by Maisey Yates
If he thought back over the past few weeks, he realized they’d both been being particularly careful about their individual physical spaces. But they’d also worked together to get this store to where it was. Grant felt invested.
But being part of it came with her.
She opened the door and popped her head out. “What are you doing just standing there?”
“Thinking.”
“Well, you look like a creeper staring at me.”
Yeah, she was probably right. It shouldn’t amuse him. But it did, and instead of ignoring what he felt, what he wanted, Grant went ahead and said something completely and utterly out of character. “You’re not so bad to stare at.”
She looked at him like he’d lost his mind and he found he kind of liked it.
“What is with you?” she asked, as he followed her into the store. She stalked straight for a pile of stuff that had been delivered yesterday.
“My brothers asked me the same thing last night,” he said, considering the gardening supplies. And then her.
“Oh yeah? You have an answer for them?” She didn’t look at him.
“Not really. Not fully. I’m getting there though.” Yeah, he was getting there. It wasn’t just getting away from the ranch—though that was some of it. There’d been a noose around his neck, one he’d placed there himself, and stepping away from it had given him the slow realization of how little he needed it.
Part of it was the store stuff. He liked the planning and figuring out where things would go and what customers would like.
And then there was her. She’d dragged him to lunch with her brother. Forced him to dance with her at the bar. She was confident and straightforward—things he’d been missing himself for a while. But when it came to him, there was a very careful part of her. One that looked at him with enough trepidation to give his ego a boost.
Beyond that, she made him laugh, and it didn’t come with the strings his brothers did. Or even her brothers. Because he’d always been very aware that Beau and JT were conduits for their mother. Not that they didn’t care about him, but Mary Riley was part of it.
Pru never treated him like a project though. She’d put him to work because her mother wanted it, but she’d used him for her own sake. She’d treated him like she wasn’t afraid to break him, or ask too much of him, or like she needed to fix him.
She treated him like he was a man. One who hadn’t changed after his father had died. It reminded him of who he’d been. And in the reminding, he found himself stepping back into those old pieces of himself.
What do you want? All the people in his life he loved the most had asked him that lately.
But standing here in Pru’s store, with Pru staring at him like he’d grown two heads, he didn’t know what he wanted.
But he knew he wanted to stop being careful. Stop keeping his damn distance. So, he walked right up to her.
“What...are you doing?” she asked, backing away from him. For every step she took backward, he took another one forward, until she found herself backed into a corner.
“I’m going to kiss you.”
“What?” She slapped a hand to his chest, her eyes wide and panicked. “Oh my God. No, you’re not.”
He kept her cornered there, and though she had her hand plastered against his chest, she certainly wasn’t running away.
He angled his head just so. His hat was still on, so it created a little shadow around them. A tremor went through her and his mouth curved.
“Don’t you want me to?” he asked, softly, his mouth just a whisper away from hers.
She sucked in a breath, still wide-eyed. But she looked right at him. And said nothing.
Which made him grin. “Let’s give it a shot.”
CHAPTER SIX
PRU DIDN’T HAVE a chance to suck in another breath before Grant’s mouth was on hers.
His mouth. And it was an actual fantasy come to life.
Not that she’d ever imagined that he’d just walk up to her, slide his big, rough hand around the back of her neck, and kiss her. Like he was in charge. Like he knew what he was doing.
God, he knew what he was doing. Every last thought, rejection, and tension in her mind was simply melting away until she felt like little more than a puddle in his arms. Strong arms, strong body. He smelled like soap and sky.
His hands were on her face, his body was as hard and uncompromising as the wall behind her, and the taste of him was a dream. The rolling sensation of need and heat had to be a dream. This couldn’t be a real thing. A kiss had never made her feel like she was underwater, like nothing else existed.
A kiss had never shaken her down into her bones. Never made her hold on and let the road take her wherever. Anywhere. As long as his mouth was on hers.
When he eased away, she nearly went with him, before remembering herself. Before remembering him.
She was clinging to his shirt. His hat was still on, but had been precariously tipped back. And those blue eyes stared right at her. It felt like they stared into her.
She didn’t want that. She uncurled her fingers from his shirt, slowly rocked back on her heels, and leaned away from him. “I am very confused.”
He fixed his hat, and his expression was contemplative. “I’m not sure I can clarify it.”
“You kissed me. Like, in every definition of that word possible.”
“Yeah.” His mouth curved.
Who was this guy? He looked so damn pleased with himself. He’d had all these walls up when he’d first walked into her store in June, and slowly he’d begun to tear them down. Himself. He’d worked on himself.
It was terrifying to watch someone do that. To strip away their protections, to find a certainty inside themselves.
“Why did you kiss me?”
“Because I wanted to.”
“That’s not an answer.”
He shrugged. “Best answer I can think of.”
Under normal circumstances, Pru did not consider herself a coward. Even if she didn’t know how to fight something, she still powered through. More or less.
She had no idea how to power through this emotional tide inside of her.
“It was a good kiss,” he said. No question. No grin. No smirk. Just the look of a man who was quite satisfied with himself.
What on earth had happened? “Yeah, okay. But where did it come from?”
“I’ve been wanting to do it for a while.”
Her mouth hung open. For a while. What? What? “Why now?”
“My brothers surrounded me last night and demanded to know why I was so happy. I still don’t have all the answers to that. Part of it was letting go of the ranch, and the guilt that kept me so tied to it in the first place. Part of it was the store stuff, but part of it was you. I like you, Prudence.”
Pru didn’t think she breathed for a full minute. What even was breathing? He liked her. He’d kissed her. It did not compute.
“I thought I didn’t want any complications in my life, but the truth is, I was more comfortable wrapping the grief and overwhelming responsibility around me. But I’ve realized that I’ve avoided everything difficult or complicated in the name of a misplaced responsibility. I’m not interested in that anymore.”
“Well, I am.” She hadn’t meant to say it out loud exactly. But she wanted no misunderstanding. She’d upended her life, and she didn’t want to think of upending it any more. She wanted to get her store ready in time for the centennial, and then...
What was she supposed to do with some...guy? Some fantasy brought to life? Relationships required work. Give and take. She’d watched her friends struggle with anger and broken hearts and the sort of soaring joy that could only end by crashing to the ground in a million fiery pieces.
When you were alone, you could control all that. Avoid all that. That was what she wa
nted. The space to keep everything on an even keel and not feel like a kiss could break her to pieces.
He stepped forward and cupped her cheek with his hand. It was a sweet, gentle gesture that made her want to cry, of all damn things. “What complications have you had, Pru?” His words were as gentle as the hand on her face, because he was genuinely asking her. Not telling her she had it easy. Not surprised she didn’t have her act together.
She didn’t know how to answer that question. She didn’t want to answer it, and even thinking about it had tears stinging her eyes. Which was absolutely unacceptable. “What would my family think?” she said, instead of anything that answered his question.
“Does it matter?” His thumb brushed back and forth on her cheek as though that was normal and her heart fluttered like she wanted it to be.
Matter? She’d built her life around what they thought. She’d left Jasper Creek to make her parents proud. She’d been successful to prove to them they were right.
And then you came home when all of that turned out to be an empty shell.
But she’d done that for Hope. Not for herself. Doing it for herself would have meant there was too much at stake.
Just like there was way too much at stake in the here and now. Grant kissing her and acting like there was something to pursue here? No. It just wasn’t going to happen. She didn’t want it. Good kiss or not. Liking him or not. She didn’t want it. “I’m not interested in anything like this.”
“Okay.”
She blinked at his easy agreement. “Okay? Just okay?”
He dropped his hand from her face, finally giving her some space. “I like you, and I’m attracted to you. I’m definitely interested in seeing where that kiss leads, but if you’re not...” He shrugged. “You’re hardly the only attractive woman in Jasper Creek.”
The sound that came out of her mouth was an outraged squeak.
He seemed wholly unbothered. “So, are we setting up the gardening section today?” He gestured at her piles of stuff. Casually.
As if it didn’t matter. As if kissing her was the norm. As if being rejected was the norm and she was as easily replaced with Alice at the diner or Kit next door.
Which was good. Great.
I like you, Prudence.
Had anyone ever said something so simple and had it upend...everything?
But she didn’t want to be upended. He could totally go off into town and find someone else. She didn’t care.
Not one bit.
They worked together to set up the gardening supply area and when JT came to help out that afternoon, she was the only one who felt tense and awkward. JT and Grant joked around like old times and she...brooded.
When she finally got back to the farmhouse that night, all Pru wanted to do was hide. Maybe punch her pillow a few hundred times.
But her friends were gathered around the kitchen table, perusing those damn salmon recipes. Something held her in place, as though hands held her right there until she felt compelled to say something.
“I need an emergency meeting.”
Kit didn’t even look up. “Please see the rules about excessive and unnecessary meetings.”
“Grant kissed me.”
Chairs scraped against the floor and her three friends immediately got to their feet. It felt like the thing holding her in place gently let go because she was suddenly surrounded by her friends.
“Okay, no violation whatsoever,” Kit said, heading for the wine rack. “This is a very important meeting.”
Charity wound her arm around Pru’s waist and began to lead her to the living room. Hope grabbed her fudge and Kit pressed a large glass of wine into Pru’s hands.
Pru took a very long sip.
“So, what kind of kiss?” Charity asked.
“What do you mean what kind? The kind where his mouth was on my mouth.”
“Tongue?” Kit asked, which earned a shoulder slap from Hope.
Pru nodded. “Tongue. Touching.” She took another gulp of wine. “He said he liked me.”
“Why wouldn’t he like you?”
She didn’t know how to answer that question, so she ignored it. “I don’t know how to play dating games.”
“It doesn’t sound like he was playing games,” Hope replied. “I’d have thought you’d appreciate that.”
“Well, I don’t. At all.”
“Was he pushy?” Charity asked with some concern.
“No! I told him I wasn’t interested and he had the gall to say there were plenty of other women out there. The asshole.”
Kit snorted out a laugh, and Charity looked shocked to her core. Pru much preferred Charity’s reaction.
“You told him you weren’t interested,” Hope pointed out.
“I know.”
“What was he supposed to do? Cry?” Kit asked.
“I don’t know! He wasn’t supposed to kiss me or like me in the first place.”
“But you told me a few weeks ago that you liked him,” Hope said. “Too much. I don’t understand the problem.”
“I didn’t mean the kind of like I wanted reciprocated.”
“There’s a kind of like people don’t want reciprocated?” Charity asked, clearly confused.
But Kit was looking right at her, not confused at all. And it was that calm, insightful study that made Pru realize she’d made a giant tactical mistake. She should have never confided in her friends. This was why she hadn’t told them she’d been sad in California.
Because one of them would have been able to tell her why.
“There is if you’re Pru,” Kit said, never breaking eye contact with Pru.
The panic fluttered, so Pru tamped it down with anger and offense. “What does that mean?”
“It means nothing scares you more than something you want a little too much.”
“That isn’t true.”
Her friends exchanged uncomfortable glances, and Pru couldn’t believe this had somehow turned into some...confrontation of her own flaws.
“The ranch is the prime example.”
“The ranch? My parents wouldn’t give me a piece of it. How is that—”
“No, your parents told you they were splitting off portions for JT and Beau, but you’d get the same monetary value to spend on college. You never told them you didn’t want that. That you would rather have had a piece.”
“That wasn’t about wanting. It was about...” But Pru didn’t have the words to explain what she felt. She never did.
“Okay, maybe not. Parents are complicated,” Charity said kindly. “But then there was that co-op farm thing you wanted to be a part of during college, but you backed out.”
Pru gaped at Charity’s betrayal. “It was too risky! They needed a big investment, and I would have had to quit school.”
“Then there was Owen Landry,” Hope added, because of course they would all gang up on her.
“I did not want Owen Landry.”
“Exactly. Which is why you dated him for two years even though you never had any intention of marrying him.”
She had a million comebacks for that, but Pru had the terrible feeling they’d just keep finding more examples, and she didn’t want her smart, careful, and definitely not fear-based choices thrown at her. “This isn’t what I needed.”
“We’re sorry,” Charity said.
“Are we?” Hope asked. “I’m not. It’s time for some tough love, baby.”
“Well, you can all shove your tough love.” Pru got up, thought about leaving the wineglass behind, then snatched it up instead. “Right along with the salmon.”
“The truth only makes you run if you’re afraid of it,” Kit called after her.
Afraid? No, she wasn’t afraid.
And she’d prove it.
* * *
GRA
NT WAS PULLING UP to his ranch after a night watching the baseball game at the Riley ranch with JT and Beau when his phone rang. He took it out and didn’t recognize the number. But it was local. “Hello?”
“Hi.”
“Pru?” He didn’t get out of his truck like he’d planned. He sat there, engine still running, but he flicked the headlights off. “Couldn’t you text like a normal person?”
“You know I can’t use my cell phone,” she said, sounding irritable. “This is the landline here at the farmhouse.”
“Okay. What’s up?” There was a long pause that made him grin. “You want to talk about today?”
“No,” she said emphatically. “But can you meet me at the store?”
He could question that. He probably should question it. Make it harder on her, and on himself, before this went somewhere irrevocable.
But he didn’t. “All right. I’ll meet you there. Right now?”
“Yeah. Good. Great. Bye.”
He chuckled and ended the call. This was an interesting development. Deep down, he knew he should be more careful. There were the Rileys to think about, but wasn’t this whole...change about doing something for himself without worrying about everyone else?
He drove to town and didn’t let himself think too far ahead. They were just going to have a conversation. Maybe she was going to ask him not to help out at the store anymore.
For the first time since this morning, a real bolt of unease went through him. He really couldn’t imagine the Rileys turning their backs on him just because he got involved with Pru. They were too much like family. But he could see Pru barring him from the store and that was a surprisingly awful thought.
He’d grown to love the store.
He drove down a dark and empty Main Street and saw her truck parked in front. He pulled up his truck next to hers. There was one lone light on so he could see her pacing in and out of the shadows. Talking to herself. Hand gesturing.
She’d changed her clothes. Instead of jeans, a T-shirt, and boots that had been her uniform all these weeks, she was wearing denim shorts that showed off her long legs. Her tank top was the color of grapes and gave a glimpse of just how toned her arms were.