by Caroline Lee
Her last word was followed by a giant yawn, and Jace grinned tiredly. “No, don’t worry about it. I’ll…” He trailed off, thanks to a yawn that had been prompted by hers.
“It’s not your fault, and you shouldn’t have to put off sleep.” She stepped out of the doorway. “You sleep in here tonight. The bed’s your size, anyhow. I’ll go deal with my mess and then sleep up there eventually.”
He waved away her objections. “I’m not going to take your bed away from you, Dink.”
They both stopped to yawn, simultaneously, and when they were done, Dink was smiling slightly at him. “Then share it?”
Jace’s mouth dropped open further. “Share it?” As in, share a bed with her?
But she just shrugged and turned back into the room. “Listen, it’s a huge bed, and I’ve only slept in this half. Not even half.” He could see she was right; only about a third of the sheets were rumpled.
She stepped back into the room and began to rearrange the pillows. “I’ll stay on my side, you stay on yours, and we’ll stick some pillows in the middle. That should be good enough for your delicate sensibilities.”
He snorted and rolled his eyes, but that turned into a yawn. Dink took off her robe, and he saw she was wearing a baggy t-shirt instead of her usual tank top, thank goodness.
“Jace, get into the bed. I promise not to bother you. It’s super-late, and we have to be up early anyhow. I’ve got to meet with Pastor Roberts, and you’ve got to get ready for your interview.
Shoot, that’s right. He hadn’t exactly forgotten tomorrow’s interview, but the fun he’d had this evening had pushed it out of the forefront of his mind, where it’d been for the last few days. And she had to meet with the new pastor to make sure the marriage certificate was okay.
He was usually pretty good about remembering meetings, but Dink—standing there in boxers that showed off her awesome legs, and a too-big University of Texas at Austin t-shirt—could distract any man. Knowing how she could be, it was kind of a surprise that she had remembered his interview. Maybe his expression gave him away, because she smiled.
“Yeah, I can pay attention to calendars too. So” –she broke off to smother a yawn— “it’d be dumb for us to stay up any later than we have to when there’s a perfectly good solution right here.”
Jace wasn’t sure if her argument was a good one, or if he was just too tired to come up with any objections, because the bed was suddenly looking incredibly inviting. He sighed, giving up. “Fine.” He made his way to the pristine side of the bed, stepping over Hagrid’s bin as he went, and pulled the blankets back. “But I’m sticking a pillow in between us.”
“Why? Don’t you trust me?” She might’ve been smirking when she slipped between the sheets, but it was hard to tell.
Jace yawned one more time, before turning off the bedside light. “Not at all, Dink.”
There was a snort from the darkness on the other side of the pillow-wall he’d erected. He rolled over onto his side so his back faced her, and felt her do the same. There was as much physical distance between them as possible—plus the pillow—but Jace imagined he could feel her warmth.
“Goodnight, Jace.”
It was long after her breathing had faded into a steady rhythm, and he lay there thinking about her warmth and her smile and her complete unsuitability, that Jace finally sighed and gave into the inevitable.
“Goodnight, Dink.”
CHAPTER SIX
It took a while for Dink to come out of her dream. She was warm and cozy, and felt…comfortable, in a way she couldn’t pinpoint. The pillows were fluffy, the heater was humming quietly, and there was a heavy blanket across her middle. She felt like she could lie in bed forever, just happily enjoying the Friday morning peace.
And that’s when the blanket across her tightened, and her eyes flashed open. That was an arm. There was an arm around her? A firm chest pressed against her back, a breath stirring the hairs along her ear and neck?
Jace was holding her. She remembered being so tired last night, and suggesting they just share the bed. With both of them on opposite sides, and the pillow in between, she figured there wouldn’t be any trouble.
But she was in trouble now! Even fully dressed, she could feel her body fighting to press back against him, to feel the full length of him first thing in the morning.
This is better than coffee.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have time to appreciate it. The hitch in Jace’s breathing told her he’d woken too, and had frozen in place much the same way she had. Would he apologize? Would he scramble backwards? Would he pull her even closer and nuzzle against the back of her neck, like she suddenly desperately wanted?
No. They lay like that for a full minute, neither of them moving or daring to breathe. Then, suddenly, he exhaled and relaxed, his arm going loose around her, and his fingers spreading out across her stomach. She couldn’t suppress her shiver.
“This is bad,” he murmured against the back of her head.
“Very bad,” she agreed, staring straight ahead at the beige wall paint.
“I should probably apologize.” She felt him take a breath. “But I don’t want to.”
She didn’t want him to either. “I don’t mind.” She really didn’t. In fact, it was pretty disturbing to realize how much she didn’t mind.
His arm tightened just the teeniest bit. “I should probably just roll over and we can pretend this never happened. Awkward, but believable. It was a mistake. An accident.”
“Yeah.” Dink swallowed down whatever else she wanted to say. He thought this was a mistake?
“The problem is…” Jace made a noise somewhere between a groan and a laugh, and his fingers smoothed across the front of her ratty tee-shirt. “I don’t want to leave and pretend it never happened.”
Her throat went dry. What a way to wake up, huh? “What do you want, then?”
“I want to kiss you.” When she stiffened, he made that half-hurt, half-laugh again. “I’m sorry. I know it’s inappropriate, but I can’t help it. You…”
When he trailed off, she knew she had to say something. Otherwise, she’d lose him. “I want you to kiss me too. I’ve wanted it…”
“It’s probably just because we’ve been stuck together, right?”
“Right. Totally. But…”
“Yeah.” He took another deep breath. “Maybe we should try it. Just to, you know, get it out of the way. So we won’t wonder. Sort of as an experiment.”
Dink’s heart began beating double-time. “Maybe that’s a good idea. If you really want to, I mean.”
“Right now, there’s not much else I want more. Sorry.”
His tone said he was confessing a deep secret, and Dink’s lips pulled up into a smile. She resisted the urge to wiggle, to snuggle against him. Instead, she tried to be responsible. “But not here. Kissing in bed just seems like a bad idea.”
“Yeah.” He sounded reluctant now.
“Yeah.” So did she.
But then, as if they’d both counted to three silently, they rolled apart and lunged out of bed simultaneously. Dink stood facing him across the king-sized rumpled sheets and blankets. They’d really just slept beside each other, woke up cuddled against one another, and she’d never felt more rested, more ready to take on the world, than she did at that moment. His creamy-brown eyes were raking her from head to knees, and she stared right back at him. How could any man look so darn appealing in a gray tee-shirt and flannel PJ pants?
She forced her breathing to slow, and reached for her cozy robe. “I think that, if we’re going to do this, we should do it properly.”
He cleared his throat and ran a hand across his short hair. “Not in bed. Not near a bed.”
“I’m going to brush my teeth. So morning-breath doesn’t skew the results of this experiment.”
“Yeah. I mean, if this fails, we should want it to fail on its own, right?”
“Right.” Dink pulled the robe’s belt tight. “It probabl
y will fail. We’re just feeling this way because we’ve been thrown together too often in the last few days, and then I made you sleep with me.” Her brain registered what she’d just said about the same time he closed his eyes in what looked like an expression of pain. “I mean—I mean, sleeping! We slept beside one another. That was it.”
“That was it, yeah.” He turned away and began to climb over Hagrid’s bin. “I need some OJ. I’ll meet you in the kitchen in five?”
“Yeah.” And then, after he’d walked out, she muttered it again. “Yeah.”
Kissing? She was going to kiss Jace Cunningham? Her skin already felt like a million little jolts of electricity were running up and down it, and now they were going to kiss too? She definitely didn’t need coffee this morning.
She stood in the kitchen four-and-a-half minutes later, staring at his broad shoulders as he slowly lowered his glass to the counter, and took a deep breath. When he turned, she tried her best smile, and his eyes widened slightly.
“So, we’re really going to do this?” She was half-excited, half-terrified.
He ran his hand across his hair again. She liked she was able to read his frustration and nervousness; like she was beginning to understand him. Then he sighed. “If you’re sure.”
“I think it’s only right. I mean, obviously we’ve got something unresolved here, right? Something we’ve both been thinking about.” In her case, she’d been thinking about it pretty hard. “It’s probably best if we approached this logically and found a way to prove or disprove our…um.” She dropped her gaze to his chest, only because it was easier than staring at his lips. “Attraction.”
“Yeah.” She heard the grin in his voice, but didn’t confirm it. “I’m impressed. That sounds pretty scientific. Methodical.”
“You’re the one who suggested we do it.” Dink flashed her gaze back to his. “That’s pretty impulsive.”
“You must be rubbing off on me.”
But that’s when he smiled, and a little bit of Dink melted. Heck, a whole lot of her melted, and she’d stepped closer to him before she realized what she was doing.
Staring up at him—he was tall enough she had to tilt her head backwards—she took a deep breath. “So, how should we do this?”
“I think we should probably be touching.” He took one of her hands. “Like this.”
His palm felt cool and dry against hers. Was she sweating? Dink squeezed his fingers, and smiled slightly when he squeezed back. “Okay. Got it. What’s next?”
“Well…” he murmured as he bent closer. “I guess we should just do it. Just kiss, huh?”
“For science?”
“For science,” he agreed, and their lips touched.
Volcanoes erupting… Giant waves crashing against the sand… Fireworks…
Dink could’ve come up with all sorts of visual metaphors for the next few minutes, but they wouldn’t have done the kiss justice.
She was breathless and panting when she came back to herself and realized she was standing on her bare tip-toes, one hand clutching his like her life depended on it, and the other wrapped around his neck. She would’ve been dangling against his chest, except for the fact that his free arm was clutching her to him, and she felt safer and more secure than she could ever remember being.
He was breathing heavily as well when he dropped his forehead to hers, his eyes shut in what might’ve been pain.
“Holy moly, Dink.” He sucked in a deep breath, and Dink found herself nodding in agreement. “That was…”
He trailed off, and she couldn’t help him. She couldn’t think of any way to describe what they’d just shared either.
Finally, his grip on her loosened, and she felt herself sliding down his chest to stand on her own two feet once more. Her arm—which had been holding onto his neck so tightly she thought she might hurt him—now dropped to his bicep, happy to still have some support. And throughout it all, her right hand clutched his left like a lifeline. Her fingers ached, but she didn’t care; she couldn’t let him go.
She stared at his chest, wondering what that kiss had meant to him.
“This is bad, Dink.” She nodded, still not able to meet his eyes, but heard him groan. “Very bad.”
She swallowed. “Totally bad.”
“We definitely do not need to be attracted to each other.”
“Not at all. I mean, you’re uptight and accountant-y, and I’m—”
If possible, his grip on her hand tightened. “We’re complete opposites, yeah. We’ve just been thrown together for this wedding. We’ll be out of each other’s hair in less than a week.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
A few moments of silence passed, while Dink focused on the way his chest expanded inside his t-shirt with every breath. Finally, she cleared her throat. “I don’t even like you, but…”
But I’m beginning to think I might love you.
Of course she didn’t complete her thought aloud. But maybe she didn’t need to.
Jace dropped her hand with a full-out groan, but she didn’t have time to feel bereft before he was wrapping both arms around her shoulders and pulling her against him. She didn’t know what he needed from her, but was glad to take whatever comfort he was willing to offer. Snaking her arms around his middle, she tucked her cheek against his chest.
And when he dropped a kiss on the crown of her head, she shuddered slightly
“Yeah,” he murmured against her hair. “I know. Me too.”
And they stood like that for a long time, neither saying anything. Dink wasn’t sure exactly how she felt, and wasn’t sure at all how he felt, but at that moment, it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered, except that she felt warm and valued in his arms.
And wasn’t that just a confusing thought?
All things considered, it was pretty amazing he’d managed to get through that interview. Of course, it wasn’t so much an interview as a new-hire meeting. Jace had been surprised when Wade had asked him only perfunctory questions about his resume, and then began to outline the benefits package, duties entailed, and compensation.
Even Jace, who’d been distracted all morning by the memory of Dink in his arms, had thought it was going a little oddly. “Whoa, whoa,” he’d said, holding up his hands in front of Wade’s big desk. “Don’t you want to talk about my qualifications or something?”
“No. Your resume speaks for itself, and Will vouches for you.” Wade had sighed and slumped back in his chair then, and Jace had thought Wade looked exhausted when he gestured to a stack of folders on the desk. “And I’m pretty desperate for an accountant to hand all this over to. There’s so many little things—I just found out we need a new mechanic, for crying out loud!—and I’m going nuts trying to handle it all myself. Besides, we’ve all known you for years, and I think the ranch is important to you. Right?”
Jace nodded. It was important, and if he could think of anything besides Dink for more than a minute, he would’ve tried to explain why. Instead, he contented himself with a simple, “Yes, sir.”
But Wade had smiled tiredly and held out his hand. “No need for that, Jace. Call me Wade, just like everyone else does. We’re all one big family here at River’s End Ranch, and I’m happy to welcome you back home.”
Jace had dazedly shaken Wade’s hand, made arrangements to begin his new job the week after the wedding, and headed back home. Or rather, back to the tiny house he shared with Dink.
Dink.
He’d kissed her. And it had been amazing. He had to admit that part of him—most of him?—had hoped kissing her would get her out of his blood, out of his brain. He’d hoped to feel nothing, so he could convince himself that she was just on his mind so often because they were working together.
But, nope. That kiss had been more powerful than any he’d experienced before, and there was no way he’d be able to get her out of his system now. And since he’d tasted her, he didn’t think he’d spent more than a minute not thinking about her,
even during that interview. He didn’t want her out of his system.
He was in trouble.
Jace hunched against the cool breeze and walked a little faster. His suit jacket wasn’t made for warmth, apparently, and the changing seasons were making themselves known. Hopefully the weather held for a few more days; the wedding was on Tuesday, and after that Idaho could get as wintry as it wanted.
When he pushed open the door to the tiny house, he was surprised to see a bin in the middle of the living room—or rather, the tiny space between the front door and the kitchen that contained the couch and TV. When he moved forward to peer down into it, a Priority Mail envelope came sailing over the loft railing and bounced off his head, before dropping into the bin.
“Dink?”
Her head appeared over the railing, her teal-blue eyes flitting from him rubbing his head to the bin beside him. “Whoops. Sorry.”
And that’s when she smiled, and he would’ve forgiven her anything. Her smile was like…well, to someone like him, who was used to holding his emotions inside and not letting others know what he thought, her smile was special. It made him feel like he was special.
“What are you doing up there?”
She pulled her head back, but her voice floated down. “Finishing up these labels. I was hoping when we went into town this afternoon we could stop at the post office? It’s cheaper to ship from there than the UPS store on the ranch.”
“Sure.” But then, shrugging out of his suit jacket and loosening his tie, Jace thought to ask, “We’re going into Riston today?”
Her head popped back over the railing, a teasing look on her face. He wasn’t left wondering why when she lobbed a completed package into the bin, barely missing him. “We have to drop the program files off at the printers and pick up the marriage license, remember? Gotta leave before three o’clock to get there before they close.”
Jace frowned when he realized he’d forgotten completely. “You’re getting pretty good at this calendar stuff, Dink.”
She rolled her eyes. “Maybe I’m more organized than you think.”