A faint smile quirked his lips. "Yeah. The whole town got a kick out of watching me blush and stammer like a schoolkid when you were anywhere around."
"But that was - From the very beginning? Three years ago?" She was surprised. No, she was astounded, and completely shocked. She couldn't have been so totally oblivious, so blind to something a thirteen-year-old would have noticed.
"From the first time I saw you."
"Why didn't you say something?" She felt indignant that everyone else knew and she'd been completely in the dark.
"You weren't ready," he repeated. "There were only two men you addressed as 'mister' - Creed and me. Think about it."
She didn't have to think about it. The truth was there like a highway billboard. They were the only two truly eligible men in Trail Stop - Gordon Moon didn't count - and she had firmly put them at a distance.
"When you called me by my first name, I knew the wall was down," he said, lifting his head to kiss her.
"Everyone knew." She couldn't get over that.
"Not only that - uh - I guess I have another confession. Your house didn't need that much work. They would sabotage it, do things like cutting a wire or loosening a pipe fitting so you'd have a leak, just to throw us together. They thought it was funny to watch me fall all over myself if you spoke to me."
She stared at him, trying to decide whether she should laugh or get angry. "But - but," she sputtered.
"I could take it." He smiled at her. "I'm a patient man. And they were doing what they could to get us together. They didn't want to lose a good handyman."
Okay, now she was completely at sea. "Why would they lose you?"
"I'd been out of the Marines a month when you came to Trail Stop. I was cruising around the country, not sure what I wanted to do. and I came to visit Creed. He was my commanding officer in the Corps, and we became friends. He got out... oh, eight years ago, I guess, and I hadn't seen him since, so I looked him up. I'd been here a couple of weeks and was getting ready to move on when you moved in. I saw you, and stayed. Simple as that."
What was simple about it? "I thought you lived here! I thought you'd been here for years!" She was almost wailing, though she didn't know why, other than because she felt like such an idiot.
"Nope. I've been here two weeks longer than you."
She stared down at the tender expression in his eyes, saw the toughness and completeness of him as a man, the utter strength, and she wanted to weep. She opened her mouth, intending to say something important and meaningful, but the words that came out were neither.
"But I have a mouth like a duck!"
He blinked, and in complete seriousness said, "I like ducks."
Chapter 29
They were lying on their sides facing each other, talking and kissing, letting the newfound sense of familiarity settle in. There was nothing they could do at the moment about the situation in Trail Stop, nowhere they could go. Snow was still coming down, but here, in this hole in the ground, there was light and warmth and a sense of completion. They couldn't stop touching each other, each led by the desire to absorb as much detail as possible of the other. Cal's questing fingers found the scar low on her abdomen and paused, tracing it. "What's this?"
Some scars might have bothered her, but not that particular one, because it meant she had two living sons. Cate put her hand over his, loving the tough, sinewy strength that could touch her so gently. "C-section. I carried the boys until eighteen days short of their due date, which is good with twins, but then I went into labor. As it progressed, the first twin, Tucker, went into total distress. His umbilical cord was caught. The C-section saved his life."
Cal looked alarmed, even though those events were more than four years in the past. "But he was okay? You were okay?"
"Yes to both questions." She chuckled. "You've known Tucker most of his life. He's been pedal-to-the-metal from the day he was born."
"He is that," Cal agreed, and mimicked Tucker's piping voice: "Mimi shoulda watched me better!'"
Cate had to laugh. "Not one of his finer moments, I admit. I've been so terrified since Derek died, afraid I wouldn't do a good job raising them, afraid I couldn't support them. Since our good neighbors were 'helping' you by sabotaging my house, I was actually considering cutting expenses by offering you free room and board in exchange for repairs."
He laughed, too. shaking his head. "That's the same deal I have with Neenah. Well, not the food, food was part of the offer, right?"
"It was, but now I know the truth." She kissed him, reveling in her freedom to do so. "You'll do my repairs for free anyway, won't you?"
"Depends. I prefer trade." He moved his hand down to her butt, squeezing it to let her know just what sort of trade he preferred.
Something curious occurred to her. "Just how did you learn how to do all those repairs? You'd just got out of the Marines."
He shrugged. "I'm just good with my hands, I guess. I signed up on my seventeenth birthday - "
"Seventeen!" She was horrified. Seventeen was... seventeen was a baby.
"Well, I finished high school when I was sixteen, and nobody wanted to hire a sixteen-year-old full-time. I didn't want to go to college because I was too young to fit in. I didn't fit anywhere, except the Marines. I got a degree in electrical engineering while I was in, plus I'm a master mechanic, and, hell, anyone can hammer some nails and slap on paint. What's so hard about it? I'm reading up now on how to reenamel an old tub. What?"