Kate Little - Husband For Keeps

As Carey’s thoughts wandered, her gaze searched the road for any sign of Kyle. All she had to do was find Kyle and bring him back before the judge flew the coop. Once the stroke of midnight sounded, marking her thirtieth birthday, she would lose everything if she was still single.

But if Kyle was stuck someplace in the rain, or worse yet, if his flight had been forced to land at some distant airport, she was sunk. Who in the world could she find to marry her at this late hour in the game?

Carey took a deep, calming breath. It didn’t do any good to dwell on the worst possibilities. You have to think positively, she coached herself, trying to pump up her positive energy as she’d learned to do from stepping into a tough audition. You have to picture yourself standing in front of that judge, saying “I do!”

As Carey coaxed mental images of her nuptials, the wipers struggled to keep up with the driving rain. Carey leaned forward and whisked some fog from the windshield with the edge of her sleeve. She could barely see even a few yards ahead of her.

Not that there was much to see. The road was not well traveled even on the fairest days. This morning, she reasoned, anyone with any sense in their head had pulled over to wait out the worst of the storm.

Then suddenly she spotted the dark form of a vehicle up ahead, parked on the side of the road. Kyle’s rental car! Yes! Her heart lurched hopefully. See what a little positive thinking can do? She congratulated herself.

Then she drew closer. A flash of lightning illuminated the scene. Not Kyle’s car as she hoped. Her spirits sank again as she took in the sight of a black flatbed pickup, its emergency lights flashing. A blue bandanna was tied to the radio antenna, hanging limp and drenched with rain. Clearly the troubled traveler had been sitting there for some time.

“Oh, drat.” Carey slapped the steering wheel with the palm of her hand.

Just what I need, a chance to play Good Samaritan. Don’t I have more important things to do than rescue stranded neighbors right now? If I don’t find Kyle out here somewhere within the next fifteen minutes, my entire life is down the toilet.

She approached the truck and carefully applied the brakes. Her own truck skidded and veered to the side but finally stopped safely on the road shoulder. She cut the engine and pressed on her emergency lights.

When she looked back at the black pickup, she caught sight of a small face, staring at her through a circle in the fogged window. A little boy’s face, his dark eyes wide and frightened.

She forgot about her missing groom and spoiled plans and was suddenly happy she’d stopped. She pushed her door open, and a gust of rain hit her with a blast as she hopped out of the truck. Her boots sank into the mud several inches.

The door of the black truck swung open, and Carey found herself staring at the driver. His serious, impassive expression, strong features and compelling dark eyes made her breath catch and froze her in her tracks.

“Thanks for stopping,” he said, unsmiling. His voice was deep, rough, disturbingly masculine.

“No problem,” she replied evenly. “Why don’t you leave your truck here, and I’ll give you a lift back to my place? It’s only a few miles west.”

As Carey spoke she felt increasingly self-conscious under his assessing glance. She realized what a sight she must seem, from the garland of wilted flowers in her matted hair, to her long, wet, mud-splattered skirt.

Suddenly the boy’s dark head popped up from behind one broad shoulder. Carey smiled at his wide-eyed expression. She’d forgotten all about him for a moment.

“Hey, Luke, has that lady come to help us?” she heard him whisper into the driver’s ear.

“Sure thing, pal,” the driver said. “I told you someone would come,” the man named Luke added in a quiet, reassuring tone. “Tyler doesn’t care much for thunderstorms,” he explained, glancing with a sympathetic gaze at the boy.

“Oh…I see.” Carey peeked over Luke’s broad shoulder at Tyler’s small, wary expression. “Well, here I am. Your official rescue squad.” She offered a wide smile in the boy’s direction. “When I was a kid I didn’t like storms, either. But my mother used to tell me it was only angels bowling.”

Tyler’s uneasy expression slowly changed to a smile. “That’s silly,” he said.

“Yeah, isn’t it?” Carey agreed with a little laugh.

Then she met Luke’s gaze and felt mesmerized as a slow, reluctant smile transformed his hard, impassive features. Not the sly, come-on smile Carey normally drew from members of the opposite sex. This was different. Completely different.

Deep dimples creased his tanned cheeks; even, white teeth flashed against tanned skin, a sudden light in his dark eyes glowed as he met her gaze. Carey smiled back, feeling a curious, punched-in-the-gut sensation again. As if, during that instant his gaze had met and held hers, somehow he’d tapped a direct line to her heart.

Gratitude, perhaps, for the comfort she offered his small scared companion. Or simply the glance two adults exchange when caring for a child.

But just as quickly his expression returned to the shuttered mask that had first greeted her. She had the oddest feeling he regretted allowing himself even that single, simple instant of intimacy.

He turned abruptly to the boy. “Let me help you out on this side, Ty. There’s a big puddle on yours. And don’t forget your hat.”

“I’ll wait in the truck for you,” Carey said curtly. She turned and tramped off to her truck, putting some much-needed distance between herself and her newfound passengers.

Her reaction to this guy had been…ridiculous. It had to be the stress of this everything-gone-wrong day—when so much depended on things going right for her, just this once.

Luke and Tyler soon appeared at the passenger side of the truck, and Luke opened the door and helped the boy climb in.

“Just wait here with the lady a minute,” Luke instructed him. “I need to go back to the truck. I’ll just be a minute,” he told Carey.

Once Carey and Tyler were alone, he glanced up at her warily. “My name is Tyler,” he offered politely, reminding her that she hadn’t introduced herself by name yet.

“I’m Carey,” she returned. “Carey Winslow.” Then, not knowing what else to say as he continued to stare up at her so solemnly, she added, “How old are you?”

“I’m four. Almost going to be five.”

Carey, who wasn’t around small children much, didn’t know how to keep the conversation going. Thunder rolled loudly nearby, and she saw the child grow tense again.

“Do you like horses?” she asked, hoping to distract him.

“I guess,” he said hesitantly, his answer surprising her. What four-year-old boy didn’t like horses?

“I’ve only seen a few close up. I never rode one,” he explained. The he looked back up at her, his expression very serious. “Luke has. He’s been on a lot of horses.”

Carey, who knew a full-blooded cowboy when she saw one, laughed lightly. “I bet he has. Maybe he’ll teach you to ride them someday, too. You’d like it. It’s fun.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Tyler replied. He continued to stare at her and did not smile back.

Carey looked for Luke and saw him moving bags from the truck bed into the cab. She glanced at her watch, wishing she could deliver these two hapless travelers back to the house and get on the road again.

“Carey, can I ask you something?” Tyler’s voice broke into her thoughts.

“What’s that?”

“Are you…are you like a fairy princess or something? Like in a book?” His question would have made her burst out in laughter, if not for the solemn expression of his small round face and dark-brown eyes. Eyes a lot like Luke’s—though it was still unclear what the relationship was between the man and boy.

She shook her head, pursing her lips to keep from smiling too broadly. “No, not at all. Just a regular person… Whatever gave you that idea?”

He shrugged, a small movement under his thin, baseball-style jacket. “I just thought maybe you were. You look like the pictures of one in a book I used to have. Like that crown thing in your hair and your long dress and all,” he explained, seeming a bit embarrassed.

“Oh—” She glanced down at her long skirt, then remembered the garland of soggy flowers in her hair. “Oh, sure. I see…I’m just dressed…special today,” she tried to explain. “For a special occasion.”

He seemed satisfied with that explanation, his expression lighting up in anticipation. “Like a party you mean?”

“Hmmm. Sort of,” she hedged, thinking of the three-tiered cake and the bowl of punch.

The passenger side door swung open and a gust of rain blew into the cozy truck cab. Just outside the truck, Luke removed his Stetson, shook the water off quickly, then ducked inside and slammed the door. Tyler quickly scooted close to Carey to make room for him.

“Well, put it in gear and let’s see what we’ve got,” Luke said. “If we’re stuck, I’ll get out and push.”

He wiped his damp hair back off his brow with a quick, sweeping motion of his hand. She suddenly noticed he was in need of a shave, though the observation did nothing to detract from his dark good looks. Carey forced herself to look away.

“I think we’ll be okay,” Carey replied, as she slipped the transmission in low gear. The truck wheels spun for a long, agonizing moment, then suddenly gripped the mud as the vehicle lurched out onto the road.

Carey quietly sighed with relief and thought she heard the same from Luke’s end of the cab. “You shouldn’t have parked so far onto the shoulder like that. We might have been stuck in the mud,” he observed.

“Well, we weren’t, so that’s mud under the bridge in my book.” Her reply was delivered in a cheerful, even tone, though she actually felt put out by the need to explain herself to a stranger. For goodness’ sake, he was lucky she’d come along when she had and offered him a ride.

“My name is Carey, by the way,” she added. “Carey Winslow.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught him glance her way over Tyler’s head. Then he looked back out at the road.

“Luke Redstone,” he replied. “And this is Tyler…my nephew.”

“Yes, I know. We’ve been getting acquainted.” Carey glanced down warmly at the boy.

Luke looked at him, too. A questioning look, as if he was worried about what the boy had said in his absence. “We were just talking about horses,” Tyler explained in a quiet voice to his uncle.

Luke seemed satisfied with that reply, his features fixed in the serious, thoughtful expression that was quickly becoming familiar to her.

“And I asked her about, you know, what I thought,” Tyler added in an even quieter voice. “And you were right. What you said. She’s not…one. She’s just dressed up that way for a party.”

Taking her eyes off the treacherous road for a moment, Carey noticed that this last comment caused a slight grin to soften Luke’s expression.

“Well, that makes some sense, I suppose,” he replied to Tyler. Then to Carey he said, “I did notice that you weren’t quite dressed for the weather.”

He turned, his gaze moving slowly down her body with an assessing, slightly amused light dancing in his dark eyes.

She knew she looked a sight, from the circle of wilted flowers in her long, wind-whipped hair, to the soggy skirt that clung damply to her legs. His appraisal of her appearance unnerved her. Annoyed her, actually.

“It’s not a party exactly,” Carey replied, unsure of how much she was willing to disclose about her present predicament. “I’m supposed to be getting married today.”