“Come on, Mom,” Cassie whined as she tugged on my hand.
“In a minute. I need to finish getting dressed,” I told her as I took back my hand and picked up my lipstick.
Tonight was our housewarming party. It’d been three months since the barn had burned down and changed our lives. From that moment, Jake and I had moved at warp speed and never once looked back. We knew what we’d gone through, but we both knew no good could come from worrying about the past. The future was ahead of us, and we’d agreed to focus on that.
We’d moved into the house two weeks ago, and everything was almost settled. it turns out building a house to call a home was stressful. Jake had been determined to make sure Cassie and I put our touches on it and asked our opinion on everything. And when I say everything, I mean everything. At one stage, we had a two against one—Jake and Cassie against me—on painting the living area like a rainbow. After tears and tantrums, Cassie had finally conceded, and her room was the only one that ended up looking like a unicorn threw up in there. Everything was purple and sparkly, and she loved it. And I, well, I could close the door and pretend I lived in an adult home.
Downstairs I could hear people arriving and knew I had to move my ass. After adding my earrings, I sat on the end of the bed and tried to put on my shoes. It’d been a while since I’d worn heels, and I wasn’t entirely convinced I’d be able to walk in them.
“Knew I’d find you up here,” Taylor announced, pushing through the door, two glasses of bubbles in her hand.
“Who blabbed?”
“Who do you think?”
“Cassie,” we said at the same time before laughing freely.
“Well, what do you think?” I asked nervously.
“You look happy.”
“I am happy. I think…”
“You are.”
“You sound sure.”
“Kellie, I know you’ve been hurt, but Jake’s the man for you. He thinks you hung the stars and Cassie the moon. You couldn’t ask for a better father or man.”
“Or lover,” I added quickly. “The things he can do with his…”
“Uh! I don’t need to know,” Taylor replied dramatically, taking a gulp of her bubbles before screwing up her nose.
“He’s a good guy.”
“He is. And he loves you. You’re one of the lucky ones,” Taylor confirmed, and even despite riding the high I was on right now, I could hear the sadness in her tone, and it hurt my heart.
Taylor was right. Jake was amazing. He was my firefighting cowboy, and I loved him beyond reason. How I’d managed to get so lucky twice, I had no idea.
“Your prince charming’s out there somewhere too,” I tried to assure her. Lately, Taylor had been trying online dating, but to say it wasn’t going well was an understatement. She’d had bad date after bad date and was quickly becoming cynical.
“Maybe,” she grumbled, pasting on a fake smile. “But tonight’s not about me. It’s about you and celebrating that man you have waiting for you downstairs.”
“He’s done waiting,” a deep voice interrupted, and I turned to find Jake standing there looking like dessert. With his dark denim jeans and light blue button-down with the sleeves rolled up his tanned, muscular forearms, he gave me a glimpse of the arm porn I couldn’t get enough of. Everything about this man made my body sing. Every-fucking-thing.
“And on that note, I’m going to go find Cassie.”
“She’s downstairs with Nash and Sawyer trying to convince them to take her to see Gladiator,” Jake offered helpfully as Taylor slipped out the door, leaving us alone.
When the door shut with a click, I stood up and slid my dress back down my thighs. I’d wanted to look nice tonight. It’d been so long since I’d dressed up, I’d gone all out. My hair was pulled back, but I’d left a few errant curls framing my face. I wore a slinky, dark blue satin dress that reached my ankles but had an indecent split along my thigh, and if I stepped the wrong way, or maybe the right way, people might get more than they bargained for.
“What?” I asked, confused by the way Jake stared at me. “Do I have something on my face?” I reached up and touched my face gently, trying not to smear my makeup, but Jake gripped my wrist and pulled it away.
“You.”
“Me what?”
My heart pounded.
