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“Aunt Meredith, look!” Olivia held up a bedraggled stuffed goose. “Jaynie asked Kelsey’s mama to give Snuggles new eyes, and she did. Now Snuggles is as good as new.”
“Snuggles isn’t either as good as new,” Logan grumbled.
“Is so.”
“Is not.”
“Is so.”
“Uh-uh.”
“Uh-huh.”
Jayne tucked a strand of short, dark hair behind her ear and glanced from her husband to Meredith. With a wink, she said, “Unless you keep them busy, this could still be going on when I return. Burke and I used to be like that.”
“Kate and I did, too.”
“Then you’ll know exactly how to deal with them,” Jayne said.
“Forget child labor laws,” Wes Stryker said, a twinkle in his blue eyes. “Put them to work. There’s nothing like manual labor to work out a kid’s frustrations.” He turned to the children. “We’ll be back in an hour, so try to be good. And you,” he said, easing closer to his wife.
Meredith thought she heard Jayne whisper, “I’ll be good later.”
And she was pretty sure Wes said, “I’m counting on it,” the moment before his lips brushed his wife’s.
The underlying sensuality went right over the children’s heads. Tucking the stuffed goose under one arm, Olivia skipped into the store ahead of her brother. Knowing what could happen when those two were left unsupervised, Meredith hurried after them.
“Logan,” she said, handing the boy the keys while she flipped on lights. “Unlock the back door, would you? Maybe we can get a breeze blowing through here.”
Logan ran to the back of the store, keys jangling, shoes thudding, anything not anchored down rattling as if during an earthquake. Within seconds, the netting hanging from the rafters ruffled, a dozen sets of wind chimes purled, and Meredith sighed. Turning in a circle, she took it all in. She’d put everything she had into this store, all her energy and her life savings. She’d looked at several buildings, but had decided on the store that sat by itself between the Jasper Gulch Clothing Store and Bonnie’s Clip & Curl. It had been nothing but a deserted building then, so full of cobwebs that she’d had the place fumigated before she’d done anything else. Some of the other structures she’d looked at had more history, but none of them had as much personality or potential.
The front portion of the store had a tin ceiling. The rest had an open ceiling, high rafters, and wood floors. A long time ago, it had been a furniture store, which made it the perfect place to house the antiques and fine furnishings Meredith planned to sell here. The work was nearly completed. Track lighting had been installed below the rafters, the entire place scrubbed and painted. She’d made the curtains at the windows herself, and with the help of several local teenagers, the antiques were arranged at one end, the few pieces of new furniture she could afford to stock at the other. The paint she would sell was due to arrive later in the week. Every day she worked from dawn until late into the night down here before retiring to the tiny apartment upstairs. It was all coming together, the kids, her store, her life.
She spread her arms wide and tipped her head back. Whoa. Woozy, she closed her eyes.
“Aunt Meredith, ’Livia,” Logan called. “That alley cat’s gone and had kittens in an old barrel that tipped over back here.”
Olivia ran to see. Meredith blinked, focused, then followed. Logan was on his knees just inside the back door. Olivia was bent at the waist a foot away.
“She must’a just had ’em,” he said. “They’re still ugly and their eyes aren’t open yet.”
“They’re not either ugly,” Olivia exclaimed. “They’re beautiful.”
Meredith braced herself for the argument that was sure to break out, but Logan shrugged good-naturedly and simply said, “You know what I mean.”
“How many are there?” Olivia asked her big brother.
“Six.”
“Six?” Meredith exclaimed. What on earth was she going to do with an alley cat and six kittens?
“Wait. I was wrong.”
Oh, good.
“There are seven,” Logan amended.
“Seven?” Meredith asked. “Are you sure?” The scraggly orange-and-white mother cat stared up at her, blinking tiredly, as if sharing Meredith’s dismay.
“Yup. There are seven all right. Uncle Wes says seven’s lucky.”
“We’re lucky!” Olivia exclaimed. “Aren’t we Aunt Meredith?”
Meredith took a closer look at that cat and her seven kittens, and then at the brown-haired children whose blue eyes, so like their mother’s, were wide with wonder. A lump came and went in her throat, but she managed a small nod and a genuine smile.
“Seven kitties,” Olivia declared. “Plus the mama. We’re gonna need a lot of names.”
Since Meredith knew that a named cat was a claimed cat, she had to think fast. “Those kittens need to take a nap right now. If you two want to think of names, why don’t you help me decide what to call the store?”
“You want us to name a building?” Logan asked in that preadolescent, know-it-all attitude universal to males.
Meredith swiped a finger along his nose and said, “Not the building, silly. It’s going to be my business, a way of life, an entity with its own unique personality.”
The kids looked up at her blankly for a full five seconds before turning their gazes on each other. “I think we should name the white-and-yellow one Fluffy,” Olivia said.
“And the one with the two white paws is…”
“Paws?” Olivia asked.
“No, silly. Boots.”
Meredith knew when she’d been beaten. Retracing her footsteps to the front of the store, she began arranging throw pillows and lamps and candles on shelves lining one wall. The kids spent the next hour pondering names for kittens Meredith couldn’t possibly keep. Logan made a bed for them in an old drawer he found in the back alley, and he and Olivia coaxed the mother to let him help her move the kittens to what they considered a better lodging place. As far as Meredith was concerned, those two voices were more musical than the resonant purl of the wind chimes swaying overhead in the gentle breeze.
By the time Jayne was due back to pick up the children an hour later, all the kittens had been duly petted and examined for any unusual, interesting or identifying markings, three of them had names, and Logan and Olivia were arguing over a fourth. Mercy, those kids could argue over nothing.
“You can’t name the mother cat Haley!” Logan exclaimed.
“I can name her Haley if I want to!” Olivia declared with equal exuberance.
“Can not.”
“Can so.”
“You can’t either name her Haley. That’s a real person’s name. Tell her Aunt Meredith.”
Before Meredith could open her mouth, Olivia said, “We named the barn cats Carolyn, Sherilyn and Tom, and those are real people names. You just don’t wanna name this one Haley on accounta you kissed Haley Carson and she gave you a black eye.”
All at once, the store was absolutely quiet. Logan was the quietest of all. Wanting to help but not sure how, Meredith said, “Olivia, you don’t know that’s the reason Logan doesn’t want to name this cat Haley. I don’t really think she looks like a Haley, do you? Besides, kissing is private.”
“Kissing’s icky,” Olivia said. “Do you think kissing’s icky, Aunt Meredith?”
Two pairs of trusting blue eyes turned to her. Kissing? “Well, er, um. That is…”
The bell over the front door jangled, signaling Jayne’s return. Meredith was saved from having to try to come up with an answer that wasn’t mostly a sigh. Icky? Oh, that depended upon who a woman kissed. And the last man, the only man she’d kissed in a long, long time, hadn’t been icky at all.
Jayne dashed in long enough to pay due respect to the mother cat and her kittens, recount the high points of the meeting she’d attended, and say, “I’ll see you at the town council meeting tonight!” before bustling the kids away.
Ugh, Meredith thought when she was alone again in the store. Tonight, at the town council meeting, she would have to stand in front of the women of the Ladies Aid Society and several of the bachelors in town. She prayed she passed everyone’s scrutiny so that she might be accepted in this small town.
That was what she wanted. To be accepted, to be near Logan and Olivia, and for her store to be a success. In order for her store to be a success, she couldn’t afford to make any enemies or hurt any feelings, which meant she had to let the overeager bachelors down gently, which wasn’t easy to do when she received requests for dates every day. She could hardly blame them. There simply weren’t enough women to go around out here. An old copy of the advertisement the local boys had put in the local papers to lure women to Jasper Gulch still hung in the post office and in the diner. Not a lot had changed since then. As far as Meredith could tell, in the three years since the ad had appeared, there wasn’t a single man in town who wasn’t still shy but willing. She paused for a moment.
That wasn’t true. There was one. Oh, Skyler Buchanan had been more than willing a month ago, and she doubted he’d ever been shy.
Giving herself a mental shake, Meredith got back to work. It was amazing how many times her thoughts strayed to Sky, and a kiss, that had led to a touch, that had led to a frenzy of hands reaching, and buttons popping and clothes being peeled away like layers until so much more than two bodies were bared. For those few brief hours, Meredith had believed she’d been able to see into Sky’s soul, and he into hers. Of course, when it was all over, they’d both known it had been a mistake. Skyler Buchanan was a free spirit, and Meredith Warner had an old soul. They’d both been lonely, that was all. Loneliness could be a powerful motivation, but not a basis for anything deep and abiding. Sky had been the first to put it into words, saying it would be best to end it then and there.
She’d nodded, mumbling her agreement, her clothes clutched in her arms, covering her nakedness as she’d assured him that there was nothing to end. In order for something to have an ending, it had to have a beginning. And all she and Sky had had were a few brief hours in each other’s arms, a few brief hours during which two people had taken a respite from their real lives and had lived a fantasy.
She hadn’t seen Sky since that night. Until today. She’d thought about him a thousand times. Which was just about how often she’d told herself to forget him, because surely, he hadn’t given her another thought.
She’d been sure of that, until earlier, when their gazes had locked from a distance. Something powerful had passed between them. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she found herself wondering if perhaps he was having a difficult time forgetting her, too.
She straightened fast, and got light-headed and woozy again. She eyed the sofas waiting for someone to buy them, wishing she could curl up on one of them, and close her eyes if only for a few minutes. Shaking her head slightly to clear it, she reminded herself that she didn’t have time for the luxury of a nap. She had a business to launch, and a life to turn around. Placing a hand to the flat of her stomach, she hoped she wasn’t coming down with the flu.
Chapter Two
“Hey, Sky.” Neil Anderson slipped into one of the last vacant chairs in the room. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you at one of these meetings.”
What could Sky say? He didn’t attend town meetings often. Folks assumed he didn’t like schedules or agendas, especially other people’s. Nobody had ever thought to ask if he had some other reason. Tonight, he was here because his boss, Jake McKenna, who also happened to be his best friend as well as an exasperating man, had roped Sky into attending in his place.
Neil said, “You must have heard that Jayne Stryker’s gonna introduce the new gal at the meeting, too, eh?”
Sky’s eyebrows rose. Meredith was going to be here tonight? It certainly explained why the back room of Mel’s Diner was busting at the seams, and a good share of Jasper Gulch’s single men and a few married ones, as well, were balancing their cowboy hats on one knee.
Jake was going to owe him, big time.
Sky settled his shoulders more comfortably along the back of the old folding chair, and left his Stetson on his head where it belonged. For the sake of idle curiosity and the general heck of it, he glanced around. He recognized every face present, but he didn’t see Meredith.
Luke Carson banged his gavel on the table, calling the meeting to order. He, his brother, Clayt, and their friend, Wyatt McCully, had been instrumental in placing the original ad in the local papers luring women to Jasper Gulch. All three of them were married now, Luke and Wyatt to the first two women who’d moved here, and Clayt, to Jasper Gulch’s own Melody McCully. The remaining sixty-some bachelors had done a lot of bellyaching about that, but then, a lot of those local boys did a lot of bellyaching about just about everything.
The meeting went surprisingly fast. It wasn’t because the fine folks of Jasper Gulch were especially agreeable tonight. Sky had seen more than one man’s face turn red beneath the tan line where a dusty Stetson normally sat. They were on their best behavior. Sky suspected it had to do with their readiness to bring on the main attraction.
He wondered what they would do if the rumor that Meredith was going to be here tonight turned out to be false. Sky happened to glance over his shoulder. The meeting went on around him, but he didn’t participate. The Jasper Gulch grapevine was batting a thousand, as usual. Meredith stood near the door, looking straight ahead, her throat convulsing as if she were nervous. It was strange, because his first impression of her hadn’t been of a shy woman. His first impression had been of an enchantress who knew her own mind, what she liked and what she wanted. She’d wanted him. Being wanted by a woman like her had been a heady sensation. A dangerous, heady sensation.
Luke pounded the table with his gavel again. “Before we adjourn, Jayne Stryker has somebody she’d like you all to meet.”
“Finally.”
“It’s about time.”
“I’ll say.”
Chairs creaked as the majority of the men sat up straighter. A few hardy paunches were sucked in, belts were adjusted, and everyone generally tried hard to look casual. As far as Sky was concerned, they tried a little too hard.
Jayne strolled to the front of the room. The woman had a walk that could stop traffic and a mouth that could, and had, singed the hairs of a good many of the local boys’ ears. “Folks,” she said, smiling wryly, fully aware that her quick wit and business savvy were exactly what this town needed. “It’s nice to see so many people who care about their community.” And then she launched into a lengthy update on the progress she was making setting up a mail-order catalog business in the old five-and-dime building. The members of the Ladies Aid Society listened with rapt attention. The boys fidgeted like the congregation on Palm Sunday.
Sky glanced at Meredith, and saw that she was shaking her head and smiling at Jayne as if they shared a private joke. With a wink and a slight movement of her head that prompted Meredith to stroll toward the front of the room, Jayne said, “Everybody, this is Meredith Warner, Logan and Olivia’s aunt. I’m sure all of you have heard she’s opening an antique slash furniture store in town. I invited her to stop by tonight to tell you a little about it. I hope you don’t mind staying a few minutes longer.”
Mind? It was what the men were here for.
Meredith turned to face the crowd. She wet her lips, a serious mistake, unless it had been her intention to jump-start the men’s fantasies.
“As Jayne said, I’m nearly ready to open my furniture, antiques and home furnishings store two doors down. I’m excited about that, but to tell you the truth, standing up here talking about it makes me nervous.”
“Imagine us naked,” one of the younger bachelors murmured just loud enough for her to hear.
“Oh, no,” she said, staring Ben Jacobs down. “I’m not going there. Nobody is going to imagine anybody naked.”
She glanced around the room sternly, as if to make her point. Sky wondered if he’d imagined that her gaze had settled on him for an instant longer than on anybody else. He wasn’t imagining the change in the beating rhythm of his heart.
“As I was saying. I’ve worked in several different fields in order to make ends meet over the years. That’s the funny thing about not knowing what you want to be when you grow up. You learn a lot about life and hone a lot of different skills in your quest to find your niche. Until moving here, I spent four years working as an interior designer for a large store in Minneapolis. Before that I was a seam-stress, an upholsterer and a painter—of houses, not art—although to me, every house is its own work of art.”
So, Sky thought, she was a midwesterner. That explained her accent. He wondered where she’d acquired her class, because that kind of poise didn’t come from any one place or from doing odd jobs like sewing or painting.
The fan in the corner stirred her hair. There wasn’t a man in the room who wasn’t mesmerized by the movement of those silky tresses, the style of her trim, ankle-length skirt, and the fit of her sleeveless blouse. And no matter what she said, Sky doubted there was a man in the place who wasn’t imagining what she would look like out of it. She wasn’t buxom, but she had curves in all the right places, curves he’d memorized with his hands, and lips and…
“…and I’m hoping to hire an apprentice or two to help me with the reupholstering and sewing.”
Chairs creaked as a dozen hands shot into the air. The sudden hubbub drew Sky from his daydream.
Meredith had relaxed, as if enjoying the easy camaraderie with the people of Jasper Gulch. “Sorry,” she said. “I’d prefer to interview women.”
“Now ain’t that a little prejudiced?” Ben Jacobs asked playfully.
“Mertyl?” Jayne Stryker sputtered, stepping closer to Meredith. “Raise two fingers like this.” When the little gray-haired lady had done so, Jayne said, “Now whack Ben upside the head with them for me, would you, please?”
There was a distinctive slap, followed by a pitifully unconvincing “Ow,” followed by a roomful of grins.
“The purpose of Meredith’s and my endeavors,” Jayne said, brown eyes flashing, “is to create new jobs for our local girls, so that they might have options other than becoming a rancher’s wife right out of high school or moving to the city where there are better job prospects. Now, does anybody have a question for Meredith?”
“Are you married?”
“I mean concerning her store,” Jayne insisted. “You’re living in the apartment over the store, aren’t you?”
“What’s your phone number?”
Jayne threw up her hands.
“Care to see a show with me?”
