About the Boy (7 page)

And he was standing just a fraction too close, close enough she could smell his faint masculine scent, feel the warmth of his body, a warmth that seemed to be clouding her mind and tangling her tongue while still drawing her closer to him.

“Katie.” Lucas moved closer still, drawn by something far more powerful than his own thoughts and fears. He told himself he should be careful, wary, but his mind ignored the caution.

She was so near, her scent swirling around him, heady and feminine, making him long and ache in a way he couldn’t ever remember.

The urge, the need to touch her, to taste her, was so strong he was certain he might go mad if he didn’t satisfy the desire.

He slid his hands to her slender waist, noting her eyes widen into saucers. He smiled, wondering if she knew how much she looked like her son at the moment with her eyes wide, hopeful, expectant, curious and maybe just a bit frightened.

“Lucas.” She lifted her hands to his chest, telling herself it was to stop him. To keep him at bay.

But it was a lie, and she knew it. His mouth hovered a mere inches from hers, making her yearn somewhere deep inside, yearn and want, two things she’d told herself she could never allow again.

She was going to push him away, she told herself, and try to grab her sanity before it fled once again. Then she looked into his gaze and lost her train of thought.

With her mind blank and her senses on alert, she tilted her head up just as he lowered his. She felt her breath flutter out on a dreamy sigh as his lips brushed gently against her.

Katie tried to tell herself she was going to push him away. To stop him. In just a moment.

His mouth was warm and firm, and coaxed hers gently into responding. Her lips opened greedily for his, as if she were drowning and only his touch would save her.

Her mind emptied totally as the world spun around her, under her, whirling and whirling as if she’d stepped on a Tilt-A-Whirl.

She gripped the front of his shirt for balance as heat and desire snaked through her, slowly, thoroughly, arousing every sleeping nerve until her entire body ached and she arched against Lucas, fitting her softness to the masculine hardness of him, trying to put out the fire his touch seemed to have brought blazing back to life.

A moan escaped her as he deepened the kiss, as his touch circled, then danced with hers in a mating ritual as old as time. She went with it, allowing Lucas and his kiss to sweep sanity and sense from her mind until nothing filled her but the need and desire his touch aroused.

His hands tightened around her waist as hers rose to slide through the silk of his hair, to cling, fearing she might fall off the earth if she didn’t hold onto him.

Another soft moan filtered through the air and Lucas realized it was he who’d moaned. He’d expected Katie to be cool, to be reserved. Nothing had prepared him for the blast of feminine heat that roared through him, licking at him like he was little more than dry timber the moment their lips met and clung.

Her scent swirled around him, drowning him in a sea where the only thing he was aware of was her. Her taste. Her scent. Her touch. Her. Just her.

He drew her even closer, not wanting even a breath separating them. Instinctively he knew that one kiss would never satisfy the gnawing need that Katie had awakened. Needs he thought long dead and buried. Needs he knew better than to acknowledge or want.

He had to think, to clear his head, to remember why he couldn’t and shouldn’t be doing this. Remember the risk he was taking, with his own heart, as well as hers.

“Lucas.” His name whispered out of her mouth as she drew back, her eyes huge and frightened in her pale face. She would have tumbled right back into the porch railing if he hadn’t had his arms around her. Her legs felt as if they couldn’t hold her, and she sagged against him breathless and slightly dizzy from the intensity of their kiss.

“Thank you for sharing your son with me tonight,” he said softly, managing a smile even though his insides were rioting. Gently, he ran a shaky finger down her nose, knowing it was better to say nothing than to say something he’d regret, now, when his mind was clouded by desire, by passion and all he wanted to do was drag her back in his arms again. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Katie.”

He stepped back, needed to put some necessary distance between them, and jogged down the stairs, not certain who was more shaken by their kiss. Him. Or her. If he didn’t know better he’d swear his legs were shaking.

“Good night, Lucas,” she called softly, holding onto the porch railing for balance as she watched him walk away. “Thank you.”

She waited, watching until he was out of sight before going inside the house. She shut and locked the front door, then leaned against it and closed her eyes.

She needed a moment, she realized, just a moment to settle herself. The last thing she wanted was for her son to see her this confused and at odds. She still had to go in and kiss Rusty good-night and she just needed a moment to pull herself together.

Pressing a hand to her racing heart, Katie realized she’d been weak and foolish. Allowing herself to have such ridiculous fantasies about Lucas and what had just happened between them.

It was a kiss—nothing more, nothing less, she told herself. And certainly no reason to get herself all in a tizzy.

She’d kissed men in the years since Jed’s death. Lots of them.

She scowled. Okay, so maybe it was only two, and since one was her uncle and that was a chaste kiss on the cheek, it probably didn’t count.

Her kiss with Lucas left her breathless, aching and wanting more.

But she couldn’t have more, she realized. And even entertaining the idea of having more with Lucas was both foolish and foolhardy. And could only lead to heartbreak.

She was a single mother of an almost teenaged child, far too old and mature to be spinning fantasies about happily-ever-after simply because a man kissed her.

And she’d do well to remember that.

She had a well-ordered life filled with more responsibilities than any sane woman could handle, not just to her son and her mother, but to the paper and her community, not to mention the responsibilities she had to herself.

She didn’t have time to be mooning over some man like she was a fickle, free young woman without a care in the world or a thought on the planet.

She’d been that carefree woman once, and learned just how fast carefree could turn into concern when life tossed you an unexpected curve.

She’d barely survived the first time. She wasn’t about to risk her heart or her son’s heart a second time.

No, she was older and much smarter now, she told herself, patting her still scrambling heart. Now she knew exactly what could happen if she wasn’t responsible, if she wasn’t reliable, if she didn’t do exactly what her obligations demanded of her.

And the thought of going through the grief and fear and worry again that she’d just gone through over the past six years simply terrified her.

So she’d never risk having her heart, or Rusty’s, broken ever again.

With a sigh, Katie rubbed her throbbing forehead. She suddenly had a ferocious headache. Probably because she was so blasted tired. It had been a long day, and she had to admit, a long night. She should have come home earlier so she could unpack some more boxes and get ready for the new work day.

Instead, she’d chosen to be careless and spend her evening with a man she had no business having the kinds of thoughts she was having about.

Well, at least no harm had come from one evening, she reasoned. Besides, it was
just
a kiss, she told herself, and even if her insides were still churning like jelly, and even if her heart felt as if it were racing to some imaginary finish line, she had to get a grip and keep it on her heart. And her mind.

Lucas Porter was no more interested in her than she was in him. It was her son, she reminded herself, that he was trying to help. It was her son he’d so kindly and generously offered to spend time with—not her. And she’d do well to remember that.

As Katie walked through the house, turning off lights and locking up, she tried to banish Lucas from her mind.

But as she headed toward her own bedroom, Lucas’s taste lingered on her lips, and thoughts of him lingered fitfully in her mind.

Chapter Five

“I’
m late, I know, I know,” Katie said as she dashed into the newspaper office the next morning, her arms full. “I’m hideously late and I’m sorry, it couldn’t be helped.” She stopped and pressed a hand to her racing heart to catch her breath. “We had an emergency this morning. A basketball emergency,” she clarified when Lindsey’s brows lifted in question. “Rusty realized at the last minute that basketball practice starts today. And we couldn’t find his shoes. I think I unpacked twenty boxes before we found them.”

And she was already exhausted. Thoughts and dreams of Lucas had disturbed her sleep all night. She’d spent more time tossing and turning than sleeping, and now, she felt more tired than she had when she went to bed last night.

She couldn’t remember any other male she’d tried to treat like a “brother” disturbing her sleep quite so much. But then again, she mused, trying to hide a smile, she couldn’t remember another man she’d treated like a “brother” kissing her senseless, either.

“Good morning to you, too,” Lindsey said, giving her a look. “Now, I hate to be the bearer of more bad tidings, but I don’t think your day’s going to get better any time soon, Katie.” Lindsey turned back to her desk and picked up a stack of pink message slips, fanning them out in the air for Katie to see and frown over. “These are all for you. From your mother,” Lindsey said pointedly, eyeing Katie over the rim of her thick glasses. “Your mother is on a rip-roaring tear about something. And apparently you’re at the heart of it.”

“I know, I know,” Katie admitted with a sigh, heading toward her office to dump her stuff. “I think Patience told her I was being rude to the police chief last night.”

Fascinated, Lindsey followed Katie into her office. “Now why on earth would that woman tell your mother something like that?” she demanded with a scowl.

“Because that’s what we told her—Patience, I mean,” Katie absently explained as she dug through the piles of papers and folders on her desk to find what she needed for her meeting with Lucas this morning.

“Well, for goodness sake why on earth—who’s
we?
” Lindsey asked abruptly, her brows rising in surprise as she caught that last phrase.

“Lucas and I.” Smiling at the memory, Katie tucked her notes and files into her arm and looked at Lindsey, then sighed. “We went out for pizza last night. And no, don’t look like that. It wasn’t a date—”

“Uh-huh.”

“No, really,” Katie insisted with a grin, realizing she was probably going to have to explain this more than once today. Maybe she ought to just print her explanation on the front page of this week’s newspaper, that way she could be sure
everyone
in town read it. “Lucas is Rusty’s Buddy—you know, the Buddy for a Boy program?”

“Uh-huh,” Lindsey said with a slow nod, suspicion still clouding her eyes. “I understand all about the Buddy program, Katie. I wrote the blasted article for your uncle explaining it in the newspaper. But what I don’t understand is what the Buddy program and you and Lucas going out for pizza—together,” she added with a great deal more emphasis than necessary, “has to do with one another. And then of course why anyone would tell Patience Pettibone anything is beyond me.”

“Lucas is Rusty’s buddy,” Katie explained patiently. “Lucas invited Rusty for pizza and they invited me to come along.” Katie shrugged, trying to dismiss the significance of last night. “It was a way for them to get to know one another and yet allow me to be there as a buffer.”

“A buffer, huh?” Lindsey repeated shrewdly. “Okay, got it,” she said with a nod. “If that’s the official story you’re going with, well, hell, I can repeat it just as good as you can.” She turned and headed back to her own desk, muttering under her breath. “It wasn’t a date. You were merely a buffer.” Lindsey was almost to her desk before she stopped abruptly. “Wait a minute,” she said, whirling around to face Katie again as she tried to sneak toward the front door to make her escape. “What does you being a buffer for Rusty have to do with you being rude to the police chief?” Lindsey demanded, planting her hands on her hips. “And why on earth would you tell Patience—the Paul Revere of Cooper’s Cove—about it?”

Katie sighed. “I wasn’t really rude to the chief, but we figured if we didn’t tell Patience something, by this morning she’d have spread it all over town that Lucas and I were seen at the pizza parlor. Together.”

Confused, Lindsey scratched her head. “But you were with Lucas at the pizza parlor, weren’t you?”

“Well, yes,” Katie admitted, biting her lip and glancing at the clock again. “But it wasn’t a date, remember?”

“Oh, yeah, it was that buffer thing,” Lindsey said with another knowing nod. “Now I get it.
Not,
” she added with a scowl, making Katie laugh again.

“It’s really a long story, Lindsey, and if I don’t leave now, I’m going to be late for my morning meeting with the chief.” She waved a sheaf of folders and papers at Lindsey. “Remember, the street closings for the Halloween carnival? My ‘Police Beat’ column for next week? And the special safety letter from the chief for the Halloween issue?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Lindsey said with a wave of her hand. “I’m the one who briefed you yesterday, remember?” Her brows drew together. “But what am I supposed to tell your mother when she calls back for the…uh…” She quickly counted the message slips. “Tenth time?”

“Tell her I’m out doing an interview and I’ll call her later. I need to talk to her anyway.”

“You’re a brave woman, Katherine,” Lindsey said with a slow shake of her head, pushing up her thick glasses. It was no secret that Lindsey was a tad intimidated by Katie’s mother, not to mention Katie’s supposedly psychic Aunt Gracie.

Ever since her mother had read Lindsey’s astrology charts fifteen years ago and accurately predicted a tornado that would hit just outside of town, narrowly missing Lindsey’s house, which Katie’s mother had insisted Lindsey evacuate before there was even the thought or threat of a tornado, Lindsey had tried to steer clear of Louella simply because Katie’s mother’s astrological predictions and Katie’s Aunt Gracie’s psychic predictions totally spooked Lindsey.

Ten years ago when Katie’s aunt had charged into the newspaper office, demanding Lindsey call off her wedding to Frankie Flannigan, the fire chief’s “bad boy” brother, or else get her heart broken, Lindsey had been furious and appalled, until the next week when her fiancé had run off with another woman.

Since then all this “new-age stuff,” as Lindsey referred to it, was far too much for her Midwestern practical self. She was convinced Lady Louella and Gracie had some kind of special powers, powers that scared the dickens out of her.

It never failed to amuse Katie that Lindsey, someone who was so levelheaded and practical on every other issue, could be spooked by
her
mother. Or her sweet, unusual little aunt.

“I’ll tell her, but I’m warning you, Katie, your mama better not put any strange curse on me. Her sister, neither,” Lindsey warned with a shake of her finger.

Katie laughed. “Don’t worry, Lindsey. Mama’s saving all her curses for the mayor.”

“Thank the Lord,” Lindsey said with a relieved sigh, making Katie laugh again as she headed toward the door again. “Not that the man doesn’t deserve it,” she mumbled as an afterthought.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Katie pushed open the door, then said over her shoulder. “Oh, and do me a favor, Lindsey? Call Mr. Hensen at the butcher shop and ask him if he can grind a sirloin steak for me. Tell him I’ll need about two pounds and to grind it twice. I’ll pick it up on my way home. I might be late, so tell him I’ll just ring his back door when I get there.” She gave Lindsey a weak smile. “Rusty wants burgers on the grill, tonight.”

“Two pounds worth, huh?” Lindsey said, pretending to be intensely interested in the messages in her hand. “Say hi to the chief for me,” she added with a smile as Katie sailed out the door. “Sure hope he likes ground sirloin burgers.”

Lucas was just hanging up the phone when his administrative assistant waved Katie through to his office.

She hesitated in the doorway for a moment, and just looked at him. He was just so gorgeous, she thought with a dreamy sigh. And she had to admit she sure liked looking at him. Kissing him wasn’t bad, either, she mused, thinking about last night.

Today he was dressed in immaculately pressed jeans, boots and a Cooper’s Cove police department khaki uniform shirt. All members of the department were required to wear the shirt to let the public know they were police officers. He had a shoulder holster with a weapon that she was pretty sure he’d never even have to remove, at least not in this town.

Katie couldn’t help but wonder if that dull brown shirt looked as good on everyone as it did on Lucas, with his broad shoulders and slender hips.

“Hi,” she said with a smile, suddenly feeling nervous and a bit tongue-tied, simply because she was all but ogling the man again.

His grin matched hers. “Hi yourself. Come on in,” he said. “I know we have a meeting this morning, but I might have to cut it short, I’m afraid.” His smile was apologetic. “I have a luncheon date.”

Katie could almost feel the smile freeze on her face as her stomach dropped.

“A lunch date,” she repeated dully. Nodding, she headed toward the chair opposite his desk. “How lovely,” she said, her voice slightly strained as she dropped into the chair like a stone.

There was no reason on earth for her to be jealous, she scolded herself, recognizing the flash of hot fire burning in her gut for exactly what it was. Lucas was a single, eligible man in a town where single men were generally over sixty and cranky.

A young, gorgeous eligible man was a rare commodity. So of course he’d date. He’d no doubt have his pick of any single female in town.

So why was she so surprised?

More importantly, why on earth was she jealous?

It was utterly ridiculous, she told herself as she pretended to flip through her notes and files, fearing her strained emotions might show on her face. She had no claim on Lucas, and didn’t want one, she reminded herself.

She was a perfectly happy, content single mom with more than enough responsibilities to keep her going. She certainly didn’t need a man to complicate her life or her son’s.

“Maybe we’d better get started,” Katie said, pulling free last year’s list of street closings and leaning forward in her chair to hand it to Lucas. “This needs to be updated,” she informed him. “It’s the list of all the streets that will be closed for the Halloween carnival next month. I need you to look it over and update it so we can print it for the next four weeks until the carnival. I’m sorry, Lucas, but I’ll need that back by end of day tomorrow.”

Looking at the article, Lucas nodded absently. “Will do. I take it the Halloween carnival is a big deal around here?”

Katie laughed. “Every holiday around here is a big deal, but especially the Halloween carnival and the Christmas festival. They’re like the granddaddies of all carnivals for this town. We have food vendors, games of chance, carnival rides, clowns, and my mom and my aunt set up their own little ‘New Age’ booth where they read palms, tell fortunes and horoscopes. And almost every business in town either sponsors a booth or sets up their own. All proceeds go toward afterschool programs, which is why everyone tries to pitch in and do their share.”

“You don’t really believe in all that, do you?” Lucas asked, looking up at her with a smile. “The astrology and psychic stuff I mean?”

“I guess I don’t
disbelieve
it,” she admitted with a smile. “I’ve been living with my mom and aunt and their…talents, so to speak, for my whole life. Truthfully, I don’t even pay much attention to it anymore.” Katie frowned suddenly. “Unless my Aunt Gracie does something or says something totally off the wall or out of the blue.” Katie shook her head and laughed. “That tends to spook me. And she has been known to do that. Sometimes she ‘gets things,’ but not all at one time. She always says it’s like a television picture going in and out, and then getting blurry. And unfortunately, Aunt Gracie has a tendency to blurt things out before she gets the ‘whole picture,’ so to speak, and that can be a bit disconcerting.”

“I imagine it would.” A man could really lose himself in that face of hers, Lucas mused, trying to listen to Katie’s words and not get lost in her beauty.

This morning that hair of hers, that gorgeous silky hair that made him itch to slide his hands through, was in a bit of disarray and looked as if it were about to tumble off its perch atop her head. Why she didn’t just pull out the pins and let it free was a mystery. Her hair was one of her most attractive features. Along with her eyes, her lips, her face. Lucas sighed. And of course that gorgeous, ultra-sexy body that today was clothed in her usual crisp, pressed jeans and white blouse.

“One morning shortly after I got married, I opened the front door to get the morning newspaper and found Aunt Gracie standing on the front porch in her nightgown, barefoot,” Kate said.

“Was she hurt?” Lucas asked with a frown, grateful he’d managed to follow the conversation, even though just being near Katie distracted all rational thought.

Katie shook her head. “No. She wasn’t hurt, but I was running in a marathon that day. Aunt Gracie refused to come in the house, refused to go home, refused to do anything until I promised her I wouldn’t run that day. She just kept saying it would jostle the boy and make him mad.”

“The boy?” Lucas repeated with a confused frown.

“Yep. The boy.”

“And you thought…what? That she’d gone round the bend?” Lucas asked with a warm smile, and Katie nodded.

“Right. It just didn’t make any sense to me and I didn’t know what boy she was talking about, but I couldn’t run, not when she was so upset about it.” Katie shrugged. “I kind of dismissed it until the following week—when I fainted dead away in the butcher shop while shopping for dinner. I scared poor Mr. Hensen half to death. Thankfully, Dr. Robsen was having lunch in the diner and someone ran to get him. By the time I came to, I was looking up at half the town, who were grinning like loons because Dr. Robsen had told everyone his diagnosis before I’d even woken up.” She laughed at the memory. “Aunt Gracie really got a kick out of that and told Dr. Robsen he was a little late, that she’d already told me I was expecting a baby boy the week before, which was news to me. But I guess in her own roundabout way Aunt Gracie did tell me I was expecting a boy. I just didn’t connect the dots.”