Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
“ O kay, Trace. What’s the deal with you and my brother.” It wasn’t a question. Mila pinned her with a look that dared her to deny there was an issue.
Curled up in one of Mila’s easy chairs by her beehive fireplace, a cup of warm tea in her hand, Tracy had been lulled into believing the subject wouldn’t come up. “It’s stupid. No big deal.”
“Seems like a big deal to me.” Claudette pulled out the scrunchie holding her thick brown hair in a ponytail. Tossing it on the coffee table, hand-carved in Mexico, she picked up her mug. “He’s clearly jacked up about something and you haven’t been out here in weeks.”
“I know, and I’m sorry about that. I’ve missed you guys.” Mila’s house, with its graceful arched doorways and warm colors, wrapped around her like a hug.
“And we’ve missed you,” Mila said. “I know you’ve been busy. We’re all busy, but?—”
“I let this… issue… with Adam keep me away. My bad. I’m sorry. I won’t let that happen again.”
“Things were so weird I began to wonder if I’d done something.” Mila didn’t sound angry, just bewildered. “I decided to find out after the meeting last night, but then you went into a huddle with Adam. I asked him this morning if you were mad at me. He said he was the problem but he wouldn’t tell me why.”
“He’s not the problem. I am.” That New Year’s Eve kiss loomed larger by the minute. If only she’d screwed up her courage and told Mila the next day. She could have turned it into a joke, robbed it of its power.
Too late for that. Like her mom always said, the sooner you fess up, the better . She gripped her mug in both hands and looked at Mila. “I kissed Adam on New Year’s Eve.”
Mila blinked. Then she started to laugh. “That’s it? A little kiss on New Year’s Eve? Everybody kisses everybody on New Year’s Eve. It’s tradition! Please don’t tell me that’s what?—”
“Not at the Raccoon. Later, when he drove me home.” Her face tingled and burned. She must be beet red.
“Oh, yeah, he did take you home,” Claudette said. “You were toasted. Justifiable after the way Sean?—”
“I’m glad he dumped me. I wasn’t right for him.”
“Whatever.” Mila waved that comment away. “Breaking up with you two days before Christmas was heinous. You can forgive him but I won’t.”
“Me, either.” Claudette’s green eyes glittered with indignation. “And so what if you kissed Adam after he took you home? You were drunk. Don’t be so hard on yourself. You probably confused him with Sean.”
Now it was her turn to laugh. Totally inappropriate, but… mistake Adam for Sean? Not in a trillion years. Sean’s kisses were adequate. But when Adam had taken control of that kiss?—
“Trace?” Mila peered at her. “You okay?”
“Not really. Talking about it is embarrassing.”
“Hey, it’s just us.” Claudette smiled. “No judgment.”
“I know, but?—”
“I’m confused.” Mila picked up her tea but paused before taking a drink. “If you initiated the kiss, why did he say he’s the problem?”
“Because that’s just him. You know how he is, always taking responsibility even if it’s not his to take.”
“He does that, but I’m wondering if… I mean, this is my brother and I can’t believe that he’d… but the way you’ve been ghosting us, I?—”
“He’s blameless. He helped me up the stairs because I was wobbly and then I kissed him like there was no tomorrow. I went all out, so naturally he’s a normal guy, so?—”
“You two did it ?” Claudette’s eyes widened.
“No! No, we didn’t. We just…” She gulped. “Came close.”
“Ah.” Mila took a deep breath. “This is making some kind of sense, but not really, because if my brother’s saying this is his fault, then I guarantee he would have done something the next day to smooth things over.”
“He sent me a nice long letter.”
Claudette giggled. “An email? What a dorky?—”
“An actual letter, handwritten and mailed.”
Mila’s forehead wrinkled. “That’s so… businesslike.”
“He was uncomfortable. I was uncomfortable.”
Claudette was still grinning. “Did you write him a long letter back?”
“I texted him and said I was fine, everything was fine. No worries.”
“That’s just super.” Mila took a long swallow of her tea. “And since then you two have done nothing but worry. I wish you’d said something a long time ago.”
“I should have, but he’s your brother and I wasn’t sure how he’d feel about me sharing that episode. Yesterday he said it was my choice if I wanted to but it wasn’t his place to tell.”
“I’m still confused.” Mila looked at her over the rim of her mug. “You’ve known each other for more than twenty years. This seems like a minor incident between old friends, but instead you’ve each been brooding over it for weeks. What’s up with that?”
“Um… we can’t seem to get the toothpaste back in the tube.”
“Oh!” Mila looked over at Claudette. “You nailed it.”
“Sure did! I know what it means when two people can’t stop looking at each other, which is what you and Adam were doing all through dinner, Trace.”
“Was it noticeable? Did anyone else see that?”
“I’m not sure. Mom’s pretty good at picking up on that vibe. So’s Luis, for a guy, anyway. I think that’s why he’s such a good horse whisperer.”
She groaned and let her head flop back against the chair. “I don’t know what to do!”
“Have you discussed it with Adam?” Mila, the infinitely practical one, believed in discussing everything, at length.
“He says I’m only attracted to him because I’m on the rebound from Sean.”
“As someone who recently made that mistake, he could be right and you don’t want to go that route, especially with someone you care about.”
“Exactly. I’d never want to hurt him. But I’ve already caused harm because now he’s attracted to me and he doesn’t want to be.”
“Because it would be a rebound relationship?”
“That, and the fact that our lives are so entwined. Getting involved puts too much at risk.”
“Oh, boy.” Claudette rolled her eyes. “You’re in forbidden fruit territory. Good luck putting a lid on that. ”
“She’s right,” Mila said. “Romeo and Juliet, Lancelot and Guinevere. If you’re not supposed to want someone, that’s who you want.”
“Is that why I kissed Adam? He’s forbidden fruit?”
“Could be.” Claudette shrugged. “Or you were so drunk you didn’t know who he was and didn’t care.”
“I knew who he was.” Her heart rate picked up. “I even remember thinking I shouldn’t kiss him because we were such good friends, and now he was the mayor for God’s sake.”
“And in that moment,” Mila said, “he became irresistible. It all fits.”
“What if it works the other way?”
“It almost always does.” Claudette finished off her tea.
“I’m his forbidden fruit?”
She nodded. “Looks like it. You’ve been his good friend for years, he’s the mayor and you’re the town’s legal counsel, and you’re in rebound mode. Forbidden fruit doesn’t get much juicier than that.”
“What are we supposed to do?”
Mila smiled. “We could discuss it on the ride tomorrow.”
“The four of us? Are you nuts?”
“Or we could bow out and let the chips fall.”
“No, don’t do that. I want you to go. How about you take the ride with us but we don’t discuss this?”
Claudette chuckled. “You want us to chaperone? What do you think’s gonna happen on a winter horseback ride? My brother’s inventive but even he couldn’t create an opportunity given that scenario.”
“Besides,” Mila said, “you guys need advice and who better to supply it than Claudette and me? Unless you want to bring Mom into it. I’m sure she’d?—”
“No, thanks. I just can’t imagine trotting through the snowy fields talking about how Adam and I can work ourselves out of this forbidden fruit situation.”
Claudette leaned forward, eyes gleaming with mischief. “I’m sure he’s not in bed yet. We could get him over here right now and discuss it while we’re all sitting around this cozy fire.”
She gasped. “That sounds awful.”
“Of course it is, which is why I said it. Mila has the right idea. We’ll be on horses looking at the scenery instead of staring at each other. Who knows what will come out of it, but I say it’s worth a shot.”
“What if he doesn’t want to discuss it?”
Mila tapped her finger on her mug while she considered that. “Good point. Let’s not bring it up on the way out. We’ll wait until we’re on the way back. We’ll give him the option of riding on ahead if he doesn’t go for the idea.”
“He won’t ride ahead and leave us behind,” Claudette said. “It’s not the gentlemanly thing to do.”
Mila nodded. “So he’s stuck. It feels too much like an ambush. We need to tell him in advance.”
“I could call him.” Claudette put down her tea. “My phone’s in the?—”
“No, don’t.” Tracy glanced at her. “In person is better, and it can wait until tomorrow morning. No reason to stir him up now.”
“He has barn duty again in the morning,” Mila said.
“I’ll go down and let him know I told you both. That news should come from me since he hasn’t confided in anyone, not even his brothers. I doubt he expected me to say anything to you.”
“See?” Mila brightened. “We’ll be doing him a favor. Keeping secrets is hard. Now he can finally talk about it with someone.”
“I’m not sure he’ll thank me for that, but I’ll tell him he’s free to seek advice from anyone.”
“My guess is he’ll talk to Luis,” Mila said. “They trust each other completely. Never thought they would the way they used to fight.”
“Hey, it’s all part of the game.” Claudette yawned. “You and I got into it, too. I’ll bet Tracy remembers some of those battles.”
“Remember them? I was the one who tried to stop you from killing each other. And I got whacked in the head and kicked in the shins for my trouble.”
“Good times.” Mila stood and stretched.
“Bridger Bunch times.” Claudette gathered the empty mugs. “Wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”
“’Me, either. Thanks, you guys.” Tracy gave them each a hug. “I should have come to you sooner.”
“But you did eventually come,” Mila said. “It’ll be okay, hermanita . You’ll see.”
“Yeah.” She didn’t totally believe that, but it was good to be back with the Bridger Bunch. Very good.