Page 81 of Pretend To Be My Cowboy
She nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”
Wrong answer. He’d given the wrong answer. He could hear it in the disappointment in her voice.
“So, what’s going on with you and your dad?” she asked. “You guys seemed tense when I came over.”
He shrugged. How much did he say? “Just business talk.”
He felt her gaze and shifted uncomfortably. He tried for a lighter tone, despite the fact that his chest seemed tight and heavy. “Can we just talk about the fact that you bid on every guy in the bachelor auction?”
She giggled, and some of the tension eased. “Like I said before, I didn’t actually intend to win a date.”
He laughed. “Well, the good news is, you got the bidding so high, the fire station brought in more donations than any other year.”
She sat up straighter in her seat, preening as she flipped her hair. “You’re welcome,” she teased.
He laughed. “The bad news is, JJ isn’t going to stop harassing you to go out on that date with him.”
She laughed. “Well, you need to find me some other girl, then. I honestly thought someone would bid higher than me. It was my last one before I stepped back.” Holding her cheeks, she looked at him, her cute nose wrinkling. “He knows it’s just for charity, right? He won’t mind us passing it on to someone else.”
“It’s a matter of pride.” Nash glanced over at her with a grin, relieved to see her smile back in place again. “No guy wants to be bid on just for charity. Make no mistake, he’s going to insist on taking you out on the town.”
“Well then, I guess it’s a good thing I’m leaving town soon,” she said. “Then I won’t have to explain why I’m cheating on you with your ranch hand.”
He laughed because she was joking, but they both sounded a little flat. If what they had between them was real, he’d be scouring the Aspire directory for any single woman he could find, because no way would he want Emma out for an evening with JJ. Some other lady could have that experience.
But it wasn’t real, was it?
Emma was leaving.
By the time he pulled up in front of the house, the cab seemed to be filled to the breaking point with unspoken words.
They hadn’t talked about the kiss, and he had no idea how to bring it up. But he needed her to know…
What? That he was attracted to her?
He frowned, cutting off the engine. No, that wasn’t right. Attraction wasn’t all he felt, not by far. That kiss hadn’t just been about physical desire, it had been spurred on by something so much more.
Something he’d never felt before and was at a loss to name.
With the truck’s headlights off, the night sky seemed to come alive around them. Stars gleamed bright against the ink-black canvas, and as he climbed out and took her in his arms to help her down, all he could think was how romantic a backdrop this was.
How, if things were different, he’d set her down on the ground...but he wouldn’t let go.
As if she could hear his thoughts, she tipped her head back to look up at him. His hands were still at her waist, and this close he could see the questions there in her gorgeous blue eyes.
His hands wouldn’t move from her waist. He couldn’t bring himself to let go. Not yet.
There were so many things he wanted to say, but he didn’t have the words for any of them.
And even if he could think of the perfect sentiment to tell her how much tonight had meant to him—how real it felt—would she want to hear it? She’d never once talked about staying here for good, even if her sisters decided to keep the ranch.
She’d never made false promises or given him any reason to believe that this was anything more than a temporary situation.
She had a life in Chicago, one she wasn’t about to give up.
“Nash?” she whispered.
He swallowed back the words that were forming in the back of his mind.Don’t go. Stay with me.
