Serious Cowboy (Cowboys of Duncan Ranch #2)

Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

When Aaron asked her out that Saturday for dinner, she almost gave him a flat no. Not only would it mean having to ask her folks to watch Kara, it could open up a can of worms between him and her. Still, when he added the caveat of “as friends,” it made things somewhat easier. She and Aaron had a memorable past, but so far, being around him hadn’t proven to be difficult.

If anything, she felt far more comfortable with him than she thought she would. It was almost as if they’d gone back in time to when they were young, innocent, and carefree.

Before providing him with her answer, she decided to go to her parents first. If this was going to be some enormous problem, she should find out now.

“Hey Mom and Dad,” she started, after her mother put her on speakerphone. On her side of the line, she closed her eyes, waiting for some major fallout. “I was curious if you might be okay with babysitting Kara for a few hours tomorrow evening. I mean, I know this is short notice, and it’s totally okay if?—”

“We’d love to,” her mother’s voice spoke over the end of her sentence, so Joy felt compelled to ask for clarification.

“I’m sorry?”

“She said we’d love to,” her dad interjected. “And she’s right. Bring her over anytime, Joy.”

For a minute, Joy opened and closed her mouth like a fish, no words coming out. Had they seriously fulfilled her request with no issues? Maybe that was why she asked her next question.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, we’re sure,” her mom spoke up again. “We would delight in it.”

Joy contemplated this. While she and Kara had been staying at their house, she’d kept out of her parents’ way as much as possible. Conversations had been tense, and she didn’t want to be any more underfoot than necessary.

She and Kara had remained in her bedroom or gone out rather than loiter in the shared family spaces for the most part. And beyond those first couple of meals, they hadn’t eaten with her mom and dad, either. She’d tried to save them the trouble of additional awkwardness by eating in her old room with her daughter.

Had that been a mistake?

Or maybe the problem was Joy herself being there. After all, it was her they’d been so furious with all those years ago. Maybe her future interactions with them could be positive any time they centered around Kara as their granddaughter. It wasn’t quite an olive branch, but it was something she could work with.

So, she called Aaron back.

“What time would you want to go?”

“Eight, okay?”

“Eight should be fine. Meet you there?”

“I could come pick you up if you give me your address,” he suggested, but that felt too… like a date. And this wasn’t a date. Not even close.

“No, I’ll drive and meet you there. I remember where The Steer House is.”

Everything went okay. She was able to drop off Kara without any negativity with her parents. She’d worried that her daughter might not want to go back to her grandparents’ place after having so recently moved away, but her dad waved a pair of coloring books at her.

“These are fantasy ones with unicorns and flying horses. Do you like that, Kara?”

She did, but Joy had no clue how he knew.

“I do, Grandpa.”

“Then, let’s get busy coloring.”

Together they’d strung out a whole series of crayons, using the coffee table as a surface. Suddenly, Joy was taken back to her childhood when her dad had done the same with her. Her mom had worked puzzles with her in the same way.

How had she forgotten such things?

“Kara be good for your grandparents,” Joy admonished her, but Kara seemed unfazed.

“I will, Mom.”

“Have fun with Aaron,” her mom said, and she couldn’t help digging into that remark for evidence of condescension or animosity. Yet, she could detect none. Her mother seemed to mean it. Which maybe shouldn’t come as a shock. It’d been Wayne her parents had loathed, not Aaron.

Never Aaron. Never her best childhood friend and first boyfriend.

“Okay. Thanks for watching Kara.” Her dad already had half a page colored in as Kara created some sort of pattern on hers using a fingernail file underneath the paper. Joy didn’t even know where the file could’ve come from.

“It’s our pleasure.”

So that left Joy with nothing to do but leave. She finished putting her makeup on in the car, then drove—even if the engine sputtered once or twice—to the restaurant without incident.

The dinner itself proceeded fine, too, except for one little issue. He kept touching her. Nothing inappropriate or egregious. Just a casual touch here and there. A brush of their fingers when he handed her the pepper. How his body leaned against her chair when he went to pay the bill. Then, his palm at the small of her back as he guided her out of the restaurant, and a steadying hand when she stumbled on some loose gravel out in the parking lot.

But she noticed. And for some reason she couldn’t explain, she liked it. It had been forever since Wayne treated her this nicely, with all his concentration on her. It was lovely.

Maybe due to there being next to no lighting out in that lot, she was able to catch sight of a shooting star. She hadn’t realized they’d taken so long to eat inside, but a peek at her phone told her they’d been chatting and eating in there for nearly two hours.

She could hear the sounds of the tributary from the river that became a nearby creek, as well as the distant sounds of coyotes and possibly a woodpecker in the small grove of trees off to the side. It’d been a long time, but the noises didn’t alarm her. They were the sounds of her childhood. The sounds of home.

“Ooh, look…” She pointed straight up into the sky.

“Pretty, isn’t it,” he said. “There’s a meteor shower happening tonight. Also, it helps that there’s a new moon. Makes for better viewing.”

They stood there together for several minutes, content to watch as one splash of pale light trailed against the velvet of the darkened atmosphere after another. There must’ve been dozens of them. Then, there were the constellations themselves. Everything was so crystal clear here that she could see all the various signs her dad had named for her as a kid.

Planets and distant stars like Venus and Sirius, but also constellations like the Big Dipper, the Pleiades, and Orion.

“Cassiopeia’s about to set, looks like,” Aaron observed, and following his eye line, she could see that he was right.

“Never thought I would miss things like the stars, but I have.”

“You couldn’t see them in California?”

She shook her head. “Way too much light pollution, or sometimes real pollution like smog down in LA. Between the two, seeing the sky this clearly just didn’t happen.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re here to see it again.”

“Yeah.” She stared at him, even though the dimness didn’t allow for her to make out much of him, just his outline, really. Yet, she could feel him standing beside her. Sense him there as a solid and familiar presence. “Me, too.”

He paused for another few moments halfway through the rocky parking lot, then reaching for her hand, tucked it into his arm and guided her the rest of the way. Once at her car, he brought his face closer to hers. She could smell that birch essence of his, and something about how it teased her senses had her taking a deep breath as if to memorize it.

“’Night, Joy-Joy.” And he kissed her.

It wasn’t a full-on lip lock or anything, merely a brief peck that was mostly her cheek and the corner of her mouth.

She didn’t know what compelled her to do it, but rather than stepping back or even pushing him away, Joy returned the kiss. Worse, she didn’t give him what he gave her, she lined them up properly so that her lips pressed against his. It was an action that not only refamiliarized her with the feel of his mouth to hers, it allowed her to feel the warmth of his surprised breath as he released a sharp exhale.

His eyes—one she knew to be amber brown with darker flecks—shined at her for maybe a second before he let them fall shut and kissed her all over again, improving on the one she’d provided to him. The kiss continued on and on, far too long, really, but she didn’t stop him. She couldn’t stop him. Or maybe, she had zero inclination to end something so wonderful.

By the time they broke apart, her breathing had accelerated, and she’d become a bit dazed. lightheaded. Even woozy.

Words were spoken between the two of them, but she had no idea what they were. She was too overwhelmed by all the sensations coursing through her. Because she and Aaron had never kissed like that. Or more accurately, she’d never had such a response to a kiss from Aaron. They’d been dear friends, and she’d felt more comfortable with him than with anyone back then.

But chemistry?

No.

So, when had that changed? And why?

Somehow, she found herself on the trip back to her parents’ house to pick up Kara even though she wasn’t consciously aware of any choice to do so. Had she been on automatic pilot or something?

Maybe.

Joy also discovered herself caressing her lips with her own fingers, as if to make sure they were there. She didn’t know what was going on. This wasn’t exactly normal behavior for her.

Had that kiss really happened how she remembered it? And if so, why had it been so much more powerful now than in their youth?

It was only as she pulled up in front of her mom and dad’s house that it occurred to her that she’d been treading in some dangerously deep water. She needed to think about all this, to process it. Because no matter what she might or might not feel for Aaron, there was one complication that she couldn’t get past even if it was a technicality.

Legally, she was still married to Wayne.

The truth was she couldn’t even be certain that Wayne was alive. For all she knew she was a widow. It wasn’t the best of signs when a man with a drug problem vanished without a trace. Or that he’d been gone for so long. A year and a half without a word. Not a single call, letter, or message. And not one of the leads she’d followed had led anywhere useful. She’d done everything she could to find him.

She wished she’d done more than try to find him. If she’d pursued having him declared dead or even a divorce she’d be free right now.

Still, by the letter of the law at least, she remained another man’s wife. So, she’d have to rethink how she spent time with Aaron.

Or even if she should spend time with him at all.