Driving his pickup along the dirt path down to the barn, Blue’s thoughts, once again, trailed back to the previous night. The fire in Harper’s eyes as she had faced him and challenged him – tell me to leave. He remembered the fire and passion behind her, and it had been ten years since he’d seen anything close.
He’d played with fire, and he had gotten burned. Yet, somehow, the feel of her hands pressed to the rain-soaked shirt covering his chest, her shaky breath, and her pupils dilated to saucers like giant pools of black surrounded by a thin layer of green and golden strands – made him feel alive for the first time in he couldn’t remember how long.
He’d felt the fiery rage burning inside him, but it was something. He felt something. He hadn’t felt much, other than the burning hatred he felt now for Martin Crosby, in some ungodly length of time he didn’t dare try to identify.
He wanted to grab hold of her by the shoulders and shake her until she felt every shred of pain he’d felt when he’d found out she’d married another man. That he’d never see her again, and that any dreams of a future he’d foolishly planned with her in it, one he had been so damn certain of, had vanished in a cloud of dust carried away by the evening air.
He looked around, realizing he’d arrived at the barn without recalling any part of the drive to get there. Chase already had the barn door opened up and was getting the tractor ready when Blue walked in.
“Mornin’, Blue,” Chase called over the loud, choppy hum of the tractor engine, tipping his hat.
Blue nodded back a hello and moved out of the way as Chase drove the tractor out of the barn and parked it before cutting the engine off. He climbed down out of the cab and hopped onto the ground, moseying over to Blue with a self-satisfied grin.
“You’re in an unusually good mood today,” Blue observed with the hint of annoyance in his tone.
Chase chuckled. “I finally asked her out. But Blue, you’ve got to help me, man. You’re a natural with women. All you have to do is walk in a room and all eyes go to you. And all you do is ignore them! Yet, here they come, lining up.”
Blue almost thought he heard a little resentment in that last little bit. “You got a point, Chase? Spit it out.”
“The point is, I need to know how to win her over. You know … what does she like? What do I need to say?”
Blue’s face puckered like he’d just swallowed a lemon. “I don’t damn well know! You think I have some kind of handbook or something? Hell, the best advice I can give you is don’t try so damn hard.”
Chase nodded, but he looked like he had more to say as he kicked his boot around in the dirt at his feet.
“What?” Blue asked.
Chase shook his head. “Nothing. That’s all. I’ll just go get started on the North field. Is that where you planned to work today?”
Blue’s eyebrows cinched and he took in a breath trying to call on his patience. He needed to get this woman out of his head, and despite her little show for him last night, and now that he knew she was still entertaining Chase and he saw it for just that – a show – he decided, what the hell.
He thought about Blake and how she had seemed somewhat interested in Chase. He wondered if Blake knew that her so-called ‘best friend’ was moving in on him, too. Their friendship was none of his business, though, and who Chase wanted to date was none of his business either. If Chase wanted to date Harper and it would get her off Blue’s back, then he guessed there was only one thing left to do, even if it ate him up to do it.
He summoned every memory he could recall about things she liked, things that got her going, things he never thought in a million years he’d ever be telling to another man.
“All right, look. In a lot of ways, she’s just like any girl. Her eyes light up when you tell her she looks beautiful. Not pretty – any girl can be pretty. You’ve got to tell her she’s beautiful. And mean it!” He eyed Chase to make sure he was getting this because if he was going to do it, he’d damn well better do it right.
He continued. “But you can’t just say it in general. You’ve got to pay attention, you know? Like the way her hair flips around on one side but not on the other when she wears it down. Or whatever,” he added, realizing what a pussy he probably sounded like at the moment.
“Okay, this is good,” Chase said with eager anticipation. “What else you got?”
Blue really hoped he wasn’t setting Blake up for another heartbreak, but he knew she could do better than Chase. Sure, he guessed she could do a lot worse, and Chase sure beat Martin Crosby any day of the week, but he knew she couldn’t have developed deep enough feelings for him at this point that it would make that much of a difference to her. Besides, her attention was easily shifted when it came down to it.
The more he thought about it, the more he knew he had to get Harper out of his hair one way or another because last night he’d come too close to dancing with the devil. He didn’t want to admit that if she had lifted up to kiss him when he had his hands locked around her wrists with her hands flat against him, close enough to smell the soft, feminine scent of her hair and her skin, he would have been just stupid enough to have let her.
With that thought, he gave Chase every little bit he could think of. If Chase couldn’t make it work with everything he gave him, he didn’t stand a chance anyway. Now, it was in Chance’s eager, albeit fairly incompetent (when it came to women) hands.