“She’s single,” I said. “There’s no reason we can’t sleep together. Hell, we did once already.”
“So you’re attracted to her?” Rafe questioned. “And she feels the same about you?”
Did she? I had to think so, based on the way she’d kissed me and whispered my name. Yeah, there was something between us, unspoken, but there.
“I think so, but I’m reluctant to be with her again because she makes me…” I’d never been good at expressing my emotions, but Rafe was a close friend and even though I’d only known Cal for about two months, he and Brian were my family, so I decided to try.
“She makes me feel like I’m losing control of myself. She makes me question what I thought I was sure I knew.” I stopped myself. “Never mind. Forget I said anything. That doesn’t make any damn sense when I say it out loud.” One truth was becoming clear, though. I needed some distance between me and Julia even if I didn’t want it. Just until I could get myself straightened out.
I caught the look that was exchanged between them and started to rise. I wasn’t sitting through an inquisition. “I’m going home. I’ll see you guys another night.” I headed for the door.
Before I reached my truck, Brian’s hand clamped around my shoulder. I could have broken free, but there was no escaping from my twin—not for long, anyway.
“I don’t know what that was about in there, but you’ve got me wondering,” Brian said. “I know you’ve never been in love. If you start to care too much, you back away. Is that what’s going on here?”
Was that why I was backing off? Had my attraction for Julia grown into something more powerful? What if I didn’t fight the “out of control” feeling and let myself fall for her? What would happen then? I tried to picture something real with Julia, but I’d never been able to do that with anyone. I shook my head, trying to get my brain moving in the right direction.
“She’s a good friend,” I finally said. “I like her and value her input, but that’s all there is to it.” Brian seemed doubtful. Time for a change of subject. “Don’t you need to get home to Caitlin?” I went for a joking tone.
“She’s probably sound asleep by now. Between the renovations on her new tattoo shop and the pregnancy, she’s ready for bed right after dinner,” Brian said, undeterred. “I want to know who the woman is that we’re talking about.”
I considered telling my brother that it was none of his damn business, but I wouldn’t get away with that. “Julia Letts,” I admitted.
He raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Last I knew you were trying to buy her stallion.”
I gave in and told him about the trail hike and the night in the cabin—and then the rejection that had come the next morning. I shared how things had shifted since Julia’s injury, but then the story trailed off. I didn’t know where things went from here.
“So you’ve spent a lot of time with her lately,” Brian said when I finished. “Something’s changed since that morning on the trail.”Since her rejectionwent unspoken.
“I don’t know if that’s true.” The kiss we’d shared had been memorable. The chemistry between us sizzled, and I’d almost taken advantage of our situation under the stars. But I’d stopped myself from seeing it through. “I don’t think she’s interested,” I said to end the conversation. “So I might as well stop worrying about it. Good night, Brian.”
I got in my truck for the drive back to the ranch. I hadn’t drunk enough beer to cloud my judgment, but thinking about Julia was making everything fuzzy in my head.
FIFTEEN
JULIA
“I’m in the chip aisle,” I said to Sofia over the phone. “What should I get?”
“The blue tortilla chips,” Sofia said. “I’ll make my special dip to go with them.”
“Got it. What else?” I asked, moving through the store as Sofia rattled off a lengthy list of what we needed for movie night with the girls. “How much do you think the five of us can eat in one night?” We planned to meet at Sofia’s around seven. It would be the two of us; Brian’s girlfriend, Caitlin; Caitlin’s business partner in her tattoo shop, Melody; and Aurora, the owner of Bite and Brew, who was leaving her twin toddlers with her husband, Marc, for the night.
We’d invited Amy, but as the interim mayor for Poplar Springs, she was invited to attend the Conference for mayors in Denver. She was going to skip it, since this would be her first time spending the night away from home without her son, Henry, but Cal talked her into going.
“I’ll be coming off a twelve-hour shift. I’ll be starved,” Sofia said. Both Sofia and Amy had become role models for me. They both held positions that were normally geared toward men and they were damn good at their jobs.
“I think I’ll be too annoyed to eat.” I put two kinds of cookies in my cart. “Did you see the ads that the Family Veterinary Care place is running? What about the images they’re using on social media? Those adorable animals aren’t even patients. Some looked like they were designed by AI complete with weird legs and odd shadows.” Two of my clients who’d elected to take their pets there decided that it wasn’t for them, but I still worried about the bite the chain clinic was taking out of my business.
“People might go there once or twice, but they’ll come back to you. Will those vets respond to a message at seven o’clock on a Sunday evening? Will they open the clinic on Christmas Eve because someone’s Lab had a seizure under the dining room table? I think not.”
“You’re right.” I had always reacted to emergency situations, no matter how inconvenient the timing, because I loved animals and because I viewed it as part of the job. Especially with the contracts I had with some of the ranches. When a mare having a rough pregnancy is about to foal, they don’t stop to think if they should wait for a better time.
I made a turn down the next aisle on my way to the drinks section. I paused in front of shelves of tampons and Midol, thinking. Whenwasthe last time I’d had a period?
Despite the fact that I had polycystic ovary syndrome, my periods were surprisingly regular. Normally, I knew exactly when to expect it, but I’d gotten distracted by my sprained ankle, and…come to think of it, shouldn’t I have gotten it during thatstretch while I was on crutches? In my ear, I could hear Sofia still talking, but my mind had gone elsewhere as I stared at the feminine products.
“Hey! Are you listening?” Sofia asked a minute later.
