A cool night breeze moved the tree branches as Justin walked toward the barn. He remembered Cade telling him how he’d be one crazy cowboy to invite a woman to the ranch for a week. But Justin didn’t feel crazy—not one bit. Then again, Cade probably hadn’t felt foolish either when he hired Retta to work as a counselor for the girls’ bunkhouse last summer. Levi might have thought he’d done something a little crazy when he rescued Claire and her cute little niece, Zaylie, during a blizzard. Both Retta and Claire had stayed in the girls’ bunkhouse, so maybe that damned place had magical powers.
“And now Emily’s in the bunkhouse.” He suddenly felt a presence behind him, and whipped around to make sure he wasn’t about to be head butted by a bull or cold nosed on the hand by Beau. He saw a large shadow, but before he could focus, Emily was right there and taking the last step before she would run smack into him.
She didn’t see him until it was too late, and he had the choice of wrapping his arms around her or letting her knock both of them to the ground.
“Whoa, darlin’. Shall we dance?” Should he hum the tune to a country song so they’d have music?
“I don’t feel like dancin’ right now.” She spit out the words.
“Where are you goin’ in such a hurry?” he asked.
“Anywhere. Everywhere. Nowhere. I had to get away and get some fresh air. Thought it might erase the pictures in my head, but it’s not working,” she said.
“You want to talk about it?” Justin asked.
“Hell, no!” she said. “I can hear my granny goin’ for the soap in the kitchen to wash my mouth out for sayin’ bad words, but dammit! I swear, my brain is never going to be the same.”
“What’s got you cussin’?” He took a step back even though he’d rather have stood there with her in his arms until daylight.
“You’ll never guess what they’re doin’ right now,” she fumed. “I thought I was home free. They rode the bulls and played dominoes until bedtime last night, all quiet and well behaved. I wish they were children. I’d ground the whole lot of them.”
“More strip poker?” he guessed.
“Worse!” She covered her cheeks with her hands.
He took her hand in his and led her toward the barn. “Come on, girl. You need to cool down before you explode. Want me to go have a talk with them?”
“God, no! They’d make you blush, too. Hell, they’d make the devil turn a darker shade of red.”
She matched his long strides until they were inside the barn. Her hand in his was comfortable, and the sparks were almost as bright as the stars above them. He led her all the way to the tack room, where he switched on the light and then pulled her down beside him on a well-worn sofa.
“Now tell me what they’ve done now,” he said.
“Larry and Sarah are playin’ strip poker like you said. He’s down to his shirt, boxers, and socks. She’s lost her shoes and socks and shirt. The other three have gone skinny-dippin’ in that big bathtub. When I walked in on them, they invited me to join them,” she said. “None of them have a bit of shame.”
He laughed so hard that he had to drag a handkerchief from his back pocket and wipe his eyes. “I know it’s not funny—but it is.”
“It might be to you, but it damn sure wasn’t to me. God, I wish I could unsee that sight.”
“You ever been skinny-dippin’?” he asked.
“Not with boys,” she answered. “Have you?”
“Want to be my first? We can find us a lake or that big bathtub.” He grinned.
She jerked her hand free and slapped him on the arm.
“Guess that means no. Well, if you ever change your mind, then just give me a call, and I’ll get the water ready. Do you like bubbles?” he teased, but the vision in his head wasn’t a joke. He could imagine running hot soapy hands down her sides, touching her voluptuous body in places that would make both of them pant with desire.
“Don’t hold your breath,” she said.
“Oh, honey,” he started to say something really smart-ass but his eyes landed on her full lips. Half the lipstick she’d applied had been chewed off, probably from worrying about the antics of the Five.
He leaned forward, cupped her chin in his hand, and brought her lips to his in a fiery hot kiss that came close to knockin’ his socks right off. His tongue gently touched her upper lip, asking permission to enter her mouth. She opened it slightly, inviting him inside.
Emily ignored the pesky voice in her head telling her to run, not walk, back to the bunkhouse, that things were getting out of control. She leaned in and wrapped her arms around his neck.
One of his hands went to the back of her head to hold it steady. He was no novice at this business of making out because his other hand found its way up under her shirt and massaged her back. She pressed closer to him, liking the way his hard chest felt on her breasts, the way his lips felt on hers, and most of all his hands on her bare skin.
Finally, he broke away and kissed the sensitive place on the inside of her neck. If he’d started there, she’d have already undone her bra for him. By now she’d be as naked as those three were in the bathtub. She moved back and blinked a few times. If she focused on something in the room, maybe the scorching desire for hot sex would leave her body. She should’ve looked across the room instead of down at his belt buckle. A deep crimson blush dotted her cheeks.
“We can’t be trusted any more than the Fab Five, can we?” she asked.
“Whew!” He leaned his head back on the sofa. “I ain’t never got this stirred up over a few kisses.”
“Me, either,” she admitted. “But maybe we better take a lesson from it and not let it happen again.”
His head jerked around to face her, and suddenly, they were kissing again. When he finally pulled away, he grinned. “Well, it’s not just the first one that leaves me breathless. Second one made even more sparks. There’s something between us, Emily. We shouldn’t ignore it but give it a chance to see where it might lead.”
Vivien’s words about him being a good man who happened to work on a ranch came back to Emily’s mind. “We’ll see how things go when I’m not here all the time and you’ve got your bar bunnies to keep your bed warm,” she said.
“And who’s going to keep your bed warm?” he asked.
“I scarcely have time for dating, but when I do, it’s usually someone…” She hesitated.
“Someone like who?”
“Let’s just say it’s been a long time since I’ve been in a relationship. I know I’m a big girl, and I’m fine with that. It’s a ‘take me as I am or go to hell’ situation for the most part. But my last boyfriend kind of soured me on getting serious with anyone for a long time. He wanted to change me into his image of the perfect woman,” she said. “He wanted me to join a gym, go on a strict diet, and have some cosmetic surgery. Let’s just say on that last issue that I hate needles so I wasn’t willin’ for his suggestions. It ended the whole thing. The next year he married a tall blonde who looked like a runway model.”
“He was an idiot. You’re already perfect,” he said.
That melted her heart. “Thank you for that.” She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “We’d better get on back. I’m just hoping they haven’t gotten into something even worse than skinny-dippin’ when I get there.”
His phone rang before he could say anything else. He snapped it off the holder on his belt and answered, “Hello, Mama. No, I’m at the barn.”
A few seconds later he said, “I’ll be there in a little while.” He ended the call and shoved the phone back in his pocket. “Now where were we? Oh, what could be worse than skinny-dippin’?”
“Oh, maybe streakin’ from the bunkhouse to the barn in this weather. I’d have to call 911 to come get them for heart attacks. And heaven forbid if Larry or Otis stepped in a gopher hole and busted up a hip or knee.” Her pulse still hadn’t settled down, so her words came out between short breaths.
“They’re pacing themselves and saving that for tomorrow night after the party. Think about it, Emily. They’ve done one ornery thing a day. So they’re saving the best until last.” Justin tucked her hand back into his as they left the tack room.
The shiver that made its way from her neck to her toes had nothing to do with the weather. Or with the embarrassment the Five had put her through that week—the rascals would be lucky if they ever got another vacation away from the senior center. The sparks flying around her had to do with Justin and the fact that he’d said she was perfect. No one, other than her grandmother and her parents, had ever told her that.
“Need my jacket?” Justin asked.
“Nope, just need tomorrow to be over so I can take this crew home and get back to normal,” she said.
“What’s normal?” Justin asked.
“Good question.” Emily squeezed his hand.
Justin pointed at the ranch house. “Levi and Claire are back. Mama said they were on the way. Want to come in with me?”
She shook her head slowly. She’d rather go inside the ranch house for sure and avoid the ladies a while longer. “I should get on back to be sure no one drowned or fell getting in and out of the tub, and it sounds like you’re supposed to be doing something else, anyway.”
Justin stopped at the edge of the bunkhouse porch. “Tell me again why these spry folks are in a home anyway?”
“Loneliness,” she said. “Pure and simple. They don’t have family. Each of them have their own little apartment, and since Otis still has a driver’s license, he has a car, so they can leave pretty often for a movie or to go out to eat. They have some problems but not too many for folks who’ve passed the seventy milestone.”
“Poor old darlin’s. I’d hate to come to the end of my life and not have family around me. I want kids and grandkids and hopefully even great-grands.” He kissed her on the forehead. “Good night, Emily.”
“Night,” she muttered.
She didn’t go inside right away but stood in the deep shadows of the porch and watched him until he reached the house. With a long sigh, she finally opened the door to find the three ladies lined up on the sofa. They were wearing chenille robes of various colors, and their wet hair gave testimony that at one time or another, they’d all been in the tub or shower.
“Where you been? Out kissin’ on Justin?” Patsy giggled.
Bess poked a bony finger on Patsy’s shoulder. “Ladies don’t kiss and tell.”
Emily took a deep breath. “I want you to promise me that there’ll be no shenanigans tomorrow.”
“We was talkin’ about that before you caught us skinny-dippin’,” Patsy said.
“Just so you don’t put all the blame on the short folks.” Sarah ran a comb through her chin length hair and tucked it behind her ears. “Me and Larry had our turn when the water went cold and they got out. Had to run another tub full. It was so freeing that I thought I was a teenager again. My boobs even floated! First time they’ve been lifted up without support in years.”
“We’ve had so much fun this week, it’s been like we were stars in that movie Cocoon,” Bess said. “Did you notice that me and Patsy didn’t even argue as much as usual?”
No matter how hard she tried, Emily couldn’t keep the grin at bay, not even by biting her lip. Nor the guilt from her heart for being judgmental about what they were doing. They were, as one of them said early on, over twenty-one, and no one forced them to do anything. So what if they’d done some pretty risqué and crazy things. It had made them happy.
“And if I die tomorrow, I’ll go out with this big smile on my face that the undertaker won’t be able to undo.” Sarah sighed. “This was better than going to Disneyland as a kid.”
“Hell, honey, this was better than a chocolate brownie with chocolate chip ice cream and pecans on the top,” Patsy said. “And now I’m going to bed to dream of all the fun we’ve had. Thank you, Emily, for giving us old folks some precious memories. And—” She lowered her voice. “If I die before Sarah, promise me you’ll put all the pictures you took in my casket with me. Even in eternity, I don’t want to take a chance on my memory going bad and forgetting what this has meant to us.”
Now Emily was getting all misty eyed. “Y’all are…”
“Family,” Bess said. “And you’re our precious baby girl.”
“Thank you.” Emily blinked back tears. “Now you’d best get some beauty rest. I hear we’re meeting Skip and Mavis and Benjy tomorrow evening. We’ll spend the day getting ready for the party. I’m volunteering to do nails and hair.”
“Thank God!” Bess said. “Patsy’s hair looks like an old mop that’s been hung upside down on the clothesline to dry.”
“Well, yours looks like a pot full of spaghetti,” Patsy shot back.
“Oh, both of you stop your bitchin’,” Sarah said. “Emily will you do my makeup? I always look like a clown when I do it.”
“Of course I will. And I’ll French braid you hair.”
“Mine too?” Bess asked.
“Sure thing,” Emily agreed. “And we’ll use a curling iron on Patsy’s to make her beautiful. Now I’m going to bed. Sweet dreams to the bunch of you.”
“Come on, girls. We’ve got to go get our snorin’ done so we can par—tee.” Sarah dragged out the last word like a teenager.
After a quick shower, Emily stretched out on the twin bed and laced her hands behind her back. She’d experienced more emotions this week than she had in years—from aggravation, to embarrassment, to tears, to downright steamy hot desire. And now after that make-out session in the barn, she had mixed feelings about what she would say to Justin when and if he ever did call and ask her out.