Page 51 of My Heart Will Find You

Etta was pleased by his “we,” but part of her wanted to forget all that and spend hours making love under the cottonwood trees.

“Alice,” she said at last. “I know the man she’s supposed to be with. I just have to find him.”

“Tell me about him. What does he look like? Maybe I know him. If I do, I’ll run to get him. My horse will have wings. After I find him, I’ll return to rip that sheet off of you.”

Etta’s laugh sounded like she was giddy. “That’s a deal! Phillip is a mechanic. He’s good with machines. And he’s a health nut. He lives on kale and protein powder. He hits the weights hard.”

“I don’t know what any of that means. Health nut? Is that walnuts? Hits the weights? With his fists? Is that a sport?”

She twisted around to face him. “Phillip has muscles. Biceps, pecs, glutes, quads. He looks like a bodybuilder.”

Max still looked blank.

She held out her arm and flexed a biceps. “Like this. He trains my sister and me. Name a muscle and he knows how to make it stronger and bigger. His physicality works with Alicia’s brains.”

“And what about you? What works with you?”

Etta’s eyes widened because Max was unbuttoning his shirt. “I thought I’d wash off,” he said.

She didn’t say anything as he slipped his shirt off. His upper body was bare. He was ripped! Cut. He didn’t have the giant, gym-created muscles that Phillip did, but Max had had a lifetime of heavy work. And there wasn’t even one tattoo on him. Made for a nice change!

She leaned back against the tree and watched him as he doused his upper body in the cold water. His chest, his arms, his clearly defined abs were glorious.

When he finished, he sat down beside her, still wet, still half nude. “When your quest is done, we’ll go on a honeymoon to anywhere you want. Paris maybe. I’m not a poor man.”

Etta didn’t say that there was a place in Kansas City that she’d like to see. She’d have to make sure that Cornelia and Bert put their house in the right place. If she could remember how to get there.

He saw her glazed look. “I want you when I’m sure that I have your full attention. I don’t want to be one of many people. I want to be the only person you see.”

“That’s why you’re willing to help me? To speed things up?” His smile was his answer and she laughed. “You have a deal.”

Max got up first. He picked up his shirt and put it on, but when he started to button it, she pushed his hands away. She did the buttons. Slowly.

When she finished, she looked into his eyes. “Sure you want to leave?” She was saying that she was willing to stay there. They’d make love beside the river.

His eyes were blazing but he said, “There are things that need to be done. My sister isn’t speaking to me. Her unhappiness would distract me.” He didn’t wait for Etta’s reply, but gave a glance at her sheet-clad body. “I’ll wait for you.” He nodded toward the house in the hillside, then walked away.

Etta dressed with lightning speed, pulling the corset strings tight. If her waist wasn’t the size of an ant’s, she wouldn’t be able to buckle the belt. And besides, an hourglass figure made her feel very attractive.

Max returned when she was dressed, and he lifted her so she could get onto Tulip’s saddle. “I hear you’re an expert horsewoman. Would you like to gallop?”

“Very funny. I’d like a seat belt and an automatic transmission.”

Laughing, he easily mounted his big horse, who touched noses with hers. “Tulip is his mother.”

She grimaced. “That makes us two old women together.”

Max gave her a look of such heat that her hair stood on end. “Not old and far from plain. Follow me.”

“Anywhere,” she said. “To the ends of the earth, I will follow you and—” She cut off because sweet Tulip started running after her son. Etta held on.

Etta was sitting beside Max in a buggy, and the town of Garrett was in front of them. She could smell it. “My nose could find this place.”

He smiled at that, glad she liked his home better than town. “Where do we look?”

“I have no idea. Phillip works on airplanes. There’s no airport here.”

He gave her a look of confusion.

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