Page 36 of Ocotillo Kisses
But yes, there were dark shadows in the distance that looked liked mountains, but...
“I think that’s storm clouds.”
“What? No.” She stretched back further, looking up at the sky above her. “It’s a beautiful day. It’s not going to rain.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” He didn’t have his phone to check the radar. “Do you have your phone? A radar app?”
She pulled the phone from her back pocket and tapped the screen for the app, then frowned. “It’s not wanting to pull it up. Bad reception out here, I guess.”
“Yeah, there’s not a tower for miles, and we’re probably too far from the house to get the signal from there.”
With a shrug, she tucked her phone away. He would just have to keep an eye on the sky, make sure they didn’t get caught up here in a thunderstorm. He tossed his saddlebag close to her on the blanket. “I packed us a lunch. Maybe we’d better try to eat it now before the rain.”
She set the bag on her lap and looked up at him. “Just like the old days.”
“I wasn’t sure how long we would be out, so I thought.” He didn’t finish the sentence, just shrugged. He’d packed things she used to like, and a few vegetables from his mother’s supply, that he thought maybe she’d like now. He didn’t think she was on a diet, but maybe. He’d heard her say she went to a lot of restaurants in Houston, but she sure didn’t look like she ate much.
“You remembered?” She held up a baggie of chocolate chip cookies, the crispy ones.
“Yeah, ah, again, wasn’t sure.”
“I haven’t had one of these in about ten years.” She opened the baggie and drew one out. “They’re smaller than I remember.” She bit into it and closed her eyes for a moment. “Needs milk.”
“That I didn’t bring.” But he was instantly taken back to his kitchen table, where he and Britt would “study” and eat these cookies. His mom would keep them on hand just for her. When they “studied” at her house, her grandmother made brownies, or cookies, but back then, his mom had been much more social and hadn’t had time to bake. “Probably you should eat some real food first?”
She smiled at him. “So sweet that you remembered.”
“Why would I forget?” He held her gaze for a moment, and she finally looked away.
He did, too, gauging the distance of the clouds. He didn’t know how far they were, but they were closer than they had been. And he and Britt were a good half-hour from shelter.
Still, they ate their lunch, cross-legged on the blanket, not facing each other like they used to, but looking out over the land. She talked about this party she’d planned, where actual astronauts attended and that party, at an estate with oil barons in designer suits, their wives weighed down with expensive jewelry, and it all sounded very elegant to him, but maybe he was just a rube.
“How did you learn about all that stuff?” he asked. Her family was well-off, but growing up, neither of them had really been exposed to the finer things like valet parking and sommeliers.
She dusted her hands on her jeans, her gaze still set in the distance. “Well, when I was in college, I worked at a five-star restaurant as a hostess, so I learned some there, and then when I went on to work for an event planner after I graduated, and I just learned. To be fair, I’ve also planned parties with bouncy houses, so there’s that.”
He sat forward. “Maybe we could get one of those for the Fourth.”
“On it. But you’re too big,” she said without missing a beat. “You jump in, everyone else flies out.”
He placed his hand on his chest. “I would never even think about jumping in.”
“Right.”
Thunder rumbled across the open land, and behind him, Loki tossed his head. Con reached for the open bag of chips, rolled down the top to close it and tucked it back in his saddle bag. “Maybe we need to think about heading back.”
She looked toward the clouds, and for the first time since he’d seen her on this trip, she seemed uneasy, not confident in herself. “How far do you think it is?”
“Maybe far, maybe not. But definitely heading this way. I thought maybe it would head more east.” And it might, still. But it was heading southeast now.
He tossed the rest of his sandwich to Daisy, who caught it and gulped it down. He rose to collect the horses, as lightning crackled across the sky, still in the distance but bright enough to frighten Dove, who reared and pulled her reins loose. Con cursed and lunged for Dove, who did not like that, and pulled the rest of the way free before she pivoted and bolted down the hill, reins trailing, the dogs right behind her.
He turned to see Britt staring, the blanket folded over her arm, her mouth hanging open. The wind picked up right then, whipping her hair forward around her face, and she let it, for a moment, before reaching up to push it back from her face.
“What are we going to do now?”
He walked over and took the blanket from her. “You’re going to have to ride with me.” The storm was too close to risk walking.
