Once and for All (14 page)

“Hey, Sam,” she said casually before he got to the counter, then turned on her heel and walked out the door, the little bells jingling merrily at her exit. Total shutdown, but necessary. At least until she got some perspective.

As soon as she aimed the Spitfire toward the ranch, she reached for her phone. Carmen Phillips, efficient as ever, answered on the first ring.

“I need perspective,” Jodie said without identifying herself. She and Carmen had gone to law school together. They’d both landed in Vegas firms and had a habit of meeting a couple times a month for drinks and decompression.

“Shoot.” Jodie knew from her absent tone that Carmen was probably still reading or making notes as she talked.

“I was involved in a DUI case two years ago. I got the charges dropped due to a procedural error.”

“Good for you,” Carmen said absently.

“The guy’s now in prison for vehicular homicide.”

“Some people never learn.”

“I’m kind of getting involved with the victim’s brother. More than I intended.”

There was a silence. “And you’re feeling guilty?” Jodie now had Carmen’s full attention.

“Yes.”

There was another healthy silence before Carmen said in her characteristically impatient tone, “Damn it, Jodie, think about this. I mean…come on. Think! Did you do what you were paid to do? Did you do anything illegal or unethical?”

Jodie simply exhaled instead of answering.

“Sure, it’s crummy things turned out the way they did, but unless you have an uncanny ability to foresee the future, I don’t see how you could have done anything different. ‘Profession—attorney.’ Does that sound familiar?”

“Yes. Thanks.”

“Sheesh.” Carmen sounded as if she couldn’t believe she’d had to give this lecture.

“Thanks,” Jodie said again.

“Anything else?” Meaning that Carmen needed to get back to the nine things she was probably doing simultaneously.

“No. I’ll call if there is.”

“You better not have to call,” Carmen warned before Jodie hung up.

She drove home feeling better. Carmen was right. What she was feeling was human, but she wasn’t human. She was a lawyer.

Her lips twisted slightly.

Human. Lawyer. It didn’t matter. She was very attracted to Sam, but would tread lightly. No sense screwing his life up any more than she already had.

“Hi,” Beau said when she smiled warmly and reached over the desk to take his hand and then Tyler’s, before introducing herself as Paige Mansfield.

“Sam Hyatt.” Sam shook her hand, then settled into a chair. The boys also sat, their eyes never leaving her face. Perhaps this was going to go better than Sam had first anticipated.

That hope did indeed pan out. After a few awkward minutes, Beau and Tyler began to relax as Paige told them a little about her life and hobbies, and generally looked beautiful. Sam was pretty sure the beautiful part had a lot to do with his nephews’ conciliatory attitude.

When she invited the three of them to talk about themselves, Beau and Tyler, in typical teen fashion, gave the abridged version of their lives, and Sam didn’t do much better. Paige didn’t seem to mind. She leaned back in her chair and asked a few opening questions, gathering opinions from all three of them about their present situation. She expertly guided the conversation, almost without them being aware, and Sam soon understood she was laying a base, building trust, not pushing matters too fast or too far. The boys seemed surprised when the session was over.

“That’s it?” Beau asked. “You don’t want us to pour out our guts about our parents and stuff?”

Paige smiled and shook her head. “If you come back, we’ll discuss some of the issues you mentioned in more detail, come up with some strategies that work for everyone,” she said, smiling again, at Sam this time.

“You guys want to come back?” Sam asked before rising from his chair.

Beau shrugged. “Sure. I guess.”

“I don’t have a problem with it,” Tyler added.

“Great. Same time next week?”

“See you then,” Sam said. He left feeling that even if the sessions didn’t help, they wouldn’t hurt like the previous ones had. Paige had the boys talking and had subtly made the point that if people didn’t communicate, they couldn’t expect others to read their minds or meet their needs.

Communication. What a concept.

Yeah. Much better. It wasn’t that he wanted an excuse to see Jodie now that the damned Zephyr Valley heifers were calving with no problems, or that he wanted to find out why she had shut him down in the office the other day.

He shook his head as the main ranch house came into view. He never thought he’d be working up excuses to see Joe Barton’s daughter.

Who, it turned out, wasn’t home.

Shit.

But he had a long talk with Lucas, who’d come out of the ranch house when Sam had driven in, zipping up his coat and missing his ever present scarf. It had been a good talk even if Sam’s thoughts had occasionally strayed elsewhere. Lucas was still sober and showing no signs of relapse, and Sam was damned proud of the man. It couldn’t be easy walking away from a good twenty years of career drinking, although he’d only been nonstop soused for the past five. That was a long time to look at the world through bloodshot eyes.

Lucas told Sam that he’d just missed Jodie, who’d gone to town to do the weekly grocery shopping, so Sam asked about the heifers and the bull, killing time. Lucas answered, his attitude friendly enough, even though he kept casting quick, oddly regretful glances in the direction of the main house.

Finally Sam gave up, got in his truck and headed back to town. He had no more scheduled calls, so it was bookkeeping for him.
Whoopee
.

But he never made it to the office. Before he reached town, his cell rang, and less than a minute later he hit the accelerator hard and turned onto the highway leading to Elko instead of the back road to the clinic.

She was focused on sorting produce from dry goods when she heard Sam’s name, and glanced over her shoulder at the other counter. A woman she didn’t recognize was waiting for the clerk to load her last bag into a cart.

“Horrifying,” the woman said into her cell phone before pausing to listen.

Jodie’s groceries were piling up and she turned her attention back to bagging them while eavesdropping on the call behind her, her heart beating faster. What had happened to Sam?

“Yes, Doc Hyatt had a bad time of it. Jim said he’d never seen him so… Yes, Jim’s still there, cleaning up the wreck….” The woman’s voice faded as she pushed her cart away from the counter and out the door.

Jodie felt numb as she continued to jam items into bags with no rhyme or reason. Perishable, nonperishable. Who cared?

“Have you heard anything about an accident?” she asked the checker. The woman just shook her head as she scanned the last few items.

Well, something had happened.

Jodie went to the credit scanner and ran her card while the woman loaded the bags in the cart. Impatiently, Jodie punched buttons until the receipt finally snaked out of the machine. She snatched the long strip of paper, then grabbed the handle of the cart and wheeled it to the door.

Doc Hyatt had a bad time of it.

And if Jim, whoever he was, was still clearing up the wreck, the accident must have just happened. Jodie made her way across the lot and had to slam on the brakes when a car she didn’t see sailed past her on the street. She forced herself to look both directions, twice, before proceeding.

Not the boys. Please don’t let anything have happened to the boys.
Sam didn’t need more pain in his life.

She drove straight to his house, where, thankfully, the vet truck was parked in front of the clinic. But she had no idea if his private vehicle was there, and when she headed past the clinic to the driveway to his home, she saw that the little white truck the boys drove was definitely absent.

Please don’t let it be the wreck Jim was cleaning up.

Jodie parked next to the back door, and as she got out of the car she saw movement at the kitchen window. Okay. Someone was there. A second later Sam opened the door, frowning when he saw her.

“Are you all right?” Jodie blurted. He looked okay. A bit worn around the edges, but not devastated.

“Yeah. Why?”

“I heard something at the grocery store….” He was staring at her oddly.

“Heard what?”

She moistened her lips. “Heard wrong, I guess. I thought there was some kind of trouble. A car wreck.”

Understanding dawned across his features. “I had to put down some horses involved in a highway accident. It was…ugly, to say the least.” He gestured at the bloodstained clothing kicked into a pile in the corner of the mudroom.

Jodie looked away from the bloody shirt and jeans, pressing her fingertips to her forehead. “I was afraid it might have involved the boys or…something….” Her voice faltered. “You know?”

“So you came over here to make sure they were all right?”

“And you.”

“Me.” Sam gave his head a slight shake, then opened the door leading from the mudroom into the kitchen. She followed him inside the warm house and he closed the door again.

“You want a drink?”

“I could use one,” Jodie said honestly. She looked around at the old-fashioned kitchen, which was exceptionally neat for having three males in the house.

“Jodie…explain something to me.” Sam went to the cabinet and pulled out a bottle of red wine, which he held up for approval. Jodie automatically nodded. She was not all that interested in vintages at the moment. “What’s going on between us?”

Yes. What?

“I mean, you could have called, but you showed up in person.”

“Yes, I did.” Jodie ran her fingers down the silk scarf she wore. Yes, she had indeed come in person. She’d wanted to see Sam, assure herself that all was well.

“But you’ve been avoiding me for the past few days.” He pulled down two wineglasses from an open shelf over the sink, inspected them, then set them on the counter.

“You did reject me,” she pointed out, wincing inwardly as she spoke.
Oh, good. Clutch at straws. Excellent strategy.

Sam uncorked the wine without responding, apparently thinking her point was not worth addressing. Jodie pushed her hair behind her ears, watching the muscles of his back move under his shirt.

“I don’t think we’re interested in the same thing,” she finally blurted in a most unlawyerly fashion. Sam turned then, and from the way he looked at her, she realized she could be mistaken about that. “What are
you
interested in?” he asked.

“Something short-term and physical,” she said without hesitation, thinking that might put him off. “I’m too involved with my career for anything else.” Not the total truth, but her statement had elements of truth.

His lips twitched before he poured the wine. “Yeah, I have a big problem having sex with a hot woman, no strings attached.”

“I think you do,” Jodie said, a stubborn note in her voice.

“Why?”

“Because you want to be a good role model for the boys.”

Sam handed her a glass, then lightly touched it with his own in a silent toast. “The boys have encouraged me to get a life so they can have their own.”

“Oh.” Well, that argument was shot to hell. “That’s happy news,” Jodie deadpanned.

“I’d kind of like to start doing that,” he said. “Getting a life.”

A slow anticipatory tingle went down Jodie’s spine. “I have Margarite’s groceries.”

“Anything perishable?”

“Yes.”

“Pretty cold right now. They’d probably be fine in the car.”

“Uh-huh.” Jodie didn’t seem to be able to tear her eyes away from Sam’s.

Was it right to do this? Without telling him that she’d once defended Colin Craig? Kept the man from going to prison for that third DUI?

Telling Sam wouldn’t help either of them.
It would devastate him. She couldn’t change the past, only regret it, and that wasn’t going to bring Dave Hyatt back, give the twins their parents again. But she could make Sam feel pretty damned good, and maybe by connecting with him…maybe she could do herself some good, too.

“Where are the boys?” she asked.

“Gone until late.” Sam’s gaze was intense. “They went to Elko with some of their teammates.”

“I thought that after last week they’d be grounded forever.”

“So did I,” Sam said. “However…” He reached out to wipe a droplet of wine from her lower lip with the pad of his thumb, making her knees feel ridiculously weak.

“However?” she prompted, her voice almost failing her.

“We went to family counseling this week, and I discovered that I have control issues. The counselor mentioned that trying to control things in order to feel safe was a normal response to my…situation.” Sam took a swallow of wine. “She also mentioned that it’s futile.”

“I know.” Jodie spoke softly. Her words hung for a moment before she continued. “I have a tendency to try to control too much, too.”

“Maybe the solution is to just let go.”

“You think?”

Sam put his glass on the counter, his gaze traveling down her body, lingering on her breasts, then coming back up to her mouth. “Yeah. In a short-term, very physical way.”

Jodie reached up to pull the silk scarf from around her neck, draping it over the closest kitchen chair. “So are you going to kiss me, or what?”

“I’d really like to experience ‘or what.’”

“Well, here’s your chance,” Jodie said, giving in and bringing her hands up to cup the sides of his face and pull his mouth down to hers. She rose up on her toes, trying to press closer, needing to feel his heat, his hardness in order to wipe the remaining doubts from her mind.

His mouth moved away from hers and she murmured in protest, then sucked in a breath as his lips trailed down her neck to the hollow of her shoulder, making odd little tremors shoot through her. She lifted her hands to his face, reclaiming his mouth before running her palms down his back to his ass. And what an ass.

“I, uh, haven’t had sex in a long time,” she finally said, her voice barely audible.

“How do you feel about ending your dry spell?” Sam asked.

She laughed in spite of herself, loving how his body felt against her own. “It’s time,” she said.

Sam swung her up into his arms and carried her down the hall, past an open office door and into his bedroom. His bed was a mess, all rumpled sheets and tangled blankets. Jodie could imagine him crawling out of it at all hours of the night in order to go on an emergency call.

The thought froze her up as he set her on her feet and smoothed her hair back over her shoulders before bringing his forehead down to touch hers. He’d better not get any calls tonight.

Her fingers were a bit unsteady as she worked the plain white buttons on his chambray shirt through the holes. The sleeves were rolled up to his forearms, so when Jodie finally pushed the fabric off his shoulders, it fell freely to the floor. His chest was solid, all taut muscles lightly covered with reddish hair. Who would have thought she’d fall for a Viking?

Sam sucked in a breath as she went for his jeans, but he didn’t make a move as she undid the top button, then put a hand on either side of the opening and pulled in opposite directions, springing the buttons free and releasing him.

“You don’t wear underwear?” she asked, surprised and more than a little impressed, both at his bravado and at…him.

“I showered when I got back from the call, and didn’t bother.”

She ran a hand over the length of him and felt him throb in response. “I like this look. You should consider making it part of your personal style.”

Sam reached down and caught her hands as he stepped out of the jeans, then used his feet to peel off his wool socks. And there he stood. Male, totally gorgeous. Better than her imagination, which had been pretty good.

“I cannot believe the women of this town are not all over you,” she said.

“There’s only one woman I want all over me,” Sam growled, “and I’d like her a lot more naked than she is now.”

“Okay,” Jodie said simply, spreading her arms, inviting him to take charge, which he did.

“Is this a component of the ‘or what’ you were talking about?”

Jodie laughed and shrugged out of her coat, which she tossed on the heap she’d made of Sam’s clothes. “It can be.”

She didn’t laugh after that. She gasped a few times as Sam slowly undressed her, following his hands with his lips, and she moaned when he took off her panties and his finger strayed exactly where she wanted it. But she definitely wanted more than a finger, and Sam was happy to oblige.

His comment about experiencing “or what” shot through her brain as he entered her.
Oh. My. Gosh.
This was definitely “or what.” She couldn’t come up with adequate words to describe how it felt having him inside of her.

He seemed to feel the same about her. His expression was one of awe as he pushed himself in to the hilt. And then he started to move.

Maybe she hadn’t had sex in a while, but she had never had sex like this. She would have remembered.

Sam covered her mouth with his and Jodie pushed her hands up into his thick blond hair, holding him as he plunged into her. When she came, she cried out against his lips, arching and throbbing. He was only seconds behind her.

After he’d collapsed, Jodie ran her hands lightly over his broad back, trying desperately to catch her breath. She felt him smile against her shoulder.

“Was it good for you?” he asked whimsically. He’d have to be dense to have thought otherwise, and Sam was not dense.

“Not bad.”

He raised his head, smiling at her, looking more relaxed than she’d ever seen him. With his longish blond hair falling down on his forehead, he looked almost like a beach bum. A very delicious beach bum.

“Can you do better?” he asked.

“Give me a few minutes and I’ll show you.”