Homeward Bound (24 page)

"Thank you for dinner. The food was superb, and the company as delightful as could be. We really must do it again sometime."

Jake shrugged and nodded for her to continue. He hadn't said a direct word to her all through dinner, and she remembered that she had told him he couldn't say anything about their earlier conversation until she did.

She knew what he wanted to hear, but she couldn't resist the opportunity to tease him. "You're a fine chef and a true credit to your family," she added. "By the way, Chloe, I rented the new Zac Efron movie for you. I set up the DVD if you want to see it now."

Chloe didn't need a second invitation before she dashed across the yard. She viewed the hot young actor in much the same way that Kate viewed Jake.

"The movie is two hours. How will we pass the time?"

* * * *

Jake grinned. The woman had style! "Am I allowed to talk yet?"

She sat on the porch rail and gazed out over the horizon. "About what?"

"Don't pull that innocent act with me." He took her chin between his thumb and index finger and tilted her face up. "About that four-letter word you spoke of earlier."

"Was I talking dirty again? The scandalous things that come out of my mouth!"

He frowned. "Why can't you be serious?"

"I am, Jake. I meant every word. That doesn't necessarily mean you feel the same about me."

"Do you doubt it?"

She shook her head. "No. But I think you still do. I don't want you to make me promises. There are still a lot of things we don't know about each other."

"I know enough."

"No, you don't. Neither do I. The question is, do we want to learn more?"

"Yes." He stroked a finger along her cheek. "And I do love you, Kate."

A smile followed her sigh of relief. She gave him a friendly pat on the back and pushed back his hand as he tried to bring her closer. "Good. Now that that's settled, I'll see you in a few weeks when planting season slows down a little."

He tugged on her wrist as she started to leave. She spun like a top into his arms, and he trapped her firmly against his body. "I don't think so, Kate. I do not intend to wait two or three weeks to be with you again."

"What about Chloe?"

"Forget it. That's my excuse, and I'm not buying it either. My concern has always been trouble from Ruth and Joe. That's not a worry any longer. You're the one who said we have to learn more about each other. I want to learn what it's like to wake up with you."

"It's not a pretty sight."

He remembered the few times he'd had the unpleasant experience of waking her up, and smiled. "No. It's not. But that was because you were sleeping alone."

She locked her arms around his neck. "Is that a fact?"

"Yes, ma'am. On the farm everyone's a morning person. It's just a matter of getting used to the routine. Early to bed, early to rise-"

"Would blow my career. I start work when you're calling it a day."

"We'll think about that next year when we have to deal with it. Right now I want to concentrate all my energies on making sure you have a good reason to keep coming back." He buried his head into the side of her face and nipped at her earlobe.

She arched in, molding her body to his. He rested his hands on the small of her back and used his thumb to massage the line along her spine. Her warm breath tickled his neck as she teased him with her tongue.

"If you plan to make another mark on me, we best take this inside so you can leave it in a place that no one else can see it."

She sighed. "You keep making me offers like that, Jake, and I might have to find a way to stick around more often."

"That's the idea," he muttered, and made the first move towards executing his new plan of action.

Chapter Fifteen

The month of April flew by. Between the normal chores and the extra work of planting, Kate found precious few moments alone with Jake when he wasn't asleep. They spent most nights at her house, but that meant Jake had to get up even earlier to be back in his own house before Chloe woke up. Even the weekends, which they had designated to themselves, didn't always work out as they had planned.

Jake's resurgence into local society had brought with it a host of surprise visitors, and he didn't know how to get rid of them. In the small farming community, people looked out for one another. Jake had a small family compared to the size of his land. At least once a day someone would stop by to see if he needed help. The visits, although appreciated, took time away from the schedule Jake and Trevor had worked out so they wouldn't need help.

Kate wanted to be more useful, but her one attempt at learning to use the tractor was not something she would soon live down. They allowed her to plant a small vegetable patch in the backyard, she suspected, to keep her out of the way. Jake laughed when she borrowed books from the local library on crop rotation and soil fertilization, but she had the last laugh when her corn sprouted up faster than his.

By the first of May, life began to settle down a little, and Kate had to look for new excuses for why she hadn't found the courage to speak with Jake about Leather. Their relationship couldn't have been better, but she lived with the nagging suspicion that it could get worse. Jake's image of her as a subdued concert pianist was a world away from the woman the critics had dubbed the "Queen of Flash."

Next week she promised herself. Next week she would find a way to tell him. Having now found an excuse to push the worries into the back corner of her mind, she stepped outside into the morning air. The days had gotten progressively warmer since her arrival, and she no longer needed a jacket. She walked down to the edge of the road and picked up the mail from the box.

With her schoolbooks in one hand and a buttered roll in the other, Chloe ran out the front door. "Get your earplugs. They're fighting again," she warned Kate, and crossed the road to catch the school bus as it pulled up in front of the house.

"It was mine. You had no right to touch it," Jake snarled out as she walked in the kitchen door.

"It didn't have your name on it," Trevor snapped back.

She walked over to the counter and poured herself a cup of coffee, unnoticed by the feuding brothers. She couldn't imagine what they were arguing over this time, but she had learned not to interfere.

"That was the last piece, and you knew it was mine. You saw me leave it there last night."

"Do you want it back, Jake?"

Jake shoved Trevor's shoulder. "Don't be a pig."

"Then stop being a jackass."

Kate sat down in a chair and stretched out. "At 1east you're keeping it to farm animal insults." With hands at each other's throats, they both turned. "Don't stop on my account. There are still some wonderful animals left. Like chicken, bull, rat. Turkey is a good one, too."

"Which one were you referring to?" Jake asked.

"Both of you." While she waited for one of them to back down, she glanced through the mail. Identical twins with equally stubborn natures, neither one would give in. She pulled out one letter and waved it in the air. "Gee. A letter from the Division of Motor Vehicles. It looks like a driver's license."

"You win," Trevor said, and let go of Jake. He snatched the letter out of Kate's hand and tore it open like a four-year-old at Christmas. "I'm free. Give me the keys, Jake. I want to go for a drive."

"I have to go deliver a calf to Whitman's farm."

"I'll do it." Jake looked as if he was about to refuse out of spite, but Trevor added quickly, "I could make sure I'm gone until Chloe returns from school or I could spend the day with the two of you. Your choice."

Jake weighed the decision, turning a sweeping gaze in Kate's direction. He tossed the keys to Trevor and grinned. "You just got it back. Try not to lose it again on the first day."

"Don't worry. That would mean five more years of you." Trevor bolted out the door without a backward glance.

"So long, Trevor," Kate said to the closed door. "I have to be going, too."

Jake's silly smirk faded. "Going where?"

She rose and stood in the archway. "Down the hall to the bedroom."

"Oh," he said thoughtfully. "I'll meet you there after I've had a shower."

She acted shocked. "Alone? With water being so scarce? Don't you read the conservation pamphlets that are distributed?"

"I suppose, for the sake of the environment, you'd like to join me?"

"No. I'm being purely selfish. I'll never find a more perfect excuse for putting my hands all over your body."

Jake laughed and scooped her up in his arms. "I might be tempted to do the same."

"I'd be insulted if you weren't."

* * * *

Kate lay on her stomach and watched Jake while he slept. The clock on the bedside table ticked off the seconds, softly reminding her that she didn't have much time left. Chloe would be home in less than ten minutes, so she slipped off the bed and silently dressed. She pulled the blanket across Jake's magnificent body and left him sleeping. He needed the rest.

With one last glance, she closed the bedroom door and quietly left the house. A light breeze rustled the leaves of the cherry tree, and she reached out to grab a budding blossom in her hand. She sat on her front porch and gazed out over the fields of green geometric patterns. Daffodils and tulips lined the fence along the road in a swirl of colors and floral scents. Filled with a feeling of warmth, she clicked her heels together and whispered, "There's no place like home." One day she would write a song about this place.

Far back on the horizon she caught sight of an approaching car. Sure this was another friendly neighbor stopping by to visit, she smiled. She jumped down from the porch and walked down to greet the arrival. The sun cast a glare across the windshield. She couldn't see the driver until the car pulled alongside of her.

"Thank God it's you!" exclaimed the voice of the last person on earth Kate wanted to see.

Her stomach cramped. Why would Bill show up on her doorstep without calling? What if Jake woke up? "What are you doing here?"

Bill grimaced. "Your watchdog sister wouldn't give me your phone number, and I needed to speak with you. You don't think I would have come to a place like this if it weren't important, do you?"

She could well imagine that Bill felt as comfortable around a farm as Jake would feel in the city. "You should have left a message with Nikki. I would have answered it."

"I needed to see you in person. Where should I park?"

Kate glanced nervously at the big house, terrified that Jake would come out to investigate. "Next to the jeep."

She waited anxiously on the porch while Bill parked the car. He stuck his briefcase under his arm and crossed the road. His Italian leather shoe landed in a cow pie, and she laughed in spite of her tension. It served him right for showing up unannounced.

She ushered him into her house. "This better be good."

"It is, Katie. I promise."

Kate paced the room like a nervous feline. She resented Bill's intrusion in her private world. She had left her address strictly for an emergency. Out of professional courtesy, she read over the offer he came to show her. He had traveled a long way just to restate his old position and make new offers he knew she'd never accept.

"You know I don't do endorsements, Bill.”
 
Some stars made half their income plugging products they never used. Kate turned down all offers, needing neither the money nor the exposure.

"Kate, don't be foolish. We're talking about seven figures here. You wouldn't even have to talk. They just want a concert clip."

"No, Bill."

He tapped his finger repeatedly over the dollar amount written on the contract. Clearly Bill was too caught up in the money to notice how strongly she felt about this. "Their ad people have it all figured out. They want to use Betrayal." He held up an imaginary can in his hand and quoted, "Feeling betrayed by the calories of some soft drinks? Try this."

"They want to use a song about child abuse to sell diet soda?" Kate said, completely disgusted. "I'm not sure who's worse. You or them."