Chapter 18
CHAPTER 18
C heyenne
Micah stared at her lips, and she could feel the tension in his body. If she wanted to make a bad joke, she could tell him it was hard to be in the presence of someone with such strength. But it really didn’t feel like a time to joke. She was caught up in the intensity of this man. He was so strong, yet sensitive enough to ask her if it was okay to pray over their food. At every turn, he had tried to help her, and he had made this whole experience amazing.
Her heart raced as she waited for him to press his lips to hers, though she didn’t know what that would mean.
A smile quirked the corners of his lips as he said, “Do you want me to kiss you? Because I’m not in the business of kissing women who don’t want to be kissed.”
Again, she was amazed by this guy and his manners and so many things that seemed so right about him. “Yes, I want you to kiss me.”
A small, guttural noise came out of him, and then he bent and pressed his lips to hers.
Hanging out with her sisters-in-law and hearing their stories about falling in love with her brothers had done a number on her. At one point, she’d refused to hear any more sappy love stories. Yet here she was, completely caught up in one of her own. His lips were soft, her knees went weak, and she found herself holding onto him tighter, moving her lips against his softly and then more hungrily.
She wasn’t sure how long they kissed, but he finally pulled back and sucked in a long breath of air. A huge grin filled his face. “Wow. Just wow.”
It was impossible not to laugh at the complete honesty in his reaction. His childlike wonder at the kiss made her feel like she’d gone from soaring in the skies to speeding in a spaceship. She giggled.
He kept her close to him, pressing his forehead to hers and peering into her eyes. It was a funny way to look at her.
“Are you going to give me one of those lines about how kissing me is a deal breaker?” he asked. “Because I’m pretty sure I can’t handle it. Even a guy like me, with my male ego, has limits.”
She giggled again, and then she softly touched his face and said, “I don’t have any more jokes. That was the best kiss I’ve ever had.” Then she pressed her lips to his.
A little while later, she pulled back. “You should probably take me back to my place,” she told him. Her heart hammered in her chest, and she felt twitterpated and so many other things. She’d never felt like this about anyone. Not that it was the right time to admit that.
He let her go and ran a hand through his hair, seeming to get his wits about him. “Good idea. Great idea. Just one more.” He pulled her back in and softly kissed her again.
When he pulled back, Cheyenne took his hand and they walked out of the library. “You’re still going to drop me off. I think you’ll get another one then, right?”
He laughed and turned out the lights. “Unless it’s a deal breaker that I don’t, I will.”
She giggled, and they walked down the stairs and back toward the kitchen.
“We probably should stop with the deal-breaker thing, because it confuses me,” Micah said as he snatched a piece of pizza and folded it up in a napkin. “Did you want another one?”
Gratefully, she took it. “I do.”
When they got back to the condo, he ran around the truck and tried to open the door for her.
She opened it before he got there. “It’s okay.”
Micah shook his head and reached down to her. “It’s not okay. Treating women right is kind of a big deal around here. Especially with Trey and my uncles.”
She was happy to hear him say that, because manners were a huge thing with her brothers too. Not that it mattered. She didn’t want to ask what the heck the two of them were doing. They’d decided they could just be friends and look for this gold, and now things were getting complicated.
Micah laced his fingers through hers, and she told herself she wasn’t going to ask what this was. She was just going to enjoy it, because dang, she was enjoying it. She really liked Micah, and she didn’t want to over-analyze it. If she had to guess, he was probably trying to figure out the same questions.
They got to the door of her condo, and she grinned at him. “Even though we have to return the amulet, I have something else scheduled tomorrow if you want to go with me.” She knew she was blushing.
He frowned. “What is it?”
“It’s just something that my friend and I thought would be fun to do, because we don’t come here a lot.”
A huge grin filled his face. “I don’t know why you’re being weird about it. Is it snake hunting or something?”
She laughed. “Do they even have that?”
“I do know one guy who runs a snake business over by the Shoals. He’s pretty redneck, but it’s a crazy outfit.”
“I do not hunt snakes on purpose.” She shook her head and pointed at him. “I have shot a snake before on the ranch, but I can guarantee if I get close to a snake, I’m not going to be hunting it. I’m going to be killing it or running away from it.”
Micah laughed so hard that tears came to his eyes.
Cheyenne didn’t know what was so funny.
“I like a woman who wants to shoot a snake.” He gave her a flirtatious smile, then reached out and swiped a lock of hair out of her face.
The gesture felt intimate, and she found herself closing her eyes because he was leaning in to kiss her. Once again, her world turned upside down, and she felt like she was falling into this man, falling in love with him.
Wait. No. Maybe it was just a little spring break fling. Well, a fling in the sense that all she would do was kiss him. She was saving herself. That was important to her.
He broke off the kiss with a huge grin on his face. “So what are we doing tomorrow that you don’t want to tell me?”
That warm gooeyness filled her again. “I’m making it sound more dramatic than it is. It’s just a dinner cruise. Even when we booked it, we felt like it was sort of silly. But it sounded fun, and they said there was line dancing and a buffet. It takes us all around the sights. I don’t know how it will be different from the snorkel cruise, but …”
He cut her off and leaned in to gently kiss her cheek. “I would love to go on a dinner cruise.” He kissed her other cheek. “I’m not great at line dancing, but I’ll try.” Then he focused on her lips.
Her heart raced, and she realized something both exhilarating and terrifying.
She would never be the same after this week with Micah Jamison.
He brushed his lips against hers, taking her hands and squeezing them. Then he pulled back and then winked at her. “How about I pick you up just after lunch tomorrow? I have some things to do in the morning, and then we can return the amulet. Hopefully we will make it to the dinner cruise, as long as we can get out of the crypt.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m already scared. But I’m glad you have the amulet so I won’t have any crazy dreams tonight.”
“Ghosts don’t haunt me. They’re too afraid.” Micah lifted an arm and flexed his bicep.
Cheyenne burst out laughing. The move was so like something her brothers would do.
He lowered his arm and smiled. “I’m glad you get a kick out of that, Cheyenne Cross. I think that means we will get along.” He leaned in and brushed her lips with one more kiss. Then he pulled back. “Good night.”
If this were a cartoon movie, she’d be swooning over the hero. She would’ve brought her hand to her forehead and leaned back against the door as she watched him walk away. But she didn’t want him to see her do that, so she quickly turned and walked inside. Only when the door was safely shut did she lean against the door and swoon.
She giggled and pulled her phone out. Samantha would lose her mind when Cheyenne told her about this new development.
A knock sounded on the door behind her. She hadn’t pressed Samantha’s number, so she quickly pulled it open, thinking it might be Micah wanting to give her one last kiss.
No luck. There stood Eli, with a grumpy look on his face and his arms crossed. “I suppose you didn’t realize that I watched you walk up to the door and kiss him. Seriously?”
She wanted to just toss the door shut, but she said, “Eli. We were done last year. I don’t know why we have condos next to each other, but it doesn’t mean anything. I’m dating someone else.”
Eli scoffed. “You mean to tell me that you’re dating him two days after you met him? I don’t think you kissed me for, like, a month.”
This time, she did slam the door in his face.
He banged on it with a fist. “I deserve an explanation,” he called from the other side.
Because she didn’t want a domestic incident, she cracked the door open and said calmly, “Eli, we are done. Go build houses, have fun on your spring break, and please leave me alone.”
For a long time, he glared back at her. Then he shook himself and turned away. “Fine. I don’t know why I went to all the trouble.”
Cheyenne shut the door. What was that about? Did he regret going to the trouble of taking her out to dinner? Or was he talking about their relationship in general? A weird feeling passed through her, and she brushed it off.
She locked the door and rushed up the stairs, getting back into the giddy mood she’d felt before the Eli encounter. She couldn’t wait to tell Samantha everything.
An hour later, she lay in bed on her side, staring out the window. She enjoyed listening to the nearby crashing of the ocean, but she couldn’t stop thinking about Micah.
As if her thoughts had triggered it, her phone buzzed. Who could it be? It was past midnight. She was a tad disappointed when she saw it was her brother Nash. Reluctantly, she answered it. “Hello.”
“Chey, what’s up?”
“It’s late.”
“Not for me. It’s just past ten.”
Right. Her family was still on Central Time. She sat up. “What’s up with you?”
The click-clack of a keyboard sounded over the line. “Nothing.”
“Are you working on a case?” she asked. Nash had taken a job with a law firm in Salt Lake City recently.
“Yep. I’m just doing some pro bono work for the firm right now. They put all the grunts on this kind of stuff.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means free work so the firm can give back to the community.”
“Oh.” She was learning. “Do you like it?”
Nash grunted. “It’s okay. I’m doing an adoption case at the moment, so it should be worth it for the parents and the kid. But I’m looking forward to going to your graduation in a couple months. Are you excited?”
That ripped her out of her mindset of partying and playing with Micah. “Huh. Yeah.”
“You’re all ready to start law school in the fall, right? I’m glad you decided to go to Montana State. It’s a good school, and it won’t cost you a fortune.”
Sheesh, that was a reality check. “Yep.”
Her thoughts flitted to Micah. He would be a SEAL—well, he would be in training. How long would that take? Where would he be living?
“So what fun things have you been doing?”
“Oh.” She got out of bed and moved to the window, staring at the ocean. “We went snorkeling today, parasailing yesterday.” She would omit the other stuff. There was no way she would tell him they had stolen an amulet and now had to return it.
“Sweet. The ocean is nice.”
“It is.”
They were both quiet for a moment, and she realized why Nash had called her. “So you were the one assigned to check in on me?”
He was quiet for a second, then let out a soft laugh. “Can’t I just call my sister?”
“Hmm. Porter told you to grill me and report back to him, right?”
“Okay, sis, calm down.”
“I don’t know why you guys have to check on me all the time.”
“Because we love you.”
That stopped her for a minute.
“And we feel protective of you,” he continued. “Count yourself lucky. Porter wanted someone to actually go to South Port and check in on you because your friend bagged on you.”
“It wasn’t her fault,” Cheyenne shot back. “Her grandma was injured.”
“Oh, really? Shoot.” He paused. “So you said ‘we’ went snorkeling.”
Cheyenne winced. She should have found the right words for this ‘check-in’ so she wouldn’t set off any alarm bells. Nash had always been very astute. He paid attention. They hadn’t been close, per se, but he was a good brother to her, always trying to guide her. In fact, maybe he was the reason she wanted to go to law school. The way Nash talked about truth, justice, and the American way had always inspired her.
Her heart rate kicked up a notch. She didn’t want to divulge too much, but she needed to. “Well, Micah Jamison, Trey and Ava’s son, has been asked to be the Stone lackey that checks on me this week.”
For a second, Nash didn’t respond. Then he laughed. “Really? Trey’s stepson?” Of course he knew who Micah was; the Stones and the Cross family kept track of each other. “Isn’t he on track to become a Navy SEAL?”
“I think so.” She didn’t want to act like she was too excited about him. She had to be careful about how much information she gave out. “He’s a nice guy.”
There. She knew Nash would be waiting for an evaluation. ‘Nice guy’ was the kiss of death, in their brother’s eyes.
“Okay.” He went quiet.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Is everyone worried about me?” She could imagine the gossip going on about her and her solo trip.
“Naw. Well, yeah.”
Now she laughed. “Right.”
“But I’m not.”
“Oh yeah?”
“No. I mean, I think if you were going to do something stupid, like search for the conquistador gold … which would be stupid, you know …” He let the last words hang in the air to make a point.
“What are you saying, Nash?”
“Nothing. I just mean I hope you are just snorkeling, having beach time, and enjoying yourself, because it’s dangerous to look for that gold. No good ever comes of it.”
She remembered the recent craziness when her family had discovered that some of the gold had been in Wyoming and melted down with the help of her dad, Kelly Hamilton’s parents, and Ms. Connie from Windsong Reservation. Not to mention that Truman Birch had recently been killed. She thought of Raine Birch. He lived in South Port too. Would she run into him? The last time she’d seen him, he’d been mourning the death of his brother.
“Chey?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t do anything stupid, okay?”
Guilt rose in her chest. She had already started doing something stupid. Still, it wasn’t the time to confess to Nash. She didn’t want to go home. She wanted to stay and hang out with Micah. “Okay.”
But wasn’t taking the amulet back a bit sketchy as well? Yes.
“Chey, I love you.”
That was the thing she did like about her brothers: they were caring. Even though at times they could be overbearing, they cared for her and loved her. “I love you, too.”
She hung up and put her phone down. Then she prayed. “Heavenly Father, please help me this week to know the right and the wrong thing to do. Please protect me and Micah and even Eli. Please help me have a vision for my life and the next step. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”
She got up from her prayer and felt more at peace. They would give the amulet back, then she would enjoy the rest of this trip for the vacation it was. Everything would be fine. She would have to remember that Micah was becoming a SEAL. He was a nice guy, but they could not have a relationship. They could only be friends.
Too bad she couldn’t take those kisses back.
Her phone dinged with a text message. Her heart leapt when she saw it was from Micah.
You good?
She hurried to text back. I’m good. Are you good? Haunted by … you know what?
No one haunts me, he replied, making her smile. Okay, just wanted to check in with you. See you tomorrow.
Awesome. See you tomorrow.
Night.
The smart thing would be to stop spending time with Micah Stone … but Cheyenne didn’t want to do the smart thing. Plus, they had business to take care of.