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Her pulse pounded, and she bobbled her ice cream cone. Frantic not to drop it, she stilled and tried to hold still. Everything about Jesse made her quake though, and she wasn’t even sure why.
He came around the corner of the lodge, his face lit up and waves of good energy pouring from him. Starla could only stare. She couldn’t quite believe the man walking toward her, still talking in an animated voice to Ashley.
Ashley shook her head, but her smile was radiant too. If he fell for her, it wouldn’t be the first time Starla had lost to the woman.
She could only stand and stare as they came closer, even when Gina said her name. Jesse faced forward, his eyes locking onto hers. He came to a complete stop in the next moment, and Starla swore the world beyond her and Jesse went dark.
She didn’t know what that meant. She didn’t live here. She didn’t talk to him the way she once had.
In this moment, she regretted that, and she wondered if she and Jesse could somehow salvage their relationship. Something cold ran down the back of her hand, and it became annoying enough that she looked at it.
Her rainbow sherbet had become a rainbow river, and she jerked her hand up to her mouth to lick it clean.
“Starla,” Jesse finally said, and he swooped toward her. He laughed and didn’t care one ounce about melting sherbet as he lifted her up off her feet and hugged her. “You’re here.” He set her down and looked down to her feet and back into her eyes. “You look amazing.”
He lowered his head, and Starla knew he was going to kiss her. Her body tensed; her brain screamed a warning at her.
She didn’t move, because when Jesse touched his lips to hers, Starla didn’t want to be anywhere else but standing in his embrace, kissing him.
ChapterTwenty
“So they’re back together?” Kyle had been gone from the ranch for two days and two nights. He didn’t like how much he’d missed, as apparently, there’d been some major developments with Starla and Jesse.
“I have no idea,” Todd said. He lay on the couch, his boots kicked off by the door and his hat hung there too. He held Laura in his arms, and Kyle had only been home for twenty minutes. They’d filled him in on the juicier gossip, including that Maddy had single-handedly charmed Mama with her strawberry almond cake and that she’d played cornhole with Holly so their team didn’t have to forfeit the family round on the Fourth.
Kyle had forgotten about the family cornhole tournament a couple of nights ago. His gut seethed, and he hated how it made him sick. He hadn’t seen Maddy yet, and he told himself he didn’t need to run to her place the moment his boots landed back on the ranch.
Why not?he asked himself, and he didn’t have a good answer for that either. He’d texted her from the airport that morning, and he’d asked her to dinner. She’d said yes. They’d been in near-constant communication while he’d been in Nashville, and Kyle kept telling himself he didn’t have anything to worry about.
“I’m going to go shower,” he said. “Is Starla still here?”
“Left after lunch,” Laura said, her voice almost a monotone.
Kyle nodded though neither of them could see him and walked down the hall. He felt bad he’d missed Starla. He liked her, and he’d have liked to see her. “Maybe if Jesse could figure out his life,” he muttered to himself, not sure why he cared who his brother dated or married. Frankly, the fact that Jesse even wanted to date again meant a lot.
He went through the motions of soaping up, brushing his teeth, getting dressed, and splashing on his cologne. When he finished getting ready, he still had thirty minutes before he’d told Maddy he’d pick her up.
He didn’t want to stay in the house with Todd and Laura, who didn’t make a peep of noise as he clunked back into the kitchen. He opened the fridge and took out a bottle of sweet tea, then whistled for Azure.
The dog poked his head around the couch, and Kyle said, “Come with me, boy.” Together, they went outside through the back door. Kyle went down to the wild grasses beyond the steps, but Azure stayed on the small deck, his nose doing its job. He sniffed the air and looked right and left, finally bounding down the steps and toward Kyle, who’d gone to the base of a big oak tree which stood between his cabin and the one next door where Holly and Sierra lived.
Holly would be at work, and with the heat today, Todd and Sierra had called everyone in off the ranch. They’d go out again in a little bit just to make sure the animals all had the fresh, cold water they needed, but other than that, Todd said there was no reason to get heat stroke today.
Kyle wiped his forehead and sank to the ground. He twisted the lid on his sweet tea, the satisfyingpop!from the lid buoying his spirits. Azure didn’t come over to him, but started rooting and sniffing through the grass.
He took a long draw of tea and then exhaled as he leaned his head back against the rough trunk. The air just kept coming out of his lungs, and he realized how very tight he was. His shoulders went down, and he closed his eyes.
A window, he thought to himself. You’re a window, and everything that’s irritating to you just goes through you.
Several minutes later, the tea was gone and Kyle felt more like himself. He got up, whistled again for Azure, and headed for the house. The dog didn’t come with him, and Kyle wasn’t sure where he’d gone. He always made his way back to Todd’s or Blake’s, and Kyle wasn’t too worried about the dog.
He went inside the cabin and dropped the bottle in the recycle bin next to the fridge. “I’m going to Maddy’s.”
“Okay,” Todd said, his voice barely more than a grunt. Kyle looked over the couch as he went by, and it seemed neither Todd nor Laura had moved since he’d gone to shower. They made such a cute couple, and Kyle’s jealousy exploded toward the ceiling.
He wanted someone to hold in the early evening. They wouldn’t have to talk. They wouldn’t have to always be out doing something. They could just find a place with really good air conditioning and a couch, and then they could be together.
His mouth got drier and drier with every inch of dirt road he bumped over to get to Maddy’s. Her car sat out front, but so did another vehicle. The blue SUV seemed to glow the color was so bright, and Kyle actually glared at it as he went by.
