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His face fell. “No, you didn’t. Well, shit. I loved that old bastard. Even if his farts did stink up the entire barn.”
“That horse farted more than any animal I’ve ever met,” Laura Mae said fondly. “Sometimes I felt like I was taking my life in my hands standing down wind.”
Marisol did her best to hide her smile behind her napkin, out of respect for Old Red, but Robert caught her and snatched the checkered cloth away.
“I see that smile Marisol Medina,” he said with mock anger. “Someday you’ll be old and gassy too, you know. It happens to everyone.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, holding up her hands in surrender. “I’m sure you’re right, and I wish I’d had the chance to meet Old Red. He sounds…lovely.”
Robert laughed as he leaned over, pressing a swift kiss to her cheek before he rose from his chair. “I’m just teasing, babe. And I refuse to believe you do anything but sweat sugar and toot rainbows.”
Laura Mae rolled her eyes. “Oh please, you’re just like your father. Never knew a man to put women on such a pedestal. Poor thing almost had a heart attack when John was being born and he got a good look at how messy being a woman can be.”
“And I’m pretty sure you smelled me yesterday after we finished working in the sun for three hours,” Marisol said, rising from the table and taking her plate to the sink. “If that didn’t convince you I don’t sweat sugar, I don’t know what will.”
“All I remember is how pretty you looked with your hair sticking to your neck,” he said, grinning. “You ready to go? The way back is going to be miserable no matter when we head out, but it should be cool for the ride over if we get going soon.”
“Let’s help clean up breakfast first,” Marisol said. “Then we can—”
“Don’t worry about it,” Laura Mae said. “You two get going. I’ll take care of the dishes. I don’t have a thing on my agenda until after eleven anyway.”
“Grab your water bottle too,” Robert said. “I’ve got a couple I’ll fill up, but it’s always good to have extra.”
Marisol nodded. “Okay, and I’ll bring my phone.”
She almost added “in case Wendy’s people call,” but remembered to censor herself before she outed him to another family member by accident. Laura Mae had shown her good side this morning, but Marisol had seen enough of her bad side to understand why Robert wanted to wait until they were on their way out to tell his mother about his choice to pursue a music career.
And even if she hadn’t understood, he’d been so understanding about her weird family situation, she wanted to return the favor.
She fetched her phone and her water bottle, while Robert grabbed apples and granola bars, and they headed out the door and down the drive to the barn. This morning, the view was hazy and the desert bleached pale brown in the early morning light, but it was still lovely. The longer she spent at the ranch, the more she could see why Robert was so happy here. There was an unassuming loveliness to the land, a hidden-in-plain-sight kind of beauty that revealed itself to those who took the time to look.
“I was working so hard not to kiss you the last time we were here,” she said as they reached the place where they’d watched the sun set her first night on the ranch.
“I was trying so hard to be just friends,” Robert said, turning to her and pulling her into his arms.
“Such a waste of effort.” She leaned into him with a happy sigh. “Think of all the things we’ll accomplish now that we can put all that hard work into something productive. We’ll get the last song finished, bang out an album. Hell, you’ll probably be a superstar by Christmas.”
He gazed down at her, a serious expression banishing his teasing smile. “I don’t need to be a superstar. I just want you to be proud of me.”
“I’m already proud of you,” she said, surprised by the unexpected stinging in her eyes. “I’m more than proud of you.”
“Yeah?” His fingers traced a lazy trail up and down the hollow of her spine. Even through the thin fabric of her tank top, his touch was enough to make her nerve endings sizzle and her heart skip a beat.
“Yeah,” she said in a breathy voice. “I actually think…” She licked her lips and let the scary words come out in a rush. “I think I’m falling in love with you. Is that crazy?”
Robert smiled that heart-stopping smile that made her feel like the world was turning in slow motion. “As long as it’s not crazy that I feel the same way.”
“Really?” she asked, not knowing what else to say, or how to respond to the affection shining in his eyes, promising that her days of being lonely were over.
“I would say I’ve already finished falling,” he said, hugging her closer. “But I’ve heard that when you meet the right person the falling never stops.”
Marisol bit her lip, torn between the urge to laugh, cry, or sit down in the dirt and drop her head between her knees until the world stopped spinning. She and Robert were moving from friends to way more at lightning speed, but she couldn’t seem to work up a good chest full of fear about going too far, too fast. The magic she’d felt last night at the pool was still with her, making her believe in things she’d never taken seriously before.
Things like love and…destiny.
Hopeful young artists talked to her about destiny and their fame and fortune being written in the stars all the time, but she had never taken any of that stuff seriously. As far she could tell, the stars were cold, distant observers, that couldn’t care less about the course of a human life. She loved her work, she had talent, business savvy, and a lot of enthusiasm going for her, but victories had never come easy. She’d fought tooth and nail for everything she had, often feeling as if she were battling unseen forces doing their best to hold her down, not urge her onward. In her experience fate was fickle, and destiny was only for people lucky enough not to run into trouble.
But now, as she skimmed her fingertips up Robert’s neck to tease at the hair beneath the rim of the battered hat he wore when he was being a real cowboy, not just dressing like one on stage, she felt a hum of recognition. It was the same feeling she got when she was tuning a guitar and all the strings finally slid into perfect harmony and a chord that had sounded “off” before suddenly became something beautiful.
