“That night you broke my heart.” His eyes lowered to her lips, and she knew he was going to kiss her. She also knew she should push him out of the way so she could leave. But her legs felt cemented to the spot. Closing her eyes, she tilted her face up—and was surprised to realize that her arms went around him before his ever came around her. He hadn’t been about to kiss her. But it didn’t matter. Her body had a will of its own. She found his mouth, and kissed him as though she was half-starved for the taste of him.
His kiss was familiar and satisfying, everything she’d missed. She groaned as he offered her his tongue, remembering and reacquainting herself. He responded by kissing her more deeply while pressing into her.
Feeling the hard planes of his body as well as his erection caused warmth to pool low in her belly.
“Booker, I don’t think they remembered your pickles.” Delbert flung open the door as he charged inside with Bruiser, carrying a take-out bag from the diner.
Booker quickly pushed Katie away from him, but it wasn’t quite fast enough to go unnoticed. Delbert glanced between them, looking confused. “Hi, Katie.”
Katie took a deep breath, trying to even out her pulse, and moved away from Booker to give Delbert a hug. “Hi.”
“I heard you had your baby.” Bruiser nudged her with his wet nose as Delbert touched her stomach. “Look! You’re skinny again.”
She smiled, but her lips seemed to tremble with the effort. “I’m getting more back to normal each day.”
“Booker said he’d bring me over to your place. I really want to see the baby. I keep asking him and asking him but—” a sulky expression appeared on his face “—he’s always too busy.”
“Of course he’s busy, but you’re welcome anytime.” She sidled toward the door.
“Can we visit tonight?”
“Sure, okay,” she said, fully conscious that Booker hadn’t spoken a word in the last sixty seconds. She’d wanted to rip off his clothes a moment ago, could hardly speak now for the pounding of her heart, yet she couldn’t tell whether their kiss had had any lasting effect on him.
“Is it okay if we go over there tonight, Booker?” Delbert pressed.
Booker didn’t answer, so Katie chanced another look his way. “Are you coming over tonight?” she asked, then held her breath as she waited for his answer.
“Maybe,” he said. “We’ll see.”
“BOOKER, IT’S GETTING LATE. If we don’t leave right away, the baby will go to sleep,” Delbert complained, nagging him, once again, about going to Katie’s.
Booker muted the television and glanced at his watch. Eight o’clock. The minutes had been dragging by, and Delbert’s impatience wasn’t making things any easier. Booker had hoped that if he stalled long enough, Delbert would forget about the baby, at least for tonight. After what had happened in his office, Booker wasn’t sure he wanted to see Katie. He’d been down the same road with her once before, and it hadn’t led anywhere.
“I think Troy sleeps most of the time, anyway,” he said.
“I don’t care. I want to see him. Please, Booker?”
Booker considered allowing Delbert to hitchhike to Katie’s. Ever since that threatening call, he’d stopped letting him ramble around on his own. But nothing worrisome—at least as far as Delbert was concerned—had happened in the past few weeks. Booker was almost convinced that strange call had been some kind of joke.
But he remembered finding Delbert the night the Smalls got hold of him and decided there was always the possibility that it wasn’t….
Tossing the remote aside, he stood. “Okay, I’ll drive you out there. But Bruiser has to stay home.”
“Okay. Thanks, Booker. Thanks a lot!”
Booker shrugged into his jacket and headed to the door. Delbert ran to his room and brought back a gift, crudely wrapped in newspaper with an excess of tape.
“What’s that?” Booker asked.
Delbert’s smile stretched across his face. “It’s for the baby.”
“What’s inside?”
“A surprise.”
KATIE NORMALLY SPENT HER evenings nursing and bathing Troy, and rocking him in the chair her mother had given her. Or she slept, if she could. Troy was getting up at least twice every night, and she hadn’t yet adapted to the new schedule.
Tonight her son required little attention, but she didn’t go to bed. She curled her hair and touched up her makeup, just in case she had visitors. She was trying on clothes and checking the mirror to decide which outfit looked best, when the phone rang.
She eyed it nervously, wondering if it was Booker. “Hello?” she said, sinking onto her bed wearing jeans and a cream sweater that made the most of her returning figure.
“How’s the baby?” her mother asked.
Katie looked over at Troy, who was lying in his bassinet. “Fine.”
“He’s such a doll. He was so good for me today while you were at work. I gave him a car ride over to see Travis.”
Katie wondered if she’d also shown him to Don, but didn’t ask. “I really appreciate you taking care of him. What with prom tonight, I made some good money.”
“I’m so glad. Are we on for tomorrow, then?”
“Isn’t Dad going to get angry that you’re coming here and helping me instead of staying at the bakery?”
“My day’s mostly over before yours begins. He just sells what we have left after the morning rush while he cleans up the place.”
“I don’t want this to come between you, though,” Katie said.
“Don’t worry. I think it’s a stand I need to take.”
There was a knock at the door, and excitement filled Katie at the prospect of seeing Booker. She knew she was crazy to be feeling the way she was, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted another kiss…tonight.
“I have to go, Mom,” she said.
“What time do you need me tomorrow?”
“Ten o’clock. But I’ll come home and nurse after the first couple of hours.”
“Okay.”
Katie ended the call. Now that she and Tami were getting along, she didn’t want her mother to hear Booker’s voice in the background and resume her old complaints.
As soon as she opened the door, Delbert nearly bowled her over. “Hi, Katie! We’re here. Booker brought me. We’re here to see the baby.”