Silver Bracelets: A Loveswept Contemporary Classic Romance (9 page)

Sarah met his frown with a smile. “Don’t worry, Asa. I know you’re worried about me. You wouldn’t be yelling if you weren’t. I forgive you. Come inside and close the door. I think there’s an oilcan around here somewhere.”

Once he was inside, she raised her hand and placed one finger against his lips as if she were imploring him to put his anger away. And somehow the gesture worked. Her touch seemed to calm the anger that raged through him.

“Your outside door to the hayloft squeaks,” he said at last. “I’ll oil it for you.”

“It does? I hadn’t noticed.”

“I know. You never see a problem, do you?”

“Not if I can help it.” Sarah was now on her knees in front of the cabinet beneath the sink, pulling out an assortment of cleaning supplies and cooking utensils. “I know it’s in here someplace.”

Asa squatted down beside her, choking back a reprimand. “You keep all this stuff in here together?”

“Sure. I don’t use these pans much so it doesn’t matter if I can’t get to them easily. Nope, not here. Maybe it’s mixed in with the canned goods.”

“But, Sarah, all the cleaning supplies should be in one place. Pots and pans should be in one place, and food—”

“Oh, yes, I remember,” she interrupted. “It’s in the van in my tool kit. I’ll be right back.”

Asa automatically began replacing the items in the cabinet in an orderly manner. By the time Sarah returned he had organized the two adjacent cabinets, using every available space.

“My, my, that’s really neat,” she commented, handing Asa the can of oil. “Do you do windows?” she asked as he greased the noisy hinges.

“Every March.”

Sarah folded her arms across her chest and rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet. “And you’re kind to women and children. You have the oil in your truck changed every 3,000 miles, and I’ll bet you never tear the label off a pillow, do you?”

Asa was having trouble focusing on her question. Her folded arms lifted her breasts enticingly. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and he couldn’t keep himself from staring.

“I’ve never met anyone as innocent as you, Sarah,” Asa said in a gravelly voice. “You seem to have appointed yourself my guardian angel and I don’t know what to do about it. When I opened that door last night and you were
standing there you turned me to butter and I haven’t been worth a damn since and I don’t like that.”

“I know.”

“How do you know? What makes you so smart, lady?”

“Because I feel the same way. The only difference is, I’ve decided not to fight it.”

“And that’s what I don’t understand. Why?”

“Come over to the table and sit down.” Sarah held out her hand. Asa took it.

Together they walked over to the little table by the window that overlooked the pasture beyond. Asa let go of Sarah and forced himself to sit down across from her. He ought to get out of there. She wasn’t part of his future, and he knew it. But, damn it, he wanted her like he’d never wanted anyone before.

Sarah filled their cups with coffee. She could sense the battle raging inside Asa. She needed to put some space between them, to give him time to find his way. If there was one thing she’d learned about Asa Canyon, it was that he needed his time to work through a problem. She sat down, pulled her chair to the table and folded her hands beneath her chin.

“My father was a baseball player,” she began.

“I know. Big Jim Wilson, with the Atlanta Crackers. Hit twenty-four home runs in his last season.”

“He’d known for a long time that his knees were going. He’d already lost hearing in one ear from being hit by a foul ball … but
what the world didn’t know was that he had diabetes.”

“I hadn’t heard about that.”

“Eventually he had to have both legs amputated. By that time I was attending technical school at night. I’d been tagging along after him for years, helping with the locksmith business in the off-season at first, then later, well, I did all the work.” Her hands left her chin and curled into fists on the table.

“I’m sorry, Sarah. I didn’t mean to bring up sad memories for you.”

“That’s all right. They aren’t sad. My father never let me be sad, even when we both knew that he was dying. He was special. He started playing with the Crackers when he was only sixteen. He gave up a chance to go to college on a scholarship. Playing baseball was his Pulitzer Prize, his pot of gold. Even when he knew that it was killing him.”

“You mean because of the diabetes?”

“Yes. He reached a point when he couldn’t tell that he’d been hurt. He had little feeling in his feet and legs.”

“But he kept on playing? What did your mother think of that?”

There was a slight pause. “She didn’t like it. She never understood that Pop had a different way of seeing everything. Life was to be lived, enjoyed. There was a good side to everything, and he always managed to find it.”

“Just like you,” Asa said softly, beginning to see where Sarah got her unorthodox approach to life. Her father had found silver
linings in the rain clouds and Sarah was doing the same thing. But their rose-colored glasses didn’t make the storms go away. And storms could kill you.

“I don’t know about that. I do know that we’ve been given only so much time to live and if we waste it with being negative it only hurts us. Being happy is up to us and we mustn’t lose a chance at every bit of what’s available.”

Sarah uncurled her fingers and lifted her cup. “Drink your coffee before it gets cold.”

Asa welcomed the heat of the liquid as he sipped it. “Perfect. You got the sugar right and that rarely happens. People are always trying to change my taste.”

“I watched you. Since you’re so precise I thought I’d better pay attention.”

“Speaking of paying attention, Sarah, I wish you’d be more careful about the message on your answering machine. I know you think there aren’t any dishonest people in the world, but there are. Don’t invite them to find you by saying there’s money under the mat.”

“Asa, I’m not as foolish as all that. Even if they looked up my address, they wouldn’t bother me. They’d go to the house. And Mother has a burglar alarm that would protect Fort Knox. We’re in the locksmith business, remember?”

“Doesn’t your mother worry about you?”

“After twenty years with my father she finally decided that it’s better to leave me alone. Besides, she’s remarried.”

“Remarried?”

“She loved my father, but he never understood
her. Her new husband is a normal man who lives the kind of normal orderly life she always wanted. Pop would have wanted it for her.”

“I hate to say it,” Asa observed wryly, “but I can understand her confusion. If her life with your dad was anything like my being with you, she must have felt like she was living in a fantasy half the time.”

“Yes. She used to say that being in love with Pop was like being the little girl in an old nursery rhyme she knew. When it was good it was very good …”

“But when it was bad, it was horrid.”

Sarah gave Asa a long, sad look. “Yes, I guess, for a man like you, the way I live must look pretty horrid.”

Asa couldn’t keep back a half-smile. “I don’t know. At the moment I think I’m too caught up in feeling good.”

Sarah looked at Asa’s strong face and cloudy gray eyes. He was such a complex man, and there was a vulnerable side to him that drew her. “You know you’re taking a risk talking like that.”

“I know,” he murmured. “It’s foolish for me to even be here.”

“Yes. I suppose this could be considered very improper. But being here might turn out to be fun. It might even become addictive.”

“I know, and it scares the hell out of me.”

“Don’t feel like that, Asa. Sometimes you have to take risks. There may be pain but we
can’t appreciate the joy without the sorrow, can we?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’ve never had any kind of joy to make the comparison.”

“Until now, Deputy Canyon. I’m about to show you how to have fun. My kiss is a promise, remember?”

“Forget that,” he said ruefully. Anybody that could make me have fun would have to be a genie.”

“Maybe I am. Maybe I wrinkled my nose and wished you here.”

“Maybe you did. And maybe I’m glad.” He stood up and held out his hand.

Sarah moved into his arms and gave herself to his embrace. This time he asked, and he knew that he was asking. When she returned his kiss and pressed herself against him, he accepted and offered himself in return. There was no urgency as they explored each other’s mouths, as their hands touched and caressed.

“There’s nothing wrong with loving each other,” Sarah said, sliding her fingers inside his shirt.

“No, there’s nothing wrong with this.” His hand was circling her breasts, teasing her nipples through the soft cotton shirt.

“Ahhh!” Sarah couldn’t hold back a moan of pleasure.

He stopped kissing her and held her in his arms, rocking her back and forth as he tried to calm his senses.

“Sarah, we have to stop. I can’t believe what
I just did, what I’m doing. I should never have come here. This is wrong.”

“That’s not what you said a minute ago. You said it was good. You’re a contradictory man, Deputy Canyon, and I think you’re just a little turned on.”

Asa dropped his arms and stepped back. She was right. There was no concealing his desire. Nor could he deal with her open statement of fact. He simply couldn’t think of an answer of any kind.

“So are you,” he finally said.

“Absolutely,” she agreed, taking a step forward. “Would you kiss me again?”

“Absolutely not,” was his answer. At least he thought it was. “Go to bed,” he mumbled, then cursed himself for his inane remark. “I’m leaving now, Sarah. Lock the door behind me, please.”

“If you insist.”

“Of course I insist. I don’t want you to be robbed.”

“I mean on leaving.”

“I do.” He turned and started down the stairs.

“Call me, Asa, when you get home, so I won’t worry.”

“I can’t,” he said. “I don’t have your number.”

“Yes, you do. The shop number rings both places. I’ll pick up when you call.”

When Asa reached his cabin and dialed her number, he decided to make his words short and sweet.

“Hi, this is Sarah,” the recording said. “Please leave a message if you need me and I’ll get back to you.”

“I’m home, Sarah. Good night. And it was good, very very good,” Asa said. As he hung up, he added under his breath, “But I wish it had been horrid.”

Five

Sarah drove into the empty parking area adjacent to her building, and looked around. There was no old man waiting for his safe, just as there hadn’t been for the past five days.

There was no silver truck either, though she half expected it. Since the night Asa had kissed her in her hayloft, he had either stopped by the barn at night to check on her, or waited at the shop in the mornings. They’d had lunch together a few times in between, talking, getting to know each other, learning that opposites can coexist and draw from each other.

Asa hadn’t touched her. They hadn’t even held hands. His determination to keep a safe distance between them was driving her crazy. And she was getting very worried about Mr. Grimsley.

Opening the safe had seen so urgent to him,
yet she hadn’t heard a word since he’d left the safe. She would have had to report failure, if he’d called. She had tried every conceivable combination and the safe was still locked. Whatever it held was likely to be there for all time, unless she got lucky.

She opened the door and flipped on the air conditioner, breathing a sigh of relief that a cold front was coming through. The state tournament was next week and she didn’t look forward to playing in 100 degree August weather. She turned on the answering machine to pick up her calls. There were four inquiries about having dead bolts installed.

The fifth message was a surprise—not the voice, but the request. It was Asa. He must have called just after she left the house, otherwise she’d have heard the phone ringing.

“Sarah, the sheriff’s department is sponsoring a booth at the Cotton Patch Days festival on the square Saturday. I’ve been drafted to help. Would … would you like to go? I’d pick you up about eleven o’clock and we’d probably stay through the street dance that follows. I’ll call you about seven tonight for your answer.”

The rest of the day seemed to fly by. Sarah felt as happy as one of the seven dwarves going off to work. The deputy sheriff had asked her to go out in public with him on a real date. He was making their relationship official. Life couldn’t get much better than that.

Jake Dalton called, asking her to take in a
movie on Saturday night. Sarah had to refuse, explaining that she had plans for the weekend.

“Deputy Canyon?”

“Yes.”

“I knew it.” Jake seemed disappointed but resigned. “Just remember, Sarah, I’m here for you, if it doesn’t work.”

She could have told Jake that there was nothing to work, not yet. But if she could get Asa to kiss her again, maybe there could be.

Grumpy and Happy. That combination could work. All she needed was a fairy godmother with a wand.

No, that was another story. Still, Pop always told her that a little strategic alteration of the truth could be beneficial. That had been his method of handling her mother when they forgot something they’d been directed to remember under threat of death by hanging or worse.

Besides, Sarah wasn’t sure that somebody hadn’t already taken a hand. How else could anybody explain her and the deputy, or the kind of fire that ignited when they touched? She’d better hurry. Asa might decide to come by instead of calling.

On the way home, Sarah was stopped at the mailbox by her mother, Alice. “I like your man, Sarah. It’s about time you got serious about somebody.”

Sarah looked at her mother in shock. For the last two years her mother had been so
involved in her new husband that Sarah had seen little of her. “My man?”

“Yes. He stopped by, said he wanted to check the security, something about you leaving money under your mat.”

“He
is
worried about me.”

“Well, I just thought I’d let you know that he looks like an upright, stable kind of man. Just what a woman needs.”