Just one chapter for today and tomorrow, hopefully I'll be able to make it two chapters from next week on.
They were on their way to the gallery and Mathew was watching her with interest. He could see she was nervous, but he had been pleasantly surprised when she had accepted the dress he had bought her without a fight.It proved that she was feeling out of her depth and he was worried that he had pushed things too far. “Kara?”She hummed and turned questioning eyes to him. She looked beyond gorgeous tonight in the deep red velvet, off the shoulder dress made his mouth water. He wished he could strip it off her after the party, but he would have to find some control. “You look amazing.” He answered, realizing that she was still waiting for him to say something.“You already told me that, but thank you.” She smiled faintly.He wanted to tell her they could leave if she felt too uncomfortable, but he didn’t want her to take the easy out. He’d seen the insecurity in he
It had been about a week after the gallery’s opening event and they were back on his ranch, once more. One afternoon when they had just returned from swimming, they heard a car coming up the drive. Kara glanced questioningly at him, but he seemed just as surprised before he glanced out the window and then frowned with confusion.Kara was not sure if it was business and she was just about to turn and go to her room to allow him some privacy when there was a perfunctory knock on the door and Matthew opened it with much the same expression.“Good Afternoon, we were told that we could find Kara Daniels here?”She froze when she recognized the woman’s voice and she turned back to the door and stared. It was at that moment that her mother’s eyes turned to her. “Oh, my dear, you’ve become disabled!” She cried in horror before she rushed to her and pulled her against her chest with loud sobs.&
Matthew was enjoying a particularly good dream of swimming with Kara when he was startled into wakefulness by a sudden jolt of the bed as something plunged onto the mattress next to him.He found himself sitting up in bed and staring at the laughing eyes and splendidly beautiful grin of Kara who was sitting on her legs next to him on the bed.“What’s wrong?” He asked in confusion while he tried to rid himself of the tendrils of the dream that seemed to hold him in its grasp.“Nothing.” She stated with a giggle bubbling in her voice while she held his gaze. “Do you notice anything different about me?”Her smile was infectious as he found himself returning hers and he looked her up and down, trying to get his mind to return from the dream that still played in his memory. He could see nothing different about her, except the laughter that was threatening to bubble over all the time.
He grinned at her. “Come on, let’s go make breakfast.” He stood and held his hand out to her.Kara took the offered hand, but used very little of its strength to pull herself to her feet. She concentrated on her feet when she started walking towards the kitchen, forgetting that she still held his hand.He stopped her with a crooked smile. “Don’t look at your feet.” He said as he lifted her chin with the tip of his forefinger, never releasing her hand.She threw hi
Kara woke him again the next morning when she sat down on the bed and tickled his face with a feather she had found on the windowsill of her room. He had stayed out so late the previous night that she had been asleep when he finally came in and his cold dinner was gone this morning. She just wished she could remember what she had done, since she had found her clothes strewn along the hallway all the way into the bathroom.This was the second time she had drunk champagne and the second time she had found her clothes thrown on the floor and all but naked in bed with no memory of what had happened. Perhaps she ought to make a point of avoiding champagne after this. There had to be a reason why Matthew had stayed out so late. Did she say or do somethin
Kara was back at her ranch and she missed the conversations she had had with Matthew. He had only managed to make her love him more. Her days seemed endlessly long without the excitement of knowing she would see him soon. And the silence in her house seemed oppressive, so she avoided it until she could no longer stay outside without raising questions. She would have to automate some things or at the very least get more hands, but she had still not managed to figure out her grandfather’s filing and bookkeeping system. That was probably the next thing she had to set to work on; she could not keep going if she did not know what she had to work with.
James was standing in front of her when she opened the door. He seemed much happier since he had taken control of the men. He was in his element and she wondered why she had not allowed him to be foreman earlier; he had all the character traits. She smiled her welcome, before they went through to her office. He still refused to just walk in like she had suggested so she would wait in the kitchen or living room for him to knock so she could open the door for him.James was watching her intently. He could see she was missing Matthew. They all knew about the situation, it was clear enough. Why these two young people did not sort things out and get together was a question of its own. Her eyes were far-off every time she thought no one was watching. He
Kara tethered her horse at the border and climbed through the fence. She walked a few steps and then went down on her haunches to check the quality of the earth. The soil had good potential, but it had been drained. The land had been severely over-used and it would take a lot of work to get it back to the quality it had once been. But that did not mean that the soil was not good quality. Thankfully it seemed that erosion had not yet set in and could be prevented when the earth was allowed to recover from the abuse. But it did seem like a good buy. She could till the earth and let the land rest through the remaining weeks of the winter with a layer of manure. They just had to kill off weeds for a while afterwards….allow the grass to sprout again and keep the topsoil from eroding with the rains and snow melting and this land could be prime fields for cattle. Hearing footsteps close by, she glanced up and was surprised to find Matthew standing there. She caught her breath for an