Thankful for Love (17 page)

“Quanna!” he said. “You're here.”

She kissed the top of his head. “I didn't want to wait until tomorrow to see you. I hear you had a great time in Portland.”

“It was awesome. We went to the beach and the zoo. We heard a concert in a park. We went on the alpine slide on Mt. Hood. Uncle Sam took us to work with him, and we got to sit in a real police car.”

“You had a good time, too, Daniel?” She extended her arm to him, and he let her hug him, too.

“Yeah, it was great hanging out with Sammy and Jack at Uncle Sam's. They have cool video games.” Daniel wasn't quite so demonstrative, but it was obvious from his face he'd enjoyed the vacation.

“I'm glad you're home. I missed you both. You'll have to give me the details tomorrow when I come back.” She'd avoided Jack's gaze while she hugged and kissed his sons, but now she said directly to him, “I didn't mean to ignore you, Jack. Did you have a good trip back?”

He was obviously trying to keep from smiling as he answered her. “It was the usual for this time of year. Too many semis going too fast and too many RVs going too slow.”

“I prepped dinner for you—hamburgers, potato salad, corn, watermelon, and brownies. All you have to do is grill the burgers and corn.” She turned toward the entryway. “Now that I've seen you guys, I'll head home and let the three of you enjoy your evening.”

“NO!” came from both boys.

“You can't leave,” Lucas said.

“You have to stay for dinner,” Daniel added. “We have a surprise for you and Dad.”

She caught Jack's eye, but he shrugged as if to say, “I have no idea.”

“You just got home after being gone for two weeks. You should have family time with your dad.”

Lucas said. “If you leave, you'll spoil the surprise. Dad, make her stay. Please?”

Jack ruffled Lucas's hair. “I can't force Quanna to stay, son, but if you two take your backpacks and duffels to your rooms, I'll see if I can change her mind.”

The boys headed for the steps; Jack went into the kitchen; Quanna followed.

“Did you put them up to it?” she asked.

“No. It's completely on them. They've been going on about this surprise for most of the way home. I have no idea what they're talking about.” He put his hands on her shoulders and touched his forehead to hers. “God, I want to kiss you so bad.”

It was the answer she both wanted and dreaded. “We can't. Which is part of the reason I shouldn't stay for dinner. It'll only make it more difficult for both of us.”

“You'll disappoint the boys if you go.” He touched her face then ran his index finger over her lower lip. “Please, sweetheart. They have their hearts set on this.”

“Uh ... Dad?” came from behind Jack.

Jack dropped his arms from her shoulders and backed away from her. “Daniel. What can I do for you, buddy?”

“We put our stuff in our rooms. Lucas is getting the surprise ready, and I'm helping set the table.” He finally looked at Quanna. “Did Dad convince you to stay?”

She glanced at Jack and half smiled. “Yes, it looks like I'm having dinner with you.”

“Okay. You and Dad can't go into the dining room. We'll carry the plates to the table when everything's ready. Then you can come in.”

“Right.” Jack turned to Quanna. “I guess we have our orders.”

As soon as the burgers were cooked and the corn grilled, four plates were piled with food. Lucas and Daniel carried them, two at a time, to the table. Jack opened a beer for himself. Quanna poured lemonade for the boys and for herself and picked up the three glasses, ready to be led into the dining room for the big surprise.

At first, all she could see was the dinner she'd planned on a table set with familiar linens and dishes. Then she noticed a new addition. Above every placemat was a glass coaster. Each one was different, but somehow they all worked together as a set.

“The coasters are beautiful! Where did they come from?” she asked.

“We made them!” Lucas was bouncing up and down with uncontrolled glee.

“Your Aunt Amanda didn't tell me she let you work in her studio,” Jack said. “Sam's wife is a glass artist,” he explained to Quanna. “You're lucky guys,” he added to his sons.

“She taught us all about glass and how to cut it and make designs with it,” Daniel said. “It was awesome.”

“I made mine and yours, Quanna. Daniel made his and Dad's. Aunt Amanda said they didn't have to be the same, but if we used the same colors, they would go together.”

“This may be the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me,” Quanna said as she sniffed back a tear.

“It's the best present you've ever made for me, for sure.” Jack picked up the coaster at his place and examined it. “You did a great job. Thank you. And thank you for being thoughtful enough to make one for Quanna.”

“It was my idea. I thought she'd like to have one for the nights she has dinner with us,” Lucas said.

“And you were right. I do,” she said.

“But you're crying,” Lucas said.

“Sometimes people cry for reasons other than being sad. Sometimes it's when they feel emotional. Quanna's happy, I'm sure.”

His words brought back their first night together with a gut punch. Quanna couldn't change the subject fast enough.

Dinner flew by as the adults were treated to a day-by-day recitation of what the boys had done while they were in Portland. It was mostly Lucas who did the talking, but Daniel provided key details, like the names of the horses they rode on the beach and the songs they heard at the Pink Martini concert.

When the meal was over and the boys had begun to load the dishwasher, Jack said, “Quanna, will you help me take a few cases of bottled water out to the refrigerator in the barn? I'll have crew here later this week, and I like to keep water there for them.”

She nodded and picked up a case of twenty-four bottles and followed him out the mudroom door. When they got to the barn, he stowed the two cases he had carried into the refrigerator, took the one she'd brought out, and put it on a table. Then he led her to the back of the barn, drew her to him, and said, “I'm not sure I can do this, sweetheart.”

She was afraid her heart would stop. “What do you mean?”

“This charade. I don't want to pretend you're nothing more than my kid wrangler. I want Daniel and Lucas to know what you mean to me. It's been killing me all evening.”

“We have to be just boss and employee. At least for now. You agreed.”

“Yeah, before I knew how difficult it would be.” He brushed his mouth across hers. “Please tell me you're having as hard a time as I am.”

Instead of words, she answered by putting her hand at the back of his neck and pressing her mouth to his. All the pain and passion, all the love she felt for him was in the kiss. She led the dance of lips and tongues this time, but he was a more than willing participant. When they broke apart, both of them were breathless. “Jesus, Quanna. I don't know how we'll get through this.”

“We can if we want to.”

“Give me something to look forward to, then.”

“This weekend. I'm not working at the resort. Can you, I don't know, come have lunch with me one day?”

“Maybe I can do better than that. Barb was talking about one more camping trip with the kids before school starts, and this weekend was a possibility. If it works, will you spend the weekend here with me?”

The more time she spent with him, the deeper she would fall in love. She knew that. But she also knew she'd say yes to anything he asked her to do. So she said, “Of course I will.”

On the walk from the barn to her car, they studiously avoided being close enough to touch, and when they both reached for the handle of the driver-side door at the same time and their hands brushed, they recoiled as if shocked.

She drove away, happy she didn't have to face the boys again, sure her mouth was swollen from Jack's kisses and her hair messy from his hands. With any luck, he would be so busy with his wheat for the next few weeks, she wouldn't see much of him around the house while she was working and wouldn't have to worry about a repeat of the scene in the barn.

Damn it.

• • •

Jack watched her car trail dust up the hill to the road, trying to get his mind—and his body—calmed down before he went back to his sons. By the time he went inside, the dishes were done and Daniel was putting the placemats and new coasters away. Lucas had gone into the family room and had turned on the television after he'd completed his part of cleaning up.

“Thanks, Daniel,” Jack said as he set up the coffeepot for the morning. “Good to see you guys haven't forgotten how to do your chores.”

“We helped Sammy and Jack when we were at Uncle Sam's. Sammy and I usually did the kitchen cleanup while Jack and Lucas took care of Chihuly. I think Lucas wants a dog now.”

“It wouldn't be the worst thing to have a dog around.”

“We should ask Quanna about it first. Maybe she's allergic or something. And dogs are more responsibility.”

“You're right. Before we decide to adopt a dog, we'll talk to her.”

Daniel was quiet for a moment. “Dad, I was wondering something.”

From the tone of his son's voice, Jack knew this was something important. “What is it, buddy?”

“You called Quanna ‘sweetheart' when you were in the kitchen with her before dinner. I was wondering why.”

“Did I? I guess I was trying to convince her to stay for dinner.”

“Oh, is that why?”

Jack hated lying to his kids. But he had promised Quanna. “Well, you did ask me to get her to stay.” For the first time he could remember, he couldn't look his son in the eye. “I wouldn't worry about it.”

Daniel looked like he didn't quite believe it but said, “Okay, Dad. I won't.”

In spite of harvest, work schedules, kids, the annual influx of cowboys, tourists, and rodeo officials for the Pendleton Round-Up, and the other complications of their lives, Jack and Quanna managed to carve out time each week through the early fall to be together. On rare weekends, it worked out to be overnight. Often it was lunch on a Saturday. Jack grew more frustrated with keeping their relationship hidden as the weeks went on. It was particularly difficult now because he had time to spend with her. School had started for the boys, the cattle had been moved to their winter pasture, and his crops were all harvested. He was free for larger chunks of time to be in the house with her, if she'd let him.

But Quanna held tough on not mixing her job and their relationship. She wasn't being paid to be his mistress, she told him. “Then let's tell people we're a couple,” he responded, “so I can see you outside work hours.” But she couldn't agree to be open about their relationship. Not yet. He knew she was worried about gossip and understood she was concerned about her job. He tried to reassure her on both counts by promising her job was safe and repeating that no one would say anything snarky about his being with her. Nothing worked. He couldn't convince her to go public.

The way around her fear came to him while driving back from a two-day meeting with a Chinese trade delegation in Portland. Jack was so excited about it he raced his truck into the driveway and spewed gravel from his abrupt stop. It must have alerted Quanna to his arrival because she was standing in the open door when he got out of the truck.

Before she could say anything, he picked her up, whirled her around, and kissed her long and hard. “You have no idea how glad I am to see you,” he said when he finally let her go.

“Wow. The meetings in Portland must have gone well.”

“They did, but that's not important right now. I got home when I knew the boys would still be in school so I could talk to you about something.”

“Now I'm curious. What's more important than a new trade deal with China?”

“I need something cold to drink, first.” He took her hand and led her to the kitchen where he pulled a bottle of water from the refrigerator and took a long drink before offering it to her.

She sipped at it and handed it back.

“I got this great idea during the drive home. Would you be more comfortable talking here or in the living room?”

“I'm getting less curious and more nervous. Why do I have to be comfortable with what you're going to tell me?”

“Here or there, sweetheart?”

She walked to the living room and dropped into a chair. He followed and took the seat directly across from her. “Okay, you know I don't like skulking around. I want to be honest about us, go places in public with you. I hate feeling like I'm a teenager afraid to get caught out after curfew.”

“And I keep telling you, some of your friends or family will say awful things about your dating an Indian.”

“We've never come up with a way to prove or disprove your theory. Until now. I have a great idea. Besides swapping kids in the summer, one of the other traditions I let fall by the wayside when Paula was sick was the potluck we used to have here for the Civil War game. Most people I know went to either Oregon State or the University of Oregon and like to watch the annual football game between them. I used to host an inside tailgate party here. It's fun trash talking my friends and family members over a meaningless football game.”

He got the laugh he hoped he would before continuing. “I want to do it again this year with you as my date. I called Sam and Barb from the road, and they're all for it.”

“You started inviting people already? Without talking to me? And what about the boys?”

“I'd talk to them first. And Sam and Barb already know about us ...”

“Your brother knows? How? You never told me that.”

“Barb called him when she saw you here.”

“Crap.”