by Jeannie Watt
“Poor old guy. I hope the clinic can work him in,” Dylan said as he pulled off the gloves.
“I’ll go,” Jolie said, reaching for the box. “You’ve got that thing tonight and...” She almost said, “You don’t want to disappoint Codie,” but instead finished with, “Who knows how long this will take?”
“I’m taking him.”
“I’d rather be there with him than worry about him.”
“I’ll call you.”
There was no way she was going to win this battle. Jolie could see it in his face. When had he become so attached to the cat? “You call as soon as you know something.”
“I’ll call.” He hesitated then reached out to lightly touch her shoulder, his firm mouth quirking up at one corner. “Soon, I hope.”
“Thank you.”
As luck would have it, when Jolie truly wanted to be alone in the store with her worries, a flood of customers poured in. The men loaded their own purchases once they discovered that Dylan wasn’t there, and the only order Jolie ended up loading by herself, while wearing a short denim skirt, was for a pair of elderly sisters who raised exotic chickens. Her phone rang just as she finished stacking the last bag. She closed the tailgate, raised a hand to wave to the ladies then scooped her phone out of her pocket.
“How is he?” she said instead of hello.
“Massive hairball. They gave him some gunk to help flush it through, but if it doesn’t work, then he’ll have surgery. He has to stay here tonight.”
Surgery. Her heart broke a little at the thought. Marcel was not going to understand any of this. “But he’s going to be okay.”
“He’s going to be okay,” Dylan said with a weary smile in his voice. “See you in a little bit.”
“Yeah,” Jolie said quietly. “See you.” And the sad thing was that she was looking forward to it.
* * *
JOLIE JUMPED UP from her computer chair the instant Dylan strode into the store. He crossed to the counter and set his keys down, then gave a small shrug as their eyes met. “Things are as good as they can be. If he passes the mass, no surgery. They promised to call with an update by nine tomorrow.”
“So...are you okay with the surgery? It won’t be cheap.”
Dylan appeared stunned at the question. “Of course.” He gave a snort. “I hope he comes out of this okay. It’s got to be rough being in a strange place, feeling like hell.”
“Sounds like me at a wedding shower.”
He smiled a little as he leaned his forearms on the counter and met her eyes, just as he’d done dozens of times when they’d been working their way to intimacy.
A prickle of electricity danced over her skin, but Jolie did her best to ignore it as he said, “Am I crazy to drop a bundle on an old cat?”
“No.”
Dylan looked down at his clasped hands then leveled a surprisingly serious look at her. “Are you good with things being like this between us?”
“What?” Jolie asked, scrambling to catch up with him.
“Because I’m not.”
She swallowed and hoped her voice sounded seminormal as she said, “I see.”
“Do you think we can...come up with some kind of a compromise?”
He wasn’t talking about friendship. She’d bet her ranch on it. Taking in a breath, pushing down the panic, Jolie said, “Compromise?”
“Yeah. Compromise. I won’t push you and, in return, you keep an open mind.”
“About?” She knew what about, but was trying to buy some time, collect her thoughts. Not screw things up until she was certain she wanted to screw them up.
“Hell, I don’t know.” He pushed off the counter and stood facing her, his hands hanging loosely by his sides. “Stuff. Us. Just...being...for a while.”
Just being. What a great idea. Wasn’t that exactly what she’d been trying to do before the trouble between them had started?
Maybe he was coming around to her way of thinking. Or her to his. She didn’t know and he had a date with Codie tonight and she had one hell of a lot of thinking to do. “I can try.” No promises. But the startling thing to her was that she did want to try.
“I’d like that.” He looked over his shoulder almost as soon as he spoke. “Someone just drove in.”
“Always a last-minute customer when you need to do something else.” But she was not one bit sorry for the interruption.
“Yeah. I’ll be in the warehouse if you need me.”
If you need me.
Jolie sank into her chair. She did need him. She just didn’t know what to do about it.
Maybe...maybe she could try it his way for a while?
Could she possibly be any worse off than she was now?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
MIKE WAS A big believer in moth balls, to the point that going into the spare room closet usually left Dylan feeling a little dizzy. He pulled his coat out and hung it outside the back door on the deck railing, where it swung gently in the breeze, hopefully dispelling all evidence of camphor.
He checked his watch as he headed through the kitchen and muttered a curse. He hated being late and he would have had plenty of time to get ready if the vet hadn’t called him on the way home to tell him that the gunk had worked. Marcel could go home anytime.
Dylan had instantly reversed course and headed to the clinic, knowing that the cat would be a lot happier in his warehouse than he would be hiding in the corner of a kennel wondering what the hell was going to happen to him.
But now he had to bust his ass to get to the dinner on time.
“What are you in such a hurry about?” Mike asked as Dylan headed up the stairs to his bathroom.
“I’m going to the Mule Deer Foundation dinner.”
“I thought that was long sold out,” Mike called after him.
“Probably is. Codie’s date couldn’t make it, so I’m going instead.”
“Mmm,” was all he heard his grandfather say before he closed the bathroom door.
Fifteen minutes later he was in his truck on the way to the Jameson Supper Club. The airing had done the trick on his sports coat, for the most part anyway, and he’d managed to find a pressed white shirt, so all in all, he didn’t feel as if he’d embarrass her.
He liked Codie, all right, but ironically he wasn’t interested in anything beyond friendship with her. But with Jolie, who only wanted friendship, he wanted a whole lot more. At least she’d said she’d try to compromise...although she’d looked panicked as she’d agreed to try to keep an open mind.
The important thing was that she’d said she’d try and he knew Jolie wouldn’t have promised that if she wasn’t going to.
* * *
THE BAR WAS s-l-o-w for a Friday night. It seemed that anyone who was anyone was at the Mule Deer Foundation dinner. Even Jim had attended, which was handy because when he got back, he gave Jolie and Beccie a rundown on who was there with whom. But he didn’t mention Dylan, so Jolie did.
“Yeah. He was there with Codie James.” He gave her a sideways look as he spoke, which Jolie met blandly.
“What was she wearing?” Beccie asked.
“Some red.”
“Some red?” Beccie echoed.
“Wasn’t much of it,” Jim said in a low voice.
“Was he enjoying himself?” Jolie asked as evenly as possible, considering the fact that her blood pressure had just spiked.
“Looked like it.”
“Well, I’m happy for him,” Jolie said, surprised that she sounded as if she meant it when she really didn’t.
Nothing against Codie, but she was all wrong for Dylan. And Jolie was surprised at how important it was to her that Dylan not explore what there was to find under “some red.”
She’d put off attachin
g the name to her feeling, but there was no way around the fact that she was experiencing good old-fashioned jealousy. She was jealous of Codie and pissed at herself for not having a better handle on her emotions. She wanted Dylan; she was afraid of wanting Dylan.
This supposed short-term fling had not turned out the way she’d anticipated and it was turning her inside out.
When she pulled her phone out of her pocket before heading home, there was a text waiting for her from Dylan.
Marcel is back home. All is well. Good luck at your rodeo.
Jolie gripped the phone tighter before shoving it back into her pocket, glad that he’d taken time out from his evening with Codie to text her, to set her mind at ease.
* * *
THE NEXT MORNING Jolie left for Ennis at dawn, stopping briefly at the store to check on Marcel, who sauntered out from behind a stack of grain bags as if nothing had happened. What Jolie wouldn’t give to bounce back so easily.
Reassured that Marcel was definitely on the quick road to recovery, she headed south to Dillon to pick up Faith. After loading her mare, they had breakfast, caught up on old times and then hit the road.
Jolie’s section ran on Saturday, Faith’s on Sunday, so it was an overnighter for them. And, frankly, Jolie was glad to be out of Eagle Valley for a few days. Mike had agreed to cover the store and Jim had gotten his sister to fill in for her at the bar. The hardest part of rodeo was wedging it into a work schedule, but camping out with an old friend, giggling into the wee hours as they had in college, waking up to the crisp, damp air made Jolie feel more like her old self.
Or it would have if she could shove the situation with Dylan out of her mind for any length of time. As luck would have it, Faith had just broken up with her long-term boyfriend, which explained her sudden desire to spend a lot of time on the road that summer, and she needed to vent. A lot. And Jolie listened, trying to equate Faith’s situation to her own.
Finally, Jolie asked, “Was it worth it?”
“Worth it how?” Faith asked, rolling over in her sleeping bag to face Jolie.
“Worth the heartache?”
“What do you think?” Faith asked.
Jolie let out a sigh as she stared up at the stars. “I don’t know. Honestly, I’ve been in lust quite a few times, and I have strong friendships, but... I’ve never had a breakup that bothered me all that much.”
Not until recently.
“You’ve just...walked away?” Faith sounded mystified.
“Yeah. I guess I have.”
“Then you’ve been choosing poorly.”
Jolie flopped over. “How so?”
“If you feel no pangs breaking up, then you’ve either chosen a jerk you can’t wait to get away from or someone you never really connected with. Not in a real way.”
“Well, hell,” Jolie said rolling onto her back again and frowning up at the sky.
“What?”
“That makes a sad sort of sense.”
“Then choose better next time,” Faith said with a soft laugh. “Find someone to fall in love with.”
“I guess.” But the thought froze her up. Despite her promise to keep an open mind, she was fairly certain she didn’t need what Mel and Dani needed—guys who loved them. She was more like Allie, finding emotional attachments messy, bothersome. Potentially painful—or so it seemed from a distance. Why put yourself through that when one was entirely satisfied with one’s own existence?
She couldn’t think of one reason, but she didn’t say that to Faith because her friend obviously believed in the value of strong emotional ties...and because, like it or not, Jolie did have an emotional tie to Dylan. If she didn’t, then the whole situation wouldn’t bother her in the least.
She drifted off to sleep and dreamed of Dylan. Dreamed he was there with her, doing those things he did that made her feel so good, and woke up all hot and bothered at sunrise.
Faith was already out of her bag and in the shower room. Jolie pulled her jeans on in her sleeping bag and sat up to tuck in her long sleeping T-shirt. And then for a moment she sat with her forearms resting on her knees, staring at the gooseneck opposite her trailer.
Why couldn’t she get this guy out of her head?
She sighed and pushed the sleeping bag aside. At least he hadn’t gotten destroyed by a dark force in this dream. But, frankly, the hot dream was almost as troublesome as the dark dream would have been.
* * *
JOLIE TURNED DOWN the Lightning Creek road late Sunday night. She and Faith had had a flat on the trailer, even though the tire was practically brand-new, and it had taken a while to change it on the side of the highway. She still had to feed and she was fairly certain Gus was cursing her out for leaving him in the yard and taking Faith to the rodeo instead of him.
She pulled to a stop next to the barn and noticed a truck parked next to her old beater. Her heart jumped.
Dylan was there. Somewhere.
Sure enough, a few seconds later, he walked from the barn toward her truck. She shut off the engine and got out, her heart beating faster.
Find someone to fall in love with. Faith’s advice drifted through her head.
Maybe she’d done that...
It scared her to death, but she’d agreed to keep an open mind and he’d agreed not to push. Could they do that?
Dylan stopped a few feet in front of her, a cautious smile on his face, as if he was very glad to be with her again but afraid of scaring her off if he said so.
“Mike gave me a call on my way home tonight. I guess he called the ranch and when you didn’t answer, he thought I should come over and feed Karen. Maybe check on you.”
“Karen’s on pasture,” Jolie said, ignoring the check-on-you part. She was becoming close to Mike, but hated having him worry about her. “But I’m sure you figured that out.”
“I fed the goats. And Gus, who tried to eat me through the fence.”
“Probably more like lick you to death.” Gus loved Dylan. “And thank you.” She headed toward the back of her trailer. Dylan followed. She opened the door and he held it as she went inside and untied Jenabelle.
“How’d you do?”
“I won.”
“Congratulations.”
“I needed a win,” she said as she led the mare past him. “I needed to get away, quite frankly.”
“How’d that go? The getting away.” His tone was mild, but Jolie could read the tension in his body as he waited for an answer.
“Good. No big changes. I’m, um, keeping that open mind.”
They approached the gate and Dylan opened it. Jolie released Jenabelle. The mare shook once before ambling off into the darkness. And then it was just the two of them.
“I accepted the position with the Eagle Valley Sheriff’s Office. I signed my paperwork today.”
His declaration jolted her. It was real now. He was staying. “I didn’t realize it would happen so quickly.”
“They need someone as soon as possible. There’s nothing in Lanesburg for me anymore. Nothing of value, anyway. And Mike needs me here.”
“I understand,” she said. She did, but that didn’t keep her from feeling as if she was being backed into a corner. It wasn’t his intent, she knew that, but she couldn’t help feeling that way.
“That thing we were talking about at the store...the compromise?”
“Yes?” Her throat went a little dry, but she got the word out.
“I thought we might hold off on that for a bit. I leave in three days for training in Bozeman and then I have another regional training in Boise before I start work. When I get back from those, maybe we can have dinner or something.”
“All right.”
When she didn’t say anything else, he added on a gentle note, “I guess what I’m sayi
ng is that there’s no need to move quickly on anything. We can take our time. Address...fears...in a timely manner.”
The way he’d spoken told her that he’d been thinking long and hard about this and that he was asking that she do the same. She would. She’d start addressing instead of avoiding. Surely she was strong enough to do that? Especially since he was keeping his word and not pushing.
He stepped closer, put his hands on her shoulders and it was the most natural thing in the world to meet his lips in a kiss that started out tender and then rapidly heated to something more. He pulled her close, deepening the kiss, and even as Jolie lost herself in the sheer sensuality, she felt herself pulling away.
Dylan felt it, too, and slowly released her.
“I wasn’t going to do that,” he said as his hands fell away.
“Neither was I,” Jolie said.
He stepped back, pushed his hands into his pockets. “So we agree...we wait to make any big decisions? Just take things slowly and see what evolves?”
“We agree,” Jolie said on a husky note. She walked with him to his truck, realizing that she wasn’t going to see him for a while. She wasn’t certain she was going to like that, even though she’d been fighting for it.
As he opened the door to the truck she put her hand on his arm. He looked at her and she simply said, “Be careful. Okay?”
He smiled a little and said, “You got it.”
* * *
DYLAN HAD HELD off telling Mike that he’d accepted the job with the county until after telling Jolie. The last thing he wanted was for her to hear it secondhand—especially now that she’d cautiously agreed to not kick him out of her life.
“It’s official?” Mike asked, looking as if he wanted to swing Dylan around in a circle.
“I signed on the dotted line today.”
“We need to celebrate,” Mike said, pushing up out of his chair and heading for the kitchen where he got the good whiskey out of the cupboard over the refrigerator.
The good whiskey was so old that Dylan was surprised it hadn’t evaporated. He pulled shot glasses out, but Mike waved them aside and took out his wife’s crystal glasses.