“That’s a good idea, Mom. Sorry we kept you up late as well.” Dane turned to Aimee. “You should get some sleep. We did have a long day today.”
“Yeah. I’m ready to turn in.”
They stood together, their hands brushing, sending a jolt through Aimee’s system.
With just a look, an unspoken word passed between Dane and his dad and brother. Colt and Keith both stood and told her good night, then left the great room and disappeared down the hall.
“What was that all about?” Aimee asked.
“What was what?”
Dane tried to look innocent, but Aimee knew better.
“That look between you guys. It’s the cop look you and Torie get where you read each other’s minds.”
Dane chuckled. “Now you’re seeing things.”
Aimee sighed. “Whatever. I know what I saw.”
“Come on. I’ll walk you to your room.”
She quirked an eyebrow. “It’s down the hall. I think I can make it on my own.”
“I was raised to be a gentleman. What can I say?”
He followed her down the hall to her room and stopped at the door.
“If you need anything at all, don’t hesitate to ask.”
She giggled. “This is funny. It’s like you walking me to the door after a date but…not.”
He reached out and tucked one of her curls behind her ear. “Like I said, I was raised to be a gentleman.” His hand cupped her cheek.
“I’m aware of that.” She was also aware of her knees turning to jelly at his touch.
He leaned in, his lips grazing hers in a whisper of a kiss. He brushed another along her cheek, his stubble rubbing against her skin causing her to shiver. His deep voice tingled in her ear, “Good night, Aimee. Sleep well.” When Aimee opened her eyes, he was gone.
***
Dane walked around Kershaw. His hand wandered down the horse’s mane, the softness of the animal smooth against his calloused skin. He breathed in the scent of hay and molasses, leather and oil used to clean the tack. It was like breathing in memories. He missed it more than he’d realized.
Keith was saddling Patsy for Aimee, quiet as usual. Dane, Keith, and Colt spent some time after Ellie and Aimee went to bed talking in Colt’s office. Dane knew his dad and brother wanted the details of Aimee’s situation. Dane filled them in on Damien Marcos and Aimee being able to identify him for murder. They agreed bringing Aimee to the 4S was the best decision and were determined to do everything to keep her safe.
Dane also checked in with Torie before hitting the hay himself. There was no news on her end, but she was relieved they’d made it and that Aimee was safe. Having that worry off her mind, Torie could now focus on finding Marcos and ending this thing.
A hint of red caught his eye, and Dane turned. Aimee was making her way to the barn from the main house. She wore jeans and a long-sleeved blue top. Nothing special about it, other than it hugged her curves in all the right places. He swallowed hard. She was an angel in blue jeans headed his way. An angel with a feisty streak that tilted her halo, but an angel just the same.
He shook his head. He kept trying to fight his feelings for her, only to keep losing. Kissing her last night was not his intention, but when he was around her it took every ounce of self-control to not touch her or kiss her. Heck, when he wasn’t around her all he did was think of her and want to be near her again.
“Hey, Cowboy.”
Her words brought him back to the barn and out of the fantasies in his head. It was a good thing too. He needed to focus while riding, especially since Aimee was a beginner.
“Good morning.”
“So is this Patsy?” She took a few more steps and tenderly rubbed her hand along the horse’s neck. Lucky horse.
“No ma’m. This is Kershaw. I’ll be riding him today. Keith over there is getting Patsy ready for you.”
“Dodgers fan, huh?” She smiled at him as she wandered over to Patsy and rubbed her neck. The horse nodded her approval and Aimee laughed. The sound wrapped around Dane’s heart and rattled his brain. Oh, yeah. He was in trouble.
“She’s all set for you, Aimee,” Keith said. “If you’re ready, I’ll help you saddle up.” Aimee nodded and Keith boosted her on the horse. With their size difference it was as if he picked up a child without effort. The look on her face made Dane chuckle.
“You’ll be perfectly safe with Patsy,” Keith said. He looked up at her and handed her the reins, although she wasn’t a whole lot higher than him, even on a horse. “Stay with Dane’s horse, and you’ll be fine. Patsy will follow Kershaw.”
Aimee nodded and shifted in the saddle, settling in. She may not have ever ridden a horse but she sure looked at home on one, in Dane’s opinion. Keith helped her get her feet in the stirrups then patted her leg.
“You’re all set.”
“Thank you,” Aimee squeaked out. Dane wasn’t sure if she was nervous about riding a horse or still not sure about his brother. Maybe a bit of both.
He mounted Kershaw and clicked his tongue. The horse moved forward. Patsy did the same, stepping up next to him and matching his slow, steady pace.
Dane looked at Aimee. “You okay?”
“Yep. Let’s get this party started, Cowboy.”
Chapter 19
Aimee relaxed, allowing her body to move along with the motion of Patsy’s steps. The saddle was perfect for her. Comfortable. Well, as comfortable as she imagined a saddle could be. But it felt right. She’d always wanted to ride a horse, but the opportunity never presented itself.
They’d ridden in quiet so far, soaking in the sunshine, cool breeze, and rhythm of the horses’ hooves hitting the ground. Dane looked like he was born in a saddle. Being the son of Texas rancher, he probably was. She couldn’t wrap her head around why he would leave all he’d ever known to live another life. He didn’t seem unhappy in San Diego, but he fit here. He belonged. And he knew it too. But whatever happened in his past sure changed things. Aimee ached to know why.
“You’re thinking so hard you’re giving me a headache.” Dane turned to her and smiled. Good Lord. Beneath his black cowboy hat, his eyes stood out like sapphires on velvet. It was good she wasn’t standing, or she would’ve swooned.
“Got something on your mind, Miss Aimee?”
“Just you.” Goodness. That came out wrong. She tried to recover. “What I mean is, I just wonder why you would leave all this for San Diego? I get it on some levels. It’s San Diego, not swampland. The beaches, the sun, the sand… But none of that is you. This”—she waved her hand around—“this is you.”
He took a deep breath in and let it out. “I suppose you’re right. I do miss this. I miss it a lot. Being back is like…”
“Coming home,” she teased.
He smiled. “Yeah. Something like that.”
“If it’s in your blood, then why leave?” She was pushing for answers, yes, but maybe, just maybe, if she could get him to open up about his past, she could help him.
“I was young and stupid when I left.” He looked forward, one arm leaning lazily on the saddle horn, the reins in his other hand. “I thought I wanted…something else.”
“Do you still want something else? Something besides what’s here?”
“I don’t know. I have a job and a life in San Diego.”
“True, but you’re not happy.”
He turned to her again, his body swaying with the motion of his horse. “What makes you say that?”
“The way you light up here. You’re relaxed, content. You smile. Even when you were arguing with Keith, you just seemed more…yourself.”
He looked her in the eye and smirked. Oops. She didn’t mean to bring up her eavesdropping. Her face flushed with heat and she looked away.
“How much did you hear of that conversation, exactly?”
Ah, the question she’d been dreading was out of the bag. But he didn’t sound mad, just curious.
She turned back to him. “All of it. B
ut I don’t know who Beth is so… it’s none of my business, I know. I’m sorry I listened in on your conversation. I really am.”
He laughed. A deep, hearty sound that warmed her from head to toe. “No you’re not.”
Her mouth dropped open and she began to protest, but he cut her off.
“Don’t try to deny it. You want info, Sunshine, and you thought you’d get some.”
“Sunshine?”
“Yeah. Sunshine. Your hair makes me think of warm days out in the meadow or cozy nights by the fire, but you’re not changing the subject on me. Nice try.”
Wait. What? He not only had a nickname for her but one that made him think of wonderful things that made him happy? Still stuck on this bit of information, she almost missed his next comment.
“I’m not mad you heard us.”
“I’m still sorry. I only want to know what you decide to tell me. I mean that.”
He winked at her.
The horses ambled on a bit further up the path through large pine trees. A bird whistled from a branch and then flew away. They came around a bend to an open area plush with wildflowers and tall grass. Aimee looked to her right and gasped, “Oh Dane! Look at that.”
A small cabin sat in the corner of the clearing up against tall trees. A covered porch wrapped around the front and side of it. Made of stone and wood, with a chimney on one side, it exuded warmth and charm.
Aimee guided Patsy closer to get a better look. “Dane, this is beautiful. Is this your parents’ cabin?”
He cleared his throat. “No. It’s mine.”
***
Aimee spun her head around back towards him, her green eyes wide. “Yours? Dane, it’s amazing.”
He pulled his horse up beside hers. “When my parents bought the property, they bought enough land for us to each have a place of our own at some point if we wanted one.”
“That’s what Keith was talking about last night at dinner.”
He nodded. “His place is on one side of the property. Mine is here. The main house is in the middle. We both have enough room and space from the main house, but we can live on Scott land.”
Her eyes searched his. “But you didn’t want me to know about it last night. Why let me see it now?”
Good question. He’d been asking himself that very thing the entire ride here. But Aimee tugged at his heart, pulling him more and more towards wanting again—wanting a family and a future.
When he didn’t answer, she swung her leg over and jumped down off the saddle. He did the same.
She walked up to the front porch almost reverently. Placing a hand on one of the porch posts, she said, “Dane, this place is fantastic. I’d love to sketch it sometime, if you’d be okay with that.”
His heart flooded with emotions he hadn’t felt in years. Actually, emotions he’d never felt before, not even with Beth. The knowledge moved him forward. He took the horses’ reins and tied them loosely to a porch post.
He joined her on the porch and leaned on a railing. He watched as she walked the porch, her boots clumping with each step, the sound echoing through the quiet meadow. The windows were covered with dirt and dust. The hollowness of the cabin’s insides mirrored his own. A picture of all that he hoped for, all that he’d lost.
Aimee stopped and leaned on the rail across from him, facing him. “Why did you build it?”
He took off his cowboy hat and looked at his boots. “It was meant to be for my future and well… that didn’t happen.”
“Your future didn’t happen? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I wanted it to be where I lived eventually, yes. But then I chose San Diego and things changed.”
Aimee nodded.
“I was engaged.”
Aimee’s eyes met his, filled with questions. He was grateful she didn’t ask them, but quietly waited for him to continue.
“You already know her name was Beth. We met right after college. I was deciding if I wanted to join the police force or follow in my father’s footsteps and help with the ranch. She wanted out. Felt like this place suffocated her.”
“How could anyone feel suffocated here?” Aimee looked around.
“I don’t know. She’d grown up here. Wanted a big city. I loved her. I wanted her to be happy. So we moved down to San Diego. Lived together in a small apartment.” He took a deep breath and put his hat back on. “I left everything I ever knew, walked away from everything I ever believed in. All for her.”
“You loved her.”
“Yes, but I let her change me. And not for the better.”
He walked to the edge of the porch and looked out over the field, put his hat back on, and shoved his hands in his jean pockets.
“What happened?”
He understood the question. It was obvious he wasn’t married and Beth wasn’t in the picture anymore.
“She died.” The words stuck in his throat, but it didn’t hurt to say them like he thought it would.
“Dane, I’m so sorry.” Aimee came up next to him and put a hand on his arm. Warmth spread through his chest and he ached to hold her.
“Once we got to San Diego, she enjoyed a big city, that’s for sure. I guess you could say she changed, too. Or maybe became a more intense version of herself. Anyway, she started going out to bars all the time, partying with her friends.” He shrugged. “It wasn’t my scene, so I stopped going. But I found out she started taking her engagement ring off so she’d get more attention from other men.”
“That’s why you left so fast that night at the club. When I talked about how nice it would be to have men pay attention to me.”
He nodded. “I shouldn’t have gotten upset with you. I know what you were trying to say. But Beth, she didn’t want us anymore. And as hard as I tried, I couldn’t change her mind.”
Aimee was now rubbing his shoulders with one hand, the other on his arm still. Everything about her touch was a comforting salve to wounds he hadn’t allowed to be touched for a long time. “How did she die?”
“She was driving home from a night out with the girls when her car hit a tree. She was drunk.”
“Oh Dane, that’s awful.”
“It was all my fault. Before she left that night she begged me to go with her but I said no. I was done. Done with her always going out, hanging on other men in front of me. We fought, and she left. She called me later, but I ignored her calls. I was packing, ready to break up and be done. Then the police called. Said she’d wrapped her car around a tree, killing her instantly. I checked my voice mail and that’s when I realized that she’d been calling me to come get her and bring her home. I ignored her, and she ended up dead.”
Aimee laid her head against him. Her other hand still rubbed his shoulder. He waited for her judgment, some sort of reprimand for his choices. But it never came. She simply stood there with him on the porch, holding him. This bolt of lightning that had entered his life and made him want to be a better man.
“Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me, Dane. I’m so sorry…for everything.”
He turned and pulled her into his arms. She laid her head on his chest and sighed. Her body molded against him as if she were made to be there. He loved this woman. He did. His ragged, broken heart that vowed it would…could never love again.
He placed a hand under her chin and lifted her lips to his. He kissed her, tender and soft at first, but the more she responded, the more he wanted. Holding her face in his hands, he slanted his head and deepened the kiss. Aimee wrapped her arms around his waist and met him halfway, giving with the same amount of passion as he gave.
Caught between wanting to pick her up and take her inside the cabin and wanting to be the gentleman he was raised to be, he chose the latter. He needed, and wanted, to honor Aimee over anything he was feeling. He pulled back and placed his forehead to hers. Both breathless, neither of them spoke.
Aimee’s eyes glimmered like emeralds, her lips puffy from his kisses and her chin red from his stubble. Her curls w
ere even more wild than normal, both from riding horses as well as Dane’s hands exploring the silky strands. She was his perfect dream personified, and he wanted nothing more than for her to be fully his.
She blinked and smiled. “Well now, Cowboy. That was unexpected.”
“Oh yeah? A bad or a good surprise?”
“Most definitely good. All good. You can surprise me like that anytime.”
He laughed and kissed her again. This time slow and easy, soaking in every moment.
When they parted once more, Aimee tucked into his chest again and sighed.
“I could get used to this, that’s for sure.”
He couldn’t agree more. Before he could answer her, she pulled away and with mischief in her eyes said, “Race you back to the ranch?” He blinked, and she was out of his arms and untying Patsy from her post.
“You’re on.” He joined her and hopped on Kershaw by the time she’d gotten herself onto Patsy and settled in. “But remember, Sunshine, I’ve been doing this a lot longer than you.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. How hard can it be?” She turned Patsy and trotted down the trail, her laughter floating behind her and wrapping around Dane’s heart.
Chapter 20
Dane had to admit, Aimee took to riding like she’d done it her whole life. On the ride back to the ranch he gave her some pointers on how to sit comfortably when the horse trotted and then how to move with the horse when she loped. Aimee was eager to go straight to letting the horses run, but Dane was hesitant.
“Come on! You know I can do this,” she pleaded.
He did know. Aimee was athletic and could ride a surfboard better than anyone he’d ever seen—maybe even better than Ben. But that didn’t stop him from worrying about her. Wanting her safe.
“Okay, but just through the meadow near the ranch, not through the trees.”
“Deal!”
Get to Me Page 14