Dylan's Redemption (28 page)

“Why not?” Claire asked. “We expected you to bring her.”

“I thought you two made up,” Rain said.

“We did, but it’s turned into this weird thing.”

“So, what, it’s not going to work out?” Brody asked. “You changed your mind.”

“Hell no. The damn woman is stubborn. I thought we made real progress the day she went home from the hospital. Will and I stayed at her place—in the guest room,” he added to wipe the raised eyebrows and knowing smiles off their faces. “We shared a meal and some real conversation. It was good. Better than good.”

“So, what did you do?” Rain asked.

“I took her lunch several times over the last couple weeks. I sent her flowers. I left her some notes on her car when she came into town. I have gone out of my way to spend time with her every chance I’ve had between work and taking care of Will.”

“Okay, so if we’re having a family barbeque, why didn’t you bring her? This is the perfect time for her to get to know us better and for you to spend time with her.” Claire eyed him, looking at him like he was an idiot.

“I did all those things. She just goes along. Unless I go see her, I don’t see her. Unless I call, I don’t speak to her. Unless I start the conversation, we don’t speak. The harder I try to get close to her, the more she stalls.”

“You don’t think she wants to be with you?” Owen asked.

“No. That’s not it. When we’re together, everything is great. But unless I’m right in front of her, it’s like I don’t exist. So, I backed off. I’m not going to call or go see her until she comes to me this time.”

“Bad idea,” Rain said.

“You’re asking for trouble,” Claire added.

“Back me up here, guys. I can’t carry this whole relationship on my own.”

Brody and Owen stood together and both of them shook their heads.

“Listen to the women,” Brody said, nodding in his wife’s direction.

Dylan turned to Rain. “Okay, what did I do wrong?”

“You answer that question first. What is it that you did that frightens her the most?”

“I left her.”

“Yes. And?” Rain coaxed.

“She’s afraid I’ll do it again. But I’ve spent the last two weeks trying to show her that I’m here for her.”

“Yes, I imagine you’ve been a very good friend,” Claire said, though she didn’t make it sound like a good thing in this case.

“I’m trying. That’s where we started. If we get that back, then we can move forward.”

“Friends is nice, definitely the foundation for what you have now, but friends aren’t the same as boyfriends and husbands. They aren’t there every day. They aren’t the people you count on to be there at the end of a long day, or first thing in the morning.”

“I’m trying to take things slow. For her.”

“Is that really what she wants? Does she want a friend? Or does she want a boyfriend? Does she want you to be her husband?”

“I don’t know. Not for sure. That’s why I’m giving her time.”

“Yes, and while you’re giving her time, you’re acting like her friend, which tells her that’s all you want,” Raid said.

“It’s like that saying about dress for the job you want. In this case, you need to be the man you want to be to her. If you want to be her husband, you need to be that to her.”

“So because I’ve been trying to be her friend, she doesn’t believe I want to be more.”

“After you left her once, why would she?” Rain asked.

“Crap.” Dylan ran a hand through his hair. “What do I do now?”

“Well, it’s too late to go and get her for the barbeque. She’ll think it was an afterthought.”

“She’s my every thought,” he admitted.

Rain and Claire both smiled and sighed.

“Thanks for that one,” Brody said. “Go back to making me and Owen look like good husbands.”

Dylan laughed and shook his head. “Hey, you’re married to the women you love. I can’t even get Jessie to call me.”

“Stop taking things slow, or that spark between you will burn out. Fan the flames. Heat things up,” Owen suggested.

Dylan glanced at Claire and Rain for their approval of that plan. “Okay, I’m definitely on board for that. This is taking too damn long as it is. I want her in my house, in my bed, in my life every day.”

“Tell her that,” Rain said.

“I have. Many times.”

“Yes, and then you treated her like your best pal,” Claire said. “If you mean it, show her in a way she can’t misinterpret.”

“Drag her to the ground and have my way with her,” he teased.

“Less caveman, more ‘I need you now,’” Rain suggested.

Dylan thought about the last two weeks and how’d he been so careful not to push for too much intimacy. They’d shared a few kisses, but they were far too chaste for his liking, and maybe Jessie’s too. Maybe what he interpreted as caution in her eyes was really her confusion and trepidation to ask for more, or show him she wanted more, when he kept things so light and carefree.

Dylan dropped into the seat next to Rain. She put her hand on his knee and gave him a pat. “I think it’s sweet you’re taking things slow, but take it from someone who was left, all she wants to know is that you want her and only her. Don’t tell her. Show her.”

“Believe me, I want to. Bad.” That admission made all of them laugh. “I’ll take her to dinner tomorrow night. Something quiet, intimate. Set the scene, so to speak. Then, I’ll take her home.”

Chapter Thirty

J
ESSIE WORKED ON
top of the roof of one of the custom homes at the back end of the park in the new housing development. It had become her special project and her own personal torture. With her shoulder and thigh completely healed, if still a little bruised, she’d gotten back to work with a vengeance. Mostly, she worked out her frustration over Dylan. Over the last two weeks, he’d begun a campaign of being there one minute and gone the next. She never knew when he’d show up or be missing. Disconcerting and a little—okay, a lot—annoying.

She hammered another nail into the tar paper and sat back on her heels. Scanning the housing development, progress continued even while she’d been gone. Several of the homes were finished, potential buyers arriving daily to walk through and hopefully buy. Work continued on the other homes. Everything ran smoothly.

Brian stepped things up while she was away, and he’d become one of James’s go-to guys. He worked hard and made his presence known to others. A good sign, he took his job seriously and worked hard to make things right in his life. On many occasions, he’d thanked her for the work she’d done on the house and told her Marilee was happier than he’d ever seen her. The baby would arrive in a few short weeks, and Jessie couldn’t wait to meet her nephew.

That thought put an ache in her belly. As happy as she was for them, she wished the same for herself. As much as she loved Hope, she wanted to have more children. She thought of Will and smiled.

Dylan had been purposefully friendly and charming and maddeningly distant. He kissed her like a friend and not the woman he wanted. The last time he’d kissed her like he meant it had been the night he and Will stayed over at her house. He’d kissed her goodnight like it was the beginning of a good night and not the end. He never brought Will with him when he came to see her. “Popped up” described it more accurately. She missed the little boy.

Late into the night, she’d been building him his new bed, dresser, and night table. She’d sat for hours drawing out different horses for the carvings. She hadn’t quite gotten it right yet. She planned to sort through what she had again tonight. She’d start on it this evening, since she had nothing better to do anyway.

Dylan had been conspicuously quiet for two days. No random calls to check up on her. No showing up with a bag lunch. No leaving her little notes on her car at the grocery store, or some other parking lot, telling her he missed her. No flowers left on her doorstep. She thought of the single red rose left on her roof where she liked to sit outside her window. That one had almost done her in completely.

She’d wanted to call him and tell him to come to her house. He made it easy, leaving all his numbers by her phone in the kitchen. For some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to make a simple phone call. Probably because there was nothing simple about it.

Caught up in thought, she didn’t realize Dylan had driven up in his sheriff’s vehicle. The truck sat below her, but she didn’t see him in it. A smile curled her lips when she felt him straddle her legs from behind and lean in close. His warm breath swept across her ear and cheek. She let the warmth sink deep into her heart.

“Hello, gorgeous. I called you from down below, but you were somewhere else. Thinking about me?” He brushed his lips across her earlobe. A shiver rippled through her. He traced the outer edge with his tongue and slid his hands over her hips and held her tight. His whole body curved around hers, his heat seeping into her bones.

“Actually, I was thinking about a very handsome man.”

“Yeah, I like the sound of that, so long as that man is me.”

His hands pulled her back to him and she leaned into his chest, his breath whispered over her skin seconds before he kissed her neck.

This is what she’d missed. The easy way they connected when they were together.

“It’s not you.” The breath came out of her when his lips sucked gently.

He set her away from him and studied her face. “You’re not lying. You’ve been up here daydreaming about someone else.”

His hurt reflected in his eyes, and she didn’t have the heart to tease him. He’d been so sweetly maddening the last couple of weeks, and somewhere inside of her, she knew it was his way of giving her time and space.

“There’s this really cute little man with light brown hair and a sparkle in his eyes. He likes horses and spaghetti.”

Relieved, his rigid body went lax and rested against hers. His hands pulled her snug against him. “You were thinking about Will?” he asked, surprised.

“Yes. I was thinking about Will. I’ve been working on his furniture. It’s all built. I just have to do the carving, sand it, stain it, and paint out the cupboard.”

He wrapped his arms around her from behind. “You were thinking about Will,” he repeated, though it was a statement and not a question.

“I was thinking about you too.”

“Oh yeah. Do any of those thoughts include dinner with me tonight?”

“No. I’m busy.” She didn’t know why she said that. She longed to spend the evening out with him. Unsure of herself and his here-one-minute-gone-the-next routine. It left her confused. Did he want her to simply know he was there as a friend, or did he really want to have her as his wife? He’d said it enough times, yet he never asked her outright.

Maybe he changed his mind now that he was used to the fact she wasn’t dead.

“Busy, huh? I can’t persuade you to change your plans and go out with me on a date?”

“A date? After two weeks of you showing up out of the blue and disappearing into thin air? You haven’t called, or been around in two days. You want me to just drop everything and be at your beck and call.”

So his absence over the last two days had been felt. The hardest two days of his life. Every second of every day he thought about her and wanted to go to her. He wanted her to come to him more. He’d spent the last two weeks actively pursuing her, doing everything he could to show her how special she was to him without pressuring her. She’d passively gone along. He led. She followed. He needed her to participate, reach out to him the way he reached for her.

But like Rain and Claire told him yesterday, if he acted like her friend, that’s how he made her see him. Tonight, he’d make her see him as the man who wanted her as his lover and wife.

“Now, honey, I’m asking you out on a date. I may not have seen you for a few days, but you didn’t exactly call to see what I was doing. Please, Jess, go out with me. We’ll have a nice dinner and talk.”

“I have to shingle this roof. Why are you here so early anyway?”

Stubborn woman kept stalling. He wouldn’t let her get away with it. It was like she was afraid to be alone with him. He’d put a stop to that line of thinking immediately.

“I got off work early to come and see you. I’ve been working like a maniac the last two days, and I want to spend a quiet evening with you.” He noted the tar paper, hammers, and shingles spread over the roof. She had everything set up to get the job done. “If I help you shingle the roof, will you have dinner with me?”

“Dylan, you haven’t done construction work in years. You’ve worked all day. The last thing you want to do is work with me. Besides, if I needed help, I’ve an entire crew to call on.”

“Fine. Then let them do it and come with me,” he snapped, losing his patience with her.

“This is my house. I’ve done almost all the work myself. I’m not handing it over to the crew now that I’m almost done.”

He read it in her eyes. She wanted to do it herself and feel the satisfaction in knowing she could. Seeing the finished product made her love her work. He decided to try another tactic.

“You take that side and I’ll take the other. If I finish before you, you go to dinner with me tonight.”

She cocked her head and glanced over her shoulder at him. “And if I win?”

“You’ll get half your roof done for nothing.”

“Free labor, definitely a plus. I’d get the roof done faster and have more time to work on Will’s furniture.”

“Cocky, aren’t you?”

She surveyed him from his black Stetson to his black-booted feet, looking more like an outlaw than a sheriff. The badge gleaming on his shirt said otherwise, but the dark hair brushing his collar and day-old beard said more about the renegade in him.

“You’re talking to a girl who spends her days on top of roofs. I’ve been doing manual labor since I was old enough to hold a hammer in my hands and swing it hard enough to pound in a nail.” She removed her gloves from her tool belt and slapped them onto his chest. “I wouldn’t want you to get a blister on those soft hands of yours.”

He took the gloves and smiled at her. “Honey, these hands are anything but soft. If you give me a chance, I’ll prove it to you.” He traced his fingertips over her cheek.

She felt the roughness of his skin and just how gently he could make those hands caress her A tingling tickled her gut and warmed her blood.