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“He said I wasn’t any fun.” Gerty’s eyes burned with tears, and she couldn’t believe this was what she was talking about on her first date with Mike. “He said I worked too much.”
“Then he didn’t know you at all,” Mike said, his breath washing softly across her cheek. He pressed his lips there. “You’re one of the funnest people I know. Who figures out how to give their brother a job babysitting a dog, so he doesn’t have to do any work? Someone who knows how to have fun.”
He touched his mouth to her jaw, and Gerty pressed into him. Apparently, he only meant kissing on the lips wasn’t happening until he could hold her face with two hands, and that only made Gerty want to kiss him solidly on the mouth all the more. “And anyone who knows you knows work is like play to you. You love it. I haven’t even been around you for thirteen years, and I still know that.”
His next kiss landed on the side of her neck. “Do not let this man fill your head with lies.” The warmth of his mouth on her collarbone made Gerty weak in the knees. “Promise me, Gerty.”
“I promise,” she whispered.
“Good.” He lifted his head, and Gerty’s swam a little bit at how quickly he’d heated her up and then withdrawn.
“Have you two decided?” someone asked, and Gerty opened her eyes, trying to remember where she was. A Mexican restaurant probably wasn’t the best place to have her boyfriend kiss her everywhere but on the mouth.
Boyfriend?screamed through her head.
She wouldn’t let just anyone touch her the way Mike just had, but Gerty definitely couldn’t have aboyfriendonly a month after abandoning her wedding plans and breaking up with her fiancé.
Could she?
“I want the chile verde pork enchilada,” he said. “I think she’s gonna want the taco salad.” Mike glanced over to her, no ruddy blush on his face at all. Gerty’s felt like she’d just pressed her cheek against the surface of the sun. “Yeah, baby doll? Taco salad?”
She nodded, and he confirmed the order. “Oh, and we both want one of those citrus sunrise drinks. I want the ice cream in mine, but she won’t.”
“You got it,” the waitress said, and she walked away.
Mike chuckled as he lifted his left arm around her. She sure did try hard not to immediately melt into him, but he made her feel like chocolate out in the sun. “Your face is on fire, sweetheart. Was it something I said or something I did?”
“I’m going to drive so crazy on the way home, you’ll wish you’d been nicer to me tonight.”
He laughed, the sound sexy and satisfying at the same time. “This is as nice as I get,” he whispered. “But I’ll behave myself now, okay?”
“That would be great,” she said, because while she sure did like how Mike made her feel alive, and worthwhile, and sexy, and desirable, she didn’t like feeling so out of control. She didn’t like losing track of where she was, and most of all, she didn’t like that he hadn’t kissed her somewhere that she could kiss him back.
* * *
“Come on,”she said to Stella and Hodges, the gray horse plodding along but the palomino ignoring her completely. She whistled, and that got Denver to come with her. That meant the horse would too, and once they’d all started to follow her, the little girl Gerty had come to pick up from the counseling cottage would too.
Denver trotted up next to Gerty’s boots, and she looked down at the golden retriever. “Go back by Kayla,” she told the dog, and Denver did it.
Kayla adored animals, and it had been Gerty who’d realized that she needed the comforting presence of more than one horse during her sessions. Gerty had also seen how much she adored Denver, and now the ten-year-old never had a session without the dog with her. She didn’t like talking to the counselors much, but Gerty had gotten her to go if the horses led her there and brought her back.
On the walk across the pasture, Gerty’s thoughts traveled to Mike. His surgery was in only three more days, and the past two weeks had been some of the best of her life. She’d never imagined she’d find him here, or that he’d be interested in her again, or that their relationship would develop so quickly.
She’d always been able to be herself with him, and he’d kept that promise perfectly. He’d become her friend—her best friend—in a world where Gerty’s only friends were family or had hooves.
She’d left everything and everyone behind in Montana, and she didn’t make new friends extremely well in the first place.
Mike asked her on dates, and they’d been out a few more times since the Mexican restaurant. He’d never teased her with kisses the way he had then, and she wasn’t sure if she should be glad about that or not.
“He’s probably just behaving himself,” she murmured to the dandelions that had already bloomed and gone to seed. “Right?”
They talked every day. Mike came and found her wherever she was around Pony Power, and she’d talked to Gray about using the generational house to make and serve lunch the way his father used to.
Unfortunately, Mike’s parents were living in the generational house right now, so Gerty couldn’t get in there to cook. She’d met them, of course. They knew Mike was seeing Gerty again, but she’d never been introduced to them as his girlfriend. She’d not done that for him and her parents, as she didn’t feel like it was necessary.
“Look, Kay,” she called over her shoulder. “Your mama is waiting by the car.”
“Mama!” The girl started to run, and Denver kept pace alongside her. Kayla’s mother grinned and wrapped her daughter in a hug as she arrived. She spoke to her, but Gerty was still far enough away not to be able to hear her. Her mom straightened and waved to Gerty, who waved back.
