by Liz Isaacson
He enjoyed the work, just as he’d told Emery, but the relentless way Mother Nature seemed to undo all of their hard work every day, only to require them to perform it again, could be exhausting.
Archer edged through the crowd until he stood just behind Emery. He leaned forward and whispered, “Dinner on Saturday night?”
She twisted to look at him, a light in her eyes she tried to mask unsuccessfully. “Sh,” she said with a smile.
Archer settled against the wall and folded his arms, a smile accompanying him while the boss continued with the schedule and directions. Jace dismissed the men after a recap of the standings, and Emery slipped away from Archer among all the bodies. Didn’t matter. He’d driven that morning.
Sure enough, she sat on his tailgate, her long legs swinging as she watched him approach. His heart thundered in his chest and he pushed himself up to join her. “Dinner on Saturday night?” he asked again.
“Sure.” She faced him for half a second. “Where do you want to go?”
He hadn’t actually thought that far ahead. He only knew he’d asked her out almost two months ago and they’d never gone. “Wherever you want.”
“The Spooktacular has a big food truck rally,” she said. “We could go to that, wander around the craft fair or something.”
He grinned at her. It was the “or something” he’d been dreaming about.
Emery wasn’t sure what was happening with her and Archer. He’d asked her out, but then never followed through. They spent a lot of time together as they drove to and from the ranch. He held her hand every day, and they spent an hour or so together in the evenings.
But they didn’t go out. They didn’t sit together at church the way most couples did. He didn’t do more than hold her hand, ever. No hugging, not even a little peck on her cheek. And she was starting to get frustrated.
She understood that they worked a lot, and neither of them had much money to go out very often. But she wanted a clearer line on where they stood, if she could kiss him whenever she wanted to, if they could hold hands outside the privacy of their cars.
Saturday night finally arrived, and Emery shimmied into her skinny jeans and put on a pink sweatshirt to ward off the near-winter chill. She slipped on her cowgirl boots with the pink stitching just as Archer knocked on the door and opened it. “Hey, there.” His gaze scanned her from the top of her head to the soles of her boots, practically devouring her.
She turned in a slow circle and held her arms out. “Festive enough?”
He laughed as he drew closer, the spark of desire she’d seen in his eyes ramping up to a full-fledged flame. “Not even close,” he said. “You realize most people will be wearing black or orange, right?” He fingered the sleeve of her sweatshirt and swallowed, a nervous gesture she’d seen several men do before talking to her.
Not that she’d dated much over the course of the past eight years. She had boyfriends in high school, but once she’d graduated, her responsibility to help Glenna had descended on her with the weight of a freight train.
She’d had lots of interest, sure, but word got around town that Emersyn Ender didn’t date, and the men had dried up. Archer obviously hadn’t gotten that memo, and Emery didn’t want him to get it.
“This is pink,” he said, his voice strained.
“I like pink.”
His fingers moved from her shirtsleeve to the ends of her curls. Though he wasn’t touching her skin, or her clothes, the intimacy between them jumped up a notch. “I like pink too.” Archer’s eyes drifted closed for a moment as he leaned closer and inhaled the scent of her skin. The brim of his cowboy hat bumped against her collarbone, and he took it off.
“I like it when you wear pink,” he whispered. His lips briefly touched her neck, and Emery had never felt such a sizzle. She’d frozen to the floor. The nearness of him made her head swim, and before she knew it, she’d reached up and put her arms on his shoulders.
“We should go, don’t you think?” His husky voice only made her want to stay, to define that line so she’d have a clear idea of what they were.
She reined in her feelings and stuffed them back into the hole where she’d kept them for so long. Emery moved toward the front door and opened it at the same time a terrific crash of thunder ripped through the sky.
Stepping onto the porch, she peered into the cosmos. Archer pressed up close behind her, both of his hands landing on her waist. She enjoyed this game, these soft touches and slow advances. She’d been on the dating bench for a while, but it felt good to be playing again.
“Maybe we should order pizza,” he said.
“I really want one of those foot-long corndogs.” She twisted and peered up into his handsome face. “Please?”
“I can make you a corndog in my oven. It’s going to snow tonight.”
“Let’s go quick then.” She jangled her keys. “Jenny loves the snow.”
He chuckled and gestured her down the steps. She drove over to the recreation center, where the food trucks had pulled into a tight circle so their awnings would protect customers. Hardly anyone had come, and Emery felt bad for the restaurant owners outside and the small businesses set up inside the building.
She got her corndog. Archer ordered one too, as well as a huge platter of curly fries. The wind whistled, and Archer turned toward her. “Can we go now?”
She took a big bite of her corndog and nodded. They’d made it about halfway back to her house when the first flakes of snow fell. Emery flipped on Jenny’s windshield wipers and exclaimed over the weather.
“You like snow?” Archer asked.
“Would I live in Montana if I didn’t like snow?” She giggled, happier than she’d been in a long, long time. She purposefully didn’t pull into her garage, all of her brain power focused on one thing: a kiss with Archer in the snow.
“What—?”
She jumped from Jenny and went out onto their shared front lawn, her arms spread wide, her head tipped back, the magic of the first snow of the season obviously infectious, because Archer joined her.
He laughed and twirled her around, bringing her back against his body. Archer swayed with her, gazing into her eyes. She closed hers and enjoyed the cold touch of snowflakes on her skin.
His warm hands cradled her face, and she opened her eyes only to dive right into the depths of his. “Emery,” he whispered.
She didn’t know what he was going to say, but she couldn’t wait any longer. She lifted up on her toes and pressed her lips to his. He only seemed startled for a second, and then he kissed her properly, his mouth moving in tandem with hers so effortlessly, so wonderfully.
True, Emery hadn’t been kissed in a while, but she was sure none of them had been this spectacular. She breathed in the masculine scent of his cologne, smiled against his lips, and kissed him again.
Chapter 7
Several days later, Emery’s phone rang before she’d gotten out of bed. Glenna’s name came up on the caller ID, and concern spiked Emery’s pulse.
“Glenna?”
“Sorry to call so early.”
“It’s fine.” Emery swung her feet over the side of the bed, a chill in the early morning darkness she definitely didn’t like about winter. “What’s going on?”
“I’m in the hospital.”
Emery’s vision faded to white, and she blinked to bring it back. “Are you okay?”
“My wheelchair skidded on the ice as I was going into work this morning.” She cleared her throat, the tears she was crying evident in the thickness of her voice. “I fell onto my side, and it took three people to get me upright. My whole right side is bruised, and I’m going to be here for a few days.” Soft sniffles and sobs came through the speaker. “I’m sorry, Emery.”
“It’s not your fault, Glenna.” Emery ran her fingers through her hair, trying to think. “I have to work today, but I’ll figure something out.” Her mind raced along the two-hour route to Spokane, the canyons and winding roads, the construction. Maybe
she could talk to Jace, get a few days off.
She wasn’t going to win the contest, that much had been made clear in the first week. But work was work, and she believed that doors would open if she put forth her best efforts and made the right connections.
The phone conversation lasted several more minutes, with Emery soothing Glenna until she felt like her sister had stopped crying. Emery had dressed during the call, and she hurried downstairs to put on her boots.
It was early—before seven still—but she went next door and knocked anyway. She paced away from Archer’s door, down the one step to the lawn, and back. She’d completed the circuit four times before a fresh-from-bed Archer opened the door.
She stared at him, struck dumb by his handsomeness—which seemed stupid really. She saw him every day. Had been kissing him before work and after work for a solid week. But this softer, rumpled version of Archer was so sexy Emery couldn’t even make her body do its involuntary functions.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, rubbing a hand through his messy hair. Emery wanted to do the same.
She shook her hormone-driven thoughts away. She was here about her sister. She needed help with Glenna.
“My sister needs me for a few days,” she managed to say though her throat felt like she’d swallowed cotton. “I’m going to call Jace and see if he’ll give me a few days off.”
Archer stepped out onto his tiny porch and drew her into his chest. Warmth emanated through the thin fabric of his shirt, and she inhaled deeply to commit the scent of him to memory. He was strong, and secure, and kind. Everything Emery wanted in her life. She’d enjoyed so much being able to have someone to talk to at night. And she was certain he was the best kisser in the whole state of Montana.
Her heart flopped in her chest, torn between him and Glenna. She didn’t exactly know when she’d given any of it to him, but she definitely had.
“I can talk to him if you just need to go,” Archer whispered, stroking her hair with one hand and pressing her into his body with gentle pressure against her back with the other.
Emery held onto him like she was drowning. “No, I can do it. I just wanted to let you know that I can’t drive today.”
He pulled back and looked into her eyes. A soft smile, filled with adoration, crossed his face. He tucked her hair behind her ear. “All right. Call me when you get to Spokane? I worry about Jenny on that road.”
She kissed him, pouring all her concern, her fear, into the gesture. He gladly took it, deepening their connection until she thought sure her body would combust from the slow, passionate heat of his mouth.
He pulled away roughly, his chest heaving. “Sorry,” he murmured, backing up a step.
But Emery wanted more. Not less. Not an apology. She put distance between them too, though, retreating from the porch as her hazed mind tried to reason. The chill in the November air helped, and she regained her control.
Archer wore an air of embarrassment, but he kept his gaze on hers.
“I should go,” Emery said.
He nodded, folding his arms across his chest as if cold. He probably was as he only wore that T-shirt and a pair of gym shorts. She returned to him, pressed a chaste kiss to his soft mouth, and said, “I’ll call you when I get to Spokane.”
She turned and went around the divider separating their front doors. Once inside the safety of her own house, she dialed Jace. He answered on the first ring, and she marveled that the man never seemed to sleep.
“Jace, it’s Emersyn Ender. I have a problem with my sister….”
Driving up to the ranch alone after two months of sharing the ride with Emery felt like torture to Archer. He’d pulled out her garbage can though it was only Tuesday and he’d stood in her garage, his mind circling that kiss on his front porch.
He’d gone too far, and he knew it. She hadn’t seemed to mind; it felt like she even wanted to push it farther. But she was distressed, not in her right mind, and Archer knew better anyway.
He pulled into the ranch, which held a skiff of snow on the ground, and went into the administration lodge. Elliott rose from a desk and gestured for Archer to come over. He did, taking a chair from a nearby desk and twisting it to face his friend.
“What’s wrong with Emery?”
“Nothing,” Archer said. “Her sister needed her in Spokane.” He studied Elliott, who didn’t seem like a gossipy man. “How did you know?”
“Jace called an early staff meeting and told us. Asked us to pray for her.”
Something touched Archer’s heart. The cowboys here really were family, and he wanted to be here so badly his throat burned. The fire moved into his chest, singeing everything it touched.
A voice whispered that he should call his mother and get across town to see his own family. Today.
Elliott stood. “C’mon. You’re with me today.”
Confusion shot through Archer. “I am? Why?”
“Jace wanted you to have an easy day, what with Emery’s situation and all.” He was acting like Emery had died or something.
Archer glanced around, and the ranch definitely had a more somber feeling today. He felt melancholy himself, only because of the intense worry in his gut. Help Jenny make it to Spokane, he prayed as Elliott said, “There’re doughnuts in the kitchen.”
After properly carb-loading, Archer spent the day working with the cattle they’d brought down from the upper fields. They’d spend the winter closer to the ranch’s epicenter, and they all needed to be accounted for.
The work was easy, if tedious, but also brought with it a heavy amount of cow dung. Archer thought he’d never get the smell out of his nose—or his clothes. Even Carrot Cake, who usually greeted him with a doggie smile and a wagging tail, retreated to the kitchen when Archer got home.
Emery hadn’t called, and worry seethed in his gut. Every time someone at the ranch had asked, he’d felt like throwing up. At first, he’d thought it was because he didn’t get great service up the canyon, but his phone still sat silent, no texts or missed calls coming through.
He plugged in the device and restarted it before going to shower. Finally clean and smelling more like a pine forest than a dung heap, he checked his phone.
Still nothing.
So Archer perched on the edge of his bed, his hair still dripping a little onto his bare shoulders, and called Emery. She didn’t answer, which didn’t exactly help the parade of animals moving through his stomach. His chest tightened, an invisible band of pressure threatening to cut off his air supply.
He was trying to figure out what to do next—jump in his truck and make the two-hour drive himself? Call his mom right now? Get down on his knees and pray?—when his phone rang.
“Emery,” he breathed into the phone. “I’ve been so worried.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t call.” She sounded like she was two light years away, not two hours. “I’ve had spotty service all day, and meetings with doctors, and I just realized that all my texts to you never went through.”
“You sound—how are things going?” She didn’t need to hear that she sounded stressed, harried, tired.
“Glenna is okay,” she said. “She’ll be here for a few days while they make sure she’s healing up right.” She paused, but Archer didn’t fill the silence. He sensed Emery had more to say.
“I’m bringing her home with me,” she finally said. “She’s in a lot of pain, and now she’s terrified to go into work.” Emery sighed, and not the happy blissful kind he’d heard her do after he’d kissed her. “So I’m going to go through her apartment and see what I can fit in Jenny. We’ll see if we can sell her apartment lease. And she’ll live with me until she figures out what to do next.”
Archer’s heart hurt for his girlfriend. “What can I do to help?”
“Well.” She cleared her throat, and all the emotion in that single word indicated that she was crying. The tense silence coming through the line confirmed it.
Archer wanted to be there with her so badly. He shoul
d’ve gone with her, and a rush of anger at himself flowed through him. “Hey, it’s all right,” he said quietly. “Okay, Em? It’s all right. What do you need?”
Sniffling came through the line, and Archer’s heart cracked. “I can be there in two hours. Let me pack a bag.” He stood, realizing he wasn’t even dressed.
“No,” she said. “It’s three hours with the blasted road construction. You don’t need to come.” She drew in a breath that shuddered even over the phone. “I’m going to need a lot of help with Glenna. She can’t navigate stairs.”
Understanding bloomed in Archer’s mind. “And all our bedrooms are upstairs.”
“Right.”
“I can carry her,” he said. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m pretty strong these days.” He smiled, hoping his bragging had prompted a smile from her too. “I mean, I can almost lift two hay bales now, just like some of the other cowboys.”
“Oh, I’ve noticed.”
He laughed, glad some of the seriousness was lifting. “So hurry up and bring Glenna home,” he said. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too,” she said, causing Archer’s spirits to soar. She certainly kissed him like she liked him, and he marveled that their friendship had morphed into something more so quickly—especially after she’d done something that had made him so angry.
But working with her up at the ranch had been…nice. A comfort, actually, even though he got along really great with everyone and enjoyed the work.
He got dressed and called his mother, the idea of her sweet and sour meatballs on his mind. She’d probably have a pot of soup on the stove though. She liked to make stews and chowders when the weather turned bad.
“Archer,” she said with a heavy dose of surprise in her voice. “How are you? How’s the ranch?”
“Great, Mom,” he said, his soul brightening. “Just great.”
“A couple more months until you know about the job, right?”
“Right.” He swallowed. “I was thinking of coming over tonight. My girlfriend—”