Page 48 of Christmas with the Cowboy
“I like it. Not much upkeep and it fits my needs. All my extra stuff is stored at the cottage, so it works.”
It was then that she noticed the purple smudge starting to show beneath Reed’s eye, which was starting to swell. “What happened?”
“I fell when Cujo blasted around the corner and scared the shit out of me.” He put a hand up to his face, gingerly touching the area.
“I thought you and Jay may have…you know.”
He met her gaze. “I promised you I wouldn’t.”
She blinked at him. “Do you always keep your promises?”
“I don’t make them if I can’t keep them. You know that.”
She swallowed and turned away. When was this freaking feeling of intimacy between them going to fade?
“So you talked to Jay.”
“Yeah. I don’t even know where to begin it’s so damned weird. He would like you to give him a reference.”
Trenna blinked at him. “That is damned weird.” She perched on the edge of a kitchen chair and waved him to the other. “Was he drunk?”
“Stone-cold sober. And worried. And a little lost.”
“Lost.”
“I can’t explain it. But I didn’t trust him not to stop by your place to appeal to you in person, so I decided to stop by and battle a Rottweiler to let you know what was up.”
“Bruno is a mutt and has never bitten anyone,” Trenna said. “He just roars a lot.”
“It’s effective.”
“I know.” She couldn’t help the smile, and her midsection did a little free fall when Reed’s lips twitched at the corners. “Tell me what’s going on.”
Reed launched into his explanation of meeting Jay, who wanted to apologize to her and who was working on his temper, and who honestly seemed sorry, and had no idea of why her dad would fire him.
When he finished, Trenna frowned down at her lap. “I don’t know what to say. You have me feeling sorry for the guy.”
“I didn’t tell you the part about his mom.”
Trenna’s gaze slowly rose to meet his.
“She’s going to be so happy if he gets another job,” Reed explained.
Trenna felt her eyes widen. “Dear heavens.”
“Yeah. Jay has a mom. But”—he reached out to put his hand on her knee, just as he’d done a million times when they’d been together—“don’t let your guard down with the guy.”
She was more worried about letting her guard down with him. The feeling intensified as Reed casually lifted his hand, but she wasn’t fooled. He hadn’t intended to touch her. It had been a matter of conditioning. Of feeling that intimacy that refused to fade.
He met her gaze. “I’m sorry.”
She waved it off, making no pretense of not understanding what he was sorry for.
“It’s just…”
“I know,” she replied softly. She did. It was so natural to touch. So ridiculously right, as if time had passed in some regards, but not in others. Her body still cried out for his, and she didn’t know if there would be a time when it didn’t.
Trenna shifted in her chair. “Do you want an ice pack for your eye? You can take it with you.”
