Jaclyn’s lips turned up at the corners. “You’re a romance writer with lots of illusions.”
“The fairies told you I’m a romance writer?”
Jaclyn laughed. “How many Kayas do you think are running around? You brought me a book with your name on it, and that book is obviously a romance. I’m doing that simple math we mentioned earlier. You know, adding one and one?”
“Oh, yes. Do you want it?” Kaya asked, suddenly feeling foolish.
“Do I want to read a book by the young woman sitting in my house right now? You can bet your sweet little Texas bottom I want to read it! And yes, the fairies told me you were from Texas. Now, let’s get to the trouble you’re having, dearie.”
Kaya leaned forward, ready to listen in rapt silence. “Oh, yes please!”
“You have to tell me what the trouble is, Kaya. The fairies were in a bad mood this morning when they told me you were coming. They think it’s a bit too dry this time of year.”
“But it’s rained every morning I’ve been here.”
“The fairies are never satisfied.” Jaclyn studied Kaya for a moment. “Well? Why can’t you and Glen seem to make things work?”
Kaya sighed. “Well, I told him I love him, and he says he feels the same. Our problem is simple. He has plans for the next few years of his life that don’t include having a wife or a girlfriend around, so he’s going to send me back to Texas with a pat on my head and an intense ache in my heart.”
Jaclyn frowned. “So what does he propose you do?”
“He said we’ll spend the time I’m here being in love, and then I’ll go home and we’ll forget each other.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“I’m going to spend every minute I can with him. I’m not going to hide under a rock, because I’m afraid of heartbreak.”
“So exactly what do you need from me, if you already know what your plan is?”
Kaya made a face. “I don’t know! I was hoping you’d have some great wisdom from the fairies that would make it all work.”
“Only you know what your heart wants. If you want to spend more time with him, then that’s exactly what you should do! If you want to hide from the love of your life, then you should do that.” Jaclyn sighed loudly. “My heart was broken many years ago. A young man kept approaching me and asking for my love. When I finally decided to give it to him, he was shot and killed before I had a chance to tell him he had it. Don’t be afraid to give him your heart. A broken heart is so much stronger than one that has never learned to love.”
“I’m sure you’re right. I’ll keep doing what I think is right.” Kaya reached out and squeezed the older woman’s hand. “Thank you for inviting me into your home and feeding me cookies today. Your kindness means a lot to a girl very far from home.” She laid the book that she’d autographed earlier on Jaclyn’s coffee table, thankful she’d thought to throw a few in her suitcase before leaving Texas.
“If not for kindness, I can’t think of a single reason people should interact with one another. It’s important to all of us.”
Kaya got to her feet. “And now I need to go get all dolled up for a date.”
Jaclyn smiled. “Wear the pink lipstick. It won’t show as much when he smudges it.”
“Ooo…he’s going to smudge my lipstick tonight? I think I like having a friend who knows the fairies.”
“You are a wise child.” Jaclyn got to her feet and opened the door. “I’ll see you again before you leave.”
“You will?”
“According to the fairies…”
Kaya smiled, raising her hand in a wave as she hurried out of the house and back toward the Bearfoot Bungalow. As she rushed along, she waved at the few people she knew. There were some familiar faces, but she hadn’t met everyone yet. Sometimes it was hard to tell the employees of the ranch from the guests.
Kaya’s mind whirred as she thought about everything Jaclyn had said, knowing one of her sentences would stick with her forever. A broken heart is so much stronger than one that has never learned to love. My heart is going to be very strong then.
* * *
Kaya dressed in a short skirt that stopped just above her knees. It was meant to be just past the knees, but Kaya’s long legs changed the way a lot of clothes were meant to look.
When a knock came just before six, May hurried to the door and opened it right before Kaya could get there. “Come in!” May told Glen.
Glen stepped in, his glance darting nervously about the cabin. He was wearing a pair of slacks and a green dress shirt, which brought out the brown in his eyes.
Kaya walked to him and kissed his cheek, resting one hand on his shoulder. “What time will you have her back?” May asked.
Glen blinked a couple of times, surprised at the question. “I’ll do my best to have her here before midnight.” He knew this wasn’t her sister, so why did she think she had the right to ask him when he’d have her home?
“Good. She needs to work tonight.”
Kaya rolled her eyes. She’d hit her word goals every single day that they’d been in Idaho, and May knew it. She had no need for her friend to play the part of her mother. “I’ll see you later.”
May stood watching them leave, her eyes filled with worry.
After Kaya closed the door, she shook her head. “I don’t know what came over her.”
“She’s worried I’m going to break your heart.”
“Correction. She knows you’re going to break my heart. She’s just hoping it won’t be so bad she can’t put me back together again.” She tried to sound blasé about the whole thing, as if it didn’t matter her heart would be broken, but she didn’t come across quite as unconcerned as she would have liked.
He sighed. “I don’t want to hurt you, Kaya.” He opened the passenger door of his older model Ford truck for her, admiring her legs as she drew them inside. “You look beautiful tonight.”
Kaya smiled. “I know you don’t want to hurt me, just like I don’t want to hurt you. I think we both know a mutual heartbreak is inevitable, so we should move on with our lives.” She paused as he closed her door and hurried around the truck. “And you look pretty handsome yourself tonight.”
Glen slid in beside her, starting the truck automatically. “There’s a little steak place in Post Falls. They have a small dance floor. We could go to the restaurant here, but Thursday night is Trivia night, and I want you all to myself.”
“You do, do you?”
“I do. How’s your book coming along?”
Kaya smiled. “It’s good. I’ll have it done before we head home. Well, before I head home. May’s flying straight to New York to spend a week with her assistant, Sara.”
“So you’re flying home alone?”
“Yeah, but it’s okay. May talked me into springing for first class this trip. My legs actually fit!”
He laughed. “I’ve never been on a flight where my legs fit. They’re a little longer than most though.”
She frowned. “I love that you’re as much taller than me as you are, but I can see there’d be some difficulties too. Did you play basketball?”
He sighed. “Why does everyone ask me that? Yes, I played. I did my undergrad on a basketball scholarship.”
“Do you like basketball?”
“I do. I mean I never wanted to spend the rest of my life playing basketball, but I enjoyed it. What about you? Did you play basketball?”
“Nope. I did play a little volleyball, but I was never coordinated enough to dribble a ball. What I can do is spike a ball like nobody’s business.”
He laughed. “We have a volleyball pit on ranch property. We’ll have to get a couple of teams together and play while you’re here.”
“I’m rusty, but I’d play.” She hadn’t played volleyball since she graduated from college more than a year before.
“I had a feeling you would. What do you think of Idaho so far?”
“I’ve fallen in love with it. Texas with
its dried grass and flat land will never be the same for me again.”
“I guess I don’t think of Texas as flat. Dry, yes, but flat, no.” He pulled into a parking lot. “We have about twenty minutes before our reservation.”
“Should we go in?”
“Nah. Let’s sit and talk a little more. What part of Texas do you live in?”
“I’m in the DFW area. I grew up in a small town just outside Fort Worth, but I went to the University of Texas at Arlington. Once I graduated, I just stayed. I have a little apartment there that works perfectly for one person. It’s a college town, so chock-full of apartments.”
“So you live in Arlington, Texas? Why have I heard of that?”
Kaya shrugged. “We’re the ‘Entertainment Capital of North Texas.’ The Rangers and Cowboys both play there. We have Six Flags Over Texas and Hurricane Harbor. And the city is part of the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex, but it’s also three hundred fifty thousand people, so it’s a big city in its own right.”
“Sounds too big for me. I don’t even like going into Lewiston, and that’s a tenth of the size of Arlington.” He shook his head. “No, I’m a small-town boy, and I like it that way.”
She smiled. “Well, remember I was raised in a small town. I’d still prefer to live in one, but that would require moving back out to the country. May keeps telling me I should move to Wiggieville, which is close to her, but I just don’t want to move. Where I am, I can walk to most things I need. I have a car, but I hate to drive, so it works better for me to stay where I am.”
“So you’re still a small-town girl at heart?”
“Of course, I am. You can take the girl out of the country, but you can never take the country out of the girl. And I’m country through and through.”
He leaned down and touched his lips gently to hers. “We should go in and be around people. Tomorrow night, I’ll fix you dinner.”
“You can cook?”
He shrugged. “I’ve been known to rumble around in the kitchen.”
“I’ll take you up on that then. I love the idea of you cooking for me! And I’d love to see your place.”
He smiled, wishing he could show her knowing she’d be staying. He couldn’t let himself think of that though. He had to keep her in the compartment he’d put her in. A summer love that wouldn’t last. She could be nothing else to him.
Chapter Six
After they were seated, Kaya smiled at Glen. “Our first real date. We need another selfie.”
He grinned at her. “Yeah, we do. Or we could have the waiter take the picture.”
“That works too. Too bad we can’t get a real photoshoot. If I won’t have you for the rest of my life, I at least want pictures to dream on.”
He took her hand in his and brought it to his lips. “If I felt like I could have you in my life without giving up who I am, I would do it in a heartbeat.”
“I’m waiting until you’re ready. You know that, don’t you? I don’t care if it’s five years or twenty. When you meet the man you’re meant to be with for the rest of your life, you don’t move on.” She pulled her phone out of her purse and held it to one side, leaning toward the middle of the table.
He hesitated for a moment before leaning in, his cheek coming to rest against hers. He reached out and tapped the screen to take the picture. After pulling away, he looked at her for a moment. “Let’s make a pact.”
Kaya’s eyes widened and a grin covered her face. “I love pacts! Can we spit and rub dirt all over our hands to seal it?”
Glen looked at her like she’d lost her mind for a moment. “I’d rather not…”
She sighed, shrugging. “It was just a thought.”
“Let’s not talk about you leaving again. Let’s pretend we’ve got forever for the rest of the time you’re here.”
Kaya contemplated for a moment, knowing it would hurt more to do that, but in the end, she nodded. “That’s a good pact. It would be better with spit, of course, because all pacts are better with spit, but I guess we can seal it with a kiss.”
Glen looked around, a bit embarrassed. Sure, they’d kissed a couple of times at the ranch, but he hadn’t seen anyone around when they did. “In front of all these people?”
“We can wait ’til we get to the truck to kiss and seal the pact then. You haven’t made many pacts, have you? My sister and I made them all the time when we were little. We made one to never even smile at little Bobby Stevens who lived on the next street over. I found out he had a bet that he could kiss us both before the last day of third grade. So, I made Bridget make a pact, and we spit, smeared mud, and made it binding for all eternity. She kissed him anyway. But he still didn’t win, because I refused.”
Glen grinned at her while shaking his head. “You are a mess, Kaya.” He frowned for a moment. “Do you realize I don’t even know your last name? How can I be in love with someone whose last name I don’t know?”
“I realized today that I didn’t know your last name while I was talking to Jaclyn.”
“Wait, why were you talking to Jaclyn?”
She shrugged. “I was curious about her house after we rode past it the other day, so I asked Liz about it. She sounded interesting, so I took her a book.” She took a sip of her water. “Does it bother you that I went to see her?”
“No, of course not. She’s just…strange.”
“I knew that as soon as I saw the lineup of bunnies watching us out the window!” Kaya grinned. “I like her. I want to adopt her and keep her forever. Do you think she’d live in my pocket forever?”
He shook his head at her. “What’s your last name?”
“Taylor. Kaya Cheyenne Taylor.”
“I like that! I’m Glen Marshall Johnson.”
Kaya badly wanted to test out the sound of her first name with his last, but there was a pact, and even though they hadn’t yet sealed it with a kiss, a pact was a pact. She reached out for his hand and wound her fingers through his. “What’s good here?”
He looked down at his menu that he hadn’t even opened. “I have no idea. I haven’t been here in years. I think of this place as a special occasion restaurant.”
She smiled, her green eyes lighting up with amusement. “I’m glad our first date rates as a special occasion with you.”
“You know it does.” He wanted to say more, but he couldn’t. Telling her she was the only woman he’d had such an instant and powerful attraction to wouldn’t help matters at all. How could it? Instead, he read over the menu, trying to decide what he wanted.
After they’d ordered, he stood, took her hand, and led her to the small dance floor. “I’ve never been terribly fond of dancing, but I’ll go for any excuse to hold you close.”
Kaya smiled, resting her cheek against his shoulder as they slow danced to a country band. She’d never cared about dancing much, but with Glen, she was thrilled to sway to the music. He was right. Being in his arms was worth dancing. She’d give anything to be in his arms.
After dinner, he took her back to the ranch, parking the truck in a lot right next to the lake. He pushed a button to roll both of the windows down, before reaching out to her, unbuckling her seatbelt, and pulling her along the long seat toward him. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, not saying a word, as they listened to the crickets chirp.
Kaya sighed contentedly, resting her cheek against his shoulder. “It’s so peaceful here.”
He rested his cheek atop her head, stroking her shoulder. “I’m glad you love it as much as I do.”
“I’m not a fan of the Texas heat. It feels like early spring here to me.” She turned a bit more toward him. “And you haven’t sealed our pact with a kiss yet. I think that’s one of the most important parts of the pact. Sealing it in a way that it can never be broken.” And she wanted him to kiss her. If he didn’t do it soon, she’d tell him to kiss her, and then she’d come across as bossy. The man needed to get on the ball and do it!
“You’re not going to talk me into spitting for
our pact, Kaya.”
She sighed. “Fine. I do think it would be more binding, though.”
Glen shook his head before leaning down and gently brushing her lips with his. “There. Now our pact has been sealed.”
“I have to admit that was a lot nicer than spitting.” She put her head back on his shoulder, content to just be with him.
“Tell me what your career goals are,” he said softly. He wanted to know everything he could about her before she went home.
“You know, I don’t even have an answer to that. For so long my goal was to be able to support myself and not have to work in a bookstore to subsidize my income. Of course, I loved being around all those books, but I wanted to be able to devote all my time to writing. With the royalty check I got at the end of April, I hit that goal. I haven’t really thought of a new one, but I should. I want to constantly be moving forward, not going back.”
“I feel the same. My whole life has been very goal-oriented. My ultimate goal being the ranch becoming a working equine therapy center.”
“Do you have a lot of work that needs to be done on the ranch to get it ready?”
“Some. I’ve been working on making changes since I moved there five years ago. My sister is planning on working for me when it’s up and running. She doesn’t have the credentials to work with the clients yet, but she will in May. She’ll work as a secretary until then.”
“Sounds like you’ve got it all worked out. I hope you two work together well,” Kaya said sincerely.
“I think we will. There’s never been a whole lot of sibling rivalry between us.”
Glen looked at the clock and saw that it was only twenty minutes before her ‘curfew.’ “I should drive you back to Bearfoot Bungalow.”
Kaya sighed. “What if I said I want to stay here with you all night long?”
He turned to her, cupping her face in his hands, his mouth descending to hers. “I’d probably say I want to stay here too, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.” He hugged her close to him, spending just a minute to sniff her hair, memorizing her scent, before pulling back. “Let’s go.”
Ranch's Retreat (River's End Ranch Book 6) Page 6
