Suspended (29 page)

“Takes a brave man to uproot everything and follow a woman.”

It would take far too much time to explain their crazy
situation. “We’re partners,” he said instead. It felt right to say that and
mean it for the first time.

“Well, how about I have Lucinda make you up a basket. At
least you can refill when you’re on the road.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

Doyle clapped him on the shoulder. “Good luck, son.”

“Thanks. I think I’m going to need it.”

Doyle’s mustache fluttered with a gusty laugh. “I think
you’re right.”

Shane followed the women’s voices and paused. It struck him
at the oddest times how much he was drawn to her. She was beautiful, there was
no doubt about that, but he’d gone out with plenty of beautiful women. None of
them reached under his breastbone and shoved his heart up into his throat like
Kendall did.

Half the time he couldn’t talk around that fucking lump. The
rest of the time he just wanted her mouth on his. Her skin against his mouth
and that throaty hum of satisfaction she made filling the air. It had been days
since he’d touched her.

And he couldn’t even explain why. Sure he was busy, but on
the downtimes, he’d lost himself in woodworking until he was too blurry to see
the numbers on a measuring tape. His body ached for her, and his brain was in
overdrive. The endgame of New York was more like a beacon of the future now.
And he didn’t know how he felt about that.

Was he just trading one life for another? Did he really want
to mold himself around another person’s dream again? When he’d first learned
about the Heron, he’d been hell-bent on figuring out a way to get out from
under the partnership.

Now…he didn’t know what he was feeling.

When Kendall was near him, all he could think about was
keeping her right there with him. That was the only thing he seemed to be able
to define. He wanted Kendall.

He walked up to the women, invading Kendall’s space to see
what she’d do in front of someone else. She slid herself into his body, locking
into that perfect puzzle-piece snap they seemed to do unconsciously.

He looped his arm around her hip. “Almost ready to go?”

“We just need to pack up our things.”

“I’m all packed. My bags are at the main house.”

“I’m going to miss you, kiddo. You were a better stable hand
than half of my staff,” Evelyn said.

Kendall lit up, her smile wide and sparkling. Even beamed at
someone else, he felt the punch. He curled his fingers into her soft corduroy
pants. She dropped her hand behind her and squeezed his thigh briefly before
stepping forward to embrace the older woman.

“I can’t thank you enough for teaching me all about the horses.
The minute I can afford one, I’ll be adding one to my roster of animals.”

Surprised, he lifted an eyebrow. “Just how many animals do
you have?”

Kendall grinned up at him. “It’s quite the assortment of
dogs, cats, and we even have a den of foxes that has made themselves at home.
Not to mention the herons all over the marshy part of the lake.”

“Those aren’t exactly pets.”

“You tell that to Pete.” She laughed when his eyebrow
spiked. “Pete’s been around so long I don’t even know how old he is. He’s the
reason I named the B and B the Heron.”

“Huh.”

She turned to Evelyn. “I’ve got your e-mail, phone number,
and address. We’ll keep in touch.”

“You damn well better. I don’t like to talk to most of the
people around here. You, I like.”

“The feeling is entirely mutual.”

Kendall slid her hand into his, and they walked
companionably into the waning sunshine. It might feel like it was a mild fall
day, but in reality, November was creeping away, and the days were much
shorter. She leaned into him, stopping to look out on the fields.

“I’m going to miss this place.”

Shane drew her in front of him. The air was crisp and fresh,
and the sweet scent of hay and sawdust eased him. “I will too.” He rubbed his
chin over the top of her head. “Got a view like this in New York?”

She sighed. “It’s not so gold. The Adirondacks are alive
with all sorts of autumnal colors. Where I am tends to bring in the purples and
deep reds to add to the cool colors of the evergreens. And the mountains are
right in my backyard.”

He settled his hand on her shoulder and rubbed light circles
along her nape. “Sounds beautiful.”

“It really is.”

Before he could question her more about Bradley, she turned
and grabbed his hand, drawing him forward. “I think we should find a shady spot
a few miles away so I can get reacquainted with the truck.”

“The truck, huh?”

“Of course, the truck.” She grinned over her shoulder and
took off in a loping sprint. He let her get ahead, enjoying her athletic grace
before he jogged after her. The trill of her happy laugh filled the air as the
sun set on the horizon.

* * * *

Shane loaded the last of their bags in the truck bed and a
box of sandwiches and drinks in the small compartment behind their seat.
Kendall had stayed at the house more than he did, so her good-byes took longer
as she enveloped half a dozen women into individual hugs.

Christ, she hadn’t hugged him as much as these near
strangers were getting.

Actually, in a span of time, he was almost the same level of
stranger as these people were. He and Kendall had been at the Doyle Ranch for
five days.

Fuck.

He tightened his grip on the frame of the truck bed with
impatience. He was too tired to be thinking about this shit. His muscles felt
like overcooked spaghetti, and his head was in the clouds. If he were smart,
he’d take Doyle up on the good night’s rest, but the thought of staying another
night had him itchy. And he could tell Kendall wanted to get on the road just
as much.

She finally backed up with a swipe at her cheeks. Now he
felt like shit. She’d been a good sport about everything. Not complaining,
being flexible to whatever they’d needed on the trip. He just wanted to move
forward.

To get started on whatever waited for them in Bradley.

Kendall looked up at him with starred eyelashes and a watery
smile. He opened her door for her and tugged on the messy braid she perpetually
wore. She patted his chest. “Ready to get on the road, Oscar?”

“Very.”

She stepped up on the running board and brushed her chest against
his; then her mouth hovered near his for a moment before she climbed inside. He
closed his eyes. He missed having her near him like that. Even if it had been a
banishment of his own making.

He shut the door and waved to everyone, then climbed in himself.
They were quiet on the rutted road that led to the smooth asphalt on the edge
of the property. She had her phone out again, taking one last picture of the
landscape before the main road.

She looked over her shoulder, eyes still a little watery,
but excitement gleamed under the sad. “Where to next?”

“Looks like Colorado is in our future.”

She dug into her trusty knapsack and hauled out a huge
notebook with tabs and thick pages.

“Do I want to know?”

“Well, since we’re now not able to make the stops we were
before—thank you, muffler of destruction on the highway—I figured it would be a
good idea to keep a notebook of what I want to see someday.” She smoothed out
the pages as she turned them. She looked up at him. “What? I had a lot of time
to myself at the main house and a ten-year-old to entertain.”

He frowned. “I didn’t know you were doing that.”

She shrugged. “It wasn’t a big deal.” The Red Rock Canyon
and a snow-filled scene with a luxurious lodge flashed by with each page she
flipped.

He flexed his fingers on the steering wheel as he pictured
her cutting and pasting a notebook of somedays. Why did that bug him? It wasn’t
his job to give her all those someday trips.

But dammit, part of him wanted to do a leisurely trip to
some mountain resort. He wanted to lay her out on an over-the-top expensive bed
with the Colorado Rockies as a backdrop and watch her dark eyes go blind for
him. He wanted to feel her clasping arms and legs and warmth surround him.

But all he had was this truck and an uncertain future in
Bradley to give her. It didn’t seem like much in the grand scheme of things.

“Where would you go first?”

He looked at her sharply. “Me?”

“Yes, you, Oscar. We’ve been talking about what I’d do,
where I’d like to see, but not about you.”

“I’ve been a lot of places, Sunshine.”

“So there’s nowhere else you want to go?”

“I still haven’t been to England, Ireland, or Scotland.”

“How come?”

“Not much surfing to do there.”

She laughed and tucked herself into her comfortable corner.
He’d see her in the corner of the cab of his truck forever because of this
trip. “I’m trying to picture you in a wet suit.”

“Kain and I haven’t had much time to do the surfing trips we
used to do, but when we were in college, we went everywhere. Australia and
Hawaii had the best surf besides California.”

“I think I’ll have to add Hawaii to my notebook here.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere that was so lush and
perfect at the same time.”

She pressed her notebook against her chest and folded her
arms over it, her eyes bright and interested. “You went because of Kain?”

“His family’s from there, and he had to make the yearly trek
home to see his mother. I tagged along a few times.”

“I can’t imagine just jumping on a plane and going to
paradise.”

He’d been able to do a lot of things thanks to Larry. And
yet Larry had left Kendall alone with her mother. He still couldn’t reconcile
that man with the father who had been so generous with his time and love, not
to mention his money. That part just never made sense.

“It sounds like you have your own paradise at the Heron.”

The wistful smile faded a little, and she sat straight in
her seat again. “Oh, you know how that goes. When you’re surrounded by the same
thing day in and day out, you want to see something different.”

“Tell me about the Heron.”

“I told you about it.”

“We’ve got hours to kill, and the moratorium on the subject
is off.”

“Who says?”

He laughed. “I say.”

She unclipped her belt and slid across the seat, her hand
sliding up his thigh. “I don’t see why you should be the one to get the final
say.”

“What are you doing?”

Kendall brushed her chest against his arm, her breath a hot
distraction along his neck just behind his ear. “Reality is boring.”

Everything inside him wanted to let her distract him, but he
was finally starting to see that she really didn’t want to talk about home. And
he needed to know why. “It’s our reality, Kendall. It will be anything but
boring.”

She stopped, her dark eyes going wide. “What?”

“You keep talking about Bradley like it’s the end of
everything.”

“Isn’t it?” Her gaze darted away, and she shrank back to her
side of the truck.

“It doesn’t have to be. Tell me about the Heron.”

She looked down at her belt as she fastened it, then at some
speck on her pants. Anything but him. “The Heron has meant everything to me for
so long. And now you’re going to be there.”

“And that’s a bad thing?”

“No.” She stared out the window. “It’s terrifying.”

Signs for the highway started to appear. He turned onto a
lane that probably led to a house. But instead of continuing along the dirt
road, he pulled off under the wide boughs of an oak and shut off the engine. He
unclasped his belt and did the same with hers, then made sure they were facing
each other. Tipping her chin up, he met her troubled gaze. “Why?”

“It matters too much.”

He mattered too much? His gut tightened, and the air around
them charged. So much had happened between them so fast. But maybe this was the
way it was supposed to happen. More and more he was convinced that starting
over would be good for both of them.

Kendall leaned forward, cupping his face. She wanted him to
want to be with her so much. And she could see a flicker of hope in his eyes.
The embers of gold in the center of his hazel eyes was so beautiful. She’d be happy
to see them every morning of her life and let them be the last thing she saw
before she went to sleep.

And that was terrifying.

She’d never let herself rely on a man, but she wanted to do
that with him. But the niggling fear that he’d leave burned just under her
skin. It was a mix of excitement that was never far away when she was with this
man and trepidation and she wasn’t sure which part to listen to.

“The Heron is mine.”

His eyebrow lifted, and she smiled as she smoothed her
thumbs along the sharp angles of his cheekbones and into the softness of his
light beard. “You might own it with me now, but it’s always been mine.”

“And your mother’s.”

She shrugged. “She loves it almost as much as I do, but if
she moved away tomorrow, she’d be excited for another adventure.”

“You seem to have a lot of your mom in you. You were
certainly gung ho for this adventure.”

Kendall laughed. “I was, wasn’t I?” She pressed a kiss on
his lips, sighing as they firmed and he tried to take over the kiss. Shane was the
most controlled man she’d ever met, but the moment they got within each other’s
airspace, all bets were off. And one of the most addicting things about him was
just how much he wanted her.

She was so afraid she’d shrivel up without that fire.

That was one more thing that frightened her. Needing him was
almost worse than the thought of losing him. Because neither was in her
control. She slid her palm up to the top of his head and held on as the kiss
spun out and the world tilted.

He ripped his mouth from hers. “You’re trying to distract
me, Sunshine.”