Janessa’s forehead bunched up. “You mean like genealogy?”
“More like local history. A legacy,” she emphasized. “It also raises money for charity. I obviously wasn’t born a Parkman, but it’s for Parkman spouses and ex-spouses, too. We usually have the meetings at 6:00 p.m. at the town hall, but we’re moving it to the morning because of some repairs that are being done. Please go with me.” This time there was a boatload of enthusiasm in Margo’s plea.
Janessa shrugged. “Maybe.” She paused and met Margo’s eyes. “You do know I might not be staying. If my mother leaves, I will, too.”
“Yes, I know, but let’s not think about that now. You’re going to love the Last Ride Society. I’ll make sure your name’s in the drawing.”
With her mood clearly much improved, Margo said goodbye and scurried off on those neck-breaking heels.
“Is it a bad thing that I’m in the drawing?” Janessa asked. “I won’t have to do something weird, will I?”
The entire Society was weird as far as he was concerned, but then he wasn’t into researching local history. Or researching tombstones. “I think for the most part, it’s just a social club.”
Obviously not for Margo, though. She tended to treat it more like a once in a lifetime production even though the Society held a drawing every three months.
“I had to deal with something at Bright Hope,” Janessa said, drawing his attention back to her. She lifted her phone to remind him of the call she’d gotten moments after Sophia had dropped the Janessa’s husband bombshell. “I also told them to be on the watch for Riggs just in case he’s stupid enough to show up there.”
“Since he was stupid enough to show up here, that was a wise move.” Brody reached for the doorknob again. A signal to Janessa that he really did need to go in and get started on work.
“It’s not what you think,” she blurted out. “My marriage, I mean.” She shook her head. “I mean, I’m not married. My divorce was final a month ago.”
Brody lifted an eyebrow. “A whole month.” And no, he didn’t pull back on the sarcasm.
“Yes, but it’s not what you think, either. Kyle and I split up six years ago, but we didn’t get around to filing for a divorce until recently.”
“That’s a long time to put off doing paperwork,” he said and left it at that. And it made him wonder why Janessa hadn’t pushed for it to happen sooner. Then he got a flash of Sophia’s smile when she’d answered with Janessa’s husband. “Let me guess. Your mother likes and approves of your ex? She didn’t want you to get divorced.”
“Oh, yes.” Janessa didn’t hesitate. “Liked, approved and thinks he’s perfect for me. He isn’t. We’re good friends, and we run Bright Hope House together, but we were never good marriage partners.”
Brody hadn’t actually met anyone who’d had an amicable divorce, but apparently Janessa had. “So, your mother told me about the ex in case I was thinking about going for a repeat of what we did the summer you stayed here?”
She didn’t hesitate with the nod, either. “My mom’s no stranger to divorce. She’s had four of them. Her own mother had three, and her father had six. Old money, privileged lifestyles, low tolerance for the dips and lows that come with relationships. I think Sophia was just hoping I’d stick it out and break what she calls the family curse. She definitely wants me to try to work things out with Kyle.”
Brody nudged aside the ping of jealousy he felt. “And what does Kyle want?”
“Not to work things out with me.”
She chuckled and lifted her face to the whirling fans. The chilly breeze kicked up, causing her blond hair to flutter against her neck and shoulders. It got his attention. So did the way her mouth opened slightly when she drew in a long breath.
And that made him stupid.
No way should he be thinking about or noticing such things, and that’s why he finally opened the door to his office. Something that Janessa obviously didn’t notice because she continued speaking.
“Kyle wants to move on with his life and get more serious about a woman he’s been seeing, but he plans to wait a while, until the proverbial ink has dried on our divorce,” she said. “I get that. My mother jumps from one relationship to the other, and I believe that’s a mistake.”
The heat from the open door spilled out onto them. Brody took a step to go in, then he stopped when he thought of something. “Does the lie that got your mom here have anything to do with your ex or the still-wet ink on your divorce?”
Janessa shook her head. “No. It has to do with the baby.”
“The one you’re adopting now instead of just fostering?” he concluded.
Her forehead bunched up again. “Well, actually I’m not adopting her. That’s the lie Kyle told my mother to get her to come here. He knew I was upset about what Abe did, and he was trying to help.”
Brody was sure his own forehead did some bunching. “I don’t follow you. Did Kyle lie to Riggs, too?”
“No. Riggs’s ex-girlfriend, Teagan, is giving up her baby, and she wants her older sister to adopt her. I mentioned that to you when you gave me a ride to Asher’s office. The sister is stationed overseas in the military so I agreed to foster the baby for a month or so until she gets back.”
Oh, yeah. He recalled Janessa saying that. “Sophia wouldn’t have come if you’d told her you were just fostering the child?”
“No way. My mother’s in the market for a grandchild. That’s another reason she wants me to stick with Kyle. She thinks it’ll be too long for a grandbaby if she has to wait for me to find someone else, fall in love, etc.” Janessa stopped, met his gaze. “I’ll have to tell Sophia the truth.”
Brody could tell that wasn’t going to be pleasant, but it was best if the truth happened sooner rather than later. Not just for Margo and Sophia but for everyone involved in this mess. It wasn’t good to have this hanging over their heads.
“When I tell my mother, I’ll try my best to talk her into staying,” Janessa added.
He heard the slight waver in her voice. Saw it on her face. That amazing face that had his number.
Hell.
He mentally ticked off all the reasons why he shouldn’t do what he was thinking about doing. At best, Janessa was only staying three months, and he didn’t want a fling. Didn’t want his heart stomped on again, either. Plus, there was the part about the ink barely being dry on her divorce. She’d said it herself that it wasn’t good to jump from one relationship right into another.
“You know,” she said, her voice like bottled sin, “if I were going to stay through the holidays, I’d kiss you and see where it goes from there.”
Like Sophia’s husband bombshell, that comment from Janessa hadn’t been anywhere on his radar. But, man, did his body latch on to that as a golden-ticket invitation that he should accept.
Brody considered his comeback options. It’d go nowhere was a lie. It’d lead straight to sex was stating the obvious. It’d be a mistake—again stating the obvious.
“All right,” she said when he was obviously taking too long to answer, “let’s go with an imaginary kiss. I’d like an imaginary hug, too, since it’s cold, and I could really use one. I’m betting you could, as well.”
A hug would probably also lead them straight to sex. Heck, merely looking at each other might do the trick. But somehow Brody managed to keep his feet planted because he knew one thing that was as real as real got. Janessa wouldn’t be staying for the three months.
“Hugging you now,” she said, not moving, either. But she did lower her gaze to his chest.
Brody could practically feel her sliding her arms, warm and silky, around him. He had no trouble, none, imagining how she’d fit against him. Once that image was burned into his head, his body filled in the rest. The rest being that the hug would quickly escalate with an even tighter grip. A kick of heat.
Then, a kiss.
He knew exactly how she tasted, knew how her mouth would feel on his. Some memories just stayed with you, and kissing Janessa was one of them.
Oh, man.
She could create so much lust with that mouth, and Brody knew if this were for real, he’d be diving in for more. Something long, deep and a final straw that would lead straight to sex.
Her lips parted when she drew in a slow breath. Yeah, that would have happened, too, with a real kiss. Maybe not much breathing, though. Air wouldn’t be as much of a necessity as was taking every inch of her mouth.
Of course, kissing would lead to touching, and with all the right signals, his hand would slide right down to her breasts. Would slide lower, too, while the kissing raged on. Until there was nothing left to do but to drag each other to the—
Brody cut off that thought before he got a hard-on. Definitely not something he wanted to experience with Janessa while they were on the porch and in broad daylight.
She seemed to do some thought-halting as well, and Janessa shook her head as if trying to clear it. But he saw the arousal on her face. Heard the too-quick rhythm of her breathing.
“Uh, I’ll just be going.” She fluttered her fingers in no specific direction, and with her breath gusting, she stared at him for several moments. “Going” she repeated, and she turned to limp away.
Brody watched her go. Felt those stupid parts of him start to beg again. And he cursed a blue streak.
Because without so much as laying his mouth or his hands on Janessa, he had just complicated the hell out of things.
CHAPTER SEVEN
WHILE SHE WAITED on hold for Kyle, Janessa walked across the bedroom to look out the window. She couldn’t think of it as her bedroom, but it’s where she’d slept that summer she had spent here. And it was where she’d stay for however long she ended up at Colts Creek.
She was still in the to-be-determined zone as to whether or not she’d make it the three months or if this would be her last morning at the ranch. Odds were it would be the last. But for now, she just held on to a tiny grain of hope that she could get Sophia’s help to fix things.
First, though, she had to deal with telling her mom the truth about the baby.
That hadn’t happened the day before because Sophia had gone to her room at the inn and immersed herself in getting the temporary restraining order for Riggs and starting the fight for Abe’s will. Janessa had texted her to arrange a meeting so they could talk, but Sophia had answered back, Too busy right now. Maybe tomorrow.
Well, it was tomorrow, and that talk was going to have to happen even if it meant going to the inn and pounding on her mother’s door.
Some movement in one of the corrals caught her eye, and she saw Brody. He had his forearms on the top of the fence and his right boot on the bottom railing while he and two other hands watched a pair of impressive-looking quarter horses meander around. Brody was impressive, too, in his faded jeans, dark blue shirt and buckskin jacket. The jacket was a reminder of the cold front that’d moved through during the night, and temps had dropped to the forties.
She kept watching Brody and got an instant reminder of the kiss. Well, the almost-kiss anyway. That imaginary kiss, and Brody, had been a huge part of why she’d had such a restless night. She had way too much on her plate right now to have sunk time into that kiss and let it spin her body out of control.
There was more movement, and she spotted Rowan coming out of the barn that was nearest to the house. He obviously spotted her, too, because he grinned, waved and then motioned for her to open the window. Janessa sandwiched the phone between her shoulder and ear so she could do that, and she immediately felt the gush of cold air push through the screen.
“You should bundle up and come out for a ride,” the boy called out to her.
She definitely hadn’t expected such an invitation, considering she could still give his brother the boot. “Maybe later,” she said and then added, “Thanks.”
“I’m working here part-time, and I’ll be around this afternoon. Tomorrow afternoon, too.” He paused. “Of course, if you decide you’d rather go riding with Brody, I’ll understand.” Rowan gave her an exaggerated wink.
Their conversation got Brody’s attention because he glanced at them from over his shoulder. No wink from him. He scowled and snarled, “Rowan, check on the mares in the east stable.”
Rowan didn’t lose his smile or enthusiasm. He gave her a quick wave and headed off at a pace that told her he had a lot more energy than she did at the moment.
“Sorry about the wait,” Kyle said when he finally came on the line. “Alisha tried to make a grilled cheese sandwich with her curling iron, and the smoke triggered the alarms. I had an armful of cats at the time because CeeCee has been hiding more strays, and the noise from the alarm caused one of them to scratch up my arm.”
None of what he’d said was unusual. Alisha had a penchant for setting off fire alarms with her cooking attempts, and CeeCee was probably on the path to either being a veterinarian or a future cat lady.
“Are the scratches bad?” Janessa asked, closing the window and giving Brody one last glance.
“Bad enough for Mildred to douse me with stuff that burned like hell.”
Again, that was usual. Mildred was a retired nurse who volunteered at Bright Hope, and she had all sorts of burning, stinging remedies.
“Anyway, I guess you’re calling to check about Riggs,” Kyle went on. “No sign of him here.”
“Good.” Janessa hoped it stayed that way. “How’s Teagan?”
“Worried. I had to tell her about Riggs, and she’s scared he’ll come here. I assured her I wouldn’t let the asshole inside, and no, I didn’t use the word asshole.”
Janessa made a mental note to call Teagan. In the five months Teagan had been at Bright Hope, Janessa had gotten fairly close to her. Not exactly a big sister kind of bond, but she might be able to soothe the girl’s worries.
“Did you get the budget paperwork I emailed you this morning?” she asked, moving on to something else that was on her to-do list.
“I did. Haven’t had a chance to look it over yet, but I’m sure we’re as broke as we usually are. How are things going there in cowboy world?” he tacked on to that without so much as a pause.
Oh, where to start. She definitely wouldn’t be mentioning the pretend kiss or her real lusting after one particular cowboy, but she could fill Kyle in on the rest.
“Sophia’s in Last Ride, and she’s staying at the inn, not here at the ranch. FYI, I’m still going to throttle you for lying to her.”
“Understood,” Kyle said with way too much peppiness that let her know no such throttling would occur. “When will you tell her the truth?”
“Soon.” Janessa checked the time. It was already past ten thirty, and even though her mother was probably sleeping in after putting in some long hours the night before on the legal stuff, she should be up by now. “After that, I’ll likely be on my way back to Dallas.” She paused. “You know, I could have been back there already if you hadn’t lied to my mother.”
“I know. And trust me, that was a huge sacrifice since I’m the one who has to deal with curling-iron grilled cheeses. But I figured it’d mess you up if you couldn’t save that part of the world. That’s what you do, Janessa. You save people and things. Me included.”
Janessa dismissed that. She hadn’t saved him. She’d merely gotten Kyle the help he needed when he was depressed and drinking too much. However, he was right about having this mess her up. She could dump the blame on Abe and his stupid will, but that wouldn’t stop her from feeling as if she’d failed. And because of the failure, so many people would lose what they loved.
“How’s the broken toe?” Kyle asked. “Will you be okay to drive?”
“It’s better.” Well, thanks to a steady dose of the over-the-counter meds, it w
as. As for the driving, Janessa hadn’t tested those particular waters today. “If I start hurting, I’ll just pull over and wait until the pain stops.”
Of course, that meant it could be a very long drive to Dallas. Sophia would probably insist on Janessa going back with her and offer to make arrangements for someone else to bring her car back. But Janessa didn’t especially want to listen to Sophia lecturing her for four hours about the lie that had gotten her to come here.
“I have to go,” she said when there was a knock at her bedroom door. “I’ll let you know when I’m heading back to Dallas.”
She ended the call, went to the door and was surprised when she saw Margo. The woman was wearing a corn-colored dress and burnt orange heels and hat. She looked like a walking advertisement for Thanksgiving. A reminder that it was only a few weeks away.
“Are you ready to go?” Margo immediately asked.
Janessa shook her head and started flipping back through all those mental notes to figure out what she was supposed to be ready for.
“The Last Ride Society drawing,” Margo supplied before Janessa could come up with the right note.
Oh, that. She hadn’t given Margo a confirmed yes that she’d attend, but obviously the woman thought she had.
“We need to hurry or all the snickerdoodles will be gone. Alma’s putting them out before the meeting,” Margo added, reaching to take Janessa’s hand.
Janessa held her ground. “I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to go. I need to talk to my mother at the inn.”
“Sophia will be at the drawing. You can talk to her there.”
That caused Janessa to do a mental double take. “My mother’s going? Why?”
“Because I invited her. We had the best chat over coffee last night.” Margo chuckled. “Abe was probably turning over in his grave at having his exes roast him.”
That required another double take. She couldn’t imagine why Sophia would have had a best chat with Abe’s second wife. Then again, both Margo and Sophia were trust-fund babies so it was possible they’d once traveled in similar social circles. It seemed a little icky to Janessa, though, that they’d bond over ex trash talk.
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