Despite her instructions for them not to touch the puppies for fear the dam wouldn't like it, her children were crawling over the pile of old blankets, petting the new mother and her babies. Elizabeth was afraid that in their excitement Megan and Matt would crush one of the puppies. Again she cautioned them to be careful.
"They're all right," Thad said. He nudged her elbow with his hand, urging her forward.
"Can we hold one, Mom? Pleeeeze," Megan begged.
"I don't know," she replied uncertainly. The setter looked benign enough, but new mothers could be fiercely protective.
"I don't think Penny will mind. If you're very careful," Thad said.
Gently each child held one of the tiny pups. They oohed and aahed over them. Elizabeth found herself doing the same. Thad had been right. Who could resist a new puppy?
"Oh, they are darling, aren't they?" she whispered, kneeling down to get a closer look. The Irish setter, Penny, was basking in their attention and didn't seem to be at all nettled by the children.
"Want to hold one?"
Elizabeth looked at Thad from across the pile of old blankets where the new family lay. He was kneeling on one knee, the other was raised and bent. The single light bulb cast one side of his face into shadow and lit individual strands of his hair, particularly the silver ones. He had a well-lived-in face, but it was handsome and strong. His face said that he was a man of high integrity and steadfast conviction. He wouldn't provoke a fight, but he would find it untenable to turn the other cheek.
There were traces of pain in his features. And sensitivity. And sensuality. Especially around his beautifully fashioned mouth. It was saved from being pretty by the vertical grooves parenthesizing it. The rest of him was uncompromisingly male.
Elizabeth's chest grew full and heavy. Her mouth went dry. In answer to his question, she nodded. Very gently, he scooped one of the puppies in his large hand and lifted it away from its mother's teat. The puppy protested with a querulous squeak that caused them all to laugh. Thad laid the soft, warm ball into the bowl of Elizabeth's waiting hands.
She raised the puppy to her cheek and rubbed it against her skin. "He is — It is a he, isn't it?"
Chuckling, Thad nodded. "I think so. Three males, one female."
"You can tell by looking at their bellies," Matt said, puffed up with his superior knowledge on the subject. "The boys have penises."
"Oh, gross!" Megan shivered. She lifted the puppy she was holding over her head and glanced at its underside. Satisfied that she was holding the female, she continued to hug it gently.
Elizabeth cleared her throat loudly. She could feel Thad's laughing eyes on her. "He's so soft," she murmured, still allowing the puppy to root against her cheek.
"Do you like 'em, Mom?" Matt asked.
"Of course I do. They're beautiful."
"Can we have one?"
"Matthew!" Hadn't she taught her child better manners than that?
"Please?"
"Can we, Mom?" Megan chimed in.
"No."
"How come?"
"Because we just got Baby. No more pets."
"We'll take care of it, honest."
"I said no."
"But, Mom — "
"Whoa, Matt," Thad interrupted. "The litter is already spoken for."
"All of 'em?" the boy asked mournfully.
"Yep. Sorry, friend."
"That's okay," Matt mumbled, keeping his head down.
Thad placed his finger beneath the dejected chin and tilted it up. "Maybe by the time Penny has another litter, we'll have your mom talked into you having one, okay?"
The boy's face brightened. "Okay!" He returned the puppy he was holding to its mother. "I'm going to tell Tim that I got to see the puppies first and that the next time Penny has babies, I'm getting one. He couldn't wait to lord that over his best friend.
"Wait for me." Megan returned the female pup to its mother and they both ran for the door to the garage.
"Watch for cars when you cross the street," Elizabeth called. "And be home in five minutes. It's time for dinner."
"Okay, Mom." The door slammed shut behind them.
Elizabeth looked at Thad and smiled helplessly. "Where did I go wrong?"
He laughed at her chagrin. "You haven't gone wrong. They're great kids. Just energetic." Still smiling, he stroked Penny's head. The dog worshipfully licked the back of his hand.
The slamming door had had the impact of a thunderbolt, leaving a vibrating silence in its place. The garage suddenly seemed a private, intimate enclosure. The stillness made Elizabeth feel awkward. Except for a few words exchanged at a distance, she'd just met this man. Being alone with him was unsettling.
"I'd better get home and start dinner." Leaning forward, she laid the puppy close to its mother. He nuzzled and found an available place at which to nurse.
As Elizabeth withdrew her hands, Thad surprised her by reaching across the dam and her litter and grasping them. He turned her palms up toward the light. "What did you do to your hands?"
The shock of his touch almost cost her the power of speech. "The tree. I scraped them on the bark," she finally choked out.
"As soon as you get home, you'd better wash them in a disinfectant soap and put some ointment on them."
"Yes, I will."
His lips twisted into a lopsided grin of self-derision. "Who am I to give first-aid advice to a mother of two, huh?"
She smiled in return, but disengaged her hands, hopefully without appearing to be in a hurry to. But she was. She barely curbed the impulse to fold her arms across her chest and tuck her hands into her armpits, as though ashamed of them for committing some grievous transgression. They were tingling and it wasn't entirely from having been scraped on the tree.
He stood up when she did and together they walked toward the door. "I didn't know you had a motorcycle," she observed, grateful at a chance to break the silence. A motorcycle was parked in one half of the double garage.
"Yeah, I bought it when I got back from Nam. I don't have time to ride it much, mostly on weekends, but I enjoy it."
Nam? Had he been a soldier? "You don't seem the type for a motorcycle."
He paused with his hand on the doorknob. "The type? You're not one of those ultraconservatives who thinks that anyone sitting astride a motorcycle is degenerate, are you?"
"Of course not."
"Good. Maybe you can go riding with me sometime. If you'd like to."
"Oh, I don't think so," she said quickly, looking dubiously at the cycle. "I don't think I'd like sitting astride. A motorcycle."
There was enough time and space between her two sentences to let inquisitiveness dawn and mature in his eyes. For a moment that blue gaze held hers. "Don't knock it till you've tried it."
Studying his face, she gauged his intention and decided that if his words carried a double meaning, she was better off ignoring it. "The children will be looking for me," she said uncomfortably.
He held open the door. She stepped through it into the evening air, which had become chilly. But she welcomed the bracing cold. It helped clear her head. She hugged herself for warmth, and also to prevent him from seeing her nipples. They were erect beneath her blouse. If he noticed that, he'd think —
"I like all that lacy junk you wear under your clothes."
"What?" Stumbling in the damp grass, she spun around.
He was smiling disarmingly. "I don't think it's junk. I was only quoting Matt." He looked her up and down in the arrogant, possessive, masculine manner that Adam had first used in the Garden of Eden and that no amount of legislation was ever going to outlaw. "Unisex clothing they can keep. I enjoy looking at a woman who dresses like one."