When she reached the dock, she righted herself and her head and shoulders popped above the boards, golden hair slick and gleaming in the sunlight. “Can you give me a ride down to the rodeo? I told my friends I’d meet them there, and my parents aren’t going. Please?” She ran a hand through her wet hair.
Daniel cleared his throat. For a split second, Annie’s face flashedthrough his mind—deep red-brown eyes filled with trust—and he swallowed hard. In a small town, people had a knack for making something out of nothing. The slightest rumor could explode into a scandal in the blink of an eye. What if Jamie was seen in his truck and someone misinterpreted what they saw? What if word got back to Annie?
“I don’t know… you might want to call another ride. I’m not leaving yet. Not for another hour at least.”
“That’s perfect.” She climbed up onto the dock and wrung her hair out onto the boards. “I’ll jog home to shower and you can pick me up there, I’ll wait out front.”
Daniel sighed, weary. If anyone had ever learned how to say no to this girl, he’d sure like to know how it was done.
“Fine,” he said in resignation.
True to her word, Jamie was standing at the end of the Boyds’ driveway when Daniel drove down the hill an hour later, her hair still damp and her lips shining with pink gloss as she climbed in and buckled her seat belt.
“Thanks again. I swear this’ll be the last time I ask for a ride. I should have enough for a car by the end of the summer, I think.”
“It’s no problem,” he said as they pulled away.
Jamie flipped down the visor mirror and gazed at her reflection as she scrunched her hair with her fingers. “After I get a car, then I’ll have toreallystart saving. I’ve got big plans.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yep, I’m going to college someday. It’ll take a while to save enough, but when I do, I’ll get out of here and head to some great big university with old brick buildings.”
A smile lifted one corner of his mouth. “Old brick buildings?”
“Yeah. And new faces everywhere, and miles and miles of roads to run on.”
“What will you study?”
Jamie flipped the visor shut and propped her chin in her hand as she stared out the window.
“Art,” she said dreamily. “Dad says trying to be a professional artist is like trying to win the lottery, but I love painting more than anything in the world. I want to have my own studio someday, just a little loft with big windows in a city, where it smells like oil paint when you walk in.”
Daniel smiled, but said nothing, and on the way through town, Jamie was happy to keep up most of the conversation with her endless stream of chatter until they finally turned left on a private drive and pulled through the wide, ornate gate with the Ward family crest emblazoned at chest height.
The long driveway led to a paved lot atop a grassy hill that sloped gently down to the stables and the corral where the rodeo would take place. The lot was full already, and a few dozen cars were parked on the grass shoulder of the drive. People were swarming the hillside like bees around a hive, and Daniel could feel his blood pressure rising already, but he calmed himself with the reminder that somewhere in the crowd was Annie, waiting for him.
“Can you let me out here? I see my friends.”
Daniel slowed to a stop in the middle of the lot. Everywhere were families and couples and teenagers, all moving around them in a stream down toward the stables.
“Thank yousomuch.”
Jamie unbuckled her seat belt and—faster than Daniel could react to it—slid across the seat and closed the distance between them. He turned toward her in surprise at the precise moment that she leaned in, and the kiss that was meant for his cheek brushed his mouth instead.
Jamie laughed and was gone, through the door and lost in the crowd.
Daniel sat with his hands tight on the steering wheel as the flow of people parted around his truck.
Had anyone seen?
Desperately, his eyes jumped from face to face passing by. People were laughing, talking, distracted. And then, standing in the shadow between two cars, he caught a familiar pair of bright blue eyes peering at him from beneath a Mariners cap.
Jake.
Chapter 22ANNIE
Town was quiet, and Annie’s Jeep was the only vehicle on Main Street as she drove with her eyes on the shuttered shops.
