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Em shrugged. “We discuss everything.” Then she waved her hand, pushing past what she obviously considered irreverent. “So do you like him?” she urged. “Cooper, I mean.”
“Of course I like him. He’s… he’s Cooper. What’s not to like?”
Em rolled her eyes. “Oh my God. That is the drollest answer I’ve ever heard. Do you like him like him as in…do you love the guy or not?”
“Emma Leigh,” she scolded, unable to stop blushing. “I can’t…that’s not…we haven’t even brought up such things.” Besides, it’d be foolish to admit how much she’d fallen for him after such a short time. Wouldn’t it?
“Oh, hell. I hate it when you turn all prissy and socialite because something makes you uncomfortable. Now stop it. This is important. And I don’t care what you two have brought up. I want to know what you’re feeling.”
With a deep sigh, Jo Ellen closed her eyes, concentrating on the weight of Brand’s body in her arms. “It can’t last,” she stated without the slightest of inflection in her voice, though her pulse jerked with dread as the words became vocal. “I’m going back to Dallas on Sunday. He has to stay here. We’re both pretty much stuck in our current situations. I have responsibilities keeping me there. He has responsibilities keeping him here.”
“So what?” Emma Leigh frowned. “Ever heard of a long distance relationship?”
“Em,” Jo Ellen growled, gritting her teeth.
Her twin blinked, her expression showing off all her confusion. “What?”
Ducking her face into Brand’s body, Jo Ellen groaned. “Don’t you get it? This isn’t about any of that at all. It just…it’s an excuse. I’m scared out of my mind here. I shouldn’t fall for him. I just…I shouldn’t.”
“What. The. Hell?” Emma Leigh’s mouth gaped open. “If distance isn’t a problem, then what in God’s name is wrong with you?”
She would never understand. Emma Leigh went after whatever she wanted. She didn’t fear anything. The woman didn’t have a timid bone in her body.
“He’s just too…too…he’s just too much. I can’t…I can’t…”
“Breathe,” her twin instructed.
Jo Ellen sucked in air so hard she was afraid she might start hyperventilating.
As if reading her feelings off her face, Emma Leigh leaned over to rest her cheek on Jo Ellen’s shoulder. She reached out and stroked Brand as well. And strangely, Jo Ellen began to calm down.
“Honestly, the distance thing really is kind of a problem. I mean, how long could we last before…well, before we wanted more, before we want to get married or have children? If we kept on, eventually we’d both want to live together. And where would we live? I have commitments there; Cooper is tethered here. And even if for some strange reason he did move to Dallas, he’d be miserable within the week. He’s an ingrained farmer, Em. It’s in his blood. He’d end up blaming me for taking his soul away from him. And it’s not as if he could just desert his parents when they needed him most.”
She didn’t mention what would happen if he asked her to give up Dallas and return to Tommy Creek. She told herself not to rationalize that scenario, because he hadn’t asked. He wouldn’t ask. But if he did, she’d leave the city in a heartbeat. To be with him, to find meaning in her life, she’d go wherever he asked her to go, which scared her most of all. She’d give up everything for the man she loved commit her life to him. But what if that wasn’t enough? What if it ended up the same disastrous way it had the last time she’d so fully committed herself to someone?
“Sounds to me like you’re inventing a load of problems before they can even happen. You don’t know that’s how things will end. No one knows. Hell, I could be ripped away from Branson tomorrow and never see him again. But that’s the point of making a relationship count and living each day like it might be the last. Just think about this; if you break it off now, it’s guaranteed to end miserably.”
With a scowl, Jo Ellen considered her twin’s words and wondered when the heck Emma Leigh had gotten so insightful.
Then she sniffed. “But if we end this on Sunday, as planned—” though, technically, she realized they’d never actually verbally agreed on that plan, it just seemed like an unspoken pact, “—the
n we won’t have time to grow as many feelings as we would if we tried to take it beyond this week.” And maybe she wouldn’t end up a broken, self-conscious mess like she had turned out the last time.
She prayed to God her theory was right, because she didn’t know if she could handle it if she discovered she was wrong.
Chapter Twenty
Cooper arrived at the Rawlings mansion two minutes early to pick up Jo Ellen.
As he pulled into the drive, he told himself that however she responded to him today would express how she truly felt about him. Her reaction would state whether he should pressure for more time together after she left Tommy Creek or if he should let her go gracefully. Because if he went by his own impulse, he’d get a ring on her finger by the end of the day and high tail them to the Caribbean for a luxurious honeymoon.
He wasn’t thinking straight, wasn’t thinking with his brain. Even now, his blood surged with dizzy anticipation just to see her.
After killing the engine, he slid out of the driver’s seat and started toward the house, feeling unreasonably nervous. But this was the first time he’d ever picked her up at her parents’ place to take her anywhere. It felt suspiciously like a date, though everyone knew he was only driving her to his dad’s nursing home.
Still, seeing her again made him hesitant. Nothing about their relationship was defined. They certainly weren’t a one-time oops, but he couldn’t say they were committed. The future had become like a four-letter word between them, something not to be discussed, even if he did think about it constantly.
He knew how he wanted to treat her, like a lover, like a permanent fixture in his life. He wanted to kiss her when he saw her, pull her into his arms and hug her. He wanted to tell her how beautiful she looked, how great she smelled, how crazy he was about it. But he instinctively knew pushing too hard, too fast would only frighten her off. So, he’d play it cool, keep an emotional distance, and talk to her like a friend. But that was the way he was talking to her now, and he only felt closer to her than he’d ever felt to anyone.
