Just Down the Road (27 page)

The bull rider grinned. “That’s where I want to leave it. I’ll be back by next Tuesday.”

Tinch offered him the keys to his old Ford, and Noah tossed his keys as he thanked him.

While Tinch visited with the doctor a few more minutes, he noticed that Noah took the time to talk to Jamie. Someday, Tinch decided, he and the boy would make it to a rodeo and maybe get to watch Noah McAllen ride.

It occurred to Tinch that Noah wasn’t telling his stories of the rodeo to build himself up, but to entertain others. He was taking the time to talk because folks liked to say they knew him, understood him, cared about him. Tinch had always admired McAllen’s skill; now he admired Noah’s kindness. Noah might even forget he talked to the boy, but Jamie would always remember meeting the champion.

Fifteen minutes later, they climbed into Noah’s truck and he and the boy headed back to the ranch.

Jamie didn’t ask as many questions as usual. For a while he was fascinated that a pickup had a GPS and he could track them going down the back roads toward home. Finally,
he asked, “You ever cuss, Uncle Tinch? You know, like Noah McAllen did when he thought he might miss his flight.”

Tinch swore he could see the boy growing up.

“I do sometimes, but I try to save it for something worth cussing about, and I try never to do it around a lady. I’ve always had the idea that using the same few words over and over kind of wears out the need for them, so cussing isn’t something I’d want as a habit.”

Jamie nodded. “I agree. Is Doc a lady?”

“That she is.”

“But she’s not kin to me, is she?”

“No.”

“Then, I could marry her when I grow up, right?”

“Right.” Tinch fought down a grin. “Got any idea where you’d live once you’ve tied the knot?”

“Yeah.” Jamie looked very serious. “I’m thinking she could have the extra bedroom upstairs. We could tell her that if she could sleep by herself, she could have the other pup to keep her company. I think that sounds fair, don’t you?”

Tinch almost choked on the last of his malt. “Sounds like a plan,” he finally managed. “But, you know, she could sleep with me as long as she needs to.”

“I told her that last night,” Jamie agreed.

“What’d she say?”

“She said, ‘That would be interesting.’”

Tinch fought not to agree. He flipped on the radio, trying not to think about Doc moving into the extra bedroom, but once the image was planted in his mind it was hard to erase.

The afternoon turned cold and threatened rain by the time they’d unloaded and swapped the trucks. Reagan Truman’s place was deserted except for Tinch’s old pickup parked in front of the house. The old dog on the porch didn’t even bother to raise his head as they traded trucks and drove away.

Once they were home, Jamie played with the puppies until he finally collapsed in front of the TV with his favorite food … cereal with bananas mixed in.

Tinch had tried a dozen meals and snacks, but the boy always turned to cereal when he felt hungry. He’d pick at other foods, but Tinch figured the boy ate as much oats as a horse.

Now wasn’t the time to try to improve his eating habits, so Tinch stocked bananas and boxes of cereal within easy reach of Jamie. He also kept the milk on a low shelf so the boy could help himself.

While the TV played, Tinch cooked a late supper. He’d always been comfortable in the kitchen. His mother used to sit him on the counter and teach him when he wasn’t even in school. Once Lori Anne got sick, cooking became his job. He used to make up foods like fried carrots and chocolate-covered celery sticks just in the hope that she’d eat a bite.

He made a hearty goulash with a salad and bread on the side. Just before sunset, he heard the familiar chime and moved to the door to see Addison flying up the driveway as always. He smiled, thinking he might ask her if she wound her little toy car up too tight this time, but the doc didn’t take teasing well.

Climbing out of her car, she smiled, as if liking the idea that he’d been waiting for her. They ate at the kitchen table with her telling them all about her day. When Jamie asked to go back to the show he was watching, she began questioning Tinch on how the boy had acted at the chapel.

“He’s fine,” Tinch whispered as he reached across the table and covered her hand with his. All day he’d been wanting to touch her, just touch her.

She pulled away and explained that she’d talked to her father on the way home, and that always put her in a bad mood.

Tinch didn’t push it. The feelings he had for her were too new … too unsure.

When Jamie went to bed, Addison said she wanted to take a long bath. Tinch cleaned up the kitchen and then went out on the porch to sit in an old rocker. The night air was thick with the smell of rain, and no wind moved through the trees. He could hear the horses settling down, and the
last of the summer bugs had disappeared. The silence was almost haunting.

“He’s asleep,” Addison whispered as she stepped barefoot onto the porch. She wore one of his mother’s quilts around her shoulders like a shawl.

Tinch stretched his hand out, and this time she put her hand in his. He tugged her gently until she lowered onto his lap. The need to have her close enough to smell her skin had been a hunger growing in him all day, but he guessed that wouldn’t be a very flattering thing to say to a woman.

“Did you need to talk to me about something?” She sat all prim and proper, almost as if she’d rather be somewhere else. Another planet, maybe.

“No,” he said as he moved his fingers over her leg, still warm from her bath. “In fact, I don’t want to talk at all.” If she was going to bolt, he might as well know it now.

Tinch pulled her to him slowly, but firmly. He wanted to give her time to run, and he planned to make it plain what he was going to do.

She didn’t protest or speak. She just stared at him with those beautiful stormy-day eyes, and he realized something odd. Addison was more afraid of herself than she’d ever be of him.

Her mouth was velvet against his as a long gentle kiss passed between them. She wasn’t kissing him back so much as letting him take his time kissing her.

Then he broke the kiss and settled back, waiting for her to react. Knowing the doc, he wouldn’t have to wait long.

“I thought we decided to go back to being friends?” She straightened as if she didn’t notice she was sitting on his lap.

“This is me being friends,” he whispered against her ear. He liked the nearness of her. The way he could feel a fire building in her. The way she gave nothing away, but made him earn every touch.

When she didn’t answer, he added, “You have any problem with it, Doc?”

“No,” she whispered as he moved his hand along her
back. She remained still as he opened the quilt and slid his fingers over her long legs.

If she knew how dearly he needed to touch her, she’d probably be frightened. His hand moved over the worn flannel shirt boldly. “Any problem now?” he asked as he kissed her throat and his palm rested over her breast.

“No,” she answered, and leaned her head back. “No problem at all unless you stop.”

Tinch smiled and tasted her throat. She was melting.

Slowly, she leaned
against him, resting her head on his shoulder as he rocked her in his arms. She felt so good against him. He breathed deep and slow for the first time in a long while.

“I just want to hold you,” he said, pulling the quilt over them both.

She opened her mouth, waiting for another kiss.

When he didn’t act, she straightened, put her hands on his face, and pulled him into the kiss.

Tinch laughed when he finally broke free. “All right, baby, I’ll kiss you as well as touch you.”

She settled against him as if waiting for him to honor his promise, and he did.

After a while, she whispered with almost a cry, “I’m leaving in three months.”

He didn’t let go. “I know.”

“I can’t stay here. Everything is waiting for me back in L.A.”

“I know.” He moved his face into her damp hair, loving the smell of it. Tinch wasn’t a man who ever kidded himself. He knew he had little to offer compared to a career in L.A.

“I …” she whispered, as if about to say something he didn’t want to hear.

He kissed her again. Suddenly hard and demanding, as if he knew they were no longer at the beginning of something, but at the ending.

She pressed against him, forcing her heart to beat against his. When he lifted her to face him, she straddled him, her knees on either side of his hips as she wrapped her arms around him and gave herself into one kiss with her entire body.

Molding her to him, Tinch let passion set fire to them both. In the corner of his mind, he knew if he didn’t stop, there would be no stopping between them. He’d never kissed a woman like this … like it was more important than breathing … like they might both die if they mated and neither one would care.

Almost violently, he broke the kiss and just held her while she calmed. She didn’t seem to want to talk any more either. He pulled the quilt over her shoulders and moved his hands down her body gently. When he reached her hand, he threaded his fingers through hers, taking back the touch she’d pulled away from earlier.

He nudged her head back against his arm and began tasting her neck, loving the little sounds of pleasure she made. Once she warmed, she was a wonder. But right now, he wanted her warm, loving, willing, not so hot with passion he wasn’t sure he could handle her. He wanted to know all about her, mind and body, so when they made love it would take all night.

“It’s not fair,” she said as he tugged the quilt around her.

“What’s not fair?” He moved his hand inside the open V of the shirt she wore, loving the feel of her warm skin between her breasts.

“It’s not fair that you’re not the one waiting for me in L.A.”

Tinch stilled, trying to force at least a few brain cells to function. “So, the doctor you talked about is still waiting for you?”

She seemed to sober too. “Glen Davidson. He thinks we should collaborate on the research he’s doing. It’s actually a great honor. My father says it would be a great marriage for me, both personally and professionally. My father says that just the fact that he’s waited a year for me should make
me feel flattered. Today he yelled and told me it’s time I came home and stopped playing around. They want to schedule the wedding as soon as I get back.”

His hands felt wooden as they slid around her waist and lifted her off him.

“What’s wrong?”

“You didn’t tell me you had someone waiting for you. Evidently, a fiancé. I thought he was just some guy your parents were trying to match you with, not someone you were considering.”

“Well …” She shrugged, as if she’d never thought about it that way. Glen was more than just some guy, but he wasn’t her fiancé. He was more a career option that just happened to come with a marriage offer, but she couldn’t say that to Tinch. He’d think her cold, maybe even heartless.

Tinch stood and moved a few feet away from her. “I thought you were talking about a situation you were running from, not a future husband. If you didn’t want the guy, you should have told him, not left him hanging for a year. Sounds to me like you’re still thinking of marrying him for the job.”

“No. Not really. Not yet.”

Tinch opened the door for her to walk ahead of him inside. When they were in the warm light coming from the kitchen, he said slowly, almost too calmly. “What am I, Addison, the fling you hope to work in before you go back home and settle down? I never thought I’d be the one to keep you here, but I hoped I was more than a fling. So tell me, what is it between us, Doc?”

She hesitated too long. She could probably see the hurt in his eyes, and they both knew he’d guessed the answer.

“If Jamie hadn’t come along, this never would have happened. It’s not something I planned between us. Would a fling be so terrible?”

“Don’t blame the boy. He had nothing to do with what’s started between us, and we both know it.” Tinch felt like someone had just stripped the wiring in his entire body.
Every cell seemed to be jerking in pain, but he’d learned a long time ago that pain didn’t kill him.

“Tinch, don’t make it sound like I planned this. I didn’t. There’s just this thing between us. I think I felt it from the first. It’s like this pure attraction neither one of us can ignore.”

“I think you should go back home, Addison. We don’t need you anymore.” He didn’t understand what was between them either, but he’d thought it was more than some animal attraction. He’d hoped it could be the beginning of caring, but what did he know about relationships? He was over thirty, and he’d had only one other. He’d never been one of those guys who played around. He didn’t know how to keep something like loving light and meaningless.

Addison pressed on her eyes with the palms of her hands. “I don’t want to fight with you. Can we just go to bed and talk about this in the morning?”

“Fine.” He didn’t want to talk either. He felt like a fool for thinking for one moment that they might be building something. Even now, mad at her for leaving some guy in L.A. hanging while she kissed him like the world was coming to an end any moment, Tinch fought the urge to touch her.

She was halfway up the stairs before she noticed. “You coming?” she called.

“No. I’ve got some work to finish,” he answered just as coldly as she’d asked. “I’ll be up later.”

He grabbed the quilt she’d dropped and went to his study without bothering to turn on a light. He knew he wouldn’t climb the stairs tonight. He couldn’t. As he spread out the quilt, he mumbled to himself, “I thought I was becoming her lover, only to find out I’m just her lab rat. Someone she planned to experiment with before she went back to her real life.”

He tried to fall asleep, thinking of Lori Anne and all the gentle nights of loving they’d shared. They’d been best friends,
forever friends
she used to say. He could read her thoughts, and she knew him so well sometimes he swore
they could go weeks without talking. They breathed together, always knowing how the other would act.

He never regretted the years of taking care of her. To him it was just another way of showing his love, and he knew if he’d been the one who had cancer, she would have taken care of him. They were two halves of a whole. They always had been. When she died, he felt like someone had cut him in half and then left him to stumble around.