As Tess crossed the downstairs entryway, the grandfather clock in the corner chimed.
Two in the morning.
Fighting back a yawn, she climbed the stairs to the second floor again. She’d known not to expect the girls to settle down any time soon, but her patience had deserted her. She’d decided a little friendly caution to the group couldn’t hurt.
The warning had reduced their giggles enough that she could barely hear them from the top of the stairway.
Roselynn’s bedroom lay at the far end of the hall. The noise from the living room wouldn’t bother her. Still, the warning to the girls had been good training for them, for the days when they had paying guests at the inn.
If they ever did again.
In the hallway, she came to an abrupt halt.
They did have a guest on the premises.
After the hour of troubled sleep she’d just tossed and turned through, how could she have forgotten that? Especially when that brief nap had been filled with images of their new boarder?
As if she’d slipped back into those fitful dreams, the door to her right opened slowly. Silently. Caleb stood framed in the opening, the glow from the hall fixture highlighting him. She gulped, staring at his tousled dark hair and eyes hazy with sleep, to a bare chest dusted with dark hair that arrowed down toward the pair of blue cotton pajama bottoms riding low on his hips.
He stood so close, she would need only to take a step to touch him.
She gulped again, feeling a stirring inside that sent her hands grasping to close her robe. Grasping—and finding nothing but her long sleep T-shirt. It covered her completely. She’d had no reservations about going downstairs to the girls without her robe.
But, oh, did she have her doubts about that decision now.
Caleb stood looking at her as if the T-shirt were made of see-through nylon with only a few velvet swatches in strategic spots for decoration.
“I’m sorry,” she said coolly, though she’d grown hot all over in response to his hungry gaze. She forced herself to put her hands calmly by her sides. “Did the girls wake you?”
He shook his head emphatically, as if trying to clear it. “No, you did, pounding up and down the stairs. Thought we were having an earthquake.”
“Very funny.”
He grinned, a sleepy, crooked smile that only cranked up the heat within her. “Didn’t you feel the walls shake?”
She could feel herself shaking now, all right, to the point she had to fight her need to grab on to something solid.
Like Caleb.
“Sorry,” she said again, abruptly this time. “I’ll try to be quieter in future.”
“Good.” He slumped sideways, bracing one shoulder against the door frame. “I can’t imagine you’d keep your guests very long if you go around disturbing their sleep.”
“Then they shouldn’t disturb mine.” Oh, great. She’d snapped the words without thinking, more in irritation at herself for her weakness than anything else. Maybe he wouldn’t realize what she’d said. Maybe he would think she meant the girls downstairs.
But, even half-asleep, he caught on quickly. “Did I bother your dreams tonight, Tess?”
“No.”
He reached out to brush her hair back from her cheek. His fingertips whisked across her skin, sending a tickle along her jaw. He leaned close. Closer. She fought the urge to tilt her head the slightest bit, to let him cup her cheek with his palm. To lean even closer in anticipation.
“You never were very good at lying,” he murmured.
The combination of his softened voice and less-than-gentle words made her breath catch in surprise. As she backed a step away, his fingertips raised a trail of goose bumps on her skin. “I try not to.”
“Good. Then, you’ll probably want to take back what you said. I did bother your sleep, didn’t I?”
She attempted indignation, but the sound that came from her throat could have passed for a yearning sigh. Why couldn’t things have ended differently years ago?
She stiffened her shoulders and raised her chin. “The fact you feel you can ask that bothers me,” she said, sidestepping one truth but forcing herself to go full steam ahead toward another. “There’s no sense in your worrying about whether or not you affect my dreams. The sleeping ones, anyhow. You gave up that right a long time ago.”
He raised his hand again.
Smiling grimly, she backed another step, edging out of his reach. “I think you already know what you did to destroy my waking dreams. But that was a long time ago, too. We’re beyond that and on to something new.” Giving a firm nod, she added, “Breakfast will be served at eight. Then we’ll take care of the business that brought you back to town. Meanwhile, have a good rest of the night.”
She turned and walked away, blinking rapidly to hold back tears. Of frustration? Anger? Sadness? She couldn’t tell.
She knew only that she’d been kidding herself when she’d thought about needing to hold on to something solid, like Caleb.
She’d felt the need, all right. To be close to him again. To relive the past with him. To revisit those days she had refused to talk about earlier when he’d brought them up to her.
Need had to give way to reality. Trying to make a relationship with Caleb into something solid, something lasting, would never work. The past had already shown her the truth. The real man didn’t want her.
She’d just have to try harder to keep the dream-Caleb out of her bed.
No worries about that at the moment, unfortunately. This encounter with him guaranteed that in the hours until daybreak she’d find herself wide-awake and more restless than before. If a few minutes in the hallway had been that dangerous, what would happen if she spent all day tomorrow on the road with him?
She just wouldn’t, that’s all. She’d use her sleepless hours to revise tomorrow’s schedule, making sure she and Caleb spent as little time alone together as possible until she could pull herself together....
On second thought, she’d better revamp her schedule for the week.
* * *
“Another sweet roll, Caleb?” Roselynn held the wicker basket toward him. Earlier she’d made a point of saying how nice it was to have a man at the table with them again.
He’d never had the pleasure of starting the morning off with a houseful of women. He found it a dubious pleasure, at best.
The little girls chattered constantly, sounding like a bunch of jaybirds perched on a humming telephone wire.
Roselynn seemed distracted now. The few times she attempted conversation, all she did was ask him if he wanted more of anything. Maybe the kids were giving her a headache.
He couldn’t complain about the breakfast. He could complain about his second hostess, Tess, who didn’t seem to care whether he ate or not. Obviously, she still felt riled.
So did he, as a matter of fact. Riled.
And intrigued.
Roselynn waved the sweet rolls at him again. “Yes, ma’am,” he said hastily, “I’d like another of those.”
Before he could pluck one from the basket, Nate snatched the top one out from under his hand.
“Nate,” Tess snapped. “That was rude.”
The girl shrugged. “Sorry,” she muttered.
“Don’t tell me, tell your guest.”
Nate gave him a wide smile. “Sorry, Caleb. You want to share this one with me?”
“No, thanks, I’ll get my own.”
“Let me get some fresh from the oven,” Roselynn said, reaching for the basket. She rushed off as though she couldn’t wait to escape the tension between Tess and Nate.
He looked over at Tess, all prim and proper with a long-sleeved shirt buttoned up to her chin. A far cry from her outfit of the previous night. That loose, flowing T-shirt she’d worn hanging down to her knees hadn’t given anything away. But his imagination didn’t need a handout. He could envision what lay beneath the T-shirt just as easily as he could see how uncomfortable she still felt about getting caught in it.
All through breakfast, she’d refused to make eye contact with him. Her gaze kept moving to her briefcase on the chair in the corner. She wanted his business taken care of. She wanted him gone. He’d picked up on her feeling during supper the night before, and that—and sheer stubbornness—had only added to his list of reasons for taking the room at the inn.
Could he blame her for wanting to get rid of him? Maybe not. But he couldn’t give her the satisfaction of leaving. He’d tried to explain to her what had happened years ago. She’d made it more than plain she didn’t want to discuss it. Their past was in the past. She’d said it herself.
Looking down, he stabbed at the ham steak on his plate.
He still had his future to take care of.
She seemed equally certain of the need to make sure he didn’t have a future around here.
After their standoff upstairs in the hall last night, he couldn’t say she had things wrong. Staying this close to her might bring more trouble than he wanted to handle. He’d touched her face. Hadn’t wanted to stop touching her. But she’d backed away as if he’d been a rattler with his tail rising. It had taken him a hell of an effort to let her walk off.
Another few minutes and he might’ve done something to get his face smacked. As if her verbal slap about her dreams hadn’t made him feel bad enough.
You gave up that right a long time ago.
Maybe one of these days he’d find out what rights he did have with her. Now that could get interesting, at least for as long as he stayed in town. Money wasn’t his only means of making an impression. He swallowed a grin along with another mouthful of coffee.
“Mom,” Nate blurted, distracting him. “I forgot. When we went to the store yesterday, Mr. Harley said to say howdy.”
“Oh, did he?”
He looked over at Tess. She’d sounded a little put out about the announcement. Asking her directly wouldn’t get him anywhere. “I remember a Harley from school.” Harley wouldn’t remember him, though. The kid in his homeroom was too rich for the likes of him. “Doesn’t his daddy own the general store?”
“He did,” Tess said. “Joe has it now.”
“Does he?” He smiled at Nate.
“Yep.” She nodded. “And he makes money, hand over fist.”
“Nate.” Tess’s voice had sharpened.
“Well, that’s what Aunt El says. Right, Gram?”
Roselynn had just returned to the room and set the basketful of sweet rolls next to his plate.
Not waiting for an answer, Nate leaned closer to him. “Mr. Harley has the biggest store in Flagman’s Folly. And he wants to marry Mom.”
“Nate!” This time, Tess’s voice could’ve cut the slice of ham steak sitting on his plate. “I think it’s time for you and the girls to go and straighten up the living room.”
Her friends promptly put their utensils down and began to rise.
Nate remained seated. “Why? There’s nobody here but Caleb. He doesn’t mind.”
“Anastasia Lynn.”
The girl rolled her eyes. “Oka-ay. Come on, Caleb, you can help me move the couch back.”
Slowly, he released the death grip he’d held on his knife and fork.
“We’ll take care of that later,” Tess told her. “Caleb’s still eating his breakfast. You go along, now.”
The other girls pushed in their chairs.
Nate pushed out her bottom lip.
That had him biting back a comment. No doubt about it, Tess had her work cut out with this little one. But it wasn’t his place to say anything.
Nate finally got up and shoved her chair up to the table. The kid had a lot of energy.
“See you later,” she said to him.
He nodded. When she’d left the room, he turned back to Tess. Better to think about teasing her—and not about some guy who wanted her for his bride. “Paybacks,” he murmured.
“What?”
“When you’re a real handful as a kid, don’t folks say to watch out, because ‘you’ll grow up to have kids of your own someday’?”
“No.”
Roselynn laughed. “Oh, yes, they do, sugar. And he has a point.” She turned to him. “Tess was an outright handful herself, you know.”
“Mo-om,” Tess protested, her tone sounding exactly like Nate’s. “Let’s not get into—” At the sound of footsteps in the kitchen, she stopped.
A real shame. He’d looked forward to hearing a few stories.
Ellamae ambled into the room as if she owned the place. She carried a coffee mug that matched those on the table. “Am I in time for breakfast?”
“Sweet rolls right out of the oven,” he said, moving the basket to a space in front of an empty seat.
“That’ll do for starters.” Ellamae plopped into the chair and took a roll. “And just how is everyone this fine morning?”
“Lovely,” Roselynn said. “We were just talking about Tess.”
“Who is just getting ready to go to work,” Tess said. “Speaking of which, aren’t you on your way to Town Hall now, Aunt El? Is the Double S closed today?”
He almost smiled at her innocent tone.
“Oh, it’s open.” Ellamae turned to him. “Normally, I pick up an order to go and bring it over to the courtroom. But I felt a need to speak to my sister this morning.”
“Perfect timing,” Tess said. “Caleb and I are just leaving. Aren’t we, Caleb?”
“Without brushing our teeth?” he asked, his tone as deliberately innocent as hers had been. “Does Nate get away with that?”
Her expression could have made a bull run for cover.
“After we brush, of course.” She stood and pushed her chair beneath the table.
“Ah. Then we are just leaving,” he said, following her lead.
“We’ll see you at supper then, Caleb,” Roselynn said.
“I’ll be here,” he confirmed.
He left the dining room at Tess’s heels.
Much as he liked the thought of watching her squirm while her mama and aunt told tales on her, he’d come up with another idea he liked much better.
Getting her alone.
* * *
Her sister, Roselynn, made a sweet roll you could really sink your teeth into. Ellamae surveyed the breakfast table with satisfaction. But before she had eaten more than two rolls and a side of bacon, Nate and the girls came back into the dining room like a swarm of honeybees headed for the hive.
She held back a chuckle. If she’d guessed right by the look on Caleb’s face, before too much time had passed, he intended to do a bit of swarming of his own—over Tess.
“Where’s Caleb?” Nate demanded, looking wildly around the room as if he’d hidden beneath one of the tables.
“He and your mama left just a few minutes ago,” Roselynn said.
“Rats.” Nate slumped in obvious disappointment.
“What’s the trouble?” Ellamae asked. “He’ll be back tonight.”
“That’s too late. We have to find him.” Nate sidestepped closer to the two women. Her friends crowded in behind her. “We got a great idea,” she announced.
Ellamae couldn’t wait. “And what might that be?”
“We gotta get Caleb to stay in Flagman’s Folly.”
“But why, sugar?”
“Oh, Gram,” Nate said, as if it were obvious. “This town is soooo boring. We need something to make it special. And Caleb’s famous.”
“He’s a rodeo star,” her friend Lissa added.
“Ex,” Ellamae said flatly, but as she’d expected, no one paid any attention to that.
“So we got an idea to get him to stay.” Nate put her hands on her hips and beamed at them. “We get him to marry Mom.”
Roselynn choked on a mouthful of tea.
With one hand, Ellamae patted her back. With the other, she swiped another sweet roll. A conversation like this one called for extra sustenance. “And just how did y’all happen to come by that thought?”
“Easy,” Nate said.
“She doesn’t want her mom to marry Mr. Harley,” Lissa put in.
“Caleb’s richer,” Nate said.
“And cuter,” added Lissa.
“And a star,” chorused the two remaining girls.
“Oh, sugar, I don’t know—”
“Well,” Ellamae broke in, “it’s an idea, all right, Nate. But you and the girls better just forget about that for now. Let your mama and Caleb have some time together, see what happens. You never know. Everything might just come to pass the way you want it, without your helping things along.”
“You like the idea, though, right, Aunt El? Right, Gram?” In her eagerness, Nate leaned so far forward she almost fell into the basket of sweet rolls. “You want Caleb to stay here, too, don’t ya?”
“It has its possibilities, I’ll admit,” Ellamae told her. “But as I said, let’s give it some time. You girls go on about your business. Unless you want to help clear the dishes.”
“No, thanks.” Nate backed up, almost trampling her friends. “We already have to fix the living room. Come on, guys.”
All four girls turned and fled.
Ellamae laughed.
Roselynn smiled, shaking her head gently. “Those kids. What a wild idea.”
Abruptly, Ellamae stopped laughing. “What’s so wild about it?”
“For a rich man like Caleb? He has a ranch and a big house up in Montana. Why in the world would he want to move back to a little place like Flagman’s Folly?”
“Two reasons.” Ellamae held up a finger still sticky with icing. “One reason went out the door with him earlier.” Another finger. “And the other just ran into the next room with her friends.”
Roselynn stared at her. “Oh, no. That’s not a reason. Not for Caleb. He doesn’t know.”
“He could find out.”
Now Roselynn shook her head in earnest. “Not from us, he can’t. Our lives wouldn’t be worth the price of a three-day-old loaf of bread if Tess ever found out. Besides, she doesn’t even realize that we know.”
“Then I guess the girls are right.”
“About what?”
“He’s got to come around to the idea of marrying Tess.”
Her sister gasped. “What makes you think she’d want to marry him now, after he already left her once and broke her heart? You remember how she moped around here.”
“I do. But I also see how she’s been acting since he’s come back again. Like a firecracker ready to explode.”
“She doesn’t want to get hurt again.”
“Of course not. And she’s got her defenses up high against that, all right. Caleb’s gonna have a time knocking them down. But you called it, too. He won’t just up and decide on marriage all on his own. I imagine he’ll need to be roped and hog-tied by his friends.”
Roselynn set her teacup so firmly into its saucer, Ellamae felt sure it had cracked. “Those are children you’re talking about, El. You are not going to get them involved in something like—”
“Settle down, settle down,” she said, waving her hands to calm Rose. One of her hands just happened to pass over the basket, so she snagged another sweet roll. “I don’t plan for those girls to do anything about it at all. This situation calls for a couple of mature, educated people to handle it.”
“Like who?” Roselynn demanded.
“Like us, of course.”
Her sister sighed. “Oh, Ellamae, it’s so obvious our Nate’s related to you. You both do come up with the wildest ideas.” Grabbing a sweet roll, she smiled. “You always were good that way.” She rested her elbows on the table and leaned forward. “So, what’ve you got in mind?”