by Emmy Eugene
“I went to college,” he said. “For three semesters. I’m not what you would label book smart.”
“You’re smart,” she said.
“Yeah, but not the type to get a degree and have a desk job. Though, I do have a desk in one of the barns, in a little office there. That’s where I keep track of the cattle, our budgets, our land rotation, all of that.”
“Some ranches have secretaries,” Jenna said. “Did you know that?”
“The big ones,” he said. “The five of us can handle our small operation.”
“So who does most of that book work?”
“Me and Russ,” he said. “Mostly Russ, with the financial stuff. Me with the animal stuff.”
“Do all of your brothers work on the ranch?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Griffin and Rex live here in town, though. I keep tellin’ ‘em to move out to the ranch. There’s room in the homestead, or there’s another cottage on the property. Plenty of room.”
“Plenty of room,” Jenna echoed, and Seth realized he’d been talking about himself for a while.
“You didn’t answer any of my questions,” he said. “Dreams? Plans? Where you went after you left Chestnut Springs?”
She escaped from him to go up the steps at the next house, and Seth decided they needed to pick up the pace or it would be dark before they finished.
Jenna rejoined him and said, “I don’t really know what my dreams are. I came home after my marriage dissolved, and I got a job and took care of my mother. I love teaching piano, and I could probably just do that and not work at the school.” She shrugged and matched his new, quicker pace. “But I like being there with the kids. It speaks to my detailed side as well, all the filing, the schedules, the checklists.”
“Ah, yes. Jenna loves checklists and getting things done.” He tucked her against his side. “I hate to say this, but I think we’re going to have to split up to get these flyers delivered if we want to finish before the smoothie shop closes.”
“Good idea,” she said. “Give me half of those. I’ll finish this side and meet you back at your mother’s.”
He did as she said and crossed the street. He went all the way down to the corner and then started hanging the flyers at each house. He knew Jenna hadn’t answered nearly as many questions as he had. He decided it didn’t matter. He had plenty of time to get to know Jenna. Plenty of time to find out what she really wanted from her life, and if he could possibly give it to her.
Thirty minutes later, all the residents on Victory Street had a flyer about the proposal for an Edible Neighborhood project. His name, email address, and phone number were on all the flyers, and he hoped he wouldn’t get a flood of calls or questions.
Jenna had put all the information the Victory Street Edible Neighborhood blog she’d set up for him, and the website address for that was on the flyer too.
Seth stifled a yawn, thinking he’d get a shot of energy in his smoothie. Then maybe he’d make it back to the ranch without falling asleep at the wheel.
“Done,” Jenna said, coming across the lawn to the retaining wall where he’d chosen to sit. She sighed as she sat beside him. “Wow, I’m beat.”
“And it’s only Monday.” He took off his cowboy hat and wiped his hand through his hair.
“Rain check on the smoothies?” she asked. “I have piano lessons tomorrow night, and I need to get to bed early.”
“Sure,” Seth said, secretly relieved. He wanted to spend more time with Jenna, but he was also worn right to the bone. “Let’s go.”
“I have my own car, remember?” She nudged him, got up, and started for her car. Seth was slow on the uptake, but he managed to get himself moving after her. But he wasn’t going to kiss her in his parents’ driveway. For all he knew, his mother was standing watch at the window.
Jenna made it to her car first and opened the door. She turned back to him and let down her hair. “Hey, so when can I see you again?”
He had a bridge to fix this week, and a dog adoption event to prepare for, and his regular chores around the ranch. “Friday?” he asked. “And you’re helping me with the dog adoptions on the ranch, right?”
“You do them at the ranch?”
“Yep,” he said.
“I wonder if you brought them to the downtown park if you could adopt them out easier.”
Seth studied her, because she had a lot of good ideas. “Maybe I’ll call and find out about that.”
He hadn’t gotten the bandanas yet either, but he didn’t want to mention it to Jenna. Her ideas had a way of creating more work for him, and he simply smiled as she said, “Friday, and then dog adoptions on Saturday,” got in her car, and backed out of the driveway.
Seth sighed, because wow, he’d never been this tired before bursting into Jenna’s house and causing her to smack her head on the bottom of the piano. Before he’d kissed her.
Having a girlfriend was a lot of hard work, and he needed to warn his brothers before they got the wrong idea about dating.
Chapter Twelve
Jenna straightened her hair with the hair dryer/brush combo tool, liking how quickly the task went. She’d taken a nap after school, and showered, and now she was almost ready for her second Friday-night date with the cowboy billionaire next door.
She smiled at her reflection and finished her hair and makeup. She stepped into a light blue dress that made her feel feminine and fun and flirty—things she hadn’t felt for a while. With a perfectly good pair of white sandals on her feet, she headed out to the living room.
Seth had called that morning to find out if walking along the paved trail up to Chestnut Springs, for which the town was named, would be okay. She loved that short, half-mile walk, and she’d said yes.
Actually, what she’d said was I can’t believe you want to go outside while the sun is shining, and he’d laughed at her. She liked that he called instead of texted. She liked that she could tease him and have him not get offended. There were so many things to like about Seth, and she should know, because every single woman in the elementary school where she worked had visited her over the past few days.
She’d heard things like, You’re so lucky, and Are any of his brothers dating anyone? more times than she could count. Teresa Limbinn in fourth grade had spent an entire lunch period telling Jenna how handsome Seth was, and how he’d helped her mother with her car when it had broken down last year, and on and on.
Jenna had kept her plastic smile in place, and she’d come home in the evenings with aching cheeks. She rotated her wrists, as she’d started to get a little tenderness in them when she played the piano, and she wanted to play until Seth arrived.
She got out her favorite book of popular music and flipped the pages. Finally settling on a song, she put her fingers on the keys and breathed. She loved the vibe of the piano, loved that she could take something that would literally sit there all day doing nothing, and make it sing.
She played the song, letting the music lift into the air, taking her spirit with her. At the end of the verse, she went back to the beginning, and this time she sang the lyrics as she played.
Her parents had always told her what a great singer she was. She’d taken piano, voice, and theater for years growing up. Seth had asked her last weekend what her dreams were, and if she were being honest, she’d always wanted to perform on a great big stage somewhere. Broadway or something, though she knew local theater would probably be her best bet if she still wanted to do it.
She didn’t—at least she didn’t think she did—but she still got so much joy from singing and playing the piano.
She finished the song, and someone behind her started clapping. “Beautiful,” Seth said as she turned on the bench. “I did it again, didn’t I? Scared you at the piano.” He smiled, and he was so handsome and so…bright. Everything about him spoke to her, and she stood up and stepped into his arms.
“I didn’t hit my head this time,” she said.
“How’s that doing anyway?�
�� he asked, holding her tightly in his arms.
“All healed, I think.” She swayed with him. “The stitches dissolved and everything. I’m washing my hair like normal.”
“Mm.”
Jenna liked the tenderness between them. It was comfortable in his arms, and she felt like they belonged together. “After I left Chestnut Springs for college,” she said. “The only thing I wanted to do was perform. Sing, play the piano, theater.”
“Oh.” He backed up and looked at her, threading his fingers through hers. They walked to the front door, where she grabbed her phone and put it in her purse before preceding him outside.
“I did a few things in college,” she said. “I even did some acting in Austin.”
“Lotta weird stuff in Austin,” he said.
“Totally.” She grinned over her shoulder at him. “I didn’t do any of the weird stuff, I swear.”
“No? You weren’t in some of those shows down on Sixth Street?”
She laughed, and it felt so freeing coming out of her mouth. “No, absolutely not.”
“That’s probably a good thing,” he said, taking her hand again once they reached the sidewalk.
“I did some theater there, and that’s where I met Marcus.”
“Ah, the husband.”
“Yes, the ex-husband.” She let him open her door for her, and put his hand on the small of her back as she climbed into the passenger seat.
He stayed in the open doorway and looked at her. “How are we feeling about some good ol’ Texas barbecue tonight?”
“I feel great about it if it’s Porkbellys.”
Seth grinned but cocked his head. “Really? That’s your favorite place?”
“I like the pea salad there,” she said. “It’s to-die-for.”
“So you choose your barbecue place, not on the quality of their meat, or even their sauce. But on the pea salad.”
“No,” she said, laughing. “It’s the only place with pea salad.”
He shook his head, closed her door, and rounded the front of the truck. Once buckled and with the truck backing out of her driveway, he said, “Porkbellys is fine, I guess.”
“Where would you go?”
“The Salty Peanut,” he said. “They have, by far, the best brisket in town.”
“By far,” she echoed, teasing him. “Let’s go to both places. We’re taking it up to the springs anyway, right?”
He glanced over at her, his gaze dripping down to her knees and back out the windshield. “You want to eat barbecue without a table in that pretty dress?”
“I’m a Texan,” she said. “I can eat barbecue in anything, anywhere.”
Seth laughed, and he reached over and took her hand, pressing his lips to her wrist. “Sounds like a plan then.” He looked at her again after coming to a stop where their street met the main road. “You are beautiful, Jenna.”
“Thank you,” she said, droves of appreciation moving through her. “I think you’re pretty handsome yourself.”
“I did put on a clean shirt,” he said, making the turn that would take them to town. The conversation was easy, and she filled him in on everything that had happened at work.
“So you know,” she said. “If any of your brothers are looking, I’ve got a list of women who wouldn’t say no to a date with a Johnson.”
“Johnsons are winners,” he said. “That’s our family motto.”
Jenna burst out laughing. “That’s great,” she said. “I’m not sure we have a family motto.”
“Well, we had to have something,” he said. “My father was a brutal taskmaster. He wanted things done when he said, and a specific way.”
“I bet you do the same thing,” she said.
“I like routine,” he said. “That’s true. My daddy…I love him, but he could be mean sometimes.”
Jenna thought about her own father. He’d died twelve years ago, but she didn’t remember him being mean. “It was my mother who did almost everything with me and Isaac. She had chore charts like you wouldn’t believe. I got my love of checklists from her.”
“I’ll bet,” Seth said.
“My dad was a good father,” she said. “I quit acting in Austin when he died and returned home for a little bit.”
Seth looked at her, allowing a few seconds to pass. She gave him a shaky smile. “I was home maybe two or three months. Marcus followed me. We’d been dating in Austin for oh, I don’t know. Six months or so before Daddy died. He came after I’d been here for a month or so. He said he missed me and couldn’t live without me.”
She wasn’t sure why this story was pouring from her. Or why tears had gathered in her eyes. “We were married a year later. Together for eight. I’ve been single again for three now.” There was so much more to those twelve years of her life, but Jenna didn’t want to go into all the details tonight.
Wiping her eyes quickly, she looked at Seth. “There. There’s what I did after I left Chestnut Springs, and how I came back.” She didn’t need to say “Your turn” for him to know she wanted more of his story too.
Instead of doing that, he pulled into a parking lot that wasn’t anywhere near The Salty Peanut or Porkbellys. She looked out the window at the downtown park. “What are we doing here?”
“I reserved part of it for the dog adoptions tomorrow,” he said. “Can we look for a minute? Or are you starving?”
“We can look.”
He took her hand as they walked across the grass to the main pavilion. “I rented this one from eight to noon,” he said. “I hope that’s long enough. Sometimes the adoptions just have a trickle of people.”
“How do you get the word out?” she asked.
“I have a small mailing list,” he said. “I post on social media.”
“Eight to noon?” she asked, pulling out her phone.
“Yeah.” He watched as she typed up a quick post and tapped her screen. “There. Now I just posted too.” His phone chimed, and she smiled at him. “That’s probably a notification that I tagged you.”
“Thank you.” He put his arm around her and tucked her against his side. “So I have this pavilion and the grass here. I have fencing I can bring to set up. I think I’ll do that. I can put all eight of them in one place.”
“We never got bandanas,” she said.
“I did,” he said. “Picked them up last night, after dinner with my folks.”
“Do you eat with your parents every Thursday?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said simply. “I go see what they need. Bring them food. Pick up prescriptions. Mow the lawn.” He shrugged. “Whatever.”
“You’re a good son,” she murmured.
“Yeah, I think the term you’re looking for is Mama’s Boy.” He laughed and turned around. “I’ll have paperwork here. I’m bringing leashes so people can take the dogs out. I have two that really like to chase a ball. What else do I need?”
“What else do you have on the ranch?”
“Treats,” he said. “Food and water.”
“I’ll honestly be surprised if it takes four hours to adopt eight dogs,” she said. “Especially ones trained by the famous Seth Johnson.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m not famous.”
“Really? Maybe you should look at that post.” She gave him her most flirtatious smile and nodded when he cocked his eyebrows at her.
He pulled out his phone, tapped a few times, and shook his head with a chuckle. “Come adopt a dog tomorrow! The famous Seth Johnson will have eight of them ready for new homes. He trains them all himself out at Chestnut Ranch, so you know you’ll get a new friend who’s perfectly obedient as well as healthy.”
Seth looked up and met her eyes. All traces of teasing and flirtation and fun were gone. He was serious, and the lightning between them was fierce. “You really believe that?”
“I’ve seen you with your dogs, Seth.”
His face flushed, and he ducked behind the brim of that cowboy hat. “There are already seven comments and like,
a million thumbs-up.”
“You better plan on taking me to breakfast about nine o’clock tomorrow,” she said. “Because your dogs are going to be gone by then.” She ran her hands up his chest and their eyes met again. “I’m serious.”
“Can I comment on this?” he asked. “I’m actually a certified dog trainer.”
“Of course.” She beamed at him, backed up, and let him type a comment. “I didn’t know you were a certified trainer.”
He tapped and put his phone in his back pocket. “Something I did after I left Chestnut Springs.” He took her hand and started back toward the truck. “Now, let’s get our food and get going. I’m starving.”
Jenna was more than happy to go with him, but she hadn’t missed the way he’d dodged her attempts to get him talking about himself again.
As they made their two stops and headed to the trailhead, she decided she didn’t care. Seth would talk when Seth was ready. Being with him was amazing, and Jenna didn’t need to rush their relationship.
They got out of the truck, and he put their food in a backpack. They’d just barely started up the trail when they saw a whole host of people coming down.
“It’s closed,” someone said. “The rangers are coming to put up a sign.”
“Closed?” Seth asked, looking up the trail. “Why?”
“Flash flood,” the man said. “If you’re anywhere near the springs or river, they’re advising sandbags.”
“Flooding?” Jenna looked up into the sky, which had been a little drizzly earlier. But she hadn’t been concerned.
As if on cue, dark clouds covered the faint sun, and thunder rolled through the sky.
“Let’s go,” Seth said, already on his way back to the truck. “We live on the river.”
Chapter Thirteen
Seth dropped Jenna back at her house, with the promise that he’d be right back. She’d run to the front door just as the sky opened, and now Seth drove along the dirt road that connected her property to his.
Russ’s line rang and rang, and he wondered where his brother was. When the call went to voicemail, Seth tried Travis.
