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This wasn’t supposed to be a real date, I didn’t need to walk her to the pickup and open her door, but I hopped out, grinning to cover any manly appreciation in my eyes. She could not know I was starting to wonder what those legs would feel like wrapped around my hips.
“Miss Emma, your chariot awaits.”
She giggled, and there it was again. The sky was still partly cloudy, but it was like the fluffy white particles separated to allow the sun to beam directly on her. “You sure do clean up well, Kiernan. But I guess I knew that.”
She did? I walked her to the passenger side of the pickup and opened the door. “When have you seen me all dressed up?”
“Dawson and Bristol’s wedding, for one, but you change out of your work clothes for all the street dances.”
She climbed into the pickup, and I used my herculean strength to keep my gaze off her legs.
“If I was all dressed up at the street dance, why didn’t you ask me to take you for a spin on the dance floor?”
Pink dusted across her cheeks in an adorable blush that was downright sexy. “I’d like to say I’m old-fashioned and prefer to be the one being asked, but the truth is I’m shy and afraid of rejection.”
“Sweet Emma, I’d never have turned you down.” I shut the door and jogged around to the driver’s side, the truth of my words hitting home. Why hadn’t I ever asked her to dance? I two-stepped with anyone who was willing to be my partner. As I crawled into my seat, the question continued to bug me. “I can’t believe I never asked you, but I think I always thought of you as off-limits. Since you and Dawson dated and all.”
Surprise lifted her dark brows. “You could barely call what we did dating.” She lifted her slim shoulders, drawing my gaze to the scattering of freckles across her tanned flesh. The woman continued to get sexier just existing. “There was no chemistry, and we realized quickly we’d never be anything more than friends. Not gonna lie, I wanted more just because he was quite the eligible bachelor and a nice guy, but the experience forced me to realize I wasn’t willing to settle down with just anyone either. Still, it dented my ego.”
“Getting turned down by Dawson dented my ego too.” I grinned, and she laughed, tilting her head back to bare the slender column of her throat. I fought the urge to lean across the seat and feather my lips over her skin and count each of those freckles.
This was supposed to be a fake date. A simple night between two friends, but the thoughts going through my head were a thousand shades hotter than they should be.
ChapterTwo
EMMA
Kiernan and I chatted all the way to the church, and I couldn’t quit fiddling with the hem of my skirt. I wore a simple sundress, under strict instructions not to be too fancy. My sister had insisted on a simple wedding. One attendant, her best friend, and one groomsman, his best friend. A modest number of family and friends had been invited, and their goal had been to make it feel more like a big party than a formal reception. I’d been ambivalent about the whole thing until now. Excitement swelled in my belly and my brain kept trying to tell me I’d seen a hot pulse of desire in Kiernan’s eyes when he’d picked me up.
I was imagining things. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake I had with Dawson and hang my heart on chemistry that wasn’t real, feelings I so desperately wanted. I wouldn’t make castles out of corn chips.
Admittedly, the last thing I thought about when Kiernan arrived to pick me up was corn chips. I’d always noticed the way his jeans draped over his ass and powerful thighs. I was a woman with an active sex drive, I couldn’t help it. The black denim gave him a hint of mystery, and the blue of his shirt only highlighted how impossibly wide his shoulders were. He was devastatingly handsome, and my only saving grace was the way a lock of his hair refused to behave. I had known Kiernan best for his casual, jovial attitude, and that adorable cowlick told me the man picking me up for the wedding was still the same guy I had come to know.
He pulled up in front of the church. I had already slid out of the pickup before he ran around to open the door for me. It brought him too close, and I needed a moment after being closed into the cab with him.
He shrugged helplessly. “You’re going to make it hard for me to be a gentleman.”
There was that glint again. It had been there when he first spoke, but then the double entendre of his wording sunk in and my breath caught. Of course, he didn’t mean it like that.
“Don’t worry,” I said, patting his arm and marveling over the hard muscle under my hand. “You’ll have plenty of time to be a gentleman, but sometimes it’s more fun not to be.” I nearly choked on my own words. Was I flirting? I didn’t flirt.
“Now, Emma. Are you trying to get me in trouble right outside the church?”
I laughed and hooked my hand around the inside of his elbow, unable to resist continuing to touch him. The way his biceps flexed under my fingers threatened to elicit a moan. “I would never.”
My parents were outside the doors of the chapel, talking to one of Mom’s cousins. When she spotted me with Kiernan, she cut off midsentence and focused on us. “Emma, I’ve been waiting for you. And is this the Kiernan you told me about?”
She’d been delighted when I told her I was bringing a guy. My sister had called immediately, and I’d told her the plan. She had grilled me on just how close I was to him as a friend. They were both familiar with Kiernan, but they had never met him personally, only knew he worked out at King Cattle.
“Ma’am,” Kiernan said as he dipped his head like he was wearing his cowboy hat.
I could picture him doing it. The brim would cast shadows over his eyes, giving him that edge that was catnip to women. He had the same smile. A half smirk that was as inviting as it was a warning—I can break your heart.Was that why I had never thought about him as more than a friend? Or had I labeled myself as little more than a friend to any man I would potentially be interested in? If there was one thing I had gotten out of dating, it was a lot of good friends. Maybe Kiernan had been my line in the sand. If we had turned out to be nothing more than pals, I would’ve succumbed to my spinsterhood like a Jane Austen heroine.
But I was getting ahead of myself. This wasn’t even a date, and I would only be let down thinking of it as more.
* * *
The DJ had just finished switching over to dance music after providing the background tunes for the reception meal. So far, Kiernan had met my parents, my younger brother and his wife, and every cousin, aunt, uncle, and family friend in attendance, in addition to all of my new brother-in-law’s side.
