The Housekeeper's Daughter by Laurie Paige Page B

once more.
    Until lunch. Drake was in the kitchen when she and Andy entered with their three charges.
    â€œDrake,” Teddy shouted, so obviously happy to see his older brother it made Maya ache. “Can we practice roping after lunch? Johnny is going to try it, too, aren’t you?” he said to his newfound friend.
    â€œIndoor voice, please,” she reminded the youth.
    â€œOne hour of roping, then two hours of mucking the stables.” Drake grinned, looking so handsome it made the ache surge through Maya again.
    Really, she had to get over this roller-coaster emotional thing around Drake. When the baby was born, when she got her degree, when she left, things would be better.
    The thought of leaving caused a separate ache all its own. Catching Drake’s observant gaze on her, she put on a smile and supervised lunch.
    Drake gritted his teeth at the familiar clenching sensation deep inside each time he looked at Maya. He noted her ease with her fellow teacher and the way she avoided looking his way. Something hot and angry burned in him.
    He wanted to snatch her away from all other males, including the teenager who looked at her with adoration in his eyes and his younger brothers who vied for her attention like two pups wanting to be petted. But most of all, he admitted, he wanted her away from the other adult male who obviously had her complete trust.
    Silently, as if he were the outsider in the family, he watched the interactions of the others. The loneliness that was an ingrained part of his life, except for one magic week last summer, flooded through him. It collided with the unexplained anger that roiled through him.
    After the meal, the boys dashed outside to set up the sawhorses for targets, talking a mile a minute to their new friend. Drake followed more slowly, aware that Maya and the tutor hardly noticed when he left.
    Outside, he breathed deeply and wondered what the hell was wrong with him these days. His life had always been planned and on track. Until his father’s letter telling him about Maya and the baby.
    Hearing voices, he watched as Maya walked to the car with Andy Martin. Their heads were close together as they discussed their students’ progress for the day and made plans for next weekend. Without thinking, he strode closer.
    Neither noticed him.
    â€œLet’s meet in town Wednesday,” Andy proposed. “We can plan a course of study for the boys as well as Johnny.”
    â€œGood idea,” Maya agreed with a lot more enthusiasm than she’d shown to any of his suggestions.
    Drake strode forward. “Maybe you’d better select a wedding date while you’re so busy planning the future.”
    The silence was instant and absolute between the other two. Drake heard the prowl of the wind through the cottonwoods, the muted shouts of the boys from the corral, the plangent warning of his own heartbeat,telling him he’d made a terrible mistake. Hell, he’d known that before the words were out of his mouth.
    Before he could apologize, Andy stepped in front of Maya. “Maybe you’d better apologize to the lady,” he said, “before you eat your teeth.”
    Drake laughed at the idea of a teacher besting him, a Navy SEAL. “You’re going to make me eat my teeth?”
    The other man’s face flushed deep red. Drake changed his stance as the teacher assumed fighting mode.
    He readied himself for a charge, welcoming the demands of a tussle as he calculated his enemy’s next move. He needed action, anything but the impasse of trying to talk to the woman whose eyes expressed shock and horror as the fight progressed.
    The teacher charged. With a deft move, Drake simply flipped the other man into the dust.
    His satisfaction was short-lived as he realized he’d made another tactical error. Maya rushed forward, bending over Andy, her manner one of total sympathy.
    â€œYou brute!” She glared up at him.
    â€œI didn’t