While Luke stared open-mouthed at his brother, Katie said, “I’m sure there must be ways to protect yourself. Maybe Luke can help.” With that less-than-subtle hint, she turned around and sashayed back inside. Luke watched the sway of her hips for a minute, then turned back to his brother.
“Do you really want to write country songs?”
Tommy avoided his gaze. “Like I said, there’s not much chance of selling anything. It’s more like a hobby, I guess.”
“But you enjoy it?” Luke persisted.
“Yeah,” he admitted, shifting uncomfortably. “It helps to get stuff out of your system. Sometimes I just have to get what I’m feeling down on paper.”
Luke regarded him with exasperation. “If writing music is what you want to do, why on earth are you talking about going to Alaska?”
“Because Alaska’s more practical. Isn’t that the sort of thing you were always preaching to me?”
“Practicality definitely has its place,” Luke agreed. He turned his gaze on the screen door through which Katie had just disappeared. “Sometimes, though, you just have to follow your heart.”
Tommy followed the direction of his gaze. “Is that what brought you back to Clover?” Tommy asked with a surprising perceptiveness. “Were you following your heart?”
Maybe because there were protective shadows now that dusk had fallen, maybe because he was feeling more mellow than he had in some time, maybe just because he wanted someone to whom he could admit the truth, Luke said honestly, “I’m beginning to think that is exactly why I came back.”
Tommy chuckled. The low sound conveyed more than amusement. To Luke there also seemed to be a note of genuine affection behind it, a hint of understanding.
“What’s so funny?” he asked his brother.
“It’s just that it’s about time you wised up. Everybody always thought you were the smart one, but it always seemed to me that when it came to your feelings for Katie, you were dumber than grass.”
Luke laughed. “Now that’s a hook for a country song, if ever I heard one.”
* * *
Something had changed. Katie knew it the minute she walked back outside with the rest of their dinner and heard her husband and Tommy singing enthusiastically. Luke was wildly off-key, but Tommy had a deep, rich voice that was surprisingly sensual and definitely deserved a try at Nashville.
Of course, they were singing some improbable lyric she’d never heard before. It sounded something like, “When it comes to love, I’ve always been dumber than grass.”
“No, no,” Tommy protested. “There’s no rhyme. It should be, When it comes to love, alas, I’ve always been dumber than grass.”
“Maybe Nashville is beyond your reach, after all,” Katie said to Tommy as she joined them.
“I don’t know. I was thinking maybe we’d make a good duo,” Luke said.
Katie lifted her eyebrows. “I’d think again, if I were you.”
Luke slipped an arm around her waist. “If I stay here, will you make it worth my while?”
Luke’s touch and the teasing banter shimmered through Katie, reminding her of the intimacy they’d shared just before Tommy’s arrival. “What would you consider worth your while?” she inquired, daring to look into eyes that had promptly darkened with desire.
Luke glanced toward an upstairs window. It was probably Mrs. Jeffers’ room, but she got the idea.
“Play your cards right and we’ll see,” she said, then turned to Tommy. “Are those hamburgers done yet? I’m starving.”
“Me, too,” Luke said, but he wasn’t looking toward the grill when he said it. His gaze was pinned directly on her.
The banter and easy camaraderie lasted through dinner. Luke seemed to have let down his guard with his brother, and Tommy’s belligerence disappeared. As soon as the dishes had been cleared, all three of them by some unspoken agreement went back outside into the soft night air, where the only thing breaking the silence was the sound of crickets chirping. Lightning bugs flickered against the velvet darkness.
As if he sensed—or hoped, at least—that she wouldn’t refuse, Luke took Katie’s hand and led her to the hammock that was strung between two sturdy oak trees. He climbed in, then tugged her in alongside him. She went into his arms without resisting and settled her head on his shoulder.
Tommy cleared his throat and remained standing. “Maybe I should be taking off.”
Katie started to protest, but Luke sent his brother a grateful look.
“Stop by the office in the morning,” Luke said. “We’ll talk some more.”
“I told you before...” Tommy began, a belligerent note creeping back into his voice.
Katie jumped in. “There’s no harm in talking, is there, Tommy?”
“Damn, but you’re pushy, Katie,” he accused, but there was a lightness in his voice that hadn’t been there before tonight. “Seems to me you and my brother are about evenly matched.”
“Does that mean you’ll show up?” she asked.
“I’ll show up,” he said. Suddenly he grinned at the two of them sprawled practically on top of each other in the hammock. “You two have a good evening.”
“You, too,” Luke said quietly.
Only after Tommy had gone did he add, “I wonder where the hell he’s staying.”
“He didn’t tell you?”
“Not a word. I don’t think he’s got a dime to his name, either.” He sighed heavily, and his arms around Katie tightened. “I think you may have been right. I think he’s been down on his luck for a long time now and wanted to come home. Robby gave him the excuse he needed.”
Though she was increasingly aware of Luke’s body pressed intimately against her own, Katie tried to keep her attention focused on loftier things. If she wouldn’t let Luke into her bedroom, she’d be damned if she was going to make love with him in a hammock. That would certainly violate the spirit, if not the letter of their contract.
“Are you planning to offer him work?” she asked, trying to ignore the sweep of Luke’s hand from hip to thigh and back again.
“I did. And he told me to take my job and, well you
