“Which brother are you closest to?”

His ears vaguely acknowledged the question, but his mind was otherwise engaged. It took him a moment to remember to answer her. “Neither of them are close. They’re both down at the shore, fishing, trying to impress the girls by outdoing one another,” Adam murmured. And thank God for that, he told himself. All day he’d been hoping for a few moments alone with Marilee without his brothers’ hi-jinks interfering. He pulled in a deep breath, taking in the scent of her hair. Could a woman’s hair have its own scent? He swore Marilee’s did. He leaned closer.

“No, silly. I mean, which one are you closest to?”

He made another half-hearted attempt to concentrate on what she was asking, but found it even more difficult now that he’d caught sight of the wisps of hair that had freed themselves from the loose bun on top of her head. They floated on the light breeze like spun gold, angelic filaments of sunshine-filled air. He reached out a hand to touch the floating wisps, marveling at their softness as they twined about his fingers.

She laughed and pulled away. “Oh, no, you don’t, Adam Cartwright. You won’t distract me, not this time. I’d really like to hear your answer on this.”

He frowned, dragging his gaze from the sundrenched honey of her hair to her expectant face. What was the woman prattling on about? Normally, Marilee Sutton wasn’t the sort of girl to engage in the sort of nonsensical chatter that many young women seemed driven to indulge in. Her conversation usually dwelled on things of import—national affairs, art, politics, that sort of thing. Usually, he was more than happy to sit with her for hours as they spoke of everything under the sun. Her ability to carry on intelligent discussion was one of the things that drew him to her.

His eyes dropped to the pink fullness of her lips. Right now, though, under the mild warmth of a sunny day, with the aroma of honeysuckle blending with the fragrance that was peculiar only to pretty Marilee, he was drawn to her for reasons that had nothing to do with either her conversational abilities or her intelligence.

With a single step he closed the space between them and found himself pressing his face gently against her hair. Her gasp and the soft laughter following it didn’t sway his intent; unfortunately, her intent wasn’t swayed, either. She pulled away again, taking his hands and facing him fully.

“I’m serious, Adam.”

“So am I,” he rumbled. He tried again to tug her into his arms, but she was having none of it. Laughing, she extricated herself from him and moved to stand beneath the shade of a huge cottonwood.

What in blazes? It wasn’t the first time he’d tried to kiss Marilee. On the contrary, he’d kissed her many times over the past several weeks, kissed her hard and deep, and her response each time had given him no question that she welcomed those advances. Now they had a few moments of relative privacy as they walked along the quiet fringes of a Sunday picnic, far enough from the crowd lolling under the pines near the lake’s edge that kisses could be stolen without anyone seeing, and she wanted to waste time playing coy? It wasn’t like her.

Frowning, he followed her beneath the tree, his male pride beginning to feel a bit stung.

As was his way, he wasted no time getting to the point. “What’s wrong?”

She grinned. “Nothing. For once, I’m just not letting you get away with not answering my questions. You’re very bad about that, you know.”

That took him aback a bit. “I am?”

“Yes. You are. For such a forthright man, you have an extremely deft hand at changing the subject when you feel your privacy is in danger of being invaded.” Her face grew serious. “I want to know more about you, Adam. I want to know everything there is to know.”

He smiled, and pulled her to him once more. “And I want to know everything there is to know about you. Teach me, Professor Sutton.” And he captured her mouth with his, gratified to hear a small sound of pleasure rise from her throat. As he deepened the kiss, though, she turned her face away and pushed against him.

“I told you, Mr. Cartwright,” she said in mock severity, waving an admonishing finger at him. “This time I intend to keep you to the subject at hand.” She smiled, but she continued to hold him at bay with one hand pressed against his chest.

He sighed, and slid down to sit at the base of the cottonwood. “Fine,” he said, trying to keep the impatience out of his voice and knowing he wasn’t succeeding. There was no telling when they’d have another chance to be together when her father or brothers—or his brothers, for that matter—weren’t looking. Ah, well. A man could never hope to guess what drove the moods of women.

She sat down next to him. For a few seconds they sat in companionable silence, the voices and laughter of the other picnickers drifting faintly up the slope to them. Small groups of people relaxed on blankets laid upon the thick, soft sand that lay along this part of the lake’s shore; a few had braved the cold water, petticoats and skirts hitched up, trousers rolled to the knees as they waded with shrieks and laughter. Further out from the water’s edge, Joe and Hoss had made their way out to a mass of large boulders. They sat there now, intent on outfishing one another in what was no doubt another ill-born competition, a small crowd at their backs cheering wildly as they hauled in one fish after another.

“So which is it?” Marilee asked after a time.

“Which is what?”

Marilee blew out a breath. “Are you trying to exasperate me?”

He eyed her warily. “Can we get back to kissing if I say yes?”

“Absolutely not.”

He sighed again. “Then, no. Of course I’m not trying to exasperate you.”

“Well, that’s a relief. You’ll answer the question, then?”

His brow wrinkled in abject confusion and he wondered if Marilee had perhaps had too much sun today. “What question am I supposed to be answering?”

The sound that rose from her throat this time was nowhere near as appealing as the one he’d heard while they were kissing. In fact, if he didn’t know better, he’d swear she was starting to sound quite annoyed. He jumped when she swatted him with one of her gloves.

“You’re purposely being obtuse,” she snapped.

“I’m not purposely being anything,” he said.

She sighed. “Don’t you want me to get to know you better, Adam? You’ve been courting me for some time now. I’d like our relationship to become closer. Don’t you want that too?”

He nodded. “Oh, yes, Miss Sutton, I’d like that very much,” he said huskily. He leaned in close, but one small palm turned him resolutely away from his target once again. He sighed again and leaned back against the tree, rather proud of the way he resisted banging his head in frustration against its rough bark.

“What is it you want to know?” he said finally.

She smiled. “I want to know which brother you feel closest to. Hoss or Joe?”

He turned to look at her, brows furrowed together. “What kind of fool question is that?”

She frowned. “I don’t consider it a fool question.”

“Well, it is.” He knew he was being insulting, but she’d seriously annoyed him. “Why would you want to know something like that, anyway?”

Apparently she knew she’d displeased him, for she softened him up by taking his hand in hers and scooting closer.

“Come, Adam, I’m curious, that’s all,” she said quietly. “Everyone knows how close the three of you are. People say you’d kill for your brothers, and they for you.” She hesitated, and added in a low voice, “Some say you already have. Killed for one another, I mean.”

He didn’t answer. Some things didn’t bear talking about, no matter who was doing the asking.

She continued gamely on. “It’s just something I’ve been wondering about for awhile now. I watch you with them both, and it’s like I’m witnessing a…I don’t know, an indescribable bond of some kind. Something almost frighteningly strong. As if they are your strength and your weakness at the same time. And you are theirs.” Together, they watched the two men on the rocks in the distance, one figure slim and wiry, the other wide and intimidatingly large. “I watch you sometimes with Hoss, and it’s like you know each other so well. As if you each know what the other is thinking even without words. And I think, ‘Hoss is closest to him’. And then I see you with Joe, and I see the protectiveness you feel for him, and the way he needs you even when he sometimes pushes you away. I see your frustration when he disagrees with you, and your fear when he is in danger. And I think, ‘Joe is closest to him’. I can’t seem to figure it out.” She stopped talking, and they sat in heavy silence.

“And why is it important that you ‘figure it out’?” he asked finally.

She shrugged. “As I said, I want to know everything about you. Finding out which brother you feel closest to just seems like a good way of seeing into your heart, I suppose.” She looked up at him, her expression uncertain. “Are you angry with me for asking?”

He shook his head and let one corner of his mouth slide up. “I still think it’s a fool question, but no, I’m not angry with you.” He looked out at the lake where the crowd was applauding Hoss’s latest catch. His gaze didn’t stray from the antics out on the lake when he spoke again. “If you were to ask me which I’d rather part with, my heart or my lungs, what do you think I’d say? Or say you were to ask me whether I’d rather lose my left eye or my right. What should my answer be? Which one do you think I’d have the greatest attachment to?” When she didn’t answer, he turned to face her, and waited.

She gave him a small smile. “I see what you mean. It was a fool question, wasn’t it?”

He winked and smiled back before turning once again to watch his brothers. They were wrestling out on the rocks now, and anyone could see what the result of that was going to be. The two of them would have a long, wet ride back home this afternoon.

“Adam?”

“Mmm?” Well, he wasn’t going to loan either of them his jacket. If they were foolish enough to—

“I’ve got another question.”

Cautiously, he gave her his attention. “What is it?”

“Would you kiss me?”

He grinned. “Now that is an intelligent question,” he said, and promptly rewarded her for being such a smart girl.
The End