Cowboy Enchantment

chapter Ten


“Oh, no,” Hank said. He rolled over and reached for his jeans.

Erica clutched the sheet to her chest, suddenly self-conscious. “Does she usually wake up crying in the middle of the night?”

“Not unless something is wrong.” He bent over, his hands on either side of her, and kissed her lingeringly and tenderly. “I’m sorry, Erica.”

She sat up as Hank went to see what was wrong with Kaylie. She pulled on his shirt and trailed after him. When she got to the living room, Hank walked out of the alcove with Kaylie against his shoulder. The baby had stopped wailing and was snuffling and rubbing her eyes.

“I think she’s cutting her first tooth,” Hank said.

Kaylie looked so pathetic that it wrenched Erica’s heart to look at her. “What can we do?”

“I keep a couple of teething toys in the freezer door. If you’d bring one, maybe that would help.”

Erica padded into the kitchen, found the toy and took it to Hank. He gave it to Kaylie, but she didn’t want to relinquish the pacifier.

“All right, Kay-Kay,” he said, settling down on the couch with her. “Let’s see what we can do to help you. Do you know anything about teething, Erica?”

Erica wished she’d paid more attention to Abby’s talk about Todd when he was a baby, but she’d more or less tuned out all those conversations. She sat down beside Hank, and suddenly a memory came to mind. “My mother used to massage my little sister’s gums, and it seemed to help,” she said.

“I can try that.” Carefully Hank removed Kaylie’s pacifier from her mouth, and before she could object, he began to rub the bottom center gum where her two first teeth would erupt. Kaylie relaxed, an absorbed look on her face.

“I think she likes it,” Hank said hopefully.

“Why don’t I get us a snack?”

“There are chocolate-chip cookies in the pantry.”

Erica found the cookies and rejoined him. “I didn’t think to ask if Kaylie needs something.”

“I suppose I could give her a bottle, but I don’t want her to get in the habit of waking at night in hopes of a snack. The book says not to do that.”

“You must depend on the baby book a lot.”

“I didn’t have a clue about taking care of babies when Anne-Marie died. I’ve had to learn it all from scratch. But we’ve both survived, haven’t we, Kay-Kay?” He kissed the top of her head.

“You’re doing a great job, Hank.”

“It’s fun most of the time, but I wish I’d had the advantage of learning everything right from the start.”

“Why didn’t Anne-Marie want you to visit Kaylie?”

He kept rubbing Kaylie’s gum and helped himself to a cookie with the other hand. “She didn’t want me coming in and out of her life. She said that she was the only parent Kaylie would need. I didn’t agree with her, but…”

Kaylie wriggled and pushed Hank’s hand away. He gave her the pacifier; she threw it on the floor. He handed her the teething toy, which she pitched behind the couch. Then she began to whine fretfully.

“May I hold her?” Erica asked.

Hank looked momentarily disconcerted. “Okay,” he said, and Kaylie held her little arms out toward Erica when she reached for her. This made Erica feel surprised and even honored, and when Kaylie clung to her shoulder, she felt downright flattered. She also felt protective, a new emotion for her. In the past the only thing she’d wanted to protect was her position at work.

“She might like it if you’d sing to her,” Hank suggested.

“‘America, the Beautiful’?”

“Why not?” He gave her an encouraging smile.

She began to sing softly, and Kaylie, whose eyes opened wide at first, curved trustingly against her. Hank went to wash off the pacifier in the sink, and when he handed it to Kaylie, she put it into her mouth with a grateful sigh.

“I wish I knew some other songs,” Erica said.

“How about ‘Home on the Range’? I’ll sing it with you.”

“You start.”

And then they were singing together, their voices blending until they got to the chorus, where Erica surprised herself by singing harmony. Kaylie’s eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and before they’d finished the song for the second time, she was sound asleep.

“I’ll put her back to bed,” Hank said. He gathered Kaylie into his arms, and Erica relinquished her reluctantly. While he went into the baby’s alcove, Erica returned to the bedroom where she began untangling her jumpsuit, shoes and underwear. She took them all into the bathroom and had started to dress when Hank rapped on the door.

“Erica?”

“I’m getting dressed.”

“Oh.” A few moments’ silence, and then he said, “I wish you wouldn’t.”

She halted in the process of zipping up her jumpsuit.

“I don’t want you to go,” he added.

Surprised, she opened the bathroom door. “You mean it?”

He drew her into his arms and kissed her cheek. “I want to sleep beside you all night long. I want to wake up later and make love to you all over again.”

She swallowed, overwhelmed by the emotion she saw in the depths of his eyes. “Well, hey, cowboy, that sounds good to me, too.”

He held her away so that she could see the quirk of his lips as he suppressed a smile. “The only thing is, now I’ll have to undress you all over again.”

“I’ll see what I can do to help,” she said as she kicked off her shoes and followed him back to bed.

ERICA WOKE UP early the next morning when she heard voices in the adjacent stable. It was barely dawn, and when Hank stirred beside her, he slid closer and curled his body around hers.

“That was wonderful last night,” he murmured close to her ear as his hands found her breasts.

“Mmm. You’re a terrific lover, Hank.”

A silence, and then he chuckled. “I didn’t mean the sex. I meant the way you sang to Kaylie so that she went back to sleep. The lovemaking was okay, too.”

She knew from the way he said it that he thought it was more than okay. She slid around in his arms to face him. “How long do we have until Kaylie wakes up? We could try to improve. If you’re interested, that is.”

“I’m interested, Ms. Strong. Very interested.” And he proceeded to show her how interested he was.

Afterward he held her close for a long time. She closed her eyes, listening to their hearts beating in unison. He nuzzled her ear, setting off a chain reaction of sensation all the way from her head to the tips of her toes. She couldn’t have imagined how sensitive she would become to his touch; it seemed as if every nerve in her body was primed and ready to go on alert if Hank so much as looked at her.

“How about a shower?”

“Want me to go start the water?”

“Go ahead,” he said. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

After he went to check on the baby, Erica went into the bathroom and turned on the water. While she was waiting for it to get warm, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror over the sink. First of all, she noticed that she had gained weight. Only a few pounds, but they had filled out her spare frame so that she was more curvaceous. Her breasts were high and plump, and her waist nipped in above hips that were admirably slim.

To her embarrassment, Hank caught her at it. “Looking good,” was all he said, and even though she felt herself beginning to blush, he pulled her to him and said, “I like your new look.”

Then, before she could say anything, he dropped his towel, turned on the shower and pulled her under the cascade of spray with him. He took her in his arms. “Slippery when wet,” he murmured into her damp hair. “And oh, so kissable.”

She surrendered to his kisses, her skin slick against his, the warm water sluicing down in streams. She thought her heart would overflow with the pleasure of touching him, of skin against skin. Like all the rest of him, his body was perfect and fit hers like no other man’s ever had; he made her feel desirable, sexy, womanly. When she was swooning from the steam and the warmth and the steady onslaught of kisses, he reached for the soap and, moving slowly and deliberately, began to lather her arms and her legs and her breasts and her buttocks. She wanted to giggle when he tickled a spot above her navel, and she pressed against his hand when he found the sensitive place at the juncture of her thighs.

“Now you,” she said, barely able to speak, and he stood still while she ran the soap across his shoulders, over the muscles in his back, across his wide chest and down his abdomen. She hesitated before going lower.

“Go on,” he said, his voice husky with emotion, and she moved her hands lower, clasped them around his hardness.

He caged her against the wall, one hand on each side of her. “I can’t resist you,” he said, his voice low. “There’s something about you that turns me on, Erica. Something…” His voice trailed off as she pressed against him, and then he braced himself against the wall and took her there with the water running down, the soap slicking their bodies as they moved against each other, the steam enveloping them in their own private world.

Erica stopped thinking, began living in the moment, this moment. For it was a moment like no other, and this cowboy was real, not a daydream. She wanted to imprint everything about this experience on her mind, her heart and her soul. Because when it was all over, and it would be over, she wanted to remember. She would hold this memory, the memory of Hank, close to her heart. And instead of a daydream, she would have the memory to comfort and keep her long after she returned to her real life.

FOR HANK, it was a busy day. He led a trail ride and gave his scheduled riding lessons. He briefed Paloma on Kaylie’s teething and listened to her complain that if Kaylie was no longer going to take a morning nap, Paloma deserved a raise. He was in such a good mood that he agreed to the raise and suggested that he might call Paloma to baby-sit more often in the evening, to which she eagerly agreed.

“It is easy, taking care of Kaylie at night. I am saving so much money, you wouldn’t believe. My wedding, it will be sooner than I think, maybe.”

For the first time in a long time, Hank discovered that he didn’t feel envious of Paloma’s happiness.

He returned a call from Justine, who was disgruntled because Lizette had shown up on her doorstep and wanted to talk about his mental state, which according to Lizette, would improve with therapy.

“The only therapy I need at present is for Lizette to return to New York,” Hank informed her through clenched teeth.

“Lizette is a registered guest,” Justine shot back.

“Whose fault is that?”

“Well, even if you’ve broken up with her, I hope you’ll be pleasant,” Justine said.

Hank was on the brink of telling his sister that he had found someone to be pleasant to, except that he didn’t know how Justine would take it if she knew he was sexually involved with Erica, so he hung up.

“Sexually involved” didn’t exactly describe the way it was between him and Erica. There was more to it than sex. He couldn’t stop thinking about the way she’d held Kaylie last night, her sweet voice as she sang, the sweep of her eyelashes as she gazed down at the drowsy child. And Kaylie liked her. This meant a lot to him. He couldn’t, for instance, imagine Kaylie falling asleep in Lizette’s arms.

He wanted to see Erica again that evening but hesitated to call her because he had so little to offer. Another night of burgers and beer? Another night of possible interruptions?

Another night of sweet, passionate love. Another night of tenderness and falling asleep with Erica in his arms.

He picked up the phone and dialed her suite.

ERICA TOOK PART in Rancho Encantado’s usual activities, which included brunch with Shannon and Natalie in the dining hall, a meditation gathering in the palm grove and an afternoon class on choosing wardrobe colors. When she checked her phone messages, she was elated to find a voice mail from Hank suggesting that they rendezvous at the oasis hot pool after dinner. She called him and left a message that she’d be there.

She also had an e-mail from Charmaine.

Erica—

????????????

Love, Char

Erica only smiled. She didn’t reply. She wanted to think over what she was going to say very carefully.

Justine called as soon as Erica logged off her e-mail. She sounded worried. “Erica, how about coming early for dinner? You remember Tony, the van driver who picked you up at the airport when you arrived? He had an ‘episode,’ and they’re keeping him in the hospital overnight for observation. I might want to drive over there tonight and visit him. He’s seventy-six years old, and I’m concerned.”

“I don’t blame you. And of course you should go to see him.”

“Do you mind if I invite Hank and Kaylie for dinner, too?”

Would she mind? Hardly!

“That would be fun.”

“Good. See you soon.”

Erica hung up, wondering what Justine would say if she knew about her and Hank. Should she tell her? Considering the conversation she’d overheard in the stable the first day she was here, perhaps not. Although Justine’s attitude seemed to be that Hank should socialize, Erica wasn’t sure she meant he should sleep with the guests.

Only, she didn’t think Hank made a habit of it. She’d seen no signs of other women around his apartment—no extra toothbrushes, no shower caps, no feminine articles of any kind.

Still, what Justine didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. She only hoped that Charmaine wouldn’t decide to call her old friend and spill what she knew, thereby creating problems.

WHEN ERICA ARRIVED at the Big House that evening, Hank and Kaylie weren’t there yet, and Justine was beside herself with worry.

“I talked with Tony on the phone,” she said. “It wasn’t reassuring.”

“What did he say?” Erica asked as she bent to greet Murphy, who was wagging himself into a joyous dither over her arrival.

“Not much.”

Erica, recalling the little man’s gift of gab, raised her eyebrows. “I think you’d better go see him.”

“I’ve come to the same conclusion myself. I feel a certain responsibility to Tony. He’s been like a fond uncle to me.” Justine glanced out the window. “Oh, here’s Hank with Kaylie.”

Hank came in, all smiles. Erica felt suddenly shy around him, but Kaylie reached for her and she willingly gathered the baby into her arms. She began to jounce her semiexpertly, taking heart that Kaylie seemed to like it.

Hank’s smile faded when he saw Justine’s face. “What’s the matter? Is Pavel the cantankerous chef acting up again?”

Justine shook her head. “No, it’s worse than that. Erica, why don’t you fill Hank in on the situation with Tony while I see to the roast? Help yourself to the cheese and crackers on the coffee table.”

After Justine had departed for the kitchen, Hank leaned close to Erica and planted a kiss on her cheek. “What’s the problem with Tony?” he asked. “And don’t act so scandalized. Surely you don’t mind if I steal one little kiss when I’m going to be ravishing you in the oasis hot pool in—” he consulted his watch “—approximately two hours.”

“Hank!” she hissed, taking Kaylie into the living room and easing down in front of the crackling fire in the fireplace with her in her lap. Murphy pattered in and sat down beside Hank to be scratched behind the ears, a service that Hank performed before slipping him a cracker with cheese on it.

“Well?” he said to Erica. “Are you going to tell me about Tony?”

With the glow of the firelight playing across her features, Erica brought Hank up to speed on the situation, and his forehead knotted with concern. “Justine,” he called into the kitchen, “I’ll be glad to go with you if you don’t want to drive all that way alone.”

Justine appeared with two glasses of wine. “You need to be back bright and early for your group class in the morning,” she said.

“I’d feel better if you’d let me tag along. If you got tired, I could drive.”

“No, Hank. In fact, I’m planning to take a small overnight bag in case I have to stay. Thanks, anyway.” Justine shot him a brief smile before she hurried back into the kitchen.

Hank glanced toward the door to the kitchen. Justine wasn’t in sight, but they could hear her clattering around with pots and pans at the stove. “Justine never wants to be a bother to anyone, always wants to be in control.”

“She’s very capable.”

“I know. I wish she’d let other people take some responsibility, that’s all.” He stopped talking when Justine began to carry food into the dining room. “I’ll go help her. Not a word to her about us, at least not yet. Okay?”

“Okay.” She smiled at him, a co-conspirator.

Hank and Justine were still transferring food from kitchen to table when Erica realized that Kaylie was sitting soggy in her diaper.

“Uh-oh,” she said. “Someone needs a diaper change.”

“I’ll do it,” Hank said immediately. “As soon as I carve the roast.”

“Let me,” Erica said. “Tell me where.”

“In the guest room with the crib. You’ll find disposable diapers and everything else you’ll need.”

“Come along, Kaylie,” Erica said. “We’ll have you dry in no time.”

“Babababa,” Kaylie said agreeably.

Erica tried to recall if she’d ever changed a diaper before and realized she hadn’t. She’d never baby-sat as a teenager, nor had she taken care of her friends’ children.

She laid Kaylie back on the changing table and un-snapped the crotch of her playsuit. The wet diaper came off easily enough. Erica wasn’t sure if you had to dry the baby’s bottom with a towel or merely sprinkle powder on it. She finally blotted it with a spare cloth diaper that was draped over the edge of the table, and then she sprinkled on baby powder for good measure. Kaylie, while this was going on, was minutely inspecting a see-through rattle with small plastic shapes floating inside it.

“Am I going about this the right way?” Erica whispered to her. Kaylie only grinned. If she knew, she wasn’t telling.

Next Erica unfolded a clean disposable diaper from the box, slid it under the baby and figured out how the tabs worked. In a matter of minutes she was snapping Kaylie’s playsuit up again and picking her up.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it? If you can forgive me for fumbling around a lot.” As Erica kissed the top of her head, Kaylie made a fist and gave her what she could have sworn was a cheerful thumbs-up.

Justine had set up a high chair for Kaylie in the dining room, and the baby contentedly played with her activity box while the adults ate. Dinner was hurried, though the substantial food was as delicious as usual.

“I’m sorry,” Justine apologized. “I’m going to have to run if I’m going to see Tony tonight.”

“I’ll clean up the kitchen,” Erica promised.

Hank slid his chair back. “I’ll help. That is, Justine, if you’re sure you don’t want me to come along.”

“I’m sure.” Justine hurried to the back of her house and returned carrying her overnight bag. “Oh, Hank, there’s something you could do for me—look after Murphy. He’ll need to go out tonight and then tomorrow morning.”

“No problem.”

“And don’t forget the banana-split cake in the refrigerator.”

After Justine left, Erica got up and started to clear the table. Hank walked Kaylie to the kitchen window to watch the taillights of Justine’s SUV disappearing down the winding driveway.

“You seem worried,” Erica said.

“I wish Justine wouldn’t drive all the way to the Las Vegas hospital alone. If she didn’t want me to go, she could have asked a friend to go along. Justine never listens to anyone. You’d think after what happened to Anne-Marie, she’d be more careful.”

“Wasn’t there a bad storm that night? Isn’t that what caused the accident?”

Hank took his time about answering.

“There was a bad storm that night,” he said, “but I’m not convinced that’s why Anne-Marie hit that boulder.”

Something about the way he said it caused Erica to stop rinsing dishes and turn off the water. “What do you mean?” The words hung in the air, and for the first time she noticed the tension in the fine lines around his eyes.

“I’ve never talked about Anne-Marie’s accident,” he said. “I’ve never wanted to speak of it before this.”

She dried her hands on a towel. “We can sit down and talk for a while if you’d like.”

“I’ll put Kaylie to bed first.”

When Hank came back, Erica had already dished up plates of the banana-split cake and was sitting on one of the stools at the island in the middle of the kitchen. Hank sat down beside her.

“The night Anne-Marie died, I was on the phone with her. We had a big argument. It was about Kaylie.”

“You were already divorced, right?”

“Yes, and Kaylie was only a few months old. Anne-Marie worked for Justine teaching physical fitness here at the ranch. She and Justine always got along fine, and Justine refused to take sides in the divorce. Justine kept Anne-Marie on the payroll even during the advanced stages of her pregnancy, which was a big help.”

“Wasn’t it hard for you to see Anne-Marie every day around the ranch? When you were going through a divorce and she was going to have the baby?”

Hank looked momentarily disconcerted. “I didn’t work here then,” he said. “I didn’t come to work at Rancho Encantado until after the accident.”

Erica tried to hide her surprise. “I didn’t know that.”

For a moment Hank looked as if he might want to say something else, but he plunged ahead. “Anyway, that night, the night Anne-Marie died, I got very angry. She told me that she didn’t want me to be part of our daughter’s life. She said that she didn’t need my help financially or any other way. I didn’t like it that she was so independent. I wanted to know my daughter, and I didn’t want her growing up thinking that her father had abandoned her.”

“Of course not,” Erica said. She knew that daughters who felt abandoned by their fathers seemed to have a hard time in relationships with men later in life. Not that this was her problem; her own father had always been there for her right up until the day he died at forty-five, victim of a stroke.

“I’d been reading up on the subject, and that’s one of the arguments I used with Anne-Marie. She became very distressed, said Kaylie didn’t need a father figure, said all the psychologists didn’t know what they were talking about. She grew up without a father, and she turned out fine, she said. I disputed that. I said we might not be divorced if she’d known how to relate to me in a more rational way when we were married.”

“She probably didn’t like that much.”

Hank’s forefinger traced one of the tiles in the countertop. “It was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. Anne-Marie went berserk. She said that I could keep my opinions to myself. She said that she would get a restraining order to keep me from seeing Kaylie. She was angrier than I’d ever known her to be, and then she slammed down the phone. It was only minutes later that she stormed out and got in her car to go somewhere. I’m sure that Anne-Marie’s mental state contributed to the accident. I’ll always believe it was my fault.”

“What a terrible load of guilt to carry around,” Erica said softly. She reached over and slid her fingers through his. “Maybe it wasn’t your fault. Did you know that Justine blames herself, too?”

He appeared thunderstruck. “No, I didn’t.”

“She says she could have kept Anne-Marie from going that night if she hadn’t agreed to baby-sit.”

“I’m not so sure. My ex-wife’s state of mind was such that if Justine hadn’t taken care of Kaylie, Anne-Marie might have bundled up the baby and hauled her along with her. Anne-Marie was like that. She’d jump in a car and rush off whenever we had an argument. If Kaylie had been with her…my God. I could have lost my daughter.” His face was pale, his eyes haunted.

“You and Justine should talk, Hank. You could comfort each other.”

He looked at her, looked away. His hand gripped hers tightly. “I never knew Justine blamed herself. And I need to thank her, Erica. I need to thank my sister for the fact that I still have Kaylie.”

Padre Luis Speaks…

MY PRAYERS are being answered, thanks be to God.

Erica is made real by her caring for the child and by her love for Hank. Perhaps it will take time for her to realize this is love.

And Hank has grown in wisdom and understanding through sharing his deepest feelings with Erica. She made him see how much he owes his sister. Without Erica, he never would have learned.

Do they see that love is a great teacher? That love smoothes the path of life, whether it be through desert or oasis, cactus or rose petals? Ah, perhaps I should have been a great poet, instead of a poor humble priest.

Now Erica and Hank must find their path together, which will not be easy. And they are still not completely real to each other. This is because neither has revealed the whole truth about themselves.

Perhaps they will. Soon, I hope. I grow weary of their problems and wish to concern myself with others. Those three kittens, for instance. They need a home. Their mother, running around and talking to people in my voice, scarcely pays any attention to them these days.

Dios mio, I must lie down and nap in my bed among the cactus. Perhaps those kittens will come by for a visit. That would be pleasant for a poor humble priest who needs a diversion from the troubles of the world.