Page 52 of Rocky Mountain Desire
She’d finished making the toast and the eggs, dishing them up by the time he’d rushed through his shower. Full cups of coffee, full plates of food—it was homey and yet nothing felt uncomfortable about the situation.
“You okay with me coming over at the end of your workday?” he asked before scooping up a forkful.
Hope looked up from her coffee, heat and happiness there for him to see. “More than okay. I’m done…oh,shit.”
“What?”
She coughed and stared out the window, cheeks turning bright red. “You’re not going to like it.”
He waited.
“I have to give sewing lessons tonight.”
Shit was right. But not the end of the world. “When are you done? I’ll come over later. If you don’t mind my truck being outside your place, I’d love to stay the night with you.”
“It’s not that, and hell, yeah, you can stay, but the lessons—” She jerked off mid-sentence and literally squared her shoulders before continuing. “Now don’t go all caveman on me. The lessons tonight are for the Thompson boys. We set this up a week ago. For them to start on their quilt for the raffle.”
In spite of being prewarned,caveman urgesas she called them rose, and he slapped them down, deliberately drinking some coffee instead of swearing his fool head off and calling Clay unmentionable things. A few seconds later, he was in control enough to lower his cup and nod slowly.
“Okay. What time will you be finished?”
Hope blinked. “Okay? That’s it?”
“What, you thought I’d forbid you to go near the smartass wrench-monkey?”
She fought to keep from smiling, the edges of her lips twitching. “Yeah…”
Matt patted himself on the back mentally for keeping his cool and making points on this one. It just might be enough to smooth things over when she found out that he and Clay had tussled at the gas station last week. “Nah. Remember, I said I’m only a demon-obsessed male in the sack. You ain’t going to be sewing these quilt squares then testing them out in the bedroom, are you?”
She snorted. “I think I’ll probably be teaching them how to thread a machine tonight. Maybe straight stitching.”
All of a sudden the room got a whole lot brighter. Matt was going to have to remember to kiss his mama an extra time or two. “Oh, the simple stuff. Yeah, might take those boys three or four lessons to get that figured out. Us Colemans—we can get right to the interesting stuff.”
A puzzled expression crossed her face. “I thought you didn’t know how to sew?”
“Are you kidding? My mom taught us every damn thing there was to know about housekeeping—cooking, laundry, sewing. And there’s more stuff to fix around the ranch that requires stitching than you’d think, including saddles. Just hasn’t been on the top of my list since I started working the ranch full time.” He leaned forward and put a finger to his lips. “Travis even knows how to knit, but if you tell him I told you, he’ll wring my neck.”
“Travis? Knits? The boy wonder with women can turn a heel?”
Matt snorted. “Knit, pearl, all that shit. Ma worked on teaching all us boys one winter, but he was the only one who figured it out. The twins were too busy trying to kill each other with the knitting needles and us older crew were already tainted enough to think it was too girly a task to put the energy in. But sewing? We can all do the basics.”
Hope grabbed his plate and stacked it with hers, rising to help him clear the table. “I was sure you said you could barely use a needle and thread—that night I went off the road.”
Matt shook his head. “You expected me to confess I can sew in front a room full of ladies? I ain’t that brave.”
He caught her at the counter, taking her in his arms and kissing her like he’d been dying to all meal. She hesitated for the first second then got right into it, tangling her fingers in his hair, stroking his beard.
They split apart for air long before he wanted to. He cupped the back of her neck, thumb rubbing her pulse point lightly. She swallowed hard, her pupils huge. “Don’t you start something we don’t have time to finish, Matt,” she warned.
“Not planning on finishing it. Just priming the engine, so you run good and hot all day. By the time you get back to your apartment, you’re gonna have no reason to disobey when I tell you to strip naked.”
She lowered her lashes, but her smile got wider. “You’re a dirty man, Matt Coleman.”
“And you like that very much.”
Hope nodded.
Matt pulled on his winter gear, went outside to start her beast of a truck and let it warm up for a bit. She planted a final toothpaste-minty kiss on him before slipping a key into his glove and batting her lashes. “I’ll be home for sure by nine thirty. Make yourself comfy. You know, maybe you need to be the one naked when I arrive.”
