Page 4 of Christmas with the Cowboy
“Must have been some breakup.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Care to share?”
He shook his head. He’d told her enough, and although she pushed her tongue against the inside of her cheek in a thoughtful way, she accepted his decision.
“Suit yourself.” She turned back to the cookie dough. “But I want an introduction.” She met Reed’s gaze again. He frowned, and she said, “Sue me. I’m curious.”
“I’ll sue you, all right.” He gave her nose a tap, and she batted his hand away. But as he headed for the door, he caught her curious sidelong glance, which made him hope that she didn’t launch an investigation.
*
As soon asTrenna Hunt caught sight of the classic Dodge truck parked next to Audrey Keller’s sensible SUV, a knot began forming in her midsection. Each of the Kellers had strong preferences in their choices of vehicles. Twins Em and Cade preferred Fords. Spence, the middle child, was a Chevy man through and through, as were his parents.
Reed was the lone Dodge guy.
Trenna forced herself to exhale the breath she’d just realized she was holding. A classic Dodge very similar to the one Reed drove when they were together did not mean that Reed was home. Hewascoming home, but not until closer to Christmas, and Trenna figured that if she didn’t want to continue helping Audrey catalog documents after he arrived, she’d have enough information by that time to advise from afar.
As she got closer, the Dodge looked more and more familiar.
So what if it’s his rig?Years had passed, and time heals all wounds.
Except for those that it didn’t.
Trenna told herself to get a grip.There is a very good chance this isn’t Reed’s—
The thought stuttered to a stop before it was completed. It was definitely Reed’s truck, because that was definitely Reed following a harried-looking Audrey out the front door of the ranch house.
She’d always known she’d bump into her teen love at some point, especially after moving back to Marietta, but she hadn’t expected a near heart attack when it happened.
Guilt was a cruel bitch.
She closed her eyes, sucked in a breath.
You’ve got this.
But as she pulled to a stop on the opposite side of the SUV from Reed’s truck, her heart was still hammering.
Maybe she should have sought Reed out a long time ago, got that closure.
He probably didn’t feel anything about their breakup, having rebounded, married, divorced, had a child. Yeah. He had other issues at play in his life. She, on the other hand, never felt anything except for a boatload of bad at the way things had ended.
She pulled the keys from the ignition and palmed them. They were different people now and probably didn’t have nearly as much in common as they’d had when they’d been together fifteen years ago.
Right. Fifteen years. Think about that.
Yes. They would start fresh. What else could they do?
Trenna pulled in a long breath, then shoved the car door open before she had second thoughts and abruptly drove away.
“Audrey, hi.” She smiled at the woman, who, though dressed in denim and flannel, with her rich brown hair knotted on top of her head, exuded an air of casual elegance.
“Trenna.”
Audrey looked like she wanted to say more, but Trenna turned to face Reed whose expression told her that he, too, was fighting for equilibrium. He wore his classic closed look, which had the effect of making him appear both coolly distant and hot as hell.
A whisper of relief went through her, because although the hot-as-hell part wasn’t helping, closed-down Reed was safe. He wasn’t going to engage, which worked for her because, holy shit, she hadn’t expected to feel a surge of…whatever this was. Attraction coupled with regret coupled with low-key panic that she was reacting to him like this.
