Why should it matter to her what her mother did with the ranch anyway? Jane planned to go back to California right after Beth’s wedding, and she’d hole up in her condo until she decided to look for another teaching job.
The sounds of music and laughter greeted them as they neared the old barn.
“Sounds like a fun party.”
Her mother looked so relaxed, while nerves blitzed through Jane. Social scenes like this had never been her thing. In high school, she used to barricade herself in her room with a book anytime there was a big party or dance. On the night of her winter formal, she’d binge read the entire Chronicles of Narnia series.
“I still can’t believe Toby wanted to have Beth’s elegant wedding shower here.” Her mom frowned at the structure’s ragged exterior.
“Neither could the bats.” The memory of Toby running around with a trash bag full of bats made her laugh. Inevitably, though, thinking of the bats made her think of the kiss they’d shared and suddenly the low evening sun seemed ten times hotter.
Jane opened the barn door for her mother and followed her inside. “Wow. He really pulled everything together.” She hadn’t expected to be impressed—especially given the state of the barn earlier that morning, but it looked amazing.
“Toby did this?” Her mother’s eyes opened as wide as Jane imagined hers were.
He’d set up the space to look like a mountain fairyland. There were white lights strung from all the rafters giving the dim room a festive glow. On one side, he’d set up round tables, which were covered in white table linens and rustic accents. Each table had its own twinkling mason jar chandelier hanging overhead. Across from where they stood, Toby had created a makeshift bar out of old wine barrels and pallets. There was also a dance floor, the catered food tables she’d ordered, and yes, there was the mechanical bull. She had to admit, it wasn’t quite as obnoxious as she’d thought it would be.
“It looks beautiful in here,” her mother marveled, wandering away.
There was no way Toby had done this all on his own. It would’ve been too much, even for both him and Wes. Though the barn was packed with people, it still felt plenty roomy. Everyone had spread out and was enjoying the food, drinks, and the country music blaring from the speakers.
Nudging her way through the crowd, Jane gawked in disbelief at the transformation.
“Oops! Sorry.” A woman bumped into Jane from behind.
She turned. “It’s okay—” Her eyes met Aubrey Munson’s and once again she was falling back through the years and landing with a horrible thud into her tattered high school memories. Beth had invited Aubrey Munson to her wedding shower?
Jane pushed her glasses up on her nose, but it didn’t change anything. Aubrey hadn’t seemed to age since their senior year. Apparently being a blond bombshell never went out of style.
“Jane?” The woman’s jaw dropped. “Jane Harding? It is you! I knew you were coming, but I didn’t realize you’d already made it back.”
Why would she realize it? They’d never been friends. Aubrey had been everything Jane wasn’t—popular, pretty, athletic, especially when it came to cheerleading and dance, and oh, yeah. There was that other thing. She’d dated Toby.
“Hi Aubrey. So nice to see you again.” She tried to smile. She really tried, but it was hard to forget the mean-girl comments Aubrey and her friends always uttered when they thought she wasn’t listening. Back then, they’d been really into rhyming: “plain Jane” had always been a favorite of course. Her parents had set her up for that. But there’d also been “stained Jane,” “weight-gain Jane,” “insane Jane,” “shame Jane.” She could go on…
“Oh my God,” Aubrey bubbled. “What’s it been? Like ten years or something?”
Math had never been the woman’s forte. “Roughly.” She tried to keep a hold on her smile, but it had started to give. “What’re you doing back here?” She’d heard from her mother that Aubrey had gone to University of Denver and was currently working her way up to be an anchor at a local news station. Mara had always loved Aubrey. She used to try to force Jane to invite Aubrey to her house after school. But Jane had never been good at pretending to like people.
“What am I doing here?” the woman repeated with a giggle. “Well I guess it’s no surprise that Toby and I have been hanging out some since he’s spent so much time in Denver recently.” Her expression turned pouty. Or maybe that was simply the work she’d had done on her lips. “The poor man. I try to meet up with him every time he comes down for a doctor appointment.”
She was here for Toby? With Toby? Jane blinked at the woman, her throat constricting. “Right. Of course.” Well, wasn’t that interesting? “So, you’re here as Toby’s date?” Jane had to get this straight, because only a few hours ago he’d been lying in the grass kissing her like he was single.
“Not officially.” Aubrey leaned in. “But I think we’re moving in that direction, if you know what I mean.”
Jane didn’t know. She couldn’t possibly know because about six hours ago, Toby had told her she was beautiful. And yet…like she’d told the man himself, he said that to all the girls. Jane gave herself a good mental shake. He was a good-time cowboy. Even when he’d kissed Jane, she’d known that. It wasn’t like things between them would ever go anywhere. Not with him traveling the circuit. She’d already told him her philosophy on love anyway. He knew where she stood, so he probably figured there was no risk in kissing her. Still, it was a pretty crappy thing to do if Aubrey thought the two of them were in a relationship.
“You look so…different.” A catty smile wrinkled Aubrey’s nose.
“I would hope we’re all different, considering we’re not in high school anymore,” Jane said, scanning the crowd for Beth. Maybe her friend would come and rescue her. Beth had known how terrible Aubrey had been to her in high school.
Jane took deep, even breaths to ease the sudden burning dead center in her chest. She’d told Aubrey she hoped they were all different as adults, but clearly that wasn’t true.
“I really need to go find Beth.” She was here for her friend, not to be forced back into the past by someone who’d never liked her. “Excuse me,” she said to Aubrey. “Great to see you.”
“Maybe we can catch up some time,” the woman called behind her.
Jane didn’t even turn around to acknowledge the invitation. Instead, she kept her gaze focused straight ahead, hunting for her best friend. There she was! Over by the mechanical bull with Ethan. And Toby. The sight of him brought on a minor explosion where her heart had once sat. Yep, definitely the good-time cowboy. He was currently climbing onto the mechanical bull, waving to the crowd that had gathered, showing off that cocky grin.
“To-by! To-by!” The deafening chant reminded her of high school football games.
Trying to stay in the shadows, Jane edged her way around the crowd. She needed to block out everything else and make sure Beth had a great time at her shower.
The mechanical bull started up and everyone cheered louder. Toby ate up the attention, raising his arm in the air and whooping to get the crowd even more riled.
Almost there. Jane tried not to watch him while she made her way to Beth’s side, but she couldn’t help herself. He was so good—moving with the bull, all that upper body strength keeping his form sturdy. And right before she grabbed her friend’s hand, Toby’s eyes seemed to meet hers. Then the bull spun, flinging him off onto the sawdust covered floor.
Everyone seemed to gasp and hold their breath.
“That wasn’t even eight seconds!” someone yelled.
“Oh my God! Toby!” Aubrey rushed to his side and knelt next to him. “Are you okay?”
“Sorry. I forgot to warn you Aubrey was coming,” Beth whispered into Jane’s ear.
“Yeah about that.” She turned to her friend. “What the hell is she doing here?”
Beth shrugged. “She said Toby invited her.”
Of course he did. Toby had started to stagger to his feet,
noticeably wincing while he tried to shrug off Aubrey. “I’m fine,” he called out. But that wasn’t his real smile. Or maybe he’d only been giving Jane his fake smile. She had no way of knowing, did she?
The crowd started clapping and then chanting for him to get back up on the bull.
“I’m gonna take five,” he said, walking away. “Let someone else have a turn.” He moved stiffly with Aubrey following behind him.
Jane watched the two of them. Toby said something to the woman, and she scurried away while he slipped out the door.
“Jane!” Beth elbowed her. “Go with him. Make sure he’s okay.”
Oh, no. No. Way. “Babysitting the best man isn’t the maid of honor’s job,” she informed her friend. She’d already saved him once today. If she would’ve known about Aubrey a little while ago, she would’ve let the bats swarm him.
“Please.” Beth did that puppy-dog begging thing with her eyes. “Otherwise Ethan is going to go after him and who knows how long that’ll take. I want to enjoy the shower with him.”
“Of course you do.” Beth and Ethan had both been working so hard. They deserved to enjoy the evening without any worries. “You two go dance. I’ll go check on Toby.” She put on her best bridesmaid smile and headed for the door.
Chapter Thirteen
Toby headed for the lake, trying to walk off the pain in his shoulder. When he’d hit the ground, he’d heard—and felt—a distinct pop.
He couldn’t take another setback—especially not one delivered by a damn mechanical bull. He’d been on plenty of mechanical bulls in country-western bars all over the good ol’ US of A, and he’d never fallen off. But then again, Jane Harding had never walked past him mid-ride and turned his head like that either.
She was wearing a formfitting dress with a neckline that showed off graceful shoulders and more skin than usual. He’d done more than a double take…he’d rubbernecked so hard it had thrown off his equilibrium.
Pausing at the water’s edge, he raised his hand to his opposite shoulder. The joint was on fire. He shrugged to make sure it still worked. Burning pain aside, at least he could move it.
“Are you hurt?”
Toby turned around to find Jane standing a few yards behind him. Her tone was as stiff as her posture. It had gotten dark, but the nearly full moon gave off enough light to see the wariness in her eyes. But there was something else in them too; something he couldn’t name.
The sight brought him back to the last time he’d seen that look in Jane’s eyes at the New Year’s party eight years ago. He hadn’t been looking for Jane particularly, but when he’d found her, curled up in her father’s study, he’d been drawn to her. The kiss they’d shared had been spontaneous, something he didn’t even know he wanted until it was over. And by then she was walking away. It had been easier to let her go than to try and understand why. But now, looking at her standing in the moonlight, he found all he wanted to know was what she was thinking. Although he was probably better off not knowing.
“I think I’m fine.” He raised his right arm, grinding his teeth against the wince.
“You don’t look fine.” Jane kept her distance. “You look like you’re in pain.”
“I’ll be fine.” He’d better be fine. “But I really appreciate you coming to check on me.” He smiled to show her everything was A-okay.
Jane didn’t smile back. Her stare was cold. “Beth asked me to. I’m not sure why. It would probably make more sense for Aubrey to be out here.”
“Aubrey tried to come out here with me and I sent her away.” He and Aubrey had hooked up a year ago, but they’d agreed that neither of them was looking for a relationship. And yet somehow, she seemed to know every time he had an appointment in Denver. He strongly suspected his mother had been feeding Aubrey information. Aubrey had called him up a couple of times, inviting him to dinner, which he’d agreed to assuming she’d understood they were just friends.
Jane had crossed her arms as though the night air chilled her skin. “I’m not sure why you would send her away when you invited her to come to the shower in the first place,” she said stiffly.
Despite the throbbing in his shoulder, Toby managed to laugh. He slipped off the flannel he had on over his T-shirt and draped it over her bare shoulders. “Is that what she told you? I definitely didn’t invite her. Last time I was in Denver I mentioned the wedding and from what I hear, she informed Beth that she was my plus-one. I hadn’t counted on her being my date.” He’d been as surprised as anyone else to see Aubrey walk in tonight.
“You might want to tell her that.” The truth didn’t seem to loosen Jane up any. She still stood at a distance, feet planted on the grass instead of the sand. He studied the rigidness in her shoulders, the gloss of detachment in her eyes. It didn’t look like anger. It looked more like…fear. That’s when it hit him. Her father had drowned in the river outside of town. Kayaking accident. He looked at the reflection of the moon shimmering on the water. Beautiful, but Jane likely didn’t think so.
“How long did you and Aubrey date in high school?” The question drew his attention back to her.
“I don’t know. It was on and off for a few years, I guess.” He walked up to where Jane stood, trying to keep his shoulder from moving. “It feels like a lifetime ago though.” He didn’t want to talk about Aubrey. The only thing on his mind right now was Jane, even though he knew it made no sense for him to pursue her. She wasn’t someone who did casual, and that was his only speed in relationships. But she’d kissed him earlier today—that had to mean something, didn’t it? He went to reach for her, but his shoulder seized up and he couldn’t stop the hiss of pain that escaped his lips.
“Oh, God.” Her hand came to rest on his arm. “You really hurt yourself, didn’t you?”
“Nah,” he lied. It looked like he’d be making another trip to Denver tomorrow. “I have some ice packs back at my place.” He cradled his arm against his chest. “I’ll pop some anti-inflammatories, ice it for twenty minutes, and then I’ll come back to the shower.” He started to walk away before she could see how much pain he was really in.
“I’ll come with you.” After a few steps, Jane caught up with him.
“You don’t have to.” If she came home with him, he’d only want to kiss her again. He’d only want to do more than kiss her again, and as much as the idea appealed to him, Jane didn’t seem to be feeling the same way she’d felt when he’d kissed her earlier.
“I’m coming.”
Toby knew better than to argue again.
They crossed the meadow and approached the edge of the forest where his cabin sat. When he’d started working at the ranch, Mara had given him his pick of cabins. This one was tucked back into the trees, but he still had a view of the lake and the mountains beyond.
“This was my dad’s man cave.” Jane said the words so quietly it took him a few seconds to translate them. “He used to come here with his fishing buddies, even though it’s so close to the house.” She walked up the steps seeming to inspect the old stair rail as though remembering her father’s hand running along it. “He called it his vacation home at home.”
“You almost don’t need a vacation when you live in a place like this.” Toby opened the door with his good arm and gestured for Jane to go inside. He hadn’t known the history of the cabin, or that her father had used it that way, but he could see why. “I bet you see his fingerprints all over the ranch, huh?” He went to the freezer and pulled out the ice pack. When he turned around, he was shocked to see tears in Jane’s eyes.
“My mom wants to sell.”
He’d wondered. Mara had hinted on and off about getting the place ready for the market. Still, he was surprised to see so much emotion from Jane. As far as he’d heard she hadn’t exactly spent much time at home during the last eight years. “You don’t look like you’re happy with the news,” he said, sitting down at the kitchen table with the ice pack balanced on his shoulder. The cold didn’t seem to reach through his shirt
.
“I want to be happy for her.” She came to sit across from him, staring down at the table.
“But,” he prompted. She wasn’t happy. That much was obvious.
“But it made me think about all the memories we’ll lose. Of him. Of our life with him.” A tear slipped down her cheek. “Like you said, my dad’s fingerprints are all over this place.”
“Is that why you never stay very long when you visit?” Toby asked, repositioning the ice.
“You should put it under your shirt.” Jane pointed at the ice pack. “It’s not going to do you much good unless it’s against your skin.”
She was as good at avoiding questions as he had been during their talk at the library. Toby tried to shove the ice pack inside his shirt, but there wasn’t enough room.
“Just take off your shirt,” Jane said, coming to his side of the table.
“Are you sure you can handle it?” Teasing Jane had always been one of his favorite pastimes. She took it a lot better these days than she had back in high school, simply rolling her eyes. “Your muscles don’t impress me, Toby Garrett. I’m not Aubrey Munson.”
“Thank God for that.” He raised his shirt with a wince, and Jane helped him slide it off his shoulders. She gently molded the ice pack to his shoulder, her fingertips grazing his skin, bringing on a whole new kind of ache.
“There.” The woman peered down at him, her gaze more empathetic than it had been before. “Now where’s your ibuprofen?”
“In the cabinet by the sink.” He started to stand, but her hand guided his good shoulder back to his seat.
“I’ll get it. You focus on keeping that ice in place.”
Toby watched Jane walk to the sink, the dress swishing around her thighs. The sight made him forget about his pain and think instead about sliding his hand up one of those legs. “I’m still waiting for you to answer my question, by the way.” He wasn’t going to let her off the hook that easily. “Why haven’t you come home much?”
First Kiss with a Cowboy: Includes a bonus novella Page 11