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When he turned back, her heart surged up into her throat, momentarily rendering her speechless. Instinctively, she knew he’d always answer whenever she called to him. That knowledge was comforting as much as it was overwhelming.
He arched a curious eyebrow, reminding her she’d initiated this.
“I have a confession,” she blurted out the first thing that sprang to her mind.
He took a curious step toward her and paused. “Okay.”
Jo Ellen licked her lips. “Uh…y-yesterday, when I first got here, I saw you…through the window. I spied on you as you took your shirt off and rinsed away the sweat under the well water faucet.”
Cooper stared at her. Then he grinned and leaned in closer, murmuring her name just as she had his a few moments before. “Jo Ellen?”
She bit her lip. “Yes?”
He winked. “I saw your car when I pulled up. Why do you think I took my shirt off?”
Heaving in a huge breath, she flushed. From the glitter in his gaze and after what they’d just done in the combine, she found herself aroused, ready, and eager for him. Impatient for midnight.
What in God’s name was wrong with her?
Stamping another quick kiss to her lips, he opened her car door and helped her slide behind the wheel. After he put her inside, he tapped the glass in farewell, and took a step back. She smiled at him through the window and started her car.
When she pulled away and glanced into her rearview mirror, he continued to stand where she’d left him, staring after her. A lump formed in her chest. Dear Lord, she wanted to wheel back around and return to him.
This was so not a good sign. It was already happening. She was letting herself slip. She just hoped landing wouldn’t shatter her as badly as getting involved with Travis had.
Chapter Seventeen
As Jo Ellen pulled to a stop in front of her brother’s house, she wiped all Cooper-related worries from her head, pushing them into the back recesses of her brain, refusing to even think on them. Patting out the wrinkles in her skirt, she flushed when she found a smear of dirt on her hip. She batted it away as she hurried to the front porch.
The main entrance opened before she reached it, and Grady’s wife, Amy, flew outside, her arms open wide.
“There you are! We were wondering when you’d get here.”
Amy wrapped her in an encompassing hug, and Jo Ellen focused on her sister-in-law, relieved she looked so well.
The last time she’d seen Amy, Amy had just suffered a miscarriage. She’d been pale and drawn inside herself, refusing to acknowledge—much less smile at—anyone. It was good to see her finally recovered.
She chattered like the old Amy as she led Jo Ellen into the new house Grady had built for her only a few years before.
“…Thought you’d forget about us dull country folk now that you’re a thriving city girl with her own business.”
Jo Ellen forced herself to focus on the conversation and forget about a pair of whisky-colored eyes and corn silk hair that kept invading her thoughts. “Oh, whatever. Like I could ever forget you guys.”
Grady appeared then, coming through the doorway of the living room as he exited a hall. He paused when he saw her. She drew in a silent breath as she studied his face. Though she talked to him on the phone at least once a month, she hadn’t seen him face to face since she’d last seen Amy.
He looked changed. Where his wife had fully recovered from her crisis, Grady appeared harder, worn down, exhausted.
“Hey, brother.” She could probably count on one hand the number of times she’d hugged him, but she sensed he needed one now, so she went to him, arms open. He treated her to a faint smile before pulling her close and holding her tight.
“Hey, brat,” he murmured lovingly before letting go.
“Brat?” She scowled, insulted. “I thought Emma Leigh was Brat. I’m Princess, remember?”
“No. You’re both Brat to me.” Then his grin stretched broad as he reached out to tousle her hair.
“I made some lemon bars,” Amy announced, breaking
in between brother and sister to latch an arm around both Jo Ellen’s and Grady’s elbows. “Let’s go to the kitchen and try them out.”
