The Bridal Path: Danielle Read online

  Puzzled by his reaction, she asked, “Would you like to come along?”

  “No,” he said so sharply that Dani simply stared.

  “Slade?” she said quizzically.

  He stood up. “I’m sorry. It’s time I got the boys home, or we’ll never get dinner on the table.”

  Dani resisted the desire to suggest they stay and eat with her. She might want Slade Watkins and his boys to become her family, but it was far too soon for Slade himself to become aware of that. It would probably scare him to death or worse, cause him to view her as desperate and pitiful. No, now was not the time to press the issue.

  “I baked an extra apple pie today. Would you like to take it home for dessert?”

  At last his expression softened. “Now, you know perfectly well I can’t say no to that. The boys would never forgive me. It’ll probably be the only edible thing on the table.”

  She hesitated to bring it up again, since the last mention had nearly brought about an explosion of temper, but she wanted to be absolutely clear about what Slade’s terse reply had meant.

  “Are you sure you don’t mind if the boys go to the ranch without you? I think they’ll really enjoy it. They can learn to ride. Jake and Sara will both be around. So will Daddy, no doubt. They won’t get hurt.”

  He looked torn, but he finally relented. “If they want to go, it’s fine with me. Just don’t expect me to come along.”

  Dani knew there was a story behind that, but she wisely refrained from pressing the issue. For the moment she had his commitment to let the boys go, and that would have to do.

  * * *

  The next afternoon she was still puzzling over Slade’s odd reaction to the idea of visiting Three-Stars when she looked up and saw him heading toward the house with a bagful of lemons.

  “A peace offering,” he said as he handed it to her. “I know I was curt with you yesterday.”

  Dani smiled and gestured toward the lemons. “So you brought along a tart reminder?”

  He grinned. “Something like that. How are the cupcakes coming for Saturday’s garage sale?”

  “Baked and iced and in the freezer. Two dozen of them. We had to make them today since we’ll be so busy tomorrow.”

  “Am I too late to help with the lemonade?”

  “Absolutely not,” she said, getting several pitchers out of the cupboard.

  When she handed him an old-fashioned hand juicer, he simply stared. “Where’s the fancy electric one?”

  “I’m sure you can handle this one,” she assured him. “It’s simple and effective. Life did go on quite nicely before all the modern conveniences were invented.” She handed him a knife. “Go for it.”

  He studied the pile of lemons, the glass juicer and the knife as if they were alien objects. Dani hid a grin at his fierce look of concentration as he began to squeeze the juice from the first lemon. He stared hard at the minuscule amount that wound up in the tray, then looked up at her.

  “It’s going to be a long afternoon, isn’t it?”

  She chuckled. “But I promise great rewards for your efforts.”

  His gaze clashed with hers and held. He rose slowly. “I can only think of one reward that will be worth all this work.”

  Dani got the distinct impression from that glint in his eye that he was not referring to a pitcher of homemade lemonade.

  “And I don’t think I’m willing to wait for it,” he added, stepping closer.

  Before she realized fully what he intended, he lowered his head and grazed her lips with a tender kiss. Dani blinked and stared into Slade’s deep blue eyes. He looked a little dazed, but as quickly as that reaction registered in her brain, his bafflement changed to desire and his mouth recaptured hers.

  Tenderness rapidly gave way to something far more tempestuous. Dani’s pulse quickened, then raced as his arms slid around her waist. Their bodies fit together as perfectly, as intimately as if they’d been carved for mating.

  Wild, unexpected sensations rampaged through her, stealing breath and rational thought. All that mattered was that deep, memorable kiss, the skim of flesh against flesh, the taunting rub of fabric over sensitized nipples, the stunning press of masculine arousal.

  And the heat. Oh, my, the incomparable heat. Dani thought she had never experienced anything quite like it. She felt it everywhere, warm and liquid where their tongues met, blazing over her skin where his caresses lingered, and raging like a wildfire in her veins.

  The kiss lasted forever…and not nearly long enough. When they finally broke apart, both of them breathless and shaken, Dani was speechless. So, it seemed, was Slade. In fact, he looked as if he’d been poleaxed.

  She was surprised to see that his hands shook as he turned away and deliberately reached for another lemon. Surely this wasn’t half as shocking to him as it had been to her, she thought as she sank back onto a chair and clutched the edge of the table for some sort of link to reality. Surely he’d experienced a zillion kisses just as devastating.

  That dazed look in his eyes, however, said otherwise. And it was enough–more than enough, in fact–to give Dani the courage to move on with her plan to capture Slade Watkins’s heart and his boys for her own.

  Chapter Five

  “And there were horses and cows and real live cowboys,” Kevin told Slade exuberantly over supper the next night. “Jake Dawson used to ride bulls in the rodeo. He was a champion. Sara even rode on a bucking bronco in a contest.” His eyes were wide with the wonder of it all. “I want to grow up and live on a ranch just like Three-Stars.”

  Slade winced. His son could have done exactly that had Slade made peace with Kevin and Timmy’s grandfather. He tried to imagine what his son would think of him if he knew Slade had walked away from such an opportunity, if he guessed that his father had shunned the very life-style that had so entranced Kevin on their outing with Dani to her family’s ranch. This was precisely the outcome he had feared when she had first suggested the visit.

  Slade glanced at Timmy, who was curiously silent. “What about you? Did you have a good time?”

  “It was okay, I guess,” Timmy said.

  The lack of enthusiasm was such a contrast to Kevin’s delight, so at odds with Timmy’s usual exuberance, that Slade was instantly on the alert. Something had clearly happened to his older son on that visit to the ranch.

  “Did you go for a horseback ride?” he asked, trying to tread carefully on tender young male pride as he sought answers.

  “Yeah.”

  “It was awesome,” Kevin chimed in. “I rode this palomino pony named Buttercup. It’s a sissy name, but she was a great horse.”

  “And you, Timmy?”

  The question was greeted by absolute silence, until Kevin finally ventured, “Timmy fell off his horse.”

  Timmy’s face contorted with anger. “You weren’t supposed to tell,” he shouted at Kevin as he shoved back his chair and ran from the room.

  Guilty tears welled up in Kevin’s eyes. “I promised I wouldn’t tell,” he admitted to Slade, “but he didn’t have to go and get all crazy. He didn’t get hurt or anything. It’s not like you’re going to say we can never go again, right?” Worry creased his brow. “You won’t, will you?”

  “Of course not,” Slade said at once. “But I’d better go talk to him. Finish your dinner, okay?”

  Kevin stood up, too. “Maybe I’d better go and tell him I’m sorry,” he said stoically.

  Slade scooped up his youngest and hugged him. For all of the boyish squabbling in which he and Timmy engaged, they were fiercely loyal. Of the two, Kevin was by far the most compassionate. Guilt radiated from every pore over hurting his much-idolized big brother’s feelings.

  “You can apologize later,” Slade told him. “Let me see him alone for a bit. I’ll bet I can get him back in here in time for dessert.”

  Kevin’s expression brightened. “Is it one of Dani’s pies?”

  “The rest of the apple pie,” Slade confirmed. “Now eat your vegetab
les.”

  Kevin’s eyes narrowed. “Will Timmy have to eat his, too?”

  “Yes, Timmy will have to eat his, too, if he wants dessert.”

  With Kevin grudgingly forcing down the cooked peas and carrots, Slade took his time climbing the stairs. He could just imagine Timmy’s humiliation at having fallen from the horse in front of Dani. His pride would be in tatters.

  With the injury to Timmy’s ego so fresh, Slade doubted anything he could say at this point would make a difference, but he had to find some way to convince Timmy that falling from a horse wasn’t the end of the world. He had to do a far better job than his own father had done at explaining that not everyone was suited for ranch life.

  He knocked softly on Timmy’s bedroom door. He could hear muffled sobs inside. Doubting that Timmy would willingly admit him, Slade opened the door, crossed the room and stood over the huddled figure of his boy.

  “You okay?”

  “I’m going to kill the squirt,” Timmy managed to choke out between sobs.

  Slade held back a smile, then sat on the edge of the bed. Timmy instinctively scooted closer without looking up at him.

  “I don’t think killing him will be necessary,” Slade told him. “Kevin feels really bad that he tattled on you, but he was right to do it this one time, you know.”

  Timmy lifted his tear-streaked face and stared with openmouthed astonishment. “You said tattling on people is practically a sin.”

  “Sometimes, when you care a lot about someone and you can’t help them, you need to let someone who can help know what’s going on.”

  “It was just a fall off a stupid horse,” Timmy countered. “It’s not like I broke my arm or committed a crime or something.”

  “Was Dani there when you fell?” Slade asked, trying to get to the heart of his son’s dismay.

  His son bobbed his head once as his cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

  “That must have felt pretty awful,” Slade suggested, aching for his son and recalling all too vividly his own humiliation under similar circumstances.

  Timmy nodded again.

  “Did you get back on?”

  Timmy’s chin quivered as he shook his head. “I couldn’t, Dad. I just couldn’t. I ran away. Dani had to come and find me. She told me I shouldn’t feel bad, but I did. I felt dumb. We weren’t even out of the paddock or anything. Even Kevin stayed on, and he’s just a baby.”

  “I’ll bet Dani has fallen her share of times. And I know her sister Sara did when she was trying to learn to ride a bronco. It’s just part of learning to ride.”

  Timmy sniffed. “That’s what Dani said.”

  “Didn’t you believe her?”

  “I figured she was just trying to make me feel better. She does that all the time. She jokes around until you forget whatever happened to make you feel bad.”

  “Dani’s pretty terrific, isn’t she?”

  Timmy’s expression began to clear. His eyes brightened. “She’s the best.” He regarded Slade slyly. “I think she likes you, too.”

  Slade swallowed hard as memories of that bone-melting, sizzling kiss came roaring back. “What makes you think that?” he asked in a choked voice. That kiss had been a warning to steer clear of her, unless he wanted to risk both of them getting hurt eventually. Passion didn’t equal love. It never had. One could exist quite nicely without the other, assuming love between men and women even existed at all.

  Now, love between parent and child, that was something else again, he thought, gazing at his son. Given his background, he’d been stunned by the strength of that bond. Timmy and Kevin might baffle him most of the time, dismay him quite a lot of the time and infuriate him some of the time, but the strongest emotion he felt through all of it was love.

  From the first moment he’d held them in his arms, his heart had been lost. He’d vowed then and there that they would always know exactly how much they meant to him, that he would never try to control and dominate and, failing that, then dismiss as his father had.

  “I think she likes you because of the way she looks at you when you come around,” Timmy told him, his expression thoughtful as he struggled to put his conviction into words.

  “How does she look at me?” Slade asked, unable to curb his curiosity.

  “All mushy like they do in the movies right before they kiss.” He studied Slade intently. “Have you kissed her yet?”

  “If I have, it’s none of your business,” Slade said stiffly.

  Timmy’s expression turned all too knowing. “You have, I’ll bet. What’s it like kissing a girl?”

  “You’ll find that out for yourself soon enough,” Slade told him. He grinned. “And it’s a little like riding a horse. Sometimes you get it wrong, but it gets better and better the more you do it.”

  Timmy’s fascination with kissing clearly faded at the mention of horseback riding. His face clouded with concern again. “Did you ever fall off a horse?” he asked hesitantly.

  Ah, there it was, Slade thought, the question he’d been hoping to avoid. “Quite a lot, actually. I was younger than Kevin.”

  “You rode a horse when you were that little?” Timmy asked incredulously. “How come?”

  “My father insisted on it.”

  “Grandfather rode horses?”

  “All the time.”

  “Why?”

  Slade was sure that given enough time he could come up with an evasive answer that would have satisfied Timmy and kept him away from a subject he would rather avoid. After his conversation with Dani, though, he wondered if he’d be able to steer clear of it forever. Maybe it was time to bite the bullet and admit a few things about his past, about his sons’ heritage.

  “Because he’s a rancher,” he said eventually.

  Timmy’s eyes widened predictably. “Like Mr. Wilde?”

  “Exactly like Mr. Wilde,” he said with an edge of dry humor his son couldn’t possibly understand.

  “How come you’ve never told us that before?”

  “Because your grandfather and I don’t get along so well, so I don’t like to talk about him much.”

  “He’s still alive?” Timmy asked, disbelief written all over his face. “I figured he was dead.”

  “No, Duke Watkins is very much alive.”

  “Where does he live?”

  “In Texas.”

  “Can we go there sometime?” he pleaded, clearly oblivious to Slade’s distaste for the subject. “Not to ride horses or anything,” he added hurriedly. “Just to see our grandfather.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Slade said evasively.

  For once Timmy didn’t argue. He apparently had too many questions.

  “Do we have a grandmother, too?” he asked.

  Slade nodded.

  “Wow, awesome!” He hesitated. “Do you think they’d like me and Kevin?”

  Slade sighed, then said candidly, “They would adore you.”

  “Wow! Wait until I tell Kevin.”

  Before Slade could stop him, Timmy rushed from the room and clattered down the stairs, shouting for his brother. So much for old secrets, he thought with a sigh. His past was about to come out of the closet with a vengeance.

  He hoped like hell Dani would be satisfied at the can of worms she’d opened up by dragging the boys out to the ranch. Of course, he had a feeling that even if she’d known precisely what the outcome would be, she would have gone ahead with her plans anyway.

  But when the boys started clamoring for a trip to Texas, maybe he’d just send Dani along with them so she could get a firsthand look at what a real control freak looked like. Maybe then she’d come to appreciate her own father’s far more mild-mannered form of meddling.

  * * *

  As distraught as Timmy had been the night before over embarrassing himself in front of Dani, Slade decided he had no choice but to go with the boys on Saturday when they planned to hold the yard sale at Dani’s. When he saw relief wash over Timmy’s face he was glad he’d reached tha
t decision. Apparently a little fatherly moral support was just what he needed to face Dani again.

  They arrived precisely as planned at seven o’clock. The yard sale had been advertised around town on handmade posters, with a scheduled start time of eight. Already, though, Dani looked besieged. Half a dozen cars were parked at the curb, the occupants looking like an anxious swarm of locusts.

  The Bleecker boys were struggling to get their card table opened and ready for the lemonade sale. Two identical twin boys, Dirk and Kirk Hinson, their mouths covered with chocolate frosting, looked as if they’d already eaten up most of the potential profits from the cupcake sale. Only that daylong trip to Three-Stars had probably saved them from being eaten straight out of the oven two days ago.

  “Thank goodness you’re here,” Dani said, pausing long enough to hug both boys. The look she exchanged with Slade was so frazzled, so unexpectedly vulnerable that he concluded right then he would have fought dragons for her.

  “Did this get just the teensiest bit out of hand?” he inquired, very glad he’d insisted they leave Pirate at home that morning. The dog would have been the last straw. Dani might very well have flipped out right before his eyes with Pirate chasing everyone in sight.

  “Don’t gloat,” she warned. “Just start carting those boxes in the garage out to the lawn. And if one single person gets out of a car, belt them.”

  “Is that how you’ve held them at bay up until now?”

  “I waved my shotgun at the first car. Word spread,” she told him with a grin.

  “I can imagine. I doubt I’ll have any trouble with them.”

  “Oh, you’d be surprised what the sight of a few boxes of cast-off belongings will do to otherwise rational people. I ought to know. I nearly trampled a woman to get that old-fashioned cookie cutter I have in the kitchen. Paid top dollar for it, too.”

  Slade chuckled at her triumphant expression. “Nothing stands in your way when you want something, does it?”

  “Nothing,” she confirmed, then grinned at him. “You might want to remember that.”

  He was still trying to puzzle out the meaning of her remark as she dashed across the lawn to nab the card table just before it upended with three pitchers of lemonade.