Seconds passed, but all my thoughts stampeded away from me.
Her full lips quirked in a small smile. “The favor?”
Muttonhead. Was it too much to hope to one day have a conversation with this woman that wasn’t stilted and stammering? I coughed. “Right. Your friend who’s a sound engineer.”
“Betsy.”
“Would she… I mean, was she…”
Jocelyn’s hand found my leg, stilling me. “Betsy would be thrilled if Nate would let her help him record a demo and send it to some people she knows.”
Relief washed through me so strong I barely registered the heat from her palm. “Thank you.”
She squeezed my leg then pulled her hand back into the cave she’d made with my jacket. “If it’s notimposingof me, what was that all about? With Nate and the song and disappearing, I mean.”
I pressed my toe into the ground and sent the swing in motion. “A man in Nashville scammed him out of five thousand dollars. Now he’s disillusioned, feeling guilty, and has to sell Domino. Playing the guitar tonight—”
Jocelyn bolted upright and the swing tipped. My arm reacted on reflex, snaking around her waist and holding her in place so she wouldn’t fall.
Her fingers dug into my forearms, jerking my attention to her eyes, wide in an almost panicked state. Her breath warmed my face in quick exhales, stalling my own as I realized just how little distance separated us. A few inches at the most.
“You can’t sell Domino.”
If not for her grip, I would have eased away. As it was, the curve of her hip under my hand burned my palm like a hot iron. Branding me. “Neither Nate nor I want to, but he’s Nate’s horse and five thousand dollars right now—”
“I’ll buy him.” She pushed away from me and snuggled deeper into my jacket, her eyes losing focus as if she were working out a complicated problem in her head.
My mind spun. Had she just said she’d buy Domino? “A horse—”
“Can he stay here at the ranch, though?” She hauled her gaze back to mine. “I don’t have a place to keep him in San Diego.”
“You’re serious?”
Her eyes gleamed. “It’s perfect. I’ve felt a connection with this place ever since I got here, and the thought of saying goodbye forever sends spasms of homesickness though me—which I know is weird since this isn’t my home. But if I buy Domino, I have a reason to come back any time I want. It’s perfect.”
An unfamiliar feeling wove itself around my ribs like the switchbacks along the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Jocelyn thought the Double B felt like home.
She would come back again and again.
My gaze traced the beautiful lines of her face, my gut sinking at a foregone loss. Even if she stayed the rest of her life, I’d never be able to form the words to tell her how deeply I was beginning to feel for her.
15
Jocelyn
Pesky little problem, money. A rectangle of green paper with the power to control lives. Have enough, and every door is open to you. Have little, and those same doors are slammed in your face.
Well, not this time.
I could feel my inner Scarlet O’Hara rising indignantly.
Domino wouldnotbe leaving the Double B. Not if I had anything to say about it.
Problem was, I didn’t have five thousand dollars lying around.
I marched back to the fire pit, my molars grinding as I tried to figure out a solution.
