of downed fences and grazing fields to show her at the far edges of the property, and as soon as they were out of sight, they dismounted and lay in the grass together, hugging and kissing, and feeling each other’s bodies. They made it through four days after he had declared his love for her, and she couldn’t imagine how she had lived without him in her arms for the past nineteen years. They were cooking dinner together in her house one night, and he put down the fork he was using, grabbed her in his arms, and turned off the flame on the stove so they didn’t burn the house down.
“I can’t stand it anymore,” he said in an agonized voice as he held her.
“Neither can I,” she said, breathless, and they raced each other up the stairs to her bedroom, pulled each other’s clothes off, and made love for the next four hours, as neither of them had made love before. It had all the hunger and passion and desire and hoping and dreaming of everything he had felt for her before, and everything that had been born in her since he first kissed her. And after making love to her until midnight, when he finally pulled himself away from her, all he wanted was to do it again.
He was starving after that, and they went downstairs and finally cooked dinner, and then went back upstairs and made love again. They hardly slept that night and for several days afterward. Kate was afraid someone would see him coming to her cottage early in the evening and never leaving, with his truck conspicuously parked outside, so he started driving home, and coming back on foot at midnight, and staying until she got up at four-thirty. It made for short nights but some epic lovemaking. By the time Gemma got back from L.A., Kate was starry-eyed and looked dazed.
“You look happy,” Gemma commented when she first saw her. “Everything okay on the home front?”
“Fine. Nothing new. Thad is over the moon that you’re selling him your share.”
“Me too.” Gemma looked pleased.
“He’s going to build a house out there.” She didn’t have the guts to tell her sister that she was going to live there too and they wanted to get married. She was afraid that she’d be shocked that Kate wanted to marry the foreman. She needed time to figure out how to announce it to her, but for now, they had everything they wanted, nights together, and their plans and dreams for his property. She was going to tell her sisters soon. She just didn’t know when.
“Have you talked to Caroline this week?” Gemma asked her.
“Actually, come to think of it, no, I haven’t. I figured she was busy getting ready to go to Aspen. I think they’re leaving this weekend.”
“Apparently not,” Gemma said, as they sat on Kate’s porch drinking Cokes at the end of the day. “She sent me a text today. It fell through. She wants to come back with the kids till they go back to school. She didn’t tell you?” Kate looked surprised.
“She’s welcome of course, but that’s a little weird. She hadn’t been here in three years and now she can’t tear herself away. Is Peter coming too?”
“She didn’t say.”
“I doubt it. He hates it here. He thinks we’re all rednecks, except you of course. You’re Hollywood Elite.” Gemma laughed. “Did you get work this week, by the way?”
“Not a bit, unless I want to play mother to Miss Frankenstein in a vampire movie. Jerry says he might have something for me in a new British series, but they don’t start casting till September, and it’s a lot of location work. My tenant says he’s going to make an offer on my house any minute. If he buys it, I’ll have to put everything in storage, until I buy something else, smaller, like a condo. I’m in no hurry. It’ll be nice having money for a change. It feels good to be back.” She smiled at her sister. “I missed you this week. This place is addictive. I never realized that before, now that the Big Bad Wolf is gone,” she teased. She loved her father but she didn’t like what she had learned about him since his death and what he had done to their mother. It was hard matching that up with all the moralistic preaching he’d done in his lifetime.