“You’re right, Mom. I miss you guys.”
“Come to dinner tonight.”
She slid a glance at Jameson. He was watching her, frowning a little as he zipped up his Wranglers. He mouthed the words, “Everything okay?”
Was it? Not really. She’d been ignoring her family to spend all her time with him. That had to stop. But she gave him another nod anyway. He turned to go. When he opened the bedroom door, Slim sat waiting on the other side. The dog gave a loud whine.
“That sounds like a dog,” said her mother, as Jameson went out, silently pulling the door shut behind him. “Are you at Callie’s?”
Van lied by sidestepping the question. “Dinner, huh? Sure. What time?”
“Oh, honey. That’s great. Six?”
“I will be there.”
“Bring Callie...” Wanda’s voice trailed off and then she added kind of coyly, “Oranotherfriend, if you’d like.”
Van cringed. Bringing Jameson to dinner on West Street? Not going to happen. That would mean way too many questions she didn’t feel like answering. Plus, it would give Jameson the wrong sort of signal—the kind of signal that didn’t fit their agreement to spend time together privately, with no one else the wiser. “Thanks, Mom. I’ll see you then.”
“Wonderful.”
They said goodbye.
For a minute or two, Van just sat there, clutching her phone against her chest, staring blindly out the slider that led to a sunlit deck. She felt out of sorts, apprehensive—but why?
Because she couldn’t just lie around in Jameson’s bed forever, she decided. She needed to stop gazing at nothing and get moving.
Tossing back the covers, she put on her clothes and straightened the bed.
In the kitchen, she found Jameson shutting the dishwasher door after loading in the breakfast dishes. She grabbed her glasses off the freshly wiped table, put them on and then knelt to give Slim a little love.
When she rose, Jameson came to her. He framed her face in his big hands and brushed a kiss on her forehead, just above the bridge of her glasses. “How’s your mom?”
“Good, thanks.”
“Everything okay with the family?”
“Fine, yes.”
He guided a thick swatch of her hair back over her shoulder. “It’s a warm day. How about we tack up a couple of horses? I’ll show you a pretty, private spot I know right here on the Double J. It’s up in the foothills, a little swimming hole. Deep enough for diving with a nice, grassy bank at water’s edge to spread a blanket on.”
She thought of her real life, of the family she’d essentially been ignoring, of all the ways she’d grown too attached to this beautiful man, of what she’d just revealed to him back there in his bed.
Her family didn’t even know about all that. The ones who did know were women—women she trust. She’d never told anyone else. Especially not the men she’d believed herself in love with—not David or Chaz or even open-minded, mild-tempered Trevor.
Only Jameson...
Really, she needed to put a check on herself. She’d said she would go to dinner at her Mom’s tonight. And she wasn’t about to bring a date.
She needed to pull back a bit, get herself some space, stop neglecting the people she cared about—the ones who would be there for her at the end of the summer when this thing with him came to its natural end.
Jameson asked gently, “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Well, I was just thinking that I’ve got a million things to do at Callie’s. And then my mom asked me over for dinner tonight. I haven’t seen the family for weeks, so of course I said yes. I would love to see that swimming hole. But really, I think I ought to pull myself together and get going.”
He seemed to be studying her, but when he spoke, his tone was mild. “Of course. It’s important to spend time with the family.”
“Exactly.”
