Line of Fire. Julie Leto
that cat and her seven kittens, and then at the brown-haired children whose blue eyes, so like their mother’s, were wide with wonder. A lump came and went in her throat, but she managed a small nod and a genuine smile.
“Seven kitties,” Olivia declared. “Plus the mama. We’re gonna need a lot of names.”
Since Meredith knew that a named cat was a claimed cat, she had to think fast. “Those kittens need to take a nap right now. If you two want to think of names, why don’t you help me decide what to call the store?”
“You want us to name a building?” Logan asked in that preadolescent, know-it-all attitude universal to males.
Meredith swiped a finger along his nose and said, “Not the building, silly. It’s going to be my business, a way of life, an entity with its own unique personality.”
The kids looked up at her blankly for a full five seconds before turning their gazes on each other. “I think we should name the white-and-yellow one Fluffy,” Olivia said.
“And the one with the two white paws is…”
“Paws?” Olivia asked.
“No, silly. Boots.”
Meredith knew when she’d been beaten. Retracing her footsteps to the front of the store, she began arranging throw pillows and lamps and candles on shelves lining one wall. The kids spent the next hour pondering names for kittens Meredith couldn’t possibly keep. Logan made a bed for them in an old drawer he found in the back alley, and he and Olivia coaxed the mother to let him help her move the kittens to what they considered a better lodging place. As far as Meredith was concerned, those two voices were more musical than the resonant purl of the wind chimes swaying overhead in the gentle breeze.
By the time Jayne was due back to pick up the children an hour later, all the kittens had been duly petted and examined for any unusual, interesting or identifying markings, three of them had names, and Logan and Olivia were arguing over a fourth. Mercy, those kids could argue over nothing.
“You can’t name the mother cat Haley!” Logan exclaimed.
“I can name her Haley if I want to!” Olivia declared with equal exuberance.
“Can not.”
“Can so.”
“You can’t either name her Haley. That’s a real person’s name. Tell her Aunt Meredith.”
Before Meredith could open her mouth, Olivia said, “We named the barn cats Carolyn, Sherilyn and Tom, and those are real people names. You just don’t wanna name this one Haley on accounta you kissed Haley Carson and she gave you a black eye.”
All at once, the store was absolutely quiet. Logan was the quietest of all. Wanting to help but not sure how, Meredith said, “Olivia, you don’t know that’s the reason Logan doesn’t want to name this cat Haley. I don’t really think she looks like a Haley, do you? Besides, kissing is private.”
“Kissing’s icky,” Olivia said. “Do you think kissing’s icky, Aunt Meredith?”
Two pairs of trusting blue eyes turned to her. Kissing? “Well, er, um. That is…”
The bell over the front door jangled, signaling Jayne’s return. Meredith was saved from having to try to come up with an answer that wasn’t mostly a sigh. Icky? Oh, that depended upon who a woman kissed. And the last man, the only man she’d kissed in a long, long time, hadn’t been icky at all.
Jayne dashed in long enough to pay due respect to the mother cat and her kittens, recount the high points of the meeting she’d attended, and say, “I’ll see you at the town council meeting tonight!” before bustling the kids away.
Ugh, Meredith thought when she was alone again in the store. Tonight, at the town council meeting, she would have to stand in front of the women of the Ladies Aid Society and several of the bachelors in town. She prayed she passed everyone’s scrutiny so that she might be accepted in this small town.
That was what she wanted. To be accepted, to be near Logan and Olivia, and for her store to be a success. In order for her store to be a success, she couldn’t afford to make any enemies or hurt any feelings, which meant she had to let the overeager bachelors down gently, which wasn’t easy to do when she received requests for dates every day. She could hardly blame them. There simply weren’t enough women to go around out here. An old copy of the advertisement the local boys had put in the local papers to lure women to Jasper Gulch still hung in the post office and in the diner. Not a lot had changed since then. As far as Meredith could tell, in the three years since the ad had appeared, there wasn’t a single man in town who wasn’t still shy but willing. She paused for a moment.
That wasn’t true. There was one. Oh, Skyler Buchanan had been more than willing a month ago, and she doubted he’d ever been shy.
Giving herself a mental shake, Meredith got back to work. It was amazing how many times her thoughts strayed to Sky, and a kiss, that had led to a touch, that had led to a frenzy of hands reaching, and buttons popping and clothes being peeled away like layers until so much more than two bodies were bared. For those few brief hours, Meredith had believed she’d been able to see into Sky’s soul, and he into hers. Of course, when it was all over, they’d both known it had been a mistake. Skyler Buchanan was a free spirit, and Meredith Warner had an old soul. They’d both been lonely, that was all. Loneliness could be a powerful motivation, but not a basis for anything deep and abiding. Sky had been the first to put it into words, saying it would be best to end it then and there.
She’d nodded, mumbling her agreement, her clothes clutched in her arms, covering her nakedness as she’d assured him that there was nothing to end. In order for something to have an ending, it had to have a beginning. And all she and Sky had had were a few brief hours in each other’s arms, a few brief hours during which two people had taken a respite from their real lives and had lived a fantasy.
She hadn’t seen Sky since that night. Until today. She’d thought about him a thousand times. Which was just about how often she’d told herself to forget him, because surely, he hadn’t given her another thought.
She’d been sure of that, until earlier, when their gazes had locked from a distance. Something powerful had passed between them. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she found herself wondering if perhaps he was having a difficult time forgetting her, too.
She straightened fast, and got light-headed and woozy again. She eyed the sofas waiting for someone to buy them, wishing she could curl up on one of them, and close her eyes if only for a few minutes. Shaking her head slightly to clear it, she reminded herself that she didn’t have time for the luxury of a nap. She had a business to launch, and a life to turn around. Placing a hand to the flat of her stomach, she hoped she wasn’t coming down with the flu.
Chapter Two
“Hey, Sky.” Neil Anderson slipped into one of the last vacant chairs in the room. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you at one of these meetings.”
What could Sky say? He didn’t attend town meetings often. Folks assumed he didn’t like schedules or agendas, especially other people’s. Nobody had ever thought to ask if he had some other reason. Tonight, he was here because his boss, Jake McKenna, who also happened to be his best friend as well as an exasperating man, had roped Sky into attending in his place.
Neil said, “You must have heard that Jayne Stryker’s gonna introduce the new gal at the meeting, too, eh?”
Sky’s eyebrows rose. Meredith was going to be here tonight? It certainly explained why the back room of Mel’s Diner was busting at the seams, and a good share of Jasper Gulch’s single men and a few married ones, as well, were balancing their cowboy hats on one knee.
Jake was going to owe him, big time.
Sky settled his shoulders more comfortably along the back of the old folding chair, and left his Stetson on his head where it