“She’s doing fine,” Chris assured her.
“Good, good.” Jeannie turned to me. “And how are you, Kate? This guy treating you right?”
“He is.”
She winked. “Just checking. I’ll leave you be. I just wanted to say hi. Enjoy your dinner and tell Sandy we were asking about her.”
“I will,” Chris promised.
The appetizers were delicious and incredibly filling. “I don’t remember their appetizer platters being quite so big,” Kate commented, dipping a perfectly crisped mozzarella stick into a tomato-based sauce while mentally attempting to identify the blend of herbs to re-create later.
“Jeannie automatically doubles the size of my orders,” he confessed. “Sandy started it. She said it saved everyone time.”
“Nothing wrong with a hearty appetite. Are you as voracious about other things?”
There was that boldness again, rising from the depths without warning.
He didn’t answer at first and then said very quietly, “There are some things I don’t think I could ever get enough of, Kate. One of them is sitting across from me right now.”
This. Man.
She sucked in a breath, thrilled with his answer. It took her a moment to find her words. “You know, I was kind of thinking the same thing about you.”
His gaze grew more intense and then cooled.
“What just happened?” she asked, fascinated and disappointed at the same time. “Your eyes—they were so hot, and then they went cold.”
“Kate ... I meant what I said, but ...”
“But what?” she pressed.
“I wasn’t kidding when I told you I can be single-minded when it comes to certain things.”
“Certain things. Things like ... me?”
He nodded. “I’m concerned that, if we take things further, I won’t be able to dial things back. I’m not sure you’re ready for that or even if that’s something you want.”
He’d said something similar at Andy’s.
“What if you’re the one who decides that I’m not what you want?”
He shook his head. “Not gonna happen.”
“How can you be so sure? I mean, you hardly know anything about me.”
“I know that you’ve got the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met. I know I’ve never come across anyone who makes me feel the way you do. I know I can’t stop thinking about you and how, when I kiss you, it requires every ounce of self-discipline I have not to throw you onto the nearest surface and make you scream my name until you forget every other.”
Kate had thought she was speechless before, but it was nothing compared to how she felt after hearing that. Her nipples tightened, and the area between her thighs throbbed in synchronization with the pounding of her heart. Graphic images flashed through her mind, explicit visions of him doing exactly what he’d described. The only words that came to mind were, Yes, please, and, Now.
The look in his eyes kept her from saying anything. He wanted her—of that, she had no doubt—but he was also warning her. He was letting her know he wasn’t interested in a casual fling and that, if they did take the next step, there would be serious consequences.
He meant what he said, and he said what he meant. She could do no less.
“I understand.”
Chapter Fifteen
Mad Dog
A week later, Mad Dog still wasn’t sure what Kate was thinking because she hadn’t given a firm yay or nay one way or the other.
After he’d issued his dire warning, the evening had taken a somber turn. They’d still talked and enjoyed each other’s company, but the air had been heavier between them and lacked the fun, lighthearted, sexy vibe they’d been sharing up to that point.
He couldn’t say it was a bad thing because he wanted her to understand. For her to have enough information to make a deliberate, informed decision with eyes wide open. Full disclosure.
That didn’t mean he wasn’t second-guessing himself. He was.
In retrospect, maybe he shouldn’t have been as direct. Maybe he could have chosen a better time and place. Maybe he should have just kept his mouth shut and let the chips fall where they may.
But hell, he couldn’t do that. Kate had to know what she was getting into before things went too far. If, after serious consideration, she decided she couldn’t deal ... well, he didn’t want to think about that.
They were still communicating via text, but the context had changed. No more pictures of her in PJs, only pictures of the dogs and some of her “food experiments,” as she called them.
What did that mean? Was she keeping things chill until she made up her mind? Or was that her subtle way of telling him that she had made up her mind and wasn’t interested in taking things further?
And who the fuck was this Luther guy, really? Either Sam or Sandy—he couldn’t remember who—had mentioned him once before, but Mad Dog hadn’t been as invested then as he was now.
Was Renninger still sniffing around Kate? She’d said he wasn’t an issue, and Mad Dog trusted that was the case with her, but he didn’t trust that it was the same with him. No man in his right mind would simply walk away from a woman like Kate.
Also, had Kate been the one to end things, or had Renninger?
Mad Dog didn’t know. What he did know was, he was losing his fucking mind, asking himself questions.
He was in a sour mood when he entered the main building with the completed plans for the greenhouse and a preliminary design to convert one of the larger outbuildings into a fitness center. Seeing Cage waiting for him did nothing to improve it.
“Good, you’re here. Briefing in the war room.”
“About what?”
“The mines.”
Annoyed that his coffee and muffin would have to wait, Mad Dog walked with him. Everyone else was already assembled, and the serious looks on their faces didn’t bode well.
Church waited until he took a seat to begin. “Cage and I went to check out the mine entrance you’d told us about.”
Mad Dog nodded. He’d expected as much.
“When you were there with Kate, how far into the mine did you go?”
He thought about the short distance from the entrance to the chamber where the dogs had been. “About a hundred feet, give or take.”
“No farther?”
“No. Why?”
Church and Cage exchanged a look.
It was Cage who replied. “Because it goes a hell of a lot deeper than that.”
Church explained, “We believe the chamber you were in was a waiting area where workers would gather for the next car to take them down into the mines. There are sections of track buried just beyond, and we followed them to where they split. The left branch led to a cave-in. The right didn’t.”
Cage nodded and took up the tale. “It was fucking eerie, man. Like stepping back in time into some kind of underground temple or something. Massive open areas with columns and pillars of coal with more tunnels shooting off in different directions. We found mine carts, oil lamps, even a couple bird cages.”
“Bird cages?” Heff asked.
“Coal miners used to carry canaries into the shafts with them to detect toxic gases, like carbon monoxide,” Doc explained. “Birds are more sensitive to that kind of thing and served as an early warning system. If they dropped dead, the miners knew there was a problem.”