Oregon Outback (22 page)

He’d bought accounting software, thinking that would make his life easier, but he still hadn’t figured out how to use it. So, she worked to enter all the previous information for the year while processing the current month’s business, and correcting errors he’d made along the way.

Fortunately, she’d have his things in order soon and could work part-time like she was supposed to. Then she wouldn’t have to worry about avoiding him. The guy was all power and brawn, the exact opposite of the men she knew in Portland. Actually, there were plenty of extreme sports enthusiasts in Portland, athletic types, but none of them ever noticed Avery. Only other accountants had asked her out, and they hadn’t been into anything more than miniature golf. Nor had anyone ignited her senses or pervaded her thoughts like Lucas.

Maybe it was ridiculous to believe Lucas had noticed her, but she sensed there was something between them. From his perspective, that was probably because there weren’t many women around for Lucas to choose from. Or maybe it was like Katy said. He’d already hurt every woman within a hundred miles, including Katy’s closest friends. Maybe he was just like all the other guys she’d known—he ran when he got too close. That made more sense.

Avery frowned at the thought. Through the kitchen window, she watched a coyote traipse across the back of her property. Good thing she didn’t have a small pet to worry about, except that having one to keep her company would be nice. Living in such a sparsely populated area—Carnegie boasted only four hundred people—loneliness hounded her.

She’d wanted this—the quiet and simple life, but she’d had difficulty sleeping. Sometimes at night the silence would give way to the coyotes or wolves howling, all manner of creatures and their noises.

Avery pushed aside her dismal thoughts. She focused on making pasta for one and checked on the bread in the oven. She loved the aroma that filled the house, but her newfound hobby making artisan breads wasn’t much fun without someone to share it with. She’d attended the small community church where her grandmother had attended, and had met people who knew her grandmother, but relationships were slow going, except for her neighbor Katy, of course.

Finally, Avery poured off the water from the penne just as someone knocked on the door. The thought of a visitor made her happy. Had to be Katy.

“Just a minute,” Avery called. She wiped her hands on a towel, left the pasta steaming in a colander in the sink, and rushed to the door to peer through the peephole.

Lucas?
Avery swung the door open to find the man who never left her thoughts leaning against the brick wall, his legs crossed at his ankles, and looking like he was born to make girls swoon. He wore his signature cargo shorts, exposing his muscular legs, and a T-shirt tight enough to outline his well-formed chest. And he wore that grin framed with dimples that she hadn’t seen in over a week. Her heart surfed a giant wave of emotion.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, trying to hide her smile. But it was no use. She was glad to see him.

Lucas opened his mouth, about to say something, but then paused. “What is that amazing smell?” He shoved from the wall and stood there, waiting for her to invite him in.

“I made olive bread. It’s baking, and I need to take it out soon.”

His deep-sea eyes grew wide. “You
made
olive bread? That explains all the white stuff on your clothes and face. Are you going to invite me in to share, or leave me standing outside, cold and hungry?”

“I thought we discussed this. I work for you. There is a line drawn between us. Why are you here?” Avery laughed a little, going for teasing banter, instead of a harsh tone.

Lucas straightened his face, growing serious, though his eyes beamed with a smile. “I came by to scold you for bringing work home with you.”

“Uh … how did you know?”

“I can see it spread across the coffee table from here.” He laughed. “Now, can I have some bread?”

His laugh melted her resolve. “I would love to share my bread, but you can’t stay because Katy might see your truck, and then I wouldn’t hear the end of it.”

“Oh.” His smile faltered.

“But I have an idea. Why don’t you take me to see the stars?” “The stars?”

“You know, that night at Rally’s, he wanted to see the stars. We’ll take the bread with us. It’s a big loaf, and I’m glad to share it with someone.”

He smiled again. “Olive bread under the stars? That’s the best idea I’ve heard in a long time.”

She giggled and hurried to the kitchen to pull the bread from the oven, leaving the door open and Lucas to trail after her. Thankfully, she caught the bread before it baked too long. She dumped the loaf out of the cast-iron pot onto a cooling rack. One of several bread-baking methods she’d experimented with.

“That looks wonderful. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted fresh bread, warm from the oven.”

“And you won’t at my house.”

“Huh?”

“It’s a myth that you should eat it while it’s hot. The bread is still cooking while it cools.” She wrapped the round olive loaf in a flour sack towel. “You grab the sodas from the fridge. The bread will cool while we drive.”

“What about that pasta in the sink?”

“Leave it. It’s nothing special. The bread is enough.” Avery wiped her face with a towel and dusted her clothes to knock off the excess flour. Her kitchen floor also showed evidence of her bread-baking, flour everywhere. She loved that.

As Lucas backed from the driveway, Avery looked out the window and smiled to herself. She was taking a risk tonight, but it felt good. Right.

Katy stood in her own yard and waved at Avery. She waved back. Lucas shifted into D
RIVE
and soon, Katy slipped from view.

“Sorry that we didn’t escape Katy,” Lucas said. “I’m sure she had to fill your head with stuff about me.”

“I’ve never been big on listening to rumors and conjecture.” Though Katy’s words were spoken from the experiences of close friends, there were always two sides to every story. Avery hadn’t heard Lucas’s side. She’d give him that. And she wanted to enjoy this evening.

It was one thing to avoid Lucas at work and try her best to stop thinking about him, but his appearance on her doorstep and her desire to be with him had buried all her well-intentioned resolutions in the sand.

Lucas steered the truck out of town. “You know, I can hardly believe you’re with me right now, going to see the stars, holding that loaf of bread. My mouth is watering it smells so good.”

“You and me both. How far is this place?”

He glanced her way, admiring the soft golden curls splayed across her shoulder, the curve of her jaw, her unblemished, peachy-cream skin, which had a little more color to it than when he’d first met her.

She peeked at him, caught him staring. “You need to watch the road.”

“Oh, sorry.” He stared straight ahead. “It’s about fifteen or twenty minutes. There’s a ledge where we like to park. The stars are clear just about anywhere in this area, but getting a little higher makes it all the better. Tell me about making bread. You do that often?”

Lucas wanted to hear everything about her. For one thing, he enjoyed her sweet voice—like cream and sugar on a bowl of strawberries in the morning.

He listened while he drove. She was meticulous in detailing every aspect of making bread—the types of yeast and flours to use and slow fermentation meant more flavor—that she made the topic interesting to him.

“Who knew there was so much to it,” he said. Could there be more to enjoying life than his kind of fun?

He had a feeling that if he spent much time with Avery, she could open up a new world for him. Where was his resolve to stay away from her because she could ruin everything about the life he’d built?

She continued on about the different breads she’d made, and the feel of the dough under her fingers. Lucas drove, listening to her passion-filled voice.

At last, he reached the base of the rise. He steered his truck along the bumpy incline, taking care to watch the road, though it wasn’t completely dark yet. He backed up so the bed of the truck was nearest the ledge. After he parked and turned off the ignition, he climbed out.

Avery came around the truck to meet him. “Wow, this is an amazing view.”

“We usually sit on the tailgate, or if I’d known, I could have brought chairs. But I do have a blanket in the back in case you get cold.”

They settled on the tailgate. Avery tore off a chunk of bread and handed it to Lucas. He took a bite and savored the taste. “You are one amazing cook. The bread tastes like olives.”

A long-forgotten memory drifted forward. He was five or six. His mother baked bread and pies, filling the house with good smells. Lucas had forgotten how much he liked that. He could get used to good smells again. He washed the bread down with the soda—what was he thinking? Good smells went hand in hand with being domestic. He thought about Rally and how little fun he had. Lucas never heard Rally mention that Katy made bread.

“You never told me why you stopped by,” she said. “I mean, really. Because you didn’t know that I’d taken work home with me, so why did you come?”

Avery looked small sitting on the tailgate compared to the expansive, dusky sky. He wanted to curl her into his arms and protect her. From what he didn’t know. “I’ve been thinking about something. Since you work for a recreational business it’s important for you to experience at least some of that.”

She choked on her soda then slid the back of her hand across her mouth. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”

What? She didn’t believe him? Not only could she bake a mean loaf of bread, she could read people.

“Can I be straight with you?” He grinned, hoping she remembered when she’d asked him that same question during her interview.

“I’m counting on it.” Her perfect lips curved into a soft smile.

Good. She remembered. But that meant he would have to open up. He sighed, unsure if he was ready. He waited until he had her full attention—her baby blues focused on him and nothing else.

There. Her amazingly big eyes, shaped sort of like teardrops, watched him. The only thing giving him courage to speak his mind was the fact that she was here with him now. Her idea, in a manner of speaking.

“A couple weekends ago, I went hang gliding. I invited you, but you didn’t want to go and handed me your spiel about our relationship. But …”

Her smile didn’t falter at the mention of her spiel. “Go on.”

“All I kept thinking was that it would have been more fun with you. Avery, come with me. I can show you things you can’t imagine.”
And experience everything for the first time again through your eyes
. Where had that come from?

Her soft smile spread wide, revealing her perfect white teeth. “You realize this is what Katy warned me about. That you would try to charm me.”

“Is that what you think? Because I can tell you that I never led anyone on. All I ever wanted was friendship. Camaraderie. I never meant to hurt anyone. I wouldn’t do that intentionally.”

“I know …” She looked away, her eyes on the valley below.

The night fell, the stars filled his vision, except for Avery. Did she really believe that about him? Would she give him an answer to his invitation?

Their conversation lagged, both of them caught up in their own thoughts. The silence was comfortable as they lay back in the truck bed and looked at the stars and the swirling oval that was the Milky Way galaxy.

“How do you like living in no man’s land so far?” Lucas asked.

“If I could get your books in order I might have time to find out.” She elbowed him, laughing. “I admit, though I wanted to work part-time, I find it beyond difficult to let it go. Work for me is like a compulsion, kind of like your addiction to adrenaline.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good comparison considering you’re afraid of the very things I live for.”

“From what I can tell, you’re very much afraid of the accounting required to run a business.” Avery sat up. “Did you see that? It was a shooting star! I mean, huge.”

Lucas hadn’t seen it and even now, he couldn’t pull his eyes from Avery. He remembered that day in the back room when the box had fallen. He’d been so near her and her sweet lips—he’d wanted to kiss her.

Leaning back on her arms, her hair cascaded behind her head and almost touched the truck bed. Lucas couldn’t help himself. He slipped his hand through her thick, blond mane and cradled her head, turning her face toward him.

When she didn’t resist, but instead closed her eyes, Lucas brushed his lips against hers, gently at first. He cupped her face in his hands, relishing her response and the electric charge she sent through him—like nothing he’d experienced. Instantly, he sensed when her response reversed on him, and she pulled back, breathless. Hurt and anger swirled in her eyes.

I
shouldn’t have done that.” Lucas let go and leaned away, his expression taut. “I’m sorry.”

She slipped from the tailgate and wiped her slick hands down her jeans. “Not your fault. It was my idea to come here alone with you. And I kissed you back.”

“Then what’s wrong?” Lucas hopped off the truck and slammed the tailgate. “It’s Katy, isn’t it? You’re afraid what she said about me is true, that I’ll hurt you.”