Page 23 of Motivating Mira
“You know your dad is going to complain, right?” I asked, steadying us and helping her out of the swinging contraption.
She winked at me, her sassy smile making my heart melt. Stretching out her arm, she offered me her hand. “Ripe for the training.”
I considered her words about Mira as we walked back inside arm in arm. Maybe it was time I start following my own advice and communicate.
Later, after we’d eaten, when I was alone on the couch and both Jesse and Marni were asleep, I opened my email contacts and scrolled until I found Master Derek from Rawhide Ranch.
Five
Mira
“Mira.”
I glanced up from my spot in the cafeteria line to see Wes. I narrowed my eyes because no matter what time I came to the cafeteria, he always showed up.
“Are you stalking me?” I accused as he moved to stand next to me.
“I work here.” He cocked his head, giving me a suspicious look. “So if anyone is stalking…”
I huffed a short laugh. “I amnotstalking you. I was here first.”
He shrugged. “Never said you were.” Looking down at my tray where a bottled water, an apple and a cookie sat, he frowned. “That’s dinner?”
I nodded. “It is, and don’t nag, I had a big lunch at school and I’m on a student budget.”
He shook his head, grabbed two chicken wraps from one of the refrigerated shelves and set them on his tray. When we got to the line, he butted in front of me.
“I’ve got both,” he said to the cashier, who barely glanced up at us as she keyed our food order into the machine. He tapped his card and paid before I even had a chance to protest. Then he moved one of the wraps from his tray to mine and raised a brow at me. “Now it’s a light dinner.”
“You’re very bossy.”
“And you knew that already.” He winked and my chest fluttered. This man was going to be the death of me. I’d thought I’d imagined the chemistry we’d had back then, but the way I feel around him even when I’m actively tryingnot tofeel anything, is unreal. I started to wonder if maybe I purposely downplayed it because I’d never felt the same with Josh, but I quickly brushed that thought away. I didn’t like to think about Josh at all.
“How’s your mom?” Wes asked somehow leading us to a table and pulling out a chair for me before I even realized.
“Improving, but there’s no talk of releasing her yet.”
“Have you missed a lot of school?”
I shook my head. “No, that’s why I’m here so late. I don’t come until after classes during the week. I have missed a lot of shifts at work though.”
“Where do you work?”
Neither of us had mentioned Rawhide Ranch in our impromptu cafeteria chats as if talking about it might remind us of the past. I didn’t even know if he even knew Rawhide had a university.
“At the university.” I took a bite of my wrap to discourage further questions about it.
“Bookstore? T.A? What do you do?”
Damn. I took my time chewing, my gut starting to churn. “Stocking supplies, setting up classrooms, and demonstration areas, stuff like that.” It was alltechnicallytrue.
“Which university? Your mom never mentioned it,” he asked, taking a bite of his wrap.
His questions should have been benign. They were things you could ask an acquaintance, a stranger sitting next to you on a plane even, except they weren’t really, because the answers would only bring us back, back when we’d been much more than acquaintances.
“It’s a small, lesser-known university.” I stood even though I wasn’t nearly finished with my food. “I should go.”
He got to his feet too. “You barely ate.”
