by Emmy Eugene
She pressed her eyes closed, glad Isaac was in town tonight so he wouldn’t witness her crying over a lost ring.
“It’s not just any ring,” she told herself. Now, where had she been the last time she’d noticed the ring?
She’d had six piano lessons that afternoon, and she definitely remembered looking at the emerald while she played a duet with little Elijah Morgan. So it had to be right here, in the house.
She turned to the piano studio where she taught. It was right inside the front door, and she loved the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that held all her music. Loved the rug she’d bought at the downtown market in Chestnut Springs. Loved the bright pink couch she’d inherited from her mother, who’d inherited from her grandmother.
She ran her fingers along the top of the couch, her thoughts on her family. They’d help her find the ring. After looking along the piano board and not finding it, she got down on the floor to look under the grand piano.
Searching, she swept her eyes all along the hard floor. Nothing. She started feeling with her hands, though she thought she’d be able to see the silver or the gem. Her head swam, because she was far too old to bend this way, but something shiny caught her eye.
The ring was smack dab in the middle of the piano, and she wouldn’t be able to reach it from another side easier. She stretched out her hand, almost able to reach it. “Come on,” she muttered, her mind already thinking of what she could use to sweep the ring closer to the edge.
Maybe a piano book.
She grunted, her fingertip touching the ring. “Just a little further…”
She finally touched it enough to grasp it, and relief filled her. She closed her fist around the ring and started backing out from underneath the piano at the same time a man said, “Jenna!”
“Seth?” She tried to stand, but she wasn’t out from underneath the piano all the way, and the strings gave a horrible discordant sound as they vibrated from the way her head hit the bottom of the keyboard.
She cried out and groaned as pain exploded in her skull. She felt lightheaded again, and she did not want to pass out in front of the handsome Seth Johnson. The man had been her next-door neighbor for the past three years—since her separation and then divorce—and maybe she’d entertained some feelings for the cowboy who wore a sexy white cowboy hat every time he left the house.
Maybe.
“Jenna,” Seth said, and she reached back and touched her head. Her fingers felt sticky, and the room spun.
Another moan came out of her mouth, and she wasn’t out from underneath the piano yet.
“Are you okay?” The concern in his voice would’ve been welcome if she wasn’t ten seconds away from throwing up. “Let me help you.”
She managed to back up, and she couldn’t even imagine the view Seth had. How humiliating.
“Okay,” he said. “You’re out. Just stay down. You’re bleeding.”
Jenna sat down and leaned her back against the piano bench, taking a quick breath. Her eyes met Seth’s, and sure enough, he would’ve stolen her breath if her head injury hadn’t already done it.
“First aid kit?”
“In the laundry room,” she said, her words mostly made of air. “Cabinet above the washing machine.”
“Be right back.” Seth hurried off, and Jenna wished he’d just keep going down the road to Chestnut Ranch, where he lived and worked. In her wounded condition, her defenses were down, and she might not be able to resist telling him how gorgeous he was, and that hey, maybe they could grab dinner sometime.
“Nope,” she said, closing her eyes and leaning her head back. She winced away from the piano when the back of her head touched the leg. “Not asking him out.”
And he hadn’t asked her out either. There’d been one time since she’d returned to the house where she’d grown up where she thought Seth Johnson was interested in her. But nothing had ever come from the Valentine’s dance where they’d talked and flirted through three dances at the Hale Center Farm.
They’d gone on a hayride too. Wandered through the corn maze. He’d looked at her with an interested edge in his eyes, but he’d never asked. So Jenna wasn’t going to either.
“Okay,” Seth said as he re-entered the piano studio. “Got it. Let’s see what we’re dealing with.” He knelt next to her, and their eyes met.
That same electricity that had existed between them two and a half years ago flowed freely again, and Jenna wondered if the man was made of rubber. Maybe he didn’t feel it. Maybe he only cared about dogs and horses.
“I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said, clearing his throat and looking down. “What were you doin’ under there anyway?”
She uncurled her fingers to reveal the ring. “Dropped my mother’s ring.”
Seth nodded and rummaged through the first aid supplies. “Sorry, Jenna.”
“It’s fine,” she said. “Maybe I can take tomorrow off work.” She flashed him a smile, and Seth paused again, those dark, dreamy eyes searching hers. Whatever he was looking for, Jenna was sure he’d find it. To prevent him from doing that, she closed her eyes.
“Okay,” he said in an authoritative tone. “Let’s get you up. I don’t think falling asleep is a good idea.”
Before Jenna even knew what was going on, Seth had his large hands on hers, pulling her to her feet. She felt like she was going to fall down, and he caught her around the waist, completely enveloping her in his embrace.
“Whoa,” he said. “Jenna?”
“Mm?” She looked into his eyes, everything in her body melting and turning to goo. Please don’t pass out, she thought, but she knew the fight was inevitable.
Her head ached, and wow, Seth had broad shoulders. Big muscles. She swayed on her feet, vaguely hearing Seth asking, “Jenna? Are you with me? Jenna?”
Oh, she wanted to be with him, and she clung to his biceps, sure she was about to say something inappropriate.
“Seth,” she whispered, but she blacked out before she said anything else. At least she hoped so.
When she woke, the room was too bright, and there were two men talking. She groaned, interrupting the nearby conversation.
“Hey,” a man said. “She’s waking up.”
Seth.
Horror moved through Jenna, because she had no idea where she was—or what she’d said. She opened her eyes, groaning again with the overhead lights shining right into her retinas. She immediately closed her eyes again and tried to put her arm over her face, but someone had a hold of one hand and pain shot through the other.
“There’s an IV there,” Isaac said from her left side, and she looked to the right. Seth stood there, his hand the one holding hers. These two men had always been pillars in her life, and she wondered what her brother would do if she did go out with Seth. They’d never talked about him, but she had spent time going over her choice of boys and men with her brother.
Never Seth, though, and she wanted to find out what Isaac would say about him.
“How are you feeling?” her brother asked, and Jenna tore her eyes from the cowboy god at her side.
“Uh, okay,” she said. “I’m in the hospital?”
“You hit your head,” Seth said. “Remember?”
Pain flared from the back of her skull. Oh, she remembered. “Yeah. I found my ring, though.”
“I have it right here,” Seth said, holding up the emerald. “You want to wear it?”
She nodded, her mouth so dry. Seth slipped the ring on her finger and beamed at her. Lightning could strike, and it wouldn’t be as powerful as the charge moving between her and Seth.
He blinked, and Jenna knew in that moment that he felt the electricity between them. She cleared her throat and pulled her hand away. “Do I have to stay here?” she asked Isaac.
“I’ll go get the nurse,” he said, moving toward the end of the bed. “You have six stitches in the back of your head, but I don’t see why you’d have to stay overnight.” He headed for the door, leaving her alone with S
eth.
“I’m so sorry, Jenn,” he said, leaning over and pressing his lips to her forehead. Jenna didn’t know what to make of it. He’d never done that before, even if he had surprised her and caused her to hit her head.
“It’s fine,” she whispered. “You couldn’t have known.”
Seth didn’t straighten. He swept his lips down the side of her face too, and Jenna couldn’t help leaning into his touch. “I just got some good news,” he whispered. “I wanted to tell you about it.”
“Sure, tell me,” she said.
He pulled away slightly, his eyes meeting hers and searching. Instead of saying anything, he pressed his lips to hers and kissed her.
Chapter Three
Seth had no idea what he was doing. He wanted to kiss Jenna Wright, so he did. She kissed him back, too, and Seth knew he hadn’t imagined the attraction flowing between them. He hadn’t imagined it at her house either.
Her hand touched his jaw, there one moment and gone the next. She sucked in a breath as she broke the kiss, and Seth pulled away.
He straightened and looked down at her, the confusion and fear right there in Jenna’s eyes, plain to see. She’d never been good at hiding how she felt, at least from him.
He cleared his throat, “Jenn—”
“Look who’s awake,” a woman said, her voice as loud as an airhorn as she came through the door of Jenna’s room.
Seth cleared his throat again and backed away from the hospital bed. He couldn’t believe what he’d just done. He spun away from the beautiful woman—his neighbor next-door—as Jenna started answering the nurse’s questions.
What in the world had he done?
“You taking off?” Isaac asked, and Seth realized then that he’d taken a few steps toward the door.
“I’ll just give you guys some privacy,” he said, flashing a smile at his best friend.
Isaac nodded, and Seth tossed one last look at Jenna before he ducked into the hall. The scent of antiseptic hung in the air out here, but Seth took a deep lungful of it anyway. He needed to wipe his thoughts clean. Clear his head. Figure out why he’d kissed Jenna.
Jenna.
How long had those feelings been living inside him? Inside her?
He pressed into the brick wall behind him and leaned his head back. His heart still pounded in his throat, and he wondered when that would calm down. He hadn’t been in a relationship for so long, and he wasn’t really sure how to act.
“Wait,” he whispered to himself. “Is this a relationship now?”
Seth didn’t have a ton of experience with women, especially in the past five years, but he knew there was a difference between a friendship and a relationship. And he may have just traded in one for the other.
The door opened, and he practically jumped away from it. Isaac appeared, and he said, “I need to run home and get Jenna a new shirt. Can you stay with her until I get back?”
“Yeah, of course,” he said, his voice a little bit too high.
If Isaac noticed, he didn’t act like it. He simply grinned, ducked back inside the room, and said, “Seth will wait with you. I’ll be back in twenty minutes.”
Jenna said something in her more feminine tone, but Seth couldn’t make out the words. Didn’t matter. He’d stay with her, and maybe without her brother or the nurse in the room, he could figure out what he’d done and fix it.
Who says it needs fixing? he thought, nodding at Isaac as he left the room and headed down the hall in a jog.
Seth drew in a deep breath and turned to go into the room, nearly knocking over the nurse as she came out. “Sorry,” he said, throwing his hands up as if in surrender.
The nurse jumped back, smiled, and then laughed. “It’s okay, Mister Johnson. You can go on in again.”
“Thanks, Emily,” he said. “And you don’t have to call me Mister Johnson. We’ve known each other for years.”
Emily giggled and said, “I’m a married woman, Mister Johnson,” before she walked away. He had no idea what that meant, and he ducked into Jenna’s room and closed the door behind him.
She sat in the only chair in the room, wearing her jeans under the hospital gown. “They threw away my shirt,” she said, folding her arms across her chest. “I guess it was covered with blood.”
“Head wounds do bleed a lot,” he said, stuffing his hands in his front pockets as he took a tentative step toward her.
Their eyes locked again, and Seth decided to just blurt out the first thing that came to his mind. “Sorry,” he said at the same time she asked, “So why did you come over earlier?”
He caught the end of her sentence and thought maybe he could just run with her question. Maybe she hadn’t heard him.
“Sorry?” she asked at the same time he said, “I came because—”
Jenna’s eyebrows lifted. “Sorry for what, Seth?”
“Uh…” Everything smart in him told him not to apologize for kissing her. “For surprising you.” He felt like the ground in front of him would vanish at any moment, and he didn’t dare take another step.
Her guard went right back down. “It’s okay. I’m going to take tomorrow off of work.”
“Good idea,” he said. “I’ll bring you lunch.”
Those perfectly sculpted eyebrows went right back up. “Lunch?”
“It’s the least I can do.”
“How did I get here?” she asked.
“I drove you,” he said.
“Did I say anything?”
“When?” he asked.
“Before I passed out.”
“Uh, just my name,” he said, because he could see the anxiousness in her body language. She had said one more thing, but he wasn’t sure why she needed to know.
I sure do like your cowboy hat.
After that last word had dripped from her lips, she’d gone completely limp in his arms. He’d picked her right up and taken her out to his truck. She’d bled all over the backseat, but he had leather and it could be cleaned. He’d called Isaac on the way to the hospital, and his friend had left his library board meeting to come see his sister.
Jenna nodded. “Okay, you can bring me lunch tomorrow.”
Seth’s pulse skipped, indicating that he was excited to see Jenna again. “Anywhere in particular you want me to pick up from?”
“You don’t have time to drive to town and pick up,” she said. “Don’t you have dozens of dogs right now?”
“Fifteen,” he said. “Well, sixteen. That’s only one dozen.” He grinned, and wow, when she smiled back, Seth felt like he’d won a gold medal. “Not plural.” He ducked his head and lifted the cowboy hat he wore everywhere. Suddenly, it had more meaning now.
“You don’t need to bring me lunch,” she said.
“You just said I could.” Seth took another step toward her and dropped into a crouch, balancing his elbows on his knees and keeping his head down. “Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t have kissed you. If it’s because of that, maybe you can just erase it from your memory, and I can bring you some of that German potato salad from Krauss’s I know you like.”
“I do like that potato salad…”
“Great,” Seth said, seeing his opportunity and seizing it. “It’s a date.”
Seth once again found himself in the canine enclosure before the sun had fully dawned over the Texas Hill Country. He worked quickly, because he would need a couple of hours for lunch. Russ had done all of his evening chores after Jenna had passed out in his arms, and Seth made a few fixes as he fed, watered, and checked on the dogs.
“See how we just walk along?” he asked the third dog as he walked the perimeter of the building. He had Dodger on a leash, and he never let the dog go ahead of him or Winner or Thunder.
Dodger had quite an anxious air about him, but he’d already calmed down, and Seth hadn’t even had him for more than twenty-four hours. The dog had done well in the kennel last night, with Winner right next door.
He started opening doors, and that brought out mor
e dogs. Dodger tensed, but Seth snapped his fingers at him. “Lay down.” The dog did, and Seth let each dog come over and smell their new addition. Some of the friendlier dogs, the ones near the end of their time here at Canine Encounters with him, smiled and sniffed with wagging tails. Some didn’t come over at all.
Dodger handled them all like a champ, and he crouched down in front of the dog. “All right, buddy. You ready to be off the leash?” Seth wanted to see how the Akita would handle being out with the pack of dogs.
He unclipped the leach, and he held onto the collar. “Winner, Thunder, watch out for him, all right?” He stood and let go of the collar. The Akita barked and dashed off, more of a gallop than a run. A happy stride that looked a little like frolicking.
Though Seth had a ton of work to do, he took a moment to enjoy the dog’s joy at being allowed to socialize with other canines. The brown and white beagle that had been rescued from a canvas sack in the Chestnut River shied away from Dodger, a growl low in his throat. Seth didn’t try to correct Will—what he’d named the beagle. He had to work through his fear of other dogs on his own.
He did step closer to the beagle and said, “Easy,” to let him know Seth was there. Seth was in charge. He didn’t need to worry, because Seth wasn’t going to tie him in a bag and throw him into the river.
“Come on,” he said, and Will came over to him, his tail back up. “That’s right. Lay down, Will.”
The beagle did exactly what he said, and Seth let several seconds pass before he leaned down and clipped the leash to the dog’s collar. “All right. Let’s go meet Dodger.” He walked slowly, never letting the beagle think he even had a choice but to go with him.
He whistled, and Winner and Thunder came trotting over to him, which meant that almost every other dog did too, including Dodger. He said, “Yeet,” and eight of the dogs sat right down. He held up his fist and repeated the word, and the rest of them did.
Pride moved through him. He absolutely loved dogs and horses—all animals he could work with, talk to, train to do awesome things.
He looked down at Will, who’d also sat down. “All right,” he said, tugging on the leash to get Will back on his feet. He held his free hand out, palm down to keep the other dogs in place. Thunder actually laid down, his tongue panting out of his mouth.