Her Sweet Talkin' Man (13 page)

The two men squared off, standing there staring at each other. Finally Flynt nodded. “You argue real well, too, big brother. Looks like you had good teachers there, too.”

The closest thing to a smile played about Ace's lips. “My mother was a special woman. She insisted I learn a few things. And my stepfather was a very wise man. I tried to do them justice. Guess I fall down in the manners department now and then, though. Thanks for letting me near your horses.”

Flynt opened his mouth.

Ace raised a brow and Flynt laughed. “All right, I won't say that you're a Carson.”

“That's best. You ready, wildcat?” Ace asked Timmy.

Crystal looked down at her son, who was still holding her hand. More tightly now. He nodded, but his eyes grew huge when he looked at the pony. “Big.”

Ace sank to one knee beside him.

“Maybe he is, but that's not his fault. He can't help it. Besides, he's not so big we can't handle him.” Ace held out his arms. “Come on, wildcat, you and me together.”

Timmy let go of Crystal's hand and stepped forward, allowing Ace to swing him high and carry him off.

“Ace?” Crystal asked.

He turned and winked at her. “Don't worry, little mother. His life is golden. I won't let anything happen
to him. That's a solemn promise, and I don't, as you know, make many promises.”

She knew, and hot tears rose in her throat. She choked them back and thought she heard Flynt swear beside her.

“He doesn't like us very much, does he.”

She sighed. “He had a hard beginning. Lessons you learn in childhood are hard to forget.”

Flynt looked down at Crystal. She knew she hadn't disguised the worry in her voice very well, but he nodded toward Ace. “I wouldn't worry. That boy is loved and wanted by everyone he meets, even if his father didn't have the sense of Freckles there.”

Crystal knew that what he said was most likely true. She also knew she shouldn't interfere in Ace's life or in Flynt's. Some things weren't her business.

“I don't think that Ace had much love outside of his mother when he was young. He went to school in an academy where he was made to feel like an outsider every day. It's stuck with him. Maybe forever.”

Flynt didn't say anything for a long time. At last he nodded. “I love my father, Crystal.”

“He's a good man,” she said. “But even good men make mistakes that change lives forever. It's going to be difficult to win Ace over.”

“But you think we should make an effort to win him over.” The man beside her turned suddenly to look at her. “This business with Timmy, whose idea was it?”

She looked up at him innocently. “Timmy wanted to visit a ranch. This one was convenient. I don't
know why Ace objected when I told him I was going to ask
you
to teach Timmy to ride.”

Flynt smiled. “You are a devious woman, Crystal.”

She smiled back, but then she sighed. “Still, it doesn't look like it's working, does it? He and Timmy are doing just great, but he's still fighting the Carsons. I just don't want him to leave Mission Creek thinking he always has to be alone. It would be good if he made some sort of a connection with your family.”

Flynt looked back over his shoulder. “Well, it looks like you're not alone. Here come Fiona and Cara and Ma. Matt, too. Bringing food out for a picnic. The battle to win Ace over is still on, I'd say.”

Within minutes the Carson women had engaged Flynt and Matt's help and had set up a table groaning with food. By the time Ace had finished Timmy's lesson and was heading toward Crystal's way to return her son to her, everything was waiting.

Crystal looked at Ace and saw the moment he noticed what was going on. He stopped in his tracks.

“Come on, Ace. Eat,” Timmy commanded, pulling Ace toward the group.

But a mask had come down over Ace's eyes. He nodded politely to the women. He was poised to make some excuse and get out of there, Crystal knew.

“Stay, Ace,” she said quietly, and he looked down into her eyes. For a moment it was as if no one else was even there. Every fiber in his body was ready for flight. She could see it, feel it, even taste it in the air.

“Please, stay,” she said again, and those blue eyes grew sad. They softened.

Grace appeared at his elbow. “Please stay,” the soft-voiced woman said. “We would be so honored to have your company.”

The sadness in his eyes grew, but he turned to Grace. “I'm the one who would be honored, ma'am.” Crystal knew that Ace's I-will-harm-no-woman attitude held a special place for Grace. She suspected that he felt sorry for Grace's having endured years of marriage to Ford Carson. Not exactly what she was hoping for, but it got him moving to wash his hands and sit down.

“Did you have fun, sweetie?” she asked Timmy as she led him to the table.

“Yep. Ace hepped me,” he said, then stuck a biscuit in his mouth.

She turned toward Ace. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I was worried about his first time.”

But then, Ace was good at first times, wasn't he, she thought, remembering the first time they'd made love the other day.

She couldn't help blushing. He raised one brow and smiled at her. Surely he couldn't know what she was thinking.

The conversation flowed around them. The Carsons tried to get Ace's attention. He was polite but mostly silent. Still, he stayed, Crystal noted. He didn't contribute to the conversation, but he didn't attempt to leave, either. He seemed almost…content.

And then she felt him stiffen at her side.

She looked up and turned.

Ford was approaching.

It was, at that moment, as if all the air and noise
in the world was sucked into a void. The silence wasn't the good kind.

Then Grace bustled forward. She took her husband's hand and drew him toward a place at the opposite end of the table.

Ford sat, but he didn't pick up a fork. He simply stared down the table toward his oldest son.

Crystal wanted to reach out and take Ace's hand, but she was pretty sure he wouldn't appreciate that now. He needed to face his father unassisted.

“Ace was just teaching Timmy to ride,” Fiona said, smiling at her father.

“He's a good horseman,” Cara put in.

“Damn good,” Matt and Flynt said together, as if they'd planned it.

Ace looked like a cold, silent statue.

Ford's eyes grew sadder. He glanced around the table. As if he'd given some sort of silent signal, one by one his family members rose.

“Got to get back to work,” Flynt said.

“Yeah, ain't it the truth?” Matt agreed as he drifted away.

Fiona and Cara exchanged a look. “Come on, sis, we're outta here. Ace, Crystal, Timmy,” Fiona said.

Crystal started to rise, too.

Automatically Ace reached out and touched her hand briefly. “Stay,” he said quietly. “I have no secrets.”

She looked at Timmy. Grace scooped him up. “I think I've got some special cookies in the kitchen,” she said, and Timmy smiled up at her.

“I'll stay,” Crystal whispered.

Within a minute, only Ford, Crystal and Ace remained.

“The two of you are an item?” Ford asked.

Ace studied his father. “Not that it's any of your concern, but we're friends.”

Crystal knew what he meant and so did Ford. Ace would not be repeating his father's mistakes.

Ford nodded.

“You had something to say,” Ace said. “Go ahead and say it.”

Ford didn't look away. Instead, he lifted his head higher and stared directly into his son's eyes. “You don't like me, and I don't blame you. I didn't do right by your mother. Even if I didn't know she was pregnant when she left, even if I didn't know that my father had run her off, I should have been man enough to follow up and make sure that she wasn't carrying my child. Later, after I had Flynt, I did try to find her, but my father had hid her well, I guess. Or maybe even that wasn't true. I was happy, and I was afraid of what I'd find, what I'd done. I was a coward, I guess. Eventually, though, I got older, the years touched me, and I looked harder. I found out where she was. I heard that you had been born. I went there and saw you.”

Ace looked as if he'd turned to stone. “You saw me where?”

“In your front yard. Many years after your birth. You were with your stepfather. It was clear that he loved you and you loved him. I…I didn't know what to do. Honesty and honor directed me to step forward, but you looked happy with him. It didn't seem fair
or right to try to worm my way into your life after so many years had passed. It didn't seem fair to you or to him or even to Rebecca. I saw you, and I decided that seeing you once would have to be enough. I never went back.”

Crystal went with her instincts this time. To hell with Ford and the world and her inhibitions. She covered Ace's hand with hers. Instantly he wrapped his fingers around hers. She wondered if he was even aware that he did it. His grip was so strong, his hand so cold.

“Was it?” Ace asked. “Was it enough?” He stood and Crystal rose with him. He stared down at Ford.

Ford rose to his feet. “It wasn't enough,” he said in a voice that was barely above a whisper. “It was too much.” Then he sat down heavily. Like a stone falling.

Crystal moved forward. “Ace, he's been ill in the past. His heart.”

Ace stared at his father, and the expression in his eyes was unreadable, deep and terrible and aching. “I'll call a doctor,” he said tightly.

He walked away at a quick clip.

Crystal longed to run after him, but she couldn't leave Ford here alone. Of course Ace had needed to go. He'd had to call.

Then Grace was flying outside.

“I'm okay,” Ford said. “I'm fine.” He looked up at Crystal. “Go. Don't let him be alone. I think there's been enough of that.
I've
done enough of that.”

Crystal didn't have to be asked twice. She only
stopped to turn to Grace, her question about Timmy on her lips.

“He's napping,” Grace said. “I've got someone watching him. I'll call you when he's up.”

Crystal ran to and then through the house. She ran toward the car that she and Ace had come in. He was sitting in the front seat, his body rigid, his face set in grim lines.

She opened the door and climbed in.

Ace pulled her across the seat and onto his lap. He kissed her hard. Two times. Three. Fiercely. Desperately. She felt all the pain that lay deep within him rising to the surface.

“I'm sorry,” she said. “I wanted you to have family. I wanted you to get to know them.”

He brushed her hair back and kissed her throat. “I know. I know you did. I knew what you were doing, and I let you do it, but…”

She raised her head and framed his face with her hands as she looked into those intense blue eyes.

“But?” she prompted.

“But don't do it anymore,” he said. “We both know I'm not staying. I'm not staying, Crystal, and when I leave here, I leave here alone. No family ties. No anything.”

She nodded then and kissed him. “No anything,” she agreed.

And her words were like a death knell, a final cutting of the cord that bound them.

“No anything,” he repeated, and when he kissed her this time, it was slow and sweet and sad.

They had started their long goodbye. Now all that was left were the final details and the leaving.

S
he wanted to end it. Ace still couldn't get that thought out of his mind two days later, even though by rights he ought to be thinking about other things. Like the fact that Dan Foyerre had returned a car to him.

It should have bothered him. He had made a business out of delivering what he promised to his customers and, of course, he had agreed to the return even though J.D. had fumed. But it just hadn't affected him that much.

Crystal, on the other hand, was severely distressed. “That's no way to treat you,” she said as she cleared away the breakfast dishes. “Even Dan admits that there's nothing wrong with the car, that it was just what he wanted, and that you offered him the best deal. What was the problem?”

Ace smiled as she paced, her hazel eyes flashing. “You know he's a friend of Ford's. He found himself with a guilty conscience, it seems. You can't fault a man for being loyal to his friends.” Not even if that friend was Ford Carson.

She sank in a heap on a chair. “I know. I'm surprised he bought the car at all. Guess it just shows what a good salesman you are,” she said, giving him
one of her beautiful smiles. “But still, he should have thought of his loyalty to Ford before, not after, he bought the car. Now you're the one paying the price. I know J.D.'s ways. You can't tell me he's not giving you grief.”

He loved that she was defending him and worrying about him. Except he didn't want her worrying about him. Twice now she'd thrown him together with his half brothers and sisters, trying to forge a bond between them. She wanted him to have a family, and his siblings didn't seem averse to the idea. Not that Ace understood why. He certainly hadn't given them any encouragement. He wished that he could, if only to make Crystal happy. He wanted to remember her smiling and content when he left, and they'd both agreed that he was indeed going.

All that was left was to make sure that Crystal was safe. That was the only reason he was still standing here today.

“Ace?”

He smiled down at her, realizing that he hadn't answered her comment about how his employer was treating him.

“Don't worry. J.D. is mostly hot air,” he assured her. Besides, it didn't much matter, Ace couldn't help admitting. Soon Ace would just be last week's gossip in Mission Creek. Soon J.D. and even Crystal would fade into memory.

But even as he thought it, he looked into her lovely eyes and knew that her memory would take a long time to fade.

“I'd better go to work,” he said.

“I thought you weren't worried about J.D. and his opinions,” she said, looking unconvinced.

He shrugged. “A man has to have a good opinion of himself, too,” he said with a grin.

For some reason, that didn't make her smile, as he'd intended. If anything, the worry in her eyes increased.

“How do you feel about Dan returning the car, then?” she asked softly. “I know how hard you've worked.”

He touched her cheek gently. “I feel like I don't want you worrying about me. There's no need.”

Even though he was very worried about
her.
There shouldn't have been a need. There had been no more strange phone calls, no more strangers visiting the day-care center. No one had had even a glimpse of Branson Hines for days.

And that was what scared him, Ace thought three hours later, standing in his showroom on this sunny day. Where in hell was the man?

The question had nagged him for days.

But at that moment he looked out the plate-glass window and saw Flynt and Matt pull up outside the dealership. Cara and Fiona pulled up beside them.

When they got out, he saw that Crystal was in the back seat.

Ace raised a brow. Interesting. “Must be lunch hour,” he said to J.D., looking down at his watch. “Hope you've got enough food in the back to feed the Carsons.”

J.D. frowned. “The Carsons,” he said with disgust.

For the first time Ace felt a trace of annoyance at
J.D.'s attitude. In fact, he felt more than a trace of annoyance when he remembered how Fiona had opened up to him from the first and how Flynt and Matt and Cara had ignored his bad temper. He especially felt disgruntled when he remembered what a friend his half siblings had been to Crystal and Timmy.

“They're not so bad,” he was surprised to hear himself saying. “You just have to get to know them.” Besides, his siblings were not and had never been responsible for what had happened to his mother and himself.

He opened the door to them.

“Hi, Ace,” Cara said, giving him a smile as she stepped in. “Mind if we look around?”

“You want to look at cars?” J.D. asked, his eyes opening wide.

“That
is
what you sell, isn't it, J.D.?” Fiona asked.

The man practically rubbed his hands together with glee. “Yes, of course. What would you like to see?”

Fiona shrugged. “Oh, I don't know yet. I'll let my big brother help me decide. You'll do that, won't you, Ace?”

Ace looked at Fiona and Cara, and his mouth lifted slightly at the corners. “You've come to Mission Creek Motors to look for a car.”

Cara and Fiona turned to Crystal. “Is there something wrong with all the men here?” Cara asked. “What do they think we've come here to buy? Lunch?”

Crystal chuckled. “I think you'd better show them something quickly, Ace. They're getting a bit testy.”

He turned his gaze on her. She looked far too innocent.

“You didn't happen to mention the name Dan Foyerre to them, did you?” he asked.

Her eyes widened. “Why would I do that?” she asked. But he didn't fail to notice that she held her body a bit more rigidly than usual. Didn't she know that an innocent like her couldn't lie to a man like him?

He smiled down at her. “It's all right, darlin'. I don't mind selling my sisters a car if they really want one.”

But at that moment, Matt and Flynt came up behind him. “Now, what I want to know,” Matt was saying, gesturing to a long stylish silver cruiser, “is just how this thing handles. And how safe it is. It looks like something I'd feel comfortable letting Rose drive, but I need to know the details. What extra features does it have that will help protect my wife when she's out on the road?”

Ace and Flynt exchanged a look.

“You came to me to buy a car for your wife?”

Flynt held out his hands palms up. “Can't blame a man for wanting the safest car for his woman, can you?” he asked. “A man might go…just anywhere looking for the safest vehicle.”

“And this doesn't have anything to do with Dan Foyerre?” Ace eyed his brothers.

“Who?” Matt asked, even though Ace knew that Dan had been an old Carson-family friend for years.

He couldn't help chuckling. “Never mind me,” he said. “I'm just a hardheaded…Carson.”

“Lot of those around,” Fiona said.

His brothers and sisters gathered around. Ace did his best not to sell them anything, but they were having none of it. Before they had left, every single one of them had bought a car.

“Omar will love this,” Cara said, patting Ace on the cheek. “Come on, Fiona, Crystal.”

“Wait,” Ace said, and every Carson in the place stared at him. “Thank you,” he said. “I know I've been a jerk.”

“Oh,” Fiona said, lifting a shoulder, “any Carson would have been just as much of a jerk. We're all a bit hardheaded and stubborn at times.”

That drew a laugh from the few other customers in the dealership.

Ace smiled at his little sister. “You won't mind waiting for Crystal a few minutes, will you?” he asked. “She and I need to talk. Just for a minute.”

Cara and Fiona looked mutinous.

“I wouldn't be angry at her just because she told my secrets and brought you here,” he said, furrowing his brow. “You should know that.”

They looked suitably subdued. They waved and called goodbye, following Matt and Flynt out the door and leaving Crystal behind.

Ace reached for her hand. Gently he drew her into the office at the back of the dealership. Another salesman was already there.

Ace frowned. “I need a bit of privacy, Bob,” he said. The man looked at Crystal. Ace could see that he was trying not to smile.

“Sure thing,” Bob said, making a quick exit.

The door had barely shut behind the man when Ace took Crystal in his arms. His lips came down on hers in a hard kiss.

“You've got to stop,” he said softly, his lips still resting against hers.

She kissed him back. “Kissing you?” she whispered, and then kissed him again. “I wasn't the one who started it.”

He smiled against her skin. “You've got to stop trying to protect me from the Carsons. And stop trying to get all of us together.”

She pulled back from him then and gazed up into his eyes, that deeply troubled look cutting off his breath. “They're nice people,” she said gently. “They want to know you, want to claim you.”

He traced his fingers down her cheek, tucked his thumb beneath her chin. “They're nice people,” he agreed, “but there are holes in our history and parts of our past that I don't want to open up. Ever. My brothers and sisters and I can talk on a surface level, we can smile, we can do business and even joke, but there are parts of our life—important parts—that can't intersect. It's best not to even start. I can't stay here, Crystal. I'm going, and when I go, I don't want to leave ties or unfinished business. I don't want to…hurt anyone.”

She reached up then and framed his face with her hands.

“I know that,” she said solemnly. “And I want you to know I'm doing my best not to get hurt.”

“Good.” He drew her close again and kissed her deeply.

When he let her go this time, he couldn't quite manage to keep the regret from his eyes.

“Don't look like that,” she said. “We both knew this was short-term. I don't want to get deeply involved. I'm not looking for marriage or forever. I just…it was just a shame for you and your siblings to be so at odds.”

She kissed him lightly then on the lips, and he felt as if his soul followed her when she drew away.

“You're a very special woman, Crystal. I see now what all those people were saying when they said that you could talk anyone into giving anything. I can't believe you got a whole group of Carsons to come to Mission Creek Motors to buy cars.”

She looked vaguely uncomfortable, a sweet blush coloring her cheeks. “It's usually pretty easy to get Carsons fired up about things. They all have a strong sense of justice. They're good people.”

He knew she wasn't just talking about his brothers and sisters. She was talking about him.

“Really?” he asked. “And how about Bennetts? What gets them fired up about things? What gets you fired up?” He grinned down at her, then leaned in close and traced his lips along her jaw, dipping down to the pulse at the base of her throat.

She sighed against him. For a moment she melted for him, but then she lifted her head. She firmed her lips.

“It would be best if I got back to work,” she finally said. “I guess the clock gets me fired up. And my son. Anything to do with my son. And anything
that threatens to hurt him I can't allow in my life. Even if I want that something real bad.”

Without another word, she moved to the door.

Before she could open it, he said. “I wouldn't hurt him. Not if I could help it.”

“I know that,” she gazed at him with suspiciously shiny eyes. “But sometimes we just can't help hurting a child. And that means we can't always have all the things we want.”

“We give up those things,” he agreed, nodding. “All right, I'll see you in a few hours, and I'll pack my things.”

But first, he thought as she left him standing there, he would make some arrangements.

Hours later, he stood beside Matt and Flynt out at Carson Ranch.

“I want her safe,” he said. “I wouldn't ask this otherwise.”

Flynt dared to lay a hand on his half brother's shoulder. “You didn't need to ask, but we're glad you did. Don't worry. We'll watch over her when you've gone.”

That was good, then, Ace thought, climbing back in his car. Everything was in place. The only thing left to do was cut the ties.

 

Crystal stood in her office with the door closed, her hands pressed over her mouth to keep the moan from escaping.

Somehow she had managed to smile and joke with Fiona and Cara on her way back to work. Somehow
she had managed to avoid thinking about how things had gotten away from her.

But here in the privacy of her office, in the accusing silence, she couldn't deny what had happened.

She had fallen in love with Ace Carson. Even while she was telling him that they had to end it here and now, a part of her was screaming in protest. Her heart was being ripped into little pieces.

All that talk about protecting Timmy…well, she wasn't sure if it wasn't too late for that, too. Last night when she'd tucked Timmy in, he had included Ace in his nightly prayers. He had told her that he thought he would like Ace to read him a bedtime story the next evening. His favorite bedtime story that ordinarily only she was allowed to read.

Oh yes, little by little, Ace had crept into her life and her heart and now her child's heart, too. How could she forgive herself for that? She, who had been so careful for the past three years, had tossed caution aside, telling herself that she had good reason for letting Ace close.

“And now look what you've done,” she whispered. She'd done the unthinkable. Plus, she knew that getting over Ace wouldn't be like getting over John. For John hadn't cared, he hadn't protected her, he hadn't brought joy to her life and her body and her heart. He hadn't made her child's world glow.

Ace had done all those things. But he had to go. She had known that all along.