A flash of lightning shot out of the dark clouds as Brody drove the motorcycle out of town that Sunday evening after their ice cream date. To the north, Lila could see stars and a sliver of a moon. But to the southwest where the storms usually originated, the sky was black with only an occasional burst of light. She counted when the next streak zigzagged as if trying to reach for the treetops. Ten seconds. That meant the storm was ten miles out. Depending on whether it was traveling slowly or with the speed of a bullet, it could hit in a few minutes or take half an hour.
The first drops of cold rain hit when they were halfway between the café and the ranch. Then the hail started pinging off her helmet and stinging her back when it hit with the force of the high wind pushing it. Brody turned into Henry’s old ranch and drove straight to the barn.
She hopped off the back of the bike as soon as he stopped and slung the barn door open wide enough that he could drive inside. By the time he’d parked, she had her helmet off and was wringing water from her dress tail.
“That’s some cold rain and biting hail.” She shivered.
He quickly hung his helmet on the handlebars and gathered her into his arms. “I know where we can wait out the storm.”
“Tack room?” she said.
“Oh, yeah.”
With his arm still around her, he headed that way. Not watching where she was going, she stumbled over the white mama cat and had to do some fancy footwork to keep from falling and pulling Brody down with her.
“Poor old thing must crave company,” Lila said. “You should take her home with you. Kasey’s kids would love her and she wouldn’t be lonely.”
“Why don’t you take her home? She could snuggle up next to you at night and keep you warm,” he said.
“That’s your job.” Lila groped around for the string that would turn on the light. Finally her fingers found the same old wooden thread spool at the end of a length of jute twine and she gave it a tug. “Well, would you look at this,” she said.
There was a small electric heater in the corner, a tiny air conditioner in the window, and a futon on one wall with a quilt tossed over the back.
“Paul turned it into a poker place a few years ago. Said he needed a room for the boys on the nights when the girls gather at his house for those church meetings every month,” Brody said.
“I don’t remember anything in here but lots of musty old saddles and a couple of horse blankets.” She wrapped her arms around herself trying to get warm.
He hugged her close to his own chilly, wet body. “Hail produced a cold rain. You’re shiverin’, Lila. Let’s get you out of those wet clothes.”
Brody slowly removed her dress and draped it on the back of a chair. His warm hands on her chilled skin as he unfastened her bra and removed it made her shiver even worse but it had nothing to do with the weather. He gently hooked a thumb under the edge of the elastic on her bikini underwear and strung warm kisses from her belly button to her toes as he pulled them down to her ankles.
Then he stood up, grabbed a quilt, and whipped it around her body. “As warm as it is in here, your things will be dry by the time the storm passes.”
She adjusted the quilt like a sari and undid the snaps on his shirt one at a time as she started undressing him. Running her fingers through the soft black hair on his chest, she tiptoed and kissed him on the chin. Then she quickly undid his belt buckle and pulled his jeans off, admiring all the hard muscles from his broad shoulders down his ripped abdomen and the V that led down below his flat belly. Then she took his hand and led him to the futon. In a blur the quilt left her body and she sat down, pulling him down with her. She moved into his lap and covered them both.
His fingertips grazed her jawline, tilting her chin for the perfect angle so that his mouth could cover hers, and she leaned into the kiss. The tip of his tongue touched her lower lip, asking permission. She opened slightly and he eased inside as the hail and rain made beautiful music on the barn’s old tin roof.
His work-roughened hands lightly skimmed from her shoulders, ever so slowly down her bare arms. When they reached her fingers, he made slow circles on the tender part of her palms as he deepened the kiss. Her body on fire, she pressed closer to him, her breasts against his chest.
Then his hands were on her back, massaging and working kinks out from her shoulders all the way to her butt and then down the backs of her legs. The kisses got hotter and hotter until she couldn’t bear it anymore. She wiggled a few times and guided him into her but he controlled the movement with a long, slow gliding motion.
“My God, Brody,” she panted.
“Good?” he asked as he maneuvered her onto her back and laced his fingers in hers, holding her hands above her head. “There is no one else on the earth right now but me and you.”
“Good isn’t even close,” she said.
Talking stopped and they moved together until she was frantic with need. He slowed down and let her cool down just enough to catch her breath, then started building the speed again until she squealed his name and dug her fingernails into his back.
The heat as she tumbled into steaming hot desire into complete and utter satisfaction was more than she’d ever experienced, even with Brody. He rolled to one side but the futon was so narrow that they were still plastered together. She kicked the quilt off to one side and slung a leg over his body to keep him from falling off on the rough wooden floor.
“That was amazing,” he whispered.
“I know.” She stifled a yawn. “Don’t you love the sound of rain on a tin roof?”
“Mmmm,” he said as his blue eyes fluttered shut.
Brody awoke to her soft breathing. The rain had stopped and he could see stars shining in the window above the air conditioner. As hot as it was and as much as he would have loved to have had cool air, he didn’t want to wake Lila. That would mean they’d have to go home and he didn’t want to ever let go of her.
“Hey.” She opened her eyes slowly. “What time is it?”
“Have no idea. Phones are on the table over there,” he said. “Let’s lock the door and live here forever.”
She snuggled down deeper into his arms. “Sounds like a plan to me, but I bet Molly would send out the National Guard if I wasn’t in the kitchen by opening time. It’ll be strange not havin’ Mama there.”
“So that means our date is over?” Brody asked. “I think it better be. I’ll get dressed and walk home. You can take the bike.” He sat up and rolled the kinks out of his neck. “I love sleeping with you. I love the way you fit in my arms.”
“Me too.” She left the futon and went straight for her clothing.
“Seems a shame to cover something that beautiful.” He grinned.
“Right back at you,” she told him. “I’ll take you home, Brody. You don’t have to walk.” She checked the time on her phone and gasped. “Holy smoke! It’s four o’clock.”
“Be best if that loud bike don’t go roarin’ down the lane at this time of morning, don’t you think,” he said.
She made it home by four-thirty and went straight to the shower. When she came out with a towel around her head and one around her body, two kittens were sitting on the floor staring at her.
Duke meowed.
Cora laid back her ears.
“Young lady, you don’t get to give me those kind of looks either,” Lila said. “It was worth losing a little sleep over. Besides I liked sleeping with him. Not as much as I like the sex but having someone to snuggle with is nice.”
Duke meowed again.
“See, there, Duke agrees with me. He likes having you to sleep with.” She bent forward and dried her hair.
At five o’clock she heard pots and pans rattling in the kitchen. She dried her hair and dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, laced her shoes, and fed the kittens. Duke put his paw on Cora’s head and tried to push her back but she wasn’t having any part of that.
Lila left them tumbling around on the floor and went straight to the kitchen where she wrapped Molly in a fierce hug. “I’m so glad to see you.”
Molly stepped back and narrowed her eyes. “I leave and everything goes down the toilet.”
“Mama left this place clean as a pin. What’s your problem?”
“Nothing to do with my kitchen. I told you to stay away from Brody Dawson.”
“Ah.” Lila grinned. “I missed you, too, Molly.”
“Who said I missed you or anything about this place. I just hated the sand more than I do…” She fussed. “I’m lyin’. I didn’t like the sand or the beach or anything about that place and I found out real quick that I love Happy, Texas, and do not want to leave it. And Georgia agrees with me.”
“So where are you going when you go on another vacation?” Lila opened a drawer and took out a clean apron.
“Maybe to the mountains or maybe I’ve been broke from suckin’ eggs and I’ll stay where I’m happy from now on and that’s right here where I know everyone and they all like my cookin’,” she said. “I hear that Hope is coming around to being civil to you but that Valerie isn’t. That right?”
Lila tied an apron around her waist and tucked an order pad into her pocket. “That’s about it.”
“Valerie means well. I can remember when Hope was a lot like her. She sure didn’t like Mitch Dawson there at first and Mitch’s mama wasn’t very happy with the marriage either. It’s the way of mothers—always interfering, but they do it out of love.” Molly flopped a bowl full of biscuit dough on the counter and started rolling it out.
Lila laughed. “How do you know all that when you’ve only been home a few hours?”
“I keep my ears open. Speakin’ of that, I heard your motorcycle comin’ past my place about the time I was havin’ my first cup of coffee and gettin’ ready for work this mornin’. I expect you were out at Hope Springs all night,” Molly said. “He’s goin’ to break your heart, girl. You know the old sayin’ that goes ‘Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, it’s my own blamed fault’?”
Lila glanced at the clock. “Time to open the doors and I don’t think that’s the way that sayin’ goes.”
“Close enough,” Molly said. “It’s goin’ to be your own fault.”
“Note taken,” Lila said.
“Smarty pants,” Molly huffed. “Turn on the lights and let’s get this week started.”
“So is Georgia comin’ home too?” Lila poured herself a cup of coffee and carried it with her.
“Soon as she can get here. She had all her belongin’s moved down there. Thank goodness her house hasn’t sold and she hadn’t signed on the dotted line to buy one down there. Do you know what it costs to buy a place in that state?”
“Not much more than here unless you want beachfront,” Lila said.
“Do you own a house?” Molly asked.
She’d thought about buying a little cottage on the beach and had decided she might give it more serious thought if she stuck around for five years.
“Oh, no, I rent a garage apartment and it’s furnished. I could put all my belongings in the back of my truck. I can’t afford the taxes on a place in that area—not on a teacher’s salary.”
“Well, thank God for that. When are you comin’ home to Happy, then?” Molly asked. “If me and Georgia buy this café, we’ll hire you as a waitress. You probably make as much in tips as you do teachin’ and Lord knows, you don’t have nearly the hassle. Teachin’ a teenager anything is like nailin’ Jell-O to the smokehouse door.”
“You got that right, Molly, but what on earth gave you the impression I would ever come back here permanently?”
Molly grinned and pointed. “That right there.”
Lila whipped around to see the first customer of the day getting out of his truck in the parking lot. In the dim morning light he was nothing but a silhouette settling an old Stetson on his head but that swagger left no doubt that it was Brody, and the feeling deep inside Lila left no doubt that Molly was right.