Scent of Cedar, page 10
part #1 of The Friendly Beasts of Faraday Series
Cedar started to speak, but Juniper interrupted her. “You can deny it all you want, but I’ve never seen you as happy, relaxed, and peaceful as you’ve been since you moved here. This small town has been good for you, and so has falling in love with that hunky hottie with the lug wrench.”
“I never said I fell in love with him,” Cedar said softly, staring into the spicy liquid in her teacup.
Juniper laughed. “You didn’t have to say it. I could tell the first time I saw you after you met him.”
“Then you know this…. thing, these… feelings that I have for him are crazy, right?” Cedar chanced a glance at her sister and noticed the genuine love and concern on her face.
“It’s not crazy, Cedar. I think it’s wonderful. You’ve never given yourself the opportunity to fall in love.” Juniper settled back into the cushions with a faraway look on her face. “And what a guy to fall for. I mean, other than the whole being your neighbor mix-up, he has been amazing. He’s like a knight in shining armor, but instead of a white horse, he rides a Harley.” Juniper grinned at her. “Don’t doubt your feelings for him.”
“That’s just it, Jun. What if I’m not really in love with Rhett? What if I’m in love with being in love? What if…?”
Juniper waved a dismissive hand her direction. “Cedar, as your younger, albeit bossy and nosy sister, I’m telling you that you are in love with Rhett. I can see it on your face when you say his name, it twinkles in your eyes when you talk about him, and your whole body looks like it’s about to melt every time you look across the pasture toward his place. Admit it. Own it. Believe it. You are in love with him.”
Cedar sighed again then looked at her sister for a long moment before she spoke. “You really, honestly don’t think I’ve lost my marbles because I’ve fallen in love with a man I met a few weeks ago and, in the grand scheme of things, barely know?”
“I think it’s about the smartest thing you’ve ever done.” Juniper finished her tea and set the cup on the coffee table. “Rather than sit around here and watch you mope, I think we should go on an adventure. You need to get out and live a little, even if you aren’t ready to forgive your mechanic for his past transgressions. Let’s go for a drive.”
“You talked me into it,” Cedar said, rising to her feet. She glanced down at the yoga pants and sweatshirt she wore. “Give me a minute to change.”
Juniper took the empty teacup from her hand. “Go. Change. I’ll take care of the dishes.”
Cedar raced upstairs to her room, pulled on a pair of jeans and a sweater, then rushed back downstairs into the kitchen. Juniper stood on the back porch, feeding Lolly a carrot.
“Look who made a new friend,” Cedar said, stepping outside and patting Lolly on the neck. The camel made a purring sound and grinned.
“I know women who would kill to have eyelashes as long and lush as hers,” Juniper said, watching as Lolly munched the carrot.
“Camels actually have two sets of eyelashes and a membrane that covers their eye to keep out sand. Also, many people think they have hooves, like horses, but their padded feet are more like those you’d find on a dog.” Cedar glanced at her sister, aware of her look of surprise. “Don’t look at me like that, like I’m a nerd. I spent a lot of time reading about camels when I first moved in because I had no idea what to do with this girl. She mostly just wants affection.”
“Don’t we all?” Juniper muttered then scratched Lolly under the chin. “Is your owner good at sharing affection with pretty girls like you? Huh, Lolly? Is Rhett a good boy?”
Lolly bobbed her head and made a sound low in her throat neither woman could interpret.
Juniper laughed. “I’m taking that as a yes.”
Cedar gave Lolly one more pat then moved back inside the house with Juniper. “You better head home now, Lolly. You know Rhett doesn’t like you to get out.”
“Maybe he needs a better fence,” Juniper suggested as they closed the door, then washed their hands at the kitchen sink.
“From what I’ve heard, Lolly has yet to meet a fence, pen, or gate that will keep her in if she wants out. The lady at the bank told me Lolly once opened the back door to the house, but Rhett’s uncle yelled so much and so loudly, she ran back to the barn and stayed there for three days without escaping.”
“What’ll you do if she decides to waltz inside your house?” Juniper asked as they pulled on their coats and picked up their purses.
“I’ll call her owner and demand he do something. At this point, I think guilt would weigh in my favor.”
Juniper giggled and followed Cedar out to where her SUV was parked in the garage. Since the last time Rhett worked on it, she hadn’t experienced more trouble, but then again, she’d only made one trip to Portland in it.
“Is the dealership going to get you a replacement for this thing?” Juniper asked as she climbed into the passenger seat and shut the door.
Cedar slid behind the wheel and fastened her seatbelt. “I finally spoke to the owner, but he’s as slimy as the salesman I purchased this from. I have a message in with the car company. If the dealership won’t help me, I’m hopeful they will.”
“You could always put Dad on the case. By the time he was finished, you’d have this three-car garage full of new vehicles at no additional cost to you.”
“I don’t want to get Dad involved. At least not yet. It’s important to handle this myself.” Cedar backed out of the garage and drove down her lane. She glanced back, admiring how festive and pretty the house looked surrounded by snow. One afternoon, a group of high school students knocked on her door selling fragrant evergreen wreaths. Cedar purchased a dozen, hanging them from the front door and along the porch. The burgundy bows she’d fastened to them made them even more cheerful and so perfect for the holiday season.
“You’ve done a good job settling in, Cedar, and I’m so excited to spend Christmas with you here. I can’t wait to celebrate the holiday in a house with a real tree and decorations, instead of Mom and Dad’s sterile place.”
“You could decorate, you know,” Cedar suggested as she turned onto the road and drove toward town. “It’s not as hard as you think.”
“That’s just because you had a good teacher,” Juniper said, grinning at her sister. “You told me Rhett showed you how to string lights and hang ornaments. What else did he teach you?”
Cedar would rather die than tell her sister about the kisses she’d shared with Rhett in the snow. Not that she’d never been kissed, but the fevered melding of their lips was something she’d never experienced. Rhett had coaxed and teased her until a natural, uninhibited response to his ardent encouragement surfaced and met his passion head on.
Her lips tingled every time she thought of the wondrous feel of his mouth against hers, of her body pressed to his, like it had been the afternoon they’d decorated the tree.
Annoyed with herself for thinking of him, again, she turned her thoughts back to her sister. “Where would you like to go?”
“Have you noticed that cute little gift shop in the next town down the mountain?”
Cedar nodded. “The one that has the Christmas tree covered in silver tinsel in the window? Like something from an old holiday movie?”
“Yes, that’s the one. Let’s go there and see what we can find.” Juniper fairly bounced on the seat as Cedar headed out of town. They’d gotten less than a half-mile down the mountain when the SUV made a horrendous noise and died. Cedar managed to crank the wheel and coast to the side of the road.
Juniper blew out a disgusted breath. “I’m telling you, sis. It’s time to get Dad involved.”
Cedar frowned at Juniper. “Not yet. Let me handle it, Jun. Please?”
“For now, but if you don’t have a new vehicle by Christmas, I’m tattling to Father Scrooge.”
Cedar grinned. “Deal.” She tried several times to start the vehicle, but it wouldn’t turn over. Frustrated, she pulled the keys, grabbed her purse, and tipped her head toward the door. “Get your things. We’re walking back to town.”
“In these boots? They’re just made to look cute, not actually walk in the snow,” Juniper whined as she slid out Cedar’s door since hers was wedged against a snowbank.
“Well, you’ll be walking in them today,” Cedar said, giving her sister a hand then the two of them dashed across the highway and began walking. “At least we aren’t far from Faraday. It would have been far worse if we were halfway down the mountain.”
“True, but my feet may never be the same.” Juniper took careful steps in her heeled boots, slipping and sliding along behind Cedar.
Cedar had invested in a pair of good, insulated snow boots after the first flurry of snow. She’d ended up at Faraday’s feed store where a helpful woman talked her into buying a pair of boots that promised to keep her feet warm and dry up to twenty-five degrees below zero. Although the thermometer hadn’t dropped that low, her feet had stayed toasty and surprisingly dry each time she wore them. She was especially glad she had them the day she and Rhett went to get Christmas trees.
Determined to veer her thoughts away from that day and the man who made it so special, she stopped and waited for Juniper to catch up with her.
“Must you walk like a long-legged Amazon?” Juniper gasped, out of breath from her efforts to keep upright and not fall too far behind.
“I must because I am a long-legged Amazon,” Cedar said. She patted her sister’s head in a move sure to annoy Juniper. “Must you dawdle like a lazy little fairy?”
Her sister scowled. “Hey, now, that’s not nice. I can’t help it if you used up all the good genes, and left me without much to choose from.”
Cedar gave Juniper a one-armed hug as they continued walking. “That’s not true at all. You’re petite and perky, pretty and smart, not to mention outgoing and strong. Everyone who meets you loves you. Besides, you’ll never have to worry about having a nervous breakdown or the need to upend your life to recover from it.”
“Cedar, I wish you’d quit beating yourself up over that. It wasn’t like you did anything crazy or hurt anybody. Bursting into uncontrollable, unstoppable tears in front of a boardroom full of people isn’t exactly white-jacket worthy, you know. And neither is the fact you locked yourself in your office and refused to come out for an entire day. Anyone in your position wouldn’t have lasted as long as you did before something happened. You’re the strongest person I know. Besides, I thought your therapist told you what happened was an isolated incident brought on by overwhelming stress and fatigue. Didn’t she tell you when you had your final appointment that your new lifestyle completely agreed with you and to keep it up?”
“She did,” Cedar said. Although she hadn’t mentioned it to her sister, the therapist had asked about the man who’d put such a happy smile on Cedar’s face. When she feigned ignorance, the woman had laughed and said Cedar had the look of a woman in love and to enjoy every minute of it.
She just hoped the object of her affections could get her stupid SUV running again. The last person she wanted to ask for help at that moment was Rhett, but he was the lone mechanic in town and the only person for thirty miles with a tow truck.
“Where are we going?” Juniper asked as they walked into Faraday.
“The garage.” Cedar hoped her sister wouldn’t feel the need to comment, but the stifled giggle beside her hinted at Juniper’s thoughts. “Don’t say a word,” she warned.
“Not a peep,” Juniper said, although the humor dancing in her eyes spoke volumes.
Cedar held open the door to the garage waiting area while Juniper walked inside.
Since the last time she’d been there, Rhett had set out a long table and filled it full of gift items for sale. Cedar admired his creativity as she looked at the variety of options including a picture frame made from welded wrenches, a wreath fashioned from gears and painted green, and even a snowman made from tires he’d painted white.
When Rhett didn’t greet them, Cedar looked into the garage. She could see sparks flying up from something, so she pointed to the adjoining door. “He’s working in there.”
“Should we knock?” Juniper asked as Cedar opened the door and nudged her inside.
They walked around an old farm truck that had seen better days and stopped, jaws dangling open as Rhett bent over, welding. The sight of the sparks flying upward from the welder didn’t cause their surprise. No, their astonishment stemmed from the fact he wore only a thin white tank undershirt. Muscles rippled and flexed as he worked. At least Juniper’s curiosity about tattoos could be satisfied. It appeared, at least on all that exposed flesh, that he had nary a one.
A fleeting question of how he kept from getting burned by the sparks floated through Cedar’s thoughts followed by a profound sense of gratitude he wasn’t wearing his coveralls.
“Oh, my word,” Juniper muttered and took a step back, knocking a wrench off the top of a toolbox to the floor. The clang of it hitting the concrete echoed through the building and drew Rhett’s attention.
He turned off the welder and lifted the hood of the welding helmet he wore with one gloved hand. For a long moment, he stood there, his gaze tangling with Cedar’s until she felt dizzy. It was then she realized she’d been holding her breath. Drawing in a gulp of air, she snapped her mouth closed and frantically tried to gather her composure.
Rhett dropped his gloves on a workbench, removed the helmet, and then strode toward them. His hair was even more tousled than usual, further ensnaring Cedar’s already discombobulated senses.
She’d known Rhett was physically fit, but seeing all those muscles on display, covered by a slight sheen of sweat was… oh, gracious. It was more than a girl who’d spent eight years focused solely on work could handle.
“Afternoon to the lovely Haynes sisters.” He smirked as he stopped in front of them. “You ever watch the movie White Christmas?”
Juniper giggled. “I have and that’s a funny reference, Mr. Riggs, but you really don’t want to hear the two of us sing.”
Cedar had no idea what they were talking about and didn’t really care. She was so distracted by Rhett looking like a mouth-watering morsel of temptation, she could barely remember her own name.
Rhett smiled at Juniper. “Call me Rhett, Miss Haynes. Now, what can I do for you ladies? Or is this just a social call?”
Juniper giggled again. The sound grated on Cedar’s nerves. When had her sister turned into one of those stupid girls that giggled like an idiot every time a good-looking, ripped, virile man spoke to her? She wanted to shake some sense into Juniper, but refrained since she desperately tried to pull the raveling threads of her own sense together.
“Actually, Rhett,” Juniper said in a soft voice as she glanced up at him, making her eyes appear wide and innocent, “we need a little assistance.”
Rhett’s teasing smile dropped and his gaze swiveled to Cedar. His intriguing green eyes swept over her from the top of her head to her boots and back up again, as though he felt the need to make sure she remained unharmed. “What do you need?”
The husky timbre in his voice as he spoke made Cedar’s knees wobble. Aggravated with herself, with her reaction to the man, she straightened her spine and raised her chin a notch. “My SUV broke down again. It’s about a half-mile down the mountain. Would you be able to tow it back here and see what’s wrong with it?”
“Of course,” Rhett said in a tone she couldn’t interpret as pleased or disappointed.
However, if Cedar wasn’t mistaken, he appeared relieved the problem was work related. “Here’s the keys,” she said, holding them out to him.
Their fingers brushed as he took the keys from her and the jolt of that brief touch seared through her all the way to her toes.
Juniper gave her a knowing look and subtly backed up a step.
“If you hang on just a sec, I’ll take you home.” Rhett hurried to lock up the garage, yanked on a coat, and then ushered them out the back door. He opened the passenger door to his pickup and Juniper practically shoved Cedar inside. Exasperated with her sister, but unwilling to make a scene, Cedar stepped up into the truck. When Juniper hopped in beside her, Cedar started to protest, but clamped her mouth shut as Rhett slid behind the wheel.
His arm bumped against her as he put the pickup in gear. He hit a frozen rut and she almost bounced onto his lap. Juniper stared out the window with her hand pressed to her lips, holding back a round of giggles.
Cedar wanted to smack her sister for her awkward matchmaking attempts. Especially when every brush, every inadvertent touch from Rhett, fired Cedar’s senses and left her reeling. This was ridiculous. After all, Rhett was no different than any other man.
Why, then, did just the sight of him, of that brooding look, pouting mouth, and head of tousled hair make her long for things she’d never have? Rhett wasn’t the set down roots and have a family type.
Was he?
No, he definitely was not. He was the town bad boy, out for a good time. At least that was the rumor, if one listened to the gossip floating around Faraday. However, Cedar had spent enough time with him to realize his reputation was nothing like the man who knew how to decorate a Christmas tree or arrange picnics in the snow.
Cedar took a deep breath and nearly choked on the scent of Rhett as it filled her nose. Blast it all, anyway! She should have insisted they drive Juniper’s car. They could be sipping hot chocolate in a bistro and laughing about one of Juniper’s loony clients. Instead, she was pressed against Rhett wondering if she could learn to trust him once she got around to forgiving him.
That was a decision for another day. For today, she just needed to survive this ride and go back to hiding in her house where the odds of running into him were nonexistent.
He drove up her lane, turned around, and stopped his pickup at the end of her front walk. “I’ll tow in your rig and let you know what I find,” he said, as though Cedar was just another customer.
