Page 33 of A Family With the Cowboy

With a groan, he gathered her close. “You’re killing me, you know that?” he murmured against her lips before he kissed her again.

His blood heated instantly, and, steeped in her scent, her softness, his hands slid down her back and he pulled her close against him, making sure she knew exactly what she did to him.

The loud yapping of a dog finally penetrated his mind. Molly had had enough of being ignored and was jumping up against Laura’s legs.

Frowning, Laura bent down to pick up the dog and glared at him. It didn’t quite work, with her lips still swollen with his kisses and desire still lurking in her eyes. “Now you want to kiss? Saturday night, you made sure I knew nothing can happen between us. You haven’t spoken a word to me while driving from the ranch, but now you want to install a doggie door, and you keep kissing me!”

“Don’t you want me to kiss you?”

“Of course, I want to kiss… argh! You make me so mad, I say things I shouldn’t say. I was perfectly happy on my own and then you stormed into my classroom, all broody and sexy and angry, and I haven’t stopped thinking about you since!”

“Sexy, uh?” he drawled.

“That is so not the point!” she cried out. “You blow hot and cold, and I never know what is going to happen next. I’ve been trying to get you out of my mind…”

Sighing, he rubbed his face. “I never expected…you. I’ve also tried ignoring you, but it’s not working. All I can think about is you. Kissing you, being with you. I’ve been married. You know that. I have a son. On top of that, there’s Walker. He is dead because…and he would never be able…” With a sigh, he shook his head. “And I couldn’t talk to you on the way here, because I don’t wanna talk. I wanna kiss you. But there is no future in whatever this is between us. I was hoping, though, we can figure this out. I can’t think straight with wanting to be with you.” He glanced at his watch. “But right now, I have to install the damn doggie door so that I can leave. Before I forget about all my responsibilities and take you to your room, to that big bed, the one I helped carry in there, and make love to you until neither of us can see straight.”

For another second, she stared at him. “Figure it out? You mean, have a fling?”

“I… that’s not really what I mean, but okay, maybe that’s not a bad idea. Maybe we can get this thing between us out of our systems and—”

“There is nothing to figure out,” she interrupted him, her eyes bright. “Either you want to be with me, or you don’t. I don’t do flings. I’m not something you ‘get out of your system,’ as you’ve put it so eloquently. You having a son isn’t the complication, and you know it. You’re obviously carrying a lot of baggage around and I’ve had enough of men with issues to last me a lifetime. I can’t fix you. I can’t help you with your baggage. We’re both healthy adults. We have hormones. It will settle at some point. We will just keep on ignoring whatever this is until it goes away. So no, thank you, I’m not going to dinner with you, I’m not having a fling with you, and I’m not falling for you while you’re trying to figure out what you’re feeling.” She pointed toward the back door. “That door, I think. The back is enclosed, so Molly should be fine during the day when I’m at school. Please close the front door on your way out.”

With Molly still in her arms, she turned away and walked out of the kitchen.

Flabbergasted, Hayden stared after her. Well, hell. This was not how he’d thought the morning would end.

Clenching his teeth, he grabbed the tools. He’d never understand women. Best to stay as far away from them as possible. He was trying to be honest, to be straight with her up front, but clearly, she wasn’t interested.

*

Laura managed tokeep busy in her room until she heard Hayden’s truck drive away. As the sound faded, she sat down on the bed and the first tear rolled down her cheek. No, damn it, she wasn’t going to cry. She tried to wipe it away, but a sob from deep within her body escaped and then she was crying. Curling onto her side, she lay down on the bed and sobbed into the pillow.

Molly, who had been sleeping on Laura’s bed, crawled over to her and began to lick her face.

Rubbing Molly behind the ears, Laura laughed on a sob. “Oh, sweetie, look at me, crying over a man. What nonsense.” Wiping her tears away, she stood up with Molly in her arms. “Let’s go and find something to eat.”

Grabbing her phone from the bedside table, she moved toward the door. The phone slipped through her fingers, but before it could drop to the floor, she managed to get a good enough grip on it so that she could put it into her pocket.

Sniffing, she hugged Molly. “Look at me, all teary and miserable. That’s going to change right now. You and I, Molly, we have each other. I don’t want a man who wants to be with me only to get me out of his system. If…and that’s a big if, mind you, I fall in love, it will be with someone who wants to be with me, always. ‘Get me out of his system.’ Who says that, anyway?”

The doggie door had been installed and Hayden had also cleaned up after himself. “Look, Molly, you have a door. Let’s practice.” As she bent down with Molly, her phone dropped to the floor. The front was lit up, and she switched if off before she left it on the table. “Come on, let’s try the door.”

*

Muttering and stompinghis feet to get off the snow, Hayden put a hand on the door to the sheriff’s offices. What the hell had he been thinking, anyway? The problem was, when he was with Laura, he didn’t think at all. Other parts of his body worked fine, just not his brain.

His phone rang. Irritated, he took it out of his pocket and dropped his hand from the door. It was a call from Laura.

“You okay?” he asked, but she didn’t answer.

He was inhaling to ask her again if she was okay when he heard her voice. A second later he realized she didn’t know that she’d dialed his number. It was a “butt call,” as Becket called it. Turning away from the building, he listened to her voice as she talked to Molly.

Minutes later, he put the phone back in his pocket.

I don’t want a man who wants to be with me only to get me out of his system. If…and that’s a big if, mind you, I fall in love, it will be with someone who wants to be with me, always.

What if he wanted to be with her, but he couldn’t? What if—

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