She felt a little sad, thinking ahead to a future when they wouldn’t be sharing a home.
Wow.She had to stop that, because they weren’t a nuclear family.They were just doing their very best to come together.It was tempting to give in to that fantasy, to take risks they had no business taking.She wanted to make a perfect picture out of something broken.But that could end disastrously.
If they actually tried to have a romantic relationship, and it went south, it would compromise Marjorie’s future.
“Great,” he said.“I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s picnic.”
He smiled at her.And she felt her heart flip.
Anxiety swirled in her stomach.
He wasn’t the problem.She was.Her own feelings were.She needed to get hold of herself, so that she didn’t blow everything up.
CHAPTER8
The next day at lunchtime, he drove back to the ranch house and there were Marjorie and Ellie waiting for him.As pretty as a picture.And perfect.
He was doing his damn level best not to let his own feelings get in the way of their arrangement.
But it was hard.When they were sharing a house like this.Sharing a dinner table.
When the connection between Ellie and him was beginning to feel like something deeper than it actually was.
He was just so attracted to her.Sharing a small space with her, when they were in the kitchen for example, maneuvering around each other, was the world’s most beautiful torture.
He didn’t dislike it.But it was risky.Yeah.It was real damned risky.
When she smiled up at him as he took Marjorie from her arms and fastened her into the baby seat so they could head out onto the ranch, he had to stop himself from putting his hand against his chest to soothe the spot where his heart ached.
This was nothing like anything he’d ever experienced.He’d never seen a man and a woman working together to raise a child, to give that child the best they could offer.
No.His own parents had been so damn selfish.
This time with Ellie and Marjorie was giving him a glimpse at something he hadn’t really believed existed.A glimmer of hope that he couldn’t afford to obsess on.
As they drove away from the house, he tried to view the scenery through her eyes.He’d bought this piece of land two years earlier.Begun construction on the house a year and a half ago.
His dream.This place had always felt like a dream.The tall, stately mountains, the majestic pine trees.
The view of the valley below.
The ground here was volcanic.Red lava rock and black obsidian emerged from the ground in a great many places, and petrified wood was plentiful, including a grove of petrified trees that stood in his favorite spot on the property.
He paused his truck right in front of it.“This is a petrified forest,” he said.
“On your property?”she asked, her eyes going wide.
The trees were thick, with jagged tops and bark that looked more like rock than wood.Veins of pale white and reddish brown ran down the length of them.The trunks stood in a circle, surrounded still by living pines that stretched up high toward the sky, the sun filtering down around them making them look like a pagan altar.
“Yeah,” he said.“In the mid 1800s there was a series of eruptions in Oregon that lasted thirty years or so, and it formed a lot of the volcanic landscape here.But you’re a teacher, so you probably know that.”
“I don’t teach science, so no, I don’t.I don’t know about volcanoes, but I could tell you about Zane Grey going to Rogue River.”
“Then I can teach you about volcanoes and you can teach me about literature.”
She laughed.“I’ll let you in on a secret.I like literature just fine, but if I’m going to choose my own reading material, I prefer genre fiction.Give me thrillers, mysteries, and romance, thank you.”
“I’m not a big reader.You’ll have to recommend something to me.I’ll have time to read now that I’m a homebody and a dad and not out riding in the rodeo.”
