One Hot Momma (2 page)

“Oh.” He almost dropped her but recovered in time. Clearing his throat and acting as if he still had strength left in his body, he balanced them both. “Sorry about that.”

He looked at her and she looked at him. He knew he was smiling ear to ear; her face blushed and she looked at the floor.

“Why are you looking away from me?” He tipped her face toward him.

“I bit you.” She looked at his shoulder; he looked and then looked again. “Is that… oh no.”

“It’s just a little… scratch; with a tiny bit of blood… it doesn’t matter.” However, it was beginning to hurt in the calm after the storm. “Marry me.”

The words slipped out. He had planned to woo her and take it one giant step at a time, but now he jumped three squares and stepped right in it. She crinkled her face and then laughed.

“For a moment there, I thought you were serious.”
Layla
giggled as she pulled her skirt and panties back on.

Feeling exposed he took care of the condom and re-fastened his pants. She was still giggling.
Layla
wasn’t a giggler. Something was wrong. “What if I am serious?”

“But you’re not.” She turned on the faucet and began splashing her face with the water.

He turned her. Water streamed down her face, smudging her mascara and wetting the hair that framed her face. She looked crazy.
Almost as crazy as he felt.
“What if I am?”

She blinked, a lot, and then shook her head no.
“I… you… no, no, no.”

“
Layla
,” he started.

“Leave.” She pointed. “Go, go now!”

“You can’t be serious.” He could feel anger replacing the bliss.

“
Rafe
, you gotta go. You have to go now.” She bent down, picked up his wallet, and handed it to him. She then marched to the door while fastening the rest of her shirt buttons.
“I… no, no, no.
You gotta go.”

“You’re freaking out, aren’t you?” She was acting like she did the day he suggested signing the kids up for scouts. She got all wide eyed and paced for hours then decided no, they could not.

“I’m not freaking out. You… you’re getting out. Go!” she snapped.

He let out a breath of exhaustion. Certainly, he had imagined he would at least be there in the morning after their first sexual encounter. Now, he was heading back to the ranch. “Call me in the morning.”

She went to say something smart; he was sure of it, so he leaned in and kissed her. The water on her lips tasted like tears. He tried to get a better look, but the moonlight shining in the door didn’t provide much for revealing the woman’s secrets. He shook his head and left.

Layla
leaned against the door and cried. The mix of emotions overwhelmed her. She slid against the door and sat on the cold floor sobbing.
Rafe
asked her to marry him. It was more than she deserved, more than she could handle. A man like
Rafe
would not let her keep secrets. He would want to know everything, and she couldn’t tell him. For their sake, the babies, she had to keep to the course. She knew in the beginning it meant she would sacrifice everything. She would never be able to have a relationship with anyone.

She wiped her tears, stiffened her shoulders, and pushed up and off the floor. She went to the kitchen, grabbed the telephone, and dialed the operator. When the electronic voice asked what city and state, she hung up. She couldn’t call her mother. Her parents had been through enough already. She didn’t want to call when she couldn’t hide the truth about things. Her mom would know in an instant she had been crying.
Layla
didn’t want to tell her everything; she just wanted reassurance that she was still doing the right thing.

After walking down the hall to their room, she opened the door. Both children were sound asleep, safe, and happy. She nodded. She was doing the right thing for them.
Except it didn’t feel right anymore.
Savannah had memories, real ones, undeniable ones, and there was nothing she could do to stop that. Brice was still too little, but she worried he too would recall moments of his life before Montana. Everyone agreed this was the best way, to leave and go where no one knew them.
Layla
barely knew herself anymore, so she supposed the theory worked. Returning to her room she thought to shower, then decided against it as she pulled her clothes off and distinctly smelled
Rafe
on her arms, her chest. His warm and spicy scent on her skin was too much to part with tonight. It would have to wait until morning.

* * *

Rafe
cursed a frustrated blue streak all the way back to his house. He opened the door and took a good look around. He didn’t know when he started renovating that he was going to make so many changes in so short of a time. The kitchen was all his, the living room, most of the large spaces, but he took the rooms upstairs and turned them into children’s rooms, one for Savannah and one for Brice. The master bedroom he took care to add things he thought
Layla
would appreciate.
What the hell is that woman hiding?

He paced around the house for an hour then surrendered to sleep.

* * *

“
Rafe
, can you…?”
Jan, his sister, started.

“No, dammit.
I can’t. I can’t okay. Whatever it is I can’t do it today.”
Rafe
tossed the clipboard on the desk in the large supply closet and folded his arms. He didn’t look at her; he was afraid to. Jan was his little sister, and in the twenty years of her life, he had never talked to her like that. He wasn’t sure why he was talking to her like that now.

“Fine.”
Jan physically pushed her way into the space beside him and stretched out her arm to grab the bottle of water on the far end of the desk.

He felt like an ass. He was an ass. “Jan, I…”

“Hey, whatever.”
She shrugged as she began walking away.

“Shit!” He started after her, caught up to her long legged strides, and grabbed her by the arm effectively swinging her around to face him. “I’m sorry.”

His heart broke as he watched tears fall from his tough little sister’s eyes. He made that happen, and he fought to hold back his own at the realization.

“I don’t know you anymore.” She shook her head and tried to be strong.

“Yes, you do. I’m
Rafe
, your big brother, your best buddy, the one who always came back and let you out of the closet when Heath and Jack locked you in to escape. I played Barbie’s with you, and taught you how to fish and ride horses. I picked
bee-bee’s
out of your husband’s ass so he could marry you.” She smiled at the memory then shook her head. He sighed. “I know I haven’t been coming to dinner. I haven’t been to game night, but
Layla
needs me.”

“
Layla
.”
Jan took in a deep breath, and he knew
Layla
was a sore topic for her. Jan had told him over and over again the woman was weird, that she was hiding something, and that she was using him as a babysitter.

He nodded.

“
Rafe
, you are my best big brother. My favorite by far, but it is because of that I must say this to you. You’ve changed. You’re short with all of us, now that includes me. You never eat a meal with anyone, and I’m not talking about the regular game night with Buck and me. Jack said he only sees you for lunch here at the ranch. Heath confirmed it. You leave work earlier and earlier and come in later and later. This is affecting your life now, all of it, family, work, everything. What the hell is happening to you?” Her brows drew together, and she looked very much like their oldest brother, Heath.

Aside from getting an earful of stuff he knew but wasn’t really eager to admit to, he didn’t like the fact that it was coming from Jan. He could curse at Jack or Heath. He could cowboy up and fight with them but not Jan.
He wouldn’t, couldn’t, let his little sister who thought the world of him, down.
“I’m going to ask
Layla
to marry me. If she says no, then I’ll quit pursuing her. If she says yes, you will support my decision like I supported yours. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Am I forgiven?”

“For now.”
Jan smiled and hugged him a little too tightly. “I worry about you. Be careful okay?”

“Promise.”
Rafe
shook his head as Jan walked off. Did she think he was so blind?

Everyone at the ranch thought
Layla
was using him, that she had no interest in him other than watching her kids. They never saw
Layla
the way he did. A single mother working overtime to make ends meet.
A proud woman who didn’t like to take handouts or help from others.
It took a while for her to warm up to him, much less leave her kids with him, and now he was becoming a part of their routine. They expected him, all of them. He hadn’t forgotten his family, but he was building a new one. Unlike his brothers, his bride wasn’t going to fall into his lap. He had to work to get her affection, and that was something he had never really done before. Women were always easy to come by, and they loved him.
Layla
, hell he didn’t know what else to do to earn her love.

Jan was right. He had sacrificed his family and his job, which again effected his family since it was their dude ranch collectively he worked at. Maybe he had been chasing
Layla
too hard for too long. Maybe she needed to miss him.

* * *

“Where’s
Rafe
?” Brice asked as they sat down for dinner.

“He had
work
to do.”
Layla
scooped macaroni and cheese onto the child’s plate.

“This is lunch food.” Savannah wrinkled her nose at the hot dog and bun.

“Well, it’s dinner food tonight.”
Layla
tried for a smile.
Rafe
always stocked their refrigerator no matter how many times she told him not to. There was “dinner food” in there, but she didn’t know much about cooking it or what exactly they would eat.
Rafe
normally fed them dinner, and she ate her sandwich at work. When he was there with all of them, he cooked. The kids would eat anything he made. As Brice tested the macaroni, she knew she was not their favorite chef.

“Will he come over tonight?” Brice asked after reluctantly eating the food.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
Layla
realized in that instant he hadn’t said. He always told her where he was or what he was doing. She didn’t realize how much she had grown accustomed to knowing. Now she too began to wonder.

“Can we call him?” Savannah asked.

Layla
thought about it for a moment. It wasn’t her business where he was or what he was doing. Then the previous night flashed before her eyes. Horror stuck her core, and she began to worry that he took their moment of passion and her rejection at what was obviously a mercy proposal too seriously.
“After dinner.”

They ate every bite.

* * *

Rafe
sat at Jack’s house around the big country kitchen table with all of his family there. They were in the middle of setting up a game of monopoly when his cell phone vibrated. He looked at the number and excused himself. He ignored the long faces of disappointment from each one of them. He wasn’t leaving unless it was an emergency. “Hello?”

“Hi
Rafe
!”
Savannah giggled. “Are you coming over?”

“Not tonight, baby-girl.” He forced a smile. It was like telling his own kids he wasn’t coming home.

“Brice, don’t pull.” Savannah was obviously struggling to keep the phone.

“Let me talk to him.”
Rafe
smiled.

“Hello?” The little monster got on the phone.

“How are you supposed to treat your sister, young man?” he asked.

“Be nice to her. She is the only sister I got, and it’s my job to protect her,” he droned out the lesson.

‘That’s right.”

“We miss you. We had hot dogs and macaroni;
that’s
lunch foods,” Brice complained.

“Well, all food is good food any time of day.”

“Are you coming over tomorrow?” Brice asked.

“I’ll be there, cowboy. Now let me talk to your sister.”

“I… okay.” Brice handed the phone to Savannah.

“I will be there tomorrow all right? Be good for your mother, okay?”

“Do we have to?” the little imp asked honestly.

“Yes.” He held back the laugh. He knew they gave
Layla
hell when he wasn’t around, but really, the woman lacked common sense when it came to managing two kids.

“Oh all right,” she said. “Good night.”

“Good night.” He waited for Savannah to hang up, laughed because
Layla
was asking for the phone when she did it, and went back to the kitchen. If she really wanted to talk to him, she would call back.

“We know, you gotta go,” Heath, his older overbearing brother, rolled his eyes as he said it.

“Actually, I don’t.”
Rafe
sat back down and felt six sets of eyes on him. He looked around the table at them. Jack and Bethany sat close together. Jack had met Bethany in Las Vegas, and they married each other on a dare. They were now expecting a little one. Not to be outdone, Heath and his wife Chance had not only reconciled but also conceived upon that reconciliation. Chance absolutely glowed. Heath for all of his machismo could only find tenderness for one woman, the one at his side.
The only woman willing to put up with him.
Then he moved to the happiest faces in the room. Jan and Buck were the youngest couple there and the ones who missed him the most. When Jan and Buck got married, Jack and Heath thought that by shutting
them
out they would bring them to their senses. Heath had even shot Buck with a bee-bee gun when he came to ask for Jan’s hand in marriage.
Rafe
had snuck down to their house once a week for dinner and family game night. He always went back to let her out of the closet when they wanted to escape the little sister, and he always went down to see her and her husband once a week when she was married and banned from the family.

His grandfather had told him when Jan came along that Heath was too old to be the big brother she needed, Jack was too wild and losing his spot as the baby wasn’t fun either, so it fell to the middle child to pick up the slack.
Rafe
understood this. He had been compensating one way or the other all his life as the middle brother.

Six surprised faces still looked at him. “What?”

“Nothing,” Jan said and quickly directed the attention back to the game. “You can be on our team.”

“I’ll be on my own team, thank you.” He grabbed the horse piece he had custom created from a piece of wood and placed it at the start. Of course, he was the odd man out. He always was.

* * *

Squeals, shrieks, and laughter cracked through the air. Two kids were not behaving. They had stripped the sheets off their beds, dumped out all of their toys, and were currently running around the small apartment like wild dogs.

“Both of you stop it!”
Layla
yelled. They stopped. “Go to bed!”

Their faces looked shocked, hurt, and disappointed all at the same time.

“Now.”
She pointed to their room.

They marched in silence until they got to the door. Brice looked back.
“But the sheets.”

“I don’t care.”
Layla’s
hands shook from her frazzled nerves.

“I’ll fix it.” Savannah gave her the cold look she always gave her and put her arm around her brother.