Her back brushed against my chest and it took a second to catch my breath. “Did it make you sad that I didn’t come?”
“Kind of.” She glanced over her shoulder, her expression timid yet wistful. “It was fun debating with you over literature…and then you disappeared for a long time.” Her face flamed a beautiful dusty pink.
I smirked. “You missed me.”
She reached back and yanked my hat down over my eyes.
When I’d fixed it and could see again, she was facing forward, shoulders stiff.
“You’re right. I stayed away on purpose.”
Goosebumps sprang up on her arms. “Because I was so young, and you knew you had feelings for me?”
The tightness in her voice made it feel like a trick question. But I was done being anything but honest. That day in herbedroom when I’d bared it all had been really hard. But it also felt like a boulder had been lifted off my chest.
“Yes.”
I must’ve answered correctly because she finally relaxed, her back sinking fully against me. Then she let out a little sigh of happiness. It felt like after all these years, I’d finally slipped the correct key in the lock. Having her between my arms felt right. My insides were a swirl of euphoric peace.
Her fingers feathered over my right wrist where there was a scar remaining from my altercation with the paper towel dispenser. “So, what you’re saying is, you were trying to be a good guy.”
“I always try to be a good guy. I hope you know that.”
“I think I do.” She shrugged. “But I think you should teach me something about literature, you know, in case someone finds out we spent the day together. We can say you were helping me study or something.”
“Okay. Yeah. Let’s do that.” The small creek that was the boundary between Dupree land and Ford’s unnamed ranch was coming up. I shifted the reins to my right hand. “I’m going to put my arm around your waist. Is that okay?” Letting go of the reins with one hand was the opposite of what I should’ve done. But it was a tiny, shallow creek and Ineededto put at least one arm around her.
Rather than responding, she picked up my left hand and slid it across her stomach, hooking it around the opposite hip. My stupid heart tried to burst out of my chest the same way the old cartoon roadrunner burst through paintings and invisible brick walls.
Once we were through the water and my heart had slowed a bit I said, “How about I tell you a quote and you tell me what it’s from?” I didn’t move my hand from her waist.
She laughed. “Oh, I am so going to win this.”
“It’s not a competition.” I chuckled. “It’s an exercise.”
“It’s a competition. And I’m going to win.”
“Fine.”
“Ready when you are.” She leaned her head against my shoulder so that her cheek was resting against mine. I was pretty sure she had no idea what she was doing to me. Or maybe she did and that’s why she was doing it. This girl was a yo-yo and I was here for the ride, as painful as it may be.
I could hit this from two different angles. Make it fun and throw her off with obscure sci-fi quotes, or I could take this opportunity to tell her how I felt about her, without her knowing that’s what I was doing.
Yeah. It was a no-brainer. “Okay. Ready?”
She nodded.
“‘We are asleep until we fall in love.’”
“Tolstoy, War and Peace,” she said confidently.
“‘I’ve always loved you, and when you love someone, you love the whole person, just as he or she is, and not as you would like them to be.'”
“Again, Tolstoy, Anna Karenina.”
I tightened my hold on the reins as we came up into the lowest valley of Ford’s ranch. “‘I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.'”
“Great Expectationsby Dickens,” her voice sounded less sure. She shifted in my arms, the leather of the saddle squeaking beneath her. Crap. Was she already on to me?
