Her Montana Man (14 page)

“I mean he’ll be working. He’ll probably acknowledge Tyler’s birthday another way.”

“Am I invited?” he asked.

A tiny wrinkle formed between her brows, but then smoothed out when she realized what he referred to.

“Yes, of course! If you don’t mind boisterous children, that is. You’ll love my cake.”

He was pretty sure he’d love anything she offered him. In that moment, he allowed himself to think

ahead, to imagine something more developing between them. He admitted he had a soft spot for taking

care of women, but his inclination toward this one went far beyond protectiveness.

He thought about that kiss they’d shared, and the way she made him feel. He considered the way he’d

shared his past with her, actually talked about his mother’s death for the first time.

Up till now he’d liked his life just fine. The likelihood of a woman sharing it with him had been vague;

there hadn’t been a woman he cared for enough to seriously consider it.

But maybe it was time. Maybe a future with Eliza Jane was possible.

yler’s party had garnered the attention of everyone who worked in the hotel. Knowing he’d recently lost

his mother, the employees went out of their way to offer a little something to the menu or add a gift to the

growing stack on the table against the west wall.

Tyler had shown his mortification with a look of chagrin when she’d suggested a few of the classmates he

invited be young ladies. She’d thrown up her hands and assured him the guest list was his choice. Eleven

boys, including the Harpers, invaded the dining room.

She and Tyler had gone over the games ahead of time, deciding together. They played Hot Boiled Beans

first, sending Timmy Hatcher, who was chosen by age, out of the room, and then hiding a silver dollar.

The boys all called to Timmy, who was “it” saying, “Hot boiled beans and bacon for supper! Hurry up

before it gets cold!”

Timmy returned to the room and searched for the dollar while all the others called out that Timmy’s

supper was getting very cold, cold, sometimes hot or very hot, and then eventually burning, depending on

how close or far the lad was from the hidden item. It was such a loud clash of childish voices and

laughter, that it drew the hotel staff, who tried to watch unobtrusively, but got just as excited as the

children.

Jonas showed up and watched with interest. The dark stubble on his face did nothing to lessen his

attractiveness. At least he’d stopped torturing his poor skin by shaving left-handed.

“I didn’t realize it would be this noisy,” she called over the racket as Mikey Kopeke now searched for

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the dollar and the others directed him with their calls of temperature.

“They’re boys,” he said with a shrug. “They should have fun.”

After a couple more had searched for the dollar, and Eliza proposed a word game, Jonas took a brass

bell from inside his sling and rang it to get their attention. “Have you heard of the bellman?”

“What’s this?”

“Tell us.”

The boys came running to where he stood.

“One player gets to be the bellman,” he said.

“Me! Me!” they all shouted at once.

He held up the hand with the bell to silence them.

“All the others are blindfolded.”

He turned to Wade, standing in the doorway, who produced a stack of bright new red bandannas.

“The bellman’s gonna carry the bell and walk around. He rings it from time to time, and everyone else

has to try to catch him.”

Hoots of laughter went up as the boys caught on to the game.

“Miss Sutherland will be our first bellman,” Jonas added.

“Oh no.” She held up a hand.

“Come on, they’ll all be blindfolded and you’ll be able t’
see
’em. How hard can it be?”

“I don’t think so,” she protested.

“C’mon, Aunt Liza,” Tyler begged. “
Please
be the bellman.”

At his pleading she acquiesced, and then half-a-dozen adults showed up to move tables and chairs

against the walls and help blindfold the boys.

“If I’m playing, you’re playing,” she told Jonas.

“I’m wounded,” he reminded her.

“You play that hand
now,
but the rest of the time you manage just fine.” She cocked her head. “Are you

afraid the boys will be better at it than you?”

He turned and motioned for Ward to bring him a bandanna. “I accept that challenge. And I just made a

new rule.”

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“What’s that?”

“The first one to catch you gets the biggest piece of cake.”

The boys loved that idea.

“I need help with this,” he said, holding the bandanna aloft.

“I’ll do it!” Tyler shot forward to take the red fabric from his hand and fold it into a blindfold. “Get lower

so I can reach you.”

Watching Jonas hunker down so Tyler could help him by wrapping the bandanna around his eyes, Eliza

got a catch in her throat. She’d noticed the interaction between them the night they’d studied the Big

Dipper and recognized Tyler’s admiration when Jonas talked about the army and his horse. Tyler was

hungry for a man’s attention.

This was how his life should have been.

She caught her wayward thinking and got back to the game. “Back away in a circle,” she called out.

“Face away from me.”

Once the males did as she asked, Eliza stepped to the middle of the room and rang the bell once. They

all turned and headed different directions, only one or two actually heading toward her.

She rang it again, and they turned toward her. Silently she moved around to the opposite side of the

room and rang it again.

As they turned, and she had to move yet again, Eliza wanted to laugh. She had to hold a hand over her

mouth to keep from giving away her position as Danny moved within three feet of her.

She dodged away and rang the bell.

After several similar misses, she stood between Matt Harper and Jonas. Planning to trick them yet again

by slipping behind them, she tiptoed behind Jonas.

He spun so quickly she almost tripped in her attempt to get away, but unerringly, he grabbed her around

the waist with his good arm, pulling her back against him.

She didn’t fight, because she didn’t want to hurt him, but she could feel the hard plane of his chest as he

held her fast.

“I got her!” he called.

The boys tore off their blindfolds and Jonas loosened his hold.

“How did you know I was there?” she asked softly.

Without releasing her, he answered, “I could smell your hair.”

She pulled away and met his eyes, lit with a teasing yet desirous fire. She backed away, heart pounding.

“Who will be the bellman this time?”

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“That would be me,” he replied good-naturedly, giving her his blindfold and taking the bell from her.

“Winner trades places. And don’t forget my cake.”

“I need to see to the food.” She forced herself to walk, not run, toward the kitchen.

Seated on a chair near the kitchen door, Lilibelle, who’d been watching, gave Eliza a smile. “It’s good to

see you having fun.”

Phoebe and Yvonne grinned as she passed.

Eliza stood alone in the kitchen, gathering her wits. That incident had been entirely innocent, played out

in front of a dozen children and numerous adults, yet she felt as though their exchange had been intimate.

He’d smelled her hair? She raised her hand to her hair, and found her fingers trembling. It had been the

way he’d said it, the way his eyes had smoldered, the way his body felt pressed to hers. She brought a

loose tress to her nose. What did she smell like, vanilla? Frosting?

A shout and laughter rose from the other room, reminding her she’d come to do a chore, so she

uncovered a tray of sandwiches and carried it back to the dining room.

The boys lit into the sandwiches, followed by apple turnovers Lilibelle had contributed, an assortment of

cookies Phoebe and Yvonne provided, and finally Eliza’s cake.

“I’ve been savin’ myself,” Jonas told her, waiting for her to slice his after the boys had gone through the

line.

“I’ll take the biggest piece now.”

She cut a wedge that barely fit on the ironstone dessert plate and handed it to him. “It was my mama’s

recipe,” she told him. “Jenny and I always got this cake on our birthdays.”

He took a bite and let his eyes close in exaggerated pleasure. “Will you make me one for my birthday?”

“When is it?”

“October.”

She would be long gone by then. “I’ll give Lilibelle the recipe in case I’m not here.”

His frown created a wrinkle between his dark brows. “Where would you be?”

“I won’t be at the hotel by then.” She wiped her sticky fingers on a wet cloth. “I might be living

elsewhere.”

“Your house isn’t that far away. Or do you mean elsewhere as in
elsewhere?
”

“Maybe. I don’t know.” She didn’t want to meet his eyes again, so she busied herself with the plates

and cups the boys were returning. “Tyler will be opening his presents next, and then we can send the

children home to their families.”

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She called for the boys to gather around, and Tyler opened his gifts: slingshots and carved animals,

rubber balls, jacks and even a book. He thanked his classmates.

Jonas produced a small brown-paper-wrapped object from his pocket and handed it to Tyler.

Tyler unrolled the paper, revealing a black cylindrical object, trimmed with brass. “This is terrific!”

“What is it?” Eliza asked.

Not sharing her confusion, Tyler proceeded to extend it and peer through one end, showing her that the

object was a telescope.

“Just like the army scouts use,” Jonas told him.

The boys crowded around, waiting for turns to look through the lenses. Jonas helped her sort the pile of

schoolbooks and lunch pails by the door, and eventually all of the children had gone home.

“Thank Jonas for the gift and for letting us have your party here,” she told the boy.

Tyler’s face was flushed with pleasure and excitement. “This was the best birthday I ever had in my

whole life,” he told Jonas solemnly.

Jonas had pulled a chair out to rest his arm on a nearby table. “Thanks for invitin’ me.”

Impulsively, Tyler dashed forward to throw his arms around Jonas’s neck.

Jonas’s surprised gaze rose to Eliza’s. Tears stung her eyes, but she couldn’t look away. “Thank you,”

she wanted to say, but no words would come out.

She hadn’t known many men, Eliza realized as she helped return the dining room to order and dried the

plates and glasses Nadine had already washed. She’d come in contact with men at the foundry, but never

actually gotten to know any. Her father and Forest and Royce were the examples she’d seen. Her father

had loved her, but he’d placed little value on her or her abilities.

She’d believed Forest had loved her. It still hurt to know she’d given him her heart and he’d left without

so much as an explanation.

And Royce. He did only what was good for Royce, at the expense of others.

Jonas, on the other hand, went out of his way to help people. And there was no price tag on his help.

His kindness held a powerful appeal.

After sandwiches and cake and cookies, Tyler couldn’t hold much supper, and Eliza wondered how

many parents were questioning her wisdom at that hour. She read to him, and he practiced his numbers.

Perhaps giving him a bath would settle him down, so she checked the area in the northeast portion of the

first level, which was accessible through a hallway behind the parlor, finding the chamber available.

One of the rooms was for guests to use, with the help of the staff to heat water and provide towels, and

the other was for employees. Right behind the rooms with the tubs, on the very corner of the building was

the laundry facility, with a pump and two stoves for heating water. The whole time she heated and poured

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Tyler’s water, she was planning to return for some relaxing time herself.

Once Tyler was bathed and sound asleep for the night, she read until the hotel was silent. Then Eliza

gathered clean clothing and padded down the back stairs.

Again, she stoked the small heater that warmed the bathing room, and then heated water, carrying a

pailful from the laundry room to the huge enamel tub.

Jonas had spared no extravagance in the building of these facilities. There were warming racks beside

the heater for towels. The tub had a plug that when unstopped, drained out of doors into irrigation pipes

that watered the gardens.

She added a splash of her sandalwood cologne and swished it around in the water, thinking about him,

about his face when Tyler had hugged him, about the feel of his arms around her waist. Returning for the

last of the water on the stove, she nearly ran into the man she’d had on her mind. He held a full pail in his

left hand. “Got it.”

“Did you bank the stove?” she asked.

He walked past her to dump the steaming water in the tub. “There’s one more kettle on. This one may

have gotten a little too hot.”

“You didn’t have to carry it for me.”

“I don’t mind.” He set down the pail.