A Hero for Tonight (8 page)

Isn’t he?

She whipped her head and attention back to the screen. She had to type the password twice as her rattled nerves affected her typing.

“I’m telling you, it’s in the roughest of stages. I haven’t had a lot of time to spend on it the past few weeks.”

Next to her chair, Shane squatted down, and out of the corner of her eye, she could see him watching the screen. Pointing to the monitor for distraction, she explained, “This is how I picture the building. I mean, the building we have now is fine, but I’d love to add onto it over here and add a little café right there. Obviously, that would mean a bigger kitchen.”

The excitement of her dream took over, and she smiled as she reviewed with him what she’d created again. She wanted this to work so bad, but there were so many hurdles still to overcome.

Shane hadn’t said anything, and she realized she’d been babbling on. She twisted her head around to see his expression. “What do you think?”

“It’s good.”

“Yeah?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know anything about websites or business plans, but that sure looks impressive to me.”

His face was even with hers, so she searched his eyes, wondering if he was holding anything back. But his smile was steady on hers.

“What if I can’t convince her to let me do this?”

“My mother will do anything you want her to do, you know that.”

She sighed. “I don’t want her to do this with me, because I know she doesn’t want to. But I don’t know how to convince her to let me do it without her.”

“Agreed. I don’t see how you’ll work that out.”

“That’s why this is so hard.” The thought of Mary feeling forced into doing something she didn’t want to do just to make her happy made her heart ache. But how did she make the other woman understand and not feel pushed aside? She raked a hand through her hair. “Maybe I should just give up the whole idea and focus on only the website business.”

“I’ve never known you to give up on anything. Isn’t it my father who calls you the pit bull? You never let go once you sink your teeth into something.”

She smirked. “Oh yeah, I love being called a
pit bull
—they’re so attractive.”

He smiled that little half smile again, and her gaze zeroed in on his mouth. He had full lips, and she’d heard enough around town to know that if he ever kissed her, it would be a hell of a kiss.

“Are you fishing for a compliment? You know my father would never say you looked like a dog.”

She laughed lightly. “Your dad wouldn’t say something unkind if he was forced at gun point.”

“Makes you wonder how I got to be so ornery, doesn’t it? Two positive, upbeat people like Mary and Gary Donovan, and here I am…what do you call me? Grouchy?”

“Yep.”

“Well, even I don’t think you look like a pit bull.” He reached out and sifted fingers through a strand of her hair. “Your eyes fascinate me. The color is so different. First I think they’re green, then they go brown, then gray.”

She couldn’t breathe. Her heart beat so fast, she could barely hear over it. What the heck was happening? This was Shane, for crying out loud. She was getting a tug in her stomach and her pulse was speeding…because of
Shane
?

“It, uh, they tend to change depending on what color I’m wearing.”

His fingers brushed her cheek. “Yeah, must be the sweater tonight. They are incredibly green.”

Struggling against rubbing her cheek into his palm, she glanced at his full mouth and heard him suck in his breath. Her gaze lifted to his as he lowered his head toward her.

A loud but short bell ring jerked her out of her trance.

Shane stood up abruptly and grabbed his pocket as the cell phone chimed again.

Her head nearly bumped his belt buckle before she jerked back against the chair.

He didn’t share with her who texted him as he quickly returned a message and said aloud, “I better get going.”

When he took a few steps back from her desk, she pushed to her feet. “Please don’t say anything to your mother about any of this. I still have a lot to sort out.”

“I won’t.” Shane tucked the phone back in his pocket. “It’ll work itself out one way or the other.”

She followed him back to the front door, her heart still racing at the realization that she and Shane had almost kissed a few seconds ago.

He grabbed his jacket off the banister where he’d tossed it earlier. The familiar scent of his cologne filled her nostrils as he shrugged it on.

“Thanks for paying for dinner.” She had a hard time looking him in the eye and instead, opened the door.

“Thanks for the pie and coffee.”

She opened her mouth to wish him a goodnight when his lips brushed hers. Rearing back as if she’d been stung by a bee, she frowned. Shane’s sharp intake of breath told her he was as shocked as she was at his gesture, but instead of leaving, he hooked his arm around her waist and hauled her against him.

His mouth locked on hers roughly and his tongue slid between her lips. One of her hands still clung to the door, but the other flapped around until she dropped it to his shoulder and clung.

Fire burned up her thighs and warmed her body completely, even as the cool night air blew through the open door.

Shane’s hard chest against her breasts made her nipples pebble, and a moan of pleasure escaped.

Her eyes fluttered closed as his lips turned caressing, and her tongue twirled around his, testing, tasting. The kiss was nothing like she’d ever experienced before; full of passion and desire and a hungry need. Her head tilted, allowing the kiss to deepen even further. All rational thought fled as the kiss went on for several more seconds before Shane pulled away.

Her eyes snapped open, wondering what expression would be on his face. As his gaze raked her features, he looked as confused and off-kilter as she felt.

Krista swallowed hard. Shane’s arm around her waist tightened, and for a moment, she thought he was going to kiss her again. Then he was gone.

A bit unsteady on her feet, she leaned against the door and watched his car back out of the driveway before she could get herself to move and close the door.
What the hell had just happened?

Shane
had kissed her. Not just kissed her, but
kissed
her.

She hadn’t thought about kissing Shane since she was a silly fourteen-year-old girl. Even the day he’d come home from Iraq, with all the emotions overwhelming them he’d only given her a hug. When her mother died, she remembered him kissing her cheek, telling her how sorry he was, but that was it. He’d been more than clear over the years that he was as attracted to her as he would be to a…what had he once said? Oh yeah, a mosquito, always around and with no real purpose except to annoy him.

She swallowed hard. Surely, it’d been just a weird moment of closeness where he’d forgotten for a second who she was. And she’d done the same.

Who the heck was she kidding? Of course she’d known it was Shane. It wasn’t like she was thinking of anyone else. How could she? When Shane was around, no one thought of anyone else but him, even Shane.

Chapter Five

Shane dropped his hundred-plus-pound pack on the hall floor, shut the front door, and pulled his phone from his pocket. A text message from Dave.

Karen said come over for chili after your shower.

His first instinct was to say no. He wasn’t just tired, he was
bone tired
. Drill weekends were usually wearing, but this one had been frustrating as well. And then he’d just driven over five hours in pounding rain. All he really wanted was a shower and a warm bed.

But Karen’s chili was something he and Dave had waited all summer to taste again, and he found himself texting back that he’d be over in fifteen minutes.

Leaving his gear where it fell, he was in the shower in record time and well within the fifteen minutes, sprinting across the yard in the rain to his friends’ house.

He walked in the back door and noticed two things right off the bat, the smell was enough to bring a man to his knees…and the woman at the stove wasn’t Dave’s wife, but the woman whose kiss he hadn’t been able to shake all weekend.

His gaze slid down Krista’s long, bare legs. She wore denim shorts that were frayed with age, and the white strings nestled against her golden thighs. He swallowed and snapped his gaze back to her face. She stared back, the kiss from Friday night hanging between them as if written in the air.

Hell, he’d thought of nothing else most of the weekend, and especially during the long drive when he’d had nothing else to do but think.

Everyone turned toward him as he slipped off his wet shoes. Dave handed him a beer, and he took a long drink, pulling his gaze to the spread on the table. His stomach rumbled at the smell of the spicy chili. When he glanced up, his friends were looking between the two of them, and he wondered if Krista had told Karen about the kiss.

“Dave, it’s a good thing you snapped Karen up quick or I’d have definitely married her for this chili,” he said by way of distraction.

Karen set another bowl on the table. “Yeah, then you and I would be married and having
Dave
over for dinner.”

Shane moved into the room and plopped onto a kitchen chair. “It’s his fault I’m still single. He took the best girl in town and left me out in the cold.”

His buddy sat down across from him. “Who are you kidding? You have women falling all over themselves to cook for you, play house with you, and any number of other games. You only have to pick one out.”

Normally, that would have given Krista the perfect opportunity to jump in with some snarky comment about his love life, but she was oddly quiet, which had him wondering yet again what she’d told their friends.

When he ventured a glance her way, she had her back to the room and was slicing bread. His gaze lingered on the sway of her hips as she worked. The old high school sweatshirt she wore fell large and loose. An image of sliding his hand up her back and discovering if she had a bra on or not flashed into his head.

What the hell?
He pulled his gaze away only to collide with Dave’s raised eyebrow. Shane tried to look innocent, but his friend’s glance from him to Krista and back again, showed his suspicion.

Shane twisted his mouth and shook his head, telling Dave in silent reprimand that he was nuts.

His buddy lifted his beer. “You know I have a theory where women are concerned.”

Karen laughed. “This I have to hear.”

“Hey, you aren’t the only woman I ever dated, you know.”

The other three in the room responded in unison. “Yes, she is.”

Laughter erupted, and once again Shane’s attention was drawn to Krista. He caught her gaze again and couldn’t look away.

When she drew her bottom lip into her mouth and turned back around, she appeared as uncomfortable with him here as he was being around her tonight.

This is crazy
.

He and Krista had been in each other’s company their entire lives, and it was never pleasant, but it wasn’t awkward like this. Still, he had to admit, as weird as it was, for some reason he was glad to see her.

“This isn’t your peanut theory again, is it, Dave?” Karen rolled her eyes at her husband.

“You laugh, Mrs. Anderson, but it’s what caught you.”

Krista frowned and glanced between the two of them. “What peanut theory?”

Shane groaned. “Dave thinks women are like squirrels.”

“What? Please don’t say something about bushy tails or liking nuts or something weird.”

Dave lifted his empty beer bottle. “No, but that could be interesting, too. I’m just saying, if you are trying to get a squirrel to come to you, you can’t rush at him with peanuts in hand. You have to lay out the peanuts one by one, ever closer, then you sit quietly by and let it come to you. You build its trust slowly, inch by inch—it’s no different than women. Aren’t I right?” He turned to Shane. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

Karen laughed. “You’re asking Shane? He’s never had to chase any woman. They just come to him, and he looks them over to decide if their peanuts are worth his time.”

“I don’t have women coming to me in herds, or however squirrels congregate.” Shane took a drink of his beer. “Do squirrels move in herds, swarms?” He looked over at Karen, but Krista was in his line of vision as she crossed the small kitchen to set a basket of bread on the table and his question fell to her. “

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve only seen squirrels alone. I don’t think they’re a pack animal.”

Her cheeks turned pink and he wondered what was embarrassing her.

Dave made a production of pulling out his phone. “I’ll tell you what they are.”

With a grin, Karen snatched it out of his hand. “Chili is ready. I think we can all manage to get through dinner without knowing whether squirrels move in packs or not.”

Shane started to sit down at the same time Krista did, and their hands collided on the back of the wooden chair. She jerked hers away as if his touch was disgusting. He frowned. She sure hadn’t seemed to mind his touch the other night.

“Sit here, Krista.” Karen waved to the chair next to hers.