Duke recognized an ambush when he saw one. Jordan had asked him to drop by Dolan’s and pick up a package for him while he was out to lunch. It should have occurred to him that Sharon Lynn would have been more than happy to have the blasted package delivered.
So, because he wasn’t thinking straight, hadn’t been thinking straight ever since he’d returned from Fort Worth, he walked into the drugstore as innocent as a lamb. There, clearly just waiting for him, were both Sharon Lynn and Jenny. They perked up visibly at the sight of him.
Duke sighed. Everyone had maintained a polite, if clearly expectant facade right through Christmas and New Year’s. Now, since no ring or engagement announcement had been forthcoming, apparently Sharon Lynn and Jenny had been designated by the family to get to the bottom of what had gone on between him and Dani on their trip and what was likely to go on between them from now through eternity.
“Afternoon, ladies,” he said, figuring he could bluff his way through the conversation or else run like hell. Since the latter wasn’t a real option, he decided he’d better brazen it out.
“Hey, Duke, come on and join me,” Jenny suggested, patting the stool beside her.
“I really need to get back to the office,” he said, flashing her a smile. “Jordan just asked me to pick something up for him while I was out grabbing lunch.”
She regarded him skeptically. “Have you actually had lunch yet?” she asked with typical Adams directness.
He sighed. “No.”
Sharon Lynn beamed at him. “Well, then, no more excuses. Uncle Jordan can wait a few more minutes. Sit right down. What’ll it be? A hamburger? Grilled cheese? BLT?”
Duke wondered which one would be the quickest to prepare and gulp down. “Grilled cheese,” he said.
“Fries with that?”
Fries would take too long, especially in the quantity Sharon Lynn served them up. They would have to be eaten one by one. “No, not today.”
“And to drink? Coffee?”
No way. He would have to wait for coffee to cool. “Just water,” he said.
Apparently, his nervousness was transparent. The two women exchanged an amused glance. He, in turn, regarded them suspiciously.
“Okay, what are you two up to?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Sharon Lynn claimed.
“Absolutely nothing,” Jenny concurred.
He scowled in Sharon Lynn’s direction. “When are you and Kyle Mason setting a date?” he inquired, hoping to divert her attention from his love life by focusing on hers.
She grinned. “The date’s set. First Saturday in June. He finally got around to proposing in the middle of college football on New Year’s Day. The man’s timing is impeccable. Now there’s no way I can doubt how much he loves me. He actually stopped watching the Aggies for a full fifteen minutes.” She grinned and waved her ring under his nose. “I hope you’ll be there.”
“Of course.” So much for that tactic, he thought, turning to Jenny. Before he could ask, she held up her hand to stop any inquiry he was planning.
“No love life. Not interested. No time,” she declared.
He grinned at her vehemence. “And how does Harlan feel about that?”
Sharon Lynn chuckled as Jenny heaved a heavy sigh. “Grandpa isn’t too thrilled with her attitude,” Sharon Lynn confided. “In fact, I’d say she is on his personal to-do list. Get Jenny a husband, right up there in big, bold print.”
“Oh, go suck an egg,” Jenny retorted.
Duke regarded her with amusement. “Let that be a lesson to you. If you don’t want anyone meddling in your love life, stay out of theirs.”
Jenny’s gaze narrowed. “Meaning?”
“Meaning I could very easily join forces with your father,” Duke warned.
Both women hooted at that, which wasn’t quite the reaction he’d been hoping for.
“You poor man,” Jenny said. “Don’t you realize that you and Dani are way, way above me on his list? In fact, I’d say at the moment you two are his number one priority. He’s always preferred to hedge his bets and go with a sure thing. I’m way too speculative at the moment.”
Duke sat, silently absorbing the news. He waited for the panic to set in, just as he had over and over again in that motel in Fort Worth. It didn’t come. In fact, in a curious way, he was relieved that he had allies, powerful allies. He’d felt surprisingly disappointed and disgruntled when Dani had flat-out turned him down in Forth Worth.
Why was that? he wondered, trying to think back over the past few months. He was a bright man. Surely, he could analyze this thing with Dani from start to finish and reach a logical conclusion.
It had started as a game. Duke was willing to admit that much, even though it didn’t say much for him. Then it had moved on to a game he was playing for his sons’ benefit.
Now, much to his amazement, he realized that the stakes were totally personal and very, very important. He’d gone and fallen in love with the woman. He tried to imagine his life without her, and he couldn’t. All he saw was a bleak and empty future, the exact kind of future he’d once considered his due for all his sins.
Lately, though, he’d had a taste of brighter possibilities and he knew he would never be happy unless he did everything in his power to make them happen. He wanted more than a mother for the kids. To his astonishment, he’d discovered that what he wanted most of all was a wife. He wanted a woman who could make his heart leap simply by walking into a room. He wanted a woman who listened and teased and taunted. He wanted a companion, a friend and a lover.
He wanted Dani.
Of course, realizing what was in his heart was a snap compared to convincing Dani what was in hers. He looked from Sharon Lynn to Jenny. Both women were studying him with blatant curiosity.
“I’m not your problem, ladies,” he declared, summing up in a nutshell the conclusion he’d just reached.
“Explain,” Sharon Lynn said, her elbows on the counter and her chin cupped in her hands as she regarded him intently.
“It’s Dani,” Jenny concluded without waiting for his reply. “She’s holding out.”
“Seems to be,” he agreed.
“Why?” Sharon Lynn asked. “Have you told her how you feel?”
“I asked her to marry me.”
Jenny didn’t seem the least bit surprised by that. She waved her hand impatiently. “That isn’t what Sharon Lynn asked. Have you told her how you feel?”
Duke hesitated to admit that he was just coming to grips himself with the fact that he was in love with her. In the natural, old-fashioned order of things, he supposed he should have reached that conclusion before he hauled her into bed. He definitely should have reached it before proposing.
“Sleeping with her isn’t an answer,” Jenny said, stunning him into silence. “Proposing marriage is nice, but that’s not enough, either.”
“In other words, have you mentioned that you love her?” Sharon Lynn prodded more specifically.
Duke cleared his throat.
Jenny sighed. “No. The answer’s no, isn’t it?” She glanced at Sharon Lynn. “Men are such idiots. Now do you see why I’m content to live my nice, peaceful existence without one?”
Sharon Lynn rolled her eyes. “Women like you always fall the hardest,” she warned. “I can hardly wait.”
“Oh, shut up. We’re not talking about me,” Jenny said, turning away from Sharon Lynn and facing Duke squarely. “Now what do you intend to do to get this marriage business with Dani straightened out before she does something crazy like going back with that awful Rob Hilliard?”
“Hilliard?” Duke demanded tightly. “What the hell does he have to do with anything?”
“He’s been calling again,” Sharon Lynn said. “He brought the girls by over the holidays. Dani cried for an hour after they left.”
That was all news to Duke. Bad news. He had warned the guy to stay away. The only way to ensure that happening, though, was to get Dani to marry him. Unfortunately, though, he was fresh out of ideas. Aside from acknowledging that what he was feeling these days was love, he was forced to admit that he was stymied. Finding oil where it shouldn’t be was a breeze compared to this.
“I was hoping you two could make a suggestion,” he said, throwing himself on their mercy. Something told him he could trust them. They both had Dani’s best interests at heart. “You seem to have all the answers.”
“Now you’re talking,” Jenny said approvingly.
“Something dramatic,” Sharon Lynn said.
“Something simple,” Jenny countered. “Dani would be embarrassed by dramatic.”
Duke thought of Dani’s performance in the motel parking lot, not her singing and dancing, but that sexy slip-sliding game she had played for the room key. She was not half as demure as Jenny apparently thought she was. He thought maybe dramatic would be for the best. Kelly had shared some of the more outrageous things Jordan had done to win her heart. Perhaps he should try a few of those on her daughter. Maybe Dani would be charmed by the nostalgia of it, if nothing else.
“Thanks for the help, ladies,” he said, climbing off the stool. “I think I’ll take it from here.”
“But we haven’t come up with a really good plan,” Jenny protested.
“And you never even got your sandwich,” Sharon Lynn said.
“That’s okay. You’ve provided plenty of inspiration,” he assured them, grinning at the self-satisfied smirks they exchanged.
“Keep us posted on your progress,” Sharon Lynn pleaded.
“Sweetheart, if there’s any progress, I’m sure you won’t need me to drop by and fill you in. With an Adams involved, word will spread like wildfire.”
* * *
Ever since her return from Fort Worth, Dani had been dragging around, her mood despondent. She’d been snapping at Maggie at the clinic until the poor girl had threatened to quit unless her boss’s mood improved.
“You need a man in your life,” Maggie said. “In my opinion, you’re frustrated.”
Little did she know, Dani thought sourly. She’d never been less frustrated in her life, sexually speaking. Emotionally, however, was another thing entirely. Rob’s impromptu little visit with the girls hadn’t helped, either. They’d all been in tears by the time he packed them up again and took off, her refusal to reconsider their relationship ringing in his ears.
Apparently, word of her crummy attitude was spreading, too. Everyone in the family was watching her as if they expected her to break out with chicken pox or maybe hives at any second. They were hovering, their expressions alternately sympathetic and hopeful. Well, the whole blasted lot of them could go jump in the creek, she thought miserably. Their lives weren’t on the line. Hers was.
Duke’s proposal echoed in her head at the most inopportune moments. Memories of the way his hands had molded and shaped her body with intimate precision, drawing ragged sighs and heartfelt gasps, left her feeling so hot and bothered she was tempted to turn the air conditioning on, even though it was barely freezing outside.
It would be so easy to say yes, so uncomplicated to cave in to Duke’s pressure. If, of course, he’d pressured her. Instead, the man was nowhere to be found. She’d even dropped in on her father at work, hoping to catch a glimpse of Duke. Of course, it had been lunchtime, she consoled herself. He’d probably just slipped out for a sandwich.
She declined Jordan’s offer to take her out somewhere and wandered down to Dolan’s herself. Sharon Lynn and Jenny had been huddled together at the counter, their expressions guilty as sin when they spotted her.
“You just missed Duke,” Sharon Lynn said a little too brightly.
“Was he here for lunch?”
The question drew another guilty look. Sharon Lynn shrugged. “Not really. He was running an errand for Uncle Jordan.”
“I see,” Dani said and slipped onto a stool. “Can I have a hot fudge sundae, please?”
“Now?” Sharon Lynn said as if it were the most scandalous request she’d ever heard. “In the middle of the day?”
Dani scowled at her. “Do you have a problem with that?”
“No, of course not,” her cousin declared and rushed to scoop up the ice cream. She added extra hot fudge and enough whipped cream to clog the arteries of half the population of Los Pinos.
She and Jenny watched uneasily as Dani silently ate every single bite.
“Man trouble?” Jenny inquired eventually.
“Who, me?”
“Yes, you,” Jenny said impatiently. “What’s with you and Duke?”
“Nothing,” Dani said, noting the amused look the two exchanged. “Okay, what’s up? Do you know something I don’t?”
“Not a thing,” Jenny responded.
“Absolutely nothing,” Sharon Lynn concurred.
Dani didn’t believe either one of them. There was some sort of scheme afoot. “I hope you’re not interfering in this,” she said, regarding first one, then the other intently.
“Absolutely not,” they assured her dutifully.
“Because if I find out that you have been, I will…” She couldn’t think offhand of anything quite dire enough.
“What?” Sharon Lynn prodded, an impudent, teasing glint in her eyes.
“Yes, what will you do?” Jenny inquired, clearly fascinated by the threat.
“I will deliver entire litters of kittens to your doorsteps in the middle of the night,” she warned.
“You do that anyway,” Jenny said. “White Pines is crawling with them.”
“So’s our place,” Sharon Lynn agreed. “Dad’s still trying to figure out how you manage it.”
Dani sighed at the failed threat. “Okay, forget the kittens, but I will make you pay. Remember that. And I will do it when you least expect it.”
She slid off the stool and headed for the door. She was pretty sure she heard them chuckling when they thought she was too far away to catch them at it. There really were times when having a family that knew you so well could be a nuisance, she thought as she barely resisted the urge to slam the drugstore door behind her.
Since the clinic was already closed for the afternoon, she decided to take a drive out to White Pines. Not that she couldn’t expect more of the same taunting from Grandpa Harlan, but at least he usually managed to impart some wisdom along with his teasing.
She found her grandfather in the paddock along with Cody and one of the hands. They were going over a horse that appeared to be lame. She would have offered to check him out herself, but Cody knew every bit as much as she did about this kind of thing. She had some expertise, of course, but small pets were her forte. She was called in to treat large animals only when the vet in the next town couldn’t be reached.
Waving to the men, she went into the stables and saddled up the pinto, which had turned out to be a surprisingly quick learner once it concluded that no one here was likely to harm it. He’d put on weight and no longer had that wild look in his eyes.
“You’re my pal now, aren’t you?” she whispered as he nuzzled her pocket for one of the sugar cubes she invariably kept there for him. She took out two. “Here you go.”
Maybe a good, long ride was what she needed. It would clear her head.
The bottom line, she concluded as she raced straight into the wind, was that she wanted desperately to trust her heart. She wanted to admit that she had fallen in love with Duke, but how could she? She kept coming back to the boys.
She knew from her own experience with Jordan that being a stepkid could be just fine, better than fine. But Jordan and her mom had been committed to each other for years, even though it had taken him a long time to recognize what was in his heart.
She and Duke didn’t have that same long history. There was every chance that they would fail at making a relationship work. She had thrown herself heart and soul into her relationship with Rob and look at what a mess she’d made of that. They’d even had a four-year foundation to build on. By comparison, this thing with Duke had been a whirlwind courtship.
She was so lost in thought that her grandfather had ridden up beside her before she was even aware he was in the vicinity. He dismounted and walked over to sit beside her on the fence rail.
As his warm gaze settled on her, she saw the worry lines that were clearly etched in his forehead. “You okay, kiddo?”
“More or less.”
“Problems with Duke?”
“Nothing but problems,” she conceded. “Ever since we came back from Fort Worth, he’s been avoiding me. Other than a glimpse or two in a crowd here over the holidays, I never even saw him.”
“Maybe he’s just giving you time to think.”
“I suppose.”
He cupped a hand under her chin and forced her to look at him. “So, when are you going to put that boy out of his misery?” he demanded. “He’s going around looking like a lovesick puppy and you don’t look one bit better. It’s time to fish or cut bait, darlin’ girl.”
“Oh, please,” she muttered. “Duke Jenkins couldn’t look pitiful if he took acting classes for a lifetime.”
“It’s true. Jordan says he can’t keep his mind on work, either. That’s a sure sign a man’s in love.”
“You know what happened with Rob,” she reminded him. “The girls still haven’t gotten over it. How can I take that chance again? It wouldn’t be fair to Joshua and Zachary, especially since Duke can’t even bring himself to admit he has any feelings for me at all.”
“Have you admitted you’re in love with him?”
The question made her pause. “No,” she conceded eventually.
“The way I hear it, he has asked you to marry him. Is that true?”
“Yes, but—”
“But what, darlin’ girl? No man asks a woman to marry him and takes it lightly.”
“He hasn’t said he loved me. We can’t start off a marriage like that.”
“Maybe he just has a hard time getting the words out, same as you.”
“Maybe,” she conceded, considering the possibility for the first time. Duke wasn’t the sort of man who would want to risk rejection by putting his heart on the line, not with a woman who’d already turned down his marriage proposal.
“Let me ask you something else. Are you going to love those kids of his one bit less if you don’t marry their papa?” he inquired slyly.
Dani heaved a sigh. It was true. Despite her very best intentions, she adored Joshua and Zachary. They were a never-ending delight. Just like their father. If she held her ground, if she refused to marry Duke, would the hurt be any less than it would be at some future date that might never come? No, she concluded thoughtfully.
She grinned at her grandfather. “You’re a very smart man, you know that?”
“Well, of course, I am. It’s about time somebody around here acknowledged it. Go on, gal. Tell the man. Somebody’s got to jump into this thing feetfirst or we’ll never get the show on the road. Seems to me like no Adams has ever been chicken to take a chance when something really mattered to them.”
“I could drown,” she pointed out, even though her mind was already made up.
“Not a chance, Dani girl. I’ve seen the way the man looks at you. He’ll be there to catch you. There’s not a doubt in my mind about that. Not a single doubt.”
Dani wished she could be as sure, but in the end, it didn’t really matter. Rob had taken the control of her destiny out of her hands. For way too long now, she had assumed that someone else would have to prove themselves before she would ever dare to put her own heart on the line. That wasn’t any way for an Adams to live.
She gave her grandfather a fierce hug. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For making sense. For being you.”
“Don’t thank me. Just be happy. That’s all the thanks I’ll ever need from any of you.”