Carla Cassidy - To Wed and Protect

“Do they know what they’re playing? I mean, can they read the titles?”

“Jason can read a little, enough to recognize all the Alan Jackson songs.”

He laughed. “At least the kid has good taste in music.”

“You like country music?” she asked, trying to ignore the clean male scent of him that seemed to wrap around her so effectively. His body warmth seeped to her even though their bodies weren’t touching.

He turned sideways so he could look at her, his thigh suddenly pressing against hers. “As far as I’m concerned, there’s no other kind of music. What about you? What’s your listening pleasure?”

She tried to focus on what he was saying and not on the sensory overload of his nearness. Despite the material of his jeans and hers, she could feel the heat of his thigh intimately against her own. “I used to enjoy old rock and roll, but when we were driving across country, there were times when we could only pick up country stations, so I have to admit, I’ve grown pretty fond of it.”

“You should come down to the Honky Tonk one night.”

“The Honky Tonk?” She was intensely aware of speculative glances being shot their direction from the other diners, particularly the female diners.

“It’s a little tavern on the north side of town. I pick a little guitar and sing there most nights.”

“Really? So you’re a singing carpenter cowboy rancher.”

“Yeah, although I’m hoping eventually I can drop carpenter cowboy rancher from my résumé.”

She looked at him in surprise. “So, you want to be a performer?” He was certainly handsome enough. She wondered if he had any talent, other than the one of seduction that Stephanie had mentioned earlier.

“In seven months’ time I’m Nashville bound,” he said, his eyes sparkling with good humor. “And in the meantime, I’ve got a front porch to build.”

She returned his smile with one of her own. “Why seven months? I mean, if Nashville and fame are your dream, then why wait to chase after it?”

Abby knew all about the danger of waiting to reach for dreams. She knew that far too often if you waited too long, fate destroyed any chance of gaining the dreams you might entertain. No, fate hadn’t destroyed her dreams, Justin Cahill had seen to that.

She shoved this thought aside and listened as Luke explained to her about his father’s will. “Anyway, the short of it is that if I don’t want my brothers and sister to lose their inheritance, then I have to hang around here for the next seven months and put in twenty-five hours a week at the family ranch.”

He grinned, that slow, lazy smile that ignited heat in the pit of her stomach. “But, with a new pretty lady in town, hanging around here isn’t going to be so bad, after all.”

“I already warned her about you, Luke Delaney.” Stephanie placed a dinner platter before him and eyed him in mock sternness. “I told her to watch out for you, that you’re a charming devil without a heart.”

Luke laughed and turned to Abby. “Don’t pay any attention to her. She knows the only reason I don’t have a heart is because she stole it from me long ago.” He turned to look at the waitress. “You know you’re the only woman for me, Stephanie.”

She slapped him on the shoulder with her order pad. “And you are utterly shameless. You drink too much, you don’t take care of yourself and you never take anything seriously.” With these words and a wry shake of her head, she turned and left their table.

“She always gives me a hard time,” he explained, his features still lit with humor.

“She did warn me about you before you got here,” Abby replied. “She said you were a charmer.” Abby bit her bottom lip, unwilling to tell him what Stephanie had said about his powers of seduction.

Luke looked at her once again, and she wondered if he had any idea that his eyes seduced by merely gazing at her. “And that’s a bad thing?”

“Well, no…” She felt breathless beneath the power of his bedroom eyes. “That is, unless the woman you’re charming takes you too seriously.”

He grinned. “I take my charming of women very seriously.”

She broke the eye contact with him and gazed to where the two kids stood at the jukebox, tapping their feet and wiggling their bottoms in the unself-consciousness of children.

He didn’t speak until she looked at him once again, then he smiled that sexy grin that released a million butterflies in the pit of her stomach. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll give you fair warning before I attempt to charm you, and that way you won’t be caught unprepared.”

Despite the fact that Abby felt as if she had suddenly plunged into deep waters over her head, she laughed. “Okay,” she agreed. “That sounds fair to me.” Once again she broke their eye contact and looked at the kids. “And now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for me to get home and get those two ready for bed.”

In actuality, it was time for her to get away from Luke Delaney’s smile, his body warmth and the heated light that shone from his eyes. He was making her feel things she hadn’t felt for a very long time.

She sighed in relief as he stood to allow her to slide out of the booth. “I guess I’ll see you in the morning,” she said.

“Bright and early,” he replied, and in his smooth, deep voice she heard promise that had nothing to do with a new front porch.

She nodded, turned and walked to the cash register, refusing to follow her impulse to turn and look at him one last time.

The man was a definite temptation, but she knew the temptation he offered was not what she needed or wanted in her life at the moment. He could try his talent at seduction with her, but what he would eventually discover was that at this point in her life, she was absolutely, positively unseduceable.

Luke had been in a tailspin ever since learning that Abigail Graham had no husband and no boyfriend. It was as if fate had given him the thumbs-up to follow through on his initial attraction to her.

There was nothing Luke liked more than a challenge and the excitement of a new, fresh relationship. It had been several months since he’d even taken a woman on a date and months before that when he’d last been intimate with a woman.

He knew he had a reputation as a womanizer, and in truth had dated most of the single, eligible women in town. But since his father’s death, Luke had not been living up to his reputation.

As he ate, he thought about the lovely Abby, whose clean, lightly floral perfume still eddied in the air around him. A year was a long time to be alone, and there had been loneliness in her eyes, a loneliness that touched something deep inside him.

He shook his head as if to dislodge this thought. He certainly wasn’t lonely. His life was merely in a holding pattern until the seven months he had to spend at the ranch were over. And there was no reason he shouldn’t spend some of his holding-pattern time with a lovely woman named Abigail Graham.

By the time he’d finished his meal, the dinner rush had come and gone. Stephanie poured herself a cup of coffee and sank down across from him in the booth.

“I shouldn’t even talk to you,” Luke teased with an affectionate grin at Stephanie. “What are you doing maligning my good name behind my back to the new people in town?”

Stephanie snorted. “You don’t need any help maligning your name. I told that pretty lady the truth, that she needs to watch out for you. You’re a heartbreaker, Luke Delaney, and you’ve already broken half the hearts in this town.”

“But I’m good friends with every single woman I’ve ever dated,” he countered.

“And that’s part of your charm, dear Luke. You somehow manage to make every woman happy they got a moment of your time even though they wanted a lifetime.”

Stephanie took a sip of her coffee and shook her head with a smile. “But, mark my words, Luke. Someday you’re going to mess with the wrong woman and you’ll have one of those obsessive stalkers on your hands like in the movies.”

Luke laughed in genuine amusement. “Ah, Stephanie, you always did have a flair for the dramatic. I’m twenty-nine years old and I’m not cut out for marriage or family life. I play fair and make sure all the women I date know that ahead of time.”

Stephanie waved her hands to dismiss his statement. “If anyone in this town wasn’t cut out for marriage, it was your sister, Johnna. And look at her now, the picture of happily married bliss.” Stephanie finished her coffee and stood. “All you need Luke, is one good woman to tame you and you’re finished.”

Luke laughed, certain that no woman was ever going to tame and domesticate him. “Trust me, Stephanie. Growing up in my family gave me all the family experience I ever want in my life.”

Stephanie frowned. “You can’t judge marriage and family by what your daddy did to you kids. Every man needs a good woman, Luke. And that’s exactly what you need in your life.” With these final words, Stephanie turned and left his booth.

Luke sipped his coffee, thinking of Stephanie’s words. It had always amazed him that everyone in town seemed to know what a mean, hateful son of a bitch Adam Delaney had been as a father, but nobody had ever stepped in to help the four children who suffered at his hands.

He shoved away thoughts of his father. Thinking of Adam Delaney always caused a knot of fire to form in the pit of his stomach, a knot that only a good stiff drink could unkink. Instead, he focused on a vision of the lovely Abigail Graham.

Not only did she interest him on a physical level, but she intrigued him, as well. Along with the loneliness he’d thought he’d seen in her eyes, he’d sensed secrets. She certainly hadn’t been forthcoming about where they had come from.

Back east, she’d said, then had finally said they were from Chicago. But, when he had gone past the bedrooms, he’d noticed that Jason’s room was decorated in a Kansas City Chiefs motif. Why would a kid from Chicago want items from the Kansas City football team in his room? Why not the Chicago Bears?

Luke sipped the last of his coffee and wondered if perhaps he was making too much of nothing. Maybe the kid’s father had been a Chiefs fan, or perhaps he’d had a friend from the Kansas City area who had gotten him to follow the team. In any case, it didn’t much matter. He didn’t really care where she’d come from.

“More coffee?” Stephanie pulled him from his thoughts.

“No, thanks,” he replied, and reached in his back pocket for his wallet. “I’ve got to get out of here. I need to get out to the ranch for a couple of hours before I head over to the Honky Tonk.”

“Tomorrow is my night off, and I already told Tom that I want to go to the Honky Tonk and have a drink and listen to you croon a few tunes.”

Luke grinned at the older woman. “You and Tom come in, and your first round of drinks is on me.” He tossed enough money on the table to pay for his meal and a generous tip.

“Then for sure we’ll be in,” she agreed.

Luke left the diner, climbed into his pickup and within minutes was headed to the family ranch. He’d surprised himself by telling Abby of his plans to head to Nashville. That was something he hadn’t shared with anyone, not even his siblings, who he knew probably didn’t give a damn what he did or where he went. To say the Delaney heirs weren’t tightly knit was an understatement.

Still, he had a feeling he’d told Abby his plans for a reason. He was interested in her, but he certainly wasn’t interested in anything long-term. By telling her that in seven months his plans were to leave Inferno and never look back, he’d subtly told her that he wasn’t a man to pin a future on.