CHAPTER SIX
Jared
I couldn't handle the thoughts of her. They distracted me all day. I tried to focus on my job, but every time I looked up or closed my eyes for a moment – especially then – she was right there in my thoughts.
I couldn't believe that happened. I had sat in a restaurant and had lunch with Darby Gilmore and it seemed like she liked me. She had actually seemed to enjoy it. I had enjoyed it so much! I laughed.
“What?” Jeff asked.
“Nothing.”
We were in the barn, adding fresh hay. I was sweating, the sweat running down my back and between my shoulder-blades. Like Jeff, I'd taken my shirt off ages ago – shoveling hay is hot work, whatever anyone tries to tell you – and my body was soaked in perspiration.
“You're really quiet at the moment,” Jeff persisted. “Something up?”
“No,” I said a little overly insistently. “I mean. No, nothing, really.”
Jeff raised a brow. “Okay.”
He looked unconvinced and I wanted to kick myself for getting so uptight about it. I mean, talk about making things obvious.
I sighed.
“I'm just...I dunno... restless,” I suggested. It was the best word I could think of to describe the way I felt at the moment.
Jeff shrugged. “I get that,” he said evenly.
I sighed again and got back to shoveling hay.
It was late in the afternoon, the sky just going orange, by the time we finished. I could already hear the other guys bringing in the herd. We were ready. I straightened my back, easing out the aches.
“Right,” I said. “That's a day's work.”
“Uh huh,” Jeff agreed. He looked pretty worn-out too.
We both stretched and I headed to the showers. While I was in there, I found my thoughts straying back to Darby. I couldn't help it. Her skin, her smile, that mouth. I wanted her so much.
I thought about what it felt like to press my leg against hers, to feel that warm flesh close beside my own. I could feel my loins responding with excitement and I sighed. I was being stupid.
She didn't even want to give you a number. Stop it. What do you think?
I knew this was all a crazy idea. I mean, she was Alex's sister. She wouldn't think of looking at me. Now that I thought about it, I didn't know much about her. I knew where she grew up, that she had family in Wyoming and that she liked chokecherry sauce. I had no idea about anything else about her.
What did she do as a job?
I imagined something really glamorous. Like, an editor for a magazine, or a designer. Something flamboyant and a bit “out there”.
She is so sexy!
I hadn't ever felt this way about a person before. Sure, there were girls I'd stared at in the past, but they came in two distinct sorts: the ones who would go with me if I was gritty and hard and demanding, and the ones who were so far above me I wouldn't even think of pulling that kind of stunt with them.
I had no idea how to impress Darby.
I finished in the shower and headed home.
On my way, I passed by the ranch where her uncle stayed. I wondered what would happen if I just stopped by to see Alex. I hesitated.
It's not like he's a friend of mine. Not really.
I wanted to go in and see Darby again. I racked my brains for an excuse. I thought of one. If I told Alex I was coming to bring a message from Matt, the ranch owner, he'd believe me. But what message?
Something he might have said. Like, tell Alex I say hi.
I stopped in the drive and, my heart in my throat, headed up the stairs to the farmhouse. I felt more nervous about knocking on that door than I had felt about almost anything before. I hesitated with my hand hovering there, then rang.
I let out a sigh as I heard the sound of a key in the lock. At last, my torments would be over.
The door opened.
I was looking at Darby.
My mind went blank.
“Uh, hello?” she said. Her smile was friendly but I could tell she thought I was a bit weird in the upstairs-department. I felt like that.
“Hey,” I said. I managed to grin in what I hoped was an offhand, cool way. It probably came off like I had gas pains. “Is...” I stopped. What could I say?
“Is what?” she asked. Her blue eyes were wide and strangely she didn't look angry at me, just a bit concerned. Like I might have lost my mind.
“Is... actually, I wanted to ask you for dinner tomorrow.”
She stared at me. I blinked.
Where the hell did that come from?
I couldn't believe I just said that. Did I just say that? No way!
I swallowed hard. Here it comes. Now she was going to be furious. She'd wonder why I thought I had the right to ask her something like that and, quite frankly, I wondered the same thing myself. Where had that come from?
I swallowed again.
“Uh, Darby?”
But she was smiling at me.
“Actually, that would be nice. Thank you, Jared. When?”
“Uh, tonight?”
She laughed. “I can't tonight. But tomorrow? That would be good.”
I stared. Had that just happened? I asked Darby to have dinner with me and she accepted? I tried to look cool, as if this kind of thing happened all the time.
“Okay,” I said in what I hoped was a distant voice. “See you then.”
She was grinning at me and, despite my resolve to play it cool, I couldn't help it. I grinned back.
I drove home with my head floating in the clouds. I couldn't believe that had just happened. I had asked Darby to have dinner with me.
And she had said yes.
I could not stop smiling.
***
I wondered why I had actually agreed to have dinner with Jared. The fact that I was feeling defensive about telling anyone – especially Alex – where I was going didn't fill me with the conviction of my choices. But I was set on it.
And besides, in my heart I wanted to.
“Darby?” Alex frowned as I walked resolutely down the stairs in high-heels. I had dressed in the smartest things I'd brought with me, which were more like business-lunch material than dating material, but I reckoned that wasn't entirely inappropriate.
I still had no idea what was going on with Jared. I just knew that my curiosity was drawing me toward him like a magnet draws iron-filings. And I knew it was more than that. I was interested in him.
“What?” I said to Alex. My own voice sounded tense to my own ears and I swallowed hard, trying to clear my throat of the strange lump that had appeared in it.
“Nothing,” he said with a frown. “I was just wondering where you were heading to?”
I shot him a look. “Is there any reason why I shouldn't be going out?” I knew I sounded quite defiant, and I knew there was no reason for me to sound like that, but I did.
“No,” he shrugged lightly. “No reason. I was just wondering.”
“Well, since you ask,” I said lightly, “I'm going for dinner. With a friend.”
“Oh.”
He didn't ask any more than that, for which I was grateful. If he wondered who I could know out here in the middle of nowhere, or why I was dressed in a white linen blazer, oyster pink blouse and white slacks to go to dinner in Green River, he didn't ask.
“Well, I'll see you later,” I said easily.
“See you, sis,” he said.
His eyes followed me as I walked out, and I could sense he was worried for me. I didn't mind – I wasn't altogether sure I wasn't worried for myself. I still wondered what exactly I thought I was doing.
I must be crazy.
I got into my car – I was really grateful I'd managed to extend the hire for another four days – and headed into town.
In order to decide which restaurant to try, we'd had to exchange phone numbers. At this point, I thought that was no bad thing. After all, if I was going to risk having dinner with the guy, I reckoned I could risk him contacting me.
We had agreed to go to The Cliff Inn.
Despite the name, it looked online to be a fancier place – more in line with the place I'd taken him – and I felt a little bad. I had no idea what he was earning, but I guessed I earned more. I didn't know how to broach that subject.
Well, let him pay. You don't want to insult the poor guy. I felt somehow that he would be easily wounded by something like my offering to pay halves with him. He was arrogant, that was for sure – just look at how rude he was initially – but in myself I felt that covered a bruised heart.
The guy is full of mysteries.
I was still shaking my head when I pulled up outside of the place. As it seemed on the websites, it was a nice-looking place, a sort of vintage outside, done up like a log cabin, but with a modern interior and good music coming from inside.
I thought I might have arrived early again, but then I caught sight of him at a table in the corner. He was studying the menu instead of making eye-contact with anyone. He was wearing a black jacket and a navy-dark shirt and trousers. That was the first thing that struck me.
Dressed like that, he is absolutely stunning.
I wouldn't have thought he owned clothes like that, to be honest. But in a smarter setting he actually looked even better. Perhaps it was the contrast, or perhaps just the lean, strong face that practically asked to be dressed in a formal, stylish way.
He caught me looking. He smiled.
My heart warmed and a strange heat flooded through me. I walked between the tables towards the place where he was sitting, not really noticing anything round me.
“Hi,” I said shyly.
“Hi,” he replied.
I drew out my chair, feeling like I was floating. That strong, intense gaze was drawing me forward and I was quite powerless to resist it.
“So,” I said brightly. “How was your day?”
He smiled, a slow and lazy smile. “It was good,” he said. “I shoveled hay.”
I laughed. “Sounds like hot work.”
“It is.”
We were quiet for a bit, just looking at each other. I cleared my throat. I could feel his knee beside mine and that magnetic gaze was drawing me in again. Dammit, why was this guy so sexy?
“Um... you looked at the menu?” I asked, trying to think of something to say.
He shook his head. “Not really.”
I laughed and opened it. It looked interesting. The dishes weren't typical local food, as far as I could tell, but more like modern classics. I frowned.
“I think I'll take quiche,” I said.
He frowned. I wondered if he knew what it was. He was looking in the menu with a little frown and I pointed it out.
“Number three.”
“Oh!”
He read it and again I noticed that discomfort in this setting that I'd noticed when we went to lunch the previous afternoon. I felt as if I had captured a beautiful wild creature and brought it, untamed, into my tamed world. It was an odd feeling. I felt a little twist in my heart.
“Something to drink?” the waiter asked.
“Uh...coke, please,” he said. I ordered water.
It struck me that neither of us were drinking. I'd noticed that at lunch, too. Not that I thought it was strange – I don't drink and neither does Alex – but it was a surprise to me that a cowboy didn't also.
Don't pry, Darby. You don't know his back-story.
I didn't say anything.
“I'll take the grilled fish again,” he said. “Seemed good at the other place.”
I laughed. There was something so frank about him, so down-to-earth. I think that was what I liked about him. No-one else in my world was like him. I spent the day with neat, mannerly colleagues and did neat, mannerly things. He was so out of place in that sort of setting I wanted to giggle.
He put me in touch with the realities I'd forgotten.
“Okay,” I said. “You seem to like fish.”
He laughed. “It's famous round here,” he agreed. “And it was something I didn't have, growing up.”
I took in a big breath. This was the first time he'd really mentioned anything about his back-story.
Don't push it, Darby. Don't push it.
I sat back and kept my posture relaxed. Breathed easily and slowly. Leaned forward. It's one of those things that encourages people to talk. “Oh?”
“Yeah,” he said. He looked at his hands. “I... it was pretty rough,” he said. He looked up at me with an embarrassed grin.
“Oh.”
I didn't know what to say. I held my breath and waited while he started to talk.