Chapter 2
Rob didn’t missthe way Pippa moved away from him. The last time he’d been able to touch her had been over a year ago, and even then, she didn’t shy away from him. She’d spent plenty of evenings in his arms. Her kisses were some of the sweetest he’d ever tasted and difficult to forget.
Perhaps she was still upset about him keeping this secret from her. He hadn’t thought it would rub her the wrong way this badly. Was it possible he didn’t know her as well as he thought he did? Of course it was. Their friendship was mostly long-distance. The possibility of growing apart was a lot greater than if they had been in the same city.
He watched her scamper off toward the barn, motioning for him to follow. A quick look around ensured they weren’t being watched or followed, and a distinct sense of déjà vu washed over him. Rob sauntered after her, wondering if she was going to come clean about why she was acting so weird.
Rob had to stop just after stepping into the barn. He blinked several times to help his eyes adjust to the dim lighting. When there were no longer flashes of color preventing him from focusing on his surroundings, he took in Luke’s barn. There were only about five stalls to his right, and each one housed a horse. On the other side was a workbench covered in tools. Dust particles floated and swirled around him as he moved farther into the barn.
The place looked almost identical to Brent’s barn. It had a similar feel and, obviously, a similar smell. The strangest part about being here was he knew whatever he did, he wouldn’t have his father breathing down his neck.
That was the reason he’d moved out here in the first place. He couldn’t continue living his life under his father’s thumb. At some point, he had to grow up. It was getting embarrassing when he had to tell people he still lived at home. There was a certain disdainful look people got when they found out.
Pippa poked her head out from one of the stalls and grinned at him. Now, she was a woman who had her life put together. He’d always admired how driven Pippa was—not that he ever wanted to be this serious about life and work. There was a certain pleasure to be had from going with the flow. But he’d always thought their differences were what made their pact work.
“Are you coming or not?” Her voice hauled him out of his own head, and he moved toward her. She chuckled. “You seem a little out of it. Maybe I should be asking if you’re okay.”
Rob rested his folded arms on the stall door and grinned at her. “I couldn’t be happier than I am right now.”
“Oh, yeah? Why’s that?” Her tone had returned to the usual light one he liked so much. She was a pro at teasing him, making it feel so natural to be around her.
Pippa turned around, her back leaning up against the stall door as she faced him. Her chin rested over her shoulder and she fluttered her eyes at him.
“Let me guess. It’s because you get to be here to spend time with little ol’ me.”
Something tightened in his chest. He’d be lying to her if he told her she wasn’t a factor in his coming here. He could have gone elsewhere; he had distant relatives in Colorado and Idaho. But he wasn’t as close to them as he had been with Pippa and her family. Together with the Duncans, they’d been inseparable.
Her eyes widened, forcing him to realize he’d waited too long to continue bantering. Pippa was now staring at him like he had actually confessed to having feelings for her. The tension between them grew more cloudy—muddied by words unspoken, promises broken.
Rob had no other choice but to overcorrect.
He tilted his head and grinned at her. “If the job is the ice cream sundae, you are the cherry on top.”
It was cheesy. It was corny. It was everything she would have expected from him. Their intimate relationship was mostly over-the-top, cringy inside jokes. Rob tapped her nose.
“Admit it. You only ever wanted to visit your cousins in Montana because you knew you were going to see me.” Her mouth dropped open and her faint smile showed up again. “Turnabout is fair play, Pippa, and you know it.”
She laughed. There it was. The Pippa he knew and loved, but not in the way he sometimes wondered about. Love was a strong word for two people who were so different they only agreed to see each other out of convenience.
Rob pulled back from the stall. Being too close to Pippa had a way of biting him when he least expected it. “I must admit, though, I’m excited to be working with your brother. Brent knows his way around his ranch.”
He eyed Pippa but didn’t see any more of her previous disdain and annoyance.
“Aren’t you always telling me I have potential?” Rob said the word with as much flirtatious sarcasm as he could muster. “I’m surprised you weren’t the one pushing me to come out and tap the potential I haven’t found yet.”
She rolled her eyes as she turned and leaned on the stall door. The horse behind her nudged her and she laughed as she waved him off. Her eyes connected with Rob’s.
“I didn’t have an opinion one way or another on where you ended up. I thought you could do so much better than to stick around working your family’s business.”
He snorted. “Of course you’d say that. But you’re also the one person in your family who went against the grain and chose to start her own business. I’m not like you, Pippa. I’m…”
“You’re Rob.”
“Yeah.” He sighed. “I’m just Rob. But that doesn’t mean I can’t try to do something… more.” He hated how his voice got a far-off quality to it. How embarrassing was it that he didn’t have a plan? Adults were supposed to have their lives figured out. Was there something wrong with him?
“Do you remember when we first met?”
His eyes snapped up to meet hers. “Of course I do. We were kids.” Then they were teens. Then they spent eight years with this whole back-and-forth flirting nonsense. He liked to think there was something more beneath the surface of their friendship, but he wasn’t willing to risk it.
What was a pact for if not to maintain a certain degree of trust?
She worried her lower lip, biting it hard enough that she couldn’t form a symmetrical smile. “I bet you didn’t know I thought you were the cutest but laziest cowboy on the planet.”
“To be fair, you only had your brothers and cousins to compare me to… and I was seven.”
“It’s a good thing I realized you weren’t nearly as lazy as I thought you were.”
“I resent that!”
She laughed. “I still can’t believe it turned into what we have today.”
He moved closer and his voice lowered. “You mean our pact?”
Pippa glanced away. He wasn’t fully certain, but it almost appeared as though a blush spread across her face. Her eyes found his and she laughed again. This time it sounded more nervous. “Exactly.”
“I don’t know…” he drawled. “I think it worked out perfectly. What teenage boy wouldn’t jump at the offer you made?” He moved closer so their faces were inches apart. “I mean, come on. A pretty girl like you? I would have been crazy to turn you down.”
He leaned closer to her, his focus on her lips. He’d been craving them since the second he saw her. Before he could steal a kiss, she pushed him back with the stall door itself.
“I beg your pardon, but I wasn’t the one who asked you. The way I recall it, you flirted mercilessly with me. And when I finally showed interest, you played hard to get.” Pippa pushed the stall door closed and walked backward, away from him. “I seem to remember you telling me it would be a bad idea because I was the stereotypical good girl, and you weren’t interested in settling down.”
It had been the biggest mistake of his life. He hadn’t seen it then, but he did now. Pippa was worth so much more than a handful of flings over the years with no promises of more. But he could never tell her that. Instead, he’d written all those thoughts in letter form. He’d nearly mailed it to her about three years ago. But then he realized how silly that would have been. Pippa might have been interested in settling down years ago, before she started her restaurant business, but there was no way she would now.
He stepped toward her like a predator chasing his prey. “Okay, so maybe I was the one who brought it up. But I don’t remember you arguing with me. You were on board from the get-go.”
He caught up to her and grasped her around the waist, pulling her closer. If he were more confident in his own life and his future, he might have told her right then and there about those letters he had hiding in his room. He might tell her he had been a fool for believing no strings attached was a good idea.
But the truth was, he simply couldn’t bring himself to utter a single syllable.
Pippa placed her hands on his chest, her eyes delving into his. Oh, the things he dreamed he could one day share with her. It wouldn’t be today. Nor would it be this week. But one day in the distant future, he might be able to get the courage to tell her how much she meant to him—even if it meant risking it all.
For now, he’d have to be happy with their pact.
And that meant if he wanted to kiss her right now, she’d kiss him back. Then they’d go their separate ways and pretend it never happened.
Rob dipped his face closer to hers. Pippa’s eyes closed and she tilted her face upward. The air buzzed with the electricity crackling between them. It might have been a couple years since he’d been able to hold her in his arms, but it felt like it was only yesterday.
His heart thundered and thrashed with the anticipation of her touch. He could almost taste her sweet breath as it tickled all his senses.
Then she jerked out of his arms. “Did you hear that?”
His lungs burned as if he’d been sprinting moments before. The blood in his ears roared. He shook his head, completely disoriented. “Hear what?”
She looked toward the barn door. “I was sure…”
“Pippa? You in there?”
Allie’s face materialized before the rest of her body did in the doorway. She squinted and held up a hand to shield her eyes then blinked a few times before her gaze landed on Pippa.
“There you are! We’ve been looking for you. It’s time for cake and ice cream.” Her shrewd focus shifted from Pippa to Rob. “Getting the grand tour?”
He nodded. “Something like that.”
“Well, tour’s over. Come on, you two. I don’t think the guys can wait very long. Pretty sure Brent threatened to take a bite of the cake if I didn’t bring you back in less than five minutes.”
Pippa huffed. “He wouldn’t.”
“You know him better than me.” Allie shrugged as Pippa charged past her. Allie shot one more glance to Rob before she followed Pippa.
Rob took it a little slower. He needed to clear his head before he entered the house with the rest of Pippa’s family.
There was no way he was going to be the one to break their number-one rule.
No telling either of their families.