Say You'll Marry Me

Once they’d faded completely away, Joy turned wide, horrified eyes to Logan. “He knows.”

“Ya think?”

She snorted at his sarcastic response, then clapped a hand over her mouth. When he realized her shoulders trembled from laughter, his tension eased. For a second there, he thought she was upset because she didn’t want her grandfather to know their relationship had progressed past them playing along for June. At least he was pretty sure it had.

Joy’s uncontrollable mirth released his grin as well.

“Oh my God, how old are we?” She collapsed back against the inside front wall of the stall and leaned her head against the iron bars. “I feel like I’m sixteen again, getting caught with a boy in the barn.”

“You’ve done this before?” he asked with mock indignation.

“Oh, don’t even try to tell me you haven’t.”

He gave a wry chuckle, because he couldn’t deny a roll or two in the hay over the years.

“That’s what I thought.”

Her smile sobered as silence fell between them. Logan took in her tousled hair with little pieces of wood still clinging to the ends where they’d dragged in the shavings as she bent over him. A vivid fantasy flashed of her naked on top of him, with that red hair tumbling over her shoulders to brush the rosy tips of her breasts. The visualization sent a surge of heat straight below the waistband of his jeans to reactivate his desire.

It took everything he had not to go pull her back into his arms. “Now what?”

She cut her gaze up to his, her eyes the prettiest shade of mossy green he’d ever seen. “Well, we’re not going back to what we were doing.”

“I kinda figured that.” Damn it. He drew in a discreet breath for the next part. “I was speaking more about the bigger picture. To pretend, or not pretend?”

She straightened away from the wall, but like him, kept her distance. Whereas before she’d been like a badger in her determination to make him listen, now she seemed hesitant. As if she was second guessing her actions after her grandfather’s interruption.

“I don’t know. Do you want to?”

He’d asked an or question, not yes or no. All she had to do was pick one. “Do I want to what?”

“Stop pretending.” Her gaze didn’t quite meet his. “You never really answered before.”

He couldn’t help a snort of disbelief as he pointed with both hands toward the front of his still-tight jeans. “Um…pretty sure I did.”

Color flooded her face, but she shook her head. “That means nothing. Guys are up for sex no matter what the situation.”

Indignation exploded at the sexist statement. “Whoa. Uh-uh. Not all of us are like your ex.”

“In my experience, more of you are than not.”

He narrowed his gaze at her defensive retort as his chest tightened. “And you haven’t realized by now that I’m not?”

Guilt filled her expression. “I do know you’re not. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, you should be.” He closed the distance between them and grasped her shoulders. “Why’d you come out here tonight?”

“To talk.”

“But why was it so important that I know you no longer have feelings for that idiot you left back in Nashville?”

Her gaze fixed on his chest. He could see her wrestling with the answer and waited patiently.

“You closed off ever since you asked the question last night,” she said. “When you told Carrie you were just a stand-in, I needed you to know that’s not even close to being true. The stuff with Gram is one thing because of her dementia, but when it comes to you and me, I know exactly who you are, and Luke wouldn’t have a chance in hell of holding a candle to you.”

Man, he’d needed to hear that. “Thanks.”

He pulled her close and wrapped her in a gentle hug. She slid her arms around his waist, and the companionable silence that followed was so different than when her grandpa had been in the barn. Logan enjoyed the warmth of her body pressed to his. They fit well together with her head tucked under his chin. He had no doubt they’d fit in other ways, too.