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Flushed and definitely put out over what had just happened, he turned toward Leah.
She stood, arms wrapped around her middle, one hand going up to push at her hair before clasping her other hand in front of her. “Are you okay?” She looked so innocent and serene standing there. It was the worry in her eyes that gave away her anxiety. She really was concerned about what she’d just done.
He laughed.
Wil chuckled, too.
Confused, Leah’s gaze went back and forth between the two. “I don’t understand,” she said carefully.
Mark smiled. “It’s time for me to eat crow, Leah.” Shaking his head he reached down, grabbed up his hat, and slipped it back on his head. “I owe you an apology.”
Relief wilted Leah’s shoulders and a soft gentle smile spread across her features. “I really am sorry. It’s just some classes I took…”
“Karate?” he speculated.
“Self-defense. The teacher was a black belt in judo.”
“Ah,” he replied and chuckled again.
“You aren’t angry?” Leah asked.
“The way I see it, chérie, I had that coming.”
“It was sorta reflex. That’s exactly how my teacher used to run at me to get me to defend myself. I apologize for not contacting you either, Mr. Walker. I just started thinking that maybe I should come out here on my own….”
He wasn’t buying it. The way her eyes slid away from meeting his told him she’d had another agenda. He wasn’t upset, though. Just being with her had a strange calming effect on him. But he had to make a point about how dangerous it could be out here, too. He didn’t like to think about a woman out here alone where she might get hurt. “Can you shoot a gun, Leah? Can you defend yourself against wild animals? Do you have a cell phone with you?”
“Well, no,” she finally admitted.
“No to one or all of them?” Mark gently prodded.
“No to all of them,” she confessed.
“Now that is not good, Ms. Thomas,” Wil chimed in.
“Please call me Leah, sir,” she said.
“And you can call me Wil. This young one over here does.” He grinned.
Mark shook his head. “Ignore him. He’s so ornery he wouldn’t let me call him anything else.”
Wil chuckled again.
“I’ll leave this to you two. Don’t forget Mary is having a potluck dinner for you young folks in a few days.”
“Mrs. Culpepper?” Mark asked, puzzled, having not heard of the latest get-together.
He nodded. “She and I are friends,” he said to Leah. “I knew her husband for years. He was one of the first settlers out this way.”
“I don’t want to intrude,” Leah protested worriedly.
Mark glanced at her, surprised, then remembered that as quiet and withdrawn as she was, she just might not know all the people around here. “I doubt it’ll be an intrusion. Mrs. Culpepper loves company. She hosts these things every so often. They build a big bonfire, and then sit around it and eat and sing and chat.”
“Something to think about,” Wil added.
“I’ll consider it,” she replied to both of them.
“Nice meeting you, Leah.” Wil waved, obviously having gotten the answer he wanted. He headed over toward the trees and only then did Mark see he had supplies resting over there.
“I like him,” Leah whispered softly as Wil headed off back through the trees.
“He’s a good old coot,” Mark replied.
“What did you mean he saved your life?” Leah asked.
Mark ran a hand over the back of his neck. “It’s a long story. I suggest we save it for dinner tonight.”
“Dinner?”
“I’m having dinner with Freckles and Julian. I’d like it if you came with me.” Mark paused, wondering how in the world he’d just asked her out to dinner like that when he’d only planned to help her in a purely businesslike manner.
“Will they mind? I mean if they don’t expect company…”
Mark grinned. “I have a cell phone with me. They’ll know you’re coming.”
As he stared down at the beauty before him he admitted what a jerk he’d been for thinking this woman helpless and fragile. Sometimes things just weren’t as they seemed. And he was finding that Leah Thomas certainly wasn’t what he’d thought—to his pleasant surprise.
He wondered just what Leah would think if she knew that he didn’t want to leave her side at all. “It’s the least I can do after the way I acted, chérie.”
Leah finally nodded. Dropping her hands to her sides she said, “Thank you very much…Mark. I’d love to see Freckles and Julian.”
And that was that, he thought. He’d just taken a step he had insisted he wouldn’t take here in Hill Creek. He’d just asked the teacher out on a date.
Chapter Four
What would he think if she told him she didn’t want to be away from him?
Leah couldn’t remember a time she’d enjoyed more than exploring the dusty rocky trails with Mark. They’d nearly been late for dinner and only realized it because the sun was dropping low in the sky. That and the fact both of their stomachs were growling.
Quickly they had headed back to their cars and just now had arrived at Freckles and Julian’s house.
“It’s about time you showed up!” Julian stood near the barn of the ranch where they had just parked, a chain saw in his hand, cut wood littering the ground around him. “I’m clearing out some chores,” he continued, and after laying the saw aside, he strolled over to where they stood.
“Hello, Dr. McCade,” Leah said formally.
Julian chuckled and shook his head. “Call me Hawk or Julian, but please, there are too many doctors with that last name in this house.”
Julian squeezed her fingers warmly and then stuck his hand out to Mark. “I was wondering if you were going to make it to dinner after all.”
“I don’t live here,” Mark replied good-naturedly.
Julian flipped a hand toward the barn and restored bunkhouse. “Close enough that Freckles worries over you. She’s certain you aren’t getting enough good meals.”
“She’s probably right. Café food grows old after a while.”
“Mark!” Freckles’s words drew their attention to the front porch where she pushed through the door, stepping out onto the wooden terrace. Along the long front planks, rockers sat, waiting to be filled for nighttime stargazing. The rails around the wraparound porch reminded Leah of the old-time hitching posts she’d read about in books. Made like many of the ranches out here, they were wooden, stripped of the bark and waterproofed. These posts were newer as Julian and Freckles had been doing renovations on the old ranch house.
“Leah and I made it, chérie. Don’t you start on me.”
Freckles chuckled and came down the path toward the cars, her long curly red hair bouncing as she came. Her stomach protruded with child, and behind her came a herd of kids. Leah heard them all chattering like geese and saw the way they piled out the door, tripping over one another in their haste.
“They’re excited to have company,” Freckles admitted as she stopped beside Julian and smiled at Leah. Julian rested a hand on his wife’s tummy before leaning down to kiss her cheek.
“Hello there, Jimmy,” Leah said grinning at the first and youngest child to arrive at their sides. “I suppose it’s not every day you have a teacher out here to dinner, is it?”
“Ms. Thomas,” Jimmy said excitedly. Grabbing Leah around the legs, he gave her a hug only a ten-year-old could give. “I told you I had sisters. That’s Sherri and Cathi. Rebecca and MaMaw are inside. You can meet her but she’ll probably go to bed early ’cause she had a big day today.”
“I’ll have a word with you, Mark,” Freckles said and moved toward him.
“Is that so?” Leah smiled down at the young boy and then glanced to the sisters who had come out with Freckles.
“You are going to waste away if you keep missing meals,” Freckles said, waving a finger at Mark, taking him to task for being late and not being home enough. The children didn’t seem the least bothered that their big sister was shaking her finger at Mark. Julian stood there and smiled bemusedly.
Freckles’s sisters were used to this, obviously. Cathi was a small child for her fifteen years, birdlike in her bones and movements. A long dark ponytail hung down her back and light-brown freckles dotted her nose. Were it not for the budding shape, Leah would have guessed her to be younger than her brother. Cathi stood next to her younger brother and rubbed a hand over his hair. He shoved her hand away. Typical interaction for a brother and sister, and both ignored Freckles.
Sherri looked much older than her seventeen years. Her hair was dark auburn, unlike Freckles’s own bright-red hair. She was shapely and beautiful and, Leah noticed, seeing where her gaze was, obviously interested in Mark. Still, Sherri didn’t interrupt her sister directly though her gaze begged to be noticed as she danced up and grabbed at Mark’s sleeve. “I got the results of my SATs today and I’m going to probably have a scholarship. I thought about going to Louisiana. Could you tell me about the universities there?”
Freckles broke off with her diatribe and turned toward her sister. “Let’s get our company inside first, Sherri, then maybe later Mark can talk to you about that.”
“You come with me, Ms. Thomas. I want you to meet MaMaw,” Jimmy said, tugging at Leah’s hand.
As if she had never met Phyllis before, Leah thought grinning at the young boy at her side. Smiling at Mark she shrugged and grasped the little boy’s hand.
“Jimmy, were you going to spend the night with Tad tonight?” Freckles asked.
“But I want her to meet MaMaw.”
“She will in a bit. You should get your things together and let Sherri drive you there.”
“Okay,” Jimmy said and raced off toward the house, forgetting company in the light of spending the night away from home.
“Can I drive?” Cathi asked excitedly.
“No, you cannot,” Julian said, his attention finally diverted from his wife to the girl who looked so expectantly toward him. “No, you may not. You’re only fifteen and you don’t have a driver’s license yet.”
“But I have a permit.” She smiled brightly as if that would change Julian’s mind. It didn’t work, however.
“And Sherri is only seventeen. She is not old enough to supervise your driving. No.” He reached out and ruffled the top of her hair, messing up her ponytail.
Cathi screwed her face up as if she were about to argue.
“Maybe next week I’ll take you out driving, Cathi,” Mark said.
“Really?” Cathi grinned, her gaze riveting on Mark. When she saw he was serious, her excitement eased and she replied, “Okay.”
“Go see if the spaghetti is ready, Cathi.” Freckles shooed her off.
“Do I have to drive Jimmy?” Sherri asked, casting a glance toward Mark.
Julian frowned though Leah doubted Sherri noticed it as she was so busy trying to look as if she wasn’t staring at Mark.
Freckles stepped forward and slipped an arm through Julian’s arm drawing his attention. “Yes, you do,” she said to her sister. “And I appreciate all the help you give us out here, Sherri.”
Sherri glanced at her sister then Julian, and with a sigh, she walked off toward the area where the family cars were parked. “I’ll be in the car,” she muttered.
“It’s almost like being in the classroom,” Leah said half-jokingly when all the children were gone.
“Except they’re all different ages?” Julian quipped.
Leah chuckled. “Something like that.”
Mark touched Leah on her back between the shoulder blades and motioned toward the door. “Shall we?”
That gentle touch warmed her, reminding her of just why she was out here and whose invitation she had accepted. “If Freckles and Julian are ready,” Leah mouthed softly, glancing pointedly at the two who had their heads together talking low.
As if sensing the attention Freckles glanced around and then promptly blushed. “I’m sure dinner’s almost done. Let’s go eat.”
Julian chuckled low, a satisfied smile on his face. “You’ll have to forgive Freckles. She has her mind on other things.”
“Hawk!” Freckles warned, her cheeks turning a shade darker.
With interest Leah’s gaze went from one to the other. The byplay was something that she had long forgotten. It seemed like another lifetime, another person, when she and her husband had done such things. The small touches, wicked grins, secretive smiles. How would her husband have acted if he’d been alive and she hadn’t lost her child?
Leah warmed thinking about it, and at the same time felt a distinct emptiness within her at the hollowness those secret smiles caused.
“It’s your announcement. I won’t ruin it.”
“Announcement?” Mark asked.
“After dinner,” Freckles admonished and hurried toward the front door.
“Shall we go?” Julian asked and without waiting for an answer headed off after his wife.
Mark grinned. “I haven’t quite figured them out. It seems they are always like this. Involved, that is.”
A slight sorrow touching her heart, Leah replied, “It’s called love.”
Without another word she followed Julian and Freckles, leaving Mark to follow behind.
