Indomitable Spirit (10 page)

“Esther, might protest.”

“Oh,” she said softly.

It was supposed to be a joke, but it hadn’t worked that way.

John stepped in closer to her, lifted her chin with his finger which was nearly numb from the cold. “Will I see you tomorrow?”

The glimmer came back to her eyes. “I would really like that.”

He knew what that was. She was afraid that now that he’d kissed her—or she’d kissed him—and he’d said all that stuff about her being his that he’d continue to be the grumpy old man she’d been putting up with the past few weeks.

John leaned in and gently kissed her soft, cold lips. They warmed under his.

She smiled as she pulled away and climbed back into her car and drove off.

He stood for a moment longer, until her car was out of sight, and then he went back into the warmth of the bakery.

Maggie was standing at the large sink, her back to the door, when he walked back inside.

“I didn’t see that coming,” she said as he took down the plastic tarp which had been keeping the refurbished area blocked off.

“What’s that?” He rolled up the tarp and set it in his growing pile of supplies.

“You and Kym. I haven’t heard any gossip about the two of you. I’m just a little surprised, that’s all.”

This was the part about small town he’d never cared about. Everyone was in your business. He wanted to get mad, maybe even give Maggie a piece of his mind—but she didn’t work like that.

She had the influx of all the gossip in town. After all, she owned one of two of the diners in town. But she wasn’t a gossip herself.

John continued to clean up, but Maggie stood and watched. That only meant she wasn’t going to let him off the hook until he gave her some information.

“Why does it surprise you?”

“Just because I haven’t seen you look at a woman since you swooned over Abigail.”

“That was a long time ago. She’s been gone a long time too.”

“Not that long,” Maggie added as she picked up a tray she’d washed and began to dry it off.

“How long do I wait? Cody is almost three. He’s never had a woman in his life but my mother.”

Maggie set the tray down and walked toward John. “Is that what you’re thinking? That Kym O’Bryne would be a good replacement mother for your children?”

No, that hadn’t been what he’d thought at all.

He ran his hands over his head. “Maggie, I don’t know what I think. I’ve never looked at another woman. Abigail was everything to me. I convinced her to have another baby and I lost her.”

“You can’t keep that eating you up.”

“Well, it does.” He moved to the counter and leaned his hip against it. “I don’t know what it was about Kym that made me want to be with her. And I was anything but nice to her.”

Maggie smiled and rested her hand on his. “Honey, you’ve been less than nice to most people for years.”

He grumbled.

She moved her hand and laughed.

“John, I’m just surprised. Not disappointed. She seems like a very nice lady.”

“Right. So why does she like me?”

“Are you asking me for the answer or are you asking yourself?”

He wasn’t even sure. So in his usual style, when things got too deep for him, he began to carry his tools to the door and then out to his truck. When he came back in for the last can of paint Maggie had put on her coat.

“I’m going to go see my new granddaughter,” she said beaming with delight.

“I’ll bet she’s beautiful.”

“Oh, and she has a head full of dark curls.” She rested her hand on his shoulder. “Make sure you drop by and see her.”

He nodded. “I will.”

“I can’t believe you all are grown up and have families of your own. I can honestly say that I never thought you or Chris would find women who would put up with you.”

He bit down on his lip. Abigail wasn’t just any girl back then. But she had loved him until the very end.

“We were a handful, huh?”

“You were, but you’ve grown into fine men.” She moved in and kissed him on the cheek.

She locked the door to the bakery as John put the last of his tools in his truck. As Maggie drove away she waved back at him.

The cold was numbing his limbs, but there was an ache in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t want to be someone to be put up with for the rest of his life. He didn’t want his kids to think he was a harried, crabby old man.

And he didn’t want Kym to think that either.

He quickly looked at his watch. It was nearing four o’clock.

And suddenly he remembered, he’d taken two furnace filters to Kym’s last night. He’d left one in the back room when he stormed out.

His arms warmed up as they lifted up the tailgate of his truck. The truck might have been warm as he drove toward Kym’s school, he wasn’t sure. The heat from just the thought of her was keeping him warm.

As he cleared the bottom of the hill he could see the school. Her car was parked on the side of the building as it always was. She was there. The filter would be the perfect excuse to stop by. If there was any question about it, he could simply say he needed to get it back in stock.

Maybe she’d be down on the floor training and he could see her. All he wanted was to see her before he settled in for an entire night of homework, dinner, and baths.

Guilt burst through his warm thoughts. Homework, dinner, and baths were more important. He had to remember that. Even with Kym in his life he couldn’t betray his children’s stability.

Slowly he drove past the school. The lights were on and she was training, just as he thought she would be.

John forced himself to drive on and go home. The request had been for macaroni and cheese for dinner. Already he had heartburn.

Kym had seen the familiar truck pull through the intersection, slow down, and drive on. She saw a lot of things in that mirror and the man who had kissed her and told her that meant she was his, had just driven away in the opposite direction.

A tear fell down her cheek and she brushed it away as she pulled herself into a ready stance and began her form again.

She had no right to think he’d stop. He was very clear that his four children came before her and she’d said she understood that.

Her arms moved in a pattern that was all from memory and her mind continued to process everything she’d done in the past two days.

And what she’d done was fall in love with a man who didn’t have time for her.

Kym missed a step which caused her foot to turn too much and her knee torqued the other direction. She went down quickly on her butt twisting her knee even further.

She winced from the pain and hugged her leg to her chest. The tears flowed now as much from the pain in her knee as from the pain in her heart.

The cold air from outside blew through the school as the door was pushed open and someone walked through.

“We don’t have any classes tonight,” she said trying to steady her voice and knowing she couldn’t stand up to walk in that direction quite yet.

“I know. That’s why I thought I’d stop and see if you’d like some very crappy macaroni and cheese for dinner.”

His deep voice resonated in her ears and the tears kept falling. He’d come back. He’d turned around and came back.

A moment later she could see him at the edge of the mat taking off his boots and setting them to the side. For a moment he hesitated, bowed, and then walked toward her.

“Why are you sitting in the floor crying?” His voice had grown soft as he knelt down in front of her.

She shifted her gaze up to his. “Many reasons actually. But mostly because I’ve just twisted my knee and I can’t get up yet.”

John maneuvered until he was seated on the mat facing her. He touched her leg and then lifted the edge of her pant leg up until he could see her knee.

She couldn’t protest. Not only did she enjoy feeling his hands on her skin, but that caretaker in him was back and he was very gentle.

“How far can you straighten it?”

“Not much further,” she said wincing as she tried.

“You’re already swelling. You need some ice.” He worked his large fingers around the muscles of her knee and even under her pant leg up her thigh.

Kym nearly moaned at the intimacy in his touch, but then he hit a muscle that nearly sent her through the roof.

“Ow!”

“Sorry,” he said, but he continued to massage her leg. “Now how far can you straighten?”

She was able to set it down further. “You’re really good at that.”

She watched his Adam’s apple bob in his throat as he swallowed hard. “Abigail studied massage once. She’d wanted to be a physical therapist. Things changed, but she taught me a lot of things. I was always hurting myself.”

Kym smiled. “So not much has changed?”

He laughed. “Not much.”

His hand lingered on her thigh, just under the cloth of her uniform pants. As Kym caught his eye he began to pull back, but she caught his hand, kept it on her skin, and moved her body in closer to him.

He was searching her face with his eyes. Uncertainty had clouded his face, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her. He’d come back for a reason and she had to assume the reason was that he was falling in love with her too.

Kym kept one hand on his, on her leg, and she brought the other to his neck.

“I saw you drive by earlier.”

“I didn’t want to complicate things with the kids,” he said moving in closer to her.

“Me eating macaroni and cheese might do that.”

His body shifted even closer to her. “It’s the chance I’m ready to take.”

At that moment his mouth came to hers and there was a fire lit behind his kiss.

His fingers tightened on her thigh and his other hand came to her cheek.

John’s tongue explored her mouth, urgency groaned from his throat, and his hand sought to pull her closer—until she winced.

John pulled back. “I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?”

“No. I did. I can’t get close enough to you.”

He rested his forehead to hers. “I guess there is plenty of time to do this, huh? Though I think I might burst if I don’t get a kiss that lasts more than a few minutes.”

She wondered if he could sense that she felt the same way.

John pulled his hands back and got to his feet. “C’mon, let’s get you on a chair and I’ll get you some ice for your knee.”

And just as he had with Malory, he scooped Kym up into his arms and carried her off the floor.

John wondered if she even weighed a hundred pounds. Honestly, when Abby was asleep and he carried her to bed, she weighed more than Kym did. But having her pressed up against him like she was, only made him want her even more.

This kind of need wasn’t good for a person, was it?

John carried her to one of the chairs in the parents’ waiting area and propped her other leg up on the other chair.

“Okay, where do I find an ice pack?”

“In the back room in the freezer.”

He lingered there for a moment to look at her then went to retrieve the ice pack.

It was right where she said it would be and when he turned he saw the furnace filter he’d left there. John moved to grab it and then stopped. What would it hurt to come back tomorrow for it?

As he walked back to her he could hear a cell phone ringing, but he knew it wasn’t his.

Kym sat up taller on the chair. “Will you reach that for me? My phone is on the counter.”

John reached for it and handed it to her then went about putting the ice pack on her knee as she answered.

“Hello?” She said as he put the ice to her skin. She jumped and held in the laughter that followed. “Grandfather? Where are you? Oh, she did?” Kym was smiling wide. “It isn’t any problem. Yes,” she said and her eyes moved to his. “I have dinner plans.”

There was a familiar squeezing of his heart when she said it—that familiar
can’t get enough
pain that came with love.

“I will see you later, Grandfather. Enjoy your dinner.”

She pressed the button to end the conversation and kept her eyes locked on John’s.

“Will you help me to my car? It seems as though my grandfather is too busy to dine with me.”

He smiled. He wished he could just take her home and not worry about where they ended after dinner, but he knew she understood.

“Do you want to change?”

This time he watched her as she swallowed hard and her lips parted. “I’m very afraid that if I even thought about taking my clothes off right now things might end very differently.”

Every muscle in his body ached and he tightened his hands into fists. “Your choice,” he said a bit too airy.

“My clothes and my keys are in my office. Maybe if you help me over there I can get changed and you can go warm up my car.”

John nodded. “I think that might be the safest plan.”

As he helped her to her feet he also thought that maybe safe wasn’t the way to play this at all.

Chapter Ten

John watched Kym limp out of the school. She needed to wrap that knee, but he was sure she knew that. Maybe he had something at home to take care of that. After all, he did have all of Abigail’s supplies.

Kym stood at the door and locked it. John hurried to her side, bent down, and wrapped his arm around her waist to help her to her car.

“This is horrible,” she said. “Maybe I’d better take a rain check on dinner.”

“Nope. I’ll carry you home if I have to. You have me all worked up. I need more than a few minutes with you.”

As they reached her car he let her stand on her own.

“I do feel the need to warn you,” he said. “This will be like no date you’ve ever been on.”

Kym laughed. “I’ve met all your children. I’m sure I will be fine.”

“Okay,” he said pulling open her car door. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

She had laughed off his warning, he thought as she followed him through the streets of Aspen Creek to his very meager home. And she was probably right. She had a way with his kids that even he didn’t. But it had slipped his mind that his mother would be there.

As he pulled into the driveway next to his mother’s car he wondered just what kind of headache bringing Kym home with him was going to cause him. His mother was known to be a bit of a gossip, but would she really do that to her own son? Yes.