He lifted both eyebrows. “Well, in some ways I am,” he murmured with a long look at her figure that spoke volumes.
She flushed.
“Coffee?” he asked hopefully, smiling. “It’s cold out there.”
“I can make a pot,” she said. “No cake, but I have cheese and crackers.”
“Even better,” he replied.
* * *
They sat eating cheese and crackers in a companionable silence.
“Got your pregnant heifers up?” he asked.
She nodded. “Dad’s foreman is really good at his job. All I needed to do was stand aside and let him do it.” She shook her head. “I almost made a mess of things. I would have asked you for help, but . . .”
“But I was being tiresome,” he answered for her. He smiled. “I’m reforming as we speak,” he promised. He nibbled a cracker. “Todd’s little boy came running when his dad showed up. He was bawling.” He shifted in the chair. “I never thought about kids,” he added. “In fact, I’ve spent most of my adult life running away from ties.”
She didn’t speak. She just waited.
He noticed that, and smiled. “I enjoyed playing the field. But after a while, they all look alike, sound alike.” He shrugged. “Even Dana. She was sweet and I was fond of her, but I never pictured her wearing an apron, surrounded by little kids.”
“I don’t think she likes kids, from what Jeff’s said about her,” she replied.
“He’s the same way. They’re the sort who’d travel, if they had money. They think alike.”
She nodded.
He studied her. “You were seventeen when you fell into the coal bin,” he recalled. “Didn’t you ever wonder why I reacted so badly to the way you were dressed that night?”
She blinked. “Well, once in a while,” she confessed.
He stared at her evenly. “You were lovely, even at that age. I wanted you. But I knew your father would kill me if I tried anything. You were years too young anyway.” He sighed. “I backed away and kept backing away, especially after he told me how competitive you were around men.” He laughed hollowly at her expression. “It was a lie, and I didn’t realize it. He was trying to protect you from me.”
“I guess so,” she said. “You had quite a reputation.”
“I still do,” he said, and he was somber. “It will take some time to redeem it in the eyes of local people. But I’m not running anymore, Meadow,” he added quietly. “I’ve done a lot of thinking about what I want to do with the rest of my life. I want a family.”
Her eyebrows were arching. She felt her forehead. “I don’t think I have a fever. How can I be hallucinating?”
“Stop that,” he said. “I’m serious.”
“Me too. What have you done with Dal Blake?”
He chuckled. “I guess I don’t sound like myself.” He cocked his head. “Suppose you and I start going out together? We can even go to church next Sunday.”
She caught her breath. “The minister will pass out in the pulpit.”
“Probably, but if he does, more people will show up the next Sunday out of curiosity.” He chuckled.
“Are you really serious?”
He pushed away from the table, got up, picked her up in his arms, and dropped into a cushy armchair in the living room.
“Let me show you how serious I am,” he murmured as he bent to her mouth.
* * *