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“I think you being here is important,” he said, and she noted the slow speed and care he gave to his sentence. “I think our relationship can be built and strengthened while you’re here. Summer is a long time. When it’s over, and you have to go back to Dripping Springs…” He shrugged. “I think we might be solidly on a path together that the distance won’t be a factor.”
Well, he knew just what to say, didn’t he?
She ducked her head, but her hair wasn’t long enough to hide behind anymore. Even when she’d been able to ponytail it, the strands were too thin to truly create a curtain between her and anyone else.
“I hope you’re right,” she said.
“Do you?”
“Yes.” She looked at him—right at him—and he watched her too. Nerves ran through his expression, and then he smoothed them all away behind one of the most handsome smiles Maddy had ever seen on a man’s face. Kyle had a strong jaw, and he’d let his beard grow a little longer in the past several days. He needed a haircut, and Maddy barely refrained from reaching out and swooping her fingers through his golden brown locks.
Maybe later, she promised herself. They still tiptoed on shaky ground, and Maddy didn’t want to swing from cold to raging hot quite so fast. The moment she’d entered the lodge, she’d realized her anger had been directed at herself.
“I’m sorry.” She turned her hand over and played with his fingers, the touch of his skin against hers only stoking the fire that had roared to life the moment she’d brushed by Kyle. The scent of his cologne lit her up, just as it always had, and she really liked brushing the length of her fingers along his before finally lacing hers tightly between his. “I could’ve called you too.”
“It felt sort of final,” he said quietly. “That’s all. And I was disappointed you couldn’t come, and—why are you here?”
“My momma told me she wouldn’t let me in the house to help take care of her if I gave up the job here.” Maddy put a smile on her face and laughed when Kyle did.
“I want to meet your momma,” he said. “She sounds like a real hoot.”
“That she is.” Maddy relaxed now that the tension surrounding them had crashed. “And hey, if you have time…” She didn’t think he would, but she might as well ask. “I’m going back to Dripping Springs tomorrow to get Brewster. I didn’t bring him, because my sister is here, and he loves her. I also wanted to see what the cabin situation was like and be able to take care of business things today without worrying about him.”
“He’s a border collie,” Kyle said. “He’ll be in heaven on this ranch.”
Maddy nodded, because she believed that too. “Yes, he will. Miles says he’d take him for the summer too.” Miles owned a small, family-owned cattle operation only a mile or two from Maddy’s elementary school. She dropped Brewster off there every morning and picked him up at night. Sometimes, she left him with the Rawlins, because they loved him as much as she did. Everyone loved Brewster—as long as he got to run for hours every day.
“Todd and Laura said he could work with them on the ranch this summer,” she said. “And I kind of want him here with me.” Then she wouldn’t have to go back to her new cabin—a lonely, stark cracker box of a house—alone at night. She hadn’t brought any curtains or photos or knickknacks to brighten the place, and she might pack a few things like that to bring with her tomorrow too.
“What time are you leaving in the morning?” Kyle asked.
Maddy shrugged one shoulder, the air conditioning blowing much harder back here. At least it felt that way. “Whenever. I’m really not starting until Monday, and I already have my classes planned for this week.”
“That’s what you and Jesse and Adam were talking about.” Kyle bit into his sandwich, and Maddy couldn’t help the pull of attraction yanking through her. She remembered what it was like to kiss him, stroll the ranch with him, go to cider tastings with him, and stay up late flirt-texting with him across the distance that had once been between them.
Without any of that now, Maddy suddenly wanted to lean forward and kiss him hello. “Yes,” she said instead. “I’m going to do children’s classes in the afternoons, because that’ll give them something to do out of the heat. And couple’s classes in the evenings.”
“I don’t know the activity schedule real well,” he admitted. “It seems like we have a million things going on all the time.”
“That you do.” She smiled at him, feeling some of the magic and spark that had always existed between them return to her bloodstream. “Now, I know you can’t help me move in all afternoon, because you have a band coming in. Should we go get the heavy stuff out of the way?”
“Heavy stuff?” he asked. “Did you tow a trailer I didn’t see in the parking lot?”
Maddy shook her head and gently pulled her hand away from his so she could close the top on her boxed lunch. “No, but some of my bins are heavy. Art supplies aren’t exactly light.”
“I thought the lodge was providing the supplies.” He put the last bite of his sandwich in his mouth and started cleaning up his box too. He reached for his cowboy hat, which he’d tossed into the middle of the table, and repositioned it just-so on his head.
“Some of them,” she said, telling herself not to drool over him now that he wore that sexy, black cowboy hat again. “Holly will buy more for me too. I just brought a few things to start with.” She had to be able to create on her own, and that required art supplies. “I also brought my grandmother’s trunk.”
“You know the cabin is furnished, right?” he teased.
Maddy cocked her head and gave him the best non-mad glare she could muster. “Are you going to help me or not?”
He leaned toward her, and every muscle in Maddy’s body tensed. “Yeah,” he said slowly. “I’m gonna help you.” For one flash of time, she thought he might kiss her, but in the next moment, he seemed to realize how close he’d been leaning in. He straightened and got to his feet. “You done with that?”
“For now,” she said, collecting the box before he could take it and trash it. “I don’t have any food at my house quite yet.”
“Breakfast and dinner here,” he said. “Every day.”
