Page 40 of Welcome Home, Cowboy
“I’m likely to turn out to be a jerk.”
Doubtful. She was an expert on jerk-dom. And despite her initial thoughts, Lawson didn’t fit the bill. “You’re one of my students. It’s bad form for an instructor to, um, spend alone time with students.”
Lawson dipped to place her bag in the passenger seat, then stood back to allow her to step inside her vehicle. “But we’re just friends, remember? Nothing wrong with two friends watching a movie together.”
“Right,” she agreed.
“So, about that movie?” he asked again.
She lifted a shoulder. “Well, what’s the title? If it’s one I’m interested in, then I’ll come. If not, then we’ll call the whole thing off.”
His mouth quirked on one side. “If I’d known that would be the deciding factor, I might’ve picked something a little more enticing. I like old movies.”
“Old movies?” she asked, falling just a little in love, despite agreeing two minutes earlier to remain friends.
“I rentedThe Dirty Dozen.” He hung his head. “So, the answer’s no, huh?”
“I’ve never seenThe Dirty Dozen. And I happen to like old movies, too. Not exactly old war movies, but how about we strike a deal?”
“Let me guess. I do yoga with you and you’ll watch this war movie with me?”
“No. I’ve forced enough yoga on you for one week.” She played with the sleeve of her shirt.What am I doing?“How about I bring my favorite old movie tonight and we watch both?”
Getting hooked on his smile, that’s what she was doing.
He pretended to spit into his hand and then held it out for her to shake.
Her entire body lit up as she slipped her hand into his callused one. She imagined it was from barn work or from holding the reins during horseback riding. “Deal,” she said.
—
Lawson reached for a beer in his fridge, stared at it for a long moment, and then put it back. He didn’t need the beer to relax. Julie was just coming over as a friend.Yeah.The most good-looking friend he had. It was going to take all his willpower to keep his hands off her tonight.
He turned and looked at his small living room, sizing up how this would go. If she sat on the couch, he’d sit in the recliner, giving himself a fair distance so that he couldn’t smell her, because the way she smelled made him want to get even closer. Made him want to touch her. And if she took the recliner, he’d take the couch. Easy.
The doorbell rang. Shutting the refrigerator, he purposely slowed his steps to go answer the door. Dr. Pierce had warned him that jumping into a relationship was a bad idea. Inviting Julie over tonight had nothing to do with what he’d experienced in Afghanistan, though. This wasn’t a reaction to his stress. It was his…well, his overly neglected Lawson Junior, who he’d denied any action for almost a year. Lawson Junior had certain expectations. He was used to getting action, and since returning home, Lawson Junior had been…denied.
“Who is it?” Lawson asked, standing behind the door, teasing Julie. She was the only person he was expecting, so of course he knew damn well who it was.
“Me,” a female voice said.
His hand was on the doorknob before his brain could catch up, because that “me” wasn’t the beautiful, calming voice he’d come to know as Julie’s. He was actually starting to look forward to yoga class because, even if the deep breathing and rhythmic moves didn’t calm him, Julie’s voice did. The other day, after seeing a helicopter fly overhead, he’d dialed his voicemail just to hear a message she’d left him the week before. That was enough. Just her voice.
So he should’ve recognized immediately that the person standing behind his door was not Julie.
“Mel,” he said, finding the short-statured brunette standing on his porch.
Stalker Mel’s face brightened as she stood before him, holding up a bottle of wine. Despite the sick feeling in his stomach, he forced a smile. “Mel,” he said again, for lack of anything better to say.
She took a step toward his doorway, which he blocked like he would a calf trying to squeeze out of one of the stalls back home.
She giggled and tried again.
He blocked it, holding his smile. “What are you doing here, Mel?”
She swiped a lock of brown hair off her pale skin. “You’re too much of a gentleman to take me up on my offers to”—she licked her lips—“get to know each other better.” Her eyebrows lifted and the sickening feeling in his stomach increased.
“Get to know each other better,” he repeated.
