Search and Seduce
“Don’t apologize. Not to me.” He reached for her hand but changed his mind. He needed the mental picture of Amy wild and unrestrained to fade. If he touched her now, it would only grow stronger.
“We should join the others,” he said. Anything that would get them out of this room and away from the sense that he’d jumped over an imaginary boundary, and the fact that he wanted to go even further.
She nodded. “I should find Eloise. Tell her that Mrs. Benton invited her to dinner.”
Mark opened the door and held it for Amy. “That wasn’t a request. When Mrs. Benton tells you to come to dinner, it’s an order.”
Amy laughed, but it sounded forced. “No wonder all her boys joined the military.”
Mark knew there was more to their decisions, and he had a feeling Amy did, too. But he let the attempt at lighthearted humor follow them down the kennel’s corridor to the whelping room. She disappeared inside, and he headed for the front door.
Hand on the knob, Mark paused, closing his eyes. He’d nearly kissed her. Amy—the one woman whose friendship he couldn’t afford to lose. If he planned to stay through the opening, live under the same roof, he had to rein in his need. He couldn’t screw this up—and he sure as hell couldn’t screw her. He knew damn well that wanting something didn’t mean you got to have it.
Mark pushed through the door, heading for the half-built tent. “You guys work fast. I didn’t expect you’d have the center poles up already.”
“Piece of cake once we laid out the canvas,” Luke said, holding out a mallet. “Feel like driving in a few pins?”
Mark nodded. He was ready and willing to pound the shit out of something. Taking the tool, he headed for the neatly arranged piles of equipment.
Nearby, Gabe paused, resting his mallet on the ground. “How’s Amy?”
“Fine,” Mark said.
“She didn’t look fine when she headed inside.” Gabe raised his arm, wiping his brow with his shirtsleeve.
“She has a lot on her mind,” Mark said.
Luke shook his head. “She’s working too hard.”
“Yeah,” T.J. said, frowning. “She hasn’t seemed like her old self lately. I still can’t believe she stayed off the dance floor last night.”
“She hurt her ankle.” Mark positioned the pin and raised his mallet to take a swing.
“She looked fine today,” Luke said. “I’ve never seen Amy sidelined.”
Mark shrugged. “With that crowd, maybe she didn’t want to. Someone might get the wrong idea.”
Gabe slowly lowered his mallet without taking a swing. “And think that dancing with Amy would lead to something?”
“No one in town would hit on her,” T.J. said.
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Mark said.
“Amy?” Luke’s eyebrows shot up. “She’s always been Darren’s girl. Everyone around here knows that.”
“Darren’s not here anymore,” T.J. said, his voice tight.
“But we are,” Gabe said, and his hand formed a tight fist around his mallet. “If she says something to you, tell us and we’ll take care of it. I don’t want anyone making her feel uncomfortable.”
Mark nodded. He was on the same page. But the reasons he didn’t want another man approaching Amy felt selfish after what had happened in the veterinary room.
He glanced from Gabe to T.J. to Luke. Kissing Amy, touching her, helping her find her wild side—that was a one-way ticket to a fight with men he’d always considered family. He mentally added that to the list of reasons to stay away.
* * *
AN HOUR LATER, Mark headed for the hundred-year-old farmhouse that had been like a second home for most of his childhood. Amy had gone ahead with Eloise to help Mrs. Benton in the kitchen. As he approached the brightly lit building, Mark slowed. Through the side windows he could see the Benton brothers smiling and laughing as they carried their mother’s home-cooked feast to the table.
When they were growing up, Mrs. Benton had always made enough to feed half the town, as if she expected her boys to bring home strays. He should know. He’d been one of the kids with no place to go but a stool at a run-down diner or an empty apartment with leftovers from his mom’s waitressing jobs sitting in the fridge.