When he stepped into the kitchen, he spotted Verona at the stove, flipping quesadillas.
She glanced up at him. “Hon, you look like you’re wrung out.”
“Been one of those days.” Not only had he been inundated with stupid all day, but any moment he wasn’t dealing with nitwits he was thinking about Elissa. He’d let himself imagine what it would have been like to be more than friends with her if they’d only just met and didn’t have the years of friendship barring that path.
“Well, dinner will be ready in a couple of minutes.”
“You know you don’t have to cook for me every night.”
“I gotta eat. Doesn’t take that much effort to make a little extra.”
“Can I help?”
“You can grab the sodas.”
He headed for the fridge. “How’s Annabeth?”
“Much better. She feels so silly when it turns out to be nothing.”
“Better safe than sorry.”
“That’s what I told her.” Verona looked toward him, noticed the drinks in his hands and let out a little sigh. “We only need two of those. Elissa’s got a date tonight.”
His gut reaction was not that of a friend. A friend wouldn’t feel the sudden jealousy that plowed into him. Not good, not good at all.
“Oh, that’s good. She deserves a night out.”
“So do you, sweetie.”
He forced a huff of a laugh. “Trust me, after the day I’ve had, I’m perfectly fine hiding from humanity for a while.”
Just as he set the cold bottles of soda on the table, someone knocked on the front door.
“Could you get that?”
Pete glanced at Verona, and there was an odd light in her eyes, enough to tell him that she was up to something. Too tired and frustrated to try to figure out what it was, he headed for the door. He had the oddest urge to place his hand on his service weapon, to put the fear of God, or at least Elissa’s law-enforcement houseguest, into whoever was at the door. He fought a smile that at least the guy would see his uniform and the gun on his hip.
The moment he opened the door, he pegged the guy as exactly the type Elissa always went for—tall, lanky, good-looking and maybe a touch too aware of all that. For a satisfying couple of seconds, the guy’s eyes widened.
“Hey, I’m here to pick up Elissa for dinner.”
Pete made him wait a moment more before he took a step back to let the guy in.
“Are you Elissa’s brother?”
“No, best friend.” He didn’t know why he put that “best” in there. Oh, hell, yeah, he did. He wanted the guy to know that if he hurt Elissa in any way, he wouldn’t be dealing with just the wrath of a woman and her girlfriends.
“Oh. I’m Brett Fenton.”
“Pete Kayne. How did you two meet?”
“I’m hoping I’ll be doing the reconstruction work at her nursery. We’re going to talk over the estimate tonight.”
So it was a working dinner. That made Pete feel a fraction better, at least until he turned and saw Elissa. The pink sleeveless dress and the way she had her dark hair down and loose definitely didn’t say working dinner. Damn, she took his breath away, no matter how dangerous it was for him to feel that way.
“Wow, you look beautiful,” Brett said.
Yeah, she did, and Pete had the deep urge to punch Brett for saying so. But he didn’t have the right, not unless Brett hurt Elissa. And God help him if he made that mistake.
Pete didn’t realize how long he’d been staring at Elissa until her eyes shifted from her date to him. Her smile faltered a bit, and he realized he must be making her uncomfortable. He broke eye contact and took a step back. Even though he told himself not to, he couldn’t help letting his gaze shift to her again. She gave him the hint of a smile before crossing the space between her and Brett.
“Shall we go? I hope you don’t expect me to be one of those girls who eats like a bird.”
Brett laughed, setting Pete’s teeth on edge.
“Not at all.” Brett gestured toward the front door, allowing Elissa to precede him.
Brett shifted his attention to Pete. “Nice meeting you, man.”
A moment ticked by before Pete responded, “You, too.” He hesitated a fraction of a second before adding, “Have a good time.”
Brett nodded before following Elissa out the door.
Pete allowed himself to think up all kinds of reasons to justify arresting Brett. Unfortunately, all of them were complete hooey. Besides, he’d seen Elissa out on more dates than he could count. Seeing her head off on one more shouldn’t bother him.
But it did.
Movement from the kitchen made him realize that Verona hadn’t even emerged to meet Elissa’s date. He also realized that he couldn’t possibly sit down to dinner across from Verona, not when he wasn’t in complete control of his feelings. Elissa’s aunt would hop on that horse and ride it till it frothed at the mouth.
“I’m going to have to take a rain check on dinner,” he said without meeting her gaze. “I remembered I didn’t write a report I need to.”
“It’s no problem. I’ll just save yours, and you can have it when you come back.”
“Thanks, but I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
“Must be one heck of a report.”
He made the mistake of meeting her gaze and saw the doubt there. She didn’t believe he was going to write an incident report any more than she believed the Spurs would move the team to Blue Falls. Unwilling to get into a discussion about why she was right, he strode toward the door and out into the gathering evening. But once he was outside, he stood in the driveway and wondered what in the heck he was going to do next.
* * *
ELISSA HANDED HER menu back to the waitress at La Cantina and shifted her attention to Brett to find him watching her with a smile tugging at his lips. “What?”
“Just thinking I wish all my days of doing estimates ended like this.”
“By eating Mexican food? That might be hard on your waistline.”
His smile widened. “No, sitting across from a beautiful woman.”
“Why, thank you.”
“Although I have to say it’s the first time I’ve picked up a date and been greeted at the door by a guy with a gun.”
“Now, why do I doubt that?”
He raised an eyebrow. “I think I’m offended.”
She made a sound of dismissal. “No, you’re not.”
“You think you know me, do you?”
“I’ve been out with enough guys to know when one has a little streak of mischief in him.”
“Has your best friend shot any of them?”
She was momentarily confused until she figured he must mean Pete. Was he just assuming they were best friends, or had Pete introduced himself that way? While a surge of warmth welled up inside her, it was accompanied by a twinge of unexpected sadness she couldn’t explain.
“No, Pete’s a good guy. He’s staying with my aunt and me until he finds a new place. His house was destroyed in the tornado.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
For a moment, she wasn’t sure if Brett was talking about Pete’s house or the fact that he was sleeping in her guest room.
An awkward silence settled between them, something that had rarely ever happened to her on a date. But when she would normally be flirting, she found it hard to pull her thoughts away from Pete, from the fact that no matter what happened with the academy he would be moving out soon.
“Should we get the business out of the way so we can enjoy our dinner?” Brett asked.
“Yes.” She tried to ignore how she jumped on that line of conversation like a life raft.
“The good news is a good portion of your building is still
structurally sound.”
“And the bad?”
He gave her an apologetic smile. “The parts that were damaged are going to need significant work. In some parts, we’ll have to totally rebuild from the ground up.”
“And I’m guessing the worst news is the price tag.”
“I won’t lie and say it’ll be cheap, but I can get started by the end of the week.” He handed her the written estimate.
Elissa took a deep breath before looking at the paper, her eyes going immediately to the bottom line. The number punched her in the gut, twice what she had guessed it to be. “I’m thinking I should have let Pete shoot you.”
“I know it’s a shock, but the cost of materials have really gone up in the past year. I assume you’ll get more estimates, but I honestly don’t think they’re going to be a lot different.”
Of course he would say that, seeing as how he wanted her business and most likely a commitment from her tonight.
She read over every line in the estimate. “I think I went into the wrong business.”
“No, I think you’re in the right one. You know, my mom is quite a fan of shopping at your nursery.”
She looked up at him. “Any chance if I call her she can convince you to halve this?”
“Sorry. It’s the best I can do.”
When she spotted the waitress bringing their food, Elissa folded the estimate and stuffed it in her purse. “Well, enough of that for now.”
Throughout dinner, they talked about everything from the amount of destruction he’d seen while out doing estimates to her travels in Australia, somewhere he’d always wanted to go.
“I can’t believe you gave up all that traveling to settle here.”
“Why? You live in Texas.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, something about how you describe all those places you’ve been. Maybe you inherited some of your mother’s talent for description.”
“I know it all seems glamorous, but there were times when I was sleeping in strange places when all I wanted was a bedroom of my own that I could plaster with posters of hot guys and to attend school somewhere I could go to Friday night football games.”
Suddenly, an image of India, Skyler and her sitting on the bleachers at the high school football stadium popped into her mind. They were eating popcorn and watching classmates such as Greg Bozeman, the Teague brothers and Pete on the field. The image was so real she’d swear she could smell the hot, buttery popcorn and hear the band playing pep songs during time-outs.
“Yeah, I guess eating all that weird food would make you crave a cheeseburger.”
She laughed and nodded. “True, though there were some places where the food was fantastic. Italy and France come to mind.”
The rest of their dinner passed with them swapping more stories, but by the end of the meal Elissa found herself in an unusual position when sitting across from an attractive man. She just wanted to go home. When she would normally suggest heading to the music hall for some dancing, her thoughts went instead to her pajamas and some time alone to figure out how she was going to pay for the repairs she had no choice but to make. If she just had her insurance check in hand, she’d at least feel a little better. Of course, she was still going to be a great-grandmother before she paid off everything.
Hard to be a great-grandmother when you didn’t even have kids. Or a husband.
Her breath caught when her mind produced a picture of Pete.
“Are you okay?”
She refocused her attention on Brett. “Yeah.” The way he looked at her, she felt as if she needed to say something else but she came up empty.
“Well, it’s been a long day for both of us. I should get you home. Plus, don’t want your friend to think I’ve kept you out too late.” He smiled, and there was something about that smile she couldn’t decipher. It was almost as if he knew something but was keeping it to himself.
Or maybe the combination of tiredness and worry over paying for the repairs had her imagining things.
Who was she kidding? She’d been off her game ever since the night of the storm. Ever since she’d seen Pete’s naked chest and started having inappropriate, heat-inducing daydreams about what the rest of his body might look like.
When Brett opened the car door for her in her driveway a few minutes later, she found herself wishing she were already inside. Not that there was anything wrong with Brett. On the contrary, he’d be a nice catch for some lucky woman. It just wasn’t going to be her. And she dreaded what was going to be an awkward moment if he tried to kiss her good-night.
But he didn’t move to walk her to the door. “I had a nice time tonight,” he said.
“Me, too. Thank you.”
There it was again, that little smile that said he knew something she didn’t.
“What?”
He just shook his head. “After you get your other estimates, give me a call. I hope we can work together.”
His shift back to talk of work surprised her. Despite his assertion otherwise, had she been that bad a date? If so, she really was losing her touch.
Brett glanced toward the house before he planted a quick kiss on her cheek. “Good night, Elissa.”
“Good night.” Elissa walked toward the front porch then looked back to wave as Brett drove away.
Instead of going inside, she sank onto the porch at the top of the steps. Her traitorous brain took her back to the night she’d sat here eating pie with Pete. That memory brought a smile to her face. It had been so simple, but it was the best night she’d had since before the storm. In all honesty, the best night she’d had in a long time.
As if her thoughts of Pete conjured him, he pulled into the driveway. Her heart rate kicked up a notch, even though she knew nothing could happen between them. They were friends, really good friends, and she knew herself. Despite the fact that she’d stopped her wandering ways when she’d moved in with Verona, she’d never really thought of herself as a settling-down type. She was content to go out with a guy once or twice, have a mutually good time and move on, no strings, no expectations. Pete deserved more than that, more than she could give him even if he was interested.
“Elissa?” Pete’s gait slowed as he walked toward her. “Are you okay?”
He sounded so concerned that it hit her right in the middle of her heart. For a moment, she wondered what it was like, what India had with Liam, what Skyler had found with Logan. Was she so defective that she’d never allowed herself to think about finding that kind of deep and abiding love for herself? Or even something that lasted longer than a date or two?
“Elissa?” Pete said again as he drew close.
“I’m fine. Just enjoying sitting out here.”
He stared at her for a moment before he sat beside her. “I’m surprised you’re back so early.”
“Yeah, me, too.”
“You sure that guy didn’t try something he shouldn’t have?”
Elissa laughed a little. “Have you ever known me to not be able to take care of myself? And since when do I date complete jerks where that would even be necessary?”
Pete exhaled. “Point taken.”
“You smell like horse. You been out for a ride?”
“Yeah.”
Elissa detected a hint of frustration in his voice, which was odd because going for a ride had always been his way of relaxing, clearing his head. He certainly didn’t seem overly relaxed at the moment.
Before she could ask him if something was wrong, he asked, “So, did you have a good time tonight?”
“It was fine. Brett’s a nice enough guy. Even though the estimate he gave me for the rebuild about gave me a heart attack.”
“Bad, huh?”
“Enough that I told him I should have had you shoot him.”
Pete
snorted. “You want to get the nursery open for business again, I’m thinking me shooting builders isn’t a good idea.”
Elissa gave a dramatic sigh. “And here I thought we were friends.” She looked over in time to see an odd expression on Pete’s face, one that felt as if he were interrogating her without uttering a word.
“What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t give your dates a hard time?”
She bumped his shoulder with hers. “A good one, you dork.”
He smiled at that, and the sight of it made her indescribably happy. Too many times, she’d seen him when he had nothing to smile about. And in that moment, she realized that it took very little effort from him to make her smile, too. Suddenly, she wanted nothing more than to spend more time with him. He didn’t have to know anything about her inappropriate thoughts about him. And there wouldn’t be anything odd at all about them hanging out since they’d been doing it for years, years in which she’d been blind to the man beyond the friend.
“You know what I was thinking about earlier?”
“No idea,” he said.
“How India, Skyler and I used to go to the football games in high school to watch you guys play. We’d get a huge tub of popcorn and put so much butter on it that we probably used half the napkins the concession stand had on hand.”
“What made you think of that?”
Thinking about you.
“I don’t know. Just popped into my head.” She paused, considering the wisdom of going on. “You working tomorrow night?”
“No, I’m working in the morning.”
“Ah, your favorite shift. Well, since you’ve got the night off, I thought maybe we could all go to the game.”
He glanced at her and gave her a crooked smile. “Eat a big tub of popcorn?”
“Of course.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know where you put it, woman.”
“What, you’re saying I eat too much?”
“I would never be that stupid.”
She gave him a playful evil eye. “So you are smarter than the average man.”
Marrying the Cowboy Page 9
