He jumped up and opened the office door—a red Caddy had pulled right up to the back porch. He spun right back into the office and leaned against the wall—no!
He could not imagine what the devil she was doing here or how he was going to make her go away.
The door to his office pushed open and there, smiling like she’d just caged a cat, was Darla. “I thought I saw you in here.”
“Darla,” he said. “What are you doing here?”
“I left Davis this afternoon, early, and I’m taking tomorrow off—so I could spend a little time with you. I suppose I’ll leave Saturday to go back, since you’ll be busy. But really, Tom, I should think you could make a little time for me.”
He scraped his cap off as he ran his hand over his head. “Darla, you shouldn’t have come unannounced—I might not have been here.”
She stiffened as if insulted. “First of all, I emailed you a couple of days ago. Right after we talked—which by the way was a little tense. Second, you told me I should feel welcome to come to the orchard any time I felt like it! Every weekend, if I wanted to. I don’t know… .” Her eyes filled with tears and she looked at him imploringly. “What’s happened? You told me you were very interested in me and then— Suddenly I feel like I have a contagious rash or something!”
“Darla, Darla…”
“No,” she said, backing up slightly. “I don’t know what changed, but the first couple of weekends I was here, you were so attentive, so affectionate. I couldn’t have imagined how passionate you were when you kissed me and frankly, I was just counting the minutes until we could spend a night under the same roof together without your grandmother in the next room…”
“I tried to explain about the harvest,” he said.
“And the hunting,” she added. “Did you try to explain about that, too? Or did you just drop it on me that you’d be unavailable? Tom,” she said, releasing a tear. “For the first time in a year I was hopeful. Happy!”
“Stop now,” he said gently, pulling her into a hug, her head against his chest. “I apologize, but there are many things we should talk about. And I’m not sure where to begin or how.” He pushed her away slightly. “And dinner is almost on the table. I need a shower and you could probably stand a glass of wine.”
She sniffed at wiped at her eyes. “Maybe I should just leave… .”
“I’m not going to let you drive all the way back to Davis, upset and crying.”
As she looked up at him, he was quite sure he’d never seen her eyes that round, that sad. But wait—of course he had. When he visited her on his way home, that visit to console her and tell her what a good man her husband had been.
“We need to go in the house,” he said. “I’ll get a shower, we’ll have a little dinner with Maxie, then we’ll find a quiet place to talk for a while. We’ll get this all straightened out.”
“All right,” she said sadly. “Will you bring in my luggage?”
“Of course,” he said and he thought, Maxie is going to have my head for this. “First we go inside and tell Maxie that you’re here. Since I didn’t get the email, she would have no idea.”
“Didn’t get?” she said, lifting a pale brown brow. “Or didn’t read? Because that was something else you said—from now on you’d be very careful about checking your emails.”
“Yeah. Some old habits are tough to change. Come on,” he said, taking her elbow.
As he escorted her to the house, he noticed she was dressed as if she might be attending a very important business meeting in which she was the chairman of the board. The red boots were back, this time paired with a long black skirt with a fringe on the hem and a rich, red poncho. Who goes to classes like this? Who drives four or five hours to an orchard like this?
Life was not fair, he brooded. The woman was so beautiful and such an invasive, intrusive, demanding pain in the ass. He had a strong desire for a simple woman in worn jeans that hugged every little curve and a plain old hoodie. Even if he could dress her up in these designer clothes, he wouldn’t want to. He loved her