Chapter 10

Mel stayed in town until the dogs pawed at her as the sun was going down. Dinnertime. She gathered them up and thanked Donna and Cindy for everything, saying she’d fill them in on their Iowa plans when she had more information. Once inside the inn, the two dogs ran straight for the kitchen, and she followed and found Xena waiting by the pantry door.

“Well now, where have you been all day?” she asked as she scratched the dog between the ears. “Danny back, too?”

Xena barked in reply, and Mel poured out their food. Once their bowls were empty, she released them into the backyard and kicked off her boots. She peered up the stairs. Danny’s door was open but the light was off, so she wandered slowly through the inn in search of him. The sound of pages turning drew her to the small library, and she leaned quietly in the doorway, hiding a smirk behind her hand when she spotted Danny on the couch, his feet propped up on the ottoman as he read. The glasses perched on his nose were sexy as hell, and Mel couldn’t bring herself to disturb him.

He turned another page, and his brow knitted together sternly. Her body tingled to be near him, but she wanted to see what Danny was like without her in the room. His thumb brushed over his bottom lip, and he crossed his ankles in the opposite direction. Mel could have stood there and watched him for hours. She shifted her feet, and the floor creaked. Danny glanced up and smiled, setting the book aside as he pulled off his glasses.

“How long have you been standing there?” he asked and held out his hand.

“Long enough to know you are quite the sexy devil with those glasses,” she remarked as she went to him and fell onto the couch beside him. His arm draped over her shoulders, and he kissed the top of her head. “I’ve made my decision.”

“I hope it’s a good one.”

“It is,” she said and rested her hand on his muscled thigh. “I’m going with you to Iowa.”

“My parents will be thrilled,” he promised. “You won’t regret this.”

She bobbed her head slowly, tracing patterns on his jeans. “And what happens after Christmas?”

“What do you mean?” He slid back so he could see her face.

“What happens when your vacation is over and you have to go back to the city? What happens to whatever this is?” she said and waved her hand between them.

He lifted her chin, and she bit her tongue so her fear wasn’t plain on her face. From the darkening worry in his eyes, it was too late for that. “We’ll make it work, but if I have to go to the city, I’ll come back. I swear it to you.”

“It’ll be a pain in the ass,” she warned.

“Then it’ll be a pain in the ass, but you are worth it. What we have between us is worth it,” he assured her. “I won’t let distance come between us.”

“What did I do to deserve you?”

His face fell and he shook his head. “It's the other way around, love. I don’t deserve you.” He held her hands in his and chewed the inside of his cheek. “Listen, there’s something I need to tell you before we go.”

“Your mom’s crazy?” she asked with a grin.

“Well, yeah, but I think that’s normal for moms,” he said. “No, this is more important.” He swallowed hard, and Mel waited for whatever had his tongue all twisted, but then he shrugged. “Never mind. It can wait until after the holiday.”

She eyed him curiously but didn’t push the issue. “If you’re sure.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure,” he said. “All I want to do right now is kiss you until you melt in my arms.”

When Danny kissed her, his touch turned frantic with need, and Mel answered in kind. Going all day without his touch was too much, and she needed him in all the ways he was willing to give himself to her. She tugged at his t-shirt until he leaned forward and managed to pull it up over his head. Her sweater was next, but before they got any further, he picked her up and carried her towards the stairs.

“I can walk, you know,” she mumbled against his lips.

“Shut up and let me spoil you,” he grumbled in reply.

Mel obliged him with a crooked grin, and her throaty laughter echoed over the balcony before Danny reached his room and kicked the door closed behind them.

***

The rest of the week went by in a blur of tangled limbs, heated kisses, and late night conversations where Danny had almost told Mel the truth each time, but at the last second, fear reared its head and he clammed up. She told him he’d saved her, but in truth, Mel brought him back to the man he’d strove to be when he left home. If he lost her, the hard man he was in the city might destroy what kindhearted bit was left.

Mel hating him wasn’t his only worry, either. Before they caught their flight out of New York to Iowa, Danny checked in with his board and investors. None of them had heard from Todd yet, and Danny held a last-minute phone conference to explain his current predicament. The discussion turned heated and several threatened to back out, but Danny told them all he had been wrong. Wrong to run his business the way he had and treat these men, whom he should trust, as nothing more than moneybags to be used. He promised them that in the coming year, he wanted to do business differently, and the first step in the right direction was not trying to buy this land from a woman who deserved to have it. One or two were displeased with the outcome, but the rest were willing to trust the man they had done business with for five years.

Danny warned them of what Todd would say, but they assured him Todd would not sway their minds. They expected him back in the office after the holidays so they could discuss finding a new property and so Danny could dole out more power to those on the board. He’d clung to it like a shield, but with Mel in his life, the time had come for him to let go of his defenses and trust in himself and his instincts.

“I still can’t believe we flew first class,” Mel muttered again.

Danny grinned and took her hand, kissing the back of it. “Why? You didn’t like it?”

“It’s so expensive.” She grimaced. “Are you rich or something and not telling me?”

He laughed. “Nah, I had a ton of miles saved up and had to use them sometime. Besides,” he said and glanced back in the rear of SUV with all three dogs, “I think your furry children enjoyed their seats.”

Mel wasn’t going to leave her dogs behind and Danny hadn’t wanted her to either, so he’d bought five first class tickets. The dogs were so well-trained, the flight attendants couldn’t stop complimenting Mel on all three of them behaving better than most children. The seats had been expensive, but to have them all together for Christmas was worth it. Mel pursed her lips, but if she wanted to know more about how much money he actually had, she didn’t ask. He gripped the steering wheel tighter with his left hand and turned off the main highway. A few minutes later, they left the paved road and the SUV bumped along the gravel drive out to the farm.

“There she is.” They pulled off into a large gravel space in front of a white farmhouse. The red barn had a fresh coat of paint on it, as did the tool shed to the right of that. Fields stretched far out on all sides. In the spring, they’d be planted with corn and soybeans, but for now, they had a clear sight to the tree line that marked the edge of his parents’ property.

“You grew up here?” she asked in awe. “Why did you ever give it up?”

“I wanted to try my hand at something other than farming,” he confided to her as he parked the SUV.

“It sounds like you might have regretted the decision,” she said and squeezed his hand tighter.

“Some days, I think I do,” he said. “But it led me to you so I can’t complain too much.” He leaned over and kissed her, wishing they could go straight upstairs to his room and lock the rest of the world out, but the front door to the house opened and Delcie rushed out. “Ready to meet the folks?”

“Guess so,” Mel said and stepped out. She opened the back door and released the three dogs.

“Hey, Ma,” Danny said as his mom rushed up to him and he lifted her up in a bear hug. “Miss me?”

“Seven years,” she scolded and whopped him on the arm when he set her down. “You’re not allowed to be gone that long again, understand me?” She hit him again for good measure, and Danny grimaced. “Where’s your friend?”

“Right here,” Mel said and stepped around the vehicle. “Hi, I’m Mel—oh!” she gasped when Delcie ignored her outstretched hand and embraced her tightly.

“We hug in this family,” Delcie said brightly and held her shoulders. “You are a beauty.”

Mel blushed. “Thanks. You must be Mrs. Stone.”

“Call me Delcie, and this is David, my husband.” She pointed to the gray-bearded man sauntering over wearing an old, worn John Deere baseball cap. He held out his hand and Mel shook it.

“Nice to meet you both, and thanks for inviting me,” she said.

“We don’t like to hear about people spending Christmas alone,” she said. “Who are those lovely beasts you have with you?”

Mel offered to introduce her to the dogs, and the women walked over to the grass where the wolfhounds played. Danny grinned, his spirits lifted watching Delcie and Mel get on so easily. David rested his hand on his son’s shoulder.

“She’s a keeper,” he muttered.

“I think you might be right,” Danny agreed, but his smile fell. “Mom told you, right? About the issue?”

“Yes, she did, and son, I love you, but you’re a damned idiot,” David scolded. “If she finds out before you have a chance to tell her, she’s likely to set those dogs loose on you.”

“I know, I know,” he sighed. “I’m working on the timing.”

“No working on it. Just do it the second you get back home. You do it now, she’ll feel stranded out here all alone,” he warned. “I’ll help you with the bags. Your mom set up your old room.”

“Good.” Danny hefted the suitcase out of the back of the SUV. He’d done some shopping for fresh clothes before they flew out and bought Mel a new outfit or two, unable to resist her excitement at being out of Westbend. “I’m assuming there’s a bigger bed in there?”

David chuckled. “No, not your bedroom. The room in the barn. We thought you two might enjoy a little more privacy. She fixed it up real nice for you, so don’t yell at me if you walk in there and it’s over the top.”

“What did she do?” The heated room in the barn loft was his childhood hangout when he was younger and had an old, overstuffed couch, a recliner, and stacks of books. “Dad?”

David only chuckled harder and led the way to the barn. Xena broke away from the other dogs and followed, sniffing the ground as they walked and yipping as she stared out over the wide, open fields. David reached out a hand to pet her, and Xena pressed against his palm.

“Beautiful dogs she has,” he said, impressed. “And very well trained.”

“Courtesy of her late husband,” Danny said. “Ma filled you in on that, too?”

“That she did,” David remarked. “Terrible to go through that at such a young age.”

“And I almost ripped away the only thing she had left.” Danny paused as guilt assailed him.

David stepped in front of his son and stared into his eyes. “Almost. You’re not after it anymore. In fact, you’re helping her. She might not see it that way at first, but if she loves you like you love her, she’ll come around.”

“There’s that word again,” Danny grumbled. “I don’t know that. I can’t know that.”

“Ha, tell that to your ma. I fell for her the second I saw her at the fair that day,” David said as they continued walking to the barn. “I never stood a chance against the inferno she created in me.”

“Please stop talking,” he groaned, not wanting to envision his parents doing anything of the sort he and Mel did when they couldn’t resist the fire between them anymore. His dad chortled all the way inside the barn to the steps leading to the loft. Danny swung open the door and his eyes widened. “When did she do this?”

“The minute you said you were bringing someone home.” David set the suitcase by the door as Danny dropped the other beside it.

The old rundown room he remembered was gone. Instead, the walls were painted a deep crimson. The large bed was draped with a black and white comforter set, and candles lined the shelves stretching all along the walls. They weren’t lit yet, but Danny imagined how they would light the room perfectly once they were. A small welcome basket rested against the pillows with Mel’s name on it, and inside were two bottles of wine and a box of peppermint truffles.

“You know your ma,” David said. “Come on, dinner’s on and I’m starving.”

Dinner was the last thing on Danny’s mind after seeing this room, but he did miss his parents. They left the barn and took a longer stroll towards the house, following the fence line as they stared out over the empty fields. They talked as they hadn’t in years, kicking up dirt with their steps as their breaths puffed out in front of their faces.

“When you do the planting this spring, I want you to call me,” Danny told his dad as they reached the back porch. “I’ll take some time, come down and help.”

“I’d like that son,” David said and wiped at the gleam in his eyes. “I really would.”

Danny hugged his dad tightly and wiped at his own eyes before they both huffed at the same time and walked inside.

Mel and Delcie were laughing hysterically about something, holding glasses of whiskey in their hands as they stood over the gas stove. Mel’s ruddy cheeks gave away how much she’d already had to drink, and Delcie couldn’t stop giggling.

“See what happens? I leave you alone with the guest, and you get her drunk,” David exclaimed as he stomped over to Delcie and gave her a sloppy kiss until she squealed with laughter. “Women.”

“What were you two laughing about?” Danny asked as he reached for Mel’s hand.

“Your childhood,” she said with a wink. “You were quite the stud-muffin.”

Danny glared at Delcie, but she sipped her whiskey and shrugged. “Whatever she told you, it’s highly exaggerated and I don’t want to know.”

“Then how about we eat instead?” Delcie announced and pulled the oven open. A brown sugar-baked ham resided inside. “Hope everyone likes ham wrapped in bacon.”

“I think I love it here,” Mel elated.

Danny led her to the kitchen table he grew up at and leaned over her as she sat down. “Do I get to say I told you so yet?” he whispered against her ear, giving her a little nibble and sending a shiver down her back.

“Maybe later,” she replied. Her hand reached up to grab him through his jeans. His hands gripped the edge of the table until she let go. “Two can play at that game.”

“I’ll win,” he promised and kissed her cheek before he walked over to help bring everything to the table. “What can I do, Ma?”

“You can sit your butt down and relax,” she said but grabbed his arm when he turned. “And you can find a way to keep that woman in your life. I like her—a lot—and if you lose her, I’ll never forgive you for it.”

Danny frowned at her seriousness but nodded. “I’m working on it.”

“Good. Now, go pour her another glass of whiskey. We have some celebrating to do.”