“It’s a great idea,” he agreed, wrapping her in his arms.
Sam wanted to make things better for Libby. But in some ways he felt powerless. Her issues seemed as complex as his own, scars that were formed over time, that ran too deep to clear up with simple encouragement. His heart warned him, told him that she wasn’t ready for this relationship, but Sam’s heart had already split open, had already let her in, growing new from the inside out.
Libby had said once that no one let her in. Well, he had let her in.
He had fallen in love with the curly-haired, blue-eyed woman. She’d brought a lightness to his life that he had desperately needed. Libby was his daily dose of effervescent happiness. She teased him, cajoled him, made love to him. She made him feel alive in a way he couldn’t remember ever feeling. Their connection felt as if it were on an elementally cellular level.
On the eve of the silent auction, Libby was more distracted. There were dozens of little details that seemed to fall to her. Sam had seen some of the silent auction items and thought the group would be lucky to raise ten thousand dollars.
“How about I drive you in tomorrow? We’ll swing by the city offices and get a permit for the race.” That was something he could do to help her, pull some strings with people he knew at the city.
“Don’t you have to work?” she asked.
“Yep. But I’m going out to Trace Canyon to talk to a man who might be hiring ranch hands. See if he wants to take on Tony.”
“I thought Tony was going to help Ernest rebuild a fence.”
Sam laughed. “How long do you think it takes to build a fence?”
“I don’t know. It would take me a year, and that’s if I had a clue what I was doing. Maybe I should take my own car, Sam. We have a lot to do tomorrow before the silent auction and I don’t know how long I will be.”
He caught her by the waist, pulling her into his chest. “I thought you liked riding with me,” he said, and kissed her.
“Just seems a little convenient, deputy,” Libby said, dropping her head to one side so he could kiss her neck. “I think you might want to take advantage of me. Or make sure I stay out of trouble.”
“I know you’re going to stay out of trouble,” he said. “Because you’ll have me to answer to if you don’t.” He put his hands on her waist and lifted her up; Libby wrapped her legs around his waist.
“That doesn’t scare me,” she said, smiling.
He turned around, put her on the edge of his bed and filled his hands with her breasts. “Don’t tempt me.”
Libby grinned and put her arms around his neck. “I love it when you get all stern.”
“I’m about to get very stern,” he said, and dipped his hand into the waist of her jeans and nudged her back, crawling over her, his body already thumping with want. Libby closed her eyes and sighed, and as usual, Sam forgot his niggling worries, let them float off to that place all worries went when he was making love to Libby.
TWENTY-SIX
The afternoon of the silent auction, Libby went into town early to help set up. Libby had to hand it to Gwen—she’d done a great job at putting the silent auction together. They anticipated a full house. Everyone in Libby’s life would be coming. Sam of course, as well as Madeline and Luke. Libby’s mother and her husband planned to attend as well. And naturally, the guest of honor, Leo, would come with the rest of the Kendricks and Marisol and Javier.
Libby dressed in her best outfit—sleek black pants, a silky red top, and the black boots her mother had given her last Christmas. She was excited to announce the 5k race tonight. With Sam’s help, she’d gotten the permit from the city to close the same streets they’d used for a race last spring. Fleet Feet, the local running shop, was going to sponsor the race and had arranged for a local construction company to subsidize the cost of the T-shirts. Libby needed more sponsors to help pay for the race trinkets, the food, and the city costs for cleanup and crowd control, but she was optimistic that Michelle would make good on her promise to convince the bank to provide some support.
Still, Libby tried to raise Emma one more time before she set off to town and the Grizzly to set up for the night’s event.
You’ve reached Emma Tyler. Obviously, I’m not here. Leave a message. Or not.