Сандра Браун: Fanta C

His chest was as solid as a wall. All of him was. He made her feel slight and fragile. Her senses reeled.

Nonsense. She was still dizzy from the height, that was all. But why couldn't she feel the ground?

Because she wasn't touching it, that's why. He was holding her high against him. Slowly, he lowered her until her feet touched the cool grass. Her breasts dragged against his chest. For a split second, the notch of her thighs caught on the fly of his trousers.

A tidal wave of heat surged through her.

"Okay now?" he asked.

Far from okay, she nodded.

His hands dropped from her waist. She took a step back, putting space between them. When she risked raising her head and looking up at him, she saw mirrored in his eyes a woman rosily flushed with arousal.

Then she was startled to realize that the woman was herself.

"Gee, Mom, your eyes look weird."

Matt's piping voice dispelled Elizabeth's momentary trance. Nervously, she flattened her hand against the base of her throat where her heart was beating wildly. "I, uh, I guess climbing the tree was scarier than I thought it would be. How's Baby?"

"Much better," Megan said. The kitten was curled against the girl's narrow chest. "She's purring."

Elizabeth knew the feeling. She was purring too. Humming. Churning. Whatever. She hadn't felt like this since… It had been so long since she'd felt this giddy, she couldn't even remember it. But then it had been a long time since she'd been touched by a man.

She avoided looking at her neighbor again until she had no choice but to lift her gaze back to Thad Randolph's. Through the thick twilight, his eyes shone piercingly blue beneath dense eyebrows which had remained dark in spite of his graying hair.

Elizabeth swallowed with difficulty. "Thank you for helping me out of the tree, Mr Randolph."

He smiled. He had very nice teeth, she noticed. Straight and white. "You're welcome. Please call me Thad, though."

Again she saw herself mirrored in his eyes. Her hair was disheveled, framing her face with fine, pale tendrils. Her blouse was hopelessly dirty and there was a smudge of grime on her chin. She looked frightful and had made a complete fool out of herself. No doubt he would enjoy telling all his buddies the story of the nutty widow who lived in the house behind his. When he got to the part about her petticoat and what Matt had said, he'd smile lecherously, intimating that the tale only got better from there, but discretion prevented him from telling all.

"Come along, children," she said as briskly as an English nanny rounding up her charges. "It's getting dark. Time we went inside. Matt, please put the ladder back in the garage."

"Why do I have to?" he whined. "I got the ladder out. Make Megan put it up."

"I'm taking care of Baby," Megan protested. "It's my turn to take care of Baby. You think she's your kitten, but she's not."

"I asked if we could have her."

"Yeah, but she's mine too."

"Mostly mine."

" Uh-huh! She belongs to both of us, doesn't she, Mom?"

Elizabeth had come to expect this kind of squabbling, and usually tuned it out. Tonight, however, it clipped the tenuous threads of her patience.

"Will you both stop bickering and do as I say?" As if getting herself caught in a tree weren't enough, her children chose now to behave their worst in front of the neighbor.

"Before you go inside, I'd like to show you something."

All three turned at the sound of Thad Randolph's peacemaking voice. "In my garage." He smiled at Elizabeth. "Something the kids will enjoy seeing."

"The puppies?" Megan asked in a hushed voice. "Did they get borned?"

"Last night. Four of them."

"Oh, Mom, can we go see them?"

Elizabeth was helplessly trapped. While she appreciated Thad's conciliatory gesture, she also resented his interference in a family squabble. But for her to refuse to let her children see the litter would be unthinkable. Not even moms could be that cruel. "You can see them as soon as you take the ladder back into the garage." There. She hadn't surrendered unconditionally.

Matt dashed off, ladder in tow. Unbelievably Megan went with him and held the door open.

"You don't mind, do you?"

Elizabeth turned toward Thad. "Of course not. They've been telling me that your setter was about to have her puppies." Until now she had never realized how tall he was. The top of her head didn't quite reach his chin. "I just hope they don't upset the new mother."

"Penny is the most docile dog I've ever had. And she adores your children."

Elizabeth clasped her hands at her waist, an unconscious nervous gesture. "They don't disturb you, do they? It seems as if they're always in your yard. I've told them to stay out of it, but — "

"They don't bother me at all. In fact, I get a kick out of watching them play."

A thousand questions flocked to her mind — did he have any children of his own? If not, why not? If he did, were they living with his ex-wife? Was there an ex-wife? Or was he, like herself, widowed?

Even if she'd had the opportunity to satisfy her curiosity and ask such personal questions, she wouldn't have. But she didn't have the opportunity. Matt and Megan came racing back, breathless, eyes alight, their cheeks ruddy with excitement.

"I put Baby in the house in case she did something to scare the puppies," Megan said.

"Let's go."

Thad turned in the direction of his detached garage. All the houses on the block had been built in the thirties. It had become fashionable about ten years before for young families to buy these houses and renovate them, as John and Elizabeth Burke had done. The two children ran ahead, chasing between the shade trees in the large connecting lots.

"Be careful not to touch the puppies," Elizabeth called after them. "And come right back."

"Aren't you coming?" Thad stopped and turned around.

"I — uh — was I supposed to?" she stammered. "I mean, did you want me to?"

"Sure. Come on. Who could resist looking at a litter of puppies?"

And what woman could resist his eyes, Elizabeth asked herself.

He extended his hand, but she didn't take it. She did, however, fall into step beside him, surreptitiously tucking fugitive strands of hair back into the slipping knot on the back of her head.

This whole scene had become bizarre. She hadn't put her shoes back on and was still in her stockings. The grass felt damp and cold against the soles of her feet. They'd had the first frost last week and leaves had begun to fall. Occasionally she'd step on one and it would crunch beneath her instep. The sun had slid quickly beneath the horizon. The adjoining backyards were deep in violet shadows. She felt compelled to make conversation, but it was difficult to find a topic they had in common. At last she hit on one.

"I like the color you painted the trim on your house."

"Thanks. It took me long enough to paint it all."

"You've got a lot of trim."

"And I hate to paint."

"Luckily the house had been redone when you bought it." He'd been living there six months or so. She couldn't remember exactly when he'd moved in.

"I wouldn't have bought it otherwise."

They had reached the back door of his garage. He opened it and stood aside to let her go first. Self-consciously, she squeezed past him through the door. The hem of her skirt brushed against his legs. Cloth dragged against cloth, like a wave reluctant to recede from the shore.

It was dark inside the garage because the large door facing the street and driveway was closed. Only one dim electric bulb burned over the bed Thad had made for his Irish setter and her litter. It smelled musty and musky inside. Inexplicably, Elizabeth was reminded of her stable fantasy.