“You’re sure?” Dusty asked. “You were bangin’ in those shingle nails mighty hard.”
“She’s worried because I was hammering too hard?” Jake muttered a curse. “Is that all?”
“Kira’s a perceptive woman. She’s worked with PTSD, and she knows what to look for. She’s afraid you’re headed for a crash.”
“So why doesn’t she come talk to me herself?” The server had just set a fresh mixed-green salad in front of him. But Jake’s appetite was fading.
“She doesn’t think you’ll want to talk to her. According to her, things have been ‘tense’ between the two of you lately—her word, not mine.”
“Tense”? He remembered Kira in his arms, her lovely body molding to his, her lips softening with his kiss—and how he’d spoiled the mood afterward.
“Any idea why she’d say that?” Dusty asked. “Did you have an argument?”
Jake took a forkful of salad and forced himself to chew it before he answered. “She tried to talk me into staying for Paige,” he said. “I told her it wasn’t possible, and things went downhill from there. But it’s not as if we had a fight. We’ve been working together fine.”
They just hadn’t been talking much. Or touching. Or even making eye contact. Was that her doing, or was it his?
“Are you sleeping all right?” Dusty asked.
“I’m sleeping fine.” He wasn’t, but that was nobody’s damned business.
“How about Paige? Is she upsetting you? Do you think she suspects who you are?”
Jake shook his head. Whatever Kira had told his daughter, it must’ve sunk in. Paige hadn’t been coming around to see him anymore.
“Take a day off, if you feel like it,” Dusty said. “Take a hike, or take the Jeep to town if you want. Go to a movie. Hell, go to a strip club. I don’t care. Whatever makes you feel better.”
“Dusty, I’m fine.” Jake reached across the table and put a hand on the old man’s arm. “I don’t know why Kira should be concerned about me.”
“She’s concerned because she cares about you.”
“She cares about everybody.”
“I know.” Dusty took a sip of ice water. “Kira’s the most caring person I’ve ever known. She gives so much of herself it hurts—to Paige and me, to the horses and to those poor mixed-up kids she tries to help. But with you, it’s something more. If you want to know the truth, I think she’s falling in love with you.”
Jake gave the shock a moment to sink in. Kira in love with him? The old man had to be imagining things. “No way,” he said. “Look at me. I’m a nervous wreck, with no money, no stability, nothing to offer a woman. And Kira’s a smart lady. She’s got a lot more sense than that.”
“Take it from a man who’s lived as long as I have,” Dusty said. “When it comes to a woman’s heart, sense has nothing to do with it.”
Jake stared down at the edge of the table. “If what you say is true—and I can’t believe it is—the best thing I can do is leave before I ruin her life.”
“Leaving isn’t the answer to everything. Maybe you’ve been running away for too long.” Dusty stopped talking as the server set two platters on their table. The thick, juicy steaks, still sizzling from the grill and accompanied by baked potatoes topped with bacon, cheese, chives and sour cream, halted the conversation for now. Jake gave a silent sigh of relief as Dusty reached for his fork and steak knife. “Dig in,” the old cowboy said.
Emotional turmoil had taken the edge off Jake’s appetite, but the food was good and he was hungry enough to eat most of it. By the time they’d finished the meal, topped off with apple pie a la mode, he was feeling stuffed.
Dusty paid the check. Jake thanked him on the way outside. Roiling black clouds had moved in to fill the sky. Lightning flashed across the horizon, followed by the roll of thunder. Jake’s reflexes jumped, but he held himself in check. There was no danger, he told himself. It was only a storm.
As they drove out of the parking lot, the clouds burst. Rain pelted the Jeep, streaming down in wet gray sheets. Jake turned on the windshield wipers. Water sprayed beneath the tires as he drove the water-slicked highway. Rain in the desert was rare, but when it came, it could pour like the biblical deluge, flowing along the streets, pooling in yards and sending flash floods roaring down the canyons. As he drove, he thought about Kira and Paige, the students and even the horses and the dog. He could only hope they were all in a safe place, out of the storm.
He cared, too, Jake realized. He cared about the ranch, which was already becoming like home to him—a place where he was accepted and valued. Maybe even loved.
The idea that Kira was in love with him was too far-fetched to be believed. The two kisses they’d shared had been delicious. But Kira was a smart woman, ruled by her head, not her heart. If she were to let herself fall in love, it would be with somebody who could offer her a future—say, a college professor, a scientist or maybe a doctor, like her father had been. She was way out of Jake’s league.
Even if the sparks between them were to grow into something more, he’d be a fool to think it could last. Sooner or later, he was going to screw up—have one of his crazy episodes and scare somebody, maybe even hurt somebody. Get involved with Kira, and she would only end up hurt. He had to get out of here before something bad happened.
Lightning sizzled across the sky, chased by a boom of thunder so loud it shook the Jeep. Jake clenched his teeth.
It’s all right. It’s only thunder. It won’t hurt you.