Pick Me

by Tanya Hanson

  After shrugging into his jacket and grabbing his truck keys, he whistled for the dog. Instinct urged him not to come empty-handed. Hmmm. Now was the right time, the exact time, for something else. He snatched the package he’d gotten at the kitchen shop just today.

  The missed opportunity stabbed him same as the sliver of moon stuck itself into the hilltops. Kelsey herself had wanted a night too perfect…but was it too late now? McClintock licked Landry’s hand. The ten minute drive lasted a century.

  Lights flickered in the back of Kelsey’s house, but he would have knocked anyway. And right now, a very timid knocking. The porch brightened as the outdoor light flicked on.

  “Landry.” But she said it like a statement, not a question. Gaze direct. “Sorry for the text. I just didn’t want to talk.”

  “Well, I do. Is now okay?” He gulped, hoping against hope.

  “I guess. You’re here.” She looked away, shy but pleased. Like she had hoped he’d show up and now he had. “Come on in. Aw, Clint, too.” She bent down to hug the dog, who by his happy moans was falling in love with Kelsey all over again. “Sorry, precious. I don’t have any doggie treats. Next time, I promise.”

  Next time? Well, that sounded hopeful. Landry’s spirits rose a little.

  She was dreamy yet totally real in yoga-pant things like Amy wore, dark gray, with a lighter gray, loose but stretchy top with skinny black straps showing underneath at the shoulders. Hair tussled, like she’d run puzzled fingers through it. Dark gray eyes bright with curiosity, he hoped, not tears. No, please, not tears. How could his silence of self-preservation have become so destructive?

  Because he, too, had wanted one perfect night.

  “Coffee?” She flashed a glanced at him as she got up from the dog. “I’ve got decaf. Or tea. Or…” Her gaze grew bold now. “Wine?”

  Wine might be his undoing, but if things went well, he’d be tasting it again on her lips. “Yeah. Please.”

  “All right. There’s still some malbec.”

  He followed her into the kitchen where she poured from the bottle she’d opened earlier. Handing him a stemmed glass, she kept her gaze directly into his, saying nothing. She sipped, and he ached to kiss the wine that pinked her lips. Her eyebrows rose as she sat at her dinette and gestured at him to do the same.

  “Aw, Kelsey. I wanted to tell you. But it’s nothing I blab right off. I started to, early on. In slow spurts. And that’s what I wanted to tell you tonight. But you said the night was too perfect to get serious.” He guzzled to have something to do.

  “Don’t you put this off on me. The Tall Timber Man isn’t exactly a porn star. It’s a pretty honorable profession if you ask me.”

  His fingers tensed around his glass. “Kelsey, I’m back at Ten Oaks. For good. You just saw my dream house.”

  “You also said you didn’t know if you were signing the contract.” She snapped her fingers against her glass. “You even said it’s tempting. For when finances get iffy, you always go back to it. “

  “It hasn’t been a bad thing. To have options. You just said it’s not like I’m a porn star. Although I did get asked plenty of times.” He tried to laugh. “Honorable bit parts, too. I’m just tired.”

  Her lips twitched. “I saw you on plenty of commercials. In every magazine I read. Yep, you make the women’s rags, too. That’s why you were so familiar. Not that TV show.”

  “How…can I ask how you found out now?” Did he want to know? He drained the wine.

  “You’re missing the point here.” She frowned, deep, and he wanted to kiss the wrinkles flat. “I had to find out on my own. Or maybe that is the point. I didn’t hear it from you.”

  He shut his eyes for a second. “Amy told me to go slow. She knew your story. Small town. She didn’t want me to appear too—Hollywood. After Gunnar, you know.”

  Kelsey chewed her lip as if he might be making sense. “So…you talked about me? When?”

  “About thirty seconds after you drove off that day. The day you first asked about the heart-shaped carrots. Seeing you drive off…” He swallowed hard. “I wanted to see you again. No, I had to see you again. You mentioned you teach at Homewood. Corky goes there, too. I thought Amy might know who you are. Or how I could find you.”

  “I told you about the horse rescue.”

  He hung his head. “Amy said that was too stalker-y. Then you showed up to buy vegetables. I just…”

  “Oh.” She blushed, and he hoped it was from happiness. “Well, I kind of get it. When I got home a while ago, I couldn’t sleep after all. I got this crazy idea to order your jeans for the family. I thought you’d get a kick out of it. I mean, everybody has online shopping. Maybe everybody could wear them when you all meet next weekend. But I couldn’t remember the brand.”

  She paused; McClintock had click-clicked his way across the wood floors into the kitchen, and he rubbed against Kelsey in ecstasy. She petted him for a long while. “Now, I see why I didn’t remember. Because I never knew. So I Googled your name to see what came up.”

  “You Google-stalked me?” His eyes glistened with amusement.

  She groaned, took a sip. “It wasn’t like that. I don’t get online much. I mean, I haven’t even ‘liked’ you or Milk and Honey Farms on Facebook yet. I spend too much time at school on the computer. Loading attendance records, emailing uber-parents. Entering daily grades. Last thing I want is a computer in my private life.”

  “So are you really mad at me? I’ll leave any time.” Oh it would hurt, and he didn’t think she’d really send him off but…

  “No, not mad, exactly. And maybe not even hurt. Just…well, it’s hard for me to trust.” She plunked her glass down on the table. “I thought you might have picked up on that.”

  “I did. That’s why I took things slow. And I knew the time was right. Now, I mean.” Landry chanced it, took her hand and held it against his heart. “It meant a lot to hear you wish Gunnar well. No matter how much he’d hurt you. To rejoice in the reunion of him and his kids. You know, what might my life have been like if my old man hadn’t gone off and start a new family with somebody else? My mom never held a grudge. Just like you.”

  “I’m healing, Landry. Thanks to you. Or at least I thought so.”

  “Have I blown it then?” He ached for her to feel the thump of his heart.

  “Aw, Landry, I learned the hard way, about being with somebody who keeps secrets.” Her fingers danced a little against his chest. “I mean, you know that.”

  “I do know. But I am not Gunnar. I wanted to speak up. Several times. But when it came to kissing you, I wanted that more.” He set his other hand across hers. “I didn’t want to spoil things. I wanted to keep things slow. You haven’t had much luck with…with celeb-types.”

  “Well, I see you’re point. I do. But even still, I’d have felt better, knowing. You know?” Her finger landed on his chin, and her heat sparked the tips of his toes.

  “Yeah, I do know.” He could hardly breathe. “That’s why it was actually a hard decision. Not to. I didn’t want to scare you off.”

  “Well, even Gunnar didn’t scare me off. I’m here in Ten Oaks for the duration.”

  “I meant…scare you off me.”

  Her mouth opened into such a perfect O he could hardly restrain a kiss. Her hand stroked his, and heat settled deep down in his body.

  “Oh. Landry, I didn’t think I’d be ready yet. Someday sure, but not quite yet.” Her gray eyes held his gaze. “Then I randomly go to Milk and Honey for a pretty foolish reason. And I couldn’t bear thinking I’d never see you again. I felt you all the way to my toes.” She glanced away, shy. “I mean, I don’t cook. And then I’m planning a menu full of vegetables so I could see you again. I get to the farm stand and it’s just Amy, and she’s adorable, but you weren’t there and I thought I’d sit down in the dirt and cry.”

  He moved the chair and reached to hold her against his heart. Wanted to keep her there forever. “You can’t believe how happy I was. Riding
down the hill on Big Jake, seeing you there. And to find out now, you were waiting for me…” His heart thumped so hard it hurt. “Kelsey, I am so, so sorry. It’s not a word I use lightly. Or carelessly. I use it only when I truly mean it. When I’ve been really, really bad.”

  With one hand, he tilted her chin, hoping she drank in hope with the kiss. Her lips trembled beneath his.

  “I’m not going with Tall Timber anymore,” he muttered against her mouth. “I can’t renew my contract. Not if it means losing you. I want what Amy and Deck tried to have. I can’t wait any longer. You never know when something might happen to wreck things.

  She pulled away. “Like a secret?”

  “I’m sorry.” The word came off his tongue easier this time. “But I want whatever we have to last at least a little longer. If you knew, wouldn’t you have thought I was just another Gunnar?”

  “Like I’m thinking now?” But she laid her fingers on her mouth, like she wanted to hold the kiss there.

  He kissed her again, quick. “I think you already know I’m not that kind of guy.”

  “Landry.” He laid his hand on her cheek, and she let him. “Gunnar unraveled his baggage one string at a time. I don’t know what’s better. And then, I went through a very public breakup with somebody famous. Oh, maybe not Household Name famous, but somebody with big-time celebrity connections. I got hounded by entertainment magazines. Even at school. I…don’t want to be part of some gossip rag or celebrity blog.”

  “Why would that happen?”

  “Because I’ve lived it. Photographers would show up out of nowhere, and I’d just happen to be by Gunnar’s side. Google-stalk me sometime.” She chuckled but he heard bitterness as well as amusement.

  He took her hand. “Kelsey, I’m sorry.”

  “I know that, Landry. It’s just…I’ve made a quiet, good life her in Ten Oaks. I don’t want the bling and the sparkle. I don’t want to be part of gossip rags and celebrity blogs. Deep down, I’m a country girl who finally found her roots.”

  His heart slowed down a little, but not much. “I never was that guy at all, Kelsey. Most of what you saw were photo-ops the company set up. Or honest gossip. It wasn’t a real date, me taking Ashley Milkweed to the CMA’s.”

  “Really? The Grammy winner?” Her delicious mouth made another complete O.

  “Yeah.” He couldn’t resist zooming in for another kiss. “Me in Tall Timber Jeans and an Armani tux jacket. Her in some outfit her ‘stylist’ picked out for her. All fake. We hardly spoke a word. I never saw her again. Honest.” He squeezed her hand. “And not because I don’t want to find somebody permanent. It wasn’t anything real. And I see why, now. Because you’re real. The real deal.”

  “Did you mean it, just now? That you won’t renew your contract?”

  “Yes.”

  “But what if they really, really want you, and you really, really want to. Down the road sometime?”

  He shrugged. “Models don’t last forever. They get old.”

  “It doesn’t happen to men.” She rolled her eyes. “That cowboy actor, still doing truck commercials? He’s a granddad many times over.”

  “Then we talk it through. You and me. No secrets.”

  “No secrets. Because I don’t ever want to be in your way.” She blew out breath, and her wine-dark lips quivered. “You made an honorable living all on your own.”

  “Well, not exactly. Some talent scout saw me on Heart to Heart. How could I say no? It paid off my student loans, got me through grad school. Then…you know the rest.”

  She grinned. “Maybe I over-reacted a little”

  “You mean that?”

  “Never meant anything more.”

  “All right then.” Landry scavenged in the package he’d brought with him.

  “What’s that?” Kelsey peered at the pink paper bag marked with a turquoise logo. “Kitchen Contraptions?”

  “Yeah. Did a little shopping myself this morning.”

  Her eyes widened.

  “Yup. Thought I might find those heart-shaped molds. I…wanted another reason to make sure I saw you again.” The blush streaking her face warmed his own. Whew. “Found these instead. I was gonna wait until Valentine’s Day…but.” He held out a cellophane-wrapped package containing conversation heart cookie cutters. Three. “Here. Read ’em and let me do some explaining.”

  Kelsey ripped off the cellophane, then lay the large hearts on the counter. Her laughter hung like a cloud of glory on the air.

  Love Lessons. Pick Me. Rude Boy.

  Her brow furrowed in definitely kissable concentration. “Hmmm. I’d say they all fit the moment. But here’s the only one I need you to expand on.” Her gaze burned his. “And I don’t mean carrots.”

  She held out Pick Me.

  “Aw, Kelsey.” He pulled her tight again. “I already did.”

  A word about the author…

  A native Californian, Tanya Hanson loves life on the Central Coast with a real-life hero—her firefighter husband. Her son and daughter are the best thing she’s ever done, and two little grandsons now fill her days.

  A city-slicker wagon trip around the Tetons and volunteering at the local horse rescue have proven to her the West is where she wants to write.

  www.tanyahanson.com

  www.petticoatsandpistols.com

  Thank you for purchasing

  this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.