by A. J. Pine
“Of course I wouldn’t mock you, Jenna. I meant what I said, and not just about the list. I won’t hurt you. You can be sure of that.”
Jenna exhaled, and her shoulders relaxed. “It feels kind of like we’re friends now,” she said, holding out her right hand to shake.
He wrapped his palm around hers, ignoring the cartwheels going on in his gut.
“Friends, indeed,” he said.
“Friends who fling,” Jenna added with a wink.
“Right,” he said. “Friends who fling.”
She was wrong, though. He wasn’t a smart man, at least not this very moment.
Smart would be to stop fooling himself that he could keep his feelings out of this when he already liked her more each minute she was in his presence.
Smart would be putting the vehicle back in drive, putting the pedal to the metal until they made it to Meadow Valley, and then keeping his distance as best he could for the next two weeks.
No, Colt wasn’t feeling very smart at the moment.
She finally took off her glasses and smiled, and though her lashes were wet, her blue eyes were clear and sure.
“Then get over here and kiss me, cowboy. We’ve a busy two weeks ahead of us, and I don’t want to waste another second of it.”
Kiss me, cowboy. That was all he needed to hear.
He leaned over the center console and cupped both of her cheeks in his palms. Then he did what he’d been itching to do since the second he’d woken in bed with this woman in his arms.
He kissed her as she smiled against him, as he tasted the faint memory of coffee on her tongue, as he imagined the possibility of a future he’d thought for so long was out of his reach.
And then he took her to Yuba City for the best damned club sandwich she’d ever had—and two milkshakes. One strawberry, one chocolate, both with straws that were meant for sharing.
By the time they made it to Meadow Valley, Jenna’s list had its first checkmark. Now he had two weeks to spend with the most amazing woman he never expected to meet—and not get attached.
I, Colt Morgan, do hereby swear that might be the hardest part of the bargain to keep.
Chapter Nine
Lucy the psychic chicken squawked as she henpecked her way across the grass in a fenced-off area behind the still-new Meadow Valley Rescue, an animal shelter for rescues that included everything from kittens to goats, and right now the shelter had three of each.
Lucy directed one of her higher-pitched squawks toward a fainting goat who thought the chicken feed was for him. It wasn’t. And the goat—whom Delaney Harper, the proprietor of the ranch’s rescue, had named Winston—fainted.
Jenna laughed, and the other woman rubbed a hand over the swollen belly beneath her red sundress and simply shook her head.
“He’ll never learn,” Delaney said. “It’s been two days already, and he’s been down for the count every single time you feed your hen.”
“Why do they do that, anyway?” Jenna asked. She knew chickens like the back of her hand, but her goat knowledge was definitely lacking.
Delaney squinted from the unrelenting July sun. “It’s a genetic disorder. Myotonia congenita. When they get startled, their muscles lock up, and they’re temporarily paralyzed. So it looks like they’re fainting, but really they’re just sort of stuck for a bit.”
Jenna winced. “That’s—unfortunate.” When she glanced back down at the goat, she also noticed that Delaney’s ankles were about as swollen as her pregnant belly.
“Water retention is normal in the final weeks,” Delaney said, likely having noticed Jenna’s change in focus. “But being out in this heat—the heat I thought I’d escape by moving here from Vegas—makes my ankles about the same circumference as my thighs.” Delaney sighed. “At least it snows a handful of times in the winter, right? Gotta keep reminding myself of that—and then five weeks from now I get to trade all this in for a beautiful baby boy or girl.”
Her eyes got all glassy, and a lock of strawberry-blond hair fell from the messy bun atop her head over her right eye. She let out something between a laugh and a sob.
“I’m just so happy,” Delaney said, and now she was sobbing.
“Oh, sweetie,” Jenna said, taking Delaney’s hand. “How about we head inside for a cold drink? According to the agenda my nephews so lovingly booked for me, lunch should be starting soon, and I bet there’s some nice lemonade or iced tea just calling your name.”
Jack, Luke, and Walker had booked Jenna’s first week so that she was busy from sunup to sundown. They’d left her the second week to book herself but wanted to make sure the first half of her stay was spent trying out all the ranch had to offer, from trail rides to swimming hole excursions to bonfires and everything in between. The only reason she’d even had a free second to come and check on Lucy was because she’d skipped her arena riding lesson in favor of hiding out in her room and reading a book. She already knew how to ride a horse and was hoping this time might give her a chance to catch up with a certain cowboy whose schedule had run completely opposite hers since the minute they’d pulled onto the ranch’s property.
Delaney sniffled and laughed. “I really am happy,” she insisted. “But I swear these hormone swings in the final weeks are going to be the end of me. Do you have kids?” she asked. “Does it get any easier once the baby’s out, or am I going to be on an emotional roller coaster for the rest of my life?”
Jenna felt a pang in her gut, in the empty space where a baby of her own would never be or—could never be. She didn’t get the pang too often these days. In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time she had. Maybe it was the whole milestone birthday. But she reminded herself that she already had a family, a pretty amazing one. And her future was wide open.
“Can’t speak for the pregnancy bit,” Jenna said as she led Delaney through the fence gate and on toward the dining hall where cold drinks and a place for the other woman to rest her feet waited. “But I can assure you that the emotional roller coaster doesn’t really end. My nephews—I raised them since they were teens—are grown now. Strong, capable men. Ranchers, even, all starting families of their own. And I still worry about them every day. The only good part of it is that now they’re old enough to worry about me too. It’s kind of nice, them wanting to take care of me and all.”
She’d thought for a while that their care was all she needed, that Jack, Luke, and Walker giving back what she gave to them was enough.
But then she’d lain in a man’s arms for the first time in more than a year. She’d felt wanted. Cared for. Safe.
And he was willing to take what she could give him for two weeks, no questions asked.
“Oh, good,” Delaney said, her voice still a little shaky. “So Sam and I just have to worry on our own for about eighteen to twenty years before we get some payback.” Then she laughed at her own joke, and Jenna laughed too.
They made it to the dining hall, and Delaney breathed out a sigh of relief as Jenna held the door open for her.
“Air-conditioning,” she said with a childlike glee. “Air-conditioning. I’m never going outside again. Jenna, would you like to buy an animal rescue? It comes with a volunteer vet and everything.”
Jenna laughed. “I thought your fiancé built that place especially for you.”
Delaney waved her off. “That was when taking care of animals was my dream. My new dream is cold air and feet that don’t look like pillows.”
“There’s my girl!” a tall, dark-haired cowboy called from across the room.
Delaney’s smile broadened so much, Jenna thought it might leap off her face. The woman quite literally lit up when she saw Sam Callahan, and Jenna could have sworn Delaney left a trail of light in her wake as she strode on swollen feet toward her guy.
“Well, hey there, stranger,” Jenna heard from behind, and even though it was hot as Hades outside, her skin turned to gooseflesh at the sound of Colt’s voice.
Jenna let the door to the dining hall fall
shut before taking advantage of the air-conditioning herself. Instead she spun to face the man who’d agreed to her proposal of a fling, who was now the man she hadn’t seen in two very long days and nights.
Her breath caught when she saw him, straw cowboy hat tilted down over his eyes, his short-sleeved plaid shirt unbuttoned low enough so she could follow the trail of a lone bead of sweat as it traveled down the toned torso that hid beneath.
She swallowed, her throat dry. She could really use a glass of that lemonade or iced tea she’d promised was waiting inside for Delaney.
“Cat got your tongue?” he asked with a grin. “Or maybe one of Delaney’s fainting goats?”
She cleared her throat. “What?” she asked, the word coming out like a croak. “I mean, no. No one has my tongue. My tongue is—” Oh God, why couldn’t she stop saying tongue?
“Come here,” Colt said, holding out his hand. “I need to show you something.” When she grabbed it, he threaded his fingers through hers and gently tugged her off the porch and around the side of the dining hall to a spot that had no window.
“Do I lose the upper hand if I admit that I’ve been thinking about kissing you for two days straight?” he asked unapologetically.
Their friends-who-fling arrangement had gotten off to a rocky start once Jenna saw the itinerary her nephews had planned for her. She hadn’t realized until now—Colt standing in front very nearly admitting to missing her—how good it felt to see him too. If she had any intention of hiding the joy of finally being face-to-face with her road-trip cowboy, that was out the window now. Her smile stretched from one ear to the other, and she couldn’t suppress it if she tried.
Jenna wrapped her arms around Colt’s neck and yanked him so close she smashed his nose into her forehead.
“Sorry!” she yelped. “Are you okay?”
Colt rubbed his nose and chuckled. When Jenna was sure there were no visible signs of damage, she burst out laughing. “I was trying to be all sexy and show you there was no such thing as an upper hand here, and I totally failed.”
Colt shook his head, then dipped it so his lips were a breath away from hers.
“Jenna Owens, I don’t care how hard you try. There is no way you could fail at sexy.”
He wrapped his hands around her thighs and hooked them over his hips, pressing her body against the side of the building for purchase and his lips against hers because if he didn’t, she was going to get all clumsy again until she got what she’d wanted for two straight days. Clumsy, though, didn’t begin to describe being kissed up against a wall by a cowboy—by this cowboy. Nope. Not clumsy at all. Instead it was probably the hottest kiss she’d ever had in the history of kisses.
His stubble rubbed her skin raw, but she didn’t care. Not when she could taste him. Not when she could feel the muscles in his shoulders flex and move beneath her palms. Not when—
A throat cleared.
Jenna hadn’t done it, and she was fairly certain Colt hadn’t, either, which meant the secret part of their reunion was over and they were simply out in the open.
“Anna!” a man called out as Colt’s lips stopped moving over hers and he lowered Jenna to the ground. “They found our make-out spot!”
Colt stepped back and smoothed out his rumpled shirt as Jenna did the same with her yellow-and-white polka-dotted tank top that had very visibly ridden up her torso.
Luis, the ranch’s cook whom she’d met the day she arrived, stood with his arms crossed over his apron and his brows raised. The woman next to him—whom Jenna guessed was Anna—arched her own brow beneath her dark bangs.
“That was our spot, Morgan,” the woman said coolly.
“We could kiss there,” Luis said.
“And argue without anyone hearing us,” Anna added, elbowing his arm.
“We don’t argue,” Luis protested, turning away from Jenna and Colt to face Anna. “We just—communicate. Passionately.”
Anna placed her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at Luis.
“All we do is argue,” she said. “Because you think you know produce better than me. Every time I bring you something new, something that will work better in your salad or your soup or even your famous strawberry tart that was so much better when you added my rhubarb…” She blew out a breath. “Every time, you make such a big deal about what I bring you—”
“Because it’s not what I ordered!” Luis threw his hands in the air. “For once, why can’t you just bring me what I ordered? Today I wanted fresh cilantro for my gazpacho, and what did I get?”
“Fresh basil,” Anna said matter-of-factly. “Not everyone likes cilantro, and gazpacho is so much better with basil.”
“Who doesn’t like cilantro?” Luis bellowed, and even from several feet away, Jenna could see a vein bulge in his forehead.
“I don’t,” Jenna called out instinctively, raising her hand. They both froze and stared in her direction, and she immediately regretted butting in when clearly Luis was asking a rhetorical question. “It’s—genetic,” she continued, since their eyes were still fixed on her. “A super-small percentage of the population is actually predisposed to taste soap when they eat cilantro. I’m one of them.”
Anna crossed her arms and grinned, triumphant.
Luis turned red. “You don’t respect me,” he said.
“You don’t respect my suggestions,” Anna countered.
Then Luis’s hands were flying again as he continued in a flurry of Spanish while Anna simply waited, tapping her foot in the grass, until he finished.
“Should we leave them alone?” Jenna asked softly.
Colt wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close so they were hip-to-hip.
She’d thought that maybe he’d pulled her around the side of the building because he had wanted the whole him-and-her situation to be a secret.
But they were just standing here watching one couple apparently implode after being discovered as—well, as a couple in their own right.
Okay. They weren’t a real couple. This was simply fun. Kissing Colt was fun. The f in fling stood for fun.
Yet she hadn’t been able to forget what happened on the side of the road outside Yuba City.
I will never hurt you, Colt said.
Jenna believed him. She trusted him.
For the remainder of her two weeks, he might just be her first birthday wish come true.
“Nah,” Colt said, bringing her back to the present. “This won’t last too long. Either they’ll make up or Anna will storm off. If it’s the former, I’d love to introduce you. If it’s the latter, she’ll be back tomorrow, and the cycle will continue.” He laughed.
“Wow,” Jenna said as both Anna and Luis gesticulated wildly. “They go at it like this a lot? We’re not, like, peepin’ Toms on a couple about to break up, are we? I’d hate to see that happen.”
Colt shook his head.
“Not even close,” he said. “This is what it’s been like since day one with them. Seems to just be their way.”
And in fact, it was. Because before Colt had even finished speaking, Anna had Luis’s back up against the building, the two of them kissing as wildly as they’d shouted at each other, hands groping instead of gesturing, voices silenced by one mouth covering the other.
“Okay,” Colt said under his breath. “Now we’re peeping Toms.”
Jenna giggled as she slipped her hand into his.
“They said gazpacho. Without cilantro. And I’m melting. Do you think there might be some sort of frozen dessert?” she asked earnestly as she led Colt back toward the front of the building.
Colt laughed. “If there’s not, I know a place in town that makes a certain frozen dessert from scratch. We can head there later if you want. That’s on your list, isn’t it? Taste the best ice cream in town?”
He raised a brow, and she nodded.
“I still get to see the list, don’t I? If I’m going to help you check all the items off, I might need to know what I’m getting m
yself into.”
She cleared her throat. “Right,” she said. “The list. You can see it…As long as we’re starting with ice cream.”
He winked at her. “Ice cream part two.”
She laughed. “Be careful. It’s in your best interest to keep me inside the town limits. Otherwise you may be tasked with finding me yet another award-winning frozen treat establishment.”
Colt shook his head and grinned. “You do like your ice cream, don’t you?”
She shrugged. “It’s my love language.” Her eyes grew wide, and she slapped a hand over her mouth. “I didn’t mean—” she stammered. “I wasn’t saying that we…”
He leaned over and kissed her on the nose.
“You’re sexy when you’re embarrassed,” he said. “But don’t worry. I’m not going to use ice cream as a means to make you fall in love with me. I know the rules.”
She swallowed.
The right woman wouldn’t need to be bribed with ice cream to fall for a man like Colt Morgan. Jenna simply wasn’t the right woman. Right now she was a lucky woman, though. A woman who was scheduled to the hilt for the rest of the afternoon and didn’t have to worry about the combination of a sexy cowboy and the town’s best ice cream and mention of rules.
“I would love to eat some frozen dessert with you later,” she said, now afraid of even saying the words ice and cream. “But,” she continued, “I’m supposed to go on this swimming excursion after lunch. Horseback ride through the woods to some hidden swimming hole or something. I’d skip it if I didn’t know all the trouble my nephews went to in order to put this together—and if I didn’t already bail on my riding lesson this morning.”
“You know how to ride?” Colt asked.
“Sure do,” she said. “Can’t raise three rancher nephews without ever sitting on top of a horse.”
He shrugged. “Then you didn’t need that lesson. The swimming excursion, though. I don’t recommend skipping that one. Heard good things about the rancher heading up that very same trail ride.”
Jenna’s insides did a little cartwheel. After two days, their schedules were about to intersect.