Shoe Strings

places she
wasn’t sure she was ready to go.   If
she closed her eyes, she could still feel the scratch of unshaven beard against
the delicate skin of her neck.   And
thinking of it made her pulse dance as if he were still inches away, his sultry
mouth ready and willing to take hers again, damn the consequences.   It had to be his reckless,
devil-may-care attitude that drew her so intensely.  
    What would it be like to live life without a care as to what
people thought, where impulse ruled?   She imagined it would be dangerous and darkly thrilling.   Thinking of it, and him, made the nerves
in her belly twist.   She’d given in
to attraction once before and ended up pregnant and alone…and heartbroken.   Not for the man who’d abandoned her, but
for the baby Lita still loved.
    When she heard Cal’s screen door slam shut, she moved away
from the window and picked up one of the paperback novels she’d found on the
cabin’s stocked bookshelf.   Maybe a
murder mystery would keep her mind from wandering to more dangerous places than
an abandoned warehouse, like the character in the book.   Lita knew where real danger lurked, in
the dark and lonely places of her heart, the same places she’d locked away
years ago.   But if the door was
safely locked, why did she feel as if Jesse trod perilously close to where
she’d hidden the key?

 

 
    Chapter 16
    The potatoes gurgled on the stovetop.   The freshly baked bread cooled on the
counter and the smell of cooked prunes and apples lent the kitchen the familiar
smell of home.   Kerri Ann knew her
grandmother’s Danish pork tenderloin recipe was one of Bryce’s favorites.   She’d cleaned the asparagus spears she’d
picked up at the market and carefully arranged them with olive oil and kosher
salt.   The tray sat waiting to broil
and now she needed to change her clothes and do something with her hair.  
    She dashed up the stairs and stripped to nothing, rinsed off
in the shower, and dug through her underwear drawer for the one nice bra and
panty set she’d bought with Lita’s help.   Her nervous energy propelled her into the closet, where she came to a
dead stop.   What the hell was she
going to wear?   Jeans were too
casual, slacks too formal, a dress or skirt too obvious.   Urrrrrh.  
    Kerri Ann could handle throwing together a home-cooked meal
in no time and picking up the house so it didn’t look like a tornado (her son)
had gone through in the last hour, but picking out what to wear to the most
important dinner of her life seemed insurmountable.   She’d planned to seduce him into bed,
but she didn’t want him to recognize her plan the moment he laid eyes on her.   It would have to be jeans.   Anything else wouldn’t seem normal.
    She paired the low-rise jeans she never wore to work with a
form-fitting button-down in soft pink.   The material clung to her skin and the nipped waist helped camouflage
her lack of cleavage.   She dusted
her face with powder and added gloss to her lips.   At the last minute, she pulled her hair
up in a simple twist and put on the one pair of dangly earrings she owned.  
    She could hear the timer buzzing in the kitchen and felt
glad she didn’t have any more time to primp or concern herself with how she
looked.   After all this time, it
wasn’t like Bryce hadn’t seen her at her worst.   Tonight, she hoped he’d see her at her
best.   With a quick spritz of
perfume, she dashed downstairs to start on the mashed potatoes.
    With the potatoes whirling in the mixer, Kerri Ann turned to
get a spatula from the drawer.   That’s when she saw Bryce, standing in the doorway of her kitchen, a
bottle of wine in his hand, a sly smile on his face.   She gasped, but wasn’t sure if it was
from his unexpected appearance or the fact that he looked so handsome in his
jeans and black sweater.  
    “Bryce.”   She
turned off the mixer off.   “You
startled me.”
    “I knocked, but you didn’t hear.”   He stepped closer, held out the
wine.   “For you.”
    “Thanks.”   She
set it on the counter and fished the opener out of a drawer.   Hopefully he wouldn’t notice the tremble
in her hands.   “Would you mind
opening it while I finish up these potatoes?”
    “Of course not.”  
    Kerri Ann turned on the mixer and dove into the
potatoes.   They stood side by side
and she could smell the spice from his cologne.   Her stomach flip-flopped and her fingers
tingled.   It was all she could