Life After Wife (Three Magic Words Trilogy, #3)(31)

“Yes, we are,” she said. “And I get the first shower.”

“Hey, wait a minute.”

She shrugged off his arm. “Ladies first.”

“We are a team. We are not a couple,” he protested.

“I don’t care what you call it. You already had a shower.”

He set his heels at the edge of the porch. “I’m twice as dirty and grimy now as when I got into the shower earlier. I shut off the air conditioner to keep the smoke out of the cab.”

“So did I, and I’m having first shower,” she said.

“You put up a fence. I’m putting in a second bathroom, and it’s going to be right off my bedroom,” he said.

“I like that idea, then you won’t be cluttering up my bathroom.” She opened the door and stepped inside the cool house.

He followed her and gasped when the cold air hit his sweaty skin. “Me, cluttering? It’s not me who leaves makeup strewn on the counter and panty hose drying on the shower curtain.”

She went straight for the bathroom. “Well I certainly hope that you don’t leave makeup and panty hose in the bathroom.” She giggled as she shut the door.

“Women!” He threw up his hands.

“What did you say?” she yelled through the door.

“I said that women are horrible creatures,” he yelled back.

“We were made from a man’s rib. That’s pretty small, so if we are horrible when we…”

“Hush!” he yelled.

She swung the door open and walked right up to him. “Don’t you ever tell me to hush. I’ll talk when I want.”

He leaned forward, cupped her cheeks in his hands, and kissed her soundly on the lips. She wrapped her arms around his neck and tangled her hands in his hair. When he pulled away, she took two steps back and reached up to see if her mouth was as warm as it felt. Surprisingly, her mouth was cool to the touch, but the tingles playing chase up and down her backbone were anything but cold.

She turned abruptly and went back into the bathroom, where she sat down on the edge of the tub for a long time before she was able to talk her weak knees into standing up.

It didn’t help one bit that Elijah was whistling the Sammy Kershaw tune, “Don’t Go Near the Water,” that she’d been listening to earlier!





CHAPTER NINE


Sophie heard the bathroom door close behind Elijah when he went for his shower. She heard the water running, heard him singing “Hello Darlin’,” an old Conway Twitty tune. So he liked country music. That didn’t make him…she couldn’t even think the words. She reached up and touched her lips again. They weren’t warm, but they should have been from the way her heart kept skipping beats.

The cell phone on her bedside table rang, the tone telling her that it was either Kate or Fancy. She picked it up, not caring which one it was so long as they took her mind off Elijah.

“Did the fire come close to you? I saw it on the evening news. Looked like it was pretty close,” Kate said.

“Close enough to blister the paint off the tractor I was plowing a firebreak with, and close enough that when the chopper dumped a bucket of water, it splashed all over my tractor,” Sophie said.

“Mercy! Are y’all all right?”

“We saved all the cattle. Gus brought a crew and put the cattle in the pens and the front yard. They’re bawling like crazy, but they’re not burned. Tomorrow we’ll turn the ones loose that we aren’t selling. Kind of strange way of doing things, pen them up and then turn out what don’t sell, rather than herding the ones for sale into the pens. I’m replacing fence posts starting the day after the sale. We’ve hired three guys who’ll be in the bunkhouse full time, and at least if we have another fire, the posts will be metal and they won’t burn to the ground. The old wood ones are just charred real bad, we didn’t actually lose any of them and…”

“Sophie!” Kate raised her voice.

“What?”

“What really happened? You are talking too fast and furious for you. I know you, darlin’. You are the smart one of the three of us, and you keep your words close to home. Now what happened?”

“Elijah kissed me,” Sophie blurted out.

“And?” Kate giggled.

“Don’t laugh at me.”

“I’m not! I’m just not surprised. You two are destined for each other.”

Sophie gasped. “You’re crazy, girl! You and Fancy both think because you found your three magic words that I’ll find mine. Well, a single kiss doesn’t make a life after wife situation.”

“You are so right. How many does it take? Maybe you should go knock on his door and kiss him again to see if two kisses do the trick,” Kate teased.

“Goodnight, Kate,” Sophie said.

“I think the line was ‘Goodnight, Irene’.” Kate had started to giggle again.

“Then good-bye, Kate. See you in a couple of days.” Sophie returned the phone back to her nightstand.

Elijah was singing Conway Twitty’s “Tight Fittin’ Jeans.” He sang about a real lady, who normally wore pearls and high heels, going to a bar so she could be a good ole boy’s girl. That he liked country music shocked Sophie. Riding a big Harley, wearing a do-rag with that little ponytail hanging down the back—it all pointed to hard rock, not old classic country.