I bit my lip, but my sheepish smile couldn’t be contained. “I definitely remember awe.”
She shook my hand then, a smile forming on her lips and an attractive flush rising on her cheeks. There was something different about her today that I couldn’t put my finger on. She always looked beautiful, but today I couldn’t look away. Once she released me, I shoved my hands into my pockets. I had only meant to tease her, but instead, I flirted like a lovesick teenager, and now it was almost impossible to wipe the grin off my face.
She didn’t move and I watched with growing alarm as her gaze traveled casually down my body. I stiffened and looked down at my clothes. A little wrinkly but that was nothing unusual. Then her gaze traveled back up, just as slowly, lighting a match inside of me everywhere her eyes touched. And she didn’t miss an inch. She looked at me then, with an air of defiance. There seemed to be a short circuit in my airwaves and I could only gape after her. What in the he—
“You must have remembered how to ride a horse,” she said, turning back to the tables and consolidating the leftover fruit into some empty cardboard boxes. Casually. As if she hadn’t just ravished me with her eyes.
“Barely,” I choked out. “Need help with this?”
“Sure,” she said as I moved in beside her, making sure not to touch her. My body couldn’t take that after what I had just witnessed.
“What’s going on for tonight?” she asked after we had cleaned up the tables and headed toward the house.
“Well, that’s the thing. Normally, I would have planned an amazing date, flown you to Italy or the beach…the whole bit. But Jake forgot to tell me I was in charge of date night until I was driving over here. So, I’m not sure. Any ideas?”
We lingered on the porch for a moment until she dropped onto the swing, and I sat in the rocking chair. I hadn’t sat down all day and couldn’t help the sigh that escaped my lips.
“You look exhausted. When did you guys get back home?”
My eyes closed on their own accord as I laid my head against the rocker. “We limped home last night, just before ten.”
“Limped?”
“It felt like it. I hadn’t been in a saddle since last year’s cattle drive.”
“How was it?”
“The best.”
“Kelsey always loved it, too. I’m a little miffed that I’ve never been invited.”
I opened one eye. “I’ve never seen you on a horse before.”
“I’ve been on one exactly two times. I’m basically a pro.”
Now, both eyes shot open. “You’ve been best friends with my sister your whole life and haven’t mastered riding horses yet?”
She tucked her hair behind her ear. “We made a deal: I didn’t have to ride horses with her, and she didn’t have to run with me, unless we wanted to.”
It was her hair. That’s what was different. She wore it down today. I hadn’t seen it down all summer. It was always up in a ponytail. Which I also liked. It was very Tessa. With her joggers on most of the time, hanging out with her at the fruit stand felt like we could break out into a light run at any time. Wearing her hair softly draped around her shoulders today seemed…suspicious.
“Do you wear a cowboy hat on the cattle drive?” she suddenly asked.
“Nah. Just my baseball hat and a bandana when it gets dusty.”
When she didn’t say anything, I chuckled. “Sorry to disappoint your cowboy fantasy.”
“Baseball hat works, too.”
It was the way she said it that had me looking at her. Her eyes flitted over to mine, and the slowest, sexiest smile crawled onto her mouth that sent my heart rate sky high.
“Do we need a safe word, Jailbait? If you’re imagining me on a horse without a shirt on, you’re in big trouble,” I warned, my heart rate spiking.
“With a little dirt and some sweat running down your chest right about…” She reached a finger out toward me, her face brimming with amusement. My body tightened. Holy crap. She wasn’t stopping.
My hand flew out to block her finger and I pushed it away, lightly. “Skeevy little perv,” I mumbled, with a little too much heat.
“The Office.” She pointed at me, trying not to laugh. “Stop quoting it!”
