Chapter 8
Grant
“You had an idea, huh?” Noah pushed into the barn with a smirk on his face. “I bet you did.”
The ice from yesterday’s hailstorm had melted, but it left the roads of the ranch and the stable muddy as hell. The horses were going to need extra attention and a bath later with the way that mud was coating their legs.
“What are you talking about?”
Of course I knew what he was talking about, but I wasn’t about to admit that to Noah. He was going to have to work for it. I continued brushing Ginger down as if nothing in the world was different.
“I’m talking about the fact that you left me in the gym two days ago telling me you had an idea for a date to the wedding, and now you and Cori are going together? All this time, you’ve been telling us to go to hell, and we were right.”
I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “We’re going to the wedding together. I didn’t ask her to marry me.”
Noah was still grinning from ear to ear as if that didn’t matter in the slightest. “Still. This is a step. I thought she had a boyfriend?”
The very mention of that asshole made me see red, but I straightened and squared my shoulders. “Not anymore.”
“That’s good. I’m happy for you.”
“Wait,” I said, pausing the brushing. “How do you even know about this?”
He shrugged. “Cori told Lena and Evelyn. Evelyn told Lucas.”
I sighed. “So, everyone knows.”
“Yup.”
Not that it mattered. It wasn’t like we were going to show up to the wedding and be completely invisible. But if all the guys knew, these next few days were going to be absolutely unbearable.
“So, when’s your wedding?” Noah asked.
I pointed at him. “If you say that shit around Cori, I don’t care how my back is feeling, you’ll be in for an ass-kicking.”
He laughed. “I’m just joking, man. But I thought you liked her. Didn’t take you for a guy who’s scared of commitment.”
“I’m not scared of that,” I said evenly. Then quieter. “And I do like her. But I’m not going to rush this. She just had a breakup. I don’t want to be the rebound guy. So I want to keep it easy and light for a while. And you all asking when we’re getting married is the opposite of ‘easy and light.’”
Noah held up his hands in surrender. “Fair enough. I’ll make sure that I keep my mouth shut when you two are present and together. But I can’t make promises for everyone else.”
“I’ll tell them.”
The truth was that my stomach had been in knots since yesterday. The line on my control had been so thin that if I had moved an inch from the way we’d been frozen together, I would have pushed her against the wall and kissed her like I really wanted to.
I believed Cori when she said that she wanted to kiss me. Her eyes showed it, and I felt it between us. But it was also true what I told her and Noah. Rushing this wasn’t a good idea. In no world did I only want to be a replacement for Joel.
No. If Cori and I were together, then I wanted to give it an actual try. Deep down, I already knew that she was too special for me to mess this up. So I was going to do everything in my power not to. And to show her that she was safe with me, and that I would never do what he’d done.
“Seriously, though,” Noah said, the teasing gone from his voice. “I know that you’ve liked her for a while, and I’m happy for you.”
“Thanks.” I tried and failed to stop the smile that crossed my face. She could have said no, and she didn’t. More than that, she wanted me to kiss her. I could still smell the mix of vanilla and cinnamon that seemed to waft away from her. As if she was constantly near freshly baked cookies.
I saw the flashes of teal in her hair and the way they shone even in the dim light of that tiny shack. Big hazel eyes that looked at me like I was the only person in the world.
For her, I wanted to be the only person in the world.
Shit, I was already half gone.
But she said yes, and the satisfaction that went along with that filled my chest and the rest of my body. It was primal, profound, and purely male. She wanted me.
Noah clapped me on the shoulder before heading out of the stable, and I finished with the horses. A few of them needed to be rinsed down, but on the whole, not as bad as I’d expected.
The weather today was chilly in the wake of yesterday’s spontaneous ice storm, and the breeze had a bite to it that heralded winter. It was about that time. It was rare for Montana to make it all the way through October without any snow. If we had a Halloween that wasn’t white, we were lucky.
I needed to pull out my heavier jackets for ranch work now.
Jude was coming down the stairs from the lodge. “You want coffee?”
“Headed to Deja Brew?”
He nodded, and I changed my direction to meet him at his truck. Jude made the weekly run to the bakery and coffee shop so that we could keep the lodge kitchen stocked with bread for sandwiches and other goodies that weren’t the healthiest, but they were fucking delicious, so none of us was about to say no. Lena Mitchell was a hell of a baker.
Jude had done this same task every week for the last…more than two years. As soon as he’d met Lena, he started doing it. Eventually the rest of us stopped offering, because we knew that he was going to say no.
But tagging along was always fun. If only to watch the way our friend tripped over himself with the woman he was clearly in love with.
Given that I didn’t want them to give me a hard time about Cori, I was currently more sympathetic than normal, as far as giving Jude a hard time. Still. At this point, everyone in the entire town of Garnet Bend would break out into spontaneous applause if they just kissed.
The ride to town was quiet. Jude was almost always quiet. Of all the guys, he was the most stoic. We pulled up to the front of the coffee shop, and Jude parked the truck. I could see some kind of commotion happening through the windows, and Jude and I walked into the middle of chaos.
Deja Brew looked like what I imagined the behind the scenes of a fashion show might look like. There was makeup everywhere. On tables and balanced on chairs and on the floor. Some dresses were draped over the backs of the overstuffed armchairs. A hair-dryer was running, and women were everywhere.
Lena looked over as we came in and immediately started laughing. I imagined the looks on our faces made it clear this was the last thing we were expecting.
“Trial run for wedding hair and makeup, boys. Don’t worry, I still have your order. Just give me a minute.”
“Take your time,” Jude said, and as soon as he spoke, Lena’s eyes dropped. She blushed. Shit, if I was noticing how much they needed to get together, it was long overdue.
I was so overwhelmed by everything in front of me that it took me a minute to realize Cori was sitting in the middle of it all. And everything else fucking disappeared.
Her hair fell in soft curls around her shoulders, the teal parts shining out like beacons. Darker eye shadow than I’d ever seen her wear was smudged across her eyes, and they looked bigger and deeper than normal. Shining lips reminded me way too much of us pressed together in that shed yesterday.
Cori was beautiful every single day. This was so much more than that. I’d never seen her like this, and it felt like a punch to the gut in the best way. Holy shit.
She looked over at me and startled. I guess she hadn’t seen me either. But she saw me now, and God, I couldn’t stop looking at her. I was having a hard time controlling my body right now. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to be hard in front of half the women in the town.
The wedding was going to be way more difficult than I thought, if she looked like this. This didn’t make me want to take it slow. This made me want to take her hand and pull her outside and thoroughly finish the kiss we had put on hold.
She stood and came over, giving a small wave to Jude. “Hi.”
“Hey.”
“Grace had her final appointment for her wedding dress, so I’m a stand-in for the bride as far as makeup.”
Jude stepped away from us so that we were as alone as we could be in a room full of people. “You look beautiful,” I said quietly, and I watched her cheeks go pink the same way Lena’s had. That reaction tugged at my gut, pulling me toward her. It took everything I had in me not to step closer. Because we were being watched.
“Thank you.” She glanced behind her, and at least three heads, including Evelyn’s, snapped in a different direction. “How’s Ginger today?”
“She’s good. Had to spray her down because of the mud from the hail.”
She laughed quietly, and I could listen to that sound all day. “Good. Keep me in the loop. I’ll make sure to make time to check on her.”
“We appreciate it.”
When I looked toward the counter, Jude was collecting the bags of bread and pastries and paying Lena for them. She nearly always included more than we had paid for, and Jude did his best to sneak more money to her because of that. They each succeeded about half the time.
“I never asked,” Cori said. “Where should we meet? For the wedding?”
I grinned. “Well, since we live so close, I can drive.”
“We do live close,” she said with a smile. “That would be perfect.”
Jude appeared at my side. “Ready?”
“Sure.” I smiled at Cori. “See you soon.”
“Bye.”
The other women bursting out into shrieks and squeals as soon as we left the shop wasn’t something they bothered to hide. “Was it this bad with Harlan and Lucas?”
Jude shook his head as he slid into the truck. “No, I don’t think so. But then again, they weren’t dating someone the whole town knows.”
I didn’t bother to correct him to say that we weren’t dating. It didn’t matter at this point. Besides, after seeing her like that, I didn’t want to deny anything. That image of her was going to live in my mind for a long fucking time.
A laugh entered my thoughts, and Jude shook his head. “I know you’re already going to get this from everyone else, but it’s about time.”
“I am going to get it from everyone else,” I said, laughing with him. “But you only get to give me a hard time if you finally take the last step with Lena.”
That did the trick. He straightened in his seat and sent a glare my way. I’d never had the chance to ask, and now I felt like I needed to. “What’s going on there? If it’s this bad with me, it has to be worse for you. Everyone can see that you’re practically in love with each other.”
I glanced over at him, and I caught the sadness that crossed over his face. Not just sadness, but the deep sorrow that came from things that haunted you and no one else. I was familiar with that feeling and that expression.
He didn’t respond with words, but the way he looked was answer enough. Whatever was going on with him and his hesitancy with Lena, it was darker and more complicated than anyone realized, and now I had no doubt it was wrapped up in his past.
We rode the rest of the way to the ranch in silence, and that was fine for both of us.