«Honey, it’s —» began Caleb.
«You stay out of this,» Willow said. «Matt’s been living on his own too long. He’s got no more manners than a wolf.»
Eve watched Willow with a combination of fascination and horror as she faced down the two large men. If Willow realized that her husband and brother were a foot taller and far stronger than she was, it didn’t slow down her tongue one bit.
Yet neither man struck Eve as the kind to step back for anyone, much less for someone who was half their weight and a third their strength.
Caleb and Reno looked sideways at each other while Willow took a breath. Caleb smiled, then began laughing softly. It took Reno longer, but in the end he gave in to his little sister.
«All right, Willy. But only one night. We’re pulling out at dawn.»
She started to object, looked at Reno’s eyes, and knew more arguing would be pointless.
«And only if you make biscuits,» Reno added, smiling as he dismounted.
Willow laughed and hugged her brother.
«Welcome home, Matt.»
Reno hugged her in return, but his eyes were shadowed as he looked beyond Willow’s blond head to the house and the meadow where livestock grazed. He was welcome, but it wasn’t his home. He had no home.
For the first time in his life, the thought bothered him.
THE kitchen smelled of Willow’s biscuits, beef stew, and the dried apple pie that Eve had insisted on making for dinner. Willow hadn’t put up much of a fight, readily accepting that Eve preferred to be treated as a neighbor or a friend rather than as a guest.
Reno hadn’t been pleased to find Eve in the kitchen when he came in from choosing horses and readying the pack saddles for an early start tomorrow, but it was too late to object. Eve and Willow were sharing the kitchen and talking together like old friends.
Eve had bathed and changed into the old dress Reno had found in her saddlebag while searching for much more valuable things. The dress was wrinkled, all but worn-out, painfully clean, and obviously had been made from flour bags. The cloth had been washed in harsh soap and dried in the sun so many times that the makers’ names had faded to an illegible wash of pink and pale blue. Either the material had shrunk over time, or the dress was a hand-me-down, for it fit too snugly across Eve’s breasts and hinted too much at the flare of her hips.
It made a man want to measure the slender waist with his hands, and then peel off the coarse cloth to get at the silky woman beneath.
But it was better than the crimson silk saloon dress Reno had first seen on Eve. He had been afraid she would wear it in Willow’s house as a way of getting back at him for saying he wouldn’t take a fancy lady into his sister’s house.
He hadn’t meant the remark as a insult; it was simply a fact. He had too much respect and love for his sister to parade fallen women through her home.
«Oh, blast,» Willow said. «I forgot Ethan’s diaper.»
«I’ll get it,» Eve said.
«Thanks. It’s in the bedroom next to yours.»
Eve turned and saw Reno’s disapproving eyes. She straightened her shoulders, lifted her chin, and walked past him without a word.
His cold glance followed the unconscious swaying of her hips until he could see them no longer. Only then did he turn back to his sister and his nephew, who was at present being bathed near the warmth of the kitchen stove.
The baby’s whiskey-colored eyes were an exact match for Caleb’s. Though not yet six months old, Ethan Black was already bigger than most children at ten months. He made an armful for his mother as he splashed and paddled enthusiastically in a basin of warm water.
«Here,» Reno said. «Let me take care of him. You make biscuits.»
«I’ve already made a triple batch,» Willow said. «The last of them are baking right now.»
«Those are for tonight. I was talking about biscuits for the trail tomorrow.»
Laughing, Willow stepped aside.
Reno picked up the soft washrag, rubbed soap into it, and began washing his nephew. The baby made a happy sound and reached for Reno’s mustache with chubby little fingers. Reno drew back, but not quite enough. Ethan grabbed hair and pulled.
Wincing, Reno moved to disentangle the small fingers. Despite the baby’s happy yanking, Reno was careful not to truly discourage his nephew. He eased the fingers from his mustache, gave them a smacking, tickling kiss, and laughed when Ethan’s eyes widened with surprise and delight.
The baby crowed and made another grab for Reno’s mustache. This time Reno had the baby’s range and ducked successfully.
«If you don’t beat all,» Reno said as he washed his squirming, energetic nephew. «I’m gone less than a month, and your arms grow half an inch.»
Ethan’s arms windmilled, sending water every-where. Willow looked up from the flour she was sifting, saw her child’s delight, and shook her head.
«You spoil him,» she said, but there was no censure in her voice.
«One of the pleasures of my life,» Reno agreed. «That, and your biscuits.»
With a glad shriek, Ethan launched himself at Reno’s chest.
«Easy there, little man.»
Gently he restrained the baby so that Willow’s kitchen wouldn’t end up as wet and slippery as a bathhouse floor.
Ethan tried to wriggle free, but couldn’t. Just when he was clouding up for a good cry, Reno distracted him by picking up one of his little hands, pressing his mouth against the palm, and blowing hard. The fruity noises that followed delighted the baby.
No one noticed Eve standing in the doorway to the kitchen, watching Reno with both disbelief and yearning in her eyes. She had never imagined that much gentleness lay beneath Reno’s hard body and lethal speed with a six-gun. Seeing him bathe his nephew made her feel as though she had stepped from one world into another one, a world where anything was possible….
Even tenderness and strength combined in the same man.
«Damn, you’re as slippery as an eel,» Reno said.
«Try rinsing him off,» Willow said without looking up.
«With what? Most of the water is on me.»
Willow laughed. «Hang on. There’s warm water on the stove. I’ll get it as soon as I finish sifting this batch of flour.»
«I’ll get it,» Eve said as she stepped into the kitchen.
A subtle change came over Reno at the sound of Eve’s voice behind him, a tightness that wasn’t there before.
Willow saw it, noted it, and wondered why Reno was so ill at ease with the girl who was his partner. There was none of the relaxation between the two of them that Willow would have expected of a couple involved in a courtship or a liaison of a more physical sort.
Nor was there any flirtation. Reno treated Eve as though she were a virtual stranger — and a male stranger, at that.
That surprised Willow, for Reno was normally both gallant and appreciative of women. Especially women with wide golden eyes, a generous smile, and a feline grace of movement that was frankly, if unintentionally, sensual.
«Thank you, Eve,» Willow said. «Ethan’s towel is warming on that peg just beyond the stove.»
From the corner of his eye, Reno watched as Eve retrieved both towel and warm rinse water for the baby. When she bent over, the worn fabric of her dress cupped her breasts with breathtaking closeness, revealing every curve.
The fierce shaft of desire that went through Reno angered him. His sexual appetite hadn’t ever been this unruly. Deliberately he looked away from Eve to the strapping, healthy baby wriggling between his hands.
«He may have Caleb’s eyes,» Reno said, studying Ethan, «but they’re set like yours. Same catlike tilt.»
«I could say the same about your eyes,» Willow said. «Lord, but the girls used to fall at your feet like overripe peaches.»
«That’s Rafe you’re thinking of.»