Her Country Heart (14 page)

CHAPTER 21

Amy
gasped. “What’s wrong with Bobby?”

“He told me something “man to man” and I thought you should be aware of it.”

“Tell me.”

“He’s having a problem at school.”

“Is this what you meant this afternoon when you said you wanted to talk to me?”

“Yeah.” He could see the disappointment in her face.

“I thought it was about—I mean—never mind.”

Had she expected a commitment from him?

She cleared her throat. “What’s wrong at school? Bobby said everything was fine when I asked. He was making friends.”

“He is, but some of the older kids are teasing him. They make fun of him because he eats “funny” food. They offered him cookies and he wouldn’t eat them. That pissed the kids off. So yesterday they grabbed his lunch, called it garbage, threw it in the trash, and laughed at him.”

“That’s not funny. Why didn’t he tell me?”

“He didn’t want you to get upset. Like you are now.

“I—”

“He’s trying to be a big kid.”

“Did he tell his teacher?”

“No way. The kids said if he told, they’d throw him in the trash along with his food.”

“Oh God, I’m stunned. I know kids tease. I remember being called four eyes because I wear glasses. That hurt my feeling, but I was never threatened physically.

“You’re a girl.”

She threw an odd look at him, stood up, walked to the porch railing, and held on to it. “With Celiac, I’ve been so careful about his food, and so proud he knows what not to eat. This is serious. It could have terrible repercussions if he goes off the diet. I have to tell the school administration.”

“Bobby wants to handle it.”

“Yesterday he came home crying because his stomach hurt. Now I understand why. This can’t go on. I have to talk to the school.”

“He came up with an idea and I promised I’d tell you.”

She spun around to face Wyatt. “He can’t do this without me. You need to understand that he’s small and frail for his age and will never be tall or strong like you.”

“Amy, you’ve got to stop thinking of him as a sickly kid. He’s okay. You can’t follow him around his whole life. Let him take a few chances and make a mistake or two. That’s what makes a man regardless of how tall he grows.”

“Wyatt, you don’t understand.”

“It’s all right to be small in stature as long as he gains self-confidence. Maybe you don’t see it, but your kid has the heart of a lion. Let him try. You can always step in later if he can’t do it. Don’t take this opportunity away from him.”

“Me? I’m not taking anything away from him. I’m not the one making his life miserable at school.” Her voice rose. “Since he was born, I’ve done everything I could to protect him. Bobby
was
a sickly baby. I watched him struggle to survive. You didn’t hear him cry all night when nothing worked to sooth him. What do you know? You weren’t there the night he almost died. You can’t know how terrifying that was. It’s
so
easy for you to preach.”

Tears ran down her contorted face. Anger flashed in her eyes.

“Amy…”

“Don’t.” She glared at him.

He wanted to hug her, but a gut feeling told him it would only make things worse. “Of course I can’t know the pain a mother goes through,” he said quietly. “I
do
know what it feels like to be a boy without a dad to show him the way, a little guy who instinctively wants to be a man. It’s a struggle to make the right choices without a dad’s example.”

He stepped closer and caressed her cheek. “Let Bobby try. Give him some slack to fight his own battles. He’ll survive. And he’ll love you for the opportunity to start becoming the man he wants to be.”

“He’s so little,” she whispered.

He hugged her. “ I know, but trust me. He’ll be all the stronger for this.”

In his arms, her body trembling against him, she sobbed. “I just want to do the right thing.”

“Amy, it’s going to be okay. Sit down and I’ll tell you an idea Bobby and I came up with to fix this.”

She wiped her eyes and returned to the rocking chair.

“I don’t think the kids who took Bobby’s lunch are bad kids.” He watched her frown, unconvinced. “They felt insulted because he wouldn’t eat their mom’s cookies.”

“But they threatened him.”

“I’ll give you the kids overreacted and they scared him. Still, when it comes right down to it, all they really did was talk.” He smiled thinking of her son speaking to him “man to man” this afternoon.

“Amy, you’ve got a bright kid. He’s proud of his food and thinks you’re a good cook. He got the idea to share it with the kids at school so they’d see how great it tastes.”

He paused to let her absorb the suggestion.

Anyway, I thought why not bring food for the whole school? Then everyone would know about gluten free and try some of it. Of course you’d have to prepare it. Say the rice casserole you made the day we went to the river for a picnic.”

“Bobby was so happy that day.” She hesitated. “Do you really think taking food to school would help?”

“Yeah. What boy or man for that matter can resist good food?” He chuckled. “And you’re an excellent cook. The kids would like it. Of course some organic apple sauce would be great too.”

“I could do that.”

He watched her body relax as she leaned back in the rocker and smiled at him.

“Vanna is friends with Bobby’s teacher. Maybe she could talk his teacher and see what she thinks of the idea,” Amy said. “That way, Bobby would be fixing this without being a “mama’s boy.”

“A good thought.”

“Wyatt, I think this might work.”

In the moonlight he could see her frown had disappeared.

“I’m so grateful for your help.”

A soft breeze stirred the night air on the veranda and she crossed her arms around her body.

“Amy, you’re cold.”

“I’m fine.”

“You should get some sleep. Bobby will probably be up early.”

“Yeah. He’s an early riser. Where are you staying tonight?”

“I thought I’d use the cottage. If you don’t mind.”

“That’s okay. Uh—can I join you?”

For a second he thought he hadn’t heard her right. “What did you say?”

“Let me come to the cottage with you. Wyatt, don’t you want me?”

Even in the dim light he could see her eyes widen and her lips pout.

“You know I do. But I can’t offer you forever.”

“Forever,” she scoffed. “I had a promise of forever from my ex-husband Robert. And you see how that turned out.”

As she came closer to him he could feel her body heat and smell a wisp of her floral perfume. To his surprise, she sat in his lap and drew his face to hers. “Please,” she whispered. “Pretty please.”

He kissed her and the sweet taste of her sent a jolt of hunger though him. He moaned and glanced down and saw her nipples tighten against the thin fabric of her dress, begging for his attention. He rubbed them, while he sent his tongue deeper into her open mouth.

She sighed.

With one arm he scooped her up and with the other arm he grabbed the “baby” monitor.

He walked to the cottage and once inside, he kicked open the bedroom door, put the monitor on the bedside table and gently set her on the bed.

CHAPTER 22

In
the dim light, Amy watched Wyatt strip off his shirt from his expansive shoulders. His abs even more defined than she recalled, her fingertips tingled as she imagined touching him. Heat flared as she scanned him from his powerful legs, to his taut chest, and his handsome face. He pushed down his blue jeans and boxer shorts in one movement and stood before her wearing only his grin.

“Whoa.” She sucked in a quick breath as she noticed his manliness grow harder.

“Your turn.” He smiled.

Unexpectedly anxious, she trembled. She sat up and pulled her dress over her head and tossed it to a nearby chair. “Wyatt, it’s been a very long time,” her voice cracked. “Since I’ve—I’ve—I haven’t been with anyone for—” Breathless, she stopped.

He joined her on the bed and touched her lips with his fingertips. “It’s okay.”

With shaking hands she undid her bra and lay down.

He slid her pink bikini underpants down and dropped them to the floor. She quickly covered the red jagged scar just below her abdomen.

“What are you hiding?”

“I had a cesarean with Bobby.” She’d always been embarrassed by the mark of her failure to deliver her baby in the “normal” way.

“Don’t hide. You brought a wonderful boy into the world. You’re beautiful just as you are,” his voice cracked with emotion.

A shiver of anticipation ran down her spine. And she caught her breath when he bent down and tenderly kissed her mouth.

At that moment, she realized she’d never known engrossing passion that now pulsed through her. It over whelmed her, stopping judgment and demanding only enthusiasm. She reached for him and pulled him closer.

His body hovered over hers, nearly touching while he took her mouth, eagerly. Then he left kisses on the nape of her neck as he caressed her breast.

Her nipples hardened at his touch. Her breath quickened as he suckled at one breast and then the other. She moaned.

He stroked her curves with a delicate touch.

And she let her hands roam over his expansive back and down to his tight buttocks.

He found her core and probed it until she wanted to scream his name. Instead, she opened her legs to him. Her hips surged upward searching for his entry. and delighted in the pressure of his hard body on top of her as he filled her.

Slowly at first and then faster, he plunged in and out of her, harder, deeper until she thought she might not be able to stand it. Their bodies were propelled higher and still higher. He drove with such force she could only cling to him as he took her to elevations she didn’t know were possible.

“Ah, Ah”, she cried as she found release, her body tingling as sensations spread from her core to radiate outward even to her finger tips.

With one final driving force, Wyatt pierced her completely, a low groan of completion signaling the release of his seed into her.

For a moment, she couldn’t think or speak. Her hammering heartbeat and the sound of her jagged breathing pulsed in her ears.

“You’re amazing,” he said in a husky voice.

Entwined with him, his strong arms enfolding her, she sighed and rested her head on his broad chest. With a smile, she closed her eyes and relished the feeling of him. Her heartbeat began to return to normal, but Wyatt’s warmth continued to surround her.

When she was married to Robert, she’d had sex. But with Wyatt, she’d made love. For the first time in her life, love filled her.

***

She woke with a start. For a second she didn’t know where she was, or what time it could be. It was still dark and only Wyatt’s quiet breathing broke the night’s silence. An overwhelming hunger for him growled in her. She let her fingers play across his chest, feeling the flex of his muscles as she did. Then she kissed him, forcing his lips open with her tongue.

His breathing quickened as he responded grabbing her hand and directing it lower. She touched his manliness and his breath caught as he grew ready.

With an urgent shift of his weight, he seized and held her. Moisture and heat blazed in her center as he lifted her above his need and with one rapid movement he filled her entirely.

An explosion of emotion burst in her as he thrust deep inside her. She screamed, “More.” as he pumped up and down, her breast bouncing while he caressed them until her nipples hardened.

She held on to him while he bucked like the stallion he was, shifting her to bring the full sensation of him and caressing her feminine nub. Uncontrolled passion rose in her and she thought she might not be able to stop the scream of pleasure that demanded release. Then in unison they shuddered and with a sigh she fell still. With one last jab, he exploded his essence into her and then he stilled.

Naked, she lay next to him. Her heart thundered and she smiled.

***

Somewhere in the distance a rooster crowed. Wyatt opened his eyes to the early morning light that pierced the partly open shade of the cottage’s bedroom window. A sense of well being meandered through him as he stretched. With his eyes closed again, he allowed himself to enjoy the memory of Amy making love to him, her body moving with him while he filled her. A yearning for her sent a pulse of heat coursing through him.

Even before he checked, he knew she was gone from his bed. It was a good thing, because if she’d been there it would have been beyond his control to stop from having her again.

In the past, when he’d had sex with a woman and she was gone in the morning a sense of relief had filled him, glad he didn’t have to deal with her after his appetite was satisfied.

Loneness fought to the surface of his consciousness, shocking him. He’d been content to be a loner. Now he rolled over in bed and touched the empty space where earlier Amy had laid. He wanted to talk to her. Talk.

The realization stung him. General conversation was a waste of time. Yet he wanted to shoot the breeze with Amy, find out how she was feeling, and ask if Bobby was all right.

He was losing his blanking mind. He sat up and grunted. Why after spending his whole life learning to hide his feelings did he want to share them with Amy, a woman with her own troubling baggage and a sickly kid?

Until recently, with determined strength, he’d built a life with no commitments. An existence easy to control, managed by the fact that he was never in one place for very long and didn’t date any woman long enough to get seriously involved in her life or her problems.

Wes had asked him and now he wondered, “What makes Amy so special?” Oh she was pretty even with frizzy strawberry blond hair, but she wasn’t an exceptional beauty.

Amy’s spirit called to him, with her determination to make the farm work and her watchful care of Bobby. Nothing phony about her either, only kindness and honesty, not to mention her pouting lips, ripe breasts, and slender thighs that had engulfed him. He shook his off his thoughts and went to take a cool shower.

Dressed in blue jeans and a gray t-shirt, he pulled on his cowhide boots and wrote a note to let Amy know he’d be working out of town for awhile.

With the miles separating them, he’d regain his equilibrium. He sure didn’t have it now. He ignored the pang that shot through him when he realized he wouldn’t be seeing her today.

He had to go back to his ordinary life. Handling a bucking bronco seemed easier than managing his confused emotions.

He’d drive to the stables just outside of Sacramento, where his stallion was corralled. Spirit needed to be ridden as much as he needed the exercise.

With the sun overhead, the wind in his face, and a solid stead moving under him, he’d regain his self control. It’d be good to be back in territory he understood, no wild feelings, no gut turning decisions. He sucked in a quick breath, and left for Sacramento.