“We don’t want to betooshowy. I don’t want this to look like just another hookup, right? This is supposed to look like the beginning of a relationship. Which … I’ve never actually had before, so that should be interesting.”
She huffed out a laugh. “That makes two of us.”
They pulled up to the house, and he felt a surge of pride, which he suppressed, allowing it to turn into annoyance. Because he didn’t want to wonder what Jessie would think of the place. He had been working on it pretty intensely ever since he’d moved in five years ago. It was done now, a fully remodeled log cabin with a rustic exterior and a modern interior.
It was actually the perfect sort of place for a man who wanted tostart a family. Alas, he was not that man. The only people who had been up here were his family and his friend Dalton.
“Nice place,” she said.
And he suppressed the satisfaction her praise created in him.
He got out of the truck, and so did she, following him up the wooden steps to the front door. He opened it and gestured inside.
“Not locked?”
“Up here?”
“Fair. I always lock my trailer door because we have a lot of different people working at the Wild West Show. Though I confess I am more likely to lock it if I’m inside than when I leave it.”
“Fair enough.”
She looked a little bit lost, standing there in her jeans and tank top. He had the uncomfortable thought that she would probably take her jeans off when she went to bed and just wear a pair of panties and that tank top. The mental image just about undid him. He also felt that he had betrayed her by imagining it, since he had told her in no uncertain terms that he didn’t want her, and here he was, lusting after her.
She didn’t look like herself just then. She looked younger. Vulnerable. He didn’t think he had ever seen her look vulnerable. Gone was the bravado she’d displayed outside the bar. “Come on now, let’s not build any suspense. You can sleep upstairs. There are two rooms in the loft, mine is down here. You have a lock on the door.”
“I know I don’t need it,” she said, starting up the stairs at a clip, as if she was desperate to get away from him no matter what she said.
“But go ahead and use it,” he said.
Her eyes widened fractionally; then she turned and made her way up the stairs. He heard a door close behind her.
He let out a long, hard breath and went into his bedroom, closing the door firmly behind him. And locking it.
He took his phone out of his pocket and turned it over. He had a text from his older brother. Because of course he did. Oh, Austin. The man just couldn’t help himself.
What the fuck?
Not what you think. I’ll explain tomorrow. In person.
See that you do.
It’s possible you’re going to hear a whole lot of rumors before I see you, so you’re going to have to keep your shit together.
And with that, he turned his phone to Do Not Disturb. Austin could have his say, but it was going to have to be tomorrow.
What Flynn needed right now was a cold shower and a good night’s sleep.
But he didn’t get a good night’s sleep. Instead, he lay there awake all night wondering what the hell he had gotten himself into.
Chapter 3
I have to write down these stories, because I have no one to tell them to. Ma is dead now, and the girls all have sad stories—mine isn’t any worse or better. None of the men want to talk at all.
—Belle Martin’s Diary, September 1865
When Jessie Jane woke up the next morning and looked up at the unfamiliar ceiling, she was more than a little bit confused. She didn’tdounfamiliar ceilings. She didn’t do beds that weren’t her own.
Shereallydidn’t do walks of shame or anything even close.
