Home

by Jenn Alexander

  “My car,” Rowan said, looking out helplessly.

  Kate peered out at the little car sitting out on the exposed drive. “Shoot. I didn’t even think about your car.”

  Rowan frowned, but then shook the thought from her mind. “It is what it is now. Hopefully it’s not too dinged up.”

  Rowan turned and stepped into Kate and kissed her again. This time, slow and tender.

  Kate breathed her in as Rowan’s tongue gently brushed over her lower lip. She wasn’t entirely sure what this thing between her and Rowan was, but it was intoxicating and invigorating. She’d never felt so lost in anyone before.

  Rowan slid her hands into the back pockets of Kate’s jeans, gently cupping her.

  She rolled her hips gently forward, but broke the kiss, taking a moment to look into Rowan’s cool, gray eyes, getting lost in their depths.

  “That was . . .” Rowan began.

  “Unexpected,” Kate finished.

  “Sexy as hell,” Rowan amended.

  “Mm, yes. That.”

  A slow smile spread across Rowan’s face. “Kissing in a barn. Now this is the type of thing I hoped for when I moved to Texas.”

  Kate laughed and shook her head. “Oh, is that so?”

  Rowan shrugged. “Well, maybe I hadn’t pictured this exact scenario, but if I had, I might have moved here sooner.”

  That made Kate laugh harder.

  Rowan pulled away and looked back outside. “Where’d the rain go?”

  The rain had slowed to little more than a drizzle.

  “In and out in the blink of an eye,” Kate said.

  “I don’t even know how that’s possible.” Rowan looked out at the clearing skies with awe.

  Kate shrugged. She didn’t have a clue, but she had also never given it much thought. That was just how the weather was in Texas. She was never surprised by the quick changes.

  “We should get you dried off,” Kate said.

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “Nonsense,” she argued. “I am not sending you home in that. Why don’t you come inside? I’ll lend you some of my clothes while we toss yours in the dryer so that you can be warm and dry for the drive home. It’s a good long drive. You might as well be comfortable.”

  She didn’t give Rowan a chance to answer. She took Rowan’s hand and led her back to the house to dry off.

  ❊ ❊ ❊

  Rowan followed Kate, thinking of little else other than how soft and warm Kate’s fingers were, intertwined with her own.

  She didn’t want to go inside and get dried off. She wanted to stay in the barn in that magical moment, getting lost in Kate. She didn’t care that her clothes were wet and heavy with water. But Kate had taken her hand, and she could only follow.

  Kate led them toward her ranch home. It was tucked away behind the main office, nestled next to a thick swatch of trees. Rowan had never seen more than a glimpse of the house before. It wasn’t particularly large, but it had a special quality to it— a homeyness she was unaccustomed to. The combination of dark wood and light stone siding gave the place a warm, inviting appearance, and the large windows that faced the pastures were sure to fill the place with sunlight. Log pillars held the roof up, overhanging the large, wrap-around porch, which held a couple of porch chairs with large cushions.

  “This place is gorgeous,” she said.

  “Thanks,” Kate said. “My dad built it when my parents first got married.”

  “He built this?”

  “Not entirely on his own. He had help. But yes. The ranch was my dad’s dream. This house was my mom’s. He wanted to make it real for her.”

  “Wow,” Rowan breathed, taking in the detail in the porch railing.

  “I think my dad thought that if he could give my mom the house she wanted, she would be okay with living on a Texas ranch.”

  Rowan paused, realizing she had never heard Kate talk about her mom before.

  Kate gave a small shrug and shook her head. “She wasn’t meant for ranch life.”

  Kate pushed open the front door. Rowan knew the conversation was over and followed her inside.

  “Wait here,” Kate said, and she left Rowan standing by the front door, returning a moment later with two giant towels. She wrapped one of the towels around Rowan, pulling her close as she did.

  Rowan liked the closeness. She lifted a corner of the towel to Kate’s face and brushed Kate’s wet hair back, then traced the towel along the curves of Kate’s face, drying her. Then she toweled dry her own face, and tousled her hair so that it was no longer dripping wet.

  When she finished, she saw Kate watching her with a look of combined adoration and amusement.

  “What?” Rowan asked.

  “You’re just cute. That’s all.”

  She felt a blush rise to her cheeks, and she had to look away from Kate’s gaze.

  “Come on.” Kate took Rowan’s hand again, leading her through the house toward the bedroom.

  Rowan stood in the entry while Kate went to the closet to find clothes for her to change into.

  “I’ll find you a T-shirt and some sweatpants,” Kate said. “Hang on.”

  She nodded and wrapped her towel tighter around herself as she looked around the room.

  The room struck her as very “Kate.” It was warm and feminine, with country décor and what appeared to be hand-crafted wood furniture, quilted blankets, and a framed painting of horses running across a field hanging on the wall.

  She moved into the room to look at the framed photo that rested on Kate’s nightstand. The photo was a man with a little girl in cowboy boots on his shoulders. She knew it instantly to be Kate and her dad, and she smiled at the little girl with copper hair in twin braids, who was grinning as she squinted into the sun, toward the camera. She felt her heart tug toward Kate, while she also felt a knot of homesickness settle into her stomach.

  This place— it was clear it was everything to Kate.

  The way Portland was everything to her.

  Kate stepped next to her holding a folded pair of sweats and a white T-shirt.

  “You were adorable.” Rowan looked over at Kate.

  “I still am,” Kate said with a wink. Then she held the clothes out to Rowan. “These should fit.”

  “Thanks.” She accepted the clothes.

  “There’s a bathroom just out in the hall,” Kate said. “I’ll change quickly as well. And then we could put your clothes in the dryer and have some tea while we wait?”

  Rowan looked at Kate, surprised at the sudden shyness she saw, and nodded with a smile. She wasn’t in any rush to leave. As far as she was concerned, the more time she could spend with Kate, the better.

  “That sounds wonderful,” Rowan said.

  Kate gave a shy smile, and Rowan headed for the bathroom to change.

  This wasn’t her home, but she was grateful for the time she got to spend in Kate’s world. She made Texas a little more comfortable.

  ❊ ❊ ❊

  Kate went to the kitchen to put the kettle on for some tea and saw her dad sitting in a big recliner in the adjoining living room, reading the newspaper.

  “You doin’ okay, Daddy?” she asked after she switched on the kettle.

  Her dad gave a small nod, but didn’t look up from his newspaper. Kate turned and saw Rowan move into the room.

  “Daddy,” Kate said, “this is Rowan. She’s the grill chef who picks up the beef for On the Range. I taught her to ride Mickey today. Or I tried to until the rain interrupted us.”

  Her dad looked up and gave Rowan a polite but distant smile and nod. “Nice to meet ya, Rowan. Name’s Warren Landreth.”

  Rowan stepped over to him and held out a hand. “It’s a pleasure,” she said as he shook her hand.

  “We’re going to make some tea while Rowan’s clothes dry,” Kate said. “Would you like any?”

  He shook his head. “No, thank you, Katie. I’m just gonna read the newspaper until the home care folks show up for my afternoon tortur
e session.”

  “You’re getting stronger already,” she said. “I can tell.”

  She saw the eye-roll and was about to say more when Rowan spoke instead.

  “Anything interesting happening in the world?” Rowan motioned toward the newspaper with her head.

  “Is there ever?” Warren asked. “Same old depressing stuff. Politics. Crime. Terror. The usual. I might as well be reading a tabloid magazine.”

  “Hey now,” Rowan said. “You should take the news more seriously. If you haven’t started building your underground bunker yet, you should get on that. I hear the end of the world is coming any day.”

  Warren gave a single laugh. His smile had widened, and it reached his eyes. “I like you.”

  Rowan took a seat on the couch, and Kate stood for a moment watching the two of them.

  “What do you take in your tea?” Kate asked.

  Rowan met her gaze, and even from across the room she felt herself melt into Rowan’s warmth.

  “Just sugar, please,” Rowan said. “And just a little. Not Texas sweet tea level.”

  Kate laughed. “Got it. All the sugar.”

  She winked and went to the kitchen to make the tea. As she was putting tea bags into two mugs, she couldn’t help but overhear the conversation between Rowan and her dad.

  “So, what is this torture that you have to go do this afternoon?” she heard Rowan ask.

  She tensed and was surprised when her dad answered.

  “It’s all this therapy garbage they’ve got me doing. I’m sure Katie’s told you about my accident? Anyway, I swear they’re not doing it to see me improve. They get off on watching me in pain. Sadists, the bunch of them.”

  “Daddy—” Kate said.

  At the same time, Rowan said, “Bastards.”

  Kate looked over at Rowan but was caught off guard when she heard her dad laugh.

  “Yeah,” he said. “The only reason I’m going to participate in their torture is so that I can get fast enough to chase them down and give them a beating for everything they’re putting me through.”

  “They have no idea what they’re creating,” Rowan said.

  “They sure don’t,” Warren agreed. “They had better watch themselves.”

  Kate didn’t know what was happening, but she warmed at the sight of Rowan and her dad laughing together in the living room. It had been too long since she’d seen him laugh freely like that.

  “They’re only doing it to help you,” Kate said, once the laughter had died down.

  She saw her dad shoot Rowan a look and overheard him say, “Hear that? Why did I raise such an optimist? She’s insufferable.”

  “Daddy!” Kate argued, but she was laughing as well.

  From the stove, the kettle whistled, and she pulled it from the burner to pour into the mugs.

  “Actually,” her dad called from the living room, “if it’s not too much trouble, I think I will have some tea with y’all after all.”

  She looked at him and smiled over at Rowan, hoping she could see her gratitude. She pulled a third mug down from the cupboard.

  “We’d love to have you join us,” Rowan said.

  Kate poured the water into the mugs and then went to the counter to get the sugar.

  “So, Rowan, your accent, you’re not from Texas, are ya?”

  “That I’m not,” Rowan answered. “Born and raised in Oregon.”

  “And how are you liking Texas so far?”

  Kate stirred the sugar into the tea, still smiling as she listened to the two of them get along.

  “It’s not home,” Rowan said.

  And Kate’s smile fell.

  “But it’s growing on me.”

  She turned and saw Rowan smiling over at her, but this time when she smiled back, Kate knew her smile didn’t reach her eyes.

  She joined her dad and Rowan and tried to tell herself to have a good time. She had, after all, known Rowan did not consider Texas home. But hearing the words articulated created a grain of fear that settled into her mind, no matter how much she tried not to get ahead of herself.

  ❊ ❊ ❊

  The sun was just starting to set when Rowan got home for the evening. She was still smiling as she let herself into her apartment, setting her keys and cowboy hat on the little shelf by the door and turning on the lights.

  As soon as she stepped in, her mood dampened. She felt as if she were living in a hotel room. Well, if a hotel room were cluttered with boxes. The apartment was just four walls that Rowan happened to be sleeping in.

  God, she missed her apartment in Portland. She missed the large bay window overlooking the wooded park with its quiet man-made lake, where she would sit and watch the joggers and morning taekwondo groups while sipping the coffee she picked up from Joe’s Coffee Shop just downstairs. This apartment looked out onto the brick wall of the building across from her. She wasn’t sure where the nearest coffee shop was, but she was fairly certain they didn’t brew Joe’s special midnight dark roast that she’d gotten so hooked on. She missed her living room with her friends sprawled out, having wine and cheese night, and watching B-rated horror flicks. This apartment had silence. And boxes.

  She went over to the boxes that had taken up residency on her dining-room table and opened the box nearest her. It was full of books. One at a time, she pulled out the familiar stories. She set them on the bookshelf that stood vacant next to her television, until the shelf had a collection of familiar stories, characters, and places. She sat down on her couch and looked at her bookshelf. It was something familiar at least.

  She couldn’t stand the thought of unpacking all of the boxes. That felt too much like settling in, and she wasn’t ready to settle into Texas. Books, though. She could handle unpacking books.

  A small something to make the place feel a little less cold.

  Of course, after spending the day at Kate’s ranch, her apartment may as well have been a prison. Kate’s place oozed sentimentality, family, home. The knot of homesickness had settled in when she’d first stepped inside and had not yet let up.

  Rowan tried to shift her thoughts and think of something else.

  She had survived riding a horse. That was something. She had known she was scared, but she hadn’t realized how terrified she was until she got off the horse and her heart rate came back down to normal. In the end, she was prouder than she would ever admit out loud. She was glad Kate had pushed her.

  Kate.

  The thought of her brought a rush of warmth to Rowan. She had certainly not intended on kissing Kate in the rain, but by God if it wasn’t the best kiss she’d ever experienced.

  She didn’t know what she and Kate were doing together exactly, other than the kissing, but she enjoyed whatever was between them. After her rough start at work, it was nice to have something to enjoy about Texas.

  Rowan opened her phone and looked at the picture that Kate had taken of her on the horse. She looked ridiculous with her Texas cowboy hat, gripping the reins tightly, fear evident in her eyes. She laughed and opened her messages to send the picture to Alycia, but she stopped before hitting send. She still hadn’t really had a chance to talk to Alycia, and she felt clingy and desperate and all the things she didn’t like feeling with her partner in crime, best friend, ride or die. She texted the picture to her parents instead.

  Wow. You look great! her dad texted back.

  I look ridiculous, she thought.

  Alycia would have seen that. She would have laughed.

  She closed her phone, feeling more alone in Texas than ever.

  Chapter Seven

  The water was cool on Rowan’s skin as she swam the length of the small pool, a delicious contrast to the hot sun, which beat down fiery and unforgiving. The fact that nearly every apartment complex came with a pool was one of Texas’s only saving graces. She was fairly certain she’d die without it. She flipped onto her back and floated in the small patch of shade provided by the nearby oak tree, closing her eyes and allowing h
er thoughts to drift along with her.

  She thought of Kate and the kiss they’d shared in the rain, and at the thought she felt the corners of her mouth tug upward.

  It had been a good kiss.

  A damn good kiss.

  She could still feel Kate’s lips on hers— soft and warm and eager. And Kate’s hands, tugging at her waist, pulling her closer.

  Even floating in the cold water, she felt the warmth spread through her at the thought.

  She flipped over again and dove beneath the water as though submersing herself could cool her thoughts.

  When she resurfaced, she swam over to the edge of the pool, grabbed her towel and sat down on one of the pool chairs, letting the sun dry her skin.

  She picked up her phone, which she had left beside her towel and her apartment keys.

  She hadn’t told her friends about Kate, and she wanted to call or message them. It felt strange and hollow not to have them to talk to. She told them about all of her dates, usually immediately after the date ended. Now she had been on two dates and she hadn’t shared a thing.

  But Alycia was busy. Too busy to talk apparently. And it felt wrong to share with Kris and Hannah before her. Alycia was always the first one to know, and Rowan was certain Alycia would be upset to hear about Kate from the others and not directly from Rowan.

  Rowan opened her photos and looked at the one of her riding Mickey, the smile falling easily back into place. She had to admit that although she had been terrified, learning to ride had been a lot of fun. They hadn’t done anything crazy. They’d just sauntered through the pasture, slow and relaxing, in the afternoon sun, beside a pretty girl. It was actually kinda perfect.

  She decided to share the photo, and she opened her Instagram account to post the photo for her friends and family to see, along with the caption, “All right, rodeo. I’m ready.”

  She was still smiling as she hit post, and then went to the homepage to scroll through the pictures that her friends had shared. She had been so busy with the move and the new job and Kate she’d hardly been on social media since she’d arrived in Texas. As she scrolled through her friends’ pictures, she felt a level of comfort settle in. For a moment, she didn’t feel a world away.