Krista felt childish in her yellow sundress. “Will’s a good teacher.”
Janet fixed Krista with a steady look. “Always there to give a helping hand.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more,” Krista said. Okay, that came out a little strong. Janet made her nervous, had since she was a teen. Janet had always been a mother bear around her family, and seemed to believe Krista was out for her cubs.
Janet waved her hand at the coat closet. A very nicely manicured hand. Janet had come in this past week for a touch up to her manicure, completely separate from Will’s Mother’s Day package she’d yet to book. “Are you leaving?”
Krista hadn’t any intention but then again, what was she staying for?
“Yeah, been a long day.”
“I bet.” Janet paused. “You did a wonderful job with the hair and makeup. You have a real talent for making people feel good.”
That was unexpected. “Thank you so much.”
“A skill set completely different from mine as a co-owner of a ranch. And a rancher’s wife.”
Pieces fell into place. Janet must’ve seen the photo of her and Will with the horse and assumed that Krista was crushing on Will again. “I couldn’t agree more. You saw me at Laura’s wedding. I’m totally useless around horses. I don’t even know what a bloated cow is. The country is something that I just drive through.” How else to say she had no designs on Will?
As luck would not have it, the son in question entered the foyer and came immediately over. He’d done away with his suit jacket and tie, and his shirtsleeves were rolled up to reveal tanned, muscled arms. She felt that old tug of attraction, rather inconvenient, given Janet was studying them both. “Mom. Krista. I finished loading up a few of the extra tables. I thought you two would be dancing.”
“No,” Janet said. “I’m stepping out for a bit of fresh air. Krista said she was leaving.”
Will frowned. “Really? I was hoping we could sort out things about the rodeo.”
Janet’s mouth thinned. “And that stupid ride you insist on doing.”
“Mom—”
“Your shoulder is still damaged, and you’re acting like nothing ever happened.”
“I’ve got it under control.”
Janet flipped up her hand. “You’re not going to listen to me. I’ll leave you two to talk.”
When Janet exited, Krista turned to Will. “What’s this about your shoulder?”
“It’s been acting up a bit.”
“Translation from cowboy talk—it feels as if a car ran over it.”
“I’m good.”
She stepped in close, looked right up into his face. He stood his ground. “You’re not lying to me, are you?”
He switched on the slow-burning Claverley smile. You could roast marshmallows over that smile. “You concerned about me?”
She didn’t want to be. Ever since her sisters had disputed her honesty about her feelings, she’d deliberately not contacted Will all week. It proved harder than she’d expected, and now that he was right in front of her, she had to fight the urge not to cling to him like a buckle bunny. “You haven’t answered my question.”
“I did. You chose not to believe me. It’s my question you haven’t answered.”
He was evading her, but she didn’t have the right to demand a medical update from him. “Of course, I’m concerned. But I won’t pry. Let me finish sending this pic to my niece and I’m at your service.”
“What picture?” His voice had sharpened.
She held up her screen showing the bridal party.
He peered at it and straightened. “That’s fine.”
“What did you think I was going to send?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Just curious. I didn’t realize there were fireworks going off above my head when you took the picture.”
“They’re always going off with you around.” Whoa. That came off more like an innuendo than a joke. She hurriedly sent the picture. “You wanted to talk about the rodeo.”
She looked up to find him studying her. He eerily reminded her of his mother. “We can talk about the rodeo another time.”
Nice one, Krista. She had come on too strong, and he was wisely distancing himself from her. “I guess I’ll go.”
“Dance with me instead.”
Krista’s heart missed a beat, as her feet no doubt would. “Don’t you have tables to haul out?”
Will took her hand. “If they need me, they can just look for the fireworks.”
* * *
KEITH SET ASIDE his phone as Dana approached. “Hey. Austin only went down a half hour ago, the babysitter said.”
Dana took a seat beside him, her bare shoulder grazing his shirted arm. It was natural that they would sit close to hear each other above the music. “Yikes. Remember back when I covered for you in March?” He’d had a rare overnight haul, and she’d stepped in when Janet and Dave were vacationing in Mexico. It was eleven before she could convince Austin to sleep and then he’d been raring to go at five in the morning.
“I know. The later to bed, the earlier to rise. I might head out. Try to get a few hours of sleep in before the Austin alarm goes off.”
Now or never. Start anywhere.
“So earlier today, before we were interrupted, you were saying something about Will talking about me...?”
Keith pulled on his already loosened tie. “Nothing important. Not my business.”
But her business. He was curious about her. She reined in her jolt of hope, took a swig of her cooler. “Go for it. I want to hear what Will has been saying about me.”
Keith pushed aside a paper plate smeared with the chocolate remains of the wedding cake. “He said you refused to run interference for him at this year’s rodeo.”
“Yeah, the gig got old.” Dana kept her voice casual. He wouldn’t bring that up unless he was interested in her private life. “I decided to maybe try becoming a girlfriend for real. Not his,” she added quickly, in case there was any doubt.
Keith glanced at her, more at her hair, and then away. It probably looked strange, not like Krista’s blond, bouncy curls. Dana gazed out at the dance floor where she spotted Krista and Will. They might’ve sensed being watched because Krista waved and Will grinned. Both knew her deepest secret. Krista went on tippy-toe and whispered into Will’s ear.
“One of the rodeo contestants?” Keith broke into her thoughts.
What? How did he figure that? “No!”
“Will said it was somebody who came to the rodeo.”
What was Will up to? “What else did Will say about me?”
Keith looked at his brother. Will and Krista were edging off the dance floor and out the side exit, hand in hand. Keith gave a snort of disgust. “He better watch himself.”
“Why? He and Krista are good together.”
“They might look good, but there’s more to a relationship than that.”
A reference to his irresponsible ex. “Krista’s different than Macey.”
“I’m not so sure. She has the same talent for making a grown man stupid. Will was smart enough to step away from Krista when he was twenty, but now—”
“What? He never told me about that.”
“I don’t think he told anybody else. I noticed the two of them started avoiding each other way more than necessary, and asked him. He neither confirmed, nor denied. But now, he seems to have changed his mind.”
“Or maybe,” Dana tried to steer the conversation back to them, “maybe he realized that he’d passed up something really good and now that he has the chance to make it right, he isn’t going to make the same mistake twice.”
“Talking about him or yourself?” He blew out his breath. “Sorry, Dana. None of my business. You can get involved with whoever you want.”
What to say to that?
He clearly wasn’t offering to fill the position.
“Though,” he added, “you’ve already got a particular somebody in mind.”
He wouldn’t keep circling back to the question, if he wasn’t interested on some level. Go for it, her heart commanded her head. She felt the same coiled tension before the buzzer sounded at the start of a barrel race. Where anything was possible.
“What if,” Dana said, her heart galloping, “I were to say that the particular someone was you?”
* * *
THE COOLNESS OF the evening pebbled Krista’s bare skin as Will led her around the edge of the dance hall to an empty bench. The blooms of a nearby white lilac bush scented the air. It was peaceful, even romantic.
But Will’s mind was on something else. “I’m worried about Dana. Keith will refuse to date her, and he won’t be diplomatic about it, either.”
On the dance floor, she’d told Will that she’d urged Dana to open up to Keith. Will had not reacted well, hauling her outside. “I’m sure that he’s got some Claverley charm.” Which was confessing that Will had it. But he’d seemed unaware of the compliment, sidetracked by the supposed disaster going on between Dana and his brother.
“Won’t outweigh his bitterness toward women.” He rubbed his hand across his face. She could make out the faint scrape of his stubble under his palm. “If I’d known you had figured out Dana’s feelings for Keith, I would’ve warned you not to encourage her.”
“Did Keith actually tell you he wasn’t interested in Dana?”
Will hesitated. “No. And if he could bring himself to be interested in anyone, it would be her.”
“Then give them a chance.”
Will dropped to the bench, elbows on his knees. “Look, I’d be all for them getting together. But with Keith, it’ll take a while. If Dana makes a move now, it’ll scare him off. I know my brother.”
“Or it’ll be the wake-up call he needs to realize that there are good women out there who genuinely care for him and his son.”
Will raised his head to meet her eyes. “You just can’t help interfering, can you?”
Ah, the root of his frustration. Keith and Dana weren’t the only couple she’d meddled with. She drew her sandal through the loose gravel. “Jack said you and Alyssa met up. And that you left separately. I’m sorry it didn’t go well.”
“I might’ve told her about you being my fake girlfriend. I guess she was angling for the position and figured you cut in.”
He looked so uncomfortable, caught in the middle of a catfight. Poor guy. Krista aimed to sound dismissive. “We’ve got history. After high school, she talked me into becoming partners in a marketing company, even though my heart wasn’t in it. Not a year later, I walked away from it and she hasn’t really forgiven me. Turned her down again a few years ago. She believes I’m a flake.”
“And you think she’s got a point?”
“No! I mean, maybe once...” She plucked at the daisy petals on her sundress. “Why do you say that? Do I give that impression?”
“Not in my eyes. You’re working your tail off to make a success of your salon, even going so far as to take on this arrangement between us.”
“But for a lot of years, I was exactly what Alyssa accused me of. I jumped from one job to another, one country to another, for that matter.” She paused and then fessed up. “Had way more than one relationship.”
“Oh.” He cleared his throat. “So I wasn’t the only one you asked out?”
Since she insisted on honesty from Will, she needed to give fair turnabout. “You were the only one who refused me.” The only one she’d cried about not getting.
“Just so you know,” he said softly, his mouth close to her ear, like when he’d whispered the dance steps to her at the rehearsal. “Riding bareback was easier than saying no to you.”
Keep it light, Krista. “It’s okay,” she said. “I recovered.”
“But I hurt you.”
A statement of fact she couldn’t refute. “What’s the saying? ‘What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.’”
He looked back through the door. Inside, Dana was opening a vein for Keith, and Keith—she could only hope he showed common sense.
Will touched his knee to hers. “You know, there’s something to be said for not forcing people into hurting others in the name of honesty.”
“In other words, I shouldn’t have pushed you into hurting me. Thing is, I was pretty cocky back then. I didn’t believe you would turn me down. Or that I would be hurt.”
“Dana’s taken the bigger risk, then, because she’s well aware what could happen. And the thing is, Krista, not everybody’s as tough as you.”
She twisted to get a better look at him. Not even a glimmer of the famous Claverley smile. “Me tough? You’re crazy.”
“You call yourself a flake because you walk away from things you no longer want. That’s courage, Krista. Hardest thing about riding bronc is the dismount. That’s when the majority of injuries happen. There’s no avoiding it for us riders, but people will go through life getting bucked around and not having the nerve to break free. You’re not one of those people, and that’s a good thing.”
Krista felt winded. Will Claverley, bronc rider champion, thought she was brave. “Oh. I—thank you.” The corner of his mouth turned up. A very kissable corner. She gave herself a mental shake. “But Dana has it in her, too. To be brave.”
“I’m more worried about my brother. Macey bucked him off hard. He’s back on his feet, but definitely not back in the saddle.” He paused. “How about you? After that Toronto guy, are you back in the saddle?”
Was he wondering if she was dating again? “I’m on my feet, maybe, but I’m not dating.”
The other side of his mouth kicked up. “For real, anyway.”
Enough of the hot seat. “What about you? I take it you’re not dating anyone seriously?”
“Not at all, actually.” He grew interested in gravel she was scuffing around. “I kind of made up my mind to find someone I could picture for the long-term.”
“You’re looking for a wife?”
“You could say that.”
Of course, he would be. He was sharing his plans with her because that’s what friends, totally unsuited romantically for each other, do. “Oh.”
“That was always my plan, you know. Have my rodeo career and then carry on at the ranch.”
“Is that...what you want?”
“What I’ve always wanted. That’s why I didn’t think it would work between us in high school. You’d be off sooner rather than later, and I knew I wasn’t going anywhere.”
Krista laughed to show how little his rejection had hurt, how his current pursuit of a serious girlfriend mattered nothing to her. “I was only asking you out, Will. Not to marry me.”
He turned to face her. “Maybe. But even then I realized dating you would be way more intense than I could handle, and I didn’t trust myself to land the dismount.” He twined his finger around one of her curls. “I admit sometimes I wonder if it might’ve been worth it.”
She fought to draw a full breath, though it came out like a gasp. “We both know I’d make a lousy wife.”
“You might be right about that.” Well, she had wanted honesty. His hand fell from her hair. He stood, tugging her up with him. “You and me might not work, but how about we go inside and see if we can get my stubborn brother to hang on for the full count?”
* * *
DANA WAITED FOR Keith’s response. Had she misread the situation entirely? Anything was possible, and in this case it was as if her horse had balked at the first barrel.
At her question, Keith had turned sharply to her, shock and disappointment on his face. He looked away. Fiddled with his phone, stared hard in the direction of the bar, watched the whirling, twisting dancers. Dana’s insides jolted downward.
She couldn’t back out now. She’d have to sit here and let him give her the no-can-do speech.
He finally faced her. Well, her hair. “I’d say you could do better, Dana. You are better. You know my life. I work all day, and then I’m a dad the rest of the time. I’m pushing thirty and live at home. You shouldn’t settle.”
He was giving her the old “It’s not you, it’s me” letdown. She picked at the label on her bottle. “I’m not settling.”
“And you can do a lot better than a rodeo guy. Will has told me stories about what they’ll do on the road. Don’t sell yourself short.”
Where was that coming from? “I’m not—”
But Keith was on a roll. “I’ve always wondered why Will didn’t snap you up.”
“He tried. I said I only wanted to be friends.”
Keith glared at the door Will and Krista had left through. “When was this?”
“A few weeks back.”
“And now he’s hooked up with Krista. A rebound.”
Dana was relieved he’d steered the conversation to Krista and Will again. “I don’t think it’s a rebound.”
“She’s entirely unsuitable to be his wife. It won’t last more than the summer, I bet. So long as he doesn’t—” Keith broke off, but Dana mentally finished it. So long as he doesn’t get her pregnant. That was what happened with Macey. Keith had married her, a quick slapdash affair that everyone had attended, plastering on smiles and not bothering with extended warranties on the gifts.
“Krista’s caught up with her business. I don’t anticipate problems there.” Then again, what kind of relationship expert was she? She’d just let her own heart get stomped on. She picked up her cooler and drained the contents in one go. When she lowered the bottle, Keith was frowning at her.
“You’ve not had too many of those, have you?”
He was giving her an out. Blame it on the alcohol and save both of them embarrassment.
“Probably. Didn’t sleep much last night. And big day today. Didn’t eat much. I should...let you go home.”
Harlequin Heartwarming June 2021 Box Set Page 81
