia stared for a moment, then purposely looked away before either of them could spot her. She’d seen the redhead before, but where?
Recognition hit her almost immediately. She was the bartender here at the lounge. Mia had visited the bar on a few occasions, just to enjoy a cocktail and a change of scenery from the rooms of her cabin. The redhead had always been working behind the bar, but Mia had never seen Dr. Cates there. Were the two of them an item? It certainly appeared that way to Mia. But from what Marti Newmar had told her at the Clip ‘N’ Curl earlier today, the man liked women in the plural form. The bartender was probably just one in a long line waiting for a date with Dr. Smooth.
Across the room, at Marshall’s table, he and Lizbeth had ordered and the waiter was pouring chilled Chablis into Lizbeth’s stemmed glass when he looked slightly to the left and spotted the woman. She was sitting alone and, even over the heads of the other diners, Marshall couldn’t mistake the black-haired beauty. It was Mia Smith, wearing a slim pink sheath and black high heels with a strap that fastened around her ankles. Her black hair was swept tightly back from the perfect oval of her face and knotted into an intricate chignon at the back of her head. She was a picture of quiet elegance and Marshall found it hard not to stare.
“Dining here in this posh part of the resort is quite a treat for me, Marshall.
You must be feeling generous,” Lizbeth teased.
Jerking his head back to his date, Marshall plastered a smile on his face.
Lizbeth was the sort of woman who’d be happy to let a rich man take care of her for the rest of her life. Since it wasn’t going to be him, he could afford to feel generous.
“Maybe I just felt as though I had earned my paycheck today,” he told her.
She laughed. “Oh, Marshall, you’re so funny at times. I hope you never go serious like that brother of yours. He should have been a judge.”
Marshall had three brothers. At thirty, Mitchell was four years younger than him. And then there were the twins, Matthew and Marlon, who were just twenty-one and trying to finish up their last year of college.
At one time in their young lives both Marshall and Mitchell had walked somewhat on the wild side. And while the two boys had lived on the edge, they’d both loved a passel of ladies and broken more than a few hearts. But age had slowed both of them down, Mitchell especially. He’d founded a farm and ranching equipment business and spent nearly all his time making the place turn big dollars.
“That’s why Mitchell has made a big success of Cates International,” Marshall said to her. “He takes his business seriously. When I’m out on the slopes skiing, he’s usually at work. That’s the difference between him and me.”
Lizbeth playfully wrinkled her nose at him. “What’s the use of money if you can’t have a little fun with it?”
Marshall sipped at the beer he’d ordered, then licked the foam from his lips. He would surely like to ask Mia Smith that question, he thought. But then maybe she was having fun. Maybe being alone was how she liked things.
He looked back to the table where Mia was dining and before he could catch himself he was gazing at her again. At the moment she was eating one slow bite at a time. There was something very sensual in her movements, as though she was a woman who savored each and every taste. Marshall could only imagine what it would feel like to have those lush lips touching him.
“In case you don’t know, her name is Mia Smith.”
Lizbeth’s comment doused him with hot embarrassment and he quickly jerked his attention back to his dining companion.
“You caught me. What can I say, Lizbeth, except that I’m sorry?”
Laughing lightly, she reached over and touched the top of his hand. “Don’t bother. I know when a man considers me just a friend. It might be nice if you looked at me the way you’re looking at her. But you don’t.”
Relief washed through him. Jealous women were hard to handle, especially in a place that required good manners. “Thanks for understanding, Lizbeth,” he said wryly. “I guess I’m pretty transparent, huh?”
“Well, if I knew the Gettysburg address I would have had time enough to recite the whole thing while you were staring at Ms. Smith.”
Shaking his head with a bit of self-disgust, he said, “I’m sorry. It’s just that—well, I met her yesterday. On the mountain while I was hiking.”
Intrigued by this morsel of news, Lizbeth leaned forward. “Really? Did you exchange words with the woman?”
The two of them had exchanged words, glances, even touches, but apparently none of it had affected Mia Smith the way it had Marshall. She’d walked away from him as though he were no more than a servant.
“A few.”
“That’s all? Just a few?”
“The lady is cool, Lizbeth. She—uh—wasn’t interested in getting to know me.”
Picking up her wineglass, Lizbeth laughed, which only caused the frown on Marshall’s face to deepen. “That’s hard to believe. I’ve talked with her at the bar and she seemed friendly to me.”
Now it was Marshall’s turn to stare with open curiosity at Lizbeth. “You know the woman?”
Shrugging, Lizbeth said, “She comes in the bar fairly often. Drinks a piña colada with only a dash of alcohol.”
“Does she ever have anyone with her?”
“No. She’s always alone,” Lizbeth answered. “Can’t figure it, can you? The lady is beautiful. Men would swoon at her feet, but apparently she won’t let them.
Maybe you ought to ask her for a date. If anyone can change her tune about the opposite sex, it would be you, dear Marshall.”
He chuckled with disbelief. “Me? Not hardly. I offered to buy her a drink. She pretty much gave me the cold shoulder.”
“Maybe you should try again. That is—if you’re really interested in the woman.”
Unable to stop himself, Marshall glanced over at Mia’s table. At the moment she was staring pensively out the window as though she were seeking something in the starlit sky.
“Frankly, I wish I wasn’t interested. I have a feeling the lady is trouble. She doesn’t come across as the other rich guests around here. She’s different.”
Lizbeth smiled coyly. “And maybe that’s why you can’t get her off your mind.
Because she is different.”
He thoughtfully studied his date. “Hmm. Maybe you’re right. And maybe once I got to know her, I’d find out she’s not my type at all. Then I could safely cross her off my list.”
Lizbeth let out a knowing little laugh. “You’ll never know until you try.”
The next morning on his way to work, Marshall entered the lodge by way of the lounge and headed to the coffee shop. After the busy day in the infirmary yesterday, he wanted to pick up one of those fancy lattes and present it to Ruthann when she walked through the door. No doubt the surprise treat would make his hardworking nurse want to whip out her thermometer and take his temperature, he thought wryly.
At this early hour, the coffee shop was full of customers sitting around the group of tiny tables, reading the Thunder Canyon Nugget and the daily newspaper from nearby Bozeman while drinking ridiculously expensive cups of flavored java.
Marshall found himself waiting at the back of a long line and wondering if he had time to deal with getting the latte for Ruthann after all, when a vaguely familiar voice spoke behind him.
“Looks like we have a long line this morning.”
Turning, he was more than surprised to see Mia Smith. She was dressed casually in jeans and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled back against her tanned arms.
Her black hair was loose upon her shoulders and the strands glistened attractively in the artificial lights.
The sight of her put an instant smile on his face. “Yes. Everyone must have had the same idea for coffee this morning.”
Mia could feel his gaze sliding over her face and down her throat to where her shirt made a V between her breasts. The sensual gaze made her wonder if he’d looked this same way at his date last night. Then just as quickly she scolded herself for speculating about the playboy doctor. The man’s private behavior was none of her business.
Even so, she couldn’t stop the next words out of her mouth. “How did you like your dinner last night at the Gallatin Room?”
His brows lifted ever so slightly. “I didn’t realize you saw me there.”
This morning he was obviously dressed for work in a pair of dark slacks and a baby-blue button-down shirt. A red tie with a blue geometric print was knotted neatly at his throat. She could see that he’d attempted to tame the wild waves of his thick hair, but several of the locks had already fallen onto his forehead. Just one look at him was probably enough to cure most of his female patients.
“I…uh—spotted you and your date when you were arriving.”
“Oh. Well, Lizbeth wasn’t actually a date. I mean—she was—but we’re basically just friends. Actually, she was the one who asked me out.”
Mia shot him a droll look. Was this the sort of line he handed out to all unsuspecting females?
“Good for her.”
The line of customers began to move forward and she tried to peer around his shoulder to gauge how much longer the wait would be, but the man held her gaze.
“I stopped here at the coffee shop this morning to pick up a latte for my nurse,” he explained. “She’s always treating me so I thought I’d do something for her.”
Figuring his nurse was a twenty-something blonde with long eyelashes and a come-hither smile, Mia said, “Why settle for just a coffee? Perhaps you should take her to the Gallatin Room, too.”
To her amazement a look of dawning swept over his face and he nodded in agreement. “You know, that’s a wonderful idea. Ruthann has been a nurse for more than thirty years and she’s always taking care of other people, even when she isn’t on the job. Her husband died of a heart attack about three years ago and she’s having a hard time making ends meet with just his social security to help her along. Dinner at the Gallatin Room would be something really special for her. Thank you, Mia, for suggesting it.”
Feeling suddenly like a heel, she hoped he never guessed that her suggestion had been given in sarcasm. Damn it, why did she continually want to believe this man was only out for himself? Because Marti had described him as a ladies’ man? Or because a user could always spot another user, she thought dismally.
But you’re not a user, Mia. Everything you have has been given to you freely.
You haven’t taken anything from anybody—except your adoptive mother’s life.
Trying to shut away the guilty voice inside of her, Mia gave him a hesitant smile. “I—uh—think that would be a very nice gesture for your nurse.”
“Well, I’m not always as thoughtful as I should be. Blame it on my male genes.”
The grin on his handsome face was as wicked as the images going through Mia’s head. She’d never been around a man who continually made her feel like she needed to take deep breaths of pure oxygen. Dr. Cates was making her think things that definitely belonged behind closed doors.
Smiling in spite of herself, she said, “I’m sure your nurse will think you’re very thoughtful.”
At that moment a customer carrying a portable cardboard holder filled with several cups of coffee was attempting to work his way through the crowd. As he jostled close to Mia, the doctor’s hands closed around her shoulders and quickly set her out of the customer’s path.
The abrupt movement brought her even closer to Marshall and he realized her thigh was pressed against his and the thrust of her breasts was almost touching his chest. His breathing slowed, while the faint scent of gardenia filled his head like a gentle breeze on a hot night.
“I—uh—thought that man’s drink was going to topple right on you.” Reluctantly, he eased his grip on her shoulders. “Sorry if I startled you.”
He watched a pretty pink flush fill her cheeks. “I—it’s okay. Better to be a little startled than scalded.”
The line ahead of them moved again and Marshall quickly glanced over his shoulder to see he was next to place an order. If he was ever going to make his move on this woman he needed to do it now and fast.
“You—I noticed you were dining alone last night and I was wondering if you might like some company tonight? I’m free if you are.”
Faint surprise crossed her face, an expression that puzzled Marshall. Surely a woman who looked like her was used to men asking her out to dinner.
“Actually, I don’t think I could take the Gallatin Room two nights in a row.
It’s a little stuffy for my taste.”
Hope sprang up in him like an exploding geyser and he wondered what the hell was coming over him. The world was full of pretty women and willing ones at that.
Why had getting a date with this one suddenly become so important?
“Mine, too. I only took Lizbeth there because she—Well, she enjoys that sort of thing, but she can’t really afford such a splurge on her own.” Another quick glance over his shoulder told him the customer was about to step away from the counter. He turned a beseeching look on Mia. “We could go downtown and maybe grab a burger or pizza. How does that sound?”
She opened her mouth as though to speak, then just as quickly her pink lips pressed thoughtfully together. Behind him, the coffee shop attendant said, “Dr.
Cates, it’s your turn to order now.”
With his eyes riveted on Mia’s face, he tossed over his shoulder, “A large latte with plenty of foam.”
His dark brown eyes were pulling her in, making her forget there was a crowd of people around them. In the back of her mind, she understood he was a man who would be dangerous to any woman’s heart. Yet there was something about his smile that made him impossible to resist.
“Sure,” she heard herself saying. “A burger would be nice.”
“Great. Where shall I pick you up? Are you staying here in the lodge?”
Not yet ready to give him that much information, she said, “I’ll meet you here at the lounge.”
A wide smile suddenly dimpled both cheeks and Mia felt her insides go as gooey as warm taffy.
“Great. I’ll be here. Six-thirty okay?”
Why not, she thought. It wasn’t like she had anything important to do and maybe it was time she did something about this aimless path she’d been on for the past few months. “Six-thirty is fine. I’ll see you then.”
After he’d picked up his latte and given her a quick farewell, Mia found herself standing at the counter staring straight into Marti Newmar’s smiling face.
“Hi, Mia! I didn’t expect to see you here so soon. What can I get you this morning?”
“Hi yourself,” Mia greeted the bubbly young woman. “I’d like a cappuccino with sugar and a pecan Danish.”
Marti repeated the order to another worker who was busily preparing the drinks and rang in Mia’s purchases.
While they waited on the cappuccino, Marti leaned slightly over the counter and said in a hushed voice, “Looks like Dr. Cates has his eye on you. Be careful, Mia. I wouldn’t want you to end up like my sister.”
Shaking her head, Mia smiled at the young woman’s earnest face. “Don’t worry, Marti. I’m not about to let the doctor turn my head.”
“Yeah, well that’s what Felicia said, too.”
Thankfully, a worker set her order on the counter and Mia quickly scooped it up.
Now that she’d agreed to a date with Dr. Cates, the last thing she wanted to hear were warnings about the man’s character. She’d rather find out such things for herself than listen to gossip.
“I’ll keep that in mind. See you later, Marti.”
At the back of the lodge, in Marshall’s airy office, Ruthann sipped leisurely at her latte while Marshall playfully tap-danced around her chair.
“Have you lost your mind, doc?” she asked with a laugh. “First you surprise me with a cup of coffee that cost more than my wristwatch and now you’re trying to imitate Fred Astaire. What else do you have planned for today?”
Laughing, he grabbed her swivel chair and spun her in a wild circle that had her yelling for him to stop.
“How about a date with the heiress? That’s what I have planned.”
She planted her feet on the hardwood floor and stared at his smug face. “Oh. So that’s what this display of joy is all about. You’ve proved me wrong and talked the mystery beauty into a date. I should have guessed. How did you do it?”
Still smiling, he sauntered over to his desk and took a seat in his plush leather chair. “Frankly, Ruthie, I don’t have a clue. I ran into her at the coffee shop and—” He stopped and held up a hand. “Wait a minute, I’d better tell you about last night first. I saw her, the mystery beauty, dining at the Gallatin Room last night.”
Ruthann lowered her coffee and frowned at him. “It’s a good thing we don’t have any patients waiting this morning, cause I’d like to hear what you were doing having dinner in the Gallatin Room. You have so much money that you’ve decided to start throwing it away?”
His expression suddenly sheepish, Marshall shrugged. “I took Lizbeth out to dinner.”
Ruthann groaned out loud. “Oh, Lord, Marshall, what were you thinking? She’s nothing but a big flirt.”
He batted a dismissive hand at her. “Never mind Lizbeth. I’m not serious about her.”
Ruthann’s expression turned incredulous. “And you are serious about the mystery woman?”
Marshall chuckled at his nurse’s question. “Ruthie, you know me, I don’t have plans to get serious about any woman. Why should I? I’m having too much fun.”
She smirked. “Why indeed? Have you ever thought of children? Of someone to spend your golden days with?”
Marshall’s barked laugh said he was worried about Ruthann’s sanity. “Just how old do you think I am, Ruthie? I’ve got years ahead of me before I think about anything like a family. Right now I’ve got mountains to climb.”
She leveled a thoughtful look at him. “And what are you going to find when you reach the top?”
Tilting the plush chair to a reclining position, he linked his hands at the back of his neck and let out a smug sigh. “The satisfaction of getting there. That’s what I’ll find.”
“Satisfaction, huh? Well, you go on climbing, doc. I’d rather have two loving arms around me.”

23-10-07, 06:27 AM

المشاركة رقم: 7

المعلومات
الكاتب:	darla
اللقب:	سندريلا ليلاس

البيانات
التسجيل:	Aug 2006
العضوية:	11023
المشاركات:	5,556
الجنس	أنثى
معدل التقييم:
نقاط التقييم:	758

االدولة

مدونتي

الإتصالات
الحالة:
وسائل الإتصال:

كاتب الموضوع : darla المنتدى : الارشيف

Chapter 4

Later that evening, before it was time to meet Marshall, Mia sat on the bed in her cabin and slowly sifted through the stack of photos in her hand. She wasn’t at all sure why she’d packed the snapshots when she’d left Colorado.
Maybe she’d brought them along as a reminder of all she’d left behind. The photos were the only images she had of herself with her birth mother. They’d been taken during Mia’s twenty-sixth birthday party, which had been held at Janelle’s lavish home.
A frown tugged at the corners of her mouth. She still couldn’t think of the mansion in Denver as her home. But for nearly two years Mia had lived there with her birth mother. During that time she’d tried to fit into Janelle’s rich social life and accustom herself to the role of an heiress. All of which had been a drastic change for the young woman who until then had been struggling to work her way through school.
With a sigh, Mia stared at the snapshot in front of her. No one could mistake the identity of the tall woman with her arm draped affectionately around Mia’s shoulders. She was almost the mirror image of Mia, only older. One minute Mia had been a young woman in nursing school who longed for the safe and secure home she’d had when her father had still been alive and working their potato farm, a young woman on a long and seemingly fruitless search for her birth mother. The next minute she’d not only found Janelle Josephson but she also discovered the woman was unbelievably rich. After that, Mia and her adopted mother’s life had taken a drastic turn.
For years Mia had hunted her birth mother and for just as many years Nina had tried to dissuade her from the search, insisting that Mia’s birth mother didn’t want to be found. But Mia had felt driven to find the woman who’d signed her baby girl over to a stranger.
In the end, both Janelle and Mia had been shocked at the occurrences that had separated mother and daughter. Controlling parents had led a teenage Janelle to believe her baby was stillborn. She’d had no idea that her daughter was alive and searching for her. As for Mia, it was difficult for her to absorb the fact that she had a wealthy mother, one who seemingly loved her and was only too happy to lavish her with all the treasures and resources that money could buy.
What happens when a person goes from poverty to riches? Mia was a good example of that age-old question. Suddenly she could have any material thing she wanted, but none of it had made her happy.
For a moment the turmoil in Mia’s heart brought a stinging mist to her eyes. But then she determinedly pressed her lips together and shoved the photos in the nightstand drawer.
Right now she needed to put her troubled reflections away and put on the cheeriest face she could muster. It was almost time for her to walk down to the lodge and meet Dr. Cates. And she wanted to give the jovial, flirty doctor the impression that she was just as carefree and happy as he.
Minutes later, Mia walked into the lounge and spotted her date sitting on the end of a plush leather couch. He was focusing intently on the BlackBerry in his hand and for a brief moment Mia paused to study his sexy image.
Even after she’d become an heiress, she’d never dreamed a man of his stature would show interest in her. But she realized that if the doctor knew the real truth of her past, he wouldn’t be sitting here waiting to have an evening with her.
Tonight, however, she wasn’t going to dwell on that, she wanted to have fun and see if she could remember how to enjoy herself on a simple date.
Mia was walking across the lounge and had almost reached the couch where he was sitting, when he happened to look up and spot her approach.
The quick leap of her heart surprised her. For so long now she’d felt numb.
Incapable of feeling anything.
Smiling broadly, he rose to his feet and shoved the BlackBerry into the pocket of his blue jeans. As she walked toward him, he quickly closed the last few steps separating them.
“Hello, Ms. Smith,” he said warmly.
His voice was just rough enough to be sexy and she wondered what it would sound like if he were to whisper in her ear.
Smiling in return, she thrust her hand toward his. “Please make it Mia. Calling each other Ms. and Dr. over a burger would be a little ridiculous, don’t you think?”
“And shaking hands with a beautiful woman is more than ridiculous for me,” he said. And before she could guess his intentions, he leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek. “There. That’s a much better greeting, don’t you think?”
His dancing brown eyes held hers, and Mia realized she was far too charmed to scold him for being forward. The skin along her cheekbone tingled where his lips had touched her and she was getting that breathless feeling all over again.
Deliberately avoiding his pointed question, she said, “I hope you haven’t been waiting long.”
“Not more than five minutes,” he answered. “Are you ready to go? Or would you like to have a drink at the bar before we leave the lodge?”
“Actually, I’m hungry. Let’s save the drink for another time.” If there was another time, she reminded herself. If Marti’s opinion of this man was correct, he’d probably have a different woman on his arm tomorrow night.
“Great,” he said. “Let’s go. My Jeep is waiting outside the lodge.”
Figuring his “jeep” would be one of those plush SUV’s that could comfortably haul seven, she was surprised to find his vehicle was one of those compact two-seaters built high off the ground and generally used to traverse rough terrain.
After helping her negotiate the lofty step up, Marshall skirted the hood and quickly slid beneath the wheel. While he buckled his seat belt and started the engine, Mia glanced around the small interior. Behind them, a small bench seat was loaded down with a canvas backpack and a pair of boots caked with mud. An assortment of empty bottles that had one time held water and sports drinks lay on the floorboard below. In front, a small crate of CD’s was wedged between the console and the dash. Hanging from the rearview mirror was a small dream catcher made of black and white feathers.
“I promise I cleaned the dog hair from your seat before I drove over here to the lodge. The rest of the mess I hope you’ll forgive. I get busy doing things I enjoy and put off all the tasks I hate.”
Actually she was relieved that he hadn’t shown up in some sleek, spotless luxury car. This vehicle made him seem far more human and closer to the lifestyle Mia had been accustomed to before Janelle had taken her in and presented her with a treasure trove of riches.
“It’s fine,” she assured him as she adjusted the seat belt across her lap. “You say you have a dog?”
He shoved the floor shift into Reverse and backed out of the parking slot. “A blue heeler named Leroy. He’s spoiled worse than I am.”
Mia smiled faintly as she glanced over at him. “I take it you spoiled him, but who spoiled you?”
He grinned that sexy grin of his and Mia was suddenly reminded of their close quarters. If she were so minded, she could easily reach over and curl her hand over his forearm.
“My mother insists she ruined all of her boys. Much to Dad’s dismay,” he added with a chuckle.
Interest peaked her brows. “You have brothers?”
“Three. Mitchell. He’s thirty. And the twins, Matthew and Marlon, are twenty-one.”
Three brothers and a complete set of parents, Mia couldn’t imagine having a more wonderful family. “Where do you fit in among the bunch?”
“I’m thirty-four, the oldest of the Cates brood. My parents live north of town, not too far out. Maybe you’d like to meet them before you leave?”
Meet his parents? No. She didn’t think so. Making too many memories here might make it that much harder to leave. And she would have to leave soon, she reminded herself. She couldn’t continue to hide from Janelle much longer.
“Maybe,” she answered.
By now they were leaving the resort area and the Jeep was heading south on Thunder Canyon Road. Ahead of them on the far horizon, the sun was sinking, spreading a golden-pink glow over the mountain basin.
“I guess all the hoopla over the Queen of Hearts mine is what drew you to this area? Or did you choose to stay at Thunder Canyon Resort for other reasons?”
The only reason she’d ended up in Thunder Canyon was because she’d gotten lost on her way out of Bozeman. Originally she’d been intending to travel all the way into Canada. But Marshall Cates didn’t need to know the story of her life.
“I thought it would be beautiful and peaceful. And when I saw your little town with its Old West storefronts and flavor, I was enchanted. I didn’t know anything about gold being found in Thunder Canyon until I’d been here a few days. From what I hear, the discovery has turned the place upside down.”
With a wry twist to his lips, he nodded. “I never realized money could make people go so crazy. People who’ve been friends around here for years are now fighting over choice lots in town. Everyone wants to get their hands on a piece of the fortune that’s coming in from the crush of tourists.”
I never realized money could make people go so crazy, thought Mia.
Marshall didn’t know it, but he could have spoken those very words about her.
For a while money had slanted her every thought and controlled every choice she’d made. Now having the stuff was more like a dirty little secret that she couldn’t hide or discard.
Stifling a sigh, she said, “Well, I’ve overheard several women in the Clip ‘N’ Curl beauty salon talking about all the changes that have come to this area.
Some of them like the opportunities the gold find has brought about. Others seem pretty resentful of all the traffic as well as all the strangers clomping up and down the sidewalks of their little town. How do you feel?”
Shrugging, he glanced at her and grinned. “Personally, I don’t understand these people that want to hang on to the past. Hell, before the gold rush, lots of folks around here were hurting for jobs and an income of any kind. Now most of them are doing better than anyone ever thought possible, including me. And frankly, I don’t see anything wrong with a man wanting to do better for himself.”
No, Mia thought, doing better for oneself was hardly a crime. Unless somewhere along the way the rush for riches harmed innocent people. The way Mia’s desperate need for financial security had ultimately harmed her dear adopted mother.
“I guess it’s all in the way a person sees things,” she murmured thoughtfully.
He tossed her another grin. “That was put very diplomatically, Mia. Maybe you should referee some of Thunder Canyon’s town hall meetings,” he added teasingly.
“There’s been so much feuding going on that the police have to hang close just in case a fight breaks out.”
“No, thank you. I’m not into politics, local or otherwise.”
She’d hardly gotten the words out of her mouth when the outskirts of town appeared in the distance. In a few short minutes they were passing the town’s outdoor ice rink, now a quiet arena in the summer heat; then just around the corner was the Wander-On Inn, a stately old hotel that had originally been built and operated by Lily Divine, Thunder Canyon’s own lady of ill repute.
As Mia studied the landmark, Marshall said, “Lily Divine first built that old hotel. If you’ve read anything about Thunder Canyon’s history, you probably haven’t forgotten her name. She’s been called everything from a wicked madam to a noble suffragette. Her great-great-granddaughter Lisa Douglas owns the Queen of Hearts mine.” He shook his head as if that fact was still hard to believe.
“Now there’s a rags-to-riches story. A couple of years ago, the woman was as poor as dirt and then she finds out she’s the owner of a lucrative gold mine. I can’t imagine how that sudden catapult must have felt.”
Mia could have told Marshall exactly how finding sudden fortune felt. One day she’d been wondering if she could make two meals out of a package of wieners and the next she was eating steak from a gold-rimmed plate. The drastic change in her life had sent her emotions spinning in all directions.
Careful to keep her expression smooth, she asked, “This Lisa…is she happy now?”
Something in her voice pulled Marshall’s glance over to her. She looked wistful, even hopeful, and Marshall could only wonder why she would be so interested in the outcome of a person who was a total stranger to her.
“I suppose so. She married one of the Douglases, a family that probably owns half the valley. In fact, his old man built the resort where you’re staying.
She’ll never want for anything again.”
Her lips pursed and then her gaze dropped to her lap and a curtain of black hair swung forward to hide her pained expression. “You can’t be sure of that,” she said quietly. “People die—things change.”
“Yeah. But she’ll always have the money.”
Her head jerked up and she glared at him as though he’d just uttered a blasphemy. “What does that mean? You think money can take the place of a loved one? Well, it can’t!”
Her voice was quivering with outrage and Marshall was befuddled as to why she’d reacted so strongly to his comment. With his right hand he reached over and gently touched her forearm. “Whoa, Mia. Don’t get so bent out of shape. I just meant that she’d always have financial security. I like money just as much as the next guy, but my loved ones mean more to me than anything—even a gold mine, if I had one.”
His gaze left the road long enough to see her release a long breath and her pretty features twist with regret.
“I—I’m sorry, Marshall. Having money has made me too touchy, I guess. But people say insensitive things, especially when they don’t understand that we have problems, too.”
He wanted to ask her what sort of problems she was talking about, but he could see she was hardly in the mood. Besides, he sensed the woman needed joy and laughter in her life and that was the very thing he wanted to give her.
“You’re right, Mia. People are too quick to judge. But let’s not have a philosophical discussion about human nature right now. I want to have fun with you tonight. Okay?”
She nodded jerkily and he was relieved to see a faint smile cross her face.
“Sure,” she said. “I didn’t mean to suddenly get so serious on you. Let’s start over, shall we?”
Marshall gave her a broad smile. “Okay, we’ll start over. Good evening, Mia.
What would you like to eat tonight?”
“Burgers and fries. I’m sure you advise your patients not to eat such things, but maybe you can forget about the fat and calories for one night.”
Glad to see she was going to follow his suggestion and lighten up, he chuckled.
“Believe me, Mia, doctors don’t always practice what they preach. Burgers and fries sound great to me.”
At the next intersection, he made a right onto South Main. As they passed the town square with its shade trees and park benches, he said, “There’s a little place right down here where I used to eat in all the time when I worked at Thunder Canyon General. They serve plain home-cooked meals and the burgers are great. You can even have a buffalo burger if you’d like.”
Her nose wrinkled playfully. “I’m afraid I’m not quite that adventurous. I think I’ll stick to plain ole beef.”
Moments later Marshall parked the Jeep near a small bar and grill. As they walked down the rough board sidewalk, Mia noticed the front of this particular building was made to look like an Old West saloon, complete with swinging doors.
As they entered the dim interior, she could feel Marshall’s hand flatten against the small of her back. And though she’d expected his touch to feel warm and strong, she’d not expected the wild zings of awareness spreading through her body.
Bending his head down to hers, he spoke close to her ear in order to be heard above the country music blaring from the jukebox in the far corner.
“We seat ourselves here at the Rusty Spur,” he said. “How about a table over by the wall?”
“Fine with me,” she answered.
Tonight the bar and grill appeared to be the popular place to be. Most of the round wooden tables and chairs were filled with diners and beer drinkers.
Everyone was dressed casually and seemed to be laughing and talking and generally having a good time. Quite a contrast from the elegant Gallatin Room, she thought wryly.
As soon as Marshall helped her into a chair and took his own seat, a fresh-faced young waitress with a blond ponytail stopped at the side of their table to take their orders.
When Mia requested a soda to go with her food, Marshall said, “They serve beer here that’s made at a nearby brewery. It’s really good. Wouldn’t you like to try one?”
Mia tried not to outwardly stiffen at his suggestion. She wasn’t a prude, but after seeing Nina become dependant on alcohol she preferred to limit herself.
With a shake of her head, she said, “No. Soda is fine. But you please go ahead.”
While Marshall gave the waitress their order, Mia looked around the L-shaped room. The ceiling was low and crisscrossed with dark wooden beams; the walls were made of tongue and groove painted a pale green. Not far from the swinging door entrance, a long bar, also fashioned from dark wood, ran for several feet.
Swiveling stools with low backs of carved wooden spokes served as chairs; at the moment they were all filled with customers.
As the waitress finished scribbling onto her pad and hurried away, Mia turned her attention back to him.
“This seems to be a popular place. You say you used to eat here when you worked at Thunder Canyon General. You worked at the hospital before you took the job at the resort?”
He nodded. “I went to work there right after I finished my internship.”
Mia thoughtfully studied his handsome face and realized there were more layers to the man than she’d expected to find.
“What sort of medicine did you practice there? The same thing you do at the resort?”
As Mia watched the corners of his mouth curve upward, she could feel her heart flutter like a happy little bird. Which was totally ridiculous. She’d had men smile at her before, even good-looking men. But they’d not made her blood hum with excitement the way that Marshall did.
“Mostly E.R. work.”
“Did you like doing that?”
For a moment he was thoughtful, as though he’d never stopped to ask himself that question. “I suppose. There was always something different going on.”
Easing back in her chair, she said knowingly, “But you like your job at the resort better.”
His laugh was a mixture of amusement and disbelief. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I? It’s a cushy job. On most days I only see a handful of patients. I’m provided with a great nurse and the resort pays the astronomical cost of medical liability for me.”
The waitress arrived with their drinks. After Mia had taken a long sip of her soda she said, “Is that what you went to medical school for? To get a job like you have at the resort? Or did you become a doctor so you could help people?”
Laughing lowly, he shook a playful finger at her. “Now, now, Ms. Smith. We weren’t going to have philosophical discussions, tonight. Remember?”
Blushing faintly, she smiled. “Okay. I won’t dig at that anymore. So tell me about your siblings. Do you get along with them?”
“Sure. We’re all good buddies. ‘Course, with Mitchell and I being closer in age, that made us a little tighter, I suppose. We love our twin brothers, too, but growing up they were just a little too young to do much with us.”
“Any of them like sports as much as you?”
“Kind of, the twins are into baseball and football, sports of that sort. But Mitchell is more of a brain than an athlete. I couldn’t pay him to climb a mountain with me.”
“I don’t blame him,” Mia said. “It’s dangerous stuff.”
“Not if you know what you’re doing.” He leaned toward her, his dark brown eyes twinkling in a way that warmed her blood even more. “I could teach you.”
Mia laughed and as she did she realized this was the first time since her mother had died that she’d felt this good. Before she realized what she was doing, she reached over and squeezed his hand with her fingers.
“You must be an optimist, Marshall, if you think you can teach me to climb a mountain. I’m too awkward and certainly not strong enough.”
His thumb reached out and curved over hers. The touch was ridiculously intimate, but although Mia told herself to pull away, her body wouldn’t obey her brain’s instructions. His touch made her feel secure, even wanted. Something she hadn’t felt in a long time.
“You hiked all the way up to the bluff on Hawk’s Home. That’s a pretty stiff climb.”
His compliment put a warm blush on her cheeks. “Thank you for the confidence.
But that’s hiking. That’s not what you do with the pulleys and ropes and such.”
“I can teach you all that. In baby steps, of course.”
The grin on his face deepened, showcasing his dimples. It was hard for Mia to concentrate on their conversation; her senses were spinning, her mind conjuring up all sorts of sexual images.
“I—don’t know. Maybe before I leave you can take me on a baby climb.”
Surprise and then pleasure swept across his face. “I’d like that, Mia. You’d be the first woman to go climbing with me.”
She shot him a skeptical look. “You don’t really expect me to believe that, do you?”
“Why not? Most of the women I’ve dated don’t like to do that much outdoor strenuous stuff. A bicycle ride maybe. But not mountain climbing.”
For some reason, Mia didn’t want to be compared to his other dates. Nor did she want to think of him as a playboy or herself as just one of many women who’d sat across a table from him and held his hand.
Easing her fingers away from his, she said, “Shows you how much sense I have.”
The grin on his lips eased to a pleased curve. “No, it means you’re unique. Just like I imagined you’d be.”
She was unique, all right, Mia thought wryly. If he looked for a hundred years, he wouldn’t find another woman who’d turned her back on the loving mother who raised her. He wouldn’t find another woman stupid enough to think that financial security would fix all the ills in her life.
Yes, Mia was unique, all right, but in all the wrong ways. Hopefully, Marshall Cates wouldn’t discover any of those terrible things about her until long after she’d left Thunder Canyon.

23-10-07, 06:28 AM

المشاركة رقم: 8

المعلومات
الكاتب:	darla
اللقب:	سندريلا ليلاس

البيانات
التسجيل:	Aug 2006
العضوية:	11023
المشاركات:	5,556
الجنس	أنثى
معدل التقييم:
نقاط التقييم:	758

االدولة

مدونتي

الإتصالات
الحالة:
وسائل الإتصال:

كاتب الموضوع : darla المنتدى : الارشيف

Chapter 5

Before Mia and Marshall left the Rusty Spur, he insisted that the two of them needed dessert and asked the waitress to get them a container of Golden Nugget to go.
Later, after Marshall had paid for the meal and the two of them had left the building, she looked suspiciously at the brown paper sack in his hand.
“What is that—did you call it Golden Nugget?”
His grin mischievous, he helped her into the Jeep. “I did. They conjured up this stuff shortly after the gold strike. You’ll find out what it is when we get to where we’re going to eat it.”
“A man of mystery,” she said teasingly. “Well, I suppose I’ll just have to wait for this surprise dessert.”
Once he’d pulled away from the bar and grill, he turned the vehicle toward North Main. While he negotiated the busy narrow streets, Mia realized she hadn’t felt this warm and mellow in a long time. Like their meal, their conversation had been simple and comfortable. She was enjoying being with the man far more than she had expected.
To Mia’s surprise, Marshall drove them straight to Thunder Canyon Road and stopped the Jeep in the large graveled parking lot of the ice rink.
“What are we doing at an outdoor ice rink in August?”
Marshall’s chuckle was suggestive enough to lift her brows. “We’re going to eat our dessert, what else?” he asked.
Picking up the brown paper bag, he left the vehicle and came around to help her down to the ground. As Mia placed her hand in his she felt a rush of naughty excitement. After nearly three years of avoiding men altogether, being out with a man as sexy and sensual as Marshall was like having a plateful of cherry pie after a long stretch of dieting. Sinful, but delicious.
Once she was standing on the ground, he slipped his free arm around the back of her waist and guided her toward the rink, which was surrounded by a chain-link fence and dimly lit by one lone lamp standing near a small building that was used as a warming room. The gate was unlocked and once they were inside the compound they walked over to one of the wooden benches looking out over the rink.
A huge cottonwood tree shaded the seat while overhead the fluttering leaves were making soft music in the evening breeze. In the far distance, the mountains surrounding Thunder Canyon Resort loomed like majestic sentinels robed in deep greens and purples. Mia sighed with pleasure as she sank onto the bench.
“It’s pretty here. I’ll bet it’s really nice when the rink is frozen over and skaters are whirling about. Do you skate?” she asked.
“Sure do. Our parents taught all of us boys how to skate long before we ever went to kindergarten.” He smiled fondly out at the now empty rink. “I’ve had some really fun times here. Even when I cracked my wrist.”
He began to open the paper bag and pull out a quart-sized paper carton. When he pulled off the lid she could see it held something that looked like ice cream.
“Oh. A cracked wrist doesn’t sound like fun to me.”
He handed her one of the two plastic spoons.
“Several of us skaters had made a dandy whip and I was getting a heck of a ride out on the tail end. It was a blast until the g-force finally got me and I flew completely off the ice and crashed into a bench like the one we’re sitting on.
My wrist was in a cast for six weeks.”
Mia gave him a knowing smile. “Sounds like you were a little daredevil. I’ll bet you gave your mother plenty of gray hairs.”
“Probably more than a few,” he admitted with a wry smile. “But my parents always encouraged us to be independent and adventurous. I think it stuck on me the most.”
He thrust the container toward her. “Dig in. I can’t eat all this by myself.”
Mia followed his example and spooned up a bite. As the ice cream melted on her tongue, she closed her eyes and savored the taste. “Mmm. You were right. This is scrumptious.”
“See, the streaks of caramel are supposed to represent veins of ore and the chunks of almonds are the gold nuggets. This is definitely one good thing that came out of the Queen of Hearts striking it rich. Next to you, that is,” he added with a wink.
Mia understood his words were just playful flirting, but she also considered how nice it would be—and more than flattering—for a man like him to look at her in a serious way. When her father had still been alive and her life had been fairly secure, she’d been smart enough to know that she’d never belong to the elite of the world. She didn’t dream of marrying a prince or even a doctor or a lawyer.
She’d always pictured herself with a farmer or, at the very most, a man who made his living working outdoors, like Lance, who’d worked as a Colorado forest ranger.
But after a tumultuous year of dating, Lance had walked away from her, she thought grimly. He’d tired of her obsessive search for her birth mother, then later he’d hated the woman she’d changed into after finding Janelle and her inheritance.
Trying to shake away that dismal thought, she lifted her gaze to Marshall and gave him a lopsided smile. “You need to remember that Golden Nugget is a permanent fixture here in Thunder Canyon. I’m not.”
His spoon paused in midair as the corners of his mouth turned downward in an exaggerated frown. “You’re not leaving soon, are you?”
This past week Mia had been telling herself that it was time to go, time to get back to reality and finally make a few painful decisions concerning her relationship with Janelle. But then she’d met Marshall on the mountain and now she was foolishly looking for any reason to stay at the resort a few days longer.
Dropping her gaze to the ice-cream container wedged between their thighs, she murmured, “I don’t suppose it’s necessary for me to leave in the next few days.
But I—really should.”
The last word had hardly died on her lips when his forefinger slid beneath her chin and lifted her face up to his. The serious look she saw on his handsomely carved features jolted her; her heart pounded heavily.
“We’re just now getting to know each other, Mia. I really would like you to stay longer.”
His gravelly voice was a soft purr and the sound tugged at every feminine particle inside of her. “I—uh—I’ll think about it.”
Suddenly his head was bending toward hers and the whispered words that passed his lips skittered a warning down her spine.
“Maybe you should think about this.”
Mia wasn’t totally naive. She knew what was coming and knew she should jump from the bench and put a respectable distance between herself and the handsome doctor. But longing and even a bit of curiosity held her motionless as his lips descended onto hers.
Cool and sweet from the ice cream, his hard lips moved gently, coaxingly over hers. Mia’s senses quickly began to tilt. In search of an anchor, her hands reached for his shoulders and she gripped the muscles as the lazy foray of his kiss went on and on.
By the time he finally lifted his head, Mia was breathless and her face was burning.
“A man isn’t supposed to kiss a woman like that on their first date,” she said as primly as she could, while inside she was quaking, shocked that she could feel such connection from a single kiss.
A crooked grin spread across his face and even in the semidarkness she could see that his brown eyes were shining as though he’d just conquered a dragon and laid it at her feet.
“Well, I was pretending that this was our second date. Forgive me if I was too forward.”
She swallowed as emotions tangled into a ball in her throat. “You were. But that’s my fault. I should have stopped you in the first place.”
Before he could make any reply, she jumped from the bench and began walking around the edge of the rink. The deep reaction she’d felt to Marshall’s kiss had left her almost frantic and she told herself she should have never agreed to this date in the first place. It was clear that nothing meaningful could ever happen between them. Being with him was asking for trouble.
Her mind was spinning with all sorts of agonizing thoughts when his hand came down on her shoulder and stopped her forward motion.
“Mia, wait. Don’t be angry.”
Quickly, she turned to face him and when she spoke Marshall was surprised to hear her voice was almost contrite. As though she were apologizing for kissing him. The idea stunned him.
“I’m not angry at you, Marshall. I—”
Before she could react, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close against him. “You’re a beautiful woman, Mia. I’ve wanted to kiss you ever since I met you. There’s nothing wrong in what just happened between us.”
Even though it had been more like an earthquake than a kiss, Marshall thought.
His head was still reeling, but he was wise enough to know that he had to play down the whole thing. She was already trying to run from him and he couldn’t let that happen. One way or the other he was going to make her his woman—at least for a while.
Her fingers fluttered against his chest while farther down her thighs were brushing against his. Desire surged through him like a prairie wildfire.
“Marshall, I’m just a tourist. The most we can ever be is friends. And friends don’t touch each other like this.”
She started to push him away, but he held her for a moment longer. “You and I are going to be more than friends, little darlin’. You might as well take my word on that.”
Frowning, she stepped out of the circle of his arms and marched back in the direction of where they’d been sitting. Marshall tempered his long strides to match hers.
“Are you this—this arrogant and cocky and overly confident with your other dates?” she demanded.
He laughed. “I don’t know. My other dates have never stirred me up like this.”
She shot him a glare. “Then you’d better give yourself a pill to get unstirred, doc. Because I have no intention of becoming one of your many lovers!”
By now they were back at the gate that would lead them to the parked Jeep. As her hand reached to open the latch, Marshall caught it with his.
“Whoa now, Ms. Smith. Somewhere along the way things have gotten way out of hand. I’d like to know where this ‘many’ came from?” he asked crossly. “How would you know how many women I’ve bedded?”
Her lips pressed tightly together, then she deliberately turned her head away from him. “I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry. It’s none of my business anyway.”
More frustrated than he could ever remember being, Marshall raked a hand through his hair and blew out a weary breath. “Okay. I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have thrown that taunt at you. I just—well—I like you, Mia. I really like you.” His voice was a low, gentle murmur as he dared to step closer. “And I do want us to be more than friends. There’s nothing wrong in being honest with you, is there?”
Her head turned back to his and he was disappointed to see that her expression was carefully guarded, as though she didn’t trust him enough to allow him to see what she was actually feeling and thinking. It wasn’t the first time he’d noticed the curtain she pulled across her features and he suddenly vowed to himself that he was going to learn what was behind those beautiful eyes, no matter how long it took or how painstaking the effort.
“No. I do appreciate your being up-front with me,” she said finally. “I’m just trying to tell you that I’m not in the market for a brief affair.”
His fingertips made gentle circles on the back of her hand. “Why? Do you have a boyfriend or fiancé waiting for you back in Denver?”
Her lips parted and she hesitated for a split second before she replied, “No.
There’s no significant man in my life.”
Marshall didn’t realize how much her answer meant to him until she said it.
Relief poured through him like a warm spring rain.
“Look, Mia, I’m not asking you to have an affair with me. I’m just asking you to spend time with me and see where it takes us. That’s all.” Taking her hand between his, he gave her a pleading grin. “I think we can have fun together, Mia. And I have a feeling you could use a little of that.”
A few stilted moments passed before she let out a soft sigh and the stiffness in her body melted away.
With a halfhearted smile, she said, “I’m sorry, Marshall. I shouldn’t have overreacted the way I did.”
“Forget it. I’m just as guilty.” His fingertips tenderly touched her cheek.
“What do you say we go finish the ice cream?”
Her quiet laugh warmed his heart.
“It’s probably melted by now.”
Draping his arm around her shoulders, Marshall turned her back toward the ice rink. “Then we’ll drink it.”
Two days later, Marshall’s Thursday turned out to be a busy day at the infirmary. He’d tended everything from strained knees to poison ivy to bee stings. However, the last patient he examined didn’t have the usual external problems he normally encountered. The middle-aged woman he was treating complained of stomach complications. She was dressed in casual but expensive clothes and her jewelry shouted that her bank account was overflowing. Yet Marshall didn’t miss the fact that her ring finger was conspicuously empty.
“I really think it’s just a virus, doctor. If you could just give me something for the pain—my stomach feels like it’s clenching into a tight ball.”
Stepping back from his patient, Marshall studied her face. She’d obviously had a face-lift at some point. The job wasn’t a bad one, but as a doctor he could easily pick up on the telltale tightened skin. Her light blond hair had been manufactured at a beauty salon, probably to cover the gray that was beginning to frost her temples. Yet on the whole she was an attractive woman, or would be, he decided, if her eyes weren’t filled with such sadness.
Is that why you went to medical school? To get a cushy job? Or did you become a doctor so you could help people? Mia’s pointed questions suddenly hit him like a brick. Normally, he wouldn’t have taken the extra time to dig into this patient’s problem. In the past Marshall would have simply written her a prescription to relieve her symptoms and sent her on her way. She obviously needed more help than he could give her.
But now, with Mia gnawing at his conscience he felt compelled to do more for this woman.
“Ms. Phillips, I have my doubts that your stomach problem is a virus. Something like that usually lasts no longer than a couple of days and you tell me this problem has been going on for two or three weeks.”
She nodded. “That’s right. It started while I was still home, but I ignored it.
I thought once I got here at the resort I’d feel better. You know, getting out and away from…things always makes a person forget their aches and pains.”
Thoughtfully, he placed the clipboard he was holding on the edge of a cabinet counter. “Do you have a family, Ms. Phillips?”
A nervous smile played upon her carefully lined lips. “Call me, Doris, doctor.
And yes, I have…a daughter. She’s grown now and just married this past spring.”
“That’s nice. And what about your husband?”
She suddenly looked away from him and her fingers fiddled nervously with the crease of her slacks. “I’m not married anymore. We’re divorced. He—uh—found someone else.”
“Oh. I’m sorry. Guess that’s been hard on you.”
Her short laugh was brittle. “Twenty years of marriage down the drain. Yes, it’s been a little worse than hard. Now my daughter is gone from the house and—and the place is really empty. I decided to come here to the resort to be around people and hopefully make new friends.”
Marshall gave her shoulder an encouraging pat. “It’s good that you’re trying to change your life, Doris, and things will get better. In the meantime, I’m going to give you a prescription that will help ease your stomach. I have an idea that all the stress you’ve been through is causing the problem and I want to give you this anti-anxiety medication.” He pulled a small pad from his lab coat pocket and began to scribble instructions for the pharmacist. “But I want you to come see me again before you leave. If this doesn’t help, we’ll take a closer look, okay?”
A bright look of relief and gratitude suddenly lit the woman’s face. “Yes, doctor. Thank you so much.”
Marshall left the examining room with a warm feeling of accomplishment and was still smiling when he met Ruthann at the end of the hallway.
“What’s the grin all about?” the nurse asked. “Happy that you’ve finished the last patient for the day?”
Frowning, he thrust Doris Phillips’s chart at her. “Put this away, will you? And no, I’m smiling because I think I just made someone actually feel better.”
Rising on her tiptoes, Ruthann placed her palm on his forehead. “Yeah, you’re a little flush. One of the patients must have passed a bug to you.”
The frown on his face deepened. “Quit it, will you? I am a doctor, you know. My job is to make people feel better.”
He pushed her hand away and stalked toward his office. Ruthann hurried after him. “I was only teasing, doc,” she said as he took a seat at his desk. “What’s with you, anyway?”
Picking up a pen, he tapped the end against the blotter on his desk as he regarded his concerned nurse. “Nothing is wrong, Ruthie. Aren’t I supposed to enjoy my job?”
“Well, yes. But I never remember you—well, you mostly get to the point and send the patients on their way. You were in there so long with Ms. Phillips I was beginning to think she’d attacked you or something.”
Was that how Ruthann saw him? Effective but without compassion? Marshall realized he didn’t care for that image. But then he had no one but himself to blame.
“The woman has stomach problems and I was trying to get to the root of the matter. She thought she’d picked up a virus but the real germ she’s dealing with is an ex-husband.”
“Oh. You got that out of her?”
It had been easy, Marshall realized, to get his patient to open up. So why wasn’t it easy with Mia Smith? After their date last night, he’d realized that she truly was a mystery woman. She didn’t talk about her family or her past and the shadows that he sometimes noticed clouding her eyes meant that whatever troubles life had thrown her way were still haunting her. But what were they and why did he feel this need to help her?
Seeing that this new, more compassionate side of him was putting a look of real concern on Ruthann’s face, he laughed and gave her one of his usual winks.
“Ruthie, I haven’t lost my touch with women yet.”
Seeing him back to his normal self, Ruthie rolled her eyes with amusement. “And I’m pretty certain you never will.” She walked over to a door that would take her into another room where hundreds of charts, most of them from one-time patients, were stored. “Ready to call it an evening? Dr. Baxter should be here any minute.”
Dr. Baxter was the doctor who worked evenings and remained on call all night long. The man had much less to do than Marshall, but Grant insisted that medical personnel be available to the guests twenty-four hours a day—just one of the added conveniences that set Thunder Canyon Resort apart from the competition.
“Go ahead, Ruthie, I think I’ll stop by the lounge and have a drink before I head home.”
Her expression suddenly turned thoughtful as she walked over to his desk. “I hope you’re not stopping by to see Lizbeth Stanton. That girl doesn’t need any encouragement. She has her eye on you and any man that could give her a home on easy street.”
Marshall dismissed Ruthann’s remark by batting a hand through the air. “You’re being a little too harsh on the woman, Ruthie. She’s really not all that bad.
She just needs to grow up a little and get her head on straight.”
“Well, just as long as you’re not the one doing the straightening,” Ruthann said.
Laughing, Marshall turned off the banker’s lamp on his desk, then rose to his feet and pulled off his lab coat. “Ruthie, I can’t go around fixing all my girlfriends. Now,” he said, curling an affectionate arm around her shoulders, “how would you like to go to dinner with me at the Gallatin Room some night soon?”
Ruthann practically gaped at him. “Me? With you? At the Gallatin Room?” Before Marshall could answer, she let out a loud laugh, then patted his arm in a motherly way. “I couldn’t step foot in that place. Not with the clothes in my closet. But thank you for the gesture, Marshall. It’s sweet of you.” Leaving his side, she opened the door to the chart room. After she stepped inside, she stuck her head around the door and added, “Listen, doc, that mystery heiress you were so enchanted with the other day is the kind you need to be taking to the Gallatin Room. Why don’t you ask her?”
Because something told him that Mia needed more than glitz and glamour and a meal at a ritzy restaurant.
Thankfully, Ruthann didn’t expect any sort of answer from him and Marshall didn’t give her one. Instead, he quickly hung his lab coat on a nearby hall tree and told his nurse goodbye for the day.
A few minutes later, Marshall entered the lounge. For an early weekday evening, the place was unusually full of guests. But he didn’t pay much attention to the people relaxing on the tucked leather couches and armchairs covered in spotted cowhide. Instead, he made his way straight to the bar where Lizbeth was busily doling out mixed drinks to a group of barely legal young men.
Marshall slung his leg over a stool at the end of the bar and waited for her to finish placing a tray of drinks in front of the lively group.
“Hey, what does it take for a guy to get any service around here?” he called when she finally turned in his direction.
Smiling with apparent pleasure at seeing him, Lizbeth waved and hurried to his end of the polished bar. “Doctor, all you have to do to get a woman’s attention is just throw her a grin.”
Not where Mia Smith was concerned, he thought. She seemed immune to those things that normally charmed women. Looking at Lizbeth, he inclined his head toward the boisterous group of men at the other end of the bar. “You’ve got me confused with those young guys.”
Resting her forearms on the bar, Lizbeth leaned slightly toward him and lowered her voice so that only he could hear her words. “They just think they know how to flirt with a woman, but they’re still wet behind the ears. Unlike you, Dr.
Cates.”
Any other time Marshall would have laughed at Lizbeth’s flirtatious remark, but this evening it only made him feel old and even a bit shallow. It was a hell of a thing when a man was more noted for being a playboy with the women than a doctor to the sick.
“Give me a beer, Lizbeth. Something strong and cold.”
“Sure.” All business now, she started to push away from the bar, but at the last moment paused and gave him a thoughtful look. “Just in case you’re interested, I saw that heiress of yours a few moments ago walk out to the sundeck. She was carrying a book of some sort. You might still find her out there reading. Or maybe she’s just pretending to read and really looking at the scenery.” To make her point, Lizbeth glanced at the young men she’d just served.
Marshall’s head whipped around and his gaze studied the far wall of glass that separated the lounge from the large wooden sundeck. From this vantage point, he could see several people lounging on the bent-willow lawn furniture, but Mia wasn’t one of them.
Quickly, he slipped off the stool. “Forget the beer, Lizbeth. I’ll catch one later.”
As he strode away, he heard the bartender call after him.
“Good luck.”
Luck? It was going to take more than that for him to get inside Mia Smith’s head and delve into her secrets, he thought as he stepped onto the sundeck. Or was it really her heart that he wanted to unlock and hold in the palm of his hands?

26-10-07, 10:42 PM

المشاركة رقم: 9

المعلومات
الكاتب:	darla
اللقب:	سندريلا ليلاس

البيانات
التسجيل:	Aug 2006
العضوية:	11023
المشاركات:	5,556
الجنس	أنثى
معدل التقييم:
نقاط التقييم:	758

االدولة

مدونتي

الإتصالات
الحالة:
وسائل الإتصال:

كاتب الموضوع : darla المنتدى : الارشيف

Chapter 6

Marshall was asking himself how a question of that sort had ever gotten into his mind when he spotted her. She was stretched out in a lounger, her long legs crossed at the knees, her shiny black hair lying in one thick, single braid against her shoulder. A book was open on her lap, but her gaze was not on the pages. Instead she was staring straight at him and the tiny smile that suddenly curved her lips hit Marshall smack in the middle of his chest.
If he’d been a smart man he would have turned and run in the opposite direction just as hard and fast as he could. But when it came to the opposite sex, Marshall was as weak as a kid in a candy shop. And Mia Smith was definitely one delectable piece of candy.
Feeling like a man possessed, he walked to her chair and squatted on his heels near the arm so that his face would be level with hers.
“Hello, Mia.”
“Hi yourself.”
Her voice was soft, sweet and husky. The sound shivered over him and for one fleeting moment he felt like a humble knight kneeling to the princess fair.
“Lizbeth told me I might find you out here. Been reading?” He glanced briefly at the hardback book in her lap, then back to her face. There was a faint hint of color on her cheekbones and lips, but for the most part it was bare of makeup, giving him a hint at the natural beauty he would see if he were to wake and find her head pillowed on his shoulder.
“Trying. But the story is rather slow. And there’s a bit too much distraction around the lodge,” she added with a pointed smile.
“That’s me. A distraction,” he jokingly replied while everything inside of him wanted to reach for her hand and bring the back of it to his lips. He wanted to taste the soft skin and watch the reaction on her face.
Folding the book together, she swung her legs over the side of the lounger where he was still crouched. She was so close that the flowery scent of her perfume drifted to his nostrils and the palm of his hand itched to slide up her bare thigh.
“Are you finished with work for the day?” she asked.
He nodded, then with a nervousness that was totally foreign to him, he asked, “Do you have plans for the evening?”
Marshall’s question made Mia realize just how unplanned her life was at this moment. Staying here at Thunder Canyon Resort was easy and pleasant. But she was living in limbo and sooner or later she was going to have to step over the dividing line.
A sardonic smile touched her lips. “I don’t really have anyone around here to make plans with.”
“You have me.”
His simple words unsettled her far more than he could ever know and, to cover her discomfiture, she rose to her feet and walked over to a low balustrade that lined the edge of the sundeck.
Slanted rays of the sinking sun painted the distant bluffs and forests a golden green. Below them, guests ambled around the manicured grounds of the resort. As her senses whirled with his blatant comment, Mia carefully kept her gaze on the sights in front of her.
“That is—if you want me.”
She hadn’t realized he’d walked up behind her until his murmured words were spoken next to her ear. She tried not to shiver as his warm breath danced across the side of her cheek.
“I—uh—enjoyed last night,” she admitted. In fact, Mia had lain awake most of the night, reliving the connection she’d felt when Marshall had kissed her. It had been more than a fiery meeting of lips. The kiss had been full of emotions so ripe with longing and sensuality that she’d felt it all the way to her heart.
And that scared her.
His body eased next to hers and she felt his warm arm encircling the back of her waist.
“So did I,” he said lowly.
Part of her started to melt as his fingertips slid back and forth against her forearm.
She was trying to think of any sensible thing to say when he spoke again.
“And I was wondering before I ever left my office if you’d like to have dinner with me again.”
All sorts of skeptical thoughts raced through her head. What could a successful man like him find attractive about her, she asked herself. She was not a raving beauty or a sexy party girl. She wasn’t even much of a conversationalist. As far as she was concerned she was totally boring. She was also a fake. How long would it take him to figure her out, she wondered dismally.
“Dinner tonight?”
He nodded and she couldn’t mistake the sensual glint in his green-brown eyes. As his gaze traveled slowly over her face, the suggestive sparkle warmed her cheeks.
“Sure. Have you eaten yet?”
If Mia had had any sense at all, she would have lied and told him she’d just stuffed herself at the Grubstake, a fast-food grill located in the lounge. At least that way she’d have an excuse to politely turn him down. But the awful truth was that she didn’t want to turn the man down. Being with him was too exciting, too tempting for her lonely heart to pass up.
“No. Before you walked out here I was thinking about grabbing a salad at the Grubstake.”
His nose wrinkled with disapproval. “You need more than rabbit food. How about letting me grill you a steak at my place? I’m pretty handy as a chef.” A corner of his lips curved up in a modest grin. “An outdoor chef, that is.”
She hesitantly studied his face. “At your place?”
The grin on his face deepened, saying she had nothing to fear, and when his fingertips reached out to trace a lazy circle on her cheek, she knew she was lost.
“Yes, my place. I live here on the resort, not far from the lodge. I’d like for you to see it. And while you’re there you can meet Leroy. He loves company.”
Seeing his home, meeting his dog—did she really want to let herself get closer to this man? Especially when she knew she could never have a meaningful relationship with him.
“I…Marshall…”
As she began to hesitate, he wrapped his arm around hers and led her away from the balustrade toward a set of steps that would take them off the sundeck. “I’m not about to let you say no,” he said. “So don’t even try.”
“Okay, okay,” she said, laughing. “But I need to go home and change first.”
He glanced pointedly at her denim shorts and pale yellow T-shirt. “Why? You look great to me and I’m the only one who’s going to see you. Besides, this is going to be a casual affair.”
Knowing she’d already lost, Mia groaned with surrender and allowed him to lead her around to the back of the massive ski lodge to the private parking area where his Jeep was parked.
The drive to his home took less than five minutes on a winding road that spiraled up the mountainside. Spruce and aspen trees grew right to the edge of the road and shaded patches of delicate blue and gold wildflowers nodding in the evening breeze.
Suddenly the road widened and the Jeep leveled onto a wide driveway. Mia leaned forward at the sight of a large log structure with a steep red-metal roof nestled among several pines and cedars.
A graveled walkway lined with large white stones led up to a long, slightly elevated porch made of wooden planks. Ferns and blooming petunias grew in baskets hanging along a roof that was supported by more thick logs. Double doors made of wood and frosted glass served as an entrance to the charming structure.
“Wow, is this the sort of housing all the employees at the resort get?”
His chuckle was almost a little guilty. “No. I’m an exception. When the resort was first being constructed, this house was actually built to rent as a honeymoon suite. But for some reason that was nixed and I ended up getting it for my digs.”
She glanced at him curiously as he parked the Jeep in front of the house. “Why? Because you’re the resort’s doctor?”
His expression a bit sheepish, he answered, “No. Grant Clifton, the manager of the resort, is a good friend of mine. We grew up together and attended the same school. It helps to have friends in high places.”
Had it helped her to have a mother in high places? Mia asked herself. She’d be lying to say it hadn’t. She was no longer scraping pennies to buy gas for a clunker car to carry her from a ratty apartment to the college campus, or wondering how she was going to find enough in the cabinets to cook a meal for her adoptive mother and herself. But in most ways Janelle’s massive wealth had only caused Mia grief and more trouble than she could have possibly imagined.
From the moment she’d found Janelle, the woman had smothered her with love and money. By themselves those two things would have been good, but along with the love and money, Janelle had also wanted to hold on to Mia and control her every step. Having spent years believing her baby girl had been stillborn, she now clung to the grown daughter that had miraculously been resurrected before her eyes.
“Well, it’s a beautiful place,” she finally said to him. “I’m sure you must love it here.”
“It’s nice” was his casual reply before he opened the door and climbed out to the ground.
After he helped her out of the vehicle and they began the short walk to the porch, Mia glanced expectantly around her. “I was expecting your dog to run out to meet us. Where is he?”
With his hand at her back, he ushered her up the three short steps to the porch.
“The backyard is fenced. That’s where Leroy has to stay. Otherwise, he’d follow me down to the lodge and harass the guests.”
“Oh,” she said warily. “He bites?”
Marshall laughed. “No. But he’ll knock you down trying to get your attention. I suppose I should send him to obedience school, but I’d miss him too much. And besides, none of us behave perfectly. Why should I expect Leroy to?
None of us behave perfectly. He couldn’t have gotten that more right, Mia thought. But if he could see into her past behavior she doubted the doctor would have that same lenient compassion toward her.
Don’t think about that now, Mia. Just enjoy the moment and bank this pleasant time in your memory. Once you leave Thunder Canyon and face your real life again, you’re going to need it.
“We all have our bad habits,” she murmured. “I’m sure Leroy is a nice boy.”
Chuckling, he opened the door and ushered her over the threshold. “You’ve got it all wrong, Mia. I’m the nice boy around here and Leroy is the animal.”
They passed through a small foyer furnished with a long pine bench and a hall tree adorned with several hats and jackets that she supposed would be needed once autumn came and the cold north winds began to blow across the mountains and plains.
“Oh, this is nice and cozy,” she commented as they walked into a long living room with a wide picture window running along one wall.
Rustic pieces of furniture fashioned of varnished pine and soft butter-colored leather were grouped together so that the spectacular mountains could be viewed from any seat. Brightly colored braided rugs covered the oak flooring while the chinked log walls were covered with paintings and photos. Potted plants sat here and there around the room and from their lush appearance Mia figured he must have a green thumb along with his eye for the ladies.
“Well, I’m sure it doesn’t compare to your home,” he said, “but it suits me.”
Pretending to study the view beyond the window, Mia looked away from him and hoped the mixed feelings swirling through her didn’t show on her face.
It was true that Janelle’s home was a mansion and large enough to hold several houses this size. But the last ratty apartment that she’d shared with Nina had been more of a home to her than any of those opulent rooms in Janelle’s house.
Funny that she could see that so clearly now when only a couple of years ago she’d believed Janelle was welcoming her into a castle in paradise. Dear God, she’d been so naive, so gullible, she thought.
“I think it’s beautiful,” she said, then turned to him and smiled in spite of the tears in her heart. “Where’s the kitchen? I’ll help you get things started.”
“Whoa, slow down, pretty lady. We’re going to relax and have a drink first. That is, after I change out of these work clothes. Why don’t you have a seat and I’ll be right back.”
She was far too nervous to simply sit while she waited for him to return.
Clasping her hands behind her back, she said, “I think I’ll just wander around the room and see how good you are about keeping things dusted.”
“Lord, I’d better hurry,” he said with a laugh and quickly darted through an open doorway.
Once he was gone from the room, Mia ambled slowly along the walls, curiously inspecting the many paintings that depicted the area and the cherished photos that were carefully framed and lovingly displayed. Eventually she discovered one of four smiling boys and an adult man, all of them dark-haired and all possessing similar features. The group had to be the Cates brothers and their father.
As she quietly studied their smiling features, she felt a pang of total emptiness in her heart. If Mia had been lucky enough to have siblings, her life would have no doubt taken a different track. Certainly she wouldn’t have felt such a driving need to search for her birth mother. And with a sibling to lean on, Mia mightn’t have been so profoundly influenced by Janelle. But ifs didn’t count. And she’d not been as blessed as Marshall Cates.
Moments later, Marshall stepped through the door and spotted Mia at the far end of the room. Just seeing her there filled him with strange emotions. He’d never invited one of his girlfriends here before and he wasn’t exactly sure why he’d felt compelled to blurt the sudden invitation to Mia. Something about her seemed to make him lose all control and throw out all the dos and don’ts he carefully followed with other dates. The fear that he might be headed for a big fall niggled at the back of his mind, yet the sight of her slim, elegant body standing in his living room was somehow worth the risk.
Obviously lost in his family photos, she didn’t hear him approach until he was standing directly behind her. Resting his hands lightly on her waist, he said in a teasing voice, “I see you found the Cates brood. What do you think? That we could pass for the wild bunch?”
She didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she turned and gave him a smile that was wobblier than anything. The glaze of moisture in her eyes completely dismayed him.
“You have a nice-looking family, Marshall,” she said huskily. “You must love them very much.”
Before he could say anything, she eased out of his grasp and stepped around him.
As Marshall turned to follow, he could she was wiping a finger beneath her eyes.
The image hit him hard and he was stunned to discover his throat was knotted with emotion. Why would seeing a photo of his family affect her like this? he wondered. And why was her tearful reaction tearing a hole right in his chest?
Clearing his throat, he caught her by the shoulder and gently pulled her to a standstill. “Mia? Are you okay?”
She lifted her face up to his and the smile he found plastered upon her delicate features was really just a cover-up and they both knew it.
“Of course I’m okay. I…I just get silly and sentimental at times. Don’t pay any attention to me. Women get emotional. You ought to know that, doc.”
Of course he understood women were emotional creatures, but as far as he could remember none of his dates in the past had ever shed a tear in front of him. The women he squired were more likely to have fits of giggles, a sign he must be dating good-time girls, he thought, then immediately wondered why that fact should fill him with self-disgust.
He glanced back at the photo of his family. Then, looking questioningly to her, he asked, “Do you have siblings?”
Shaking her head, she said, “No. I’m an only child.”
She tried to smile again and this time her soft lips quivered with the effort.
Marshall was stunned at how much he wanted to pull her into his arms and soothe her. Not kiss or seduce her, but simply quiet her troubled heart. Something strange was definitely happening to him.
“I’m—sorry, Mia,” he murmured. Then, quickly deciding he needed to put an end to the soppy moment between them, he urged her forward. “Come on,” he said a bit gruffly. “Let’s go have a drink and start dinner. I don’t know about you, but I’m famished.”
She seemed relieved that he’d suddenly changed the subject and by the time they reached the kitchen, she appeared to have pulled herself together. Marshall did his best to do the same as he went to the cabinet where the glasses were stored.
“Would you like a beer or a soda? I have a bit of everything stashed around here,” he told her.
After a long pause, she answered. “I—uh, I really don’t care much for alcohol.”
Marshall looked over his shoulder to see she was resting her hip against the kitchen table, her long bare legs were crossed and she was studying him through lowered lashes. The provocative sight forced him to draw in a long, greedy breath of air.
“Oh. Since you visited the lounge, I didn’t figure you had anything against drinking.”
“I—” suddenly she straightened away from the table and glanced at a spot over his shoulder “—I have a weak cocktail on occasion. And I don’t mind other people enjoying themselves. But it bothers me when it’s abused.”
Had she had trouble with overdrinking herself, Marshall wondered, then quickly squashed that question. She didn’t seem the sort of woman to lose control over anything—even though that kiss they’d shared at the ice rink had been hot enough to sear his brain cells.
“Well, unfortunately we humans abuse a lot of things. Even food,” he said.
“And people,” she added in a small voice.
“Yeah, and people,” he grimly agreed, then quickly shrugged a shoulder and grinned. “But we’re not going to ruin our evening together by fretting over the ills of the world. Why don’t I fix you a soda and I’ll have a beer?”
Her smile was grateful. “Sounds good. Let me help.”
Happy to change the solemn mood, Marshall gave her a glass to fill with ice then showed her where a selection of sodas was stored in the pantry. Once they had their drinks in hand, he ushered her out the back door and onto a wide deck made of redwood planks.
Almost instantly, she heard loud happy barks and turned around to see a stocky dog with a bobbed tail bounding onto the deck and straight at them.
“Leroy! Don’t even think about doing your jumping act,” Marshall warned the animal. “You sit and I’ll introduce you to our guest.”
The blue-speckled dog seemed to understand what his master was saying and Mia was instantly charmed as Leroy sat back on his haunches and whined happily up at her.
“Oh, you’re gorgeous,” she said to the dog, then glanced questioningly at Marshall. “Is it okay if I pet him?”
Marshall laughed. “That’s what he’s waiting for. But beware. He’ll smother you if you let him.”
Placing her soda on a small table, Mia leaned down and with both hands lovingly rubbed Leroy’s head. “You’re just a teddy bear,” she cooed to the dog. “I’ll bet you wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“Maybe not a fly,” Marshall said with amusement, “but he’d love to get his teeth around a rabbit or a squirrel.”
Mia stroked the dog’s head for a few more moments then picked up her soda.
Marshall waited until she’d settled herself on one of the cushioned lawn chairs grouped on the deck before he took a seat next to her.
Leroy crawled forward to Mia’s feet, then rested his muzzle on his front paws.
Smiling affectionately at the dog, she said to Marshall, “I’ll bet he’s a lot of company for you. Have you had him long?”
“Close to two years. I got him not long before I came to work here at the resort.”
Mia glanced over at him and felt her heart lurch into a rapid beat. She’d been around handsome men before, but there was some indefinable thing about Marshall that sparked every womanly cell inside of her. It was more than the nicely carved features and the ton of sex appeal; there was a happiness about him that filled her with warm sunshine, a twinkle in his dark eyes that soothed the gaping wounds inside of her. Being with him filled her with a sense of worth, something she’d not felt since her father had died years ago.
Like Marshall, Will had been a happy man with a love for life. He’d always made a point of telling Mia that she was special, that she could do or be anything she wanted. He’d made her smile and laugh and look at the world as a place to be enjoyed. When she’d lost him, she’d also lost her self-confidence and security.
But she wasn’t going to think about that tonight.
“When was the resort built? There’s so much to it that I figured the place had been here for several years.”
Marshall shook his head. “Mr. Douglas didn’t start building Thunder Canyon Resort until after gold was discovered in the Queen of Hearts mine, and that was about two years ago.”
“Wow. He must have lit a fire under the contractors to have gotten the place up and running in such a short time.”
“Yeah, well money talks and having plenty of it makes it easier to get things done quickly. Did you know there’s a golf course in the makings, too? Construction is supposed to start on it next summer. Maybe when you come back to Thunder Canyon for another vacation we can play a game together. Have you ever played?”
Golf? Mia almost wanted to laugh. As far as she was concerned that was a rich man’s sport. Even when Will, her father, had still been alive, the Hanovers hadn’t been well off. The potato crops he’d harvested every year had been enough to keep them comfortable but not enough for luxury. Then after Will had died, she and Nina couldn’t have afforded a set of used clubs from a pawnshop, much less the fees to belong to a country club. That was the sort of life Janelle enjoyed. It was the sort of life she wanted Mia to experience. But try as she might, Mia couldn’t make herself comfortable with Janelle’s money or lifestyle.
How could she, when everywhere she looked she saw Nina Hanover’s troubled face?
“No. I—Golf was never an interest at my home.” At least that was the truth, she told herself.
The crooked smile on his face melted her. “Well, that will give me a good reason to get you out on the course and teach you.”
If she ever returned to Thunder Canyon, Mia thought grimly. What would he think if he knew she was only here at the resort because of a missed turn on the wrong road? That she was running from herself and hiding from her mother? God, she couldn’t bear to imagine how he would look at her if he knew the truth. That her actions had caused her mother to drink and then climb behind the wheel of a car.
Trying to shake the disturbing thoughts away, she sipped her soda and glanced around the small yard fenced with chain link. On the west side three poplars shaded them from the red orb of the sinking sun. To her left, in one corner of the grassy space, a blue spruce towered high above the roof of the house. Even from a distance, the pungent scent of its needles drifted to her on the warm breeze.
Near one end of the deck was a doghouse made with traditional clapboard and shingles. Nearby, a small wading pool meant for children was full of water—for Leroy’s amusement, she supposed. A few feet farther, in the middle of the yard, a black gas grill was positioned near the end of a redwood picnic table.
The only thing missing in the family-friendly setting was a colorful gym set and a couple of laughing kids playing tag and wrestling with Leroy. The dreamy picture floated through her mind and filled her heart with wistful longing.
Would there ever be a place like this for her? she wondered. Would there ever be a man who could love her and want a family with her in spite of her faults?
“Mia. Are you okay?”
His voice finally penetrated her thoughts and with a mental shake of her head, she glanced at him. Apparently she’d been so lost in her daydreams that she’d not heard his earlier remarks.
“Oh. Sorry. I was just thinking…how quiet and pleasant it is here on the mountainside.” Her expression turned wry. “But to be honest, this is not the bachelor pad I expected to find.”
His eyes wandered over her face as he grunted with amusement. “What were you expecting? A round bed and mirrors on the ceiling?” His eyes crinkled at the corners. “Maybe I should remind you that you haven’t seen my bedroom yet.”
He was teasing and yet just the mention of his bedroom was enough to make Mia jump nervously to her feet and rub her sweaty palms down her hips. “Uh—maybe we should start dinner. I’m actually getting hungry.”
Marshall set aside his empty beer glass, then slowly rose from the lawn chair.
It was all Mia could do to stay put as he closed the short distance between them.
“Mia, Mia,” he said softly as his hands slipped over the tops of her shoulders.
“You really do think I eat women for breakfast, lunch and dinner, don’t you?”
Embarrassed now, her gaze dropped to her feet. “Not exactly. But I’m sure you’ve had plenty of—female friends up here and—”
Before she could finish, his forefinger was beneath her chin, drawing her face up to his. “You’re wrong, Mia. Very wrong. Yes, I’ve had plenty of female friends over the years. But not one of them has been here at my home. Until you, that is.”
Something deep inside her began to quiver and she didn’t know whether the reaction was from the touch of his hand upon her face or the surprising revelation of his words.
“Marshall, you don’t have to tell me something like that. I mean—I’m not expecting special treatment from you.”
Frowning now, his hand fisted and his knuckles brushed the curve of her cheekbone. Everything inside Mia wanted to close her eyes and lean into him. She wanted to taste the recklessness of his lips again, feel the strength of his arms holding her tight, crushing her body against his.
“You think I’m lying, don’t you?”
Her head twisted back and forth until his fingers speared into her hair and flattened against the back of her skull. With his hands poising her face a few inches from his, everything in her went completely still. Except for her heart and that was beating as wildly as the wing of a startled bird.
“Marshall—it doesn’t matter what I think.”
“Doesn’t it?”
She swallowed as emotions threatened to clog her throat. “Soon I’ll be gone and you and I will probably never see each other again.”
Even saying the words brought a wretched loneliness to the deepest part of her heart and she suddenly realized she was in deep trouble with this man. It was painfully clear that he was becoming a part of her life, a part she didn’t want to end.
“Mia,” he said in a gravelly whisper, “when are you going to stop thinking about leaving and start thinking about staying?”
She couldn’t stop the anguished groan in her throat. “Because I—Oh, Marshall, there’s nothing to keep me here.”
Mia had hardly gotten the words out when she saw a wicked grin flash across his face and then his lips were hovering over hers.
“What about this?”
His murmured question wasn’t meant to be answered. At least not with words.
Mia closed her eyes and waited for his kiss.

26-10-07, 10:43 PM

المشاركة رقم: 10

المعلومات
الكاتب:	darla
اللقب:	سندريلا ليلاس

البيانات
التسجيل:	Aug 2006
العضوية:	11023
المشاركات:	5,556
الجنس	أنثى
معدل التقييم:
نقاط التقييم:	758

االدولة

مدونتي

الإتصالات
الحالة:
وسائل الإتصال:

كاتب الموضوع : darla المنتدى : الارشيف

Chapter 7

Leaves rustled as a soft breeze blew down from the mountain, carrying with it the faint scent of spruce. Birds twittered overhead and across the deck Leroy lifted his head and watched in fascination at the couple with their arms entwined, their lips locked.
As for Mia, she was hardly aware of her surroundings. Marshall’s kiss was spinning her off to a place she’d never been before, a place where everything was warm and soft and safe. The wide breadth of his chest shielded her, his strong arms girded her, cradled her as though she were something very precious to him.
Back and forth his lips rocked over hers, while inside tiny explosions of pleasure fizzed her brain, transmitting streaks of hot longing throughout her body.
Her hands were clinging tightly to his shoulders and she was wondering where she was ever going to come up with enough resistance to end the kiss, when he suddenly lifted his head. As she gulped for breath, his eyes tracked a smoldering trail across her face, down her neck, then still lower to the perky jut of her breasts.
“See, you do have something to keep you here,” he murmured, his voice raspy with desire. “Me. This.”
Mia was smart enough to know that Marshall wasn’t an old-fashioned man. He considered a kiss as nothing more than a sexual pleasure between a man and a woman, a sweet prelude for something more intimate to come. It wasn’t a pledge of love or even a promise of fidelity. For him it was a carnal act, plain and simple.
With every ounce of strength she could muster, Mia gathered enough of her senses to push away from his embrace and walk across the deck. Bending her head, she stared unseeingly at the grains in the wooden planks while asking herself what she was doing here at Marshall’s home. Pretending that she could have that fairy-tale life she’d once fervently dreamed of? No. She’d learned the hard way that fairy tales weren’t the heavenly fantasies she’d thought them to be. The reason she was here was far more basic. Marshall made her momentarily forget, made her feel as if she’d soon discover sunshine over the very next mountain.
She was blinking at the haze of moisture collecting in her eyes when Leroy’s head appeared in her line of vision. The dog must have sensed her troubled mood.
He looked up at her and whined, then promptly began to lick her ankles.
The warm, ticklish lap of the dog’s tongue against her skin had Mia suddenly laughing and she squatted on her heels to stroke his head.
“You’re a funny fellow,” she crooned to Leroy.
Walking up behind her, Marshall put a hand beneath her elbow and eased her up to her full height. Slowly, she turned and met his somber gaze.
“I wish I could make you laugh like that,” he said quietly. “It sounds nice.
Really nice.”
Feeling slightly embarrassed now, but not fully understanding why, she directed her gaze to the middle of his chest.
“I guess I’m not the most jovial person to be around, Marshall. I—” Pausing, she lifted her gaze back to his face. There was a smiling warmth in the brown depth of those eyes, a tenderness that she’d not expected to see and her heart winced with longing. “I really don’t understand why you’d want to be around a person like me.”
With a wry slant to his lips, his hand reached up and stroked gently over the shiny crown of her head then down the long length of her thick braid.
“A person like you? What does that mean? You’re a beautiful, desirable woman.
Any man would be crazy not to want your company.”
Her nostrils gently flared as his fingers reached the end of her braid and lingered against her breast.
“Like I told you before, I’m not a party girl.”
His palm flattened against her breast and Mia’s pulse quickened as heat pooled beneath it and spread to the center of her chest.
“What makes you think that’s the type of girl I want?” he murmured huskily.
“Maybe I’m tired of party girls.”
Why did she so desperately want to believe him? Mia wondered. Why did the foolish, wishful part of her want to believe that he might actually come to care for her, when every sensible cell inside her brain understood that once her past was revealed he’d run faster than Leroy after a rabbit?
She sighed as a faint smile curved her lips. “That kiss you just gave me didn’t feel like a man who was looking for a woman to share an evening of political theories. But I—I’ll hang around Thunder Canyon for a while longer. Just don’t expect me to fall in bed with you. That isn’t going to happen.”
To her surprise, a wicked grin flashed back at her. “What about jump into bed with me? Or leap? Yeah. Leap sounds better. That would get us there faster.”
He was teasing and Mia was glad. It gave her a chance to step away from him and end the awkward intimacy that constantly seemed to sizzle between them.
“You’re crazy,” she teasingly tossed over her shoulder. “And right now I’m wondering if you actually know how to cook or if you’re going to let me starve.”
Chuckling, he draped his arm around the back of her waist and guided her down the steps and onto the grassy lawn.
“C’mon,” he urged. “You can watch me start the grill and then I’m going to cook you the best rib-eye steak you’ve ever eaten.”
Once Marshall got the charcoal burning, the two of them went inside the kitchen to prepare steaks, potatoes and corn on the cob for grilling. As Mia worked alongside him at the counter, she tried to push the heated memory of their kiss aside. She tried to convince herself that being in Marshall’s arms hadn’t really been that nice. But she couldn’t lie to herself. Not when his very nearness begged her reach out and touch him.
They ate the simple meal on the picnic table while Leroy sat near Marshall’s feet and begged for scraps. By the time they pushed back their empty plates, the sun was casting long shadows across the lawn.
“There’s a little sunlight left,” Marshall said as the two of them sipped the last of their iced tea. “Do you have enough energy for a walk? There’s a beautiful little spot I’d like to show you. It’s just a short distance up the mountain.”
With a hand against her midsection, she groaned. “It had better be a short distance because I’m stuffed.”
He extricated his long legs from the picnic bench and rose to his feet. “I promise the exercise will be good for your digestion,” he said impishly, then held his hand down to her.
She curled her fingers around his and he helped her to her feet. “What about Leroy? Can he walk with us?” she asked as he led her over to a gate where they could exit the backyard.
Since the heeler was already bounding eagerly around their feet, Marshall didn’t have the heart to order the dog back to the porch. Besides, Mia seemed to enjoy Leroy and whatever made her happy was what he wanted to give her.
Hell, if he ever admitted his sappy feelings to his brother and longtime buddies, the group of men would fall over with laughter, Marshall thought.
Either that or warn him that he was in danger of losing his bachelorhood.
“If I didn’t let him go, he’d probably dig out from beneath the fence,” Marshall told her, then to Leroy he said, “okay, boy, you can go. But no running off and hiding in the woods or I’ll leave you out for the bears to eat.”
Leroy barked as though he was big enough to take on any black bear that happened to cross his path. The moment Marshall opened the gate, the dog shot through the opening like a rocket on four feet. Mia laughed as the animal raced far ahead of them.
“Boy, you’ve certainly got him trained.”
“Yeah, he follows my directions about as well as my patients,” he joked.
Marshall ushered her through the gate and onto a small trail leading out to the dirt road that ran past the house and on up the mountain.
“You mean we can walk on the road?” she asked with surprise. “We don’t have to go into the woods?”
“For about a quarter of a mile we’ll stick to the road,” Marshall told her.
“Then we’ll turn into the woods. It won’t be far then.”
“And what will I see there?” she asked curiously.
He wagged a finger at her. “If I told you now, it wouldn’t be a surprise when we got there. Don’t you like surprises?”
When the surprises were nice, Mia thought. Like the ones her mother and father used to give her on her birthday: a kitten with a bow around its neck, a sweater with a fur collar and shiny pearl buttons, a small cedar chest to hold all her cherished trinkets. Yes, those had been precious surprises and gifts worth more than all the gold in the Queen of Hearts mine. She’d just been too naive to realize it at the time.
“Sometimes,” she said.
They were walking close together and every few moments the swinging gait of their arms caused them to brush together. Mia made herself widen the distance between them, but Marshall countered her move by reaching for her hand and dragging her even closer to his side.
As he threaded his fingers through hers, he said with a provocative little grin, “We’re not on a military hike, Mia dear, we’re on an after-dinner stroll.”
The feel of her palm flattened against his and their fingers locked together was all it took to send Mia’s blood singing through her veins. It was crazy, she thought. They were only holding hands, yet the connection she felt was almost as if they were kissing all over again. She wanted to pull away even while she wanted to draw closer to his side.
“It’s a good thing,” she said in a breathy voice. “Because I need to take this uphill grade slowly.”
He was teasing her about being out of breath when they suddenly heard voices, then muffled whimpers. The sounds appeared to be coming farther up the mountain from them and Mia and Marshall paused long enough to exchange watchful glances.
“That sounds like someone in distress,” Marshall said. “Is that what you heard?”
Concerned now, Mia nodded. “Is it unusual for anyone else to be on this road?”
“Not really. It’s on resort property and some hikers like to go up the mountain the easy way rather than the narrow trail that winds through the woods. C’mon.
Let’s go see if we can find them.”
He tugged on her hand and the two of them hurried up the steep road. Around a sharp curve, they spotted a boy no more than eight years old with taffy-brown hair and a smattering of freckles across his nose, sitting in the ditch. Tears were streaming down his face as a young woman with a light brown ponytail was trying to untie his hiking boot.
Mia shot Marshall a glance of concern, then rushed forward. The woman looked up in surprise as Mia practically stumbled to a stop in front of them.
“Oh, thank God,” the young woman said with a desperate note of urgency. “Can you help us?”
“What’s happened?” Mia asked quickly as she knelt down next to the woman.
“I’m not sure how it happened. Joey and I were walking through the woods and the next thing I knew he was on the ground screaming in pain.”
“I was trying to jump a stream,” the boy said in tearful explanation. “The next thing I knew I landed on a rock and it rolled beneath my boot. I fell and now my leg hurts something awful.”
A grubby little hand rubbed down his shin and stopped somewhere near his ankle.
Mia’s heart ached for the little fellow. Apparently he’d taken quite a tumble.
There were deep scratches on his knees and legs. Mud and dirt was smeared on his chin and alongside his nose.
The woman said fretfully, “Wouldn’t you know it, this is the one time I didn’t bring my cell phone with me. And Joey is too heavy for me to carry off the mountain.”
Giving the boy a soothing smile, Mia reached into a pocket on her shorts and pulled out a clean tissue. Gently, she dabbed at the tears rolling down his cheeks, then went to work wiping away a trickle of blood from his knee. “You’re a brave boy. Don’t cry,” Mia told him, turning toward Marshall who stood behind her. “This man is a doctor,” she told Joey. “He’ll take good care of you.”
“A doctor!” Jumping to her feet, the woman stared at Marshall in disbelief.
“Really?”
Marshall thrust his hand toward her. “I’m Dr. Marshall Cates. I’m the staff doctor at Thunder Canyon Resort.”
A look of relief crossed her plain features. “Oh. I’m Deanna. Deanna Griffin.”
She gestured down to the boy who was grimacing with pain. “And this is my son, Joey. We’re not resort guests. We’re staying in town at the Wander-On Inn. We just decided to drive out to the mountains and then Joey wanted to climb. I guess someone will probably charge us with trespassing.”
“Don’t worry about any of that,” Marshall tried to assure her. “You’re not going to get into trouble for being on resort property.” Quickly, he broke off the conversation and kneeled down beside Mia and the boy. “Okay, Joey, can you show me where it hurts?”
The boy glanced to Mia for reassurance, then with a short nod pointed to his right ankle. “Somewhere down there. But it kinda just hurts all over. Is it broke?”
“I don’t know, son. We’ll have to take X-rays of your leg before we know that,”
Marshall told him.
Carefully, he cradled the bottom of the child’s boot in both hands while anchoring his thumbs on the top. “Mia, can you loosen the laces while I keep his foot steady?” he asked.
Without hesitation she nodded, then gave the boy a conspiring wink. “Sure. We’re gonna get through this together, aren’t we, Joey?”
Gritting his teeth, Joey reluctantly nodded and Mia quickly went to work easing the bootlaces. Eventually she loosened them enough for Marshall to slip the shoe from the boy’s foot. A thick white sock followed.
When Joey’s foot was finally exposed, Marshall ran his fingers over the already bloated joint. “Mmm. The ankle is beginning to swell and turn blue. I don’t feel anything broken.” He glanced up at Joey’s mother. “But there could be a fissure that can’t be felt. We need to get him down to my office for X-rays.”
Close to tears now, Deanna Griffin groaned with misgivings. Mia looked away from Joey and up to his mother. Although the woman was dressed in a decent-looking pair of Capris and a tank top, the look on her face spoke volumes to Mia. She’d seen that frantic what-am-I-going-to-do expression many times before on her own face. The fear in Deanna Griffin’s eyes said she saw a mound of cost suddenly thrown at her, a cost she couldn’t meet.
“Look, Dr. Cates, I think—maybe—I’d better have you take Joey to the county hospital. I’m not insured and, well, I hate to sound ungrateful but I don’t think I can afford your services. At the hospital…”
The deep grimace on Marshall’s face was enough to cause the woman to pause. “Ms.
Griffin, this isn’t about money,” he said with rough impatience. “This is about your son’s leg!”
Stunned by Marshall’s attitude toward the woman, Mia touched him on the shoulder to get his attention. “Marshall, could I speak with you a moment? Alone?” she asked pointedly.
He hesitated for only a moment, then, leaving Joey, he followed Mia several feet away from the mother and son.
“What is it?” he asked before she could say anything.
Her lips pursed at his impatience. She was seeing a different side of this man and she wasn’t at all sure she liked it.
Tossing back her tousled hair, she lifted her chin to a challenging slant. “For your information, Marshall, not all people are blessed with plenty of money like you. She’s probably barely able to make ends meet and I doubt there’s a man around to help her in any way. Now you bark at her as though she’s an unfeeling mother!”
A look of impatience came over his face. “Unfeeling! Mia, I was trying to tell the woman not to worry—that money isn’t the issue here.”
Stepping closer, she tapped a finger against the middle of his chest. “You still don’t get it. Money is an issue with her. She doesn’t have it. And medical care—the kind you provide—ain’t cheap! Now do you get the picture?”
Frustration marked his features as he glanced over his shoulder at Joey then lowered his head to Mia’s. “This woman is a stranger to you. How could you possibly know anything about her situation?”
Because she’d been there, Mia thought grimly. In that same dark, terrifying place with nowhere to turn and no one to help. Mia understood how humiliating and humble it felt to have to throw herself on the mercy of a total stranger.
But she couldn’t tell Marshall Cates about that part of her life. He wouldn’t understand. No more than he could empathize with Ms. Griffin.
“It’s…easy. I—I’m a woman and I can…just tell these things. And if she needs financial help, I’ll be glad to pay for Joey’s care.”
Shaking his head with dismay, he raked a hand through his hair. “Mia, look. It’s very generous of you to make the offer. But even if the kid has to spend time in the hospital, I have connections—I can make sure the bills are taken care of.
Does that make you feel better?”
“Much better.” Rising on tiptoe, she kissed his cheek, then hurriedly stepped past him and over to Joey’s mother.
The woman turned a harried look on Mia. “Dr. Cates is right. Joey’s leg is the first concern here. It’s just that I have to be…uh, practical. And—”
“You don’t have to explain, Ms. Griffin,” Mia swiftly interrupted. “And there’s nothing to worry about. Marshall meant to say that Joey will be treated and you’re not to worry about the cost.”
Her eyes blurred with grateful tears, Ms. Griffin reached out and gave Mia a tight hug. “I don’t know what to say,” she murmured. “Except thank you.”
Mia was about to tell the woman that no thanks were necessary when Marshall approached the two women. “I think the best way to handle this is for me to jog back down the mountain and get the Jeep,” he told Mia. “Can you wait here with Ms. Griffin and her son?”
“I’d be glad to.”
His nod was grateful and as he turned to go, Mia thought she spotted a flicker of surprise in his eyes. As though he’d expected her to come up with some sort of excuse to quickly extricate herself from these people’s problems. But Mia had learned that when a person cried out for help, someone needed to be there for them. This was one tiny way of making up for her mistakes.
“Good. I’ll be back in a few minutes. In the meantime, make sure Joey doesn’t try to move or stand. If he does he could hurt himself even more.”
“We’ll make sure he stays put,” Mia assured him.
Two hours later Mia and Marshall were sitting on the deck behind his house, drinking coffee and watching the stars come out.
Only minutes earlier on the lodge steps, they had waved goodbye to Joey and his mother. Thankfully, the boy’s ankle had only been badly sprained. Marshall had ordered ice packs for the swelling and had made a point of giving Ms. Griffin samples of pain medicine rather than writing her a prescription.
“I’m sorry that we didn’t make it to the special place I wanted to show you,” he said to Mia. “We’ll have to try again another day.”
The two of them were sitting on a cushioned glider and every now and then Marshall would use the toe of his shoe to keep the seat rocking. The lazy movement, along with Marshall’s nearness had lulled her to a dreamy state of mind and for the first time since Lance had left her, she felt herself drawing closer and closer to a man.
“I’m just glad we happened to run in to Joey and Deanna. The boy would have probably panicked if she’d left him there to go after their vehicle.”
“Hmm. Well, I’m just glad the boy didn’t have a broken bone. He was lucky.”
Marshall leaned forward and placed his coffee cup on the floor, then squared around to face Mia. “Now that things have quieted down, I want to compliment you on the way you handled Joey. A real nurse couldn’t have done it any better.
Where did that come from? Have you cared for children before?”
Mia very nearly laughed. The number of children she’d babysat to make extra money was too high to count. But heiresses didn’t do those menial types of jobs, so she simply said, “I like children. I guess it’s just a natural thing.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” he argued. “When we walked up on them, his mother was getting nowhere at quieting him down.”
She looked away from him and up at the blanket of stars twinkling across the endless Montana sky. There was so much she wished she could say to Marshall; so much she’d like to share with him, if only he would understand.
“That’s nothing unusual. Most kids respond better to someone other than a relative. And I…Actually, at one time I was studying to become a nurse.”
She glanced over to see he was staring at her in total surprise. What now?
“A nurse! Really?”
She swiftly sipped at her coffee to cover her nervousness. She didn’t know why she’d blurted that bit of information about herself. “Yes. I’m very serious.”
“You said you were studying. What happened? Why did you stop?”
What could she say, other than finding a rich mother had suddenly put a stop to all the goals and dreams she’d set for herself. Somehow she’d allowed Janelle to slowly take over her life, to push her into believing that being rich was all that was required for happiness.
Bitterness rose in her throat, but Mia did her best to swallow it down before she answered. “I guess in the long run you could say I stopped because I was weak. Too weak to fight my mother. You see, she, uh—she didn’t want me doing something as blue-collar as being a nurse. To her a nurse does nothing more than hand out pills and empty bedpans.”
Even though it was dark, there was enough light coming from the kitchen window for her to see that his brown eyes were searching her face as though she were a different woman than the one who’d first sat down beside him. As she sat there waiting for him to speak, she felt totally exposed and fearful that he was seeing the real Mia. Mia Hanover.
“I’m sorry she feels that way. I have a feeling you’d make a great nurse.”
A nervous laugh escaped her lips and she quickly turned her head away from him.
When she spoke her voice was wistful. “I wouldn’t know about that, but I do think I would enjoy caring for people who…need me.”
A few silent moments passed and then she felt him shifting on the seat and his arm settling around her shoulders.
“What about your father, Mia? Doesn’t he have any say about this?”
This is the sort of thing that happened, she thought, when she let one little thing about herself slip. It always led to more questions. Questions that she didn’t know how to answer without exposing her dirty secrets; questions that were too painful to contemplate.
Her next words were pushed through a tight throat. “My father died a long time ago.”
“Oh, that’s too bad, Mia. I can’t imagine not having my father around. He’s like an old tree trunk. I know I can lean on him if things ever get bad.” His hand gently kneaded her shoulder. “Guess you have to do all your leaning on your mother.”
Janelle wasn’t the type, Mia thought. She wanted to lead her daughter rather than support her. Besides, she wasn’t a mother to Mia. Not as Nina had been a mother. Nina was the one who’d bathed, diapered and fed Mia as a baby. She was the one who’d taken on multiple jobs; scraped and sacrificed to make sure Mia had a roof over her head and food to eat.
“I try not to do much leaning,” she said. Then, with a smile she was hardly feeling, she quickly turned to him. “Let’s not talk about such serious things, Marshall. You haven’t offered me dessert yet. Do you have anything sweet hidden in your kitchen?”
“Sorry. The only thing I have is a package of ******s that has to be at least two months old.”
Mia wrinkled her nose. “We could drive into the Rusty Spur and share a carton of Golden Nugget,” she suggested.
The last thing Marshall wanted to do was leave this quiet porch where Mia was practically sitting in his lap. From the moment they’d sat down together on the glider, the warmth of her body had been tempting him; the scent of her soft skin and silky hair cocooned him in a sensual fog. For the past half hour his mind and certain parts of his body had been zeroed in on making love to her. The idea of having her in his bed, her naked curves just waiting to be explored, was enough to leave his stomach clenched with need. It was all he’d been able to think about. Until she’d shocked him with that bit about nursing school.
Marshall had gotten the sense that she’d not intended to give him that information about herself, but now that she had, he only wanted more. He was beginning to see that there were layers to this woman he’d not even begun to see and he wanted to peel them away almost as much as he wanted to peel away her clothing.
But tonight was too soon to push her. She’d agreed to stay on at the resort for a while longer. For now Marshall had to be ******* with that.
Stifling a wistful sigh, he rose from the glider and offered a hand down to her.
“Whatever my lady wants, I’m here to give.”