She was attracted to him.
More than that, she might even be developing feelings for him.
During the tail-end of their outing, he’d tugged her into a shop where they sold all sorts of horse-related items. She’d thought he needed to pick up something for the ranch, but then he’d taken her down an aisle and thrusted a pair of beautiful riding boots toward her.
She’d insisted that she didn’t need them—heck, she even tried to tell him if she wanted them she would purchase them herself.
He’d refused.
Leo had forced her to try them on then he’d insisted on paying for them. When they were heading out the door,she was temptedto turn around and return the blasted things. He’d warned her not to even consider it because he’d be taking her riding again and this time they wouldn’t be getting stuck in a cabin for the night however much he might like the idea.
Those very boots were currently propped up against the wall in her bedroom upstairs.
Leo arched a brow as he cleared his throat, and she was ripped back to the here and now. The way he was looking at her. It made her wonder if he was beginning to feel the same things she was feeling for him.
No matter how much she told herself that he wasn’t, she couldn’t be entirely sure.
“Yum. Something smells delicious!”
Kat jumped and turned back to the pan on the stove where she currently stirred the tomato sauce. She’d added a slew of spices to the mixture. It was her mother’s special combination of flavor that couldn’t be replicated in any commercial form.
Her face was likely all too similar to the shade of red she currently stirred. Footsteps padded through the kitchen and Kat forced herself to relax. There was a very real chance that Sonya had caught her staring at Leo and Kat couldn’t decide if she was more embarrassed by the fact that she got caught or that she was doing it in the first place.
“Need anything else?” Leo’s low rumble came directly behind her ear and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Why did he have to affect her like that? No one—not even Chaz—had managed to do such a thing to her. She couldn’t recall a single time in her life when a man had made her second guess her feelings about anything.
“N-no.” She stammered. “I’m all g-good here.” She squeezed her eyes shut.
“I could use your help getting some firewood, Leo,” Sonya called from the back door.
Kat didn’t have to look back to know the second that Leo had left her side. The lack of heat was more than enough to tell her when he’d moved even a few inches away. She swallowed hard, reminding herself that nothing was wrong. Just because she was staring to have feelings for the guy meant nothing.
At least it didn’t until she overheard the voices from the back door that had been left ajar.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, mom.”
“Ha. You can deny all you want, son, but I saw the way the two of you were looking at each other. There’s something there and the sooner you admit it to yourself, the happier you’ll be.”
Leo groaned. “While I appreciate your incessant need to meddle in my love life, I’m perfectly capable of finding a woman all on my own.”
There was a lull of silence then the creak of the door as someone opened it. Kat could feel his stare on her back the second he entered the house, but she chose to remain focused on the saucepan.
If his mother saw it, that had to mean something, right? Did Kat want it to mean something?
She was beginning to lean toward the idea more and more with each passing minute, no matter how irresponsible it might seem.
There wasa strange sort of glow out of Kat’s window when she woke the following morning. Sleep hadn’t come easy last night so the fact that she’d woken up before the sun was a feat all on its own.
She groaned, rubbing at her tired eyes before peering at the window again. That glow was most definitely not the sun rising on the horizon. Nope, this was something else entirely.
Glowing red numbers told her it wasn’t even six in the morning yet and she groaned again before rolling onto her side. Still, that strange light seemed to call to her. With a frustrated tossing of her comforter, she headed toward the window.
Then the widest smile crossed her face when she drank in the sight of the first snowfall of winter.
Back home, snow didn’t dump on the ground like this in the early days of October. Kat wasn’t sure if the snow came earlier here regularly or if this was a fluke. At the moment, she didn’t care one bit.
Her eyes caught sight of a familiar figure tugging his coat around his body as he took a couple steps into the snow. He stared off in one direction, but she wasn’t sure what he was looking for. Then he glanced up at her window.
Kat jumped back with a gasp before realizing that he probably couldn’t even see her with how dark it was in the bedroom. When she inched closer to the window, she found Leo was still standing within view. He held a steaming cup of something. Whywasn’t he drinking it inside or on the porch? Why stand in the snow at the foot of the stairs?
