Page 26 of Fern's Date with Destiny
He gripped her hips tighter.“Don’t stop, sweetheart, I swear?—”
The barn lit in flickers of red and gold and blue, loud pops echoing outside while they moved together in the shadows, tangled up in heat and secrets and muffled laughter they couldn’t hold back.
She bent low, pressing her forehead to his, breath breaking against his lips.“Cody—oh,God?—”
He surged up, kissing her hard as the last tight coil in his gut snapped.Fireworks exploded in time with the shudder that ripped through him when she fell apart again, this time around him.
For a heartbeat, he swore he saw stars both inside and out.
Fern slumped over him, snickering against his sweaty chest as another distant boom rattled the old barn walls.Cody pressed a sloppy kiss to her temple, still trying to catch his breath.
“Fireworks and you.Overachiever,” he teased.
“I knew Tansy planned them.The timing was all destiny.”
Cody laughed so hard his ribs hurt.
Eventually, the cold found them again, nipping at damp skin and flushed cheeks.Between kisses that kept them tangled longer than necessary, they fumbled back into their clothes.Inside-out underwear, socks half lost under hay bales, her bra a twisted casualty until he helped hook it properly, their amusement a warm hug around them.
Fern tugged her sweater into place and gave him a mock glare when he caught her waist for one more lingering kiss.“We look guilty as sin.”
“Weareguilty as sin,” Cody shot back, holding her close enough to bite her lower lip playfully.
She swatted his chest and ducked under his arm, flicking off the faux lanterns as they snuck back down the ladder.Outside, the party goers were returning to the bonfire, people bundled in jackets and cradling mugs of something hot now that the fireworks were done.
Fern drifted toward Charity and Dustin, cheeks glowing, eyes full of secrets only Cody would ever know.
He let himself remain near the barn’s darker edge, wholehearted happiness lingering as he watched her melt back into her friends, perfectly casual.
Nobody suspected a thing.
Later, back at Red Boot, the high still hummed under his skin as he walked through the main barn, trailing his hand along warm horse flanks.
He clipped a lead to Lonesome Charlie’s halter, murmuring praise.
Cody’s left hand opened—just...opened—without permission.The rope slipped free, flopping useless in the hay.
He flexed his fingers, frowning when they obeyed this time, perfectly normal, but with a sticky, slow-motion sensation that lingered like a ghost in his bones.
All the sweet joy of the day wiped aside.High to low.Heaven to dread.All in a heartbeat.
He swallowed hard, eyes drifting skyward through the barn rafters, whispering to no one, “What the hell is going on?”
8
Cody had never thought the phrasetoo good to be truewould fit his ordinary ranch life.Yet here he was.Daily chores and worthwhile activities mixed with catching Fern’s laughter like sunshine, stealing kisses when no one was watching.
No one blinked at the time they spent together.Not Tansy, not Ivy, not Fern’s parents.They all thought he and Fern were just friends.
Maybe theydidhave the word tattooed on their foreheads.
Some days he almost believed it himself.If he didn’t look too closely.If he didn’t notice how everything took an extra heartbeat now when it came to spending time together.
This early December morning the ranch was hushed under fresh snow, pale sunlight slanting through frost-tipped trees behind the arena.He paused in the feed shed, breath misting in the quiet, and stared at his left hand as the grain scoop he held jittered uncontrollably.
Cody shook out his wrist, glaring as if that would bully it back to normal.
It calmed.His mind didn’t.
