by Leslie North
“Definitely,” she agreed. They drove to the city where the interview had been earlier. The place Cal had chosen was a bar Amy had heard about but never been to. It had a funky vibe, caught between the country scene and something more urban. She liked the graffiti style wall art and neon lighting. The atmosphere made it easy to relax. The company did, too.
Cal did everything right. Complimented her outfit, held doors, put his hand on the small of her back when they walked through the bar. She’d known he was charming since she’d had the opportunity to see that in action during interviews, but when he turned that charm exclusively on her, it was very gratifying.
He told funny stories about the people and places he’d encountered during his years on the rodeo circuit, making her laugh several times. He even pretended to brag about his battle scars from years of riding rodeo.
“I had noticed that one,” Amy said, tracing her finger over a jagged scar on his right forearm. He usually wore his sleeves down, but he’d rolled them up in the heat of the bar. “Must have been a bad fall.”
“Not at all,” he dismissed it. “The scar itself is way more interesting than how I got it.”
“What happened?” she asked, withdrawing her finger. Touching him was probably not a good idea.
“A bronc shoved me up against a fence during a practice ride and there was a nail sticking out. Messy, but not serious.”
“Had to hurt,” she said, but he only shrugged and kept the conversation going. She liked that about him. He knew how to engage others and seemed genuinely interested in learning more about her and Henry and their life in Darby Crossing. She got so comfortable that she found herself revealing something only a handful of people knew. “I saw a grief counselor for a year after Luke’s death. I never told Laura, Brian, or Jake.”
“Why not?” His eyes focused on her.
She managed a small smile. “The Thornes don’t do that. They handle things themselves.” She’d worried that they would judge her for needing help, even though she secretly thought Laura could benefit from talking to someone outside the family as well. Even with counseling, Amy still felt guilt about how her relationship with Luke wasn’t what it appeared to everyone, but she’d learned to manage that guilt. She didn’t tell Cal that, but she did talk about the process of her grief, and it felt good to tell someone.
“Good for you for being brave enough to get help,” he said when she’d talked about her experiences. He’d never interrupted or offered the platitudes that so many people did. He’d just listened.
He’d been like that throughout their evening. Other people at the bar had recognized him, a few even came to the table, but he’d downplayed it. He was so different from Luke. Luke loved to be the big man on campus. He’d been the football standout at college, garnering attention from both men and women. When she’d moved with him to Darby Crossing, she’d been amazed how Luke was revered by seemingly everyone. He was truly the golden boy and she’d faded into his shadow.
Cal made her feel important. That kind of attention was seductive in a way she hadn’t experienced. The evening wasn’t a practice date, it was a dream one. Everything about it—the setting, the music, the man.
“How about a dance?” Cal asked after they finished their dinner.
She should say no because dancing with him, being pressed up against him… She shouldn’t. The dream she’d had came back to her again. It had been so visceral that she’d woken up reaching for him across her empty bed. She hesitated for just another second, but she couldn’t resist the temptation.
“I’d like that,” she said. Cal had no idea how difficult it was for her to throw caution to the winds. But she had a feeling he’d be worth it.
He stood and held out his hand to her to lead her to the dance floor. The music was slow and sultry as he pulled her into his arms. She looped hers around his neck and settled in, feeling that she was meant to be there.
She hadn’t felt so alive in a long time.
9
Cal hoped his half-brother’s warning about getting Amy home by midnight had been a joke, because it was around one in the morning when they drove onto the ranch. Every minute of their practice date had been amazing. He’d spent the first half of the evening searching for clues that she was holding on too tightly to her grief to ever let go. Rafael’s warning about that had stuck with Cal. But he’d seen no sign of it. His other concern was that she was trying to recreate a date with Luke since they looked so much alike, but he didn’t think that was happening either.
Amy seemed to see him for him. The only time Luke’s name had even come up was when she talked about going to grief counseling. Her point about that was she’d gotten help so she could move on and build a better life for herself and her son.
After he realized that, he’d thrown himself into getting as much enjoyment out of the evening as possible. He liked treating her like the vibrant and beautiful woman she was and not the off-limits widow of a brother he never knew. Because he liked her, more than he could ever remember liking a woman on a first date or fifth date or even tenth. It wasn’t just physical attraction between them—it was so much more than that.
When his arms were around her waist on the dance floor, he’d been in seventh heaven. But as he pulled up to the ranch house, he had to accept that the evening was over. All he could do to prolong it a little more was be a gentleman and see her to the door. He got out of the truck and went around to her side to open the door.
“I can’t thank you enough,” she said softly as they walked up the steps onto the porch. “You completely restored my faith in my ability to date.”
“Glad to hear that,” he said, feeling his spirits sink a bit at the reminder that she only saw the date as practice. “I’ll leave you then. Goodnight, Amy.” He bent to kiss her cheek, but she turned her head, so his lips connected with hers, catching him off guard.
It was a sweet kiss, tentative and chaste. And, god help him, he wanted more. She was looking up at him, her cheeks flushed in the glow from the porch light, her lips slightly parted as if ready for another kiss. He should step back and let her go in the house. He should get in his truck and drive away, but he didn’t want to, not when her eyes were on him like that. A second later, he gave in to temptation and put his hands low on her waist to bring her upper body snugly against his. Slowly, he lowered his lips to hers, but this time he controlled the kiss, and there was nothing chaste about it.
His tongue seamed her lips and, with a small sigh, she opened to him. She was a little shy, but he coaxed her into the hot kiss. She sighed again and seemed to melt into him when he sucked on the tip of her tongue. Cal didn’t know how much time passed before he gently separated them. His heart raced with the realization that he wanted her badly, but he had no idea what her reaction to the kiss would be. Had he gone too far?
“I’m sorry,” he said, touching his forehead briefly to hers. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
She stepped back and put her hand on the doorknob. “It’s okay. I mean, you were just pretending, right? Goodnight, Cal.”
Did she truly think it was just a practice kiss to end their practice date? Before he could say otherwise, she slipped inside. He wanted to pound on the door until she came back so he could tell her that there was nothing “pretend” about their kiss. But waking the whole house wouldn’t do him any favors with any of them.
He drove away trying to categorize his emotions and got nowhere. Cal had only one other time in his life obsessed over a woman, so the feeling was unfamiliar and unsettling.
That feeling stuck with him into the next day. On the outside, he tried to act normally when he met Rafael and both of his half-brothers for lunch. On the inside, his thoughts continued to churn.
“Come on, Rafe. It can’t be that big of a deal,” Jake said as he shoveled guac and chips into his mouth.
Rafael rolled his eyes. “She’s the textbook company’s expert on Texan history and she doesn’t seem to understand the histor
ical significance of the Camp Logan Mutiny. When I told her why she was wrong, she insisted I was the one who didn’t understand.”
“The gall of this woman,” Jake said with a shake of head. “What’s her name?”
“Gail something. Why?”
“It’s easier to call her by a name than ‘the woman.’”
Rafael waved that off. “I’m not giving up. I’ve got my next email composed including links to primary sources and scholarly articles. I’m waiting until later to send it in case I think of something else to add.”
“You’ve spent a lot of time on this,” Brian said, pouring ketchup onto his plate. “Maybe you ought to relax.”
“Would you relax if your deputies misrepresented something on their logs or reports?” Rafael shot back.
“Well, no,” Brian said, “but those are legal documents. If a case goes to court, they’ve got to stand up to any kind of scrutiny.”
“Don’t you think misrepresenting information to kids is a crime?”
“I suppose,” Brian admitted. “But there’s no judge and jury.”
“Of course there is,” Rafael insisted. “Everything we know about society is in jeopardy. Cal’ll agree with me.”
“Huh?” Cal said. He’d listened to the conversation with half his attention.
“What’s on your mind, anyway?” Rafael peered at him.
“Nothing. Just listening to you rant,” Cal said. He was annoyed with himself for being a lousy friend and not paying attention, but at the same time, he was so damned distracted by what probably wasn’t happening between him and Amy. Their kiss had hit him bone deep and he wanted more, but Amy wasn’t the type of woman he could have a fling with. He felt bad even thinking it while he sat at the table with Jake and Brian. They’d kick his ass into next week if they knew where his thoughts were going.
Besides, she didn’t appear to want any kind of relationship beyond friendship with him—which was wise of her. She deserved a real commitment, and Cal knew he wasn’t capable of staying in a small town like Darby Crossing. He’d learned that lesson several years earlier. He’d fallen hard for Angie, a rodeo medic, and she’d felt the same way about him. When she got the chance to work at a practice in a small town, her dream job, she’d left the rodeo and he’d followed her, figuring love would see them through.
He couldn’t have been more wrong. Without the excitement of the rodeo circuit, he’d been bored and restless in the small town. His job at a small construction company paid the bills but brought him no happiness since he couldn’t seem to fit in with the crew. The truth was that he hadn’t fit in in the town itself. He was a person who’d always found it easy to make friends, but not there. His dissatisfaction had quickly soured things with Angie. She’d wanted him to try harder, but he just couldn’t.
When he’d gone back to the rodeo to do one competition, he’d remembered what he loved about that life, and he’d vowed to never leave it again. He and Angie split up, but he’d learned a valuable lesson about life. Even a perfect-seeming relationship wouldn’t work if half the couple didn’t belong in the place they’d chosen as their home. Cozy small-town life just wasn’t for him. And that meant he couldn’t shoehorn his life into the confines of Darby Crossing, not even for Amy.
Which he shouldn’t even be considering since she apparently viewed their date and kiss as practice. She’d had fun on the date. He was sure of that. He hadn’t imagined the flush on her cheeks, the hitch in her breathing. But he couldn’t ignore the way she’d declared it pretend.
He should stop trying, stop thinking about it. There couldn’t be anything between him and Amy. Period. Done. He wasn’t going to think about it anymore.
Until he saw her dash across the street and enter the diner. He stood up instinctively as she came toward him. Before he could greet her, she flung her arms around his neck.
“You are my hero,” she said as she hugged him and planted a kiss on his cheek.
What was this about? And whatever the hell he’d done, he wanted to do it ten more times if that was her reaction. “I like the sound of that, but what did I do?”
She released him, stepping back just a bit. “We just topped the sixty percent mark on ticket sales and,” she held a finger to keep him from interrupting, “we got offered an interview on Austin AM, the highest rated morning show in the city. It’s not definite yet, but it looks good.”
A cheer went up in the diner where everyone had stopped eating to listen to Amy. This was big news in a small town. Austin was over a hundred miles away, but that wasn’t a long trip in the minds of Texans who were looking for a good rodeo.
“Good job, brother.” Jake stood up and slapped Cal on the back, and Brian tipped his hat.
But it was Amy’s smiling, upturned face that had his attention. Wild, crazy thoughts filled his head—like the question of whether he could fit in here in Darby Crossing after all. He had friends in the three men at the table. He was already planning a career change. And most importantly, there was Amy.
If he was willing to live here long term, was there anything stopping him from pursuing a real relationship with her?
“I owe you a million thanks for convincing Cal to help us out.” Amy turned to Rafael, giving him a hug as well.
“Glad to have him around,” Rafael said, returning the hug.
“And I don’t know why I’m hugging you two.” She flung her arms around Brian and Jake. “But it seems like the thing to do.”
Cal stood back and watched her. She was joyful and beautiful, which made his decision easy. He was going to ask her out again, and it would be for real this time.
10
The stars were bright in the dark sky when Cal drove her back to the ranch. When he’d walked her back to her office after she found him in the diner, he’d surprised her by asking her out for a drink later. Amy had nearly said no, feeling like they were playing with fire. She had a crush on him, almost a schoolgirl infatuation, which was silly for the widowed mother of a little boy. But she couldn’t help herself.
Who could? Cal was gorgeous and sexy, good with her kid, and his kiss…that was something memorable. Plus, he was helping her out in a monumental way. She was convinced now that the rodeo would be a success, her job would be out of danger, and the community center would get rebuilt. The best part was that in the diner when people tried to congratulate and thank Cal, he’d re-directed the attention and credit to her. Luke would never have done that. Luke had always accepted all recognition as his due. It was just another way that Luke and Cal weren’t alike.
She peeked at his profile as he drove. They’d laughed over drinks, talking about everything and anything. He told her more about his sister’s kids, and she’d recounted to him how since her mother worked in a movie theater, she’d seen tons of films growing up. She’d flirted a little with him, too. Her skills were rusty, but it felt good to be with him. As a matter of fact, the more she thought about it, the more certain she felt that having a crush on him was emotionally healthy, a step in the right direction for her.
And there was no danger to it because she’d keep her hands to herself, and he’d leave town soon enough. She frowned in the darkness, not liking the thought of him leaving. None of that, she told herself, she could enjoy his company as a…friend.
When they pulled up to the ranch house, he cut the engine and reached for his door handle.
“You don’t have to see me to the door,” she said, unsnapping her seatbelt. He’d done the gentlemanly routine during their practice date, but this evening had been different, lighter and more fun.
“I want to.” He got out of the truck before she could argue and came around to her side. He took her hand, lacing their fingers together as they went up the steps. The romantic gesture surprised her, but the real shock came on the porch when he pulled her close and kissed her. No way could she resist kissing him back. She ran her hands over his broad shoulders as the kiss deepened, quickly surpassing the previous night’s kiss in inte
nsity. Her stomach fluttered, her senses reeled, and she didn’t want to stop. He backed her against a post and she felt the full heat of his body against hers.
“Amy, Amy,” he murmured as his lips left hers to coast over her cheekbone and jaw. She couldn’t get enough.
But…
She opened her eyes and exerted a little pressure on his shoulders, making him take a half-step back. “You don’t have to do that,” she said, her voice shaky with desire. “We had the practice goodnight kiss last night.”
“I’m not practicing now, and I wasn’t then.” His fingers coasted over where his lips had been. “I want to kiss you because I think you’re amazing. I want to be with you, Amy.” He kissed her again, softer this time before continuing. “I can’t promise everything will work out between us, but this is no game to me.”
“Oh,” she breathed, struggling to process his words. Half of her instincts cried out that dating Cal was a bad idea. She could get hurt, and so could he. The other half relished the idea of being with him. Kissing him, touching him, sharing laughs.
She had to think, so she pushed off the post and walked a few feet away. There were so many reasons not to get involved with him. The first was that he’d leave town as soon as the rodeo was over. The next was how it would look to the Thorne family and to everyone in town. She sucked in a breath, not liking the scenes she imagined.
“Talk to me, Amy,” Cal said, coming to stand in front of her.
“I’m not sure I can do it,” she whispered.
“You don’t like me?” His voice was equally soft.
“I like you.” She couldn’t keep the smile from her face. “A lot. But a relationship is never just two people. What will Laura and Jake and Brian think? I don’t want to hurt them.” She sighed. “Plus, there’s the folks in town. They’ll gossip about us and speculate that I’m only with you because of your resemblance to Luke. Small towns generate big gossip.”
“They do,” he agreed with her, but his hands slipped to her waist again.
