Chapter Eight
Chase took Kaylato a nice restaurant in Fredericksburg. They went dancing afterward at a place Kayla knew. Unfortunately, it reminded him of that night with Ella and dancing for hours in the bar.
Kayla was pretty. She was nice. She was smart. And he didn’t have the least desire to kiss her, much less take her to bed. A few weeks ago he’d have been trying like hell to get her into bed. Now, he simply had no interest.
What waswrongwith him?
Ella. She was what was wrong with him. He had Ella on the brain and he didn’t know how to get her out of it.
He liked Kayla. She was everything heshouldwant in a woman. Except she wasn’t the woman he wanted.
When he took Kayla home she invited him in but he made an excuse, which he suspected she didn’t believe. But he also figured she wasn’t too heartbroken. She’d written him off, which was a good thing. He kissed her, a very brief, totally unsatisfying meeting of lips. He spent the drive home telling himself he was a fool. He’d had a chance with a beautiful, willing woman. And he was going home alone and frustrated.
When he got home he parked and walked down to the barn. Dawn, Ella’s dog, greeted him, then insisted he go to Midnight’s stall. It was obvious what she wanted, running back and forth between him and the big gelding’s stall. So he opened the door and let her inside. The horse and dog greeted each other as if they hadn’t seen each other in weeks, instead of a few hours. He watched them for a little while, smiling at their friendship.
He walked through the barn, checking the horses even though he knew Damaris would have swung through by now. But he wasn’t sleepy and he liked seeing the horses. When he got to the end, he looked out the open rear doors and saw Ella, walking to her front door with a man beside her. She’d been on a date. Why did that bother him when he’d done the exact same thing?
Nate Kershaw, he realized. Crap. Nate was a pilot at Devil’s Rock Airport, just north of Whiskey River. He often flew with Travis Sullivan for Travis’s charter jet company. Chase knew him, though not at all well.
Damaris had dated the guy. He hadn’t much liked it when Marshall told him. Sure, Damaris was a grown woman, perfectly capable of taking care of herself. Chase had never heard much bad about Kershaw, other than he was a bit of a player. Still, that didn’t mean he wanted his sister to date him.
Nate and Ella were standing under her porch light visible to anyone who cared to see. If Damaris’s dates were none of his business, Ella’s were sure as hell not. Like his sister, Ella was a grown woman who could look out for herself. If she wanted to date some dude who nailed damn near every woman he went out with, then more power to her. As for his sister, he tried to put that image way out of his head.
Because he wasfun, according to what Damaris had told Marshall? He could just imagine what kind of fun she was talking about. Damn, hereallydidn’t want that picture in his head.
He glanced at the cottage again. They were still there, standing under the light. Nate reached for her and Ella stepped into his arms, putting her own around his neck and kissing him. Or the dude kissed her, he couldn’t really tell. And he couldn’t stop watching. Waiting for her to open her door and lead him inside. Instead, he let her go and walked to his truck, waving at her when he got there.
Could he help it that he felt an intense blast of relief?
*
Instead of goinginside, Ella headed to the barn. At first whenever she left she’d either put Dawn in with Midnight or kept her in the cottage, but all the dogs were used to each other now and Dawn wasn’t about to run off, especially not with her best buddy there. She whistled for Dawn and when she didn’t show, went looking for her.
Not looking where she was going, she nearly ran into Chase. He grabbed her arms just before she did. Startled, she looked up at him. “Oh, Chase, sorry. What are you doing here?”
“I live here. And work here.”
He was still holding her arms and the look in his eyes was…intriguing. If she hadn’t known better she’d have thought he was looking at her mouth. Hell, hewaslooking at her mouth. She looked at his and wondered…Oh, no, this will never do.“I meant what are you doing in the barn so late.”
“It’s not that late.” He let go of her arms. “The question is, what are you doing home so early?”
“It’s not that early. But my date had an early day tomorrow.”
“His loss.”
She wasn’t sure how to answer that, or even if she wanted to. Instead she asked, “Have you seen Dawn? I called her but she didn’t come.”
“She’s in with Midnight. Neither of them would settle until I let her in there.”
“Oh, sorry. They get that way sometimes.”
“I’ve seen animals be attached to each other but those two are joined at the hip. I’m surprised you can get Dawn to stay with you inside at all.”
“She’s protective of me too. She divides her time between us in some schedule I’ve yet to figure out. She and Midnight have been together since Dawn was a baby. I was out riding Midnight one day and he must have heard her. He stopped and wouldn’t move until I got off and looked where he showed me. There was a tiny puppy there, abandoned. You know how that is, obviously,” she said, referring to his squadron of dogs.
He gave a half smile. “I do.”
“Ever since they’ve been inseparable.” Changing the subject, she said, “What happened to your sling?”
