“Now don’t you give me that long face.” He caressed her cheek with his thumb. “This worked out for the best. I hope you can forgive me.”
“There’s nothing to forgive, Chad. I wanted it as much as you did.” Probably more, but she didn’t say it.
“Well, no harm done.” He stood and helped her to her feet. “Now you look pretty as a picture. Let’s go get some of those eats, okay?”
She nodded, choking back the tears that threatened. Sure, she’d go eat. It would all taste like sawdust, but what the heck?
“You go on down,” Chad was saying, “and I’ll follow in ten minutes or so.”
She nodded again, looked in her mirror. Her eyes were still puffy but there wasn’t anything she could do about it. She brushed her hair, applied some lipstick and then some soothing eye gel that would hopefully ease the puffiness. She glanced at Chad one more time, said nothing, opened her bedroom door, and headed down to the party.
* * *
Chad flopped back on Catie’s pink comforter. His erection throbbed beneath his belt buckle. Whew. Saved by the bell.
But damn, he hadn’t wanted to be saved. He’d wanted nothing more than to sink himself into her softness.
He wasn’t sure he’d ever wanted a woman as much as he longed for Catie Bay. He rubbed his palm over his denim-clad erection and groaned. What the hell had he been thinking?
He’d been thinking she was the prettiest thing he’d seen this side of heaven. That’s what he’d been thinking. With the perkiest breasts and sweetest nipples he’d ever tasted. What was it about her? His pulse still stampeded. He loved women, and he loved sex, but his pulse didn’t usually race. His skin didn’t usually tingle. What the hell was going on?
Damn, if she walked back in this room in the next minute, he’d be all over her again.
He got up quickly, raked his fingers through his mass of hair, and wondered what to do about the throbbing in his pants. A cold shower was out of the question. Maria could walk in and find him, or worse yet, Harper or Wayne.
He shook his head. He’d have to deal with the discomfort and will it down himself.
He went down to join the others and tried not to stare at Catie, who had taken a seat at a table with her parents, Harper, and Dallas and Annie and their two daughters.
Of course, it’d be perfectly acceptable to join them. Dallas was his brother, after all.
“Uncle Chad!”
His four-year-old nephew, Sean, ran toward him. Sean had a shock of strawberry blond hair that matched his mother’s and two light blue eyes. He was a beautiful kid, and was the one who’d first made Chad an uncle. Chad had a special place in his heart for Sean.
“Hey, little critter, where’s your ma and pa?”
“They’re gettin’ food. But I saw you and wanted to hang out with you.”
“Aw.” Chad’s heart melted.
“When are we goin’ fishin’ again?” The little boy asked.
Chad scooped up his nephew and started for the buffet. “Anytime, critter, anytime. We’ll catch us some good Rocky Mountain trout, won’t we? For now, though, let’s get some chow.”
“Okay,” he said, his little hands grasping Chad’s shoulders.
Chad filled a plate for himself and for Sean and then went to join Zach and Dusty, Sean’s parents, at a table that was, thankfully, far from Catie’s.
He gazed at his pretty sister-in-law and marveled at how much Sean looked like her. Except for those blue eyes. They were from his pa, but only one of them. Chad’s brother Zach had one brown eye and one blue. Didn’t bother Dusty, though. She was crazy in love with him, and the feeling was mutual. It showed all over both their faces.
For a minute Chad wondered what it would feel like to have a woman crazy in love with him. Would she look at him with stars in her eyes the way Dusty looked at Zach, even after nearly five years together?
Even more surreal, how would it feel to him to be crazy in love with a woman? Would he stare at his woman dreamily, the way Zach stared at Dusty? The way Dallas stared at Annie? His brothers were goners, for sure.
Course neither of them had been the womanizer Chad was. Neither dated in high school, while Chad had been all over the cheerleaders and 4-H girls. Dallas had married an eastern girl, only to divorce her years later. He met and married Annie soon after his divorce was final. Zach had been briefly engaged to Catie’s older sister, Angie, but that hadn’t worked out. Neither had known love until they’d met their current wives.
And neither ceased to extol the virtues of married life with the right woman.