Chapter 27
Nash
I’ve given her about thirty minutes to soak in the tub. I don’t know if that’s long enough or not, but I’m getting kind of hungry, so I knock on the door to check on her.
“Magnolia?”
There’s a slight sloshing sound.
I call out again, “Magnolia, are you alive in there?”
A little more sloshing.
“Magnolia, I need to know if I should break down this door and come do mouth-to-mouth.”
“They discontinued mouth-to-mouth a couple of years ago in the general classes. You’re way out of date on your first aid,” she calls back.
“Well, I could still volunteer to try it.”
Quiet splashing. Then she speaks again, “Nash Whitlock, are you flirting with me?”
“If you call talking about putting my lips on yours, then, yes, I am.”
She laughs, and I hear more sloshing. I can’t believe I’m talking to her about kissing. And she’s not screaming her head off. Then again, she might think I’m joking—I’m not.
“I just finished rinsing my hair. I’ll be out in a minute.”
“Okay, that sounds good. Max and I are hungry.”
I go back downstairs, and it’s another fifteen minutes before she reappears at the top of the landing.
She’s wearing jeans and a blouse. She has her hair up in a bun, and her cheeks look flushed from the hot bath.
She’s carrying her shoes in one hand as she grips the railing with the other.
She starts taking slow steps down. My initial instinct is that I want to run up there and offer to carry her down the stairs, but I also don’t want to push my luck.
“That was heavenly. I may even come back and soak in it some more.”
“You should,” I tell her. “Put some Epsom salt in there and it will help your sore muscles.”
“Do I have to climb on a horse again tomorrow?” she asks. The look on her face is pitiful as she pauses halfway down the staircase.
Max walks into the living room at that exact moment, and he grins up at her. “Don’t worry. We only have a small ride tomorrow. Just about four or five hours. No big deal. You’ll do just fine.”
I punch his arm, and he cackles as Magnolia glares at him.
“Do you need help down those stairs?” Max asks hopefully, taking a step toward the staircase.
I fling an arm out in front of him to stop him, and I smack his chest loud enough that it echoes through the vaulted ceilings.
“I’ll help her.” And that solves that issue.
But when I reach Magnolia, she’s pointing her shoes at me.
“I am not an infant.”
“You’re right about that,” I tell her. “Infants move a lot faster than you are right now.”
She tries to hold a glare at me, but I can see the corners of her mouth quirk up.
“Do you want me to carry you the rest of the way?”
She shakes her head. “I think I’d better move my legs a little more. This is helping stretch them. Besides, it’s gonna look weird if we get into town and you have to carry me everywhere.”
“I don’t know. Pine Ridge has seen stranger things,” I tell her. “But it would be all the gossip.”
“Oh no. Is this one of those small towns where everybody knows everybody’s business?” she asks with wide eyes.
I try to think of a way to deny that without an outright lie, but I can’t come up with anything because everything is everybody’s business in Pine Ridge.
“Yes. Yes, it is.”
A big smile breaks across her face, not exactly the emotion I was expecting.
“I love the idea of a small town where everyone looks out for each other. I think it’s so cute.”
“Yeah, it’s real cute until everyone steps into your dating business,” Max replies wryly. “My friend Zane got left at the altar, and it was the talk of the town for about…oh, I don’t know…the last four years.”
“Well, make it five, because I want to hear the story too,” Magnolia says as she tries to hurry down the last few stairs.
“Oh, he was dating some girl he was head over heels for, and she got cold feet and left him the day of their wedding.”
“That can’t be it. Please tell me she didn’t just abandon him there. He had to have done something stupid.”
“The rumors are all over the place about why. But Zane has never confirmed any of them. Whatever happened, he’s held it close to his chest. Got to say, I actually felt bad for the guy. He looked so happy standing at the front of the church.” Max shakes his head. “I’ve never brought it up to him.”
“Oh wow. She actually left him at the altar,” Magnolia gasps.
Max shakes his head. “All I know is, it did a number on Zane. He’s only casually dated since.”
Magnolia shakes her head. “No kidding. I’m pretty sure if I got left at the altar on my wedding day, I wouldn’t want to even hear the word marriage ever again.”
Magnolia sits down on the couch and slips her shoes on, buckling them.
“Are you sure you’re gonna be able to walk in those?” I ask as I stare at the shoes with a little bit of a heel.
“I’ll be fine,” she says. “It’ll help stretch my legs out.”
She takes a step forward and wobbles so much that she begins to fall toward me. I move forward and catch her in my arms.
We meet in this grasp, my arms around her as she throws her head back in laughter.
“It’s a good thing you’re so strong. You probably haven’t even had to go to the gym since you met me. You’re always having to catch me or carry me somewhere.”
“I don’t mind,” I tell her.
“Get a room,” Max mutters, and I could happily punch him because Magnolia pulls out of my arms quickly.
“It’s okay. I know you’re still young,” she teases him. “Public displays of affection make young people uncomfortable.”
Max is definitely older than Magnolia, but I don’t say anything. I just let her tear him to pieces.
“Oh, please,” Max scoffs. “As if I haven’t seen some PDA before…”
She glances around and then lowers her voice to talk to him. “I don’t know if anyone has had the talk with you before. But sometimes, people touch other people, and some people will even kiss other people—”
He reaches for her as if to get her in a headlock. She pokes him in the ribs and dodges away, managing to stay on both feet this time.
“If you weren’t such a good help today, I’d give you a noogie,” he threatens her.
She just laughs and walks away. “Real mature. Come on. I’m hungry, and like you guys said, there’s no food in the house. We’re just lucky there was coffee this morning.”
It really wasn’t fair of us to make her work all day with us. Max and I are used to getting up and fueling up on coffee, then going to work all day, and when we get back to town, we eat a big meal. Magnolia is not used to that kind of schedule. She’s probably about to faint from low blood sugar.
We walk outside and stop in front of Max’s truck.
“When are you gonna get a new one?” I ask him.
“Someday, but it’s still working for now.”
“Want me to drive?” Magnolia asks as she starts walking around to the driver’s side.
I’ve never ridden with Magnolia anywhere, so I guess if she would feel more comfortable being the one driving, we should let her.
Max looks at me with wide eyes, and I shrug as if to tell him that it’s his call. It is his work truck after all.
Magnolia looks at it with such a bright smile that he can’t resist. He hands over his keys and goes to climb into the front seat. He points to the back for me.
I scowl at him but climb into the seat behind Magnolia, where she’s sitting behind the wheel now.
“I’ve never driven a truck this big. This will be fun.”
Famous last words.
Three minutes later, the truck is in the ditch in the driveway. She got distracted while looking at the cute baby calves that were frolicking around in the field and drove us into the ditch.
I jump out of the back seat and open the front door. I climb up, unbuckle her, grasp her thigh, and press a hand against her side as I slide her into the middle seat.
“That’s it. I’m driving,” I tell her.
She gives me a sheepish grin. Max is sweating bullets in the passenger seat.
Thank goodness she didn’t make it all the way to the county road. That highway is a lot less forgiving.
I close the driver’s door and put the truck into four-wheel drive, backing us out of the ditch and onto the driveway.