Her pulse spiked, her breathing sped up, and there was that sweet, appetizing little pink tongue, once again slipping out between her delectable lips.
“That sounds… reasonable.”
Trace chuckled, and something about that sound made Rachel look at him. He picked up her other hand and kissed it. “Oh, sweetheart. We promise you, there is going to be nothing at all reasonable about the kisses you’re going to get from us.”
Rachel shook her head. Her blush deepened, but her smile dawned, and Brandon thought they were off to a damned good start.
* * * *
Monday was the second of Rachel’s two days off, since Lusty Appetites was closed that day. The kids were in school, and the day promised to be a hot one. Mondays were Rachel’s day to run errands. It was also her day to touch base with the people she now thought of not only as her friends but as her support system, too.
As she set off to visit the Dorchesters, she did her damnedest to keep her mind off those two men who wanted to push their way into her life. She liked her life. It was just fine the way it was.
The fact that their kisses yesterday had melted her bones and dampened her panties shouldn’t have anything to do with anything.
It wasn’t the kisses that really got to you. It was those hugs. It was the sensation of being held fast in their arms that set you on your pins.
Rachel sighed. Since yesterday morning her damned inner imp hadn’t shut up. Her thoughts returned to those hugs. First Brandon and then Trace had given her hugs that said, “You’re not alone anymore. I’ve got you.”
Sexual attraction was sexual attraction and could have a place in her life. She was an unattached single woman. She didn’t, however, know what to do about the emotional connection she felt with those two men.
Set it away for now.
That was the first sensible thing her inner imp had said since it woke up again.
She parked in the Dorchesters’ driveway. Tasha opened the door. The coffee was ready, and Rachel settled down at their kitchen table.
Libby didn’t need to know that Rachel had discussed the movie choice with Bonnie’s parents in detail before the event. She didn’t need to know there’d be a post-mortem, either.
“It was just one of those times as a parent,” Tasha said. She looked at both of her husbands, who nodded, and then she faced Rachel again. “We’d seen the movie on our last date night, and we’d known that Bonnie had really wanted to see it, too.”
“Tough calls sure go with the territory, don’t they?” Rachel gave the Dorchesters a soft smile. This wasn’t the first time she’d come by for coffee. She liked these people enormously, and from the way they reacted to her, and their willingness to lend a hand when she needed one, she guessed the affection was mutual.
I really lucked out coming to this town. One of the things—one of the only things—that she’d wanted in life for herself and never gotten was having a partner to parent her daughter.
As she’d told Brandon and Trace yesterday, she never would have chosen to be a single mom.
Right from the start of their marriage, Buck had shown his true colors. He’d shown her an image of a man who’d be kind, considerate, and involved while she dated him. And the morning of their wedding, that was the last she’d seen of that guy.
Even though he’d become someone she hadn’t really known in the early years of their marriage, Rachel came to believe, about the time that Libby turned two, that Buck might have mellowed, might have shown a different attitude if Rachel had given birth to a boy.
Buck had spoken of her baby bump as being his son from the moment she’d told him she was pregnant. Marriage had changed him into a man so opposite of how he’d portrayed himself while they dated. If she’d met him as it turned out he truly was, she never would have gone out with him in the first place, let alone agreed to marry him.
Rachel booted him out of her thoughts. Libby was her heart, and she wouldn’t change having her as her daughter. Not for anything. So that means you have to stop regretting you married Buck Cosgrove. Crap. Imp was right again.
“I might have felt differently about that movie under different circumstances,” Clay said. “But the truth is that all three of our kids had to grow up fast when their mother died. We want to protect them, of course.”
“But sometimes, you can end up overprotecting,” Gord said. “Bonnie’s got a good head on her shoulders. She’s already had to deal with a lot, emotionally. There’ve been a few bumps in the road, but from what I’ve seen and experienced, that’s just life.”
“The best thing we can do,” Tasha said, “is to let her experience life with few blinders. That way, we can be there for her, to help her when she needs that help.”
Rachel noticed something for the first time, and she had to wonder at her timing for noticing it only now. Clay came to Lusty a widowed single father of three. Then he’d met Tasha, and he and his best friend, a lifelong resident of this small town, married her. But unlike a couple of blended families she’d known about before coming to Lusty, Shaun, Mark, and Bonnie Dorchester were not just Clay’s kids, and Tasha and Gord weren’t just “parenting assistants.” Those kids belonged to all three of these thoughtful, loving parents. They had formed a solid unit, and that, she knew, was how a blended family should work.
Rachel shared the Dorchesters’ philosophy. Their daughters did have that in common—having been a bit battered by life. “That’s pretty much my thinking, too,” Rachel said. “I can’t go back and treat Libby like a fourteen-year-old girl who hasn’t been matured by life. Having battled cancer and won, she’s pretty much
