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Jesse thought Liberty would start rambling off an explanation. He should have known better. Liberty wasn’t a woman who made excuses.
“Then you should have shown him around yourself.” She swept by her grandmother without one glance in his direction. When she was gone, Mimi shook her head.
“She’s like a wild mustang, that one. Her daddy thinks she needs a man with a firm hand to tame her. I think she needs one with plenty of patience. Are you patient, Jesse Cates?”
Jesse had thought Hank had been teasing his mama when he made the comment about Mimi trying to marry off her granddaughters. Now Jesse realized it hadn’t been a joke. He wanted to make it extremely clear that he wasn’t in the market for a wife.
Pulling his legs off the hay bale, he got to his feet and dusted hay off his backside. “I’ve never thought mustangs should be tamed—just appreciated . . . from a distance.”
She chuckled. “It didn’t look to me like you were admiring from a distance.”
Damn. He’d walked right into that one.
“You’re right. And I had no business kissing your granddaughter when I’m just passing through town.”
Mimi didn’t seem to be fazed by his announcement. “I had no desire to settle down either when I met Dale Holiday. I just stopped into town for gas on my way to wherever life led me. It turned out that life was leading me here.” She hesitated. “I didn’t have much of a home growing up. When I saw this place, I knew I’d found one to live out my days. Although it looks like that’s not going to be the case.”
He was really starting to wish that his curiosity hadn’t gotten the best of him. Instead of coming to Holiday Ranch, he should have gone back to the trailer and stayed put until Corbin returned. Now he was stuck right smack dab in the middle of this mess and needed to take a side.
Having lived without one, he knew the importance of home. Which was why he sympathized with the Holidays. This was their home and it sounded like it had been their home for a long time.
But Corbin was his blood brother—a brother who had just started to trust him. He couldn’t see Corbin being happy if Jesse broke his word about staying out of Oleander business and promised the Holidays they could keep their house.
So he only nodded. “Homes are special places.”
“You have one?”
“No. I’m not really a home kind of guy. I’m more the sleep wherever I can rest my boots type.”
Mimi studied him. “Well, maybe you’ll find a place you feel comfortable enough in to take off those boots. Now come on and I’ll give you the rest of the tour.” Her eyes twinkled. “Not that it will be as entertaining as when my granddaughter showed you around.”
He cleared his throat. “Thank you, ma’am, but I should probably get going.”
“Nonsense. Darla has already cut you a slice of apple pie and she makes the best pie in the county.”
So that’s why Liberty had tasted like cinnamon and apples. One of Jesse’s favorite desserts of all time was apple pie so there was no way he could decline. But before he could accept the offer, a meow drew his attention. He’d forgotten all about Tay-Tay.
He got down on his hands and knees to search for her. She was wedged between two stacks of hay bales. Preparing himself for pain, he reached in. But before he could grab her, she shot out and headed for the open door.
For an older woman, Mimi was fast. She reached down and scooped the kitten into her arms before Tay-Tay could escape.
“Be careful,” Jesse warned. “She bites and scratches.”
Tay-Tay hissed to prove his point, but Mimi didn’t pay it any attention as she tucked the kitten close. “Now you just calm down, little lady. There’s no reason to be scared. Mimi’s got you and she’s not going to let anything happen to you.”
The kitten seemed to understand because she settled against Mimi’s bosom like she’d just found a home.
Mimi stroked her head as she looked at Jesse. “Well, come on. Your slice of pie will sit there for only so long before Liberty helps herself. That child never has been able to resist temptation.” She smiled. “Of any kind.”
Darla’s apple pie turned out to be a temptation. After wolfing down one slice, Jesse couldn’t help accepting another. Although no matter how good the pie was, it didn’t come close to being as good as the kiss. Now every time he ate apple pie, he’d think of Liberty Holiday.
Which was why he’d come to a decision.
There would be no more kissing Liberty.
Even if she was an ebony-haired beauty who kissed like a fallen angel.
He glanced across the table where that angel sat. Her hair was no longer in a bun. It fell around her shoulders in inky waves. He remembered sliding his hand into those silky strands as she’d kissed him and loosening them from the bun. They had slipped through his fingers like expensive satin sheets.
