More than anything, I was disappointed.
Not in her. Or even in myself. Just in the situation. The only woman I’d entertained thoughts of in the last six years, besides my late wife, wastaken. And that hit harder than it should have. I kept telling myself it was for the best, but at the end of the day, those peptalks didn’t ease the ache of loneliness in my chest or dim my awareness of her.
Working side by side with Hollie in the kitchen required gagging and caging my feelings for her. Which, the longer I tried to deny, pounded at the door all the harder.
The spigot knob squeaked as I tightened it, and the hose water slowed to a trickle. Amid the sudden quiet, voices filtered through the air.
I stiffened.
There was no mistaking the high-pitched chattering. Izzy and Nora were definitely in the barn. I drew a slow, deep breath into my lungs. I needed to take Lady May inside and avoiding Hollie’s family would be next to impossible. My steps dragged as I grabbed her lead rope and pulled her around the corner of the barn and into the corridor.
What I saw stopped me in my tracks.
Hollie held Nora’s hand, their backs to the open barn door. They cautiously peered into Tillie’s stall, their eyes bright with admiration.
But Izzy drew near a door just beyond them. The top half of the door was propped open on a door hook. Scallywag, our new stallion, charged from the back of the stall toward Izzy, which she—in her youthful exuberance—misread as friendliness.
Izzy bounced on her toes, her hand coming out to pet him.
I dropped Lady May’s rope and lurched into the corridor. “Izzy! No!”
My yell startled Izzy just enough that she jumped backward, recoiling from Scallywag’s open mouth and bared teeth.
He took a nip at the air by her face as his body slammed against the stall door.
Izzy screamed. Hollie’s arms captured Izzy from behind and pulled her out of Scallywag’s reach.
Scallywag pranced around his stall, agitated and tossing his head. “Back!” I deepened my voice, a tone all us cowboys used with the troublemakers. I lifted my hand over the stall wall—a stop signal. “You don’t get to act like that.” He made a loud puffing sound and stamped his hooves. Reaching up, I swung the metal extension of hisdoor and latched it closed. The bars would prevent him from reaching over again.
I turned to face Hollie and the girls. They huddled together, eyes wide.
The horses rarely scared me, but adrenaline rushed through my veins.
Lady May had slowly wandered in the barn and made her way to the grooming wall. The old girl had been through the drill a hundred times and was eager for her brushing.
I looked back to Hollie, her face pulled tight with concern. She wore navy skinny jeans and white tennis shoes that already had a thin layer of barn dust marring the color. Her hair wound into a bun at the top of her head, tied with a white ribbon. A beige t-shirt hugged her curves and her teeth gently dug into her bottom lip—like she wanted to speak first but didn’t know if she should.
Damn it all.
Nothing could dampen her forbidden fruit appeal. Standing face to face with her in the barn and not immediately reliving our kiss was harder than hitching the sheep trailer without a rear cam. I tried with all my might not to remember how hungry her lips were.
Or how happy I felt around her.
She’s married, Holmes. She’s a cheater.
Those reminders sobered me up in a hurry.
I wanted her away from my sight, off of my turf, and out of Texas. I couldn’t trust myself to be this close to her without pushing for things not meant for me. I wanted to take Hollie on a long walk, on a winding trail ride, or to a rodeo. I wanted to hold her hand, sit with her, dance again. And talk easy like we had before.
My throat pulled tight with feelings I didn’t want to have.
“Jesse, I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I had no idea.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” I waved down the hall, failing to soften my tone. “These aren’t pets. They’re rodeo broncs and some of them have bad attitudes. Izzy’s lucky she still has ten fingers.”
“The girls have been asking?—”
“You need to ask acowboynext time. It’s not safe to go wandering around the ranch. You can get into all kinds of trouble.”
