“If you could get a bottle for Fay, that would help.”

While he did that, Nora got them into pajamas. Since he was just standing around looking kind of useless with a bottle in his hand, she passed him the baby and asked, “Do you mind? I need to see if I can get this girl settled down so she can sleep. She’s had way too much picnic.”

“Course not,” he said, hanging his jacket over a kitchen chair. And he sat in the little living room with Fay while Nora fixed Berry a glass of milk, then disappeared into the bedroom with Berry, where there was a little more crying going on. Berry fought and cried, Nora murmured.

So this was what life would be like with children, he thought. Every hand would be needed at some points. And what if there were more children? A man might get to feeling pretty neglected.

Fay took about twenty minutes with the bottle, but her eyes were drifting closed. When her eyes were open and she looked up at him, she smiled sleepily. God, she was beautiful. He wasn’t that crazy about children in general, but this one and her crabby older sister, they were certainly growing on him.

He kicked off his boots to get comfortable. When she had finally fallen asleep in his arms he noticed there was quiet from the bedroom. He assumed Nora would join him in the little living room soon, but there was no hurry. Holding the baby while she slept felt surprisingly good; it made him somehow feel bigger and stronger. It was an odd feeling, as if all his resources were being called on to keep them safe.

Finally, too much time had passed without Nora joining him, so he quietly poked his head into the bedroom. Well, that explained it. Nora and Berry were cuddled on the mattress, asleep. He meant to put the baby down in the port-a-crib and gently wake Nora to say good-night.

Instead he put the baby down and lay down on the other side of Berry, who was framed by Nora and Tom. He pulled the quilt from the bottom of the mattress over all three of them and thought, I’ll just lie here for a little while…

The bed was too small, too low, the mattress too thin, and he’d never felt better in his life. He just couldn’t bring himself to move. The baby snuffled in her bed while Berry curled against him and softly snored; he could smell her sweet breath; Nora hummed in her sleep and sometimes talked, but it was in an indecipherable language. His sleep was not deep or constant—he was acutely aware of the children, of Nora.

And then he heard birds just as he felt something in his hair. He opened his eyes to predawn light breaking through the slats in the blinds and Nora was running fingers through his hair.

“I didn’t think you had enough hair for bedhead,” she teased in a whisper.

“I think maybe you had too much picnic, too,” he whispered back. “You were going to quiet Berry and instead Berry put you to sleep.”

“Children can show you a kind of tired you just didn’t think possible. Did you mean to spend the night?”

“Not at first. I woke up a lot. Sometime in the night I decided I just wasn’t going anywhere. I have to go now, however.”

“Is Maxie going to be upset? Worried?”

He shook his head. “It’s rare, but I have been known to get in at dawn. Whatever she feels about that, she doesn’t let it show.”

“Can I get you a cup of coffee?” she asked.

“Will she be all right without us here?”

Nora nodded. “When she wakes up, she’ll come right into the other room. I’ll make coffee.”

A half hour later Tom was saying goodbye at the front door. “The neighbors will all have seen my truck in front of your house all night.”

“You’re admired around here, Tom. I don’t think my neighbors will worry that I’m getting mixed up with a bad person. And we’re just friends… .”

His lips curved in a lazy smile. “There are friends and there are friends,” he said. Then he slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her against him. He tested her lips once, then again, then a third time and then took her mouth by storm. Her arms went around his neck to hold him close and she opened for him and God, he wanted to pass out, it felt so good.

But he made himself stop. “Gotta go,” he said, and realized his voice was hoarse. “I have to work twice as hard today since I gave you a weekend off,” he teased.

“If you need me to work, you know I’ll come.”

“I need you to rest and enjoy Jed’s visit. I can’t wait to hear about what he brings this time. If he’s smart, he’ll bring Berry a pony.” Then there was a little kiss on the lips and he was gone.

Chapter Seventeen

Maxie was standing in the kitchen when Tom walked in. She regarded him through narrow eyes and, lifting one brow, she asked, “Breakfast? Or have you eaten?”

“I’m starving, but if you’re going to glare at me, I’ll fix my own.”

“I haven’t said a word. Nor have I glared.”

“What are you doing right now?”

“Struggling to stay awake. I didn’t sleep well.”

“All right, here’s what happened. The little girls were train wrecks—too much sugar, not enough naps. Nora bathed them and I did a bottle while she quieted Berry and we fell asleep along with the kids. In our clothes. I shouldn’t have to tell you that, Maxie. I’m old enough to sleep anywhere I want.”

“Yes, you are. But I like that girl a lot and she’s had some pretty impressive struggles. I’m not going to tell you not to go near her—I want you to. At least you’re looking at the possibilities. But Tom, you be careful. Don’t hurt Nora.”

“I would never deliberately hurt anyone.”

“I know, I know,” she said tiredly. “It’s so hard. I want you to use caution, to take your time. I also want you to get me beyond the suspense! I’m old!”

He grinned at her. “You’re going to have to let me pick my own girl. But no matter what, there’s no reason you can’t have Nora in your life. She loves you, Maxie.”

“Well, life would be a lot easier if you’d just let me tell you who to fall in love with. After all, I know more about this sort of thing than you do!”

“Fall in love? Maxie, I think you’re getting way ahead of yourself.”

Yet those words followed him around all day Sunday as he worked and puttered around the orchard. Certainly he wasn’t falling in love—he was simply attracted. And from what he could tell, she was also attracted—and they had a nice little attraction going. He’d traveled that very road quite a few times since the age of fifteen or sixteen. Yet, he’d never been in love.

Tom told himself that the fact that he wanted to talk to her or see her all day Sunday had nothing to do with his feelings. And that Sunday was one of the longest days he’d experienced since being back from Afghanistan, but he told himself it was only about magnetism. After all, she had a special charm.

But he would not fall in love with her. Nora was encumbered, not just with small children but with a troubled past she was still struggling to overcome and understand. He was looking for something else entirely—a woman without entanglements. A woman ready to settle down and make him the center of her world.

But when Monday came, when she arrived at the orchard, he felt himself light up on the inside. He was grinning like a fool before he could control himself. She was the first of their seasonal workers to arrive as usual; she came to his office to tell him good morning and he came around from behind his desk to stand before her. He took her hands in his, looked into those golden brown eyes and said, “I’ve been thinking. We’d better be careful. We shouldn’t get too involved, too quickly.”

She tilted her head and drew her brows together. “Explain why you have such a giant smile on your face when you say that.”

“I had a good time on Saturday. Friday and Saturday. But we’re adults, you have a family to think about and I have a lot of responsibility. Let’s not be foolish. If there’s a little attraction between us, no reason we can’t enjoy that for just what it is. But we don’t want to fall headlong into anything real complicated. We’re going to have to keep it friendly. Light. You know.”

“Is this your idea of a ‘no strings attached’ proposal?”

“I’m just saying—I don’t see friendship, even a close friendship, getting in the way of us each managing the lives we have to manage. If we let it get too deep, too fast we could regret it. We don’t want complications. Or heartbreak.”

She smiled at him. “Oh, you’re right. We wouldn’t want that.”

“You understand, then?” he asked. “That we don’t have to take this too seriously? The fact that we seem to get along so well?”

“Perfectly.”

“And around here—we should be professional. Set an example. You know.”

“Of course,” she said. Then she waited. “Is that all?”

“I think so, yes.”

“Then I’ll get going—those apples won’t pick themselves.”

He gave a nod.

“I’ll need the hands,” she said, pulling her hands out of his.

And he immediately dropped his hands to his sides. “Right.”

She was chuckling as she left his office. Well, he thought, she could laugh it off if she wanted to, but he felt much better, having said his piece. He probably should have added that he wasn’t in love and wasn’t going to be, but then it was easier to think she’d figure that out in no time.

The problem with his theory hit at about eleven in the morning. Junior was on the press, Jerome had offered to deliver apples to some of their local groceries, Juan and Eduardo were picking on the other side of the orchard… . And Tom found Nora. She was on a ladder, up very high, her bag holding only a few apples and not yet heavy. He climbed the tripod ladder until he was standing on the step right under the one upon which she stood so that they were face-to-face, at least partially concealed by the branches of one of the oldest, thickest of trees.

He touched her lips once, twice, then slipped his arm around her waist, pulled her against him and covered her mouth in a deep, wet kiss that lasted for over a minute.

“Whew,” she said. “Is this your way of keeping things light?”

“How do you like it so far?”

She touched his face with her fingertips. “I like the way you kiss—a couple of test kisses, then a huge kiss. I have only one problem—my imagination.”

“Huh?”

“If that’s your version of light and playful, I’m a little curious about what happens when you are serious.”

“But we’re not going there,” he said. “We agreed.”

“Fine. Okay.”

So he did it again, kissed her like a starving man, kissed her until she couldn’t catch her breath. And again, and again, holding her tight against him.

“You’re going to make cider out of these apples in my bag,” she said.

Just once more, he told himself, kissing her again. But since this was going to be the last one for a good long time, he made it a very long kiss. He stopped when he started to get aroused.

He lectured himself for a while on how only a fool would allow himself that kind of contact with a woman he wanted to keep at arm’s length. So—that was pleasant, he thought. And now it will officially stop. No more playing around; no more five-minute kisses in the apples.

And at two o’clock in the afternoon he found her in the orchard, slid that heavy bag full of apples off her shoulders, spun her around the thick trunk of a tree and kissed the breath out of her. Over and over.

When he let her breathe, she laughed. “I know you want me to understand that this is not passion or desire, but just friendship, but I have to be honest—I’m having a little trouble with the concept. You are very distracting.”