Kat didn’t look at him for a few beats, trying to gather her thoughts.
“I wanted to continue,” she started. “But I realized where my mind was going and just…froze.”
She risked a glance at his face and saw the confusion written there. “Where was your mind going?”
Kat was eternally grateful at that moment for the fact that it was freezing outside because it hid the blush she knew was covering her cheeks.
“I was thinking about…more.”
Ford arched a brow. “More what?”
“Oh my God! You’re going to make me say it!”
She pressed a hand to her forehead and looked everywhere but at Ford.
“If you’re implying what I think you are…then yes, I am. I think it needs to be laid out.”
Kat huffed and just barely kept from stomping her foot. If he knew what she was saying, why was he forcing her to say it?
“Fine. I was thinking about what it would be like to continue this in private. With less clothing.”
Ford chuckled. “Are you talking about sex?”
Kat nodded. “Yeah.”
Ford studied her for a few moments before saying, “Kat, I hope you know that I’m going to go at your speed. If you want sex, then I’m all for it. But I got the feeling that you wanted something slower, which I’ve been trying to honor—“
“You have been,” she assured him.
“So just let me know if this pace isn’t working for you, either way,” he finished.
If Kat could melt to the ground in a puddle, she would have at Ford’s words. They were exactly what she needed to hear.
“I will.”
“Good.” He stepped closer and leaned down to press his lips lightly against hers.
Kat wanted to deepen it again, but knew she needed to slow down and figure out where her head and heart were, so she pulled back.
“I had a lot of fun tonight.”
“Me too. You’ll let me know you got home okay?”
She nodded and unlocked her truck. Even though she didn’t need the help, Ford helped her into the cab and she basked in his attention. He shut the door and waved before walking over to his own truck.
She cranked hers and turned the heat on high before carefully backing out and starting the short drive home.
While driving, she thought about what Ford had said and her feelings toward him. She was attracted to him and she liked him a lot. She knew that she was quickly falling in love with him too.
What surprised her about everything though was how willing she was to jump right into sex with him. She had been raring to go in that parking lot and if she hadn’t frozen, she might have suggested they go somewhere more private.
She was thankful that Ford had been able to read her and take a step back. While she would have enjoyed it and wouldn’t have regretted it, it might have done more harm than good.
Though she’d dated here and there, having sex with someone wasn’t something she’d done in a while.
It took her two years to move past her depression and get to where she was ready to try having sex again. It hadn’t gone well. She’d had a flashback at the start and ended up shoving the guy off her and running.
She tried again a year later, and she didn’t have a flashback, but it wasn’t enjoyable.
She’d tried one other time, and it was okay, but nothing to write home about. So she just stopped. It had been several years since she’d felt a flutter of desire for someone.
Even if she was attracted to someone sexually, it usually took her a while to work to the point that she wanted to act on it. But Ford was making her throw that out the window.
One look from him was enough to have her quivering with need and internally begging him to take her.
It scared her. Just recently she wasn’t sure she even wanted to date anyone, let alone him. So to now feel like she’d had a sexual awakening with him—without him even touching her—frightened her.
She needed to get her head on straight.
A few moments later, she pulled into her driveway and parked under the carport. As she was climbing out of her truck, she paused and smiled as she saw the small flakes making their way to the ground.
Looks like the weatherman had been right after all; they were getting snow.
Twenty-Four
Ford
Today was the day. The snow they’d gotten a few days before hadn’t been heavy, so it melted pretty quickly apart from a few spots. That meant that Ford was going on a trail ride with Kat today.
He wasn’t too manly to admit that he was nervous. It had been a while since he’d ridden, so he was a little worried about that. But that wasn’t the may cause of his nerves. His nerves centered on Kat.
They were still moving slowly, but at a quicker pace than he expected when they started seeing each other. They talked every day and had shared some hot kisses. Adding in their brief discussion about the sexual tension between them and Ford was out of sorts.
He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about what being with Kat would be like. He’d gone home the other night with a dick hard enough to cut a diamond and a cold shower hadn’t helped him any.
He’d ended up having to jerk off twice to take the edge off enough that he could fall asleep without his dick serving as a kickstand on the bed.
He was ready for them to take the next step, but he wasn’t going to rush Kat. Her past told him he needed to take it at her speed. When she was ready, she’d let him know and they could move forward.
He’d just be friendly with his hand until then.
He slowed and turned into the drive of Kat’s place. He pulled to a stop by the house and grabbed his outerwear before steeling himself to open the door.
He sucked a breath in when the frigid air hit him. He quickly shrugged into his jacket and pulled his beanie on. He shut and locked his truck before all but sprinting across the yard to the horse barn that Kat said he could find her in.
He relaxed as he stepped through the door and into the warm interior of the barn. He saw two horses already saddled and tied to two posts, waiting to head out.
“Kat?” he called out.
“One second!”
He walked over to the two horses, looking them over. Both were beautiful creatures with light brown hair and white stars on their face. The male was fairly big, close to sixteen hands, while the female was slightly smaller, though not by much.
“I see you’ve met Misty and Corky.”
He furrowed his brow. “Corky?”
Kat chuckled and walked to where he could see her by the horse’s heads. “Yeah, Corky. Little weird, but it fits him. You’ll be riding him today.”
Ford nodded. “Anything I need to know today?”
Kat shook her head and rubbed a hand over Misty’s soft nose. “Nope. They’re both pretty gentle. I picked them because of that and I thought they could use a good exercise.”
Ford nodded. “Okay. I’m ready when you are.”
“Let’s go then.”
They each untied their horse and Ford fell into step behind Kat as she led them toward a pasture away from where the Christmas fair was set up.
When she stopped, he mimicked her and checked all the straps and things were as they should be before checking the length of the stirrups. As he adjusted them, Kat said, “I figured we could ride this side of the property. I’ve got some snacks and water in my saddlebag if we stop anywhere. It should be a quick ride. It’s too cold for anything else.”
“You got that right.”
Ford hadn’t put his gloves on yet so he could work with the buckles on the saddle and he was regretting it. The metal was ice cold and his fingers were quickly growing numb.
After checking that everything was right, he quickly pulled his gloves on and heaved himself into the saddle.
As he found his seat in the dip of the saddle, Ford realized that he’d missed this feeling of being on top of a horse and taking the opportunity to see na
ture in a different way.
“Ready?” Kat called from her horse.
He nodded and Kat clicked at Misty before turning her toward a small path.
They rode single file for a little while since the path was so narrow, but Ford didn’t mind. It allowed him the opportunity to get back into the groove of riding a horse. It had been so long that he wasn’t as in sync with the horse’s movements as he should have been.
By the time the path widened, he was more in sync with the gentle rocking movement and nudged Corky into a trot to catch up with Kat.
They’d been surrounded by trees up to this point, so he was surprised when the trees cleared and they were suddenly in a clearing with a clear view of mountains in the distance.
“You’d never know we had a view like this,” Kat said, looking over at him with a grin.
“You’re right. You can see them from town, but wow. This is impressive.”
They started going up a small incline and Kat said, “Just wait until you see what comes next.”
They rode in silence for several minutes and Ford looked around. In this part of the property, there was still snow on the ground because of the low temperatures and all the shade from the pine trees. It was gorgeous.
He moved both reins into one hand and tugged his glove off with his teeth. He grabbed his phone and opened the camera app before snapping a few photos, getting one of Kat riding in front of him on Misty.
Once his phone was back in his pocket, he pulled his glove back on.
A while later, Kat pulled Misty to a stop. Ford halted Corky beside them as he took in the view.
“We don’t have the tall mountains here, but we have a few nice hills. This is one of them.”
Ford was speechless. They were sitting at the top of a hill that sloped downward gently before a sharp drop-off. Spread out in front of them was a sea of green, white, and blue. Everywhere he looked, he could see pine trees reaching for the sky.
Just past the trees were mountains, which towered over them.
“This is beautiful.”
Seeing something like this reminded Ford that true beauty existed in nature. It was awe-inspiring.
“Want a snack?” Kat asked, pulling Ford’s attention from the view in front of them.
“Sure.”
She rustled through her bag and pulled out two granola bars before producing a bottle of water as well.
He laid the bottle on the saddle between his legs as he worked to open the granola bar. Corky didn’t even twitch, which was a testament to how well trained he was.
He and Kat ate and drank in silence. Once they finished, she took their trash and stashed it in another bag.
“Ready to head back?”
He sucked in a deep breath, enjoying the sting that the air brought with it, before blowing it out.
“Yeah, let’s go.”
The ride back didn’t seem to take as long as the ride out, but they’d been gone almost three hours by the time he swung himself off the horse.
He winced at the stiffness in his legs. He forgot how taxing riding could be when you weren’t used to it anymore. He walked around for a few minutes to work the stiffness out and hoped he didn’t have issues later.
He followed Kat into the barn and helped her and Cal get the equipment off and put away. Once that was done, he grabbed a currycomb and brush to brush Corky out.
He and Kat worked in companionable silence and Ford found that it was nice.
It had been so long since he’d been around an animal that he wasn’t seeing because he was a vet that he forgot how gentle and soothing they could be, especially horses.
He’d always loved riding and hated that he’d stopped. One more thing he could blame on his ex-wife. She hated his riding and eventually gave him an ultimatum. He’d stupidly picked her.
But he wasn’t with her anymore and he didn’t have to worry about that. He could ride as much as he wanted.
Finished with the grooming, he put their brushes away while Kat walked Misty and Corky back to their stalls where some oats were waiting for them.
“Want to come in for a little while and get some coffee, maybe some lunch?”
“Sure.”
She smiled and he couldn’t help but smile in return.
A few minutes later he was in the half-bath, scrubbing his hands while Kat was in the kitchen looking at what they had that she could make quickly.
He rejoined her as something hit the skillet and started sizzling.
“I’m going to make some spaghetti. I know it’s not your normal day to get meals, but you can take the leftovers with you.”
“You don’t have to do that. I have plenty of freezer meals.”
Kat looked at him. “I know I don’t have to. I want to.”
Well, that put a quick end to whatever protest was on the tip of his tongue.
“Thank you.” He walked over to her and kissed her on the forehead before walking over to the coffee machine.
He checked that it was ready to brew and flipped it on, getting everything out while he waited for it to finish.
Once it finished sputtering, he asked Kat, “How do you like your coffee?”
“I can get it.”
“You’re cookin’. Let me.”
Kat sighed and he could imagine the look on her face as she did so. She probably looked disgruntled and had possibly rolled her eyes.
“Cream and three sugars.”
“How much cream?”
“Enough to lighten it.”
He nodded and doctored her coffee, hoping he’d done it right. He turned and handed it to her. “This good?”
Kat glanced at it before blowing on it and sipping it. “Yep, that’s great. Thanks. Want to sit at the counter while I finish up with this?”
He nodded and walked over to his own cup, fixing it how he liked, before walking to a barstool and sliding on to it.
He never thought spending time with someone not doing much of anything was fun. But he obviously hadn’t considered doing it with Kat.
Though they didn’t speak much, each of them sipping their coffee in silence, it wasn’t uncomfortable. It was nice. It was domestic. It was the perfect way to spend a Saturday.
He could picture doing this with Kat all the time. The thought of settling down so soon after his divorce was something that he thought would unsettle him, but it didn’t. In fact, he felt very calm about it. That told him that being with Kat wasn’t a bad thing. If anything, it was a good thing and he couldn’t wait to see where their relationship went.
Twenty-Five
Ford
After lunch, Kat brewed more coffee and asked if he wanted to stay for a little while longer. He considered turning her down, but the thought of leaving didn’t sit well with him either. That was how he found himself sitting with her on the couch while a Christmas movie played softly in the background.
“Where’s your dad?” he asked, realizing he hadn’t seen Jimmy at all since he’d been there.
“Oh, he’s down in Hoffman for the weekend. I think he’ll be back on Tuesday,” Kat answered absent-mindedly, her attention on the movie playing in front of her.
“Why’s he there?”
“Some of his friends are there for the trial going on, so he rode down to spend some time with them.” She glanced at him quickly before turning her attention back to the screen.
“He didn’t take any horses or dogs with him?”
Kat shook her head. “No. His friends brought him a horse or two. I’m glad he took nothing, honestly. It’s getting harder for him to do things on his own, so I’d worry if he had to handle taking care of some animals. This way he can take part, but not have the added worry of feeding.”
Ford nodded. He could understand and appreciate where she was coming from.
But now that he knew she was all alone at the house and it was just the two of them, he couldn’t help his mind wandering to other things they could be doing.
He needed to put
a lid on those types of thoughts before they got out of hand. Kat hadn’t shown that she was ready for that and he wouldn’t pressure her. He’d leave before that happened.
“You okay?” Kat asked, breaking him from his thoughts.
He glanced at her in surprise. “Yeah, I’m great. Why?”
She tilted her head as she looked at him. “You just seem…tense. You sure you’re fine?”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
She narrowed her eyes like she didn’t believe him, but eventually turned back to look at the television.
He swallowed thickly and gave himself a small pep talk. Sitting there obsessing about it wasn’t helping and Kat was picking up on his weird mood. He needed to snap out of it so he didn’t make it awkward.
That was easier said than done though. Just sitting next to her was turning him on because he could smell the light vanilla scent of her hair and he could feel her pressed into his side.
Since when did hair and a light touch set him off? It made no sense.
“Ford.” Kat’s voice pulled him from his thoughts.
“Yeah?”
“What’s wrong?”
He looked at Kat and she was staring at him with a questioning look. “Nothing.”
He cleared his throat and shifted in his seat, wishing he was anywhere but there. He quickly drained the last of his coffee, which was now tepid and didn’t taste very good. He grimaced at the flavor. “I think I’m gonna—“
What he was about to say died in his throat when Kat moved so she was straddling him.
His eyes widened, and he held his hands out to the side, not wanting to do anything that would make her uncomfortable.
“Kat?”
“What?” she asked as she leaned down to press a light kiss against his neck. He shivered at the light touch and his eyes fell closed.
“What are you doing?” His voice was deeper than normal and his dick was pressed against the front of his pants.
She sat up and looked him in the eye as she said, “Something is bothering you. You won’t tell me what it is and I have a feeling it’s because of me somehow. I could tell you were about to bolt, so I’m trying to stop that.”
Hometown Christmas Page 13