Page 23 of Fern's Date with Destiny
Her chest did that fluttery flip it always did when he dropped his voice like that.She squeezed him back hard, and for a second, it didn’t matter who was watching.
Sometimes secrets were worth keeping, if only because they made moments like this—goofy, breathless,theirs—shine ten times brighter.
7
Petra’s November birthday party was a cheerful riot of chaos.Fairy lights were strung across the beams of the artists’ studio at High Water ranch, music spilling through open doors, with clusters of people laughing around paper plates piled high with cake and snacks.
Fern drifted between her best friend Charity, who kept stealing bites off Dustin’s plate, and a knot of her sisters’ friends near the makeshift dance floor.But her attention kept wandering.Across the room, near the corner by a tiny buffet table with spiked cider, Cody stood half in shadow.
He wasn’t looking at her—not directly.He chatted with Chance and Luke Stone, nodded at something Petra squealed about as she danced past.But every few minutes his eyes found hers, and the force of that quiet heat sent Fern’s stomach swooping in the most delicious way.
They were good at this now.The pretending.Smothering private laughter with polite small talk, brushing too close in a crowded space and shrugging it off with an easy grin.But tonight, Fern couldn’t hold it in anymore.Not when he kept tipping his beer back with that lazy smirk and half-winking as if he knew exactly what she’d do if she could get him alone for ten minutes.
It would have been fun to be more explicit in the text message she’d sent him when he’d walked in the door, but she kept from spilling the beans about what she’d arranged.
Cody was fire to her soul, but he’d remained far too controlled for her liking.It was time to take matters into her own hands.
Charity elbowed her gently.“You’re staring.Spill it.What’s he done now?”
“Nothing,” Fern hissed, cheeks warming at the idea her friends might guess the direction of her thoughts.“It’s nothing.”
Dustin snorted behind his cider mug.“It’s never nothing with you two.He rope you into some wild activity again?”
Fern rolled her eyes.“Maybe.”
Before she could defend herself further, a warm hand curled around her elbow.
“Excuse me, folks,” Cody said, voice all easy charm.“Mind if I steal my partner?She owes me a rematch.”
Charity snickered.“Playing solo Ping Pong Panic again?You two are worse than kids.”
“Have fun losing, Cody,” Dustin added with a smirk.
Fern squeaked as Cody tugged her away, weaving past the buffet table and the cluster of gossipy aunts lingering by the pies.She elbowed him lightly.“A rematch?Really?”
“I panicked.”His grin was a white flash.“You said something about a view you wanted to show me?”
“Welcome to your private tour of High Water ranch,” Fern said.
They slipped out the side door, their boots crunching over the snow.Fern shivered, tugging her coat tighter, and Cody immediately slipped out of his own to drape it over her shoulders without breaking stride.
She guided him toward the old animal rescue barn at the far edge of the property.The structure remained exactly as Fern remembered from the years of her grandmother running the shelter, with faded red siding, a big loft door, and the smell of straw and old timber.When the family had visited, Fern used to slip away and hide in the loft, curled up in a makeshift haybale chair to read, or to stare over the fields to the mountains rising in the west.
Inside, it was quieter, though the faint strains of music drifted through the rafters from the neighbouring building where the party continued.Cody followed her up the loft ladder, then she casually paused to slip the wooden latch that would lock the trapdoor.
She didn’t want any other privacy seekers interrupting them tonight.
“Thank you for the coat, gallant knight,” she teased, shrugging out of it and spreading it over a hay bale near the big shuttered windows.She pushed them open, letting moonlight spill across the wooden floor.
“Best I could manage on short notice,” he shot back, but his eyes were soft as he settled beside her.He pulled her in, tucking her into his side, letting her burrow her cold fingers under the hem of his shirt without a flinch.
They sat like that for a while, the music a faint heartbeat beyond them, their breath puffing little clouds in the chilly air as they stared into a star-filled sky.Outside the artists’ studio to their left, someone lit a bonfire, and the scent of woodsmoke carried on the crisp winter night air.
Fern traced random patterns on Cody’s chest, feeling him shiver every time she dipped her fingers lower.
“Tell me something about little Fern,” he murmured.“Something you don’t share at family dinners.”
She laughed into his coat collar then sobered.“Okay.You remember I was adopted as a newborn, right?”
