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Cord didn’t know how to handle her. Number one, he wanted to be the one to ask her out, and number two, he could never do that. So it was much simpler if he stayed out of her way and kept her out of his thoughts. He’d been doing a good job of it for the past several weeks.
Uh, a decent job.
Fine, he’d failed completely, but simply thinking about Jane didn’t mean he had to act on those thoughts.
“I have to get back to work,” he said, feeling stupid and slow. He started to push the wheelbarrow, and as he went past her, he caught the rosy scent of her perfume. He wanted to take a bite of her, swing her around as she laughed, and set her on her feet to kiss her.
In his mind, the image played out in full color, making Cord’s pulse shoot through his body.
“I’m going to talk to my father,” she said.
Cord stopped and faced her. “What about?”
“Us,” she said.
“Jane.” He dropped his head so his cowboy hat shielded her from his sight.
“What?” Her boots brought her closer, the crunching sound of her steps over the dry-packed earth.
He didn’t quite know what, but he looked up just enough to see her under the brim of his cowboy hat. “Has it ever occurred to you that I don’t need you to be in charge of me?”
She flinched like he’d slapped her across the face. Her cheeks colored and everything. “Excuse me.” She turned on her heel and marched away.
“Jane,” he called after her. She didn’t slow at all, and Cord sighed out his frustration. His irritation at himself fired like a cannon through his whole body, and he pushed the wheelbarrow back to the stables while he cursed himself silently.
“There he is,” Travis said with a smile. “That one’s ready.”
“Great,” Cord said darkly.
Travis came closer. The man was in his mid-fifties now, and still just as good of a friend as he’d ever been to Cord. He’d gotten married and moved next door. He and Poppy had two kids of their own now, plus Steele when he came home from college, but Travis always had time for Cord.
He brought pizza over at least twice a month, and he and Poppy invited Cord to every Sabbath Day meal they had. As Poppy was the best cook Cord knew, he went willingly and often.
“What happened?”
“Nothing,” Cord mumbled. He started to go into the stall Travis had raked, then paused and looked at his best friend. “Actually, I just ran into Jane outside.” He looked over his shoulder, but he didn’t see Mike.
“He got a call and left,” Travis said. “Hunter.”
Cord nodded, his heart in a knot. “She suggested we go to dinner.”
Travis said nothing, and Cord couldn’t read him in the shadows of the stable.
“She said she was going to call her daddy and talk to him about us goin’ out.”
“Okay,” Travis said slowly.
“No,” Cord said. “It’s not okay, Trav. She’s his daughter, and he made it ultra-clear to me that she’s off-limits.”
“When she was fourteen,” Travis said. “She’s not fourteen anymore.”
“As she also pointed out to me,” Cord said with plenty of disgust in his voice. “You think I don’t know that? She’s gorgeous, and smart, and everything I’m not. There is no way I’m going out with her, even if I wanted to, which I don’t.”
Cord had worked hard not to lie about anything, because it came too easily to him. Everything sounded too true. This, though, rang falsely even in his own ears.
Travis didn’t call him on it, though. “Maybe she’s not off-limits anymore.”
“Yeah, I’m sure the billionaire Gray Hammond would love his daughter to marry an ex-con.” Cord rolled his eyes. “Don’t say stuff like that, Trav. We both know it’s not true.”
