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Eli rode back to the Murphy property with Beth and Midnight beside him and the wind at their back. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this happy. He couldn’t remember a more perfect day, even after being lied to and lured into a sort of knitting-therapy-ambush kind of thing. It hadn’t been on his to-do list, but it also hadn’t been the worst, not that he’d admit that to Boone.
But Beth had made him take a leap he’d never intended on taking again…with riding…with her. He didn’t want the day to end, but he was running out of options as to how to make that happen.
This thing between them, this whatever, it was only between them. So what did it matter that he wanted his tiny little world to know that he had come back to the land of the living, and it was all because of her?
They slowed to a stop at the arena, and they both hopped down off their horses to walk them through the gate.
A strange silence rang out between them as they untacked the stallion and mare and got them situated in their respective stalls. Finally, they stood outside the barn. Eli shoved his hands in his front pockets, and Beth tugged at a hair tie on her wrist.
They were naked under the maple less than an hour before, but it wasn’t as if either of them knew what came next.
Beth broke the silence first. “You probably want to get inside and shower. I’m sure you have big plans tonight. It is Saturday after all.”
He bit back a smile at the way her neck and cheeks flushed pink.
“The biggest plans,” he lied. “Huge, really. See, I have this stool at the tavern where I sit by myself and make sure I give off that Leave me the hell alone vibe. Then I make my brother serve me pint after pint and ignore everything he says about wanting me to be happy again.” He took off his hat and ran his fingers through his already disheveled hair. “Bet I sound like a great hang.”
She pursed her lips, and her brow furrowed. “Hmm. Now that you mention the tavern, my sister said something about taking me out for one of Boone’s famous virgin daiquiris tonight. Maybe…I don’t know…since we’re leaving from the same place…you could give me a ride?”
Eli crossed his arms, hat still in hand. Then he uncrossed them and crossed them again.
Beth covered her mouth with her hand and laughed.
“Do you want a ride, Beth? Or do you want to go Midtown Tavern—the one and only nightspot in Meadow Valley—with me…together?”
He didn’t realize how much he wanted it to be the latter until the words left his mouth.
She stopped fidgeting with the hair tie and instead hooked a finger into the belt loop of his jeans. “Eli…I don’t know how to hide this. And I don’t know if I want to anymore.”
That was all he needed to hear.
He dropped his hat and grabbed her by the waist, lifting her onto his hips.
She yelped with laughter, then wrapped her arms around his neck.
“What are you doing?” she asked as he lowered his hands to the backs of her thighs.
“I’m giving you a ride back to the guesthouse. This is how we travel now, from here on out.” Because how the hell was he supposed to hide the way he lit up when she walked into the room? How was he supposed to look away when all he wanted to see was her? And how could he be within arm’s reach and not touch her when after three years of sleepwalking, just the nearness of her had finally woke him up?
Beth threw her head back and laughed again. “I was thinking something more like your truck for heading into town tonight.”
He shrugged. “Trucks are overrated.”
“You’ll hurt your back…or pull a muscle…or something,” she argued.
He might. This wasn’t the most practical mode of transportation, but it was all he could imagine right now.
Beth. Next to him. Always. Even if always didn’t mean forever.
“I guess we’ll deal with that when the time comes,” he replied, then buried the fact that the time would, in fact, come. “Remind me,” he continued. “Does that guesthouse of yours have a shower I might be able to borrow?”
She buried her fingers in his hair and squeezed her legs over his hips.
“It does,” she whispered. “And it’s big enough for two.”
“Wait there,” Eli said, then hopped out of the truck and came around to the passenger door. He opened it for her, and she offered him her hand, letting him help her down.
Despite her oversize green sweater and the long skirt covering her boots, she still shivered.
