Tumble (Dogwood Lane 1)

He kisses me on the top of the head. “Sweet dreams, Neely.”

“Mm-hmm . . . ,” I say before slipping off to sleep.

CHAPTER TWENTY

NEELY

Should I walk you to the door? I feel like that’s the gentlemanly thing to do.” Dane looks at me from across the truck with a shit-eating grin. “It’s less of a walk of shame if I do that, right?”

“I’m a mess.” I look down at my clothes. We dusted them off the best we could and picked all the hay we could find from my hair. Still, every time I move, I find more evidence of the night spent in the horse barn, besides the fact that I smell like it. “I don’t think now is the time to start behaving like a gentleman.”

“Here’s the question—did it make you forget Manhattan?”

The dull ache between my legs flares. “Yes.”

He smiles like he’s won a prize.

“Thanks for last night . . .” I cringe. “Did that sound like I was thanking you for sex?”

“Weren’t you?”

“No,” I say, nudging him with my shoulder. “I was just thanking you for spending time with me. Or something.”

He leans over the console, his eyes shining. “I’d rather like to believe you were thanking me for sex.”

I press a kiss to his lips in a move that shouldn’t be as thoughtless as it was. “I gotta go. My mom is probably watching out the window and gearing up to play Twenty Questions.”

“She is.”

“Huh?”

He nods over my shoulder. “She is watching. Look.”

By the time I turn around, the curtains are fluttering closed. “She really was.” I gasp. “I was just being facetious.”

I grab the door handle but am stopped by Dane’s palm on my forearm. “Neely?”

“Yeah?”

“I hope this doesn’t make things hard between us. I know what we’ve both said about relationships and you leaving and all that, but I’d like to think we’re both adults who can handle this without screwing everything up.”

He’s too handsome for that. Too sexy. Too kind and considerate and too good of a man to have sex with and walk away. But that’s what I have to do.

“Of course we are,” I say. “We knew what it was when it happened. Right?”

“Right.” The words lack the assuredness I hoped to hear. “Better get in there and talk to your mom. Tell her I said hi.”

“Will do.” I hop out of the truck, and with a final wave, I make my way up the sidewalk. I no more than get inside the house before Mom rounds the corner, acting surprised.

“Well, good morning to you.”

“Cut it,” I say. “I know you were looking out the window.”

“I heard a truck pull up. What do you expect?” She leans over and plucks a piece of hay out of my hair. “This is a good sign,” she says, waving it in front of me.

I laugh. “Will you stop it?” I work my way around her, avoiding eye contact. I learned as a child she has a hard time asking questions if you don’t look at her. “I’m going to grab a shower.”

“Good, because you smell like a barn.”

“Fitting.”

I hear her quick intake of breath behind me but continue looking forward. Once in my room, I find my phone just as it starts to ring.

“Hello?” I ask, not recognizing the number.

“Is this Neely Kimber?”

“It is,” I say, grabbing a set of clean clothes from my suitcase.

“This is James Snow. I wanted to call and let you know personally that we were highly impressed with your résumé and interview. We’d like to offer you the editorial position, contingent upon a face-to-face interview.”

I sit on my bed and stare blankly at the wall. “Oh. That’s great,” I say, hoping he takes my tone more enthusiastically than it sounds to me.

“I’ve sent you an email that goes over our proposal of employment. If you find it acceptable, we’d want you to get in here by the end of the week. You have lots of ideas and so do we. We believe that, together, we can make a great team and have a wonderful impact in our industry.”

He continues on, rattling off their distribution statistics and plans for expansion. I nod, even though he can’t see me. It’s all I’ve got. My emotions are tied up in a man in a truck heading to pick up a sweet little girl from a sleepover.

“How does that sound?” James asks.

“Great,” I say, despite not having heard anything he said. “I’ll take a look at your proposal and get back to you.”

“Wonderful. I hope this is the start of a successful relationship.”

“Me too. Talk soon.”

“Goodbye, Miss Kimber.”

The phone falls from my hands and lands on the bed. My heart falls, too, but I’m not sure where it lands quite yet.

DANE

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I pull my truck into my driveway and park next to my dad’s.