“Glad you think that,” he said, sitting across from her with a steaming bowl of soup. “I’ll be around every day to help out until your ankle’s healed.”

  “What about your ranch?” she asked. He had far too many responsibilities himself to be spending that amount of time with her. Was he still feeling guilty about what happened in his barn? “I don’t want you to think you’re obligated. Yesterday…we both made mistakes. I think we must bring out the worst in each other.”

  “Or the best,” he said without even the slightest hesitation, sending her heart pattering. “But either way, my mind’s made up. I’ll be here to help you and care for your animals until you don’t need me.”

  He was telling, not asking, which should have put her hackles up, but, strangely, it didn’t. The thought of seeing him more often made her look forward to the time she’d be laid up.

  8

  Jake gave Ally, the finicky horse, her last meal for the night and closed the barn up before heading back to Julia’s house. He’d been coming multiple times daily for nearly two weeks to care for her animals and check on her. Good thing his ranch was close by and he had employees he could trust. Not that he’d minded helping her out. Not at all.

  In some ways, he’d be a little sorry when her ankle was fully healed, and he was no longer needed. That day was fast approaching.

  “Everything good?” she asked when he reached the house. She was leaning against a porch post with her dogs at her feet.

  “Settled in for the night,” he responded and had a sudden idea. “How would you like to go for a drive?”

  “I’d love to.” Her rapid acceptance surprised him since she usually tried to turn down anything extra that he tried to do for her. Maybe he should have suggested a drive sooner if she was going to react with enthusiasm. She was already crutching her way toward his truck. He got her settled and returned the crutches to her front porch. “I might need those,” she protested when he climbed into the driver’s seat.

  “You won’t,” he said as he switched on the radio. “It’s just a drive.”

  They rolled down the windows, and he switched on a country music station as they drove through the twilight. When songs came on that he liked and knew, he sang along. It was easy being with her. That was what had struck him over the past few weeks. Each day was a little easier, and he found himself looking forward to the moments they spent together.

  “I had no idea you had such a great voice,” she said when a song ended.

  “Not many people do—people who know me, anyway. I like to sing karaoke at the country swing bar, but I perform incognito.”

  “The one on route twenty-seven?”

  “That’s the one.” He’d gotten plenty of applause for his performances and even a pair of women’s panties tossed at him one night. He’d stuffed them in his pocket, unsure of how to respond.

  “I would never sing in public,” she said, “even if I didn’t know a single person in the audience.”

  Her voice wasn’t bad. He’d heard it low and soft while they’d been singing to the radio. “I think you’ve got a nice voice.”

  “You are so wrong about that. I sing very quietly and hope no one notices.”

  “Surely you’re not shy.” From what he’d seen, she had no problem stepping up and speaking her mind with confidence.

  “Not shy exactly, just reluctant. I don’t like people staring at me and judging my choices. How do you know what’s the perfect song to sing? It’s like putting your thoughts and your heart on the line for everyone to see. No thanks,” she said. “I’d like to see you perform sometime—unless you’re uncomfortable with that.”

  Was he? He enjoyed singing for strangers. It would be different if he knew she was in the audience, but that didn’t make it bad. They’d become friends of a sort over the past two weeks. “I’ll let you know the next time the karaoke mood strikes me.” He glanced over at her and saw the smile on her face.

  “Let’s pull off up there and look at the stars,” she suggested.

  He’d chosen a route that took them along a scenic highway overlooking a valley below. He backed his truck into a space.

  “Don’t we want to be facing the other direction?” she asked with a gesture over her shoulder. “The view’s better that way.”

  “Give me a minute. I’ve got a plan. Don’t go anywhere.” He got out of the truck and dropped the tailgate, spreading a thick blanket that he always carried in the truck’s bed before opening her door.

  “You see, this is where I need my crutches,” she said, scooting to the edge of the seat. Before she could attempt to stand, he scooped her up in his arms, hearing her breath catch, and carried her to the back of the truck. He placed her gently on top of the blanket and stretched out next to her.

  “This is the best way to look at the stars,” he said and felt her relax next to him. If he mentioned what he was thinking—that this felt like a date—she’d become as prickly as her hedgehog, so he kept it casual.

  “Perfect night for it,” she agreed. “Is that why you’re in such a good mood? You love soft summer evenings and star gazing?”

  “I do love those things,” he said. “But it’s been a good day from top to bottom.”

  “Why?”

  He wanted to laugh. Didn’t she realize that a huge chunk of that goodness came from spending so much time with her?

  He couldn’t answer that she made him happy, so he told her what else had. “I met with my ranch hands today for our weekly meeting. It was a good one. Most of them are.” Everything in his life seemed on track. His horses were improving with the change in their feed. He still hadn’t found a stallion to buy, but other than that, it was smooth sailing.

  “Look,” she said, pointing upward as a shooting star crossed overhead. “I love seeing those. I used to spend so many nights outside as a kid.”

  “After climbing down the trellis?” he asked, remembering their conversation from the cabin.

  She laughed. “Sometimes I used the door. Tell me what made the meeting today special.”

  “Nothing out of the ordinary. It’s just good to talk with the guys. When I took over the ranch…” He slowed, remembering those days after the car crash, and felt her hand slip into his and give it a squeeze. Her simple touch made it easier for him to go on. “I worried about not knowing what to do. So much of my time was spent on paperwork that I felt disconnected from the day-to-day operations.”

  “You are a hands-on rancher,” she said. “I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”

  “Not as much as I’d like to be—not like I was when Dad and Luke were running the place, and I was free to just work with the guys. So now I hold these meetings so we can all check in with each other. That way nothing falls through the cracks. I’ve got some older guys who have been with us for years, and I rely on them, but sometimes I’ll get a fresh-faced kid with the solution to a problem.”

  “Is that what happened today?” she guessed.

  “Yeah, we’ve been struggling with drainage in one place. We’ve tried ten different things, and nothing’s worked. This kid had a suggestion that made us all go ‘now why didn’t any of us think of that?’” The solution had been a simple one, too.

  “These meetings that solve problems on the ranch were your innovation?” Her question was thoughtful. “That’s interesting. You keep insisting you need to do things the way Luke would have, but you’re clearly deviating from his plan with success.”

  Jake hadn’t thought about it that way before. For a moment, her comment made him second-guess the meetings. No, they were good. He was keeping them. Luke, if he’d lived longer, would likely have come up with the idea himself. Or would he? Luke taking suggestions from employees, especially young ones? That was tough to picture.

  “I didn’t say that to badmouth Luke,” she said when he’d been quiet for several seconds. “I meant it as a compliment to you. You should trust yourself to make the right calls. You’ve got good instincts when it comes to ranching.”

  She kept talking, but he was too distracted to focus on what she was saying. All he could think about was how badly he wanted to kiss her. Finally, he couldn’t hold back any longer. He rolled toward her and kissed her, stopping her flow of words. He felt her slight hesitation, and then she was kissing him back.

  He didn’t know how, but this kiss was even better than the ones they’d shared at the cabin. He smoothed his hand over her curly hair, loving the feeling of shared intimacy. Her arms locked around his neck, bringing her body against his. God, he wanted more, so much more of her.

  He was ready to make love to her, but something held him back, some worry that he couldn’t dislodge. She already had pull over him in ways he hadn’t expected. She made him question things that he’d believed for years about himself and how he ran the ranch. She was like an electrical storm sweeping through. Being with her was exhilarating, but it left him unsettled at the same time.

  He broke away from the kiss and sat up, struggling to right his world. One glance at her, at her kiss-swollen lips, nearly undid him. He had to force himself away.

  “We’ve both got early mornings,” he said, putting his feet on the ground and hoping it would anchor him. “I’ll take you home.”

  “Jake?” Her voice was soft, questioning. He didn’t want her to think for one second that she was undesirable, but he also couldn’t risk explaining how badly he wanted her.

  He couldn’t speak, so he gestured with his hands for her to scoot onto the tailgate where he could pick her up. Carrying a woman brought her in close contact. That was a fact. It didn’t have to mean anything. It was just the way it was. He told himself that until he got her safely in the cab of his truck.

  “Jake,” she repeated, this time a little more forcefully.

  He made himself look at her in the dim glow of the interior light. She was tousled and kissable and he wanted her so badly, he ached.

  He stepped back, closing her door, and took his time folding up the blanket and shutting the tailgate. He needed a minute in the cooling night air away from her, so he could make sure he knew which end was up.

  They listened to the radio as they drove home, but neither one of them sang or tried to talk. When they reached her ranch, he retrieved her crutches and made sure she got safely inside, but then he had to go. She gave him a small smile but made no attempt to stop him.

  Jake spent the next few days helping Julia and keeping up with the work on his ranch. He generally could control the pace of his days, but he deliberately set out to make them exhausting so that at night he dropped off to a sound sleep without seeing Julia’s face in his dreams and kicking himself for the lost opportunity to be with her.

  When she got the all-clear on her ankle and he was no longer needed at her ranch, he felt a sense of loss, which didn’t get any better during the first thirty-six hours without her. Not that he was counting or anything. He wasn’t constantly reliving that kiss under the stars every second he wasn’t busy. Nope, not him.

  He had to shake it off, so he decided that he could do with a drink and some guy talk. He arranged to meet his brother and Rafael at the town’s tavern. When he arrived, they already had beers in front of them and were deep in conversation about something.

  “What’s going on?” Jake asked as he joined them.

  “The great textbook battle continues,” Brian said. “Gail came to town.”

  “Walked right into school during our district curriculum meeting.” Rafael shook his head.

  “Apparently, the pictures on Facebook didn’t lie,” Brian said, filling in what Raf didn’t say. “All reports agree that she’s a knockout.”

  “We already knew that,” Jake said. Another night when they’d met at the tavern, they’d passed around Raf’s phone where he’d brought up pictures of Gail, the textbook editor who Raf had been battling via email over what he saw as a flawed portrayal in the textbook of a pivotal moment in Texan history. Raf felt strongly that it was his duty as a high school history teacher to mold his students’ minds with the truth.

  “Yeah, but in person…” Raf downed half his beer.

  “What did you say to her?” Brian asked.

  “I invited her back to my classroom and pulled out several sources so she could see what’s missing from the textbook that her company is trying to pass off as comprehensive.” Raf signaled the server for another beer and kept talking about Gail and what he’d said to her.

  Jake soon gave up trying to follow the conversation. Brian was responding and that was enough. He let it fade out along with the background noises of the bar as he thought about Julia. He’d wanted to stop by her place on his way into town, but he’d had no excuse. When could he go again? Would tomorrow be okay for a friendly checkup? Or would she be insulted, assuming he thought she couldn’t handle things on her own?

  Shit. She had him tied up in knots. He didn’t know what he wanted with her, but he didn’t want to risk what had developed between them by expecting too much.

  “Have you ever liked a woman so much you didn’t want to sleep with her?” he blurted out, interrupting what Rafael was saying.

  Raf and Brian swung their gazes toward him. Raf’s was a tiny bit amused, but his brother’s expression was worried.

  “Is this a woman who is available or not?” Brian asked.

  “She’s single,” Jake said. “There’s no reason we can’t sleep together. Hell, we did once already.”

  “So you’re attracted to her?” Raf questioned. “And she feels the same about you?”

  Did she? Jake had to think so, based on the way she’d kissed him and whispered his name. Yeah, there was something between them, unspoken, but there.

  “I think so, but I’m reluctant to be with her again because she makes me…” He’d never been good at expressing his emotions, but these were his closest friends, so he decided to try. “She makes me feel like I’m losing control of myself. She makes me question what I thought I was sure I knew.” He stopped himself. “Never mind. Forget I said anything. That doesn’t make any damn sense when I say it out loud.” One truth was becoming clear, though. He needed some distance between him and Julia even if he didn’t want it. Just until he could get himself straightened out.

  Jake caught the look that was exchanged between his friends and started to rise. He wasn’t sitting through an inquisition. “I’m going home. I’ll see you guys another night.” He headed for the tavern door.

  Before he reached his truck, Brian’s hand clamped around his shoulder. Jake could have broken free, but there was no escaping from his twin—not for long, anyway. Besides, he owed it to his brother to stay.

  “I don’t know what that was about in there, but you’ve got me wondering,” Brian said. “I know you’ve never been in love. If you start to care too much, you back away. Is that what’s going on here?”

  Was that why Jake was backing off? Had his attraction for Julia grown into something more powerful? What if he didn’t fight the “out of control” feeling and let himself fall for her? What would happen then? He tried to picture something real with Julia, but he’d never been able to do that with anyone. He shook his head, trying to get his brain moving in the right direction.

  “She’s a good friend,” Jake finally said. “I like her and value her input, but that’s all there is to it.” Brian seemed doubtful. Time for a change of subject. “Don’t you need to get home to Caitlin?” Jake went for a joking tone.

  “She’s probably sound asleep by now. The pregnancy’s wearing her down a bit,” Brian said, undeterred. “I want to know who the woman is that we’re talking about.”

  Jake considered telling his brother that it was none of his damn business, but he wouldn’t get away with that. “Julia Letts,” Jake admitted.

  “Last I knew you were trying to buy her stallion.”

  Jake gave in and told his brother about the trail hike and the night in the cabin—and then the rejection that had come the next morning. He shared how things had shifted since Julia’s injury, but then the story trailed off. He didn’t know where things went from here.

  “So you’ve spent a lot of time with her lately,” Brian said when Jake finished. “Something’s changed since that morning on the trail.” Since her rejection went unspoken.

  “I don’t know if that’s true.” The kiss they’d shared had been memorable. The chemistry between them sizzled, and he’d almost taken advantage of their situation under the stars. But he’d held back, stopped himself. “I don’t think she’s interested,” he said to end the conversation. “So I might as well stop worrying about it. Good night, Brian.”

  Jake got in his truck for the drive back to the ranch. He hadn’t drunk enough beer to cloud his judgement, but thinking about Julia was making everything fuzzy in his head.

  9

  “I’m in the chip aisle,” Julia said to Sofia over the phone. “What should I get?”

  “The blue tortilla chips,” Sofia said. “I’ll make my special dip to go with them.”

  “Got it. What else?” Julia asked, moving through the store as Sofia rattled off a lengthy list of what they needed for movie night with the girls. “How much do you think the five of us can eat in one night?” They planned to meet at Sofia’s around seven. It would be the two of them; Brian’s girlfriend, Caitlin; Caitlin’s business partner in her tattoo shop, Maggie; and Aurora, the diner owner, who was leaving her twin toddlers with her husband for the night.

  “I’ll be coming off a twelve-hour shift. I’ll be starved,” Sofia said.

  “I think I’ll be too annoyed to eat.” Julia put two kinds of cookies in her cart. “Did you see the ads that the Family Veterinary Care place is running? Or the images they’re putting on social media? Those adorable animals aren’t even patients. They got the pictures from the internet. I looked.” She was still worried about the bite the chain clinic was taking out of her business. She’d won back a couple clients, but she was afraid she’d lose more.