Page 43 of His First Baby Rodeo

“That was more fun than I expected,” El admitted as Jeff drove away that evening with his family in tow.

Mac was clearing the dinner plates from the table. They’d made chicken nuggets that night, in order to suit the palates of their young guests, but El had made a side of Brussels sprouts in butter and herbs that both kids had refused to touch. She’d thought Mac might pass on the vegetable course as well, but to her surprise, he’d seemed to enjoy it.

He had been quiet, though. He’d been quiet all day. And that was making her feel nervous.

What was he thinking? They had been so close to one another last night. She couldn’t remember ever feeling that intensely intimate with another person. Now she felt as if he was standing on the far side of a wide gulf. She would have given quite a lot to hear him speak his mind.

But Mac didn’t seem to have anything to say. He nodded in response to her and scraped food from the dishes into the garbage can.

“I mean, I admit it — I freaked out when Jeff called this morning and said he was coming,” El said, feeling a compulsion to fill the silence. A part of her felt like she was babbling, but she was too uncomfortable with their lack of communication to do anything else. “But it’s always good to see the kids. They’re so much fun. And I think they had a really great day, don’t you think so?”

“Kids always have fun on ranches,” Mac said.

It sounded dismissive. He seemed like he was trying to end the conversation. And when she glanced over at him, she saw that he was looking at the door, as if he was thinking about leaving the kitchen. The whole thing made her feel deeply uneasy.

“Well,” she said, “I think you were a lot of the reason they had as much fun as they did, Mac. You relate to kids really well.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know anything about kids,” he said. “If it went well between me and them, it was by sheer luck, not anything I was consciously doing. I’m glad they had a good time, but I can’t take any credit for it.”

She wished he would. She had sort of hoped he would take pride in the fact that the kids had had a good day. But that didn’t appear to be making him happy.

“Anyway, I’m glad they dropped by,” she said. “I didn’t think I would be, but I am. And honestly, I don’t think Jeff suspected anything.”

“Suspected anything?” Mac gave her a sharp look.

“You know what I mean,” she said. “I don’t think he knew you and I have been… fooling around.”

It felt cheap to sayfooling aroundafter the depth of what had happened last night. But they hadn’t really talked about it, and she felt suddenly shy. What if it hadn’t meant as much to Mac as it had to her? In the moment, she’d been certain he was feeling everything she was, but now he was acting chilly and distant, and she was no longer sure.

“He might’ve known,” Mac said. “He did give me a couple of dirty looks. I definitely got the feeling he was pissed off at me about something.”

“Those might have just been warning shots.” She squirted some dish soap into the sink and began to scrub the dinner dishes. “You know how Jeff can be about the idea of anyone getting involved with his little sister. And you…”

“I what?”

She shrugged. “You date a lot of girls,” she said. “At least, you always did back in the day. I guess you don’t anymore, but that was what you did in high school. Jeff doesn’t want me to be just another notch on your belt.”

“You never were.”

“I know that, Mac,” she said. “You don’t need to tell me.”

“Did Jeff say he thought I’d treat you like that?”

“He said some stuff to me the day of the fair,” El said. “Just big brother stuff. He was warning me to be careful around you because he didn’t want me to get hurt.”

Mac rubbed a hand down the length of his face. “God.”

“Look, don’t take it too seriously,” El said. “It’s Jeff. He’s always been overprotective when it comes to me.” She was wishing rather intensely that she hadn’t said anything to him on the subject at all — but how could she have known that he would react like this? She’d assumed they would be able to laugh about it. “When I first got my driver’s license, he lied to me and told me that the speed limit on the streets near our house was ten miles per hour lower than what it really was,” she said. “When I went off to college, he put canisters of pepper spray in every compartment of my luggage. This is just who he is. You must know this side of him.”

“Yeah,” Mac said. “I know.”

“But I know you wouldn’t do anything to hurt me,” El said. “You were so careful about starting anything with me in the first place. If Jeff is still worried about that, it’s only because he’s being a protective older brother. It’s natural, but it’s not like there’s actually anything to be worried about here.”

“He’s going to kill me.”

“He isn’t going to do anything. He didn’t actually know anything was happening between us when he talked to me at the fair — well, itwasn’thappening back then, was it? I don’t think he knows now, either. I was worried too. But I think we’re good.”

She turned away from the sink and smiled at him. This would be the moment when he’d walk across the room and take her in his arms. He’d smile down at her, and all the worry she’d felt today would evaporate from her body, the way it always did in the face of his touch. He had such a unique power to calm her, to put her at ease — there was nothing like it in all the world.

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