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“Sonotmeh.” My body tingled, remembering.
“So…” Taya propped her elbow on her knee and put her chin in her hand. “Do you think he’d be worth uprooting for?”
Three hours wasn’t a terrible drive. There would be more nursing jobs in Bozeman than in King’s Creek. And… I wanted Kiernan so damn bad.
“What about you two?” I asked.
“We’re a text or a message away,” Taya said.
“I have plenty of extra rooms,” Bristol added.
I couldn’t fight the tears. “What if I messed it up?”
Compassion filled Bristol’s expression. “What if you didn’t?”
* * *
KIERNAN
My truck was loaded with the last of my belongings. I left everything else in the house that’d been my home since I’d arrived in King’s Creek. My mom and dad had already moved to town and emptied the place I’d grown up in to prepare for my arrival.
I wished I were looking more forward to it than I was. I got to return home and run my own ranch. My dad would be around to help, but he’d otherwise be retired. While they might not have agreed with me when I’d left home in the first place to work somewhere else, they’d accepted that Dad and I couldn’t work together. I treasured our father-son relationship too much to risk it as coworkers.
I went back in the house for one more sweep through. I’d have to come back and work with the movers. Much of the furniture went to the thrift store Dawson’s stepmom’s family ran in Billings. The rest would be moved to Bozeman by the end of the week.
The place was quiet. I hadn’t moved in all those years ago expecting to get married and raise a family here, but a part of me had hoped. Maybe I’d find that in Bozeman… out on the ranch… working from sunup to sundown…
I shook my head. Thoughts of Emma had plagued me since our night together. I couldn’t get her off my mind—I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t shower, and I couldn’t get a fucking lick of rest until I stroked off to at least one memory of us together.
Bending her over her kitchen counter was one of my favorites. She’d been wearing my shirt, her long legs sticking out, and—goddamn. I needed to figure out a way to get over her. I’d never forget Emma, but I couldn’t let her dominate my thoughts like she was. Since she wasn’t mine and all.
I turned toward the door. Emma was poised with her hand up, ready to knock on the screen door, like the promise of an oasis to a parched man.
“Emma?”
She snatched her hand back. “Hi. Um… I caught you.”
Yeah, she had. I’d been caught and released. I opened the door and let her in. “What’s up?”
She twisted her hands in front of her and I took the time to drink her in. She was wearing a loose T-shirt and jean shorts, and it was as good as lingerie to me.
“You know when you dropped me off after the wedding?”
I couldn’t forget. “Yeah?”
“When you went to your pickup and then rushed back and said and did everything you wished you would’ve done earlier?”
“I can’t fucking forget it, Emma,” I said truthfully, unsure of why she insisted on torturing me.
I propped a hand on the wall next to the door. She stood on the little patch of linoleum left in the old house before the flooring had been changed to carpet. With my arm up and the door behind her, she was almost caged by me, and I couldn’t bring myself to change it. Like she was mine to keep.
She licked her lips, spearing me with a sharp jab of lust. “I’m doing the same. I’m telling you what I wish I would’ve done before you left my house that day. I like you, Kiernan. You’re not like anyone I’ve been with, and I think we have something special, but I’m scared. It’s been years of relationships not even getting off the ground, and I’m afraid of moving—or clinging to you when you move—and then… we don’t work.”
“We’ll fucking work.” I crowded her. Was she serious, or was I truly hallucinating? “I’ll make sure of it.”
Her smile was slow but cautious. “And if I make sure of it too, that means…”
I couldn’t keep my hands off her. Tugging her into my arms, I hugged and claimed her mouth, finally tasting her after too long going without. She met my kiss with equal energy. By the time we broke away, I was ready to strip us down and plunge inside of her. My dick was rock hard and demanding, but a part of me had to know exactly what she meant. Exactly how this would work. I couldn’t assume something that could ruin me if I was wrong.
