“Well, Honeydrop doesn’t get ridden nearly as much as she needs to, so I’ll need you to take her out at least a few times a week. You up for that?”
Emma smiled. “I think I could handle that.”
“And I’ve got a few older folks staying here now that I could use some advice with. You happen to be an expert in that area, far as I know, so if you could maybe give me some help, that’d be appreciated.”
“Absolutely.”
Ma nodded, turning back to the sink. “And you know what? I’m not leaving this earth without teaching one of you women to cook. You have to learn to cook while you’re here. Not optional.”
Emma cringed. “Seriously?”
“Seriously. Or you pay the going rate.”
“What’s the going rate?”
Ma looked at her, then turned back to the sink. “Two grand a night.”
Kyla made a strangled sound, then laughed. “Ma.”
“That’s my emergency corporate rate. It’s that, or I’ll match the hotel rate if you come help me make dinner three times a week.”
Emma traded a glance with Kyla, whose eyes were sparkling with amusement. “Okay. Deal.”
“Good. I knew you were a smart girl. Kyla, give her Willow. I think she’ll like it. We’ve got a couple coming in on the first of October to stay two weeks, but we can move them.”
Emma saw a look pass between them but couldn’t read it. She could definitely read the smile on Kyla’s face as she pulled a binder from the desk and paged through it, though.
“All right.” Kyla snapped the binder closed and grabbed a set of keys from the rack above the kitchen desk. “Let’s go see your new cabin!”
Emma followed her out the door and down the gravel pathway that led to the cabins, counting five adorable porches before they came to one with a wooden sign that said WILLOW. On its porch was a wide wooden swing and bright pillows, looking straight at one of the paddocks, and she sighed happily.
“I can just live on the porch. That’ll be fine.”
Kyla laughed as she hopped up the stairs and unlocked the door. “You say that now, but wait till you see the inside.”
Emma stepped into the cabin and felt her blood pressure drop twenty notches. “Oh, Kyla. It’s so sweet.”
“Better than a hotel room?”
“Oh, maybe a little.” Emma clasped her hands in excitement as she walked around, taking in the sunny yellow walls, the super-comfortable-looking couch, and the soft pastel rugs. Through one doorway she could see a four-poster bed with a patchwork quilt, and through another, one end of a claw-foot tub. The kitchen area was small but efficient, and big windows looked out on both the stables and the mountains.
“I hope it suits you?” Kyla looked unsure, which Emma found sort of unexpected and sweet.
“Are you kidding? It’s amazing. It’s fantastic. I’m in love.”
“Oh, good.” Kyla laughed. “You can move in anytime.”
“I’ll be back in an hour.”
Kyla laughed again as she handed Emma the keys. “Hey, the girls and I are going to do a ride later this afternoon. Want to join us? Just a couple of hours, probably.”
Emma thought of the pile of paperwork on her hotel desk, thought of the ten piles of paperwork at Shady Acres…then heard Jasper’s voice in her ear, urging her to do anything but work.
“You know what? I would really love that. Thank you.”
“Excellent!” Kyla headed back out the door. “Let us know if you need anything, and I’ll tell the guys to get Honeydrop ready for you later.”
Three hours later, Emma was at the dinner table at Whisper Creek for the second night in a row, but this time, it was just her, Kyla, and Hayley eating because by the time they’d gotten back from their ride, everyone else had scattered to their various homes and cabins. Emma hadn’t expected to be included in dinner—she had a little kitchen in her cabin, after all—but Kyla had insisted there were too many leftovers to put back in the fridge, so she had to help eat them up.
Hayley passed mashed potatoes her way, then stabbed a pork chop from the platter in the middle of the table. “So how are things going up at the graveyard?”
“Hayley!” Kyla laughed. “That’s terrible.”
“Sorry.” She rolled her eyes, handing Emma the green beans. “How are things at the venerable Shady Acres retirement paradise?”
Emma laughed. “They’re good. I think, anyway. It’s so hard to know this early.”
“So you’re actually running the whole place?”
“Well, the nurses really run the place, and that’s perfectly fine with me. I’m kind of a figurehead right now, I fear.”
Kyla handed her a basket of rolls. “I’m sure you’re far more than a figurehead, though I imagine the nurses would love to hear that you firmly believe they’re in charge. Lexi would love to work there in the winter when we’re less busy here, but there hasn’t been an opening in forever, she said.”
“I’m not surprised.” Emma smiled. “Bette’s retention rate is one of the best in the country.”
“She left you some big shoes to fill,” Hayley said. “But it sounds like you’re up to the challenge, so let’s move on to more exciting things and talk about Jasper.”
“Hayley!” Kyla widened her eyes in warning. “Honestly!”
“Oh, come on. She’s dying to talk about him, and we’re dying to hear about him, so…win-win!” She snapped a green bean and playfully chomped it. “Someone here needs to steer the conversation in the right direction.”
“You’re going to scare the girl back to her hotel, Hayls.”
“Nah. It’s too nice here. She’ll never leave.” Hayley smiled, turning her attention to Emma. “So? What’s the scoop with you two?”
“No scoop.”
“Oh, there was definitely a scoop twenty-four hours ago. The two of you skittered away from that campfire like you couldn’t wait to—”
“Hayley.” Kyla’s voice was soft this time, and for some reason, that tone actually shut Hayley up. She looked at Kyla for a long moment, then sighed, poking a piece of pork chop into her mouth.
“Sorry. I was sadly born without a self-censor button, and therefore I can be completely obnoxious and nosy, but it’s because I care. I promise.”
She made a hurt-puppy face that had Emma shaking her head, laughing quietly. “It’s okay. I know he’s your friend, and here I came out of nowhere, scooping him off from a perfectly nice campfire so I could jump his bones.”
Kyla dropped her fork.
Hayley choked. “Kyla, I don’t think I need to be careful around this one. She’s broken, too.”
“You didn’t.” Kyla’s mouth hung open as her fingers tried to find the fork. “Did you?”
“I’ll admit to nothing besides my intentions, because I respect his privacy.” Emma took a bite of her roll, purposely delaying. “But those were my intentions, yes.”
“And you are extremely smiley today.” Hayley nodded. “And found the sky bluer than blue, and the birds tweetier than usual, and the air just so gloriously fresh.”
Emma laughed. “Not sure I said all of those things.”
“You were thinking them.”
“Maybe.”
Kyla’s smile was wide as she squeezed Emma’s shoulder. “We have been hoping for so long that Jasper would find someone to give him a second lease on life.”
“Well, it’s a temporary lease.” Emma sobered. “So that’s—well, it’s certainly not my normal MO.”
Hayley bounced her eyebrows. “But he was just so damn irresistible you couldn’t stop yourself?”
“Have you seen this man?”
“Are you kidding? Every woman in Carefree has made excuses to go get coffee at one time or another—even the ones who don’t drink coffee. But as far as we know, he’s never done anything more than, well, serve coffee to them.”
Emma laughed, feeling her face heat as she thought of all the things he’d done to her last night. She
got a secret thrill knowing maybe he hadn’t done them with anyone else in a long, long time.
“He really hasn’t dated anyone since he moved here?”
Kyla shook her head slowly. “Not that we know of. And it’s not like he’s a hermit or something. I mean, he was when he first got here. It took him almost a year to renovate the café and finally open it, and I’m not sure anyone saw him for most of that time. But then he opened, and since then, he’s done all sorts of things for Carefree.”
“Like what?”
“He’s my go-to foster dad, for one.” Hayley winked. “That man will take in anything and nurse it back to health.”
“I met the kittens.”
“Careful. You’ll want to sneak one back with you on the plane if you get too attached.”
Emma smiled but felt a weird, muted thud in her chest when she pictured leaving. And then she felt ridiculous, because come on. They’d had a few dinners and one glorious night together. That was it. They both knew it was temporary, and for her to be thinking right now that it could ever be anything but that was nuts.
“Why’d he leave L.A.?”
Kyla and Hayley both stopped their forks on the way to their mouths—just for a millisecond, but Emma caught the motion, and it pinged an alarm in her stomach.
“What do you mean?” Kyla asked.
“Well, I know he had an apple-pie childhood, and I know he was an attorney, but I don’t know why he gave it all up to come here. I also can’t quite figure out how a man like him is still single.”
Hayley and Kyla looked at each other again, and Emma knew—she knew—Kyla was sending a secret shut-up signal to Hayley.
Why, though?
Did he have secrets everyone out here knew, and that’s why he was single? Was there something in his past that sent women running, once they knew what it was? Was there a mugshot somewhere?
Possibilities flew through her brain at warp speed, and she closed her eyes to try to stop them. It didn’t matter, right? He was just temporary, right? He was just her little I-can-do-whatever-the-hell-I-want fling—her chance to prove she wasn’t all work and no play.
Yeah. Right.
She could totally ignore the fact that she’d changed her route three times on Friday to try to walk by his father’s room to see if he was there. She could totally ignore the way he’d made her laugh yesterday like no one ever had. She could totally ignore the way he’d ignited every single nerve ending in her body last night—in bed, in his glorious shower, in that decadent tub.
It was just temporary. His backstory was none of her concern. His baggage—if there was any—was none of her concern. She’d be gone before they ever got to a point where it could even rightfully be her concern.
Finally, Hayley spoke, and Emma couldn’t possibly miss the way Kyla’s eyes widened in warning as she did so. “I think—he’s just sort of too good to be true.”
Emma saw Kyla’s shoulders fall a notch as she nodded. Apparently she approved of Hayley’s safe answer. “Exactly. And he seems perfectly happy, just the way he is—not like a guy on the hunt, you know?”
Hayley nodded. “Right. He’s just that guy—like, you know he’s just waiting for the perfect woman to come along, and he won’t settle for anything less.”
“Right!” Kyla smiled like she was immensely relieved. “You nailed it, Hayls.”
Emma looked from one to the other of them, but neither of their smiles cracked.
Dammit.
“So no deep, dark secrets? He’s not a cult leader with a harem of other wives?”
“Nope.” Hayley laughed. “But not for lack of volunteers.”
“No criminal past? He’s not in witness protection?”
Kyla shrugged. “Guess we wouldn’t know, would we?”
“Not if he was doing it right, no. Guess not.” Emma frowned. “So let me just ask you this—if your best friend came out here and wanted to date him, would you encourage her? Or discourage her?”
“Oh, that’s easy.” Hayley wiped her mouth with a napkin. “Mostly because we are big on the whole best-friends-dating-the-cowboys-and-moving-here-forever model.”
“He’s not a cowboy. Just saying.”
“Eh, he’s close enough. When he puts on a Stetson and gets on a horse, he looks better than most of the real cowboys out here. Am I right, Kyla?”
“Well, as the wife of one of those real cowboys, I take a little bit of exception, but yes, he’s pretty ridiculously hot, Stetson or no.”
“So? Dating?” Emma raised her eyebrows.
Kyla ran a finger around her water glass. “I’d say yes, without hesitation, but also with a tiny bit of caution.”
“Okay?” Emma swallowed nervously.
“There are a lot of layers to Jasper, and I think so far, you’ve probably only seen the top one. Maybe more.” She put a hand on Emma’s knee. “There aren’t any bad layers, but…there’s some pain in his past that isn’t the kind you just get over. Just maybe go lightly until he’s ready to show you all of the layers.”
Chapter 22
Later, Emma punched in Ari’s number, needing a strong, hard dose of teacher-style wisdom. The phone didn’t even chirp twice before Ari answered.
“Hey, cowgirl. You calling me from Vegas?”
Emma laughed. “No, Ari. Still safe and sound here in Montana. And I haven’t eloped.”
“Damn. I was hoping one of us was having a good weekend.”
“Uh-oh. You okay?”
Ari sighed. “Yup. Just a bad case of PMS combined with a bad case of strep combined with a bad case of am-I-living-the-life-I-was-meant-to-live.”
“Oh. So nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Not really, no. And I am rolling my eyes right now, in case you couldn’t hear that in my tone.”
“Thank you. Good visual.”
“So? How’s your weekend? Anything happening besides work?”
Emma fingered the fringe of the place mat on her little table, more jittery than she wanted to admit. “Well, you know. Went on a couple of trail rides, moved out to Whisper Creek, slept with Jasper, may learn to cook.”
Ari made a sound on the other end of the line that was half gasp, half choke. Then she squeaked like something had bitten her.
“Holy—what—slow down—what?”
Emma laughed. “Yep. Learning to cook. Can you believe it?”
“Yes, that was definitely the part that most concerned me. What do you mean—I slept with Jasper?”
“Well? I sort of—did. Last night.”
“On purpose?”
“Sort of? Mostly? I think so?” Emma sighed. “I don’t even know, Ari! It was like alter-Emma came out, and omigod, she’s a hussy!”
Ari laughed. “I think I like alter-Emma. So how was it?”
“It was…fine.”
“Fine.”
“Yeah. Fine. You know—fine.”
Emma swallowed, visions from last night flying through her head like a movie marquee on warp speed.
Ari cleared her throat. “So you mean to tell me that you’ve just done the deed for the first time in a decade and it was—quote—fine?”
“Could you say that louder, please? I’m not sure greater Jacksonville heard you.”
“Sorry.” Ari laughed. “Come on, though. How was it, really?”
“Oh, Ari.” Emma sat back, pulling her knees to her chest. “It was mind-altering.”
“Yay!” Ari squeaked. “Really?”
“Really really. If he had pulled me out of bed afterward and offered to elope to Vegas, I might have actually done it.”
“Wow! I really like alter-Emma. Except for the part about eloping. I’m supposed to be your maid of honor, remember?”
“Right. Of course. Can’t believe I wasn’t thinking about that.” Emma laughed.
“Oh, Emma. I’m so happy for you.”
“I’m pretty happy myself, thank you.”
“But?”
Emma tipped her head. “
What do you mean, ‘but’?”
“Well, nothing. Just wondering if maybe real-Emma’s having second thoughts right now.”
“Because she couldn’t possibly do something without completely overanalyzing it, you mean?”
“Maybe? But not that it’s a thing you do? Because—you know—it isn’t? Much?”
Emma stood up and paced toward the screen door. “You know how you meet a guy, and he seems too perfect to be true?”
“No. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Stop rolling your eyes at me. I’m serious.”
“Fine. Yes. Of course. What woman hasn’t met that guy?”
“Exactly. So here he is, Mr. Too-Good-to-Possibly-Be-True, gorgeous, self-aware, self-sufficient, and strangely single.”
“Well, at least you know now that he’s not gay.”
“Very funny.” Emma shivered. “And no, he’s definitely not gay.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“Exactly! What is the problem? What thirty-ish man with the qualities he’s got is still single? By choice?”
“So…you’re thinking he’s just the resident Lothario, and all he’s after is a good time until you leave town?”
“Maybe? I mean, right? Doesn’t that make sense?”
“I don’t know. I’m not the one who slept with him. Does it?”
Emma sighed. “God, I hope not.”
“Maybe—and go out on a limb here with me, even though you’re scared to—maybe he’s just a guy who hasn’t found his special someone yet because he was smart enough to wait. And maybe you’re her.”
“Gah.”
Ari laughed. “What does that mean?”
“It means, seriously, be real. You have read far too many romance novels.”
“I like romance novels. Everyone’s happy in the end. I want happy in the end. I want happy for you in the end. Sue me.”
“I just met the guy two weeks ago.”
“Yes, and you already slept with him. By choice. So I don’t know. I’m thinking either you’ve lost your freaking mind, or there’s something magical here that deserves to be explored.”
“Gah again.”
“Emma, you don’t do this. You never do this. So the fact that you did do this? Kind of a huge indicator, don’t you think?”
Taking a Chance Page 19
