Three Kids and a Cowboy by Natalie Patrick

Author:Natalie Patrick [Natalie Patrick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781459272972
Publisher: Harlequin

Chapter Six

“What in tarnation happened to you?” Crispy stopped his midafternoon kitchen duties to gawk full-out at his boss.

“Never mind what happened,” Brodie grumbled. He drew in the lingering scent of scalded black-eyed peas, mingled with the gamy odor of the creekwater clinging to his jeans and shirt. “Just go fetch me something clean to wear—and while you’re upstairs, check on the kids. They came in the front door, and should be in their rooms pretending to nap by now.”

“Fetch me some clothes. Check on the kids.” Crispy clicked off a switch on the stove, and the rolling gurgle of water boiling stilled. He headed from the room in an unconvincing huff, muttering, “When did I become the butler and nanny around this place, that’s all I wants to know.”

Familiar laughter reached Brodie’s ears as he whisked the side of his hand down his mud-streaked shirt. He flicked the murky liquid onto the braided doormat in front of him and raised his head to face the source of the unappreciated good humor.

“What happened, big brother? Did you lose a bet?” Jackson Sykes, Brodie’s younger—by two years—brother asked with his usual smirk.

“Actually—” Miranda scooted around Brodie, deftly avoiding any contact with the slimy red-brown muck that covered his jeans, spattered his shirt and painted several thick strands of his hair “—he won the bet.”

“Almost got drowned doing it, too,” he growled. “I owe you big for that, Randi.”

“Consider it a gift, sweet thing.” She tossed back her hair and batted her thick lashes at him. “The bet was that two people could kiss across the creek, not that they actually had to. It’s not my fault you assumed I’d actually allow you to kiss me and you leaned over the creek too far and fell in.”

“Fell in, my—”

“Yes, that’s exactly where you fell,” she teased, her gaze tumbling down his body to his muddied jeans.

Steam rose from the pot still cooling on the stovetop. A drop of water spewed up and landed on the heating coil, sizzling softly while Miranda took a slow, thorough inventory of his backside, molded by soaked denim.

Even though she touched him only with her gaze, the experience sent a jolt through Brodie’s body. He shifted his weight. His gut churned as it had back at the creek, when they leaned in over the flowing water and their lips all but met.

He’d have given the moon and stars to kiss Miranda then. The symbolism of the act alone might have sustained his hopes for their marriage long enough for him to figure out a way to make things right between them again. And to have claimed Miranda’s lips with his again? To have pulled her close and felt the fullness of her breasts, the inviting roundness of her hips pressed to his?

Well, that wouldn’t have sustained anything, he thought. That would have fueled his desire to make love to his wife even more—fueled it beyond the raging prairie fire it had already become. How ironic, Brodie thought,

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