Page 38 of Mail Order Bride

“What about your father?”

“I'll come back in a few days. After we're married. Get things squared away here and then, well, then who knows...”

She smiles. Really smiles. Her eyes lit up like the Fourth of July. I can see right through to her heart, and it is pounding.

I take her in for a second, and I feel something stir in the deepest part of me. I place my hand on her cheek, and I can feel her heart speeding up. She leans into my hand, and I'm getting hard just looking at her. I haven't felt this alive in a long time.

I need more. A lot more. If I'm honest with myself, I want her more than I want to get back to Texas. But now is not the time for that.

As I stand there, holding her close and kissing her, I can't help but feel like I'm making a huge mistake. She tastes like cinnamon and something else I can't quite place. She's hungry for me, and I can feel her heart racing as we kiss. I know I should stop, but I can't seem to make myself.

“Joel,” she says, finally pulling away.

“Yeah?”

She sucks in her bottom lip and then shakes her head, like she's brushing away a thought. “Never mind.”

“You okay?”

She nods. “Something's different about you, Joel,” she says.

“Really?”

“Really.” She kisses me again.

“What is it?”

“I don't know,” she says. “It's like you've got a secret.”

Her father walks into the room then, holding a shotgun and I see the look of shock on Gina's face. “I guess we'd better talk,” he says.

“Daddy,” Gina says. “Joel is headed back to Texas. Tonight.”

“Good.”

“And I'm going with him.”

I see the anger in her father's eyes then, but he doesn't seem that surprised. “Over my dead body.”

The way things are looking, that might not be too far off. I don’t know why he’s so angry, or what he has against me, but I get the feeling I’m going to find out. It’s not all that surprising. I tend to have this effect on men when it comes to their daughters. I’ve always been a bit of a cowboy, a road-warrior, not exactly what you’d call the settling down kind.

“You tell him?” he asks Gina.

I look at her, cocking my head to the side in confusion. “It's nothing, really,” she tells me.

“It ain't nothing,” her father says. “He starts comin' around and sure enough, so does trouble. Funny coincidence, that.”

I'm staring at Gina with my brows raised.

With a huff, she says, “The cops were asking about you.”

“About me? What about me?”

“It's really not a big deal,” she says, shooting a look at her father. “They just wanted to talk to you about Chad Hensley.”

“Who's Chad Hensley?” I know who Chad Hensley is, but if there were ever a time for questions, this is it.

“The guy from the dance,” she says. “The guy I slapped.”

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