Page 43 of Undone

I made a face at him. “You first.”

Josh laughed, then took a step forward and spun around with his hands out, showing off his tight jeans and black T-shirt. “You like what you see little lady?”

“I do.” I chuckled, then went up on my tiptoes to kiss him. I jumped away and covered my mouth when I realized someone could’ve seen us. “Whoops, sorry about the PDA. Hard to resist.”

He rolled his eyes. “You call that PDA?”

Josh craned his neck to look around the barn and pasture, exaggerating his movements. When he was satisfied no one was around, he locked his arms around me and dipped me, pausing with his lips hovering a few inches from mine. “Thisis PDA.” He dropped his mouth and kissed me in a way that made it clear exactly what was going to happen once we’d finished our picnic.

I felt dizzy when he stood me back up.

“You ready to go?” he asked.

“Um…uh…yeah.”

“All right then. The basket is packed and loaded on the ATV already. I’ve got it parked at the back of the barn. You sure you don’t want to bring your camera?”

I shook my head. “I’ll get too wrapped up in taking pictures.”

“Aw, darn it, I thought you were going to get some arty nudes of me,” he said, pretending to be disappointed.

“Oh, you’ll wind up nude, don’t worry about that,” I shot back, a naughty twinkle in my eyes.

Josh threw his head back and laughed, and I joined him. It was going to be a perfect afternoon.

“You’ve been on one of these before, right?” Josh said when we walked over to the red ATV.

“Ages ago. But all I have to do is hold on to you, right?”

“Exactly, nice and tight.”

I was relishing the thought of hugging up against Josh’s strong back and wrapping my arms around his torso when Dustin came running toward us from the direction of the training ring waving his hat over his head.

“Crap,” Josh said. “Something’s wrong.”

“Hold up,” Dustin yelled at us. “Don’t leave yet.”

He was out of breath by the time he reached us. “Kid…fell. That little one…Andy. Fell offa General Riggs.”

“Oh damn.” Josh sighed. “How bad is it?”

“Hard to say, but he’s crying pretty hard,” Dustin huffed. “Looks broken. Thought you might want to come up and deal with it.”

“Of course I do, poor little guy.” Josh turned to me. “I’m sorry, we need to postpone while I deal with this.”

“By all means, go,” I said. I knew exactly how scared the little boy probably was, and what a calming presence Josh would be for him. “This can wait.”

“Thanks.” Josh gave me a tight nod as Dustin detailed what had happened. I watched them walk away, a confusing tickle sparking along the back of my neck as the wail of an ambulance got closer. Was it the sense memories of falling off Jude all of those years ago, or the realization of how much responsibility was resting on Josh’s strong shoulders? I rubbed my neck, trying to push away that tickle, which was threatening to grow.

I knew there wasn’t anything I could do—Josh had everything well in hand—so I headed for the house, hoping that work would help wash away this feeling.

Hours later, Josh peeked into the kitchen where I was working. The sun was setting and I was ready to clock out for the day. I stretched my hands over my head and smiled at Josh.

“Everything turn out okay with Andy?”

“He’s fine,” Josh said as he slid into a chair across from me. “His arm is broken, but it’s a clean break and he won’t need surgery or anything. Just a trophy cast for all of his friends to sign.”

“Are his parents upset?”

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