The Cowboy's Way(26)
He frowned. He’d realized there was a mutual attraction between them when she’d first stepped out of her car the night she and Seth stayed at his place. Hell, he would have to be nine kinds of a fool not to have noticed the spark. But he hadn’t anticipated the pull to be so intense and he knew beyond a shadow of doubt that Heather hadn’t, either. Their chemistry had scared her and, to tell the truth, he wasn’t overly comfortable with it himself. He liked his life the way it was. He wasn’t looking for anything long-term. He came and went as he pleased and didn’t have anyone he had to answer to. But he wasn’t sure it was going to be possible to ignore whatever this was that was happening with them.
When he’d pulled her down onto his lap after their conversation over coffee, he had only meant to offer his compassion for all she’d been through. Losing both her fiancé and her father within such a short time, then facing single motherhood without any kind of support system, had to have been extremely hard for her. That kind of heartbreak on top of heartbreak would have destroyed a lot of women. And on top of that, she’d been running the whole Circle W outfit by herself. He honestly didn’t know how she’d managed.
Heather was a survivor and he wanted her to know how much he admired her. But the minute he had her in his arms, his good sense seemed to desert him completely. All he had ended up doing was showing her that he had about as much control over his hormones as a teenaged boy on prom night.
Disgusted with himself and too restless to sit still, T.J. shook his head and got up to look out the window. It had stopped raining, but it would be some time tomorrow before the road cleared. At least he would be able to tend to her horses in the morning before he had to go back to his ranch.
As he stood there wondering what else he could do to help Heather, Seth ran up beside him, grinning. The little boy patted T.J.’s thigh to get his full attention. Jabbering something T.J. couldn’t understand, Seth reached up and took T.J. by the hand to tug him along.
“Seth,” Heather said firmly, hurrying into the room. There was no denying the irritation in her tone. “It’s time for bed.”
Reaching down, T.J. picked up the toddler then turned to face Heather. “Was he telling me good-night?”
She hesitated a moment before she shook her head. “No, he wants you to tuck him into bed.”
“I think that can be arranged,” T.J. said, laughing as he ruffled the little boy’s copper-colored hair. “I like your pajamas, partner. I wish I had a pair with horses on them.”
To his surprise Seth wrapped his arms around T.J.’s neck and hugged him, then gave him a rather juicy kiss on the cheek. “Go bed now.”
Heather didn’t look happy as he carried Seth down the hall to his room and T.J. couldn’t help but wonder what he’d done to upset her this time. He couldn’t think of anything, but he had every intention of finding out what was wrong once they had Seth settled down for the night.
“Good night, partner,” T.J. said, when he placed the toddler in his tiny bed. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“’Tory,” the little boy said, yawning.
“I’ll only be a few minutes,” Heather said, picking up a book.
When T.J. started to leave the room, Seth sat up in bed and shook his head. “’Tory.”
“I’m not real good with toddler-speak,” T.J. said, frowning. “What does he want?”
“He wants you to stay for the story,” she said, sighing heavily.
T.J. could tell Heather didn’t want him hanging around for their nightly ritual, but he had a feeling that whether he left or he stayed, either way he was going to upset one of them. “Would you rather I go on into the living room to watch TV, Heather?”
She stared at him for a long moment before she shook her head. Then she sat down on a small chair beside the bed. “No, it’s fine for you to stay.” Opening the book, she added, “It won’t take more than a couple of pages and he’ll be asleep.”
As she started reading about a little train named Thomas, T.J. watched her expressions and listened to the tone of her voice. Heather was a great mom and Seth was lucky to have her. She listened to her son, cared about what he wanted and tried to accommodate his wishes within reason. She was the kind of mother that any man would want for his children. The kind of mother T.J. would want for his kids.
His heart stalled. What the hell? He’d never even thought about having kids before. Was he actually thinking about that now?
When he noticed Seth’s eyelids drift lower and lower until they closed completely, T.J. breathed a little easier. The sooner the little boy was sound asleep, the sooner he and Heather could go into the living room and he could regain his perspective.