Chapter Twenty-One
November, fourteen years ago
Jackie
Getting Dustin to leave wasn’t an easy feat. He mumbled something about promising Mimi he’d keep an eye on the house, but Jackie knew what he really meant: he’d promised to keep an eye on her and Mitch.
She tapped her foot under the table, fork and knife resting against her plate. The lasagne Mimi had left for them was damn good, but she was too excited to eat.
“You should really go. It’s Colt’s girlfriend’s big night, singing at the bar,” she tried, again.
Mitch shot her an amused glance across the table, which she hoped Dustin didn’t pick up on.
“I’m not sure I’m goin’. The young ones can enjoy themselves without me.” Dustin downed the rest of his lemonade.
Jackie gritted her teeth. “Colt said they really want you to go.”
“So did Ali,” Mitch chipped in, lacing his fingers together on the table.
She wished she could kick him, but he was too far away. She appreciated he was trying to help but if Dustin even caught a whiff of something untoward, he definitely wouldn’t go.
Dustin stroked his moustache, looking deep in thought. “Why won’t we all go?”
“Mimi wouldn’t want me to go to a bar,” Jackie responded quickly. She’d expected that suggestion. Dustin didn’t know about her fake ID and nights danced away at Betty’s Hens Saloon, and she wasn’t going to tell him about it; he’d blab about it to Mimi.
Dustin hummed, nodding to himself. “No, Brenda wouldn’t like that.”
She leaned in, wearing the most innocent expression she could muster. “You work so hard, Dustin. You deserve to have a little fun.”
A deep wrinkle cut across the expanse of Dustin’s forehead. “What are you two goin’ to do all night?”
“Mitch hasn’t seen The Godfather. Can you believe it?” Jackie let out a chuckle. Mitch had, in fact, seen the entire trilogy, more than once. They decided it was a safe choice because, firstly, Dustin would probably believe he hadn’t seen it and, secondly, it was Dustin’s favorite movie.
Dustin stared wide-eyed at Mitch. “That’s sacrilege.”
Mitch choked down a laugh. “I know. I’m looking forward to watching it.”
Dustin grunted, pushing himself away from the table. He stood, took his empty plate back to the kitchen and put it inside the dishwasher. “Fine. I’ll go. But I’ll be back, so don’t you get any ideas.”
He looked straight at Jackie when he said that.
Jackie released a drawn-out exhale. She smiled innocently as she piled the plates. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Dustin. My behavior’s always impeccable.”
Dustin barked a raspy laugh on his way out of the kitchen. “If you say so, angel.”
Unfiltered moonlight soaked the landscape, kissing the grass blades and tiny stones lining the pathways.
Stray stars adorned the velvet sky. An owl hooted somewhere in the distance and a smile tugged on Jackie’s lips.
Her skin came alive with excitement, anticipation turning her heart into a thundering mess.
“Where are we going?” Mitch whispered from behind her.
Jackie laughed, squeezing his fingers and tugging on his hand to pull him closer to her. “You don’t have to be this quiet. Everyone’s gone.”
“But they’ll be back.”
“Not anytime soon. It’s about a twenty-minute drive to the nearest bar from here. We probably have two, or maybe even three hours, if Dustin is enjoying himself.”
They reached the closed double barn doors. Mitch glanced at the building; his brow furrowed. “Why are we going to a barn?”
She halted and looked up.
The crimson painted wooden walls of the barn appeared burgundy in the dark. There was neither a sound nor a movement coming from inside.
“I wanted to show you one of my favorite spots. I’ve never taken anyone up here before.” Fire crackled beneath her skin. “And I thought you wouldn’t like to have sex on a bed where Dixie often spends her nights.”
Mitch raised his hand to the back of his neck with a sigh. “Probably not a good idea, even though I loaded up on antihistamines.”
Jackie smiled at that. He’d never let anyone think Dixie or his allergy were a bother. Even though Mimi took Dixie with her, the house was full of her shed fur, the kind that even the most diligent vacuum couldn’t get rid of. She wasn’t taking the chance with Mitch sneezing and itching all night.
Not tonight.
She unbolted the door and let go of it. The right side creaked as it opened slowly, revealing cubes of dry hay stacked to the ceiling. “Here we are.”
Mitch spun in a circle, taking in the inside of the barn. “You wanted to show me hay?”
She let out a mock scowl. “Not hay, though I think it’s impressive to see it all like this.” Taking his hand in hers, she guided his attention to the left corner. “We’re going to the loft. It’s … my place. I used to hide out there when I was younger.”
“And being eaten by bats is better than finding a single dog hair in your room?” he mocked.
Jackie puffed out her cheeks and turned on her phone light, strolling toward the rickety ladder leading up to the loft. She didn’t look back to check if Mitch was following her, but she could feel his eyes boring into her back.
Another stream of white, circular light joined hers on the ground.
“Are you sure it’s going to hold our weight?” Mitch whispered right into her ear.
A shiver shot up her spine. She hadn’t heard him walk right up behind her.
His chest pressed into her back, rising goosebumps all over her body.
She swallowed thickly. “You can go first, if you want. I’ll hold the ladder.”
He pressed his chin into her shoulder and drew in a deep breath. “No chance. You’ll go first and I’ll hold the ladder. I want to be down here in case I need to catch you.”
Jackie dropped one foot back and spun round, right into his embrace. His arms encircled her waist, his chest rising and falling rhythmically. The emerald flannel shirt he wore was almost the exact shade of his eyes.
It was her favorite, and he knew it.
Shards of light flooded through the few windows unobscured by the hay. They glimmered in his gaze, stealing her breath.
How did they get here, and in such a short space of time, too?
If someone had told her at her high school graduation that she’d not only meet someone on her first day in college, but become so smitten with him that she wouldn’t want to look anywhere else again, she’d have laughed at them and said there was no chance.
But now? Standing here, in a barn on the ranch she grew up on, safely tucked into his strong arms, she felt like the luckiest girl in the world.
So, what if she couldn’t run fast enough in another barrel race?
So, what if she struggled with chemistry?
Right now, in this moment, she believed everything would be all right, if they just stayed together.
“I won’t fall,” she said confidently.
Mitch stared at her with a grin that she desperately wanted to kiss off his lips.
Neither of them blinked, their gazes unwaveringly locked in a silent battle. The unmeasured seconds ticked away to charged silence, the space between them filled with electricity.
Finally, Jackie exhaled sharply. She wanted them both up in the hayloft, not down here, fully dressed and all. “Fine. I’ll go first.”
“I knew you would.”
She glared at him.
He chuckled softly, released her from his arms and stood beside the ladder.
Jackie squashed her phone back into her dress pocket and put her sneaker on the first step.
Mitch grabbed the base of the ladder, anchoring it to the ground. It was fastened to the top of the loft, but Jackie didn’t have the heart to tell him that, after he played the gentleman and got her to go first.
“Don’t look down,” he said as she was halfway up.
She paused her climb, biting back a smile. “Why would I look down?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because you can’t resist my good looks.”
She continued up the ladder, step by step until she reached the top. Planting her palms firmly on the wooden floorboards, she pushed herself to her knees and then up to a standing position. Peering down at Mitch, she smirked at him. “Come up, then, handsome.”
He did, and at such speed that she wished she’d timed him. Before she could even take her phone out again, he was next to her, pulling her to him.
“Handsome, huh?” he teased, his mouth a breath from hers. “Don’t say it too often or my head will get too big.”
Jackie clenched her lungs. “I’ll keep that in mind. But not tonight.”
She tipped her head back and planted a searing kiss onto his lips, which opened to her in an instant, like they’d been waiting all evening. Thousands of tiny butterflies took flight from the bottom of her gut, rising, up, up to her chest as their tongues clashed and danced.
Their arms flailed and stumbled, hands traveling up and down like starved travelers in search of sustenance.
Jackie hooked her thumb and forefinger over the top button of his shirt. She paused the kissing and looked him in the eye. “You’re good with this?”
Mitch blinked. His eyes were filled with the kind of lust she hadn’t seen in him before. He was breathing heavily, a vein pulsating in his left temple. The muscle in his jaw tensed, his nostrils flaring.
Her heart stammered and toppled over itself at the sight.
Suddenly, the clothes between them were a barrier she needed to remove. Because if she didn’t, something terrible would happen; maybe they’d both burst into flames on the spot, the hay downstairs would catch fire, and the barn would become an orange burning beacon of unfulfilled desire.
“Only if I can take off your dress.”
She chewed on her bottom lip, hoping he noticed the longing burned into her eyes. “What if I told you I’m not wearing anything underneath it?”
He let out a guttural groan she hadn’t heard before. “You want to kill me, Jackie? Is that what you want?”
She laughed, popping his shirt open, button by button. When she reached the end, she stepped back, admiring the hard planes of his chest.
“You’ve seen me shirtless plenty of times.” He threw off his boots somewhere into a forgotten corner of loft.