“I feel as if I need to walk to Dallas and back after eating all that.”
Jason patted his stomach. “You’re not kidding.”
It hit Sloane too late that she might have just opened herself up to misinterpretation. She hadn’t meant it to sound as if she wanted to go for a walk with him. But it was too late to backtrack now. Instead, she stood and started gathering dishes.
“Let me help,” Jason said as he stood beside her.
“No need,” Sloane said at the same time her mom said, “That’s nice of you, Jason.”
She was definitely having a talk with her mom once Jason left. Teasing and gentle prodding was one thing. This felt like an all-out matchmaking offensive. Knowing it would just make matters worse, she didn’t argue against his help as she carried dirty dishes to the kitchen and began to rinse them off. As she reached to open the dishwasher, Jason assumed her place at the sink. Without a word, he began rinsing dishes and handing them to her.
“Thanks,” she said, trying for the same amount of gratitude she would have shown any of her siblings in the same situation.
But Jason wasn’t one of her siblings. No, he was a tall, handsome man taking up way too much space beyond the bounds of her comfort zone.
“Least I can do after that meal. I don’t think I’ll have to eat for a week.”
She laughed a little at that. “You forget I grew up with three brothers. My bet is that you’ll be hungry again before the night is through.”
Her mom entered the kitchen to put away leftovers. As she opened the fridge, she said, “It’s almost dark already. Jason, why don’t you spend the night here? We have plenty of room now that Ben and Neil have moved out, and I hate the idea of you driving so late.”
Okay, this was too much. “Mom, I’m sure Jason has a schedule to keep.”
“There’s no sense in him spending money on a motel tonight when there are two perfectly good, empty beds here.”
Her dad walked into the room and clapped Jason on the shoulder. “You play poker?”
“Some.”
“Good enough. It’s settled then. We’ll get a game going in a while, and you can spend the night and enjoy a big breakfast in the morning before you head out.”
Jason glanced at her, and she wondered if she looked as stunned as she felt. Her dad never used to be the type to interfere with his kids’ dating decisions. Had the marriage of his two oldest sons changed his view on that hands-off policy? Great, not a single ally in the house.
She realized Jason was still looking at her, so she doubled down on the “I don’t care” act and shrugged.
“It’s definitely better than anything you’ll find along the interstate.”
“You all have convinced me. Thank you.”
Sloane worried that her parents had the entire night to figure out a way to convince Jason to stay past breakfast. She worried that she didn’t mind that idea as much as perhaps she should.
* * *
WHEN THE GUYS commandeered the dining room table for their poker game, Sloane took the opportunity to vacate the premises. In one of the few moments no one was watching her, she slipped out the front door and headed to the barn. There wasn’t any work left to be done there, but at least she could hear herself think. And the horses weren’t likely to care who she did or didn’t date.
“Hey there, fella,” she said to Hector, a dappled gray that was the friendliest horse on the ranch. She reached over the side of the stall and rubbed his face. “So, what do you think of becoming an artist?”
She’d used the horse art idea as a way to divert the conversation earlier, but what if it really did work? Some people might be willing to buy a pitiful excuse for art if it was for a good cause. Heck, they did it all the time, didn’t they?
Part of her would like to ask Jason’s sister for advice on how to set up and run such a fund-raising effort, but she didn’t want to give him the impression she was trying to become more tied to his family. In fact, she needed to apologize to him for how her parents and siblings were coming at him from all sides.
Did he really mind it though? If he did, wouldn’t he have said thank you and goodbye after dinner instead of agreeing to be an overnight guest? He’d felt obligated to accept the dinner invitation, but availing himself of free lodging was something else entirely. He’d joked about going out with her, but he had to have gotten the message by now that she wasn’t interested.
Okay, so not interested was stretching the truth. She just prided herself on having a good, sensible head on her shoulders and a firm grasp on common sense. Getting involved, even for a hot minute, with Jason Till wasn’t sensible in any way, shape or form.
The sound of footsteps drew her attention to the open doorway. As Angel walked in, she held up a hand in a “halt” gesture.
“Before you say anything, I’m sorry,” Angel said. “I didn’t realize my teasing was going to light a bonfire under Mom.”
Sloane turned toward her sister, one arm still propped on the front of the stall. “How could you not? Ever since Neil and Ben gave her a double wedding—every mother’s dream on steroids—she’s been itching to get the rest of us hitched. I don’t know about you, but if I ever decide I want to walk down the aisle, I’d like it to be toward someone of my choosing.”
Angel came to stand next to her and let Hector nibble at her fingers. “I guess I didn’t realize how serious she was.”
Sloane sighed. Chances were their mom wasn’t pressuring Angel as much because she’d been through one bad relationship already, and no one wanted to risk her having another, especially not when she had a daughter to consider. But Sloane and Adam...well, they were evidently fair game. Everyone seemed to either be blind to her terrible dating track record or had just convinced themselves she’d simply not found the right person yet. It had been obvious to everyone that she and Tim Bartlett had only enough in common to last a couple of weeks. She’d seen a bit more hope in her mom’s eyes when Sloane had dated Jeremy Jarvis for a few months, but Sloane had lost what enthusiasm she’d had for the pairing when she’d caught Jeremy making out with some barrel racer outside the music hall.
Her family’s apparent belief that “the one” was still out there for her was one part sweet but ninety-nine parts annoying. They chalked up her dating misses as the kind of duds everyone went through, rather than part of a pattern that had started with the biggest mistake of all. Of course she’d never let on how much Blake’s leaving had hurt her, how she often wondered if her radar for decent guys was broken beyond repair. She doubted her family realized the end with Blake had been anything more than a typical high school breakup. Now, evidently, the fact that she was older than Adam, or maybe because her mom had a hankering to be a mother of the bride, Sloane was the winner of the latest round of matchmaking. Oh, joy.
“Just tell her to back off,” Angel said. “But don’t tiptoe around it.”
“So be rude to Mom.”
“Not rude, firm. Otherwise she might not realize how much this really bothers you. She might think you’re just being your normal stubborn self.”
“Gee, thanks.”
Angel shrugged. “Just being honest.” She scratched between Hector’s ears. “So you don’t like Jason at all?”
“He’s a nice enough guy.”
“And handsome.”
“He’s not totally ugly.”
Angel snorted. “Sloane Hartley, queen of terrible compliments.”
“Okay, he’s good-looking. But also—and this is sort of important—he doesn’t live here.”
“Give Mom time. She’ll have him living here full-time.”
Sloane grabbed her sister around the neck and noogied her head, causing Angel to squeal and do her best to wriggle away the same way she had when they were kids.
“Not fair,” Angel
said as she finally freed herself.
“Always going to be the big sister. Always going to be better at noogieing.”
“Just for that, I ought to go back in the house and tell Mom you’ve fallen madly in love with Jason.”
“Do that and a noogie will be the least of your worries.”
Angel laughed as she smoothed her mussed hair. “For whatever it’s worth, I don’t think you enjoying some time with Jason, maybe even going on a date, would be you caving in to Mom’s master plan. It might be fun.”
But what she feared was that it was the kind of fun that led to too much, too fast and left you wanting more, a more you could never have.
Chapter Six
Jason walked out onto the front porch of the Hartleys’ house after the poker game was over. Normally on a Sunday night he was on some dark highway heading toward wherever he was to compete next. Tonight’s home-cooked meal, lively conversation and laughter made him a bit homesick. It’d been a while since he’d gone back to Idaho to visit his family. He needed to find a space in his schedule to do that. It might require him to rethink which rodeos he wanted to compete in. But there wasn’t a lot of wiggle room unless he won several big rodeos.
He noticed the light on in the barn and guessed he might find Sloane there. When he reached the barn, he found her sitting on a stack of hay bales scrolling on her phone.
“Trying to book your escape?” he asked as he ambled toward her.
She laughed a little at that before looking up. “How did you know?”
He sank onto the hay bales beside her. “Could have been when I thought you were going to shoot lasers out of your eyes at your mom.”
“Yeah, I’m not the world’s best at hiding my feelings.”
“What? I hadn’t noticed.”
She lifted an eyebrow at him.
“Listen, I wasn’t lying when I said I’d like to go out with you, but I didn’t know your family would react like that.”
She lowered the phone to her lap. “You just happened to come along when Mom is in matchmaking mode. Neil and Ben got married not that long ago, so she still has wedding on the brain. You should run while you’re safely outside the house.”
“And miss a real breakfast in the morning? I don’t think so.”
Plus, while Diane would be disappointed if she was looking forward to another wedding, he wasn’t in any hurry to leave Sloane behind. Maybe it was because she didn’t seem interested in snagging herself a rodeo cowboy. He didn’t have to guard against making a poor decision and getting himself in a bad situation like he’d seen some guys do. Not that he couldn’t imagine spending a night with Sloane. That was actually pretty easy to imagine. But he was certain she wouldn’t have any “gotcha” motive if that ever happened. He hadn’t been a monk throughout the years, but he was careful. His parents had drilled that necessity into both him and Shannon from an early age because his dad’s best friend had fathered not one but two kids with women he’d met at rodeos, women he could barely remember. The last thing he wanted was to father a kid with someone he barely knew. Talk about something that would rob him of the focus he needed to have on his work. A little fun was one thing, a lifetime of commitment quite another.
Sloane shook her head at him. “I hope Dad and my brothers took all your money.”
“Quite the opposite.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of dollar bills. “It looks like more than it is, but I want you to have it.”
She leaned away from him, her features knitted in confusion.
“For the camps,” he said. “Your dad said you hope to expand. I’d like to make a contribution.”
“You can’t buy a date with me.”
“Not trying to. I’m hoping you’ll go out with me because of my irresistible charm.”
“And your obvious modesty?”
He smiled. “Of course.”
She laughed. “This probably works for you most of the time, doesn’t it?”
“It’s hit-and-miss.”
He extended the money to her. “Take it. Use it however will help the most.”
“I can’t take your money. I’m sure you could use it.”
“Consider it payment for my meals and room for the night.”
“Jason—”
He captured her hand and placed the bills in her palm. “Just take it. Not for you. For the kids.”
She looked at him as if she was trying to decipher something written in a foreign language. “Thank you.”
“Wish I could do more.” The money he won went back into travel, rodeo fees, living expenses. Any left after that he sent to his parents. Unless you made it big, the rodeo life didn’t really offer a good retirement plan, and their ranch was small potatoes compared to the ones he’d seen here in Texas.
“You helped a lot this weekend.”
He leaned against the empty stall behind them. “You would still have done all the same things even if I hadn’t been here.”
“Yeah, but an extra set of hands helped. And the kids liked you.”
“They were sweet kids. Found myself wishing I could do more for them.”
“I know that feeling.”
“How did you get started doing the camps?”
She shrugged. “Heard about some similar programs. Seemed like a good idea. We’re all adopted, so helping out kids is a natural fit, I guess.”
He was curious what Sloane’s story was, why she was adopted, but that was way too personal a thing to ask about considering they’d only met two days ago.
“Speaking of the kids,” she said. “What did you give Phoebe right before she left?”
“A necklace, just a leather string with a little wooden horseshoe on it. Mom gave it to me when I started riding professionally for good luck. Thought maybe Phoebe could use it more than me.”
“That was...nice of you.”
He grinned. “What can I say? I’m a nice guy.”
“And you ruined it.”
“Darn. I was hoping I was closer to getting you to say yes to going out with me.”
“Dude, why are you trying so hard? You’ll be long gone tomorrow.”
“Maybe not. I have time to stick around for a day or two.”
Sloane suddenly got to her feet and walked across the alley, then turned to face him. “Why would you want to do that?”
Excellent question.
He stayed where he was, respecting the physical distance she’d put between them. “Told you. I’m angling for a date.”
“But why? You don’t even know me really.”
“Isn’t that what dates are for, to get to know each other?”
“I doubt we’d get to know each other very well on a single date.” She braced her hands against her hips and took a couple of steps farther into the barn before turning back toward him. “Sorry. I don’t mean to be rude. I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Because your family is pushing for it or because you aren’t interested?”
Sloane opened her mouth as if to answer, but nothing came out.
“You wouldn’t be giving in if it’s your choice,” he said.
Sloane crossed her arms and stared at him for a long moment. “You’re certainly persistent.”
“Is it going to pay off?”
“Will you take no for an answer?”
“Probably not.” When he realized how that sounded, he smiled in the hope it lessened any possible “I’m a stalker” vibes he might have unintentionally put out there.
“What happened to it being my choice?” she asked.
“It’s still your choice. But I might choose to keep asking until I become so adorable you can’t keep saying no.”
“I’d only have to outlast you for a max of for
ty-eight hours.”
Jason stretched his legs out and crossed his ankles. “I guarantee it’ll be more fun if you don’t.”
When she shook her head, he figured he’d pushed it as far as he could. He’d spend the night, enjoy his breakfast so he didn’t offend Mrs. Hartley, then go pick up his horse and trailer from the fairgrounds and hit the road.
“Fine, on one condition.”
“Okay,” he said, honestly surprised she’d finally agreed.
“Don’t say anything to my family, and we go somewhere away from Blue Falls.”
“Sneaky. I like it.”
“Don’t make me regret my decision.”
He put up his hands, palms out. “You pick the place since you’re familiar with the area.”
She shook her head a little. “I can’t believe I agreed to this.”
“Hey, look at it this way—if the date is terrible, you’ll never have to see me again.”
“You make a valid point.”
He smiled again, determined that their date was going to be anything but terrible.
* * *
“ARE YOU SURE you don’t want any more pancakes?”
Sloane glanced toward the table where Jason was waving off her mom’s offer of what had to be the tenth pancake.
“Mom, there is food between here and New Mexico,” she said.
“You know I don’t let anyone go away from my table hungry.”
“Well, no danger there,” Sloane said as she poured herself a second cup of coffee. She was going to need the caffeine after a night of very little sleep. Knowing Jason was just down the hallway, probably sleeping in nothing more than his underwear, had caused her to toss and turn and imagine way too many naughty scenarios.
Almost as soon as she’d gone to bed she’d started questioning why she’d allowed Jason to convince her to go out with him. It wasn’t as if it could lead anywhere.
Since when did a date have to lead anywhere beyond a few hours of fun? She’d proven she was awful at picking someone who could lead to anything more. From the moment she’d met Jason, she’d for some reason been overthinking everything he said, everything he did. She needed to just chill, go on the date and relax. When Jason left, she’d get back to her normal life. And her mom would hopefully get back to hers and stop trying to take Verona Charles’s job away from her.
Her Texas Rodeo Cowboy Page 6
