He accepted two cups of steaming liquid from Jesse, motioning his brother to step away and leave them alone. Mike watched with curiosity for a moment before tapping her on the shoulder. “You relax for a bit, Beth, I’ll deal with the boys. Okay?”
She nodded rapidly, her eyes focused down at the table. They sat quietly for a few minutes, the curious onlookers slowly wandering off in search of action.
Daniel coughed. “This is a tad awkward, isn’t it?”
Beth lifted her gaze to meet his. “I’m so embarrassed.”
He shrugged. “People drop coffee cups all the time. Not a worry.”
A laugh burst from her lips, and he enjoyed the way her whole face changed when she smiled. “You’re a surprise. That’s all I can say.”
It was mutual. He stared over the picnic ground. Activities were breaking up, and out in public probably wasn’t the best place for the discussion he wanted to have anyway.
“I assume you’re living in town?” Hell. There was another possibility, although she seemed to be alone. “Or are you here visiting someone?”
There was a moment’s hesitation before she spoke. “I live here. Moved in the middle of August to start a job at the high school.”
Oh yeah, that was what he wanted to hear. He pushed back his chair.
“Can I give you a ride home?” He wanted her alone to continue the conversation he’d planned on having two months earlier.
“Daniel!” A swarm of little arms choked the life out of him, and he pulled back to grin at the three troublemakers he’d been watching over lately.
“Hey, guys. Was the picnic fun?” They had dirt on their jeans, grass in their hair and the littlest one had smears of chocolate on his face. “You look as if you had a good time.”
Three voices all sang out in unison, and he could barely understand them.
“I hit the target a zillion times!”
“I wanted another corncob, but they ran out.”
“Can we go swimming again?”
Daniel laughed. “Slow down. One at a time and…” He froze. Holy shit, he was a stupid son of gun. He stared at Beth in shock. “These are your boys?”
Her frown was firmly in place. “Lance, how do you know Daniel?”
The oldest boy went completely silent and kicked at the ground. “Umm…”
Oh hell. “You boys never told your mama you were playing down at the swimming hole, did you?”
From her reaction it was the first she’d heard of the place, ever. Two bright spots rose on her cheeks, the rest of her face suddenly gone white. Her lips tightened. “You mean they’ve been by the water without me knowing?”
She swallowed hard and wavered in her seat. He could see guilt and fear, in her eyes. Damn it, he shouldn’t have assumed just because he and his brothers had spent their summers running wild on the ranch that everyone would be okay with that for their own kids.
Beth spoke firmly to her sons. “We’ll talk about this on the way home. Come on, it’s time to go.”
Daniel rose with her, steadying her when she landed on a rough section of grass. After all this time, she was living not more than five minutes from his front door. His mind reeled.
“I’ll walk along with you.”
“That’s not necessary—”
Mike swung past, moving on his crutches far faster than a man his age should. He blocked their path and grinned at Beth. “I take it you’ve met my middle boy before.”
Daniel stared off into the distance to hide his face as Beth responded. His father was being a stubborn ass. It wasn’t like him to get in the way and be so curious about the women his boys took an interest in. What was he playing at?
“Daniel, if you’ve got a minute, could you go and make sure the heating coil is turned on around the water pipes at the Peter’s house? It’s getting colder, and I’d hate to forget to do it before it freezes.”
“I can do that,” Beth insisted. “Just tell me where to look and…”
Mike shook his head. “I’m not letting a lady crawl under the house. Daniel knows where it is. It’ll only be a minute’s work, right?”
“Yes, sir.” Daniel watched Beth closely. He wanted to talk to her, needed to talk, but if it was too much today, he’d back off.
After all, he knew where to find her.
She stared up from under her lashes and his body tightened. She may have been surprised to see him, but the interest they’d shared before—it still seemed to be there. Beth guided her boys toward the parking lot, the three tykes suitably subdued.
“I’ll meet you there,” Daniel called after her. He’d love to be a fly in the car and hear what the boys had to say about the swimming hole. Smart kids, even if they were in a heap of trouble at the moment.
He followed her van back toward the house where he’d lived until a few weeks ago. They passed the original ranch house where he currently slept. Daniel loved the layout of the entire SP Ranch. His great-grandpa and his brother had planned well when they had set up the place. Of the two homesteads, what they still called the Peter’s house was slightly smaller. It had been built after the two bachelor brothers had gotten married and started families within a year of each other. The second house stood on the other side of the coulee and creek. The layout had given both families privacy, and yet easy access to the barns and storage for their joint field equipment.
Years later, the Peter’s house had provided a wonderful location for the oldest boys to get out from under their parents’ roof without moving into town. At twenty-six, Daniel had been batching it with Blake and Matt for the past eight years. It felt awfully strange to have moved back into the home of his youth.
On an impulse, he turned down a side gravel road that led to the back of the barns. He left his truck there and strode through the trees, crossing the small footbridge to access the other side of the property. He made it to the Peter’s house just as Beth pulled in. The boys poured out of the van and raced for the door.
“Night, Daniel.” Three sets of hands waved as the kids shot up the wide porch stairs to disappear in to the house.
He laughed and turned to face Beth. “I see you’ve been living in the country long enough you’re not locking your doors anymore.”
She opened her mouth then closed it tight, wrinkling her nose for a moment. “You’re right. I hadn’t even thought about that.”
When she moved slowly toward the house, he hurried to offer his arm.
“Your leg sore?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Just not looking forward to doing the ‘Mom speech’. I decided to save it until we got home so I could concentrate on the road.”
Damn, no wonder the kids ran off so fast. “For what it’s worth, the creek is a pretty harmless place. It’s not very deep, and usually a whole lot of mud. I think I caught them the first time they were down there, and I’ve been keeping an eye out for them ever since, so they’ve been safe.”
“Thank you for that.” She opened the door. “Good night.”
“I’ll wait here once I’m done with my chore, until you’ve got a minute to talk.”
Beth clutched the doorknob so hard her fingers went white. “I have to put the boys to bed.”
“No troubles. I’ve got nowhere I’ve got to be.” Panic flashed in her eyes again, but he refused to back down. He wasn’t going to push this too far, but now that he’d found her—she could run, but she couldn’t hide. He dipped his head, maintaining eye contact until she had to pull her gaze away.