Sherryl Woods - About That Man

“What’s Cedar Hill?” Walker asked, regarding her curiously.

“My family’s home, still ruled by the indomitable King Spencer,” she explained. “Trust me, you do not want to go there.”

He grinned. “I don’t know. You’re making it sound like a challenge.”

“My father is a trial, not a challenge.”

Tucker’s eyes flashed with amusement. “Trying to keep them apart, Daisy? What are you afraid of?”

“You know perfectly well that Daddy will try to stick his nose in and manipulate this so it works out the way he wants it to.”

“You’re not giving me much credit,” Walker said.

“You are no match for my father,” she insisted. “I don’t want you anywhere near him.”

“He doesn’t matchmake, does he?” Walker asked with a deliberately exaggerated shudder.

“With a Yankee? Heaven forbid,” Daisy said.

“Then I don’t see the problem.”

“She’s afraid our father will have you and Tommy reunited and out of town before daybreak,” Tucker explained. “No matter how he has to accomplish it.”

A teasing glint appeared in Walker’s eyes. “Which one of us are you most afraid of losing?” he inquired.

Daisy could feel heat climbing into her cheeks. She hadn’t blushed this much in years, if ever. She avoided glancing at her brother or Frances before she said quite firmly, “Tommy, of course.”

A grin spread across Walker’s face. “Of course.”

“Am I missing something here?” Tucker inquired, his brotherly antennae clearly on full alert.

“Nothing,” Daisy said sharply. “Not one damn thing. You all settle this however you want to. Walker can sleep on the ground for all I care. I’m going to say good-night to Tommy, and then I am going to bed. Breakfast’s at eight, Detective. If you’re still in town then.”

A low chuckle followed her inside, but she couldn’t tell if it was Walker’s or her brother’s. At this point, it didn’t much matter. She held the same low opinion of both of them.

Upstairs she found Bobby and Tommy engaged in a cutthroat round of a Monopoly game.

“Watch him, Tommy. My brother really, really likes to acquire real estate. He’s already bought up half the waterfront in Trinity Harbor.”

Tommy’s eyes widened. “For real? You own the beach?”

“Not the beach,” Bobby said. “Just the land nearby.”

“What are you going to do with it?”

“He’s already built a marina,” Daisy said.

“The one with all the boats and the neat restaurant?”

Bobby nodded. “That’s mine.”

“Wow. My mom took me to eat there once. It was last year on my birthday. We got all dressed up and everything.”

Bobby grinned. “Did you like the food?” he asked casually.

Now there was a loaded question if ever Daisy had heard one. “Careful how you answer, Tommy. Bobby’s also the chef.”

Tommy looked puzzled. “You mean like a cook?”

“Yep,” Daisy confirmed. “That’s just a fancy name for it.”

“I didn’t study at Cordon Bleu just so you could call me a cook,” Bobby grumbled, clearly offended. “Isn’t it bad enough that I have to put up with Daddy saying that?”

“He’s just ticked because you refuse to take over the cattle operation.”

“I’ve been telling him since I turned ten that I was not interested in raising Black Angus. I’m twenty-eight now–wouldn’t you think he’d be over it?”

“Daddy?” Daisy said skeptically. “The man who still hasn’t forgiven his brother for buying a prize bull out from under his nose thirty years ago?”

“I see your point,” Bobby said with a sigh.

Daisy leaned down and kissed him. “He loves you, though. You do know that, don’t you?”

Bobby grinned. “Being loved by King Spencer is not necessarily a blessing.”

She laughed. “You may be right about that. It just means there’s more pressure to do things his way.” She gave Tommy a hug. “Want me to stick around and tuck you in?”

“I don’t need to be tucked in,” he said with an embarrassed glance at Bobby.

Her brother winked at him. Daisy let it pass. She’d slip in later after the lights were out and make sure Tommy was okay. “All right, then. Good night, you two.”

“Daisy?” Tommy called after her, his voice hesitant.

“What, sweetheart?”

“Is my uncle…is he still here?”

She tried to read his expression and couldn’t. “He’s going to stay through the weekend.”

“Here?”

“No. They’re downstairs deciding that now. Probably at the hotel by the river.”

Tommy’s shoulders seemed to ease then, and she realized that, despite his outburst earlier, he didn’t really want his uncle to disappear from his life. Family relationships might be complex and frustrating, but they were still the most powerful ties a person had. As terrified as she was that Walker might take Tommy away from her, she couldn’t bear to deny them this time together.

“Maybe when he comes over in the morning, he’ll tell you all about what your mom was like when she was a little girl,” she suggested.

Tommy’s eyes lit up for the first time since he’d learned that Walker was coming. “That would be cool. She never said much about when she was a kid.”

“Then you ask him,” she said softly, fighting back the sting of tears.

Bobby followed her from the room and gave her a hug. “You did good in there,” he told her.

“I hope so.” She stared at her brother wistfully. “What if I lose him, though?”

“Then his staying wasn’t meant to be. You’ll survive.”

Daisy envisioned an empty future and wished she shared Bobby’s confidence.

Later, alone in her too-quiet, too-lonely room, Daisy could admit that the meeting with Walker had been a disaster, start to finish. But as she thought back over the evening–from Tommy’s disappearance to the awkward reunion a few hours later–what stuck in her mind was that unexpected kiss she and Walker had shared.

Why couldn’t she shake the memory? Was she so desperate for a little attention that any man’s kiss would have thrown her off-kilter like this? Maybe so. In fact, that had to be it. It had nothing at all to do with Walker Ames.

Yeah, right. She touched her fingers to her lips. Even now she could almost feel the whisper-soft caress. It hadn’t lasted more than a few seconds, but it had felt like an eternity. He had seemed almost as shocked by it as she had been.

It was definitely a good thing that he had declined her invitation. Hopefully he’d also declined the suggestion that he stay at Cedar Hill. He’d be just fine at Trinity Harbor’s one fancy hotel. Near enough to drop in, but far enough away to avoid temptation.

She sighed. She had a feeling that kiss was going to keep her up all night as it was. Having Walker Ames right down the hall would have been more than she could bear.

His concession to stay in Trinity Harbor through the weekend was a blessing for Tommy, but it was going to be tough on her. In one single gesture, Walker had reminded her that she was a woman, that she had needs and desires that had been ignored for far too long. He’d be lucky if she didn’t drag him off somewhere and try to ravish him.

She blushed at the thought. What had come over her? She never thought like that, much less behaved in such a wanton manner. Not once in all of her thirty years had she felt such an intense need to have a man’s tongue intimately invade her mouth, to have his hands on her breasts or to feel his body inside hers. Not even Billy had aroused this kind of desperate yearning. Their lovemaking had been sweetly satisfying, but she’d never seen stars, never felt as if the earth were tumbling out from under her feet the way she had tonight. These days, on those rare occasions when she passed Billy on the street, she felt nothing at all. Yet even now, she couldn’t imagine a time when the sight of Walker might not affect her.