Page 26 of Wrangling a Texas Hometown Hero

He smiled, but that smile faded when Hallie leaned in and pressed her lips to his.

The kiss was soft and fleeting, but it still shook him to the core.

“Hallie?” he whispered.

She kissed him again. This time, deeper with a brush of hot tongue. She tasted of tequila and some elusive flavor that reminded him of home. A flavor that soothed his torn soul and made him feel like he wasn’t a complete failure. The feeling only intensified as the kiss deepened. Every brush of her lips and stroke of her tongue seemed to heal him . . . and made him crave more. Just as heat started racing through his veins like wildfire, she pulled away, confusion clouding her eyes.

He should let her go. He knew he should let her go.

But he couldn’t.

“No, plea-se.” His voice cracked. “I need you.”

With only a slight hesitation, she came back to him.

Somewhere amid more heated kisses, clothes were discarded and he learned how well her petite, toned body fit to his. How right she felt in his arms. How perfectly her breasts filled his hands. How sweet her nipples tasted on his tongue. How tightly her wet heat encased him.

After only a few mind-blowing thrusts, she pushed him to his back and straddled him. Her hair cocooned them like golden curtains, her gaze holding his with a magnetic force he couldn’t look away from as she slowly rocked against him. The feeling was indescribable. He tried to hold on to it. He didn’t want this moment to end. But his body refused to listen. It wanted release. It wanted release with this woman.

With Hallie.

Before he could find that release, Jace startled awake. At first, he thought it was his raging hard-on that woke him, but then a sloppy tongue brushed over his face. Dixie stood next to George, her large eyes accusing, as if she knew what he’d been dreaming about.

What he had no business dreaming about.

He sighed and got up.

After taking the dogs outside for their morning pee, he fed them their designer dog food—chopping it up and heating per Hallie’s instructions. When he’d been playing football, he’d always made himself a protein smoothie and veggie-filled omelet in the morning. Now he rarely ate breakfast. So after the dogs finished eating, he cleaned their dishes before heading to the bathroom to shower. He planned on driving back to Houston, but a call from Sweetie as soon as he stepped out of the shower changed those plans.

“The doctor is going to release Decker tomorrow morning. So why don’t you just stay there?”

“That’s okay. I don’t mind coming back.” In fact, he needed something to do to keep his mind off Hallie.

“That’s a long drive for nothing. Cloe and Rome are here with me now and Liberty and Jesse already volunteered to drive me and Decker home tomorrow. So you just stay there and get some rest. You certainly deserve it.” Her voice wobbled. “I want you to know that I couldn’t have gotten through this last week without you, Jace.”

“Hey, now, no more tears. Decker is going to be fine and I needed your help getting through this as much as you needed mine. That’s what friends are for.”

She hesitated. “I’m happy you’re still my friend, Jace.”

“Me too.” It wasn’t a lie. Sweetie meant a lot to him and he couldn’t believe he’d almost ruined their friendship because of his hurt ego. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

After he got dressed, he looked for anything to do to keep his hands and mind occupied. He washed all the sheets and towels, dusted, cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms, and mopped and vacuumed the floors. While vacuuming the spare bedroom, he took a closer look at the boxes. Last night, he’d thought Sweetie and Decker were using the room as storage. But now he realized they were all things for the baby—a crib, a changing table, and a rocking chair.

This was going to be the baby’s room. From the looks of the paint and the brushes and rollers, they had been getting ready to start painting and decorating when Decker had been shot. Now, there was no way Decker could help Sweetie decorate the room. And Sweetie couldn’t do it by herself. Jace had been looking for a project. It looked like he’d found one.

By late afternoon, he had the room painted . . . and himself. He was washing the paintbrushes outside with the hose when a white dually truck pulled into the driveway. He was surprised to see Corbin. He didn’t know why Belle’s husband would be stopping by.

He turned off the hose and tried to quiet the dogs that were standing at the screen door barking like crazy.

“Hey, Jace,” Corbin said as he climbed out of his truck.

“Hey, Corbin.” He pulled the bandana out of his back pocket and dried off his hands that still had splotches of paint. Something that didn’t go unnoticed by Corbin.

“Doing a little painting?”

He nodded. “Hopefully, I got more on the walls.”

Corbin laughed and looked down at his paint-splattered T-shirt and jeans. “But you look so good in pink.”

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