Wishing for the Rancher’s Love (High Country Ranch #5)

Chapter 7

7

Heaven have mercy on her poor soul.

Grady Worth hadn’t been lying. He was a good kisser. In fact, he was an expert. Not that she had much to compare his kisses to in her very short history of kissing men. Like Jeremy.

Grady had been right. The kiss with Jeremy hadn’t really been a kiss.

Clementine let her lips blend with Grady’s again and again with a rhythm that was growing only faster and more desperate. Desperate for what, she didn’t know. But she could feel herself heating, her skin flushing, her body keening for him.

If she kept going, he was only going to gloat all the more that he’d been right. He would be insufferable. But there was a part of her that simply didn’t care. In fact, that same part of her even liked insufferable Grady when he cocked his brow at her and gave her that smirk. Especially when he had messy hair after a hockey game and a day’s worth of scruff.

Not that he didn’t look appealing tonight too, all cleaned up with his hair combed and slicked back and his jaw freshly shaved. When she’d been watching him dance with Willa—which hadn’t been often, or at least, not too often—his trousers had outlined his muscular thighs. He’d worn a vest over his white button-down shirt but had rolled the sleeves up, so his muscular arms had been on display.

The indisputable truth was that Grady was an attractive man. She couldn’t deny it any more than she could deny that the sky had stars.

A throat cleared behind them.

Oh dear Lord. What was she doing kissing Grady? She couldn’t—shouldn’t be. Not for any reason at all. And he shouldn’t be kissing her either.

But his lips seemed to be giving her a message all of their own—one that said he wanted to keep kissing her, that he was enjoying the moment as much as she was.

The throat cleared again, more loudly. “I should have seen this coming a mile away.”

Willa?

Clementine broke from the kiss. She shoved Grady behind herself as though she could make him disappear. Willa stood several paces away, hands on her hips and her eyes brimming with hurt.

Clementine tried to draw in a steadying breath, but she couldn’t manage past the rapid rising and falling of her chest. She held out a hand toward Willa, but it was shaking, so she hid it behind her back.

“Willa, what are you doing out here?” The question was silly, and the moment she spoke it, she wished she could take it back.

Willa’s gaze darted past Clementine to Grady. “I wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

“I’m sorry, Willa.” Grady’s voice held contrition, and he stepped around Clementine, clearly unwilling to just go away and disappear the way she would have preferred. “I was wrong to come out here and kiss Clementine. I didn’t mean for it to happen. It shouldn’t have happened.”

The anger in Willa’s expression fell away as she searched Grady’s face. What did she hope to see there?

Clementine glanced sideways at Grady.

His jaw was hard and his lips set firmly—those lips that only seconds ago had been pressed against hers as if that was where they were meant to be.

Delicious heat radiated through her abdomen. But she couldn’t allow herself to feel that heat. And she couldn’t allow herself to look at his lips. Never again.

Though he was offering an apology, his shoulders were rigid and his expression tense. “I’m leaving the dance now.”

Willa’s shoulders slumped. No doubt she’d had higher hopes for the evening, had probably expected Grady to stay until the end and then walk her home and maybe even give her a goodnight kiss. And now her dreams had been dashed.

“I’m sorry too.” Clementine hadn’t been thinking of her friend when she’d kissed Grady. That had been selfish, inconsiderate, and downright mean. “I was totally insensitive to you—”

“Don’t.” Willa held up a hand.

Clementine knew there were no excuses for what she’d done. She’d been wrong to kiss Grady, and now she’d hurt her friend. “It didn’t mean anything. Grady doesn’t mean anything. Everyone knows we fight all the time.”

Beside her, Grady stiffened, but he didn’t deny her statements.

Willa released a humorless laugh. “Everyone knows the reason you fight all the time is because you like each other.”

“That’s not true. We can’t stand each other.”

“You can’t stand to watch each other with someone else.” Willa’s tone was laced with pain and anger. “You didn’t like that Grady is with me, so you had to flaunt bringing Jeremy.”

Clementine didn’t blame her friend for being upset. But she wasn’t right about Jeremy, was she? A nagging at the back of her mind told her that Willa was at least partially correct—at least about showing off Jeremy.

She’d stewed all day over Grady’s revelation that he and his dad intended to start courting. By the afternoon, she’d been about to burst with the frustration inside. So when Jeremy had walked in to buy his daily piece of candy, she’d asked him to go to the dance with her. She’d decided maybe she hadn’t given him enough serious consideration yet. She’d thought spending the evening with him would allow her to get to know him better so that feelings could develop.

But she’d only needed the walk to the lodge to confirm that feelings would never develop with Jeremy. Maybe she’d even already known that but had hoped she was wrong.

Whatever the case, she was back to the same place she’d been in earlier in the day. She was being left behind again.

Had she kissed Grady to sabotage his courtship so he wouldn’t get further ahead of her in a relationship? Yes, that had to be why. It certainly wasn’t because she was attracted to him the way Willa was insinuating.

Clementine opened her mouth to explain more, but her friend cut her off with a curt shake of her head. “Don’t say anything else, Clem. You could have any other fellow in town. Why couldn’t you let me have just one?”

Clementine bit back a sigh along with the explanation. There really was nothing that could excuse how selfish she’d been. “I’m sorry—”

“And don’t apologize again either.” Willa’s stricken gaze cut into her. “There’s no apology that can make up for it.”

With that, Willa spun and began to stride toward the lodge. Jeremy was standing just outside the door, watching them, his hands shoved into his pockets and his shoulders slumped.

Had he seen her kissing Grady too?

As Willa approached, he straightened and spoke quietly to her. She nodded in response. He held out his arm to her, and she only hesitated a moment before slipping her hand into the crook of his elbow and allowing him to escort her inside.

Clementine stared after the couple and crossed her fingers that Willa wouldn’t be hurt for too long, that maybe she’d end up having a better time with Jeremy. After all, Grady wasn’t right for her.

She wasn’t sure how she knew that, only that she did. Maybe it was because as handsome as Grady was, he was gruff and blunt and wouldn’t be right for many women. He would need someone special to put up with him.

“Let’s go.” He spoke beside her, and his voice held a finality that irked her.

“What if I’m not ready to go yet?”

His expression was severe as he took hold of her arm. “Don’t make me throw you over my shoulder again.”

She huffed and pulled away from him. “You wouldn’t.”

“Try me.”

She glanced toward the lodge’s open door. Jeremy and Willa had disappeared inside, and a different couple stepped past in a twirling dance move. The lively tune of the current selection wafted outside.

She really had no desire to rejoin the festivities—not after all that had just happened with Willa and with Grady. She was still breathless after sharing the kiss with him. How would she be able to keep dancing and pretend her whole world hadn’t been tipped upside down?

Because it had. She’d just kissed Grady.

She peeked at him sideways.

He was staring off into the distance, a scowl marring his forehead. Was he thinking about their kiss? How had it affected him?

He stood silently another moment, then he started back toward the lodge. “I’ll go get our coats.”

“I’ll go with you.”

He didn’t say anything until he reached the door. “Wait outside,” he tossed over his shoulder as he entered.

She huffed and started to follow him through the door, but at the sight of Willa and Jeremy talking in low tones only half a dozen feet away, Willa wiping tears from her cheeks, Clementine hung back.

A heaviness pressed down on her chest. She’d hurt Willa more than she’d realized.

If only she hadn’t kissed Grady. It had been a terrible lapse in judgment for both of them, and they couldn’t let it happen again. Not that Grady would ever want to kiss her again. He’d made the point he’d been aiming for—to prove that she hadn’t known what a real kiss was.

The kiss with her probably hadn’t affected him nearly the same way it had her. No doubt he’d kissed a dozen other women in his lifetime with just as much passion and desire. He would forget all about this one with her and wouldn’t think about it ever again.

She’d have to do the same. It was the only option.

A moment later, he stepped back out into the darkness, shrugging into his coat while holding on to hers. As he finished putting on his, he held hers up and began to drape it over her shoulders, clearly intending to be polite and help her into it. She wanted to grab the coat and don it by herself, but if he was being polite to her, then she ought to be polite in return. Was it a truce of sorts?

Whatever it was, she quietly let him be a gentleman.

When she finished buttoning the front, he waved her forward and then fell into step beside her.

“I can walk home by myself, you know.”

“No.” The single word was testy.

For a reason she couldn’t explain, the return of his grumpiness put her at ease. Maybe it was because she didn’t want things to become awkward between them now that they’d kissed.

She breathed in deeply of the night air, then stuck her hands in her pockets and fished for her mittens. Something silky brushed against her fingers.

As her hand closed about an item, her steps faltered. When she pulled out a silk rose, she froze.

Two steps ahead of her, Grady halted and tossed her a narrowed look. As his sights connected with the rose she was holding out, he spun around, his eyes widening. “Did you just find that?”

She nodded, taking in the slip of paper dangling from the ribbon that was attached to the rose. She could make out the now-familiar messy handwriting but couldn’t read the words in the darkness of the residential stretch of street with only a few house lanterns glowing behind curtains.

“The flower wasn’t there when you arrived at the dance?” he asked.

“No.” After arriving at the dance, she’d taken off her mittens and stuck them in her pocket. Nothing had been there then. “At least, I don’t think so.”

“That means he was at the dance.” Grady peered back at Inman’s Lodge, sitting at the base of a tall slope. It looked cozy and warm with the lights glowing from the windows and out the doors.

The man responsible for the roses and notes was inside. What if she’d danced next to him? What if she’d even danced with him? “Do you think Jeremy is doing this?”

Grady stared at the lodge. “I don’t know. But tomorrow I’ll be paying him a visit and making sure he understands never to come around you again.”

“You can’t do that.”

“I can and will.”

“Are you planning to do it for every man in Breckenridge I’ve ever talked to?”

“If I need to, yes.” He turned his attention away from the lodge and back to the rose. “Let’s find some light and see what creepy message he left this time.”

They walked silently along until they reached Main Street, where the light and noise on a Friday night poured from the saloons. Grady halted in a bright spot and held the note up so they could both read it.

“You are so pretty when you sleep.”

Her pulse clattered to a sickening halt. She didn’t realize her legs were buckling or that she was grabbing on to Grady until his arm slid behind her back and caught her.

“Grady,” she whispered, her voice strangled by sudden fear. “Do you think he’s really watched me...” She couldn’t even finish the sentence. The prospect of anyone invading her privacy enough to spy on her while she was sleeping was too mortifying to even put into words.

Grady glanced at the men loitering on Main Street, mostly around the saloon doors and some exiting a dance hall down the street. His dark eyes had turned lethal, as if he intended to kill someone right then and there.

Did his reaction mean it was possible someone had stood outside the lone window at the top of the stairs and peeked through a slit in her curtain as she’d slept? But how would the fellow have been able to see through the darkness... unless he’d come inside her apartment while she’d been asleep?

The sickening feeling swelled, and she clamped a hand over her mouth to keep the nausea from rising any further.

“This is getting out of hand,” Grady growled as he began to guide her forward. “You’re staying with me and Dad in the house tonight.”

She nodded but could hardly concentrate on what he was saying since her mind was racing with the prospect that someone had entered her room while she’d been there, and she hadn’t known it.

How close had the intruder stood? And how long had he watched her sleep?

She shuddered.

“This fruitcake is taking things too far.” Grady picked up his pace, nearly carrying her along since she was too distracted and frightened to keep track of where she was going.

“I don’t understand why anyone would want to watch me sleep.”

“The same reason he was watching you fix your hair.”

“Why?” The one word contained all her distress as tears threatened at the backs of her eyes.

“Because he’s obsessed with you.”

“I don’t know anyone like that.”

“That’s because you’re na?ve.”

She wanted to argue with Grady, but she was too overwhelmed to fight him. Besides, maybe he was right. Again. Why did he have to be right about so many things?

Grady directed her through a back gate from the alley, crossed the yard, and then led her through the rear door of the house and up a short staircase into the kitchen. The scent of corned beef lingered in the air, but the spacious room was dark. Even so, she knew where everything was. She’d spent many hours there with Mrs. Worth, baking and making candy, and it felt like home almost as much as the High C Ranch kitchen.

They followed the glow of light down a hallway until they reached a room that Mr. Worth used for his study. He was sitting at his desk, bent over ledgers, and a double-globe lamp with elegant roses painted on the glass shone over neatly stacked piles of papers and books in front of him.

“How was the dance...” Mr. Worth glanced up through spectacles, and his eyes rounded at the sight of her with Grady.

“Hello, Clementine.” He offered her a warm smile. But as he took in her face and then Grady’s, his smile rapidly faded. “What happened?”

Grady tossed the rose with the note onto the open ledger in front of his dad. “Someone keeps giving Clementine fake flowers with notes. I want to find out who it is and make them stop.”

Mr. Worth studied Grady’s face and then seemed to take note of Grady’s arm still around her.

She’d been too flustered to pay attention to his hold, but now, suddenly, she was all too aware of the solidness of his arm against her lower back and the easy way he was bracing her.

She straightened and pushed away from Grady.

Grady quickly released her, as though he hadn’t realized he’d still been touching her either.

Mr. Worth’s gaze bounced back and forth between them. Could he tell something was different about them? That they’d kissed? The wise storekeeper always had been able to see and know everything.

Grady folded his arms across his broad chest. “Until the flowers and notes stop, Clementine is staying in the house with us.” Grady wasn’t asking for his dad’s permission. Instead, he was telling him, which was typical Grady style.

She frowned at him. “I don’t want to impose. Maybe I should just go home to the ranch. Maverick and Hazel told me I could always move home.”

Grady leveled a frown back at her. “It’s too far away. If something happens, it’ll take me too long to get there to help you.”

“I’ll have Maverick and all the ranch hands.”

“And what about the ride into town every day? Who will be with you then?” Grady shook his head. “No. You’ll stay here in the house, where we can keep a better eye on you.”

She opened her mouth to protest.

But Mr. Worth spoke first. “I agree with Grady. This is closer to the store. I wouldn’t want you riding that distance into town alone—not with someone out there stalking you.”

She shivered just thinking about it.

“Then it’s settled. I’ll go get your things from your room.” Grady was taking charge and being protective—two things he did well.

Her mind jumped back to the kiss and the passion of his lips against hers. In spite of the new rose and note, the memory of his kiss—the way his lips had commanded hers so decisively, just like he was commanding this situation—still lingered on every tingling part of her lips.

Mr. Worth reclined in his chair, a satisfied gleam in his eyes. “Grady, put Clementine in the room right across from yours. Then leave the doors open so you can keep an eye on her.”

Grady didn’t hesitate. “Good idea.”

Were the two men going a tad overboard? She wasn’t sure. But one thing was for certain. She wouldn’t complain. At least, not tonight.