Page 35 of Georgia-Blue & Hudson

Calm yourself. Turn it around. Don’t yell.

“Yeah, for letting you kiss me,” Hudson has the nerve to add.

My eyes go wide. “For letting me kiss you?”

“Yup.”

“So you didn’t kiss me back?”

He swallows hard and I smirk. “Uh, huh. Got it.”

Damn asshole. He can say what he wants, hedidkiss me back. And he was hard. That I remember very well.

He puts the plate down on the hay bale and folds his arms over his chest. “I should have stopped it. I shouldn’t have let it get that far.”

I mean, I did come onto him. Big time. But I was happy. Now he wants to act all egotistical over it? “What do you want me to do, GP? Apologize for throwing myself at you?”

“If you did, I’d record that apology for future reference.”Wise ass.

I shove his shoulder because he really is being a jerk. Okay, I did act snooty, but he deserved it. I was nervous and felt awkward about last night. I didn’t know what to say or what he’d say. Him being here so soon after our kiss took me by surprise. I knew I would see him again before the Florida trip, just not the very next day after our sexy kissathon.

“No need. If you didn’t catch it the first time, then I guess you’re shit out of luck,” I bite back.

His lips twitch. “Didn’t hear one to begin with.”

I change the subject. “So you were here to help with the new donkey?”

“Brook asked me if I could give him a hand with the bales. I come over to visit the horses from time to time, Bandit likes me. And Lily’s story kinda drew me in.”

I cut short the snappy comeback I had brewing and shut my mouth. I didn’t think he really cared about that kind of stuff.

While I know he’s like Callan, a jack of all trades, and always there lending a hand to anyone,

I didn’t know he cared that deeply for animals. Lily’s story is really sad, so I chastise myself internally for not being a little more sensitive and assuming he wouldn’t be affected. I mean, he loves horses and has ridden them for years. I guess a donkey would be no different.

“I’d love to have my own horse,” I say.

I see him turn his head in my periphery. I don’t meet his eyes because it’s too damn hard. I’m supposed to be putting my walls up around him, not letting my guard down like I did so easily last night. Look where that got me.

“You would?”

I nod. “Yup.”

“Why don’t you?”

“I will someday, when I have a bigger place. It’s a little hard when I still kinda live with my parents. We also don’t have stables, just the hay shed.”

“Brooklyn has plenty.” He turns his gaze back to the field.

That’s true. I guess there is no real excuse.

We stay in companionable silence as we both watch Sawyer make the first move to Lily with a little nudge of her head, much like Lily did to Hudson. Yep, I saw that and it was pretty cool. She’s a special animal.

I think about Hudson’s flirting comment and I’m sure it looked to him like I was flirting with Takoda. Though he is very cute, I’m not interested in him. I was being polite and trying to deflect from Hudson. I was embarrassed. And even if I was interested in Takoda, he lives a million miles away.

“You’re a good kisser.” I break the silence as I keep leaning over the fence, trying to keep my face neutral. “I thought you should know that, for what it’s worth.”

He reaches for his hat and lifts it off, running a hand through his short hair, then puts it back on. “It can’t happen again.”

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