Her Secret Valentine. Cathy Gillen Thacker

the driveway of the farmhouse. He stopped in front of the two-car garage and hit the automatic door button.

      “That’s the least of my worries,” Ashley muttered as she watched the door lift.

      Cal steered his SUV into the garage. He frowned as he cut the motor and depressed the remote control. “Did someone say something to you tonight?”

      Ashley got out of the Jeep, aware the jet lag she had felt earlier had vanished in the face of her anger and disappointment. She watched his face as she waited for him to join her at the door to the softly lit interior of the house, wishing he weren’t so darned handsome and appealing. It would make it so much easier to stay angry with him. “Did you expect them to?”

      Cal unlocked the door and held it open for her, turning sideways to let her pass. Their bodies brushed lightly, igniting her senses even more. “I know my family can be a bit overwhelming, all at once.”

      Ashley put her purse on the kitchen counter and pivoted to face him. She had to tilt her head back to see into his penetrating gray eyes. “Tell me something, Cal. Whose idea was it for you to come to Hawaii early and surprise me?”

      The guilt she had hoped desperately not to see flashed across his face. His fingers tightened on the keys in his hand. “You heard about the Hart posse coming to see me,” he surmised grimly.

      She had now. Wondering just how deep his family’s interference in their marriage went, Ashley folded her arms in front of her. “I’d like to hear it from you,” she retorted, just as quietly.

      Cal shrugged as if the incident were so insignificant it had barely registered on his radar screen. “It was suggested to me that I might want to do a better job of taking charge of our…situation…and bring you home.”

      Her spirits deflated even more. “So that’s the only reason,” Ashley presumed, the knowledge blindsiding her.

      Cal clamped his hands on her shoulders, preventing her from running away. “No,” he corrected with exaggerated patience. “I flew to Hawaii because you’re my wife, and I’m your husband. And I thought you could use some help packing up your belongings, shutting off utilities and turning over your apartment.”

      How…romantic. Ashley struggled to contain her zigzagging emotions, even as she wondered when the last time Cal had said he loved her had been. Six months ago? A year? Longer? With effort, she kept the too-casual smile on her face. “Be honest with me, Cal. Would you have come and gotten me if your family hadn’t intervened?” she demanded.

      Cal released her as suddenly as if she had burned him. He leaned against the opposite counter and watched her in that strong, silent, aloof way of his. “Originally, I was planning to let you come home on your own timetable,” he said eventually.

      “And then you changed your mind,” Ashley ascertained, aware neither of them had yet taken off their winter coats, and yet she still felt chilled to the bone in the cozy warmth of the farmhouse.

      Cal gestured off-handedly, not about to apologize for what he had or had not said or done. “Look, I didn’t ask for their interference, but what they were intimating made sense.”

      Feeling the sting of tears behind her eyes, Ashley turned away from him. She didn’t know what it was about her lately—maybe it was the wealth of life-determining decisions ahead of her, or her continuing emotional distance from Cal—but she was so much moodier than usual!

      “Where are you going?” Cal demanded in a low, gruff voice when she headed for the hall that ran the length of the house.

      Ashley shrugged as she removed her black wool coat. “Does it matter?”

      “Hell yes, it matters.” In three long steps, Cal had overtaken her. He shackled her wrist, stopping her flight. She whirled toward him and they stared at each other in silence. “You don’t believe I had our best interests at heart, do you?” he said quietly.

      Achingly aware of the warmth of his fingers lightly encircling her wrist, Ashley drew a deep breath. “I think your family wants us to be together—here in Holly Springs—and you want to please your family.” Just like I want to please mine. She swallowed around the rising lump in her throat. “So it’s only natural—”

      Cal’s lips thinned. He shook his head at her disparagingly and tightened his grasp on her wrist. Swearing passionately beneath his breath, he steered her through the house to the door leading to the backyard. “Enough of this baloney!”

      Ashley trembled as he struggled with the deadbolt on the door and yanked it open. “What are you doing?”

      “Exactly what it looks like!” Cal said as he switched on the backyard lights. He took her out onto the deck, down the steps and onto the lawn. “I’m taking you to the barn!”

      Chapter Four

      “I don’t know what has gotten into you,” Ashley fumed as Cal charged through the floodlit darkness of the backyard to the barn a hundred yards away.

      He gave her a wickedly teasing look. “A little John Wayne perhaps? And for the record,” he wrapped an arm about her waist, tucking her into his side, “it’s long overdue.”

      “It is not!” she told him with a determined toss of her head. She dug in her heels, flung off his arm and turned to face him. “And you can not do this!”

      He lowered his face until they were nose to nose. “Want to bet?”

      Ashley’s heart pounded in her chest. She stabbed a finger at his chest, trying not to notice what a beautifully sculpted body he had. From his broad shoulders and well-muscled chest to his narrow waist and long legs, there wasn’t an inch of him that wasn’t fit and toned to the max. “I mean it, Cal.”

      He inclined his head at her, just as stubbornly. “So do I,” he told her in a voice that brooked no dissent. “I don’t care if you like it or not, Mrs. Hart.” He drew in a slow breath and stayed just exactly where he was. “You’re coming with me and you’re coming right now.”

      The next thing she knew, he was swinging her up into his arms and striding across the lawn.

      “The last time you did this was on our wedding night!” Ashley said breathlessly.

      He grinned with customary self-assurance. “You planning to give me one of those?”

      Ashley tried not to notice how the skirt of her dress was riding up her thighs, or how his powerful arm felt clamped beneath her hips. “Not tonight I’m not!” She wiggled in an attempt to get free. “Not after this!”

      Oblivious to her machinations, he regarded her with a mysterious glint in his eye. “We’ll just see how romantic you’re feeling in a minute,” he murmured huskily. He set her down in front of the double barn doors and opened the latch.

      Once used to store farm equipment and fruit from the orchards, the big, red-sided building had been empty the only other time Ashley had been to the farm. She discovered it wasn’t empty now as Cal hit the switch that brought on the overhead lights hanging from the rafters. A lawn tractor, hand mower and edger occupied one corner. But it was what was in the center of the cement-floored space that left her speechless.

      “Oh, my…” Ashley stared at the big red heart on the windshield of a red ’64 Mustang convertible in letter-perfect shape, from the pristine retractable white top and fancy silver wheel covers, to the candy-apple-red vinyl interior. It looked like the borrowed vehicle they’d had their very first date in.

      Still watching her carefully, he took her gently by the hand, and led her toward the car. “Happy early Valentine’s Day,” he said when they neared. Wrapping both hands around her waist, he brought her close enough to kiss her temple affectionately. “This is for you.”

      She stared at him in amazement.

      “You bought this for me?”

      “For us. Yes.”

      “But