by Emmy Eugene
“That too,” he said, not daring to speak too loudly out here. For some reason, he felt like loud noises would scare away the stars. “But there’s no moon tonight.”
“I think it just comes up later,” she said.
“No, I think it’s the new moon, baby.” He caressed her upper arm. “We should go. It’s getting cold and late.”
“Let’s have hot chocolate before we head to my house,” she said.
“All right, but we still have to get back to the truck.”
Janelle sat up with a groan, and that made Russ feel better about the ache radiating through his back too. He stood up and bent to get the bowls. “Can you handle the blanket?”
“Got it,” she said, folding it neatly and tucking it over her arm with a smile. Russ reached for her hand and secured it in his. He remembered the first time he’d held her hand. Their second date in as many days after the speed dating event. She’d taken him to a fast-fire pizza joint, and then they’d walked up to Chestnut Springs. On the way back, he’d held her hand, pure electricity flowing through him.
Those same sparks moved through him now, and he really liked them.
“Are you going to be extra-busy around the ranch with this new enclosure?”
“Yes,” he said simply, thinking telling the truth was the best idea here. “You can come out any time you want. And I always have time for a dinner I didn’t make.”
“Oh, I know,” she said with a giggle. “The way to your heart is definitely through your stomach.” She sucked in a breath. “Oh, no. I left the brownies in my car.”
“It’s stupid you came out to the ranch,” he said. “I should’ve just come and picked you up for dinner.” He watched the ground, so he didn’t trip over something. He’d never pegged Travis as a clumsy man, but he’d nearly fallen down in the living room. “I’ll take you back now, and you can lead me to your house.”
“That adds thirty minutes to our trip,” she said.
“Either now or later,” he said. Russ didn’t push very many issues with Janelle, but he felt like pushing this one. “So we’ll go now, and then you can just go inside with your girls when we’re done in the stable.”
Surprisingly, Janelle didn’t argue with him, and Russ let go of her hand to dig in his pocket for his keys. He clicked a couple of times, and the truck’s engine fired up.
“Always showing off,” she said, a grin in her voice.
“I’m actually chilled,” he said.
Janelle burst out laughing, just as Russ had hoped she would. He joined her, going all the way to her door chuckling. She stepped in front of him and turned around. The interior light from the truck illuminated her face, and she looked at him with a coy smile on her lips. “I’ll keep you warm, cowboy.”
“Yeah?” Russ liked the sound of that, but he still made no move to kiss her. He felt like they were starting back at square one—maybe two—and he needed to learn more about Janelle before he took things to the next level in their relationship.
So he ducked his head, practically tasting the disappointment on his tongue, and fell back a step. “Let’s get going,” he said. “I’m not convinced you have somewhere for these dogs to live.”
They drove back to the ranch, which only took ten minutes, as they were already outside of town a mile or two, while Janelle poured hot chocolate for them. “Let me grab the brownies.” She slid from the truck before he could protest, hurrying to her car and returning quickly. The scent of chocolate came back with her, along with something salty.
“Caramel swirl brownies,” she said. “Kelly and I made them this afternoon.”
“I didn’t realize you baked,” he said, eyeing the square plastic container as she plucked a brownie from it.
“Kelly loves to bake,” Janelle said. “And we’re sort of doing this challenge with the firm.”
“Oh?” He accepted the brownie and took a bite, hoping she’d talk for a few minutes. Because brownies were invented to eat with hot chocolate.
“Yeah,” she said. “Every Sunday night, we post on the firm’s social media and ask people to give us desserts to make during the week. We’ve committed to making three each week, but we made five last week, and this is the second this week already.”
“Wow,” Russ said, polishing off his brownie. “You and your ten-year-old made these?”
“She does most of it,” Janelle admitted. “I mostly supervise around the hot stuff.” She took a bite of a brownie, and Russ watched her for an extra moment before looking away.
“What’s on the agenda for later this week?” he asked.
“Mini cheesecakes for sure,” she said. “But we can bring something sweet to breakfast, too. I think someone suggested cinnamon rolls on one of the social media streams.”
Russ would love cinnamon rolls on Saturday morning, delivered by her daughters. “Would you make those on Friday night?”
“Sure,” she said. “I can’t get up that early on a weekend.” She grinned at him, clearly flirting with him.
“So we won’t be going out on Friday night.” Russ reached for another brownie, the container holding them much too close to him now. He could literally eat the whole lot of them if they remained within such easy reach.
“Are you asking me out?” Janelle asked.
“Yeah, that’s right,” he said. “Can you get a sitter for Friday night?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation.
Russ nodded, the smile on his face pure and wide. “So it’s Tuesday,” he said. “And we have way too many dogs here. So let’s go see what your stable looks like. And maybe I’ll be back at your place tomorrow night too.”
He wanted to see Janelle every day, and they’d gotten to that point in their relationship after about six weeks. Those had been a couple of great weeks—until the break-up had come out of nowhere.
Not nowhere, he told himself. She’d been afraid of him meeting her daughters. Russ really hoped he wasn’t setting himself up for another massive fall come Saturday morning.
Twenty minutes later, he pulled into the driveway of a house with white siding above gray, marbled brick.
He peered through the windshield at the house, somehow expecting it to be different. It was utterly normal, with a light over the porch and motion lights that had kicked on as Janelle pulled into the garage. It was a two-car garage, and the other half held bicycles and a lawn mower, boxes, and a bag of dog food.
“Well, she has something to feed the dogs,” Russ muttered to himself, wondering if involving Janelle in their dog rescue operation was a mistake.
He got out of the truck when he realized Janelle was standing at the corner of the garage, next to her black garbage barrel. They held hands as they snuck around the house and into the backyard. Russ didn’t want to admit that he felt like he was sixteen-years-old again and sneaking off with a girlfriend his parents didn’t approve of.
Janelle’s yard was in decent shape, and she led him to an outbuilding that had obviously had someone looking after it recently. “The girls and I cleaned up a little this afternoon.”
“Yeah?” Russ stepped over to the door and peered inside. “Does it have lights?”
“Yes, and they work.” She reached past him and flipped a switch.
Russ stepped inside the stable, seeing all kinds of flaws. But there was potential here too. The stalls had been swept out, and they could easily house a canine in each one. Six stalls, with waist-high doors lined one side of the stable. On the other side, hooks stuck out of the wall, and there was space right by the door for bags of food and a few supplies.
“This is great, Janelle,” he said, her name rolling off his tongue easily. He hardly ever called her by her name, and it felt good to do so.
“You think so?”
“Does this window open down here?” He walked all the way down the aisle. “The dogs will need some air flow,” he said. He tried the window, but it didn’t budge. “And are you planning on letting them into the yard during th
e day?”
“Yes,” she said. “That’s okay, right?”
“It might be kind of messy,” he said. “Honestly.”
“We can handle it,” she said. “I want to help you guys.” She put her hand lightly on his back, and sparks shot up to his shoulders.
“I think if we can get this open, we can move dogs here tomorrow.” He looked down at her. “Are you ready for that? I can bring the food they need too. Then it’s just feeding in the morning and evening, fresh water at those times too. Monitoring them to make sure they’re not fighting or injured or sick.” Russ’s mind began to move through possibilities. “I can bring the tamest, nicest dogs we have right now. I’d hate it if something happened to your girls.” In fact, he’d never be able to live with himself if she or her kids got hurt by one of the rescue dogs they were housing.
“They named the one we already have King.” Janelle leaned into Russ, and he did like how much she touched him. “And you’ll notice that he’s not out here. I probably won’t be able to get rid of him now.”
“Definitely not,” Russ said, chuckling. “Once you start naming them, it’s all over.”
“Your rescue dogs don’t have names?”
“Oh, they do,” Russ said. “But we don’t let them all in the house.” He turned around and took a couple of steps away from her. “I’m going to check this window from the outside.”
“I’m not sure it ever opened,” she said as he walked away.
“We’ll figure it out,” he said over his shoulder, and he meant more than the window. Janelle was definitely giving him all the signs he’d normally need to kiss her goodnight and make sure they saw each other the next night.
And for some reason, despite kissing her last night, Russ wasn’t ready to do it again.
The window didn’t open from the outside either, and he determined he’d bring some tools with him tomorrow night to get it unstuck. A yawn pulled through his whole body, and he rounded the corner to see Janelle talking to a teenage girl.
They laughed together, and Janelle said something else. Russ watched them interact, and everything seemed so easy for her. He wondered what he’d even say to the girl, so he stayed in the shadows.
Once she left, headed back toward the house, Janelle turned to see where he’d gotten to. He moved then, coming out of the darkness beside the stables and asking, “Is she your sitter?”
“Yeah, she had to leave,” Janelle said. “But she can take the girls to get ice cream tomorrow when you bring the dogs.”
Russ nodded, his jaw suddenly tight. He wasn’t sure why he couldn’t just meet her kids the following evening. What was so special about Saturday?
Doesn’t matter, he told himself. He’d always said he’d do what she wanted, and they were her kids.
So he’d wait until Saturday. Simple as that.
Chapter Six
Janelle clicked through her email, seeing three messages from clients that she needed to answer quickly. She also had a meeting in twenty minutes, and she reached for the phone. She loved the feeling of accomplishing many little tasks in a short amount of time, and she’d spoken to two clients, reassured them of the progress of their cases, and responded to the third via email before gathering the two file folders she needed for her client meeting.
She’d barely reached the door when Libby Hawker came through it. “Oh,” the brunette said, giggling. “Sorry.” She carried a to-go cup of coffee in one hand and a stack of folders in the other. “I pulled all those files you wanted. Shall I just put them on your desk?”
“Yes, please,” Janelle said, smiling at her personal secretary and best friend at the office. Libby stepped past her, and she was young enough to still wear the cute high heels. Today, they were pink to go with her black pencil skirt and white blouse with pale pink pinstripes. She put the folders on Janelle’s desk and turned back to her.
“What?” Libby asked.
“Do I have time for lunch today?” she asked.
A huge smile filled Libby’s face, along with a knowing glint in her dark, hazel eyes. “I think you do,” she said. “Tell me what’s going on so I can prepare myself.”
“I got back together with Russ.” Janelle braced herself for Libby’s squeal, which came a moment later. Janelle laughed, shaking her head. She loved Libby, who’d been with her for eight years now. She had been the one to tell Janelle to pull the trigger on her own divorce, after Henry had been unfaithful to her for the fifth time.
And yet, that had been so hard. But once it had been filed and things started moving, the peace had come to Janelle’s heart.
“I can’t wait,” Libby said as the phone started ringing. “You have a meeting. Go. I’ll get the phone.”
Janelle left her office first, and Libby followed her, stopping at her desk to answer the phone. She ducked into the conference room, Lilly already sitting at the table, her eyes on her phone.
“Morning, Lilly,” Janelle said with a professional bite to her tone. “How are the kids?”
Lilly looked up, and she looked tired. Exhausted, really. Redness rimmed her eyes, and Janelle recognized the pure helplessness in the woman’s eyes. She’d seen it in her own before, while she was going through her own separation and divorce.
She didn’t miss those sleepless nights, nor the constant ball of worry in her gut about what might happen that day. She smiled at Lilly and sat down, covering both of Lilly’s hands with hers.
“Talk to me,” Janelle said. She ran the best and busiest family law firm in the county, but she knew it was the personal touch that set her apart from the others. She called back within hours, she answered texts and emails as quickly as she could, and she took time to make a real connection with her clients.
That was why her social media accounts were full of followers and fans, and why when she sponsored the pool day in Chestnut Springs, hundreds of past clients and their families attended.
“Bruce called again last night.” Lilly sighed, but she wasn’t frustrated or angry. Only tired. “I just can’t keep having the same conversation over and over.”
“I understand. Is he still arguing for shared custody?”
Lilly nodded. “But I don’t see how he can do that. Bruce works graveyards, and there’s no way he can have Tina half the time. He’d have to have someone sleep with the kids, and someone to take Tina during the day too, while he sleeps.” Lilly shook her head. “It’s fine. Whatever. Just tell me what to do.”
“So we’ll fight the shared custody,” Janelle said, flipping open her folder. “The best he can do is weekends, when he’s not working. Now, the judge might give him every weekend, not every other.” Janelle glanced at Lilly, who seemed so worn down that she’d accept anything at this point.
And that was why Janelle was there. She wouldn’t accept just anything, and certainly not anything that would make life harder for Lilly, or for her two girls, Emily and Tina.
She remembered well her worries over Kadence, who’d only been four years old when Janelle had filed for the divorce. The difference was, Henry hadn’t fought her for anything except a few weeks in the summer, one of the major winter holidays, and the chance to communicate about other times he might want to see the girls.
Someone knocked on the door, and Janelle glanced over to see Libby poke her head in. She wore a look on her face that was made of pure concern, and Janelle’s heartbeat bumped over itself painfully.
Without saying anything, Libby pulled the door closed, and Janelle looked back at Lilly. She didn’t appear to even know the door had opened. “Okay,” Janelle said with a long exhale. “I think you were going to bring me paystubs from the last three months today, so we could prove that you can support the girls, but that your request for child support is warranted.”
“Yes.” Lilly started digging in her purse, and the door opened again.
This time, a man stood there, and Janelle stood up, her pulse stopping completely. “Excuse me a moment,” she said to Lilly, already moving
toward Henry. “What are you doing here?” she hissed, pressing against him so he’d back out of the conference room.
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” Libby said. “I told him he had to wait.”
“I need to talk to you,” he said. “I called and texted.”
“I’m in a meeting,” Janelle snapped. Henry was a lawyer; he knew not all calls and texts could be answered instantly. “My office. Now.” She marched away from him, avoiding Libby’s anxious eyes as she passed. Libby knew the drill. If Janelle went to the door and opened it a crack, she was to call security.
Janelle rented the whole building for the law firm, and she paid two security guards. One circled the building outside, drove around the parking lot, that kind of thing. The other watched the front entrance and walked the two floors periodically. They’d both come the moment they were paged, and Janelle closed the door behind her ex-husband.
“You can’t just show up here anytime you want,” she said crisply, walking away from him. “I don’t take my phone into meetings, and you can’t have called more than ten minutes ago.”
“I was driving by,” he said. “I thought it might be easier just to stop by rather than wait.” He groaned as he lowered his tall frame into one of the chairs in front of her desk.
Janelle stayed standing behind the desk, glaring at him. “Well, let’s hear what was so important. You have five minutes.”
Henry simply looked at her, and Janelle had seen that glint in his eye before. She saw her December plans blowing up right in front of her face. The three desserts each week. The Saturday morning breakfast at the ranch, and then helping Russ with the dog enclosure. The holiday gift shopping. The visit to her parents down in Hondo.
She sighed and folded her arms. “You’re not saying anything.”
“I want to come home,” he said.
“No,” she said before he’d even stopped speaking. “Henry, no. I’ve moved on, and I’m seeing someone else. I’m introducing him to the girls this weekend.” She shook her head, already frustrated with herself that she’d told him all of that. Henry could take the most innocent of statements and twist them to his advantage. “No.”
