9
“And you won’t believe what he did.” Jessica clamped her phone between her head and her shoulder as she sorted through her neglected pile of clean clothes. “He got a photographer to take pictures for the website that day. Lots of pictures. There must be a thousand with me on a horse with that stupid outfit on. I was mortified.”
“You knew the photographer was coming. Why didn’t you just change into jeans?” At long last, Laurel had traveled to a place with cell service, and Jess was giving her bestie an earful.
“And let Cord win the bet? No way.”
“After that stunt, I assume you broke up with him?”
“I can’t break up with him,” Jess explained. “How can we break up when we aren’t dating?”
“You could stop having ice cream together every day.” Laurel’s voice was thick with sarcasm.
“But you know how much I like ice cream.” Jess turned on the phone’s speaker setting so she could put her socks in her dresser drawer.
“Buy your own ice cream. You don’t need this Cord guy if the other cowboy isn’t bothering you. Skip breakfast and grab a protein bar like you do when we’re in Dallas. Don’t spend any more time with this dude if he’s so awful.”
“He’s not really awful.” Jess backpedaled, feeing bad that she’d given such a one-sided view of Cord. “He’s actually super nice. He’s staying here all summer to help my grandparents redo their website and accounting system, and taking a huge cut in pay to do it. Plus, you should see how sweet he is with Nanna and Bucky. And he took me to eat prime rib. And he took me dancing so we could practice before the big Sage Valley Ranch dance. He said he doesn’t like dancing, but he’s really smooth. And I have to admit, those muscles felt pretty good when we were slow dancing.”
“Oh. My. Gosh.” Laurel left a space between every word.
“What?”
“You’re falling for him.”
“No, I’m not.” Jess froze, a pair of half-folded jeans in her hands.
“You’re not fooling me one bit. I know you’re into him. Why didn’t you tell me instead of blasting him to bits?”
“I haven’t fallen for him.” Jessica’s heart did a somersault and landed in her stomach. “We’re not even dating. Bucky made us sign that employee dating form, but that doesn’t mean anything.”
“Of course you’re dating. You’re with him all the time.”
“Because
we both work here. That’s the only reason.” Jess picked up the phone and began to pace in front of her window.
“Yeah, right.” Laurel’s tone gave the opposite meaning to her words. “Have you kissed him?”
“Only that one time when we were putting on a show for Mason. Since then, we’ve only held hands. I told him I absolutely won’t date anyone until I graduate.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“It’s true.” Jess tried to think of something… anything that would prove it. “Just last night, he told me he was fine with us being friends.”
“Really? What were his exact words?”
“Something like, ‘I want you to know, when you go back to UNT, I’ll wait for you. I’ll try not to push you to be more than friends. And when you graduate, if you still want me, I’ll be there.’”
Silence. Jess checked her cell phone screen, but the call was still connected.
“Laurel? Did I lose you?”
“You’re an idiot.”
“What?”
“He’s in love with you.”