“Anyway,” he continued, “they’re just … Last time I was over there, you know, Danielle was talking about how Rustler Mountainis too rough and she wants to deemphasize the Western element. She wants it to be more like Bend.”
“She didn’t say that!” Jessie shrieked.
“She did. She wants it to be cuter. She wants it to be a tourist attraction for the right kind of people, who want to do wine tastings and go on curated hikes.”
“I have no issue with wine tastings but like … we’re Rustler Mountain. We’re the Wild West. We’re not curated, and I fear half the people in town are the wrong kind of people as far as she’s concerned.”
“Why do you care so much about that?”
“There’s just a point where you just can’t let the mean girls win anymore.” And that was as deep as she was getting. “I don’t need you to understand me. I just need you to be my arm candy.”
He raised his brows. “Arm candy. Tell me truly, Jessie, did you really choose me because you think I’m hot?”
She did her best not to stare at his green eyes, perfectly formed jawline dusted with golden stubble, or aquiline nose. She’d read that adjective in a romance novel once and had looked it up. Aquiline could be kind of an unflattering term, she supposed, but it perfectly described his strong, straight nose, which balanced perfectly with his sculpted cheekbones and …
She cleared her throat.
“Sure, you’re hot,” she did her very best not to react at all as she said that. “But what I really like is how obnoxious you are.”
She took a sip of her coffee and looked over the rim of the mug, realizing too late that was a grave error. Because when their eyes met, she felt as if she’d been struck by a bolt of lightning.
“Do you have any business in town today?” she asked, trying not to choke on her coffee.
“None other than delivering you back to your truck.”
“Great. That’s … fine.”
They finished their coffee in silence. “Let’s go down to Scallywags,” he said.
“Sure.”
It was her favorite coffee place in town. There were three of them, but Scallywag’s had baked goods, and shedidlike baked goods. Not that she often got herself a little treat, but when she did, she preferred it to be from there.
They regarded each other for a moment in the silence of the kitchen. She made the first move toward the front door.
“Hang on a minute,” he said, and she heard the sound of his keys scraping across the counter as he followed her out of the kitchen and toward the door.
She was already getting into the truck by the time he closed the distance between them. She didn’t like that feeling of tension in her chest. That feeling of tension in his kitchen. And she wanted to get as far away from it as possible.
Because there was no call for anything like that. None whatsoever.
She was buckling her seat belt by the time he got in and started the engine.
“Thanks for the coffee,” she said as they began to back out of his driveway.
“You’re welcome,” he said. “You know you’re going to have to act less like you want to claw my eyes out when I get near you if you think that we’re actually going to pull this off.”
She winced. She didn’t think she had been that obvious. Anyway, she didn’t want to claw his eyes out. That was the trouble. She had never really known what she wanted from Flynn.
Well, realistically, she knew she was attracted to him.
It was a problem. He made her feel all small and delicate, and even though she wasn’t very tall, she never felt delicate. But he was just so big and so muscular and so god damn manly.
She didn’t have to live in that space, though.
Usually, men didn’t ruffle her. They were so basic. They paid her a whole lot of attention, especially because they assumed she was easy, based on her friendly demeanor and, well, her clothes. In fact,they spread plenty of rumors that she was, because none of them wanted to feel left out.
Oh, Jessie Jane? Yeah, I totally hit that too.
