Page 6 of Dear Blue Jean Cowboy
Rhett's brow furrows in concern, and he looks down at the parts of my body that aren't under him for any sign as to why I can't breathe. He completely misses the obvious reason.
"You're crushing me," I gasp, pressing my hands against his hard chest.
“Oh shoot.” He pushes off me and holds out his hands to help me.
I reach out my arms and let him pull me up to my feet. Suddenly I'm aware of all the people surrounding us.
“Are you okay?” Dani asks.
“I’m fine,” I turn to look at Rhett. “Your brother saved me.”
A few of the other workers around him clap him on the back. He shrugs like it was no big deal, but I still know how to read most of his expressions even after all these years. He's concerned for me and a bit embarrassed at all the attention we are getting.
Dani seems to be able to read her brother just as easily and quickly tells everyone to get back to work.
“You know you aren’t paying us, right?” The man who was hanging the lights mumbles under his breath.
“Teddy O’Brien, do you want me to call your mother and explain to her how you almost killed the beloved darling of Centennial Springs?”
"I wouldn't go that far," I try to interject, but Dani holds up her hand to stop me.
"She just said—" He points to me, but Dani continues to lay into him.
I smile at the apparent way Dani and Teddy are flirt-fighting with one another.
“I don’t think that we are needed here for this,” Rhett whispers to me.
“You aren’t worried about your younger sister?”
He chuckles. "Look at her. She'd eat him alive if she wanted."
“I don’t doubt that.” I laugh and look up at Rhett. I didn’t realize how close we were standing until this moment.
We both clear our throats and step back from one another.
“Can I buy you a cup of coffee?” Rhett points at the coffee cart parked not far from the town center.
“Sounds good.”
We walk over to it in silence. But for the first time since seeing each other again, the silence isn't laced with awkwardness but comforting. It's starting to feel like it did when we were teenagers.
We get our orders and walk them back over to the gazebo. Dani hasn’t given us the okay to leave, and neither one of us want to get on her bad side today.
“I know this is going to sound like I’m really full of myself,” I say as we sit down next to each other on the steps. “But there aren’t as many people staring at me or asking to take a selfie with me as I expected.”
Rhett doesn't say anything at first, and I'm worried that he might think that I'm full of myself or something.
"I'm only trying to say that it's a nice break just to be me and not image people have in their head of me."
"I think the people understand that on some level. Word has spread pretty quickly about the performance you are giving to help the town, and they appreciate you giving back to this place."
I relax when I realize that Rhett is one of those people. Maybe he thought that I’d changed into some diva that couldn’t be bothered to help the town she grew up in, but I’m still me.
I gasp and grab his arm when I realize something.
“What is it?” he asks.
“I never thanked you for saving me.”
