This one, she told herself and her eggs, meaning Bo.
Those troublesome eggs were silent.
This one, she told herself again. Mr. Bodilicious. Bo. He was the one for her because he was...
Well, the truth was that besides being handsome, he was a bit boring, even if he was a cowboy. He wasn’t a talker like Jonah or herself.
I can work with boring. Er... I can live with boring... I can love boring.
Emily rubbed her temples. She was never bored around Jonah. He kept her on her toes. And he... And he...
He had the most glorious way of looking at the world, generous and jaundiced at the same time. He laughed at her nephews’ antics. He was both intrigued by Merciless Mike and horrified that the murderer had a heart.
And I kissed him. Twice.
That second peck didn’t count. Or the first one, either. He’d pushed her to the brink of annoyance. She’d had no choice but to kiss him to shut him up. To make him see. To make him see her.
Bo was watching Emily carefully and in silence, with more patience than Jonah on a good day.
Emily’s gaze swept the Formica tabletop as a feeling welled inside of her, gathering and solidifying until she had to give it voice. “I can’t believe this but...” She crouched over the table and whispered, “I think I love Jonah.”
What a disaster.
She and Jonah... They were two ships that never should have passed in the night. She and Jonah... They were headed in completely different directions.
This was bad. Really bad. This had heartbreak written all over it.
Bo’s smile was a slow build that in no way acknowledged the intense disappointment he should be feeling when his date admitted she loved Jonah instead of him. “Let me be the first to congratulate you.”
Emily pressed her palms to her flaming cheeks. “Don’t. This is completely, utterly a mistake.”
“Why?” He waved Ivy and her order pad away.
“Because he is completely and utterly wrong for me.” She straightened. “And he arranged this date. Just look at me. I’m all country compared to his Hollywood flash.”
“Have you listened to the two of you together?” Bo was still smiling at her and she hadn’t lost her ability to speak.
“Yes,” she said. “We argue all the time.”
“That’s not arguing. That’s foreplay.”
“It’s a waste of time, is what it is.” She wanted to take her epiphany back. The feeling. The declaration. The L word. Emily narrowed her eyes, trying to force herself to see Bo the way she’d seen him weeks ago—a man who represented everything she wanted in the world. “I can’t believe it. You’re no longer Mr. Bodilicious. Did you stop taking vitamins or something?”
Bo laughed again.
“Please don’t laugh. You’re making it that much worse.”
“I’m imagining what Jonah’s doing back at the ranch right now. Honestly, this is the best payback ever.”
Emily paused. “What do you mean?”
For the first time, Bo seemed abashed. “I...uh...”
“This is about Aria.” The coil in her chest that had been building a case for love suddenly whiplashed around angrily. “Are you trying to use me to get back at him?”
“No.” Bo held up his hands.
“Is he still in love with Aria?”
“I’m one hundred percent certain that’s a no.” His dark brows dropped down.
“Are you still in love with Aria?” She didn’t need to ask. It was there all over his handsome face.
Bo turned and flagged down Ivy. “We’re ready to order now.”
Emily tapped her chin, contemplating the situation. “Jonah won’t stand in your way. He wants you to be happy, no matter who you fall for.” He wanted her to be happy, too, hence this date.
“Lots of women fall for me.” Bo smiled up at Ivy, twisting Emily’s words. “Probably because I’m Mr. Bodilicious.”
Ivy nodded. “The mythical unicorn. The prize of maidens. The apple of every female eye in Second Chance, Idaho.”
Bo looked abashed again. “That’s enough of that. Let’s order. And then we’ll plan your strategy of attack.”
Emily had been about to laugh, but... “What am I attacking?”
Bo grinned. “The walls around Jonah’s heart.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
EMILY KISSED BO’S cheek when she said good-night.
“Good luck, hon,” Bo said when she looked him in the eye. He was no longer Mr. Bodilicious to her. He was just a nice guy.
The light was on in the bunkhouse.
Emily took a step in that direction as Bo drove away.
The front door opened behind her.
“If you’re looking for that wrong tree,” Granny Gertie said with a knowing look in her eye. “He’s at the firepit. Mooning over you being out with that cowboy.”
If her grandmother had made that comment earlier in the day, Emily would’ve scoffed about the mooning. As it was, a report of mooning was most welcome. Emily thanked her grandmother, went into her room, and changed into jeans and a hoodie.
And then she went out the back door and hesitated, filled with doubt. She sucked at poker. What if she walked out there and he saw love written across her face as if she’d written it herself with permanent marker?
“Are you going to leave me hanging?” Jonah asked without turning around. “Or come out here and spill what happened on your date? I heard Bo’s truck come and go.”
His chutzpah propelled her forward. “You think I’ll kiss and tell with my best girlfriend?” She joined him at the firepit. “Think again.”
“Look at me,” Jonah demanded.
She stared into his eyes, smirking.
“There was no kiss.” He returned his gaze to the fire. “I spend all this time hyping you up and you strike out.”
“Nobody kisses on a first date.”
“Ha! It was practically your second.” He scowled.
She loved that scowl. She depended upon that scowl to keep her on her toes. But she loved that smile of his even more. She needed that smile. She needed that smile something awful.
And there was only one surefire way to get it.
“Jonah.” She moved her chair right next to his and kissed him. No waiting, no hesitating.
Their first kiss had been full of frustration. Hers. This kiss was loaded with happiness. Hers. How could it not be? She loved him.
Jonah drew back slowly, one hand resting on her waist. “You can’t just surprise a man like that.” He stared at her through heavily lidded eyes. And then his gaze cleared. He removed his hand and sat back in his chair. “What is this? What happened with Bo?”
“Nothing.” She mirrored his position, pretended nonchalance despite the too-rapid beat of her heart and the urge to kiss him again. “We got along well, like friends.”
“I knew it.” He scowled. “You were relegated to the friend zone.”
She ran a hand up his arm. “Is that so bad?” After all, she’d come home and kissed him.
“Yes! How am I supposed to help you?”
Em frowned. “Do I need help?”
“Clearly. I gave Bo to you on a platter.”
Anger thrummed through her veins, overriding happiness and love.
Why can’t he just accept the fact that he’s attracted to me?
Em had to do something to make him acknowledge there was a connection between them worth pursuing. She had to...use his own advice against him. She wasn’t going to lie and tell him she and Bo had hit it off. She had to be the woman who needed help, the help he was so desperately trying to give her.
“I’m sorry. I had no reason to kiss you like that. I know you don’t like it. I just had all this pent-up...” she shook out her hands “...energy.”
H
e didn’t stop staring at her, but he didn’t swoop in for another kiss, so...
Be sweet.
“The night got really chilly, didn’t it?” She threw another log on the fire. “How’s the script coming along?”
He blinked like the owl hooting in the distance. “It’s going better than expected.”
“Which for you is...” Be sweet. She switched tracks midsentence. “I’d like to read it sometime.”
“I thought you said you didn’t like blood and gore.” He arched a brow. The firelight brought out all his red coloring.
She couldn’t look away from this complex, handsome man. “It’s not like you’re going to have pictures of people dying on the page.”
“It is.” He studied her face. “Did you have something to drink tonight?”
“No. Ivy doesn’t serve alcohol.” He was suspicious. How could she prevent this from becoming a disaster? Her heart pounded in panic. “I wore that outfit you picked out.”
“It didn’t work, though, did it?” Jonah stood abruptly. “I’m going to bed. I’ll try and talk to Bo about you in the morning. But honestly, catching and holding his attention is all about good execution. I gotta say, I’m disappointed.”
If I wasn’t in love with you, I’d be laughing right now.
Emily bid him good-night, pulled her hood over her head and sank into the chair, thinking.
Her Hollywood Cupid was going to find out what it was like to be roped by the rodeo queen.
* * *
WHAT IN THE world had Bo done to Emily?
First thing in the morning, Jonah left the bunkhouse and rode the ranch’s ATV down to the lake camp to find out why Emily had returned from her date and kissed him.
I could get used to those kisses.
But wouldn’t that be cruel? He’d be leaving soon and Emily deserved a good man to spend the rest of her life with. She didn’t deserve a man who tested the waters for his next career move with a script based off her quest for love.
Jonah parked the ATV and marched across the knee-high grass. It was wet with morning dew. Before he was halfway across the meadow, his running shoes were soaked. “Bo! Where are you? You’ve got some explaining to do.”
Bo sat on the porch steps of the cabin he called home. He held a steaming mug. “You know, you sound just like Desi yelling at Lucy on those episodes of I Love Lucy that Grandpa Harlan used to watch at night.”
Their grandfather’s RV had been equipped with a television. No cable. No internet. They’d been forced to watch Grandpa Harlan’s VHS tapes of old sitcoms.
“Don’t change the subject.” Jonah stomped up the stairs. “What happened last night?”
Bo handed him the mug, which contained hot green tea. “Can we sit and enjoy the morning for a minute?”
“You were expecting me?” Jonah sat down and cradled the mug in both hands.
“Please.” Bo sat back in his chair and took a deep breath. “You’re so predictable. Now shut up and enjoy the out-of-doors. I know you’ve been hiding in that cave you call a bunkhouse and pounding on those keys. Your skin is vampire pale.”
“The curse of being a redhead,” Jonah muttered.
Bo shushed him and picked up a coffee mug from the floor.
Jonah wanted questions answered, but he sat in silence and drank tea and took clean air into his lungs and beautiful scenery into his head. At least until he noticed Bo’s half smile. “Why would anyone build a camp for kids here? It’s a million-dollar view.”
“You’d rather build a mansion here?” Bo bristled. “Tear down these cabins and build a vacation home some wealthy family stays in twice a year?”
Jonah grinned. “Wow. Shane slipped you the Second Chance juice, didn’t he? You want to keep Second Chance. You want to become like some feudal baron, charging tenants rent to work your land.”
“It’s not so bad, is it?” Frowning as if he was Shane, Bo sipped his coffee. “To protect a place like this from development?”
“You haven’t been here when it snows. I hear it’s brutal.” Jonah had read about the early settlers being trapped inside their cabins for weeks at a time. “And then there’s the cell and internet connections. Dark Ages stuff. Not to mention the lifestyle. It’s so slow you have to watch the grass grow because there’s nothing else to do.”
The sun’s rays were bright and warm, making the cool mountain breeze bearable. Birds chirped in the tree line, upset at a deer that meandered through the thin brush.
“Have you gotten all your stress out of your system?” Bo’s smile challenged. “Or do you need to drink more tea?”
Jonah hadn’t gotten to the reason for his visit, but there was the sun and the smooth lake and the tea, which was quality. So he sat and stewed and drank some more.
Bo finished his drink first. “Finally, I understand why you’ve been hanging around Emily. At first, I bought into the whole I-need-a-horseback-riding-tour-guide thing, even though it’s so not like you. Partners? Teams?” He scoffed. “I’d have expected you to rent an old nag and plod out into the wild, get lost and write that into your script.”
So much for Maury being the only one who knew Jonah’s writing process.
“And then there’s how Emily isn’t exactly your type.” Bo smiled like he had Emily on speed dial.
Jonah glowered.
The look didn’t faze Bo. “You like women who are typically willowy and well connected. Beautiful with expensive tastes. Someone who’d make a good trophy wife.” Bo held up a finger. “But not someone who thinks you’re the man who’ll take them to the altar.”
Jonah’s head began to pound. “Whatever your epiphany is, I wish you’d get to it.” So he could get to the bottom of Bo’s behavior.
“But last night, I figured it out.” His cousin grinned. “Emily’s exotic, like Aria.”
“She’s nothing like Aria.” Except in her infatuation with Bo. Except that Bo now realized what a diamond in the rough Emily was.
“Oh.” Bo let out a significant ho-ho-ho which was nothing like Santa’s laughter. “She’s brilliant. You can’t listen to her for more than a minute and not realize she’s the smartest person in the room.”
“She’s nothing like—”
“Aria is an artist. Her work is exquisite. Have you watched Emily ride?” Bo’s grin fairly split his face. “She’s an artist, too. You know back in the Merciless Mike Moody days, you’d have ridden in the stagecoach and she’d have been a Pony Express rider or the stagecoach driver.”
Jonah disagreed. “She’d have ridden shotgun. She’d have put a bullet between Mike Moody’s eyes.”
Bo chuckled. “I like her.”
Jonah made a sound like a bull about to charge. He knew more than he wanted to know about bulls. “And yet—”
“She’s a breath of fresh air,” Bo continued. “I never know what she’s going to say next.”
“And she’s already here, of course,” Jonah said through gritted teeth. “In your new home.” Unlike Aria.
“Emily adds color to the fabric of Second Chance, doesn’t she?” Bo’s grin was stupidly, insanely happy.
Why did I want him to date her?
Jonah couldn’t remember. “Emily doesn’t add color. Emily is the color.” There had to have been something in the tea Bo gave him. It’d loosened the hold Jonah normally kept on his feelings. “She’s the kind of woman who makes you forget you’re not perfect. I mean, she points out your imperfections—” with a sharp word and a sly grin “—but she accepts them all the same.” He cast Bo a sideways glance. “She has a lot to accept about you.”
“She’s gutsier than most,” Bo said, not put off by Jonah’s ribbing. “Willing to take a chance on faith alone.”
“I’ll let you have this one then,” Jonah allowed, although it nearly killed him to say it. “You’ll be happy with Emily.�
�
And just like that, Bo’s mood changed.
“You’ll let me?” Bo howled. “Like I need your permission?”
“If you didn’t need my permission, you would’ve married Aria by now.” Jonah’s words echoed across the lake. They echoed up the mountain. They echoed inside Jonah’s empty chest.
“Finally, the elephant marches into the room.” Bo didn’t look happy that it had.
“You know I...” Jonah swallowed. Now was the time to tell Bo the truth about the script he’d written from their love triangle. “The longer you keep a secret, the harder it is to put into words.”
“You didn’t love her.” Bo had his own opinions to impart. “I get it. We were vying for her affection and we shouldn’t have been. I should have told you I was serious about her.”
“Yes.” Jonah raised his hands in a calming motion. “I would’ve stepped aside for you.”
Bo nodded. “I’d do the same for you.”
“Good thing you don’t have to,” Jonah murmured.
But he did.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“ARE YOU SURE I can handle him?” There was doubt in Tina’s voice. Still, the teen stood in front of Deadly and stroked him gently between the ears.
“He may look like a black beast the devil might ride, but he respects a rider with skill. And you have skill.” Emily handed Tina the reins. “Go on. Take a few turns on him in the arena and then put him through the pattern. This is what you’re going to face on Saturday—a few minutes to get accustomed to an unknown horse. And then you’ll have to put him through the paces.”
Tina led Kyle’s horse through the arena gate, speaking softly. Deadly’s ears pitched forward attentively. There was a spring to his step, a readiness that spoke of a pent-up energy needing to be released.
“Rodeo training going well?” Jonah appeared at Emily’s side, looking very Jonah-like in city jeans and a bright red polo shirt. His sneakers had lived up to their name. Emily hadn’t heard him approach. “Or is this some type of punishment for your number one student?”
Enchanted by the Rodeo Queen--A Clean Romance Page 19